Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-4141313-20181110034633/@comment-4141313-20181115162030

ChishioKunrin wrote: Yeah, basically, Cinder's speech was designed to make people suspicious of Atlas The Atlas part was obvious enough, especially with Yang's line in End of the Beginning

Yang: ''No one outside of Vale knows what happened here. Before the tower fell, the last thing people saw was Atlas attacking innocent people and Grimm destroying the city. Everyone's scared. No one knows who to trust.''

I had just thought the Mistral part was either an attempt of Cinder's to humanize herself to the Audience in Amity Colliseum, such as a form of pathos, or was a slip up on her part by letting out a bit of her own past in her speech through the heat of the moment.

Salem's plan did indeed backfire because of Cinder's Murder Boner overriding common sense. Then again though, it already had a monkey wrench in it thanks to the Menagerie Militia heading there. Though that could have been counteracted by making it seem like it was all a ploy to make the Faunus look good, casting the blame on Menagerie, but then that was counteracted by Salem killing Leo and Qrow and Ozcar having it painted as Leo dying a hero.

My major argument was against the idea of World War II happening. It would be so much easier for Salem to just unleash a pack of Grimm on Atlas and Vacuo in her quest to gain Creation and Destruction.

The real challenge is fighting her forces. With Vale all but gone and Mistral still in a state of disarray, that just leaves Atlas and Vacuo.

I called Vacuo Social Darwinisim on Steroids because of Qrow's line in the WOR

Qrow: See, there's only really one, unspoken rule in Vacuo: If you can survive here, then you're welcome here.

Its purely survival of the fittest there, which is the basic idea of Social Darwinism, but with the added bonus of the fight for survival being never ending, as if they lived in the wild. Which honestly, they do.

Qrow: ''Citizens live in makeshift homes, uprooting and traveling frequently in response to the fleeting resources and occasional attacks from the creatures of Grimm. After the Great War, a formal government was finally established, but by that point the folks living in Vacuo didn't care to uphold its laws, making Shade Academy the only real source of order in the Kingdom. But order isn't everything.''

They govern themselves, are constantly moving around like Nomads, and are accepting of anyone who can prove their strength. Vacuo is essentially one giant pack of animals (No offense to the Faunus) like Wolves. So its not even Social Darwinism at that point, its just Darwinism.

So with Vacuo being Vacuo, that just leaves Atlas. The only way to really fight off Salem then on a larger scale would be if Ironwood revealed Salem's existance to Atlas and they convinced the remnants of Remnant of the greater threat.

Issue is, that carries a lot of issues thanks to Ozpin's Ignorance is Bliss plan.

1st. There will be complaints as to why Salem's existance was kept a secret if she was so dangerous.

2nd. People will think Atlas is already in league with Salem after what happened at Vale due to sheer paranoia.

3rd. The very existance of Salem will cause more fear and panic, making the Grimm stronger.

4th. They'd have to explain why Salem is doing this, and if they don't tell the truth, Salem could have one of her subordinates tell a partial truth to imbue more doubt and chaos.


 * 4.1. If they tell the truth, the knowledge of the Gods being real and potentially nuking humanity would cause a massive religious upheavel and possibly worsen the ties between humans and faunus after their random existance is brought to light.


 * 4.2. If they only tell the Relics, idiots will try to think to use them on Salem or try to take them for themselves, which will in turn make the maidens a target again.


 * 4.3. There will be people who question the authenticity of this and if they learn about Ozma's curse, will probably cast doubt on the story and decry it as nonsense.


 * 4.4. There will be people thinking they have a better chance of living under Salem and jump ship to her side.

So basically, Ozpin's plan of Ignorance is Bliss has left Remnant with two options of fighting Salem.


 * Option 1: Continue the Secret War and fight her outmanned, outgunned, and hope for the best.

So while there will be no World War II, Remnant is in for a massive war sooner or later.
 * Option 2: Reveal the truth and risk all four of the caveats listed above.