Hunters

RWBY's worldbuilding is... interesting. "a society shapes environment as much as environment shapes society" - my writing teacher when talking about worldbuilding
This phrase above is from one of my professors, and I think it's one of the biggest tools when creating a new world and RWBY seems don't understand it since Remnant's society doesn't seem to be shaped by the always impending doom brought to them by the literal personification of the forces of darkness and destruction.
Let me get this straight, Remnant's society seems to be a society like ours that gets invaded by the Grimm instead of being a society that has developed running and hiding from them. Strangely enough Mountain Glenn is the most logical evolution of city in Remnant, especially when you have flying Grimm (the city was destroyed by the incompetentcy of the humans, when they were mining with dynamites instead of using a Tunnel Boring Machine and stumbled upon a Grimm-filled cave).
Grimm make no sense and dont have any impact on world building, they only exist to attack at random intervals and be destroyed by the protagonists. The worst cases:
Negative emotions atract grimm yet there is no effort to control it
Remnant KNOWS that negative emotions kill them yet there is no attempt to control any of it. There are no drugs to stay "happy" (like Joy from we happy few), there is no forced therapy, there is no government incentive etc. fuck, even after penny dies on live TV they keep the show going instead of turning it all off. They deserved to fall.
Remnant is literally unsustainable because of that
Penny dying generated enough sadness to apparently wake up a dragon. That was 1 girl dying. Imagine natural disasters. Imagine if a tsunami hits Argus and wrecks most of the city, then everyone gets sad and that draws grimm to finish it off. Imagine living besides a volcano. How are humans not extinct yet?
That v4 village died and NO ONE realized until RNJR went there because the towers are gone
This is unreal, almost like remnant is frozen in time. Do trade routes not exist? What if Menagerie is wiped out now? We dont know but it's not impossible.
Traveling is a suicidal gamble because grimm are random AF
Oscar traveled by train and he was fine. The team traveled by train and was attacked.
Weiss traveled by airship and got wrecked by random bees. The whole team flew to Atlas with no issue (?).
Blake went to menagerie by boat and got attacked. Blake bought 200 people with her to haven and wasnt attacked.
Are you seeing a pattern here? If you have no protagonsit huntsmen with you, there's 50% chance you get attacked and DIE, and 50% you dont get attacked and live.
No real grimm defenses and weird ass technology disparity
Vale looks like a modern urban city, Atlas is a floating city with mech armies, Menagerie is just a beach with no walls and Mistral is so feudal that Ren's father had a fucking bow and dagger. These places look like they belong in different timelines.
This world is capable of creating force fields and giant mechs but only Atlas actually cares about doing that (for military purposes, not even sole self defense). Any place that isn't Atlas should've been wiped by now. Fuck, a sphinx alone could probably solo menagerie simply because it flies and they only have shitty pistols to deal with that.
"But what about huntsmen?" "who???"
Pro Huntsmen are not real, they're urban legends. If you're not a student, a teacher or connected to the protagonists then you dont exist. Where were pro huntsmen when Vale was attacked (twice)? Where were huntsmen when Argus was attacked? And no, Dee and Dudley dont count, they were worse-than-Jaune redshirts who only volunteered because apparently everyone else died offscreen.
Aura is not freely acessible and teached to masses for some reason
Imagine living in a world where you can die anyday via giant monsters but meditation gives you super powers. Why are these powers not common knowledge?
I am not saying everyone should be special but at least pretend you care about realism and humans WANT to survive. In naruto everyone goes to ninja school when they're kids, not everyone is going to be good or even a pro ninja but you getting new blood all the time and civilians know the basics. Do you know why they do that? Because it's a NINJA VILLAGE and a WAR can start at any moment.
Rwby treats aura like a privilege with no strings attached. They have ONLY 4 schools that teach you superpowers and then you can do whatever you want with them (most likely die offscreen).
tl;dr: This world was not built around grimm, Remnant is like attack on titan with no walls, humanity should be extinct by now and no amount of suspension of disbelief can help that.
If you're not a student, a teacher or connected to the protagonists then you dont exist.
This is honestly my biggest problem with this show's lore. And why I am REALLY disappointed in the reveal that the Wizard who gave the Maidens the power was Oz after all, and why I absolutely detest the idea of the Ozluminati capable of hiding secrets with global significance from basically everybody in the world who's not involved in the main plot, it hurts my brain just thinking about how absurd that is. It's like the writers intentionally make every other huntsmen, significant figures/characters in the show incompetence for the sake of the secret, which makes sense because they were willing to make pro-hunstmen like tweedle Dee and tweedle Dum super incompetent for the sake of the plot and the sake of the main characters.
Oh man, huntsmen "worldbuilding" is the other half of the issue, i would like to call it godawful in everyway but that's not fair because i never seen a pro huntsman.
Ozpin hiding stuff from the world is fine, the problem is that Ozpin isnt powerful enough to justify that. He's not a trillionaire who controls every megacorporation, he's just a headmaster and his followers are not even 100% loyal (leo, qrow, ironwood, etc).
You cant make competent people exist or else the heroes look bad. If pro huntsmen existed, they would saved Vale twice, Ozpin wouldn't need Pyrrha and someone would've killed the Nuck AFTER ALL THOSE YEARS. Anime normally avoid this by making it clear the kid hero is way stronger than he looks but Rwby likes to pretend the maincast is a group of "weak inexperienced teenagers" when they're easily the top students AND solve every problem. This, of course, leads to wonky AF powerscaling (ruby < qrow < hazel < ruby) and powerlevels assumptions (Portsman is stronger than Pyrrha because he is "teacher tier" and she is "student tier").
Dee and Dum were not pros or else they would be dead. Ozpin implies they're dropouts, making them essentially civilians with weapons (did the broken arm guy even have aura???)
100% agreed, I've seen a fair amount of praise for RWBY's world building, yet the world itself makes little sense. The moment I saw the first episode, my mind immediately drew comparisons to the world of Thedas from Dragon Age. They have very similar set ups: the world being under threat from horde of creatures hell-bent on destroying everything, a multi-national organization dedicated to fighting said creatures, etc.
Yet Thedas has a world which feels much more cohesive and fleshed out. The threat posed by the Darkspawn is so important that the main religion of the setting views them as a punishment from God himself and an entire race uses fighting them as a punishment. The organization dedicated to fighting Darkspawn, The Grey Wardens, will sacrifice literally anything to fight them, their initiation ritual kills half of it's participants, and every Grey Warden is doomed to a slow march into insanity and working for the very creatures they fight. They do this even when there are no Darkspawn on the surface to fight, as the Darkspawn only come in massive Blights which only come every century or so. What's more, basically every nation views this as completely acceptable and even give them the power to conscript anyone they choose, including entire armies.
The world of Remnant, by contrast, has... none of that. Everything feels very disconnected. Despite the ever-present threat of the Grimm, the countryside is dotted with small towns. They have enough infrastructure to support a global telecommunications network, and enough industrial power to mass produce flipping ROBOTS. Despite the Grimm supposedly being enough of a threat to nearly wipe out humanity, we see none of that represented, as basic Grimm can easily be dispatched by flipping Jaune, of all people, who has no training and cheated his way into Beacon. I could go on about this and talk about every aspect of the setting, but I think I've spoken enough.
Yeah... the world in rwby when seen in perspective kinda doesn't make any sense. There are constant attacks of grimm attracted by negative emotions, yet you see unfortified towns in the middle of forests with little to no defenses, not to mention the total nonesense that energy field in argus was (seriously, who the fuck designed that? And that's defensive equipment from the top military superpower. Who that energy field was supposed to stop? grimm tuna?). You would imagine something like people living underground in constant fear of random grimm following their negative feelings and extremely tight security measures and fortified structures. Cities with firepower and armies ready for any attack. We still don't know how are negative emotions related to the size or quantities of grimm attracted (Imho, creatures attracted to negative emotions is the stupidest and cringiest idea for an action show. Could work perfectly for a horror show). When you see that the biggest threat for your city are emotions, you would like to do something about it, a la "Equilibrium", or just get armed to the teeth. I'm impressed that humanity hasn't been extinguished yet.
I think you could do something with creatures attracted to negative emotions, but you'd have to do a LOT of world building around it. You'd have to define what specific emotions are defined as "negative," due to the fact that stuff like anger, fear, and even hate can be positive given the right circumstances. Then you build the world around it. It's the sort of thing you base a story on, not something you casually throw in.
For a setting vaguely like Remnant running off of this idea, I imagine a sort of "bread and circuses" style of government, where the population is kept largely in the dark about the threat posed by the Grimm and showy displays of force against them are used to keep people's fears at bay. Meanwhile, Hunters are taught to either suppress their emotions, or find joy and happiness in the slaughter of Grimm. In this world, the Hunters would be highly militaristic and resemble weaponized psychopaths or sociopaths: people who find joy in death and slaughter. But that's not exactly what RWBY's going for, so the whole "negative emotion" thing falls apart.
That's correct, that setting would be acceptable for a far more dark show. That's why I mentioned it could be like the movie "Equilibrium" where emotions are strictly prohibited because they are considered to be the root of all human problems and you have this sort of police who hunt people that deny to supress their emotions. You can see some parallels with a more darker version of rwby.
Emotion Gestapos - Man, the fun you could have with that setup - a combination of priest, psychiatrist and judge, helping where possible, but always in a position where they can just have people killed or exiled (kinda like PsychoPass, tbh). It can also pose a question on how far someone is willing to go to protect their Kingdom and their family. Also, to that end, put in soldiers that specializes in anti-huntsman tactics, just to be safe.
In canon, how do the board missions work? Are they public? Can anyone see them or only the Huntsmen can access them? What prevents a criminal or a rogue Huntsman from going to a village, asking for money before the work is done and then escaping with the loot? If a payment is required after the job is done, can a village refuse to pay the person who helped it if this person isn't a Huntsman?
“I feel like, of team JNPR, Pyrrha is the best choice for leader.”
That's pretty much how felt a lot of people except Ozpin (..imagine the shitstorm from Weiss, if she'd end up in his team).
Glynda immediately pointed out how Jaune sucked, but Ozpin didn't even answer, only "hmmm'd", then proceeded to wait whether Jaune would die (imagine all Jaune's sisters gang up on Oz like Hazel later, if he would) or do something interesting. He, sort of, managed to do something interesting. And not die.
Jaune's fans would explain how he showed some TACTICAL THINKING, in which among other things he commanded Pyrrha too and she didn't complain. So, the fight had Ruby's plan and some seconds of Jaune's tactical stuff.
Apparently Ozpin found that amusing and wanted to see what would become of it further.
And.
Team organizing is a mess.
First, it was said that team members are decided in the exam and are working like this the whole educational period. Like, yeah, what if someone wouldn't pass the exam or die or whatever? Who cares, right.
Second, it was said, that it is first eye contact. Wwwow. What if someone gets lost? Does he become solo? Or disqualified for "sucking"? And anyway, team members should compensate each other's strengths and weaknesses, it's just a total bullshit luck that they do in the end by "chance". You don't form teams like that and expect them to be efficient in fucking life-and-death situations.
But wait, even after that they have to collect relics. At first it was just an exam goal, but bam, it appeared that matching chess pieces form teams. Sooo what about the eye contact earlier?
And Ozpin choosing the team leader is just icing on this mess of a cake. Yeah, you now must be in a team decided by high jumping, bad landing strategy, eye contact, matching chess piece, where the leader should have an appropriate name and apparently had shown some tactical/strategic... stuff.
You know, maybe mister James Ironwood isn't that wrong in his method. Besides, Flynt and Neon are also from Atlas, so it can't be that bad.
Yes and no. It was stated that after graduation the huntsmen can choose how and for who they work (except Atlas, although it is debatable, since it's not prison or something). You can go solo and be grumpy and drink all day like Qrow or whatever.
It is a good skill, but it is also can be an unfair handicap. In the tournament too.
Ren and Nora learned to be an effective team from the childhood, Glynda wasn't aware of that when she commented on them. Nora is a heavy hitter with an offensive semblance, Ren is a nimble light hitter with defensive semblance. ..Although powered-up Nora is also nimble as hell, but she still prefers simple approach, not complex kungfu.
Pyrrha is a one woman army, even Qrow (a very experienced huntsman) states that her team slows her down. But we are, well, supposed to understand that it's not only about strength, but spirit and mental state too. Pyrrha finally found some friends (and a love interest to boot). It also may be implied, that she isn't fit to be a leader. And doesn't want to, that much.
Still, Pyrrha is a balanced fighter, both offensive and defensive (even her semblance is such). Jaune is a defensive fighter. So in the end, JNPR kinda lacks on special "magical" mumbo-jumbo, but overall is a solid fighting machine. And has some tricks up their sleeves.
As for RWBY - Monty himself said that it was (almost) a classical RPG party. Yang is a fighter (actually barbarian, or at least fighter-berserker), Blake is a thief/ninja (classic dual-wield dps glass cannon), Weiss is a wonderful support magician, and Ruby is ranger (...also, it is quite silly of me, but I for some reason really liked it when Ruby said "Make it happen, RNJR").
See? How can your team be the most promising (unless PLOT DEMANDS IT of course) if you are handicapped by the rules of some semi-random nonsense?
In the example we saw - any combinations of RWBY JNPR CRDL (and some other guys it seems) could have become teams. That's a total mess.
..And I still don't understand how the "eyes" and "relics" rules are supposed to work together. But apparently they did. At least three times. Quite effectively too.
“RWBY is unquestionably the most divided and least able to work together”
Half the team is two sisters, trained from childhood in one school by their father and uncle.
Kinda agree, but when needed they worked well together even when they still didn't become best of friends. Which shows that technically they're a good match from the start. But what if, say, Weiss appears in a team of other glass cannons? I'm not saying Remnant should be as primitive as simple rules of a mediocre RPG, but "stats and skills" still matter. Even Velvet said that Yatsuhashi looked out for her, implying that having a friend-tank for a fragile character is obviously beneficial.
Huntsmen academies are not family psychologist's seminars, they are schools to make efficient combat units. And not for some petty local wars, but for survival of the whole planet. So actually it's in their best interests to make as many good teams as possible.
Random factors are not the best method for this, definitely.
Teams RWBY and JNPR were only 1st year students at a hunter's school in Vols 1-3, yet they're somehow that good to take down large amounts of Grimm? Grimm are supposed to be a major threat in this world. It's why professional hunters exist. I could maybe somewhat understand Pyrrha since she's a famous prodigy, and Blake since she used to be from a terrorist organization, but not everyone else. And how are 1st years able to participate in the Vytal Festival? How are first years able to get to the finals? Where's the seniors(team CFVY are only 2nd years)? In Vols 4-5, they're no longer in Hunter's school, yet they're still able to get strong enough to fight even bigger threats with what? Several more months of personal training/traveling? Qrow was even taking out Grimm for them in the shadows, so that's even less experience for them to gain. Qrow doesn't seem to be teaching them anything. And Ozpin doesn't seem to be teaching them as much as he should. Imo, they should have made each volume a different year at the school. Like "Hit it harder." was a plan, RWBY's writers would not know how to do a proper battle plan speech if they had one made for them and given to them. RT has shown time and time again they have no idea how to have a character convey a plan. "Checkmate" and others are a perfect example of that, it is like say "You two over there do something." Also, isn't it depressing how Ruby was a genuinely ingenious person in V1? Her plan to get the Nevermore was not bad at all and played off well with her team's strengths before they were even a team.
How come we have yet to see famous hunters? Magazines? statues? Posters? Any hunter influence in the world besides a mention of cereal and not…seeing it being sold anywhere or having people even mention pyrrha? We were in mistral and though we spent all of it in a house, not one background character mentioned her. You know, the only greek character in asian influenced land.
Why become a Huntsman? What exactly are the benefits of taking up the position of a Huntsman or Huntress? Several students have given their reasons for wanting to become one, but what does a given person get out of it? From what little we know about it, they are stronger than police and military and take their jobs from mission boards (which don't seem to extend much further than "fight Grimm somewhere"), so I guess there's a paycheck to look forward to if you don't die, but...is that it? Because if so, they aren't really much more than mercenaries.
In HunterXHunter, HuntERS are given greater access to public services and normally confidential info, no longer require a visa to travel the world, get a license to kill without consequence, get specific titles given for their specialties, extra job security and so on. If a Hunter accomplishes certain feats they have the opportunity to be promoted to Single, Double, or Triple Hunter.
Then in something like Naruto, Shinobi typically grow up to do jobs to benefit their respective countries and get paid that way, as well as gaining rank through exams. It's an easy to understand system which has a noticeable impact on the world we see.
There's also State Alchemists in Fullmetal Alchemist who essentially have to do a thesis in order to get funded to conduct more research or join the military.
What is the Huntsmen system? Who organizes, approves, and provides the jobs they get? Do they get a license? Is graduating all they need to do get one? What are things that could have it taken away? Are there ranks or levels of authority or is becoming a teacher the only other option?
We've met at least a few Huntsmen/tresses so far, but not given much of a clear picture of what the industry is like. I know bureaucracy can be a bit boring to cover but it's necessary to add a bit of realism in this case. I hope that we learn more in future volumes, but it's already so far in that I'm starting to think they won't get to it.
Anyway, what do you all think Huntsman and Huntress on the job is like?
Ruby uses a huge recoil on her giant gun in order to move around during a fight and she can't punch? That does not add up. Anyway, I'm not saying they don't need to get stronger, but all of these concepts and reasoning just seem to be implied or explained on paper. The show itself hasn't properly communicated the necessity of the system as is through actual story events. We see students mow through Grimm regularly with no effort, and only recently saw a Grimm actually kill someone, and that was a bad guy. Even with two attacks by hoards of them, there haven't seemed to be any known civilian casualties yet. Basically they don't come off as much of a threat at all.
Like how State Alchemist need to submit research to keep their license, Hunters have different courses like Engineering Courses where they submit their research of their respective course to keep their license. This allows the teachers in canon to still teach the kids on things, except in this AU these characters are specialist in their respective field, such as Port excelling in the Grimms Studies Course.
But is that really all there is to the job? Why is it glamourized when police and military could (and quite possibly might already do) the same job? What seperates a Huntsmen from just a regular bounty hunter? But then why doesn't the military have Huntsmen in their ranks with them at all times? Atlas even combined their government, academy AND military, so they should have like the highest ratio of Huntsmen to mook. Or is that just another plot hole…
Not really, because I am very clearly asking how the job benefits people on a GENERAL AND STANDARDIZED LEVEL. I'm not asking for personal motivation of each individual person.

• Why do people want Driver's Licenses? Because it allows them to drive cars.

• Why do people want business licenses? Because it allows them run a business.

• Why do people in RWBY want to be Huntsmen? Is it illegal to fight Grimm and get paid for it if you don't become one?

So again I ask, what are the benefits of this job over others? What is unique about it that the military and police couldn't already cover if they got similar training?
I get what you mean. Thanks to Cardin we have been given absolute proof that not every hunter is a wonderful human being, yet there must be SOMETHING that's making them want to do this. Perhaps it's a social status, like you get funding and access to better dusts as you're fame increases - as well as knowledge of things like Kevin (Glynda clearly knew about it before he emerged). I'd imagine that if they had access to free food (law obligates people to give it to them), as well as clothes and transport on top of a lucrative paycheck would ensure that none of your children would have to be Hunters, thus creating a pseudo-cycle of why not everyone has to put their lives on the line.
That would make sense. And I guess Kevin is the name of the Dragon? Lol. But yeah, it feels like something like this would have some major perks that would entice anyone, even those who aren't super selfless. The ability to travel everywhere and avoid legal prosecution in places would certainly tempt some people, which increases the number of people on hand for things where a lot of people are at risk. Kinda like the Heroes Association in One Punch Man. It would just be nice if the show would get around to expanding on this…
I honestly can't tell why you're getting so much hate. Most of the students went to some kind of battle academy before joining Beacon and seem good enough for most weak Grimm. Sure special lessons such as the ones offered in Beacon are great, but unless they're doing something else other than just fighting Grimm, then I see no specific reason of actually going to this school when you could get the same thing from: hunting Grimm (getting experience, be it solo or with a group) or joining another professional group (White Fang and things like towns seem to do at least OK out in the wilds). For now, it just seems to be prestige, like saying "I graduated from a university", as opposed to "I finished community college".
This is a large problem with RWBY lore in general, and the Hunter system specifically. 1) Hunters get paid, they get paid by the mission 2) Once they graduate, they can literally do whatever the fuck they want. Literally, the likelihood of there being "criminal Hunters" is staggering, considering how Qrow describes a bar full of the scum. 3) Each Hunter is likely independent, considering RWBY's absolute fetish for freedom and individuality.
Part of the problem I have with the Hunter system is how it basically boils down to (practically) Neo-feudalism, which is practically 100% the exact opposite of the themes RWBY supports. You take individuals when they are very young (pre-Academy "Combat Schools" start at, what, 13?), give them highly specialized training in combat, tactics, etc, then basically turn them loose. They are intrinsically better than the rest of humanity, for some reason. It is heavily implied that Aura is tied in to specific bloodlines, which, to be frank, is bullshit. Golden, plated, tastefully-arranged bullshit.
Their training, asides from the whole team-based shtick, is analogous to the training and social impact of European knights. They wander the world, protecting the innocent and fighting the creatures of Darkness......
Except Knights and knighthood became obsolete almost as soon as firearms were developed. Knights would be "more useful" serving as commanders than as individuals. Today's modern officer corps is basically the direct descendant of knights and knighthood.
Plus, you know, "force projection". A single combatant, no matter how skilled and equipped, will never be able to match a group of fighters moving in formation, even if they are unskilled.
Finally, there is a reason firearms are referred to as "the Great Equalizer". You can give a bunch of levies a firearm and they could be combat-proficient in about a week or two. Swords? Years. Even spears take a couple of months. Not including the fact that anyone can fire a rifle: men, women, children, the old, the sick. Need to be in pretty good shape to swing a sword. The only reason Hunters can get in close with their nonsensical and antiquated melee weapons is because they have their Aura unlocked and can tank damage.
It is really funny that the rest of the in-show world gives Atlas so much shit about having and using a professional military, when in reality it appears that they are the most well off as a result.
Because it is Neo-feudalistic, and directly ties your value to society to who's womb you popped out of.It implies certain strains of people are "just better" than the rest of the dirt-slinging peasants, and they should know their place (by not becoming Hunters). It leaves a poor taste in my mouth, to be succinct. We spent thousands of years in the real world attempting to squash that line of thinking, and here is a show were it is encouraged. And, based on the Invasion of Vale ...... all that freedom is doing so much good for the Kingdoms, right? They were able to defend themselves so effectively from the Grimm, nothing fell apart like a house of cards as soon as the shit hit the fan, right?
While "he who gives up freedom for security deserves neither" might apply in the real world, the real world isn't a place where literal hell-beast-abominations seek to wipe out humanity from the face of the earth, and they have mostly succeeded. There is such a thing as too much freedom when that freedom directly impairs your ability to protect your people. In the real world, what would have happened almost as soon as the up-and-ups realized that there was the possibility of the CCT being compromised? (Note that Ruby straight-up told Ironwood and Ozpin that she saw Cinder doing stuff with the CCT) It would have been shut down, had it's code purged and worked through with the finest of fine toothed combs, and rebooted after changing all the security features. In Remnant? "Yah, no, we gotta leave it open or people will freak out". Considering how Ruby is able to make the equivalent of cellphone calls in the middle of the sticks, with no loss of reception or service, even after the CCT was blown up, Remnant going without the CCT for a week or so wouldn't have been that affected. We will have to agree on disagreeing, I guess.
Nope. According to the WoR episode IIRC, if one of the main towers goes down, the whole system shits the bed. The secondary towers are for extending range. The CCT thing is probably my biggest "problem" with the show, to be honest. Everyone involved was so incompetent, and they had to be for the plot to advance.
That's all just informed and implied, though. What in the story itself communicates that Huntsmen exclusively have that status? Is there a Justice League or Overwatch organization to answer to? What "interests" do we see Huntsmen pursue? What "information and data" do they look for? Qrow and Raven just seem to wander around and do odd jobs and the rest we've seen teach classes or join the army. None of that sounds that much more rewarding than the regular versions of those jobs, and it certainly doesn't point to them being "superheroes" or being able to "do literally whatever you want." And as an aside, like any universe with superpowers in it, I can't imagine there aren't some Semblances that are hard to control or are potentially lethal, so it might make nightmares come true more than anything depending on the power.
I agree, it's all speculation and assumption based off of some characters' motivations. Like how Jaune looked up at that statue, how he, even though he had no combat experience, still wanted to go to Beacon to fulfill some childhood dream. Pretty much all of Ruby is one big pointer to how looked up Huntsmen are.
BUUUT...Unfortunately RWBY dropped the ball on this aspect, and didn't involve nearly as much info as it should. If it weren't for how the show set up Ironwood, I would've 100% Fucken agreed with him and his ideas. Fuck individualism when Huntsmen can become lethal killers, and go massacre an entire Village because he's been AWOL for ten years and nobody wanted to check up on his mental health.
Huntsmen aren't so much a job as they are a way of Life. You're taught to do things, namely combat Grimm, and have to actually use combat to get in in the first place. I wish we'd get more info coupled with actual team developments. I want to see what people who have 0 interest in battling hell monsters do for a living, what society does to keep trained Huntsmen from using their killswitch semblance to fuck shit up. I mean, Semblances are tied to your soul...So what if you're just a really huge Edgelord? Congrats, Huntsman Academy, you didn't lock this guy up and now he's running around shouting "die" three times per five seconds.
And as for interests, that was me making assumptions. I'd imagine someone with a semblance directly tied to knowing things would be pretty shit at fighting unless reciting Hamlet perfectly is considered lethal towards monsters. But Huntsmen with combat skills could still have opportunities presented to them in other fields. Take Glynda for example, on One hand she's already doing like five jobs in one åt Beacon, but she could double down as a construction worker if the city needs an expansion. Or Pyrrha, a metalworker like that would be really handy. If RWBY decides to actually expand on these areas, that'd be great.
It would be great. And I appreciate you trying to fill in the blanks the show should have by now. I wanted to start the thread to speculate and brainstorm but as you can probably tell, I got to caught up in my frustration with how underdeveloped this aspect of the world is. IS it better money, though? I mean, we can maybe assume, but we haven't really gotten anything to confirm how the differing pay compares. If anything, having a job that only pays from assignment to assignment (which may vary wildly) instead of a steady salary like police work would actually implies that Huntsmen might make LESS, especially if they become inactive at some point like Taiyang. And surely they have to answer to SOMEONE. Probably have to renew their verification or maybe put money into a Huntsmen Union or Pension and that has to go through someone higher up.
As for the Faunus thing, we really have no idea how better or worse Faunus have it outside of hunting because the only one we saw that was a civilian who got killed for being an ex-terrorist. For all we know, they could be thriving in other fields.
Yeah, and there are always police and military jobs too because CRIME always exists. The jobs are all equally crucial, but one goes by a glorified Craigslist. In fact, I have absolutely no doubt that these jobs overlap quite a bit in both crime and Grimm activity. And considering "serving humanity" is vague as fuck, there's no way that someone isn't overseeing and keeping track of Huntsmen activity.
How strong is the average huntsman? And do you think the main cast is already on that level? I wish they weren't, to be honest. Makes the profession look worse. "Sure, we haven't finished a single year of Beacon,but we're leagues beyond actual huntsman who trained and studied for four years already." I would also like for RT to stop making any Huntsman who isn't Qrow look like assholes. My statement is based on the fact that when I see someone who has been doing a job for a while, I expect a difference in experience. Yet the only time this seems to be the case is with Qrow. I want them to do it like Hunter X Hunter were the protagonists are strong, but are still not the strongest due to there being a lot of people who outright wreck them. I want someone unrelated to the Ozpin group who is capable of their job! You can have silly characters without having them be utterly incompetent. Seems needlessly mean-spirited.
They need to change whatever philosophy they’re teaching in huntsman academies.
These kids (and Qrow) hear that they can’t kill their enemy, and they immediately jump to “Welp, there’s no hope, no point to this. We can’t win. All is lost. Beat up the farm boy.” It’s like Huntsman receive zero instruction on conflict resolution outside of “kill thing.”
Come the fuck on guys. If I told either of my D&D groups that the big bad can’t be killed, they would immediately jump to one of about ten different plans to neutralize the threat without killing.
Seal away/imprison her. Put her to sleep Sleeping Beauty style. Trap her in a prison inside her own mind. Send her forward in time to the heat death of the universe. Get her to have a change of heart. Institute a multi-generational plan to successfully convince all of humanity to stop killing each other, summon the gods for the final judgement, pass the test, and have the gods make Salem immortal. Or hey, teach her the meaning of life so she loses her immortality on her own. Sap her ability to actually give a fuck about destroying humanity.
The big bad is immune to all damage. Get creative people.
Analysis of “Time To Say Goodbye”, which is a song for Hunters in general. Maybe I'm just a history nerd but I see similarities between “Time To Say Goodbye” and WW1: 1. 0:24-0:33 I see this as a reference to all the tensions in the world (Specifically Europe) because of all the new ideologies (Granted it would make more sense for WW2 because it was Communism, Capitalism, Fascism and Nazism) and many colonies fighting for independence.
2. 0:56-1:03 Again all the things I mentioned before and then crossing the line is the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand (The main reason Austria Hungary invaded Serbia)
3.1:36-1:44 I think this is a metaphor for conscriptions where they didn't care that the men weren't prepared for the fight, they just wanted them to take out the enemy because if they lost they could see horrific consequences.
4. 1:44-1:48 A metaphor for the alliances.
5. 1:48-1:53 Again a metaphor for the growing tensions and how the storm (The war) will be deadly because of all the new weapons being built.
6. 2:18-2:25, 2:40-2:48 A metaphor for how a lot of the soldiers in the war were young men who saw the horrors of the war and lost their innocence.
7. 3:16-3:23 A metaphor for how a lot of soldiers (At least at the beginning of the war) had a strong sense of Nationalism and wanted to win for their country (More likely the French for how the last war the lost to Germany (The Franco Prussian War) was 43 years ago where they were humiliated by a new nation and they lost Alsace-Lorraine (Ot says how the French weren't going to lose to Germany again)
8. 3:43-3:50 A metaphor for how soldiers fought relentlessly at some points in the war.
9. 4:22-4:29 A metaphor for again a lot of the soldiers were young and had to man up early and fight the enemy
10. 4:29-4:33 Maybe a metaphor for how many people were dying and that it could very well result in some many deaths.
11. 4:33-4:39 When soldiers realised that the war wouldn't be over by Christmas and go on for another 4 brutal years.
12. 5:03-5:35 Perhaps how some soldiers felt during the war since they saw their enemy as faceless monsters. How in a way the war started because of political hatred between the Austro Hungarians and Serbs. And also how because so many people died the commanders got used to it and only cared about whether the soldiers win and not if they die. Also how there really was no bad guy in the war.
Again I may just be a history nerd but that's what I think.
This is unrelated, but I wish characters had outfits that would make sense for how they fight. Like Ruby could instead of wearing a dress, wears a Motorcycle like tracksuit, maybe with rolling wheels on joints so if she’s moving fast with her semblance/ gun recoil, she could use the wheels to keep going, saving either aura or ammo. Then she could also have footwear and gloves that have a good grip, so she can stop if she needs to, and maybe pull off parkour like techniques for complex movement. I was just thinking that it would be practical. Like how in My Hero Academia, some characters have costumes that can help with their powers. So likewise in RWBY, characters who would benefit for a special wardrobe that could help them.
What are the average Huntresses/Huntsmen like? As the title says what are the average huntress/huntsmen like not in sense in how strong they are but what is the day-to-day life like being one? like how do you make a living in this profession and maybe the culture of this profession outside the academies?
In terms of worldbuilding, it's kind of a disaster that after FIVE volumes (5 years) the only huntsmen shown so far are teachers/professors (Qrow, Tai, Ozpin), legendary prodigies (Raven), or dead (Summer + random dead Huntsmen in V4). The fact we have to speculate on what the "average" huntsmen is like after 5 years is pretty awful. In the fall of Beacon, we should have seen Huntsmen fighting instead we get Teachers and students that we know against all that shit.. Oh yeah, let's not forget about the large majority of the stadium that was filled with students of Academies that have run away the moment the Alarm sounded.. << Protectors of the world... Sure you would need to create a unique Sorta weapon for every student and huntsmen but the world itself would feel more lively... The kid heroes blame Ozpin for Salem being unstoppable. “That is not what any of them signed up for.” Yeah. They decided to become protectors of humanity from never-ending hordes of Grimm. Ruby: lost her mother to this job, wants to save people. Yang: lost both mothers to this job, still joined for shit and giggles. Weiss: ran away from father. Blake: ran away from Adam and other problems. Jaune: joined to be hero, got super-fucking-surprised when Pyrrha died. Why would they even need huntsmen if it wasn't risky? Pyrrha: not sure. And then she went and pulled suicide by Cinder, despite orders from Ozpin to get help. Apparently Ozpin manipulated her with reverse psychology, so he is to blame for her death. Ren & Nora: had near-death experience, probably understand best what they signed for. So really, what the fuck did they sign for? From team RWBY it seems like only Ruby had some understanding what she signed for. Why wouldn't Yang, and the rest of Team RWBY, be pissed at Oz? Because they might as well be pissed off at the entire concept of Huntsman. Like, they literally went to school to go fight and throw their lives away against this infinite, unchanging force that has existed since the birth of humanity. In other words, a war they could not win and they knew this. To save some people. To give them a little more time. It's the entire concept of being a Huntress. And then they're getting super pissy at Ozpin because it turns out, dude's just doing this on a significantly higher scale. Why'd you try to become a Huntress anyway? I mean, I know that personal arc in Mountain Glenn was that basically all of them joined for selfish reasons(except for Ruby) that had nothing to do with protecting humanity, but I didn't think they'd take that character trait this far.
How do the gun parts of the Hunter weapons work? Where do they buy the ammunition? Does each weapon use a specific caliber? How much ammunition do they carry around at one time? How many bullets are there in a clip or a belt? How do they know when the weapons need reloading? Do they mentally keep count of each round fired, or do they know like it’s a hunch? Are there stores out there that regularly sell ammunition for Hunter weapons? If so, where are they? Do they mix it in with other guns, or are there stores just for these types of weapons? Is it a black market kind of deal? How expensive are the rounds? It would seem like they’re cheap, since these kids are popping off rounds without a care in the world. Or, do their parents buy the ammunition for them? What kind of parents buys their kids ammunition? Or use these high-tech weapons for that matter?
The magitek weapons work by having the aura-user constantly pump their aura into their weapon in a meditative state to the point that the user’s aura holds the weapon together. This process usually takes a while.
Combatants use earpieces to communicate with teammates during combat, like with real-life soldiers.
A fucking mech? A giant mech? That gotta be one of the worst additions to the show to date. The robots seen in the earlier seasons where supposed to be the cream of the crop, the cutting edge technology. Borderline experimental. And now they suddenly have giant mechs?

Career

Qualifications

The Huntsmen are anything the kingdom wants them to be but why? Would a transitioning away from monster hunting towards the bolstering of government infrastructures be a point of friction in society? They do everything: military, police, monster extermination, disaster relief, etc. and I could see how people are fearful of the idea that their governments are essentially being enforced by mercenaries that certainly should, but probably aren't, held to the same standards when acting within those titles other than monster hunter.
Kinda like how the militarization of police has become a topic of debate, the Huntsmenization of police/military would be something. Even in times of peace or civil discourse, they are sending out these monoliths of human power to do what could be done with regular forces, unfortunately causing incidents of big big consequence. (Hunters are traditionally used as last resort and expect a job of last resort status when called for policing. this is completely different from bounty hunting by the way. I'm talking police actively scouting hunters for standard work)
WF could point to this as proof that their tactics are warranted/their concerns and complaints are real, even claiming their oppression is institutionalized because why else would huntsmen be sent out to break up a WF protest?

Career Progression

They make children songs about the Soul, Aura, Dust, Grimm and Semblances. An interesting point in regards to age of consent laws in Remnant. I presume they would be low to around 13-14 for most areas due to low population and general short life expediencies for people outside of the main kingdoms due to Grimm attacks. I would think this age frame would apply for huntsmen moreover due to job...occupational hazards. It makes sense for a society of warriors to have offspring early when few ever make it to retirement. So it isn't that gross as it is practical.
Hell I took a look at current/modern day age of Consent in Wikipedia across the world and the earliest age averages at 14-15. And that's without the constant mortal threat of Grimm world wide XD

Payment & Reimbursement

(https://imgur.com/a/j0dG6V6 =) #SecondAmendmentRights. This picture makes me question, did the students have to get firearms training for their magitek weapon’s respective realistic firearm counterpart? Food for thought, and a headcanon I’m using for my fanfic. I get the feeling that bearing arms in remnant is pretty much mandatory in some places. I mean, yeah, with murderous hellbeasts roaming free, gotta defend yourself somehow. If you don't got the strap, them murder demons will give you the clap!

Other Benefits

In Remnant, there is a type of United Nations, so discuss mass troop strategies, spiritual/emotional training for these troops, and coordinate efforts to reclaim lands (military campaigns, search and destroy missions, etc) to reclaim land lost to the Grimm. Inspiration on how different governments keep emotions under control can be found in works such as Fahrenheit 451 and 1984.

Perception

Purpose

Historically civilizations in this situation would have some form of religion. Remnant is a strange place because even though they have technology surpassing the real worlds, they still face problems that were common until the the modern age.
The presence of the grimm alone would constitute some form of religious structure. Whenever a culture is faced with overwhelming odds that tend to cull populations a religion will adapt and incorporate the event into their narrative and focus. There was never a god of snow in Egypt and never a god of the Nile for the Norse. People find gods in every aspect of their lives they need help in, which is of course all of them. So grimm would naturally lead to the advent of hunter gods, gods of weapons and their production, and more likely than not evil spirits or fallen gods that would exist on behalf of the grimm.
Instances like the plague help to elaborate on this notion. The Abrahamic beliefs were the most heavily affected during the spread of the Bubonic Plague. Because of this demons were often used to represent the spread of the disease. Why, Dante's own representation of the big bad himself was based off of descriptions taken from plague times. That of course being a three headed, and more importantly mouthed, demon. The multitude of mouths was the people way of describing how efficiently the plague killed and ended lives. The religions affected by this long term disaster were changed for it and reflected its existence in their teachings. So you can be sure the grimm will be apart of any religious structure existing in their world.
As for the crosses they have been used by countless religions and beliefs throughout history. The ancient Egyptians for instance used to use a basic cross to represent points where two worlds intersected. A cross with crooked arms was once used by Buddhist monks to represent the aspect of a pure soul. Unfortunately the Swastika (pronounced Swa Asti Ka) was taken by another group and used for anything but it's original purpose. Put simply crosses have been used for religious purposes long before they were torture devices turned symbols of faith.
On a simpler note, no, Christianity does not exist in Remnant. The entire religion is based around the life and story of a person believed to be descended from a god. Where other religions based around ideas and concepts could possibly transfer over this one can not.
My best guess as to what type of religion they would have would be one based around a small pantheon of gods reflecting their main aspects of life. They are at a technological stage that puts them past animism, but are still plagued by natural hazards that would likely keep them working closer to natural deities.
And finally, and this is a personal note, the creation story put forth by the show sucks. It's bugged me since they released the episode but it was just so damn disappointing. I have a masters degree in Religion with a focus on myth and folklore (explains why I can ramble on about the topic) so I was hyped when they were bringing gods into the show. But then they bring in a broken over simplified creation story. It is just a bare bones mad lib of what Wikipedia notes as the key points in a creation story. They had so much potential and it was too bare bones and nonsensical. It works I suppose for the show but this is sort of my field so it always bothered me.
Any way that's what I got. Feel free to tell me how wrong I am in the comments below.

Social Status

In the real world, what would have happened almost as soon as the up-and-ups realized that there was the possibility of the CCT being compromised? (Note that Ruby straight-up told Ironwood and Ozpin that she saw Cinder doing stuff with the CCT)
It would have been shut down, had it's code purged and worked through with the finest of fine toothed combs, and rebooted after changing all the security features. In Remnant? "Yah, no, we gotta leave it open or people will freak out".
Considering how Ruby is able to make the equivalent of cellphone calls in the middle of the sticks, with no loss of reception or service, even after the CCT was blown up, Remnant going without the CCT for a week or so wouldn't have been that affected.
Nope. According to the WoR episode IIRC, if one of the main towers goes down, the whole system shits the bed. The secondary towers are for extending range.
The CCT thing is probably my biggest "problem" with the show, to be honest. Everyone involved was so incompetent, and they had to be for the plot to advance.

Demographics

I thought Remnant was fine up(Though I still feel that the faunus are kind of a boring fantasy race) until V4 when shit like the gods and the relics were introduced. Sure, maidens aren't anything new either(First thing I think of when I see them is the Zelda games), but I felt like they could've been interesting to explore. But when Qrow started to talk about the "2 brothers of light and darkness" or something, I lost a lot of interest because it just sounded so boring and basic to me. Truthfully, I suspect that one of the reasons for RWBY's early popularity is because it was vague about so many things, and what the fans thought of was often more interesting that what the writers thought of. If a lot of this stuff had been established from the start, perhaps people wouldn't have expected so much from the show.

History

In canon, there are intercontinental world wars even though they still can't consistently hold off the Grimm enough to reliably expand to this day. This would’ve been extremely nightmarish, whole armies would die before even reaching a battleground, let alone the aftermath of an actual fight. Instead, for this Au, there have not been wars fought between nations as they are still trying to fend off the Grimm everyday. (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.)

Operations

Tools

Character Designs:

Materials

Calibers for team RWBY's weapons: I was wondering what caliber rounds team RWBY's weapons fire. Does anyone have an official source on this or at least credible headcanon?
Ruby’s sniper scythe was modeled after a gun that shoots .50 BMG, Blake has some sort of compact Glock, so likely 9mm, though it could be .40, 45, or 10mm. Yang’s gauntlets carry twelve shells apiece, iirc, so she likely has to have a very small shell like .410, or maybe 20 gauge. Sun, on the other hand, likely has 12 gauge. Ren uses an elongated 1911, so he’s .45 ACP. Neptune has an H&K G36, so he’s .223. No clue what Pyrrha uses.

https://streamable.com/zdajg That is literally the whole cartridge.
Here's a basic picture thing I made to kinda show how it's wrong
There are five ish parts to a cartridge from bottom to top:
Primer pocket,
Rim,
Casing/shell/hull,
Propellant,
and the Bullet.
What's supposed to happen is that the primer pocket containing a smaller explosive charge is set off causing sparks to leak from the pocket into the rim and then into the casing that then burns the propellant allowing a slow but steady burn that allows for acceleration and then the gyroscopic effects of rifling on the bullet that is propelled from the expanding gases.
In the case of Ruby the bullet is just another cartridge being fired from another cartridge through the use of only a explosive charge rather than a burning propellant. This means that Ruby loses out on 50% of any potential kinetic energy. The full cartridge that is fired doesn't spin and thus losses any form of accuracy that might exist from rifling meaning that Crescent Rose isn't a sniper rifle because it doesn't have rifling, and the cartridge itself will lose energy and stabilization within 300 meters due to wind force regardless of weight and velocity. Making her a equal to a US civil war rifle musket in terms of accuracy or about half the accuracy as a ww1 bolt gun and about a third the accuracy expected of a normal rifle or pistol.
WE FIRE THE WHOLE BULLET! THAT'S 60 PERCENT MORE BULLET PER BULLET!

Workplace

I always believed that the dorm system was a way of Remnants to manage a dwindling population. Why not put all the hormonal young adults with super powers together in the same dorm regardless of gender? If a few babies come about, great! More future huntsmen.
The school names give a hint to their nature: Beacon - A light that guides people to a predetermined destination. Shade - A place to hide. Haven - A safe place. Atlas - A map to the destination. Each of the schools probably operates in a manner similar to the name they carry, meaning that where Beacon seeks to guide people, Shade seeks to hide them, Haven seeks to protect them, and Atlas seeks to lead them. It would be a fitting theme for the academies, and leaves open the question: "Are there any schools that seek to empower the people, or do they all seek some form of control?"

Provided Services

About the 2 from V6. I think that it could have worked better if they were Huntsman in training, first year to be exact. They were called back after the majority of Huntsman (and Leo) died. They could also have splitted their team in half because of necessity, when the Accademy needed to cover many mission but didn't have enough Huntsman. Yeah, that'd explain some of Dee and Dudley's incompetence while also making the death of Haven's Huntsmen feel more important. You could also throw in a line of dialogue saying that the train station's really busy because citizens of Haven are fleeing for Argus since it's protected by the Atlas military, while Haven is now more vulnerable to attack since losing its Huntsmen and Headmaster.
My issue with the Huntsmen and Huntresses portrayal. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed that, despite Huntsmen being a big part of the world of Remnant, not very many of them have appeared in the show, aside from the main characters, of course. We did see plenty of them throughout Volumes 1-3 in the forms of other students and professors. But after Volume 3, none of these teams have reappeared (except Sun). While Port and Oobleck only made a cameo in Volume 4.
On one hand, I understand this, you don't want to have too many miscellaneous characters after all. But the Huntsmen are supposed to be important, so having them involved in some capacity would be nice. Especially since, the Huntsmen that are involved (aside from the main cast) are a bit, underwhelming.
-There was a Huntsmen at Shion that died shortly after RNJR arrived.
-Leo wasn't a very difficult foe, even to Oscar, who'd received minimal training beforehand.
-Leo sent all, or at least many of the Huntsmen of Haven to their deaths, yet this doesn't seem to have affected the state of Mistral in a noticeable way.
-Dee and Dudley were both shown to be incompetent. Being outdone by first-year students who even had to tell one of them how to do his job right.
This is unfortunate, because the Huntsmen are supposed to be strong warriors who fight the Grimm for a living. Not seeing them, or having them appear as incompetent, makes them feel unimportant. I kinda wished we'd see more about how the existence of Huntsmen impact Remnant. Maybe bring back some of the multiple teams they introduced for the Vytal Festival and have them make a cameo or two when it makes sense.
What do you all think about the miscellaneous Huntsmen and Huntresses in the show? Do you think they were portrayed well? Or do you wish they were handled differently?
I’m still trying to figure out how the fall of beacon was successful. You have 4 schools together in one place filled with huntsmen trained to fight Grimm. But when the Grimm came and attack, they were scared. I thought this was the job they were training to do. I understand that the fight will be hard and lives will be lost, but they just took the L without trying. Yes, the robots and the WF attacked, but the students who did stay behind and did decent. Still salty that Ozpin didn’t tell Ruby about the silver eyes, seeing that could have helped in situations like that, but whatever.
Yep, they all just boarded ships and flew away as soon as the Grimm showed up. We didn't even see a Huntsmen or Huntress outside the students and professors in battle. Sure, some members of the WF, like Adam, might be a threat, but the Atlas robots were easy enough for students to destroy in bulk.
Another thing Ozpin could've done, is told everyone that there's an important relic in Beacon that they have to protect at all costs. It might inspire some of them to stay and fight to protect it. I mean, Salem clearly knows it's there, so what's the point of keeping it a secret anymore?
I first thought he kept it a secret because if the relic became public knowledge, people would try to take it. Then I remember that to get the relic you need the maidens. And then I started to ask, even if you didn’t need the maiden, just have high security. IRL, the US has Fort Knox and everyone knows that it has a lot of gold, yet no one has ever robbed the place. Why? Because the placed has a high security. Why can’t Ozpin just increase security?

Dangers & Hazards

I find the Color Naming Rule problematic in terms of the show's lore and world building. I say this as a fanfic writer who enjoys making RWBY OCs, I do not hate this rule nor do I really blame Monty and all the other writers who established this rule in the show's lore early on. In case anyone need a refresher: Oz's speech during Volume 2 confirms that after the Great War the vast majority of the population began naming their children after colors. It's a decently nice way to tie in the meta of why the Color Naming Rule exists, why every character in the show are named as such.
But that's where their problem begins.
Because the colors that all of the character's names are based on are not based on a fictional language specific within Remnant, instead, it's based on the various languages that exists in our real world. Which is problematic because real world countries do not exist in the lore of RWBY.
This is a problem that also leaks into the show's core theme of racism/politics to a certain extent where the writers constantly forget that they are writing for a fictional land called Remnant, and not real world America.
This is sorta like some kind of recurring theme with a lot the show's problems. You think about it too much and it ruins the immersion. Your suspension of disbelief can only be taken so far before you begin wondering the etymology of many of the characters' names and the languages and culture of the past.
This problem surfaced during a time when production and budget was light and the creator and writers more focused on make a light show with cool fights instead of a serious deep story driven one. I really wonder if the current writers have actually gone back to the fundamental lore of the older volumes and attempted to make sense of it, or if they're just making things up as they go and trying to forget about the problems of the core of the lore.
The difference is that it matters more in RWBY than it does in other series. A character's name is a playground for a writer. It's something a writer can use to create deeper meaning to a character depending and genre and depending on what the writer wants to do.
When a story goes out of its way to put weight and significance on its characters' name (like RWBY) and then have that weight/significance rendered a non-factor due to shaky foundation of lore/world building, then the show suffers. It basically just shot itself in the leg.
Real world language and its evolution are very intricately tied to real world's cultures and history, it absolutely cannot be handwaved by saying "it's ancient Valean or etc." Because real life's history and culture aren't plagued with stories of super powered warriors and large evil monsters driving humanity to near extinction.
So the writers here have a choice of either coming up with their own intricate lore/history/culture explaining the ways their fictional language works (which I honestly doubt they can do, or even willing to do due to production deadlines) OR don't include it in the show's lore/history at all, and just have the color name rule be external.