Do RWBY's Last Two Volumes Suck?

[@lorettabes4553]

"I don't hate Jaune," I repeat to myself, knowing full well how many issues arrise because of his existence.

[@itsblitz4437]

Issues like what?

[@Karxrida]

I can't bring myself to hate him, but he's definitely frustrating because he's clearly the writers' pet character.

[@parkermaisterra8532]

@@itsblitz4437Mainly how he just eats screen time that could definitely go to the main girls. Then we have a amount of angst surrounding his character, how in V2 one of his most memorable moments is now seen as a trans joke, how he keeps being involved with so many beloved ginger characters deaths, and so on Honestly I’ve always wished that RWBY and JNPR just had separate series centered on each team.

[@Sgthalo]

@@parkermaisterra8532 what moment from volume 2 are you refering to?

[@parkermaisterra8532]

@@Sgthalo The Whole thing with Jaune wearing a dress. The scene itself has aged really badly because everyone reacting to someone crossdressing like it’s the funniest shit imaginable is actually pretty uncomfortable when you a take to think about it

[@THE_ENBEEZE]

I still can't stop laughing at how Thomas refers to Rooster Teeth as "The Chicken Tooth Company".😂

[@nataleynakata3687]

That is actually way more family friendly than the actual origin of the Rooster Teeth name.

[@suscrow661]

​@nataleynakata3687 what...

[@nataleynakata3687]

@suscrow661 TLDR the Rooster Teeth name came from this insult on their other show Red vs Blue.(Let me see how… discreetly I can demo this: 🍆🫦)

[@nataleynakata3687]

@@suscrow661 It originated from this insult the founders used, long story short. I think the algorithm deleted my previous reply- tried to demo the wording discreetly but turns out it wasn’t discreet enough.

[@DukeVonPumpkin]

Just a side note about Ironwood's Semblance (besides the fact that it's lazy as hell): they literally, LITERALLY, could have had ANY character make a side comment about Ironwood and his Semblance. One line like, "Ironwood is not an idiot, but his Semblance gets in the way more often than it should," or something similar, would have been enough to open up a VARIETY of possibilities. If Qrow said it? It would make sense-it could explain why he can’t completely trust Ironwood. He doesn’t know what Ironwood might do when pushed to the edge. If Winter said it? It would make sense why she would know about it, and telling her sister wouldn’t be so far-fetched. If Robin said it? It would be a bit of a stretch but still make sense, because she didn’t like him, and since she was running as a politician, it wouldn’t be so far-fetched that she knew about it. Even Whitley could say it! In a conversation with Weiss, he could remark, "At least Father doesn’t have a power that gives him tunnel vision." Letting Weiss Angry but at the same time confused of what he meaned by it and when all goes down, she can just go and ask him(probably with a rapier on the face cause... its weiss) of what he knows about Ironwoods semblance. So what I’m trying to say is that Ironwood's Semblance was definitely a complete afterthought. It was too late, and he needed a Semblance for some reason.

[@kidprime6863]

Even better, what if Ozpin said it? It would make sense considering that despite mutual goals, him and and Ironwood never saw eye to eye on a lot of things. Especially when Ironwood went behind his back and put his job on the line by telling the Vale Council about the breach to gain full control over the Vytal Festival's security or went he sent his fleet into the Battle of Beacon despite being warned that doing so will send the wrong idea to the public. Ozpin could say it to Oscar when the kid follows the general inside the Vault and tries to reason with him. Like, "I'm not sure about this, Oscar. In situations like this, Ironwood can be very difficult to reason with. Once he has set a goal in mind, there's almost no stopping him and he will go great lengths to remove any obstacle, friend or foe." His Semblance CAN work in story. It shows that not every Semblance is guaranteed to perfect and might end up as double-edge swords. Like Qrow's Semblance, for instance.

[@DocMicrowave]

Absolutely. His semblance was an afterthought. Revealed well after V7 ended. In a podcast no less. That's because it was pulled out the air, for one reason only. To make an excuse for his sudden and extreme heel turn to the growing number of critics in the fandom at the time on how Ironwood's character was treated. Lazy writing. Forced Narratives. Virtue signaling. They also knew that V8 was going to be Evil Ironwood in cartoonish overdrive. So they wanted the critics going into V8 to ....... have some understanding as to why Ironwood went all Sith lord in the volume

[@tamiej.]

They could have, but it's clear that when writing the volume they had no idea what Ironwood's semblance actually was. They had to think it up on the spot at a panel.

[@DocMicrowave]

@@tamiej. Indeed! And they sure did him dirty on V8. Just so that the kiddies could shine.

[@zaxlight1586]

Lol, Ironwood's voice actor didn't even know what Ironwood's semblance was.

[@bronxshogun7089]

In hindsight, the creation of RWBY was probably the beginning of the end for Poultry Dentures.

[@itsblitz4437]

I think RWBY and by extension RT if they played their cards right, this would have been under better control on Streaming services like Netflix which could have been a much bigger hit on and would have been better for the show and creators.

[@elevate07]

The first thing Chicken Molars should have did was established an ending in a direction for the stories to go. So we didn't have to spend seasons on top of years wasting time for the plot to start.

[@DocMicrowave]

@@bronxshogun7089 MIsmanagement, background controversies, and prioritization of pandering and virtue signaling over good story telling is what tanked RWBY. And by extension Fowl Fangs, as RWBY had become their top product. The writing was on the wall after V7 for me. I knew the show (and Fowl Fangs) was headed for a premature demise. A lackluster V9 and two movies no one asked for sealed the deal.

[@DocMicrowave]

@@elevate07 I had read somewhere around the time of V2-3 that the show runners had formulated a basic framework for the show. At least 12 volumes. It would consist of 4 major arcs of about 3 volumes each. Each are would focus on a particular Kingdom. That track seemed to be followed for the first 2 arcs. But stuff started to go off the rails internally at Fowl Fangs during the third arc. Forcing them the cutback and compress the story. Speed things up to rush through. Hence the Atlas/Mantle arc was cut short. I am guessing the Vaccuo arc would have suffered the same thing as CRWBY rushed to bring the story to a conclusion before Fowl Fangs got flushed. But it was too late

[@MrLightningbob]

Then they thought that they could save the franchise with BeeS… that only made things worse.

[@talaofthevalley]

Honestly if RWBY gets an honest to god start-again-from-scratch reboot, I might consider checking it out. The initial trailers are just THAT good.

[@DocMicrowave]

If only.

[@anthonyhernandez4266]

100%

[@artistanthony1007]

Umm wasnt that supposed to be that Icequeendom series?

[@DocMicrowave]

@@artistanthony1007 Not sure. It came out while the original show was running. Don't know if it was testing the waters or what. But it certainly has not continued.

[@ltkonnor4491]

@@artistanthony1007 Ice Queendom wasn't a reboot, it was supplementary material

[@SwitchbackCh]

I would be sorely disappointed if I ascended as a better version of myself, only to look the exact same. Like, not even fully red hair, or some cool armour? Much of the same sentiment applies to VIZ RWBY - whatever form it takes, I sincerely hope it's not just more of the same masquerading as nostalgia, insecurely clinging to fans of the old at the cost of doing anything truly interesting with the unpolished gem in its hands.

[@DocMicrowave]

@@SwitchbackCh Indeed. By the end of V9, almost everything was reset. Except for two events that I called out would happen after V8 ended. That in V9 Bumblebee would get some kind of confirmation or advancement. And that Neo would be flipped somehow. Those were the obvious priorities as soon I a saw how and who ended up falling into the Everafter. All the flags were there. History and lore ignored in order to get Neo to fall. And Ruby and Weiss turned stupid, standing around watching Yang fall to her perceived death, with Blake being the only one to react.

[@DocMicrowave]

@@SwitchbackCh Also, Viz will have little in nothing to do with advancing RWBY. Vix is licensing and distribution. They are not a production house. They are merely holding the licensing. Kerry is still doing what he has been for the last few years. Trying to shop RWBY out. So far no takers.

[@somescottishlassie891]

Of course Jaune got all the arcs, it's his last name....

[@kingraplhmativo5178]

And Cinder Fall always destiny to fail which also STATED on her surname that she picked by herself. Basically setting up herself for failure 😂

[@jameslazaridis4180]

And he’s going to die by my hands

[@DGenHero]

Heh

[@qwefg3]

Blame the writers. They refuse to harm their girls so Jaune must be included so that he can suffer. Volume 9 was them literally stating that their girls were perfect and self reflection was for suckers who aren't team RWBY. No addressing Jaune killing Penny, Blake got the choice between being a cat or a human and so she chose Faunus. Yang got a shotgun to the back of her head by the universe telling her to kiss Blake. Wiess got nothing least they have to address Weiss no longer being rich, her family maybe being dead, and that their plan screwed up costing countless people their lives. Ruby? She had to learn that self reflection was for suckers and everyone else is at fault for the problems she ran into... Rather than learn from her mistakes. Because of they didn't then they might show that their girls might be flawed.

[@lorettabes4553]

20:55 My *god,* I did not care about Cinder's backstory or development at all in V8. At first I was curious, sure. Then they wrote the most obvious, uninspired backstory for Cinder. Emerald and Mercury's backstories were infinitely more interesting than Cinder's. I don't remember when Watts made her cry, but holy hell did I *not* care! I was so confused as to why we were focusing on Cinder at all.

[@kidprime6863]

Cinder's origin was supposed to be shown four volumes ago but time constraints kept pushing it back. Hence, why it's done too little, too late. The thing with writing irredeemable villains is that if you're not going to give them an arc, then you need to at least make them cool enough that you don't mind them still being evil, especially when you want to make them threatening. I don't want to sympathize with Cinder. I don't want her to reform. I'm fine with her being a maniacal, god-wannabe. I just wish her backstory wasn't so incomplete and rushed.

[@rsync9490]

​@kidprime6863 Why? Just cut the dumb filler in season 4. Lol I despise when terrible writers give us stupid crap and then claim they didn't have time to add the vital stuff.

[@DocMicrowave]

Probably because Cinder's VA was easier and cheaper to retain than Salem's. just guessing. Full agree, the 'backstory' on Cinder added nothing for me about the character, except to confirm that she was a power hungry brat from the absolute beginning. As for the character, she never developed or improved, imo. She has always been the same. Whether she wins or loses in a particular situation depends on power scaling her opponents at any given time. How suddenly smarter or stronger, or dumber and weaker CRWBY decides to make the "heroes" at any point. As for Watts giving Cinder that surprise verbal spanking she deserved. I will say that was the ONLY hit I enjoyed in V8. EVERYTHING else in the volume was a miss. Including that little cry Cinder gave after the talk down by Watts. It all meant nothing in the end, as Watts was killed off in the dumbest most illogical manner possible. And Cinder continued with business as usual. In a way, I am kinda glad ended up that way. I was starting to get worried they were lining up Cinder to get flipped ala Emerald and Illia. What with the 'sad' backstory and tears and all. (Looks like they saved that for Neo's fliping.) Though, the way the writing was going, Cinder flipping was probably not off the table for CRWBY.

[@DocMicrowave]

@ Heh, I thought CRWBY was seriously looking to do an Emerald/Illa flip on Cinder when they had her shedding crocodile tears after the verbal spanking she got from Watts. That combined with the "backstory" segment just prior had me almost sure they were setting Cinder up for that. The show's writers would have become irredeemable to me (like they weren't already.) if they followed through with that. I was actually thankful Cinder returned to business as usual. That the whole thing was just more of the same from CRWBY. Tossing around 'deep' physiological themes just for surface value. Quickly forgotten to move on. However, given CRWBY history in the second half of the show's run, I can't help but think Cinder being flipped wasn't off the table in possibilities.

[@christscrackers647]

Cinder’s backstory was honestly lazy, nonsensical trash. It made me legit angry because of how stupid and lazy it was. Why is she working by herself in a legit hotel in atlas? If you think about it, it really doesn’t make any sense. It just shows that she’s always been a psychopath and doesn’t make me sympathize with her at all.

[@vividxfriend]

WAIT WHAT!!! They had a union leader as a VILLAIN??????

[@kylebarton1106]

Yeah. It was nasty stuff. Especially since this was when RT was getting called out with their scandals and this plot got introduced. And of course the writers were behind this.

[@harmonetheanimationaddict4419]

Because of course they’d do that.

[@parkermaisterra8532]

Oh shit you didn’t know that 😅

[@Karxrida]

A POC union leader! And I double checked and the show writers wrote the game plot, not the game studio. It's so hard to give the writers any benefit of the doubt when they consistently pull moves like this.

[@marley7868]

what was he doing that made him the union leader all the vid said was simply he was popular is this like a charity man doing stuff in the background and using his charity as a shield

[@AmyOhHenry225]

Jaune falling into the ever after with RWBY will never not baffle me. Like, regardless of how you feel about Ruby, Yang and Blake's stories this volume, at least they had something going on. Weiss legit had nothing but yet they thought they had room to give Jaune something? Why not just make her the rusted knight and tie her feelings about what happened in volume 8 into that?

[@Gxmwp]

I'd like Weiss being the one left alone for a long time. We didn't really see her have a reaction to her home being destroyed

[@SwitchbackCh]

The groan I audibly groaned when he couldn't make that jump during V8's finale

[@DocMicrowave]

Might be a vanity thing. Jaune is voiced by one of the show's creators after all. Maybe he couldn't take being absent from a whole volume of the show.

[@HuynherC98]

i disagree with weiss having nothing. she could have had to come to terms knowing she destroyed her family's legacy in atlas, and potentially brought shame to BIG NICHOLAS' name. i mean, we see her struggling that her home is gone, but we never go anywhere with it. instead, she's reduced to comic relief and consoling jaune whenever he feels bad while hilariously ignoring ruby's issues

[@DocMicrowave]

HuynherC98. I think that was the point. That there was little to no focus on Weiss and her side of things. Despite loosing her home and contact with her family. The focus was directed towards Ruby and her personal 'trauma". But even that was over shadowed by Bubblebee highlights throughout the volume. As if that was the most important thing. In fact, seems to me that was the only purpose of the volume. To validate Bumblebee. And also flip Neo. Everything else was back to status quo by the end of the volume.

[@tevineleven11]

11:06 why is this series so allergic to giving characters cues on their semblances? This is why we have people genuinely believe Qrow never unlocked his semblance and is try projecting his natural bad luck onto things

[@TortoiseNotTurtle]

People have headcanoned that Ironwood's eyes changing color signifies this semblance but... it appears nowhere else

[@tevineleven11]

@TortoiseNotTurtle and shit like this is why you need to give your characters actual SIGNS when they use their powers otherwise people are gonna looking toward extremely non existent details as something that has meaning

[@TortoiseNotTurtle]

@tevineleven11 Hey remember when aura breaking was randomly introduced as a visual effect? Remember when ssid visual effect was then just outright changed during an episode and it was made so ssid visual effect represented damaged aura not broken aura or whatever (im not entirely sure either).

[@tevineleven11]

@@TortoiseNotTurtle I unfortunately remember, cause I learned from a outside source that "Breaking Aura" and "Aura being low" are apparently supposed to be different

[@TortoiseNotTurtle]

@tevineleven11 Yeah. I only know this because in the group v Ironwood fight Ironwood's aura shimmers and then later shatters. Like aura breaks were confusing enough WHY MAKE THERE TWO?! Not to mention it's weird how semblance interact with aura. Ive heard that if you run out of aura then your semblance runs out... Only for Blake to lose her aura and then just fucking use her semblance anyway in the Ace Ops fight

[@skysiren4113]

For me, the final straw that made me quit RWBY was how they handled Ruby's arc in Volume 9. Speaking as someone who has struggled with their mental health, the fact that the writers did such a poor job explaining how ascending works causes the show to come across like it's glorifying suicide, but then they have the absolute GALL to act like they wrote a good story about mental health makes my skin crawl It's even worse cause instead of admitting that they didn't mean to glorify suicide and apologizing, they instead blame the viewers for viewing it that way and actively defend their poor writing. There's just something so disgusting that they don't seem to acknowledge or care about the fact that they may have written a potentially dangerous message for people who may be struggling with their mental health. And it's that fact that made me lose all respect for both the show and the writers

[@lorettabes4553]

This! Ruby was in a dark place and it was treated so poorly! I still can't believe they wrote: Yang sees her sister go down a dark path, goes to comfort Jaune instead. Like WHAT

[@graveyardshift6691]

This isn't even the first time they've done this ether. Gen;Lock did it too.

[@kidprime6863]

I, on the other hand, don't think they were trying to glorify it on purpose. Personally, I'm glad Ruby didn't choose to finalize her Ascension and become someone she isn't. Otherwise, it would definitely be glorifying. She beat temptation. It taught me the futility of self-termination (or MENTAL self-termination, in this case) and that each wish comes with a price. Ruby didn't want to die. She just didn't want to be herself anymore. She wanted a reset, a chance to erase her failures and grief, and become someone better. Even if it meant losing her memories and identity. Which echoes Penny's dilemma in Volume 8.

[@averageanimefan519]

I couldn't believe Eddy admitted they didn't even want to focus on Penny's suicide along with everyone's reaction to it. They don't give two f's about suicide which is why it got told off screen and nothing gets done with it.

[@averageanimefan519]

@@kidprime6863 Eddy admitted they didn't care to explore Penny's suicide and the characters reactions to it. And trust me, it made me and dozens of others with suicidal thoughts disgusted. And then after Ruby drinks the tea, the very next episode her friends are back to talking about Jaune and the paper pleasers smiling away. There's even a deleted scene where Blake and Yang were having a smiling romantic moment at the tree. HELLO? This isn't surprising when one of the writers has said the n word and wrote the faunus plot line the way they did.

[@dylans.1741]

You know what I say Viz oughta do with RWBY? Let the series properly end, then reboot it. Let the show reach its end, then announce the hypothetical reboot a little while after. We've eaten over a decade's worth of collard greens and asparagus, and our dessert is long overdue.

[@DocMicrowave]

Contrary to what many RWBY shills thought, Viz was not taking the show forward. Kerry just got them to hold on to the license while he continues to shop the show out. Viz is just a licensing and distribution company. Not production. And I don't know the particulars of the deal Kerry made with Viz, but what ever it is it doesn't include Viz putting V1-9 up on their platform for viewing. Pretty much no merch for sale either. The thing is, No One is going to pay millions of dollars just to complete V10. And while a reboot would have a better chance, RWBY is damaged goods now. It would be a tough sell.

[@artistanthony1007]

​@DocMicrowave They havent confirmed or denied if they're going to continue the show or not so it's really difficult to believe that is a fact. Doing and saying nothing does not equate to canceled, you know that is a fact right? Dead Island was in a similar case but it's out.

[@DocMicrowave]

@artistanthony1007 Fair to say. It's just my opinion based on what I've seen and the history of the show. I think it is done as far as we knew it. That is not to say Kerry doesnt manage to do V10 in Manga, comic or "RWBY Beyond" type animation. But business is business. No one will put out the kind of money needed to produce RWBY at the level of animation it was at. Certainly not just to finishV10, the potential end of the series. Again, imho.

[@ShadowMark3_]

Just make an actual game RWBY fans expect that finishes the series.

[@DocMicrowave]

ShadowMark3_. That time may be past, as RWBY's interest and popularity has continued to decline. I don't know what it costs to produce a "good" game these days, but I doubt it is anything Kerry could afford currently. Plus doing that would sink any remaining interest in V10. Which I am guessing he would not be willing to do. I think video games come out with the success of a show. Like it during RWBY's peak, which was a long time ago now.

[@goldencyclone4984]

The real, *serious* issue I have with Ruby drinking the tea is that it is the *fourth* time a RT project glorified self harm as the "correct" choice since Penny in V8. Penny having Jaune kill her is just S*icide by Cop essentially. Then in Gen Lock S2 (abomination though it is), Cammie ends up so full of despair after a teammate's death that she travels to Yaz's hometown and participates in what was, up to this point, seen as ritualistic s*icide. And not only does she end up *fine* after, it's treated as *the solution to the entire plot* for the rest of the Gen Lock cast to do the same thing. The episode before Ruby's tea drinking, we meet a whole village of paper people who are chomping at the bit to Ascend despite Jaune having spent actual years keeping them alive. And Jaune is treated like the crazy one for not wanting to sit back and watch the paper people die. And then finally, Ruby drinks the tea and comes back perfectly fine. Better, even, since she sorted herself out in the mindscape. That is *four* instances of characters committing some form of s*icide, three of them *main characters,* and it being the "right solution." It's utterly disgusting.

[@kidprime6863]

@goldencyclone4984 I, however, disagree about Volume 9 glorifying it. Ruby didn't want to die. She just didn't want to be herself anymore. She was tired of failing, feeling the weight of expectations, losing loved ones, not being a good leader, not being a great hero, people turning against her, etc. That's why she was so tempted to undergo Ascension because she believed it was the key to taking it all back and start all over. She was still unsure if the process would kill her or turn her into something else. But after what Neo did to her, she decided to gamble it. Technically, her drinking the tea was a form of murder considering she never contemplated self-destruction until Neo came along. What's worse is that Penny's death was deliberately glossed over despite it being the catalyst of Jaune and Ruby's dilemma. The Paper Pleasers were just stupid. Trying to ascend in ways that involved basically killing themselves like the Battle Creek Grunts from RvB. They almost made Jaune lose his mind. That's the problem with the Afterans. They don't understand death because they're immortal. They're just... robots bound to their programming. If they die, they get "rebuilt" and "reprogrammed." Thus, Ascension isn't meant for Non-Afterans.

[@goldencyclone4984]

@kidprime6863 Glorifying it is perhaps not the right word, true. But it has consistently treated it as the ultimately "correct" choice, be it as with Penny just... Giving up and having Jaune stab her being treated as "a necessary sacrifice to keep the Maiden Powers from Cinder," the Afterans pursuing their natural cycle, or Ruby ultimately coming out of Ascension seemingly cured of her self loathing and depression. That, to me, is broadcasting a message of "this is ultimately the correct option," which to me feels like glorification on some level.

[@kidprime6863]

@goldencyclone4984 Ruby coming out Ascension would've worked a lot better if they didn't glossed over Penny's death. It would've helped Ruby realize that she not only shouldn't become something she isn't to be better or run away from her problems. But she should learn from her failures and not let them drive her actions. Penny died because she desperately wanted to fix a problem that was far beyond her control and to make a choice for herself even if it kills her. She let her insecurities and doubts cloud her judgment and get taken advantage of by Cinder, Ironwood, and the Ace-Ops. She deliberately disobeyed Ruby's order to go through the portal to Vacuo to get both herself and the Relic to safety. At that point, she was done listening to people telling her what to do, even the ones who had her best interest at heart. She wanted to make a choice whether they liked it or not because this was her last chance. For that, she fell right into Cinder's trap, and she granted her wish. She lost her life and the Relic. She made her friends' best efforts to save her pointless. And now, Salem is just two steps ahead of her goal. If I had my way, I would've knocked Penny out with a gut punch and throw her and the Relic into portal myself. She had every right to feel bad, but she was misguided, naive, and impatient. There would've come a time for her to make a choice for herself. But that time wasn't now. Making her human may have saved her life, but it didn't cure her of her insecurities. Thus, if the Blacksmith showed Ruby what happened to Penny, she would realize that what she wants is too big of a risk and wants to go back as herself. Believe me, Penny dying was forced attempt to have the heroes lose. They were all nerfed. She could've just thrown the Relic into the portal when no one was looking, and THEN stay to help out. If she did that, then it wouldn't matter if she died or not. Either way, Cinder returns empty-handed. She can have the Maiden powers for all I care. Absorbing two or more Maiden powers might destroy her.

[@goldencyclone4984]

@@kidprime6863 I mean, all of that is well and good, and a good examination of the story from in universe. But my main point is that, out of universe, the writers have repeatedly chosen to portray self harm and s*icide as "the correct choice for the current moment," which is an incredibly harmful thing to do *once,* let alone three times, four if you count the Paper Pleasers.

[@matijasostojic4288]

I don't think Penny's second death fits into this. Aside from the fact that they could have just decided to not kill her off again, they didn't really have a choice. Penny was dying and they were slowly loosing teammates to Cinder. They couldn't affird the Powers going to Salem. Honestly I think you are saying this only because Penny was fine with the outcome and you read this as some kind of giving up whereas I see it more as a thing of making Jaune ok enough mentally to go along with it atleast in the moment.

[@lorettabes4553]

Now that we have Arcane to compare RWBY to (yes, I'm going there), imagine how effective the 'season split in three' writing *could* have been... Man, some alternate universe us hopefully got something better!

[@twinodoom]

17:54 Torture's effectiveness is primarily from using intimidation to get results. The problem is that people are afraid of different things and respond to those fears differently. Which means it's never going to have consistent results and is mostly just used to inspire fear and/or to indulge sadism.

[@ecthox-1mork909]

Thomas' Volume 8 rewrite did Oscar's captivity arc way better.

[@midnightrose676]

Judgmental critic mentioned 0:44 the only 2 people I follow who talk about RWBY have officially crossed paths lol

[@Fli9457]

I’ve been here since the olden days of you reviewing Rwby and let me say seeing the way you face your past criticisms and actions in regard to it is nothing short of inspiring. Thank you so much for revisiting it as I’ve always been curious of your thoughts on volume 8 and 9. Looking forward to any and all of your future content!

[@ritzytritzy]

A note on viz media, tho they've been primarily a distributor in the past, they've started producing their own manga and publishing it abroad. Acquiring RWBY looks to be a good way to push their original content with more of a "sure hit"

[@joelsasmad]

Is there anything particularly good they've put out?

[@livingnightmare92]

Problem with that is...well RWBY wasn't exactly a money making hit. Barb (Yang's VA) explained that RWBY wasn't making money for years, and that RT had to go begging for Crunchyroll to give them the money so they could even make vol 9, since well...Volumes 7 to 9 were all given the go before Volume 6 even started to air. In those 5 years RWBY had been quickly put in its place as a cult following show vs shows like Helluva Boss, the Hazbin Hotel Pilot and The Amazing Digital Circus where thier average view count is at minimum 10 million within the first week of release. Then you look at the trailers for RWBY, and the first episode which clocked in about 15 to 20 million by year 10. I'm sure Viz is going to give the series a much needed break so they can figure out the hell to do with it because if it doesn't gain a much larger audience, it's going to be more of a Financial loss...depending on how much Viz bought it for.

[@ritzytritzy]

@@joelsasmad Quite a few good manga, like Devil's Candy. They also pay fairly well, both for volumes and one shots and are honestly a really nice place for smaller creators to go

[@ritzytritzy]

@@livingnightmare92 I mean, you lined out the difference pretty well. Helluva/digital circus are made with fairly reasonable expectations in terms of budget/episode length/etc. Rooster Teeth just did whatever they wanted and it backfired hard. So far, Viz had a much more conservative estimate to their original works and their reach/budget. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the franchise pivoted heavy into manga to either tell the rest of the story in that form or to diversify the talent/world of rwby to build up a new audience before ever thinking about animating v10

[@joelsasmad]

@@ritzytritzy That's good to hear.

[@Szassiren]

With Beastars coming to an end, I really want Studio Orange to pick Rwby up for a rebooted anime

[@DocMicrowave]

That is a tall order. But a reboot has a much better chance than getting V10 completed.

[@whitemoonwolf13]

oh they also did land of the lustrous. that could be good. 3d animation but with a much better anime feel

[@rift3068]

The moment I stopped taking the show seriously was when Adam revealed his scar. Mainly because why the hell wasn’t Weiss there? Her entire arc is about atoning for her families sins by becoming a huntress. How would she react knowing her family is responsible for creating a monster like Adam Taurus

[@DocMicrowave]

Full agree! Adam became nothing more than a tool to help BB set sail. That is the Only reason he was brought temporarily brought back into play. V7 proves that he was nothing more than a plot device because after he is out of the picture, there is almost No focus on Faunus issues anymore. Despite team R/W/BY finding themselves in Atlas. The supposed center of all Faunus discrimination. The volume could have been rich in character development for Blake and Weiss if CRWBY choose to more deeply explore the issues. I believe even the showrunners publicly admitted they dropped the ball on the handling of the Faunus and their issues.

[@moorejim13]

I CAN NEVER FORGIVE FLINT COLE! also love your videos, your a beacon of moonlight and were lucky to have you

[@kuroshinigami9143]

"if you want vol 9 to matter send Salem to the tree" there is another way too, the Jabberwalker was created by the gods to delete things from creation Salem is immortal so they need a way around that, likely the only thing that can kill her are the gods or something created by them. Neo's semblence evolved in the everafter, she was able to clone the creature and send it after the gang. Neo going through ascension likely would return as a better version of herself, and likely has the same powers to summon it for it to eat Salem.

[@ToastyGhostie-np9bd]

I mean, this could just be me but I feel like its pretty obvious all Ruby had to do is shoot Salem with her silver eyes. This would turn Salem into stone and then Ruby could just shatter her statue and then boom, story over. I always thought the idea was Ruby needs to defeat Salem via her silver eyes. That's why Salem tortures and kills Silver Eyed Warriors: to keep the Silver-Eyed Warrior population down, and to make any existing Silver-Eyed Warriors too terrified to even approach Salem. I mean... ...right?

[@kingofflames738]

​@@ToastyGhostie-np9bdshe'd probably just regrow out of the shattered pieces eventually. I don't think it'd be that easy to kill her considering that silver eyes have appeared on others.

[@artistanthony1007]

I'm pretty sure those Vaults would be way better, have the Door of one close as the Relic is taken out and you're set because we see in one of the later Volumes that the Vault for Relic of Knowledge is seen as the door or things left with all is seen is the rocky formation around it which also apparently is behind the door.

[@Dave102693]

Just have her locked in the tree instead as punishment and therapy, and once she gets out, have her stuck in Ever After, taking over the gods original goal there.

[@ecthox-1mork909]

It's more likely Neo is staying in the Ever After, because she can't go through the door since she doesn't have any emotional attachments on Remnant to return to, and besides, her memories of Remnant and everything that's happening there will be erased in the likely event she chooses to change. Honestly, I loathe how all of V9 was ultimately just filler with no bearing on the show's overarching narrative except to write Neo out of the conflict in a convoluted way, and I despise how the show just lets Neo off the hook for everything and gets rewarded without doing anything to atone while the Curious Cat, who was WAY less evil, more tragic and more deserving of a second chance than Neo gets treated like an irredeemable monster who deserves to die screaming in terror and agony. Seriously, Neo and the Cat in V9 are like Cassandra and Varian respectively in the 'Tangled' cartoon, but worse.

[@Shack11]

I think not confirming Bumblebee was 'worse' than not wanting to lose homophobes(especially after V6 all but confirmed it just like V4 all but confirmed Renora). I think they just needed one more bit of fanservice in case of emergency. They blew their load in V6 and had no more fanservice left in case things got rocky, and like clockwork the moment things were looking V5-tier rocky and the fandom was turning on them, they break the glass and wheel out Bumblebee. It was a cynical act to be sure, but I don't think losing bigot money was their concern.

[@BlueBlazeKing]

21:37 Though it hasn’t been confirmed, the beetle Grimm Cidner used to steal some of Amber’s maiden abilities has been theorized to have been connected to parts of her nervous system

[@artistanthony1007]

I think it was already emphasized that Salem had it transformed as she makes it clear she wanted Cinder to control it and be in charge.

[@averageanimefan519]

This just reminds me when the RWBY book confirmed Cinder was controlling the Wyvern from Volume 3 using her MAIDEN powers and not any Grimm powers she had or even that beetle. The lore of the show is so confusing.

[@DocMicrowave]

That is the running thought I had for most of the show's run. That Salem had implanted some kind of Grimm essence into Cinder. Allowing her to facilitate the easy transfer (theft) of the maiden powers without the complications of extracting Aura as well. Unlike Ironwood's technology based method. It also allowed her to influence certain Grimm, like the Wyvern. It also likely made it easier for Salem to graft a Grimm arm onto Salem, and allow her to fully control it.

[@graveyardshift6691]

14:42 I'm sorry. 'THE CREATORS' of RWBY 'went on recorded as saying they wished they called it 'Remnants'? There is only ONE creator of RWBY and he's dead. If anything this is a straight up admission that the studio stole the show out from under Monty when he passed. Everything that's been done Vol 4 onwards would NOT have his approval if this is the case. The fact the show devolved into a hodgepodge of tropes from other shows instead of following its own path is what makes it a masterclass in 'how NOT to do a show.' It's the one reason I still bother with this show even if I hated where it went. You can still find new lessons as a writer on what NOT to do with Vol 4 onward.

[@ducky953]

i wouldn't go that far but it has become clear how little RWBY matters to the plot that RWBY were Monty's babies and Monty's alone. There was a lot of collaboration but the creation of Team RWBY and the idea of these four girls was solely Monty - that i believe wholeheartedly.

[@graveyardshift6691]

@@ducky953 If this really were the case then they would have been better off retiring RWBY and then setting up a new show set in Remnant calling it such and I don't think anyone would have minded. The fact they were so locked in on continuing RWBY is yet another short-sighted confirmation of how much of a hack these writers were. Let RWBY have ended at the Fall of Beacon and pick up a new story set in the same world but then you can focus whatever characters you want to make instead. Collaboration doesn't make you 'The Creators' when you're still using something that you didn't create.

[@ducky953]

@@graveyardshift6691 I don't think retiring RWBY would've succeeded. The concept of RWBY was innovative and fantastic as seen in the trailers but the show itself and its writing is riddled with generic storylines copy and pasted from better shows. RWBY went downhill by betraying its identity and roots in favour of more generic, creatively bankrupt slop. The emblems are gone, the fight scenes worse, the weapon designs boring with a few rare standouts, and the fairy tale allusions copy-pasted. As Thomas said, the relics could've been cool, transformable weapons that stayed true to the show's identity. What we got were generic, useless MacGuffins. The die hard fans who made the show their whole personality and its staunch critics don't care about the brother god's plot, salem vs oz or the alice in wonderland knock off. They care about the characters. But the writers insist on pushing the characters to the background in favour of the plot nobody cares for. Removing team RWBY means removing the last dregs of what made RWBY unique. "Remnants" would be generic slop nobody would care for.

[@graveyardshift6691]

@@ducky953 You're not wrong in that. I'd agree in that people who came for RWBY would be there for RWBY. The key difference here is that when I say to 'retire RWBY' I mean in that they simply just let Vol 3 be the end of the time we spent with RWBY. The girls Monty Oum created get to fade into the sunset and the writers aren't locked to them meaning they can go on to create their own OCs in the setting and tell the stories they wanted to tell without relying entirely on the ones established by Monty. Still I can't find it in me to disagree entirely with you in that even such a thing would also fail because it'd still be the same copycat dumpster fire instead of trying to chart their own course.

[@AC-dk4fp]

@@ducky953 Even the trailers are mostly just ripped off from other stuff (well, mostly just Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha) . The lack of focus on the core cast is also partly Monty's fault for animating whatever new character he wanted and asking the rest of the team to write around his fight scenes.

[@Karxrida]

Learning about the POC union leader being the game villain legit kind of broke me. I hope Kerry (who helped write that - I checked) somehow gets kicked out of Viz so someone else can run the franchise.

[@chrisdiokno5600]

I mean, he was sucking the negative emotions out of his workers and putting them into devices to lure Grimm

[@DeadmanNC1]

Hey man POC can be villians too. Cant defend the Union part tho.

[@Karxrida]

@@DeadmanNC1 POC can absolutely be villains but the context matters, and the context of "union leader" combined with everything else the writers have done prior with the White Fang doesn't paint a pretty picture.

[@DeadmanNC1]

@@Karxrida True.

[@bobi200samatar6]

When I heard about the poc union leader villain, I just burst out laughing. Like, of course RWBY did that.

[@sanddry738]

For me I dropped RWBY around Vol 5 and quite honestly… thank god. I heard how they BUTCHERED Adam as a villain and how the fanbase and writers couldn’t handle any form of criticism towards RWBY. Genuinely sucks that a show with such huge potential was just destroyed

[@borjankosarac3645]

It’s not that they couldn’t handle criticism, it’s that they treated the bad faith critics as the ONLY actual criticism to what they were doing. And then they decided that anyone who “didn’t get it” was in that category. Just… I don’t know what these writers were thinking. I’m not a professional writer but even I know that you need to trial-and-error in terms of learning your craft; it’s not easy but you need to figure out whose advice is valid, who isn’t, and all that for yourself.

[@Kaileedoodleloo69]

Holy shit-! A reboot for RWBY done by Dillongoo would be a dream come true!

[@Miciggy24]

Tbh, if Viz decides to do a full reboot/rewrite of RWBY, I feel I won't be as sad about it. Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware of the corner Rooster Teeth had written the show into and if this franchise is going to be revived, maybe starting over would be a good place to start. But at the same time, I'd hate to see Monty's work on the show be overshadowed and forgotten with the reanimation of the first 3 volumes.

[@DocMicrowave]

I agree, that would be a loss. (Reanimating V1-3). Viz is not a production house though. Just licensing and distribution. Kerry parked RWBY licensing /rights there temporarily while he presumably continues to try and find money and a production house willing and able to take on RWBY. So far, no takers.

[@ecthox-1mork909]

Maybe they can go a "Halloween reboot timeline" route, where they only treat the first two to three volumes as canon and ignore all the later ones, like what the fan project 'RWBY: Evermorrow' is doing?

[@sweetsnap]

Who else thinks Thomas could KILL a RWBY rewrite?

[@THE_ENBEEZE]

I DO!

[@Lovix13]

kill like killing a CEO kind or kill like the bad kind?

[@idiotthatdrawsakaartist]

Bc they already have ✨️ lord knows ide kill for them to rewrite the entire series

[@Sherneo_Blightshade]

Would love him to rewrite Volume 9 where his Volume 8 rewrite left off! ✊😭

[@parkermaisterra8532]

@@sweetsnap I’d read/watch it

[@pikachuspartan1868]

1:50 Well, Dillon Gu and Shane Newville are working together on Hoyoverse projects with other animators. And Torrian Crawford and Kim Newman are also doing somewhat well their own solo careers.

[@OnyxOfTheEarth]

"Do RWBY's Last Two Volumes Suck?" Is the sky blue?

[@DocMicrowave]

Last 3.5 volumes.

[@ecthox-1mork909]

@@DocMicrowave Last four volumes, since the "incident" with Ozpin occurred in V6's first four episodes. (At least the Apathy episode's horror factor made it a diamond in the rough.)

[@DocMicrowave]

@ Lol, V6 really threw me for a loop. I had been lamenting how bad I thought V5 was. (Though looking back, I have reconsidered. That's another story.) Hoping V6 would turn things around. And to be honest, I thought it did show promise in the first half. I thought it was the best thing since V3. The story telling was decent. It had its issues. (The escape from the house of horrors for one.) But over all, I thought the arc was pretty good. The show seemed like it might be turning around. Then the second half happened. And all that hope washed away as the show took a downward turn. Starting with Ruby very falsely claiming that 'they didn't need any adults to get where they were.' as she was talking down to Qrow. To the unbelievable fight scene at the end that tried to frame R/W/BY as justified in all they did. Capped off with Blang and Yake double stabbing bad ol' Adam to help BB set sail. (That was the only reason he was brought back into play.) This set the stage for V7 to depict most all adults (especially Male) as obstacles, useless, idiotic, antagonistic, foolish, crazy, or just plain evil. Seeming trying to make Ruby's statement, fact.

[@TheMrsW1z]

I will always remember the EXACT moment where I started to feel a real dislike for the series It was Volume 6 and the moment Yang said something along the lines of "Did you hear that? Salem CAN'T be killed!" I wanted to tear my hair out because in the episode prior it was stated that OZPIN ("You") couldn't "DEFEAT" Salem. Either the writers didn't make it clear enough or they made everyone in that moment just... Not comprehend what was being said. And then team RWBY and the others were so CRUEL, so ANTAGONISTIC in the fallout afterwards that im sat here like "These are the people we're meant to be rooting for right?" Volume 7 set up team RWBY getting some form of karma in that they held the "truth" from Ironwood, but boy... What a mess Volume 8 and 9 turned out to be...

[@whitemoonwolf13]

the second qrow punched oscar i was like, i'm done. and then everyone turning on him, blaming him when they just saw ozma's backstory and how he was also a fucking victim in all this, all the hypocrisy with yang and secrets, and then the absolute toxicity of the fandom regarding bumblebee. i stopped watching, checking in every now and then to see how the story was catching fire and oh lord did it disappoint.

[@DocMicrowave]

The beginning of real disappointments in the show for me was the same volume, V6. Yang goes completely against character, grabs Blake's hand and runs out of a burning toxic Grimm infested house of horrors, leaving her sister Ruby and her incapacitated uncle, along with her teammate Weiss behind to fend for themselves. Done blatantly by the writers to spotlight BB fanservice. That set the direction for the show for me and knew it was down hill from there.

[@ecthox-1mork909]

For me, RWBY/J completely passed the moral event horizon at the end of V9, when they didn't learn anything. I swore off the show and became a Fanworks-Only Fan after that, funnily enough shortly before RoosterTeeth went under. And I agree with you that Yang and Blake in the later volumes are the worst of the bunch. It says a lot that at the end of V9, the Curious Cat looked like a less bad person and a better character than both Neo and RWBY/J.

[@DocMicrowave]

@ Lol, took you till V9 for the show to pass the "moral event horizon."!? You're certainly more tolerant than I am. Yeah, Blang and Yake, two fair characters turned into one bad character for fanservice. I'm sure you appreciated Yang stepping up to Ruby with a stink face while Blake tucks in behind her for 'protection' as Ruby was having an emotional constipation moment. Or my favorite scene of utter lunacy. Ruby and Weiss standing around and watching Yang fall to her perceived death, while Blake is the only one to react, try to save her, and have the most emotion when she fails. All to showcase another BB moment. V9 did little to nothing to progress the story. It was one big filler volume that had almost everything going back to status quo by the end. Seems the only purpose for the volume (besides wasting time) was to validate Bumblebee and give Neo the Emerald/Illa treatment to be flipped.

[@kalainreinard8421]

RWBY needs a reboot, and to be ran by people who know what they're doing and know what they're talking about.

[@jameslazaridis4180]

No reboot only forward

[@joshuastruggs1307]

@@jameslazaridis4180 Yes reboot. Sometime going backward is good.

[@viraltang]

I see what you're doing quoting Monty, but it ain't his baby anymore. Just let it die.

[@MrLightningbob]

I got a full rewrite that would be a great launching point for the reboot!

[@DocMicrowave]

Agreed. Reboot is the best (although slimmest) chance the show would have to return. There really is no "forward" at this point. V10 appears to be dead in the water because no one will want to invest millions of dollars to produce what might have been the last volume in the show. Certainly not with the same level of animation as previous volumes.

[@lorettabes4553]

25:00 Valid if that's the opinion you hold. RWBy's music will always be special to me. I listen to it often during my comute and find a lot of variety. I do listen to multiple volumes at the same time - and it's true that the earlier songs had such spunk to them. Here: have a badass song about Coffee, which is also battle music. *BUT* the biggest miss for me personally is V9's Red like Roses part III. What even happened there? It felt very out of place to have a part 3 and unearned.

[@Sherneo_Blightshade]

Nora was still Volume 8’s GOAT 🙏

[@kidprime6863]

Penny should've chose her

[@CatalinaLinal7710]

To ghis day, everything I have ever learnt about RWBY makes me glad that, a decade ago, a former friend of mine and me just never got around to watch further than volume 1 (I think). Cause I do remember having been VERY interested in the show, but we wanted to continue watching it together which then didnt happen because our lives went separate ways. I can see it so easily that RWBY could have become a hyperfixation for me at that time, but man, I sure dotched a bullet, didnt I? 😅

[@joelsasmad]

The first 2 and a half volumes made by the original creator genuinely held a lot of heart and promise. Even if I hate the direction it was taken after he was gone, I still think those parts are worth seeing.

[@matijasostojic4288]

Unless you think you would have fallen into the toxic fandom you would have been fine. Even with how much it sucks, I would never have given Rwby up because I still have good memories of when I first watched it.

[@CatalinaLinal7710]

@matijasostojic4288 That wasn't properly worded by me, let me clarify. Theorizing and analyzing are my favorite things to do in a fandom and with how excessive the retconning and bad continuity (and even just writing) got in this show, I clearly wouldnt have a good time with RWBY, especially in such a hostile fandom environment. So in that regard, my ADHD brain definitely dodged a bullet.

[@Mclucasrv]

I dropped during volume 4 there I was not having that much fun with the series.

[@Galistarwater]

"Like, no! Her [Salem] stretching to reform and gram people isn't scary. She looks like one of those wavy blow-up balloon men outside of a car dealership!" 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@greyworld6242]

34:24 Doesn’t help that this scene in the episode was literally forced to happen otherwise they couldn’t get out of it unless they confessed. Also the fact that they were the only members that were separated from everyone else and only ruby, Weiss and jaune were all together. It’s painfully clear what they were doing.

[@Dsnny_Rose]

I'm more upset by Jaune's "they must have something bigger to work out" Is the show telling me that Blake and Yang confessing their love was bigger than Ruby's and Jaune's crisis? XD

[@greyworld6242]

@ Apparently.

[@MrLightningbob]

@@Dsnny_Rose RT: We are going to say that this ship that we've done absolutely nothing to build up was planned from the start! Fans: How? RT: By instead of Blake and Yang worrying at all about their clear and present danger, their friend/sisters clearly falling mental state, or even how to get home... they will spend all of their time flirting with each other! Fans: Umm... Didn't you already spend several Volumes setting up Blake with Sun? RT: We did? Forget him like we did! It's time to make the girls kiss! Fans: Why would we forget Sun? He was responsible for Blake being a decent character? RT: We're going to get Blake and Yang alone together, make it be the MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER FOR THEM and they will confess their love or die! Fans: Ummm... your script doesn't have them saying anything true besides that Blake has cat ears. RT: And they KISS!!!! Fans: And the fact that you had no buildup in the previous eight volumes, try to ignore the ship you had established, AND made them ignore Ruby to where she thought that ending herself was a better alternative than being around them? RT: We planned the ship from the start! Fans: It looks like you are pandering to the worst of your fanbase and ignoring that it's a wholly toxic relationship eight ways to Sunday. RT: Isn't it romantic! Everyone loves Bumblebee! Fans: Not the sane ones who have been actually watching the series. RT: BMBLB will save the franchise! Fans: Nope, just turned us off that you think toxic relationships are a good thing, much like how you see self-harm as a fun plot point that should be endorsed. RT: BMBLB! Fans: No

[@ecthox-1mork909]

@@Dsnny_Rose Blake and Yang in the later volumes are literally a pair of narcissistic sociopaths who only care about their love-life with each-other first, everything and everyone else from the Fall of Atlas to Ruby's wellbeing a distant second. And the narrative actively supports them. The protagonists of 'RWBY' in the later volumes are literally like Philip Wittebane if the narrative was actively taking his side.

[@wrenneinzbern]

Thinking back how did Cinder kill Ozpin offscreen yet get absolutely destroyed by Raven?

[@kidprime6863]

I've been asking myself the exact same question for years. My only guess is that maybe after fighting her for a bit, he realized that he's not going to win. So he put away his weapon and let Cinder kill him as he knows he'll reincarnate soon afterward. Kinda like what Obi-Wan let Darth Vader do in A New Hope.

[@kingraplhmativo5178]

Oz stated himself his powers have gotten weaker.

[@kidprime6863]

@@kingraplhmativo5178 He used a lot of it give the first Maidens their powers and create the Relic Vaults. As well as granting Raven and Qrow the ability to turn into birds. His powers are on their last legs.

[@SwitchbackCh]

Nevermind he had that gigantic whale-exploding nuke in his cane the whole time.

[@DocMicrowave]

Power scaling at its finest. The later volumes are full of that stuff. Power scaling, ignoring history, lore bending/breaking. Like Ruby having no problem flashing Cinder at every single encounter except the last one in V8. Where the writers needed Cinder to win. So, no Silver eyes. Ruby suddenly could not do it despite having multiple opportunities. Or how about the untouchable Neo. Who defeated Yang with ease early on. Even gave Cinder a good fight forcing her to whip out her maiden powers just to counter. Yet Neo gets sucker punched by a telegraphing farmboy running down a hall.

[@chaoticneutral7976]

I find it funny that the Bumbleby confession involves the characters being forced by a higher power to admit their feelings to one another because the writers couldn't think of an organic way to allow them to openly be into each other or talk about their feelings in previous volumes. Like they were sipping tea as the war was being raged on in a comfy mansion, I'm sure they could have spared a few minutes to express their romantic feelings to one another.

[@cosmomind7469]

Honestly RWBY might have been a more cohesive show if it wasn’t about team RWBY and instead team JNPR. Clearly Jaune is the writers favorite character.

[@Nomadman903]

The short runtime per episode, poor storyboard planning, and among *other* things in the production really hindered the show's true potential. It is something I wished to like it more, but it does shit that makes me think twice. Funny enough, during RWBY hiatus and RT shutting down, we got stuff that is similar but better like Arcane or Zenless Zone Zero that share a lot of elements but at least are expended and focused. I can never hate RWBY, but I also can't say it was ever great in the first place. Hope something changes in the future.

[@kidprime6863]

When you get right down to it, each Volume feels more like an hour and a half long episode when you put the episodes together in each one. Another problem with the show was the lack of downtime from the main story. Starting with V3, everything focuses on moving the story along. Character arcs, exposition, breathers, and world building can only be done if the plot demands it. It makes their universe feel small and makes the pacing too fast.

[@selena44842]

"You can be a girl or you can be a cat" remember, someone was paid to write this

[@tiara9624]

Yep the actual line wasn’t that different: “You could just be human, or just a cat.” 💀

[@ecthox-1mork909]

FR, offering to turn Blake into a human or a cat is like offering to turn a black person into a white person or a chimpanzee. :P

[@lorettabes4553]

I was recently thinking about RWBY and how the show got to point to where it is now. Volumes 1 - 3 were the best, it's when the characters felt the most compelling to me personally. The down time they got to talk about things that truly seemed to matter to them. Ever since V4, the four main girls became flatter and the show hasn't looked back. Probably never will. The writers get plenty of flack. Certain scenes and moments have been analysed to death, especially the moments where the characters or writing felt very tone deaf. I partake in fandom only on the reactions and 'analysing story beats' side, not so much fan content, nor do I interact with people in blogs or tumblr or anything. I say this because I often find myself disagreeing with the majority of the fandoms I'm in. So I completely understand not wanting to talk about V8 or V9!

[@anthonydugar282]

23:55 I can’t be believe it took me this long to notice how cinder felt so disconnected to emerald leaving the bad guy side

[@aqualacerta3961]

honestly rwby being bought by VIZ is good news, the anime we got was one of the best rwby content we got in a while, and an anime reboot would do wonder for the franchise fixing the MANY issues it has

[@fishnewt1331]

RWBY….honestly, I feel the opposite and the same as Thomas, which is a very complicated feeling that sort of makes me envy Thomas’s position of acceptance and moving forward. RWBY ending on volume 9 feels so hollow and reeks of missed potential that this show is covered in. I loathe that feeling with a passion. I am also sympathetic to creativity. It is not an easy art to produce. It takes both talent and skill to create a work of art, which is why I am agree that ending RWBY here (bitterly, I might add) is the best choice. If the writers did have a plan from the beginning (like they keep saying) from Monty, it is clearly something they did not understand (or did know how to execute). They lost the flair of what drew its audience to the show. I don’t know what to expect in the future for the show and being okay with that is not something I want to do, but have to do for my own sanity, in spite of my creativity brain wanting to shake them physically going, “HOW DO YOU NOT SEE THE POTENTIAL?!!! HOW DO YOU MISS THE POINT?!!”. *sigh*

[@joelsasmad]

That feeling is why there are so many RWBY fanfics. Hopefully it inspires some real writers down the line to make something great after seeing what not to do.

[@jameslazaridis4180]

@@joelsasmad good thing I destroyed those fanfiction’s there are nothing but propaganda of false lies

[@ToastyGhostie-np9bd]

Honestly, I totally feel this comment. I'm just so bitter about RWBY now, and I don't even remember when I transitioned into it

[@ShadowRoadX]

I have little interest in a continuation of the mess Rooster Teeth left behind. Everything Volume 3 and beyond was just a slow, plodding downward spiral from what creative passion Monty had into becoming a narrative clusterfuck, kept alive for being another flagship for the company. If VIZ ever decides to do something new and dynamic with it, I'll gladly give it a shot.

[@mauvecosmic2996]

it very upsetting what they did to Penny. She got brought back to be a problem and then be killed not even by any of the main four but by Jaune out of all ppl. It's always Jaune, i dont think he should get this much plot attention while barely grow as a person despire how much the writters want you to think he does grow alot aka he got alittle better at fighting. Even get to be a part in one of the famous fair tale aswell, that's how much important they want you think Jaune is. but ngl, i actually prefer Rusted Knight Jaune over his younger-self, and wished they committed to the bit and just kept him physically old and didnt undo it at the end. Because he's still mentally an 40 year old man after volume 9. it really made no difference if they just have him looks old anyway, it's still gonna be weird either way as he tried interacted with his friends who he have out grown in age. i would also say they ruinned team RWBY in volume 8 and 9. but honestly i think all characters basically suffered the same treatments aswell. I do feel bad and related to how Ruby is in volume 9 with the whole doubting yourself and what you wanted to be, but they just made her stupid for plot sake which what ruinned it for me. also Blake and Yang interactions in these 2 volumes feel very forced, they are cute at the start, but later on it feft like they can only be happy or cheerful when only with each others. Weiss is just there ig, poor girl got the bench treatment in volume 9, because Blake and Yang need to be with each others for romantic sake, Ruby going thought her depressed state and Jaune is secretly the volume main character again. overall The Everafter is a great idea and setting and the reason why i even wanna watch volume 9 because i love Alice In Wonderland and i love the Blacksmith and the Curious Cat. I dont understand why they have tited the 2 Brothers to the Everafter Tree, it's rather pointless beside coughed out a reason to tell you that the Everafter is actually important because that's where the human's creators originally came from. like??? it's not really change anything for the main plot at all, and it just very boring as a God Origin story. I wished they gave Neo more screentimes after she got her power up like making her the Mad Hatter but evil or something, i know they want to build up the Cat as the main bad guy of the volume, but having Neo as the main threat on screen in the volume would actually help with whole bait and switch thing with the Cat because the viewers and the main characters keep getting distracted by Neo, they didnt realized whenever the Cat is being weird or said something that would imply his other motives for helping them. Like you cant just gave best girl Neo a powerup, kicked her into the bin only to brought her back because the Cat needed her powered up body to be more threating. This is her last volume, atleast let the girl go out with a bang, i dont like the idea off her suddently good and cool with the mains after the Cat fight, she might got over her grudges with Ruby after realizing she got nothing out successfully killed her biggest enemy, doesnt make her a good person now. if ever this show somehow keep the plot and she come back, i want her to stay evil, maybe now her goal is to keep Touchwitch's legacy going and live out her life a thief rather than came out of the tree as a good guy or new hero. As much as i used to love RWBY, the main story plot is so bad now, i dont even think it worth keep going with it. A reboot would have been better, i think the community would agree just have everything wiped and start over again than keep dragging whatever of this out, because most of the actual likeable characters or either dead, forgotten or been written out. the remaining ones are either no one care about or just so unlikeable. i missed when this show is more of a fun animation project from a dude who just want to show off his fighting animation skills while have fun highschool humors in it.

[@kidprime6863]

I hear you. I, for one, think that WBY being ignorant of Ruby's pain could've worked better if Ruby was actually making more of an effort to hide it from them. Ever since Ozpin gave her that well-intentioned yet poorly explained piece of advice on what it means to be a leader, she believes that if she shows any signs of vulnerability or fails her team, Team RWBY will fall apart. Thus, she must maintain a brave face, no matter how much it hurts on the inside, to lead them to victory. She's scared and conflicted about what would happen if she tells them. It's kinda like a "It's for me to know and them to never find out" kind of thing. Plus, every time she tries to tell them, she's either interrupted by something or ignored. Instead of putting her foot down and shouting to get their attention, she just... gives up and decides to try again later. Once that finally did notice something was up, they did ask her about it. But before she could say anything the Paper Pleasers drove their attention away from her. That was the last straw. Also, WBY not checking in on her is understandable because most of the time, it's been the other way around. She's the glue that keeps them together. Her optimism and cheerfulness have been their guiding light. Whenever things look bleak, they know she always bounces back and comes up with a plan. This belief is not necessarily a bad thing, but it puts a lot of pressure on her. The weight of expectations is too much and she's struggling to keep herself together for their sake. They need to understand that she isn't Supergirl. Each of each of them unintentionally hurt Ruby in various ways. Weiss kept complaining about the logic of Ever After while mourning the loss of her home, which made Ruby regretful. Blake and Yang were flirting with each other in an attempt to make the best of their situation, which made Ruby uncomfortable and envious. Ruby hurt Jaune about the Paper Pleasers and he hurt her back by saying it happened because Neo was after her. Ruby hurt herself by keeping her pain bottled up for their sake. And Penny hurt all of them because of her unnecessary sacrifice and her obliviousness of the consequences. This shows that Team RWBY has forgotten their purpose: They're supposed to be a team. Each of them has a part to play. It's not about relying on one person. It's about lifting each other up and letting each other shine. It doesn't always take a great leader to make a great team. But sometimes, it takes a great team to make a great leader. If they want to work together to stop Salem, they need to learn about humility, responsibility, and integrity. I, too, wish Neo had more screen time as well. Her Semblance evolution was triggered by her anger towards Cinder and Ruby. According to the Commentary, the nature of the Abandoned Acre kicked the evolution into overdrive. Thus, it's a forced evolution. It would've nice if we had scenes of her experimenting with it. It would've given us an explanation of how she's able to have the copies use the voices and abilities of the originals. There has to be a limit to what they can do. Plus, she could've used them scout around. I don't think her Jabberwalker clones function the same way as the originals. Unless the Dark Brother planted a failsafe on the Jabberwalker in case someone were to kill it. If it happens, the slayer will take over its role to keep the population numbers under control. I don't mind the Brothers' origin at all. It just shows that they're not true gods. Just godLIKE being who were bored of their old world and wanted to try again elsewhere. The Curious Cat and the Jabberwalker were their replacements. They mishandled the former by making their thirst for knowledge endless. They eventually mishandled things with Salem by not properly helping her cope with her grief and explain to her how life and death work. They cursed her for disobeying and making fools out of them. And when she turned humanity against them, they wiped them all out. Including the ones who didn't participate in the revolt. They left another monster behind to start start over again on the next world before giving Ozma a very impossible task. Thus, the Brothers are just children playing with their toys in a sandbox, and when they don't have their way, they throw them away and go play something else. I want Neo to remain a villain, too. Or at least an anti-heroine. I really think the writers should've had WBY catch Ruby after she fainted or at least put her in a recovery position. The rest could still play out normal.

[@andreaniccoli8669]

Regarding Cinder begin wounded by the Silver Eyes. Salem had given her a Grimm parassite/symbiote to absorb the powers of the Maidens. So when Ruby used her Silver Eyes she turned the Grimm to stone INSIDE Cinder body, wich is what caused her wounds.

[@averageanimefan519]

Is that even confirmed anywhere? This is the same show that said in a book Cinder used Maiden powers to control the Wyvern.

[@tminusboom2140]

I think a truly EPIC way to show off the power of magic could have been in reference to semblances. When Oscar asks what magic can do, Ozpin explains that you've already been seeing it. Every single thing anyone does with their semblance is something a trained magic practioner could, theoretically, do. Portals? Check. Glyphs? Easy. Summons? Duh. Then when we finally get to see Salem, she pulls and All For One and just whips out a bajillion different powers, including those from older characters, she gets to see the value of someone's during the fight, and just *does it*. Final boss is an immortal witch with an endless legion and every power you could possibly have on your side.

[@christscrackers647]

It's honestly a real shame how RWBY essentially died off with Rooster Teeth. Sure VIZ Media owns the property now, but they haven't really done anything with it in years and probably never will. The story ended on a rather sour volume full of weird narrative choices, preceded by quite possibly the WORST volume in the entire series. At least we can take solace in knowing the series didn't end with Volume 8. That would've been a REAL tragedy.

[@ecthox-1mork909]

For me, the ending of Volume 9 completely put the title characters over the moral event horizon when they decided not to learn anything, and it also completely blew what was for me even then the show's last chance to redeem itself.

[@howlingwolfart8380]

I honestly hated all of Volume 9. That entire Ever After world felt like a complete waste of time. It was a tonal shift that just felt out of left field, and I couldn't connect with it. I didn't get into RWBY until probably 4 volumes in had already been made, and can honestly say that i don't remember most of it. I only remember that I hated volume 9 so much because it really left a bad impression on me.

[@ecthox-1mork909]

Volume 9 literally had absolutely no impact on the rest of the show's overarching narrative except to write Neo out of the show in a convoluted way and confirm Bumbleby - it was almost purely filler.

[@ramenbomberdeluxe4958]

Man, between the problematic portrayal of the White Fang, to the Union busting and the Union leader being one of the only POC in the show? RWBY really was the white moderates product after a point wasn’t it?

[@elae4051]

It's as progressive as the mcu (whom at the time of writing has given the white British woman more screentime as Captain America than the black man that currently owns the title, have whitewashed SEVERAL romani jewish characters and turned two of them into Nazis, and had their Spider-Man simp for and protect the products of a billionaire that does not care about him in the slightest) and I mean that as derisively as possible

[@averageanimefan519]

It definitely wasn't shocking when one of my mutuals (who is a black woman) showed me a tweet where Miles said the n word and used his age as an excuse. He was 25 and kept the tweet up until after the Tifa drama and people brought it up.

[@elae4051]

@@averageanimefan519 There's also all the reports than RT in general were very much being racist on top of the workplace abuse and general abuse

[@Karxrida]

@averageanimefan519 You have a source for that? That type of accusation is a bit too serious to put forth without screenshots.

[@averageanimefan519]

@@Karxrida Absolutely. Google Miles Luna Racism. You'll see the apology. And on a RWBYcritics post called 'The White Fang Was Handled Decently Says RWBY Stans' OP listed their link for where Miles said the n word. Links on KZbin are iffy if they work. So I can try to send some but in case they don't show up, I'll give you the details how I found them.

[@nbewarwe]

Speaking of the writers handling darker nuanced topics, I remember hearing that volume 10 was going to dabble in colonialism and the consequences of the Atlas and Mantle populations suddenly moving to the last kingdom, and considering the last kingdom was in the desert AND I heard about it after October of 2023, I could not help but think the writers were going to write in HAMASesque minions to replace the white fang. That idea was just hilarious to me and I really wished they could've done that just to see it happen.

[@nbewarwe]

Also, I don't actually think colonization was going to be a topic. The interpretation seemed speculative at best and assumptive at worst. But the refugee thing was still in those animatics they made.

[@joshuafrazier3904]

3:25 NNNOOOOOO!!!!!!! WDYM Dillongoo could have had RWBY what timeline are we living in? That would have been awesome if they had gotten it!!!!!

[@jameslazaridis4180]

Screwed that timeline

[@DGenHero]

Season 8 made me cry because I took Ironwood's treatment as direct contempt for people like me that have Audhd. He was my favorite character in Season 7.

[@KittenLove536]

I got into RWBY because the outfits and weapons sparked a joy in me that was hard to find when i was younger. I took a break after Phyrra's death (if i didnt spell her name right please tell me, it has been years since i saw it written down) because the whole Maidens thing felt wonky and like almost ham-fisted? But then i troed watching a few episodes and i just couldnt. I think that was the first canary in the coal mine for me with this company. I do kind of want to make some of the outfits as like low key cosplays tbh. Especially Weiss. To me Weiss, Ruby, and Pyrrah had some of my favorite outfits.

[@Sparksly_]

The thing that really bothers me about the whole Ruby drinking the tea to ascend thing is that they could have just had Neo kill her. They didn't have to make it so people from Remnant couldn't ascend from dying like the Afterans. They could have made it so no one truly dies in the Ever After, and then Neo could psychologically attack Ruby until she lets her guard down enough to get a killing blow. There. Problem solved. Messaging unmixed.

[@Zeek0079]

Rwby makes me feel like a dissapointed father

[@tdninternet9916]

(Reads title) Yes.

[@andrewrogers3067]

UNICORN IS BACK ON RWBY! I DON’T CARE IF ITS THE PAST YOU EVER MAKE! THANK YOU FOR BLESSING US!

[@autisticgodzilla-]

Bumble is just a fan service they wanted to add since volume 1, and I'm going to say it doesn't make sense at the fuck all

[@DeltaGreen03]

I definitely feel my feelings on the show are most like yours. I am glad I watched it and experienced it for myself, but I also suffered from its incredible lows. (Also, just like Twiins, I fell for Ironwood, and just like her, I was let down by his "villainy")

[@Catpuff818]

I don't know how you guys got past volume 8. Watching volumes 4-8 was a painful experience. It was like watching a loved one die slowly while on life support.

[@InvaderMedia420]

I’m almost 100% certain that yang and Blake are by not queer. that might just be my own bias as a non-binary bisexual person but because of the way the girls act I always thought they swung both ways. last, but not least yes, it took way too long for the pairing to get confirmed

[@VTsiFanfic]

RWBY is a great story about villains destroying 4 cities while thinking they're heros.

[@ecthox-1mork909]

It's like if 'The Owl House' was actively on Emperor Belos' side, if Belos was four teenage-young adult women, and if he got away with his crimes.

[@jerrywil7012]

2:35 To be fair, although the White Fang were an activist organization, it's pretty clear that they (or at least Adam's faction) quickly fell to terrorism under the guise of their cause. At that point, you can still empathize with them, but their methods are just plain evil/vilainous and counterproductive to their cause (especially Adam, who cared more about wipping out humans than actually fighting for the rights of his brothers and sisters). But still, I understand the frustration of showcasing the main civil rights group of the series as a bunch of misguided nutjobs and hypocrites. Thankfully we later see Blake changing the White Fang for the better, but at that point, the damage was already done.

[@qwefg3]

I would say RWBY needs a reboot if only to ensure the current writers don't work on it. Most of the stuff would be already done and the anime version was considered popular enough. Mostly if they continue the series they will hire the old writers back to finish it thus continuing the problems. If they do reboot then they can fix the main issues and either deviate (rewrite) from the parts that didn't do well and shore up the parts that did well. Maybe even remove team RWBY and the girls from their protected status. The reason why people hate Jaune is because he is a guy and the writers refuse to hurt their precious girls and thus he needs to be shoved in to be abused. Having him removed from season 9 wouldn't have fixed anything as they needed someone to whip and they refused to whip their girls. Blake had to see if she wanted to be a human or a cat for her major arc when addressing her issues. Remember that. That is the moral 'distress' besides the universe holding a gun at her and telling her to kiss Yang. That is how 'harsh' they are as they could have easily addressed her time within the White Fang, how her actions harmed people, or how her habit of refusing to accept blame for her own actions as she shifts the blame on other people is kind of bad. But nope... Be a human or a cat, but still decides to be a Faunus when she was a former White Fang member with a Faunus superiority boyfriend she murdered with her lesbian lover. They had a chance to do something with the girls. They just bloody refused to do anything to them.

[@ecthox-1mork909]

FR, Blake is a Faunus, and Faunus get directly compared by racists to animals. Blake being offered the choice to become a human or a full cat felt to me like a black person being offered the choice to become a white person or a monkey. That's how awful it was. :(

[@MG-xs6kq]

Love that little animation at the end❤

[@XAXA2000]

15:27 Yeah, the bridge fight. We started with RWBY vs. Cinder, the 4v1 fight I’ve been waiting for since Volume 3. Everything was going good: Cinder was yapping on top of her fire tornado, people were running; complete pandemonium, you could see Cinder’s reflection in Ruby’s eyes (similar to the cover of a Spider-Man comic book, I love that stuff), and even the small detail of Ruby about to use her Silver Eyes. “Finally,” I thought. “Something I really like about Volume 8.” And then here comes Neo ruining everything by knocking Yang off the bridge and Penny coming in taking Cinder’s attention away from Ruby. Granted it was a smart move from Cinder considering Ruby’s Silver Eyes, but how are we supposed to have a proper 4v1 if Cinder is cautious around Ruby’s easy win ability? I wish that lore from Volume 2 about Cinder sewing dust into her clothes wasn’t retconned into her simply being a Maiden with a Grimm arm so we could have an actual Team RWBY fight without caveats. Not to mention that we’ve never had Team RWBY have a 4v1 against a human opponent. We had that Tyrian fight in Volume 4, but that was Team RNJR. 17:20 Salem is unintentionally the funniest villain I’ve ever seen. Even back in Volume 4 when Cinder tried getting Emerald to speak for her and Salem slammed her hands on the table yelling no like a child XD Why couldn’t she just say no normally? Then in Volume 6 when she flipped the table and accidentally hit Tyrian, which made Watts get up. Something about that is hilarious. I actually laughed out loud when it happened. Skip to the Volume 8 Witch episode and it’s back to back comedy. That “find them” followed by her zooming away, the close up of her face when she bursts through the wall, when she slowly walks up to Oscar while looking away, looks at him for a second, then grabs him by the face XD The timing for the last one is too comedic. How does CRWBY not realize how low key ridiculous she acts? 19:30 You know, considering that Ozma and Salem ruled Remnant hundreds of years ago, how come there’s no written history of them? How come no one read stories about them and started the Cult of Salem? Something that Tyrian could’ve been a part of considering how he worships Salem. Heck, the White Fang practically turned into a cult during Volume 5 when the twin Anubis brothers (can’t remember their names) were standing in front of that creepy painting with their cult-like mannerisms. Should’ve just had the White Fang be a separate thing without writing them like villains and had Salem’s cult attack Beacon. Or maybe have Adam and the Anubis brothers be part of Salem’s faction from the beginning and have them infiltrate the White Fang to indoctrinate them, but Sienna actually fights back with those who aren’t down for up blowing schools (Seriously, how come Illia was the only White Fang member who turned over a new leaf? Literally everyone was fine with Adam’s crazy plan). 20:08 Don’t forget how Salem repeatedly slammed Hazel’s head into the ground. Like really? That’s the best she can do without magic? And why even get near a powerhouse like Hazel? He easily could’ve did her like Hulk did Loki. The further away you are from an opponent like that the better. 21:52 Cinder’s backstory should’ve happened in either Volumes 4,5, or 6. I prefer Volume 6 for three reasons. 1.) That’s when Cinder was at her lowest. 2.) It seems like Cinder came from Mistral anyways, and three, it wouldn’t have felt so awkwardly placed in a Volume which was already a packed Volume. But we already got Salem and Ozpin’s backstory, so it might’ve been kinda redundant. CRWBY probably could’ve put Salem and Ozpin’s backstory in Volume 7, which would be another reason why the characters have their Civil War. I mean, the characters already had their gripes about it in Volume 6, then later you had the drama that happened between Team RWBY and Ironwood, and within Team RWBY themselves in Volumes 7 & 8 which felt like a rehash of Volume 6 anyways. Might as well push back the big bad’s backstory at that point. However Volume 6 would be drastically different. Maybe if Cinder was actively hunting the protagonists throughout Anima? Maybe give Adam a larger role? Or better yet focus more on the villains in general? I’m not sure. 24:46 The music during the episodes is just background noise to me. Be it motifs or actual songs. But the Volume intros have gotten progressively worse to the point when people were talking about Casey’s album from her band I wasn't interested whatsoever. Then I heard her sing during the final moment of Sonic X Shadow Generations: Dark Beginnings Episode 3 and was actually impressed. I guess she just needs a producer/mixer who’s more professional and enthusiastic. No offense to her other producers and mixers, but Jun Senoue is on another level… as long as he’s not trying to emulate the 16-bit Sega Genesis sound, i.e. Sonic 4 Episodes 1 & 2 and Sonic Superstars. 31:04 Besides Rooster Teeth glorifying Minecrafting yourself, the aspect of Ruby coming back as someone or something entirely different with no recollection of her past life should've worried the characters. It did at first, but for some bizarre reason seeing the Herbalist come out of his wooden cocoon reassures them. Even though the Herbalist and the Genial Gems are Ever Afterans, they're meant to use the tree. There's no telling what might happen to a human. So why is everyone so calm about Ruby being inside the tree??? 33:39 Thanks to that Punderstorm (which should've been called the Ponderstorm like Celtic Phoenix said since the characters were pondering their choices and puns weren't the main focus), everyone sees their mental strife except Blake and Yang. You're telling me neither of them feel guilty for what transpired in Atlas? They don't feel guilty for going behind everyone's backs, telling Robyn Ironwood's plan, and contributing to his paranoia? Yang doesn't feel like a hypocrite for hiding what she and Blake did (telling Robyn about Ironwood’s plan) from Ruby even though Yang was all gung ho about no more lies and half truths? Neither wonder whether or not they should trust the Cat? Or scared they might not find a way home? Matter of fact, Yang defenders love saying she asked Ruby if she was okay (even though it was never directly about Ruby’s mental health), so why isn’t she worried for Ruby’s declining mental health if she noticed but couldn’t talk to Ruby because things kept interrupting her? With Blake, we know she must feel some amount of guilt or regret about offing Adam if that V7 conversation she had with Yang in the armored truck meant anything. So why not have her see Adam in a mirror? But no, as Jaune put it, they had more “important stuff” to worry about, like their relationship. Comes across as narcissistic and sociopathic if you ask me. Nothing important matters more than their relationship. Screw Ruby, Ironwood, Adam, Atlas, or whether or not the Cat is trustworthy. Then that forced confession on the bridge. Just why? And yes, Bumblebee was (supposedly) planned since the Poser days, but the confession itself was forced. It was literally confess or else. If that isn't forced writing I don't know what is. Yeah, it might not have been confess or die, but Blake and Yang didn’t know that. They had no idea what would happen if they didn’t give each other cheap compliments. 34:28 CRWBY gave us DILF Jaune instead of MILF Nora. Obviously the most important aspect is more Nora screentime and character development, especially since she wanted to find out who she was without being attached to Ren's hip, which would've been a perfect character arc for the Ever After. But still, MILF Nora!!! Arguably the biggest CRWBY fumble of all time right next to Ironwood's characterization in Volume 8.

[@snowyeclipse4099]

I have many inquiries with RWBY, but the BIGGEST one I have is with Jaune. Jaune down right is a self insert by one of the creators and it literally gives me the ick. It feels like they would purposely write the story of RWBY in a way to PERFECTLY somehow fit Jaune in it or they would just do it cause “oh yeah he just so happens to be the last one standing cause he’s the underdog”. It’s giving that DnD player who wants to be the protagonist so bad that they would purposely try to force the party to do certain things cause “Oh it makes sense that MY CHARACTER can do something with this.” Jaune really is one of my biggest Ickes with RWBY and if SOMEHOW they do a RWBY reboot, I’m gonna need Jaune to fulfill his role of being a secondary character and LET THE 4 GIRLS SHINE.

[@cynderthecat7116]

Thomas I’m so glad you’re making Rwby videos again. I totally missed these videos and we’re so back

[@elliegardner1810]

The exact moment I hated Rwby was after season 6 I started seeing their flaws. I only watched Rwby up to this point because of Monty.

[@zizirobinson]

20:01 on the topic of Salem’s fighting style being boring, I feel like Jedah from Vampire Savior is just all of Salem’s potential realized 20 years before her. He incorporates his monstrous nature into his combat, using his own bones as weapons and the blood from his self-inflicted wounds as ranged attacks.

[@Cykeys]

I just love your villain voicework. I feel you nail the classic villain who knows and revels in their evil.

[@nbewarwe]

If I had a nickel for every time Roosterteeth made a show where unaliving yourself led to yo becoming stronger, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but what's wrong with the writers at Roosterteeth? Do they need help or something?

[@Doris-gf4hb]

"Rwby may have been a shit show but it was my shit show." - You say it very well. I have develop my thoughs about Rwby trying to understand the people point of view by criticising the show they love but also appreciating the good small things of this show. If I didn't meet your channel I wouldn't learn from Critter or watch the video where the countent creators calls Rwby fandom out. If I didn't saw your channel I would still be the blind fan who doesn't understand why people criticise the things that they love. You were the person who make me ask myself why you didn't like V7, to look deeper. I'm grateful learning from you, from Critter, from other people to understand diffrent points of view. I apologize for talking so much but I can't help but feel proud of how far I come and I wouldn't done this alone. So no matter what happend you will always be my favorite content creator that I will wait for to watch another video of yours. Anyways, thank you Unicorn for being the first one that lead me to opening my eyes to the ugly yet hurtfull truth. Just like you I still love this show for what it was in my heart. I hope you have wonderfull day/night ☺️.

[@safirasart]

Back in the days I found your channel with rwby videos Since then I've enjoyed the Winx videos and other media analysis a great deal. It's very interesting to now return to some rwby feels refreshing and nostalgic at the same time. Either way you're a great artist and creator and I'm just interested to hear what you have to say

[@171QA]

I feel sorry for every RWBY fan out there.

[@Thedarksenshi]

27:38 Which is a **DAMN** shame, because she was originally the life of the party!

[@voidsthread]

i haven’t even watched this show but your videos on it are really enjoyable to watch !!

[@ToastyGhostie-np9bd]

The sentiment that "its okay to like something, but you can't let it be all of you" is such an amazing note to end on for RWBY.

[@pallingtontheshrike6374]

3:25 fwiw viz does at least have OK localization publishing (even if this is kind of an obvious cash grab, they want to be the ones publishing it regardless of who is actually working on it) For example, they are dutifully publishing World Trigger despite what I can only imagine are incredibly middling numbers in the EN space (JP space is where world trigger actually has a major audience, and Viz does not handle that side) It is a bit funny in an unfortunate way that the only thing I know of that manages to capture RWBY energy is ZZZ, which is a hoyo game in all the best and worst ways of a hoyo game... but with an even higher production budget (lul). Typical hoyo gacha, long, sprawling story, casual gamer focus, etc.

[@danadau.365]

I jumped ship after vol 8 (didnt touch vol 9) because it made we realize that the show will never reward the viewer for paying attention: Absolutely no point in getting excited for Salem’s arrival - they blow up the whale in half the volume. No need to track Ironwood’s paranoia - he just turns stupid AND insane. Your video also made me realize that there was no point in worrying about Mantle either. You’re right Salem has no reason to target them, team RWBY were the ones to destroy it by dropping Atlas on them. FFS

[@Gxmwp]

You know the crossover movies are bad when it's almost impossible to find the second one on the seven seas. It's like they gave up after how bad the first movie was.

[@borjankosarac3645]

Yet, between those and V9, they made a crossover ship (Nightlight) the only Jaune ship that’s not gross after his… freaking magical age-up and age-down where he’s still mentally much older. This after SVTFOE really shat the bed with deuteragonist Marco being aged up and still being shipped with other teens when he’s not really one anymore… Why? Just, tell me why…

[@Oscar95451]

Happy early new years, Unicorn of War

[@lorettabes4553]

Happy (early) New Year to you!

[@MrLightningbob]

To be honest, I find nothing to disagree with you about V8. V9... it's something that I'd rather forget that it exists. As for Blake and Yang... I feel that the sudden turn to shipping them destroyed their characters completely. Not only did they show no signs of being attracted to each other or even other girls, especially given how Yang was checking out the male eye candy back in V1 and Blake all but officially dating Sun and having previously been nearly dating Adam, but also that both of them pretty much gave up on caring about anyone but each other in V9. Heck, Yang barely seemed to care about Ruby since V6 and that came AFTER crossing an ocean and continent and fighting her own demons, recovery from losing her arm, fighting Grimm and bandits just to confront her own mother to USE her to get to Qrow who she was hoping was near Ruby. Heck, Yang hasn't said a word to Qrow since before Blake was kissing Sun in V6. And Blake... all of the character growth she had from being with Sun since the beginning was removed and never given back, just sticking her next to Yang since Weiss and Ruby were almost inseparable. And at the Tree after Ruby offed herself, she essentially didn't give a damn and barely gave Yang a three count before convincing her to not care either. And that Ponderstorm BS... damn was that bad. Heck, with Blake and Yang, it came off as completely forced (as if their 'romance' didn't come out of nowhere already in this volume since they hadn't said or done jack since the trailers to hint at anything to build on) I can't think of anything they said on that bridge that was honest besides acknowledging that Blake has cat ears. That was already done in V1! But yeah, RWBY really went downhill and it started back in V6 when they became more like antagonists rather than protagonists, and the whole thing in V5 sitting around was a real slump. Really makes me glad to have been working on a full series rewrite to improve the lore, establish timelines, provide worldbuilding, proper character development, and vastly improve the plots. Everything starting from the trailers ties into the main series, early introduction to Cinder recruiting her lackies, the teams meeting each other and their fights, the Vytal Tournament and the attack on Vale (that took multiple chapters of significant length for the attack alone). The Menagerie arc was where many things really diverged as little more than people and places were the same as canon as I needed to enhance EVERYTHING, with one of the big payoffs being Blake and Sun hooking up and Ilia finding her own love. Yang's recovery was a tough one as she went through her depression and eventually sparing against Taiyang to prove that she can leave the island (YES, Tai is more than a background character and continues to have a presence up to V6 where I'm at now). Weiss does more than heed her fathers whims, quite the opposite (she hasn't seen him in person since she left for Beacon, that's all of the hint I'll give there). And Ruby with the rest of Team RNNJR (not a misspelling) have their travels well defined including HOW they got from Patch to WHY they had to hike across the largest continent on the planet (during that adventure, Nora wins a pancake eating contest which earns the team a free nights rest, meals, and some cash they use for upgrades). Raven gets fleshed out, ALOT (keep tissues handy). V5 events has some sitting around but there is good reason for it but that is broken up by plenty of activity going on, even with RNNJR and Qrow having a mission (it's a bit disturbing thanks to the Grimm) before the fight at Haven (aside from Weiss being run through, its very different). And V6 starts out quite differently with the train ride being reworked and the Apathy too. Their time in Argus so far has added far more to the town than we ever got about Vale and I'm far from done there. 130 chapters with nearly 1 million words so far and growing. Since I have the series divided into three parts on Fanfiction right now, I may be combining all three later this year so it has a fuller feel without having to go through a few screens for the next part.

[@a.t.trujillo9970]

I don't hate Jon I just wish that Team Ruby got the screen time they deserve cuz like John is not a bad character at least before volume 4 where he became very depressed over Pyrrha's death so that kind of dragged on his character in volume seven and eight became better because it was no longer depressed anymore but then in volume nine they didn't get it they made him an angst Lord I like John what is character is it super angsty or like angry over things that make no sense like him getting angry at Cinder like yeah she killed Pyrrha but like you only recently found out that she had a crush on you so why do you care that much I mean he should care cuz he was friends with her but like why would he be screaming mad angry it would have made more sense if you replace John in that scene with Kira and just flip the whole entire narrative around to make it so Jean was the one who died at the fall of Beacon and Pierre is still alive so that anger would make sense coming from Pyrrha but not from John and also sorry for misspelling his name I don't know how to spell it

[@angrybrony]

My favorite thing about Bumblebee is the cemestry they don't have after 10 fucking years and made one of my favorite characters actively worse and also Blake was there.

[@borjankosarac3645]

Yeah… I still think Monochrome/Checkmate had more chemistry potential. I hate that criticism of Bumblebee gets rolled into being anti-LGBTQIA+ in general; I just don’t like the pairing. But I would gladly have done my above choice and/or Nuts and Dolts, those actually would’ve been great! Or really, most pairings that aren’t actually canon…

[@joelsasmad]

I think there was some potential chemistry after their moment in volume 2, but it was really not properly built upon at all before suddenly mashing them together. LGBTQ or not, it is just bad romance writing.

[@angrybrony]

@borjankosarac3645 it was pretty obvious that Blake and sun were supposed to be the ones getting together in vol 4 and 5 but just didn't because they could make a shit ton of cash off of Bumblebee and it's crazy ass fans.

[@angrybrony]

@joelsasmad and here's the thing...and and Blake didn't really give a fuck about or atleast not enough for them to go looking for the other. There stories had to different themes, yang was her family drama and Blake with the furry community white fang bs...and they fucking dead ended both for mid tier, room temp, Yuri bs.

[@Karxrida]

Oh thank god I'm not the only one who thinks they have zero chemistry.

[@dazaiosamu7184]

Amazing animation at the end

[@mr.leafcanary8258]

Honestly, I had accepted last year of 2023 that gave me a poetic ending for both Attack on Titan, and RWBY. They started together in 2013, and now ended together in the very same year, and both have claims; AoT is the generational Masterpiece, and RWBY is the lovable Disasterpiece. I'm also glad you talked about RWBY for a bit. I always love rewatching the White Fang video, as a Native Canadian.

[@CrimsonCharan]

Side note: I would KILL for Thomas to make a video about Attack on Titan. Feel like they could say a lot.

[@mr.leafcanary8258]

@@CrimsonCharan If Thomas did make a video for Attack on Titan, well hopefully he'll notice that both AoT and RWBY are basically the same when it comes to development, but AoT did it much better. Literally every beat of RWBY, AoT did it better.

[@artistanthony1007]

VIZ Media hasnt confirmed they're not continuing it so it's not the same case.

[@mr.leafcanary8258]

I'm hoping they'll just give CRWBY a swan song volume, then they can reboot it since without anyone from the original CRWBY/RT except maybe Kerry, they can do whatever they want with Their RWBY vision.

[@jameslazaridis4180]

@@mr.leafcanary8258 do you think I’m really stupid to you? Or this is a joke.

[@rsync9490]

I don't know about both of them but season 8 was terrible. That season ruined Salem and Ironwood at the same time. Which were some of the few interesting characters in that show.

[@kidprime6863]

@rsync9490 Volume 9 was better by a long shot. I understand why and how it turned out the way it did. But I'm glad it ended on a high note, and Ruby came back as herself. She really cut it close.

[@ecthox-1mork909]

​@ For me, the ending of Volume 9 fully pushed Ruby and her teammates into the moral event horizon when they decided not to learn anything from their mistakes and double down on their old narcissistic mindsets, and I had the urge to scream and rip my hair out during the last episode. I swore off the show to become a Fanworks-Only Fan after that, before RoosterTeeth went under.

[@blueturtle1240]

Yea i fell off season 5, once you start realizing how terrible the writing was it,became impossible to watch. it felt like the show went from goofy action teen drama, to edge lord territory

[@kittygardenva2741]

Nice animation at the end! You're nailing a really cool low poly style!

[@TheFuriousScribbles]

I hated these volumes when they came out, though having it pointed out that my attempts at storytelling suffer from a lot of the same problems, I feel like I should be nicer. But dammit do these volumes make it hard.