Honestly, i think people's dislike of Ozpin and love of Salem seriously colors their perception of things in the show. I feel like people see the villains making good points and immediately ran with the idea that they're Completely Right Actually and it's like... no??
People heard that Hazel's sister died as a student during a training mission and immediately went "Students regularly die in the Academies!" Even though A) the story treats this as UNUSUAL and B) we have... no other examples of students dying during training?? No mentions of it, none of the other villains talking about it, etc. Yes the Huntsman system is flawed (this is something that weighs heavy on Ozpin, he's fully aware of it), but it's never been depicted in the narrative as like... fully evil or anything. At worst it's morally gray. In general I don't think the Academies are fleshed out enough to really say if they're truly 'bad' or not; it's entirely possible there's other ways to become a Huntsman and it seems going to combat school isn't necessary. Also, it's been 80 YEARS since Oz made them! Who knows what's changed since he created them??
And then there's like,, the people who believe Salem is 100% in the right or whatever. I DO believe she isn't one-dimensionally evil or whatever, but she's still directly responsible for the deaths of at least hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of people (there's no way EVERYONE got out of Atlas and Mantle, plus what happened to Vale). Even if she has a plan to take down the Gods somehow, the ends absolutely don't justify the means?? And she could've done everything differently! Letting a few civilians go doesn't mean she's secretly good, she's just not wasting her time bc killing civilians outside of what's 'necessary' isn't efficient. Haven is proof she can do differently, more peaceful and with yknow, less mass murder.
And even if Salem does have a ✨️good plan✨️ to take down the Gods and the show is going towards "Salem isn't actually that bad nor the monster everyone makes her out to be"... how is Oz the bad guy still? The only time he hurt Salem is when he lied to her. The only time! Anything else is pretty much completely speculation. And no, he's not responsible for getting their kids killed, he's not the one who attacked first. He's not still following the God of Light, he hasn't worked towards his task in who knows how long, etc. He sure as hell isn't bad enough to be compared to ADAM of all people!! (Yes, that's a real take I've seen)
And just... I've seen so, so many stupid takes out there about Ozpin. I've seen someone say he's bigoted against faunus for some reason??
Oh, and another thing I hate: when people say the writers are actually perfect and insanely good writers. This is a very uncommon take, but like... no? They're not perfect. I highly doubt they pay attention to every tiny detail. It's kinda ridiculous to assume they plan out every minute detail. They're definitely good writers, but I don't think they're THAT good.
Idk, I have a million different thoughts about this. People really don't understand Ozpin and I swear it makes every piece of analysis even mildly connected to him fall apart. If I see someone else claim he's racist/neglectful/abusive/etc I'm gonna lose it lmao
Sorry for the long ass rant, I'm just an Ozpin apologist 🫡
Confession #600
