User blog:Sorairo/Comparisons and World Building….and Questions

In a society very much like the one on Remnant, what is it that should be different about our society versus theirs? There are four large influences that should be coming up. One of them may not actually be such a huge change from our society to theirs but I’m going to include it anyways. The four influences are: Dust, Aura/Semblance, Grimm, and Faunus. None of these are present in our society though Dust and Faunus are present in some way in our society.

Dust is the main source of energy in RWBY. The material has been compared to materia from Final Fantasy, so I can only assume that it is naturally created from the world’s energies somehow. Materia represented a world’s life force in FF, I think, so perhaps Dust in RWBY is the same? If so, then maybe mining it would be cause for concern. But since the SDC is relatively new in terms of being a large company as it was started about three generations ago, maybe natural scarcity is not as big of a concern.

It is very similar to fossil fuels in our world in that it is extracted from the ground and then refined so that it can be sold. Then the material is used for energy, just like oil products are used in our world. The polymers that come from oil are even used in applications of plastics and clothing, and people can use Dust with clothing.

However, the main use of this substance was that it was an effective weapon against the Grimm. Without Dust, it is very probable that mankind would have succumbed to the Grimm threat and it would not have been able to establish the centers of civilization Vacuo, Vale, Mistral, and Atlas. I don’t suppose that the same could really be said about oil. It certainly wasn’t used as a weapon (by itself in any case) and while it did allow for mechanization and modernization to a certain extent, I still wouldn’t say that it has had the kind of impact that Dust has had because Dust ensured the survival of humans on Remnant.

Another aspect of this world that is closely related to Dust is going to be Aura/Semblance. Yeah...we just don’t have anything like that in our world. But it would have had to have huge impacts on the world of RWBY. For one, modern science as it is in our world would be totally screwed up in RWBY (I mean you could get that from watching the fight scenes and stuff but yeah…) Magnetism able to be exerted by human will, rose petals out of thin air, and not to mention flaming hair activated by anger…. Yeah none of that would be possible in our world. And then for Aura, just the idea of some kind of force field formed from your soul that is able to shield you from harm doesn’t exist in our world. But then what effects would these have on the way people thought in the world of RWBY? Like in ancient times? How did they explain what they’re able to do? I could imagine that these powers would lead to certain religious connections but does it stop there? This makes me question, in general, how the development of science progressed in Remnant. We know that they have words for things like polarity and magnetism but how did they discover it? And then for Aura, would people have been focused on developing armor like we did on Earth or would they not be as concerned about that because Aura is their go-to #1 protection against anything? Perhaps the discovery of Aura was quite late in terms of the long history of humans on Remnant and so there might have been a need for armor before awakening Aura and that development might have thinned out once Aura was first unlocked.

The Grimm are the most radical change from our world. Nothing like this exists except maybe in some kind of very general/abstract form. There is sickness in our world, there is famine, and there are natural disasters and all other kinds of problems that people cannot fight against properly because they don’t always have the strength to fight it. But in any case, the Grimm are very real in RWBY and they are what can be described at best as the forces of darkness. They seek to extinguish the light of civilization and will seek out those places in human civilization that are unprotected or festering in negative feelings. (Gosh, this reminds me a lot of the madness wavelength in Soul Eater, though I felt like that was a much more menacing thing)

But what is their purpose? Perhaps they have none. That would seem to fit the analogy with natural disasters pretty well. There is no purpose other than to exist and serve as a kind of counter to the radiant individuality that surges within the human race. But then the question comes up about why there even needs to be a counter? Why do we need a force for anonymity? Is there something that would be upset by the presence of too much individuality?

And then there are the Faunus. From the writers’ point of view, probably the inclusion of this species is to create some social tension that can help relate to our present world. Perhaps the Faunus are there for some greater purpose/reason. Or maybe they are the natural consequence of some twist of fate in human evolution (something that I was thinking about during season 1) but that’s all up in the air for now. All we know is that they are among the humans and they are NOT getting along with them. Humans have established themselves as the superior race as can be seen in the current society in Vale even though they were just able to come to a draw against the Faunus in the last war. The Faunus do not have as much opportunities in human society and have resorted to civil rights marches and protests not unlike what happens in our world even to this day. And then we have groups like the White Fang that have grown fed up with inaction on the humans’ part and moved to violence and force to instigate change. Whether or not this is the best decision to be made in regards to Faunus rights is something that I’m sure is being debated. I think even Blake has realized that the White Fang’s tactics have resulted in some measure of success, even if the methods were questionable.

The inclusion of the Faunus brings up some questions regarding the extent of discrimination within human society in Remnant. Does the presence of another type of people who are regarded as being below humans necessarily reduce the discrimination that would have been present between humans in society? Are other races of humans (which have finally been shown in Volume 2 a lot more than in Volume 1) mistreated or have they even gone through a period of mistreatment? Are there any kind of discriminations that would maybe have shown up in society (sexual, racial,...etc.) that have been replaced by the Faunus?

Well okay I don’t know exactly where I was going with all that but I just needed some place to write it all down and get it out of my head.