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The Boy Who Fell From The Sky vs. The Girl Who Fell Through The World

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RWBY Ship Parallels #1: Fear & Bravery

There are too many ship parallels to put them all in one meta, so I'll make individual posts as I remember them. The first one I want to tackle is how all the canon or hinted-at-being-canon ships all have pivotal moments where the themes of being afraid and/or having courage come up.

Some elaborations under the cut!

For starters, just for context to refer back to throughout the post, the definition of courage/bravery is as follows:

noun 1. the ability to do something that frightens one. 2. strength in the face of pain or grief.

I was initially going to list these chronologically, but we're going to do it on a ship by ship basis instead. First up:

Renora

The first incident for them happens all the way back in V4 during their backstory flashback. Ren underwent a small arc learning from his father that sometimes the worst action to take is not taking any action at all, even if it's scary. He then tries to support Nora by teaching her this same lesson: that they both need to be brave. She expresses vulnerability about how scared she is, Ren confesses to feeling the same, and together they decide to look after each other from that point on. Which makes everything just a bit less frightening.

We also revisit these same themes in their V8 confession. First we see Nora criticizing Ren for running away just because things got difficult:

And after Ren owns up to this cowardice, the things he did out of fear of failure, the conversation shifts. Nora admonishes herself, and Ren lists things off about her that he admires, the last of which - while not using the word itself - calls to how brave of a person she is and cites it as one of the main reasons why he loves her. Because as the definition above states, being strong and helping people without worrying about how much it might hurt you in turn is what it means to have courage.

WhiteKnight

Their heart-to-heart in V9E9 says it all. Weiss has been carrying the weight of failing to save Atlas since it fell, and after Ruby's actions in the episodes prior, she became aware (a bit too late) of how those same failures were weighing on their leader. So when Jaune acknowledges the harm he caused from trying so desperately not to repeat their past mistakes, Weiss is the perfect person to step up for reassurance.

She knows that their failures do not equate to their worth or all the good they're capable of doing. And reminding Jaune of this, calling him a brave and good person in spite of his failures, is what he needed to hear to be able to reach an acceptance he hadn't been able to achieve in all those years trapped alone in the Ever After.

(Also the framing parallel of BB and WK both holding each other is a very nice touch.)

Bumbleby

With BB it's not just one or two moments. Blake and Yang's characters both centre around the themes of cowardice and bravery since their beginnings and we see it come up throughout the show a lot. Back in V2, Yang sees the bravery in Blake when she herself can only focus on the opposite:

Blake: When you figured out I was a faunus I didn't know what to do, so I ran. when I realized my oldest partner had become a monster, I ran! Even my semblance... I was born with ability to leave behind a shadow of myself. An empty copy that takes the hit while I run away.

In V4 and 5 we see Yang struggling to get back on her feet after losing her arm and the trauma she endured at Beacon. Blake tells Sun that she sees Yang as the "embodiment of strength" and we, the audience, get to see the proof of this every time she keeps fighting despite shaking, and especially when she faces off with Raven in the finale.

These parallel arcs culminate with both of them facing off against Adam together, but most especially gets called back to in their mutual confession scene in V9:

Yang acknowledges what she saw in Blake all those years ago, that she doesn't give up on what matters to her, even when people hurt her, she still fights for what's important. While Blake acknowledges Yang's reliability, her strength, and her courage. And both of them, like Renora, cite these reasons as things they admire, and reasons why they love each other.

Now last, but certainly not least:

Rosegarden

One of the very first things Oscar says to Ozpin when he leaves the farm is that he's scared. This comes back time and time again, especially in the Atlas arc where Oscar spends so much of his time counselling Ironwood against letting his fear control him (a conflict Ruby is also a part of). Our little prince even has a theme song titled Fear to really drive it home.

Whereas Ruby has always been the poster child of "keep moving forward", no matter how much the trauma, stress, pressure, and grief weighs you down. You just have to be strong and keep pressing on, fighting the monster that took her mother away. No matter what.

So, much like BB, there are themes around bravery, fear, and perseverance that apply to both Ruby and Oscar's personal arcs. Both of them especially have focus on being brave despite fears of loss. With Oscar, it is fear of losing himself to the merge; whereas Ruby has a fear of losing those she loves.

All the way back in the infamous Dojo Scene is where we first see these themes addressed in their dynamic. It starts with Oscar expressing vulnerability to Ruby about how afraid he really is.

Ruby initially tries her usual strategy; surface level reassurances about just pushing through it... but it doesn't work on him. So after some upset from Oscar, she ends up being vulnerable with him too. Something she hadn't done with anyone else in show by that point.

Ruby admits that she's afraid too, not just for herself, but for the threat Salem poses to the world as they know it and the people within it. Ruby tells him about those she's lost and says that if it had been her instead, those friends would have kept fighting too. That vulnerability, which requires courage in and of itself, is what motivates and inspires Oscar to keep moving forward where Ruby's earlier attempt could not. The scene closes off with one more nod to these themes where Ruby pauses at the door and turns back with one final thought:

In both the above scene and the V4 finale, Ruby cites "fighting for those they've lost and those they haven't lost yet" as her main motive to keep fighting. Up until V8/9 she used this as her greatest source of strength, but that strength is a double edged sword which eventually became her greatest weakness when Neo used it against her. First trapping her in a room with all the people she "failed":

And then landing a finishing blow with making her kill lose one of the people she loves most: Oscar.

Ruby can be brave if it means she can protect the people she loves. But just as Penny's death dealt a very big hit to Ruby's hope, what little she had left was crushed at the thought of losing Oscar (and Little) too.

Aside from that, there has also always been an underlying mystery around what having silver eyes means for Ruby. In V4, she is hunted by Tyrian and in V8 she finds out what her fate would have been had he succeeded. A fate which very justifiably terrifies her and seems to be a theme that will carry on into the Vacuo arc. It is also something that was brought up in the second RWBY x JL movie, I talked about this a little bit in this meta, but I'll share it here as well. In the movie, Ruby opens up a bit about this fear saying the following:

“Did you know I lost my mom when I was a kid? I don’t know exactly what happened to her, I don’t really remember her, I just have stories. And I keep trying to live up to those stories, but… I realize they don’t matter anymore. Heroes fall. And I just want to get as much done as I possibly can before I do.”

This scene directly parallels one of Oscar's back in V6:

“I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be… me. But I did some thinking, and I do know that I want to do everything I can to help with whatever time I have left.”

Both of these scenes show their respective courage around fears related to their issues with identity. Oscar saying he will do whatever he can before he loses himself, and Ruby doing whatever she can before she loses her life as all heroes eventually will.

So to summarize: Renora, Whiteknight, Bumbleby, and Rosegarden all have a scene where one or both partners cite the other's bravery as something they admire or love about the other person. All of these ships also include at least one scene - but often more that just weren't listed here - where they open up and are vulnerable with each other about their fears and motivations. And lastly, with BB and RG especially, bravery and fear are central themes to both their relationship dynamics as well as their individual character arcs within those pairings, all of which narratively parallel each other extensively.

CRWBY is very consistent with how it writes its ships and this is only the tip of the iceberg of all the parallels we've seen between these partners so far. But that's all for now; thanks for reading!

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Reason Why Rosegarden is Canon #008

In V6, there is an interesting series of events where Ruby mentions that food makes her feel better when she's upset, and we see Oscar overhearing this conversation.

A few episodes later, Oscar sees Ruby crestfallen at the conflict in their group in light of Ozpin's lies getting exposed, and so he stands up to try and mediate when Ruby has run out of things to say and looks defeated.

💡 Note: the framing of the fractured wall right behind Ruby's head to emphasize how she's feeling.

After the conflict escalates, Oscar disappears for some retail therapy but comes back while everyone is out looking for him and starts making dinner. When asked if something is cooking, he starts to say he did it to help people feel better after the earlier argument - specifically pausing to look at Ruby as he does so - before he deflects at the last minute.

So the tl;dr is Oscar heard Ruby say that food makes her feel better and the moment he saw she was upset, he went out to buy ingredients to make her a casserole to hopefully lift her spirits. But he didn't want to make it weird, so he DODGED THE QUESTION when asked why he did it.

All this after putting on new clothes that are essentially Remnant's equivalent of a marriage ritual. Boy is atrociously down bad and is as subtle as a brick through a glass window. 😔

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Reason Why Rosegarden is Canon: #004

Oscar's fairytale allusion has been confirmed by Miles Luna - one of the show's lead writers - as The Little Prince.

Which is a story that links back to many of Oscar's character themes and story beats. The most notable of which is the two characters' shared love for a Rose.

RWBY fairytale allusions work in complex ways. Most of the main cast has a primary allusion, and then secondary allusions for what roles they fill in other character's stories. For instance, Yang is Goldilocks from Goldilocks and the Three Bears in her own story, but she is also the Beauty to Blake's Beauty and the Beast.

Ruby is very clearly Little Red Riding Hood at her core, but she is also the Rose Red to Weiss's Snow White, and the Rose to Oscar's Little Prince.

I also just think the parallel of both their stories being "Little" when they're both the youngest of the group to be very cute.

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Reason Why Rosegarden is Canon: #005

As mentioned in the previous post, Oscar's fairytale allusion is The Little Prince, a character who is in love with a Rose. There are ample examples of how his story links back to that source material, but one of the first of which we see when he meets Ruby Rose for the first time.

Upon seeing her, Oscar steps through the doorway and immediately comments in awe of her physical appearance, implying that he thinks she is beautiful.

💡 Please take a moment to appreciate that the first word out of his mouth upon seeing her for the first time was literally "Woah."

Versus...

Then one morning, exactly at sunrise, she suddenly showed herself. And, after working with all this painstaking precision, she yawned and said: "Ah! I am scarcely awake. I beg that you will excuse me. My petals are still all disarranged . . ." But the little prince could not restrain his admiration: "Oh! How beautiful you are!"

Not only is that attraction established from their introduction, their first words to each other directly mirror one another's and co-relate to both of their greater character narratives surrounding identity.

Oscar: You... have silver eyes. Ruby: Who... are you?

Oscar comments on Ruby's eyes, the legacy of Summer Rose that she is carrying, and one of - if not the only - trump cards they all have against Salem and her forces.

Meanwhile, Ruby comments on Oscar's identity asking him who he is. Which Oscar, some nobody farmboy from the Mistral countryside who is the next in line as an Ozcarnation, spends every following volume trying to figure out. Who he is, who he's becoming, and who he wants to be.

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Reason Why Rosegarden is Canon: #001

When geeking out over weapons of Beacon students back in V1E2, Ruby makes comments about two different students that directly link to important character foils for her arc.

The first is a kid with a collapsible staff that she makes heart eyes towards (aka Oscar)...

and the second is a female student that carries a fire sword (aka Cinder).

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The foreshadowing in this show - this scene and its framing specifically - destroys me. ❤

[rwbyrg]

Reason Why Rosegarden is Canon: #006

In V6E9, Oscar returns after disappearing in the previous episode. When reuniting with the group, he has donned a new outfit and talks about his resolve towards their fight against Salem that directly mirrors the talk he had with Ruby in The Dojo Scene in V5E5.

The outfit he has chosen lends many more colours to his initial design and mimics the look of his Little Prince allusion. But what's important about this upgrade is the colours and placements he has chosen.

He's thrown on red shoes which are emblematic of his commitment to "keep moving forward". In other words, to follow the path Ruby is walking. Beyond just the boots, he has also put a red mantle on his shoulders in the same shape as Ruby's hood which is symbolic of his commitment to help her shoulder her burdens.

💡 Important to note that Ruby's following Atlas outfit upgrade, starts to mimic Oscar's shape language as well. And, while team JNR are all designed by Erin Winn, Oscar's design has always been done by Ein Lee, who is responsible for all of team RWBY's outfits as well, adding more evidence to these design similarities being intentional from the beginning.

Also important to note, that when Nora asks Oscar "What are you wearing?" she is literally pointing to Ruby signaling to the audience where he got the inspiration from.

Beyond this, we have confirmation from Eddy Rivas, one of the show's writers, that wearing the colours of your partner is a common sign of affection or expression of the bond a person shares with someone else.

We've seen this same pattern in other canon couples throughout the show as well. Most notably with:

Renora, who have always shared pink elements

Arkos, with Jaune wearing a red sash in honour of Pyrrha and

Bumbleby incorporating each other's colours into their weapons

Bumbleby has also been designed with that complementary colour scheme in mind since the very beginning with their Yellow/Purple duality. And this same design intention is clear in Rosegarden as well. Not only with the Red/Green, but also their Silver/Gold contrast as well.

And it goes beyond just the colours in their costumes, it is also included in their very names by the colour naming rule.

Ruby (as in Red like the Gemstone) Rose (yes like the flower, but also as in Rise like the Silver Moon)

Oscar (as in Gold like the Award Statues) Pine (as in Green like the Coniferous Tree)