Diary of a Concerned Friend
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Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.
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What are we, Jaune? To you?
Are we good people with the best of intentions, but aren't your friends? Or are we bad friends- or even friends who are bad people, because we'd let evil win by doing nothing?
I'm afraid to ask because I'm afraid of the answer. I'm even more afraid to do something on my own. I know I could if someone else did something first, I'm sure. If Cardin bullied you in front of me, I'd do something, I swear. Please believe that about me at least.
But he doesn't. Maybe because he fears that one of us would stop him. It's probably because he's realized none of us will so long as he does it when we're not looking. When we can curse him after the fact, or look disapprovingly from a distance and shake our fingers and do nothing about it except encourage you to ask us to save you.
Is this… narcissism, of a sort? Are we holding out, just to make you beg for our assistance? So that we can feel superior and righteous, and expect to bask in your gratitude and appreciation once we magnanimously deign to deal with him?
I look at my friends, my team, and wonder why none of them stop him. I bet they look at me in turn and ask why I don't either. I'm your friend more than they are. I shouldn't be waiting on someone else to try. I'm the leader, and so I should lead.
But I don't. None of us do. You don't, and I won't, and they all play along because it's easier that way. Your team at least has a better excuse- they try to help, you say it's fine, and they trust you because they're supposed to. You can make that call because you're the leader and they're supposed to trust your judgement.
But my team? Team RWBY?
Yang will start a brawl and blow up a bar for her own reasons, but won't punch a punk pushing others around. Blake seeths at racism, but stands by when a racist acts infront of her. Weiss cares about all manner of rules and regulations, but won't call out Cardin to any of the teachers.
But I can forgive them for that, even if you have no reason to, because no matter how bad they are I'm worse. Stones and glass houses and all that.
Me? I'm Ruby Rose, leader of Team RWBY, responsible for everything we do and do not do as a team. And here I am, writing about a problem rather than solving it, and knowing that tomorrow I'll be standing by and letting it happen once again. Knowing you'll be hurt, and knowing my team will do nothing, and knowing that I've no one to blame but myself.
I'm failing, Jaune. This is what failure looks like. Fifteen and with my own team, and I'm already abandoning my friends when they need me most. Mom would be ashamed of me if she were still alive. Mom didn't stand by for anything.
I shouldn't be the only one to make that call to make the call, Jaune! We're all supposed to be helping people, and they're supposed to correct me if I'm failing, but they aren't. Won't. I should be correcting them for not correcting me- and I'm failing at that too, compounding my failure.
I'm sorry, Jaune. I really am. No just apologetic, but sorry in the worst sort of the word. I'm-
There are a few damp spots on the page, blurring out the last words.
You wouldn't think so. I know you wouldn't say that. You might be a lot stubborn, insisting you don't need help, but you wouldn't blame me even if you did. You're nice like that. Simple, even. You think that if I can fight a mock-battle and do well on tests then I'm good to become a Huntress. That I'm a prodigy with a bright future in Beacon, even if you don't.
You think I'm better than you.
That anything you could do, I would do better.
But when I find you on the ground, when it's my turn and chance to help you up, to return the hand you gave me… will I?
Or will turn my head and look away, too ashamed to try?
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Author note:
Most of the Jaundice arc focuses on Jaune, but I've personally been interested in the bystander effect that effects everyone there. Bystander effect- bystander syndrome- is a real thing, but you'd expect a hero of self-selected hero-wannabes to be immune. The fact that the Teams largely stand by and do nothing is rarely treated as the flaw it could be. Of the cast, only Ruby and Pyrrha seem particularly aware or concerned for Jaune- but even they try to treat the symptoms rather than address the problem of the rampant bully.
The first half of the story was centered upon my thoughts of why Ruby and Jaune were friends. This second half could be summed up as 'bystander syndrome from the perspective of the bystander.'
