Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-27404492-20170918133425/@comment-294840-20170930032214

One more thing that I not only want but feel we NEED to see. More Blake/Weiss interactions. This is do to the similarities in their characters. I felt strongly enough about it to try and start a thread on it. And the groundwork has been laid for it to start in volume 5. As for the details copied and pasted here:

Maybe it's me but the me learn about BOTH Blake and Weiss the more similar they come come across to me. Despite first appearances having you believe they would be opposites let's count the similarities instead.


 * 1: They both are constantly told to be something there not be society.

In the case of Weiss she has constantly been pressured to put on a front of indifference to match with the other rich people in Atlas. This isn't just because of her father but because she has been afraid of being hurt when she exposes her true feelings to someone. Remember her line in Volume 2, "All my life boys have only cared about the perks of my last name." And Marigold in V4 is obviously INTENDED to be an example. (Whether or not he is a good example is up for debate.) If you want to take the song lyrics as canon we have new evidence with the line, "enemies surround me but the worst appear as friends." This combined with "I can't find myself when I'm constantly pushed to conform." Help to to show just WHY V1 Weiss was so uptight. It's a defense mechanism from someone who has both been hurt when they let people in before and so tends to push them away before they can hurt her, and who as a result as struggled to find herself. Because the Weiss we see through V2-V3 and beyond far cry from V1 Weiss. While Yang is often called the heart of the group I'd argue that as Weiss opens up she fulfills that role as well. While Yang is the one who brings Blake out of her self-destructive behavior in v2 it is Weiss who first notices said behavior and calls her out on it. When Yang is disqualified from the tournament in V4E8 Destiny if you listen carefully Weiss is the first person who comes to Yangs defense. Her first line is even before Ruby's first line in this matter. And yet if you look carefully all of this was there from the beginning beginning back in V1 When Weiss has to change her strike at the last second because Ruby jumped in front of her attack her line of "I could have killed you" is a case of anger born of worry. She clearly cared about other people even back then but UNLIKE now she lacked a healthy way to express things. It is only when she leaves her oppressive environment AND finds people that she TRUSTS that she slowly learns to open up. I feel the need to need to elaborate more on how Weiss has been oppressed because (with the exception of her father, who let's be honest is a MAJOR part of it) it isn't as obvious as with Blake.

Speaking of Blake in most case the ways she has been oppressed has been obvious the faunus have been the subject of constant discrimination people look at her and see a faunus first and a person second. However there like Weiss she has also lost her since of identity along the way and we can see this in the way her interactions mirror those of two other faunus characters. Ilia and Sun. Remember when Blake told Ozpin she wanted people to see her for who was not what she was and Ozpin in turn asked her "Who are you, Blake?" This question will be meaningful as we discuss these interactions.

Ilia is someone who learned that by hiding her faunus identity she could blend in with humanity. Have them take her as she was. At least in till the truth came out. When her "friends" learned the truth about Ilia she they were horrified and does she do? She punches them.

This puts a lot about V1 Blake into perspective. She hides her ears so she can pass for human like Ilia did. She reacts to Weiss comments about the White Fang similarly to how Ilia did when her "friends" laughed at mine workers getting crushed by rubble. Only difference is when her friends learn the truth Blake runs away because she doesn't to be violent like Ilia. This allows time for things to cool off. As Weiss has time to cool of her anger turns to fear about what she'll find out to simply not caring because Blake is her friend and that's all that matters. I can't even begin to imagine what a relief that must have been to Blake. We can speculate all we like if a different approach would have made a difference or not with Ilia's "friend"s. I think not but that's my inherent bias showed through, and while there are definite differences between the two situations it's impossible to know for sure what would have happened if Ilia had taken Blake's approach. All we know is that for Blake her worst fears were avoided.

(Note: I originally had details in parentheses explaining the differences between the incident that set Ilia of and the one that set Blake of but I figured most fans of the series would know it and I removed it for brevity. If you want me to put it back in let me know in the comments.)

But are people who use Ilia's and Blake's approach really showing people WHO THEY ARE? Honestly, it's difficult to say but if anything to go by I'd have to say no. She was constantly pretending to be someone she's not and her story shows how it all took a toll on her until ultimately it boiled over and exploded, kind of like what happened to Blake in V1. Sure things worked out ok for Blake and Weiss but that's because deep down Weiss had the ability to accept Blake.

Now let's contrast Ilia's approach with that of Sun's. Sun in contrast is right out in the open with the fact that he is a faunus he wears it like it's a badge of pride. (But by the same token he never picks on any one who isn't either. (I love the line where he calls the White Fang a bunch of self righteous jerks who use force to get whatever they want.) Sun is utterly unashamed to be WHO HE IS. Even Weiss, who was initially triggered by him when she saw his breaking the law and UNFAIRLY judged him. Comes around once she gets to know him. (I'd argue it's a big part of her character development in general.) I think one of the points Sun makes indirectly people WILL judge you. Some will see you for you for who are right away, some won't but will learn the truth as they get to know you, and some will never learn, so rather than trying to conform yourself to meet their expectations you might as well be yourself.

And once again we come back to that word. Conform. Both Weiss and Blake have felt the pressure of society to conform. While one fears loosing the place one tries to claw out a place but the end result is the same. A need to belong and fear of being hurt lead to denial of self.


 * 2: They both have an abusive mentor figure. While it's true that it takes a village to raise a child for both both Weiss and Blake there was a mentor figure who factored into their formative years.

For Weiss it was her father Jaques.

For Blake it was Adam.

These figures impact on them was both massive and abusive. What's more they helped REINFORCE the oppressive role society played. When a child even a child in a child in an oppressive society (relatively speaking) is given positive encouragement from parents or mentor figures they can often often overcome the negative environment to become healthy well balanced individuals. For a real life example look at Martin Luther King Jr. (While his I Have A Dream speech his most well known let's not forget Injustice Anywhere Is A Threat To Justice Anywhere.) Both Jaques and Adam reinforced the since of oppression by encouraging with us or against us attitudes, and it is to the credit of BOTH Weiss AND Blake that they were able to eventually see them for the controlling, manipulative monsters they really are. Still by the time they escaped both Jaques and Adam have done a LOT of damage to each of their victims respective psyche. This can be seen in various ways both in trust issues or in that fact that in V1 they realize their mentor is wrong on an INTELLECTUAL level they have difficulty realizing in on an EMOTIONAL level. This obviously improves as the volumes go on.


 * 3: They each want to redeem their respective backgrounds. Whether it is Blake with the White Fang, or Weiss with the Schnee Dust Company (and I wouldn't be surprised if it included Atlas itself in the future) they both know that said organizations have gone downhill and they both want to pull it back up.

This is why my hope for V5 is for more Weiss/Blake interactions.

The Narrative as built up the fact that despite the fact that one comes from an oppressed minority and one comes from privilege they really have WAY more in common than you would think at first. I would like the narrative to take advantage of the fact that the group has been separated and is converging on Mistral (before you forget Blake intercepted plans that the White Fang plans to attack Haven Academy located in Mistral so she will be undoubtedly heading there as well) to have Weiss and Blake run into each other. Them being together without out Ruby or Yang, their respective partners to interfere would allow more for the characters to bounce of each other and reflect how they are more similar than they realized. This would allow for great bonding moments and is something I sorely want to see.

However there is more to it then that. Since Weiss and Blake have left their respective oppressive environments they have both grown in different ways, and i'd wager that they each currently have something the other one lacks.

Since Weiss has left her oppressive she has come out of her shell. She has grown to be a warm compassionate individual who will stand up for others. In short Weiss knows who she is now.

Blake on the other hand still doesn't know who she is. She has made progress sure but she still struggles with it. Her taking her bow off in V4C3 was NOT so much symbolic of her being true to herself but as more it meant that as she returned to Menagerie she exchanged the "mask" of a human for the "mask" of a faunus. Hence "won't be needing this anymore." It's not so much she's outgrown the need to hide her ears so much as hiding her ears doesn't make sense in Menagerie.

On the other hand Blake has something Weiss lacks a plan to redeem the White Fang. It's unclear what the DETAILS of said plan are but we clearly see her and Sun working on tracking down and capturing members of the White Fang so there IS a plan.

On the other hand Weiss has no plan on how to redeem her family name and company. Remember back in V2 when Blake said she always knew that huntress were regarded as the most noble warriors. And that she thought she would figure out the rest one step at a time? That's where Weiss is and it hasn't done her much good in that regard.

On the plus side Weiss's and Blake's respective deficiencies ALSO mean that they COMPLETE each other in these areas at the same time Blake is helping reach Weiss to plan and take back The Schnee Dust Company, Weiss can help Blake find herself as a person.

This is why these interactions NEED to happen.