Rwby Volume 3 - Tumblr Posts
yang: after we got to the city, she just...ran.
ruby: but, why?
yang: and I don't care.
Rwby v8 spoilers!!!
This is a cinder hate account
WHY IS NOBODY TALKING ABOUT RWBY?!?! I STARTED IT YESTERDAY AND RN I JUST FINISHED VOLUME 7 GONNA START THE LAST TWO VOLUMES AND WTFFFFFF?????!!!!! THIS SHOW NEEDS PRAISE! THE STORY IS TAKING ME AWAY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (update i finished the series in two days and now i cant get it out of my head SEND HELP-)
Pyrrha's death and the Achilles Allusion
RWBY v3 was a shallow volume. It was a volume rushed to allow for RWBY to transition to something more 'mature' in the eyes of the writers. A good example of this is Pyrrha's death, and the writer's surface-level understanding of the Achilles story.
The Achilles Heel myth has become more famous than Achilles himself. On the level of popular culture I'm not sure most people are aware that in the Iliad Achilles survives to the end of the tale. Others may say that Achilles dies in the Odyssey or in the stories that follow the Iliad in depicting the Trojan War. I personally believe those stories are the Ancient Greek version of Fanfiction, but that's for another post.
The Iliad is, I believe, a story about masculinity. In the absence of Achilles, the most Achaean of all Achaeans, from the war. Each of the Greek Heroes, and Hector, attempt to prove their masculinity by feats of military prowess. But through the war, the Greek Heroes prove inadequate to the task. Royal lineage, cunning, wisdom, brute strength. All of these fail as the war is taken to the Greek Ships and Achilles puts the other Greek Heroes in their place when he takes revenge for Patroclus's death.
But even as Achilles proves himself as the greatest Achaean through the second half of the Iliad, it is only when Priam humbles himself before Achilles that the Hero learns what being a man is really about. Showing compassion and honor in a war that had nearly destroyed both in the passing decade. As Hector's body burns in the pyre of his funeral rites a parallel 'death' of Achilles's rage occurs. The war doesn't end, but Achilles dies to this wrathful past and is reborn after finding peace regarding Patroclus's death.
The power of Achilles's story can only be seen through his life even though he was prophesied to die. After all, Achilles was a soldier in a war, and considering the mortality of humans in general, everyone dies sooner or later. But it is with this urgently imminent presence of death serving as a backdrop that makes Achilles' life so vital. He was going to die. So how was he going to live?
The story of Achilles is one of life. But what does RWBY do with Pyrrha?
"Hurr Durr, Achilles Tendon reference!"
