Now before we dive into Clover and Qrow’s story and how they parallel each other I wanna make it clear we are gonna be talking
about the issues surrounding the pairing as a ship, how this miscommunication affected
certain viewers, and how weird and complicated representation in media is, but that’s getting
its own section later on because… well, there’s so much to discuss, it needs to be its own section.
I do plan on adapting it to be its own video for ease of access for the discourse at a later
date, but for right now let’s just tackle how Qrow and Clover, interpreted as friends with
a quirky bromance, plays out in the story. And before some of y’all claim victory in
“Oh cool, Unicorn agrees Lucky Charms is 100% platonic and there’s no problem,” you’d best
stick around for that Lucky Charms section later. This also goes to straight viewers who don’t quite
understand why representation matters in media, especially to certain groups of unrepresented,
underrepresented, and marginalized people, and may be apprehensive about the subject, because
trust me, I get it. It’s a very intimidating and complicated topic that’s hard to understand, but
I’m gonna try to explain it for you later as best I can, and your patience and efforts to understand
are very much appreciated. Y’all are good allies. But uh, in particular to the homophobes who
just screech about gays projecting themselves where they don’t belong and how we should just
accept our oblivion, and go out of their way to be assholes who don’t try to understand what
we’re saying at all or simply wave it away… well, I don’t know why you’re here, but please get off
of my futon, you hateful gremlin. Who gave the gremlin a microphone?! “You’re under arrest!”
Anyways, onto the quasi-gay bros. “Two bros, chillin’ in a” MILITARY TRUCK, “five feet apart
cuz we’re” KINDA “not gay.” But they kinda are. Now that all aside, Qrow has always struggled
with his self-image because of his Misfortune Semblance. “No one wanted me. I was cursed.” Qrow
hates himself for causing tragedies to the people around him. And to clarify, no, it’s not bad
luck brought to him, but the people AROUND him, which as he says, can give him an advantage
sometimes. “I bring Misfortune. Comes in real handy when I’m fighting an enemy, but it
makes it a little hard on friends. And family.” But his Semblance has also led to him distancing
himself from the people he loves for fear of inadvertently hurting them. It’s a huge reason he
stayed out of sight when Team RNJR was heading to Mistral until he literally had no other
choice but to get involved to save them. And this is also what’s driven him to alcohol
to cope with his loneliness and self-loathing. And it’s because of all of this he was
so dedicated to Ozpin. Helping Oz in his mission to protect Remnant from Salem finally
made Qrow feel like he wasn’t a burden without direction. “I gave my life to you because you
gave me a place in this world. I thought I was finally doing some good.” So to have that
torn way in Volume 6 was utterly devastating, and it’s why Ruby stepping up and breaking through
his self-loathing was so important and so utterly cathartic. Say what you want about her having
too many speeches in those last few chapters, but damn do I love Ruby spilling the optimism tea.
So now, after seeing Qrow resist the temptation to drink from his flask in the Volume 6 finale,
we really get to see Qrow clean up his act and start to have a more positive outlook on life.
He’s kinder to the people around him, he tells the kids not to dwell on the negatives—“Jeez
guys, lighten up a little. Enjoy yourselves for a change! You’ve earned it.”—and he’s far
more open to talk about Summer with Ruby. People who say he gave up drinking too quickly
are coming at this from the same angle of those who say Yang’s PTSD was never properly shown.
They wanted it to be overblown and in-your-face, when really, these are invisible struggles that,
while they do affect you, they don’t become who you are and define your entire experience.
Qrow clarifying that he gave up drinking after he feels he went too far with a joke about
his alcoholism, and getting a bit tense when offered wine at the Schnee dinner party, are
perfect to show Qrow overcoming his struggle. (would’ve liked conversations about it but fine)
It’s also nice because, especially in shows targeted for teens and young adults, most
of the time older adults in media tend to be one-note archetypes rather than fully-fleshed out
characters of their own. Almost like once you pass 30 or 35, you're either not allowed to be a fully
fledged character, or your story is set in stone, and you're pretty much barred from any kind
of development or depth. You become a tool for the younger characters, and nothing more.
So to see someone like Qrow get an entire arc to realize the error of his ways and that there
is hope for him… it’s sincerely amazing. Other older characters like Ghira and Kali had flat arcs
to help Blake’s arc along, and that would’ve been fine for Qrow. Honestly, that was enough for him
back in Volume 3. But I think Volume 5 showcased how in Qrow’s case, a flat arc for him kinda makes
him feel irrelevant. Even if it had been done right, I can still see people wondering why he’s
even here, and why CRWBY didn’t just kill him. Yeah, it’s kinda a meme that people want Qrow
to die to raise the stakes and make Ruby go “I guess the world IS cruel…” Even though she
already knows this? Sometimes I wonder if y’all realize Ruby’s not this naive little girl blind
to the world’s problems, but I digress. But I will admit I was on the “Qrow’s totally gonna be
the mentor who dies” train until Volume 7 came along, and now I can’t help but find that
approach incredibly cynical and reductive. It dismisses the fact that no matter how
old you are, or what you’ve been through, you can turn things around for the better and
learn to love yourself. And I think that’s why Clover’s friendship with Qrow has resonated with
so many people, even those who view the pair as a platonic bromance and nothing more. Rarely do
you get these healthy adult friendships in media, ESPECIALLY between men, where they actually
have a legitimate bond that connects them, and they encourage each other to be
better people and to be vulnerable. And yes, Clover following orders and being
too arrogant in his Semblance for his own good is a good writing choice, despite its
nasty implications which we’ll get into in the Lucky Charms section, but I think it’s more
than that. Losing probably the best friend he’s ever had, partially because of his own
actions, is devastating for Qrow, and, as many people have posited, threatens
to undo all the progress he’s made. But I sincerely hope they don’t go that route.
Yes, it is realistic that many people relapse and don’t get better, but I think in a show that’s
all about finding the light in the darkness, now is the time for Qrow to really prove he’s
learned that despite the misfortune all around him, some of which his Semblance naturally
creates, and despite the fact he can still lose people he cares about, that’s no reason to
give up and go back to how he was before. In fact, it’d kinda be a spit in the eye to the people
he cares about, not only the ones still here, but especially ones he’s lost like Clover.
If Qrow were to turn back to alcohol, I’m 100% certain Clover would forcibly come back
from the dead to knock some sense into him and go, “I did not fucking die for you to go back
to that miserable way of living.” So, yeah, their friendship is great, I’m proud of how
far Qrow’s come, and I genuinely hope that even if he might relapse, he’ll ultimately
come through stronger than ever before. Also the fact he’s now voiced by Jason Liebrecht
really helps to convey he’s starting over and becoming a better person. Jason’s performance
is far better than Vic’s in terms of letting Qrow emote and sounding like a world-weary
guy beyond the edgy, gruff antihero I think a lot of people superficially view Qrow as and
want him to remain as. That is just a shell Qrow created to survive his self-hatred,
and I think he’s much stronger than that husk. Plus est en vou, Qrow. Plus est en vou.
Representation matters. There is no debating that fact. Stories are meant to reflect the truths
of the world and our realities, and there are a plethora of accounts that representation of
people of color, LGBT+ people, disabled people, and so on can help to paint general perception
of them… for better, or worse. Like, if you personally don’t know anyone as part of
some of these groups, media representation might be your only avenue for exposure to them to see
them as familiar rather than alien, and exposure which normalizes these groups helps to curb
harmful misconceptions, biases, and prejudices. Usually when people who aren’t members of
these groups hear about representation, though, they tend to get a little… cage-y. They
believe there’s this false dichotomy where you must either have a set number of each group
represented… *motorcycle* or a motorcycle I guess? OR good writing. And they also think you must
have a plot reason for these people to exist, nevermind the fact that characters never require
a plot reason to be white, able-bodied, straight, and so on; in fact, that’s the default most
writers go with, but don’t quite realize because, again, this is painted by their own
experiences, many of which lack in exposure to these underrepresented groups as normal
people. And we all have this to some degree. Though there is contention as to whether RWBY
should be considered an anime, a discourse which I literally do not fucking care about because it’s
so trivial it numbs my brain, it’s been clear from Day 1 that RWBY pulls inspiration not only from
general storytelling tropes and classic fairy tales, but also anime. Most often people tend to
lean towards it being shonen because… well, guns, actions, and death. Though I’d argue RWBY has much
more in common with the Magical Girl archetype, something my friend Alex and I have discussed
at length before, hi Alex, you’re welcome and I hope you finally feel validated that
I’m willing to be crucified for you. Magical Girl animes, as their name implies,
follow a team of female main characters, and while many of them feature a lot of action,
and in the case of Madoka Magica, yes, guns, they tend to focus more on the emotional journeys
of the characters, and emphasize the strength of their bonds. Sailor Moon, the most notable
example of a Magical Girl lead who helped to popularize the genre, literally draws her power
from the love she has for everyone around her. Compare that to RWBY, where as the story has
become more complex, the action has taken a bit of a back seat, especially during the Anima Arc,
in favor of the character arcs. And when we do have action, it actually tends to be relevant to
the plot and especially character arcs… ya know, most of the time. “I’m more than a name!”
And before y’all ask about the transformation aspect, that’s more of a
superficial feature rather than an inherent need for Magical Girl shows.
The reason I bring this all up is because anime, especially Magical Girl anime, has actually been a
little bit ahead of western animation in terms of LGBT rep. Sailors Uranus and Neptune from Sailor
Moon are the most obvious example as a romantic lesbian couple. While they do kinda fit the usual
stereotype of same-sex couples where one partner is technically more masculine while the other
is more feminine, Uranus actually crossdresses a bit in the manga and Crystal adaptation
as Tuxedo Mask, and even flirts with Usagi, who… oh she is definitely somewhat into it.
Then you’ve got other animes featuring same-sex couples like Cardcaptor Sakura, Revolutionary Girl
Utena which has a field day with gender roles, and, again, Madoka Magica. If you’re complaining
about SJWs and their Radical Gay Agenda invading anime via RWBY, then uh… you might wanna sit down
and look into some of your anime history, friend, cuz Japan was on that shit a long time ago.
Note that Cardcaptor Sakura, though, is the only example with a male-male relationship; men
loving men, or MLM for short. Granted, we do have Zoisite and Kunzite in the ‘90s anime adaptation
of Sailor Moon, and Fish Eye as a transgender woman, but uh… both are kinda dodgy with their
reliance on old stereotypes, and in the latter category, there’s some predator vibes going on.
But I bring this up because when we talk about LGBT representation in particular, the
conversations tends to group all the Ls, the Gs, the Bs, the Ts, and all those filthy, FILTHY Qs,
as a single fungible unit, rather than individual groups with some overlap, that kinda… don’t get
a long all that well. And that’s not even taking into account overlap with other marginalized
groups because life is complicated, y’all. And I get the intimidation that a lot of people,
especially straight, cis people, might have towards all this, cuz no one ever really sat any
of us down and was like, “Here’s a handy dandy guidebook on the complexities and fluidities of
sex, gender, and attraction.” Fuck this even goes for other forms of representation, as a good
friend of mine who has autism has been helping me to represent autistic characters in my own
stories, as well as characters with disability, because before that I was incredibly nervous I
would wind up creating harmful representation that hurts the people I want to help.
But often times, the most important discussions we need to have are very difficult and very
complicated, and the best we can do is be honest, listen to those who experience these issues
firsthand and know more shit than we do, and if we fuck up, apologize and try to do better going
forward. Fuck, the thought of writing this section nearly gave me a fucking ulcer from stress in what
any kind of backlash might look like. Not only from the usual people screaming in the comments
about how I’m a degenerate and a genetic dead-end, but also from MLM fans who are genuinely upset and
feel I’m being too charitable trying to explain this issue to CRWBY at all, along with other fans
who are like, “C’mon, you’re being too harsh, Qrow and Clover are clearly just bros, calm
down, sit down, and get over it.” So uh… yeah, I’ve prepared my whiskey den in advance…
and by whiskey I mean pizza, soda, and all 8 seasons of Winx Club because I hate alcohol
but I need something unhealthy to cope with. But I say this because honestly, RWBY, up
into Volume 7 Chapter 12, had stellar LGBT representation (HA!), and currently, its LGBT
rep is still up there with the likes of Steven Universe (NO IT DOESN’T) which, yes, we do like
in this house, please have mercy upon my lack of a soul in the comments. Blake and Yang
have had a slow burn, lowkey romance going on since Volume 1 that really started in Volume
2 (not explicit enough for me now), with Blake suggested as bisexual where Yang… well,
the debate on whether she’s a lesbian or perhaps bi or pan itself is rife with a lot of
emotion, so let’s not even go there for right now cuz there are other hills I can die on.
But there’s also Ilia being revealed as a lesbian, Coco, a fashionable lesbian who sadly is only
demonstrably gay in After the FallJaune’s siter Saphron along with her wife Terra and their
son Adrian (An interracial female-female married couple, fuck yes), May, a trans woman,
the First Mate character from Volume 4 who’s actually nonbinary, and… Scarlet. We’ll
come back to this. Oh and there’s also potential for Ruby to be asexual (Romantic
orientation’s up to interpretation), and Weiss to be demisexual given her, uh… not being
totally against hooking up with her Waifu Pyrrha. So, RWBY has had a pretty good track record with
LGBT representation (HA!), most often LGBT women, which is great given they’re a far less privileged
group than LGBT men, as best encapsulated by ContraPoints’ most recent video where she
came out as a trans lesbian, killer of TERFs and transmedicalists, whomst we stan. “Whomst we
stan. OH WE STAN!” (ContraPoints, Gender Critical) But the show did come under fire, primarily
from homophobes after meeting the Cotta-Arcs and further suggestions of Bumbleby as a romantic
pairing defeating and killing their abuser and tormenter (in which the race coding was erased,
OOF). But it also resulted in a lot of headaches. Because, you see, one of the YouTubers, whomst
is… well, maybe not bad, but like, is a tad yikes but like again there’s no handbook for this
shit so time for a crash course on the Gays, basically argued that Bumbleby and the Cotta-Arcs
weren’t impressive rep because, supposedly, it’s more socially acceptable and, therefore,
easier to represent female LGBT characters because of a little thing called… commodity fetishism.
The argument basically goes that because straight men like women, they think women being with women
is the pinnacle of eroticism, and therefore while some of them might not like gay people and argue
they don’t deserve equal rights, they will touch themselves while fetishizing lesbians and lesbian
couples. Ergo, rep of LGBT women is theoretically more readily accepted because 4Chan will fawn
over them in-between all the homophobic slurs. Now I could have a field day with why this does
not apply to the LGBT representation in RWBY, and it’s an incredibly superficial and shallow
examination of LGBT representation and general audiences’ response to it, and also kinda
minimizes the shit LGBT women go through on a day to day basis, I’d also rather just… not even give
it the merit of being worthy of fully debunking because it has had some really creepy implications
of LGBT women and I am not havin’ my gay sisters subjected to that shit, y’all are queens.
Plus they also made the argument that it’s okay for JNPR to date within the team cuz they’re
minor characters, but somehow romantic ties among main characters is forbidden because… I don’t
know, I guess romance ruins us as people and makes us forget everyone else in our lives. I
don’t know, straight folks have a very weird perception of romance as obligatory and miserable
that I’m just never going to understand, nor will I ever want to. Why do y’all view romance as this
horrible thing that turns you into a shit person? But coming out of Volume 6, that complaint
was a major drive of anti-Bumbleby sentiment, painting this narrative that CRWBY were simply
using LGBT rep as bait to lure in LGBT viewers, and that LGBT viewers were just idiots who
should just accept that no one likes them and go back into their quiet corner until they
stop existing. At least, that’s what a lot of the comments under my Volume 6 review told me. It’s
hard to translate the language of the gremlins. So while I never wanna humor this comment, it is
true that different forms of LGBT representation are important because the LGBT community is
not a monolith. And it’s true that any gay representation in general is rather shoddy in
media as a whole. In particular, transgender representation is practically nonexistent, while
nonbinary representation is… actually nonexistent. But seeing the LGBT rep in RWBY extend beyond
cis gay people is something I encourage. Having May as a canonically transgender woman is
great, but I do wish that were mentioned in a way in the show to make sure it was undeniable to all
viewers, so people knew their waifu was indeed a revolutionary trans icon. And Scarlet… he’s only
hinted at not liking women, and by extension gay, in the Red Like Roses anthology, while in the show
proper he’s a non-character so thanks I guess? So enter the hopes that CRWBY, in wanting to
do more for LGBT rep, hiring new writer Kiersi Burkhart who would theoretically help given
her inclusion of LGBT rep in her own books, and uh… this. “Lucky you.” “Lucky
you, huh?” God I regret so much… Now before I go any further, we need to establish
why some people interpreted Lucky Charms as romantic and legitimately believed it would
become canon, and why what happened to Clover has caused an incredible amount of backlash.
Because regardless of the writers’ intentions, that is a reality we must deal with. There are
a LOT of people, LGBT and otherwise, many not even MLM, who saw Lucky Charms’ interactions as
romantic, and fuck, still read them that way. And yeah, part of that is in the fact we came
off a volume where we really, REALLY wanted the show to have some good MLM rep to go along with
the rest of its LGBT rep to prove certain folks wrong. But it did genuinely mean a lot to certain
people who have felt like media has always either excluded them, or told them their lives were
going to be miserable and end in tragic deaths because of who they are and who they love.
Now I mentioned earlier why I’m down for Qrow and Clover as a potential friendship,
but I will recap: rarely do you see straight men being openly affectionate with one another
because… apparently being nice is gay. Like, no matter how much you’re into women, if you’re a
dude and you tell another dude you care about them and want to help them become a better person, you
are, in fact, a gay. Which is just… ridiculous, and we do need more examples of positive
straight mle friendships in media to combat this, but that is also working in tandem with good
LGBT representation, including MLM rep, and… that’s actually where the issues kinda crop up.
One of the major arguments I have seen following what’s happened is people saying that Qrow
and Clover were clearly just having a platonic bromance and nothing more, and that people are
projecting what they want onto their dynamic, which… I mean, yeah, that tends to happen when
people bring their own experiences to media, especially when their version of a
bromance is… literally just a romance. But what unnerves about this is a hand waving
away of the romantic reading of Lucky Charms, without taking into account why people read
them that way. And I think this is where the root folly of the miscommunication lies, cuz
that’s what this really is. Miscommunication. The writers wanted a bromance, maybe make it
a little flirty, and didn’t realize that a lot of people would view it as romantic, and
cling to it as the representation they have been craving for… their entire lives. Which is
odd, namely because of how well they’ve usually done with representation in the past. (HA!)
Hell, fan favorite Pilot Boi was going to be gay back in Volume 5, but they decided gainst that
when other members of CRWBY pointed out the issue of Pilot Boi being the first openly LGBT character
of the show only to die immediately. The issue here is the old Bury Your Gays trope, where LGBT
characters die at a higher rate disproportionately than their straight counterparts, suggesting
LGBT people are just closer to death I guess, or that perhaps subconsciously, they’re
more disposable to the people writing them. Miles even expressed some regret in not sticking
to Pilot Boi being gay after seeing how much the fandom loved him, which uh… Miles I love you but
no. This is where we really have to start our sit down, because it’s clear to me that while
the writers are really trying to do their best when it comes to LGBT representation, they
might not fully understand what they’re doing, again because SOMEONE DIDN’T HAD OUT GUIDEBOOKS.
But really, the reason why Pilot Boi being gay and dying was a bad call, despite his popularity, is
because that reinforces to gay viewers that they are more likely to face tragedy, which can
reaffirm a lot of negative narratives they already have drilled into them by their real
life surroundings. Representation is as much normalizing these people as well as reaffirming
to these people that they do belong, and that they are seen and acknowledged and deserve happiness.
So our Lucky Charms problem is kinda a result of the writers wanting a bromance for Qrow, but
not taking into account the LGBT reading some viewers indeed had. All the winking, the
flirtatious comments, the parallel to the Higanbana waitress. Gods I regret pointing this
out. Guess I just have to use the Gay Fool’s Guide to Heternormative Readings of Media… again.
Ah fuck I’m pretty sure I burned it actually. And also the fact people have wanted a love
interest for Qrow with some sort of good luck Semblance for years to balance his bad luck
out, coupled with the fact there have been mady bisexual readings of Qrow, because… well… look,
gays are just really good at finding our own, okay? We have to be if we wanna ask
someone out without getting punched. So my issue with the outright dismissal is this
idea that even despite the fact many LGBT people saw Lucky Charms’ interactions as romantic,
that they… shouldn’t have? That they should’ve just known these were two bros were actin’ flirty
but really are totes straight because… of course the default is straight? I’m seeing this a lot
from allies as well, along with non-MLM fans, and that is… well, it kinda feels like a
betrayal, honestly. It feels like they don’t really understand why so many people read
romantic implications into Lucky Charms, and thus, that they don’t really understand
LGBT viewers’ reactions and interpretations, nor do they prioritize listening to them.
But I feel for the writers, their concern is more along the lines where if they were
to see how much this meant to gay audiences, and shoot it down as a possibility, that creates
its own problems. When really, that actually would have avoided all of this in the first place.
Either in-show, having Qrow and Clover talk about their flirty banter and having an honest
conversation about their feelings being romantic, platonic, or somewhere in the middle, or
just outside canon where it’s clarified this was intended as a bromance, and that gay
audience should not get their hopes up for this, because representation is infinitely more
important than potential minor spoilers. So the writers should have made it clear
in one way or another that Lucky Charms was not bound for canon waters to avoid
reinforcing bad narratives about LGBT men, and, if y’all are watching now, I understand
you mean well, but I am going to be honest and say… ya kinda fucked up. And I’m not trying to
cancel or shame them either, because that’s not going to help anyone except fueling people’s
short-term anger and need for retribution. No. I want positive long-term change on a systemic
level, and for that to happen, we need as honest and nuanced a discussion as possible. Hence
why this section is so long, Jesus Christ. So I tell you this, Miles, Kerry, Eddy, and
Kiersi, because I do respect you, and I know you’re capable of better. Wow this sounds super
condescending, I am sorry, I did not mean it that way. But I do hope that I’m able to get this
across in a more palatable, understandable way. If you want to get LGBT representation right,
you have to talk to these people and learn about their experiences with how media normally
represents or ignores them, and you have to take into account what your priorities should be.
Because in truth, disappointing people early on that a same-sex pairing won’t happen and
being honest about that, is infinitely more important than not wanting to spoil things for
them, especially if it prevents them from being horribly shocked by something you have planned
later on. It inadvertently reaffirms to certain parts of the audience that no matter what, who
they are destines them to a life of unhappiness, and a tragic, violent end. Because
in reality… that’s kinda what it did. However, this isn’t all on the writers. In fact,
the main contributor to the Lucky Charms discourse and the idea they’d become canon has come from
other avenues, namely other members of CRWBY, and especially the marketing teams for the
official Twitter page and Amity Arena. Now, for the animators, many of y'all are LGBT
yourselves, and I know not all of you are privy to what’s happening in the story, so rather
than name individuals, I’m just going to address y’all as a collective. This is also to protect
you individually from the internet going wild, because… honestly, that’s just gonna make shit
worse. Please don’t attack people over this, my dear viewers, or else I WILL find smite
you. God I can’t believe I have to say that. This kinda goes hand-in-hand with my request of
the writers to be upfront and honest on whether a pairing is meant to be interpreted as LGBT,
or just a very emotionally vulnerable straight friendship. If animators are making comments
about making these two’s interactions as gay as possible, or they’re doodling fanart of the
pairing, then they kinda need to know whether or not the pairing IS LGBT or not. Because in any
case, people are going to see their comments and fanart, nd it will on some level resonate with
them that it has the potential to become canon. And yes, this is a tricky conversation to have,
because telling animators they’re not allowed to ship characters or make cute fanart is fucking
totalitarian. But when it comes to representation, it is always better to be safe than sorry.
Whether it’s someone in the cast saying bi is fly in regards to the possibility of Qrow being
bi (Not directly saying he is, but also suggesting he might be?), or it’s animators talking about
making friendship scenes as gay as possible, please… just be more careful with what
you suggest going forward, and writers, please make sure everyone’s on the same page.
But then… the marketing. All the tweets promoting Lucky Charms as a pairing, and even the in-app
descriptions for Clover in Amity Arena. These are where the suggestion of the pairing as
a couple really ramps up, and really sold a lot of MLM fans in particular that this
pairing had the makings to becoming canon. One of my Patrons, who has been devastated from
all of this to the point he wishes he’d never gotten into the show, described how he bought
a card pack just to get Clover specifically because of all the teasing and hinting at
Clover being LGBT, in-show and from CRWBY, only to get double charged and, rather than
getting his money back, got an extra pack instead. An extra pack he now wishes he didn’t have.
And all of this has resulted in a shit show, where you have not only homophobes saying the gays
were dumb for thinking they’d get representation and that they should just shut up and go way,
this time by one of the YouTubers whomst is absolutely awful, but also a divide between
upset MLM fans who are so blinded by their anger, which IS valid and righteous, that they’re
attacking CRWBY and anyone who defends them, and also people saying Lucky Charms was obviously
never going to happen and to be upset about what happened is actually the real problem.
Then you’ve got MLM fans who felt betrayed, and in the worst case scenarios,
traumatized by all of this chaos, and we even have MLM fans who either didn’t read
romantic implications into the relationship, or they did but downplayed them because
they’re used to not getting the rep they want, and trying to fight against the MLM backlash,
because they’re worried it reflects badly on all of us… which I mean it does, but also, I can’t
help but feel you’re kinda focusing on the wrong target and putting a band-aid on a flesh wound.
Then you have all the people in the middle, who saw this as a very complicated misunderstanding
wrought by very poor choices by ultimately decent people, who keep trying to bridge the divides
so we can all feel better, come to terms, and move forward together, only to get shit from…
everyone. *nervous laughter* God I wanna die. The reason I bring all this up, and why I even
wanted to carve out an entire section to discuss this, is because… representation is important
to me. As a gay. I want creators to do better in representing people who aren’t like them, so
it can both help those who are underrepresented and marginalized feel comfortable in their own
existences and not wonder if they’re valid or not, while also showing people who are already
represented that these people are just as human and normal as them. It is a slow method of
weeding out prejudice, but it is a powerful one, and one that’s honestly intrinsic
to stories as something that can unite us and show us the truths of the world.
RWBY is probably one of my favorite shows… ever, and its LGBT representation is genuinely
impressive (HA!), but it… fucked up. It doesn’t make CRWBY monsters, not at all. But
it is something we need an honest dialogue on, and I’m hoping this might serve as the
start of one, specifically once I adapt this section into its own video later on to make
it easier to find for people who want to talk specifically about the Lucky Charms Disaster.
I denounce the people who are trying to get #FuckCRWBY going, because I’m never going
to believe in shame. Both because it only leads to more problems in the grand scheme and
undermines every good thing we’re working towards, and also because it’s just a shitty fucking thing
to do, even if you feel righteous while doing it. So if you’re one of those people… well, I don’t
know what I can say, or if you’re even still here after leaving an angry comment about how I’m
a traitor to my fellow MLMs, but if you stuck around, I’d like to thank you, and please to
ask yourself… what do you want out of this? Because I feel like your answer should probably
be better representation, which we are not going to get out of attacking people, including
other fans trying to deescalate the situation. However, they aren’t the root problem of all of
this, they are a direct result of the problem, which is CRWBY’s bad handling of Lucky Charms
in an otherwise great volume. And I think the best we can hope for is this becoming a learning
experience for everyone involved. So the best way to move on is for someone to sit down and make
a dumb fucking video essay about why this all happened in a way hopefully the writers and other
members of CRWBY can understand withut feeling like it’s from someone who wants them guillotined.
And… well, I hope I did my part well. Speaking for an entire group of people is kinda hard because
I’m just a dumb gay nerd who likes things that make me sad. And if I fucked up… well, please have
mercy, I tried. And I wrote this all in one-go while having major anxiety, listening to Lindsay
Ellis’ video on why Game of Thrones became shit, and also in the midst of a bad headache on a
depressing rainy day, and probably recording when I’m also tired as fuck and wondering what
the fuck I think I’m doing. Ironically the usual Anti-SJW crowd is the least of my worries.
But uh… yeah. I think at this rate, some kind of official statement regarding the
Lucky Charms Incident, making the writers’ intentions for the pairing being platonic
clear, while apologizing for inadvertently implicating their romantic potential for fans
desperate for representation, with a promise to not only avoid this miscommunication going
forward, especially through other members of CRWBY as well as the marketing divisions, but
also a promise to deliver on LGBT rep going forward, specifically MLM representation.
And I’ve also been asked to bring up what many LGBT fans upset about the situation,
especially MLM fans, have been hoping for: that Clover be brought back via the Staff of
Creation. Whether it’s a matter of equivalent exchange that you need a life for a life, or if
it’s similar to how Penny could return from death, people just want Clover back, because they
feel like what happened to him was unjust, and to them, nothing else can make things right.
And imma be real… I don’t know how I feel about this. To me, when you start undoing death in your
story, you almost always kill any and all stakes, and the story crumbles from there in a matter of
seconds. Penny’s case is the only situation where I find it perfectly acceptable, and that’s only
because of the very specific context around her. But I feel like I owe the people who are hurt who
I’ve talked to a chance for their case to be made and heard. Whether anyone listens, that’s beyond
my control. And it especially feels futile given Volume 8 has been completely written at this
point, but ya know what… it was worth a shot. It’s uh… it’s complicated, and I hope I didn’t
come across as an angry gay tyrant who wants to bathe in the blood of the straights,
nor like an MLM fan who’s invalidating the genuinely good representation already
present in the show like Bumbleby or the Cotta-Arcs (hehehe…), nor some kind of traitor
who’s giving the baiters a pass. I’m just a dumb bitch who wants everyone to get the fuck along
and work together to form a coalition to end capitalism and cover everything in glitter.
Welp, that was wild. Imma go take a nap now, future self who wrote this conclusion, take the
reins because right now I’m ready to fuckin’ die.
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Unicorn's voice makes me enraged for some reason and I can't tell you why. He just sounds so ungodly smug every time he talks
Why does UoW talk like he's miserably failing at mimicking a Black woman?
I take his videos with a grain of salt because he only cares about representation not the actual story. For instance the "if he was gay he should've live, but if not he can die" clearly shows he only cares about a character if they are gay.
.....other then the fact i want to slam my head into a wall. Nope. Because i could not get through a hour and a half of "saying so much yet saying so little" is how i would put it.
I’m not sure how I feel about this video? It’s not a terrible vid, but there’s some elements that just don’t feel right to me? First of all it takes him waaaaay too long to actually talk about lucky charms. The first 20 minutes is basically just Unicorn explaining Qrows’ entire character, a brief history of LGBTQ representation, and an oddly long amount of time explaining Sailor Moon? (Like I get what he was saying about it, I just think it could’ve been cut down a lot.) But the part that’s got me feeling conflicted is his ultimate verdict on Clovers’ death. He basically implies that if Clover was meant to be gay, he should’ve lived since gays die a lot in other media (apparently? I haven’t noticed this much before tho?) OR if Clover was meant to be straight then its okay for him to die but that also means his interactions with Qrow should’ve been a lot less meaningful.
I thought the implied romance was always intentional to make the tragedy of Clovers death be more impactful. I also found it weird that Unicorn talker at length how Qrow and Clover meant a lot since they’re RWBY’s first gay representation, yet he ignored Scarlet? He even brings up Scarlet a couple of times in the video but never gives a good reason as to why he seemingly doesn’t count like how Qrow and Clover does? He says Scarlet isn’t a main character, but the trans character and a lot of the lesbian characters he talks about aren’t main characters either? I don’t know, the whole video feels very unfocused to me.
TLDR: Unicorn seems to imply that it’s okay that Clover died, but only if he was more coded straight?
This is why it’s so frowned upon when someone on Twitter, Instagram, whatever, goes “ThIs ShIp Is CaNnON.” Never say that a ship is Cannon until it’s shown otherwise. Even if it DOES look Cannon to someone, you’ll never know what’s gonna happen. Take Akame Ga Kill for example. Almost all of Nightraid PLUS Esdeath want to bang Tatsumi and only ONE managed to do it while the others died off. and if we go by the Anime, even the lucky winner (that being Mine) dies and so does Tatsumi. How do you think Tatsumi x Chelsea fans felt when they saw this https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/akamegakill/images/2/2a/Chelsea_death.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20141104220304. Or Tatsumi x Sheele fans when seeing this https://pa1.narvii.com/5727/a0dee1b4a268a215b12efeba1e333dcf5c9c66a4_hq.gif
I think that people being invested in these two characters interactions and hoping for representation, especially with the amount of promoting these two characters get through the whole crew and advertisement. .. I think it’s fine if folks are upset. There are a lot of criticism is to be made about the show… I don’t know why criticisms from a minority em is seen as so blatantly over analytical or even “childish whining”, when something they’ve been asking for for over five years has continuously been ignored? You either get characters we never see again, or you get characters fridged.
Wanting more representation is the same as wishing the plot made sense. It’s both valid in my eyes, and like, don’t make a character flirt with another character so obviously to the point that heterosexual males on YouTube would agree that it’s flirting, and then kill off the character before anyone even gets to know him his aspirations, his goals, his background...
I mean, as an ironwood & qrow fan, I get it. Fans of Clover got fucked over .
And just like Ironwood and Qrow, it wasn’t even in a way that made sense. It was like in a completely avoidable way.
5:21 - 5:47 Really spoke to me. I think that’s primarily why I was upset with Clover’s death. It was wholesome to watch. Trust Love made it seem like we’d be getting a lot of interactions this seasons steeped in hope, self-love, and trust...
But uh...
Yeah...