Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-4141313-20181116204649/@comment-14909251-20181125235750

I don't find anything odd about the reactions here and I think they are generally more healthy than siding with Oz because of his past. All of them are concerned with the mission and the now rather than what happened before they were alive. Oz's problem is the reverse it seems. He is obsessed with the past and afraid of the future, and in the present just wants to keep things essentially the same.

Noteworthy is that the people who have the strongest reaction to the truth are Yang and Qrow. They are also the two who have lost the most because of this battle. Blake has her own battle unconnected to any of this and it has generally turned in her favor. Ruby's losses are pretty minor. Yang lost an arm, her reputation, her mental health, and let's not even get into her very complicated mother-daughter relationship. All of those problems stem from Oz's epic millennia-long lover's quarrel in which she is now deeply involved. Finding out that she is acting on the orders of a pathological liar who doesn't even know what he is doing is the kind of thing that gets a person mad. I would also point that one aspect of PTSD is irritability so there is that to some extent playing into everything. We may really be seeing her constantly fighting off a mental breakdown.

Qrow abandoned his original mission and his tribe, which ultimately meant losing his sister, because he believed he was part of something important. Being one of Oz's most dutiful soldiers, he was included in on many of the secrets unknown to the rest of society. In just the past few days he has suddenly found himself on the outside being blindsided repeatedly as Oz conceals critical information from even him and just straight lied to him as well. Even in the face of all that he risks his relationship with his niece, and thus only connection to his old family, to defend Oz when even Ruby starts to doubt him. Then when the whole truth is out, Oz acknowledges that he doesn't even have a plan. For Qrow, this is like a betrayal.

Again, there are interesting parallels involved with Salem's group that we see in this episode. Tyrian has previously referred to Salem as a goddess and he calls her "divine" in this episode as well. Given her history, she is clearly playing the pretend god game with them. More interesting is that Tryian refers to her as their "savior" and Watts, who was seemingly questioning her, shrinked away from his criticism at the remark. We know he was a disgraced scientist and we also know Cinder has a strong desire for power. In "Beginning of the End" her tone is almost desperate and pained. It seems likely that many of them are in a similar position to Qrow now and Raven in the past. They were desperate people who were offered a purpose and a form of salvation.

While Oz has not presented himself as a god, he has made himself out to be a much more noble and competent figure than he is in reality. Plus his telling of his "curse" glamorizes his mission in some respects, since that mission had nothing to do directly with stopping Salem. He also offered those who serve him loyally a purpose and a form of salvation. In Oz's group and likely in Salem's, these offers were essentially lies and came with a lot of additional lies as baggage. There are differences reflecting their different situations and purposes, but there is a lot of similarity as well.

Salem's group also shows similar signs of fraying as Oz's group has shown this Volume. Emerald at this point appears loyal more out of fear than genuine respect or admiration. Unlike the main group she no doubt sees Cinder as her savior and Salem as a monster yet serves her because Cinder serves her. Mercury is likely more used to people like Salem yet not fond of them. His interests are focused on Emerald instead. Hazel is a man with a great deal of honor and compassion who was willing to defy Salem for it. Tyrian is blindly loyal where Watts is rational and thus questions. We see ample opportunity for division within that group and the exposure of Salem's lies could contribute to some of them abandoning her. I think one way they could use Jinn's final question is to reveal this to one of them, perhaps even Cinder who has also been thrown into disarray by recent events.