#rwby asks

[invested-in-your-future]

Volume 9 gets a lot of criticism (deservedly so) for its message that seeking to grow and change yourself is a bad idea, but the more I think about it the more I think that the rot begins all the way back in V3 and its beginning of rejection of aspiration.

Volume 2 contains the scene in which Oobleck probes WBY on their motivations and goals. It's one of the best scenes in the entire show, I think, especially when paired with the subsequent scene in which they talk to one another about their discussions. Each character is presented as having ambitions, even if those goals are thinly sketched (Yang) or if they aren't entirely sure how to achieve them (Blake). They all have room to grow, but there is somewhere they want to grow towards.

That changes in Volume 3. The last thing that Penny says to Ruby is that she wants to stay at Beacon, and that she has a plan to make it happen. But before we can learn what that plan is she is killed as part of the villains' scheme. Pyrrha also gets the opportunity to talk of her own ambitions, and of how she has become conflicted between her sense of destiny and her attachment to Jaune; but then she dies to, having neither destiny nor Jaune, the whole thing amounting to nothing.

At which point the surviving characters pretty much give up on having personal goals in the same way as they give up on having growth. Blake leaves fighting for equality to her father and Ilia to get on with off-screen, Weiss makes some reference towards redeeming the Schnee name in Volume 9, after several volumes of not caring about it either way, Yang abandons whatever vague plans she had for her own life, they all become completely content to be led about by the plot, following Ozpin's direction, going where they're told and doing only what they need to to stop Salem.

Even the resurrected Penny, who in the early volumes had her own goals and took steps to achieve them, becomes a passive figure, stumbling into the Winter Maiden's powers and having things done to her until we're asked to believe that the only choice she ever made was to die.

It may seem as though I'm talking about two different things here, on the one side ambition and aspiration, and on the other side personal growth and change, but I think that the two are linked together. After all, how can you grow and change when you have nothing to grow towards, and the characters have had nothing to work towards for several volumes now except for the resolution of the main plot.

I don't think it's as clear-cut.

Penny's death is framed as a negative thing—her aspirations cut short by the scheming of others. Sure, there's an ironic undertone because in a way Penny get's to stay at Beacon—forever, but the show makes it clear that it's not her fault. The show expects you, the audience, to be angered by what happened to her—to relate to what Ruby is feeling.

Pyrrha's fate is also very specific case in that the grand destiny is not necessarily her aspiration but an expectation forced upon her by Ozpin. Pyrrha already had her aspirations, trying to be her own person, and Ozpin's tales play into her morals and ideals—out of desperation introducing her to the world hidden away to use her as a pawn to stave off whatever chaos Ozpin is afraid of. Pyrrha thinks this is her destiny, but is she sure of that? She is torn, derailed from her life, and thrown into a world she has no way of understanding.

It's not a story of children being punished for their aspirations.

Volume 3 is the story of dreams—hopes of aspirations, bright futures, ideals, and fairytales—torn apart from the hands of the next generation by the "real world" and the sins of their forefathers.

Because the world refused to change and instead turned a blind eye to preserve the status quo rather than to rock the boat.

This sets up lots of great possibilities for the future.

The narrative urged the four protagonists to move forward, to face their past, cautioning them to not dwell in ignorance, to not avoid dealing with their flaws and issues.

The leads are shaken, their ideals and beliefs questioned, the things they were running from catching up to them.

As you said, "How can you grow when everything is taken away from you? How do you get back up?"

How does the world get back up after the status quo breaks—can it?

How do characters "keep moving forward" when everything they were was invalidated or taken away?

This is reiterated over and over again in the narrative—and in the show's soundtrack, like the Opening songs.

This is V2 lyrics OP, remember?

"Now it's time to say goodbye

To the things we loved

And the innocence of youth

With a doubt in our minds

Why we chose this life

And at times we can't help wondering

Were we born to fight and die?

Sacrificed for one huge lie?

Are we heroes keeping peace?

Or are we weapons pointed at the enemy

So someone else can claim a victory?"

There's still hope to find a future where the characters are more than tools but for that future they have to stop clinging to naivety and grow.

Yet the Volume 3 lyrics crush that hope, smothering it with tragedy and despair.

So what's next?

This is what the show going forward should have been after the Fall of Beacon—introspection, retrospection, reflection, and growth, juxtaposed with division, chaos, miscommunication, and decay.

What does it mean to be a Huntress? What does it mean to live?

Is there worth within humanity despite its destructive nature and tendency to (figuratively and literally) breed hatred?

Yet instead this is where the issues start—with Volume 4, and your read is pretty much correct from then on.

Jaune is the Hero Man, Ruby is the Eyes-Girl, Yang is the Punchy-Punchy-Puns-GIrl, Weiss is there to take the Ls, and Blake is there to tell everyone how it's actually the Faunus fault.

Instead of exploring what this shakeup means for those characters and whether they can find a way forward, overcome the tragedy, and grow as people, the show relegates them to chasing the Four Relics, forgoing introspection.

Because, as one of the VAs said, having Yang actually have to face what happened and heal and grow "would be boring".

The show is hellbent on freezing the consequences of Fall of Beacon or ignoring them as it focuses on prolonging itself.

So the characters turn into puppets—pieces moved around through the plot points, so the specific story beats can happen.

They have to get through Mistral, so they...do that without any real introspection or growth.

They have to go to Atlas because, of course, that's the next Kingdom and Atlas has to fall, so here we go; that happens.

Characters don't get to react, to grow, to change.

Why is it that way?

Because the writers are afraid to have characters upset the status quo.

Because they have no idea where they want this story to go.

They likely had some vague scribbles from Monty Era—as it's popular to meme a concept of a plan and nothing more.

So they couldn't commit to any direction except for prolonging the show without losing viewers.

They can't resolve the Yang and Blake subplot because it would mean disappointing either Sun or Yang fanbases—cue them having these utterly awkward, meaningless interactions that skirt this huge tragic event that happened and then continue to skirt anything they ever do even if it's to kill someone. Not to mention the show's really obvious intent to queerbait without a resolution. Let's be frank: V9 kiss only happened as a desperate marketing move to drum up the clicks and to exploit the LGBTQ+ community—if the show wasn't falling apart financially, RT would have been more than happy to keep the Blake/Yang/Sun situation in an ambiguous limbo.

They can't really resolve Ruby's eyes deal because they likely have no idea of what happened to Summer—after all, they had no idea what Raven's purpose was, hence sidelining her to lounge in her bandit camp offscreen. And Jaune already got all the subplots Ruby should have gotten anyway.

They can't really resolve the Weiss family privilege issues because, "Ohh, we've got to wait for Atlas to fall." Then, "Whoops, we have no time—remember we never did get to it, so let's reference it in Animal Talking Land and the DC Spin-Off Movie."

So that's the result—Volumes Four through Nine, where characters go through the motions of advancing the plot, but their character arcs are frozen right at the end of V3.

The show commits the ultimate sin of having a plot for the plot's sake, rather than having plot-driven characterization. And it keeps piling up plot devices—Salem's evil council, relics, two gods, a realm of talking animals, another god above two gods, etc.—as quick ways to get to the story beats they want and extend the show.

Because there is no plan, no growth, no will to move forward—not within the characters or the set-up, but within the writers, the staff.

[howi99]

@watcher-servant Hey sorry for your ask, it bugged out and it just sent without me being able to answer the question lol

So you asked if his clothes looked like this

The answer is a bit more on the blue and golden side, but the design is really great for the idea i have of him in this particular AU.

[asm5129]

Blake’s final speech in vol 5 amounted to “I don’t know what to do just stop bad Faunus like Adam”

As for Kaitlyn I more so meant the nickname she was given, that was not just an issue of management. But fair point several of the original group are POC. But non the less it seems more likely crwby just wanted to do X-men and failed.

Blake’s speech was about the fact that there are no easy answers to stopping hate. Faunus were getting more rights through Sienna’s tactics, but actual acceptance was harder to achieve because it’s something you cannot force. Saving Haven and stopping Adam helped shift the narrative around Faunus. It didn’t fix everything, nor did Blake claim it would, but it started moving the needle away from where Adam was pushing it.

The White Fang arc isn’t a guidebook on how to successfully develop a more accepting society, it’s a warning about how anger that has a legitimate reason to exist can be validated, channeled and manipulated by selfish people who will ultimately abandon and work against the goals of the affected group when the crisis of said group no longer supports their self-serving interests.

RWBY is willing to accept that maybe there aren’t clear, easy solutions to societal issues but that developing connections and empathy and community with those around us still move us towards a better world—even if hate still exists.

[team-iceflower]

Ruby, loading slugs into crescent rose: okay the power of friendship isn't working, I need to kill this bitch

Weiss: *loading dust cartridges into Myrt* Okay, who hurt my darling?

[iamafanofcartoons]

CRWBY literally can't even make a silly 3 minute long video without toxic people trying to hate on the series. That piece of garbage named double a is shitting on the new episode of RWBY Vtubing. And the episode is only 3 minutes long.

Your frustration is valid, believe me. That man literally made a video rating RWBY Women by their chest sizes. While on Twitter he made misogynistic remarks on Winter Schnee.

Its horrible, but let me explain the sad thing. Just as there are good people, There are bad people like Critter, Vexed, hero hei, adel aka, and RWDE.

You can't stop RWDE from being rude and just plain deplorable. But what you CAN do? Is try to educate people about RWBY, Anon.

Show them that RWBY is not as bad as critics brainwash them into thinking. Show them that RWBY is a show worth watching. Combat that negativity with positivity.

There will be people who say no, who embrace willful ignorance. And the sad thing is you can't stop them.

But? There will always be people willing to listen. And they will listen to you.

Be better than the haters, and become the change you wish to see online. And others will do it alongside you. You're not alone, Anon. I believe in you...Good luck!

[daltonstreak]

"I find people only say this because they think Blake can only ever do the WF plotline and that's it"

BUUUUUUZZZZZ!!!! WRONG!

We say it because Blake has undergone no significant character development since the end of Volume 6. She plays an almost passive role in the Atlas saga, the various ways her story could have gone in the post-WF world were completely squandered, and she had next to no meaninful interactions with the other characters outside of Yang, to whom she was basically reduced to a satellite love interest. And no, being forced into a magical escape room where the win conditions are making out with someone is not character development. It's a contrived farce.

Lol exactly what was squandered with Blake's story post-WF. She's doing exactly what she should by focusing on stopping Salem because I don't know if you've been paying attention but if Salem gets all the relics there won't be any faunus for Blake to be a bridge for. Plus Blake wasn't in Atlas long before Salem arrived causing havoc and Ironwood wanting her arrested. Blake having an almost passive role isn't the end of the world when pretty much all of team rwby took a backseat during the Atlas arc so I don't know why you think it's only a problem with Blake's character when it was all of them. Even Weiss who should of had a bigger role considering it was her hometown.

And I think it's funny how you mentioned Blake and Yang's confession scene when I never mentioned it in my original reply and Blake quite literally had significant moments with Nora and Ruby in volume 8 and guided her team in volume 9 acting as a light for them, but hey whatever pushes your narrative

[demtoons]

when they get together I need yang to act so lovey dovey with blake cause I'm kinda getting some sense from the fandom that people are starting to think blake loves yang more which is just 🤨

I'll be in the trenches defending this fandom all day. But I admit we do have recency bias sometimes. Another person said this and I agree; before this volume, it was Yang who was shown to be pining after Blake more. Not that Blake didn't do it too, but she honestly had more shit to deal with back then. Yang just showed more interest, I guess?

Ex:"If you're thinking of coming out tomorrow, I'll save you a dance"

The lyrics from Armed and Ready and All that Matters.

"What if I needed her here for me?"

"It looks good...great even!"

"Yeah...Ruby"

Yang running to help Blake fight Adam twice, losing her arm and bike

So I think they're evening it out a bit. Blake is now the one being really obvious about liking Yang. She even has her own song about it now too. And Yang reciprocates because they're both into each other equally. It would be nice to see Yang initiate something this volume, but I digress. Blake doesn't like Yang more than Yang likes Blake. That's juvenile thinking, imo.

[astraskylark]

Do you think the kingdom of atlas will ever be rebuilt? Or at least the continent of solitas will ever be resettled? I wonder if it could happen in weiss’ lifetime. If a “new atlas” of some kind is ever actually built I should hope that it resembles the “old atlas” as little as possible, and thus from the ashes of the old and failed atlas, a more fair and just kingdom not built on exploiting the poor can be created,

They'll probably build a new Mantle or something. So yeah a new kingdom will be built, but I think that the laws and military influence will not exist anymore

[narukana-chan]

What’s your thoughts on Bleiss? Or other x-bent characters? Your favorite?

Ngl I had to look up what this was. Aesthetically she's interesting, but if I'm taking it seriously it doesn't make much sense to me. Like Bleiss isnt a word, Weiss means white and her name is White Snow! It kinda takes away from her snow white allusion. Buuut it's pointless to criticize something harmless and all in good fun so my main take that she's interesting aesthetically still takes over. I am curious about other x-bent characters, especially ones in the same universe as bleiss.

[mettywiththenotes]

Is RWBY a video game or a series? If it’s a show where do you watch it?

It's a web series! There are 8 finished volumes at the moment and volume 9 is currently being released

You can watch all of the volumes here or on youtube and if you've watched them, decided you like it and want to know what happens next, consider signing up to Crunchyroll and supporting the crew there!

I definitely recommend watching the 4 trailers first before diving into volume 1. In order, the trailers you should watch are the Red Trailer, the White Trailer, the Black Trailer and finally the Yellow Trailer

(hence the series' name RWBY lol)

Assuming that you've clicked on the link and seen the list of episodes - You can skip past World Of Remnant for now if you want (at least until after volume 3), but those shorts offer world building to the universe of the series, so you should totally watch them at some point

Also, word of warning, this series goes through quite a bit of evolution in it's animation, so the early volumes will look very different to what you may have seen me reblog recently

But I prefer to think of that as part of the charm <3

[invested-in-your-future]

It just doesn't make sense for racism to exist when monsters threaten the world.

Our world is threatened by deadly diseases, pandemics, climate change, and the destructive use of technological advances to cause irreversible damage to our planet, and it still has time for racism, discrimination, bigotry, and hate—centuries of it.

If anything, it's expected that Remnant would be imperfect like that since it's still a society modeled after our own—one with nobles and the rich and wars and the class divide. Discrimination would draw allusions between the creatures of Grimm and the Faunus, as I have written about before in one of the answers.

If anything, the clash between the polar opposite aspects of human nature was always the most promising material within the show.

You can't have a story about fighting eldritch abominations attracted to hate—a reactive force mirroring the state of humanity, conveying its destructive capability—and not explore the said hate.

The fact that the show just gives up on focusing on human nature just as it sets up a major change in the status quo with the Fall of Beacon, instead retconning itself into Brother Gods and magic and facing the NotSatan nonsense, is outright ridiculous.

[hellcifrogs]

Team SKHA (sky?) - the weapons are mostly just overall ideas here, not really detailed.

[ahllohehn]

hermitcraft/traffic au huntress/hunstman concept

cus i genuinely think some of them would be BADASS with the weapons in RWBY

mumbo would enjoy velvet's weapon so much (it turns into a damn camera ffs)

i think grian should have penny's floating knives thing but it retracted into a little grumbot he has at the side. the floating knives would look like wings on him on its neutral state

scarlet pearl with crescent rose??? hello??? what is not cooler than a damn sniper scythe wtf

ALSO the one thing that pushed it all; SCAR WITH THE CANE GUN OR MAYBE SOMETHING LIKE OZPIN'S CANE

holy fk i miss my obsession with rwby

[team-iceflower]

*yang.exe has stopped working*

Weiss: *takes a deep breath and puts her hand on hangs shoulder* welp...I'm going to go @#$& your sister now

Yang: *screaming*

[paponela]

despite everything, it's still you

[daltonstreak]

I miss Weiss and Ruby interacting like they did in volumes 1-3 and 6. They barely talk now ):

That's always something that bothered me with the writing. Ruby and Weiss are supposed to be partners, but they don't feel as much now. I can't remember the last time those two had a nice moment talking to each other that wasn't more than 30 seconds or brief.

Hopefully if volume 10 does happen they'll have more moments with each other, but I'm also not holding my breath if it doesn't happen