This will be the day we've waited for.
This will be the day we open up the door.
I don't wanna hear your absolution;
Hope you're ready for a revolution.
The Insidious Appeal of “Monty’s Vision” Conspiracies.
(warning: I will hold back on major spoilers for Broadchurch but I might dip into minor ones for the sake of my points).
Season Two of BBC’s crime drama, Broadchurch, takes place in the fallout of the solved murder of young Daniel Latimer where the killer is put on trial and pleads not guilty despite that we saw them confess to everything. The legal team defending the perp spends much of the new courtroom drama twisting events of the previous seasons to make their client look like the real victim.
Much of the lawyer’s words spin a yarn that suggests that what was official reported of the case’s resoluton was fabricated at best. She suggests that Alec and Ellie were desperate to bring in anybody with the pressure put on them that they beat a confession out of who we know was the killer.
They even try to pin Danny’s father as the true perpetrator due to an affair he was having on the night his son died, suggesting Mark killed his son in desperation to keep him silent. I don’t think I have to tell fans of the show that this nearly made me sick to my stomach. We knew what the truth was. We saw the truth in Season One yet here’s this slime ball trying to rewrite the narrative.
What made it chilling was that I could imagine myself as the impartial jurors, hanging onto every word and starting to actually think, “Maybe... she’s right.” They weren’t there to see what the detectives investigated. They weren’t there to see the killer caught and confess up front. What if the story wasn’t as straightforward as officials claim it to be? What if... there was more?
Isn’t that more hooking? Wouldn’t it be more... satisfying if it wasn’t as straightforward as, “boy killed, killer arrested,” but rather a complex web of deceit? It might not be the truth and is clearly based on extrapolation rather than actual concrete evidence... but it sounds like a damn good story, don’t it?
And that is how the “Monty’s Vision” discourse sustains itself.
Tell me which narrative sounds more compelling:
“Monty Oum regularly collaborated with Miles Luna as well as Kerry Shawcross to flesh out his raw ideas for characters and storylines, It was a team effort that involved many others contributing be it off-the-cuff or long term. After Monty’s passing, Miles and Kerry took it hard but knew that it was important to see RWBY through the best they could with their ever expanding team.”
Vs.
“Monty Oum wrote the whole of RWBY volume by volume on his own, considering ideas from Miles and Kerry when need be. He was a visionary, an auteur who had to deal with corporate stooges looking for a quick buck. With his passing, Miles and Kerry saw to it that they make RWBY into a shameless cash cow with nary regard for quality of the story or action.”
Admittedly, I skimmed a bit on both but a former fan of RWBY would find more satisfaction to their frustrations with the latter narrative. It’s not enough for Monty to have died while leaving big shoes to fill. It has to be an secret plan to ruin his vision for the sake of capitol. What, is the show... just not doing it for you anymore period?
Thus YouTube grifters like Hero_Hei get to make bank over the dissatisfaction of miffed fans looking for an answer, peddling stories of “what’s happening behind the scenes” that are hyperbolic at best and fabricated at worst. They need to keep this hate train a-chugging because any acceptance of the truth means that they can’t get the views the need.
The worst part? I get it. I’ve occasionally fallen for the some of the less egregious conspiracies for fear of the worst. However, Tumblr Meta as well as actually good video essays such as by Hypeathon helped me realize that it really wasn’t anything shady despite these bad takes worming into my mind.
Ask yourself this: Is a video essay or blog post convincing because it’s based on actual official sources or because it’s just like something you saw on HBO?
