Which parallels between Ruby and Salem?
the first one i picked up on is that salem, in 6.4, echoes almost verbatim something ruby says to oscar in 5.5: oscar says that heâs scared, ruby tells him âwe just have to press on;â and salem muttersâseemingly to herself?ââand so we must press on.â
further, the placement of these lines are directly mirrored in a really interesting way: oscar interrupts ruby before she can finish, asking how she can be so confident after everything sheâs been through, and she answers that she isnât confident, that she feels just as scared and overwhelmed as he does, but sheâs chosen to try her bestâto keep moving through the fear.
in contrast, salem gives this grandiose little speech to her acolytesâand of course none of them dare to interrupt her, but thereâs nevertheless a lull, a pause in which salem glances out the window and we glimpse the sadness and weariness sheâs carrying under the surface, because the mask slips just a little. âand so we must⌠press onâ is salemâs answer to herself, to whatever pang of regret or doubt or exhaustion she just felt, before her attention goes back to her audience and she starts talking about the next steps in her plan.
so on the one hand weâve got this inversion of ruby saying âwe just have to press onâ as a lead in to ruby having this monologue about what sheâs feeling and what she meant, and then salem interrupting herself to make this remarkâbut on the other hand, both lines ultimately function as sort of narrative trail markers, flagging the grief/fear/pain both ruby and salem are carrying with them as they try to press on, and also highlighting the important difference that ruby has people in her life who care about her, people she can talk to about her feelings, and salem does not.
and on subsequent viewings it really hit me that rwby does this kind of thing with ruby and salem A LOTâthatâs just the most immediately obvious example, because of how similar the two lines are.
another example occurs between 5.11 and 6.3. you know this beat?
RAVEN: All that time spent spying for Ozpin, and you still have no idea what youâre dealing with. There is no beating Salem!
RUBY: Youâre wrong. Weâve done things that most people would call impossible, and I know the only reason we were able to do it is because we didn't do it alone! We had people to teach us, people to help us, we had each other. Work with us. At least I know we'll have a better chance if we try together. Please.
[She extends her arm, offering her hand to Raven, and Raven glances downâconsidering, for just a secondâbefore her expression hardens and she steps back, resolute and angry.]
RAVEN: You sound just like your mother.
âŚyeah in 6.3 salemâs rejection of the divine mandate, the counteroffer she makes to ozma, and his reaction to that? framed EXACTLY the same way. and whatâs really striking about that is that, from salemâs perspective, the underlying emotion of that scene in the lost fable is also identicalâsomething that jinnâs narrative intentionally obfuscates by framing the scene through ozmaâs point of view.
but, like, consider whatâs really happening in that scene from salemâs side. the gods are the ultimate evil; they tortured her, murdered the planet, and consigned her to eternal suffering to punish her for disobeying them. she knows how powerful they are, and sheâs seen that they donât care if people are standing against them or notâtheyâll kill anybody, they killed EVERYBODY, just to make a point to one person. to her. yet she also wholeheartedly believes that people can overcome their tyranny, that it isnât futile to stand against them. (and why shouldnât she believe that? after all, humans came back.)
so⌠in her eyes, ozma has just revealed a terrible secretâhe was sent back to remnant to enact the will of those evil gods, and heâs chosen to obey because heâs terrified of what theyâve sworn to do if he does notâand salem comes back at him with: no, what they asked of you doesnât matter, why should we obey them when we can fix what they broke by ourselves? whether you read âreplace themâ as âreplace humansâ or âreplace the godsâ doesnât matter, because either way: fromâs salemâs point of view, sheâs asking ozma to join her, to work together to achieve their goals without submitting to the will of the gods. and ozma (figuratively) answers that with a fireball to the face, just as raven did to ruby in 5.11.
but wait! thereâs more!
iâve mentioned before that i think the fight with cordovin at the end of v6 is a big hint at what the emotional shape of the final confrontation with the god of light will look likeââclearly the people have forgotten that they live in peace thanks to the awesome might of atlas! [âŚ] consider this a reminder! [âŚ] and watch how your leader maintains order!â câmon. âyou are ants! you are lower than ants!â câmon. âthis is what happens when you think you know better than those rightfully in charge!â HELLO?âanyway, with that in mind,
in 6.12, ruby and maria fly right at the mech to bait cordovin into firing on them, intending to exploit a weakness oscar identified in the missile launcher itself. but cordovin figures out the ploy and, enraged, shoots their plane with the mechâs dust cannon instead. mariaâs eyes get shorted out, the plane spins out of control, and they crash. ruby immediately picks herself up and marches forward to plant herself squarely in front of cordovin, staring down the massive barrel of the dust cannon as she REFUSES to surrender and declares that she and her team are GOING to atlas, no matter what.
where this one gets really interesting is that not only do both salem and ruby respond to what should have been a crushing defeat by getting right back up to stand their ground while shouting their defiance to the cruel, power-drunk authority figure who slapped them down in the first placeâboth of them also stick with the original plan, doing exactly the thing they were trying to do before getting slapped down. salemâs is âiâll come back, iâll tell the world of this massacre, raise a new armyââ and rubyâs is baiting cordovin into taking a shot at her so she can exploit a weakness in the firing mechanism, and thus disable the weapon altogether. salem fails because the gods have already killed everyone, not just her allies; and ruby prevails because, by putting herself at point blank range this time, she neatly removes the advantage that allowed cordovin to outmaneuver them the first time around.
now, think about this: what is the essential difference between ruby in 6.12 and salem in 6.3? what tactic did ruby rely on to beat her odds that salem didnât when she faced the gods?
ruby identified and then exploited a fatal weakness of her opponent, while using her opponentâs strengthâthe sheer size and power of the mech itselfâto her advantage, literally hiding in front of the dust cannon cordovin intended to kill her with so that cordovin wouldnât be able to see what ruby was doing until it was already too late to stop her. ruby wins here because she relies on the same tactics salem uses in the presentâtactics that arose directly from lessons salem learned from her defeat at the hands of the gods.
and whatâs especially neat about that is, those tactics donât come to ruby any more naturally or instinctively than they came to salem; ruby has always been pragmaticâthe kid stone-cold cut off tyrianâs tail after he stung qrow!âbut sheâs also a very straightforward combatant up until this fight. sheâs a brutal, efficient fighter whose basic approach to battle is to ruthlessly chop down her opponents or snipe them from afar until thereâs none leftâŚ
âŚwhich was exactly the mindset that got salem to fomenting a rebellion and leading an army to confront the gods head-onâexactly the mindset that led to salemâs horrific defeat and the total annihilation of humanity at the hands of the gods. which ruby witnessed only a few days before she pulled this tricky, underhanded move to disable the dust cannon and beat cordovin against what seemed like impossible odds. ruby learned the exact. same. lesson. from watching salemâs defeat that salem herself did through experiencing it, and upon being put into a similarly hopeless battle against a foe orders of magnitude more powerful than herself, ruby immediately put that lesson into action AND THATâS WHY SHE WON!
salemâs divide-and-conquer strategy is also one ruby employs to great effect in the rwby-vs-ace-ops fight at the end of v7, and again against ironwood early in the climactic sequence of v8âstriking at multiple pain points at once to split him off from his loyal supporters and playing to his arrogance and need for control to get him to lower his guard once âpennyâ has been restrained. other people besides me have pointed this out, so i wonât belabor it other than to emphasize that ruby adopts this strategic approach because it works and is morally neutralâthat is, thereâs nothing intrinsically evil about divide-and-conquer tactics, and both the narrative of rwby and ruby herself understand that salem is evil not because she relies on such tactics but because she applies them toward monstrous, destructive, cruel ends.
anywayâin the interest of brevity i wonât outline everything but i do want to highlight two more. one is just a visual/symbolic thing that has me VERY curious about the direction the story might be taking with ruby in v9, because THIS shot in the v8 openerâŚ
âŚis STRONGLY evocative of this shot of salem sinking into the pool of darknessâŚ
âŚand occurs in the context of an opening number whose theme is âwe thought we could change the world, we tried our best, we gave everything we had and failed, but it was worth it to try.â with a side helping of âsome heroes choose the wrong sideâ and an extra side helping of you could play the whole song over the failed rebellion in lost fable and have exactly salemâs point of view.
anyway, the other thingâthe last thing, is what ruby says during the broadcast in 8.5: âthings are dire, and we need help. but please, try not to panic; this isnât some new enemy or invading kingdom. this is a force weâve faced before, for centuries: salem. [âŚ] we didnât have time to prepare for salem, but now you do! just because she canât be destroyed, doesnât mean she canât be beaten! if she really was unstoppable, she wouldnât have acted with such caution before now. she knows weâre a threat! so even if weâeven if atlas falls, you canât give up.â
in⌠essence, that is a reiteration of the point salem makes about ozpinâs failure during her monologue in 3.12: âhow does it feel, knowing that all your time and effort has been for nothing? that your guardians have failed you? that everything youâve built will be torn down before your very eyes? your faith in mankind was not misplaced: when banded together, unified by a common enemy, they are a noticeable threat⌠but divide them, place doubt into their minds, and any semblance of power they once had will wash away.ââthe emotion is very different, but in her broadcast ruby does precisely what salem is mocking ozpin here for not doing, ie using the threat salem poses to the world as a rallying cry to bring people together. thereâs even a slight echo of salemâs own language in rubyâs broadcast; salem describes a unified humanity as a ânoticeable threatâ and ruby repeats that as âshe knows weâre a threat!â
and in general, ruby speaks of humanityâs collective strength and of the possibility of people coming together and being able to drive salem back with the same conviction salem doesâin stark contrast to ozma, whose faith in humankind has long since hollowed out into weary cynicism. ruby and salem are on opposite sides of the conflict, but theyâre on basically the same wavelength in terms of what they think humans are capable of. in his heart of hearts, ozma doesnât truly believe that humans can withstand salem, much less the gods.
but ruby DOES believe that, and salem believes that, and both of them base A LOT of their decision-making on that belief; salem exploits ozpinâs self-defeating secrecy for all itâs worth, and ruby refuses point blank to give up because she knows salem can be defeated if enough people are just willing to try. even when ruby starts to crack, later on in v8, sheâs not losing her faith in humanityâsheâs losing her faith in herself, doubting her leadership, her judgment, her decisions⌠without ever for a second doubting humanity as a whole. and THAT is, in a nutshell, the quality that makes ruby more like salem than she is like ozma:
salem watched the gods annihilate humanity with a snap of their fingers and she still believes that humanity can and must reject divine tyranny.
ruby learned that salem canât be killed and she still believes that humanity not only can but will defeat salem.
but when the god of light tells ozma that modern humans are a broken shadow of what they once were and tasks ozma with redeeming them lest the gods obliterate them forever, ozma accepts that as a factâa horrific, terrifying, painful fact, but still a fact he has yet to truly question.
and rubyâwho is essentially ozpinâs successor, who succeeds where he has failed over and over and over againâis succeeding exactly because she is more like salem than she is like ozma.
