Yes, Cinder Is Degrading As A Villain — And That’s Good Writing: The Tolkienesque Influences Of RWBY
People complain that Cinder is badly written because she’s gotten progressively less competent and more power hungry, letting her obsession with power blind her and lead her to make stupid decisions.
All of those things are factually true statements about Cinder, but consider: That was intentional on the writer’s part.
Villains who are not static characters and mustache twirling cardboard cutouts are good, but just because a villain should have some degree of character development does not mean that development needs to be positive. There seems to be a massive misconception about what villains are supposed to be in this fandom: specifically, people seem to think villains need to be massive power fantasies; charming, cunning, powerful, alluring, and just generally better than the heroes in every way. But why don’t we take a look at a different view and see how it compares to what the CRWBY have been doing?
I, and others, have written before about the parallels between RWBY and the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, particularly The Lord Of The Rings. One of the major themes of his writing is this: Evil is self-destructive. Evil degrades, and becomes less and less. Someone who starts out cunning, brilliant, and charming, is turned by their obsession with power into some brutal, paranoid, and disgusting. It takes things that were admirable, including things like cunning, intelligence, or the ability to understand people, and makes them twist and rot and decay, until a brutal, self-absorbed, hungry creature is all that’s left.
Tolkien believed that Evil should not be “cool” or “sexy” or “seductive” or “brilliant.” Villains should not be admirable. Villains should be warnings about what the desire for power, or for revenge, or for control or wealth can do to a person.
You see it in Saruman’s descent from the lord of the White Tower to a two-bit gang leader bullying hobbits in the Shire. You see it in Mairon’s descent from an angel of craftsmanship to a withered spirit desperately clinging to existance as Sauron. You see it in Smeagol’s descent from a simple river man to a hideous, broken imp as Gollum.
And we are seeing it in Cinder’s descent from the brilliant strategist who brought down Beacon to a power hungry, immature child, just like we saw it in Ironwood’s descent from a stalwart defender of humanity to a paranoid, emotionless shell. Just like we saw it in Salem’s fall from a princess who called her own rescuer from her tower to a bitter old witch who refuses to admit her mistakes.
None of these villains are supposed to be admirable.
Has Cinder been turning into a shell of the villain she was at the start of the series? Yes. Because that’s what lust for power, and the ruthless pursuit of it, does: it hollows you out, it robs you of every good and positive trait you had: intelligence, charm, and guile included.
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