We Need to Talk About RWBY Script

INTRO:

Alright. This is getting out of hand. It’s time we take a stand. It’s time we address a problem that’s been steadily growing over the last couple years, particularly during Volumes 4 and 5. It’s time to talk about the problem with RWBY.

Oh you thought I meant the show. Oh, no, no, no. I’m talking about you.

So before I charge into the crowd of pitchforks and torches, let me make one thing clear: I have no issue with any fellow RWBY-Tubers. Even those who are especially harsh on the show, I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with. The people I’m addressing today are of a certain variety, which I like to call, Condescending Fuckwits.

The other day, I was tagged by this lovely gentleman on Twitter in a direct insult towards Rooster Teeth, Miles, and Kerry, and immediately, my blood got pumping, because it’s the culmination of a misunderstanding people have seemed to have about me, so let me make this clear: I do not hate RWBY. Believe it or not, I think it’s a good show.

That’s not to say it’s not without problems - every show is. But RWBY in particular has quite a lot of problems. However, aspects people have hated - whether it be Blake’s character and her family being well-of, or creepy Adam, or the Relics - I don’t have much issue with, aside from some minor tweaks I’d have made, but that’s a tale for another time.

So there is a genuine place all this hatred comes from, but it seems to have grown exponentially since Volume 4. I’ve legit been called a sheeple for liking the plot twist of Raven being the Spring Maiden in Volume 5, and also called an idiot for thinking Volume 5’s animation looks good.

I describe myself as more of the middle-ground between the extremes. I have issues with the show, but I don’t go out of my way to tear it apart and insult the show’s writers, animators, etc. This has gotten me harsh words from both people trying to defend the show thinking I’m a hater, as well as actual haters who feel I’m going too easy on the show. Though honestly, I more have an issue with what I like to call the “hatedom.”

Now before we delve into the roast session, let’s take a moment to discuss what criticism is, and how the hatedom seems to confuse vitriol for it.

WHAT CRITICISM IS ACTUALLY FOR:

Criticism, in a general sense, is the analysis and dissection of media, breaking it into its most basic elements, and discerning how it tells whatever story it wants to share, and how effectively it tells that story. It is to both understand the media in question, as well as to assess its quality and offer ways to improve it for future media.

Whenever criticism is discussed, people seem to think these critics are simply stuffy haters who live to point out flaws, when really, a good critic loves what they absorb. They love storytelling, and genuinely want to understand the intricacies of how it works, as well as how to improve storytelling techniques across the board.

However, I can’t really blame the people who think critics are just haters, because it seems a lot of the internet has thought this as well. Namely with RWBY, while the show has always had legitimate criticism sent its way, it feels like in recent years the criticism has become more and more bathed in condescension and contempt. It’s become insulting the writers and treating them like they’re morons.

We’ll get more into that later, but my point is that legitimate criticism should always be meant to understand the media in question and find some way to improve it. Otherwise, it ain’t criticism. Speaking of… 

ACTUAL PROBLEMS WITH RWBY:

Like I said, RWBY has problems a plenty, and it doesn’t need a divisive fandom to add to it. The quality of fight scenes has decreased in recent volumes, as well as the number of fights per volume. Likewise, the show really enjoys doling out bland, repetitive exposition that doesn’t tell the audience anything useful.

Volumes 4 and 5 specifically were plagued by odd pacing, with episodes that felt like they lacked satisfying stories packed into 15 - 20 minutes. Continuity with the CCTS, as well as Blake’s family and how no one suspected her being the daughter of Ghira despite her not even changing her name, gets more apparent as the show goes on, as does Ruby’s lack of agency and development as the main protagonist.

And these are just some of the problems with the show, and they are legitimate grievances. However, the source of all of these issues is not that they are inherently bad ideas; rather, it lies within the execution - namely, the structure of each volume, which informs pacing, as well as the rushed production, which prevents scripts from being fully revised to avoid basic errors and bland dialogue, along with errors in the animation and bland fight choreography.

To say the show is rushed is an understatement. Miles and Kerry admitted that they hadn’t even finished writing Volume 5 before it premiered, which… kinda says everything. As of right now, RWBY is Rooster Teeth’s flagship series. It performed far beyond anyone’s expectations, and has even become the first western animated series to be considered “American anime” and dubbed into Japanese by Warner Brothers.

RWBY, no matter what, is a success, and not without merit. The colors used for each character, along with the unique weapons and fairy tale characters they’re based on, make characters memorable and - to a degree - simple. That’s not to mention the show’s soundtracks that further flesh out the show’s stories (Or in the case of “Armed and Ready,” tell stories the show couldn’t fully tell). But it’s in this success that the show’s problem rise up.

Rooster Teeth wants to cash in on this hype. Why else would they try to rush out each volume in the same year the last volume just ended, instead of taking at least a year’s break to iron out the story and get the scripts ready? Why else would they create an in-house video game that… kinda sucks. Why else would they try to expand this success into other shows when the team can barely even handle one show?

Really, the team needs to take a fucking break. They need to take a step back, look at where RWBY is going, listen to the criticism, and address the situation as best they can before trying to rush out the next volume. The show would be better off for it. Though I can’t fully blame them for wanting to get their project out, as fandom culture tends to go “Oh, that was a great season I just binged in one day… WHERE’S THE NEXT ONE?”

Especially now with binge watching, we’re not used to being made to wait patiently for content, and creators fear the audience becoming disinterested if they take too long. There’s, however, a quote by Shigeru Miyamoto that I feel while discusses this issue within the gaming industry, perfectly encapsulates this problem across all media: “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.”

So now that we’ve covered some of RWBY’s issues and how to best correct them, it’s time to get into the real conversation for today… the Hatedom.

WATCHING MILES AND KERRY BURN:

Now I can’t move on without addressing the Shane Newville controversy. As most of you know, Monty Oum - the creator of RWBY - passed away during Volume 3’s production way back in early 2015. The fandom, as such, went to work in creating beautiful artwork in his honor, and the show continued the mantra of “Keep Moving Forward,” inserting several visual cues to tribute Monty, as well as creating the song “Cold,” which… speaks for itself.

However, former animator and protege of Monty Oum, Shane Newville, was let go of by Rooster Teeth in January of 2016, and that same year, published a 36 page letter titled “To All Those Who Treasured Monty Oum.” In the letter, he listed several grievances with the company from higher ups not listening to him, cutting material Monty wanted to include, changing the production pipeline, and giving the role of Winter Schnee from Monty’s wife Sheena to Elizabeth Maxwell. JJ Callisto and Kathleen Zuelch, voices of Mercury (in Volumes 1 and 2) and Glynda respectively, later confirmed this, and both were also let go of by Rooster Teeth.

Now today isn’t about that controversy, but it seems much of the community’s RWBY-tubers, and especially the Rooster Teeth crew, have tried to ignore it, and honestly… I’m not even sure what to make of it. But I believe that the letter is how Shane genuinely viewed the situation; but that doesn’t mean I view Rooster Teeth as mustache-twirling monsters trying to destroy Monty’s legacy.

Miles and Kerry helped Monty develop the story of RWBY, and they’re well aware of what he wanted. The main changes they made in Volume 3 - from Jaune being responsible for Pyrrha’s death, to the Raven and JNPR fight - seem like they just happened to fall on the cutting room floor, either because the team was already exhausted by the Fall of Beacon - which apparently kept causing Poser to freak the hell out - or didn’t make sense to keep for the story.

And the change from Poser to Maya was genuinely in an effort to improve the show. Yes, Monty was able to make great fights in Poser, but Maya is the industry standard, and as such, any new animators will know it better than Poser, saving on production time. Not to mention that Poser simply can’t handle a production of RWBY’s scale, and the quality of the animation - not the fights, the animation - has improved in Volumes 4 and 5, no matter what the comments might say.

Still, I think this was the catalyst for criticism towards RWBY. People became more susceptible to calling out the show, and now with Volume 5 wrapped up, it’s reached an all-time high. Honestly, I feel it’s become “cool” or “intelligent” to hate everything in RWBY, when really, there is some good there despite its problems. Hell, even when I tried to point that out in one of my Volume 5 videos, it got me a considerable amount of backlash.

Criticisms of RWBY tend to come along with insults towards Miles and Kerry as terrible writers, or just plain idiots. It seems that it’s impossible for people to separate the product from the individuals who’ve made it, and so, personal attacks have flowed forth, masking whatever criticisms they’ve had with a veil of “I hate your existence.” And this struck a chord with me as a fellow creative.

MY EXPERIENCES AS A WRITER:

On episode 487 of the Rooster Teeth Podcast (Side note: holy shit, that many episodes and I haven’t watched one… jeez), Miles specifically called out critics of RWBY who came across as condescending and arrogant, and this provoked a response on Twitter by someone complaining about the fandom who thought caps lock and calling people idiots was a good way to get their point across. Miles immediately shut them down, and I ReTweeted it because I agreed.

But then I started to wonder… when Miles was talking about those critics on the podcast… was there a chance he could’ve included me in that? That’s not to say I’m afraid of being called out for offering criticism, but rather that I might’ve - at some point - gone overboard in my hyperbolic jokes, or simply been swept into the category of hater along with the actual haters.

This was then cemented when a friend of mine tagged me in a post in a RWBY group on Facebook, with a person complaining about YouTube suggesting videos to them of people hating the show, one of which was my Ruby Roast video, which seemed to garner much more attention than I ever thought (And lowkey made me kinda angry when my book trailer is sitting under 1000 views, but I digress).

As a writer myself, I relate to Miles and Kerry struggling with this criticism. My book is scheduled to come out this August, and I cannot tell you the genuine terror I have that I might be blissfully unaware… that it’s awful. That once it’s out, I’m going to wake up to a wave of hatred for my work - not genuine constructive criticism, but pure, ill intentioned hatred.

As you learn to write, you also learn to discern constructive feedback from trolls. If the critique has even a twinge of an insult behind it, a writer will dismiss it, not to protect their ego and pretend their work is okay, but because it doesn’t help them. How can you improve your work when you’re being told it’s completely unsalvageable?

And that’s why I argue that the framing of whatever criticism you have matters. If you sit there launching insults at Miles, Kerry, and the members of CRWBY, they’re not going to listen. You could have incredibly valid criticism, but if you make an ass out of yourself in the process, your points are null and void, because they’ve fallen on deaf ears - somewhere along the way, you put roasting the production team over offering a way to better the product, and that’s on you.

One of the people on my list of “Oh my god I love them and want to meet them one day” is researcher Brene Brown, who studies vulnerability, and moreover, how refusing to be vulnerable hurts us in the long run. Particularly, she has a huge focus on how creatives should tackle vulnerability, and two quotes, on of which is from former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, I feel really matter in this discussion today. Here’s the first:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again… who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly,”

Now that’s not to say you can’t critique if you aren’t a fellow creator, but when you critique, it’s your job to best understand the tools of criticism, as well as how to empathize with creators in a way where they can hear what you have to say. Criticism bathed in pure hatred does not help anyone - it only creates tension and drama.

And here is the other quote, this time from Brene herself:

“If you’re not in the arena, also getting your ass kicked, I’m not interested in your feedback.”

And I could not agree more. Creating something from nothing is tough, and it’s fucking terrifying, let alone having to carry on the legacy of someone else’s creation when you’ve lost them unexpectedly. Add on top of that an ever-growing fandom with an ever-growing tendency to criticize everything, along with people on the corporate level who want to get the show out as soon as possible and make bank doing it.

The hatred and anger towards the show’s crew is unwarranted, and honestly, downright disencouraging. It makes me all the more terrified for having to face this kind of thing with my own creations. Maybe I’ll take my story or characters in a direction people won’t like, and as such, I’ll never be able to go on social media without hearing the endless tirades.

Which is why, as creatives, we have to take a deep breath, and tell those people to fuck off.

If you are trying to criticize RWBY through insults and condescension, you’re not contributing to the conversation, because no one likes listening to assholes. It’s not what you have to say that is the problem, it’s how you say it. So, that’s my piece.

And if anyone at Rooster Teeth sees this - especially Miles and Kerry - I want to say… I’m sorry. I am sorry if I ever came across as a pretentious fuckwit. I’m sorry for all of the pressure this show must put on both your shoulders. I’m sorry for the insults and accusations made towards you and the rest of the crew, especially in regards to the Shane controversy. And I am sorry that most of the criticism you receive for RWBY is bathed in personal attacks and insults.

You guys need a break. Just… take a step back for a while, and relax. Make it clear to your higher ups that you all need time to make RWBY the best it can possibly be; that you need more time for pre-production - for writing and revisions and fight choreography. And then, when you’re ready, take your time on the next volume. Because I guarantee you, we’ll be waiting.

So, that’s my piece. Monster of a video, I know, but it had to be said. Anyways, I’m the Unicorn of War, and this has been a shit show.