...Isn't the complete list of villains with prosthetics:
Mercury Black.
So good guys now outnumber them 2-1?
Don't forget Dr. Merlot with his synthetic arm and eye, and Cinder's treatment that is highly suggested to be a Grimm symbiont. And Tyrian for general maiming.
For all of theirs faults and the faults of their portrayals neither Yang nor Ironwood are villainous nor assholes.
Post volume 3 Ironwood I would agree. At best he's a hypocrite prior given that he claimed Ozpin keeping secrets was a problem (given that the bodyhopping appears to be one of them I agree) while not warning anyone about Penny. Or the camera/editing does its absolute best to make you think he is.
Post Volume 4 Ironwood is wonderful given the vast majority of media (for example Luke Skywalker only stayed a good guy with a story change of the final episode of the original trilogy. Even then his metal hand served as an indicator of how he was becoming like his father) and Mercury/Cinder. Also in general dismemberment/maiming has been Villains than heroes.
As for Yang I really wasn't kidding when I said she has a lot of villain imagery.
Yang is being contrasted and parallleled to...
Mercury: child of single parent, child of murderer/apple not falling from tree (see Raven's section), missing limbs with prosthetic.
Adam: temper, charge semblance with glowing, actual explicit comparison by Blake in 3x08.
Cinder: arm damages/maimed at Fall of Beacon, fire, more revealing outfit precious to maiming, more conservative after
Raven: face, sibling possibly elder, family rather than law morality oriented, mannerisms, personality (aka, temper, sass everything Tai mentioned if you think he's correct -personally I dispute the ambition) And reason for team/family being broken up. Raven is Raven but Yang was incapable due to her injury of following Ruby, and her injury from Adam seems to have been the tipping point for Blake running. And why Tai couldn't/chose not to go after Ruby immediately. Bonus being that Yang being newly born is likely the reason that Taiyang couldn't go after Raven the first time as well. And the last episode places the blame on the injury on her for being too dependent on her semblance.
General: Temper as anger has been treated as a negative, fire shared with Salem and Cinder but now we can place as a creation of the creator of Grimm, only one of the main four who has an explicitly selfish motivation for being a huntress. Only one introduced as a villain. Blake balked at mirdering the train crew, Yang took apart a nightclub. Villainous legacy as the show has been hammering the importance of Ruby following her mother's footsteps, while Yang has a long list of comparisons to Raven and not one character has mentioned actual differences between the two yet.
That's not what it does.
Yang's Semblance is part of her. If she wins because of her Semblance, then she wins. None of her previous victories are rendered null and void. You might as well dismiss Weiss' victories because she uses the Schnee Semblance, or Pyrrha's wins whenever she used Polarity. You might as well dismiss victories based on using weapons or Dust.
"How is me using my semblance any different from someone else using theirs?"
Not everyone else's is basically a temper tantrum.
Once you take damage you can dish it back twice as hard but that doesn't make you invincible. It's great when you're in a bind but what happens if you miss? What happens if they're stronger? What then?! Now you're just weak and tired…
Temper tantrum isn't a nothing word. Temper tantrums are associated with toddlers. Temper tantrums are something to be outgrown and discarded. Especially with how the last two episodes with Yang have gone back and forth upon whether she's seen as an adult or not by Taiyang. Add in how Taiyang starts asking what happens if it doesn't work and how he's calling a pattern with only two incidents (yes it happens more than that but Taiyang doesn't know that) makes Yang using it at all the problem.
I will stand by that Taiyang was correct in his criticisms of the limitations of the semblance (especially the too strong part as Yang has actually never taken down a foe by herself with a full on usage of it when there's a hair glow except when the writers cheated with a second charge up in the trailer), but I think temper tantrum is too strong and demeaning. for it to be just a less dependency talk. Especially with the follow up as it portrays the usage as a gamble without it actually being worth the risk.
The discussion is not in a vacuum. Yang is
portrayed as the dumb blonde sterotype to the hilt, which makes any future uses of the temper tantrum Yang being too idiotic or not good enough to find a way that isn't brute force.
The show draws attention to a short list with Yang; caring, temper, and when she fails. And Yang fails a lot and isn't actually portrayed as appearing well/competent.
- Trailer
- Tears up nightclub- inhabited with bouncers wearing red shades at night and dj's wearing bear heads. And ballroom dancers with atrocious dialogue.
- In comparison to the Grimn, Knight and robots.... it is less impressive selection of opponents.
- First Super Saiyan doesn't actually even take Junior out.
- Goes Super Saiyan second time from sheer anger/comedy (Two noticeable temper tantrum's)
- Volume 1
- Pleased for Ruby to be with her, doesn't know who Glynda is. (Dumb blonde sterotype starts early)
- "Ditches" Ruby to "hang out with friends"
- Later information makes it more apparent that Yang was trying to push Ruby out of the nest but first impressions count
- As for social, strikes out helping Ruby with both Weiss and Blake
- Incident goes with caring, temper and sets up seeds for Yang not liking to read. (Which may or may not be accurate depending on whose books were set on the side of the couch and if the books we saw on Yang's side of the room were intentional)
- Continued avoidance of being with Ruby which as Ruby is the show's protagonist plays into the aloof sibling trope. Which usually isn't an actually nice character.
- Flamboyant entrance, and Ursas destroyed with temper tantrum. (Yang triumph + Blake)
- Meltdown in the field with another temper tantrum.
- Fails to rescue Ruby from Deathstalker
- In contrast to Ruby, her original plan of just shooting the Nevermore down doesn't singe it.
- Fulfills part of the plan to take down Nevermore as the distraction. Team RWBY victory.
- Rudeness to Penny - chastisement from Blake
- Fails to find Blake/ doesn't make it to finale
- Volume 2
- Outright removed from the battlefield in the cafeteria battle
- Attention redrawn by having her reenter after cleanup
- Of some significance is the fact that Yang still being able to fight as she seemed to be able to shrug off everything was downplayed
- Card game, actually does well onscreen, rectified by having her lose to Neptune offscreen with Ruby chastising her plays.
- Strikes out information wise, and attention drawn to the attempt being completely non-productive.
- With Neptune first back up to arrive for Sun and Blake. Direction to Neptune leads to Neptune and Sun being removed from area.
- Actually attempts to get upon the Paladin's back out of range from the arms, gets absolutely pummeled for effort. (The former WF operative being concerned does points to the damage being significant)
- Notably jumped in without guidance from Ruby while everything else was coordinated.
- Does not destroy Paladin in one hit.
- Paladin taken down
- Charges after Torchwick and Neo - to no avail
- Gets Blake off her ledge, on the other hand does so with the reveal she nearly got her and Ruby eaten.
- I'm stressing this one as the entire scene is very drawn out and the narration very damning.
- This is Yang's big character moment that is actually a triumph and paints her in a good light and actually sets up her one apparent plot.
- One kill in Grimm montage to every one else's multiples outside of Vale
- Claim to least altruistic motivation and least drive/ambition
- Also used to set up Ruby's hero motivation
- Ruby goes missing on her watch
- One WF take down to every one else's multiples.
- K.O.ed by Neo and rescued by Raven
- Attempts to get altitude in Vale to be smacked down by Nevermores during an underground breach
- Kills a few Grimn via hitting a car to rest of team RWBY's multitudes/hold the line
- Volume 3
- Chases Arlan around on the ice while rest of the team basically dominates the rest
- Team projectile - Team RWBY victory
- As according to Emerald: "Bimbo"
- Given how elsewhere on the net, others started taking this at face value I can't really say that this had no effect upon perception
- Viewers are treated to a scene of her and only her looking back at the walking away Mercury and Emerald... with no payoff.
- Qrow burst bubble/talk down
- Qrow does treat Ruby and Yang like idiots for not realizing that no crime isn't usual - which makes me think he's more used to being a spymaster than a teacher as I'm not sure that is public or common knowledge.
- FNKI v RWBY
- Win by temper tantrum
- Weiss KOed preventing Yang KO
- Mercury v Yang
- Temper tantrum and frame up
- Someone pointed out that in the recording Yang walks around Mercury while from her perspective she walked straight. Until someone can explain how Emerald's semblance could make someone move differently without their knowledge, I'm on the Neo surrounded the isolated floating stage with an illusion wagon.
- Which colors my impression of the following events. I'm a believer in the right to defend one's self, and if Mercury was actually attacking...
- I don't see the leg breakage as unjustified but the immediate impression with the audience is decidedly negative.
- Yang Qrow discussion, lying or crazy.
- Reveals that Qrow has been in contact with Raven on and off and never found it important enough to tell Yang
- Yang is offscreen for the events up until the disastrous rescue of Blake.
- Disarmed and rescued by the one she tried to rescue.
- Tantrum.
- Return of Exposition duty and depression for unknown amount of time.
A great deal many of failed rescues, or failed responsibility. Yang's portrayal is largely negative, which makes me suspicious of anything that would make the portrayal worse.
Ultimately I am distrustful of taking anything Taiyang says without salt because if he's right about everything Yang is quite literally out of plot (and if he's wrong about anything his judgement is called into question due to how extreme a descriptor of temper tantrum is). The infamous temper has been essentially extinguished. A continued temper problem after the frame up (which Yang doesn't know wasn't a hallucination) basically stops any further character development as Yang's reputation is tanked for the rest of her life as is. Really Yang's been rolling over, passive aggressive and sass but no fire. Same with the over dependence on semblance. As to don't depend on your semblance too much, you can't exactly top losing an arm. Yang either learns from both events or the show has to explain why the smaller events were more effective lessons. And really there is a limit of how terrible someone's luck is before the audience stops caring.
As for new plots or character development: Taiyang is ignoring the PTSD, or at worst degraded it to "moping". The PTSD/adjustment plot is the newest possible plot and currently the one with the longest possible lifespan. Actually Taiyang is ignoring anything other than the arm and fighting. Ruby running off and everyone hitting the probable abandonment issues are ignored. Raven is only a plot by the barest of coincidences as why did she leave... to go back to the Tribe. Given how Raven has been going at Qrow for abandoning the same Tribe, Qrow could have told Yang why Raven left at any time for a while. New possible plots are Yang taking any words Taiyang says the wrong way (semblance = tantrum = don't use) or taking his comparison to Raven the wrong way (comparisons to a mass murderer without ever stating differences would be terrible on a mind)
This is also why I find the question of how a toddler and her two year older sister were able to get so far without anyone noticing interesting. As in the words of my father to my grandmother of his many misadventures "lack of sufficient adult supervision". Yang having to take over more responsibility than she should have with a tendency to blame herself for things going wrong is another character arc. Or Ozpin's overall role and morality as it adds another possible motivation for Raven leaving beside valuing the mass murder tribe above all else. (Though how often he is implicated in the soundtrack from all sides does not help his case in the slightest). If the writers had no possible ideas they literally could have killed Yang off last volume with Adam. You don't carry around dead weight and without any plot Yang is dead weight. Which would be strange with all the contrasts and comparisons one can make with the various villains for that to be incidental, but Yang would have to be given the chance to flip for that to come into play. Or have a bone to pick with the heroes for a legitimate reason to not be hackneyed.
Basically, something has to give for Yang to have story relevance to explain her not being killed off and if it continues the streak of Yang messing up, the audience is going to stop caring.
Sorry for the delay, bad connectivity and plethora of interruptions.
