Review: RWBY “The Lost Fable”

We get a creation myth of some sorts- or at least, how the world came to be.

Overview:

As per Ruby’s request, Djinn tells the party about Salem, and how she was crucial to the formation of the current world.

Our Take:

The story Djinn tells sheds some much-needed light on Salem; where she comes from, who she is, who she used to be, and what her goal is now. It’s much more interesting to hear of Salem as a person instead of just some vague and threatening evil, who once had a goal that was corrupted. Her plight is sympathetic- she wants her love back, but because of her determination, she ended up worse because of it.

Her lover and the cause of the tragedy was Ozma (funny, is that the original Ozma from the Oz series was a girl), who died young and ended up being a pawn in the gods’ plan. He is the arbiter of the world, the one in charge of keeping the relics safe, but also tasked with setting the world back on its course. The relics will foretell the return of the gods, but it’s not clear whether Ozpin wants to collect the relics again to keep them safe, or because. As for Salem, she’d likely want to keep collecting them to destroy them, as she wants the gods to stay away as long as possible. But if the relics are united, life will likely be destroyed, as there is so much turmoil in the world that the results wouldn’t be good.

The creation story of the current world is truly tragic, one that was a small tragedy between two lovers that ended up swallowing up the entire world. Even though Ozpin was stressed over telling the whole truth, it is without a doubt, something that’s extremely hard to take in at the end of the day.

Although Djinn tells Oz that he can’t destroy Salem, that’s the thing- he can’t destroy Salem. She is unkillable, after all. However, that doesn’t mean she can’t be defeated or pacified. The thing with asking the question, especially of djinn, is that they take their questions to be very specific. There is no broad stroked-question, only specifics. She can’t be destroyed, but she doesn’t need to be destroyed for the threat to remain. What will cause the smiting of the world is if humanity still doesn’t live in harmony, and Salem is the biggest threat to that. You can erase the biggest threat- or you could make it so the threat isn’t a threat anymore. Of course, how that can come about is a mystery.