#V9 is so very flawed

[virtueking233]

Definitely don’t regret asking this because it was insightful and interesting to read

Honestly, a lot of your points that you brought up make just… a perfect amount of sense and some of the major criticisms you have, especially regarding V9 and just how it has a crap ton of flaws/issues with its writing

Like, episode 5 was just a mess because while it has a few good moments like the Intimate WR moment or the Blacksmith scene… it just has issues like that nose hair thing or how they literally did nothing after episode 4 with the whole “Perfect shadows copies”

Or the issue with episode 9 and how WBY does exactly what Ruby got upset/was hurt by (comforting/helping Jaune and not her) or the issue about how WBY don’t at all seem affected/worried about Ruby and seem a bit happy

Or just in general, the issues with making Weiss mainly being comedic relief in V9 and not having a very serious arc

And I push some of these issues on stuff like Budget cuts or not enough time or missing episodes or all that stuff… I’m still going to partially blame the writers for issues

But anyways, I’m not here to complain or rant about V9… I’m here to rant about WR

And boy do I have some stuff to rant but I’m going to try and keep it small

By first saying: WR is really the only ship for Ruby and Weiss that makes sense to be developed and made canon

And it’s most likely going to be the ship that is made canon for Ruby and Weiss (if V10 is greenlit and we actually get more RWBY) because it’s really the only ship that has the potential and something to actually build upon in future Volumes/content for RWBY

Like, why have Ruby be the only person that notices Weiss pain/how she is hurting regarding the loss of Atlas/her home or have Ruby be the only person Weiss opens up to about pain/feelings

Or, why have Weiss be the first to truly realize and understand what’s wrong with Ruby and how she is hurting deeply/seems to regret putting burdens on Ruby or have Weiss be the first person to truly believed and accept that Ruby might change and no longer be herself after ascension and is willing to accept her no matter what

I don’t get why some people say WR won’t happen/WR isn’t romantic or won’t be romantic/WR isn’t going to be canon because of this and this

When you easily see them possibly building something up or see the very strong potential for Ruby and Weiss relationship to become romantic through certain stuff like:

The whole development of Ruby being Weiss true home and how she provides Weiss with a sense of purpose and warmth

As well as

Weiss being the person who fills in the hole left in Ruby’s heart by the loss of Penny/Summer and helping to fully piece Ruby back together again (because she is only somewhat whole)

Or

Ruby and Weiss constantly trying to make amends for failing each other and trying to do their best to help each other/support each other in any way they can

As well as

Them coming together to carry each other’s burdens and protect each other because they have come to realize how important they are to each other and how they must be there for each other

There is obviously something that could be being developed or easily some major potential to develop something more for Ruby and Weiss relationship

And it’s just so frustrating to see people just be… ass’s about this stuff or just whatever

Especially when I’m not even touching the tip of the iceberg when it comes to WR content

I could write three essays on WR developments and their relationship

I could write a essay on how if Ruby and Weiss never had each other as partners, neither would be who they are now and probably would end up becoming their worse selves/would never truly be balanced and have issues

I could write a essay on symbolism regarding WR or Visual storytelling regarding WR

I could write a full essay on the whole importance of the Weiss summoning the goddamn nevermore because of how it relates to Ruby and Weiss relationship, mainly on the aspect of Understanding each other/having faith in Ruby

I could write essays about why others ships except maybe NND, just don’t work and don’t have anything really to properly develop the ship or the characters just don’t work with either Ruby or Weiss

Overall, the point is… it’s so frustrating and tiring to see some people be like “WR won’t happen” or “V9 is a perfect Volume with no flaws” when it can be very clearly see that its kind of wrong to say that

Anyways, I hope this rant wasn’t a bit,.. too much

What are your thoughts on WR development overall and your thoughts on WR being developed/made canon in V10?

Ugh I am going to ramble about everything here I can feel it...well you asked for it. I apologize for none of it, and if you all hate me at the end well I don't mind.

Volume 6 and before are pretty much great. They go from kinda at odds to tentative friends, learning to trust, and rely on each other, best friends, pining over one and other and V6 was a loooot of WR for us to feast on.

Afterward I felt like it got sidetracked. There could be various reasons for this (in hindsight I feel like Penny being given a way bigger role so her death could hit harder is to blame for part of this because realistically how long has Ruby known Penny? A month?)

Even if you don't like the ship they're supposed to be canon best friends so I take personal issue with almost all of volume 9.

I think it was sloppy writing that didn't move the story forward, and even though I don't care about Bees I feel like they still got shafted since they basically were forced to confess to move things along, and them doing so made them miss out on the sister/supposed friend and her problems, and only showcased the worst sides of the relationship.

For example Yang let's Ruby scream at Weiss but only moves to do something when Blake gets yelled at. Blake and Ruby still have...less dialogue than Ruby does with Ren I think etc.

Jaune was too present merely because his entire deal took away from Ruby's imo.

I've said it before but frankly Nora falling and learning who she is away from Ren so when she sees him in V10 she's ready for the relationship is far more satisfying to me narratively.

Leave Jaune above ground so he has to deal with the fact that he thinks he failed his friends and they all died and let him learn from that experience instead.

This also doesn't take into account that Jaune's one interesting change in 9 (being old) is taken away via random deaging (although I guess this makes deaging canon and hey young maria this is how dwr can still win! more at 11!)

Generally when characters go through a volume you want some sort of arc for them to go and change through. Weiss gets none of that. Out of all the characters nothing really happens to her, and she doesn't change at all. She's just sad about Atlas. Neat.

There's no time for it just like there's no real time for Ruby.

In Ruby's own words 'gotta help Jaune right?' and they do. Ruby removes herself from the census, which is how its framed, and they stop to...help Jaune.

There are a few moments that are WR'ish in 9. The Nevermore summon, Weiss believing in Ruby, and calling her name first etc, but overall Weiss's main job is to backslide.

I said it before but in the market Neo, the perfect assassin is after Ruby, and they split up. Weiss goes 'gross nosehairs', and ditches her best friend who she already knows by that point is NOT doing well.

This is not Volume 1. This Weiss is not that petty, and she's literally had to manhandle corpses. The fact that she wouldn't stay near her canonical best friend, and leader is asinine, and only happens so she can be alone to meet the smith.

Even if Weiss can't help Ruby fight Neo she's an extra pair of eyes (and Neo doesn't care how crowded it is in the market), and just being there for Ruby can help.

With all that said RWBY is big into symbolism. When WR are together in almost all the side spin off material it means something. Manga Anthologies has them making heart eyes and flirting like every other page. Ice Queendom was a love letter to WhiteRose (precious?). The movies, etc.

When their weapons rest next to each other on screen like the Bees do? It means something. When their flowers break ranks to be near each other (and Weiss's flower is the lily please note)? This means something.

Ruby can stand and jump from missile to missile but has to wrap her arms around Weiss to stay seated?

If Chibi continues it's pattern of predicting things in the main plot then the fact that Weiss is the woodsman in the fairy tale means a loooot as in several versions of that fairy tale the woodsman marries little red after helping her deal with the wolf problem (which varies by the story).

They're the knight and princess for each other. Ruby comes into Weiss's live turns it upside down, and helps her change. Likes her for her genuinely and wants to be her friend at the start. Through this she changes the world for Weiss, and helps her grow, and Weiss in turn helps Ruby be the leader she can be.

But yeah I guess that's just friends things and they should date some guys they've had like a half a dozen lines with instead? I don't get it really.

She and Oscar punch each other in the face, and they talk about strategy. Oscar has a younger kid crush on her, and Ruby is awkward because that's her headmaster in this kids head. Oh right he went in for a hug she ignored. Peak romance.

Jaune and Weiss have almost no interactions, and when he saves her at Haven her response isn't to be like 'omg i love you' it's 'keep doing it i have work to do'. Are they friends now? Sure, but that's about as far as it goes.

It remains that outside of group hugs the only person that's allowed to initiate contact with Weiss almost all the time outside of battle is Ruby.

Ruby knows when she needs help and will guide her away when she needs it, but other people don't' touch Weiss unless she does it first because they know she doesn't like it...except Ruby.

I have tried to look at other relationships for them, and I honestly don't see them as realistic.

Even Penny would need a lot more development to make it work. I get that it's cute and wholesome but they've known each other for again a month, and Penny just defers to Ruby.

Ruby needs a partner and equal not a submissive enabler. That's a relationship you have with a pet, and not a person.

Now if Maria were young and hot that'd be different...

Anyway...

Ruby and Weiss are partners. If they're allowed to have the much needed conversations they never seem to get, ie haven, ever after, Ruby's mom, everything, etc.

Then is it possible? Maybe. If they do go WR I suspect it'll be more hints, and slow ramp up until the final season.

I would expect it either on the eve of the final battle, or literally during it maybe as in Weiss gets feds up with waiting, and decides to do something about it.

More likely at this point is they'll both just end up single with maybe faint hints so fans can imagine what they want for it.

Would I prefer it if it was WR so the team can truly be family? Yes, but I don't even know if we're getting a volume 10 at all to be honest. The fact that it wasn't announced at the last festival, and we get an extended eppy, and then nothing after the last movie?

Not making me feel super confident. I could be wrong though. On many things. Except Young Maria.

[bestworstcase]

"There is no victory in strength."

"And Yang was strength."

I wonder if this is some "subtle" foreshadowing for something later?

oh i have some THOUGHTS about this

first: see this post regarding salem's V1 monologue. the key point to keep in mind for this discussion is that she begins by naming several qualities of mankind—strength, wisdom, resourcefulness, passion, and ingenuity—so her concluding statement implies its own inverse: 

"mankind was strong, wise, and resourceful, but he was born into an unforgiving world [��] in time, man's passion, resourcefulness, and ingenuity led them to the tools that would help even the odds […] but take heed: there will be no victory in strength," i.e. "victory lies in these other four qualities." 

so what does this have to do with yang?

in V2: yang gets slapped by the paladin prototype, and when blake calls out to her in a panic, ruby stops her: "don't worry! with each hit she gets stronger, and she uses that energy to fight back. that's what makes her special."

in V3: after her disqualification from the tournament, qrow passes on raven's message to yang ("she saved you once, but you shouldn't expect that kindness again") after she tells him she saw her mom ("i- i was in a lot of trouble, took a pretty hard hit"), then follows up with "you're a tough egg, kiddo; shouldn't let this tournament thing get you down."

in V4: tai tells yang that she, like raven, "act[s] like the easiest way to tackle an obstacle is through it: that strength is all that matters in a fight," which he implies is the fatal flaw of raven's that "tore our team apart and […] did a real number on our family," even though "raven was great in so many ways: her strength, her ambition, her dedication." 

in V5: blake describes yang to sun as "[the embodiment of] strength."

also in V5: yang confronts raven in the vault under haven academy and, when raven calls herself strong, snaps back: "oh, shut up! you don't know the first thing about strength! you turn your back on people, you run away when things get hard, you put others in harms way instead of yourself! you might be powerful, but you're not strong."

in V6: blake reassures yang by telling her "adam's strong, but his real power comes from control."

also in V6: adam taunts yang: "moment of truth, yang! do you think you're faster than you were at beacon? …heh. me neither," and after catching his weapon she retorts, "i may not be faster, but i'm smarter." (<- put a pin in this one, it's important.)

in V8: yang falls, blake fails to catch her, and it's the hit she can't come back from—it doesn't make her stronger, it just plunges her into the void to her apparent death.

in V9: when they catch up with yang, she's performing strength ("i said i wasn't done with you yet!") but in reality she's exhausted, barely able to stand. later, blake describes her like this: "you're an extraordinary person. you're always the first to lighten a situation; you act bravely when you're afraid; you do what you say."

ok. 

there are a few threads to unwind here.

first let's unpin what adam says to yang during their final duel: "do you think you're faster than you were at beacon?" not "stronger." not "tougher." faster.

ruby tells blake that strength is what makes yang special. qrow tells yang she's too tough to let one "slip-up" bring her down. her father thinks she relies too much on her strength. before their reunion, blake sees yang as the living personification of strength.

but just as a younger blake was wrong about adam being "justice" or "passion," she's wrong about yang being "strength," and adam is actually—ironically enough—the first character besides yang herself to notice that strength is not what yang is about. he taunts her for not being fast enough. 

speed. agility. not just in the sense that yang is a very nimble combatant, but she's emotionally agile—look at how she handles herself and her feelings during fraught confrontations with blake in V2 or raven in V5. she's a self-described thrill-seeker, but she also worries about being too rootless. her biggest setbacks all come from rushing—and her big wins all come from outmaneuvering her opponents, whether physically or emotionally. she's strong, but strength is not what she is.

keeping that in mind, the second thread to follow is the difference between strength and power. yang tells raven "you might be powerful, but you're not strong." blake tells yang that adam is "strong, but his real power comes from control," from getting into people's heads and making them feel small. when ruby and tai and blake talk about yang's strength (and when blake talks about adam being strong), they mean raw physical strength—but that's not what yang means when she talks about strength. in yang's terms, raw physical strength is just power. her semblance makes her powerful; it doesn't make her strong. 

yang defines strength as the choice to put others ahead of oneself, even and especially when it's hard. 

in the ever after, blake says that yang uplifts others (always the first to lighten a situation), that she's brave, that she has integrity. between V5 and V9, after reconciling with yang and going through the harrowing experience of of fighting adam with her, blake sees the vulnerability behind the brave mask yang puts on for her loved ones. her perception of yang at beacon was colored both by her adam trauma and by the way ruby saw yang as invulnerable, unshakable. since then she's come to see yang as she truly is: caring, brave, and honest. she sees and loves the kind of strength that yang values.

third thread: the really crucial piece is what kind of strength is salem referring to? 

and the answer is that she's talking about power, explicitly in contrast to what she sees as humanity's true strengths: wisdom, resourcefulness, passion, ingenuity, and hope. in V1, salem credits hope as the reason mankind was not wiped out (again) by the grimm and names "passion, resourcefulness, and ingenuity" as the qualities that allowed them to find a way to survive against the odds. then, "nature's wrath in hand, man lit their way through the darkness, and in the shadow's absence came strength, civilization, and most importantly, life."

in this story salem tells about the beginning of the world, strength is one of the fruits of mankind's triumph, something that could only develop after the darkness had been beaten and pushed back. when she gives her warning—"there will be no victory in strength"—she names "your guardians" and "your monuments" explicitly. 

to be precise, she is talking about the maidens ("a guardian is a symbol of comfort"), amity coliseum("it was decided that the tournament would need a stage equal in greatness to that of its competitors. amity coliseum was the culmination of four kingdom's efforts: a technological marvel and a shining symbol of harmony, capable of making the journey to all the kingdoms of remnant"—but note that menagerie is excluded from the vytal festival), and atlas ("the people of mantle needed a sign of a brighter future, and that sign was atlas; a city in the clouds is as bright as it gets").

those things represent ozpin's definition of strength: technological marvels, shining symbols of harmony and comfort, a girl who is "strong, caring, and intelligent" enough to make the people feel safe. and of course outside of these soliloquies, the word salem uses is power—and she warns cinder, twice, in no uncertain terms that power will not make her strong: "it is because of the maiden's power. […] your newfound strength brings with it a crippling weakness" and "you will have the power i promised you, but remember that it comes with a cost."

now back to yang: she and salem share this mindset, this clear delineation between true strength and mere power. salem tries to impress it upon cinder; yang's power blinds her family to her true strength, which blake learns to see clearly as they become partners, and she is placed in juxtaposition with adam, raven, and cinder—all of whom are powerful but not strong. 

and, like salem, the way yang is perceived (that her power is what makes her special, and she thinks physical strength is all that matters in a fight) does not align with how yang sees herself or what she values: yang takes pride in being able to face her fears, speak the truth, put others before herself, and outwit her foes; she likes that blake has never been intimidated by her, and she admires blake's dedication and willingness to forgive. 

salem values wisdom, i.e. experiential knowledge—yang tells her past self that her losses and failures "more than anything are what have shaped me into who i am, showed me how i need to grow." salem values passion—yang is passionate in everything she does and likewise admires the passion she sees in blake. "you know what matters to you." salem values resourcefulness and ingenuity—yang revels in outsmarting people who underestimate her, as they often do, and flat out tells adam that she may not be faster than him, but she is smarter, then throws his weapon to bait him into running right into blake's punch.

yang values courage—salem fomented rebellion against the fucking gods and vowed to keep fighting even after they crushed her like an ant, and rewards cinder for defying her, and disdains lionheart for being a coward. yang values honesty—salem explodes when people lie to her and loathes ozma for his deceit. yang values compassion—salem built her whole rebellion on the premise that no one else should have to suffer as she did. yang values cleverness—salem cultivates spies and meticulously prepares to stack the deck in her favor before making a move.

"the ability to derive strength from hope is undoubtedly mankind's greatest asset," says salem. "even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change."

"look, blind optimism isn't great, but no optimism means we've already lost; we need hope. we need to take risks," says yang. 

aside from blake, all of team rwby repeat salem in some way: weiss is the girl who frees herself from her tower, ruby the idealist who sees how broken the world is and takes it upon herself to fix it, inspiring the world to strive with her. (blake repeats ozma: the warrior who fights for justice, but her journey is the inverse of his: her ideals are corrupted by adam's spite in the beginning and she leaves him behind in pursuit of true justice.) but yang is salem's heart. 

(<- the reversal in how blake sees yang before/after they reunite at haven and defeat adam together is a fractal-ozlem thing, by the way: the inflection point occurs in 6.5 when yang opens up about her flashbacks and blake sees her hands shaking. the maiden's tears restore her prince's sight—yang allows blake to see how scared she is, and blake recognizes how badly yang needs blake to be there for her, to stay.)

WHICH IS HYSTERICAL BECAUSE,

"all this endless death, because something bad happened to you once upon a time? no one gets a fairytale ending! everything i've lost, every person i've lost, is because of you!"

yang is being deliberately provocative here. her intention is to redirect salem's boiling fury from oscar to herself, to protect oscar. she is trying to piss salem off, and while she succeeds in distracting salem from oscar, she completely fails to make salem angry—instead, salem calms down.

why?

the anger and scorn yang throws in salem's face here are completely genuine, but as i said before, yang's emotional agility—her control over her emotions—is unparalleled. she does not "lose her temper" (and on the rare occasion she snaps without meaning to, she reins it in lightning fast). she lets it out. so in this scene, yang makes a calculated choice to yell at salem. to get angry.

now, we've seen her do this once before—and by "this" i mean specifically the choice to get mad enough to verbally explode at somebody—and that was during her last confrontation with raven. 

"oh, shut up! you don't know the first thing about strength! you turn your back on people, you run away when things get hard, you put others in harm's way instead of yourself! you might be powerful, but you're not strong."

i think yang is not quite as in control of her feelings in this scene with raven, because the wounds are very personal and very raw, but nevertheless she is making a deliberate choice to let her anger come out because—again—she's trying to make raven mad. if raven decides she's leaving with the lamp, yang can't actually stop her. she knows that. she also knows raven isn't going to listen to an appeal to join them, so her only real option is to upset raven enough to make her abandon the lamp (and yang) (…again). 

so that's what she does! yang asks questions and needles raven on her answers until raven starts to react emotionally ("i survived because i'm strong enough to do what others won't!"), and yang pounces on that. shut up, you don't know the first thing about strength. she goes right for the throat, attacks the thing at the center of all raven's rationalizations. and raven fucking shatters.

this is what yang tries to do to salem. "why do you keep coming back?" -> "why do YOU!?"—raven says "i'm strong," yang goes "shut up, that's bullshit, no you're not." salem says "why do you keep coming back," yang hears salem playing the victim and goes "shut up, that's bullshit, your suffering isn't special" because she guesses—based on what she's been told about salem, and what she just heard salem say to ozma—that salem has built her sense of self around victimhood in the same way that raven built hers around "being strong."

only. it doesn't work this time.

because salem is just like yang.

just like yang, salem prizes courage and conviction and abhors liars. she makes the same distinction between genuine strength and mere power, and values power not at all. 

she also, just like yang, keeps her anger firmly in check. when salem yells and slams her hands down or flips a table to intimidate someone, or threatens cinder with the hound, or tortured oscar, that is a choice she is making to let her anger out. the one time salem actually loses her temper, she sends everyone else out of the room, waits for the door to close, makes what appears to be a herculean effort to hold it in (<- the air boils), and then explodes all the windows.

this tactic of yang's depends on her opponent not having her level of emotional control. but that isn't the only reason she completely fails to get a rise out of salem; look at salem's reaction:

<- "why do you keep coming back?"—this is genuine fury. teeth bared, crushing oscar's head with her nails digging in behind his ears.

<- "because something bad happened to you once upon a time?"—she's nonplussed. it's not even that salem's too in control of her anger for yang to provoke her, salem is legitimately thrown for a loop by this line of attack. yang misses the mark by such a wide margin that it knocks salem out of her anger altogether. she was seething about ozma sacrificing children for the god to whom he debases himself in blind obedience, why is this child yelling about fairytales. what.

it's telling, i think, that salem does not, in any way, dispute the premise that her own suffering does not justify the suffering she causes or that she is personally responsible for yang's losses. neither of those ideas challenge or threaten salem's self-identity, and in fact the only response she does make is to ask who she took from yang. (<- implicitly conceding that she is responsible for ruining yang's life, or at least that she might be.) 

she and yang are Very Alike.

(this is also why yang has such pronounced paralleling with cinder. by the way. two halves of salem's psyche. fire as hope, fire as wrath.)

anyway

the point of yang vis-a-vis "there will be no victory in strength" is to clarify and articulate the distinction salem makes between power (which neither character values) and strength (which they do, and define as the sum of many virtues). both of them are positioned in counterpoint to ozpin, who trusted only in power and symbols of power (the maidens, amity, atlas), and ruby, who mistakes power for strength and is on a journey that puts both her power (silver eyes) and her strength (hope) to the test.

[rwbyrg]

Hello again! I was wondering, in your own opinion, what moment(s) for both Oscar and Ruby, really implied that there was much more going on with the two character, in the sense that their relationship was starting to evolve? Also what do you like about those moments? To add, do you think we will see it much more in volume 10?

Hello!! I think, generally speaking, all of their focused scenes imply there's more going on or that their relationship is evolving in some way. RWBY doesn't have filler. So when characters - especially ones as central to the narrative as these two - get focused screen time together (and romance-y tropes), it's done with intention.

Ruby's arc is about many things, but especially about how she's pretty much the last silver eyed warrior that can face Salem. Meanwhile, Oscar's arc is about defining who he is while under a curse that robs him of his identity. And in their first meeting, Oscar comments on Ruby's eyes, and she asks him who he is. Even their first lines to each other are mirrored in how they're spoken!

This scene really shows that their character arcs linked from the very beginning.

We get all the stuff I mentioned in my last post and more and none of it is necessary to do if it's not building up to something. Which it very clearly is.

I have no doubts we'll get to see more of their shared story in V10 onward. The V9 epilogue - what was supposed to be the final episode of the season - works as both a closing point for the Atlas arc, and a kick off for the Vacuo one. It's setting the stage for what is to come. A non-extensive list of what we know we're getting so far:

Nora's and Winter's character arcs; both of them struggling with responsibility, grief, and guilt.

Weiss will almost certainly be getting some focus by extension of that as well. Especially because her arc has always been about her family.

Ren being more open and trying harder to support those around him.

Qrow, more hopeful than he's ever been before and how much it's propelling him forward.

And then we have Oscar.

Oscar and the merge. Oscar Pine, Little Prince, pining at Ruby's grave in the desert. I talk about this set up a lot, and it's difficult to explain succinctly because it's got a lot of complex pieces at play (and has been going on since their meeting, as mentioned above). But if I were to try and break it down as simply as possible:

Ruby's fatal flaw is her grief. Her silver eyes are powered by, and the embodiment of, the preservation of life. She doesn't want to lose anyone else that she cares about and cannot bear the weight of responsibility that comes with it alone. So much so that she almost abandons her own identity via ascension because she is offered the choice to do so. She stays true to herself in the end as someone that fights, not for those she's lost, but for those she hasn't lost yet. And the narrative, through all their interactions, but especially the Tea Party, has placed Oscar front and centre in the position of who Ruby hasn't lost yet. Oscar, who wants nothing more than to be a part of the team that he keeps pushing away. Oscar, who just wants to be who he is, to preserve himself, but is being robbed of that choice via the merge. Something Ruby, can't protect him from.

RWBY loves to make its pairings thematically complimentary and it loves pushing characters to their limits. There is no way that the scenes and setup between Oscar and Ruby haven't been intentionally building to something big with how much their respective and shared conflicts are directly playing off of each other. There is no way CRWBY - with their limited budget and resource constraints - dedicated all that screen time to these two for it to not pay off at some point. And given this arc is the last one... now's a good a time as any for it to happen.

[cyan-orange-studio]

About RT shutting down and the future of RWBY

So I already expressed my opinion in Twitter and I will now address it here. RT no more is sad but not surprising. The company and the IP has been struggling for a while and this was a slow burn and sort of expected outcome after recent decisions and outcomes with V9 n the 2 JL movies. I don't wanna predict or say what its best for RWBY as a whole, all I want to truly say is that I am very thankful for RT for what they gave us (even with flaws n all) and that my love for Raven and STRQ has not faded. Yes, I will continue my fancomics and will dedicate my heart n passion into these fan projects as long as I am interested and have the necessary support to do it.

RT was imo the shell of RWBY not the heart, these characters will continue to live in fancreations and whatever the future holds for them, so I don't think this is the end.

Thats is all! I hope you guys keep enjoying my work.

- Sonya

[invested-in-your-future]

"character assassinate and write off her trauma" You mean something that didn't happen whatsoever? Please watch the show before you comment on it.

IDK what to say to this - asks that are basically "No, you!" are so hard to properly address.

The show literally had characters look at the camera and go: "All of our character's arcs that the show never bothered to address - don't matter because we're perfect and should never change or develop, and having doubts is evil!"

Like, the show literally made Ruby drink the dumb tea because of the trauma the show had not bothered developing or focusing on since the end of V3 - then the show proclaimed that all of that trauma doesn't matter and means nothing and should be wiped clean as if all the set-up is pointless.

V9 is one big case of the show just outright stating - "We aren't going to do anything with the characterization set-up or flaws that the show implied before as the character arcs are all over even though we haven't done anything with them."

Ruby gets told having very reasonable doubts is evil, gets neglected and treated like trash, shouted upon - her own sister favoring a writer's pet jaune over her. She then handwaves all of her issues, trauma, and mistakes and the show treats it as a positive.

Weiss literally has no character arc - she hasn't had one for years - which is hilarious as they had just destroyed her homeland, and her family is in ruins. Does Weiss look back upon it or question who she is now? Nope. Does Weiss reflect on her privilege or how her family shaped her? She hasn't during the Atlas arc, and Weiss sure doesn't in V9 - she's the comic relief now, somehow.

Blake hasn't had a character arc since her hilariously tone-deaf "burning and looting" monologue in Menagerie. V9 doesn't address her issues, the Faunus subplot, or the tension between Yang and Blake that SHOULD be there after V3.

Yang, likewise, has no character arc, too. Her issues with her mother? Not addressed. Her self-worth issues and aimlessness? Not addressed. Her relationship with her sister? Her issues with Blake leaving? Her trauma? The show has swept it all under the rug.

The characters proudly turn to the camera and say: "this doesn't matter, and the show will never focus upon any of these interesting characterization things because we are all perfect and should never change. We will now focus on this mission given to us by GOD!" - this is such a bewildering, unearned moment because nobody out of the four characters in the main cast has had any character arc or actual closure as the show has NEVER focused upon them at all.

And the writers clap.

Where's the characterization? Where's the show's FOUR LEAD CHARACTERS being treated with care and respect and given focus? Where's development and growth that has been missing since V3?

The writer's pet Jaune gets the focus. And even then all of that focus gets reset in the end because can't have the status quo change!

V9 is pointless at best and offensive and insulting at worst as far as characterization goes.

Any even remotely interesting story beats that COULD be here (Like Ruby learning of Penny's fate and actually confronting Jaune about it) are offscreened.

Oh yeah we got literally five seconds of Summer tease - something that is at least four Volumes too late and honestly I couldn't care less now because because look - Ruby's issues are solved and didn't matter - her trauma is gone now!

It's writers unintentionally flashing one huge red warning that says - "if you have followed us and stuck with the show for characterization or all the unexplained things possibly getting focus, then we hate you and don't want you here. - we will not address anything nor make characters grow. In fact we genuinely don't care about the leads and Jaune is clearly the only focus of this show now. And also we especially hate anyone with psychological trauma because trauma is not real!"

Brilliant strategy when your company is barely afloat, RT.

[sokumotanaka]

You didnt actually watch V9, or like any of the previous what 3 Volume? 4? Talking about it with people on Discord is not watching the show, and the way to beat Salem for good was very heavily foreshadowed right there in V9. Stop speaking like you even have a vague idea of what was happening, lmao

Rwde based ask || Always accepting from Smart people, not people like this.

-

Annnd thus proves my point.

You people are really embarrassing. I use Screenshots from the episodes in alot of my statements- but sure I never watched it cause you plugging your ears and shutting your eyes to criticism is the best detractors can do since your egos are apparently so fragile people pointing out flaws in your show drives you mad.

Grow up.

[chaikachi]

Listen as a RG shipper who has been burned by other shows with ships I don’t wanna put my tin hat on. But NEO??? Has been using Oscar A LOT to mess with Ruby. And assuming she turned into Ruby to trick Oscar to get the lamp back in V7 👀👀👀 also I just rewatched V5 and when they all have a sit down he just stares at her and Ruby giggles and I’m like “HE THINKS SHES PRETTY AWWWW” like I’m not calling it shipbait bc I have no idea if they will become Bee levels of canon and I’ll be fine if they don’t. But MAN do they care about each other A Lot in canon to the point where the Optical Illusion character uses them to hurt each other. Like Yang? Her big sister totally get it. Penny? Neo knew when she died with her first body that’s her best friend after or alongside Weiss but Weiss isn’t dead. But OSCAR!?? The guy she only met THREE volumes ago HES the one who shows up? Not her UNCLE or JAUNE but FARMBOY????

Neo ships it (evily) is all I’m saying

I don't wanna get peoples hopes up in case crwby somehow swerves off course or we just don't get to see the end of the show, but I genuinely don't think it's shipbait at this point.

First want to bring up the v5 thing. Yes he stares at and giggles at her, firmly believe that boy had a case of love crush at first sight... but Ruby ends up mirroring very similar tone, dialogue, and body language later on in the fumble scene.

Oscar: Ah, sorry! Ruby: Heh, sorry-

Putting behind a read more cause i'm riled up with new rwby/whole loaf of rg bread zoomies and don't feel very coherent rn aha.

There is a post somewhere on this site that i can't find anymore which goes through all the BB/RG parallels (a shorter copy of it exists here on twitter) and that list since v9 just keeps getting longer.

Like... Sorry, Blake's biggest fear in v3 was that her past would come back and hurt those she loves. She is proven right to fear that when Adam shows up and attacks Yang and then because she can't handle that guilt, Blake runs away??

Vs.

Ruby, being terrified that if she carries on the path she's headed down, more of her friends will die. And Neo uses Oscar (and Little, who strongly parallels him) to prove Ruby's fears right which also leads her to 'running away'? Because the thought of hurting him, of losing him is just something Ruby can't bare????

Bro.

The ship parallels themselves are so specific and are absolutely worth mentioning, but RG itself stands so strongly even on it's own. The narrative orbits and constant, consistent emphasis on how much Ruby and Oscar care about each other is deafening at this point.

Just about everyone in the main cast has gone through huge portions of their character arcs in the previous eight volumes. Except for our protagonist... until now.

The scene we get in v9e8 where Neo uses Oscar as the last nail in Ruby's coffin ties him directly to her fatal flaw. They could have used anyone else. It could have been Yang. It could have been Qrow. It could have been her team partner Weiss. It could have been Blake, someone that's admitted to looking up to her. It could have been Penny a third time.

But. It. Wasn't.

It was Oscar.

Oscar, who was the first illusion Ruby saw when falling. Oscar, who is the only person she's close to that she didn't get to properly reunite with in v8. Oscar, who's absence in the Ever After has been SO STRONG to anyone that's paid attention to their dynamic up until now.

Ruby's fatal flaw is her grief, and by extension, loneliness and guilt. Ruby has shouldered all of this weight for so long alone and every volume up until now shows us that there is one person that made her feel like she was actually on equal footing for once. Maybe not completely alone. That she had someone looking out for her as much as she looked out for them. Oscar. And when Neo, the illusionist, uses Oscar's death against Ruby? That is her first of two breaking points.

I'm sorry - and i gotta emphasize this isn't directed at you so much as a general declaration - but at this point any anti, meaner, or non-believer that tries to tell me there is not very clear evidence in show pointing to RG needs to stop telling me to take off shipping glasses and has to just put like... normal reading glasses on lskd;jlfks

It is just... undeniable to me at this point. Despite still hearing people refer to them as siblings when it's like... if they wanted to emphasize the sibling bond, YANG WAS RIGHT FREAKING THERE!!

If Ruby is getting a love interest in show (cough cough she already has one) there is literally NO ONE else that fits the bill. They wouldn't introduce someone new this late in the game, and of the rest of the remaining cast, she has not been shown as close to any of them in the ways that tie to her character arc as strongly as this one does.

Ruby is the protagonist, Oscar is the deuteragonist. The core of this story orbits around both of them as the the chosen warrior destined to defeat Salem and barer of Oz's curse, respectively. Their individual character arcs also tie to and parallel each other's consistently: Oscar, who is trying so hard to hold onto his identity despite the merge vs Ruby who has spent this entire volume trying to push hers away.

Yes, all other Ruby ships are valid, don't get me wrong. But from a canon, narrative perspective, Rosegarden is the only one that is being pushed this aggressively.

And I can't be convinced otherwise at this point 🤡

[the-path-to-redemption]

Hello, redeemed Adam AUs anon here! Thank you so much for your thoughtful response. Despite close friends telling me to watch FMA for years, I've never gotten around it so I didn't know about Scar. However it's obvious the writing is far superior, and I've watched Arslan Senki from the same author so I know we can trust her with antagonists.

You mentioned the authors having to acknowledge that the system is flawed in the first place, to which I nod eagerly! Except, the authors already acknowledged this!!!

In V4 E6, at the charity party, there's a businessman that's always forgotten, who mentions the real problem is society as a whole. Even worse, that the faunus were PROMISED JOBS by the SDC! So they were cruelly tricked! By the dialogue, Jacques says mining staff from Atlas and Mantle are paid the same, but the businessman points out that there's a significant economic disparity between the two. Obviously it was a good scene to portray and acknowledge the actual issue and how people of power in Atlas didn't care anyway. Good scene.

Except it was never brought up again!!!

I swear, every time you think CRWBY can't get worse, they prove you wrong. So you acknowledge society is at fault, Adam and Ilia's families were tricked into getting a job, and the SDC is very aware of the issue (including Weiss WHO WAS PRESENT), yet ADAM is at fault? Huh? Wha? HUH?!

I know V4 and V5 are known to be some of the worst volumes (dethroned by V8 and V9), but they had so much lore hidden in details that went forgotten two seconds later, they sometimes feel like a fever dream.

Thank you again for reading my ask and answering it! I read the response many times!

Long Post Ahead

You're welcome, anon! To be honest, having such a nice ask after so long was a refreshing surprise for me lol. I'm glad that my answer was satisfactory, and you really should get into FMA! (Based for reading Arslan Senki tho-).

I'm really impressed that you remembered that segment of V4, so I went back to rewatch it myself (in Japanese dub, I can only take Nora and Ruby's Eng voice for so long), and yeah! They DID acknowledged it! Which is why not having Weiss confronting the malpractice of her family's company in V7-8 was so frustrating! Not SHOWING MORE of the wealth disparity of Atlas and Mantle was so bad! We were stuck in a nothing arc where the only person making sense, Ironwood, was bastardized even though in the same episode in V4, he stood up for Weiss!

Ironwood understood that the system of Atlas was extremely flawed, and he ran himself ragged to make sure it gets reformed against an entire council who doesn't care! The guy who actually gave a fuck was made into a villain because the writers are incompetent, the child slave who was branded and disabled was killed off with NO ONE knowing about his abuse or even acknowledged after his death, and the two main characters (Weiss and Blake) fucks around in Atlas with people they do not like instead of at least going to a political rally to support a council candidate who wanted to do better for both human and Faunus!

Hell, Blake and Weiss never brought up the abuse that Faunus goes through in the SDC itself after V7C3, where all Weiss does was give Blake a luke warm apology about her family's sin. Hello?? DO SOMETHING THEN! ARRESTING YOUR SHITTY DAD WILL NOT CHANGE THE WAY FAUNUS WORKERS ARE TREATED, ALL YOU DID WAS CREATE A POWER VACUUM FOR PEOPLE WHO BACKED HIM UP TO TAKE CHARGE AND CONTINUE THE ABUSE!

The show can acknowledged the imbalance all it wants, if it doesn't take the fucking charge of challenging the system it's calling out with its characters, it means nothing. Adam and the Amitolas weren't the only ones tricked to work so that they can survive in a kingdom that hated them for existing, but our protagonists do nothing to prevent more like them from being exploited.

I also stated that the authors have to acknowledge this systematic abuse applies to fan creators. You can criticize Adam for his actions against innocents all you like, but the moral of the story is that he is still a victim and shouldn't be made into the scapegoat of anti-Faunus violence. Adam wasn't wrong to be angry or hateful, stop demonizing him for being rightfully bitter about being abused! Stop with the Perfect Victim shit, please!

V4-5 were bad because they had potential but the writers elected to be boring with them instead, at least those two had a point. V7-9 meant nothing, and that's why they're the worst of the show yet.

Thank you for your asks, anon!

[its-a-branwen-thing]

Just the Way You Are

This volume of RWBY isn't one that I've felt like writing a ton about. It's existed as a bit of background noise to my weekends, a must watch but in passing. It was a wonderful journey, but not as impactful as I thought it should be to me. It hit all the right marks. Well-written, well-animated, great music. It wasn't until the finale, where I was reminded, again, of why I loved this show in the first place.

I've been seeing an outpouring of love for V9 that seemed to spur a re-examination of it as a series, in both what RWBY means to fans and what Ruby means to the audience. This whole volume she's been a proxy facing the show's vocally decried imperfections: for what the could have beens and should have beens keep saying. In Ruby's own personal doubt, we see the seeds of the show's very own history of grappling with fan expectations, critical analysis, commercial success, and the complicated legacy of the tragic passing of the show's creator.

But CRWBY's love for this volume is so evident it seemed to drown out any bad faith arguments: this is RWBY as it was always meant to be.

In finishing this volume, I see once more that fiction can help us suture the parts of us that seep. That its creators are people we may never know but whose ideas we stitch into the membranes of our core. RWBY doesn't have to be a masterpiece emerging fully formed from the minds of its writers and animators. It is a vision expanded upon, a messy beginning built up, a work of surfeit love, flawed and lovely in the mess.

As a perfectionist I tend to chase that critical clout, to draw from external sources the meaning of my own art, to wonder if the interpretations are good enough, if the writing and characters are done with enough mastery that I can succeed in other's eyes. But RWBY will never be a success to some, and in that we see that even the most collectively beloved things are criticized by their detractors. We will never create a bulletproof thing.

Life is exposure. Love is vulnerability and art in service to that love - of self, of others, of vision - exacts the same toll of knowing. Even against the diatribes on Youtube that have stated otherwise, RWBY's heart is worn on its sleeve. It is a show fully sure of its sincerity. This volume seems meant to present that to us and to Ruby, as a character. She has always been the heart of the show. Pursuant of hope in the face of insurmountable odds, always picking up the pieces of others, always with the weight of the world on her shoulders. But, at her core, she has always been a simple, more honest soul.

RWBY and Ruby have faced failure after perceived failure. Ruby always tried hard but never quite got it and now, in the sea of her doubt and the under the current of others' expectations, she sees herself as less than. As incapable of serving the people she loves most. Ruby's fear of failure does not come from her need to be beloved, it doesn't come from a selfish interest in public opinion, but rather from a stalwart need to do what she believes in.

RWBY has long been the scruffy underdog of the animation world, an easy little show to poke fun at. This isn't to say that critiquing is inherently bad faith, or that there's no place for it. There is, and there always will be things that irk or bother us to some degree with every piece of media we consume. But, much like the people we love in our lives, those imperfections are part of them, and we can either take them as is and have faith enough that they'll grow just as we do, that their center is good and worth it, or we can simply let them go.

Choose for yourself one who can leave your burdens behind, or chose one who can be enough to bare them.

There's something to be said about the moral simplicity of a show like RWBY, in which things don't always work out, but in which the characters have enough faith in themselves, and the world, to still seek to save it. This is a fairytale, but it is one that hopes to impart on reality a little bit of that kindness.

It is wholly intentional that RWBY is thus stylized as a children's fairytale. It lacks the tonal shift of grit and anger that adulthood seems to impart on innocence, and posits that: no, you don't need to be anything else, even if others decry that self as naive or emotional or exposed. There is a beauty to RWBY's vulnerability and it's always been there, baked into the show itself.

V9 feels like a love letter to RWBY as a whole. It has always been a show set on positivity, on pursing that goodness at all costs. RWBY does not partake in the labor of being something else more gritty or mature or indifferent. It is what it's always been.

A simple, more honest show.

[strqyr]

I've been sooo back and forth on Summer willingly joining Salem tbh. I mean, given what Salem said to Ruby in v7 ("your mother said those words to me etc") it doesn't make a ton of sense? UNLESS Summer did go there to stop her but was defeated or tortured a bunch or Salem threatened her family, idk

Even with the v9 flashback there's still so much mystery to Summer that it could literally go either way. Raven give us answers I'm frothing at the mouth over here

i completely understand the feeling. there's definitely a bunch of arrows pointing at all kinds of directions, so what it really comes down to for me is figuring out 1. which ones are potential red herrings, and 2. would they spell out the answer before the big reveal?

it was the same with 'is this alyx?' i read a lot of theories about who might have been ascended alyx, and i could see the logic behind them all, if some more than the others... and then it turns out that alyx was just alyx, never ascending and becoming someone else.

that alone makes me lean towards the option that if summer is alive—which is looking likely, i don't think they would avoid saying she's dead for so long only for her to actually be dead—she's going to be recognizably herself. then there's also like. the way the writers do mysteries is less about drawing attention to things that need explanation and more about introducing something and leaving it to stew in the background while distracting the audience with something else.

and that gets me to the questions like 1. why does salem have two extra seats at the table? 2. who at beacon was she talking to via a seer, a method of communication we've only seen happen between two people? and 3. salem wants ruby brought to her alive (despite cinder wanting her dead, and tyrian thought she was sending him to kill her at first) and let's yang and her friends go (despite the grimm arms holding through hazel punching her!! it's one thing if the punch had caused them to disappear but that's not what happened!!) after yang identifies summer as her mom. why?

i think the biggest stumbling block people have over summer working for salem willingly is that they see it as summer being suddenly Evil™ when that's. not the point lol. i mean i wouldn't complain if it was, i love my evil ladies very much, but to me it's more about summer learning what salem's end goal actually is, making a choice for what she considers a better option, while also holding to her morals as much as she can: she has not partaken in any of the destruction directly, if she's commanding the grimm at beacon she's keeping them there instead of letting them spread to vale after the initial attack, and would have made a deal with salem that her family comes to no harm.

what you end up is a character with complexities, who has made difficult choices and stuck with them. sure, her lying and keeping secrets already covers some of that but also... it would be kind of boring if those are her biggest flaws narratively like c'mon, that's the whole cast right there, that's like the bare minimum lmao give me more to chew on.

i'm so ready for raven to gives us answers but i'm also fully prepared to spam the 'where's the rest of it' gif right after cos i bet she bailed right before summer's fate was sealed.

[kitkatopinions]

The writing of V9 kind of feels like... When you go to someone and tell them "hey the thing you did was a mistake just to let you know" and they respond by being like "well I'm sorry, I'm sorry if I supposedly ruined everything! What do you want me to do, throw myself onto the ground sobbing? Just give up? Kill myself? Is that what you want from me? You know, people make mistakes, but I'm a good person, alright? I'm not perfect, but stop acting like I'm a monster!" And then like, two hours later you see that they made a post on Facebook that's like 'there's too much judgement in the world today and it's so sad. I just want everyone to know that no matter what other people say, you are perfectly imperfect and you've got this, super star. And the people that try to make you feel small and take away from your joy never really deserved you in the first place. This is a lesson I'm learning every day as I navigate trying to deal with people who seem to like to take their problems out on me. But I know I can stand by my choices and need to keep being me."

To clarify, it doesn't feel like Ruby specifically is like that - Despite the major flaws in her writing, she's the least bad of her friend group right now and I'm very sympathetic to her. But it feels more like the writers saw people going "these characters aren't perfect and are making mistakes and need to grow and learn" and they started being like

They were really ambiguous with what mistakes the characters made as if they themselves didn't think they actually had made mistakes, they went way more over the top than they had to so it feels like they were punishing Ruby the character to also punish the critics. And then it feels like they had their whole narrative about how Jaune and Ruby and Weiss all realize that their ambiguous and no big deal 'mistakes' aren't something they should grow from and learn from and decide to change for the better over, they're just things that happen and it doesn't mean you need to grow and change, it just means you aren't all powerful. The message really felt like 'so what if bad things sometimes happen around the main rwby characters? Everyone should stop expecting them to grow because they don't need to because we keep saying they're good people, and good people are fine, so everyone needs to stop being overly dramatic about the supposed mistakes."

It really does feel like the rwby writers put out this season in which change for the better and growth and learning are completely dismissed (beyond 'making your body better' by killing yourself, which is a whole different can of worms,) and the actual 'message' behind the season felt like it was "stop complaining, the rwby mains are good people, they don't need to grow and learn and change for the better, so shut up." And tbh, this message coming right after the massive controversies of Rooster Teeth is very not promising and it's hard for me to read it in any sort of good light. Like...

'People Make Mistakes Sometimes But They Don't Need to Grow Or Change Their Ways Because They're Good People Underneath, So Anyone Who Tries To Bother Them About Their Mistakes Is In The Wrong' feels very not super great after the whole company of Rooster Teeth seemed to put up a 'Nevermind about all that' banner and still hasn't paid their staff and Miles Luna still hasn't apologized for his horrible past behavior as far as I know and they're all begging fans to keep watching Rwby and selling bees merch through the company without paying their trans VA properly.

I'd find it much more meaningful - both personally and coming from the writers and for the characters - if V9 involved acknowledging how the mains messed up and what their flaws were, had the girls act regretfully over mistakes, had change and becoming better be the focus instead of staying the same and not doing anything differently... Etc. It looks really bad that the only lesson the writers seemed to want their characters to learn was 'sometimes letting people hurt themselves is good because they might get a better body.'

[dragynkeep]

Unpopular opinion (in the RWBY fandom ig): but I actually would've loved if the story leaned into abusive Blake and even abusive Yang.

I will forever prefer Ladybug and FreezerBurn, but I do think BumbleBY has a lot of story potential there. Having Yang and Blake falling for each other when they both represent aspects of their previous abusers is actually very interesting in my opinion.

Yang falling for Blake, a coward who runs away and abandons people, while she is healing from the neglect of her mother who abandoned her

Blake falling for Yang, a temperamental woman prone to bouts of anger, while recovering from Adam, who also had anger issues.

I would've loved to see them both maneuver through their complicated relationship. Them both being victims but having negative traits themselves, maybe even picking up traits from their abusers because that's all they know, and then unlearning those traits together and coming out stronger together because of it. That mixed in with the conflict that comes from Blake abandoning Yang and Yang getting angry with Blake would be a masterful opportunity for most writers.

It's actually a real shame because BumbleBY has so much potential to be one of my favorite WLW pairings ever. Unfortunately, I find a lot of sapphic relationships in media to be very bland and boring because they're portrayed so safely.

There's no conflict, external or internal, there's no meat. But if CRWBY weren't so afraid to just give their main cast negative and interesting character traits, this wouldn't be an issue.

I've said before that I don't mind if the story wanted to go into how Blake and Yang start replicating their more toxic traits when faced with trauma, especially with Blake's behaviour in V4 towards Sun mirroring how Adam treated her to the point that Arryn literally compared her behaviour to how abuse victims often become abusive themselves.

But the biggest issue here is also an issue that the show constantly struggles with. There's no consquences for this. Blake's behaviour towards Sun has no negative impact on their friendship, on Sun, or on Blake herself. She's not called out for what she did to him, she's called out for her pushing her friends away, which is not what should be talked about at that moment.

And Yang's anger issues were brought up, given "development", and then came right back but this time they're funny or Yang being a girlboss rather than having an actual flaw that needs to be handled if she's meant to be Blake's girlfriend; the girl who's abusive ex was volatile, violent and pushed her to abandon them because he was too much.

Literally V9 had Yang go red eyed and angry, and Blake reacting in fear, and it was played for laughs. That just shows you how the writers feel about this relationship and these characters.

[freevoidman]

I really do think a major flaw with V9 at this point is that the writers reunited the girls too soon. All of their personal conflicts work best when they’re all separated, or at MOST paired up with one other person. Having them all together makes it difficult to focus on personal stakes (which feels SUPER odd, right?) as they focus more on “getting out of the Ever After” and exploring the world, rather than focusing on “hey Ruby’s best friend died, Salem took both the relics, Atlas fell, and she’s placing all of that blame on herself right now.”

I think it speaks volumes that they DID reunite the girls so quickly. I genuinely think the writers didn’t know how to competently write having the girls on their own, so what did they do? Oh, Ruby meets Little almost immediately to have someone to bounce off of. Weiss and Blake, despite falling at separate times, are paired together. Yang isn’t even shown on screen until she happens to meet up with the girls when fighting the Jabberwock. 

And that leads to the worst problem of them all: Ruby is having a rough time mentally, the audience can see that (and we have some 4th wall knowledge from seeing the opening and knowing how bad things can/will get), but... why are the others all seeming to ignore that? They all must have known that Ruby cared deeply about Penny, before they came up with the plan to help her she threw a tantrum in the Schnee manor about not being able to do anything.

At the very least, shouldn’t Yang care a little more about her sister’s wellbeing then flirting with Blake? Again, don’t get me wrong, I’m HAPPY the bees are finally confirmed, but... Yang had a whole conversation with Ruby about what REALLY happened to Summer in V8, she saw Ruby was doing bad mentally, Yang’s also aware that Penny was Ruby’s first “real friend” outside of school obligations, shouldn’t Yang have some kind of internal knowledge that states “hey my sister can’t be doing this well after everything that’s happened, maybe I should try to find some point to seriously talk with her?” This has been a problem for a while with Yang and Ruby’s relationship: any points of sister conflict are either a) completely forgotten (by Ruby) or b) ignored in favor for ship bait (by Yang).

BUT... if they were all separated, then none of this would even be a consideration. Yang wouldn’t know Ruby is going through hell--she would ASSUME so, because Yang thought she was dead when she arrived in the Ever after, but she wouldn’t be seeing it happen right in front of her. Blake would be worried about Yang and (hopefully) Ruby after falling and be desperate to find them, potentially beating herself for not doing more to help/prevent this from happening. Weiss would be dealing with the grief of Penny’s death, seeing her sister become a Maiden, carrying that weight on her shoulders while desperately trying to find the others, all while dreading their reunion and how she’ll have to eventually tell them what happened. Ruby would be struggling on her own and have no one to lean on OR shoulder away in favor of “being the leader,” it’s just her now, no one else can see or judge her.

[lacependragon]

Once again consumed by the unending annoyance and rage at people caring more about a pair of fictional women kissing (badly animated, at that, it's so fucking stiff) over the treatment of real-life people who are actually, really suffering. Who have been harmed and abused. Who continue to struggle.

Oh, and if it's not the fictional women, it's the bird man.

Like. You'd rather support a sexist, ableist, racist, transphobic, cunty organization and throw them your money eagerly and willingly, while pretending they aren't horrible, to continue being this horrible, all over a pair of fictional women kissing than support trans and queer creators.

When canon is created by a bunch of prejudiced chucklefucks you take the canon FROM THEM and make your OWN while arguing that they need to PAY THEIR FUCKING WORKERS.

Go read your fucking fanfiction! God knows none of you write it. Or else you wouldn't whine so hard about creators taking too long.

"But all shows are like that."

I don't care. I don't buy Spiderverse merch. I don't buy RWBY merch. And I certainly don't beg for a shitty organization to greenlight another season of a show made by shitty people just so I can watch them abuse and belittle and fire everyone ELSE on their crew who ISN'T a fucking freelancer or contract worker.

Write a fucking fanfiction and stop acting like a show who keeps firing EVERYONE WHO CARES ABOUT IT is actually good enough to "justify" (no such thing) the massive harm and hatred of queer and trans people within the workspace, the livelihoods destroyed, and the careers forever tossed aside.

There is no CRWBY.

The writing is shit.

And more importantly: real people are getting hurt.

Write a fucking fanfiction. Stop using the fucking V10 hashtag. And remember that real world people are suffering and that if you condone this suffering, you are shitty.

Writing fic and drawing fanart is great! But seriously you chucklefucks drop the fucking tag.

No show, especially one that is:

fatphobic (only villainous or perverted characters are fat)

colourist & racist (all dark skinned characters are villainous or die, with the exception of fucking EMERALD and Oscar, but we have Hazel, Arthur, and Sienna to start)

ableist (no one is allowed to go without prosthetics, scars exist only for vibes, disability is never given a nuanced discussion, demonization of mental illness, not to mention the entirety of Ruby's storyline in V9)

queerphobic (toxic masculinity is everywhere, Ren's basically the only guy allowed to be remotely feminine, the obnoxious lack of queer men on screen due to RT's well-documented homophobia)

or sexist (yeah you'd think it wouldn't be, but when you consider the amount of V9 that is focused on Jaune at the detriment of focusing on the TITULAR CHARACTER'S MENTAL HEALTH, and considering this isn't the first time, I'm calling it)

...should have this much of a stranglehold on people's lives! It's not fucking worth it!

I love RWBY. I have loved RWBY since the Red Trailer. Those four girls mean a lot to me. I also acknowledge that it is full of fucking flaws that I work very hard to overcome and rewrite in my fanfics.

So, do like me:

Write a fucking fanfiction.

It's better than the show's actual writing, these days, anyway. And this doesn't hurt real life people who RT continues to harm just because, I dunno, they fucking can?

Anyway I'm disappointed in people. You can want V10 without using the hashtag. You can want V10 while speaking up about how people are mistreated and you don't want it to continue. You can want V10 and be happy to wait.

But if you prioritize the tenth season of a fictional web show over fixing the problems within the company, both specifically and as a whole, that are destroying people's lives, then you're just a loser.

Just a fucking internet loser.

[onewomancitadel]

I really struggle with Weiss as a character in fanfic not because I necessarily have material problems writing her, but more from a fanon POV and what people might be expecting. I find her absolutely insufferable, which I love, and I enjoy that she's annoying but trying really hard, and she has very specific things which she wants and that she expects things to be a certain way - which is fun. I like that she's from the upperclass, really the cream of the crop, and this doesn't vanish even as her character evolves, and she's the type of character where I would enjoy her taking issue with people who unconsciously don't fit into these expectations of proper behaviour, even if she is meaningfully trying. That this would clash with her affectionate behaviour - and her overtures at affection in general - is something I really enjoy as well. You don't need to baby and bathwater her character.

I also enjoy that she's also a character getting a taste of things - breaking the rules, noticing boys (or whatever you like) - who might go a little mad with it. The issue is that this is what I personally have taken from canon (including things I have personal issue with, like a failure to sustain her character arc development and instead repeating that she's actually Very suffering because of being rich, and then not showing that, which would be extremely funny if she were actually still a little Terrible in some ways. Which she was. A bit, I'll give them that. It's just hard to distinguish intention from my exhaustion with her depiction in V9).

I mean, realistically I ignore fanon in its entirety, and my own inferences make themselves obvious, it's just a question I have where I enjoy flawed characters - my Weiss parable is Paris Geller - but people view depicting them properly as character assassination instead. If anything, the fact I have thought this hard about her is a testament to how much I'm trying, and how one of the things I enjoy about the ensemble cast is that the other characters are living their lives fully and influencing the story.

It probably doesn't help that Weiss is naturally going to be most antagonistic against Cinder, and so any POV favouring her is going to make it seem like Weiss is a problem - that's one of the issues intentionally trying to work with a constrained character perspective, because the reason I find it interesting is because Weiss is justified.

[tumblezwei]

rwby opinion: it's a comfort show of mine (even if it has many a flaws) but idk, seeing so many 'hot takes' on characters and the show in general during this past year has really made me.. not fall out of love with it, but i don't even feel excited for the v9 news. it made me feel very jaded and sad, and i'm not even sure i'll be in the mood for v9 by the time it releases. sorry for such a downer opinion

I mean, I don't blame you. Any long hiatus filled with fan speculation can make you step back and wonder "what do I even like about this show in the first place?"

And it has been 2 years. You don't have to feel excitement for something continuously for 2 years, that hype will die down lol. I'd say just wait for the actual show to come back. Maybe you'll get reinvigorated, maybe you won't, but don't beat yourself up for feeling meh on it.

But also if it turns out your enthusiasm has dimmed and you can't get it back, that's not a problem either. Fandom isn't a 9 to 5, if you lose enjoyment from something that's ok. Have fun with the stuff you wanna have fun with and you'll find your niche again.