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I love Emerald, she's incredibly complex, so here's a playlist of that!
I think she's very harsh on herself, which is very visible whenever she gets scolded and her eyes go super wide because she was just doing best. This playlist explores her self-image, her relationship with Cinder and her relationship to the plot (until season 7)
Fanmix/Playlist: (on Spotify here)
brutal - Olivia Rodrigio
Sedated - Hozier
Mad at You - Noah Cyrus & Gallant
Natural - Imagine Dragons
Love Me Less - MAX featuring Quinn XCII
Already Over - Mike Shinoda
Overwhelmed - Royal & The Serpent
1) brutal - Olivia Rodrigio
And I don't stick up for myself
I'm anxious, and nothing can help
And I wish I'd done this before
And I wish people liked me more
I feel like no one wants me
And I hate the way I'm perceived
I only have two real friends
And lately, I'm a nervous wreck
'Cause I love people I don't like
This one I think definitely described her relationship at the beginning of her meeting team RWBY in season 2/3, she's a bit out of her element and why can't she just be part of the kids?
2) Sedated - Hozier
You and I, nursing on a poison that never stung
Our teeth and lungs are lined with the scum of it
Some whiff of this, death and guts, we are deaf, we are numb
Free and young and we can feel none of it
Okay so after the Fall Emerald definitely loses herself, all this time spent working on a goal and now what? What about all the destruction and hurt caused? Cinder gets harsher because everything is hard on all of them and we have this poor Emerald floating looking for help
3) Mad at You - Noah Cyrus & Gallant
But the minute it gets to my lips, I can feel my tongue is tied
And my eyes start to water, but I can't stop you when you lie
It's gonna be hard as hell
And baby, you know me well
No matter what you do
I can never be mad at you
And you only love yourself
But for me there's no one else
Okay so the duet is intended to be interpreted as Noah Cyrus and Gallant saying they can't be mad at each other, but I would love to introduce you to a new interpretations as Emerald singing both but Gallant is from her perspective of Mercury. So the song is romantic but one step removed:
(Baby,) you were the one who convinced me to run into your arms
Oh, but now that you got me, it's easy to want another love
Thinking that you'll find a better one
And I'll sit here waiting until you're done
(Mercury in Bold) So Emerald's perspective is that Mercury is not as devoted to the cause but they're a family and she'll be there supporting both of them when they come around.
4) Natural - Imagine Dragons
That's the price you pay
Leave behind your heart and cast away
Just another product of today
Rather be the hunter than the prey
And you're standing on the edge, face up 'cause you're a
Natural
A beating heart of stone
You gotta be so cold
To make it in this world
Yeah, you're a natural
Living your life cutthroat
I think this is Emerald towards herself, but also how the world sees her. "Rather be hunter than the prey", particularly cause she was the prey already. And she has to force herself to be cold to make it in this world. Because who is there to love her?
5) Love Me Less - MAX featuring Quinn XCII
Would you love me less?
If you knew the places that I've been?
If you knew the damage that I did?
Would you love me less?
I got too much dirt to come clean
Closets full of skeletons that you don't wanna see
Will you judge me? All my ugly?
I won't blame you if you do
Blood on my hands I refuse to acknowledge
That's why I get light-headed, thin ice that I'm treadin'
Again back to the internal harshness, I think all Emerald wants is to be loved, so I definitely think she rotates these thoughts. Like I think if she had to acknowledge the amount of blood on her hands she would have have a huge meltdown and it probably does haunt her. I think this song is possible post-Cinder or pre-Cinder because I can imagine Emerald with so much internal trauma that she'd think this way about herself.
6) Already Over - Mike Shinoda
Maybe it's just survival
Optimistic but blind
Maybe it's just denial
Out of sight, out of mind
But it's already over and I don't even know
Looking for a window that I already closed
No matter how much I want it, how bad I've tried
Nothing's there on the other side
It's already over
I think this describes Emerald's relationship with Cinder's cause pretty well, like after the Fall and once Salem is the one in charge. What is left for Emerald? She's in way over her head.
7) Overwhelmed - Royal & The Serpent
This mind isn't mine
Who am I to judge?
Oh, I should be fine
But it's all too much
I get overwhelmed so easily
My anxiety creeps inside of me
Makes it hard to breathe
What's come over me?
Feels like I'm somebody else
All of these faces
Who don't know what space is
And crowds are shut down
I'm overstimulated
Emerald literally has hallucinations as a semblance, I think she's overwhelmed more often than not. Particularly I thought the verse about these faces who don't know what space is, I think having to hold a semblance up in a crowd must be exhausting since you have to focus on the person and make the hallucination realistic