Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-24993958-20161119160425/@comment-27350660-20161120101137

Gundam Legilis wrote:

ChishioKunrin wrote:

Gundam Legilis wrote: 1. A) First, after a PTSD-induced nightmare about her arm, she is able to take an arm-related joke moments later and laugh about it without any fear whatsoever, even though it should've sent her into a panic, with the arm as a trigger word. Keep in mind this is before the pep talk... 1. A) I don't think PTSD quite works like that. If I go up to a military veteran amputee and say "arm", they're not going to fly into a panic and go "OH MY GOD MY ARM IS GONE HOLY SHIT AHHH THE BOMB" That's the nasty thing about PTSD, depression, and other mental problems. It comes and goes, sometimes without warning. When you see the sufferers, they are on the upswing, they look perfectly fine. When you don't see them, chances are they're in a little corner fighting the ghosts in their heads. A sufferer will go through considerable effort not to go to pieces in public, saving that for when they're alone... unless something is too much to bear annd they go to pieces regardless.

If I read that scene right, Tai made that joke on purpose. He knew full well that he was hitting Yang where it hurt, but he wanted her to pull herself through it. With Port and Oobleck in the room, Yang wouldn't want to embarrass herself. And Yang knew exactly what Tai was doing. Tai was testing her. Challenging her. And she did pull through. She was able to laugh it off. "You jerk!" That was a victory for Yang, a step forward, and Tai knew it, and was proud of her for it.

There is a parallel to Tai teaching Yang to fight. He'll have punched her in the face teaching her to block, and made no apologies for it. Block right, and you won't get hurt. This is something like that, but in the mind.

When Port and Oobleck left, did Tai know Yang was listening? Because the thing that prompted Yang finally to put her arm on, was realising that not only was she letting Ruby down, she was also keeping Tai from helping her. She was thinking of the well-being of people besides herself, and that's a big, big step.

Yang is not allright by any stretch of the imagination. Miles and Kerry could easily fill up the whole season with Yang recovering, but there's other things to do. I think they're doing the best they can with the story-seconds they have. RWBY is awesome!