I love that it was confirmed that Oz was also fighting the merge just as hard as Oscar is, it really makes me happy that he cares and has cared about Oscar to the point where he is fighting a merge he knows he cant/has no chance of stopping, yet he’s still doing it, all for Oscar’s sake.
Same anon-chan, same. I mean it definitely makes sense that Oz would be fighting the Merge just as much as Oscar because he fully knows that the Merge is something that Oscar doesn’t want.
As you put perfectly, I also love the detail of Oz doing this all for Oscar’s sake since he genuinely does care about what Oscar wants.
It is for this reason why I’m kind of curious what the Merge was like during Ozpin’s experience.
Was Oz also apprehensive of merging with his predecessor and ultimately gave up and accepted his fate? Or did Oz and his predecessor come to a sense of understanding and their merge wasn’t as daunting as Oscar’s since Ozpin had learnt to perfectly coexist with his predecessor and had made peace with the two becoming a part of one another.
If we do get V10, it would be great to have a moment of Oscar possibly seeing the memories of previous Wizards in the Ozma Cycle and witnessing their experiences with the Merge and how they all handled it when their time came. Perhaps this could be a learning moment for him since I still would like to hold onto the possibility that the Merge may not be as bad as Oscar thinks it will be.
Back in V5, Oz simply described the merging experience as “his soul being paired with another and he is changed, but his memories stay with him”.
It is for this reason why I don’t think the Merge may be so bad and that Oscar will still get to retain his own identity even after becoming one with Oz.
But that’s how I’m interpreting it. Then again, the CRWBY Writers have been known to abandon previously established ideas in the RWBY narrative so who really knows what Oscar’s fate will be in the end. For what it’s worth, I hope it’s something positive at least.
~LMS (2024)
