Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-70.164.250.74-20180322215425/@comment-33207690-20180415191647

ThanksXD

Wow I just found a post on where it basically explains the groundwork for Ruby in volume 1-3 and why she gets so little screen time in volume 4.

it was very long so I will put it bullet points and add a little insight of my own in some...

- Ruby was a child when Summer died, young enough to not understand death and grief.

-This knowledge of Ruby’s age at which she experienced this massive loss brings me to the other thing we know about Ruby: she wants to be a huntress because she wants to help people and to make the world better.

-She says one thing specifically to Ozpin and Blake that should give everyone pause: she says that the police are cool but huntsmen and huntresses are more romantic." and " “I want to be a huntress to make the world better.”

-This tells us something HUGE about Ruby right off the bat: she is idealistic and has a naively optimistic and childish view of the world.

- It also tells us that she does not know how to grieve, how to cope with suffering, and how to accept loss.

-Why and how is it expressed? Becaus Ruby doesn’t tell people why. This is why Blake is amused by her naivety becausee she doesn’t know the darker half of why Ruby is so determined to be a huntress.

-'''She has a lot of misplaced guilt over her mother’s death, and she is mentally stuck at the age she was when Summer died. '''She has not been able to move through her grief and is still deeply in denial, and she clings to childish optimism as a maladaptive coping mechanism. Her naivety is a mask that allows her to hide her inner turmoil from the people around her.

-Basically:“A cruel and uncaring world ripped my mother from me when I was at a very vulnerable and impressionable age so I’m going to dedicate my life to a romanticized and idealized version of being a huntress to make the world less cruel as a way of not actually dealing with the harsh reality that sometimes bad things just happen and there’s nothing we can do about it, and to distract from the fact that my mother is dead and nothing I ever do will change that.”

-All of that is just how they established Ruby’s characterization and worldview in the first two volumes. What they do in Volume 3 is challenge it and then destroy it.

-Penny and Pyrrha died and she was too late to stop it. Once again she builds up guilt. We see how it affects her as she starts doing reckless things like taking on Neo/Roman and the other Nevermore without her weapon(well she takes pennies but you know what I mean). It's near suicidal/self- Enderaging behaviour coming from grief compared to before where her recklessness was coming from her confidence.

-Roman then makes a speech that embodies everything she has been trying to deny since her mother died. “You got spirit, Red. But this is the real world. The real world is cold. The real world doesn’t care about spirit. You want to be a hero? Then play the part and die like every other huntsman in history!” This speech hits her figuratively and literally, as Roman is quite literally hitting her with his cane to punctuate every sentence. And as if to drive the point home about a cruel and uncaring world, he is eaten by a Griffin moments later.

-The next thing Ruby does, after witnessing two deaths and failing to keep the ship from crashing, is seek out her team. She’s worried about them and wants to make sure everyone is okay. Still trying to cling to hope and....they’re not okay.

-She wasn’t there to protect them and now they’re hurt. She failed, as their leader and their friend, but more, as a huntress, to protect them.

-And then the last, condemning nail in the coffin? Her sister finally drops her facade and is honest and straightforward about the fact that things are not okay. Yang was almost certainly the one who Ruby learned how to behave from. And now, Yang is defeated and dejected. Her mask didn’t just slip, it fell away completely. Yang cannot cope because she doesn’t know how to cope. And neither does Ruby.

-Fast forward to Volume 4 and Ruby maintains a relatively chipper disposition towards Jaune, Ren, and Nora. Why? She’s always done it, her whole life. It’s reflex to her, to smile and exude optimism so she doesn’t have to face her terrifying feelings

- It’s also worth mentioning here that she takes her role as a leader very seriously, to the point where she actually tells Jaune in Volume 1 that they have to put their team first and themselves second.

-And now she’s taking it seriously once more, putting her new team and her objective before her own safety and mental health.

-We see her with ptsd syptoms and losing her facade at times but still goes by to happy the next day, the next second.

-However, those subtle scenes are there to show us what she is doing to herself as opposed to Jaune who is openly greiving. They focus on Jaunes feelings more than Ruby to show us that he is doing what she is supposed to be doing.

-He is a person who has not experienced loss before. He did not lose someone when he was young. He did not grow up in a broken family.

-He grew up learning to be expressive and open because that’s how normal families are. His overt and externalized grieving process is completely normal and healthy, and is in stark contrast to Ruby’s internalized and un-dealt-with grief.

Here is the link to the post - https://hawkeyedflame.tumblr.com/post/152581160728/on-rubys-elusive-character-development-or-why

So what they said really hit some hard points on how they portrayed Ruby in Vol 4.

However, my point still stands in how they still gave us too little in vol 4 by the fact that they are still trying to delay important parts of her development and connection the story. You know - her mother. They had the silver eyes info down(which they should have brought to fruition for Ruby in vol 5 but you know- cliff hangers. And the fact that they botched the mother mentioning scene with Raven as I said in my previous points).

You see, the thing about her not bieng able to deal with death and how to cope would have been tied perfectly together and portrayed just right to the readers had they gave call backs to the most important part of her chracter depth -to the central root of why she is like that - HER MOTHER'S DEATH.

Miles and Kerry didn't want to give any info out on Summer yet. Ok fine. But that doesn't mean you couldn't have had a little scene of Ruby remembering about the time of her mothers death. You know, like when she was having the nightmares. We could've heard a little Ruby's voice going "Daddy, where's mommy? Is she coming back?". There. a simple scene without revealing much about Summer yet foreshadowing and calling back to why Ruby is the way she is and how she is trying to deny instead of accept one of the most important events of her of her life besides only showing us about Pyrrha(They didn't mention Penny as well so yeah..).

Thats why the groundwork and subtle scenes are good for vol 1-3 but it it still too subtle/lacking and flowing properly into in vol 4-5 and leaving out one of the most important central parts of her character which is her mother/silver eyes

Call backs and foreshadowing are important...I mean Naruto overdid it a little but Its consistent and relevant and got the job done...