Index | Character Short 1 | Character Short 2 | Character Short 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14
Volume 5 Character Short: Blake
A lot can happen when friends become enemies.
Written by Miles Luna & Kerry Shawcross
Directed by Kerry Shawcross, Gray G. Haddock & Miles Luna
Directed by Kerry Shawcross, Gray G. Haddock & Miles Luna
Blake: Why... why'd you join the White Fang?
Ilia: Same reason as you.
Blake: But...
Ilia: But why fight when I pass for Human? It's okay. You're not the first person to ask.
Ilia: Same reason as you.
Blake: But...
Ilia: But why fight when I pass for Human? It's okay. You're not the first person to ask.
Blake and Sun search the market place of Menagerie for a White Fang operative. As they do Blake recalls a moment in the past with her old friend, Ilia.
Tropes in this character short include:
- Chase-Scene Obstacle Course: While being chased, Blake and Sun's target releases a trailer full of crates to roll back down the steep hill towards the market stalls at the bottom. Sun uses his Semblance to gain control of the trailer while Blake swings around the obstruction to continue the chase.
- Conflicting Loyalty: Although Blake is resolved to take back the White Fang and Ilia is resolved to carry out the mission of the White Fang, they both struggle to fight against the people they care about. Blake and Ilia have a long history of close friendship, and they are deeply conflicted to be pitted against each other now. When they confront each other at the end of the short, Ilia chooses to create a distraction to save her colleague so that she doesn't have to fight Blake while Blake stops the chase and lets Ilia depart peacefully.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Ilia was able to attend school in Atlas only by hiding her Faunus heritage. She was able to pass for human and wasn't even allowed to tell her human friends anything about her own family to protect the secret. As a result, she was forced to go along with the Faunus racism her human friends indulged in to avoid suspicion. She tells Blake that she's often asked why she bothers to fight for Faunus rights when she can have an easier life "passing for human". In real life, "passing" is a term that refers to people from disadvantaged groups, such as racial, ethnic, gender or sexual orientation, who pass as another group to escape segregation, discrimination and persecution.
- Dramatic Irony: Ilia tells Blake that attending school in Atlas meant that she was forced to hide her Faunus identity and disguise herself as a human. Blake is horrified and thinks that's a terrible thing to have to do, but Ilia says it's actually easy. As this scene is a flashback, Blake has no idea that, in the future, she will decide to attend Beacon Academy by hiding her Faunus heritage, disguising herself as a human, and even implying to Sun that it's an easy thing to do.
- Flashback: The storyline of the short is that Sun and Blake are pursuing a member of the White Fang. The chase is broken up by flashbacks to a time when Blake was still a member of the White Fang, and consists of and Ilia discussing Ilia's backstory and motivations.
- Foreshadowing: Ilia's story about going to the "City of Dreams", lying about being a Faunus girl from Mantle, and revealing how her parents died foreshadows the Atlas Arc, which reveals exactly how the Kingdom of Atlas is structured, why that nickname exists, why a family like Ilia's might want to keep her identity secret, and even the fate of the mine that killed her parents.
- Parrying Bullets: Blake is shot at just as she's drawing her sword, so uses the sheath to parry the bullets.
- Reliably Unreliable Guns: Blake and Sun's target is initially able to keep firing a gun at them, but it quickly fails. After giving it a quick shake, he sheaths it in his waistband and starts running. Blake and Sun never use their own guns at all.
- Roof Hopping: To escape from Blake, Ilia drops a crate in front of her and uses the distraction to leap up to the roof. She waits for Blake to leave, and then departs by running and somersaulting across some rooftops.
- *Twang* Hello: Just as Blake captures her target, she's forced to fling herself backwards as a weapon lashes out of nowhere at her. This is Ilia's introduction into the chase scene, appearing whip-blade first to save her ally from Blake.
- Wall Run: To get past the uncontrolled trailer, Blake throws her gun into a crate and swings around it, this involves her running along a wall to get passed it.
♫ Take what you need
Leave them to bleed
Let them know bitter
While your revenge is sweet. ♫
Leave them to bleed
Let them know bitter
While your revenge is sweet. ♫
