I think Mercury and Yang have an better connection, both have robotic body parts, Yang had an supportive Dad, Mercury had an violent one, Mercury has no semblance while Yang tends to relay on hers too much, Mercury kicks Yang punches, Yang gets angry while Mercury is more calm and collected and so on.
Yang really doesn't use her semblance that much unlike a certain someone after learning how to summon. Seriously, after Weiss learned to summon she relies way too much on it. If it weren't for plot vernal and cinder would've killed her.
Mercury’s mother was actually pretty nice, I’m pretty sure I heard somewhere his father killing her is what caused them to fight. So it’s the same with Yangs mother being a bitch. You can also see he gets angry when talking about being compared to his father or his lack of a semblance and strength.
Dhrubo The red eyes are just cosmetics, they don’t really do much, and that only happens if she gets angry, which is normal for a teenage girl. And even then she doesn’t use her Semblance anymore than everyone else does, I mean just look at Blake, she uses her shadow clones in most of her fights.
@@ryancarson6962" As a side-effect of her Semblance, Yang's eyes turn red and her hair sometimes begins glowing and even becomes covered in flames. " from the wiki, it is a part of her semblancd
The silver eye thing would make much more sense if it came with a downside. Something as simple as shattering your aura would make the ability more palatable.
One thing about the Silver Eyes I was hoping for was after each use you would slowly lose your eyesight. Originally thats why I thought Maria had robot eyes/ prosthetics, when she revealed she had silver eyes. Until the next episode with her flashback.
@@StarlightStephanie I never really liked that idea because I thought it just defeated the idea of Silver Eyes, but I really like the idea that it takes a strain on your Aura/mental tho
Or slowly making your vision worse, like what would happen when looking into a light too often. I mean, there’s gotta be some retina damage when light literally comes out of your eyes.
Tbh I was pissed when Hazel was made a berserker. Several times since his introduction, he talked about how no one needed to die, and I loved the idea of a villain who was also a pacifist. That’s almost unheard of in an action fantasy. But the second he sees Ozpin, he does a complete 180.
I could see a pacifist being a berserker power type, more in the sense that he's a pacifist BECAUSE he tries not to use his abilities. Granted, like TAW mentioned, the execution was shit, but I could see it working on paper.
Not only that his whole motivation for trying to kill Oz is completely foolish. He comes off more as a whiny child looking for someone to blame then actual villain. I mean from his backstory as we heard from Oz , why is he only trying to kill just Oz? He complains about him using children to get the job done but doesn't every Hunter Academy do that? I mean why is he trying to go after Ironwood or go after Leo? How many kids have they sent on missions and they didn't come back? Spoiler alert, I mean hell do we even know if Oz was anywhere in the general vicinity when his sister was killed? I mean they literally tell you the first day and before signing up to go to any of the academies that this is dangerous. You can't get mad because your sister face the danger and lost
@@lordsinister707 Hazel : " I hate Ozpin because my sister, who was kid, died while applying for a job where people potentially die,grrrrrrrr, so i'm gonna kill kids to get to Ozpin"
Biggest problem with Salem's backstory: RWBY V3: Cinder: "She was right about you...such arrogance." RWBY V6: Ozpin: Saves a princess, dies, resurrects, has daughters and rules a kingdom with his girlfriend, and then is killed by that same girlfriend (BTW, if Salem loved her kids so much, how come she showed no remorse after they were supposedly killed in the crossfire?) ...Did I miss something? What arrogance is he guilty of? Hiding the maiden under a school, sure, but Cinder talks as if he's done a lot more and a lot worse.
I mean, that’s what you think her biggest problem is? I mean I’d go with her lack of consistency as a character but sure I guess. That arrogance that Cinder was talking about is best expressed through all of Salem’s songs. And of course the backstory. The arrogance that he has in her mind is that he’s so resistant to her. He’s resisting her wave of Grimm and evil doers knowing that in the end it won’t matter and she will win. But yet he still does it. With no plan, no real hope either. He just does it. Why? Because what she’s doing is wrong? So. That’s boring as all hell. Is it because the gods tasked him to? Well they made it clear they weren’t coming back so why does it matter as long as he just throws the relics into random ass places? It’s because he’s arrogant in her mind. And his obviously awful planning and hiding and whatnot makes it seem to her that he’s even more so arrogant that he’d do all of this in such an obvious and easily thwarted way had she just had competent underlings. (Also your complaint about her kids is something we barely even see with Oz, though I’d go as far as to say we did. When she says she finally thought thy had freedom she was more than likely referring to her kids and life with Oz. Not power. She already had that. And aside from that we only spend time with her presumably thousands of years later soooooo....?)
You know, Salem should have lied to Emerald and Mercury saying that Cinder is dead, then manipulate Emerald into becoming a Maiden and then have Emerald go crazy out of Grief and become a big threat to team RWBY....mostly Yang since she might think Yang killed Cinder.
Dr Taurus That’s actually smart and manipulative, but nope! Salem doesn’t see an obvious opportunity to motivate Emerald since she’s clearly not invested in anyway team evil is doing and instead tells her that Cinder is alive for no reason!
Two issues with that plan is that they would need to find a Maiden for Emerald to kill an absorb as Salem doesn't know the exact location of any of them that would take time at which point Cinder would have made her way back to Salem and everyone would have realized that Salem lied to manipulate all of them which brings me to the second issue which is that Salem can't afford to lie to any of them because she needs their complete trust otherwise they would question whether or not she would make good on her promise of them being the new kings and queens of her new world and perhaps abandon her cause which would be problematic for her since she can't just easily replace them
The cherry on top is that Emerald would feel betrayed that the Fall Maiden powers were not transfered to her meaning that Cinder did not care about her enough that pass on the power to her
My main criticism of the show is they made the scope of what the heroes need to do too big. They have to kill someone whom the magic genie lady said was un-killable. Then they have to make the whole world get along or the gods will kill everyone. Having a scope so big and impossible means one of 2 things will happen: 1) the show will end without wrapping up the story or 2) they will wrap up the story, but it will be in a completely nonsensical way.
True since it’s basically asking a couple of teenagers to defeat a whole unstoppable nation, somehow make complete and total world peace and make sure someone doesn’t set off a multi world ending barrage of nukes to the world all in a week while the bad guys are getting ready to set off the said nukes
They wouldn't have the balls to drop RWBY just like that, I'm not saying this as fact but I'm quite sure a large majority of RT's audience come and stay for RWBY alone. The way I see it like you said they'll come up with some way to end this and a lot of people are going to be unsatisfied.
I personally think they should just say fuckit, kick everything into the twelfth gear, and make the main goal killing the gods instead. The story is already unsalvageably fucked, but pulling a 180 that hard could actually make it interesting for once.
The gods are only a threat if all four relics are brought together; realistically speaking, either subduing Salem permanently or making just _one_ of the relics inaccessible would be enough to solve that issue.
To be fair though, Salem is doing a good job uniting the entire world against her as it is. So really the scope of what they need to do isn’t that big. Just progress through the plot until Salem’s forces all inevitably lose faith in her and switch sides, and then find a way to kill the unkillable witch after she scared enough of the rest of the world into uniting against her, and then they’ll have eliminated the only person not in that group, and problem solved.
She had 1000's of years to kill her former lover,killed her children for absolutely no discernable reason,has a goal that doesn't make sense,is evil solely because oz didn't just have a talk with her,caused an entire genocide because her 10 week boyfriend died by natural causes,and seems intent on just fucking aroundin her castle despite being able to probably solo the entirety of the rwby world. There's probably a lot more that im missing,but you get the idea.
I might be extrapolating too much, but Salem was basically given a Disney Princess childhood: _locked away in a tower._ She probably wasn't allowed to leave and would have had very little human interaction outside of her family, who she might not have had the best relationship with, and her servants. _This is not a healthy childhood._ If this is true, then she wouldn't have had the opportunity to truly grow up and mature emotionally. When Ozma showed up, he may very well have been the very first person to show her any respect and kindness as a human being. As emotionally immature as she'd be, of course she would have latched on to whoever managed to save her as Ozma did. When he died, what did Salem have left? She went from nothing, to one single light, and then back to nothing in the blink of an eye. The differences between Salem and Neo in this case come down to Neo being saved much earlier than Salem and getting to stay with and _learn from said hero_ for much longer. The other big difference... _was that Salem was offered a Miracle._ So she Wished for the one thing that mattered to her: Bring back Ozma. ...Only for him to be brought back and killed over and over in front of her eyes. I can't help but draw parallels with another anime character I know. One of my favourite characters of all time as it may be. Emotionally stunted with no one who loved her, she too was rescued by a shining hero and fell in love instantly, only for her beloved to fall shortly thereafter. Wishing so her may see her beloved again, she watched her beloved die again and again as many times as brought back. Eventually left in a situation where they were thought to never see each other again, she too fell into Despair, and she too became a Witch, only for the one she was waiting for to arrive all too late.
How about this, she could have EASILY WON if she attacked right after the Great War, or the Faunas Right Revolution? Remember those two things? When the Kingdoms were trying to kill each other? When they got a good chunk of their population killed, recources stretched, and were just tired of fighting; that would have been the perfect opportunity to win. But no, she did nothing. If she couldn't win when she had here own kingdom, when she couldn't win after the Great War, what makes her think she could win now, when humanity is at its strongest?
@@Enchie I know right? I just have an itchy feeling she just wanna die and is actually waiting to be killed? Or just being completely dramatic for the plot's convenience? Maybe she just wanna die along with humanity?
it is not destroying a world and killing innocent people that will free her from the curse i understand, that the death of her daughters is the reason for her grudge / affective / possessive towards ozma but she is really saddened by what happened to their daughters.
I thought Salem punished Hazel for trying to take the blame for the failed mission. Salem even said that wouldn't be fair and forced Emerald to admit Cinder was the reason for the failure.
Someone said that Hazel was punished because he was somewhat defiant to Salem as opposed to Tyrian who was on his knees begging for Salem's forgiveness.
RT killing Torchwick off was the worst thing they coulda have done, really. He was definitely not as powerful as other characters, but was definitely one of the best, and actually developed. His final speech was amazing, I loved it, and just X'd him off right when he reached his peak. There were more ways to still make him useful, imho. What a waste. By far my fav character, I hope they don't F up Neo like they did with Torchwick, but my hopes are growing smaller as time goes on. Sigh.
Sadly, it was a necessary loss, to quote Palpatine. Although I agree with you, we both know how it HAd to go. Just like killing off "Joke" in Disney Farce Wars.....errmm, I mean, ummmmmm, Snoke. Yeah, sounds good....go with it. Just hit REPLY already. OKAY. Done. Edit: And, As much as I love Neo, I am afraid she is already F'D! She never even got A KISS with Torchwick. Talk about sinking the "ship", just to kill the "captain". Is the word "tragedy" too much".....if so, what ONE word, is NOT.
I really liked how you compared each member of team RWBY to team WTCH. In fact, now I'm sorta devastated that the writers haven't already connected those rather visible dots, you know?
@@VaporeyeZ Hopefully we see DO major improvement in Volume 7, in every aspect of the show. I at least believe that CRWBY is genuinely trying to make the show better now.
I actually like “the Hound” and the Ideas it puts forwards when it comes to how Salem uses people and the Grimm. Hell Raxacory’s Videos, “Hunting the Nightmare”, “The Culling”, and “The Breaknof Dawn” we’re all great showcases of how Threatening Grimm can be when used properly! And not to mention when given designs that raise the threat level beyond the norm. Basically, it puts the Hunters in unfamiliar territory. I mean, instead of numbers, we need more Grimm like the Hound, the Apathy, and the Nuckelavee! Grimm that can not only put up a fight but put all the characters at a disadvantage since not many fought these kind of Grimm before.
Eh, I have no problem with Salem only being revealed as the big bad at the end of Volume 3. Volumes 1 and 2 have some minor threat level but are mostly about the kids finding their feet and getting to know each other. We don't need a big bad looming over them at this stage. . IMO it was a deliberate choice to have a comparatively petty criminal (Roman) and his white fang goons as the antagonist of the first couple of volumes, and quite a good one. That let them ratchet up the stakes hard in Season 3, which was really effective - even if they then failed to follow through on it.
I heard that Monty created Salem and the maidens on the fly after season 2. Cinder was the big bad with Roman as her right hand until the end of the 2nd season. IMO it is the reason that they show her at the very end because there are no hints what so ever that Cinder may be working with someone else throughout vol 2. I feel that it did work but it came at the cost of retconing Ozpin's character and how he handled events that occurred in the first 2 vols.
@@marksmanof117b That not true at all, Salem was the first character Monty created along with team rwby. Miles and Kerry spoke about this, they said Monty never got to see Salems character onscreen and that was one of the things he looked forward to the more.
On the note of Hazel and Yang’s potential rivalry, maybe they could’ve adapted Hazel’s shitty backstory about losing his sister into something more meaty and interesting while showing Yang taking a more active role in caring for and looking after Ruby, something that Hazel could actually respect and admire Yang for to add some more intrigue to their potential relationship.
Brandon Ontama that’s actually not true. Salem wants all of humanity to burn and most importantly Salem wants to die. She is immortal and the only way for her to get her wish is for the gods to return and wipe out humanity and herself along with it
@@cashcow4450 salem only wanted to die so she could be with ozma. now that she hates him, she wants to replace the gods and rule over humanity because she thinks she would be a more "fair" ruler.
I feel like this show's writing has a habit of acting like parts of the story don't exist until the story reveals them to the audience. So, Salem only has this sudden shift in how she presents herself when the show reveals her backstory because her backstory didn't exist for her until it was revealed.
@@SpikeLawliet That is terrible for a story based show like this. Imagine if they try to make sense of all of South Park or Family Guy. It doesn't work.
What I got out of this video: What is consistency? Never realised how much she changes over the course of the series. You probably spend more time thinking about the villains more than the heroes do. XD
I feel like Salem’s rage filled window shattering should have happened right then and there when she cut her losses with Leo: he reveals that Ozpin is back and Salem just offs him right then and there for his incompetence. Go scream and shatter the windows offscreen without us having be told and shown it. THAT would have been much more marking on Salem’s character, and it should have been placed *before* the flashback. But that’s just my personal opinion.
*taking notes for my own stories* I really like your constructive criticism, thank you. I stopped watching RWBY but it still is nice to appreciate the show vicariously like this.
Also, personally-- Tyrian and Hazel's punishments are about the same. Hazel was physically reprimanded. But Salem hurt Tyrian just as bad. Tyrian hasn't been the most discreet person on how much he worships Salem. So, I'm pretty sure Salem knew that and intentionally said she was disappointed to hurt him the most.
Muzan Kibutsuji: wants to immune from the sunlight and destroy the Demon Slayer Corp in order to perfection being DIO Brando: wants to takeover a humanity because he was born to being arrogant and evil tyrant, oh yeah, Frieza is same but he’s galactic tyrant and destroys over a planets. Kira Yoshikage: wants to overcome the worst fate in consequences and hidden his identity as being serial killer. Salem: Mmmm... okay, it didn’t makes any senses but hopefully the plot will changed like “plot twist”
3:45 I think you missed the point on Salem's punishment of Hazel. She wasn't punishing him for failure, she was punishing him for lying. He tried to take responsibility for the defeat, and that didn't serve her purpose. She needs to use Cinder as the root cause of the failure, because it reinforces her, "only by MY plan do you get to your destination!" narrative. Hazel by owning up to the failure is schmutzing up her teachable moment. :)
Actually, JC still explained the issue. The fact that she Brutally punished Hazel for _lying,_ compared to being calm at Tydrian's much worse failure which further sets her back, it feels stupidly jarring. Doesn't help that we can see how little RT actually cares.
@@Victor-056 Those situations are totally different and require different actions on her part; In Tyrian's case there is no behavior to adjust, he is already groveling. Just saying she is disappointed does everything she needs to be done. But, in Hazel's case, he is actively opposing her. She needs him to change his position. Calm disappointment won't do that. She has to reinforce her plan, because at some point if they are paying attention they are going to realize this is all going to end badly for them. Salem is not going to make their wishes come true... Except maybe Hazel, she definitely intends to kill Ozpin forever! ;)
@@corsayr9629 So you're saying she is still a 'Mother to her Minions' for having a Tantrum in the middle of her own castle, is that it? Wow... You must have had a terrible mother.
@@Victor-056 That isn't what I am saying at all. What I am saying is everything she does is calculated to provide the best outcome for her. Calm disappointment worked in the one instance, but not in the second example. Her "motherly" persona is all an act to get what she wants, and she will change that act when it calls for it.
@@Luke-lq9rn I do. _She_ Never smashed things or Broke Windows. Sure, she hit me, but she at least tries to Minimise Damage. Of course, I still question a _lot_ of her actions. Mostly because she seems to have a Habit of blaming everything, and only blaming herself as a very last resort. Still, considering how you are acting like a brain chopped moron, you got dropped at least six times on your head as an infant.
Off topic here. But just imagine being the queen of the Grimm, true evil incarnate, and all of the sudden you hear gunshot and followed by agonizing screaming in the distance, you look out of the window and see a mass of dead Grimm bodies, and in the center A green guy with a wierd looking gun...
I'm not the only one that was disappointed by salem's connection with ozpin? Seriously, here I was thinking that he killed her family or something but instead she's a cliche psychopathic ex-wife with magical powers and immortality.
What if the big reveal that made everyone distrust Ozpin was that this whole time, his main goal was actually to SAVE Salem? That his noble mission to redeem humanity was sidelined by his honest desire to cure his long-lost love of her debilitating corruption? Maybe make that goal why he takes such a keen interest in Silver-Eyed warriors: blasting the Grimm out of her is the only way he can think of to get her back to normal.
Something that removes the impact of Salem for me was that they threw her way too fast with no form of build up to her reveal. And when they reveal that she’s evil because she jumped into a pool of evil juice and then Ozpin tried to take the kids
I personally like to imagine that Salem’s goal is to unite all the relics, summon the gods, and try and kill them in an act of revenge. Upon summoning the gods, they would see that humanity is still divided, causing them to destroy all life on Remnant, thus getting rid of Ozpin and the gods, the things she hates the most.
Arno Wisp Yeah, good point. It would either be to kill the gods, which would take humanity with them, or as a mass suicide, killing her and the rest of humanity, including Oz. Honestly though, the latter seems more unlikely. The gods would probably not kill her but all of humanity and leave her in eternal isolation on Remnant.
I feel like this world is doomed to die if the gods will only spare them if the whole entire world comes together. That’s not possible even in a fictional world. It just wouldn’t work, unless the writers want to go all out in unrealistic human nature.
The Grimm are one of the reasons that got me into the show i loved the concept of them still do recent grimm have been amazing from the Nuckleeve to the Apathy. I would love to see a humanoid grimm who can utilise different grimm traits from tails to wings to claws, or even changing into the actual grimm. With no emotions just this mindless human weapon who would show up alot to cause issues and utilise its abilities to its advantage.
I don't understand how Ozpin saying we don't want to cause a panic is manipulative. It's true. Panic leads to Grimm which leads to more panic and then more Grimm. It's a fucked up cycle that can easily end with thousands dead. So--
Its not manipulative while Ozpin has done some questionable things his goal, and assigned task, was to unite humanity because while Salem cannot be killed, as far we currently know, even she would be limited in the amount of damage she could cause if the kingdoms stood together which is why she work to divide them.
Wow, that is *such* a good observation about the heroes and villains having nothing to talk to each other about! I love your idea for a Tyrian/Blake dynamic. . The Yang/Hazel one is kind of weak, though. We know that Hazel is angry because of the death of his sister. There's a couple of reasons this could rub Yang up the wrong way. One is that it's she sees it as her choice to put her life on the line to protect Remnant. Depending on how deep you want to go, she could be privately concerned about Ozpin using them as human weapons herself and Hazel hits a nerve. Another reason she could be angry at Hazel is that she and Ruby have both lost people and their response was to fight for the legacy of their lost ones, not to try to tear down everything that mattered to them. . The more I think about this, the more I think you've 100% hit the nail on the head...
Someone else made a post about an interesting dynamic between Jaune & Cinder too. www.fanfiction.net/topic/189701/158405400/3/RWBY-non-Spoiler-Discussion#177153615
"The kids can handle a giant Nevermore. I don't see how a group of angsty teenagers can pose a threat." But...you said it yourself. The Grimm are mindless monsters. They're easy to read, easy to predict, and with enough skill, easy to kill. They don't strategize, they don't think, they don't have any supernatural abilities besides super strength. Humans are different. They're smart, they're creative, they have powers and weapons that they can utilize and strategize with. They're not mindless beasts with basic methods of attacking, they're not idiots with a single objective in mind. It should also be noted that the schools specifically train their students to fight Grimm, not students. They're not as experienced in fighting people, especially when said people are experienced assassins.
@@MrRemicas when the shipping happens, it happens more naturally, like with Sun and Blake. Even then Monty said it before that he wants rwby to be more like sisters and not have any romance.
Salem is basically yaldabaoth. It means false god. My guess is she herself wants to summon the gods to attempt to kill them to become a true god. Im currious it it will essentially become xenoblade Chronicles where after defeating egil who named his face'd mechon suit yaldabaoth and became the soul of the mechonis in order to destroy the bionis an kill zanza until shulk made him have a change of heart to just go after zanza. Then zanza; the god of the bionis appears and says i will destroy the world and remake it now that i have meynith's; the god of mechonis monado after killing her so easily and my own. That sort of thing. Then shulk and his friends kill zanza after shulk essentially becomes a god and creates a world with no gods. I'm curious how many more parallels can I make Xenoblade Chronicles with rwby. Also dust = ether. Here are salem's possible motives 1. Her own death 2. Kill the gods 3. Keep magic to Ozpin and herself.
I feel like the bad writing has become so entrenched at this point that they can't fix the narrative without ignoring a lot of established content. Not that they don't do that already, intentionally or not. I don't like Salem's backstory since the gods add a lot of awkwardness to the setting. Like, was Salem seriously the first person who couldn't get over the death of a loved one? Why did the gods make humanity mortal if there's an afterlife and the gods live among humanity anyway? If the Dark Brother wants to be worshiped by humanity why does he live in the middle of a bunch of Grimm that would kill anyone who tried? I could go on but you get the idea. I really like the idea of Yang and Hazel being counterparts since being a sibling is a cornerstone of both of their characters. And since Yang is already really iffy about Ozpin there could be this thread of 'what would she do if Ozpin got Ruby killed fighting his hopeless war against Salem?'. Also, I like to think the Hazel's issue with Ozpin is less about him being responsible for Gretel's death specifically and more about Ozpin being responsible for designing the Huntsman Academy system that sends wave after wave of children to their deaths fighting the Grimm when that could all be avoided if humanity united under Salem's leadership.
Remember when the volume 2 openning hinted at confrontation between RWBY and Cinder's faction? Was that ever going to be a thing? It seemed like they were setting up Emerald to be a "close friend" to team RWBY but it never really developed at all aside from a few small interactions. Torchwick was already set up with a dynamic with Blake having opposing views of the white fang (Torchwick seeing them as just a tool to get power rather than any sort of cause), and Yang's confrontation with mercury could've been pushed with a little more depth. I know the first three volumes were a set-up period but it feels like the development was cut short to introduce new villains. It also feels like they throw every villain at Ruby just because she's the central character. Not a bad choice, but it's coming at the detriment of the other tons of characters' stories.
For a RWBY and WTCH comparaison, I have some ideas for rivalries though some stuff is different. Ruby and Hazel: Since volume 1 we know Ruby wants to be a Huntress and she admires her mother for it. She wanted to apply to Beacon once she got out of high school and likes Ozpin for letting her accomplish that dream. Hazel hates the concept of Huntsman BECAUSE of his sister's death, and hates Ozpin for it. Both characters have diverging opinions on Huntsman, Beacon and Ozpin. And yet, they are both motivated by their relative's death. This could create conflict within Ruby (by revealing what happened to Summer) to see if Hazel is right in his thinking or not. Hazel is a pacifist, and Ruby might make him think of his little sister, so he doesn't want to kill her and tries to make her understand his ways. Both want to think of the best and want to protect others. They are also different enough to be considered rivals. Red vs Green, Speed vs Strength, Close Combat Failure vs Close Combat Expert, Tiny vs Big, Pale skin vs Dark skin, Girl vs Boy, Young vs Old, Petite vs Chunky, a lot of stuff in their design makes them opposite to each other. Weiss and Watts: Remember back in volume 1 when Weiss was always fighting Ruby about being the leader of team RWBY and asked Professor Port about being the leader of her own team? This directly opposes Watts as he's always seen as the one listening to Salem's orders and is in the role of the subordinate. Their rivalry could show the audience how characters from Atlas view Atlas itself. Weiss wants to break free from her father's grasp because her family's the representation of what she hates about Atlas; how everyone is treated as an object (especially the Faunus who are treated like trash, like she did before she changed), how SHE is treated as an object by her father and how in the ceremony in volume 4 everyone was shallow and superficial. Watts however doesn't care about how Atlas might be f'd up as he only uses his intelligence for his own gain. Even though he's still a subordinate to someone else, it doesn't matter to him because he profits of Salem in a way (profits of her protection). Watts is confident enough to 'break free' and do evil, while Weiss didn't break free yet to do good. They both could be considered tacticians in their respective teams. Their design are also different from one another. Combat vs Non-Combat, Pale hair vs Dark hair, Petite vs Tall, Pale Clothes vs Dark Clothes, etc. Blake and Cinder: Cinder has a fixation on power due to something that happened in her life that made her powerless. She also wants to be feared. The White Fang is JUST that. Fixated on throwing down the power due to feeling powerless because of abuse and racism and people began fearing the White Fang due to terrorist attacks. Blake could be fighting Cinder because she reminds her of everything she hates about the White Fang as well as Cinder using Adam and the White Fang to destroy Beacon. The White Fang that her father created for peace and equality. Using a power (the White Fang) for her own gain. Making thousands of people powerless and weak like she felt when hiding. Cinder also might have something against Ozpin. Blake doesn't have anything against Ozpin, so she still joins the fight. Both look EXTREMELY alike. Both characters can fuse Dust with their semblances to create combos. Bright Fire vs Dark Shadows. One is forced in exile by fate vs the One that Runs Away. In volume 6, Cinder's separated from her team while Blake is reunited with her team. Yang and Tyrian: Ever since her backstory in volume 2, it's been clear there would be something with Yang and Raven. Yang has huge abandonment issues due to Raven leaving her behind. Tyrian worships Salem and Salem treats Tyrian like a child. Both are trying to find some sort of resolution with a mother figure but doesn't work because the mother figure is evil/doesn't care. Tyrian tries to lure Yang into joining the villains saying Salem will take care of everyone if she rules the world and Yang doesn't believe it, instead saying to Tyrian she'll leave him behind, betray him when he won't be useful anymore. They are both extremely cocky when it comes to fighting/enjoy fighting. They both have something unique when it comes to the others, for example Tyrian is melodramatic, theatrical while Yang uses puns. Tyrian is attached to his tail while Yang is attached to her hair. Pale hair vs Dark hair, Purple eyes, Thick vs Thin, Girl vs Boy both have melee weapons that are also guns, etc.
Maybe me still being on this is a bit over the top but.... In Ozpin's story of their relationship, they cleared had children eventually. Then one argument led to a giant battle that ended in their children's deaths and literally no f's were given. He didn't try to lead them out or anything, Salem didn't acknowledge them, and they FOUGHT in the same room. Then Ozpin was the only one who came out of the rubble and didn't once glance back for his children. Wtf. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧ My rant.
Prior Cervantes I’ve been scrolling though the comments trying to see if someone would point this out. THEY HAS CHILDREN yet it’s treated as nothing. It had no weight. You could remove the kids and the story would be the same.
@@User22465 Honestly, if anything I can only think of them being used in making their story a little more tragic by showing that "they loved each other so much they had children" buuuuuut it left me with one more question and confusion.
Honestly it's kinda annoying that fanfiction can give better motivation don't get me wrong I love fanfiction but it's annoying that fans working with what's known can create better stories
3:07 And while we're on the subject, its so great that the main villain of the series thought it would be a good idea to kill off her most valuable informant on huntsman and the heroes. Much less allowed him to be revealed as a bad guy in the first place. 1000 IQ Villain right there
@@HSG_DND yes but he shouldn't have been fighting the heroes in the first place. Just have him pretend to be captured by salem and come out scott free when the dust settles. That way you can still have your informant without outing him to the heroes for no reason.
It doesn't matter, Qrow and Oz were already putting it together before Cinder threw Leo under the bus, which i still think is dumb and not very Cinder-like but w/e... Leo woulda been arrested for treachery and conspiracy along the whitefang.
Another missed opportunity: Weiss and Mercury. Both had abusive fathers, both dealt with it in different ways that lead to very different paths. Mercury has a very skewed sense of justice, and Weiss has a firm sense of it. Also Jaune and Hazel. They could have had Hazel trying to convince Jaune that Ozpin caused the death of Pyrrha.
The main problem with Salem is that her plans felt like it was planned a month before volume 2. In comparison, Kamen Rider Evolt’s plan, though convoluted, made sense. From possessing Soichi, to planting the parasite to Banjou Ryuga, to planning every single conflict in the series so far to gain his lost power. Plus, he destroyed the main protagonist when he retrieved most of his power, but he planned to possess both Banjou and MC Sento Kiryuu to gain more power. Evolt became the most cunning villain in the Kamen Rider series, even though his plan is too fucking big, but he planned for two decades so I give it a pass. Plus he is intimidating with his stupidly over-the-top design, with a killer insert song. Also Every main Kamen Rider will defeat most characters in RWBY. The “fights” in DB, DBX, and OMM are bullshit where the RWBY Characters have a bullshit win.
Ruby did not kill the leviathan, she stopped it for abaut 5 seconds before it almost broke free. If Cordovin didnt show up and actually killed it would have been fine and probably still destroyed the whole city.
I thought of this too and because of that i kinda' get pissed of when ppl' say ruby is overpowerd. i mean fricking oscar beat her to some degree. but the whole silver eyes thing in V5 and V6 kinda' made me happy caus i thought that they finally listen to some degree. (also thats why i have high hopes for V7) but then also they did it to much in V5 and V6. I loved the the siver eyes in the V3 finally caus ruby didn't know what she just did. (or days later idk when she woke up) and i liked her having a abbility she can't control but is almost as powerful as a deathstar (for grimm at least) was awsome. still just my opinion tho. (i can't englisch btw :PPP)
What I know that Salem is suicidal, hasn't learn the importance between life and death, fallen into grief after losing her loved ones, and she wants to get rid of her immortality curse. She divides humanity just so she can prepare the arrival of the brother Gods, and when she has all the four relics to summon them back, they will judge humanity, either their united, they will live with them and give them back their magic, and if they're not united, they will destroy the entire planet. Does this even count as villainy: Giving the entire planet a huge suicidal note? And also that part about the brother Gods judging humanity, wouldn't they get mad at Salem after she summons them back?
Another interesting plot point for both Hazel and Yang is that they are the big brother/sister. Hazel backstory is really lame in theory, but if they put some contrast between him and Yang, it could make a really sick dinamic, like Yang questioning Hazel actions and motivations and them Hazel asks her: 'What would you do in my posisition then? What would you do if your sister face the same destiny as mine's?' Just beautiful
I thought Salem's motivation was that they didn't need the gods in the first place. Take away the relics, the gods won't be alerted, remnant remains peaceful under her, and her subirdinant maidens, rule.
I feel like I need to bring up the joke here "Salem's story feels like a fairytale" Almost as if... for Ozma/Salem who lived in the time before the collapse/rebirth/Remnant... well their lives were fairytales literally Salem's story is referenced in V3 by Pyrrha "The girl in the tower" The Story of the seasons / Four Maidens could be about their Daughters being born into the world (in order, winter>spring>summer>fall) The Tale of the Two Brothers is literally the two gods in their old world The silver eyed warriors... well ye... that was fact too (summer / Maria / Ruby) The only one mentioned but not revealed is that of The Shallow Sea
Another interesting dynamic that could have developed between Tyrian and Blake is that Tyrian doesn’t care about Faunist rights and that they should embrace how humans view them as animals, give into the primal nature and become the monsters the humans fear so much become even more feared than the grim and make them cower in the dark by following Salem they can achieve this!
I think the reason why Salem stopped being so motherly, is because she's lost Too many Times. Think about it, she was only successful Once, at the fall of beacon. After that the villains couldn't win against Team JNPR, (ORNJ, for Oscar) and QRWBY, and cinder "died" with the fall maiden powers. And Salem grew more and more impatient and lost her motherly act. Other than I do agree with this video!
I personally didn't like Salem's backstory because it was supposed to show us why Ozping is a moraly gray character and it only showed that Salem is a spoiled brat that feels crossed when people don't do what she wants. The grimm is one of the most interesting aspects of the show, I even pitched to a few friends the idea of making this super grimm that can't be stopped and that would crossover through our animations, and while some liked it, morale is a bit low in the fandom right now. However, there is one aspect of the grimm that I hate, which is the idea that they have to be attracted to in some way. Not only the attraction to negative emotions is a flimsy motive, they added the relic's presence which did nothing when it was most relevant and most of the time, it's the viewer who has to imagine why the grimm showed up. It would be much simpler if they were left as semi natural occurrences that acted as mobs and hunted together when the oportunity arised. Good call on the villain connection, I hope it's not too late for that.
Furthermore to add on to Salem's story, the whole thing completely retcons everything that we've been told for the past two or three volumes. I mean in the whole story we never see when Oz meets the maidens. We never see the king of vale. I mean we never even see Salem OR Oz interacting with any of the other four leaders of the Kingdoms before the Great War.
Yeah, i see what they were trying to do but it wasn't conveyed well... Salem's grudge shoulda been built up more before that, and im sure Oz has done plenty of questionable decisions (here's hoping Summer's death being one of those) but if so they shoulda shown more of it then. It makes sense they don't wanna show all of it right away, but that was the time to show that in particular since the question was "what is Ozpin hiding"
lordsinister707 It didn't really retcon it, just left out tons of important stuff that could've made for a noticeably more improved plot. They could've taken the story in another direction entirely instead of coming up with a Rapunzel gone rogue parallel.
@@lordsinister707 That's not a retcon at all. Just cause they don't show it dosent mean it didn't happen, be presumably did that stuff in the dozens of lives he had.
@@brianbrush5107 that's the problem. He PRESUMABLY did that stuff. We have to fill in the blanks of when aspects of the lore that happen or didnt happen. If this was supposed to be an answer arc of sorts, everything should be addressed and there should be no questions about previously established lore. Yet, this story doesnt even mentioned what exactly started the Great War, whether or not Oz was the king or if he met the King, or when or how the maidens actually came to be. It basically tells us Salem is a spoiled brat and she can get pregnant and has the somehow superhuman ability to drag people who should be able to see through her into giving into her tantrum
I really love how you shared your thoughts on this video I loved RWBY so much and have since rewatched the entire series I only hate I didn’t get a chance to see Cinder get her comeuppance for all the wrong she’s done and what happened once they got to Atlas and how Yang hid the fact that her mom Raven was the real spring maiden they blocked all that out so that was sort of disappointing but thanks for this upload it’s rewarding especially after my Game of Thrones big heart ache disappointment! Please do more 🙏❤️
3:56 and maybe this might be a callback to the hinted mental instability from her past, but 1. The flashback barely focused on that shit at all and 2. She didnt even try to keep her composer (granted her group suffered a big loss, but you'd think it would be better to keep them in line in her usual way rather than risking insubordination)
With all due respect I have to disagree with Yang and Hazel having a connection in their mistrust of Ozpin. From what I can tell, Yang is pissed at Oz because he gave her mother the ability to turn into a bird with her mother's consent and only asked her mother to keep him informed on the goings-on around her. How was that something that you could miss trust him for? Raven knew exactly what she was getting into but she just didn't like it because well she only cares about herself and her tribe. Next if she missed trust Oz over the fact that Salem can't be killed, then why is she or anybody in the group a hunter / Huntress? I mean you're going to be fighting the Grimm for the rest of your life and they are pretty much Immortal because as soon as you kill one more will come. It will be an endless cycle yet you signed on the dotted line with enthusiasm. To be completely honest, the person who would have the better connection would be Jaune. I mean the girl the he finally figured out loved him died in service of Oz after he manipulated her. Now I could go into a whole big spiel about how the battle between she and Cynder was completely unnecessary because Oz told her just to run but that's a different story. However , it gives you the same scenario because Hazel sister died in a training accident where we don't even know if ours was in the general vicinity. While Pyhrra died on a suicide mission that Oz told her not to take. The difference between the two of them is how they chose to proceed.
lordsinister707 actually yang was angry at ozpin at that time because raven made it out to be that ozpin forced raven and qrow to turn into bird without their concent. Which wasn’t true they choose that.Raven framed it that way to manipulate yang.
Dude. I would love for harder Grimm Back in the day I had all of these ideas about how Grimm could be a force of nature. A ferocious front hiding a much more clever patience... never happened
Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention. I've been slowly poking at and building my own rewrite of the series, trying to pull whatever aspects I can to make a better story. I haven't been paying too much attention to the villains, so this was really helpful. I was originally going to boot Tyrian but you made me have second thoughts on that. I just...need to figure out a way to make him an Actual Character instead of the cackling cardboard cutout he is.
@@thejudgmentalcritter6584 Mostly the stuff about how Salem's characterization has shifted over time and how her potential of being a more memorable antagonist has been sort of wasted by her actions in later Volumes.
@@fuckingking6796 more so the fact that her being able to come back is only part of the problem: you also have to worry about his raw crushing power and even if you deal with that you have to be able to kill him.
15:42 Not to mention how they turned Adam into a Creepy Stalker of an Ex-BoiFriend, when his relationship as mentioned in Season 2 and the Black Trailer, felt more like how the Boss and Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3 was like, Mentor and Student. I mean, You don't see Naked Snake thinking of the Boss in a Sexual manner, and that was what I got from Season 2. Hell, even Season Three's ending with Adam threatening Blake, still felt like a Mentor being Mad at his greatest apprentice betraying him.
Actually, there are two more villains: God of Light and God of Darkness. Their actions: 1) not gonna bring back Ozma because "balance" but instead will make Salem suffer even more (after she lost the only thing that mattered to her - Ozma who was her "freedom", went to the extreme trying to get him back) by making her immortal (what a wise and balanced decision that was) and telling her that she's selfish and needs to "learn the importance of life and death" to be able to die while being immortal themselves and obviously having zero understanding of human emotional states (not seeing that Salem was so very sorrow, in deep despair and on the edge (distress, sadness, confusion, anger, crying outbursts) at which point her words and actions were at the primal level of do/say whatever it takes); 2) their surprise when she didn't learn the lesson brought as punishment through suffering instead resulting in her revenge (brings army to fountain) proves even more their incapability of understanding the nature of human behavior; 3) destroying all humans because of a few (ultimately it was just Salem) that turned against them? What? Balance, yes? 4) God of Light brings back Ozma anyway, but only after ruining Salem by toying with her (girl's sanity went "bye-bye"); ruining the world (all humans exterminated except Salem); Salem's only goal becoming to kill herself which results in her jumping into the fountain of death turning her into a monster. And if you absolutely disagree with me till this point then how do you look at the fact that Ozma is now to return and restore the balance which the gods destroyed themselves because they wouldn't bring him back to life in the first place - perfect reasoning, right?
That’s not being villains, they’re just stupidly written. Salem asked one god to bring Ozma back, that god said no. She asked the other god to bring him back, that god said yes. Why they got upset nobody knows. So the cursed Salem by contradicting whatever rules they just made up. These gods make absolutely zero sense and are doing whatever the narrative wants them to do. And I doubt the gods destroying their own creation can be seen as evil. I mean, from a humans perspective is, but they bit the hand that fed them so...
@@BabyGirlTiny I would completely understand if God of Light took Salem between realms the instant she asked about bringing Ozma back and show her, for example, a live child to whom Ozma's soul/life went and asked her should he end the child's life to fulfill her request, and if she had said "yes", then proceeded to tell her "no" as that would disrupt the balance. If she went to God of Darkness anyway, then ok, she's selfish and hopeless, but I made that up... Also, what was the point of their "experiment" if they didn't even care or truly understand their creations, and why bring back Ozma if the experiment was over and return later to judge the result when they don't really give a damn. It's almost like a few ants tried to bite so they had some fun burning them and may return to "play" some more.
Unicorn of War, a RU-vidr who often does videos on series and especially RWBY had an interesting theory/headcanon in his Q&A video where he was asked what his favourite RWBY headcanon and he had theorised that what drives Salem as a character and villain is the fear of death and she wants to create a world where death isn’t possible because she is deathly terrified of losing Ozpin and their daughters, and having to watch Oz suffer time and time again through reincarnation.
I really like Salem as a villain, though I feel like she could have been built up in a better way before she was introduced. It would have been awesome if Salem and Ozpin had continued narrating and adding to the story throughout the first three volumes instead of just at the beginning and end. This way, we would have learned a bit more about Salem, Ozpin, and the world of Remnant. Before her face is shown, we could have gradually learned more about Salem's opinions and motives without realizing the villain is narrating. Salem's narration could have gradually gotten darker with the story leading to her speech and face reveal at the end of Volume 3. It would have been great to fill Salem's narration with some of her ideas that both characters in the show and viewers might agree with, then finally reveal that the person who has made several valid points throughout the story is the true mastermind behind the fall of beacon: A woman with a grudge against Ozpin... and a face like a Grimm.
Why would Salem be pissed after learning Ozpin is back? You would think after thousands of years fighting, she would be immune to it, and just shrug it off.
3:40 I'm going to disagree... she is not angry at Hazel because he failed. She's angry at Hazel because he tried to cover up for Cinder. This seems to stem from her belief in "absolute fairness". As she says to him "That wouldn't be *fair* now would it?!" She also makes it clear to the God of Light as the reason she won't accept his answer to why she can't have Ozma back. I sort of expected to see this side of Salem at some point, so I'm not surprised that we've seen it. 6:10... Watts was assisting Cinder in an indirect fashion, creating the Black Queen Virus. Hazel and Tyrian were likely killing Huntsman throughout Mistral as the Amity Arena bio for Tyrian already makes his assassinations out to be rumor, implying it has been going on for a bit of time. Hazel is mentioned by Cinder as also killing Huntsman around Mistral anyhow. 6:20 *Cough*, that's probably actually the plan. It will allow Emerald and Mercury to split off from Salem's group; inform the headmaster about the aid that Ironwood requires and... fall straight into Salem's trap. As Vacuo will be her actual next target, especially when it is weakened with an army sent "to support Ironwood"; my bet is that Salem is waiting for Mercury and Emerald to spread the false information that Tyrian gave them. 13:50 It is likely that Watts knows the team, or at least Ruby since he makes it clear that "Miss Rose was in attendance" when asked by Cinder. My bet is that Salem's lieutenants have a good idea on who the main party is. Hazel not knowing Oscar makes perfect sense as... no one knew who the new vessel for Oz was. Hmm, it is interesting you set up Hazel/Yang. Most people would choose Yang/Mercury. Yang and Hazel are much more similar than many realize. Hazel is a literal dark mirror of Yang. Remember; Gretchen died in a "training mission". That same sort of mission that brought Ruby to Mountain Glenn. Let's imagine that Ruby died in the Breach. Would Yang blame Torchwick and the White Fang? Would she blame the Grimm? Or would she blame Oz? My bet is she would first blame Torchwick, then shift the blame to Oz for allowing Team RWBY to go on such a mission. After all "She was only a child! She wasn't ready!" It is very easy to see how Yang could have become like Hazel. It is also thought that Mercury and Emerald will oppose Yang and Weiss, respectively. Mercury's father was an abusive monster, but he ultimately tried to teach Mercury the same thing that Tai taught Yang. Reliance on your Semblance can make you weak. Also Yang focuses on punches where as Mercury focuses on kicks. The rivalry is pretty much written. Emerald and Weiss is more nebulous. Despite the show hinting twice that the two will face off. The two have never shared a line of dialogue. However something can be made to work with those two. Emerald came from nothing and is wholly devoted to her mother figure. Weiss came from everything but has strived escape the shadow of her overbearing father. Granted that one seems more difficult to build up a natural rivalry. Though who know? I still think Emerald and Mercury won't be villains for too much longer. All in all, a fine video. While I don't agree with all of your critiques. You draw a fine map which can be used moving forward.
How is warning people about grim make Ozpin manipulative? Remember the grimm destroyed Rens villiage all because one girl was being bullied and cried. A giant sea dragon attacked the ship all because Blake was paranoid. So logically he has to keep people calm.
Because he uses it innapropriately (and also how much of negative emotion attracts grim fluctuates like a mofo) in relation to mass panic, yeah, I'd want to keep that down. But he only brings it up in relation to people he's having a 1 on 1 with to avoid explaining himself, even if it's stupid or there's literally no positive to doing that (like not saying relics attract grim to avoid negative emotions attracting them, even though that's pointless because the relic is going to do that regardless and it would be easier to have informed huntresses at the ready then what we saw happen on the train)
Nice to see a new perspective on these characters, especially the part about relating the villains to our heroes. Also the patron link in the description is wrong.
Someone who became immortal after pissing off a God for deciding who should come back to life and insisting on that idea despite being told not to. Someone who is afflicted by the contradiction of immortality and hatred for life after bathing in the pools of the other God. Someone who has tried multiple times to commit suicide after becoming immortal. After multiple attempts at suicide, she learns that the collection of items will result in judgment from the two Gods, which will result in the world's destruction should they deem the world unfit of their approval... and after being told that she could not die as long as the world spins. Someone who has had a hand in the formation of demonic creatures. Zeref from Fairy Tail?
I believe that Salems really plan is to bring the two gods back so she can kill them most likely blaming them for everything bad that ever happened to her and wanting revenge.
To say that RWBY needs to justify more of its action scenes being against grimm is really depressing. I think the fights against real people were some of the most engaging parts of S1-3, especially the food fight where everyone basically gets to use all their powers (even though all the tension is outside the plot). Getting rid of that sort of ambition, where multiple human characters with many abilities have to interact in a visually interesting and strategically cohesive way, would be more of a detriment to the core appeal of RWBY than an advantage. They need to spend more time choreographing fight scenes between major characters because it's more worthwhile than justifying fight scenes with grimm that usually don't mean anything to the story, and generally boil down to a basic beat 'em up where there's no interaction between opposing forces. Also two vastly different power sets and weapons and people fighting each other can look absolutely fantastic in this series.
I think Cinder is the only girl Salem recruited so that the she doesn't have to worry about four of them backstabbing each other to try to take all the Maiden powers for themselves.
