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#and manga series those aren’t exempt either
remnantoforario · 5 years
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Ok then...
So a little while ago I did a post about my thoughts on the newest RWBY manga. It was mostly a bunch of scattered ramblings, but essentially i broke down why I believe it was better than the show (at least starting out). 
I originally wanted to do all the chapters up to now in that post, but since I spent so much time on the first chapter alone, I thought it best to just do a post for each chapter as I reread them. You guys seemed to like my thoughts on the first one, so here we go with chapter two.
Heads Up: This will not be a review of the chapter itself per se, it will be a comparison between the manga and original source material. As such I will be spending most of the time going over the character interactions, slight world-building changes, and anything else I see different. Cool? Let’s get started then...
So chapter 2 of the starts out just as chapter 4 of the show did, though with a noticeable change in Ruby’s attitude. 
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In the original she was practically bouncing off the walls, excited by the prospect of fighting monsters. Here she is much more somber, reflecting on what happened the previous day, as well as expressing apprehension with teaming up with what are essentially a bunch of strangers. 
I like this change very much honestly. It makes Ruby a much more relatable and realized character, which is something the show didn’t readily do until way later. She’s in a completely new environment (one she still feels she doesn’t fully belong in), and her first interactions with people that aren’t her sister have been less than positive. It makes sense that she would be worried. 
I think Yang also comes off a bit better in these scenes. Before she was kind of treating Ruby as a bit of a pest. Sure she wants her to be more sociable, but there it seemed more like out of a desire to not have her little sister “cramp her style” while here she’s doing her best to encourage her. So good job there.
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Next we get a better look at Jaune (who briefly appeared in chapter one) and are formally introduced to Pyrrha. Not much to say here since the scene is pretty much the same, but I will point out that Jaune speaking french was a nice little touch given his character origin. 
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Ruby’s face is also great here. Really makes her feel like an outsider looking in.
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I also wanted to highlight this little nugget:
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The fact that anyone is jealous of Jaune about anything is hilarious.
The next crucial scene is when Weiss and Ruby meet in the Emerald Forest. Now the way this happens in canon is fine for what it is, but how this plays out in the manga speaks more to the characters. 
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Weiss (like in the original) walks away, but instead of chasing her, Ruby simply lets her go; and is relieved to have done it, telling herself that they didn’t see one another. Remember, so far established in the story these two DO NOT like each other. To Weiss, Ruby is nothing more than a child that lucked her way into Beacon, and to Ruby, Weiss is a stuck-up, rich jerk. It makes sense that they would not want to pair with one another. They just can’t get along. It’s the same as in the series, but the manga does it much better in my opinion because of one thing: consistent character arcs.
Ok this is going to get a little long (too late). When Ruby is first introduced into the series, she had a Flat Character Arc (at least from what I perceived). For those who don’t know, a Flat Character arc is one in which said character does NOT change for better or worse; they are well...flat. They have come to terms with themselves and thus have been fully realized before the story even starts. So if they will not change, the world instead changes around them in an attempt to challenge or reinforce those beliefs. Examples of this are Son Goku and Saitama from One Punch Man.
The main crux of the flat arc is “The truth that the character believes”. It is a truth that they know to be real and will not waiver from, no matter what the plot throws at them.
Goku’s truth for example, is that he can always be better than he was yesterday. That no matter how strong he gets, there will always be someone stronger to fight. That is why he trains and how he overcomes his problems, through this truth to be better and force of will. 
Ruby’s truth was that no matter what she would be a hero. She would protect people and become a Huntress like in her stories. 
Which would have worked fine...if the show kept to that ideal. 
In the beginning, Ruby was flat. She never really experienced any setbacks, she was never in the wrong, and she was never really challenged by anyone. Her team pretty much went along with everything she did without question and she never really had a problem in any fight she was put in. She was essentially...a mary sue (even chibi pointed that out). She didn’t have to learn how to overcome her prejudices like Weiss, face her past like Blake, or even shoulder the familial burdens that Yang had to (who was also kind of flat but thats another discussion). Ruby pretty much had nothing to worry about, until V3.
Volume 3 is where the story shifts. Our characters are met with an action that provides lasting consequences: The deaths of Penny, Pyrrha, and Ozpin, the destruction of the school, Yang losing her arm, Blake confronting Adam and running away to Menagerie, Weiss going home, etc. 
In a flat character arc, Ruby would learn from these experiences and acquire a new skill (silver eyes) in which to reinforce her beliefs and defeat the Lie of the world (Salem’s forces)...but she doesn’t. Ruby waivers and does nothing while the Lie continues to spread, this is where her character begins to fail. 
Her teammates (as well as everyone else around her) are experiencing their own arcs whether they be positive (Yang, Blake, Weiss, Jaune, Ren, Nora, etc.) or Negative (Emerald, Adam, Raven, and Salem). Ruby remains static, but not in a way that is compelling. She doesn’t change the world, she’s just in it. As such she remains stagnant. 
Miles and Kerry wrote her arc in reverse. They started flat, but then tried to go positive. That doesn’t work because it challenges everything that came before it and in turn makes Ruby worse. Looking back, her progression from Volumes 4-6 was a (somewhat) good example of a positive character arc. She saw problems that changed her and allowed her to overcome (Tyrian, Battle of Haven, Brunswick Farm, Cordovin, and the Leviathan). The problem was that volumes 1-3 were spent with her being completely flat. The dichotomy only made things frustrating to watch from an audience perspective because the flat arc was not presented in the right way for the story to build on it. 
Switching back to the manga (finally): Kinami instead switches things around and gives Ruby a positive character arc. This arc is all about “the Lie the character believes” as opposed to the Truth of the Flat Arc. In the manga, the lie Ruby tells herself is: “I don’t belong.”
She skipped two grades, was forced into a place she doesn’t know, and is constantly told by others that her dream is childish and she should go home. This is what leads to her more dour and self-deprecating personality (as well as her already socially awkward behavior). She is constantly challenged and thus continues to doubt herself, which strengthens the lie.
Weiss is not exempt from this either: 
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Upon leaving Ruby she tries to find a partner, leading her to Jaune (hanging from a tree as in the show) who she also refuses. In the show, she goes back to Ruby in another humorous moment, but in the manga she doesn’t. The Lie Weiss believes is that she must be perfect, and thus only the perfect partner (notably Pyrrha or someone similar) will aid in that Lie and let her achieve her impossible goals. Without perfection, she is nothing.
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The conviction in the belief of this lie nearly leads to her death when she is ambushed by Grimm. 
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This leads to the most climactic moment of the chapter.
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Ruby saves Weiss, but she still isn’t friendly with her. She tells her that she didn’t want to be her partner, but letting her die would not be right and she wouldn’t be the Huntress she wanted to be if she let that happen. That new resolve all stemmed from this moment earlier in the chapter:
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Like Weiss, Ruby thought to leave and find her sister, but it was Yang’s words that made her rethink her action: “Remember what you’re here for. This is to become the Huntress you dream of being right?”
This is the first step towards Ruby’s positive character change. Again it turns a comedic scene serious, but its all in service of the characters and makes them better. She goes back to defend and team with someone she decidedly does not like, because it furthers her goal. It helps dissolve the Lie, and forces them to work together. 
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 Chapter 2 is just as good, if not better than chapter 1. We get a much better look at the characters, but we also start to encounter the manga’s one major flaw; but we’ll get into that in the next part.
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