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Hello again! I really liked your answer to my questions, I've read this post about 6 times already! (I really love it) So I want to ask you, what do you think will happen if Oscar drinks tea from the Ever After? I just really hope that in RWBY beyond episode 3 Oscar and Ruby came at the end to separate Oscar and Ozpin (not the soul in half, just stop the merge, but Oscar and Ozpin are still connected) and what do you think will happen after Oscar drinks tea and he and Oz return to the Vacuo?
sorry if here any mistakes I just used translato
Hi! Nice to hear from you again, and I'm glad you liked it. Now, this is a very interesting and very complicated question you've offered me. I like it. I'm gonna put it under the cut, because this... is going to take a while.
From what we've seen in the epilogues, in RWBY Beyond, Oscar is losing more and more of himself. Ozpin's losing himself too. They're losing themselves and each other to the merge and who'll they'll become together. It's stopping being Ozpin's experiences, Ozpin being the subject of fairytales, and starting to be Oscar referring to those past events as his.
If you think about it, the curse, the merge, is kind of like a really twisted, fucked up version of Ascension, where the choice of purpose is completely taken away instead. Ozma was given a task, a role, a purpose, a part to play in the story of the battle between light and dark, and that purpose has been passed on, whether anyone likes it or not. The answer, most often, is not.
In V8, we see Oscar frustrated with Ozpin's return, because he was starting to carve out his own role, figuring out who he wanted to be. That choice is being taken away from him, just like it was taken away from the person Ozpin used to be, taken away from the King of Vale, again and again thousands of years past.
I think a meeting between Oscar, Ozpin, and The Blacksmith would be very, very interesting, particularly in her relationship with the Brothers.
The Blacksmith created them. She said "The Brothers built homes for [the Everafterans], and gave them roles to play". Would she see nothing wrong with the way the Brothers acted, the role they assigned to Ozma and his line? The Blacksmith doesn't seem to be able to know what happens in Remnant, only catching glimpses of it in the humans who fall into the Ever After. The Blacksmith seems to like what she sees, calling humans "Remarkable things [the Brothers] accomplished". What would she think about Oscar and Ozpin?
She seems to value souls, they move through her domain afterall, and she seemed to like it when Ruby asked after "The souls that are moving on to whatever they become next". But the line of Ozma doesn't get to move on when they die. Their souls merge with others, they are subsumed, they are an amalgamation, they are something that has never been before, they are not something they want to be. Would the Blacksmith be mad at the Brothers for what has been done to dozens of hundreds of innocent souls? She doesn't seem capable of condemnation, that is not her purpose, but would empathy be shown for the line of Ozma, including ones past?
The Blacksmith does feel emotions, she's not a robot, she's glad to see Jaune, she finds joy in creating, the "not knowing". Would she find Oscar and Oz a fascinating creation? Or would she be dismayed at how little there is to know, how little choice there is. Everafterans die, and choose what to become next through Ascension. Oz dies, doesn't choose where he goes, doesn't choose where they become, doesn't choose a purpose that can we even really say is his anymore? When they've become so many people, does Ozma's original choice really belong to them anymore?
As always with the line of Ozma, it is a question of choice, identity, and free will.
How The Blacksmith would feel about it, act about it, think about it, is a very interesting question. But there is the question of if she can do anything about it.
Yes, The Tree/Blacksmith made the Brothers, and the Brothers made humans, and the Blacksmith obviously has influence over the humans who do end up in her domain. Would that be enough to supercede the curse? The will of the Brother of Light? The purpose he gave Ozma and every single soul who came after? It'd be interesting if The Blacksmith couldn't. If the Brother's intercession would be necessary to fix what they broke, what they started. But that's not the question here!
Enough hypotheticals, it's time to get down to it. In this scenario, we'll go with Oscar and Oz being over halfway merged, probably a lot merged by this point, but still two distinct entities in their own right. The Blacksmith, whatever her feelings about it, can help, allowing Oscar and Oz to choose their purpose and who they'll become.
I've seen in the fandom a lot that a turning point for Oscar would be/will be when he gets his own weapon. Weapons are so important in RWBY, Oscar being able to choose what weapon he gets, the name, the meaning behind it rather than one he inherits is so important. That carries over easily to the Blacksmith and the choices/weapons she presents.
Choosing to be yourself is a legitimate option when it comes to The Blacksmith! Oscar would definitely choose to be himself, that's without question, even if he's not sure who that himself is, he's willing to make it. I think that would best go down if instead of choosing one of the weapons The Blacksmith presents or choosing Long Memory, Oscar makes his own. I personally think it would be very cool if The Blacksmith let Oscar use her forge to make his own weapon, make his own self, make who he chooses to be.
I think that extra effort to physically make his own weapon would also be important. There's a lot more weight there, the weight of a purpose assigned, the weight of so, so many souls behind him, clinging to him. I think in that moment, Oscar would be straining to go forward and, like all parents, Ozpin would have to make the choice to let go. Let Oscar move forward into the unknown instead of the path laid before them, let go even though it's hard, even though it's scary, because letting children choose their own paths and who they are is very, very important.
Oscar being able to literally forge his own identity, his own path, would be both symbolically appropriate and also very cool.
Now, we also have to consider what would happen to Oz. Both Ozpin and the entire line before him, whatever small, pedantic difference there may be. I think it's too late to let the previous souls go. They're merged, and there's no separating them. They're gone. They're here but they're gone. There's only Ozpin left. But what that would mean, well, that's up to Ozpin. He'd have to make his own choice on who he is, who he becomes, what his purpose is.
I... don't think he'd choose to be himself. I think he'd be so, so tired of the purpose he was assigned. I think he'd like to make his own decision, and I think he'd choose to be someone else. Let the line of Ozma end, expire, be no more. He would choose to be someone else. The Blacksmith said, "Choose for yourself one who can leave your burdens behind or choose one who would be enough to bear them". This is what she said to Ruby, so it's not entirely applicable, but the sentiment is there.
I think Ozpin would choose to be someone else. Someone who isn't so embittered by betrayl that they can still trust. Someone who can see the best in people, who can continue to reach out. Someone who doesn't give up, doesn't run away. Oscar showed him someone better to be, tried to push him to be that person. And now he can take that final step, and become someone else with a far better purpose than had been handed down to him by the Brothers.
He can become someone kind.
That is who he wants to be. Kind enough to reach out, kind enough to trust, kind enough to stay even when he's afraid, kind enough to reach out like Oscar did to Emerald, kind enough to fix a broken heart like in Hazel and perhaps... even like in Salem.
Oscar and Ozpin would return to Vacuo together, Oscar the most himself he's ever been, and Ozpin happy to be someone else entirely, but no matter what, they'd stick together.
I think that would be a good way for it to go.