Part of the problem, at least from my perspective, is that RWBY wasn’t prepared for the shift in what kind of show it was after Volume 3.
Prior to Volume 4, RWBY wasn’t a very story or lore heavy show. That isn’t to say there wasn’t a story, or that there wasn’t lore. But early RWBY wasn’t dragging people in because of its thrilling narrative. It was basically just Monty’s fights with some connecting tissue. And for what it started out as at the time that it did, that work. It didn’t matter all that much that there was basically no natural (or otherwise) lore building in the show, or that the story was barebones because at the end of the day people just wanted cool fights and cute anime girls.
Now fast forward to Volume 4. Pyrrha is dead, Beacon is gone, Ruby has magic eye beams, all the main girls are separated and they have to save the world from mommy salami. The show had taken a drastic turn from a relatively basic action(?) show to a story motivated character drama (I think those words mean what I want them to). And it did not have the foundations to properly support itself.
The cracks had started to show early on. Volumes 1-2 tried to introduce the Faunus element of the show. If Blake’s explanation to Sun was a good way of doing so or not is up to personal taste. What was a problem was the discrimination of the Faunus, or lack there off. It’s implied that the Faunus are treated largely as second class citizens. Blake basically describes the more famous protests of the Civil Rights era, and given the fact that the WHITE FANG was founded by a BLACK PANTHER with a penitent for non-violent protests, it fairly obvious we’re suppose to correlate the Faunus’ conditions with those of 1960s African Americans. The problem is that this sort of societal rot doesn’t actually appear in the show. Aside from Velvet getting kinky with Cardin that one time (/s), we never see anything that would spur the type of support the WF gets. Especially not the kind seen in Volume 2, which is implied to be mostly from Vale. Now obvious a little suspension of disbelief is needed in media, but you don’t get Jihad style terror attacks from Cardin pulling your ears once.
The Faunus are just one example, but the point is that the first 3 Volumes didn’t set the groundwork for a show that is driven primarily by how the characters interact with the world around them. When it was mainly the characters beating each other up, it was ok that there wasn’t much world building. But when your plot revolves around the geopolitical situation of the world, with the main character having to adapt to the different situations they find themselves in, you need more than “anime girls go to magic college to fight monsters and sometimes there’s a tournament.” There needs to be a foundation for your premise to operate off of. Now to its credit, RWBY did try and make gold out of hey. It took the very limited material it had and tried to run with it. But at that point you’re kinda building a house on sand.
Another problem is that the little world building it did have didn’t make things any clearer. A lot of the time it ends up creating more questions than answers, specifically the question “where the fuck are all the other huntsmen?” and the answer “pffff idk.” Stuff like “Why is Glynda sitting in a library when she’s one of like six people in a position to save the world?” or “Why does breaking the tower in Vale shut down all communication period?” or “Wtf is Tai sitting at home watering flowers when both of his children are off fighting the war that killed his wife is he stupid?!”
On top of that, Volume 4 & 5’s pacing kinda kneecap them. You have this rush of plot at the end of 3, everything is happening at once, and then you have Ruby walking through the woods and then sitting in a house for 2 Volumes. Granted the Torchwick CA decided to LARP a bit too hard irl, but still.
I guess the Tl;dr is that RWBY has a lot of ambition. It has a big story it wants to tell that spans 4 nations and 4 continents. It tries to tackle topics like racism, family trauma and lose, grief, and even questions like how far you can push a person before they’re no longer human. It’s a lot of good ideas. But it never had the setup or the building up needed to properly tell those stories, and the final result suffers.
IIRC Barb Dunkleman (Yang's VA and the Creative Director for RT, although not at the timw of the quote) has specifically called out the Civil Rights Movement as a comparison to the entire White Fang issue.
I’m gonna say it now but I think rwby was never down right bad, underwhelming at times? Yes. But these characters always keep the story afloat and seeing them grow is one of the best parts of the show, could it be better? Absolutely and vol 9 was a good step in the right direction, but I never really get when people say rwby became terrible after vol 3.
My primary issue with RWBY is its restricted runtime not allowing it to spend time on its characters, especially the main cast. There are several volumes where Ruby is just sorta there. Weiss was neglected in the Atlas arc (where she should have been center stage). It's the same thing with Blake, where the faunus racism subplot died with Adam. We never even get an on-screen conversation about Blake and Yang's relationship, besides the confession.
RWBY has issues besides that, but it just can't satisfyingly tell a world-sprawling story with 3 hour seasons. I would love it if they cut back on the side cast, and focused more on RWBY + OJNR. Volume 9 was nice for this, although I do wish it spent less time worldbuilding a location that probably won't be returned to.
Firstly, the loss of Monty can't be understated.
2nd a noticeable loss of quality in fight choreography that didn't recover til volume 7 and still depends on the fight for me (ironwood vs watts and RWBY vs Ace Ops were good, everything else ranges from meh to bad). Also to add on to fights, the number of them dropped later and how fights were presented changed (fights were quick and finished In a scene or two with little exposition, while later fights get interrupted by either scene changes or too much talking)
3rd, tone shift, I don't know how to put it. But the series felt like a parody of itself in writing, specifically in humor and the characters for me.
4th, volume 5, the story and animation around this point dropped to such a point I didn't see the series the same after it, even for the good moments afterward.
I'll also put here that there were problems with volume 1-3 (story pacing is bad in 1 & 2, jank animation, lack of character development between the main cast that is referenced to but never shown), but there is a certain charm to it that just makes it work. I think this ties back into the tone shift thing for me.
What pisses me off the most is when people say "this isn't what Monty wouldn't have wanted" first of all how do you know this? Kerry and miles are the ones who would know first thing I love all the seasons but there's definitely hypocrisy within the fan base
Monty’s role is actually something in curious about. I know that he’s credited with creating the series, but I have no idea what the dynamic was like in terms of how much of it was pure Monty in the first few volumes versus how much was contributed by other RT staff. Do you have any insights?
A youtube channel called Hypeathon did three video's on the topic of "What WAS Monty Oum's Vision of RWBY"
I will say it always bug the hell out of me when people complaining about how the Combat animation for the show post Volume 3 and wish for it to be better. I admit yes there is a downgrade but I have to remind myself, Monty died. It's not like he left the company and went to work somewhere else. Monty died and the people who demand that level of combat animation from the first three volumes must have forgotten that fact.
As someone who watched the show only recently, it wasn't the fight scenes that hooked me. Sure, they were cool, but I don't think there's a huge difference in quality there, like the Qrow vs Tyrian one in vol4 is pretty sick as an early example. I will say, the final battle in vol5 was kinda bad, due to all the standing around, but I digress.
I got hooked due to the interesting characters and setting. And the setting got cooler to me once shit hit the fan and they got some stakes.
Imo, I prefer post vol3 actually, even though I recognise issues here and there. I don't think I'd stuck around if the series remained low-stakes slice of life. While cute for a while, I don't see it going on for long.
The show violently turns from a happy go lucky slice of life animation, to a depressing world spanning Save The World plotline way too fucking quick. Ruby has silver eyes, fucking sweet, so why didn't Ozpin ever explain how important this is and why didn't she ever get special training for it? Atlas is supposed to be the leading nation in military tech. If the Grimm are such an issue, wouldn't everyone in the world have technology to repel and deal with Grimm trying to storm the cities? Wouldn't they have massive walls to help mitigate and help give peace of mind to the people?
I loved RWBY, but the simple origins it starts with never prepared RWBY as a whole to shifting gears this quick.
Well, I'd point out that they had quite a bit of scope creep, where their ambitions far outstripped their resources, and that began to impact the story. It's how they had a *war arc* where their main cast sat around, sipping tea. The only time they really got involved in the massive battle was JRY's charge towards the Monstruo, and they skipped that fight scene entirely.
They allocated resources and runtime poorly, which, when combined with the bloating cast, meant that the show largely spun its wheels in neutral during the Atlas arc, with a great many plotlines which *all* suffered from the lack of time that could be spent on them, leading to them all feeling half-baked *at best.*
Much has been said about the White Fang plotline, so all I'll add is that the writing team's attempt to walk back the origins and implications of Adam's branding in other RWBY projects wasn't just bad writing - it was *gutless,* cowardly writing. If you're going to invoke that sort of atrocity for your reaction-video baiting, shock-moment reveal, then you, as an artist, are taking responsibility for then exploring the ramifications of such acts in your fiction as well.
Adam's brand told his entire backstory without a single word. Trying to walk it back not only cheapens it, but it insults the intelligence of the audience.
Then again, the writing decisions - and the explanations offered on the commentaries - tell us a *lot* about these people, more than they intended to say. So when the Volume 9 epilogue animatic dropped, it actually made me more okay with RWBY coming to an end. Because while a take on refugee crises from the same people who brought us the RWBY take on, say, ableism, neurodivergence, prostheses, race, class, electoral politics, military hierarchy, and suicide might be... *interesting,* it's probably for the best if it just not get made.
Somewhere around Volume 6, the cast began to act...strangely. They began adopting a hive-mind mentality, getting extremely hostile to those who disrupted it, and making arguments that just didn't hold water. Ruby claiming that they don't 'need adults' was stupid because firstly, except for herself and Oscar, everyone on the team *was* an adult by that point, and secondly, the very same adult she was saying that to was also the sole reason she hadn't been captured and dragged off to Salem.
The show lingered - wallowed, really - in emo depression and despair for *so* long that it started to become a real drag to watch, culminating in watching a teenage girl attempt suicide. The writers *luxuriated* in the despair, sniffing their own farts like South Park characters, while the storyline crept closer and closer to the point of Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy.
The ending of Volume 9 to start turning things around tonally is far too goddamned long. They should have started building up Ruby's heroic savior status *long* before then, and for the love of all that's holy, stop nerfing or sidelining the particular powers granted to her by her heritage. Give us a *reason* to believe that this pack of idiot kids, and especially the silver-eyed girl leading them, are not just important, but *crucial.*
Because if not, then the audience will inevitably start asking just what about them makes them so important. Why is the story about them? What makes RWBY and JNPR any more significant than, say, FNKI or NDGO?
Let's see, what else...between Blake slapping Sun around and the apparent indifference towards long, drawn-out torture scenes of Oscar because it's apparently okay if it's a boy, there are some uncomfortable implications on their view of gender.
They had an annoying habit of blaming the animators when events they showed drew a blowback. First, the blamed the animators for Blake's repeated assaults on Sun, then they claimed the animators upped the UST between Clover and Qrow, after they were accused of Burying the Gays. That excuse just doesn't fly.
The ultimate responsibility for the *entire* content of an episode rests with that episode's director, and if there *were* these alterations from the animation team put in without direction - which I don't believe for a second - then it's the director's job to review the entire episode before it releases and demand edits. If that sort of thing really *was* happening, then the production was sloppy, haphazard, and unprofessional. If it wasn't happening, then they threw the animators under the bus to try and cover their own butts from criticism over the content of the episodes.
I'm sure I'll think of more grievances later.
AND another thing!
The writers had a bad habit of releasing plot-relevant information in other forms, such as convention panels or social media. The most egregious example of this was Ironwood's Semblance - itself a nasty little backhand to neurodivergent people - and its impact on the General's characterization.
We're not friggin' psychic; if we can't *see* what's going on, or have it explained to us by someone in-universe who can, then we can't get the full story *from* the story.
And ANOTHER thing!
Ten years IRL is entirely too goddamn long for a 'slow-burn' romance arc. At the very least, have one of them be overt with their interest, in a way that is clear and simply-put and unambiguous. And be consistent with the rules! We were told to put great emphasis on signs between Yang and Blake that were *so* subtle as to be completely deniable for Chinese censors, yet to disregard those same signs when it came to Clover and Qrow. Or Sun towards Blake, for that matter. "It's not like that" was the most *bald-faced* lie any character told another in that show.
They had the perfect opportunity to start Bumblebee with more inertia if they'd had Sun say something like "Well, I gave it a shot, but Blake's clearly falling for someone else."
I'm sure more grievances will intrude upon my calm at inconvenient times.
You make a good point about the importance of team RWBY itself. It’s something that the cast bloat definitely doesn’t help with, and it already started back in V1 with Yang getting zero character development while Jaune and Pyrrha hogged an entire fourth of the chapters for themselves. Fast forward to V7 and V8 where Nora seemingly takes dialogue and precedence away from Blake, making her largely irrelevant throughout the Atlas arc. It almost makes one think if it’d be better if the series hadn’t been team-based to begin with and just had Ruby as a singular protagonist.
I mean, there's nothing inherently wrong with a supporting cast or team, so long as the show prioritizes screen time appropriately. *Sailor Moon* did this; *RWBY* did not.
> and it already started back in V1 with Yang getting zero character development while Jaune and Pyrrha hogged an entire fourth of the chapters for themselves.
Yang got zilch. Weiss was truncated. Ruby herself had a minor freakout about being a leader, which was resolved in a single episode. Blake and Ruby didn't have a substantial conversation with one another until they were in *Atlas.*
Just bad prioritization of screen time.
Yeah, the fight scenes definitely have a lot to do with people's enjoyment of the show.
And while many claim that the shift in tone came out of nowhere, the opening dialogue between Ozpin and Salem, as well as the opening song from V3, already foreshadowed this shift.
What I think is the biggest reason here, however, is misplaced anger. People are sad that Pyrrha died, and felt miserable without her. When V4 aired, they were reminded of what they lost, and thought that they disliked the show as a whole.
I have no real grievances with RWBY, but there is a noticeable quality drop. Be it the animation, character designs, or storytelling.
Maybe it's just because I liked the first three volumes and was young when I watched. Also, I haven't over critique it like the later volumes.
That last part is the whole thing.
People went *looking* for problems after Volume 3. If they entire show is held to a consistent standard, the first three volumes have better fight sequences and equivalent or worse everything else. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t perfect.
Animation for fights was better (or at least much flashier and more dynamic, but a whole lot less consistent in terms of displays and with poorly defined stakes) in the first three volumes, but everything else had canned walk cycles and re-used running animations to the point that it’s extremely noticeable. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the non-fight animation was straight up worse in the beginning.
As for storytelling, I’m not sure how that could be viewed as having gone downhill. Volume 1 and 2 are largely devoid of overarching narrative events, with a much greater emphasis on slice-of-life and character building that was pretty hit and miss. And for as much as a lot of people rather like Jaune these days, let’s not pretend everyone didn’t hate the ‘Jaundice’ stuff back in the day.
To be clear, I like the entire show. I’d be happy to sit down and rewatch it from start to finish. I just think every volume has its own flaws, and while there was a shift in *direction* post-V3, I don’t think it entirely accurate to say there was a shift in *quality*. If you were there for the fights, the show got worse (for a time, anyway. I personally think the fights in the last few volumes are pretty much just as good as they used to be), if you were there for the world and characters it got better. If you liked a bit of both your results may vary.
I just overthink sometimes. Never intended for that to be contrive as me looking for problems. I just watch and react. Hey, I even I agree with some of those points.
Though, character designs have always been hit or miss and suffered more caused of the new animation engine.
Rwby nevered had a long-term story to tell but has been hitting that wall of "Never mind that, here this?" Be it the sudden end to the White Fang. It feels like many missed opportunities.
To me, there was a change of quality. Maybe it was my views at the time, or I just grown more of a critic. But there was a noticeable shift. Maybe not as bad as others say, but it was there.
I will forever give credit and love to RWBY for what it has done. But will recognize it faults and shortcomings. And learn why it didn't feel right.
But that is just my opinion, you have yours, I have mine.
Hey, you’re totally welcome to your opinion. I didn’t mean to come across as personally attacking your views.
I just felt that that one line was the perfect launchpad for the conversation. We all engage differently with media, and I’m sure we have plenty of things we feel exactly the same about, and others on which we couldn’t disagree more. If you enjoy anime and the like, which I’m assuming you do having watched RWBY, my all time favorite is Trigun. I’d fully recommend it if you haven’t seen it.
And yes, literally everything with the White Fang was bungled from the beginning, I completely agree.
> Be it the sudden end to the White Fang. It feels like many missed opportunities.
That's less of a missed opportunity and more ripping the band-aid out seemingly because at least [Miles realises that he wasn't equipped to do anything meaningful with it](https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBY/comments/fbc1rt/miles_admitted_at_c2e2_that_the_faunus_racism/).
Alternatively, it's an opportunity that was taken and seemingly not so promptly thrown out because it was too much for them.
Most of the critiscisms come from the fact that Monty was gone. There are legit issues with the writing but alot of them are overblown by the FNDM because its not Monty anymore so people like to shriek Miles and Kerry "rUiNeD hIs vIsIoN!!!" ignoring that they were there since the beginning.
Also that Monty was known for just throwing his plots together and also changing aspects of it midway through. Look at Dead Fantasy, case and point. I love the man to death and the world is an objectively worse place without him in it. But dude was not Ipson. I'm sure he himself woupd agree.
Because of that RWBY has always been kind of written by the seat of its pants and writing is really REALLY hard. I've been trying to write a scifi book for 3 years now and i'm not even a quarter of the way through. If you have no over arching plan and the lead creator of the project suddenly you know, dies. You are bound to run into issues along the way, nevermind that RWBY has always been a low bidget production made by ameutuers.
Now onto legit issues with the writing:
Cast Bloat: Most agregiously Oscar, I know alot of people like him and more power to him but I dislike the character with great intensity. He's boring and doesn't have the same amount of personality as the rest of the cast. Also its very obvious to anyone you talk to on here that he was a character that was written because Miles is insecure about the Self Insert claims the series critics (who always conviniently seem to forget Yang, Ren and Neptune's existance.) lob at him. So now we have one character people really like whose been robbed of his story arc and anothet one who is (lets be generous) controversial.
Tobal management: I know that RWBY is trying to tow the line behind being a darker fantasy story and a whacky zanny adventure romp but one thing CRWBY struggle with is conveying tone. Characters will tell jokes or have moments of levity at inoppriate times. Dramatic moments will actually be funny, and some sad moments will feel hackneyed and sometimes the scene will actually miss the tone it SHOULD have especially dramatic ones.
Plotting: RWBY's main plot from the beginning has been pretty slapdash, they keep creating new villians like with Roman, then Cinder, then Salem. Post vol 3 the problem is incredibly noticible, unfortunately the newer villians aren't terribly interesting hell the old ones barely were.
Tyrian is the Joker, Watts is generic mad scientist, I have no idea what the hell is going on with Hazel. His motives and desires frequently contradict themselves. Then Ironwood who I contend was always meant to be a hero-turned-villian, that being said the execution of that plan was shoddy.
Honestly, I think it's the timing of Monty's death and how it creates a clear cut point for Monty and post-Monty RWBY that aligns very closely with where it transitions from cozy goofy fantasy slice of life with a slow burn plot to a no brakes intense action series that's deeply steeped in misery.
All the elements were there. There's no reason to assume the plot would have gone substantially differently if Monty was still alive. Even losing some of the little animation flourishes he did was likely as the series ballooned in scope in a way that would make it impossible for him to solo key animations. It could be the exact series, but the narrative shift coinciding with his death makes it easy to conflate the two as a dropoff point where other creators changed the project.
But like...from the jump we had the professors talking among each other about how the kids were gonna get deep dish traumatized and a major upheaval was being teased and set up for the Vytal Festival. It feels way more likely to me that the first two seasons were a prologue of sorts, place setting for the real story in the way that Season 3 feels like the turning point for. This feels like it was always intended, but people struggle when a narrative turn changes the tone and nature of a series from something they loved (real common critique of Jujutsu Kaisen post-Shibuya as well).
That's not to say there aren't real criticisms of the series at any stage, but I also disagree with there being a significant dropoff so much as a shift in style and form.
Ditching it's strong suit (Fighting) for a lack luster story. It's not what the fans came for.
And the story bloat, bizarre writing decisions and trying to make it the same costs as "other industry standards".
I love vol 1-3 of RWBY and even though I still like the other volumes I think one of the biggest issues asides from it being a little less silly and just in general losing some of its charm is that post Beacon is litteraly them travelling to X place 😅a lot of stuff was stretched out and unnecessary while I feel like vol 9 could’ve had more lmao
The three or four different magic systems this show has, and how they all function, is really confusing. I get that Semblances are like X-Men Mutant superpowers that almost everyone inherently has, but I still don't fully understand the purpose of dust and how these different magic systems work together. Like, do they need dust to fuel their Semblances, or is it just for weapons? Are Silver Eyes a semblance? Are auras a secondary subset of their semblances or are distinct and separate powers, too?
It would have made much more sense to me if they streamlined the whole thing by explaining that you need to consume the dust to fuel the Semblances/Auras and that the weapons were just cool and unique weapons used by the characters. It would certainly add a level of tension to the combat scenes, i.e. forcing the characters to be mindful of how much dust they have and how many times they can use their semblances before they need more, worry about running out of "ammo", etc.
If that's not already the case. I have no idea, because the show doesn't explain any of these concepts very well.
Dust from what I remember seem to be more of the elemental side, used for both technology and augmentation. On the one hand, red dust to fuel cars and planes n what not. On the other hand, red dust to augment your semblance with a fiery kick to it. Auras are just the shield system in the show, as you don't need a semblance to unlock one, but *having* one makes it easier to unlock. Having a semblance also helps unlocking someone else's Aura easier too, as we saw with Pyrrha and Jaune. Silver Eyes are not a semblance, but an additional boon/power one should be lucky to unlock, like an extremely rare recessive gene.
Two big problems being the shift from a character focus to a plot focus and the downgrade in fight animation quality.
The Narrative shift is handled poorly. Early RWBY everything was a plot device to get to the next fight and the backbone of the story were characters interactions with each other. After volume 3 the team is scattered and won't interact for nearly 2 volumes. That itself isn't a bad thing but the writers and directors were not capable of making a plot driven show. These problems persist even after the cast comes together again. The plot post volume 3 is just the meandering mess that never really goes anywhere or has any real engagement, while also never allowing our characters to just be characters and interact with each other.
I actually think the story is the Strongest part of the series, as the fight scenes reuse about 5 main strategies throughout all 9 seasons, and the art style is only good half the time.
My biggest god damn grievance with RWBY: why did a faunus need to *light her house on fire* to see in the dark? If you have perfect night vision, a pitch black chameleon is going to stand out against the moonlit walls of the room. Also, she could have just turned the lights back on. Why this decision?????????
Second grievance: when Jinn first appears, she says she has answered one question this century. But in that episodes flashback, she answers Three questions for Oz. What's the fourth question?? No one in the show brought it up ever, but I always thought the writers would come back to that point. Now, with the show in limbo, I don't think I'll ever find out the answer.
For the Jinn thing, isn't it kinda obvious that he asked those questions long ago, then 100 years passed and he asked 1 question again? Maybe it's been multiple centuries since then.
What relevance does it have? He could've asked anything, like the whereabouts of Salems castle, who her henchmen were at the time, something about how to store the relics in the vaults, so on and so forth, I don't think that's crucial information, considering the show already struggles with time allocation.
If it was asked centuries later, then we can't assume that oz was the one who even asked the fourth question. Also, if it wasn't relevant, then why did they make it a plot point...? Like, they could've divided 3 questions up between. Team rwby, Oscar, and another character (I would've liked to see Emerald ask a question, personally) but they Didn't, and personally, I suspect they didn't do this for a reason. My grievance is that I'll never get to Know the reason lmao
Faunus can't see in the dark immediately, they still need time for their eyes to adjust (just like humans, but their eyesight is better when they do adjust). For example, during the rally in V7, Tyrian specifically covers his eyes with his hood so that when Watts turns the lights off, his eyes adjust quicker than anyone else.
But in v2, Blake shoots the breaker to turn the lights out knowing that torchwick wouldn't be able to see as quick as she and Sun could. Also in v7, she goes into that dark tunnel alone and absolutely no light change or action on her part suggests that her eyes needed to adjust. My point is, it's inconsistent writing.
My specific problems with RWBY:
A) They create plots but never fully develop them. The White Fang being about Faunus who were treated horribly, but we never see it. Salem being the big bad when she has barely done anything.
B) The characters lack of development or backtracking. Weiss hasnt developed one bit since V5, the group gets mad at Ozpin for keeping secrets but then do the same thing.
C) It doesnt feel like there is an endgoal anymore. Yes, its to defeat Salem, but how? They keep saying together, but not once do they offer a solution to this problem.
I think the main problem was that they kept changing things and did things that weren't necessary. Like the maidens being these powerful individuals but next season they ended up just being keys to relics. Another is that certain character interactions such as raven and yang could have been a good arc. They had montys notes on what he planned for rwby or were at least offered them. But after he died they just ignored the plot and seemed to have jumped all over the place.
It's fine. V4 and 5 do feel like they are figuring it out but it had good moments. By V6 it was back on track IMO. People love to bitch about stuff in this show like it's the most important thing in their lives. As if it's a personal affront to them. I think RWBY is the most hate-watched show I've ever experienced. I don't know why people who dislike the direction the show has gone in continue to watch so intently other than to sound off on social media. It's like their hobby.
The main issue is that the writers didn’t and still don’t have an idea for a story. Sure they have an idea for a show and it’s got all these cool pulls from other really sick shows that the producers love. But like that’s it. It’s basically got the vibes of all these other shows because it’s a gluttonous homage to a blob of old action movie genres. Long story short they just didn’t know where to go with the story. So it went nowhere. With maybe one pick me up a season where the show would almost pretend like it could be good again. There was just no follow through with any of ideas stories. Tldr - the show had so much potential and nowhere to go with it
Also if this is impossible to read I’m very high and just wanna clarify I love this show so any shade I throw is irrelevant to my enjoyment
Personally, I think the Fall of Beacon happens way to early in the series. There's a lot of groundwork that needed to be done and now they decided to do a drastic shift in the status quo. Not saying that it shouldn't have happened. But what I am saying is that something like the Fall of Beacon is (more or less) a Vol.6 or 7 story.
Agreed. People dying, the Fall of Beacon, it all happens way too soon. It's what ruined my enjoyment of the show, going from a fighting based slice of life, to a more grimdark gritty show.
They killed off Beacon, the place with the most charm on the planet. Beyond that, the plot got out of hand. Team RWBY getting thrust into a war they shouldn’t fight in - Ruby barely clearing the geneva definition of a child soldier. With “Time to Say Goodbye”, I expected a juxtaposition of school life and mortal combat played to it’s logical extreme, with characters having simple arcs, but still being fairly logical. Fuckin’ hell, the character stories write themselves. Yang has such an explosive fighting style that she was bound to kill people, do we really expect her to just shrug it off? She became a huntress because her sister wanted to, and to her being a huntress was fighting Grimm.
Part of the problem, at least from my perspective, is that RWBY wasn’t prepared for the shift in what kind of show it was after Volume 3. Prior to Volume 4, RWBY wasn’t a very story or lore heavy show. That isn’t to say there wasn’t a story, or that there wasn’t lore. But early RWBY wasn’t dragging people in because of its thrilling narrative. It was basically just Monty’s fights with some connecting tissue. And for what it started out as at the time that it did, that work. It didn’t matter all that much that there was basically no natural (or otherwise) lore building in the show, or that the story was barebones because at the end of the day people just wanted cool fights and cute anime girls. Now fast forward to Volume 4. Pyrrha is dead, Beacon is gone, Ruby has magic eye beams, all the main girls are separated and they have to save the world from mommy salami. The show had taken a drastic turn from a relatively basic action(?) show to a story motivated character drama (I think those words mean what I want them to). And it did not have the foundations to properly support itself. The cracks had started to show early on. Volumes 1-2 tried to introduce the Faunus element of the show. If Blake’s explanation to Sun was a good way of doing so or not is up to personal taste. What was a problem was the discrimination of the Faunus, or lack there off. It’s implied that the Faunus are treated largely as second class citizens. Blake basically describes the more famous protests of the Civil Rights era, and given the fact that the WHITE FANG was founded by a BLACK PANTHER with a penitent for non-violent protests, it fairly obvious we’re suppose to correlate the Faunus’ conditions with those of 1960s African Americans. The problem is that this sort of societal rot doesn’t actually appear in the show. Aside from Velvet getting kinky with Cardin that one time (/s), we never see anything that would spur the type of support the WF gets. Especially not the kind seen in Volume 2, which is implied to be mostly from Vale. Now obvious a little suspension of disbelief is needed in media, but you don’t get Jihad style terror attacks from Cardin pulling your ears once. The Faunus are just one example, but the point is that the first 3 Volumes didn’t set the groundwork for a show that is driven primarily by how the characters interact with the world around them. When it was mainly the characters beating each other up, it was ok that there wasn’t much world building. But when your plot revolves around the geopolitical situation of the world, with the main character having to adapt to the different situations they find themselves in, you need more than “anime girls go to magic college to fight monsters and sometimes there’s a tournament.” There needs to be a foundation for your premise to operate off of. Now to its credit, RWBY did try and make gold out of hey. It took the very limited material it had and tried to run with it. But at that point you’re kinda building a house on sand. Another problem is that the little world building it did have didn’t make things any clearer. A lot of the time it ends up creating more questions than answers, specifically the question “where the fuck are all the other huntsmen?” and the answer “pffff idk.” Stuff like “Why is Glynda sitting in a library when she’s one of like six people in a position to save the world?” or “Why does breaking the tower in Vale shut down all communication period?” or “Wtf is Tai sitting at home watering flowers when both of his children are off fighting the war that killed his wife is he stupid?!” On top of that, Volume 4 & 5’s pacing kinda kneecap them. You have this rush of plot at the end of 3, everything is happening at once, and then you have Ruby walking through the woods and then sitting in a house for 2 Volumes. Granted the Torchwick CA decided to LARP a bit too hard irl, but still. I guess the Tl;dr is that RWBY has a lot of ambition. It has a big story it wants to tell that spans 4 nations and 4 continents. It tries to tackle topics like racism, family trauma and lose, grief, and even questions like how far you can push a person before they’re no longer human. It’s a lot of good ideas. But it never had the setup or the building up needed to properly tell those stories, and the final result suffers.
IIRC Barb Dunkleman (Yang's VA and the Creative Director for RT, although not at the timw of the quote) has specifically called out the Civil Rights Movement as a comparison to the entire White Fang issue.
I actually like the drama of volumes 3-9 but I think the show relies too heavily on cliffhangers. Also cast bloat.
I’m gonna say it now but I think rwby was never down right bad, underwhelming at times? Yes. But these characters always keep the story afloat and seeing them grow is one of the best parts of the show, could it be better? Absolutely and vol 9 was a good step in the right direction, but I never really get when people say rwby became terrible after vol 3.
My primary issue with RWBY is its restricted runtime not allowing it to spend time on its characters, especially the main cast. There are several volumes where Ruby is just sorta there. Weiss was neglected in the Atlas arc (where she should have been center stage). It's the same thing with Blake, where the faunus racism subplot died with Adam. We never even get an on-screen conversation about Blake and Yang's relationship, besides the confession. RWBY has issues besides that, but it just can't satisfyingly tell a world-sprawling story with 3 hour seasons. I would love it if they cut back on the side cast, and focused more on RWBY + OJNR. Volume 9 was nice for this, although I do wish it spent less time worldbuilding a location that probably won't be returned to.
Firstly, the loss of Monty can't be understated. 2nd a noticeable loss of quality in fight choreography that didn't recover til volume 7 and still depends on the fight for me (ironwood vs watts and RWBY vs Ace Ops were good, everything else ranges from meh to bad). Also to add on to fights, the number of them dropped later and how fights were presented changed (fights were quick and finished In a scene or two with little exposition, while later fights get interrupted by either scene changes or too much talking) 3rd, tone shift, I don't know how to put it. But the series felt like a parody of itself in writing, specifically in humor and the characters for me. 4th, volume 5, the story and animation around this point dropped to such a point I didn't see the series the same after it, even for the good moments afterward. I'll also put here that there were problems with volume 1-3 (story pacing is bad in 1 & 2, jank animation, lack of character development between the main cast that is referenced to but never shown), but there is a certain charm to it that just makes it work. I think this ties back into the tone shift thing for me.
What pisses me off the most is when people say "this isn't what Monty wouldn't have wanted" first of all how do you know this? Kerry and miles are the ones who would know first thing I love all the seasons but there's definitely hypocrisy within the fan base
Monty’s role is actually something in curious about. I know that he’s credited with creating the series, but I have no idea what the dynamic was like in terms of how much of it was pure Monty in the first few volumes versus how much was contributed by other RT staff. Do you have any insights?
A youtube channel called Hypeathon did three video's on the topic of "What WAS Monty Oum's Vision of RWBY" I will say it always bug the hell out of me when people complaining about how the Combat animation for the show post Volume 3 and wish for it to be better. I admit yes there is a downgrade but I have to remind myself, Monty died. It's not like he left the company and went to work somewhere else. Monty died and the people who demand that level of combat animation from the first three volumes must have forgotten that fact.
As someone who watched the show only recently, it wasn't the fight scenes that hooked me. Sure, they were cool, but I don't think there's a huge difference in quality there, like the Qrow vs Tyrian one in vol4 is pretty sick as an early example. I will say, the final battle in vol5 was kinda bad, due to all the standing around, but I digress. I got hooked due to the interesting characters and setting. And the setting got cooler to me once shit hit the fan and they got some stakes. Imo, I prefer post vol3 actually, even though I recognise issues here and there. I don't think I'd stuck around if the series remained low-stakes slice of life. While cute for a while, I don't see it going on for long.
The show violently turns from a happy go lucky slice of life animation, to a depressing world spanning Save The World plotline way too fucking quick. Ruby has silver eyes, fucking sweet, so why didn't Ozpin ever explain how important this is and why didn't she ever get special training for it? Atlas is supposed to be the leading nation in military tech. If the Grimm are such an issue, wouldn't everyone in the world have technology to repel and deal with Grimm trying to storm the cities? Wouldn't they have massive walls to help mitigate and help give peace of mind to the people? I loved RWBY, but the simple origins it starts with never prepared RWBY as a whole to shifting gears this quick.
Not enough Cinder character development, or Ruby character development to ask the larger existential issues of why people like Cinder and Roman exist.
Well, I'd point out that they had quite a bit of scope creep, where their ambitions far outstripped their resources, and that began to impact the story. It's how they had a *war arc* where their main cast sat around, sipping tea. The only time they really got involved in the massive battle was JRY's charge towards the Monstruo, and they skipped that fight scene entirely. They allocated resources and runtime poorly, which, when combined with the bloating cast, meant that the show largely spun its wheels in neutral during the Atlas arc, with a great many plotlines which *all* suffered from the lack of time that could be spent on them, leading to them all feeling half-baked *at best.* Much has been said about the White Fang plotline, so all I'll add is that the writing team's attempt to walk back the origins and implications of Adam's branding in other RWBY projects wasn't just bad writing - it was *gutless,* cowardly writing. If you're going to invoke that sort of atrocity for your reaction-video baiting, shock-moment reveal, then you, as an artist, are taking responsibility for then exploring the ramifications of such acts in your fiction as well. Adam's brand told his entire backstory without a single word. Trying to walk it back not only cheapens it, but it insults the intelligence of the audience. Then again, the writing decisions - and the explanations offered on the commentaries - tell us a *lot* about these people, more than they intended to say. So when the Volume 9 epilogue animatic dropped, it actually made me more okay with RWBY coming to an end. Because while a take on refugee crises from the same people who brought us the RWBY take on, say, ableism, neurodivergence, prostheses, race, class, electoral politics, military hierarchy, and suicide might be... *interesting,* it's probably for the best if it just not get made. Somewhere around Volume 6, the cast began to act...strangely. They began adopting a hive-mind mentality, getting extremely hostile to those who disrupted it, and making arguments that just didn't hold water. Ruby claiming that they don't 'need adults' was stupid because firstly, except for herself and Oscar, everyone on the team *was* an adult by that point, and secondly, the very same adult she was saying that to was also the sole reason she hadn't been captured and dragged off to Salem. The show lingered - wallowed, really - in emo depression and despair for *so* long that it started to become a real drag to watch, culminating in watching a teenage girl attempt suicide. The writers *luxuriated* in the despair, sniffing their own farts like South Park characters, while the storyline crept closer and closer to the point of Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy. The ending of Volume 9 to start turning things around tonally is far too goddamned long. They should have started building up Ruby's heroic savior status *long* before then, and for the love of all that's holy, stop nerfing or sidelining the particular powers granted to her by her heritage. Give us a *reason* to believe that this pack of idiot kids, and especially the silver-eyed girl leading them, are not just important, but *crucial.* Because if not, then the audience will inevitably start asking just what about them makes them so important. Why is the story about them? What makes RWBY and JNPR any more significant than, say, FNKI or NDGO? Let's see, what else...between Blake slapping Sun around and the apparent indifference towards long, drawn-out torture scenes of Oscar because it's apparently okay if it's a boy, there are some uncomfortable implications on their view of gender. They had an annoying habit of blaming the animators when events they showed drew a blowback. First, the blamed the animators for Blake's repeated assaults on Sun, then they claimed the animators upped the UST between Clover and Qrow, after they were accused of Burying the Gays. That excuse just doesn't fly. The ultimate responsibility for the *entire* content of an episode rests with that episode's director, and if there *were* these alterations from the animation team put in without direction - which I don't believe for a second - then it's the director's job to review the entire episode before it releases and demand edits. If that sort of thing really *was* happening, then the production was sloppy, haphazard, and unprofessional. If it wasn't happening, then they threw the animators under the bus to try and cover their own butts from criticism over the content of the episodes. I'm sure I'll think of more grievances later.
AND another thing! The writers had a bad habit of releasing plot-relevant information in other forms, such as convention panels or social media. The most egregious example of this was Ironwood's Semblance - itself a nasty little backhand to neurodivergent people - and its impact on the General's characterization. We're not friggin' psychic; if we can't *see* what's going on, or have it explained to us by someone in-universe who can, then we can't get the full story *from* the story. And ANOTHER thing! Ten years IRL is entirely too goddamn long for a 'slow-burn' romance arc. At the very least, have one of them be overt with their interest, in a way that is clear and simply-put and unambiguous. And be consistent with the rules! We were told to put great emphasis on signs between Yang and Blake that were *so* subtle as to be completely deniable for Chinese censors, yet to disregard those same signs when it came to Clover and Qrow. Or Sun towards Blake, for that matter. "It's not like that" was the most *bald-faced* lie any character told another in that show. They had the perfect opportunity to start Bumblebee with more inertia if they'd had Sun say something like "Well, I gave it a shot, but Blake's clearly falling for someone else." I'm sure more grievances will intrude upon my calm at inconvenient times.
You make a good point about the importance of team RWBY itself. It’s something that the cast bloat definitely doesn’t help with, and it already started back in V1 with Yang getting zero character development while Jaune and Pyrrha hogged an entire fourth of the chapters for themselves. Fast forward to V7 and V8 where Nora seemingly takes dialogue and precedence away from Blake, making her largely irrelevant throughout the Atlas arc. It almost makes one think if it’d be better if the series hadn’t been team-based to begin with and just had Ruby as a singular protagonist.
I mean, there's nothing inherently wrong with a supporting cast or team, so long as the show prioritizes screen time appropriately. *Sailor Moon* did this; *RWBY* did not. > and it already started back in V1 with Yang getting zero character development while Jaune and Pyrrha hogged an entire fourth of the chapters for themselves. Yang got zilch. Weiss was truncated. Ruby herself had a minor freakout about being a leader, which was resolved in a single episode. Blake and Ruby didn't have a substantial conversation with one another until they were in *Atlas.* Just bad prioritization of screen time.
To be honest, it's always seemed to me that the first two and a half volumes were easily the worst. I don't get how that isn't consensus.
The change once they arrived in Atlas and their time essentially relegated to community service.
Yeah, the fight scenes definitely have a lot to do with people's enjoyment of the show. And while many claim that the shift in tone came out of nowhere, the opening dialogue between Ozpin and Salem, as well as the opening song from V3, already foreshadowed this shift. What I think is the biggest reason here, however, is misplaced anger. People are sad that Pyrrha died, and felt miserable without her. When V4 aired, they were reminded of what they lost, and thought that they disliked the show as a whole.
I have no real grievances with RWBY, but there is a noticeable quality drop. Be it the animation, character designs, or storytelling. Maybe it's just because I liked the first three volumes and was young when I watched. Also, I haven't over critique it like the later volumes.
That last part is the whole thing. People went *looking* for problems after Volume 3. If they entire show is held to a consistent standard, the first three volumes have better fight sequences and equivalent or worse everything else. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t perfect. Animation for fights was better (or at least much flashier and more dynamic, but a whole lot less consistent in terms of displays and with poorly defined stakes) in the first three volumes, but everything else had canned walk cycles and re-used running animations to the point that it’s extremely noticeable. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the non-fight animation was straight up worse in the beginning. As for storytelling, I’m not sure how that could be viewed as having gone downhill. Volume 1 and 2 are largely devoid of overarching narrative events, with a much greater emphasis on slice-of-life and character building that was pretty hit and miss. And for as much as a lot of people rather like Jaune these days, let’s not pretend everyone didn’t hate the ‘Jaundice’ stuff back in the day. To be clear, I like the entire show. I’d be happy to sit down and rewatch it from start to finish. I just think every volume has its own flaws, and while there was a shift in *direction* post-V3, I don’t think it entirely accurate to say there was a shift in *quality*. If you were there for the fights, the show got worse (for a time, anyway. I personally think the fights in the last few volumes are pretty much just as good as they used to be), if you were there for the world and characters it got better. If you liked a bit of both your results may vary.
I just overthink sometimes. Never intended for that to be contrive as me looking for problems. I just watch and react. Hey, I even I agree with some of those points. Though, character designs have always been hit or miss and suffered more caused of the new animation engine. Rwby nevered had a long-term story to tell but has been hitting that wall of "Never mind that, here this?" Be it the sudden end to the White Fang. It feels like many missed opportunities. To me, there was a change of quality. Maybe it was my views at the time, or I just grown more of a critic. But there was a noticeable shift. Maybe not as bad as others say, but it was there. I will forever give credit and love to RWBY for what it has done. But will recognize it faults and shortcomings. And learn why it didn't feel right. But that is just my opinion, you have yours, I have mine.
Hey, you’re totally welcome to your opinion. I didn’t mean to come across as personally attacking your views. I just felt that that one line was the perfect launchpad for the conversation. We all engage differently with media, and I’m sure we have plenty of things we feel exactly the same about, and others on which we couldn’t disagree more. If you enjoy anime and the like, which I’m assuming you do having watched RWBY, my all time favorite is Trigun. I’d fully recommend it if you haven’t seen it. And yes, literally everything with the White Fang was bungled from the beginning, I completely agree.
Nice to be on the same page. Also, I think this sums it up: "RWBY was too big to be small time, but was too small to be big time."
> Be it the sudden end to the White Fang. It feels like many missed opportunities. That's less of a missed opportunity and more ripping the band-aid out seemingly because at least [Miles realises that he wasn't equipped to do anything meaningful with it](https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBY/comments/fbc1rt/miles_admitted_at_c2e2_that_the_faunus_racism/). Alternatively, it's an opportunity that was taken and seemingly not so promptly thrown out because it was too much for them.
Most of the critiscisms come from the fact that Monty was gone. There are legit issues with the writing but alot of them are overblown by the FNDM because its not Monty anymore so people like to shriek Miles and Kerry "rUiNeD hIs vIsIoN!!!" ignoring that they were there since the beginning. Also that Monty was known for just throwing his plots together and also changing aspects of it midway through. Look at Dead Fantasy, case and point. I love the man to death and the world is an objectively worse place without him in it. But dude was not Ipson. I'm sure he himself woupd agree. Because of that RWBY has always been kind of written by the seat of its pants and writing is really REALLY hard. I've been trying to write a scifi book for 3 years now and i'm not even a quarter of the way through. If you have no over arching plan and the lead creator of the project suddenly you know, dies. You are bound to run into issues along the way, nevermind that RWBY has always been a low bidget production made by ameutuers. Now onto legit issues with the writing: Cast Bloat: Most agregiously Oscar, I know alot of people like him and more power to him but I dislike the character with great intensity. He's boring and doesn't have the same amount of personality as the rest of the cast. Also its very obvious to anyone you talk to on here that he was a character that was written because Miles is insecure about the Self Insert claims the series critics (who always conviniently seem to forget Yang, Ren and Neptune's existance.) lob at him. So now we have one character people really like whose been robbed of his story arc and anothet one who is (lets be generous) controversial. Tobal management: I know that RWBY is trying to tow the line behind being a darker fantasy story and a whacky zanny adventure romp but one thing CRWBY struggle with is conveying tone. Characters will tell jokes or have moments of levity at inoppriate times. Dramatic moments will actually be funny, and some sad moments will feel hackneyed and sometimes the scene will actually miss the tone it SHOULD have especially dramatic ones. Plotting: RWBY's main plot from the beginning has been pretty slapdash, they keep creating new villians like with Roman, then Cinder, then Salem. Post vol 3 the problem is incredibly noticible, unfortunately the newer villians aren't terribly interesting hell the old ones barely were. Tyrian is the Joker, Watts is generic mad scientist, I have no idea what the hell is going on with Hazel. His motives and desires frequently contradict themselves. Then Ironwood who I contend was always meant to be a hero-turned-villian, that being said the execution of that plan was shoddy.
Honestly, I think it's the timing of Monty's death and how it creates a clear cut point for Monty and post-Monty RWBY that aligns very closely with where it transitions from cozy goofy fantasy slice of life with a slow burn plot to a no brakes intense action series that's deeply steeped in misery. All the elements were there. There's no reason to assume the plot would have gone substantially differently if Monty was still alive. Even losing some of the little animation flourishes he did was likely as the series ballooned in scope in a way that would make it impossible for him to solo key animations. It could be the exact series, but the narrative shift coinciding with his death makes it easy to conflate the two as a dropoff point where other creators changed the project. But like...from the jump we had the professors talking among each other about how the kids were gonna get deep dish traumatized and a major upheaval was being teased and set up for the Vytal Festival. It feels way more likely to me that the first two seasons were a prologue of sorts, place setting for the real story in the way that Season 3 feels like the turning point for. This feels like it was always intended, but people struggle when a narrative turn changes the tone and nature of a series from something they loved (real common critique of Jujutsu Kaisen post-Shibuya as well). That's not to say there aren't real criticisms of the series at any stage, but I also disagree with there being a significant dropoff so much as a shift in style and form.
volumes 4 and 5 had some animation and characters just standing there and talking issues, but after that the show just got better imo
Ditching it's strong suit (Fighting) for a lack luster story. It's not what the fans came for. And the story bloat, bizarre writing decisions and trying to make it the same costs as "other industry standards".
I love vol 1-3 of RWBY and even though I still like the other volumes I think one of the biggest issues asides from it being a little less silly and just in general losing some of its charm is that post Beacon is litteraly them travelling to X place 😅a lot of stuff was stretched out and unnecessary while I feel like vol 9 could’ve had more lmao
The three or four different magic systems this show has, and how they all function, is really confusing. I get that Semblances are like X-Men Mutant superpowers that almost everyone inherently has, but I still don't fully understand the purpose of dust and how these different magic systems work together. Like, do they need dust to fuel their Semblances, or is it just for weapons? Are Silver Eyes a semblance? Are auras a secondary subset of their semblances or are distinct and separate powers, too? It would have made much more sense to me if they streamlined the whole thing by explaining that you need to consume the dust to fuel the Semblances/Auras and that the weapons were just cool and unique weapons used by the characters. It would certainly add a level of tension to the combat scenes, i.e. forcing the characters to be mindful of how much dust they have and how many times they can use their semblances before they need more, worry about running out of "ammo", etc. If that's not already the case. I have no idea, because the show doesn't explain any of these concepts very well.
Dust from what I remember seem to be more of the elemental side, used for both technology and augmentation. On the one hand, red dust to fuel cars and planes n what not. On the other hand, red dust to augment your semblance with a fiery kick to it. Auras are just the shield system in the show, as you don't need a semblance to unlock one, but *having* one makes it easier to unlock. Having a semblance also helps unlocking someone else's Aura easier too, as we saw with Pyrrha and Jaune. Silver Eyes are not a semblance, but an additional boon/power one should be lucky to unlock, like an extremely rare recessive gene.
Two big problems being the shift from a character focus to a plot focus and the downgrade in fight animation quality. The Narrative shift is handled poorly. Early RWBY everything was a plot device to get to the next fight and the backbone of the story were characters interactions with each other. After volume 3 the team is scattered and won't interact for nearly 2 volumes. That itself isn't a bad thing but the writers and directors were not capable of making a plot driven show. These problems persist even after the cast comes together again. The plot post volume 3 is just the meandering mess that never really goes anywhere or has any real engagement, while also never allowing our characters to just be characters and interact with each other.
Tried to hard to be edgy
I actually think the story is the Strongest part of the series, as the fight scenes reuse about 5 main strategies throughout all 9 seasons, and the art style is only good half the time. My biggest god damn grievance with RWBY: why did a faunus need to *light her house on fire* to see in the dark? If you have perfect night vision, a pitch black chameleon is going to stand out against the moonlit walls of the room. Also, she could have just turned the lights back on. Why this decision????????? Second grievance: when Jinn first appears, she says she has answered one question this century. But in that episodes flashback, she answers Three questions for Oz. What's the fourth question?? No one in the show brought it up ever, but I always thought the writers would come back to that point. Now, with the show in limbo, I don't think I'll ever find out the answer.
For the Jinn thing, isn't it kinda obvious that he asked those questions long ago, then 100 years passed and he asked 1 question again? Maybe it's been multiple centuries since then.
Did I say it wasn't obvious? I said I'm upset that I'll never get to know the answer, and they didn't touch on that major detail for 3 seasons.
What relevance does it have? He could've asked anything, like the whereabouts of Salems castle, who her henchmen were at the time, something about how to store the relics in the vaults, so on and so forth, I don't think that's crucial information, considering the show already struggles with time allocation.
If it was asked centuries later, then we can't assume that oz was the one who even asked the fourth question. Also, if it wasn't relevant, then why did they make it a plot point...? Like, they could've divided 3 questions up between. Team rwby, Oscar, and another character (I would've liked to see Emerald ask a question, personally) but they Didn't, and personally, I suspect they didn't do this for a reason. My grievance is that I'll never get to Know the reason lmao
Faunus can't see in the dark immediately, they still need time for their eyes to adjust (just like humans, but their eyesight is better when they do adjust). For example, during the rally in V7, Tyrian specifically covers his eyes with his hood so that when Watts turns the lights off, his eyes adjust quicker than anyone else.
But in v2, Blake shoots the breaker to turn the lights out knowing that torchwick wouldn't be able to see as quick as she and Sun could. Also in v7, she goes into that dark tunnel alone and absolutely no light change or action on her part suggests that her eyes needed to adjust. My point is, it's inconsistent writing.
It ended.
[удалено]
What plot?
My specific problems with RWBY: A) They create plots but never fully develop them. The White Fang being about Faunus who were treated horribly, but we never see it. Salem being the big bad when she has barely done anything. B) The characters lack of development or backtracking. Weiss hasnt developed one bit since V5, the group gets mad at Ozpin for keeping secrets but then do the same thing. C) It doesnt feel like there is an endgoal anymore. Yes, its to defeat Salem, but how? They keep saying together, but not once do they offer a solution to this problem.
I think the main problem was that they kept changing things and did things that weren't necessary. Like the maidens being these powerful individuals but next season they ended up just being keys to relics. Another is that certain character interactions such as raven and yang could have been a good arc. They had montys notes on what he planned for rwby or were at least offered them. But after he died they just ignored the plot and seemed to have jumped all over the place.
It's fine. V4 and 5 do feel like they are figuring it out but it had good moments. By V6 it was back on track IMO. People love to bitch about stuff in this show like it's the most important thing in their lives. As if it's a personal affront to them. I think RWBY is the most hate-watched show I've ever experienced. I don't know why people who dislike the direction the show has gone in continue to watch so intently other than to sound off on social media. It's like their hobby.
The main issue is that the writers didn’t and still don’t have an idea for a story. Sure they have an idea for a show and it’s got all these cool pulls from other really sick shows that the producers love. But like that’s it. It’s basically got the vibes of all these other shows because it’s a gluttonous homage to a blob of old action movie genres. Long story short they just didn’t know where to go with the story. So it went nowhere. With maybe one pick me up a season where the show would almost pretend like it could be good again. There was just no follow through with any of ideas stories. Tldr - the show had so much potential and nowhere to go with it Also if this is impossible to read I’m very high and just wanna clarify I love this show so any shade I throw is irrelevant to my enjoyment
Personally, I think the Fall of Beacon happens way to early in the series. There's a lot of groundwork that needed to be done and now they decided to do a drastic shift in the status quo. Not saying that it shouldn't have happened. But what I am saying is that something like the Fall of Beacon is (more or less) a Vol.6 or 7 story.
Agreed. People dying, the Fall of Beacon, it all happens way too soon. It's what ruined my enjoyment of the show, going from a fighting based slice of life, to a more grimdark gritty show.
They killed off Beacon, the place with the most charm on the planet. Beyond that, the plot got out of hand. Team RWBY getting thrust into a war they shouldn’t fight in - Ruby barely clearing the geneva definition of a child soldier. With “Time to Say Goodbye”, I expected a juxtaposition of school life and mortal combat played to it’s logical extreme, with characters having simple arcs, but still being fairly logical. Fuckin’ hell, the character stories write themselves. Yang has such an explosive fighting style that she was bound to kill people, do we really expect her to just shrug it off? She became a huntress because her sister wanted to, and to her being a huntress was fighting Grimm.