rwbyangst:

So let me get this straight…

Salem grew up isolated and lonely, longing to be in charge of her own destiny.

She had finally gained her freedom and fell in love with the man who saved her. In a single day, she gained everything she had ever wanted, but soon after, she lost it all when Ozma died.

Of course Salem would be desperate to bring him back. The only good thing she had ever known was ripped away from her. 

She went through multiple stages of grief before our eyes.

We saw bargaining as she begged and pleaded with the gods. 

We saw anger as her requests were rejected. 

We saw denial as she continued trying to bring him back, refusing to accept the loss.

Salem wasn’t arrogant. Maybe she was being selfish, but that’s because she was only human. The gods essentially punished her for being human, causing her more pain than even her father did by preventing her from ever seeing her beloved again. The one good thing she had ever known was now gone forever.

Salem had no hope by that point. She had nothing at all. Her desperation to end her cursed life led her to a last-ditch effort to stage an uprising against the gods. Maybe then she could die. Maybe then she could find peace.

But no. The gods punished her further, as well as all of humanity. Not only did they wipe out an entire planet of innocent people–

–but they also left Salem to rot on an abandoned remnant, suffering alone for all eternity.

Still desperate for death, Salem flung herself into the pools of grimm. 

This was the turning point. This was what gave her a desire for destruction.

Salem wasn’t evil. She wasn’t cruel. She wasn’t heartless. She was a human who endured horrible tragedy and became transformed against her will into a monster. And what did the gods do about that? Nothing.

Salem is just as much a victim as Ozpin.