Fatherhood in RWBY: How they managed to create our team of protagonists through their actions - Taiyang Xiao Long
Fatherhood, as most people who at least have a cursory understanding of psychology, is crucial for the formation of a child's sense of self. The question 'Who is my father' is one that every child will at least ask once, during a teenager's angst, or a child's honest question, and it shapes their children in ways both predictable and unpredictable.
For single mothers who raise their children alone, the question 'who is my father' can at the very least raise the question even further later in life, when the mother replies with 'I don't know' or 'that man is your father, but we are no longer together'. The question later in life, especially when the children have their own children, rises. 'Who is my father's father'?
In RWBY, we see that it is mostly is the absent mother figure, biological or non-biological that comes across as a foundation for their daughters (Talking about team RWBY), in order to create a sense of identity for their daughter.
I will outline some of my thoughts, and invite people to have a civil debate. It is a discussion that should be had, because I had the idea for this post a few days ago after seeing an errant comment on the Summer Rose post, by someone I consider a friend. He's kind of into water-based propulsion.
The reason for this post, is to outline some views on how Taiyang was as a father, from what we can glean from the RWBY episodes that he is in, and comments made.
This post is in no way intended to 'flame' or 'harass' or 'defile the intention of this sub'. People might like to know more about things.
Fatherhood: How the fathers shaped their children.
Most of the people here seem to venerate him as some paragon who got two wives, had two daughters and who was 'the man' in Beacon. Some people even call him 'Chad', which, using most of my experience in life (Quite a bit, I am a bit older than the average 20-something-year-old here), does not seem to be the case.
Ruby easily gets along with her father, whilst Yang bears at least a slight grudge towards him, however subtle it may seem. Her speech to Blake about 'searching for her mother' indicates that her father was not present after Summer Rose died/was listed MIA.
To say that that was not a forming experience for a young girl like Yang, would be to deny reality. A father that she trusted and loved and expected to be there for her, was no longer available in her life. He 'shut down', as it was, and became a husk of his former self.
A girl like Yang is expressive and shows herself as a daring, go-getting individual, who wants to meet challenges and overcome them. She is someone who does not quit, who has to overcome and move forward, a steady theme in RWBY's storytelling.
Now, to speak about Taiyang's role as a father, before his shut-down. We know nothing about that era. I am not assuming that any comic form is 'canon' or 'accurate', due to the mutability and retconning of the comic media. Even official published work is rejected, because it does not deal with Taiyang as a father.
Taiyang, likely, was a man who burned brightly, like his daughter does. He was present enough in her early life to give her that will to continue, even whilst he was engaged in a sexual relationship with Summer Rose, who accepted the Mother-role.
We are allowed to assume that Taiyang and Summer never married. Raven was his wife, as stated by Amity Arena. Divorcing is a lengthy process and it is not as easy to provide undeniable evidence in a setting such as Remnant, that Raven abandoned Yang.
Before the people start to complain and immediately go 'But there was true love involved, Raven was a b-word', let me continue with my line of reasoning: Huntsmen are generally out in the field for weeks to months at a time, and the CCT network does not seem to have full coverage of the planet, or at the very least, not be consistent, though there was a broadcast visible in what seems to be Menagerie with Ilia in V8.
Raven could be 'out on a mission' without telling her spouse. That is her right as a Huntsman. Divorce under such circumstances, would likely not be allowed.
It also shows to us that Taiyang is not the greatest at making decisions that involve his love life. Raven married him, actually going through the ceremony enough to become Raven Xiao Long, from the Branwen tribe. Summer Rose came along after Yang was born and Raven had recovered enough post-child-birth (which is from 3-5 months, I have heard from the hospital's maternity ward, due to bleeding and post-natal care for the mother's innards, since uteral collapse is a danger), leaving to birth Ruby, who was, according to Eddy Rivas, 15 before Beacon, 16 when she joined Beacon as a student.
People may immediately assume that I am making that deduction because I do not like the circumstances there, or that I am 'defaming the great Taiyang Xiao Long'. I am not. I am pointing out that he had an infant there, his daughter, who Summer was taking care of with him, with Qrow being involved as well, supposedly.
One does not easily 'get in the mood' when one is caring for a child. During the first two years of a child's life, most parents are dead tired due to waking up in the night to give a baby its bottle. Summer got pregnant, somehow, and she birthed a child later.
It is too early for Taiyang's divorce to be finalized, if it was ever mentioned at all. We can safely assume that he is still married to Raven, though not acknowledging it. It is not like the matrilineal naming scheme is in effect in Remnant, so he would not assume the name of his wife, though his daughter Ruby, seems to be fully able to have her own name be 'Rose' as a sign of her status of being conceived out of wedlock.
Once more, knowing the type of reaction that that engenders from people who have little to no experience with marriage or laws regarding marriage: Children cannot legally change their name unless it is court-mandated, so we can deduce from that that Taiyang had not married Summer Rose.
Which is a bad choice, if one looks at it. It speaks of compromised judgment, when one immediately chooses another woman who they are affectionately on good terms with, as the replacement mother for their child, and begetting a child with her.
A child is a massive responsibility. A child is your legacy, your future, and Taiyang's failing starts to show when he impregnated Summer Rose with Ruby Rose. He had one daughter of a mother who abandoned the two of them, and now he has conceived another.
Not to say that it does not also create a bond between his daughters and him, but we are working our way up from decisions that he, as an adult male over the age of 21, a huntsman of some skill, has made.
Summer Rose dies on a secret mission and he is devastated. His daughters nearly end up as Grimm food with only a timely save from Qrow, another father figure, who will be regarded in another post, should this be deemed 'interesting enough' to become a series.
If you think that a depressed man, mourning the wife that left him and her replacement who birthed him two beautiful daughters, is any paragon of virtue and wholesomeness, I have serious doubts about the ability of the reader to discern between good and bad parenting.
As a father or mother, you take responsibility for the child you put on this world. Shutting down is not a right response, and he might have committed suicide if Qrow had brought the bodies of his two daughters home. That, we can infer, from V2's statement by Yang to Blake.
Yang is the most expressive member of team RWBY. The extrovert, who seems to have a lust for life and an eternal burning thirst for adventure and progress, to do what she feels is right and to be the 'sunny little dragon' she is named for.
Having to take upon her shoulders the role of 'mother' and 'Wife' for Taiyang after he shut down and they were left alone with only Qrow taking missions, it shaped her into the figure we see today. More-so in the first few volumes, we see that she is fairly selfless, yet willing to be forward and rather open with how she is, with little thought about the future, living in the here and now.
People will disagree with me here, but this is the 'persona' that Yang has crafted in order to remain the beacon of light in the Xiao Long household. She is not hiding her true self at all, but she is keeping up the expectation of being 'Taiyang's daughter', so as to properly rear Ruby.
Ruby is one of the foci of Yang's life. She raised Ruby as her daughter of sorts, even though they were children of near-similar age. She is the most important thing to Yang, over even her father. Her confidence and her sunny personality also shatter when faced with a severe blow to herself, as losing her arm caused her to show a Taiyang-level depression, with the PTSD that comes with it.
It shows that father and daughter are the same, which I will continue to outline further. It is likely that behind the confident, push-forward demeanour that she shows, with her casual and flippant attitude, there lies a more matronly, serious Yang that does not feel the intense rage that gives her her temper.
We can deduce from Taiyang's own intimacy with Yang's fighting style, that they are both brawling-type of individuals, who probably share more than a few tics. He was able to coach her during the episode before she left, and she left with a confidence that seemed unshaken, but was also out of commission in a similar-level blackout as Taiyang.
It is likely that the more matronly and caring side of her only emerges when she feels comfortable around individuals, preferring to leave the mask of 'Yang, Daughter of Taiyang' on whilst she re-evaluates the situation. Her father would likely do something similar, given how much they apparently seem to have in common.
However, the effect on Yang is also, that she is in search of her mother, due to her father's likely comparison of Yang and Raven. Knowing the effects of depression on a man and Qrow's propensity for liquor to forget bad things, Yang would likely have had a few insults thrown her way, or had to cradle her father whilst he hugged her in a drunken stupor asking 'Raven' why she left.
That is normal behaviour for widowers and non-voluntary divorcees who genuinely loved their wife. I am not assuming that Yang's conception was 'forced' in any way, since he married Raven Branwen.
Most of what Yang says about her father is that he was dad, and that he was a cool dad, with him being unafraid to poke the elephant in the room with the typical bluntness that we come to expect from Yang. He is, like her, a straightforward individual.
His recovery into something functional again, seems to have come around before Yang entered Combat School, which likely caused her personality to remain the 'sunny boisterous brawler' that we all know, with no more real need for her to be Ruby's mother.
His overprotectiveness after their harrowing encounter likely has made Yang a little more hesitant to fully confide in her father. Mothers tend to bond better with their daughters, and him being shut-down, as per her words, would not really create a tight-knit bond.
However Taiyang shaped Yang into the woman she is now, a bright girl who keeps moving on, one Grimm at a time.
Ruby Rose: The conundrum of being upstaged by your brother-in-law
That Ruby Rose seriously admires her uncle is a given, given her interactions with her non-related uncle, his fondness of both of his nieces and the like, yet we do not really delve into the specifics of how he influenced his adoptive niece in this segment. This is about Taiyang, the primary father for Ruby and Yang, yet he is at least, a figure that pops up frequently.
Taiyang, given of what we know of Ruby's early childhood, was absent for most of the formative years, since Summer's death. We do not know how aware Ruby was during her early years, but with Yang as a mother and Qrow as an uncle, it is pretty obvious that she considers Qrow to be somewhat more of a father figure than her own father.
That poses a problem. Yang, her older sister by 1.5 years (If we can believe Eddy Rivas), is someone who is extroverted, whereas Ruby is shy and introverted and 'kind of a geek' with a 'dash of social awkwardness'.
We see little of Taiyang in Ruby's behaviour. She does not have the depressive disposition of her sister or her father. She is eternally optimistic and forward-moving, as her mother might have also been.
She seems to be spared from the Xiao-Long trait of being boisterous and wearing scandalous jackets, at least, on a funny note. Corsets or nothing.
She thinks he is a good father, and she loves him as her father, but we are not given enough context on how he was her father. She feels closer to Qrow, and we are given a massive clue about how that went down with the last episode of V3.
Qrow and Taiyang are at the same place, at the same time. Qrow and Taiyang share a moment in Ruby's room that can be considered somewhat uncomfortable, with the two having a momentary stare-off. It is fairly obvious that Taiyang, in his own way, somewhat resents Qrow for being the more parental figure to Ruby, his daughter.
Ruby is closer to Qrow than she is to Taiyang. That Taiyang is a little overprotective of his daughters, is shown frequently in his body language and how he reacts, likely after the Grimm tried to kill his daughters.
Ruby Rose was affected in a lesser manner by Taiyang's presence, since 'Uncle Qrow' fascinated her and she wanted to be 'cool' like him.
Her likeness in personality and appearance to Summer Rose, likely causes the man some pain due to the loss he suffered.
Fatherhood: A conclusion (Until more is known)
It is not by our will, that we are given flesh. A man is but a miserable pile of secrets, and Taiyang is nothing but a secret wrapped in some enigma.
We do not know whether he dated anyone else, to give his daughters a mother figure. We do not know whether he had to languish until Yang was nine to recover from his mental breakdown. The time period is too vague, but you do not simply 'recover' from a depressive mental breakdown swiftly. It is step-by-step.
His effect on his daughters, at the least, was formative in that they became the protagonists that we know and love right now.
A flawed man, struggling with an emotional shutdown. A flawed man, who nearly lost his daughter. A flawed man, who married one wife, only to betray that oath to her with another after less than two years had passed, to birth the heroine of this series.
He is not the 'sex god' that people proclaim him to be. In fact, I would assume that he is almost certainly sexless in his life, unless he has somehow managed to hide a relationship from both of his daughters.
His marrying of Raven Branwen was the catalyst for Yang to be born. His relationship with Summer ended up with Ruby being born, and he failed his daughters by shutting down.
The effects of his style of parenting and overprotectiveness to shield his children from harm (likely post-Grimm expedition) have led to Ruby and Yang becoming individuals who keep on moving forward, because their father stopped moving forward after Summer died, and is only slowly recovering to become a man and a father again.
I am not a wise man, nor am I a sagely woman. I am someone who studied, who learned and who got a little paper that states that I am an expert in something.
Oftentimes, people here venerate the motherly Summer Rose, who took in a child that was not her own and became a mother, without realizing that a father was equally important in that role.
It is through our folly, that we realize that we are human, and Taiyang is still very much a human in his own way.
Recovering from what was a depressive shut-down, possibly alcoholism, and turning his life around to be a father to Yang, when it had been mostly Qrow likely keeping the family afloat, is an admirable goal.
I do not hate, despise or loathe the man, no matter what people seem to assume. I think he was instrumental in creating the Yang we know. The Yang who said 'I'll beat them up' and 'Strawberry sunrise', who was bold and fearless and depressive, once her arm was removed.
His Volume 4 interactions with his daughter are very loving, caring, yet they do not wash away the years that she had to be the wife of the family, the mother figure to Ruby. He was, however, her father.
Every growing teenager will 'loathe' their parents for their perceived 'restrictions', or at least I remember my own time. Yang, likely, had more than a few restrictions, yet she expresses herself forwardly.
He was a passable father, in her later teens, when he had his life in order.
Ruby was much less affected by Taiyang, yet she considers him her father, even if he does ground her for life upon her return.
He made up for his faults, and that is admirable for a man who seems to have had misfortune after misfortune happen to him.
Yang and Ruby are not fully grown matured teenagers yet, but they have inherited their father's will and good nature. Given how reserved they are about any kind of relationship, it is likely that Taiyang was the warning that they needed to never ever get into a stable relationship with someone, due to witnessing how their father just crashed and burned, before he rose from the ashes like a burning phoenix.
Our fathers shape us. Our mothers birth us. It is a good statement to make, to say that Ruby and Yang both know and love their father for all his faults, and that he has been forgiven by them for breaking down and not being the father that they needed.
He was their father, be it biological or adoptive. To them, he is their father, regardless. We know little about Summer Rose, we know reasonably much about Raven Branwen, but about the father-figures in the picture in RWBY, we know entirely too little.
It is important that these things are discussed. Thousands of discussions about RWBY's mothers are had, with wild theories and headcanons emerging, but there is little attention to the fathers of RWBY, and how they have impressed their own situation on their daughters.
Anyone who says that fathers do not have a place in their daughters' lives, or that Cyanide is talking about irrelevant things that do not matter: You are being prejudiced against men. This place is not a place to immediately say 'men are unfit to be mentioned' and then avoid dialogue.
That is not how civil debate goes.
I am saying that as someone who has studied the humanities.
Fathers, and men, are important. Don't bury that message with hatred and immediate rebuttals of 'men are evil'. People are created by a man and a woman having relations, and one cannot exist without having had a man and a woman engage in reproduction.
Let us keep things civil, and if I am wrong, I am sure that you will engage me in a mature debate.
I am holding out hope that this place has not turned into a dystopia where the freedom of speech is squashed under the boot of intolerance, where people who simply do not agree are vilified as evil, and those who simply wish to show a different view, with their own experiences/education, can be allowed to enlighten others with their takes on things.
I am not a rock that is worn by the erosion of time, I am a flesh and blood being, so if I am wrong, I am willing to say 'Mea Culpa' and be open to changing my mind.
A closed mind, is a very dull and boring place.
So, what do you think of this post?
Source link from
https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBY/comments/pkm0m3/fatherhood_in_rwby_how_they_managed_to_create_our/
By https://www.reddit.com/user/CyanideSins/
