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illusory-torrent · 4 years ago

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Why I prefer the Genshin Impact fandom to the RWBY fandom.

I'll start off by saying what many of us are thinking. It's sad that the ships are nearly the only thing the RWBY fandom talks about because the plot leaves so many in a state of dissatisfaction. I've seen so many RWBY fans and non-fans alike say, "Oh, I don't care about the plot, I'm only watching for [insert ship here]" or "I'm going to drop the show if [insert ship here] doesn't happen". For those who doubt me, please believe me, it's a thing.

Now, when I say that the RWBY fandom only really cares for shipping, you might ask, "Is that not what every fandom does though?"

Well... yes! You're right. However, I think the RWBY fandom takes it to the next level.

First off, the theory-making side of the RWBY fandom has completely died. I remember there being videos theorizing if Yang was part-dragon Faunus or Ruby being a fox Faunus. These days, the fandom's theories boil down to, "What's up with the void that Team RWBY fell into?" due to V8's ending, but back during V5-V7, there were hardly any theories being posted. Most people just don't care anymore.

Second off, Miles and Kerry struggle with writing characters outside of pairs. Not just romantic pairs, but pairs in general. Most characters only have interacts with their team partners, their love interests, their familial relationships, and... that's it. Blake is a prime example of this. Her best interactions are with Yang (her team partner), Sun (her former love interest), Ilia (another former love interest), and Adam (her ex-boyfriend). Her worst interactions are with Ruby (her team's leader, whom she hardly interacts with) and pretty much everyone else. Even her interactions with Weiss are few and far between. Another example would be Penny. Prior to Volume 3, Penny's best interactions were with Ruby. Penny hardly interacted with anyone else in a meaningful way. She dies and Ruby's tearful reaction is focused on. Why? Because she's one of the few characters Penny actually had a relationship with! Penny comes back in Volume 7, and she still only really interacts with Ruby. Her only new relationship that's developed is with Winter... and we find out why. It's because when Penny is killed by Jaune, her maiden powers are transferred to Winter, the rightful owner.

Miles and Kerry being unable to write outside of pairs is why we only have each of our characters only interact with certain other characters. Before Jaune helped kill Penny, did he ever even have a real conversation with her? We'll never know! Has Blake even talked to Jaune before? No idea! Did Yang even care that Pyrrha died? Probably, but we viewers literally never see the two interact prior to Pyrrha's untimely demise.

This type of writing (whether intentionally or unintentionally done) promotes shipping culture. Characters interact primarily with their love interests (who may or may not also be their team partners). This is why RWBY's fandom is so focused on shipping. Hell, even Blake's VA tweeted at Clover's VA with a joke regarding this.

Clover's VA: Has anybody heard of this thing, “shipping?”

Blake's VA: Welcome to RWBY.

[Photo for anyone who needs proof, in case these Tweets are deleted in the future.]

Blake's VA even once had to make a post saying, "Y’all, you know I love my Bees, but not everything is Bee related. Some is just RWBY hype in general. Calm yo’self.". The fact she even had to clarify that not everything she posts about RWBY is related to a ship is astounding. Imagine having to tell your audience that not everything you post is related to a fictional pairing.

The RWBY cast even had an segment on The Ship-It Show where, you guessed it, they talked about their favorite and least favorite ships. Their tagline even was that "Shipping is a creative expression, so don't limit your creativity!", which went over with the fandom about as well as one would expect.

Finally, Miles Luna recently posted a Cameo video where he stated, "Just remember: shipping is fun and pretend, and it’s just supposed to be a good time. Don’t be one of those people that attack other shippers and get real mean and toxic. We’re all just here having fun with wonderful make believe characters and make believe worlds, and I think that is a beautiful activity, as long as you’re doing it responsibly and kindly."

So as you can see, shipping is a big part of the RWBY community. I'd venture to say that shipping is the most important part of the RWBY community. And that's fine! Shipping in itself isn't a bad thing. It's only when it gets completely out of hand where it becomes a problem. And I feel it is becoming a problem in the RWBY community. Rooster Teeth, if you need your show-writers to remind the fandom that shipping is supposed to be fun, you have a problem.

Well, how does Genshin Impact avoid that problem? The fandom itself is large and the game is quite popular, so how does it handle not becoming a complete shitfest shipfest?

For starters, Mihoyo doesn't confirm any ships at all. This is for profit reasons, the game is a gacha game designed for players to spend money on their "waifus" and "husbandos". Characters have outfit customization for this exact purpose. Mihoyo benefits from keeping characters canonically single. This is why, while people think soon-to-be-released characters like Ayaka and Tohma are dating, many people also believe these same characters to be single.

Second off, VAs are unable to give their opinions on certain ships and on lore. For example, the VA for Lumine, the main female protagonist, confirmed that Lumine was 15, before apologizing and deleting her comments. The VA for Childe signed some Childe x Lumine artwork to sell, but blatantly stated that he only really shipped Childe with Childe. The VAs avoid discussing unconfirmed ships/lore and, in this way, Mihoyo avoids controversy.

Finally, Genshin Impact only recently came out. This means that the theorizing part of the fandom is still alive and well. There's plenty to theorize about since there's so much us players don't know about the story. Lore tidbits are celebrated by lore junkies, folks who want to theorize on the characters' backstories or on the protagonist's journey to find their twin sibling are more than welcome to do so.

So while the Genshin Impact community engages in tons of shipping, none of the ships are more canon than any other. A Zhongli x Childe shipper might argue that their ship is canon because Zhongli gifted Childe some chopsticks, but a Zhongli x Ningguang shipper could easily argue back that Ninguang is a reincarnation of Zhongli's former friend/partner Guizhong. And of course, a non-shipper could look at both of these arguments and believe them both to be false.

I think this allows shipping to remain a fun and lighthearted activity in the Genshin Impact fandom. You can ship what you'd like, or you can just enjoy the plot and lore like a normal gamer.

So where am I going with this? Well, my thoughts are that no matter what the fandom, there will always be shipping. There's always gonna be some degenerates (like myself) who see two cute characters and want them to get together. However, it's up to the creators themselves to decide where to go with ships or to even entertain them at all. Mihoyo, in my opinion, handles the Genshin Impact fandom's shipping craze much more successfully than Rooster Teeth handles the RWBY fandom.

So what are your thoughts? If you're in both fandoms, which fandom do you prefer and why? Let me know!

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littlemisssquiggles · 6 years ago

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RWBY Remarks: A Squiggle Meister’s Stance on the RWBY V6 Finale and RWBY as a whole.

Someone asked “Ngl squiggles I’m really disappointed with this finale. It seems to have split the fandom to its core. So many people are dropping it and while I’m tempted. It started off so well but derailed into v5 territory. What are your thoughts?”

explodingcarr0t asked “Got to say, I was quite disappointed with the finale. They had all this stuff set up and just, dropped it. “A giant grimm is coming towards a city with a horde of flying grimm and it breaks through the walls. Oh nevermind Ruby essentially one shots it and they leave.” With how much they hyped it up, the whole VRV thing saying, “It will change how you see RWBY.” and it being “huge” made this a let down. The volume started strong, but fell short after they got to Argus in more ways than one. ”

Someone asked “I have no words for that finale”

Squiggles Answers:

I know V6 ended last weekend and I’m sorry this response post came so late. I had a very busy week. But alas, here’s my answer:

To the two anon-ninjas and @explodingcarr0t who left their questions and opinions in my inbox:

I hear you guys and if I’m being completely honest, I don’t blame you or any other FNDM fam for their disappointment regarding last week’s finale episode. During my viewing of the last episode, one comment I kept making was that people were going to be pissed. I knew off the bat that fans were going to more than a little peeved by how V6 C13 played out. It’s not to say that the episode was bad though. On the contrary, personally, I enjoyed the last episode. It wasn’t bad. However…

Similar to its predecessor, V6 gave us another finale episode where not a lot happened. Since V1, the RWBY volume finales usually ended in a fight which pinned the forces of evil in an epic clash against the forces of good. A finale battle scene has usually been part of the climax for every volume and that’s been the rule of thumb since the first season by my recollection. However that stopped being the case after V5.

V6 C13 ultimately boiled down to a nostalgic slideshow of some of the most memorable moments in RWBY and a small conversation between the heroes to set up the next volume.

The main climax of C13 was Ruby using her Silver Eyes against the Leviathan and admittedly, it could’ve been handled better. Again, not saying it was a bad episode. I’m just saying that this didn’t feel like the finale the CRWBY wanted to tell by my impression. My biggest gripe with C13 wasn’t that it didn’t live up to the hype of the FNDM but because members of the CRWBY and their promotional people (like VRV) chocked this finale up to be something that was mistakenly advertised to be grander but in the end, did not pull through.

Biggest finale with the biggest ending? Not counting the set up left behind by the after credit scene, the V6 finale wasn’t really a flop (at least to me) but…it wasn’t what it was made out to be. This is the second finale we’ve received for the Mistral Arc where the characters don’t fight at all in the last episode even though the set up was for a big fight.

I’ve noticed a pattern now. Ever since V5, the CRWBY have shied away from having the characters fight for the finale episode. Back in V5 a lot of the fighting moments was spread out during the 2-3 episodes leading up to the finale. However by the time the last episode finally debuted, there was nothing much left for the climax. Any remaining fights that fans were anticipating to see were either glossed over or boiled down to the characters just standing around and mostly talking.

And sadly to say, this is pretty much what happened in V6 too in a way. It boiled down to Ruby saving the day with her powers, after which she and the others are left free to go. After everything that transpired with Cordo between C10 and 12, the heroes didn’t face any severe repercussions for their actions.

I mean, while I expected Cordo to turn the other cheek and grant the heroes permission to go to Atlas after they helped protect Argus, this was not how I expected them to prove themselves. We didn’t even get to see any of the other huntsmen fight to defend Argus against the horde of Manticore and Sphinx. That was left to the Atlesian Military who you can actually see having a bit of difficulty against the Manticores and Sphinx during the shot where the JNR_QROWMBY’s airship is flying by unnoticed courtesy of Ren’s masking semblance.

Speaking of the Manticores and Sphinx. Now this is more or less a little nit-pick I had while reviewing the episode but…how is it that we have this full blown horde of Grimm and not one of them went after any of the Argus citizens who were just standing out in the open, making themselves very easy targets?

I thought the Grimm were drawn to negative emotions like fear. Surely the rising tension of the Argus citizens during Cordo’s mechazord rampage against the heroes must’ve been what attracted the Grimm in the first place, right? Yet none of the Sphinx and Manticores attacked any of the citizens of Argus who just stood there the entire time. Out in the open when any of the flying Grimm in the area can make easy lunch out of them. What?

That’s what I expected when I saw the Sphinx and Manticores again. That they were going to go immediately after the citizens, forcing our heroes to divide to try and protect as much of the people as possible.Yet not one Sphinx turned and made easy prey out of the very vulnerable people of Argus just standing there observing everything? Huh?

I’m sorry. Maybe someone else can explain the logistics of that scene to me because going off of what I know about the Grimm from the RWBY lore, this scene made no sense. I guess you can argue that perhaps the Atlesian Military invented some sort of technology that mimics the same negative energy that attracts the Grimm and that’s what they deployed in order to draw the Manticores and Sphinx away from the citizens to the oceans.

I mean if it was canonically something like that then cool, I can buy into it. However we got no scene to establish any explanation as to why the airborne Grimm chose to focus primarily on the Military as opposed to immediately going after the citizens. Seriously that scene bothered me because it’s almost a complete contradiction of what transpired in the very first episode of V6.

In V6 C1, Qrow became furious with Dudley for using the turrets. Despite the fact that the turrets were being used to defend the Argus Limited, its efforts only served to lure the Grimm closer to the very distressed passengers on board the train.

I guess you can argue that the Atlesian air force used their airship missiles to draw the Manticores and Sphinx out toward the waters. However…that still doesn’t explain why none of these Grimm went after the citizens. It’s not even to say there was a force field around Argus to prevent the Grimm from getting into the city. Sure we have the shield to stop the Leviathan but not the flying Grimm. The Sphinx and Manticores could have easily gone for any of the citizens who were all just standing there making themselves free targets for slaughter but…didn’t? Whaaaat?

I understand that the Grimm don’t necessarily need to feed on humans but…but…how did these Grimm not go after the exposed citizens. How?

Sorry for the small rant. I just found that moment to be kind of odd. And I’m sure this is not the only nit-pick I have from the finale. The truth is that this finale episode had its flaws. However I don’t want to focus on that too much. I want to focus on the good this finale served.

C13 may not have been the finale I was hoping for but at least it left off the story for certain characters that I liked. For starters, I like that even though we got Ruby grasping the mentality she needs to summon her power; she still has much MORE to learn about how to use her eyes. As highlighted by her failure to completely petrify the Leviathan, there is more to Ruby’s use of her eyes than just positive memories.

As we saw during Maria’s fight with the Nevermore in C7, the Silver Eyes are supposed to kill a Grimm immediately after petrification. But in the case of Ruby’s turn against the Leviathan, it didn’t work.

I’d like to think that the effects of the Silver Eyes are based on the…I guess I’ll call it…age of the Grimm. As in how long the targeted Grimm has survived on Remnant. I’d like to believe that the reason why Ruby was able to easily vaporize the Apathy versus the Leviathan was because…perhaps the Leviathan has survived longer than the Apathy. I’d like to think this massive Grimm has been dormant in the oceans of Argus for years and only resurfaced recently due to the uproar in the city. So perhaps the Silver Eyes only petrify Grimm that are older while younger Grimm get taken out instantly. That’s just my understanding of it.

Either way, C13 showed that Ruby still has much to learn and understand about the silver eyes. Thankfully, C13 left Ruby not completely mastering her powers and I’m very satisfied with that ending. It means that V6 is only the first chapter in Ruby’s arc to becoming a full-fledged Silver Eyed Warrior and I’m very interested to see where this goes from here.

Since happy memories wasn’t enough to fully kill the Leviathan, what else is Ruby missing from her mind-set? This is a question I want answered and I hope we get to see it explored for V7.

Apart from Ruby’s arc, I’m very pleased with where the CRWBY Writers left things for Oscar’s side of the story. As a Pinehead, even though I was disappointed to not see Oscar actually fight for this finale, I am satisfied where they concluded his story especially concerning Ozpin. I already talked about how much I wanted the Ozpin Isolation and Forgiveness Arc to be pushed forward to the Atlas Arc and so said so done, we got it.

YES! I’m excited by this because it gives me the golden opportunity to potentially see that Oscar’s Choice potential subplot come to fruition. This development can spell Ironwood potentially approaching Oscar with the choice of separating him from Ozpin using Atlas technology with their aura experiments as foreshadowed since V3. We all know Oscar’s reservations about the Merge. Although he has accepted his fate, a part of me still calls mega ultra bullshit on Oscar being okay with everything.

Right now, Oscar is acting just as nonchalant about his fate as Ruby was about her emotions during the dojo scene.

V5 had Oscar calling Ruby out on her bottled up feelings over everything that’s happened to her since V3. I would love it if we got a parallel to the dojo scene where this time; Ruby is the one to call Oscar out on his indifference to just accepting the Merge.

The same way how we got Oscar bluntly asking Ruby how she was okay with all the trauma she suffered over the seasons, I want Ruby to pull up Oscar and ask him the same question. How is he okay with basically handing his life over to someone else? Especially a person who is now mistrusted by the entire hero team?

With Oscar still very much in control and with the heroes still having reservations about Ozpin, everything is starting to fall into place for an Oscar-worthy character arc. I like that Ozpin was still compassionate enough to help Oscar out when he needed it. I actually found it rather sweet that Oscar being in immediate danger was what brought Ozpin out of his isolation. Sure it was only for a few minutes enough for him to guide the boy but, he did come out. I also loved how Ozpin spoke to Oscar in that short moment.

“…Stay calm. It’s going to be okay.”

Ozpin sounded so fatherly to Oscar in that scene. I think this is the most caring we’ve heard Ozpin speak to Oscar since V4 and during all those moments where Ozpin felt truly remorseful of forcing Oscar into this predicament. Aah Oz. Even though I’m not ready to see you come back, I do miss you and Shannon’s amazing voice work as Ozpin’s voice in Oscar’s head.

Anyways, Ozpin only returning when Oscar is in perilous danger and is in dire need of help. Hmm…I smell a foreshadowing. Especially after the after credit scene.

Another thing I can see possible is Oscar and Ozpin reconciling and Ozpin returning through Oscar’s encouragement. But even though the two souls have reunited, things are still sour between Oz and the team and that will make things great in terms of Oscar’s part in this and his development as a character.

Imagine Oscar forming his own separate ties with Ozpin (as his other half) and the members of the JNR_QROWMBY. However Oscar still feels divided and completely uneased due the group’s resilient mistrust of Ozpin. Including Ruby.

Picture Oscar becoming so fearful of the Merge that he starts to suffer with nightmares of eventually disappearing. Picture Oscar suffering from nightmares that are actually memories of the past Wizards of Light, particularly Diggs (Ozma 2.0) who got burned to death by Salem and Ozpin who died in a similar fashion at the hands of Cinder.

Imagine Oscar dreaming these events as if they were his own memories---reliving them as if he were there as a sign that the Merge was starting to happen. There are so many ways the CRWBY Writers can take Oscar’s story from V6 and as I’ll state again, I’m intrigued to see where this all goes from here for my favourite farm boy.

The Storytelling of RWBY

If I had to give the Writers one word of advice as a member of the FNDM and someone who is going to continue to watch the show: Don’t bite off more than you can chew for the season finale. Pick one or at least two solid ideas as the basis for your finale. Spend the volume alluding to that one idea; slowly building up to it and let that one premise be the focus of the final chapter and the episodes leading up to it. .

What do I mean by this? As I’ve mentioned before, I did my own recap of RWBY during which I noticed a pattern the CRWBY Writers have adopted with structuring their finale episodes within the past and recent volumes.

Even if the CRWBY spent the majority of the season handling other subplots left behind from previous seasons, when it comes to finale they usually spend the last 2-4 episodes of the season building up to the main premise set for the season finale before giving us the big climax which; in the past, usually resulted in one big epic final fight to close of the volume.

For V1, the main premise of the finale episode was Blake being revealed as a Faunus and her past involvement with the White Fang which led to a confrontation between her and Roman Torchwick. Torchwick was leading the White Fang in an orchestrated theft at the docks which Blake learnt about during a stakeout with Sun. RWBY V1 had 16 episodes. Although Blake’s involvement with the White Fang was only brought in during C15, it became the focal point that drove the finale. Blake and the White Fang was foundation of the V1 finale episodes. One theme. Keep that in mind.

For V2, the conflict was Team RWBY again thwarting another orchestrated plan by Torchwick and the White Fang. The plan resulted in a runaway train blasting a path from Mountain Glenn to central Vale which brought an army of Grimm toward the city. The finale was Team RWBY and JNPR helping to defend Vale along with the epic arrival of Team CVFY.

RWBY V2 had only 12 episodes. Torchwick’s scheme was something that was alluded to all season but we didn’t get to see the plan be fleshed out until C8. Torchwick’s scheme to use explosives to destroy the underground caves in Mountain Glen leaving an open path for the Grimm to enter the seat was something alluded to whole season but didn’t see it fully come to truth until C8, leaving the last four episodes of V2 as the build up to the big final fight and Torchwick’s arrest. Torchwick’s scheme was the foundation of the V2 finale episodes. One theme. Keep that in mind.

For V3, the finale for the Fall of Beacon. While we had have several plot threats scattered through the finale such as: the huntsmen defending Beacon Academy against the corrupted Atlesian Paladins and robot soldiers, the Spring Maiden, Cinder vs Ozpin, Pyrhha versus Cinder, Pyrhha’s death, Ruby’s reveal as a Silver Eyed Warrior---these were all plot elements that were slowly alluded to and built up within the past two seasons so when you see them executed finally in V3, you feel satisfied.

Though RWBY V3 only had 12 episodes, the season was the one time where the foundation of the finale episode had more than one theme but it worked since it was the work of three seasons coming together to give us the most memorable finale episode in RWBY. The best conclusion to an arc trilogy.

Now let’s fast forward to the Mistral Arc. For V4, the finale was RNJR versus the Nuckelavee Grimm before finally making it to Mistral. RWBY V4 gave us 12 episodes. While V4 didn’t exactly sit well with the FNDM, at least its season finale kept the ole epic final fight routine especially since Ren facing his past and RNJR’s arrival in Mistral had been a focus of the season for their side of the story.

To me, the finale structure started to go south from V5. As of V5, I feel as if the Writers developed this habit of cramming all the good stuff in the episodes leading up to the climax while leaving the actual final episode of the season with a whole lot of nothing much to do. I have no idea how the production pipeline for RWBY works. However a thing I’ve noticed with the final episodes for V5 and V6 is that they both feel rather flat and boring compared to the episodes leading up to it.

I’d like to think the CRWBY is supposed to end their seasons with a bang but the past two finales have been underwhelming at best. Although V6 did handle its better than V5.

An improvement but still the same problem. V6 made me wish they didn’t introduce the Leviathan at all. If the Leviathan Grimm was truly meant to be the big bad of the ending then instead of giving us that whole Cordovin vs JNR_QROWM fight that stretched for three episodes, they should have brought that thing in as early as C10. Otherwise don’t bring it in at all. It’s annoying how underused the Leviathan Grimm was. We finally got a Kaiju-sized Grimm reminiscent of Godzilla and this thing was only brought in at the last minute just so that Ruby can show off her powers in admittedly, the most half-assed of ways. I know some fans really loved the moment where Ruby used her powers but...while I’ll admit it was very touching to see the heartfelt memories Ruby holds dearest in her heart especially the one of her beloved mother, it could have been done so much better.

Up until this point, Ruby hasn’t had much focus on her eyes since C8. I did not expect Ruby to master her Silver Eyes. I did not expect her plan to go all in on the Leviathan to work and if anything, C13 made Ruby seem very reckless in my opinion. There are moments in that finale where Ruby could have gotten herself and her teammates killed. But of course, the plot has ways to write around these obvious flaws. One being the use of Jinn.

While I’ll admit that was clever on Ruby’s part,…this could have been done better. That’s all I can say. Thing could’ve been better.

To me, the CRWBY Writers have always done better when they just picked one or two ideas and focus on that. The only time the multiple ideas worked was during V3. But even then, V3 is a special case since the plot threads that went down for its final episode were a culmination of a story three seasons in the making. You see where I’m going with this, right?

Keeping things small at first and save the bigger things for later in the trilogy after spending at least two volumes building up to it. The reason why I will always praise the Beacon Trilogy is because everything was developed nicely from the start. While V1 and V2 had their own finale subplots, both subplots contributed to the events that took place in the finale of V3.

Everything that went down in V3 was a perfectly executed trail of events that commenced as early as the first season. This is what the CRWBY Writers are missing from their storytelling. That structure. I’m happy that the animation and visual look of RWBY has improved and continues to get better and better as the series progresses. That’s phenomenal and major kudos to the CRWBY for their growth and hard work over the seasons.

All the Writers need to do right now is bring back that strong structure they had back when the story was in Vale. If I had to assume one thing about the writing process for the RWBY volumes right now, it’s that it seems as if Miles and Kerry are writing everything volume by volume and then trying to figure out how it all ties together at like the very end of last few episodes in the final chapter of the final season in the trilogy. Now; this is just my assumption and I could be very wrong about this. However, as an audience member, that’s the impression I get when I compare the Beacon Trilogy to the now completed Mistral Trilogy.

I don’t want anyone thinking that the only reason I praise the Beacon Trilogy is because it’s the seasons where Monty was still involved in the project. No that’s not it. I judge RWBY based on what I see and how much I can interpret from what I see.

I don’t like the Beacon story over Mistral because Monty played a part in its development. The Beacon Trilogy is great to me because it felt like a trilogy. It was a cohesive trilogy where every volume was just a piece to the much bigger picture that took place in V3.

When I look at the Mistral Trilogy, other than the setting being Mistral and Anima, this trilogy was disjointed. I’ve said this before in a past response post; the Writers started off decently in V4 but ran themselves into a wall in V5. A wall they did their gosh-darn best to overcome in V6.

Though I would praise V5 as a not-so bad season on its own, as a continuation from V4 and a prequel to V6, V5 did not do so well. As a matter of fact, V5 created more problems than the Writers benched for.

It’s why I’m going easy on V6 because, from the get-go, V6 was meant to be damage control.We know this. The Writers messed up in V5 and V6 had a lot of pressure on its neck since the FNDM community was looking at it to be the CRWBY’s return to form. The one to repair the proclaimed ‘mess’ left behind by V5

V6 was basically the CRWBY’s way of trying to salvage dinner from a meal that was already burnt.

People were looking at V6 to be the perfect plot lasagne that would fix the whole Mistral Trilogy. As good of a season V6 was, it didn’t fix the mistakes of the Mistral Arc. You can’t get lasagne from one season. A perfect plot lasagne is something that comes in layers. It’s something that has to be built from the ground up. A succulent course that takes at least three seasons worth of proper planning, great story structure and development to prepare. Not something that you can just throw together in one season and expect it to work.

Basically the point I’m trying to make here is…I went into V6 expecting it to salvage the Mistral Arc, not save it entirely. On its own, V6 was a great season. A massive improvement from V5 and a step in the right direction with the CRWBY renewing my believability in that the team hasn’t lost its edge as yet. The animation, particularly in the fight scenes worked wonders this season. For me, the only thing that still needs work is in the organization in the storytelling. While the writing for V6 was Miles and Kerry’s best for the Mistral Trilogy, in the end, it unfortunately still suffered from the same issues fans have complained about in past seasons. Particularly in the second half of the season.

This is the second volume where the complaint has been that the story started to go downhill after the second half of the season. I more felt like the second half of V6 was not the story the Writers wanted to tell. To me, things began to go awry from C9 and ya’ll know how I felt about that episode after C8.

You cannot tell me that the Writers deliberately planned for Oscar to go missing just to have him miraculously show back up in the very next episode as if the events of C8 never happened.

A part of me would like to hold out for the belief that the Writers had planned more for Oscar’s story this season that was supposed to commence in the second half of the season but it had to be cut and probably pushed for a later season due to time constraints and deadlines.

I would not be surprised if there was supposed to be an entire subplot for V6 dedicated to Oscar. Since V6 was originally meant to have 14 episodes instead of 13, I’m going to stand by the belief that there was originally meant to be an entire episode focused on Oscar following C8.

C9 felt so misplaced especially coming off of the ending of C8. I would not be surprised if C9 was initially meant to be an Oscar-centric episode which explained the events of what happened to him before we got his return back at the Cotta-Arc episode.

As sad as it would sound for me to imply that of the Writers cut out Oscar’s development episode, that’s the only thing that makes sense to me. Oscar was going to have his own full focus episode that touched on his past like Ozpin did in C3 but the CRWBY scrapped it for this season. But y’know, this is only my interpretation. Feel free to respectfully disagree with me if you will.

Anyways, whileV6 still suffered the same shortcomings that V5 in its final episode, it wasn’t enough to influence me to drop the show. For what it’s worth, I’m still a loyal passenger of the RWBY hype train. It’s sad to hear about people dropping the show especially after the CRWBY put out some of their best work this season.

But y’know, to each their own. I can tell the disappointed fans to stay on this train as much as I want but at the end of the day, it’s people’s choice whether they wish to stay in the FNDM or not. If dissatisfied fans wish to leave then it’s their choice. The only thing left to be done about that is to respect it. My only hope is that those same fans don’t become the type to dedicate their time to completely bashing the series while scolding the CRWBY’s attempts at continuing RWBY.

To summarize my thoughts: while there are things I didn’t enjoy about theV6 finale or the season overall, it wasn’t enough to deter my overall enjoyment of the volume or my loyalty as a fan of RWBY. I can’t speak for other fans. I can only speak for myself and this squiggle meister is still on this train.

I still love RWBY and what’s keeping me here is the devotion I have to seeing my favourite characters’ stories continued going forward for the full narrative (*ahem* Oscar’s arc). Moreover I’ve been a fan of RWBY since Day 1, Season 1 and although the series has suffered a few bumps along the way, like Maria Calavera after the Argus train crash, I’m still on this train.

Then there is the part of me that wants to keep believing in the CRWBY. Believing in the CRWBY Writers. While I may not always like what Miles and Kerry put out in the canon (*ahem* Oscar’s missing focus episode from V6), I still have major respect for these two fine gentlemen and the hardworking team of artists who are keeping this story going. Despite everything, these creative minds still have a story to tell and I frankly want to see them finish it.

I am invested in seeing the CRWBY finish RWBY regardless of what they have in store. RWBY has changed as a series since it first started. V4 was basically a renaissance period for the series. The series evolved after V3. Some of it good. Some of it not-so good and what I’m seeing now is a series with a story still left to be told. So it will keep doing its best to tell said story until the final episode of RWBY is made.

RWBY is not a flawless show. It has never been a flawless show and it will never be a flawless show. As a matter of fact, RWBY’s ability to thrive despite its noticeable flaws is what I appreciate about it. Even when the Writers take the story in ways that I might not like as a fan and audience member, they still manage to do the thing a good story is supposed to do. Keep me entertained and invested in the characters and story they’re portraying.

Sure V6 C13 might not have been the best episode of V6 or the best finale in all of RWBY but it did fulfil its purpose. It got me interested in V7. I want to know what happens next for RWBY and until there is a season where I stop caring about what’s to come, I shall remain a fan.

I don’t know about any other fans but that’s this squiggle meister’s mantra.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#squiggles answers: rwby #oscar pine #ruby rose #professor ozpin #rwby theories #squiggles talks: rwby #rwby remarks #rwby

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