RWBY Speculation: Why Sun Won't Be Blake's Pyrrha

Hey, everyone.

So, ever since the last character short, I've had Blake on the brain a lot. And what with my last post of Why Isn't Blake More Popular?, I wanted to cover another Blake topic that most RWBY fans, and Blake fans especially, probably think they already have figured out. And that, is that Sun is going to be Blake's Pyrrha, or in other words, Sun's going to be killed off so Blake can stop pussy footing around and get on with her story. It's understandable why the community would think that. Looking at Blake, a lot of people see a character who has issues with her story and character advancing. We also see a character who seems dependent on another character for her identity. Without Sun, would we even know that Blake is capable of love or even smiling?

Now, there's nothing wrong with character A being characterized through their interactions with character B, hell, that's one of the best ways to show characterization, but with Blake it seems to be a crutch. Like I keep saying, she's the most stock character out of the four leading roles--she doesn't stand out enough on her own, which is to say, she couldn't carry a story by herself. As a result, she needs Sun, and so, rather than being Blake Belladonna and Sun Wukong, two independent characters, the two make up a single, whole character. But, I don't think Sun will be killed off. I don't think he'll be Blake's Pyrrha. Let me explain why.

1. Lazy and Predictable Writing

The first and most pertinent reason is because it's lazy and predictable. Now, many people predicted Pyrrha's death, but that wasn't hard. She was predestined by dint of her name. But, riddle me this: how many people predicted Penny's death or Ozpin's? Miles and Kerry aren't masters of their art, but they're not novices, either. And remember, they watch Game of Thrones and work for Rooster Teeth. What does that mean? Well, I've never seen a single episode of GoT, but its reputation for plot twists is well-known. And Rooster Teeth was founded by men like Gus Sorola, Burnie Burns, and Geoff Ramsey, they're notorious trolls. Sure, some people who work at RT aren't trolls, assholes, or smartasses, but I bet a lot of them are--it's the company culture. So, I would expect Miles and Kerry to set up a scene that makes it look like Sun is going to die, but then save his ass at the last second, or they would know what people are predicting, and purposely do the opposite. I mean, why not? What's stopping them? Speaking of which, that brings me to my next point.

2. There Are No Rules

People are predicting Sun's death because of Pyrrha, but Pyrrha didn't set a standard or a rule. There's no rule saying Sun has to die just because Pyrrha did just because Blake is plagued in the same way Jaune was. And going back to my belief that the ultimate goal is to turn Team RWBY into the four Maidens, why can't Blake keep Sun? Show me the rule that says Maidens can't have boyfriends or husbands. In fact, I was thinking about it this week, and I was like, "Hey! Wait a minute! If the Maidens are vessels of such incredible power, but their power is just as famous amongst baddies as it is among good guys, how come they don't have bodyguards?"

I mean, seriously think about this: if Qrow had been with Amber, do you think Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald could've gotten the drop on her? Qrow chased all three of them off by himself. I know that some people might argue that if the Maidens had bodyguards, then that would make the Maidens too conspicuous, but what if each Maiden had only four huntsmen with them? Two visible and two trailing from the shadows. They'd stay inconspicuous (enough), and the Maidens wouldn't get jumped. Maybe that's what Amber's big mistake was. Remember, someone called her young and inexperienced. Maybe she thought she knew better and ventured out without her escort, Qrow, and that's how she got attacked. Because I mean, when you think about it, how did Qrow manage to show up in the (TA-DA!) nick of time? How did he find her if he was supposed to be doing recon for Ozpin? Which then begs the question, does the Spring Maiden have a bodyguard? Remember, everyone's still looking for her, but they haven't managed to track her yet. Maybe someone's with her making sure she isn't conspicuous. Perhaps a boyfriend.

Hence, if Blake did become a Maiden, why couldn't she still be with Sun? Even if the current Maidens don't have boyfriends or husbands, why couldn't a Maiden still have one? Now, true, we still don't know all the rules and conditions to being a Maiden, but is there any reason from a writing standpoint that they can't? And similarly, there's no precedent saying Sun needs to die for Blake. Something else that I thought of was that Pyrrha's death didn't really advance Jaune's story. There's not enough evidence in Volume 4 to suggest his story has actually advanced. (Chalk that up on the list of Things Wrong with Vol. 4.)

3. Sun's Semi-Permanent

If I asked you to name the main characters in RWBY, who might you say? Well, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang, for starters. But, don't you think that's a little too narrow? Couldn't we also expand that to Jaune? Maybe even Ren and Nora? And then, couldn't we expand that even further to include Sun? I mean, why not? He's got as much of a tie to the main cast as anyone else does. Consider this: he followed Blake home, and he's met her parents. That's something Pyrrha never accomplished. She never met Papa and Mama Arc. But, Sun has met Mommy and Daddy Belladonna, and what's more, Mommy Belladonna approves of Sun.

"I like him."
"Mom!"

Sure, Sun could still be killed horribly, but again, from a writing perspective, why would you have a character who's going to die meet the parents? That's extra attachments. It might make Sun's death look more sympathetic, but he's not a member of the main cast. So, why would you give him all these attachments to other characters and then kill him off? It doesn't make a lot of sense from a writing perspective. At least, not to me. I know I wouldn't do that for a character who goes on to become fridge stuffing. It's too much for too little. And with Mama Belladonna's blessing, it seems like Miles and Kerry intend for Sun to be around for a while; a long while; a long, long, long while. I think there are wedding bells somewhere down the line for these two.

4. Sun Isn't Pyrrha

Pyrrha was liked. Well, that's a bit of an understatement. Pyrrha was well liked. Monty, Miles, and Kerry purposely wrote her to be well liked, just so that it would hurt that much more when they stole her from us!

Pyrrha was our precious!!!

When I think of Pyrrha's character archetype, I call her a paladin. She's the lawful good, superhero, woman of the people, unbreakable, upholder of the status quo, perpetual vanquisher of evil. She has no limits, and she never stops. She's Superman, more or less. Characters designed like this are meant to be liked. If you don't like them, then you're probably the bad guy. But, when we look at Sun, we don't see that.

Sun's more chaotic good. I mean, he's been a stowaway at least once in his life, and he's stolen fruit, but he's never done anything actually evil. He kind of takes on the reckless rogue archetype. He's sort of like Han Solo; he does what he wants so long as it doesn't actually hurt anyone or violate anyone's freedom. And while these characters are liked--Han Solo was at one point the most popular Star Wars character ever and many of the old guard will still call him their favorite--the rogue is generally not as liked as the paladin. They're not the heroes of the people because at anytime, they could decide to leave and follow their own interests. They're not loyal to a fault. So, if Sun were killed off, I don't think his death would mean as much to the audience as Pyrrha's death did.

Pyrrha's was still a bit of a shock. When she died, it looked like Arkos was finally canon, and she did monumentally well in her battle against Cinder. Maybe if she had stayed in the vault and fought alongside Ozpin, Cinder would've been defeated. But Sun, he's not on Pyrrha's level, whether it's her morality, fighting ability, or likability. And, when it comes to Blake's love life, there are a lot of people out there who would rather see her with Yang. Hell, the Bumbleby shippers might actually celebrate his death. Ergo, there wouldn't be a mass upset with Sun's death like there was with Pyrrha. It might do some good for Blake, but a chunk of the audience won't care. So, the more convenient thing to do would be to keep Sun in the story rather than trying to make him utterly irreplaceable in Blake's life, because, let's face it, that's the only way people would be really, really upset with his death. Right now, he's still kind of superfluous.

5. Blake Isn't Jaune

When Jaune got to Beacon, he was practically useless. He was more a burden than an asset. He needed special training sessions, and even then, he's still not where he should be as a huntsman. Blake doesn't have that problem. She's quite competent. She can take care of herself, so what would Sun's death do for her?

Now, some may try to argue that whereas Jaune was physically weak and needed Pyrrha to become physically strong, Blake is emotionally weak and needs Sun to be emotionally strong. It's just the difference in their characters. But, Jaune is still kind of physically weak, and Blake's not really emotionally weak; she's just got a bad habit of running away. I mean, she stood up to Adam at the battle of Beacon, and even claimed she wasn't running. She only ran then because Adam threatened to kill Yang, and Blake was in no condition fight. My point here is that Blake can choose to fight when pushed far enough, like she chose to do at the end of Vol. 4. Jaune meanwhile still isn't as far along as he should be, but because of Pyrrha's death, he feels that he has to keep training to honor her memory because she was one of the few people who believed in him. Blake and Sun don't have that relationship dynamic; Sun's not into her because he sees something that no one else does.

It's because she's a sexy kitty. Meow!
(I kid.)

So, Blake wouldn't benefit from Sun's death in the same way that Jaune benefitted from Pyrrha's. It would ultimately be useless and just whittle down the cast. Ergo, I don't think Sun is going to be Blake's Pyrrha.

Now, I admit, I could be wrong. There's more than one way to skin a cat. Miles and Kerry could find a way to kill off Sun and make it meaningful, but it would take a hell of a lot of work. Assuming they want to do it right.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'm not too sure what I'm going to cover next week, but I did have a bunch of stuff lined up before I heard about Blake's character short. I could also go over all the reasons why I hate Bumbleby and talk about who I think the gay character actually is. But, if I do do that, I probably won't make it a regular post because I know some people really like these posts and while they too hate Bumbleby, they probably don't want to see the Bumbleby hate entry take the place of a regular post. So, we'll see.

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Keep writing, my friends.

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RWBY Speculation: Why Isn't Blake More Popular?

 Hey, everyone.

So, due to the Blake Character Short, I'm sure some people are on a Blake high. I'm not. But, I'm not really a Blake person. There are things I like about Blake, and then there are things I really don't like about Blake. Speaking of which, I was looking at the view counts on my blog, especially the ones for my RWBY posts, and Blake doesn't seem very popular.

Looking at my Top 10 Reasons series, Ruby seemed the most popular with 109 views, Weiss was second with 62, Blake was third with 55, and Yang came in last with 36. I thought those results were quite interesting because I thought both Weiss and Yang were more popular than that, but I never expected Ruby to be so much higher and Blake to be so low. Then, while looking at the RWBY: The Novelization posts, the "Red" Trailer was the most popular with 98 views, the "Yellow" Trailer was second with 87 views, the "White" Trailer was third with 85, and the "Black" Trailer was last with 50.

Now, while we may conjecture that older posts are bound to have higher views because they've been up longer, however, I don't usually see posts get very many views after they've been released. And, Yang's "Yellow" Trailer met and beat Blake's "Black" Trailer within a week. So, why is that Blake doesn't seem to be all that popular? This requires some investigation.

Alright, so, some people may think it odd that I thought Blake was that popular. Why did I think that? Let's take a look at a few factors.

The resting bitch face doesn't help.

1. She's A Cat

Cats are popular in anime. Hell, they're popular in Japan. Probably because of the lack of space and time, so cats are preferred to dogs. But, I look at anime and video games, and I see a lot of cat furries. For whatever reason, they're one of the most popular anime character tropes. In the anime Omamori Himari, one the main characters, Himari, is a cat demon. And then in Outlaw Star, there's a whole alien race of cat-people called the Ctarl-Ctarl, and catgirl Aisha Clan-Clan is one of the main characters. Another thing about these catgirls is that they're usually over sexualized which usually nets them a big audience despite the ears, tail, and possible fur and rough tongue.

(Left) Himari from Omamori Himari
(Right) Aisha Clan-Clan from Outlaw Star

Looking at Blake, while not sexualized but still sexy, I would've thought some of this ideology would've boosted her numbers. And, cats are popular in the States. I mean, we're almost a decade removed from Icanhazcheeseburger.com, and yet, cat memes can still be found on the Internet. So, why hasn't Blake seen a popularity boost? Is it possible that she isn't catty enough, or that RWBY doesn't have as much of a sexual appeal as Omamori Himari and Outlaw Star? It's possible. I once was a member of a RWBY FB group where they showed a cosplayer dressed as Ruby and her skirt was much too short and her tights showed the full shapeliness of her rump. Many in the group were horrified by the slutty and "trying too hard" depiction of Ruby. So, perhaps it takes more than just a pair of ears to make a catgirl a catgirl, and RWBY just isn't sexy enough.

2. Arryn Zech

This may seem strange to some, but the fact that Arryn voices Blake should boost her popularity. Why? Well, Arryn actually has a decent popularity herself. Many think she's the cutest thing ever and the cutest of the VA's. I remember seeing an interview she did somewhere in LA, and the comments were chock a block full of people fawning all over her. I wanted to puke because I didn't see what the big fuss was. So, shouldn't Arryn boost Blake's popularity?

Don't look directly into her eyes.
It's easier not to like her that way.

Well, maybe, but there's no rule stating that just because a VA is well liked, the character will also be. For example, I quite like Serana from Skyrim, Rise Kujikawa from Persona 4, and Lucina from FE: Awakening, but Laura Bailey... enh. She's talented, but so what. She's not Rise. And, Tara Strong is pretty, and I can't imagine anyone else doing Rikku's (FFX, X-2) voice, but Tara Strong isn't Rikku or even Lollipop Chainsaw's Juliet Starling. So, why should Arryn's popularity be Blake's? Shouldn't Blake earn her own?

3. Black Sun/Eclipse

There are some people out there who really like Black Sun. Hell, some people really like Sun. That, or they really like his abs. So, one might expect to see some people like Blake by proxy. I mean, I started liking Pyrrha more due to her involvement with Arkos. (That and she was brutally murdered before her time.) So, why wouldn't people like Blake if they like Sun?

Can you hear the fangirls screaming in the distance?

Well, do you remember my argument for the VA's? Yeah, that just as easily applies here, so I guess that's an argument shot to hell. And, there's no rule stating you have to like the person your friend is dating, despite what that one episode of Scrubs said. It may be funny, but that doesn't make it right.

4. Bumbleby

Ah, the dreaded Bumbleby. I may dislike Illia, I may think Adam is a douche, I may have lost respect for Torchwick, Neo, and Mercury, and I may abhor Cinder, but when it comes to my true RWBY nemesis, there is none greater than f*cking Bumbleby.

I'm not going to go into it, but looking at how popular Bumbleby is, again I would've thought Blake was popular due to this ship. You look up RWBY ships, and the first one to pop up is Bumbleby. It's not unusual for me to see at least a few Bumbleby pins on Pinterest when I search for RWBY stuff. Hell, I sometimes see something pop up in my general feed. Add to that, Blake and Yang were shipped ever before they were officially made partners. People really like the Bumbleby. So, I would've thought that meant Blake was popular, but it doesn't seem like she is.

This of course raises questions about Bumbleby, firstly, why is it so popular? Is it because of Yang? Is it because black and yellow complement each other? Or is it because non-canon shippers are just dreamers with too much wishful thinking? What is it about Bumbleby that appeals so much to people? If it isn't the characters themselves, what the hell is it? Because if you remove the characters from themselves, remove the characterization from the character, then the ship is utterly pointless because the purpose of seeing two characters in a relationship is to see the characters interact with each other in an intimate way, which they can't do if they aren't themselves. From a writer's perspective, it's fundamentally wrong! It's a mortal writing sin.

Anyway, it would seem that Bumbleby itself is popular, but Blake or Yang by themselves are not. Take one of them out, and it's no longer the same thing. It's like if you removed the Brad Pitt from Brangelina leaving Angelina Jolie and no one giving a f*ck anymore. Weird, weird, weird.

Sorry, Angelina. Without Brad, no one cares.

So, now that I've gone over the reasons why I thought Blake would be popular, let's look at what I feel are her two biggest shortcomings.

1. She's the Hardest to Get to Know

When it comes to adding characterization, it's best done by finding out what a character thinks, how, and why. Now, while you can do that in a TV show, i.e. Scrubs, it's better to have characterization shown through character action and dialogue. And Blake being Blake, she doesn't speak or do much resulting in her not being known very well. And you can't really like someone, for who they are, unless you know them.

Looking at Blake, it takes really emotional encounters to characterize her. Like when she was arguing with Weiss, when Yang was trying to get her to slow down, when she reconciled with her father, and when she was talking to Sun after he got hurt. And unfortunately, this pattern is getting old. It's great for her character, but the other three haven't needed such confrontations to build their characters. So, not only is Blake difficult to get to know, when we do get to know her, it's always in these emotionally tense scenes, and that may not reflect well upon her.

Why do we always have to meet Blake's character
under these conditions?

2. Her Story is Stuck in Second Gear

Blake has slowest character development. Looking at the fall of Beacon and then all of Volume 4, Blake reverted back to the days when she ran from her problems rather than standing and facing them. Volumes 3 and 4 were big deals to our girls. It made them see where they were weak and in what way they'd need to get stronger. Yang learned that she can't solve all her problems head on and with brute force, Weiss learned how to be truly independent from her father in order to rebuild her family name, and Ruby learned that the life she chose is actually really dangerous and it won't be all fairytales and happy endings. But, what did Blake learn? Hmm...

You could argue Blake learned that running from her problems doesn't solve anything. She ran from Adam and he came back with a vengeance. She ran from the battle at hand to seek respite at home, but learned that the White Fang's violent influence is farther reaching than she suspected. She may have also learned that you can't run from a boy who genuinely likes you and is willing to do some shady things to keep up with you.

Sure, Blake decided to go after the White Fang and take it back by the end of Vol. 4, and she reconciled with her parents, but her story sort of stagnated. She started her Vol. 4 arc by running away. It wasn't until Illia injured Sun that she realized she couldn't run from the White Fang anymore. By this time, Yang had already made peace with her arm being gone and had started training again, Ruby was facing the fear of losing another loved one and possibly losing the rest of JNPR, and Weiss was mastering her summoning and preparing to leave.

Blake develops more slowly than the other three, and she falls back on her old habits more often than the others. I mean, Blake's been running away since her trailer. And, this is something that even hardcore Blake fans like my associate Blake Belladonna from RWBY Wonderland is sick of. This is the real problem with Blake--she's still moping over her past and is still afraid to face it. True, her past has real horrors in it, and that should set her up for an epic redemption arc, but after viewing her character short, I'm not imbued with a lot of confidence. Maybe Kerry and Miles just don't know how to write a story like Blake's. Maybe Monty had a much more direct influence on the show's writing than we all thought. Or maybe even Monty didn't know what to do with Blake. But, it is entirely possible that Blake's story just takes longer to go through because it is so much more serious. But, it's still very difficult not to see how slowly her story's pacing is when compared to the others. Maybe she's too serious a character for a project like RWBY.

                                                                      

So, where does this leave the question of Blake's popularity? Well, this post helps illustrate why she isn't as popular as some people thought and it illustrates the weakest parts of her story. But, to some extent, it does put her story into a perspective that will buy her some time to get her sh*t together. But, it better happen real quick.

Anyway, that's it for now. In the next post, I'm going to go over my personal theory as to why I don't think Sun will be Blake's Pyrrha.

Keep writing, my friends.

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