The Brunswick Horror (script)

INTRO:

Whatever your opinions on Volume 6, most of the fandom seems to be in agreement that the best part of it all lies within the first half - most notably, Chapters 4 through 6: the Brunswick Arc. Brunswick Farms. (Volume 6 Chapter 4)

Seemingly rooted in the lore of Sleepy Hollow, when we were all first introduced to this mysterious town after the Giant Lore Dump, people went right to work on theories of what could be awaiting our heroes here. That it was home to the Headless Horseman - or in this case, Headless Nuckelavee - that Cthulhu was probably chilling in that well with MYSTERIOUS COLORS UNLIKE ANY SEEN ON EARTH, or maybe just a Roman backstory. Cuz… ya know… Brunswick? Torchwick? And this portrait? I mean we didn’t need it but like it would’ve been nice. Oh well.

Regardless, let’s dive a little bit deeper into these three episodes, and see just how they pulled off this story so well, and why RWBY as a whole seems to excel specifically in horror  movie tropes. Because… I’m lowkey trash for genre mixing.

POINT #1, Of Themes and Filler:

The most common complaint I’ve seen regarding this arc is that it’s filler. That it’s pointless, has nothing to do with the plot, and thus if it was removed, nothing would be changed. To which I have several points, the first of which is… things would have changed?

I feel like people misunderstand what filler actually is. Filler is any kind of content that… ya know, fills the space between plot events, and yeah, a lot of the time it’s just created to meet a certain number of episodes ordered, but filler also has the chance to develop the characters and world outside the constraints of the main story while also expanding on particular themes.

RWBY in particular could benefit a lot from more filler honestly, because if you look at each volume, there’s never much room for any events outside whatever the main plot is. This is especially apparent in Volumes 4 through 6, where the characters’ goals, be it getting to Mistral, securing the Relic of Knowledge, or whatever the case end up locking characters either on a set path or in place… an ugly house, mayhaps.

When you look back at Avatar: The Last Airbender, a lot of people’s favorite episodes are “The Tales of Ba Sing Se,” “The Beach,” “The Puppetmaster,” “The Ember Island Players,” all episodes that do great jobs with worldbuilding, character depthening and development, and even simply telling an engaging story to the audience - and all episodes that have very little to do with the overall plot of defeating the Fire Nation.

But the Brunswick Arc actually is connected to the main plot, in the sense that it’s the character’s trying to reignite their motivation to protect the world and the Relics from Salem despite the fact that they’ve learned that it’s literally impossible to destroy her. “There is no beating Salem.” (Volume 5 Chapter 11) Honestly for me the biggest blow is having to admit Raven was right, but that’s besides the point. Get outta here, Bad Bird Mom. “I’m sorry.” (Volume 5 Chapter 14) Anyways.

So, the Brunswick Arc is not filler, and even if it was, it still has a very strong connection to this volume’s themes of responsibility, actually giving a shit about the world because not caring makes you a waste of space and not some edgy intellectual, and sometimes your pseudo parental figures are apathetic alcoholics who need a good kick to the teeth. Ruby throws alcohol bottle. (Volume 6 Chapter 6)

Now that we’ve gotten that nitpicky bullshit outta the way, let’s carry on and actually begin discussing this story, because oh damn, it is so. Good.

POINT #2, Despair:

The reason Haven was saved and why Volume 5 was a victory, embodied by its theme song literally called “The Triumph,” is because it’s honestly the first time the heroes have had a true victory. Volumes 1 and 2 featured Team RWBY up against Not Really Big Bad Roman Torchwick, and unsatisfying as “Breach” was, that was kinda the point, because it lured them into a false sense of security leading into the slow decay before everything fell apart at the end of Volume 3 during the Fall of Beacon.

With the end of Volume 3, Team RWBY had been divided and scarred (Mentally, emotionally, and in Yang and Blake’s cases, physically), Penny, Pyrrha, and Ozpin were gone, and the villains had destabilized Vale and gotten the powers of the Fall Maiden on their side. Even with Cinder’s injuries, they still have the upper hand going into the Mistral Arc. Even Tyrian losing his stinger was bittersweet with Qrow dealing with the threat of succumbing to his venom.

But the reason Volumes 4 and 5 turned out so well for the protagonists ties into the overall themes of dealing with the darkness of the world. See, a lot of people seem to think that the terms realistic and pessimistic are synonymous, and even interchangeable. We tend to numb ourselves to pain because we expect the worst of any situation, and we believe that will make it easier for us to deal with that pain when it inevitably murders out entire family and stomps on our heart right before our eyes.

Basically, edgelords think being super pessimistic is cool and smart, when really… y’all are five. It’s the optimists who actually get shit done, which is why I’m behind the idea of Haven being a victory. Now how it was done, the only real part of that I love earnestly is Blake turning the tides with the Faunus militia and the Mistral police, for one part because it’s Blake returning to the battle having gotten her shit together - thank you Sun, you are best boi and I love you - and for the other part thank god a character was smart enough to contact the goddamn authorities.

Would it have been nice to have the villains be cocky and arrogant leading to their downfall - BA DUM TISH (Goddammit Barb!) - without them being complete morons? Yes. Would it be nice to have the heroes win the Battle of Haven through strategy and smart thinking instead of the villains tripping over their own shoelaces? Oh yes, I’d be down for that. But ultimately, Haven was meant to be a victory, and I am behind that.

Especially because with the high note going into Volume 6, things were bound to get worse. “Rising” is essentially a darker version of “The Triumph,” whose message is that even if we can’t win this fight, we are obligated to at least try because the alternative is to lay down and die, and that is not congruous with who we are. Once the characters learned of Ozpin’s lies and that Salem can’t be destroyed, it’s then their victory… means nothing.

Even with Haven saved, Salem herself can’t die. She’s immortal, and even if physically destroyed, she’ll simply regenerate in moments. And with her prepping an army to charge into Atlas herself at the end of Volume 7, if Salem manages to kill even more of our protagonists, take both the Relics of Knowledge and Creation, and kidnap Ruby and possibly Oscar, then the victory at Haven doesn’t impede whatever loss is awaiting in Atlas. In fact if Haven was a complete loss, we’d be completely numbed an audience and probably wouldn’t be as affected by another event like the Fall of Beacon.

And this despair our characters face, that all their efforts are likely in vain, is the perfect setup for the darkness that awaits them at Brunswick Farms.

POINT #3, Apathy (The Grimm and the Consequences of Giving Up):

RWBY has always seemed to do well whenever it applies tropes from your typical horror film. Mountain Glenn was unnerving, but the buildup to the Nuckelavee in Volume 4, and the entirety of the Brunswick Arc in Volume 6 are shining, or perhaps in this case dimming, examples of this approach.

The Brunswick episodes, particularly Chapter 6, employ excellent use of carefully choosing whether to even use a background score, lingering shots on the goddamn wine cellar… - Cellar shot (Volume 6 Chapter 5) When you need some beans but all you’ve got is shitty old basement wine - and… THOSE EYES THOUGH. Apathy eyes (Volume 6 Chapter 6). Okay yes, those eyes too, but I primarily meant these eyes. Dead eyes. (Volume 6 Chapter 6)

Here, the characters are tired, not only physically but mentally and emotionally. Blake and Yang have their own tensions at the thought of confronting Adam again, and Blake not understanding Yang’s desire for them to be equals in this fight because Blake’s trying so hard to make up for running away. Weiss isn’t exactly thrilled at the idea of returning to Atlas in the first place, but with this she’s probably thinking to herself “Well at least if we’re all going to die, maybe I could at least get the chance to kill Father and that damn Shitley.”

Oscar’s having an existential crisis in not only dying at Salem’s hands in this seemingly meaningless war, but also eventually losing himself and his mind to this lying fuck who basically hijacked his soul and brain without consent (And also still recovering from being punched and thrown into a tree by said liar’s ex because we can’t separate the creepy old wizard from the hapless farm child). And Qrow is… “Where do you think?” (Volume 6 Chapter 6) Qrow.

All of the characters are succumbing to the despair of their situation. Their motivations of saving the world have seemingly been quashed, and no one’s quite sure what to make of any of this. Even Ruby, the shining light of optimism and hope, seems to falter as the Apathy’s influence increases when she stands by the well, and as the others - also high on Apathy Kool Aid - try to convince her to just throw the lamp away and join them in their Give up and Let the World Burn Party. Valentina’s apathy. (gen:LOCK, Episode 3)

And this is where the Apathy come in, because unlike most other Grimm, they don’t simply attack your physically. Instead, they tear down your motivations, especially if you’re already filled with doubt, and once you’re weak enough and have completely given up the will to carry on, that’s when they finish you off. Or if they can’t reach you to do it themselves, they’ll simply keep you there until you let yourself waste away. The dead bodies. (Volume 6 Chapter 5) As someone who has issues in getting out of bed cuz I’m too lazy and comfy in the morning (Or early afternoon), I feel personally attacked.

The Apathy are the incarnation of… well, apathy. Of this mentality that because the odds are against you, because the world overwhelms you in just what a goddamn mess it is, that the best you can do is give up any hope of trying to fix things, keep to yourself, and lay down and rot. It’s essentially the Black Pill mentality of the Incel worldview as explained by our Lady and Queen ContraPoints, except in this case remove the entitled double standards on sex and the creepy perverted hatred of women.

And that worldview is very hard to escape from. Even if you do try to keep moving forward, there’s a very good chance that be it for external forces like the unjust society you live in, the toxic people that surround you, the YouTube algorithm recommending you videos that make easy bank on “Well actually, what you love is garbage, and you’re dumb for liking it, and also the world sucks because I said so” that take like 5 minutes to churn out, or just shitty YouTube comments calling you a dumb sheeple and a f***** apologist c***, or your own internal despair, self-loathing, and insecurities, you’ll relapse, take the Black Pill, and fall back into the darkness. And the thing is… the darkness is comfortable.

It accepts you for the fuck up you are, telling you that yeah, the world around you sucks, and offering comfort in reclusion and apathy. It’s so comfortable, in fact, that you don’t even notice the world around you falling apart, or the people you love genuinely hurting from the things you refuse to stop. You become numb to it all, slowly and slowly becoming more at peace within the shadows… until you’re gone.

But that… is where the light comes in.

POINT #4, Our World (Getting Real):

My last year of high school was… interesting. I was happy with who I was, surrounded by friends, and loving all my classes… okay, most of my classes. You see, where I went to school, you got to choose your Social Studies course for your last credit. Most people simply took basic Economics and then one of multiple Public Policy courses, be it in media studies, antisocial behavior, or even criminal justice. But dumb, stupid, naive little me had the most unfortunate idea of “Why not take A.P. Macroeconomics?”

For those unaware, macroeconomics is exactly what it sounds like: the study of large-scale economic trends, mostly when it comes to the U.S. You learn about interest rates, GDP, productivity, and the magical wonders of unregulated western capitalism.

And yes, it sucks. It fucking. Sucks.

The people in my class were great, and my teacher was a great guy as well. He even saw that I was slipping behind in my coursework and my mental health was not the best, and took efforts to try and help. The problem I had with the class was not any of that, but that it fundamentally challenged practically every worldview and value I held at that time.

At the time, I’d wanted to go to the Savannah College of Art and Design, study animation, and then… well, I don’t know, open a studio or something? But the point was that I wanted to do what I loved. I’d spent my whole life pretty much being told that whatever I wanted to do didn’t matter, and that the world would eat me alive. And ya know what… that opinion was right.

As an aside, I ultimately feel I made the right choice holding back and not sending myself into debt for a degree I wasn’t even sure I wanted. Despite all the shame I’ve faced, I know that if I had gone down to Savannah, I probably wouldn’t have written my book, I probably wouldn’t have started my channel, and… I would probably have an even bigger mental breakdown when my mom passed away.

But the primary reason I couldn’t go to SCAD was because I simply couldn’t afford it, and I knew that if I took out loans to go, I’d never be able to pay them back, because that’s how going to college works in the United States. Our entire system is designed to benefit the people at the very top, the people who hold all the cards, while the average people just trying to get by and enjoy life as pretty much screwed from the start. It’s also how our healthcare works; it’s how our workplaces work; unlike most other developed nations, this is how almost everything in our society operates.

And the thing is… macroeconomics made it very clear to me that this… was supposed to be a good thing. To the point where the financial crisis in 2008 was justified as “Oh, well if people didn’t want the economy to crash, then they should’ve known better to not take out mortgages they couldn’t afford.” Cuz ya know, when you get mugged it’s clearly your fault for walking into your assailant’s knife.

I’m a very egalitarian-minded person. My motto is live and let live. Ultimately, I believe that the people in most need in our society should be taken care of and given the chance to get back up on their feet without feeling ashamed of needing help. If you wanna start a business, great, but you gotta give your workers reasonable hours, wages, and benefits, and not send them into panics over crunch time and unexpected layoffs. Or if you just wanna live an average life at a standard 9 to 5 and nothing more… no shame. You shouldn’t have to work two or even three jobs just so you can scrape by.

But none of that is how our society operates. At least in the United States, we live in a hellhole where our taxes get funneled to some rich douchebags golden pizzas, 40,000 people die every year because they don’t have access to basic healthcare, our workers are treated like expendable garbage, while businesses that may try to treat their workers well are faced with obstacles trying to discourage them from doing so, and I can’t get decent Wi-Fi because a few monopolistic cable companies buy off Congress so that they don’t need to improve their service - cuz what’s the alternative?

So what the fuck does any of this sentimental flim flam have to do with my fake animu? Well I’ll tell you: it might not have to do much with the plot, but it has everything to do with theme. This… is our world. At least, in the U.S. This is the shit show we’re thrown into from birth, and expected to fight tooth and nail to survive in. We don’t have the Creatures of Grimm trying to kill us, but… we do have Blue Cross Blue Shield, and about a thousand other predatory insurance companies like it.

And I don’t know about you… but I don’t like our world. It’s filled with assholes, with greed; with bigots and pricks; with disgraceful scarcity constantly clashing with needless abundance; and people who hear you saying we should try to fix things, sighing, and telling you “... It is how it is.” Or even worse, saying that your attempt to address the evils of the world and wanting to fix them somehow makes you worse than the people you’re calling out?

Complacency and apathy go hand in hand. If you’re not the one in pain, or you’re at least not in as much pain as another, then radically changing things and challenging the status quo isn’t necessarily in your interest. At the very least, even if it is, you feel on some level endangered by change. Because change is scary; we could try to fix things and wind up making everything worse in the process, and… there are plenty of historical precedents for that.

But I’ll tell you this much: I’d rather try to make some kind of change and fail, than to have been complacent and apathetic, and simply wallow in it. And now, finally back to the actual goddamn show… is where the silver eyes start to shine.

POINT #4, Our Way (Escaping, Silver Eyes, & Keeping up the Fight):

“If you look for the light, you can often find it. But if you look for the dark, that is all you will ever see.” (Legend of Korra, Book 2 Chapter 10)

As we learn from Maria later in the volume, the silver eyes are somehow connected to the power of the God of Light. They only affect the Grimm, but their power is able to blind, petrify, or even vaporize these monsters, and they’re activated by the desire to protect life from destruction. Essentially, as silver in lore is often used as a source or arbiter of holy power, the silver eyes are basically the true power of all magical girls to defeat evil with the power of love. Ya know… actually giving a shit about people.

In this sense, rather than the dreaded “POWER OF FRIENDSHIP” we often see cheaply and lazily used in a lot of anime save the day without a second thought, here in RWBY we essentially have that trope expanded to fit the core theme of facing the dark of the world, and refusing to give into it. Ruby’s powers are the manifestation of her optimism and her love for the people around her; they are compassion given mystical power, because compassion is strength.

When Blake is put into danger, Ruby’s powers activate because despite the grim situation (GODDA-), the love she has for her friends can’t be extinguished. Rather than giving into the alluring promise of apathy, she instead tells it to fuck right off, grabs her friends, has her sort of girlfriend burn down this ugly-ass farm of bullshit, and takes off to cross the border illegally with her bisexual sister and traumatized cat girlfriend, all while telling her uncle that he’s being a fucking idiot, and he needs to get over himself, sober up, and help them not fucking die.

Ultimately, it is Ruby - the optimist - who saves the day. Had she not saved the group from the Apathy, with the help of Maria - a fellow Silver-Eyed Warrior who she later helps to rejoin the fight - Team RWBY would’ve been shredded by the Apathy, and Oscar and Qrow probably would’ve met the same fates as the farm’s residents, giving up - or in Qrow’s case, drinking his pain away - until both wasted away.

Even with the prospect that Salem can’t be defeated, Ruby and the others, having learned of the Apathy’s origins and how exactly Brunswick came to be destroyed from within, resolve to continue their fight anyway. Because as Pyrrha proved to them all, exhibited by the Mysterious Ginger when Team JNR catches up on the lesson, it is better to try and fail, and in this case, even die, than to have not tried at all. “It is what it is” is a lie, and apathy will seal your fate.

CONCLUSION:

No, RWBY is not the story of champagne socialism, but this overall theme of facing the darkness of the world and remaining an optimist in what you believe kinda works, don’t ya think? I mean, how many of us in the RWBY fandom have struggled at jobs we hated, not sure on what we wanna do with our lives just dreaming we could do what we love like Monty did? Or just struggled in not being able to go to RTX because DAMN YOU AMERICAN AIRLINES CHARGING ME ALL THESE EXORBITANT PETTY FEES.

At the very least, maybe in the near future, we could all try to take a page out of Ruby’s book and see the world through silver eyes. The things we ought to care about; the people who actually matter; and what we want our own world to look like. Unless that world looks like it was soaked in the nasty tar of 4Chan, in which case… I offer you a hug, a therapist, and a lot of domestic Bumbleby fan art. Lord knows you need it.

OUTRO:

Anyways if you enjoyed today’s video, and wanna see more content from me, then be sure not only to check out my other content, RWBY and otherwise, but also to please consider supporting the channel over on Patreon and / or checking out the links to my cursed book in the description below. I know I spent a while shitting on unregulated capitalism, but if I’m to survive in this system for the time being, I gotta not die. (But for the record Bernie 2020 yes I went there THE MAN BEFRIENDED A DOVE, WHAT MORE DO Y’ALL WANT)

I’m the Unicorn of War, and this has been a shit show.