So, there’s something I really want to talk about

Sometime ago I made an obvious “clever” joke about the fact that Blake’s color is now purple. It was just a joke - nothing more. But oh my god, I just saw someone talking about it as if its a genuine criticism. I am absolutely ffing livid.





Most of my anger comes from the fact that I am not from an English-speaking country. I am Russian. In Russia, the show’s title is, for some reason, translated as Red, White, Black, Yellow. Not RWBY, but literally 4 ffing colors in a row. When I started watching, it was merely an annoying thing - titles like that should be never translated because there’s obviously a complex meaning behind them. RWBY is an insanely hard to translate with all of its double-triple-quadruple meanings behind names and all that shebang, so I guess I just brushed it off and kept watching.

As I went further into the series and knew more and more about the characters, this whole thing infuriated me more and more. I know that for some people, I’ll be stating the obvious - but since I saw people who legit do not understand, I want to at least vent some of my frustration:





BLAKE’S COLOR ISN’T BLACK

AND WEISS’ COLOR ISN’T WHITE





And here’s why:





First and the most obvious reason is their aura color - it is purple and light-blue respectively. Reminder in case someone needs it:

Their color appears on their clothes, and new intro has them with those specific colors as background for silhouettes.





And now, the reason this post exists: the question “Why?”

There are names of the trailers, “White” and “Black” trailers. There are promotional posters and openings that use those colors as their main. But why are they light-blue and purple now?

Because the characters weren’t their true selves in the beginning.

Both Weiss and Blake suffered from abuse since they were children - Weiss was conditioned and mistreated by Jacques and Blake suffered from Adam’s manipulation. There’s, of course, a lot more to talk about - but many people made their own analysis posts of those specific arcs, so I’m not going to elaborate. The point is - in the beginning of the series, with Weiss still being tied to SDC and on her father’s side - she’s wearing blinding white. As she slowly changes, she starts wearing blue. And then more blue. (And also more red, but it’s Nicholas’ color, the original SDC’s founder, which is also tied to the plot, but it’s still not Weiss’ personal color). That’s why in the intro she’s blue.

As for Blake, she was Adam’s shadow. She was his “partner”, he commanded her and she followed him, blinded. Like a shadow. That’s even in her semblance. But you know what? Blake’s semblance evolved from leaving barely stable shadows to her leaving clones of herself. Now that Adam’s gone, she’s no longer his shadow, she’s moving forward, moving on, and reclaiming herself. That’s why in the intro she’s purple.





Both of their arcs are fundamentally similar, but they are explored differently, with different details. Both of their trailers are about them leaving someone who abused them and held them back - Weiss tries to pass Jacquess’ challenge to go to Beacon, Blake runs from Adam. Jacquess took Weiss’ place as a heir of SDC. Adam took Blake’s path of leading the White Fang. There are even more similarities between those two, and it’s not a “retcon” and not a “change of mind” that both of them changed their colors overtime.

They just weren’t their true selves before, and now, they are closer than ever to being what they were always meant to be - fearless leaders on their path to rebuild something that was stolen from them and broken without their involvement.









TL;DR: Blake and Weiss were always purple and blue, you just have reading comprehension of a sloth, Alex.