#i overall still really like rwby but like

[i-hear-a-sound]

not to be RWDE 😦but can I just… get something off my chest

the chunk of the fndm that scream about how progressive RWBY is and will go out of their way to harass anybody who says otherwise… 90% of the time are the same people who try & justify a fictional fucking child slave of a minority group being branded as property and blinded by his superiors because, yknow, he miiiiiiiight’ve deserved it, right?

[petorahs]

me, gearing up to explain why the dragon prince's latest seasons have continued to disappoint me, that while i love the lore and worldbuilding and characters there are clear pacing issues that are so jarring it takes me out of the experience, and that i say all of this with great love for the series but there's only so much good concepts can do before animation has to catch up in order to retain the average viewer's attention. that although season 4 and 5 have been branded as "the mystery of aaravos" the titular character barely appears and that is a crime to me, that even if it's for the suspense and intentionally leaving the viewer/main characters in the dark it's not doing a good job at building up his character and i fear for the exposition dump that will inevitably happen later on. that i will be harsh in critiquing this series because i love it so much and want it to be the best it can be: *inhales*

also me the moment i actually finished the goddamn season:

[stevengrantshubby]

so im like 2 volumes behind but ive seen ppl say that ruby rose should have been a faunus, a wolf faunus specifically, but really i think oscar should have been like a dog faunus too.

along with more skin tone variation i think there should have been more "main" faunus characters so blake isnt mostly by herself. if i just look at the 1st three volumes, id pick nora also being a faunus (a goat faunus specifically cause thor had some goats pull his chariot) thatd be cute.

so really...ruby, blake, nora, and later oscar. if i had to pick without changing too much.

[bluearc009]

The mistletoe two

as everyone having fun at the Christmas party Jaune is talking to Nora.

Nora: boy you guys did a great job with the decorations, but why are there no mistletoes?

Jaune:(blushing) well..um.....there was an incident so we decided not to use them.

Nora: what kind of incident?

Before Jaune could lie, team RWBY and Penny show up.

Weiss: what's this about an incident.

Nora: I just wanted to know, why there is no mistletoes.

Penny: oh that's because friend Jaune didn't want to put them up after we all kissed his pei...(Ruby put her hand over her mouth).

Blake: what she means was that Jaune fell and a mistletoe landed on his lap, and well You know whatever under the mistletoe you give it a kiss.

Nora realized that they ment and started laughing.

Nora:(still laughing) so how did you do it all at once or one at time.

Penny: one at one, I went first, Weiss went second, Blake went third, Yang fourth and Ruby last.

Yang:(put her around Ruby while smirking) he really liked Ruby's kiss, she had to wash her hair and face after.

Penny: because he ejacu....(Weiss put her hand over her mouth)

Jaune(blushing looking at Ruby) again I'm sorry about that.

Ruby:(blushing too) it's ok.

Jaune was so embarrassed he decide to go talk the others at the party, few hours later after the party was over he went to his room and found the girls are there.

Jaune: what are doing in my room?

Ruby: well we wanted to make it up to you for embarrassing you.

Weiss: so since we kissed you under the mistletoe it's only fare you give us a kiss under the mistletoe to.

Jaune:(look at nora) but Nora You weren't lnvolved and Wouldn't Ren getting mad.

Nora: I felt bad about laughing at you and told Ren, he said it's ok since it's just you.

Jaune: look guys you don't have to....wait there's no mistletoe in my room.

Jaune looks at the girls and saw that Blake and Yang had pull down their pants and overalls, Weiss and Penny pull up their dresses, and Ruby and Nora pulled down their shorts and pull up their skirts, revealing they have mistletoes attached to their panties, He hesitate at first but then he just smiled.

Jaune: ok than who wants the first kiss.

The End

[powertaco]

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.

[keaton-key]

I think the biggest mistake the rwby fandom made was not create a space for actual criticism for fans to discuss because the rwby critics and rwde are not it

Those spaces have only gotten worse as years have gone by and it’s gotten so bad that most posts these days are just daily bumbleby hate (like on the subreddit) and centered around stalking accounts, screenshotting posts and posting it to their Reddit or tumblr to make fun of fans and at times all gather to harass them. You barely see any posts of quality criticism on there and I feel like as fans we really lead people astray for only giving them those spaces to talk about their critiques when it’s not a good place at all to have a fair discussion when you don’t hate the show or think the writing overall is horribly written, but still acknowledge it has flaws

[bestworstcase]

is there anything about rwby that you would have done differently as a writer? i.e. introducing certain ideas of characters earlier, complete wholesale changes, etc.

in terms of major narrative choices, adam attempts to assassinate sienna as in canon but her personal guard remains loyal, there’s a scuffle, and she’s able to escape wounded but alive, showing up at haven to pincer adam’s forces with the faction of the white fang that refuses to go along with his coup.

the albains are loyal to sienna but still weird and disliked – not for sinister foreshadowing but because sometimes people are just sort of weird and off-putting, and that’s a fun trait to give a couple of good guys who show the fuck up to defend an ally who’s hitherto been a bit distrustful and cool toward them when the violent splinter group tries to assassinate him; narratively the albains being like this while aligning themselves firmly with sienna also provides an opportunity to cast the belladonna’s alliance with and support of sienna into sharper focus and perhaps allows for blake to bounce off and talk to some guys in the “yes direct action and tactical violence, no whatever the fuck adam’s doing” camp to refine her understanding of the white fang and make it clearer how adam corrupted what sienna does and believes.

and the arc resolution is sienna reclaiming leadership of the white fang and preparing to clean house while ghira and ilia plan a second, separate but allied organization focused on advocacy with the overall point being that expecting one group to do and be everything is part of the problem.

i talk about this more here. the white fang arc really isn’t as bad as its frequently maligned but suffers from a lack of clarity in how it’s intended message is delivered; the point of sienna surviving and having genuine allies to represent her side in menagerie is to address that lack of clarity by articulating her philosophy and underscoring that the belladonnas support her and ally themselves with her because the objection isn’t “violence in bad” but rather “indiscriminate violence that materially harms the cause and violent infighting are bad.”

aside from that, i wouldn’t change anything significant presuming that i had to work under the same conditions as the actual writers (<- if they hadn’t lost those two episodes in v9, 9.10 wouldn’t feel so rushed and we’d have got that animatic as a full episode; if there hadn’t been budget issues in v5 mistral wouldn’t feel so empty; etc it’s very easy to fix problems like this in hypotheticals where you imagine you have infinite time and money, but in the real world if this were my story and i faced these sort of logistical challenges it would be to the detriment of the narrative in the same ways and i have no interest in pretending otherwise).

all that said

if i were the one writing this story and either i had more money or it was, like, a series of novels (<- which is what i’d be writing, realistically) – the religious layer of the story would be a lot more overt, not just in terms of the religious conflict with regard to the brothers but i would flesh out 1-2 other religions too. blake’s arc would feature wrestling with complicated feelings about god-of-animals-worship. ruby and yang would’ve been raised monotheistic light-worshippers; weiss would be a lapsed orthodox brother-cultist (in my head this is comparable to, say, the chasm between evangelical protestants and a lapsed catholic). oscar would be stolidly practicing some other religion that has nothing to do with the brothers, to ozma’s consternation, because that’s funny. salem would be still a polytheist but pointedly not worshipping Those Two, because that’s also funny.

<- this is not to “”fix“” anything i just think it’s important as a writer to be self-indulgent. and i like fantasy religions. bfrgscbk

[sir-adamus]

Do you think CRWBY will still do the animation for RWBY or Viz will fund an animation company to do it? If they do the latter, Orange would be the perfect studio.

honestly that's something they're probably still working out right now - i think in an ideal world, CRWBY get to come back and essentially have their own production studio for just RWBY content (with more funding meaning the size of the crew can be expanded so there's more hands on deck to make the show as well), with other animation studios maybe being outsourced for certain things to improve the overall quality because more time can be spent on the major stuff in-house

Orange are really good (Trigun Stampede is one of my favourite shows from the last few years, and actually had a former RWBY animator working on it in a small capacity) but i think their workload as is would mean we'd be waiting quite a while to see more RWBY (they've got Trigun Stargaze in the works right now) - i think i'd maybe prefer to see Orange doing like a RWBY movie or something over doing the main show, i think they could do something super cool with that

[howlingday]

It's kind of depressing when you realize out of Team RWBY, Weiss is the only one who get's constant development. Ruby doesn't get any character development until maybe Vol 4, and it was still sporadic at best. Yang and Blake got some good development up until Vol 7 where it feels like if it didn't involve Bumblee, then they didn't get anything (And in some cases you could argue going backwards...). So, this might be my bias talking (Weiss is best girl), but Weiss is the only one on that team to me that got anything in a constant enough rate. Only time I think she didn't develop was in Vol 9, but that was Ruby's time to shine so I'm not really upset with that one.

Yeah, when you think about it, there really wasn't much character development for any of the supposed "main characters" of the series, especially since they're also the titular characters.

Ruby's character development was like a David Cage game of Beyond: Two Souls, showing us Ruby's highs, lows, lows, lows, and LOWS of her character development, all before circling back to a HIGH just in time for her series to get canned. It's a sad sight.

Blake's character was centralized on the White Fang. She was in the White Fang until she left, then she finds out the White Fang are up to something in Vale to the point that it exhausts her, then she helps stop the White Fang in Vale and Mountain Glenn, then Yang was framed, and Blake thinks she's becoming Adam again, then the White Fang attack Beacon and Adam cripples Yang so she runs away to Menagerie to protect Yang and everyone she knows and learns the White Fang are up to something in Menagerie until she breaks everything up in Haven. Things go right for Blake overall until Adam shows back up and she and Yang murder him with no consequences. It is from this point that Blake's character arc with the White Fang ends and her entire character now becomes Yang's girlfriend. I've said it before and I'll say it again; Blake is the worst girl of Team RWBY.

Yang's character trait is that she has no character trait. None that's ever properly established. She's Ruby's sister and/or mother figure, but hardly interacts with her. She likes to party and get into fights, but we don't see her do either. Her mom is a bandit, but we don't know if Raven really loves Yang or not. She lost her arm to Adam, but she didn't really learn anything from that whole experience; again, nothing that we can see. And now Yang's character is Blake's girlfriend. I put Yang higher than Blake only because what story COULD be told isn't just the same story over and over.

So, now that I've gone over some issues of the others, let's talk about Weiss' character arc. Weiss is physically scarred by a trial set by her father in order to get into Beacon, and once she arrives, she's an uptight spoiled brat who expects to be handed the position of Team Leader. After she's humbled by Professor Port, she steps up as Ruby's second-in-command. She's pursued romantically by Jaune, whom she rejects outright multiple times until Neptune shows up, whom she romantically pursues until he starts flirting with other girls in front of her, though Jaune helps Neptune ask her to dance, and from there she and Jaune are on better terms as friends (which can be seen in V3 when he calls Weiss after getting out of the locker Pyrrha shoved him in). During V3, she's approached by her sister and financially cut off by her father. After the Fall of Beacon, she's forced to return home and is basically put in a sort of Brittney Spears house arrest, where she's only allowed out by her father to do whatever he wants her to do (I think that's what happened, I'm not really aware of what exactly happened during the whole "conservative house-arrest" thing from a few years back), until she escapes and is then captured by Raven until she's rescued by Yang. They then go to Haven and reunite with Ruby and Team JNR, and once Blake comes back, Team RWBY is back in full swing!

Okay, I think that's enough to make the point, but I do want to bring up something that is going to piss people off, because of course it will. It's about Weiss' likely endgame ship, White Knight. I said before that RWBY doesn't know how to do romance, but... Looking at the character developments of both Jaune and Weiss and they just somehow start leaning closer and closer, contrary to how they started out. Like, I know I'm not the only one seeing two characters with full-developed characters starting to get closer, so how is it that BMBLB sucks so hard with their story if it's the canon flagship?

Don't believe me? Think about what I was talking about with these characters. Do you know what the biggest difference is between the stories of Weiss and Blake and Yang? The answer is that Weiss actually has a story. Blake and Yang just are just... two halves of one whole. Weiss is completely independent of Jaune, and yet they both managed to grow without each other. I'm no relationship expert, but if you're relying on another person to have a character arc, that's not a healthy relationship- That's codependency.

Oh, but what do I know? I'm just an idiot on the internet who makes incorrect quote posts. My opinion is invalid and should be tossed out and disregarded. Tata~!

[invested-in-your-future]

What was it exactly that ruined RWBY after volume 3? Was it the death of the author or the creators simply lost touch with their work?

I think I talked about the changes and issues within the narrative before, so I'll just stick to the overall problems with the shift from V3 to V4.

Honestly? The author's passing might have an impact, but it shouldn't have this level of impact.

It's easy to attribute all the success to Monty and just pretend the show was doomed without him. Then why did V3 still come out extremely good? Clearly, there was still talent here - Dillon Goo carried V3 fights on his back, and the story continued - nothing instantly fell apart.

And yet the show did fall apart.

So, what happened?

Were they blindsided by Monty's passing? Were they too inexperienced? Did the hard shift in direction destroy the show's setting? How about the employee burnout?

In reality, I think it's a combination of all of those and more.

They were caught off-guard.

No matter how big Monty's actual role was, people at RT are still human beings.

Death of a friend can turn one's life upside down and fast - understandably, the company would struggle to continue after losing someone so integral to their identity back then.

The way Volume 4 is structured instantly shows that the rest of the staff got blindsided by having to continue the show - V4 is designed to spin its wheels, buying them time while they try to figure out what to do. It's averse to any characterization for the lead four or any change in status quo, and even the lore bits we DO get during V4 are very vague (because the showrunners have no idea what to do).

You can literally imagine them all running around behind the scenes frantically trying to see how they can pick up from where v3 left off and delaying, delaying, delaying.

The issue, however, is that at some point, that kind of stalling becomes their whole MO rather than a temporary thing.

The show effectively stalls any sort of payoff for anything from the first three volumes, shying away from addressing anything within its original identity.

After a while, it's not like they didn't have time to figure things out or turn things around yet - it's that they decided this stalling issue works fine as-is - even as far as V9.

The relationships never quite progress - Blake and Yang have been in limbo since V3, for example.

The characters never progress or regress - how many times did the show "hint" at Ruby's distress for years, promise Blake's growth, or have Yang on the verge of some big moment of self-reflection?

It's not even JUST that it shifted away from its original identity as a contemporary tech-fantasy show - while it absolutely DID do that, the issue is that the showrunners have no idea what shape the show's identity OR aesthetic should take OR how to do it.

The show just stalls because it works even if viewers start to dwindle, and they don't have to do anything that would "alienate" people (Like, let's say, addressing the elephant in the room that is Yang and Blake).

A staggering amount of effort is made to NOT progress things and to have characters go through all these locations without really changing at all.

Things happen but not really.

What did Ruby's journey from Patch to Mistral accomplish for her as a character? What did Blake's journey to Menagerie accomplish? How about Yang's journey to find her offscreen bandit mother? How about Weiss getting taken back by her father?

Nothing.

What did the conflict in Atlas accomplish? Were characters affected or changed in any way? Did Weiss finally have her story arc? Did Ruby face herself?

Nothing.

You could literally change up the end of V3 with them dropping into the future of Vacuo and you wouldn't miss a single story beat.

We don't know MORE about the world OR the characters, really - the dumb Brother Gods plotline revelations can be summed up in half an episode.

Mistral's fate, Vale's fate, Atlas falling? That can be done offscreen - it's not like the show hasn't already offscreened far more important things

Of course, the show DIDN'T just skip that padding so it still has to get the major story beats in as everyone moves through locations.

But those story beats happen in the weirdest way possible.

Why?

There is ego involved, yes.

Miles didn't have to add up the brother gods subplot he had dreamt up one day.

Miles didn't have to keep pushing Jaune into the front of the show at the cost of the actual leads.

It's no secret that the show would always work this way where one of the people involved would posit an idea of how they think something could be cool if it happened - Monty was pretty notable for wanting to have Raven fight Team JNPR in the Fall of Beacon for example, and he refused to elaborate.

Is it so surprising someone like Miles or Kerry would want to "add their own touch"? So what if those ideas clashed with literally everything in the setting before - be it narratively or aesthetically?

But there was something else that changed.

Before V4 the people involved would come up with something and then work it into the plot. While imperfect, there was a possibility of a somewhat healthy dynamic where, with, likely, actual pushback between those involved - Monty never did get his "Raven fights everyone" scene after all, no matter how cool it could have been.

After V3 that dynamic was gone, obviously.

The creative element of the show fell apart, but Miles and co seemed to keep going like nothing happened - and at some point rather than a bunch of people discussing possible paths for the show, it turned into a situation where Miles or someone else would propose an idea and then it would happen.

As the show grew in scope so did the necessity for actually making those desired elements fit into the story. It was no longer about "hey we can't really justify Raven randomly showing up and fighting team JNPR" - there were Kingdoms and multiple locations and dozens of characters involved now.

They just lost their friend who proposed the show in the first place, they struggled to make the show continue and they were clearly inexperienced running something as big as this.

Yet instead of growing, learning, or hiring people, they seem to have been content with just dumping what Miles wanted into the show without worrying about narrative structure, set-ups, payoffs, characterization, and so on.

The weird medieval aesthetic of various locations no longer fits the contemporary modern setting of the first three Volumes? So what.

The magicky ridiculous cheese of brother gods was the polar opposite of a more grounded setting before it? So what.

The decision to not show actual character progression and growth that could be Yang's recovery arc because "it was boring"? This would make any writer or college professor scream because that's now how you characterization, that's not how you do pay off or ANYTHING, but yet again -so what?

Why?

They were unwilling to learn and to accept critique.

Listening to staff commentary for the show (even before Monty's passing) there's one thought that would persist - "Wow, they sure sound content and prideful with not knowing their things and just going with the flow."

RT drank their own Kool-Aid - "Oh we are just a small indie group of friends - look how scuffed our production and decision-making is."

It was impossible not to notice back then - people would point that out all the time.

Yet instead of improving and changing and learning and, honestly, growing up, Miles or someone else would just throw some backhanded remark and continue.

A group of amateur film-makers can grow and develop, but RT were so proud of their status as being this industry underdog where it's just a group of friends(despite that not being the case for YEARS at that point), that they were unwilling to make necessary changes in their work culture, approach or, well, anything.

I keep coming back to Miles watching Land of Lustrous and going "Oh, I don't get it." and that's it - there's no self-betterment or willingness to "get it" showcased and that's emblematic of RT culture as a whole.

Whether there was talent in the company (there was), it wouldn't matter if people at the top would stomp their feet and refuse to learn or improve. Even V9 staff had quite a few talented animators involved - did not help.

They were too caught up in the "youtube machinima bro culture" RT's size had long since grown out of.

They were "a bunch of friends, just a bunch of indie amateur people creating content", and they were proud of it and of how scuffed everything was.

So what if at that scale of the company, the culture would end up creating genuine issues with power dynamics, harassment, over-work, inefficient production, employee burnout, resource wasting, and so on?

The working conditions drove away most of the talent they had left over the course of next few years.

(Un)Surprisingly being stuck in a frathouse mentality lasting decades is a really good motivator for actual talented people within the company to quit and work elsewhere. Who would have thought?

One logical path forward would be to hire actual industry professionals, right? They could have created a writer's room, hired management experts, a proper HR department, hired sensitivity readers, outsourced researching various topics, etc, right? Miles and Co could keep pretending to be auteurs while competent people would get paid to do what needs to be done and course-correct them.

Easy, right?

Well.

They were unwilling to hire professionals.

Reminder that it took RT till around Atlas arc to have anything resembling a writers' room, they still refused to hire actual sensitivity readers to ensure they don't end up writing something blatantly ableist or just outright all-around problematic.

In the cases where professionals were involved, the people in charge just ignored all suggestions (otherwise Volume 8 and 9 would have been stopped at brainstorming phase and changed - I refuse to believe no one took a look at it and said "this will crash harder than Genlock Season Two")

I have no doubts people at the core of RT wanted to honor their friend's legacy and make right by them, but...

If "everything was fine" and who they were was fine and no critique mattered then why change anything or listen to outside voices?

And thus they continued.

Overall

It's a mix of variety of issues, really. It's actually kind of fascinating RT managed to have so many things go wrong.

[virtueking233]

So I might be speculating something a bit or being a bit delusional about WR

But

Does anyone remember how the curious cat says a riddle regarding getting to the tree and it’s goes like “it’s not a place you go, it’s a place you know” and how some don’t seem to realize that the answer to the riddle is home

Home is not a place you go, it’s a place you know

It’s a place you return to when you are lost or hurt, a place you seek comfort and answers in, a place of belonging and of purpose

Now why is this relevant to WR… well, something I noticed in V9 is how there seems to be a lot of visual storytelling (or however you want to call it) like how in episode 7, the dam near the Paper pleasers village breaks to tell you that Ruby dam on her emotions has broken or episode 2, when Ruby tries to comfort Weiss when Weiss tries to talk to her

Ruby holds little in front of her, offering Weiss what LITTLE hope/strength she has left

Why do I bring this up

In episode 9 (and this where you can see I get a bit delusional) after WBY+J arrive at the tree and most importantly branchby

We get this scene where Blake, Yang, and Jaune are in the light while Weiss and Juniper are in the shadows

Now how does this relate to my stuff about home… simple

The people in the light are one’s who have a sense of purpose and balance/are at home, while the characters in the shadows are one’s who are out of balance and lost/their home is missing

The Bees find purpose through their love for each other and are at balanced with each other/they are at home with each other

Jaune finds purpose through his friends/found family and at balance when he is with them/he is at home with friends/found family

Now for the characters in the shadows

Juniper will no longer have any purpose once Jaune leaves as they will no longer be needed/anything to do, they no longer are balanced as they lack someone to truly be with as a partner, and they no longer have any place to really call home

As for Weiss

The reason Weiss no longer has a sense of purpose or is no longer balanced or is not at home… is because Ruby is missing

Weiss partner and team leader who gave her a sense of purpose and belonging is currently missing and not at her side

The person who brings Weiss comfort and support and helps to keep Weiss balanced is currently missing

The Home that Weiss finds purpose and belonging/finds balance and comfort is currently missing

And this makes sense for it to be Ruby

Because while you could say RWBY is Weiss home/family or RWBY is a place that Weiss finds purpose/belonging

Who is it that made RWBY a home for Weiss in the first place

Who is it that made RWBY a place of purpose/belonging for Weiss in the first place

Ruby

Since, Ruby was the one to show Weiss a small act of kindness and helped to changed Weiss for the better

Through a small of acceptance and simply being Weiss partner/friend, Ruby helped to make Weiss a home that she finds purpose in, a place where she belongs and can be happy in

But without Ruby… does Weiss still even have that home?

Overall, this is just my little analysis/theory and something I could possibly have wrong… just a little thought that has been bouncing around in my head after figuring the Curious Cat’s riddle of Home not being a place you go, but a place you know

But anyways, let me know your thoughts, do you agree, disagree, have some other ideas, whatever

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

[arc-misadventures]

So Rwby got rebooted and you get to choose three things from Canon to keep what are they? (Note up to the Teams forming are Canon)

My three are Bumbleby, Adrian Terra and Saffron, and The Jabberwalker and The Curious Cat.

Well this is actually a difficult ask to answer... Hmmm... Okay first off... While it really upsets me to do this. I would still have, Pyrrha be killed. I know shocking, I never liked that she died, she was the first, and so far only character I ever felt sad over her death. But, it was the most important part of character growth for, Jaune.

Character growth that was waisted as all hell...

Second I would keep the, Ever After arc. I found it overall uninteresting, but I loved the story surrounding, Jaune, and his time as the Rusted Knight. Proving once again, Jaune has more character then anyone else.

And, lastly... I would keep, Sienna! I would not kill her off! I want my sexy tanned skinned cat waifu god dammit!

Okay, now lets spread this around! I'm going to ask three people what they would keep in, RWBY if it was rebooted. And we'll see where it goes, okay?

Let's go!

@lar-mx @dragonotaku-justineverythingtaku @phoenixwarehouseproductions2

[littlemisssquiggles]

Okay…I gotta talk about these last two episodes of RWBY Beyond…

As much as I liked the “Boba” episode; I mean it was very sweet for the series to finally address one of the remnant elephants in the room which was Yang and Ruby briefly discussing what happened to her in the Ever After.

I liked that Yang finally no longer needed to front the burden of leadership by herself like how it was in the past.

I like that the show finally had that point brought up because it’s been a key observation of Ruby’s role in the group for a really long time. So I’m happy we finally got this development along with other drops of info---like Tai Yang missing in action in Vacuo.

That’s interesting. What could Tai be doing if he’s not in Vacuo with everyone else? My best bet is that Tai is probably teamed up with Glynda Goodwitch since she’s also MIA and the “assignment” at hand must have something to do with the true whereabouts of the Chamber of Choice. At this point, it has to be that.

Overall, “Boba” was a sweet episode and I’m looking forward to seeing how this new detail will be used in the future. The episode left off with Ruby and Yang agreeing on using the word “boba” to signal to one another when they will need emotional support from each other moving forward and I’m looking forward to see how that will come into play down the line.

That being said, while the last episode was nice, it’s not the one that I got my attention. It’s actually the previous episode. The one with the Adventures of Somewhat. Particularly how that one ended.

That ending got me hyped.

One thing that I’ve been itching for was to have RWBY return to the Ever After. And the main reason I wanted for this return is because of Oscar.

As ya’ll know, Oscar is going through the Merge with Ozpin which he is also trying his best to fight off.

So one headcanon that I’ve been playing with is something tragic happening to Oscar to force RWBY and co to return to the Ever After in order to help him.

So my headcanon was that while in Remnant, Oscar gets poisoned by Tyrian and falls into a comatose state, twerking the lines of life of death. In order to save Oscar, Ruby and the others figure out the only way to help him lies in the Tree of the Ever After. So they have to figure out a way to get to the Ever After. Unfortunately, the only way for them to get back to the Ever After is through how they got there in the first place: through the powers of the Relic of Creation which is sadly in the possessions of Salem. Therefore, our heroes must figure out a way to regain the Staff in order to get back to the Ever After in time to help Oscar go to the Tree so he can be saved through his own form of ascension.

The portal that opened was one of the portals created through the power of the Relic of Creation. And given Somewhat’s reaction, it has to be someone that they recognize which means that whoever it is before them has either got to be Ruby or all of Team RWBY (plus Jaune).

My money is that it’s probably Ruby since Ruby was the closest to the Somewhat back when they were still Little.

Either way, this has me excited! I mean, yeah sure, I could completely be heavily mistaken about this return to the Ever After being connected to needing to save Oscar at all.

But regardless, it does at least confirm that there will be a return to the Ever After to come for V10.

Personally, as a Pinehead, I want this return to be related to helping Oscar with the Merge so badly because I can’t think of it being related to anything else but that. Unless it has to do with finding a way to stop Salem in the Ever After.

I mean, it was highlighted back in V9 that the Brother Gods were the “children” of the Tree of the Ever After. And given that Salem is a by product of the Brother Gods’ meddling, finding a solution to undoing Salem’s immortality in the very birthplace of the very Gods who made her what she is isn’t too far of a stretch. I mean it makes sense from a narrative standpoint.

But regardless of that, I’m sticking with my first hunch. I really, really want the Return to the Ever After to have to do with Oscar’s Merge and potential Ascension.

I just want it to be about taking Oscar to the Tree.

I need it to be about that because…it makes sense. Ever since ascension and the Tree were brought into RWBY’s lore, I’ve been wanting Oscar to go to the Tree since I really think it could be the key to helping with the Merge.

Either to stop it as a whole or…have Oscar go through his own form of reform and become the person he needs to become.

Of all the characters who I wanted to meet the Blacksmith, Oscar is one of them. Like he’s the perfect candidate for this kind of development.

But I dunno. These are just my wild thoughts on this subject after watching the final two episode of RWBY Beyond.

Speaking of which, that's it. That's all the episodes of RB officially out which means, as of now, that's it for RWBY until they announce something about V10.

In the mean time, these are my jumbled thoughts on the last two episodes.

~LMS (2024)

[ficretus]

That one Jaune concept art really did bring back the whole "Oscar shouldn't even exist" hate train, huh. Oscar has one of the most bizarre hatedoms I've seen.

Been having some thoughts about Jaune being Ozma's incarnation and how would that theoretically impact the plot.

First of all, would Jaune becoming an Ozma's vessel make sense narratively? While there aren't any hints in early volumes of story going there, it does flow together relatively well.

You have Jaune, someone who is almost completely incompetent, enrolling to the one of the most prestigious Huntsmen academies. And if Cardin can figure out Jaune was a fraud, then surely all powerful Oz can as well. Jaune becoming Ozma's vessel would answer the question of why does Ozpin tolerate Jaune despite knowing the truth about him, he is grooming him to become his next vessel.

Jaune post Volume 3 also had the mindset to accept that role. After Pyrrha's death he considered himself to be worthless compared to people around him. He would accept what's essentially Faustian bargain with Ozma to sacrifice his mind and soul for greater good.

It also synergizes well with Jaune's primary literary allusion of being Joan of Arc. Joan started hearing Voices after experiencing a tragedy of her village being sacked. So you'd have a direct parallel to Jaune getting a voice in his head in the aftermath of losing his school and partner.

That's all fine, but would it "fix" the narrative as some people suggest? I'd say no. Most common arguments for it I've seen besides people just hating on Oscar is that it would reduce main cast bloat (or in some cases specifically male cast bloat) and it would give Jaune more to do.

Yeah, it would fix the cast bloat, but in very superficial way. You are removing one of the main characters, but at the end of the day all of his plot points would still have to remain. Oscar is not a filler character, he is not dealing with some random side plots that are inconsequential to the main story. As Ozma's vessel he is dealing with members of his faction, Hazel and Salem herself. Pretty much all of this would have to remain in the story but be given to different character.

And who would that character be? Jaune in this case as Ozma's vessel since all of these plot lines are Oz specific. He has to be the one dealing with his faction members since he is the one who personally knows them. He has to be the one dealing with Hazel since Hazel's motivation for becoming evil was Ozpin's neglect of his sister. He has to be the one dealing with Salem considering that's his ex wife and nemesis. And that's on top of Jaune specific plot lines like dealing with Cinder since that doesn't just magically disappear. You are not fixing bloat of any kind since by removing Oscar, you are ballooning Jaune's narrative role to ridiculous degree (which also makes the point about reducing the male cast moot). And Jaune's narrative role doesn't really need an upgrade considering he is already one of the main characters.

Imagine Atlas arc with Jaune as Ozma's vessel: He would be dealing with Ironwood, Hazel, Cinder, Salem at bare minimum. RWBY? never heard of it, you are watching J&O show.

Overall, it's an interesting idea, but I don't think it would work well in canon story which is probably why it was scrapped by the writers (if it was even an idea in the first place).

[thatguythatdrawsalot]

RWBY Redesign Critique Ask.

https://www.tumblr.com/divinecomedyproductions/734986950335938561/it-is-with-great-pleasure-i-get-to-show-you-all something to review on my redesigns which I commissioned a friend to do for my reimagined AU, he’s a great artist so if any criticism comes I feel it should be towards me since I gave him the direction

——

Sorry I took a bit long to respond and critique! I’ll talk about the redesigns in chronological order of team RWBY. You mention this as being part of an AU of sorts but I’ll just critique it as just outfits for the girls’ character.

——

Ruby Rose.

I hope you guys know when I critique designs I do my best to not sound rude. I’m only harsh/very constructive towards the artists and directors who get PAID to design characters as they’re making money off this by plastering said designs onto merchandise. A character designer who works for a show’s company is gonna have higher expectations compared to a commission piece that’s out of fun and joy- So please don’t be upset if I say something that sounds mean.

With that out of the way, Ruby’s look is cute but simple. She’s the safest design of the four. Ruby wearing silver earrings is again cute but this does remind me too much of her Volume 2 look. I obviously can’t judge since last I redesigned Ruby she was just a culmination of her Atlas and Vale look but more slate color. I’m guessing Ruby was the hardest to redesign for this one.

Her look isn’t bad but overall just a safe design.

Weiss Schnee.

Shea is giving me magical school girl vibes I don’t know why- Revolutionary Girl Utena!!!

Okay jokes aside I absolutely love how modest Weiss looks, I can’t totally see her wearing this if she ever attended Atlas instead of Beacon as her huntress attire. She has the perfect amount of red and black in where the placement of it should be, but as for the blue, maybe replace it with just white? As the blue, red, white, in this look does sometimes remind me of AMERICA FLAG!!!!!!!!!!

But if it did just get replaced with white than blue it wouldn’t look too much like her Volume 2 outfit. So don’t worry.

Blake Belladonna.

Oh my god…. YES! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Okay right off the bat, color placement is perfect, she’s got primary black with a good chunks of white and purple, plus the cute gold buttons to balance her eyes. I love it! Colored to perfection! She isn’t a black blob, she can look east to see where her limbs are if ever in combat.

With her hair back into a ponytail it doesn’t mess up her colors much anywhere like her original look almost did. I love the return of the bow now helping her show her ears than hide them, as it now pulls her hair back. I love her aesthetic as it still screams ‘a Blake outfit’ as sometimes people find it tricky to design for Blake. I always think that Blake just needs to have no sleeves in order for her outfit to work, but here is an exception. She’s my favorite of the four.

Yang Xiao Long.

Oooooh!! Okay it’s a tie cause I bias-

Yang actually looks like someone you can hang out with on a motorcycle! I love her aesthetic but what I love more is that she isn’t wearing ugly browns but instead black, making the yellows pop out so much more! Trust me if Yang just wore black instead of brown in the actual show, she’ll have a good outfit or two already in the show canon than just her Volume 2 design.

Though I think it’s too much yellow… I know you can have some purple somewhere to balance her eyes out. As for the yellow on her jacket sleeves it can just be black instead. A fourth color is definitely needed for this than just yellow, black and gold. But overall it’s so minor I’m willing to ignore it.

But I can’t really ignore the hat, it’s gonna turn into a crisp since I think hats would be in the way of Yang’s semblance, best to just ditch that part.

——

In summary, these outfits are fun. I can tell your friend really had fun designing the girls and had an actual vision to what aesthetic the girls should have. I’m still gonna encourage you play around with Ruby the most because Weiss, Blake, and Yang are absolutely stunning that just radiates their personalities and vibes well. I know they can do the same with Ruby.

[princess-of-the-corner]

, https://www.tumblr.com/princess-of-the-corner/754856715983421440/chloe-is-the-mlb-version-of-rwbys-weiss-except?source=share

While I get the comparison it also doesn't really work.

Weiss is, like all the major characters, a subversion of the archetype she's introduced to the audience with.

IE, Weiss is the "Ice queen", cold, aloof, haughty, from a powerful family in a place that doesn't encourage emotions, with a very pale color pallet and such. Plus a bit of tsundere for a spice, who wishes to live up to the incredibly high expectations of her name an social rank.

That's the archetype. I'm sure you can pick that which is familiar trope wise out.

Weiss the actual character on the other is very different.

For one she does not give two flying shits about her cold and emotionally abusive father, she expressly went to college on another continent to get out of his influence & wants to undo the ruination his corruption brought to her idea of the Schnee family's honor. Something explicitly endorsed by her older sister.

Secondly her tsundere and cold aspects are very much a mixture of trauma responses and cultural conditioning. Both f which ease right the hell off once she's in a safe environment with people she trusts. She can still be a bit regal sounding but she's actually one of the overall gentler characters, whose irritation manifest more in a "Done with this" vibe than anger.

Thirdly she didn't really require a redemption arc, not exactly.

I have a whole essay the subject of redemption arcs elsewhere but broadly speaking one needs todo like, a notable amount wrong and go through a fairly heavy degree of change for something to be an arc.

Weiss was one of the heroes right from the start, she was just temperamental and prideful but again once in a none toxic environment was able to scale that back relatively easily. Her other notable issue was defaulting to derogatory language in regards to Faunus she expressly associated with crimes.

However, this was not something she did in regards to Faunus in general. & its also made clear from the framing that the only time during the episodes dealing with this. That we were meant to be sympathetic to her was when she tethered her anger at the White Fang (Who represent criminal Faunus in her brain cos she grew up very isolated from regular people) which can spill over into other 'rule/law breaking' Faunus is specifically rooted in how much her father fury and anger impacted her as a child.

IE, she was working around those negative feelings by pushing them onto a socially acceptable scapegoat so her father could just be like, a scummy businessman and not someone who scared or hurt her. This is especially obvious seeing as Weiss references his anger from when she was a small child, despite the fact the very next episode establishes that the White Fang had only been committing crimes/evolutionary actions for five years. Meaning the anger she saw as a child was just him being pissed off about human rights protests and taking it out on those around him.

But regardless, while rather, clumsily handled at the time, in large part cos of a show string budget and like 9 minute episodes during the first volume. She was able to resolve her main conflict with Blake and broadly chill out on the subject before the first volume wrapped up and barring some untoward language in one conversation had never done anything that'd require like, an arc, is my point,

Beyond that, om other area they are very distinct characters in is that Chloe was taught or learned from example to imitate her parents, cheating, cruel words and all.

Weiss very expressly modelled herself after her grander, even weaving bright reds into the interior of her white clothes as that color was tied to Nicholas (Yes Saint Nick) Who was comparatively extremely noble type. So she was a stickler for rules and intensely workaholic about it.

Basically, barring being rich and having shitty parents whose abuse or neglect led to them being a varying degrees of sharp with people there's not much to compare I feel.

Also the parental dynamics are very different, but that's a whole other post.

I do think Weiss's personal experience and wisdom gained across the series would make her an ideal person to easily handle Chloe at her more prickly though.

Fascinating.