Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-4141313-20190119003858/@comment-14909251-20190130002830

ChishioKunrin wrote: Honestly, I don't like people's attitude that, just because Blake may or may not have lived a nicer life and merely witnessed other Faunus being heavily discriminated against, that totally means that she's just a whiny brat whose involvement in fighting for equality is diminished, like she shouldn't be involving herself in that because it's not her problem and her passion to fight is laughable.

Why do people treat her situation like this? She saw people of her race suffering and being discriminated against, and she felt empathy for them and sought to help work toward bringing those people a better life. What's wrong with that??

She even refused to go with Ghira and Kali to live in the chieftan's mansion because she still wanted to help, regardless of whatever the hell her past is.

Edit: I guess basically, I just want people to stop treating Blake like her desire to help other Faunus is irrelevant just because she might have lived in a mansion in a village free of discrimination at one point. This, while they're ignoring the fact that we were literally shown imagery of Blake as a child helping to protest, so it's not like she spent all of her time sitting around a mansion like Weiss.

The problem isn't that she is passionate about the issue, but her overall attitude about it. When you consider her behavior in Volume 1 in this context, specifically her conduct towards Weiss, she ends up looking pretty horrible in retrospect. You also have what she apparently said to and about her own family, who appear to be perfectly good folks. Ruby and Yang both have absent mothers due to either apparent death or abandonment. Weiss has her whole family, but it is a complete disaster with an abusive and controlling father, a perpetually drunk and emotionally absent mother, one sibling who is clearly twisted by the aforementioned father, and the one stable familial relationship being an older sister who basically takes on the role of both father and mother for her yet also not really being able to be around much and being more of a stern parent than loving sibling.

Her having been a victim of racism towards the Faunus was one of the only things that could make her foul attitude sympathetic. It also was the one thing that could perhaps rationalize why she stayed with the White Fang even after it began engaging in violent dangerous conduct. Right at the end of Volume 1 it was suggested the group was involved in assassinations and murders, which we know Blake personally was aware of Adam doing such things. She stayed the whole time as this was happening and when she left remained overly defensive of the group until she found they were directly colluding with human criminals. It is not a matter of whether being privileged means she can't be an activist against racism, but whether a privileged person being involved with terrorism and murder can possibly be rationalized if that person hasn't been deeply affected by it directly. She looks more like a spoiled brat who got caught up in a cause and blinded to morality for no real reason other than an inflated sense of self-righteousness.

Now we have a character who really did have a deeply tragic and horrific past stemming from discrimination and racism against Faunus, but immediately after we get a mere hint at his experiences, the guy gets chucked into a river never to be heard from again. Like I said, if that is how it is with Adam and he isn't coming back then this really is a suiting image of how they have handled this whole thing.