Or: the Faunus Plotline is actually great, y’all are just Amero-centric.



I’ve always enjoyed the Faunus Plotline in RWBY, and I’ve never really understood the criticisms. But recently, I saw someone talking about how “Adam doesn’t fit the Malcolm X role” and I had a realization why.

For natural reasons, the African-American Civil Rights Movement and subsequent movements are the most prominent touchstone to Americans on the subject of racism and civil rights. It’s the thing that you guys automatically compare stories with racism allegories to. And while the Faunus Plotline does have parallels, it fails to follow that sort of narrative, and as a result it’s kinda throwing people off.

But I don’t think that’s a failure of writing. I think the fandom, as a whole, is looking at the wrong racism.

Now, let me be clear: no matter what race you are, if you feel that the Faunus Plotline represents you, that is completely valid. I’m not here to take that away from you. All oppressed peoples face similar struggles.

But I believe that the intent of the writers is not to create an allegory for African-American discrimination, but instead to create an allegory for Anti-Irish discrimination.

Or, TL;DR: The Faunus are Irish, Atlas is Britain, Vacuo is America, and our heroes are partaking in Gulliver’s Travels.

Confused? I’ll explain under the cut.

Part One: The Faunus As Irish

I started recognizing the parallels between the Faunus Plotline and the history of Ireland around the Volume 4/Volume 5 hiatus. It started off, as the plotline did, with the White Fang.

The evolution of the White Fang matches incredibly well with the evolution of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. In the mid-1960s, inspired by the African-American Civil Rights Movement, an Irish Civil Rights Movement sprung up in Northern Ireland. While there was no official legislation discriminating against the Irish specifically, there was rampant institutionalized discrimination; voting laws that ensured only homeowners could vote (not many Irish owned homes, and many avenues towards homeownership were discriminatory); and gerrymandering that ensured Unionist control over local government, even in locations where Unionists were a minority.

These protests maintained a policy of non-violence. But they were often met with violence, from both counter-demonstrators and police forces. Which lead to protestors arming themselves for self-defense

Thanks to police violence, the situation in Northern Ireland deteriorated into rioting and violence in the streets. Which lead the British Military being brought in to restore order, which lead to an escalation of tensions as they took the Unionist side of the conflict The situation was exploited by a paramilitary force called the Irish Republican Army, which originally advocated for self-defense, but after a schism in the group, became determined to wage an armed struggle against British Rule in Northern Ireland.

You might be seeing the parallels now.

They waged a campaign of guerilla warfare for several decades, striking not only military and political targets, but also commercial targets. They were held in high esteem by the majority of the Irish population of Northern Ireland, seen as defenders of the community. They were seen by some as holding themselves to “standards”. For example, alerting authorities of bombing targets in advance so that they could evacuate the area of civilians, causing only infrastructural/material damage. Despite this, there were still civilian casualties across the entire campaign.

Over the course of the Troubles, civilian deaths began to sour opinion towards the IRA. People turned away from them due their growing disregard for such civilian casualties, ultimate leading to a growth in popularity for the peace movement. This ultimately culminated into a series of ceasefires and the IRA coming to the table and signing the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998, a peace deal which stands to this day. The last of the public goodwill towards armed conflict died in August 1998, when an IRA splinter group bombed the town of Omagh, killing 29 people, all civilians.

You can see the parallels right? The White Fang began as a peaceful Civil Rights Movement, were forced into a policy of self-defense due to violence against them, and the movement was co-opted by a faction advocating waging a campaign of violence, but violence that they held to “standards”. However, over the course of the campaign, these “standards” began to be disregarded and ultimately the Faunus turned against the White Fang. Hell, both armed campaigns had tacit approval from the people of the “homelands” (Menagerie/the Republic of Ireland) for the majority of the conflict.

But the parallels with Irish history aren’t just limited to the Troubles. The Faunus Rights Revolution took place in the aftermath of The Great War after promises of equal rights turned out to be false. Meanwhile, the Irish War for Independence took place in the aftermath of The Great War (World War I) after promises of a devolved parliament turned out to be false.

And there are even parallels between the epicentres of discrimination for both peoples.

Part 2: Atlas As Britain

Let’s not beat around the bush here: in history, Britain has treated Ireland and the Irish horribly. And Atlas seems designed to parallel Britain in many ways, especially the British Empire at its height. The largest fleets in their respective worlds; centres for the development of science and technology; stuck on a cold, wet island with limited resources; having a neighbouring land that it controls and takes resources from; a history of discriminatory practices against races it believes are beneath it.

Hell, stop for a minute and think for me? Give me a named character that practices anti-Faunus discrimination.

Cardin Winchester? Based on Henry Beaufort, the Cardinal of the English City of Winchester.

Based on Henry Beaufort, the Cardinal of the English City of Winchester. Roman Torchwick? Visually based on Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange , a work set in a futuristic Britain.

Visually based on Alex DeLarge from , a work set in a futuristic Britain. Caroline Cordovin? Based on the nursery rhyme The Little Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe, itself speculated to be about Queen Caroline of Great Britain.

And I know what you’re about to say: the Schnees. They’re German, right? Yeah, but that plays into the theme of “Atlas as Britain” too. The Schnees are surrounded by Royal imagery (“a royal test”, “ice queen”). They’re Atlas’ Royal Family.

Did you know that since the 1700s, the Royal Family of Great Britain has been German? First the House of Hanover, then the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which changed it’s name to the House of Windsor due to a rise in Anti-German sentiment in World War I.

Honestly, though? While I’d noticed the parallels between the history of the Faunus and history of the Irish before, I didn’t personally see the parallels between Atlas and Great Britain until the Volume 6 finale. Which also convinced me these parallels were intentional.

You see, after seeing Atlas for the first time, the second thing to pop into my head (right after “Cloud City”) was “Laputa”.

The Castle in the Sky from the Ghibli film? No, it’s namesake.

Part 3: This is where Gulliver’s Travels comes in.

You’ve heard of Gulliver’s Travels, right? It’s that kids story with the guy who washes up on the island full of little people.

Yeah, most of what you know about Gulliver’s Travels is wrong. It was written by Jonathan Swift, the pre-eminent satirist of the day, and it’s work of satire. It’s supposed to be a crude parody of Robinson Crusoe, with subject matter not meant for the eyes of children. The version you see as a child is heavily sanitized, and usually has most of the story cut.

See, Gulliver ends up in four different lands. First, Lilliput, where he is big and important. Lilliput obsesses over trivial matters, and when Gulliver is sent on a war mission for Lilliput, he completes it but not to their satisfaction. Ultimately, while doing something he believes is helping (putting out a blaze in the Queen’s Palace), he commits a faux pas (he did it with piss) and ends up having to leave Lilliput.

Yes, I am drawing parallels with the Beacon Arc.

Then, Gulliver ends up in Brobdingnag, the land of giants. This is usually the furthest the adaptations ever go. In Brobdingnag, he’s small and unimportant, but still a curiosity that people want to possess and objectify. Unlike in Lilliput, he lacks agency, despite meeting with the leader of Brobdingnag himself. He’s even kept in a house for the majority of his time there, only taken out when wanted.

Yeah. This is starting to sound a little familiar.

On his third voyage, he ends up in Laputa. Laputa is a flying city full of upper-class scientists. It takes the resources of the land below, Balnibarbi, and if they ever seek to rebel, they use their air superiority to violently crush the rebellion (usually by throwing rocks down, occasionally by landing the city on the offending rebels). The men of Balnibarbi are obsessed with science, but not to any useful pursuits, attempting things like extracting sunlight from cucumbers. They’re so self-absorbed they literally cannot see things going on right in front of them, including the affairs of their neglected wives.

Laputa was designed by Swift explicitly as a condemnation of the colonial practices of the British Empire, and “science for science’s sake” attitude of the Royal Society of London.

In fact, in a series of paragraphs considered too bold to print, Swift details the successful rebellion of the city of Lindalino against Laputa. They build giant towers of magnetic materials to prevent Laputa from flying above them, and would tear the city apart if they tried to land on top of them.

Lindalino is supposed to represent Ireland, Dublin specifically. (Lindalino -> Two “Lin”s -> Double “Lin” -> Dublin) Swift was Irish himself, and a known supporter of Irish Independence.

It was when I saw that Atlas was a floating island full of scientists, and the epicentre of anti-Faunus discrimination, that I began to believe this couldn’t be coincidence anymore. It had to be purposeful. RWBY was making reference to Gulliver’s Travels, and specifically to a part of it that was based on Anglo-Irish relations, while setting the stage for a large-scale Human-Faunus conflict. I could accept that the previous parallels were accidental, an unconscious thing added to the story, but Atlas having striking similarity to Laputa was too much of a coincidence to reasonably be a coincidence.

Part 4: Vacuo, and the future.

So where does Vacuo fit in?

Well, Vacuo is a lawless desert, but it’s also a place where Faunus aren’t discriminated against. The one Vacuoan Faunus we meet is totally disconnected from the struggles of the rest of the Faunus, and has to be educated about what “his people” go through on a regular basis before deciding to take up the cause.

Vacuo is America.

“Lawless Desert” is a pretty apt description of the entire Western genre, which is uniquely American concept. And the disconnect of the Vacuoan Faunus parallels the disconnect Irish Americans have from the struggles of the Irish. Irish Americans don’t face discrimination at all nowadays, they’re considered “white”. Bernadette Devlin, a major figure in the Northern Irish Civil Rights Movement, found she had more in common with African Americans than Irish Americans when she visited the United States.

As for the Gulliver parallels… well, the fourth place Gulliver ends up in is the Land of the Houyhnhnms, a race of talking sources who’s society Gulliver becomes enamoured with, to the point of being blind to it’s faults, like it’s mistreatment of the Yahoos, a race of human-looking animals. This doesn’t even change when they cast him out as danger to their society, and he grows to shun his own people and continue to talk to horses once he arrives back in England.

Swift meant this as parody of those who became enamoured with “exotic” countries, claiming them to be objectively better than their own, while being blind to the flaws of said nations.

Yeah, Jonathan Swift was dunking on Weeaboos back in 1726. Truly a man before his time.

I guess what this means is that while Vacuoan society is better in some respects than the rest of Remnant’s, it’ll still be worse in others, though our heroes will be attracted to it’s virtues.

Conclusion

So yeah. This is what I think of the Faunus Plotline. As an Irish person, I find it to be a great allegory for discrimination, because it parallels the situation my people have faced in the past. If you’re a person who hasn’t liked the Faunus Plotline so far, I hope this perspective/theory has helped or will help you enjoy the Faunus plot more. In the end, we all deserve to enjoy the stories we consume to the fullest possible extent.

So, thanks for coming to my TED Talk, next time I’ll be telling you guys why I think Remnant doesn’t use the Gregorian Calendar.