- For the score named after the Apathy, see The Apathy (score).
The Apathy are Creatures of Grimm that resemble emaciated humanoids. They are first encountered in "Alone in the Woods".
Appearance[]
The Apathy is humanoid in shape, somewhat similar to the Imp, but are very tall, with long arms that reach down as far as the ground and extremely long fingers. They have hideous faces, resembling skulls, some even lacking nostrils, and low-hanging jaws.
There are at least four variants to the Apathy's appearance, two being extremely hunched back, whereas the others stand taller.
History[]
At some point, an Apathy was captured for research purposes by Human Nextwork. It was placed in one of their two research labs and in a room with a two way mirror. While one researcher observed it so they could create a unit for it in RWBY: Amity Arena, he started becoming apathetic from the Grimm's screech until he asked for someone to bring him some coffee.
The Apathy was first foreshadowed in "The Coming Storm", but made their proper debut in the following episode, where they begin to affect Ruby Rose and her group. After Ruby inadvertently drops the Relic of Knowledge down the well, she, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long go down to retrieve it, only to encounter the pack of Apathy.
After escaping the Grimm, Maria Calavera reveals that the owner of Brunswick Farms had brought two of the Apathy into his cellar to calm the residents, as to not attract other Grimm. However, the owner was exhausted from the journey and thus lacked the strength to seal them away and decided to seal them the next day.
The owner did seal the tunnels, but only after the rest of the pack had followed their missing members into the farm through the water tunnels beneath and because of this, the residents ultimately died from lacking the strength to get out of bed. The only member whose corpse was found out of their bed was the family Huntsmen whose corpse was found in the tunnels as team RWBY ran past it. Unlike the rest of his family, he seemingly attempted to kill the Apathy but was personally killed by the Grimm themselves.[1]
In "War", the Apathy was one of the types of Grimm spawned from the Grimm Liquid produced by Monstra.
Powers and Abilities[]
The Apathy has the ability to use a scream that weakens their prey by draining their will. This works through remote proximity, but if the Apathy can see their target, the effects become much stronger. If the prey is startled, they are jolted out of these remote effects, albeit temporarily.[2]
Repeated attacks will weaken a target to the point of falling asleep while in combat, or even cause their death while unconscious. They also seem to have the ability to drain willpower from remote proximity, as shown when Team RWBY, Oscar Pine, Qrow Branwen and the former residents of Brunswick Farms were affected, in the latter case killing them in their sleep. While the way how the Apathy kill a victim themselves is never shown on-screen, Connor Pickens stated that the pose of the Huntsmen's corpse in the tunnels give clues as to how they do it.[3]
They tend to attack in packs, using their superior numbers and will-draining powers to bring down their prey and compensate for their lack of inherent physical strength. A single Apathy is less powerful and will take longer to drain willpower than it does for an entire pack of them. When alone, an Apathy is not aggressive and seems almost timid.
Despite their slow movement, emaciated form and general lack of physical power, the Apathy are surprisingly resilient to damage. They were shot multiple times with Crescent Rose at point-blank range, yet it had no effect. Only when Ruby used her Silver Eyes, and when Weiss subsequently ignited the remaining Apathy on fire, were they finally killed.
Trivia[]
- Miles Luna has stated the idea for the story with the Apathy pack in Brunswick Farms existed before Volume 1 was even written[4] and the Apathy is his favorite Grimm.[5][6]
- Patrick Rodriguez created the first designs for the Apathy, which he stated that forced him to take breaks as he "kept scaring and depressing myself."[8] He originally imagined it "skittering about" with the sound of its bones hitting against surfaces, but the design was scrapped because it "looked too fast".[9]
- Miles based the Apathy on a mixture of a photograph of a scarecrow that he saw on Reddit,[11] the short story Bartleby the Scrivener[12] and the origin of the Reavers in Serenity.[13][14]
- The Apathy scream and its effects are based on ReDeads from the video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and it was Kerry Shawcross' idea to use this as a basis.[15] Sound designer Chris Kokkinos also added a variety of animal sounds (in an approach similar to what he used for the Nuckelavee), a tinnitus-like pulse sound, and some passages of "Bartleby the Scrivener" read by himself.[16]
- When it came to animating the Apathy, animation director Joel Mann said that asymmetry was something they tried to focus on just to try and make them as creepy and unnatural as possible.[17]
- The Volume 6 Opening features a number of Grimm arms trying to grab Ruby in the Brunswick underground. While the story arc introduces the Apathy Grimm, the opening uses Imp arms as a placeholder.
- The writers felt that the Apathy fit into the story of Volume 6 because the characters are at a low point.[18]
- Despite Maria saying they are not strong and Miles Luna himself describing them as "weak and frail", they are shown to be quite durable as they do not take any significant damage from Crescent Rose or being incinerated.
- Apathy means without emotion, will, concern or feeling, which is befitting given their power.
- Kerry Shawcross came up with the idea of how exactly the Apathy kill their victims themselves with Miles Luna telling Kerry it was "One of the darkest things you've ever said". While they don't go much more into detail about it, Connor Pickens stated that there are clues in the pose of the dead Huntsmen in the tunnels.[19]
- RWBY: Amity Arena Card Bio:
- The Apathy is a very strange Grimm. It is not aggressive and almost seems timid when not together in a pack. This has made it the most capturable compared to any other Grimm. The Apathy has grossly long appendages and claws but drags them on the ground while slowly stumbling around. Their screams chill us to our bones and the look in their eyes haunt us night after night. We look forward to the day we can be done with this accursed research and let the Huntsmen get rid of this specimen. Even now... this Apathy Grimm looks in my direction through this two way mirror as if it can sense that I am behind it. I shudder at the thought that it is observing me just as I am observing it. Ah, there it screams again... though not a peep makes it through these walls... I know because... it is staring directly at me... My... thoughts... grow slow... and my body... feels... heavy... S...some...one... any... one... plea... se... Bring me some coffee...
References[]
- ↑ RWBY Volume 6 Blu-ray Director's Commentary
- ↑ RWBY Volume 6 Blu-ray Director's Commentary
- ↑ RWBY Volume 6 Blu-ray Director's Commentary
- ↑ Miles Luna's Twitter
- ↑ Miles Luna's Twitter
- ↑ Miles Luna's Twitter
- ↑ Patrick Rodriguez's Twitter
- ↑ Patrick Rodriguez's Twitter
- ↑ Aromie Kim's Twitter
- ↑ Miles Luna's Twitter
- ↑ Miles Luna's Twitter
- ↑ Miles Luna's Twitter
- ↑ RWBY Volume 6 Blu-ray Director's Commentary
- ↑ Miles Luna's Twitter
- ↑ Chris Kokkinos' Twitter
- ↑ RWBY Volume 6 Blu-ray Director's Commentary
- ↑ RWBY Volume 6 Blu-ray Director's Commentary
- ↑ RWBY Volume 6 Blu-ray Director's Commentary
| Minor Combatants | ||||||
|