Shorts Review: RWBY – Volume 4: World of Remnant “FAUNUS”

 

Let’s learn about Faunus.

Some Spoilers Below

Roosterteeth felt the need to delay Episode 5 due to the holidays so to hold us over, We finally get another “Info-Dump” but this time we learn about the “Faunus” (AKA The “Animal People”) who are often depicted as an Oppressed Minority.

In Qrow’s Narration, we learn that each Faunus has a single animalistic trait (whether that be a tail, ears, antlers, claws, horns, ect.) And while the concept of Faunus isn’t new to people who have watched the show since the begining, He also reveals that a Lizard species of Faunus also exist.

Through the narration, We also learn that Faunus are also “Compatable” from a biological standpoint and Humans can even have children with them, though their Biology is strange so let me sum it up like this:

Cat faunus + Cat faunus = cat faunus child, human +cat faunus = cat faunus, but if we do Monkey faunus + cat faunus is a randomized result and can be anything from a cute bunny faunus to a scaly lizard faunus, that is one crazy race. That would be like if a Hispanic and an African person had a child and said child came out a Caucasian.

Despite existing since the begining of time in the RWBY Universe, they’re still the subject of prejudice and were also the subject of horror stories as monsters that were even segregated and killed and consequently the Faunus see Man as a bigger threat to their existence, however that changed one day when a Village was under a Grimm Attack…

According to their history, The Village of Saunus was under attack and it took the Humans & Faunus to put aside their differences to eradicate their Grimm Crisis at the time which was a step in the right direction but given the parables of human history, it didn’t completely fix everything.

Once humanity learned they weren’t so different from the Faunus, they used the excuses of them being different to exploit and alienate them for labor. (A Parable to the slave trade?) There was also an even called “The Great War” between the four terratories: Vale & Vacuo Vs Mantle & Mistral which could also be a parable to the Civil War or WW2 in their universe?

The Faunus were eventually given Equal Rights after “The Great War” and as an apology they were given their own land called “Menegere” And while some saw it as a fair and just way of saying sorry, some Faunus saw as a form of Cruel Segregation.

While faunus still exist around the world the “Equal Rights” still varies from place to place and while Menegre is still a Safe Haven for them as a species, It’also the same place where the “White Fang” extremist group was born. (If that’s the case then The White Fang are basically a more murderous version of the Black Panther Party.)

Overview.

While the WoR series is for unique aspects of Remnant’s setting, Faunus as a species are unique to Remnant. However, by scientific terms, humans and Faunus are the same species, since they can reliably reproduce with each other and their offspring are able to reproduce.(The Same can be said of humans and elves in the Lord of the Rings franchise.)

I have to say I enjoyed this one overall, kind of ‘eh’ on the female Faunus often being shown with a bow an arrow, but other wise I really liked this.

A lot of this could be assumed from what we know but I relish seeing it up on screen and hope to see more examples of the discrimination in the modern world as well. The historical stuff, biological and the like, was all very interesting though in some respects raises more questions.  I think that was intentional and finding out about the factions in the great war was an awesome surprise.

Menagerie being a slap in the face is no shock given we heard Oobleck talking about the kingdoms trying to centralize the Faunus there. Less of a “Gift” and more of a ,”OK you scare us let’s shove you all in one far away place under a shady pretense.” Now wonder if the Faunus had another war over being forced to relocate.

I get the impression that Qrow’s lines are just his tone meant to be in character and therefore reflect his real views, in which case I could definitely see him saying or doing something insensitive to Faunus even if he’s not a douchey bigot in the likes of Cardin.

A very informative episode. The ending was quite predictable so I guess we know what Blake is going to come up against…