Talk:Emerald Sustrai/@comment-209.195.85.53-20160206163040

WARNING: 'Long (but sorta seemingly needed) rant. If you read, please read and take in everything, please.'

This is to those who rants about Emerald not deserving, or won't be getting second chances just because she's a villian, or 'she "killed" P.E.N.N.Y,' and that she's too loyal to Cinder, and is too far gone, or that it's too late for her.

I object, and want to point out the first obvious issue of the 'Emerald hater' rants is Emerald' s (brief) backstory. Before she worked with Cinder, she was a 'street rat,' as Roman described her. Though how she became one or that she lived as one her whole life is unclear, but from what we know, Emerald was trying to survive most of her life.

'''She had no home, and had to steal for her food, and had AND HAD NO ONE. SHE HAD NO FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO TURN TO,''' that is until Cinder showed and and gave a proposal she couldn't refuse. In Cinder's eyes, she was her role model, a strict mother figure of sorts, and felt that Cinder saved Emerald, and that she owes Cinder her life.

Which brings me to my next point. Emerald was never outright a villian. She feels like she owes Cinder for bringing her in, but Emerald was never an ambitous, power-hungry, cynical mastermind (Cinder), much less a cocky, cold-hearted, relentless, trained assassin (Mercury). She was a street rat, who just wants to survive, and live happily.

Remember what Emerald said in V3 EP1? "I just... how can they be so happy all the time!?" Aside from maybe Mercury, whose more of a partner, Emerald has never truly had genuine friends, and never felt happiness. She always had to fight just for survival, and therefore, feels jealous of people like Team RWBY. In Emerald's eyes, people like Team RWBY and JNPR always have smiles all around, almost without any care and worry about fighting to live, and feels that just because they're the good guys, they get to live happily, and Emerald envious, or even despise those kind of people.

Do you know what that scene with Cinder's proposal to Emeraldfor the first time kinda reminds me of? Scar from 'Lion King' literally proposed the same thing to gain the hyena's loyalty. Though unlike the hyenas, who are somewhat simple-minded, and knew Scar since they were kids/cubs, Emerald is smart, and at least has a little bit of a conscience. Heck, when the Hyenas realized that they were being used to get Scar to be king, and felt betrayed by their 'friend' calling them their enemy, and thus, not switching sides, but at least departed from the side of 'evil'.

I truly don't like the term 'too late for second chances.' Just because Emerald caused Penny's evisceation? It's like saying that I should forever villianize my mom for physically abusing a 6-7 year old (me, btw) and and saying that she would kill me, and not care if she would go to jail. I've given her not one or two, but MANY chances to change, and by the time I was 17 years old, she and I got along ever since.

Another good example is Locus from Rooster Teeth's first, well-known series, "Red vs. Blue." Before RvB S13 EP19, there was a debate of wether or not a big, cold, merciless, mercenary who was broken by war, whose more or less helping commit a genocide, will get a chance of redemption. What happened to him? He DIDN'T JOIN THE GOOD GUYS, BUT HE DID STRAY FROM THE SIDE OF 'EVIL' and WANTED TO MAKE AMMENDS OF HIS WRONGS HIS WAY!

Another somehwhat decent example would be Megatron from "Transformers: Prime." Formerly a just, and honorable gladiator who stood for the people, he grew from jealousy and hate of Orion Pax (soon to be more well-known as Optimus Prime) to be an ambitous, power-hungry, oppressor, and declared a world-wide war, which caused the imminent death of his home planet, Cybertron. Even after that, he turned his attentions to planet Earth, to dominate.

Throughout the whole 3 seasoned series, we didn't expect Megatron to redeem himself anythime soon. But, in the movie, TF Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising, after his supposed death in the S3 finale, and ressurection, at the cost of his own free will to be in Unicron's control, along with Megatron being forever tortured by Unicron. After Optimus traps Unicron, and frees Megatron in the process, when he was given the choice to continue for galactic domination, he rufused. As Megatron explained "Because I now know the true meaning of oppression... and have thus lost my taste for inflicting it." He understood what his path of power and domination would lead to, and was even at that point a victim to Unicron's dictatorship (except Unicron would rather destroy, rather than dominate), thus he surrendered, but he didn't officially switched to the guys.

In conclusion, I'm 50-50 on wether or not Emerald will switch sides, but I'm 90-100% on 2 things:

1 - Emerald won't be redeemed THIS VOLUME (if she will at all)!

2 - At the moment, it's not too late for Emerald to redeem.

Welp, I've said most of my peace. Please do share your thoughts below. ^_^

- AL