Talk:Blake Belladonna/@comment-69.41.96.247-20171102040842

Okay, I'd like to make a bit of confession that's been festering inside me since the end of Volume 3. I expect flames for my opinion, but I'll just use 'em to cook steak. *takes deep breath*

I absolutely hate how Blake's character arc has been handled.

My reasons for this is because throughout the first three volumes and even a bit of volume 4 it seems like the whole conflict with her past and trying to move on from it keeps on getting rehashed. That is, she doesn't seem to learn from her lessons or make a visible effort to move on even though she claims she wants to. That's not even getting to how she's hurt her teammates through her selfish actions.

Blake's character arc began near the end of volume one when she's outed as a faunus and runs away from the team to try and prove the White Fang's misguided, not evil and working with Torchwick. We could all see that she would be disappointed with the truth way before the volume's conclusion, but she admitted her fault in her stubbornness and Weiss also showed her remorse for speaking the way she did without knowing Blake's story. They all talked, they bonded, RWBY became a tight-knit group. A nice tie off for the season.

Come volume 2 Blake is still trying to hunt for the White Fang or working to see how she can subvert them. She's willing to involve her team at this point, which is good. However, it becomes kinda moot when she jeopardizes her health in her pursuit. Luckily Yang talks her out of it somewhat, but her attitude is acceptable. She's come to terms that White Fang are bad, but she's still unwilling to share the burden completely. In her mind, SHE has to solve the problem. I think Blake is a very arrogant person when it comes to White Fang. Why does it HAVE to be her that catches them? Why not tell a teacher or something? Subtly turn her info into the police? During that rally she went to with Sun, instead of revealing herself by shooting a fuse box take pictures and bring them to Ozpin. She has distrust and disbelief in adults and thinks that they'll ignore the problem, this is part of her character flaw I understand, but that it wasn't even brought up as a suggestion bugged me a bit.

Anyway, things progress into Volume 3 and RWBY is close under Cinder and her team screw things up. Blake distrusts Yang when she's framed... which is a hell of a way to repay all the trust Yang has given her. Bit hypocritical of a former White Fang to be so quickly condemning when Blake criticizing others for so quickly painting faunus as thieves and terrorists.

All this is fine though. Her character development was a little shaky, but I accepted it at this point. I was a bit annoyed that she kinda backslided in Vol 2 when it came to White Fang after promising to let her teammates in on it, but that was also good. Blake's problems and insecurities weren't going to be solved so quickly. She was called on it and she acknowledged her poor handling of things, admitting her tendency to run away and her wishes to fix it around the campfire. Her development and how her problems were showed was pretty solid.

HOWEVER, what made me want to put my fist through my computer screen was when I found out she ran away after the climax of volume 3. I mean, really? After all the development she had, she completely regresses to stage one and shows that the faith her teammates had for her and that the audience had for her was all for naught.

Look, what happened at the end was traumatic for Blake. I get that. It's her reasons for leaving that annoy me to know end. She wasn't "protecting" anyone by leaving. The rest of her team painted targets on their backs all by themselves due to their foiling of Cinder's plans and their involvement in messing with White Fang prior. I would be SHOCKED if Adam or some other White Fang didn't already have the rest of RWBY and co. on some kind of dead or alive hit list or something prior the Battle of Beacon. How disorganized must an organization be to not take some kind of note on people who constantly mess with them. The writing team isn't that forgetful

Basically all of Blake's character development up until that point was completely undone and that pissed me off. They didn't even really address her departure, Ruby wakes up and Yang just says "yeah, she left". Not even a scene of Blake announcing her intentions or anything.

And the WAY her departure is handled and addressed in Volume 4... she's guilty, sure, but is doesn't even address the arrogance of her decision until the end of the problem, a problem even more prevalent now after her actions. Abandoning RWBY will not solve anything and wasn't going to. Even if Sun does point out her actions at the end... there was no GRAVITY to it. He just says 'you hurt us' leaving without really expanding on how inherently wrong Blake's actions were, which makes me think she'll make another similar mistake with the SAME ISSUES down the right. You could call it rule of three... but at this point it'd be rule of five and it's just tiresome.

Hah... Blake used to be one of my favorite characters, but now every scene I watch with her just leaves me either tired or frustrated. I'm not invested in her character anymore. If she had just had a talk with someone at the end of volume three, voiced her intentions first, had someone point out the glaring fallacies and STOP the stupidity... how I wished for it. To me, it would've been better if Blake hadn't just run away, but put forth that she was going to her parents for White Fang info or something while promising she'd be back. No abandonment, just a personal mission that she couldn't postpone and needed to address after everything that happened. That would've kept her development intact while still showing she was struggling with the flaw of shouldering the responsibility of the White Fang on her own. It wouldn't have ruined her character for me.

Alright, I'm done. Don't know if anyone will agree with anything I said, but I just needed to get it out somewhere. Maybe Volume 5 will change my opinion at some point by right now I'm still rolling my eyes at everything that's happening in Menagerie. Anyway, that's all. Bye.