User blog:RainDance96/RWBY's first murder?!

Ok, I'm going to try and get real in-depth here with RWBY's first [supposed] murder. This is a big thing and has been nagging me since last night, so I even went and made a wikia account. Ok, here goes! It's pretty long.

Nobody's ever been killed in RWBY before. It seems really hard to "kill" a RWBY person, honestly. Like in this episode the members of Teams RWBY and JNPR got hurt quite a few times during their food fight, injuries that would severely wound or kill people in the real world (remember how Yang got shot straight through the roof, and eventually crashed back down?) yet they were all laughing afterwards.

But this is a big turning point in RWBY. We all knew the series was going to get a bit darker and more mature due to hints last volume but mainly the opening song and trailer for this volume. However, I didn't expect them to come out and kill someone within the first episode. It actually kind of turned me off. I love RWBY to death, but I'm not sure I like where it's going into the darker and more mature themes. The funny thing is, generally the darker a work of fiction is, the more I enjoy it (Tokyo Ghoul and Akame ga Kill are my go-to's this anime season). But I think RWBY seems to be losing it's charm of being kid-friendly and light-hearted but at the same time having incredibly epic (and bloodless) fight scenes. I think a perfect balance between the light-hearted and dark-themed can be acheived, however, and I hope the people at RoosterTeeth can do it.

But back to the subject at hand. Tukson's death wasn't the first death in RWBY, technically. Plenty of Grimm have kicked the bucket already, and in quite visceral ways too. But these don't feel the same- the Grimm are basically soulless monsters. They fight, die, and (occasionally) disappear into rose petals. They're like the monsters in a classic rpg. You "kill" it, and it disappears, and you don't have to worry about it anymore. Even when Ruby decapitates them with her scythe, it never really feels like a true "death." But Tukson was presented as a living, breathing, person. It just feels different.

So why was Tukson killed? Because he was running away from the White Fang, which apparently you aren't allowed to do, giving us insight into how the White Fang works and also posing a problem for our other ex-White Fang: Blake. This murder was also obviously put in by the writers to show that they're not afraid of killing off people now, and yes, the show is officially going to get darker. It also shows that Mercury and Emerald are a real threat. They're the first people to kill someone in this show- they're dangerous. This scenario portays them as (or at least Emerald) honorable in battle (she gives Tukson the ability to defend himself first) but also merciless (they killed him anyway). We can infer that they've killed before from Cinder's comment about how they need to keep their hands clean while in this city (so their hands must've been dirty in other places). However, his death was never really shown or confirmed. It's actually possible they let him go and lied to Cinder, which we won't find out until later, changing our perspective on the duo- they're not merciless killers after all, they actually have a shred of good left in them, etc. The only reason I'm putting this out there is because of Mercury and Emerald's relationship with Cinder- Emerald is super loyal, and Cinder knows it, but still doesn't treat them very good. "Don't think, obey." I doubt that Mercury at least, and possibly Emerald, aren't actually all that fond of their leader.

Honestly, Tukson could really still be alive. His death was never confirmed. He got kicked in the face, than later Emerald and Mercury were like "Oh yeah he's dead btw." Often times in fiction, when a character that's supposedly dead is not confirmed to be, there's more to it than meets the eye. Perhaps they're still alive for whatever reason, or they're definately dead but their death somehow relates to other important plot points, etc. Who knows.

The cause of death is rather ambiguous. We were shown Tukson getting kicked in the face and next thing we know Merc and Em are walking out of the store. Was there a time-skip for them to kill him in? We don't know. The outside lighting appears the same though, so I would assume not (or else, a short one). A single kick to the face wouldn't kill anyone in RWBY, as stated before. But it's a shotgun kick, you might say. It's definately lethal. But that brings to mind the Yellow Trailer, in which Yang used her shotgauntlets multiple times in people's faces, abdomens, and all manner of body parts- except those people all got up and hobbled away. The last attack on Junior seemed especially brutal, yet he's still alive and kicking as shown  by his appearance in the opening. So I think it's safe to think a single kick wouldn't be the death of Tukson.

I, for one, hope Tukson is still alive. I didn't expect him to die in the first place for multiple reasons. 1.) he was in the trailer. 2.) he was an interesting character, and a type that is absent in RWBY currently- the older, mature, experienced guy. He could fit in perfectly as a big brother figure. Plus he's both ex-White Fang and a bookstore owner. 3.) he had a unique character design. He was muscular, had hairy arms, cool sideburns, even his bangs moved when he did. Plus being a Faunus with retractable claws is pretty cool too. Even in his casual outift, he still stood out against the background characters. If the writers wanted a first-blood-type throwaway character, why'd they make him and his model so unique and detailed? Little aspects like his hair (which obviously took extra time to animate) make him seem much less generic (they could've given him a style like the member of Team CRDL have, that doesn't even move and thus saves time animating for a very minor character). Maybe they added all this in for shock value. We make him seem cool and interesting and non-generic, than kill him off. This coupled with the it being the first death in RWBY do make it a little shocking. But it could've been accomplished with a much simpler character and model, too, if they're this unimportant.

So I'm assuming Tukson will be appearing again, either in flashbacks (probably from Blake, if he's actually dead), or in the land of the living. Who knows, maybe Mercury and Emerald were impressed with him, and dragged him back to the White Fang instead of killing him. He looks an awful lot like that muscular White Fang lietunant in the trailer.

Maybe the writers are just bad at creating throwaway characters. We all remember Velvet, whose sole purpose was to show as that the Faunus are discriminated against. Her entire personality was just "cute girl" and that's it, yet the fans loved her so much that she was brought back. Tukson has even more to his character than that, plus he's an archetype that's essentially non-existant in RWBY. We have enough cute girls in RWBY; Velvet wasn't really needed, but she's still welcomed.

The thing that gets to me the most is that I don't know if Tukson is actually dead or not. They didn't give us confirmation that he's alive or dead, so I'm just assuming that something's not as it seems. Even though this is a kids show, there are ways to show the viewers that someone's dead without shoving a corpse in our face. They could've had a customer visit Tukson's Book Trade after Merc and Em have left, and run out screaming (without showing the inside of the store). Or perhaps a shot of some police cars outside the shop, with yellow tape around it showing that it's a crime season. Even the return of Lisa Lavender, on the news to talk about the surprising murder of a neighborhood bookstore owner, without any money stolen, would've worked fine.

The last thing I'd like to analyze is how similar Tukson is to Blake. Both are ex-White Fang, both love books, both are some sort of feline Faunus. It's easy to imagine Blake visiting Tukson's Book Trade on numerous occasions and being friends with Tukson. Am I sensing some backstory? Perhaps the two are related, or were friends during their White Fang days. Maybe they left the White Fang together, or one left and the other followed. Who knows.

I think next episode, either Blake will find out about the murder of Tukson, or Tukson himself will come to warn her about how they're going after White Fang deserters (depending on if he's dead or not) and that will be the start of the conflict for this season. I just need to know if Tukson is dead or not, why would they design someone like him as a simple throwaway character (if he is indeed dead), and why did they never confirm it? Ok I'm done that was too much writing *sighs*