#The Jauntus / Jaunxas joke

[currantlee]

My issues with Blake’s Atlas outfit

Blake Belladonna is an ambush fighter who will avoid unnecessary combat and prefer to surprise or even backstab her opponents rather than picking an open fight. She is highly mobile, fast and can use the power of her Semblance, Shadow Clone, to make immobile copies of herself in order to distract or deceive her opponents. Her clones can be modified with dust to have different attributes, for example ice dust may be used in order to create a clone made of ice. Blake also excels at stealth and infiltrating enemy territory.

I’m focusing so much on her fighting style and her abilities because fights are an important part of RWBY. Let’s not forget that according to the fanbase, the fights speak for themselves!

However, so does character design. And if I were to show you this particular character design without you having watched the show – would you believe me that this is the same character I just described to you?

If you did,then you’re probably different than me and this character design actually makes sense to you – which isn’t a bad thing. However, it doesn’t make sense to me, not for a character like Blake and not for an environment like Solitas.

I have a love-hate relationship with RWBY. On the one hand I love the show because there are so many wonderful concepts and ideas in that show (even those seem to be borrowed from other media without an actual understanding on how the concept works most of the time). And on the other hand I hate it because it almost never uses the concepts and ideas to their full potential and prefers to do a lot of very bad fanservice instead.

That being said, I want to make very clear that everything in this post is my opinion and my perspective. I obviously dislike this character design, however, my opinion is not a universal one. If you like this design, that’s great!

Please do also keep in mind that I’m almost entirely self-taught when it comes to this topic and my primary approach when designing characters myself is practicality. This approach obviously doesn’t apply universally and it is certainly not the only way to approach designing a character.

My initial reaction to Blake’s new design

I’m not going to lie: my first reaction when I saw the V7 Artwork for Blake was: “What is this?” Not a purely negative way because there are actually elements I like, but still, the design didn’t make sense to me from the get-go, which isn’t a good thing in my opinion.

To the design’s credit, I did recognize Blake (mainly due to knowing it’s from RWBY and her cat ears) and not just because someone told me that it’s Blake. I obviously had a lot of problems with this design immediately after the reveal despite this.

Also, and I’m just going to mention this really quickly: when a few friends and I discussed the new designs shortly after the reveal, we all could agree somewhat that this design seems to be a somewhat fetishized version of Blake, despite the fact that she isn’t showing much skin. This is especially unfortunate because Blake is essentially a catgirl. You know, that type of character design which commonly tends to be fetishized. I won’t go into further detail with this however as the topic makes me personally uncomfortable.

With that right out of the way, let’s get into the actual analysis.

The Character of Blake Belladonna

To understand why I think that this character design is very mediocre at best in my opinion, I think that I should explain who I think Blake Belladonna is as a character – and not just her fighting style, which I have already described in the opening.

To be honest... It’s hard for me to characterize her. And not because she doesn’t do or talk much, but because RWBY is incredibly inconsistent with characterization, specifically when it comes to Blake (seriously, I think only RWBY can have an anti-violence character murder somebody and then jump back to the character being against violence... Without any development in between). So, I’m just going back to the Black Trailer and the first episodes of RWBY Volume 1 in order to get an idea of what she was originally like.

The first time we see Blake is in the Black Trailer, in which she ambushes a train together with a mysterious guy (a.k.a. Adam Taurus), only to leave him behind on the train at the end of the trailer after this vocal exchange:

Blake: What about the crew members [of the train]? Adam: What about them?

This established Blake as a character who, despite the violent nature of her actions, cares about others and their lives. It also shrouded her in mystery: we wanted to know why she left that guy behind. We also get a glimpse on Blake’s sass in the trailer when she tells Adam to “[not] be so dramatic”.

The first time we see Blake in the show itself is in RWBY Volume 1, Chapter 2: The Shining Beacon (Part 1), where she confronts Weiss Schnee after Ruby Rose accidentally knocked over her baggage. Note that in this scene, Blake is fairly sassy, just like she was in the Black Trailer:

Ruby: Hey, I said I was sorry, princess! Blake: It’s “heiress”, actually. Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy compellants in the world. Weiss: Finally! Some Recognition! Blake: The same company infamous for it’s controversial labour forces and questionable business partners.

Let me say this again: Blake is – once again – being sassy here. And the reason I want to stress this so much is because Blake is often described as shy or anti-social because she prefers to be alone, which I don’t really agree with – my approach is that she is more of an introvert, who only interacts when she wants to (which fits her cat theme very well in my opinion), something that is established within that scene.

Aside from that, the scene establishes that Blake is usually well-informed and has a strong sense of justice, which is a very important part of her character as well. She is also not afraid to speak out against injustice when she sees it.

Finally, we have the scene that is most often used in order to describe Blake as an introvert: the scene in RWBY Volume 1 Chapter 3: The Shining Beacon (Part 2), in which Ruby thanks her for coming to her help when Weiss was scolding her earlier on and the two start to have a conversation about books. Blake is established as a book lover and more of a quiet and calm person in this scene.

It should be mentioned that the scene is used to contrast Blake with the other members of the main cast: Ruby is too shy to talk to Blake at first (which is something you can’t say about Blake, because she doesn’t seem uncomfortable with the situation, but more like she doesn’t want to talk and continue reading), Yang’s flashy personality contrasts Blake’s calmness and Weiss’ egoism contrasts Blake’s display of maturity.

We later learn why Blake prefers to be alone: over the course of the first four volumes, we learn that Adam was in fact Blake’s boyfriend and that they were members of an organization that turned into terrorists (after Blake left) together. Blake ran away because she did not want to hurt people and enrolled at Beacon Academy to become a Huntress instead in order make up for the bad things she supposedly did during her time with the White Fang (again, Blake has a strong sense of justice). After Blake’s friend Sun Wukong is injured by Ilia Amitola at the end of Volume 4, the two have an emotional conversation in Chapter 11: Taking Control:

Blake: This is why I left them all behind. Sun: What are you... Wait. Where am I? Blake: I am done seeing my friends hurt because of me!

She becomes very emotional in this scene, to the point where she seemingly doesn’t care that Sun is hurt, which is something you rarely see happening with Blake. This emphasizes how important her friends’ safety is to her. Also, if you think about it, Blake’s worries aren’t empty fears. She was part of a terrorist organization – and they’ll likely not let her go just like that. In fact, the White Fang tries to assassinate her entire family in Volume 5. So yeah, her worries are far from unjustified.

It should also be mentioned that Blake alludes to Belle from Beauty and the Beast, specifically the Disney version.

All in all, Blake is a character, who...

... (deeply) cares about others and their lives, even when those people are her enemies. This holds true especially for her friends.

... has a strong sense of justice.

... usually displays a calm and mature demanor.

... often approaches things very rationally and will only become very emotional in rare instances.

... usually chooses to be alone / not interact with others unless she wants to.

In addition, when it comes to fighting, Blake is a character who...

... generally avoids violence and especially open fights when she can (even though she is capable of handling an open fight as long as she is with at least one teammate).

... is intelligent, usually well-informed and capable to use this to her advantage.

... is not a heavy hitter and instead relies on her speed and mobility, especially in the air.

... can be quite stealthy and deceptive.

... is capable of using multiple weapon types and dual-wielding blades.

This, to me, makes clear that Blake was likely supposed to be a ninja / assassin type of character with elements of an illusionist (mainly due to her Semblance). This would mean that she relies on the element of surprise, creativity when it comes to taking her opponent down (which she needs to do fast or she will lose the fight) and escaping, staying hidden for extended periods of time, and finally: information.

So now that we know who Blake actually is (or rather, what she was likely supposed to be), we can talk about...

So what about her Atlas design?

General Stuff

Where am I supposed to look? Someone please tell me where I am supposed to look here because I don’t know!

There is way too much stuff without any kind of orientation going on with this design, which is a general issue with the newer RWBY designs in my opinion. However, the Mistral designs did at least have some sort of focal point, something that immediately caught the eye of the viewer.

I struggle with this a lot myself, but usually you want to have a focal point in any picture - including a character design – and ideally guide the viewer’s gaze from there. In character design, the focal point is often a character’s hair or face, because as the characters may change their outfits over the course of a series, they can’t change their face (and usually won’t change their hair too much). In other words: focal points in character designs are often the elements that make a character recognizable.

An example of this is Tsukino Usagi a.k.a. Sailor Moon with her iconic bunnytails (it are buns. Falling into pigtails. Bunnytails! Which is fitting because her name means moon bunny). Not only do they immediately draw your attention because it is a very unusual hairstyle, but the loose part also guides your view from her face to her actual outfit. It’s also an iconic element that remains mostly unchanged throughout her various different character designs over the course of the series.

Blake’s visual signifier, the thing that makes her identifiable immediately and distinguishes her from other characters looking similar to her (e.g. Cinder Fall) is the fact that she always has something on her head. In the early Volumes this used to be a bow, in the newer Volumes it’s her cat ears. However, those do not function as a focal point in this design (or honestly – at all). Which by itself is not an inheritly bad thing (even though Blake’s design admittedly doesn’t stand out much due to the lack of a distinct, outstanding element that makes her instantly recognizable and the fact that there are so many characters with a similar design to hers).

The problem with this is that there is no other focal point. As I stated previously, there is just too much going on in the design. The cat ears are about the last thing I’m looking at, and my gaze is not lingering on them for a while. This is partly because they’re just not a very intriguing element and partly because there is too much other, potentially more interesting.

Another thing about this is Gambol Shroud. Now, I will say this, I have issues with the reforged Gambol Shroud. However, incorporating the original Gambol Shroud into the artwork rather than the reforged version (even if it had been reforged in a different way than just adding yellow superglue) was a good choice on Ein Lee’s part – and just not because it avoided giving spoilers to the audience. The cat ears are just not enough to identify Blake immediately (just going by the design), especially because they’re already rather subtle in a design that isn’t as overloaded as this one and there were so many things that were changed about her character design for Atlas, mainly her hair.

Gambol Shroud takes up more space than the ears, and especially the ribbon is interesting, so the viewer’s gaze is more likely to linger on that for a while. That’s why I think that this was a really good choice.

That being said, let’s talk about Blake’s other visual signifiers, which are...

Blake’s hair and the color black

A big part of RWBY’s design philosophy is that every character has their design, name and even traits centered around one color. In case of Blake, her color is black, meaning that it should ideally be the most present color in her outfits.

Blake’s hair is also black and speaking of it... Many shows are afraid to change the characters hairstyles. Not only is hair something that’s really personal (in real life too! Which is why hairstyle changes, especially drastic ones like cuts, are often interpreted as indicators of a huge change in someone’s personality or life), but hairstyles, especially in anime, manga or similar media, can become really iconic. Just think of Son Goku’s spiky tower or, again, Sailor Moon’s bunnytails.

I will say though that Blake’s hair, before the change, was admittedly fairly simple, if not even boring, and too similar to Yang’s hair in my opinion. That is why I really welcome this change to be honest. However, I wish they would have kept Blake’s curls because I actually really liked those, and I think an updo would have been cooler than a bob.

Another minor nitpick I have is that the bob makes her look slightly younger in my opinion, which is a common problem with short hair as it tends to emphasize the face. This is why if someone has a fairly round face, short hair can make them look younger. This especialy applies to anime as most figures tend to have round faces. However, I also want to mention that due to Blake’s unique, cat-like eye shape, this problem is not as prominent as it would be with other characters (like Yang).

Then again, Blake just went through an life-changing event (she murdered her former abuser and yes, I’m acknowledging it despite the fact that I really didn’t like the entire storyline, it felt like such a waste to me). So a haircut is definitely not out of place.

Back to black though...

This design doesn’t exactly lack the color, but it doesn’t bring it out that well either. The mostly white coat (which is ironically my favorite piece in this design) takes up much space in the design. It’s just... White is generally not considered a heavy color, but I’d say in this case it is. It is too heavy for a design with a primary color that is dark.

And with that, I’m jumping to...

The Penguin Coat 

I already said that the coat is my favorite piece in this design... Also, yes, I call it a penguin coat because it reminds me on cute little penguins for some reason... So props to the coat for reminding me on cute little penguins I guess. May I mention that this actually fits with the fact that the main characters are in a rather cold climate in RWBY Volume 7? You know, since most penguin species live in cold climates... But let’s move on from the penguins.

The flaps are likely a callback to Blake’s original design, which had those funny flaps that reminded a bit of classic illusionist outfits - it also reminds me personally on some of Zatanna’s outfits (from DC Comics). And guess what, this actually makes a lot of sense considering that Blake’s Semblance is essentially creating illusions (of herself).

Coats are also often used to make characters look more mysterious. The first use of this was in one of Akira Kurosawa’s movies, which are considered some of the most influental of all time and you should definitely go watch some of these because they’re awesome. Two other popular franchises using long coats for mysterious characters are The Matrix (with Switch wearing a white coat like Blake does) and Kingdom Hearts. So it is fitting for a character like Blake.

I know a lot of people do not like Blake wearing white coats. However, I disagree. First of all, Blake has ties with the White Fang (yes, the story arc was dropped but just because it was it doesn’t mean it never existed) and second of all, they are in a snowy area. Meaning that the coat has the same color as the environment. So it makes sense, at least it does to me.

A detail I really, really love is the black patch on the back of the coat, specifically because it creates the illusion that Blake is moving differently than she actually does. While this makes things a bit harder for the viewer indeed, it fits Blake’s theme of an illusionist / ninja crossover really, really well.

All of this being said, it should not be left unmentioned that logically spoken a coat like this restricts your mobility. Especially the flaps are constantly going to be in the way. Which is why I think that the flaps could honestly have been shorter (which would possibly have taken away the “long coat” element though). I think there isn’t really a “better” or “worse” here, so this is a very minor nitpick.

All of this being said, giving Blake a coat is not a bad idea to be honest. It protects her from the cold, it is commonly used to add some element of mystery to a character’s design and the flaps are not only a callback to Blake’s original outfit, but also a clever nod to her illusion powers.

That being said... Let’s move on to the two longest and silmoutanously most annoying sections of this post. Yes, we’re finally moving on to the worst, yet most interesting, elements about this design!

The Belts

First of all, the collar belt is absolutely unnecessary and no, we didn’t need a reference to Yang’s tryhard Mistral outfit here, at least in my opinion.

The backpack belts aren’t bothering me to be honest. They don’t feel disrupting and even though they obviously don’t have a function as well (because no, this is not how you tighten backpack straps), they add some nice detail to the straps and most of all: they are part of an element of this outfit, not a standalone element.

Let’s move on to the hip belt. That is actually a belt a really like, because it holds those pouches while fulfilling a decorative function at the same time. The belt hangs loose on Blake’s hips, which looks good (especially with Blake’s hourglass-shaped body) and contrasts the rest of her more skin-tight outfit. I also really like the idea of Blake having some sort of Batbelt (you know, the equipment belts the Bat Family usually wears in the DC comics), especially because she is a ninja / illusionist. Both usually have a lot of equipment (compared to other fighters / performers) in real life. My only nitpick would be that the belt hanging loosely on her hips could get in the way during fighting - but then again, it also looks really cool, so 9/10.

But now, let’s finally address my biggest belt issue in this design: the wristbelts.

I just don’t see a (reasonable) function with these – in fact, they are the most impractical thing about this design in my opinion – and they don’t even look cool. They just... I think they look weird, uncomfortable and just really out of place.

Some could argue that they have protection purposes. However, I am going to debunk that quickly because in fact, wearing something like that is actually very dangerous in combat. You see, belts usually have a buckle, right? Same with Blake’s wristbelts. Belt buckles are hard – if somebody hits the buckle in battle, her wrist could easily break from that

And yes, I know there is aura. However, aura can’t fix the fact that the belts are so broad that they limit Blake’s ability to move her wrists – which is important for someone who fights with swords and swings around with a ribbon a lot.

I also want to add that character designs should ideally work without the viewer knowing about in-universe logic (like aura). Simply because our brain is automatically, whether we know in-universe logic or not, going to assume that the logic applying to the design is the same logic that applies to our everyday life. Therefore, any element that doesn’t make at least some sense with real-world logic applied will feel weird, even if the viewer starts thinking about a justification with in-universe logic (which they have to do actively, while the real-worl logic assumption happens unconsciously and automatically).

It should also be mentioned that wristbelts as a concept per se aren’t automatically bad – there are instances in which they can work. Now, before I get into this, something needs to be brought up again: the CRWBY (meaning the people behind RWBY) borrows a lot of concepts from anime and video games, JRPGs in particular. However, they usually do so without understanding what makes those concepts work in the original. There is a great video by hbomberguy on YouTube that explains this in detail (I recommend the section Anime Homework in particular if you don’t want to watch a 2-hour-long video essay).

With the new character designs for RWBY Volume 7, a lot of people (including myself) have noticed that the concepts the show seems to be borrowing this time are concepts that are often found in Tetsuya Nomura’s character designs, particularly the Kingdom Hearts ones. Heck, a lot of people have pointed out that Nora Valkyrie’s new dress reminds them on Kairi’s dress from Kingdom Hearts II and Jaune got nicknamed Jauntus / Jaunxas for his new haircut (which reminded several people on Ventus and Roxas from the Kingdom Hearts franchise).

Saying that Nomura’s character designs might have inspired RWBY’s character designs isn’t a far stretch either: the new designs for the four main girls were designed by Ein Lee, who was known for her Kingdom Hearts fanart back in the day, before she started working on RWBY. So we know that she definitely knows this series and has, to some extent, analyzed the character designs - because she has drawn these characters herself. And even though blogpost by Kerry Shawcross about the redesign process confirms that Ein Lee wasn’t the only one in charge with those character designs, she was still the one who did the main bulk of work when it came to the new designs of the four main girls.

Let me clarify this: I don’t think that it’s an inheritly bad thing to take inspiration from something. Heck, Kingdom Hearts itself takes a lot of inspiration from other media! So the plain borrowing of concepts is not the problem here in my opinion. The problem is that the CRWBY obviously don’t understand what makes the concepts they’re borrowing work in the original.

Whenever you take inspiration from something, especially when borrowing concepts – like the concept of wristbelts in this example – , you should always, always make sure to understand those concepts and what makes them work at least to some extent. And while I believe that it is not possible to understand a concept or an idea to 100% – except for the person who originally came up with it – it is possible to get a good enough understanding to make the same concept work in another place. Does it have to work in the exact same way? No, and it likely won’t because if you re-use an existing concept, you’ll likely add your own ideas to it. That’s the interesting thing about inspiration (and also any kind of fanwork by the way).

So yeah, taking inspiration isn’t forbidden, even when it is so obvious where you got it from that the entire FNDM starts joking about Tetsuya Nomura having invaded RT (which... Quite honestly, I find that joke funny). However, when taking inspiration, you should also be aware that if two things are very similar, whether that’s intended or not, people are going to compare, whether you like it or not.

That being said – let’s compare, shall we?

So, here we have the character design of Sora (for those of you who don’t know Kingdom Hearts, he is the protagonist of the series and fights with a sword-like weapon, similar do how Blake does) from Kingdom Hearts III, and next to it, a 3D render of Blake in her Atlas character design from RWBY Volume 8. I picked a 3D render because I feel like it is fairer and Volume 8 gave us updated models for pretty much every single character (which was absolutely necessary because nobody looked good in Volume 7). I mean... They fixed Blake’s terrible hair halfway through Volume 7, which is something they usually don’t do, because so many people rightfully complained about it. Anyways...

Now, I don’t know what you think, but I have to say that with Sora’s wristbelts many of the problems with Blake’s wristbelts do not exist or are not as prominent. One of them is that in this case, the belts do not lack a function: I can immediately see what they’re for.

Sora wears those rather loose bracers in KH3 (which make sense since he fights with what is essentially a sword). The bracers are loose because Sora is rather scrawny and the bracers make him appear a little broader than he actually is. This is important for silhouette purposes since without the bracers, Sora’s silhouette would look fairly similar to the silhouette of another character in the same game – not absolutely undistinguishable, but this still makes it a bit easier to differentiate between the two characters.

Back to the wristbelts though: without these, the bracers would eventually fall off or constantly be in the wrong place. It should also be mentioned that Sora’s wristbelts are not even half as wide as Blake’s are, meaning that they don’t restrict the movement of his wrists as much as Blake’s do.

On top of all this functional stuff, they add a nice spot of yellow to the bracers, which not only does make the bracers look more interesting, but serves two purposes:

Designwise: the only other place where you have yellow are Sora’s shoes. If it weren’t for the wristbelts, the addition of the color would seem very random – and if there wasn’t any yellow, the design would look way more boring. However, there is another reason for the yellow.

Gameplay: Kingdom Hearts III is an Action RPG and Sora is the protagonist. Meaning that he is the playable character for most of the game. Since it’s an Action RPG, it involves fighting, which can be really chaotic. That’s where the yellow comes into play: you need to know the position of Sora’s hands and feet in order to have precise control. Yellow is a signal color (meaning that it is very bright) and the yellow Sora wears is also very saturated, meaning that it is unlikely that it appears anywhere else in a frame (even though it’s Kingdom Hearts and thus really colorful).

And yes, Blake’s wristbelts could indeed have a similar function. However, I personally feel that it doesn’t work since black is her primary color, meaning your eye is not immediately drawn to her wrists (even though the belts are a contrast against the white of Blake’s coat). Black also isn’t a signal color, so if that is what they were going for, they should have gone for an electric purple, a bright red or yellow instead.

For fairness’ sake, here is a nitpick about Sora’s wristbelts as well: the placement of the belt buckles. Because the way they are placed, the are an additional risk for injury. While replacing the wristbelt with velcro would certainly be the best option in regards to safety here, I also acknowledge that a wristbelt simply looks a bit better. That being said, to minimize the risk of injury, the buckle should be placed on the inside of the arm, next to the palm. That’s the spot where it is the least likely to get hit and cause (or worsen) an injury.

Blake’s wristbelts have the same dangerous buckle placement (which doesn’t make this any better) and are, as I have already said, pretty much non-functional. They’re unnecessary, obstructing and the only reason why they are there is because someone thought it would look cool (which... No, it doesn’t, it just looks weird).

And before someone says something about Blake’s wristbelts holding the sleeves of her coat together when the sleeve zippers are opened: why are the sleeve zippers even open? They’re at Atlas. It’s supposed to be freezingly cold! Why does she have her sleeve zippers open? It makes absolutely no sense!

The Zippers

Speaking of the zippers: why are there so many zippers in the first place?

Again, most of those zippers are not functional. Somewhat of an exception is the long zipper on Blake’s coat, which... Ein Lee herself has admitted that she shouldn’t have designed it to go all the way down because the coat is not meant to be zipped all the way down (Ein Lee, seriously... What were you thinking designing this?). So it’s basically only half-functional.

What is worst about this is that the one zipper that should be there – a front zipper for the catsuit – is not there. In other words: Ein Lee should have swapped the long coat zipper for a longer chest zipper on the catsuit. Yes, there might be a back zipper hidden underneath the coat for Blake to get out of the catsuit. But imagine the pain of opening a back zipper every time you want to pee. Which I can tell you is a pain, even if you’re more flexible than me. Therefore, a chest zipper would be way more practical (and there are ways to prevent it from accidentally zipping open, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

The rest clearly don’t serve the purpose of getting in and out of the catsuit or coat. The only purpose they could theoretically serve is ventilation.

Let me stress this: Atlas and Mantle are located on Solitas, a continent that is essentially the North Pole. It is really cold (according to Weiss in RWBY Volume 7 Chapter 3: Ace Operatives the cold of Solitas can kill you in a matter of hours without protection or aura). Even with moving around a lot, ventilation is not needed, especially not with outfits like these. I mean... They don’t look very warm to be honest. If there were thick jackets, fur and just more stuff that implies that these clothes are easy to overheat in, then yes, we could discuss about ventilation zippers. But like this? No. At least not with me.

And I’m not going to discuss aura now because of the stuff about real-world logic I already explained in the section about the belts. Also, quite frankly, aura as a concept is a mess of its own and another thing the writers can’t seem to keep consitant, but: if aura can protect you from extreme cold, shouldn’t it be able to protect you from overheating as well? Shouldn’t you rather wear warm clothing because if you run out of aura, you’re going to freeze if you don’t? It won’t hurt you because as long as your aura is up, you’re not going to overheat.

So yeah. Even with in-universe logic applied, there is no point why there should be so many zippers. The risk of overheating is technically nonexistent, so you can’t use “they’re fighting all the time, they could overheat if their clothing is too warm” as an argument.

That leaves the option that the zippers are meant to be a decorative element. Now, I will say that this can work - however, it doesn’t work in this case for multiple reasons.

First of all, if they are purely decorative, then why are the sleeve zippers open all the way? That implies a function, which, as I have established, is nonexistent because no ventilation is needed with and without in-universe logic applied. That leaves the sleeve zippers to be unnecessary because they fulfill neither a decorative nor a functional function within the character design.

Secondly, the zippers, especially the leg zippers, are obstructing Blake’s movements – again. Yeah, we already had this with the wristbelts. Logically spoken, a skin-tight catsuit like Blake is wearing needs to have a lot of stretch in order for the wearer to move properly, especially in the leg area. However, a zipper doesn’t have stretch, it’s static. And because it has to be sewn into the fabric, it also affects the fabric’s stretch. If you want to see how, I suggest taking your favorite pair of ideally skinny jeans (since those usually have some stretch) and trying to stretch the fabric around the zipper area. And keep in mind that those denim fabrics only have a fraction of the stretch that a catsuit usually has!

Third, and this kinda goes in line with the first reason, the zippers are not visually misappropriated. This might be a bit of a weird one to understand, so let me show you two designs in which decorative zippers are used, one being yet another character design by Tetsuya Nomura and the other being Blake’s original character design.

In both designs, the decorative zippers are visually misappropriated. What I mean by this is that while the zippers are there and might even work in the intended way (opening and closing a piece of clothing), they are placed in a way that makes it very clear that the zipper is not intended to function in the way zippers usually function.

In case of the left design (which is Kairi’s design in KH2) that means the decorative zippers are placed upside down. Now, that doesn’t mean that they are completely unfunctional (meaning that they might be unzippable). However, zippers are usually placed the other way around, except for sleeve zippers – which makes our brain assume that the zippers might not function in the way zippers usually do.

In Blake’s original design, visual misappropriation is handled a bit differently: the sliders aren’t visible (they’re covered up by the flaps of her vest), which also makes out brain assume that the zippers might not work. Again, there is no way to ensure that they truly don’t, but our brain will assume it.

What makes the lack of visual misappropriation worse in the case of Blake’s V7 outfit is that there are unzipped zippers (the ones on the sleeves) which look exactly the same as the other zippers. This implies to our brain that yes, all the zippers are functional.

Now, this is also the case with the KH2 design of Kairi. However, due to that tiny detail that is the visual misappropriation of turning the decorative zippers upside down, our brain will not assume that the decorative zippers are functional. In fact, it’s the other way around: due to the one non-upside down zipper being slightly opened (implying to our brain that it is functional), it contrasts the fully zipped... I can’t say up, so zipped down decorative zippers. And this is actually a great example on how much impact such tiny details can have.

Last but not least, the leg zippers are visually disruptive. Not only because absolutely no one would place zippers on catsuit legs like that, but also because they draw your eyes somewhere your eyes are not meant to be drawn to (which is an overall problem with the V7 designs to be honest).

Now, someone pointed out on a podcast that the zippers help follow the movement of Blake’s legs. But let me ask one question about that (that was also thrown in in the podcast by the way): why does it have to be a zipper then? It could be a simple seam! Or the next thing I’m going to discuss, which are...

The Kneepads

Not going to lie, many people including myself seemed to be really confused about those because from the artwork alone it wasn’t clear whether Blake is wearing boots or kneepads. Fortunately we know from the Concept Art that those are meant to be kneepads now.

That makes my main question about those kneepads: why are they black? Seriously, why are those kneepads black?! And why are they the exact same shade (because yes guys, there are actually shades and tones of black as well) as the catsuit? I really don’t understand why they did this, because usually Ein Lee and the RT designers seem to have more of a tendency to never put the same color next to each other when they create a divide in a character design. So just... Why didn’t you do it there?

As I said, the kneepads could also serve as as visual indicator for Blake’s leg movement - without disrupting the entire design. As I said, by “different color” I mean a different tone of black (maybe a bit brighter than the catsuit is), they don’t have to be signal red, white or yellow. Yes, that joke was intended.

And that marks my transition to the final thing that bothered me about Blake’s new look. I already said I’m going to talk about it earlier, so now let’s finally get an answer to the question:

What’s the deal with Gambol Shroud?

First of all, I have to praise Blake’s backpack. I didn’t want to put this into a separate section because I literally have nothing else to say than “I love it because I think it fits the thought that Blake, being a ninja / illusionist needs lots of equipment and I LOVE the fact that it doubles as a way for her to carry Gambol Shroud around!”

That being said, my happiness about how Gambol Shroud is being handled in Volume 7 ends exactly there.

As you remember (or you don’t if you didn’t watch RWBY Volume 6 Chapter 12: Seeing Red), Gambol Shroud was cut in two pieces by Adam. When this happened, a large portion of the FNDM including myself were incredibly exited for Gambol Shroud’s upgrade. In fact, my exitement for the upgrade even overshadowed my distaste for this particular scene which I am not going to include because there is a lot of blood involved.

Summary of what happened: CRWBY deliberately had an anti-violence character murder someone who was unarmed, portrayed it as a heroic action and then never talked about it again despite the fact that this event should have traumatized both of the characters that were involved into this. Which... I just want to say that even though Adam allegedly abused Blake, which was never officially confirmed by the way, it is not okay. Murdering Adam out of self-defense? Sure, that would have been an interesting new arc for both Blake and Yang. However, this wasn’t self-defense and as I stated before, it was never talked about again, so there goes the story potential. But anyways...

The exitement for the upgrade in relation to this scene overshadowed my disdain for it for a very particular reason: I believed that it might be foreshadowing to Blake wielding not only one but two dagger-like weapons in the future.

Unfortunately, this turned out to be false and all we got instead was this:

Yes... They simply fixed the blade with yellow superglue... Which is not only incredibly uncreative and lazy in my opinion, but it’s also highly unrealistic: the blade is bade of metal. Once it is broken, even a fix with superglue won’t make it last long before it breaks again.

I think that turning Gambol Shroud into two daggers, maybe connected by the ribbon, would have been a better route to go. And if you still wanted that catana (because this joke is fun), you could always design it in a way that Blake can connect those daggers to get a full katana again. It would also allow for her to still use the catmerang and the pistol as well as the ribbon and the sheath.

I also think that Blake wielding daggers rather than a full katana would contribute to her ninja image. It’s way easier to sneak a knife or a dagger into some place than it is to smuggle a sword in there. Which is why historical assassins nearly exclusively used dagger variations – including the historical ninjas or shinobi.

Finally, it would have given Blake the chance to evolve her fighting style. At this point, Blake has fallen far behind with what she can do in comparison with her teammates and this is partly because the CRWBY seems to be mostly clueless about what to do with her, leading to Blake swinging around in combat most of the time. A whole new weapon type could be a fresh start for creativity with Blake. And yes, this is me talking in good faith because we all know that RT wants to save money and that is a huge part of the reason why every character’s moveset, including Blake’s, has become so incredibly boring.

Conclusion

Dear RoosterTeeth! Please fire the person with an unhealthy obsession with way too many belts and zippers in character designs before the FNDM makes even more jokes about Tetsuya Nomura having invaded your company. They were funny in the beginning, but they’re getting old. Thank you!

And now for the real conclusion...

Blake’s new design has a lot of problems, but almost all of them come from the same source: a lack of understanding for what makes the concepts the design uses work. This goes from concepts borrowed from other media (belts and zippers) to the concept of Blake as a character overall.

Furthermore, parts of the design (especially Gambol Shroud) show a lack of creativity and an overall lazyness. I mean, why put thought into how to avoid a void (ha, the pun!) in your character design or use a creative way to fill said void when you can just add a useless accessoiry?

Let’s get concrete. Here is what should be fixed in my opinion in order to make this a better character design:

Less zippers! The leg zippers and sleeve zippers can easily go completely. The front zipper of the catsuit should be longer than it currently is. And if you really want additional jacket zippers, then make them so it are clearly pocket or ventilation zippers (meaning that they don’t go all the way down to the hem – also, don’t have skin showing underneath if that is the case).

No wristbelts! For the reason I stated above. The other belts can stay, even though I am admittedly not much of a fan of the collar belt. I’d also say to tighten the hip belt a bit because the way it hangs loosely on her hips right now, it’s going to be a nuisance at best.

Make it look warmer! With fluffy parts or just anything that doesn’t look like plain, thin fabric. They’re at the north pole and I don’t care about aura, a character design has to make sense without knowing in-universe logic.

No heels! Yes, not even wedges. They are a nightmare to walk long distances in, let alone fight. Even the show itself acknowledged this in Volume 2, so time to apply this knowledge – after eight seasons of having characters who do a lot of acrobatic stuff run around in heels.

Give Blake gloves! It’s cold and quite honestly? I love to give infiltrator / ninja / spy characters gloves. Simply because you don’t want to leave fingerprints anywhere, do you? So gloves would be a win-win.

Do something different with Gambol Shroud! I don’t care what it is – dual daggers would honestly be cool, but who knows, someone else might have an even better idea than that! I’m open to anything, as long as it’s something different, and not just the superglue solution we got in canon.

Those are the major issues in my opinion. Fixing them wouldn’t exactly make this my favorite character design ever – honestly, if I was the character designer for RWBY, I’d do the entire outfit completely different. But I’m not and I’m not going to design an alternative because honestly? I’d rather save the ideas I have for alternative Blake outfits for OCs or characters from other media that I actually care about. As I stated before, I have a love-hate relationship with RWBY and I’m not particularly fond of the way things are being handled in the show as of late (*cough* the fact that they absolutely had to show Oscar being tortured *cough* That’s not dark, that’s just tasteless in my opinion, especially when so much other important stuff gets ignored for something like this).

Anyways, if the issues above were fixed, then the design would at least make sense to me and I think I could even say I like it – because all in all, this is a bad design in my opinion. The issue is just that while this design comes with some good ideas any concepts, it doesn’t execute them very well (which is the issue with RWBY a lot of the time).

Anyways, that was my mustard on the topic. I apologize for any language mistakes since this posting wasn’t beta’d and English is not my first language. Thank you so much for reading, especially if you got through this entire thing.