Everything Wrong with RWBY Part 5 (Missed Opportunities Edition)

I've never understood the idea that faunus are being oppressed in a society where manifestations of evil intent are literally camping outside city walls ready to mercilessly tear people apart. Wouldn't it make more sense for the Huntsman academies to be running the show in place of the 'Councils' and using the faunus, a group of individuals with abilities beyond those of humans, as forced military assets?
The biggest issue with RWBY, in my opinion, is that the writers decided to create a world entirely outside of our own, with its own set of rules and regulations, and then include parallels to real-world politics without taking into consideration the way the world would have evolved differently. But no, humans with unlocked auras aren't the primary powerbase in society, faunus are used as slave labor in place of front-line fighters, and the last Great War was about the idea of expression, rather than expanding territory or increasing base resources.
The existence of Dust alone means that the development of society would be vastly different than our world...
Oh please to the writers her potential love interests are more important to her character than the racism and oppression she might’ve faced, I wish I was just kidding but seriously her potential love life has far more time devoted to it than the racism thing. Even her evil ex, who’s implied to have been a slave, who became the leader of a group made specifically because of said racism doesn’t care much about it and thinks about revenge against her far more than revenge against his actual oppressors. Again I wish I was kidding, you can clearly see these writers don’t know or care about writing things like this.
And that’s why Weiss is best girl, because in comparison she’s the best character in this cast.
Avatar The Last Airbender tackles subjects like genocide, war, mind control, pollution, etc. And it had less than an episode to go into detail about these. Though it doesn't cover any of it's topics in full, it treats each topic realistically and with respect for the time it is there. RWBY doesn't at all.
I use Avatar: The Last Airbender because it’s the perfect example of taking every character the main group of characters come across important or impactful in some way. Every village, town and city is a new experience with its own problem that needs to be tackled, and one or more of the characters learn something from this experience the vast majority of the time. Or some part of the world of Avatar was explored and expanded on. I know these are drastically different from RWBY in terms of structure but I almost wonder if they would have benefited from having a structure similar to this in the first place. But even so there are ways to make this work in a long narrative. Less time with Ren and Nora's back story and more time on the people living in Remnant, more time spent on what the characters are now experiencing after the fall of Beacon. More interaction with their world and each other, that is what should have been done. But Volume 4 failed to do that in almost any way for me.
Big thing about avatar: It took A LOT to break a character out of their way of thinking. You couldn't just give them a quick hero speech or pep talk and then they'd suddenly be like "hey your right!" Like they do in ruby. In avatar they'd have someone address the person's flaw or issue, the person won't want to believe it and ignore it. Because they can think for themselves and it's not that easy. They get into a situation that proves the accuser right but still make excuses for themselves because they don't want to believe it. Then when they see how their decisions and stubbornness to change was actually hurting someone else, or they realized that what they were doing was hypocritical, THEN they changed. It took action and events to change how characters thought about things. They had to literally be forced to SEE the effects and consequences of their actions before they changed themselves. Not just flowery speeches.
Also, counting One Piece in lore, the reason that series succeeds where RWBY fails so far in writing is in mysteries and questions in the series, even though there are a lot of questions and mysteries in One Piece still, One Piece is constantly and progressively answering its questions for fans in either a very subtle way or flat out explaining it, sometimes even off-panel, whereas RWBY takes forever to do this, or when its done, it feels less natural for the show to use a trope or the characters suddenly acting just like they did 20+ episodes ago for a one off gag, which the level of that character trait should have gotten passed by now.
True, their were subplots, but that was development that added up into the main story. In Book 1, the group met Jet/The freedom fighters and Haru, which were important when it came to finding Appa and hunting the Dai Li in Book 2, and the invasion during the solar eclipse in Book 3. Those subplots were important in developing the main plot and pivotal events, and it was still able to flow. Even some subplots in Book 3 had importance. Yes sometimes it was to add levity but there was always a part that was building the story. Also...the villains were actually threatening and posed a significant threat to the group, especially Azula.
also, a lot of the sub plots in ATLA contributed to the main plot in showing how the fire nation was affecting the rest of the world. spirits were angry that their territories were being burned down, people were being enslaved, we even saw the effect ozai was having on his own children in how azula can't even function in a non-combat setting because of how she was raised. the sub plots were another method to hyping up the threat of the fire nation and the big bad of the series
the horror story subplot here doesn't do any of that. It's not building salem up because she didn't create the grimm and they would do this regardless of her input. It's not really building the world at all except introducing a new grimm (which is probably never going to show up again after they're done with this place). It's just another abandoned town in the middle of nowhere with dead people in it.
Missed Opportunities #1: RWBY vs FNKI. There are a lot of problems with the fights in Volume 3. But the biggest in my opinion is the lack of any investment you have in them, and nowhere is that more of a problem than in the RWBY vs FNKI fight of episode 5. Unlike every other fight of this season the potential this fight had over all of the others is astronomical, and it has almost nothing to do with the fight itself but the characters in it. One of the biggest problems with Volume 3 was that all of the new fighters in the Vytal festival tournament are treated as throwaway characters, and this should never be the case.
Say what you want about a show like Naruto, the chunin exam tournament arc is pretty great. You know every character, you've known them for a long time, and most importantly you understand what they might have to lose in their fights. A lot of people don't understand this idea but a fight scene, or at least the best kind of fight scenes, are not just good because of good choreography or pacing, but rather an emotional investment in the characters participating in it. Naruto has some amazing fights in this arc that revolve around this very idea. Naruto proves himself to the village in his fight with Neji, Sakura’s rivalry with Ino, Rock Lee’s fight of hard work vs talent with Gaara. The best fights of this volume came not just from some pretty great animation but from investment we had in what was going on between the opposing sides.
Almost every one of these characters have a personal reason to want to be in this tournament. Not all are equally interesting but they don't have to be. Fight I didn't mention #1. Naruto vs Kiba, his first step to proving himself to his peers. Changes Kiba's view of him completely. Fight I didn't mention #2. Hinata vs Neji, high expectation vs no expectations. Neji proves he's better than the family that abandoned him, Hinata fails to prove her strength.
In Volume 3 there is virtually none of this, when writing a tournament arc we need some reason to care about what's going on. I understand that the tournament is being used by the main antagonists as a means to enact their plans but as a result of that the writers felt no need to put in any effort to develop the characters we have any further and use this opportunity to have a bunch of fights that we ultimately forget because they don’t mean anything. They didn’t have to be relevant to the plot, just to the characters since an investment in the characters is what brings us through a story.
On to the the actual problem at hand. I said before that Volume 3 has virtually none of this, but it does have one little sliver of investment in one fight, which is RWBY vs FNKI. Specifically between Weiss and Flynt Coal. There are so many missed opportunities that this fight could have explored if they had bothered to.
Flynt does not like Weiss, specifically he doesn't like the Schnee family in general but he's projecting his hate onto the only person he can. This is wrong for obvious reasons but more interestingly it's wrong because of just how much acts like Weiss in this scene. We are seeing the same kind of flaw, like Weiss Flynt clearly has his own prejudice that has been formed due to a personal loss. Flynt’s father lost his shop to the Schnee Dust Company, Weiss lost friends and family to the White Fang, giving her a distrust of the Faunus. Weiss is being confronted by someone who has been through a similar kind of pain and has made the same rash judgments that she did. But this is not explored in the least, besides a few laughs and obvious joy he gets out of beating Weiss into the ground we don’t get anything else from Flynt during the fight other than the acknowledgment that her last move was a selfless one. How much more interesting would it have been if we got some banter in this scene?
This face deserves to be explored more, either develop things fully or don't put it in at all. Neon is a waste in more ways than one. Here we have a character that basically serves no purpose in this fight other than that she is an annoying Faunus girl who loves to pick on Yang. She's another throwaway character the writers clearly didn’t care enough about to give anything worthwhile. This is so frustrating given that the solution for this problem is so obvious, why not have Neon hate the Schnee family as well? Both Flynt and Neon are from Atlas (although their expressive clothing and musical interests make them more suitable for Mistral, maybe Atlas likes music a lot I mean they do like singing apparently I don’t know) so why not have both characters not like Schnee’s, just for different reasons. Flynt has his father’s shop to be angry about, why not have Neon’s family work for the Schnee Dust Company as miners? She wants to mess someone up, and it should have been Weiss.
Despite the fact that Faunus are given equal wages to most Atlas workers (or so Jacques says), it doesn’t mean that the pay is equal to the difficulty of the work that needs to be performed by those very workers. Equipment might be faulty or perhaps some important pieces of equipment might not even be given, the conditions of mining are already inherently hazardous, and now we know that simply working in dust mines for long periods of time can lead to severe health problems later in life as what happened to Nicholas Schnee himself, having a decent pay simply isn't good enough for the lifelong harm this job can cause. If Neon had a family member, if not several, who had health problems caused by dangerous working conditions caused by the Schnee Dust Company’s lack of care for it’s Faunus workers. It would allow us to learn more about the motivations people outside of the kingdoms and the main characters would have to become Hunters, maybe Neon wants to become a huntress to improve conditions for Faunus workers by killing Grimm attracted by the day to day hardships they face, or simply to fight Grimm to improve the lives of others since she can't do it for her family. This makes Neon feel like a fully fleshed out character with purpose instead of an internet meme reference. Flynt is as well but like I said they give him something, kind of.
This is how I imagine the scenario goes down. The fight starts, Flynt kicks Weiss like he does, Neon charges towards Yang. Yang attacks but Neon dodges, going straight past her, Yang is confused as to why she wouldn’t attack. Weiss finally gets up, only to be greeted by a nunchuck to the face at high speed by Neon. Neon and Flynt are tag teaming her, they both want a piece of Weiss, they both want to hurt her like her family has hurt them and this is the only chance that they will get to do this without getting in trouble for it. We could have even had a scene where some dirty looks are exchanged as team RWBY walked through the festival grounds. Yang finally manages to get Neon off of Weiss so she can focus on handling Flynt. Neon, who up to this point has been a jokester (you could extend the back and forth attacks between her and Flynt, or have more banter between her and Weiss before the fight to make this be more impactful) has lost her composure and yells at Yang to let her through to Weiss. Yang asks why she’s so angry with her, to which Neon begins screaming about why she hates the Schnee family. A more personal frame I like to show some intensity between these two.
This brings me to the next thing this fight had the ability to explore but chooses not to. The mindsets and views of the citizens of each kingdom. With Neon screaming at Yang about her hatred of the Schnees, we cut to the audience. We see Atlas students annoyed and passing her off as an irrational Faunus just trying to cause problems, Faunus students of Atlas scream in support for her, booing Weiss and taunting her. Then it happens, physical confrontation. Faunus students get into fights with Atlas students over the confrontation in the arena. This allows us to do some serious world building, the most important aspect of world building is not seeing new locations, but rather exploring these new places and the people that inhabit them. Seeing the average student get into fights with each other over such a thing shows us a lot about how the people of Atlas actually feel and how they probably treat each other there. You want to know something else, why not use this opportunity to potentially reveal something about the characters we already have. Would it not be interesting to show Velvet have prejudice against the Schnees due to her mistreatment by others (and by others I mean Cardin.....god the depiction of racism in this show is awful), maybe team SSSN or the rest of CFVY’s perspective? It feels like the staff are too afraid to “damage” our perception of these characters that they aren’t willing to give the side characters any prejudice or perspectives of their own. Once again groups like team CFVY and SSSN come off as unimportant throwaway characters who are there to look cool but never do anything worthwhile or even have anything worthwhile to contribute to how the story is viewed by the audience.
Guards would obviously try to calm the people down and stop the fighting as to not attract the Grimm with all the negativity. Flynt taunts Weiss, saying that all of this is her family’s fault, that the world would be better off without them. Yang is about to lose it, about to unleash her semblance and beat both FNKI members half to death. But before she can, Weiss cries out “I'M SORRY!” The audience goes silent. The fighting in the stands stops, everyone watches Weiss as she gets up.
“I’m sorry about your father, Flynt. I’m sorry your family has been suffering, Neon. I’m so sorry that all of this has happened to you both. But that isn’t me. As sorry as I am for both of you, I am not the one to blame. I became a huntress so I could fix what my family’s company has done to so many, I want to better myself and help those that we have refused to help for so long. But right now, this fight has nothing to do with any of that. We are hunters, we are protectors of the people of Remnant. Our words should not make people cry out in anger but with joy, we should be driving ourselves to destroy hatred and ignorance not help spread it. I am looking at you, both of you, as fellow hunters, as allies, and as friends. I can’t make you change and I don’t expect you to right at this moment, I just want you to give me the chance to show you I can be different than those that have harmed you, the question is will you give me that chance?"
Flynt and Neon nod in agreement, they could have communicated through facial expressions that even though they agree to stop fighting and have definitely seen more than they expected from Weiss they are still skeptical. They agree with her as they notice the fighting has stopped. The audience calms and people sit down again as the tension dissipates. They still don’t fully respect her, and this is where the last part of this scene could have come in.
Weiss should not have pushed Flynt into the geyser, instead make it so that the fight resumes and Yang faces off against Neon. Through her semblance she manages to give one big punch to Neon that completely knocks her aura to zero, but she lands on top of a geyser near where Flynt and Weiss are fighting. Flynt and Weiss notice and Weiss rushes to Neon, pushing her out of the way of the geyser as it engulfs her and breaks her aura, knocking her out of the fight. Neon is on her knees, Weiss in front of her. Grateful she grabs Weiss and shows concern for her. She asks why she would do what she did for someone who hurt her so badly.
“Like I said, were huntresses, we should be looking out for one another.”
Those words are all it takes for Neon to realize just how wrong about Weiss she was. Neon had just hurt this girl so much, felt such hatred for a person she didn't even know, and she wasn’t even right about her. She feels like a fool and begins to cry. Weiss comforts her as Yang and Flynt finally reach them.They express concern and see they are both okay. Flynt kneels down next to Neon, they both look at each other and smile. Flynt turns to Weiss and says his line from the show.
“That was a gutsy move Schnee, I dig it.” Only this time with a smile on his face.?
Yang decides to interject, jokingly saying that as nice as this is, they have a fight to conclude. Flynt nods in agreement and both fighters decide to return to the center ring at opposite ends for a fair start. The fight starts and both go at it for a bit, Flynt uses Killer Quartet in an attempt to win but Yang counters with her own semblance and blocks his trumpet's attack like she did in the original episode, winning the fight. Flynt groans and starts trying to get up, but Yang offers him a helping hand that he graciously accepts. Neon and Weiss come over to praise them for a good fight. Neon goes next to Flynt and asks him if he's alright, he asks the same to her. They both look at Weiss and turn to each other.
“Yeah, I think we’re both alright now.”
Weiss smiles and extends her hand, Yang does the same. Both teams shake each other's hands and the crowd explodes with applause. We cut back to the audience and see Atlas and Faunus students apologizing to each other, some start to talk and laugh. The ignorance and hatred has faded away, spreading love and acceptance throughout the stadium and without the characters knowing it, the world. We might even have cuts to Ozpin smiling in his office with Qrow, Peter and Oobleck clapping in the booth, and a cropped 2-D drawing shot of Jacques Schnee who angrily turns off his television (or whatever they call it).
This is what I believe this battle should have been, this should not have been another throwaway fight from Volume 3. I’m not saying this is exactly the way this had to go down necessarily but the larger ideas at work like Neon having a larger role and the audience's reaction to the confrontation between Weiss and FNKI to me are essential elements that should have been a part of this fight. This was a massive wasted opportunity as scenes like this one would make us want to see characters like Neon and Flynt come back because we understand that a real friendship and respect had been formed during the fight. Characters walked away from this fight differently, characters had something to lose or something to prove or accomplish during this fight. That's what makes a fight scene work, in the end even the most beautifully choreographed fight scene will hold no water and fade from memory if there is nothing to make us care about it. It doesn't have to be both characters, all we need is one. Both just make it all the sweeter.
As the title suggests this will be part of a series of posts that delve into the chances that RWBY had to do some very interesting things but squandered by not having the foresight to take full advantage of them. I have quite a few ideas already, I also have ideas for another series but won’t talk about that one for now. This is a long post and I really do hope people stuck with it all the way to the end, I really appreciate you reading my thoughts on this subject and found the read interesting at the very least, hope you all enjoy the post and I’ll see you in the next one!
Also, rewatching the series the tournament was hinted so many times (and we know they planned RWBY out) I think having a scene with the girls training together and addressing their interest/motivation in the tournament. Length is also completely irrelevant here. RWBY wastes it's screen time in almost every season by focusing on characters who we don't care about and ultimately don't contribute to the characters or development of the main story.

1. V1 we have a focus on Jaune when we should have focused on team RWBY.

1. V2 actually does focus on the team and their problems and goals so this season is okay for that. But it should have happened earlier.

1. V3 has us have no focus on anyone until the last few episodes and has pointless fights when that time could have been spent setting up the characters in the tournament.

1. V4 we focus on the back story of Ren and Nora, which was the biggest waste of screen time so far because it also ultimately doesn't matter to the conclusion of the story and takes us away from the things they should have been developing, like the world and culture of each nation.And it is a waste because Ren and Nora didn't need a back story because we like them without them, it also encourages another horrible thing this show has done this season that I'll probably talk about in another post, but in short, we don't need a backstory for every character the show has focus on. They can just be good characters and that's all we have to care about.

Every single minute is important and Rooster Teeth wastes them almost every episode with stuff that brings the story to a halt. Asking them to use those minutes to make me care about characters they design is not asking for a lot, a minute is a long time. I'm not asking for Shakespearean characters here, just a reason to care. You say they can't do it in 13 minutes, make the episode 15 and cut out the filler of the episode and have almost the whole thing focus on just the fight. This won't just benefit the characters but gives them more time to fix a lot of the pacing and choreography of that fight too. That adds a lot. This fight could have added to the world of RWBY and made Weiss have a massive positive impact on Remnant, which is important to her character.
My entire point is don't have the focus be on different characters if you aren't going to explore them. When we start a show we need to get invested in the characters we are going to be following the vast majority of the time. We don't need to know Jaune in the first volume, we need to know Ruby and her team because they are the main characters and it takes time to develop them.
Missed Opportunities #4: Why the Vytal Festival Tournament is Terrible. The tournament Arc is one of the most common forms of Storytelling used in action anime, but unfortunately it has become such a common trope that inevitably it has been used in far more lackluster material then exceptional ones. But like in any form of storytelling it's not about what is happening but why it's happening. Not how often something is used but how it's used. Because just like its potential to be something boring and overused for the sake of spectacle the tournament Arc has created some of the most well earned and emotionally investing moments in anime. But we are not here to talk about one of those cases. We are here to talk about the Vytal festival tournament, which might be the worst tournament arc I have ever seen. Because the Vytal festival isn't a tournament arc, it is quite literally just a series of fights. That's it. That's all there is to it. Which is not an arc by any stretch of the word.
By the end of an arc in any story, something about your story must be changed. It doesn’t have to be by much but something must be different than when the arc began. Whether that is the characters, the world, or the plot. But nothing happens in this tournament because all the tournament is doing is providing some eye candy for us until the start of Cinder’s plan. This makes the tournament, and by extension almost the entire first half of Volume 3 pointless because we care about so little that happened because there was almost nothing worth getting invested in besides a few character interactions (Weiss and Winter, Yang and Ruby with Qrow) and a couple of plot related scenes (the council meeting, Pyrrha and the maidens). Maybe you disagree and thought there was a lot more to this tournament but allow me to explain to you Why the Vytal Festival Tournament is Terrible.
Why is this a thing? Before we can get into discussing the tournament proper we have to take a look at the setup of the tournament itself and why it has no reason to exist in Remnant. Out of all of the forms of competition that they could have possibly chosen to represent unity between nations, they decided to go with a combat tournament. A test of someone's raw fighting capabilities, in a world supposedly at peace with one another. People have compared the Vytal festival tournament to the Olympics, and even though that is a good comparison it does not belong in RWBY. Let me explain. The Vytal tournament is a competition with the single goal of proving which kingdom is the best. Which of them is producing the best hunters. The Olympics is about proving which country in the real world is producing the best athletes. At the end of the day we are looking for a particular place, a particular group of people or individual who stands out above the rest. The Olympics is not about the collective whole, but about the achievements of individuals. Even in the team sports at the Olympics or in almost any sport when you really think about it, don't there tend to be maybe two or three individuals within those teams that we care about more than the rest of them? Something I want to make very clear when I say all this is that this isn't a bad thing. These people worked hard to get where they are and they should be celebrated for it. However this is not how the Vytal festival should be. The Vytal festival is not about the individual, it is about celebrating peace between nations and treating everyone like equals.
You can't even argue that the tournament itself celebrates unity. That the teams have to work together and show off their teamwork in order to win and therefore it displays bonds between the team members. But in the vast majority of the fights of the tournament most of the characters square off of one on one. I'm sorry but the very few team maneuvers that some of the fights have don't justify that the entire tournament still supports the idea of working together as a whole. In fact the very nature of the way the tournament is conducted has it so that you have to leave members of your team behind the further you get into the tournament! Focusing all of the attention more and more on a select few people instead of the contributions that every member made to the success of the group. The problem here is that this setup is not inherently bad but is contradictory to the very nature of the world that the show takes place in. In most real world team sports, everybody on the team has a position to play and each one of these positions is important to the success of the team. Everyone is always contributing.
Why would you want to be part of a tournament where you are fighting against people when you have been training your whole life to fight monsters? Why would you be encouraging young Hunters to view each other as competition when these people might have to rely on one another in the future? There is one enemy in this world that is worth caring about which are the Grimm. Why give young impressionable Hunters this mindset that other Hunters are some form of competition? In a dangerous situation with the Grimm a hunter might get the idea of "hey maybe I should just let this play out" instead of immediately going to help their fellow Hunter because the temptation of some kind of a reward might just be enough for that hunter to let his fellow man bite the dust if he gets to take all the glory, and money, for himself. So you can’t argue that this is training them to fight against human opponents, because they should never have to worry about fighting human opponents because they are hunters. The training they were doing in the first volume made sense because everyone has to start off with some level of a somewhat risk free environment to practice their skills in, but now they are just going to fight against other students for no reason other than, hey it's a tournament so let's fight.
Finally we come to answer the question presented at the beginning of this part. Why is this a thing? You can try to come up with whatever justification that you want but the simple fact of the matter here is this. Action anime have tournaments, the writers wanted a tournament. They didn't think about how they got to this point or whether or not it made any sense within the context of its own world but they were sure as hell going to get there and in the end who cares about consistency when we can just have cool fights. For anyone out there who might be saying to themselves "that's a pretty bold claim to make", I would normally agree with you. But the fact of the matter is the entire world of the show isn't put together well at all, almost no aspect of the way that Remnant was put together was actually thought through, or they believe it to be. In all honesty it's clear to me that Monty and the writers of RWBY had a lot of really cool ideas they wanted to put into a story and they put all of those ideas in, but clearly didn't think through what they wanted to do with them. They had beats to hit and they wanted to hit them no matter what. A tournament is just one of them but there are many others. I won't be getting into them here but expect another Missed Opportunities post about it in the future.
So now you might be thinking "What if I don't care? What if I don't care about the world or the setup? What if I just want to see a good tournament?"
Well that's just the the thing, even if you forgive all of this setup and its lack of common sense the Vytal festival tournament still doesn't work.
No one cares, so why should I? Here are a few things every tournament Arc needs in order to engage the audience: 1) Strong motivations for every character to be a part of the tournament 2) Rivalries between characters 3) An introduction of new characters with unique abilities.
The worst part about this is that even if all of this setup was still bad I would be willing to forgive it in almost its entirety as long as the actual tournament itself was good. But it's not, like I said at the beginning of the post, this is not a tournament Arc. It is simply a bunch of fights, they ultimately mean nothing and hold no weight to the story or characters whatsoever, making the entire tournament hold no value.
There is not a single character in the entire tournament who has any motivation to be part of it. Not one. I mentioned this in my very first missed opportunities post about the RWBY versus FNKI fight, but the truth is that action in of itself is kind of pointless and any good action series will actually have there be some kind of a reason for why you should be invested in this action. Whether or not the characters in the scene might be in some kind of danger or whether or not these characters might lose something even if their life isn't in danger. There has to be some reason for us as the audience to care about what is going on. All this takes in some cases is asking questions. Why are these characters fighting? What is each character trying to achieve? What is at stake for them? These are simple questions to add conflict, not a mind-boggling web of relationships but simple and effective ways of getting your audience invested. RWBY has none of this during the tournament.
Let's take our main character team and break down what possible motivation they could possibly have to want to be part of this tournament.
Ruby- There is nothing, she simply thinks it's going to be fun. Why not do it? What's sad about this is that there was a way of being able to tie in some kind of motivation that didn't have to be groundbreaking but was an interesting part of Ruby’s character that could have greatly expanded on her and the scope of the tournament. Her interest in other people's weapons and fighting styles. Why not have her approach some of the other people participating in the tournament and try to find out more about them, which could have actually served as legitimate character introductions for them instead of being introduced just seconds before the fight? Maybe they could have weaved Qrow into this tournament a little, maybe give some advice to Yang for her matches or something.
Weiss- Weiss is the closest one not only on Team RWBY who has a motivation to be a part of this tournament but also in the entire volume itself, and even then not really. Her relationship with winter is the closest thing to a motivator in the season. Weiss wants to prove herself to her sister. Now with the Volume 5 character short we actually see that winter is the one who trained her, so it makes even more sense for her to want to impress her sister because she wants Winter to realize that her training wasn't for nothing. But besides the mention of the few missed strikes in the ABRN fight, it's never brought up again. Winter talks a little with her sister in the next episode but then leaves. We are given no reason to assume in the next episode that Weiss in any way shape or form is worried about her performance during the rest of the tournament. Which is to say one more fight. Winter turned out to be far more interesting than I was expecting. Here's hoping Volume 5 brings her back.
Blake- She has even less of a reason to be part of this than Ruby. Even with the way Ruby is at least you can assume that maybe she wants to participate in the tournament because she's the leader and wants to prove Team RWBY’s strength. With Blake there is literally nothing. She is just a part of it because the rest of her team is a part of it.
Yang- Even Yang doesn't really have anything. Because even though we know she is a thrill-seeker you might want to say that she just wanted to be a part of the tournament in order to have some good fights. Which even though is understandable for her character it is not interesting to watch that in the slightest because who cares about her wanting to fight people? We get it. Yang likes to fight. Maybe if they gave her a rival during the tournament (I don’t know maybe someone with a kick based fighting style that is opposite to upper body one) we could have had a reasonable motivation for her. What character fits that description......Oh wait, MERCURY! “But what are you talking about, they did have a fight and it was really good!” Sure, they fought and it was one of the better choreographed fights of the season for sure but it has no weight behind it. What happens afterwards doesn't matter, that's not tournament related thats plot related. You could have had Mercury in the first episode of the season with Emerald when she went to find out who would be participating in the tournament. When Yang says she will be part of it, have Mercury insult her or say she doesn't have a chance, with Yang’s attitude maybe have their be some tension between them. This works especially well later during the CFVY fight. CFVY were basically jobbing for Mercury, Yang would have remembered how he gave up when he fought Pyrrha and would assume he was just all talk. But then when the fight starts and she sees just how skilled he really is, beating down these characters that had destroyed several powerful Grimm in the season 2 finale that two of their teams had trouble defeating one of each in the first season, could have been exciting and maybe even scary for Yang. The way to make this even stronger would have been to have the prize of the tournament be any favor the hunter desires. What if Yang wanted to use that favor to find her mom? Therefore she would have something to lose and there you go, tension just like that. But that didn’t happen so oh well.
To pull a bit of a preemptive self-defense here, the fight with team FNKI is such a disappointment because it had the potential to be amazing. Now you can just read my previous missed opportunities post in order to learn exactly why I feel this way but one of the latest comments in it said that this fight was supposed to show even more of Weiss's tarnished relationship with her father and Yang's over-reliance on her semblance in order to win fights. But we did not need the FNKI fight in order to get this. Yang's fight with Neo was more than enough to understand that without her semblance she can't win against the more powerful opponents that they will soon be facing. And I don't know if any of you have been paying attention necessarily but Weiss' relationship with her father has been one of the cornerstones of her entire character. Another small conflict being shoved in with this random character we've never met before is not really necessary in order to expand on that idea. Once again we get it, Weiss has a rough relationship with her dad. Move on.
Missed Opportunities#1 RWBY vs FNKI. I believe this goes without saying but I'm going to say it anyway. No one else in the entire tournament has any reason to be part of this tournament either. Because none of the other participants are given any screen time whatsoever to develop them, everyone in the tournament shares the same problem. It feels like everyone just joined this tournament just because why the hell not? So just like with my previous Missed Opportunities post with the Grimm, I’m going to briefly address every fight in the tournament and explain why I feel none of them matter.
RWBY vs ABRN- It's just the first round, they win and they celebrate. There is no dialogue whatsoever with ABRN, they are just there to get their asses kicked so the main characters can move on. Shame, considering Reese and Arslan have two of my favorite designs in this season. Kind of a waste spend so much time modeling characters and unique weapons (especially Reese’s) and do basically nothing with her.
JNPR vs BNRZ- At first I thought you could view this fight as an introduction to Jaune as a leader, but then I realized that didn't matter at all and they win and they don’t celebrate but just pose in front of a camera and that's it. Other than that the fight seems to exist just to show off Nora’s semblance and have some really terrible comedy.
SSSN vs IDGO- A joke fight, there is no room for debate here. It was made to be a fun fight. But came across as annoying and unfunny to me.
Penny and Ciel vs Sky and Russell- Hey, Penny is still a thing!
Mercury and Emerald vs Coco and Yatsuhashi- An ultimately pointless attempt at jobbing, if that was even the thought process behind it. CFVY were shown in the season 2 finale as the strongest hunters in the school, devastating a large group of Grimm and instantaneously killing the stronger forms that gave the main characters trouble in the first season, while barely breaking a sweat. I had made the completely reasonable that such a display, and the fact that they were Beacon students, meant they would be one of team RWBY’s opponents in the tournament keeping them from victory. Since the Grimm basically jobbed for CFVY, but no one reacts to this in either case, so it leaves no impact and results in no tension.
Yang and Weiss vs Flynt and Neon- Just read my first Missed Opportunities, I go over all of it and more.
Yang vs Mercury- A very cool fight but with no consequences attached to the tournament. Basically this is when the actual plot of the season gets rolling. Sure, important for the pacing of the story, not so for the tournament itself.
Pyrrha vs Penny- Same thing as the Yang and Mercury fight, all consequences have nothing to do with the tournament. There is tension but not because we have any reason to care about who wins or loses the match because at this point the tournament truly doesn't matter anymore.
Let us examine another tournament Arc from a recent series. My Hero Academia. In its second season My Hero Academia started off with the UA sports festival. Another competition to prove who is the most skilled hero in training at the school. Accept in my hero Academia’s case everything here is 100% justified. The very point of this competition is to show off who is supposed to be the best because all of them are striving to be the best hero or at the very least are trying to be a hero that they themselves can be proud of in order to accomplish whatever goal that they might have which, unlike in RWBY, there are several of them. Besides the occasional joke fight, almost every single fight that was a major one in this Arc was emotionally investing in one way or another. It even managed to take a rivalry between Kirishima and the student with a similar power to his and make it engaging. This arc has three main rivalries, Izuku and Bakugou, Bakugou and Todoroki, Todoroki and Izuku. Each of these characters has an extremely strong motivation. Bakugou to prove himself to be the strongest hero. Todoroki wants to prove he can be strong without the use of his father's power who he despises. Izuku who wants to show the world that he is there and that he is going to be the next all might. The tournament is a way for each and every one of these characters to prove that to themselves.
But what about the Vytal tournament, what does it do? What will the characters even really accomplish even if they win this tournament? We learned later that not only is the UA sports festival just some tournament that they have just to celebrate the new students, but also exists to advertise the students to Hero agencies so that way they can be recognized and potentially be taken under their wing, furthering their personal journeys to become great Heroes. But what will winning the Vytal festival tournament do for the main characters of Ruby? Once again this vague glory they achieve for their kingdom isn’t really a great motivator for them or the audience. We have no reason to believe that the characters are that invested in the idea of their individual kingdoms achieving glory to think that is a reason to be invested in them winning. But also unlike My Hero Academia, where I just said that winning in this tournament might mean getting recognized by big hero agencies, there is no such organization that we know of in the world of Remnant. Well actually there are a few different places that actually do recognize the potential of great students and take them under their wing to train them to become great hunters, the hunter academies. Which they are all already a part of. Also remember that not only are they a part of an academy but they all go to the best academies in the entire world. There is no institution higher than the hunter academies that they are going to want to be accepted into.
But tournaments can be even more than that. Do you know what else makes my hero Academia's tournament arc so good? The characters change one another or learn more about themselves during the tournament. People have brought this up in my previous post about the FNKI versus Ruby fight. That in the end this is just supposed to be a fun tournament in order to get to the actual plot, a distraction so that way Cinder can enact her plans. Not only would I say that would be really terrible writing, but it would also be worse than that, it would be a waste of my time. My hero Academia completely avoids this. Because despite the fact that the UA sports festival has absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the series unlike some other action anime do, it's not about always being plot relevant. It's about the characters and their growth. Characters are the things that carry any piece of media (you might not feel this way recognize you are in a minority of a minority). I have been able to get through shows that even though technically if I was going to judge them based on their plot and overall structures maybe they wouldn't have been so good. But I was able to finish them because I was heavily invested in the characters and what they were going through.
This isn't even about the main characters of the show. No tournament should be just about the main characters because then what about everyone else who's participating. In my hero Academia several characters besides just Izuku and Bakugou had motivations to be in the tournament. Ochako wants to be a great hero to get money in order to support her family, Tenya wants to be a well-respected and kind hero like his brother.
But in the end these are still main characters, but my hero Academia takes it even a step further than that. Characters like Mei Hatsume and Hitori Shinsou, who have basically nothing to do with anything in the show, have legitimately interesting motivations to be part of this tournament. Mei doesn't actually care about winning the tournament, her only goal was to show off all the gear that she made for other Heroes because in the end she realizes that going out and fighting bad guys isn't really her style but in the end she is extremely dedicated to what she does best which is making things. Her fight with Iida was not only humorous but a display of her own heroic qualities and skills. She even gives up the match because after screwing with him so much she knows it wouldn't be right of her to move on like that. But even if she could have won, which I highly doubt she could, she accomplished what she wanted to accomplish. Not all heroes punch bad guys.
That is what the tournament provided for her it doesn't have to be the same thing for everyone. Not every single character has to fall into the same conventionally noble parameters in order to feel they deserve a place in the tournament. When the show realizes an opportunity to be able to expand more on the world and not only use a fight to expand on the characters within it but also to make an impression on those witnessing the fight. Not us, the literal audience in the stadium watching the battle. One of the "prizes" in the sports festival was the potential for those in the lower classes to be moved into the hero class, which provides motivation for EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in the tournament even if they aren't named. Everyone has something to achieve here. Shinsou wants to prove he is just as good as those in the hero course, that he is just as capable despite his quirks limitations. But despite losing the fight in the end, what he was capable of doing and how he did it we're so impressive that he managed to make an impression on the heroes watching. A bystander pointed out that it made no sense for Shinsou to be in a support class when his quirks was clearly strong enough to directly combat villains and could even be far more valuable than the typical offensive quirk. The system used to judge heroes in the My Hero Academia world favors those with powerful quirks that are capable of inflicting physical harm. The physical exam requires the destruction of large robotic enemies to succeed, but this means that if you don't have an offensive quirk or quirk that can affect physical substances in some way, you are at a massive disadvantage and probably won't pass. Shinsou's fight shows the audience and people watching on television that there might be something horribly broken in the system and that it needs to be revised or built from the ground up again. Despite his obvious disappointment in his loss, his face when his classmates recognize his strength is one of surprise and hope. He didn't win, but he still proved he was just as good as any other student in the hero course. Both he and Hatsume achieved their goals, and they didn't even win their fights. The fact this series gave this much to such an insignificant character and tied the world to him is just great.
Themes? What are those? You know stories should take every opportunity they have to expand on one of their core themes. The Vytal festival could have explored virtually all of them, but they instead chose to explore none of them, at all. It does nothing for the story or the characters. It doesn't expand on any of the concepts that have been present in RWBY up to this point because it wanted to be a fighting gauntlet first and a narrative.......well never. For me, I have seen three major themes I believe make up the core of RWBY: Fear, Self-Expression and Unity. And maybe you think there are more I would love to hear any more that I might not have thought of.
I won't be getting into exactly why I feel these are the main themes of RWBY it we would literally be here all day. The important thing here to know is that regardless of whatever themes RWBY has, the tournament explores none of them. Let's bring My Hero Academia back up again. one of the series major, if not it's biggest theme is limitation. The inherent nature of the way the story handles its characters superpowers is limited. They can only do so much (another thing RWBY doesn't seem to understand). My Hero Academia is about pushing past those limitations in order to achieve your goals. It uses almost every opportunity to explore this idea, and the UA sports festival is no exception. Midoriya basically dooms himself to lose in his match against Todoroki, because he knew that if he kept keeping in all of that hate and refusing to embrace the other side of his potential, limiting himself for no real reason, he could go down a very dark path and never be happy. Izuku saved a life that day, he lost the match and thus the tournament, but furthered his resolve and his path to become the world's greatest hero.
Bakugou wants to become the strongest hero because strength is all that he values, and whether you feel like that is misguided or not doesn't matter, because it matters to him, and he fails at what he wanted to accomplish even though he technically wins. He defeats Todoroki, but his victory meant nothing to him since Todoroki refused to use his full power. He couldn't confirm that he was the strongest in the tournament, therefore he failed. And that failure is hard to watch, because even though Bakugou might be unhinged and a little nuts, he is just as determined to become a great hero as anyone else, he just has his own definition (like many of the other characters) of what that means. It explores the idea of limitation, as well as furthering their goals as heroes and teaching them more about what they might have to accept about themselves and work to overcome it.
As much as it pained him to do, Bakugou learned more about restraint and public relations while attending his own internship. These are rewards for the character. Ochako trains in hand to hand combat during her internship because her loss in the tournament showed her what her limitations we're. This is her way of pushing herself. Midoriya trains with the teacher of All Might, where he learns to finally control One for All's strength without harming himself. Which he desperately needed af
Wait, there's a Setting? I had gone into this in my missed opportunities post about FNKI vs RWBY, but it's worth expanding upon. but we also miss out on the chance to expand our view of the world. There is not a single bit of world building in this Volume, how do you screw this up? The premise of the season is literally about a multicultural festival, the perfect opportunity to organically explore each kingdoms beliefs and values and how they might be at odds with each other. But the tournament is the only thing of importance, so who cares about actually exploring such an interesting event when we can just watch young people beat the crap out of each other, am I right? They have a food stall area, might be nice to see some authentic foreign cuisine, but screw that let's have them eat at one booth and it's run by our favorite impractically busy old man because we just had to keep that joke going didn't we. Instead of the stadium being a potential hotspot of interaction as many different people from each nation congregate in a small area, perhaps leading to our characters to have some conversations with them or perhaps even overhearing one or two and reacting to what they've heard? A festival like this would most certainly have more than just the one event, right? Surely there would be dozens of events all over the city, like dances and sports and countless other activities. The tournament can't be the ONLY thing worth noting at such a large and anticipated event like this. In fact with the inclusion of the fantasy like elements like aura and semblances, RWBY could have made interesting "new" kinds of sports or competitions based on the superhuman nature of aura users (more on that in another missed opportunities post however). RWBY has concepts and cool ideas, but uses none of them to make their world more interesting. It could influence the way the story and scenarios play out and can use what makes their world unique to do things other stories haven't done before.
No other events like (https://pm1.narvii.com/6577/1e2905c07209bfdd0b413348b794fd49462884fd_hq.jpg)this. Or stalls like (https://pm1.narvii.com/6577/2d2ba56a102e6cd61e65213eb332ee112e992cdf_hq.jpg)this. Or a crowd like (https://pm1.narvii.com/6577/299030bdbeb0ced8f6d5c4062d0f6e5b26cae32c_hq.jpg)this. Naruto managed to accomplish this during the Chunin Exam Arc, where we finally got to see genin from other villages, characters like the three sound genin team 7 fought in the forest as well as Gaara and his siblings showed us a part of the world that we hadn't seen before. The show was delving deeper into the dark underbelly of the ninja world, and how not even genin are safe from the horrors of the government. We started to learn more about the tailed beasts, Orochimaru and the history of the sannin (which would become relevant in the next arc), etc. Our understanding of the world of Naruto was expanding and not once did it ever sacrifice the dramatic stakes necessary to create an engaging tournament arc to do so. The sand siblings are some of the most popular characters in Naruto for a reason. They provided something new, a different perspective.
There are characters in this show that I feel didn't really have to be made like a Neptune, but at the very least even Neptune actually ended up contributing something to one of our characters, Jaune. But season 3 truly is the season of pointless characters. It's a season that introduces more than a dozen characters who all do absolutely nothing of value for the entire time. Every single team that participated in the tournament was pointless. But do you know what is so screwed up about this? I had more of a reason to care about Mercury and emerald succeeding in this tournament than the main characters. Despite the fact that it's still clearly isn't done well because we find out about their backstory after the fact so we can't even feel emotionally invested in their fight when it's actually happening. I understand that wasn't really the point of that fight but my point is that these characters have a reason to fight in this tournament. They want Cinder to succeed, they are loyal to her and we actually find out why. Cinder gave emerald and mercury a purpose in life a reason to use their skills and not have to live in the conditions that they were in when she found them. Right or wrong, they are grateful for what she has done for them and support her regardless. If they actually went further and actually developed these characters more I can actually grow to care and maybe empathize with them a little bit more but with all of volume four going by with absolutely no focus on Emerald or Mercury, Mercury doesn't even talk in volume 4 in the slightest. So I highly doubt it. But regardless of how bad this still is at least these characters still have some kind of a motivation to be a part of the tournament, in a screwed-up way I have more of a reason to care about the bad guys succeeding in this tournament than the good guys because the good guys are fighting for nothing. There is nothing to gain from this tournament, there is nothing to lose from this tournament. The Vytal Festival tournament doesn't work as a tournament arc because it doesn't provide anything that a tournament arc should. A tournament Arc is not just fighting for the sake of fighting. It is still trying to tell a story, in My Hero Academia’s case it just so happened that they decided to go with the story being personal rather than on a grand scale and that fit it perfectly. RWBY decided to be neither.
If you don't care about ANY of this, and the action truly is enough to engage you then by all means enjoy it. I have my own opinions on the choreography and animation of the fights in this season as well but there's no reason for me to talk about it here it's not what this post is about. Just keep something in mind, just don't confuse your personal entertainment of something as proof of it's quality. I love the movie Pacific Rim, but if I were to judge that movie as a critic it would score quite low, but if I were to score it as someone who was being entertained than it would be pretty high. What I'm trying to say is that it would probably be more accurate to describe it as something you enjoyed rather than something that was good. Which in that case I can't argue with that because then your opinion is highly subjective and personal at that point and I can't just prove you wrong, if you liked it you liked it. Even I liked this arc and Volume 3 in almost it's entirety when I first watched it. But I've learned a lot since then, and I just can't accept what I got. Personally, I wish this had been two seasons, if it had been they would have been able to develop all of these new characters, or preferably cut down the new Characters and develop only a select few, and give proper motivations for everyone. They could have spent time at the fairgrounds and the surrounding city and see all of the interesting stuff they could have put in to make the city feel more alive. But to me, they seem to be too focused on driving the story forward without it meaning much in the end. Every opportunity is important, please don't miss them RWBY crew.
These just keep getting longer and longer, don’t they? Might have to split the next one into two parts if I go with the topic I’m planning right now because there is A LOT to talk about with that one. Anyway I hope this was a good read, there was so much to unpack with this topic because it relates to many of the problems I have with RWBY as a show, but in any case I hope you enjoyed it and look forward to the next installment!
An easy way to give the Vytal tournament purpose is by having it be used to settle disputes by the kingdoms on who claims new territory. The higher ups can make bets on who will win so the participants don’t have to “represent their respective kingdom”. This is the tournament’s purpose for the kingdoms. The purpose for the participants can be a large sum of money and/or promotion.
Even though you can see Weiss is clearly uncomfortable with what he said, it lasts for a second and it's over. Easy way to make this have meaning, have Weiss mention slowing down the expansion of the company or working with smaller dust shops in the next season. That shows she did learn something from the fight. Hobby/schoolyard sports Board games and/or card games Music styles- They make children songs about the Soul, Aura, Dust, Grimm and Semblances. Common instruments Common themes and subject matter of fiction Government/legal/regional restrictions on films, plays, novels, music Affordability of films, sports games, board games, instruments, books, etc.- Ozpin explains that, in the Great War, individual freedoms and artistic expression were among the things at stake, which led to the Color Naming Rule used for the vast majority of the characters. However, this wasn't simply some Bonfire of the Vanities style religious fanaticism at work, but rather a result of overzealous pragmatism. Art is meant to evoke emotions, but not all artwork is meant to evoke positive emotions. Think about how different things must be on Remnant. Are there horror films or any form of entertainment based around the evocation of fear? In a setting where negative emotions, especially fear, summon swarms of man-eating monsters out of the woodwork, how would such a form of entertainment and its fans be viewed? They could be perceived as deviants at best and an active threat to the community at worst. Proactive authorities wanting to prevent Grimm attacks would naturally be moved to censor such forms of entertainment to protect their communities. However, art is subjective and even a piece meant to inspire positive emotions can incite negative ones in the wrong people. Where do they draw the line? At some point, certain people in power must have thought that the only way to keep the people safe was to stamp down artistic expression entirely in order to avoid any risk of drawing the Grimm. Other groups opposed this, conflict erupted and the Great War began.
I think something that could have fixed a lot of the issues with goals and motivations would have been to give an ACTUAL award for winning the tournament.
If you look at in in the context of a school assignment (which it really is) then "Victory for their Kingdom" sounds like a BS excuse a teacher gives on an assignment that doesn't affect your grade, but is required anyway. As awesome as Beacon no doubt is, it’s still school, and therefore, a good amount of students wouldn't be clambering for extra work with no payoff or reward, no matter how many of them (all main characters) just really love participating.
If an award had been given that related to their careers as huntsmen, I think that could have fixed at least some of the issues regarding the lack of stakes. Someone in the comments stated that the fights in Naruto where to determine which students were allowed to progress in their careers as ninja, and I think something to the same extent could have worked here. It might be a little extreme but imagine if the prize for winning the tournament, along with the "glory" was that the winning team received their huntsmen certification on the spot, regardless of grade level. It’s a bit much but that would no doubt bring the intensity of the matches up drastically.
I do see how in the larger scale of things that idea wouldn't work, as the huntsmen-in-training would no doubt lose valuable information and training, but the purpose of the idea still stands. Giving the students a immense reason to compete, and it would lead to more significant backlash when Yang disqualifies her team, which was another wasted opportunity in my opinion.
And as for the idea of Neon's family being impoverished dust miners, that would've worked well on so many levels.
One, it would have given her character SOMETHING, beyond being the ever so "hilarious" internet meme reference, and easily one of the most annoying characters to ever appear in RWBY (I attribute most of that to the voice acting, and i do understand that was her whole purpose and tactic, but, still annoying).
Two, it would have actually given us SOME indication or evidence of Faunus mistreatment, which as of right now in the show is still severely lacking when compared to the time wasted talking about it.
Three, if her family had been employed by the SDC, and faced poor working conditions, it would have given us a good idea of what Weiss and Winter's father is like before we meet him, and allow us to generate a larger idea of what he would be like (even though he ended up as the stereotypical evil rich guy).

Purpose

Missed Opportunities#2: Racism in Remnant(https://aminoapps.com/c/rwby/page/blog/missed-opportunities-2-racism-in-remnant/J88e_QWNsdulbdqV7RvzZgGNKZEoX4n6QJa). RWBY's Insulting Portrayal of Racism(https://aminoapps.com/c/rwby/page/blog/rwbys-insulting-portrayal-of-racism/z668_nQlIxu470MdKXM27re06ez5qrLeaW).
I think a large issue with RWBY as a narrative, and as a visual piece as well, is that the writers/animators add in too much stuff simply because it sounds or looks cool, without fully fleshing out the idea, or testing the visual enough to work out the kinks. In the words of Ian Malcolm "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should".
I am by no means saying they can't enjoy their own world, but if they mean to be a professional production, they need to stand back and say "ok what blends naturally into our story and visuals and what doesn't" and from there decide, what needs to stay, what needs to be changed, and what needs to just be removed in order to write a logical believable story that keeps people engaged.

Document Structure

Clauses

Vol. 3 is not a Tornament arc. It was an arc that had a poorly explained Tornament in it just so that there were fights in the vol. Exactly, a tournament arc has investment and depth put into its characters and teams. We only get this once from Penny and Pyrrha's perspective at the very end of the arc. That's one fight out of all of them. Mercury vs Yang being another. Most of the teams and fights were jokes. Literal gags to pad out time. Its a damn shame they cut team JNPR vs SSSN because that would have been a real plot central fight. Ok answer me these:

How do students register for the Tournament?

-How are they selected to participate? What determines which team gets in and which team gets cut off?
-Is the tournament divided by grades? Or do they All participate regardless of grade? Wouldn't the 3rd and 4th years dominate against 1st graders?

Do all schools get an equal number of teams to participate?

-What does the winner of the Tournament get? Do their teammates get something too?
-Are there political or financial repercussions for the kingdom whose team wins the Tournament?

Historical Details

Background

The Dots between the lines (aka, what I think V5's biggest flaw was). I dunno why I am writing this, why I keep spending time to vent and complain about a web show. Maybe because by venting I can kinda displace my disappointment, when the sanest option would be to leave the subreddit, since while I am disappointed, seeing other people disappointed just amplifies my own, and this will probably amplify others as well creating a never ending cycle of disappointment and depression.
So I guess for mine and others sanity, this will be my last "venting thread", and I think I might become less active on the subreddit and find some other hobbies to try and take my mind off things.
But anyways to the actual fucking point
V5 is a weird volume. I think its the worst volume, but there is something incredibly weird going on in V5.
The criticism of "nothing is happening plotwise" is something that V4 came under fire for.
V4 if you boil it down plotwise you can go
RNJR went on a walk to Mistral Weiss decided to leave her home Blake went home Yang decided to leave her home But I don't think V4 is a bad volume. The lack of "plot happening" felt like the show could explore the characters and see where they were after the Fall of Beacon. I was not satisfied with some of the plotlines they introduced like the whole "Yang is too dependent on her semblance" thing (which I am starting to think on a meta level was only introduced because on RWBYRW I remember them saying they haven't figured out how to do the Yang hair on fire effect well enough in Maya to have), the JarJaring of Sun and Ruby not really having much agency.
But I don't outright hate V4. It tried to introduce a lot of plots and they didn't go anywhere, and I can forgive it and even like it.
But the criticism of nothing happening in V4 is what I feel created V5's biggest problem and oddly enough still maintained peoples problem with V4.
Things are technically happening, but nothing is happening at the same time
And it's a fucking weird sensation.
V5 feels like Miles and Kerry wanted "moments". Moments for people to go "hey, the plot is progressing"
This is what I mean by the dots in this pretentious thread title.
These moments are represented by the dots.
And they wanted to have a lot of moments
They wanted to have:
Ozpin reunites with RNJR and Qrow Adam becomes leader of the WF Weiss ending up in Ravens camp so she can meet up with Yang Yang encountering Raven Yang meeting up with Weiss RWY meeting up The Belladonna assassination attempt The redemption of Ilia Fighting in a burning building The battle of Haven where the villains meet the heroes again Weiss gets impaled Jaune's semblance is revealed Nora smashes Raven is the spring maiden Cinder Falls Blake faces Adam again Yang goes to the vault RWBY finally reunites
That's a lot of things happening... but we still feel like nothing happened. Because the lines that connect these dots together are barely drawn and in many cases are skipped over.
Miles and Kerry tried to narrow down the plotlines from 6 in V4 (RNJR, W, B,Y, Oscar, WTCH) to 3 (Oscar>RNJR,W>Y, WY>RNJRO, then Blake and then Raven)
But they wanted so much to be happening in these plotlines, that events feel rushed over. While we wait for Blake's plot to happen, we watch RNJRWYO just sit around in the house dealing with melodrama and lore because the show wants the battle of haven to happen this volume as well.
A lot of these moments don't feel earned, because the writing between these moments doesn't justify them happening.
Character logic gets thrown out the window so these moments happen.
Everyone fights in the same room because the show wants everyone to see Weiss get impaled. Everyone starts standing around to watch these moments happen.
Like Em and Merc stopping to see the brief Blake reunion.
The show wants to have a fight in a burning building, but forgets things like "Faunus have great night vision (unless MK specifically state that Ilia's camoflauge is difficult to see with that night vision and they only made Ilia visible for the audience to be able to see her)
The show needs Yang to go to the Vault, so Ruby and Nora suddenly know whats going to happen in the script before it happens
I feel like I want to cut this rant short, because at this point I am just too depressed. I dunno if I got my point across but my
TL:DR is "The show tried to have so many moments, that it didn't take the time to set them up.
Personally, I'd have been happy if V5 ended with the Belladonna assassination attempt and instead of getting the battle of Haven this volume, we got more scenes to flesh out characters like Ilia more or we got actual training for Ruby and Oscar in this barely mentioned "training for H2H" and maybe have them explore Mistral or search around for clues on how CEM got to enter the Vytal festival.
And V6 tried to do a reverse V3, starting with the attack then ending dealing with the fallout.
But it's too late, no point thinking of hypotheticals.
While I looked forward to V5 a lot, and I was probably more excited for it than the last jedi... I just feel apathetic to RWBY as a show now.
I think I just desperately want the show to be good, and prove people wrong who wrote it off in the beginning... but it feels more and more unlikely as time goes on.
Well, I had always said that writing for the show with such a limited screentime is a great challenge for writers. Yet having less screentime does not mean you can... IDK, do not pay attention to development at all. It may be done in a more rough manner, but it should be there.
And, well, I've got a similar feeling after reading the interviews with Miles and Kerry - "a lot of plot and not a lot of characterization", though I'd also use a different wording here. I remember that there was a good post here, on reddit, named "dots and the lines". Eventually, I also think that Miles and Kerry are two fixated on "dots" - the specific points of the plot (like they said, they wanted a gang to end in Mistral for V5 - so they cared less about the rest), yet they pay less attention to the "lines", which is, basically, "so how are we going to move characters from A to B?". I mean, yes, RWBY is a short-termed show, but I used see so many... IDK, opportunities which could be used more effectively to show a development - not for 50% of its possible potential, but at least for 90% one. It just saddens me when smth so promising is not using its whole potential for unknown reasons.
Addressing power/ability inconsistency would be hugely beneficial for the show [especially regarding Weiss, Ren, Ruby and Blake]. Hi everyone, while this may seem like another one of my rants regarding the portrayal of the Schnee semblance and Weiss's intelligence in the show, it's not! Mostly.
First, let me preface that I understand Rule of Cool being a thing. I know RWBY likes to allow itself cool moments at the expense of consistency, but recently it's just been pushed too far.
Characters have in-universe established abilities that have not been denied. Therefore, it makes absolutely zero sense that they would forgo these abilities completely.
Let's start with a simple example - Nora. Her semblance has been clearly defined, is generally simple to understand and has many practical applications. She got around the weakness of having to get electricity from an external source by adding some lightning dust to her hammer. Why does she never use it to give herself a little boost from time to time? Trying to hit the giant robot? Charge yourself while running. Trying to punch a grimm? Charge yourself before hitting. Sensing an imminent attack? Charge yourself preemptively so you can react.
Then we have Blake - who has the ability do use dust clones to great effect, along with using aura blade slashing beams, or whatever those were. This would give her much needed hitting power and something other than puny bullets at range. But she just doesn't do it. I'm sure Weiss had some spare dust lying around to spare for emergencies, and heck even Ruby had some electrical dust cartridges. Is the group really that tight on budget that they can't afford some dust which would greatly improve Blake's chances at combat, especially when sending her alone to disable the communication tower? Blake vs Adam? How many times did he stab her clones on accident and didn't notice until a few seconds later? What if it was an explosive fire clone, or an ice clone that trapped his blade and let Blake get in a hit or two? it makes a difference.
Then comes Ren, who had some impressive aura control in the beginning. He, like Fox, could force aura into grimm to make them explode and even create a force-field thing. Where did this go? He frequently is rendered useless due to the low damage potential of his guns, situations where an empowered aura palm to the face would likely cause some damage at least. With that level of aura control, shouldn't he be more proficient in using aura for quick boosts of speed/strength?
Ruby is a bit of a special case, mostly because of her extremely weird semblance. Does she dissolve when using it? If so, why doesn't she dodge more attacks/slither around enemies in her rose tornado thing she did in the V4 trailer? Is it just a cloak that lets her move faster? Does it have a timer? Can she reliably maneuver while using it or is it a straight-line kind of thing?
Weiss... Time dilation, speed glyphs, telekinesis and target-seeking fireballs aside, why do her summons (and glyphs) have such wildly inconsistent summoning times? Whenever the story needs her to get hit, the summoning takes a long time. Whenever the story needs a clutch reaction, it's there in the nick of time. Same thing goes for some of her glyph usage and individual glyph power. Sometimes she needs to close her eyes and concentrate, other times glyphs appear in a split second. When she used time dilation on Blake, she could cast it while /falling/. When she used it vs Banesaw, she had to concentrate and stand still for quite a bit. One time her gravity glyphs can stabilize everyone on a moving train, and let her practically stand upside down on a rotating airship and the other, she could even slow down the fall of a giant airship and suspend people in mid air in a single glyph. Then recently, Ruby falls through like 5 gravity glyphs and barely slows down? Does glyph power depend on aura or on amount of dust? How does it work?
Moreover, what about general aura use? Can't there be an audio que when aura is used to enhance/coat a weapon? Or when it's used to boost a jump, or a punch? It's kind of just there to rationalize whatever the hell is happening in the fight with absolutely zero consistency.
If we actually had proper rules and clarification of what is cannon and what isn't, choreographers would be given incentive to prioritize character strength and weaknesses and add believable stakes. This, even with less flashy choreography and cool moments, would increase fight engagement monumentally.
Sure, cool fights are great and all but when characters purposefully gimp themselves even in extremely serious fights it can seriously hamper enjoyment and make it very difficult to suspend disbelief. It would also give RWBY an even bigger edge. Good choreography with consistent rules? It wouldn't just live up to shonen anime, it would knock a lot of them out of the park!
tl;dr pls establish what characters can and can't do so we can enjoy fights more, many thanks

History

Now because the writing for canon-
End of Season 2: (Team CFVY, Coco in particular, whip the floor with the Grimm threat)
"Climax" of Season 3- Cinder: "Their cOloSsAl FaIlUrE to protect Vale when the Grimm invaded it's streets."
-...isn't the best when it comes to being consistent, to at least keep the main characters consistent in my story I decided to pick out a particular moment/scene that stuck out to me the most when I first watched the early volumes of RWBY and what I thought about the characters in it. If I were to boil down the themes and character arcs into a single word, this is how I would do it. We already talked about Ruby's talk with Blake, so another one would be defeating the Nevermore in V1. So "crazy awesome" would be- wait that's two words, uhhhhh- "optimism". "Optimism" for Rubywas what I was going to say. The Weiss moment that I used was her reaction to Ruby stumbling upon her. Some would expect that she would show even the slightest sign of displeasure or at least indifference in her face, but her reaction is pure, unassuming innocence. She promptly walks off, but still. The animation had shown plenty of characters frowning up to that point, so it's hard for me to believe that this was an "animation error". Although considering the writers and fans early opinion on Weiss, it might've been the animation giving more depth to the characters than the writing again. Still, I like to think that this was intentional. "Duality" is how I would describe Weiss. As for Blake, what stuck out to me the most was her chastising Sun for stealing apples despite her introduction being about her stealing explosive weapons that have been used by her group to kill innocents. "Hypocrisy" for Blake. As for Yang...I was going to use her talking about her backstory in V2, as for me that's the only time in the entire show where Yang felt a part of the scene rather than a part of the scenery, but looking back it feels like the thought for that scene was less "Hey, lets finally give characterization to a character that desperately needs it" and more "Don't these two look cute together?". The closest replacement moment I can think of is Yang telling Ruby to meet new people, but that's the start of making her a good supporting character. It doesn't make her a good main character, at least not to me. Yang's the one that I've had the most trouble trying to get a grasp on, but maybe her anthology manga will help me with writing her once I read it.
Thanks, and you have a wonderful day too :)
I can't agree any more, friend, nor could I have put it any better. Blake's character and storyline is just a mess in my opinion, and sadly she just doesn't come across as all that likable or sympathetic to me. It honestly does feel like favoritism at times, especially when the writers seem to regard Ruby, Weiss, and Yang so harshly for their "mistakes" when Blake seems to always get off lightly. And it seems like I disagree with the writers when it comes to each of Blake's major scenes. I was on Weiss' side in Volume 1, felt that Yang was in a no-win situation against Adam (and that losing her arm wasn't her fault), and felt her reason for running for more because of self-guilt rather than because she felt guilty over what happened to Yang. And Adam and Blake considering each other unimportant up until their final encounter just felt very wrong to me.
I like your personal take on Team RWBY's core characters and what they personify, and I know they'll serve you well. Hypocritical characters can be a lot of fun to play around with, but at some point the characters/writer(s) have to call them out for their hypocrisy, which just never really happened in the show in my opinion. Perhaps the argument could be made that Sun did in Volume 4, but at the same time Blake was also told her character development which was to stop hurting the people that love her. Not only did Ruby, Weiss, and Yang have nothing to due with coming to this conclusion, but she didn't even figure this out for herself. And like we both mentioned with the "personification" scene, it just feels tone deaf when for all Blake knows her former teammates are emotionally broken and/or being hunted by Adam.
Best of luck with your fanfics, friend. I know from our many talks that you put a lot of love and hard work into them. I'm not sure if I can offer any advice for how to portray Yang's character, but for the majority of my first fanfic ("The Petals Scatter Now") I used her extensively as a supporting character to Ruby and Blake. I've found that her fun loving, protective, and sometimes temperamental personality bounces off the other characters really well, and it's difficult to have four main characters all get the spotlight anyway. The best suggestion I can give though is to just keep writing. You'll find Yang's voice eventually.

Read the Document

Everything Wrong with RWBY Part 5 (Missed Opportunities Edition)

The Four Biggest Problems of RWBY:
I view RWBY as a generally enjoyable experience that has many flaws keeping it from being an excellent series. If I were in charge of fixing the biggest problems, I’d be focusing on four major areas: Exposition, Tension, Characterization and Format. (If only I could make a decent acronym…)
I can discuss each of them in detail, but they’ll have their own posts to avoid any overloading. To start off, I'll focus on the first and probably biggest.
Exposition: ​ Remnant is not Earth. This setting is radically different from what the Audience would be familiar with. It’s so different that there’s even a video series, the World of Remnant, meant to elaborate on aspects that aren’t brought up in the main series. This is a remarkably ham-fisted method of delivering exposition. The creators fail to use organic (that is to say, compatible with the narrative's flow) opportunities to subtly explore the most important aspects of the setting, such as:
Part One: The Magic ​ There are three established magic systems in this setting: Aura, the fundamental force behind every fight scene of sentient characters; Semblances, the unconventional abilities unique to particular characters; and Dust, the fuel source of this world’s technology and a resource that offers elemental power in combat.
I’m currently working on an elaboration of each magic system, but I’ll post them later as well. ​ To sum up the general idea of magic systems in RWBY, the Audience should understand how each system works if they are expected to stay invested in conflict. This also applies to magic systems that the series will eventually include (the Maidens, the Silver Eyes, etc.).
Sanderson’s Three Laws (Satisfactory Conflict Resolution ∝ Audience Understanding, Limitations > Powers, and Depth > Width) are excellent guidelines for this purpose and I'll use them in each system's deeper analysis, but they’re not the only considerations for fictional magic systems.
I’d like to put forward another law, if I may be so bold:
“Magic systems are defined by the interactions of its component parts."
What do I mean by this? Simplest way to explain is to put it into an equation:
Capabilities (What can magic do?) + Limitations (What can’t magic do?) + Ramifications (What consequences does magic have? To put it another way, what happens when magic is or is not done?) + Parameters (What rules does the magic follow? To put it another way, what determines that which magic can or cannot do?) = Magic System.
I’ll use this equation to discuss each magic system. These four factors are always fundamental to a magic system’s efficiency, both as a narrative device and an internal aspect of a fictional world.
However, there are still other variables worth considering, including but not limited to:

• Thematic Relevance (What does magic mean to the internal context of a world and the external context of a narrative?)

• Individuality (How does magic vary across Users, even when abilities are not unique?)

• Coexistence (How does magic interact with the other aspects of a setting, such as societies, beings or other magic systems?)

• Disparity (What are magic’s differences from other in-story forces, such as the laws of the natural world or other magic systems?)

Part Two: The Creatures​
Remnant is not inhabited solely by humans and non-sentient animals.
There’s the Grimm, which are established as monsters that don’t follow natural rules. The Audience should be given better information than a WoR that says Remnant knows little about Grimm (what is the point of an informational video that doesn’t give helpful information?). The Audience can infer certain truths about them from the series, but it strains credulity to think that the people of Remnant have had the Grimm, alpha predators and the dominant beings on their planet, for as long as they can remember and they've found nothing worth putting into an informational video.

There are androids making up a sizable amount of Atlas’s forces and one sentient character appears to be entirely synthetic. The latter introduces huge implications for the nature of the soul while the former may as well be a magic system of their own because the Audience might not understand how robot soldiers can affect ordinary warfare, let alone warfare against the super-powered inhabitants and the endless hordes of soulless monsters on Remnant.
But most of all, there is an entirely new species of humanoids with animal characteristics: the Faunus. The Audience will need to know about these beings to understand the motivation of the White Fang, the story’s largest faction of Faunus as well as a group of recurring antagonists and a main character's backstory.
The Audience should be given a clear idea on how to view the Faunus.
Are they actually a subspecies of humanity or are they to be seen as unique life-forms?
In either case, it would mean that they ought to be considered sentient beings, but there are many differences between mutated humans and a separate species that is similar to, but distinct from, humanity. The series seems inclined towards the former, which increases the need to understand any differences between Faunus and Human, other than minor physical quirks that appear to be easily concealed. Here are a series of questions and potential sources of conflict that could be established for the Faunus:

• Do they eat more than Humans, thanks to different metabolic rates? Perhaps a complaint against them is that they strain Remnant’s limited food supplies.

• Do they have any innate disadvantages against Humans that balance out the advantage of night vision? Do they have any other advantages over Humans? Night vision alone is an ability that makes the Faunus more useful and preferable as allies rather than enemies.

• Are there diseases that affect the two species differently or is their biology similar enough to have the same reactions to the same factors? If human kids got sick from interacting with Faunus, Humanity's bias against them could be better understood and even somewhat empathized with.

• What consequences, if any, result from the genetic interaction of Humans and Faunus? If crossbreeds exist, are they more likely to suffer genetic disorders? How are hybrids seen by either Faunus or Humans? Can humans with Faunus heritage produce other Faunus or do genetics function differently on Remnant? It seems to be a binary issue (people are either Faunus or Human), which isn’t how genes interact in real life.

• What is the evolutionary logic behind a humanoid species with various animal characteristics that aren’t related to the great ape family humanity is part of? If evolution is not the origin of either humanity or Faunus on Remnant, then how did they come about? Was one or both races created artificially, somehow? Is a magical force involved? What kind of power could create an entire species?

• How do the rarer subspecies of Faunus survive natural selection?

• Do animal aspects manifest spontaneously and without clear patterns or do Faunus genes guarantee particular traits?

• Why do they only display a single physical animal trait? Is their genetic sequence that specialized? That would make them closer to mutated humans rather than a separate species.

Part Three: The Society​
The Audience should know how these societies actually function.
There is very little about Remnant civilization the series elaborates on. The World of Remnant videos have not touched on much about these subjects:

• Food: How do they get it? On Roman’s map, there’s an Agricultural District, but we’ve never seen it and supplies are never discussed. How do they handle livestock when there's very little land to maintain them with? What roles, if any, do the outer settlements play in feeding the Kingdoms?

• Economy: What do civilians and/or Hunters buy and why do they buy it? Exactly how valuable is Dust? How much does it cost to travel to other settlements? What are the economic priorities of the Kingdoms? Why is the Schnee Dust Company making a profit off of "controversial labor practices"?

• Language: Remnant probably agreed on a common tongue for convenience’s sake, but what’s the in-world explanation for names from languages other than English? What are their curse words like? Are there dialects? Does anyone still speak non-English languages, at least for the sake of heritage?

• History: There’s no timeline. The Audience doesn't even know what year the series takes place in. Have they reached millennia? What system do they use for years? There’s mention of several wars of varying importance, but little elaboration on them. Who took what side in which conflict? How'd these wars start and end? How old are the Kingdoms? What are Remnant's earliest records? This is all important because the setting is similar enough to Earth that we can mostly understand it, but if they've been around for millennia, how have the Kingdoms not already:

1. given rights to the Faunus? 2. developed alternate fuel sources for space travel? 3. surpassed the technological levels of Earth's early twenty first century? 4. successfully expanded their territory?

• Politics: The Audience is told there’s peace, but it's never made clear how the Kingdoms tolerate the idea of war between them when the Grimm want to kill everyone. How do the Kingdoms associate with the external settlements? Why do they call themselves Kingdoms when they don’t have Kings? Doesn’t that mean they’re actually Republics? How do Faunus factor into politics? Do they have any representatives in the government?

• Religion: Does anyone believe in and/or pray to anything or are they all agnostics? People accept the idea of souls, but the series never mentions afterlives or gods or spirits or something that could associate with souls.

• Technology: What does Earth have that Remnant doesn’t, and vice-versa? The Audience is shown that Remnant developed with a unique power source and different contextual needs, but how does the former affect the later? Is Dust merely an energy propellant/combat resource or is it powering literally everything important?

Some of these may be nitpicks or inconsequential to the story, but this would all go a long way to convincing the Audience of a wider world than what they’re shown.
Personally, I don’t believe that Remnant societies can function because there’s so many pieces missing. I'm not convinced that this world exists independent of the story because the only information I receive is directly related to what's happening in the narrative and the scraps of knowledge I am given only elicit more questions that don't seem likely to be answered.
But my main gripe in this section is that the Audience is not told why Remnant tolerates discrimination toward the Faunus.
The Audience is already biased in the Faunus’ favor thanks to a modern system of values and Blake's role as a main character.
I’m pausing here to share my view; I’ve never understood the racism towards Faunus because, asides from making no sense to me (though that may be my modern system of values), I don’t see how societies that are at eternal war with the Grimm, monsters drawn to negative emotion, can consider antagonizing a sizable portion of the population.
Grimm don’t seem to distinguish between Human and Faunus (if the creatures that don’t target non-sentient animals can tell that the Faunus are people, why are so many Humans incapable of accepting it?) and the Faunus have displayed Aura and Semblances (indicating that they have souls, as other animals don’t consciously wield either), so why is there any doubt as to whether they are a sentient people that deserve respect?
Are there valid reasons (at least some in-story attempts to justify such inefficiency) or did the writers fail to consider how Remnant societies would be affected by the extreme context they belong to?
If this were Earth and humanity was still the planet’s dominant species, I could understand such idiocy because our history is constantly tinged with discrimination and modern people still indulge in unjustified bigotry, but Remnant seems like it should be more pragmatic than tolerating pointless racism when they have the Grimm.
Part Four: The Characters​
The fourth main aspect of Exposition involves the characters, which falls under the Characterization section. There, I’ll explore how the story doesn’t give enough information (or misinforms the Audience) as to character goals, motivations or actions.
Before I post the rest of the work, I'm interested in reactions to this first part. Criticize or praise it from any angle you like; my aim here is to improve RWBY by understanding where it succeeds and fails.
But there's also not much personal conflict going on for a third of the series. I know that gets better from V2 onward, but look at these foundations.
V1:
1. Roman tries to steal Dust and is foiled twice on-screen by teenagers. Then, in V2, turns out he accomplished it anyway. 2. Bunch of teenagers want to become Hunters, so they go into a forest. They get out alright and become Huntsmen. 3. Ruby has leadership and confidence issues. 4. Weiss struggles with Ruby being the leader. 5. Blake pretends to be human and is worried about the White Fang, despite suffering no consequences for abandoning a terrorist organization. 6. Yang... actually has nothing going in this Volume. Whoops. 7. Jaune has no competence and wants to be a hero, but he doesn't want help and he displays no drive to better himself until the end of his arc. 8. Pyrrha wants to help Jaune, but he turns her down until he doesn't. 9. Team Cardinal, a bunch of pseudo-characters, are bullies. Whoo.
Where is the plot here? I can't find it. If I've missed or misinterpreted something, please tell me.
I want the nature of Grimm, Androids and Faunus exposited on because:

• Grimm are the monsters that rule Remnant and apparently the main source of conflict, other than antagonists. I expect them to have more intriguing traits than various physical bodies that resemble animals.

• Androids would minimize loss of life against Grimm and I want to know why everyone hasn't welcomed robot overlords if it keeps their kids alive. They must be more effective than "not at all" if Atlas made them so central to their armed forces. Also, if all the magic in RWBY comes from the soul, creating artificial souls would shake things up.

• Faunus are a species that isn't present on Earth and their role in society produces extensive conflict. The White Fang are also the backstory of Blake and I want to know why humanity keeps a sentient humanoid race down, for seemingly no reason.

I like to ask four questions when encountering fictional magic systems of any kind.

• What can people do with magic?

• What can't they do with magic?

• What happens when people do or don't use magic?

• What decides that which people can or can't do with magic?

Clearly establishing these things allows an Author to find potential sources of conflict as well as ways to satisfactorily resolve the conflict. It also facilitates an Audience's investment in magic as a narrative device and a force within a fictional world.
Example:
Let's take Ruby's speed (or just general super speed) and ask:
What can be done with this power?

• Well, a heroic character can intervene to protect others while a villainous character could harm people and be very difficult to stop. Neutrally, speed is useful for changing positions, reaching destinations or reacting to stimuli.​

What can't be done with this power?

• Can they hit speed of sound? How about light?

• Can they manipulate speed freely or only increase it?

• Can they manipulate their own speed or that of other things?

What happens when it is or is not used?

• Do they get tired?

• Is it based on an external power (Speed Force) or an internal power (Semblance)?

• Are they aware of the world while moving or does their perception fail to keep up?

• Is this character impossible to keep up with or more useful than their peers?

What decides that which can or cannot be done?

• Is the focus on mechanic logic (have they run out of magic or is it actively harming them as it's used?) or on narrative purposes (despite the character's speed, they was unable to save that person because the narrative needed them to fail)?

• Is the author saying something about speed and how it affects a character's actions, goals, motivations or personality?

• Are there any good reasons why this character doesn't immediately win battles or is it a contrivance of the story?

Stands from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
Stands have displayed various and colorful capabilities. This is partially due to the length of JJBA, but in all Stand-using Parts, they enable unpredictable and intriguing confrontations. Stands can range from overwhelmingly useful to painfully specialized, but conflict involving them has stayed tense and exciting, thanks to the author’s creativity and the ingenuity of his characters. Oftentimes, the true difficulty of engaging a new Stand is figuring out its’ capabilities and using one’s own Stand abilities to defeat either Stand or User.
Stands follow the same general limitations. All of these are eventually given exceptions, if not outright broken, but they’re consistent and produce tense scenarios over the course of JJBA. These rules were lifted from the JJBA wiki, but most can be understood as early as Part Three, where Stands were introduced. These ten rules define the Stand magic system that has fueled Parts 3-8 of JJBA, a series that’s gone on for decades. 1. Stands protect their Users, defending and empowering them in various ways. 2. A person can have only one Stand, though Stands can evolve. 3. Stands can be inherited. 4. Stands are part of their Users, and damage is usually reflected between the two. 5. Stands may only be seen by Stand Users, unless bound to physical objects. 6. A Stand can only be directly damaged by another Stand. 7. The energy or power of a Stand is inversely proportional to their operating range. The further a Stand is from its User, the weaker it becomes – long-range Stands and/or long-range abilities are simpler in mechanism. 8. Stands are usually bound to their User’s body. 9. When a User dies, their Stand typically disappears with them. 10. When a Stand is defeated, their User is either knocked unconscious or killed, depending on the level of injury.

• The consequences of a Stand are strict. Other than the durability that several characters display for the sake of extravagant action and/or the story’s pacing, combat-worthy Stands are always serious threats to their opponents. Even experienced Users aren’t safe from the hostility of an unfamiliar Stand. But there is a single consequence of this system that guarantees tension in combat; the reflection of damage between User and Stand. If either is wounded or destroyed, the other suffers the same consequence. This ensures that neither Stands nor Users are ever invincible; they are each other’s greatest vulnerabilities.

• A Stand’s parameters are clearly defined. The author established six statistics that apply to all Stands. These statistics are regularly presented to the audience in order to comprehend Stands and their potential effects on the narrative. Even on an individual level, Stands follow internally consistent rules that allow them to be overcome. Main Stand-using antagonists tend to have overwhelming abilities related to time/space manipulation: stopping time, looping time, skipping time, accelerating time and accessing alternate timelines/dimensions. Even with such powers, villains are never truly unstoppable. Their Stand’s own rules enable their defeat, though it is often hard-fought and/or achieved through ingenuity or intelligence rather than strength.

Semblances from RWBY:
Unconventional abilities, limited by unique sets of rules, which enable Users to alter reality to their favor:

• In three Volumes, roughly fifteen Semblances have been displayed. Their capabilities have been few and, in my opinion, unimaginative. I acknowledge that the latter quality is subjective and that others may be interested in these powers, so I won’t focus on their originality or creativity. Rather, I shall emphasize my perspective that Semblances do not produce significant advantages, unpredictable encounters or intriguing battles. They’ve ranged from spectacularly convenient to painfully specialized, but conflict involving them has rarely stayed tense and exciting, thanks to a lack of creativity or ingenuity on part of the writers or characters as well as a lack of rules to enable understanding. Oftentimes, a Semblance has no inherent method of failure or defeat. This means that the only method of engaging a Semblance is either overwhelming the User through sheer force or using one’s own Semblance to even the odds. Users have either turned them into regular aspects of their combat or do not effectively wield their Semblances in combat.

• I don’t see most Semblances as meaningful factors in the narrative, which renders them ineffective and uninteresting to me. I've noticed only one Semblance that directly affects the narrative on multiple occasions: Emerald's Illusions.

• Semblances don’t seem to have any system-wide limitations, beyond a vague expense of Aura. The Audience isn’t given any rules that establish Semblances as a connected and coherent magic system. We are shown that Semblances empower their Users with unconventional abilities. Semblances are consistently claimed to be unique to a User, but then familial ones are introduced in Volume 3. Semblances are supposed to be reflections of a User’s soul, which can be interpreted in so many ways, this statement might as well be useless. There are no consistent limitations to what a Semblance is capable of. Thus, the Audience must either theorize based on canon, which can be instantly invalidated by future events, or roll with whatever the series tosses at them. There are no weaknesses to the overall system, which leaves no easy way to create tension with Semblances.

• The consequences of Semblances are unexplored or irrelevant. Characters have never directly suffered from having a Semblance. Some characters appear to be capable of perpetually using their Semblance. Having or not having a Semblance doesn't make a difference in the long run because their utility is too determined by the narrative rather than an independent system.

• Any parameters that Semblances are supposed to follow remain vague and poorly defined. There is no way to know how effective a Semblance ought to be within a scenario, which leaves them as little more than spectacles. Individual Semblances have certain rules, but these rules do not enable satisfying encounters because they rarely include vulnerabilities that can be exploited.

I wrote that to demonstrate how the Stand magic system is well-thought out and an effective narrative device, despite being bizarre and rather spectacular. Their capabilities are nearly infinite (one Stand literally remade the Universe), their limitations are satisfying and efficient, their consequences are harsh and unforgiving, and their parameters are clear and concise (thanks to a statistic system).
The Semblance system has few capabilities, minimal limitations, virtually no consequences and unclear parameters. I would not want to write a story with such a magic system. That's why I discuss its flaws: to find areas where it can be improved.
My problem is that, as they are now, the magic systems don't produce satisfactory conflict. Building off their foundations won't matter because the basics don't lend themselves to good storytelling.
AtlA's magic systems are constantly present, their versatility is limited by elemental truths and User capability, and their limitations are solid and unyielding. I don't wonder about the temperature of Firebending or the speed of Airbending because the system is not individualized; every Bender can achieve the same feats as long as they have the competence to reach it. This is evidenced by Legend of Korra, where metal-bending became a tool of the police force, lightning-bending became a profitable job and blood-bending was eventually achieved without the full moon.
RWBY's magic systems are constantly present, but they produce spectacles rather than engaging conflict. Their versatility is limited by the simplicity of the abilities their Users have available. Their limitations are non-existent and decided by the narrative rather than following any objective set of rules. Because everyone gets different superpowers, I want to know how these powers can coexist in the same narrative without dissolving the tension. That is accomplished by establishing a common set of rules that apply to every Semblances, regardless of particular abilities.
What about having Aura protection diminish or disappear when Semblances are used?

• Part of my disinterest with RWBY fights is that combatants have personal force fields until, at some arbitrary moment, they don't.

• Fighters could have to choose between staying safe with no unconventional powers or using their Semblance and opening themselves up.

What about effective Ranges that diminish the efficiency of a Semblance the further the effect occurs from the User?

• Ruby slows down the further she moves in one Use. Weiss's glyphs are limited in quantity and complexity the further they get from her.

What about time limits that prevent power-up Semblances from remaining perpetually active?

• Yang can only absorb damage for five minutes upon use of Semblance and she can only have her Power Meter keep its charge for even less.

What about Semblances that actively strain their User's body, increasing as the Use increases or lengthens?

• Clones transfer phantom pain to their Users. Pyrrha can only manipulate metals lighter than her own weight and going further than that stresses her muscles.

Missed Opportunities #3: Why are the Grimm so Un-Frightening? The Grimm, the main enemy of RWBY. Horrible creatures that haunt the world of Remnant at all times, preying on the innocent. The very embodiment of fear and death. So then why are the Grimm not frightening at all? I know that fear is a very subjective thing but there are designs and creatures in fiction that have become pop culture icons due to their appearances alone. Look you can’t say that just because the Grimm are black and have red eyes means that they are immediately scary. I think we've seen enough of that dollar store design by now to find it more tired and humorous than provoking and scary. But needless to say it's not that such a design is inherently bad but given its common use you need to innovate in other areas of the design....it's just that the Grimm don’t do that. Quite the opposite in fact. The creators of RWBY basically pigeonholed the design of the Grimm in the worst way possible. What do I mean by that? Well let's start this off.
Why were they designed this way? There is a serious lack of innovation and originality in the designs of the Grimm. Animals and mythical creatures are not interesting to look at because we have seen these creatures in all sorts of stories. I feel the Grimm are lacking both as interesting design, and good design. I don't think any of the Grimm are “badly” designed necessarily, they are functional, but that's the word right there, “functional”. I love creature and monster design, even though I'm not great at it myself I've always wanted to learn more about drawing my own crazy creatures. But I've seen so much and much better from so many other companies across several industries.
Witches (Madoka Magica), Mimics (Edge of Tomorrow), Titans (Attack on Titan), Xenomorphs (Alien), Necromorphs (Dead Space)
You would think in a story convention as overpopulated as the one RWBY falls into, you know the whole humanity has to fight against some monster that specifically attacks us and nothing else, that the creators of such a series would feel some need to provide their audience with something new and interesting to look at to heavily separate it from so many other series.
I might not like the series all that much, but Attack on Titan is a great example of this. The characters regularly express fear and doubt when facing the Titans. Their presence overwhelms and makes humanity feel small and insignificant. Fighting them takes tremendous skill and every encounter with even the basic Titans is potentially dangerous for everyone besides the most skilled characters in the show. Which is like three. Though the main characters have yet to die, seeing soldier after soldier eaten alive by the Titans is incredibly frightening and the fact that the titans resemble us so much helps that. But nobody dies to the Grimm in this show. You never see anyone die. Either they were already dead or we don't see death at all but it's implied to have happened. Because despite the fact that this show has now used the word BITCH, we can't show on screen death of civilians because some impressionable young child might be out there who will summon giant monsters to go kill people.
3 Steps to fighting Titans: 1) Go in Determined 2) Look at what your up against 3) Freeze with fear. This is very dark yes, but it conveys just how hopeless this fight can be.
Why couldn’t they have just taken influence from creatures and myths in the real world and put a new spin on it? The Nuckelavee is so close and yet so far from being awesome, its top half is incredibly well designed and interesting. The horns, the long arms that can stretch ridiculously far, the jerky nature in which it moves its body which is an especially great element. Movement is one of the things that humans recognize most, and when we see something move unnaturally it makes us uncomfortable, a lot of you out there have probably seen your fair share of horror films that use this trick. But despite all of these very well designed elements, there's the horse. The top half is so good, but there's the horse, it makes me feel uncomfortable, but there's the horse, I want to hide from its gaze, but there is the stupid horse. Another perfect example of not just taking inspiration from the myth but literally just translating it directly and giving it a Grimm aesthetic. (Sell the Grimm as creepy, Uncanny Valley alien, chimera-like monsters, like how in the Battle of Beacon episode where a Nevermore uses the claws on its wings as an extra pair of legs, much like a bat would, or how a Beowolf has its skeleton highlighted and chest segments exaggerated in a way that makes it look distinctly armored, almost more insect than mammal.)
Now I want to bring your attention to the RWBY amino app for a second, curator Puddle Daze made an article about the Grimm and what she believes their origins are. I just want to start this off by saying that Puddle Daze has already admitted that some parts of this theory fall a little flat but there is one part of it in particular I feel the need to address. Basically the post is trying to offer an explanation as to why the Grimm look like animals and I find most of it incredibly implausible but this has to relate to something she said in the beginning of the post. We know that the Grimm are the creation of an evil god of sorts long before the main story started who was the brother of a much kinder god who created all life, but the evil brother hated these creations. She says that it would be a great irony for the evil brother to create monsters in the form of his older brothers creations to get revenge, and even though I can see where she's coming from, I consider it flimsy justification at best. If I were the brother I wouldn’t care about what I make my monsters look like, I wouldn't make creatures that have to follow any kind of logic or reason, I would make abominations of nature. Creatures that couldn’t possibly exist and design them to be as deadly as possible, putting blades and teeth in places they have no reason to be, extra arms so they can pull their victims and hold them and etcetera.
This goes back to the terrible decision to have the Grimm be based on anything to be quite honest and why they all should have been original designs that were made from the ground up to be as intimidating as possible. It just makes more sense that way. Because if the brother based the Grimm off of animals it would mean that even if he makes them bigger he still has to work within the physical limitations of that creature, physical as in appearance not capability because I can’t say I've ever seen a gorilla pound a hole in a roof before. But as previously stated even all of that won't matter if you never show any fear or doubt in your characters.
What’s with all the Animals? This is a huge problem with the Grimm. One of the reasons the Grimm are so un-frightening to me is because I have seen so many of these creatures in so many other pieces of media because the vast majority of the Grimm are just big animals. I shall illustrate my point by doing something special here, I’m going to go through EVERY SINGLE one of the Grimm and express what I feel about their design. I’m sure less than halfway through you will start to understand the problem. I believe these are in order of appearance but if not whatever don’t hurt me....
Beowolf- Okay, this guy is a roller coaster, his first design was basically just a normal werewolf with red eyes and a black body in the Red trailer but was redesigned to fit the new Grimm aesthetic so they at least knew that needed to go. The old Beowolf designs aren’t great though, I was never a fan of their lengthy arms and skinny bodies. The new Beowolf design for Volume 4 is much better, I actually enjoy this new look. Their frames are much bulkier, and their heads look a lot like a wolf’s skull so it comes across as much more visceral and realistic. They might share in the overall problem which is an oversaturation of animal like creatures but they have improved this design over the course of the show.
(Side note: Did you know that the Grimm color palette is actually based on all of team RWBY’s colors)
Ursa- We are bears with a bunch of spikes on our backs. Not a whole lot to say here. Moving on.
King Taijitu- We aren’t just one snake, WERE TWO! Wow, really wonder how long it took for someone in the design department to think of this masterpiece, I mean a snake with two heads? How incredible. Next.
Deathstalker- I’m sure you could be scared by the deathstalker, you know, if you have severe arachnophobia or something. It’s funny how this Grimm and the next one appeared together, because they are two of some of the best examples to illustrate this point. Because of the Grimms bony design motif, the deathstalker look even MORE like a normal scorpion. It’s not interesting at all, it's just a giant scorpion. The new Beowolf design looks so much better because it took the SKULL of the creature it's based on and displays it on the outside, which is unsettling. But scorpions have natural bony plating on them anyway because, surprise surprise, THEY HAVE EXOSKELETONS.
Nevermore- It's a big bird. Pretty boring. Though I will admit they can shoot out their feathers like arrows which is cool, wish more Grimm had unique capabilities like this.
Boarbatusk- Man, Pumbaa really hit some hard times after the sequels. But yeah this one’s not very creative either. I mean he can spin dash, and he has four eyes that's something....right?
Goliath- Oh my god what is your obsession with putting spikes on everything this is elementary monster design come on guys! Are these spikes supposed to be bones or something? If the bones appeared more like they were ripping themselves out of the Grimm or something it would be scarier but that is NOT how it looks.
Creep- These might be one of the best designs in the show. The creeps have a few things going for them. The first is that unlike most, if not pretty much all of the other Grimm in the show they aren’t inspired off of one source in particular. Instead their design is inspired by several different kinds of animals like reptiles and birds, so basically dinosaurs. They have these stubby heads and don’t appear to have eyes. You can do horror in lots of ways, sometimes making something more human is the way to go depending on its context, but in this case it was more effective to make it less so and the creep does it by removing the eyes and forelimbs. Now they do seem to have eyelids but I have never once seen these things open their eyes so regardless whether they have eyes or not I still think the design is pretty effective. In any case the other thing I love so much about them is their lack of forelimbs because even if we don’t use our four limbs to walk like most mammals do, we have an understanding that most mammals and by what would most likely be accepted by the majority of people; humans do have four limbs. This is one of the reasons bugs and arachnids are so unnerving to people. The creep might seem like it's nothing but to me it's one of the strongest, if not the strongest Grimm design in the show. The creep is the closest to hitting that uncomfortable spot that dissociates it from your understanding of the world and what you deem is acceptable for something to look, and that’s why it works so well.
Griffon- Now I would talk about the Griffon right now but I think it's best to save it for the next part of the post, so I’ll just leave it alone for now.
Beringel- Do I really have to say anything at this point, it’s just a gorilla with some white bony plating, oh and it has some sharp teeth as well how frightening. The burnt skin it has in the Volume 4 trailer added an extra layer I guess. But it's not actually supposed to look like that as seen in episode 11 of Volume 4 so there goes that.
Dragon- Despite this one being in the same category as the Griffon which I will discuss in the next part I do want to mention a couple pieces of this guy's design that I like quite a bit. One is his jaw, he has quite the chompers already but I love how the teeth continue to go down the sides of its neck and when it opens its jaws the teeth down the neck open as well, exposing the muscle under the skin. The other part I like is the choice to have the dragon be capable of spawning Grimm using this weird sludge that we can probably assume is the same sludge we see the Beowolves come out of in the first episode of Volume 4 but I suppose only time will tell. Anyway I do think this adds a sense of dread to the beast, not necessarily physically scary I mean yes it is a big dragon but I’m not wetting my bed anytime soon because of it. But the idea that this monster can basically make your fight with other monsters go on forever and you can’t really do anything to stop it because of its flight and size, so it actually comes across as pretty terrifying when you realize you can only hold out long enough for something else that can actually deter it. This is admittedly a better example of the emphasis being placed on something other than the visual design to communicate the creatures nature which I can respect a lot. But more on this guy later.
Geist- This is another one that I like a lot actually. Ghosts, whether you believe in them or not, have no real form that is common place. I mean most popular fiction depicts ghosts with luminescent and transparent bodies. Meaning the geist manages to separate itself from both of those usual depictions. You can by no means see through the body and it seems to have some kind of black smokey aura around it which is most likely just for visual cohesion than serve any purpose, though I’m sure some RWBY theories out there probably has made a connection anyway. I wish the bones weren’t on this one admittedly because i feel like it takes away from its unique feel but what can you do. Other than that I like how its radius and ulna are showing to give it that human element that is now exposed. Even those hanging tendrils it has give off that intestine kind of look, Izabel, my love is that you! Overall, another good design, it's also similar to the dragon in the sense that the fear it evokes can potentially can go beyond its physical appearance and ability when you realize it and possess random objects and turn them into a weapon. That is scary!
Sea Dragon- MOVING ON!
Seer- Another well done design. The seer manages to scare not just us for a change, for the first time ever we finally see characters within the show display actual fear towards one of the creatures of Grimm. The way Mercury and Emerald step back here is actually very satisfying, and I’m sure there were no shortage of similar reactions when it's clicking noise was heard for the first time. The way it came out of the darkness, with only its light to show its presence was actually very effective. Now clearly if we were going to relate this to any living creature it would most closely resemble a jellyfish or something. But jellyfish themselves are pretty weird as well.They are capable of also looking quite beautiful but for the seers design I think the team did a good job of taking the odder parts of jellyfish and exaggerating them, mixing in the Grimm design aesthetic with a little Lovecraftian horror. Even the way it moves is unsettling because despite the slight bob it has it doesn’t seem to exert much force to carry itself through the air so easily, it just seems so.....alien.
Nuckelavee- So close, and yet so far. My problems with the Nuckelavee are problems that relate specifically with the creatures being saved for the next part, so I think it's about time that we get to that.
The problem with Myths and Literature. RWBY has a problem that I don’t think enough people realize, and that is its insistence that it has to have Mythological and literary references simply because the main characters are based on fairy tale characters themselves. But in reality, besides offering pleasing visual design there is nothing about these characters respective fairy tales that add to their characters or to the world itself. It was a cool idea, take four old fairy tales of innocent young women and turn them into badass monster slayers. That’s it, that's all they needed to be. But RWBY wants to keep using references like this, so instead of going through the effort to create original monster designs, they just use monsters that people are already familiar with.
We have the dragons, which are really not very interesting, I mentioned some stuff I thought was pretty neat about the Grimm dragon but these things can be accomplished with different designs. The sea dragon is just an asian looking dragon, though they decided to give it wings for some reason. The griffon is literally just a griffon, once again somewhat mimicking the problem with the earlier Grimm designs. There is no twist, no inspiration, just the use of the literal monsters themselves. The problem is that these monsters mean something in their respective stories and myths, but not in the world of Remnant. In RWBY the Grimm basically all represent the same thing, Fear and death.
Someone might say that the Grimm are effective because their are so many of them, representing how their are so many threats in the world and so many ways to die in it. But are there really so many ways to die, one of the problems with the Grimm is that they are all essentially the same kind of creature. Stab, claw, break, pummel, impale, bite it's all the same thing. I wish there were more Grimm that had vastly different capabilities and powers. I wish there were dust infused Grimm that could use the powers the main characters have. Then we could add burning, drowning, suffocation, freezing, buried alive and all sorts of other far scarier ways the Grimm could dispatch their victims. Yes I know that conflicts with the whole Grimm can't use dust thing because they don't have aura but I have my own problems with that whole dust requires aura thing.
Basically, the literary and mythological elements don’t add anything to the concept of RWBY, they force the designers to stay within a certain realm that removes creativity because the team can just say “Hey what mythological creature can we turn into a Grimm this season?” Or like our previous problem “Hey, what animal can we turn into a Grimm this season?” Even if it's not intentional, it comes off as lazy.
Nobody is afraid and I can see why. Even though the designs of the Grimm are pretty boring and even if this was the case it wouldn’t necessarily change that another problem is simply how the characters of the show react to their fights with the creatures of Grimm. Which is to say, they don’t. I want you to think for a second, not counting Jaune because he’s an inexperienced huntsman exposed to this dangerous line of work much earlier than he should have been, or Ren whose personal traumatic experience with the Nuckelavee don’t speak for the majority of people. When have we ever seen a character scared of the normal creatures of Grimm? Unless the thing is the size of a house the characters never have any trouble with these things (and even then it still doesn't matter case and point the Nevermore and Deathstalker showing up in season 1 and Blake nonchalantly points them out). We have another Star Wars battle droids situation going on here where the main enemy force is rather pathetic. Unless they vastly outnumber the Characters or use their largest and deadliest creatures as I said earlier there truly is never any real tension in the scene because we know they can beat the odds the vast majority of the time. You cannot argue that the Grimm are getting scarier now, because I still don't see fear in our main characters.
It doesn't help when they build things up to look threatening and then completely destroy any sense of threat whatsoever later. No place better to show that then the Volume 4 character short. Yeah, remember how much more coordinated the Beowolves we're? Remember how one through bricks at Ruby to not get close to danger?
Well okay but what about the brand new Grimm revealed in the trailer, the Beringel! Ruby seemed rather shocked that she couldn't cut right through it and actually had some trouble dealing with it. Yeah sure she got up right after killing it and wasn't tired or hurt at all and stares down a Grimm horde, charging right in like it will be no big deal to kill them but surely the Beringel will have a strong presence in the season to show how much stronger the Grimm are getting and how more dangerous types are now more common!
In fact looking through all of RWBY I have determined that there has been ONE instance of a character who seemed to be afraid during a fight with a Grimm. That character is Nora, during the fight with the Nuckelavee Nora expressed concern for Ren’s well being. She thought he actually could die here since he clearly wasn't thinking straight. Yes it took personal traumatic experience and an extremely powerful Grimm in order to make this happen but the fear doesn't come from Ren himself. I mean they try to set that up in the previous episode but then he's like...Angry in the next one so it didn't really matter. If the characters actually showed some doubt during fights with the Grimm it would make the Grimm feel like a real threat that needs to be acknowledged and feared.
What the Grimm need to Become. A lot of people might be thinking to themselves right now, man whats this guys problem, what's even the big deal with how or why they were designed? Well, to me it's because the Grimm are contradictory to the very thing they are supposed to represent in the show itself. Fear is a powerful emotion to feel, you have to earn the audience's reaction to such a feeling. You can't just have a few Grimm look frightening and have every other look tame by comparison. You can't have the Grimm be mowed down by the dozens, you shouldn't be making things easier on yourself by just choosing real animals to simply turn them into Grimm. The Grimm are so boring at times that I can never feel truly invested in fights with them since I know the vast majority of the time the fight will be over without the characters receiving so much as a sore thumb.
Obviously a huge problem here is how they designed the characters of this world. You see why the Grimm are so weak, because the characters have crazy transforming weapons and superpowers. Why be afraid of a Deathstalker when you can just run away from it as fast as a car. Why be afraid of a Nevermore if you can just jump thirty feet into the air, land on it's back and cut it's wing off. Why be afraid of a Beowolf horde when you have a Gatling gun that fits inside of a purse. Shall I continue?
If the Grimm had been more like the legend Qrow told said they were, they would have been so much more frightening and difficult to deal with. If they actively tried to kill plants wildlife and block rivers this would make the Grimm dangerous on a whole new level. But they didn't. The Grimm only attack people and do nothing to make that easier for themselves. Smart enough to keep communication towers from going up but not smart enough to attack a farm. Make the Grimm smarter. A smart enemy is a dangerous enemy. I would be more afraid of one Beowolf that knew what it was doing than ten rampaging drones.
As usual I hope you all found this to be an enjoyable read. I certainly found it quite entertaining to write. If you feel like I missed something then please leave a comment I would love to discuss any problems you might have or perspectives on the subject you wish to share!

Close