Anon! I like you, anon. This is such a good scene to bring up. I went back to watch and damn, there’s a lot here that’s worth re-examining in light of the recent debates. The scene does most of the work for me, but let’s break down some of the parallels and useful info.

First, Qrow indeed justifies keeping these secrets because it would cause panic, a loss of morale, attract grimm, start a war, and also? None of you kids needed to know these things until now. (Justifications that anyone reading my metas know I agree with.) You get different pieces of information at different stages of the fight. Supposedly Qrow understood this. He apparently just thought he was high enough on the “Ozpin trusts me” ladder to be above his leader keeping secrets from him.





Jaune doesn’t like having his anger undercut by logic, but he doesn’t challenge it either.

Notably, Qrow then wants to end the discussion after the Salem explanations. He dodges Ruby’s question about why he wouldn’t travel with them and it’s only Nora’s, “Now you’re tired of telling stories?” that forces an explanation of his semblance out of him. He wanted to keep more secrets. Then, when something highly personal that Qrow has no control over and feels incredibly guilty over is revealed, he’s met with nothing but anger. Sound familiar?

Jaune’s comment comes immediately after Qrow admits he’s a “bad luck charm” that hurts friends and family. That’s it. That’s all anyone has to offer him. So Qrow removes himself from the situation. “I’m going for a walk.”

As he leaves, Qrow decides that he’s really done divulging information. Ruby asks if he has anything else he wants to share, Qrow looks at a raven, and goes,

This conversation is a near perfect play-by-play of the one in the snow, except it’s Qrow trying to explain things that are difficult for him to talk about, Qrow baring himself and receiving no sympathy, Qrow “running away” from more anger aimed his way, and Qrow keeping secrets because he believes that the kids don’t need to know about certain things yet. He’s doing EXACTLY what he’ll later punch Ozpin for. If anyone should have understood the situation Ozpin was in, it’s Qrow. But as said before, the team’s empathy has been entirely removed when it comes to Ozpin. Logic, kindness, past experiences, forgiveness… none of it has come into play yet.

Additionally, this scene also has Qrow pointing out that Salem is a master of getting people to blame everyone but her. You know, the thing we’ve seen for this entire volume. Ozpin is the evil one. No wait, maybe it’s Oscar now. The team is happy to turn on each other, rather than blaming the person actually responsible for all this: Salem

She’s still doing a good job. Also? We get some in-canon reminders that no, Ozpin and the others didn’t kill Pyrrha

So yeah. Chuck that onto the ever growing “can we please acknowledge what actually happened?” list.

Good scene, anon 👍