#rwby analysis

[maxiemumdamage]

…of course RWBY’s ultimate, kindest and most worthwhile deity is a Blacksmith. One of the first things we learn about Ruby in episode TWO of the series is that she forged her own weapon.

[anthurak]

Having just been rewatching a bit of Volume 6, I thought I’d discuss a character I haven’t seen get talked about much, but who I believe becomes quite a bit more interesting in hindsight, given everything that happened in Volumes 7 and 8.

I am of course talking about Caroline Cordovin, and to a lesser extent the Atlisian presence in Argus. Particularly in comparison, and also contrast, to the Atlas military as a whole.

Back in Volume 6, Cordo and the Atlas garrison in Argus was our first proper reintroduction to the Atlisian military after Volume 3, as well as the first time we were really seeing them outside of ‘PR Mode’. In other words, this was the point we started getting the really big red-flags that Atlas weren’t really the noble, do-gooder peacekeepers they tried so hard to present themselves as back during Volumes 2 and 3. Sure, it’s not like we hadn’t gotten any warning signs about Atlas previously, but this was when things like the nationalism and imperialism started getting a LOT more overt.

But the funny thing is, Volume 6 also presented the Argus garrison and Cordovin in particular as being rather fringe elements of the Atlas military. Especially given Maria teasing Cordo about her assignment to Argus being more because Ironwood actually wanted her OUT of Atlas proper, in a ‘Reassigned to Antarctica’-type situation. It all frames Cordovin and her troops as more ‘extremists’ who don’t necessarily reflect what the rest of the Atlas military is like. And in turn leaves the characters, and the audience, probably thinking that Ironwood and the Atlas military proper will be much easier to deal with.

Of course, just a volume later we’d be learning that… wasn’t really the case.

I mean, REALLY wasn’t the case.*

Which all brings us back to Volume 6 and Caroline Cordovin. And how I think it is very interesting to look back at her in hindsight.

For example; Maria insinuates that Cordo was assigned to Argus because she was such an over-the-top, fanatical loyalist to Atlas. But then of course we see in Volumes 7 and 8 that fanatical, unquestioning loyalty is precisely what Atlas, and Ironwood in particular, WANTS in his soldiers. So what if Maria was actually off base here?

Consider for a moment just what kind of person, and officer, Caroline Cordovin must be: For one, not only is she clearly a career soldier, she’s an old career soldier. Which in turn means that she’s been in the military for a VERY long time. Namely, a fair bit longer than Ironwood has. Heck, she may well have joined before Ironwood was even BORN.

And on top of this, consider just what Cordo seems to be truly loyal to; she’s loyal to Atlas. The nation, the people, the idea of what Atlas supposedly stands for. Her loyalty seems much more tied to Atlas as a whole, rather than to any one person. Oh, she’s in no way disloyal to Ironwood, but given how much Cordo talks up Atlas as a whole while really only bringing up Ironwood once or twice, I get the sense that her loyalty to Ironwood is more out of simple obligation and a sense of duty. Cordo is loyal to Ironwood simply because he’s the one currently in charge, just as she’s been loyal to those who previously held his position. Not really due to anything particular about Ironwood personally.

And this distinction gets especially interesting when we consider in Volume 7 just how paranoid Ironwood has gotten, and how he’s worked to surround himself with people who are loyal to HIM, personally. People like Winter, Clover and the other Ace-Ops.

So I have to wonder: Was Cordo getting assigned to Argus really because she was some over-the-top fanatic? Or because Ironwood didn’t consider her loyal enough to him specifically?

Because there’s another funny thing about Cordo that actually separates her pretty significantly from Ironwood and many of the people he tries to surround himself with:

She’s an idealist.

Really think about it; underneath all the jingoism and nationalistic posturing and chest-thumping, Cordo clearly still has a genuine conviction to her ideals and to protect the people under her charge. As she declares at the end of Volume 6, she was ‘sworn to protect the people!’, all as she charges into battle against a Leviathan in her half-wrecked mech-suit. It’s clear that her encounter with Ruby reminded her of the ideals she once believed in, and still believes in. While Ironwood and the Atlas Military as a whole mostly just plays lip-service to being noble heroes and protectors for the sake of good PR, when push came to shove, Cordo actually stepped up to BE a hero and protector to those under her charge.

With that in mind, I’d say it’s all too fitting that a cynical, so-called ‘pragmatist’ like Ironwood DIDN’T want Cordovin around. He likely considered her too ‘emotional’ and ‘unpredictable’, which of course translates to ‘not loyal enough to ME’.

Which brings us to the most interesting question of this whole analysis: If Cordovin was in Atlas at the end of Volume 7 or arrived during Volume 8, would she have fallen in line with Ironwood, OR would she have turned on him to side with Team RWBY and co?

And given what we’ve seen, I think it’s actually more likely that Cordo may well have done the latter. Or at the very least would have been the easiest for Ruby and co. to convince to join them.

Again, Cordo seems the type whose loyalty is to Atlas as a whole, which likely even includes Mantle, far more than to any one leader in particular. Therefore, if Cordo believed that Ironwood was betraying Atlas, it’s people and the ideals it stands for, she seems far more likely decide that Ironwood’s actions simply make him unfit to lead, and must be removed from power.

We can even see this distinction in the narrative of the story: Both Cordo and Ironwood are faced with their own critical ‘make or break’ moments at the end of Volumes 6 and 7 respectively. Moments where they were faced with overwhelming odds and given the chance to truly stand up for what they claimed to believe in. Both involving instances of defending civilians from a Grimm attack. Argus for Cordo and Mantle for Ironwood.

Cordo rose to the occasion…

…while Ironwood broke and chose to run away and ABANDON those under his charge.

With the remnants of the Atlas military having joined up with the rest of the heroes in Vacuo, I have to imagine we’ll be seeing Cordovin again in Volume 10, and I think it’s going to be interesting to see what kind of role she ends up playing.

--

*As a side-note, I’d say this was VERY much a deliberate bit of misdirection on CRWBY’s part. In the same way they deviously pitted Ironwood against Jacques so as to basically get the audience to think ‘The enemy of my enemy MUST be my friend, right?’ only to subvert the HELL out of that idea by the end of Volume 7.

[miraculousagentsofkrypton]

I've been thinking about semblances and what they show us about the characters. Many of them are straightforward: Blake had a tendency to run, Yang uses beatdowns in her life to motivate her to be stronger and doesn't show that she feels every inch of the pain, etc.

And then there's Ruby. The way the show approaches her semblance is unique and so fascinating. Ruby has the ability to break herself down into tiny pieces, which allows her to bear a lot of weight and make it through and past things she otherwise couldn't. Gee, I wonder what that might represent. Ruby, the queen of giving up pieces of herself in order to bear the weight others struggle to hold: having a semblance where she molecularly breaks herself down and it allows her to carry her entire team at once. Then there's the fact that she turns into Rose petals, when all she's wanted all her life was to be like her Mother, Summer Rose. And in trying to do that, she also breaks herself apart and tries to rearrange the pieces to fit.

All of that makes sense, but what I adore about the writing in this show is the fact that Ruby didn't know this was her semblance until Volume 8. Up until Ruby's breaking point, every single person thought Ruby had a speed semblance. She was enthusiastic and energetic, why wouldn't she?

Surely there's no need to look any further. Ruby doesn't get weighed down despite all the struggles. She's such a good leader. She's totally fine. She just has a speed semblance, and nothing more to it. There's nothing wrong with how she has been handling everything that is happening.

Just like how no one truly saw past her mask throughout all the series, no one thought to look deeper into her semblance either. Not even Ruby understood her semblance or all that she was doing to herself.

The only one who did? Who saw Ruby as she was? Who also figured out what she does? Penny.

Anyway, astounded by the depth to this show. Despite its flaws, it is a work of passion, and it shows.

[deadbeatbirdmom]

If you are active in RWBY fandom, do you:

Make fan art/animation

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Other creation in tags

Jack of all trades (more than one of above)

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Voting ended onFeb 15

RWBY fandom is quieter than it sometimes is, but we're not dead, please reblog to spread this poll further!

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[zexapher]

Story Arc

Poor Jaune's been through too much. His greatest fears realized over and over again.

[mistresskabooms]

Something I've actually genuinely come to appreciate about RWBY in my most recent re-watch is that... No character is treated entirely as the butt of the joke.

Even the characters who are intended to be more comedic in nature get their moments where they show more about them. for instance, Caroline Cordovin is a bombastic, fanatical supporter of Atlas who is surrounded by sycophants who repeat her every other sentence and has a stick so far up her ass that she's a Popsicle in all but name. yet, In the 5 episodes she appears, almost entirely as an antagonist we also learn that: She's spiteful, never letting go of a grudge, and will ensure that any perceived slight is punished to the full extent of her power. She holds a fairly obvious prejudice against the faunus, and buys fully into the SDC's hype, although that might be because it's a symbol of Atlesian prosperity She is observant and quick thinking, adapting fairly quickly to the changing situation (For instance, she figures out very quickly that Maria was trying to play her into opening up her missile pods so Ruby could shoot the missiles and potentially destroy the whole arm. And, when Ruby dives into the cannon to fire at the massive dust crystals, she points the cannon upwards to try and ensure she falls into the volatile dust crystals.) Despite all her apparent spite for the people of Argus for protesting the embargo, she genuinely takes pride in her job as a protector, as even when she's ranting and raving at RWBYJNOR about how the Leviathan attack is their fault, her expression shows that she's ashamed. Partly because she couldn't beat a bunch of teenagers and a stolen gunship with a big fuckoff colossus, but also because Her display of force backfired so spectacularly that the people she was supposed to protect are now practically defenseless against a threat that her colossus was literally designed to fight. Now, most of that pride comes from the power she wields, but also, I think, she genuinely wants to help people. These little things are ultimately unnecessary, as she is largely a comedic character, but the fact that they gave someone who could have just been a 1 note comedic character who facilitates a cool big mecha fight into a genuinely kind of interesting character. Shit like that is part of why I love this show.

[hoa-secretary-jinx]

Hi my name is Cris and I just finished RWBY and I need more RWBY friends to talk to or RWBY blogs to follow so pls reblog or like or reply to this so I can find u

[bobauthorman]

I've seen lots of takes on Ironwood bringing a gun to Jacques' party, and they're all the same: "Him bringing a gun was foreshadowing that he was bad!" or something.

While I don't necessarily disagree that Ironwood's actions have foreshadowed his official turn to the Dark Side, simply using the gun as an example is immensely diminishing.

Look, it's the fact that Ironwood is involved with the SDC in any capacity that's the problem. As Blake stated WAAAY back in the second friggin' episode, the SDC is infamous for questionable business partners. Furthermore, for all of Ironwood's clear dislike for Jacques, at no point does he do anything to curtail the SDC's corruption. I highly doubt that Jacques was THAT good at keeping things covered up, or that Ironwood wouldn't come up with an excuse to bring the hammer down. Clearly, what the SDC does to otehr people has never been Ironwood's concern until his own plans were affected.

But let's look at the party sitch. Just before the shot was fired, Weiss was berating the Atlas upper class for their selfishness. Jacques moves to shut her up. Weiss involuntarily summons a Glyph-Boarbatusk which Ironwood kills before it can do anything. On paper, he was just preventing a needless death. But let's look at things symbolically;

those exploited by Atlas (Weiss) protest against the city's actions. their voice is silenced by those in power (Jacques). Not allowed to protest or make the changes peacefully, they resort to violence (The Glyph-Grimm going berserk), which leads to them being put down by the armed forces (Ironwood).

"But didn't Ironwood agree with Weiss!? Wasn't he NICE to her?!"

Yeah, Ironwood did say those things. But that's all he did. Empty words while making no actions to actually fix things. Ironwood is very eloquent, but if look at his actual actions and actions he doesn't take, a different picture starts to form.

Anyway, that's my Ted Talk. (Drops microphone)