#ruby meta

[matt0044]

Why do some seem to expect less from RWBY?

I don't think anyone expected T & A from RWBY but I do think a lot of Weebs expected the show to be just what it seemed on the surface. Flashing action scenes, amateur hour animation for slower scenes and a story that's ambitious but imperfect in presentation. All qualities of your average web series, something they like RWBY for.

Thus in their minds, RWBY was just... the dumb web show trying to be Anime. Like it or love it. The only reason it got hate to begin with was the whole thing with Crunhyroll. They hated that the show was rubbing elbows with what they felt was a top tier year for Anime circa 2013. Nonetheless, those who weren't looking to getting fussy engaged.

So when Volume 3 and onwards upend the magic school plotline for something more free form as well as deep, many felt cheated. Hence, many are hypercritical of a series that's "trying so hard to be deep and failing." To them, RWBY was suppose to be this basic web series that was fun cheese and now it's trying to be a refined dinner.

Of course, there's also the matter of wishing it was more like the Anime titles (with or without fanservice) they often cite as "What RWBY Can Learn From." While I don't think they're conscious about it, it's not wrong that there's this, "If you wanna be considered Anime of any kind, you need to fulfilled these requirements," kind of vibe Which... feels like a studio executive muscling in on a movie director's vision.

And they claim to value creativity. :/

Basically they want RWBY to be in this box of being a basic web series of no value and that if it wants to join the "professionally produced Anime" in the other box, it has to sacrifice aspects of what it is to be considered part of the medium.

[artbyblastweave]

Interesting setting detail for RWBY is that absolutely none of the semblances seen on screen so far seem to involve physical changes or “state shifts”- no shapeshifting, no Reed-Richards-style stretching, no size-shifting, no spikes or dermal plating, no really radical regeneration, nothing that violates the integrity of the body.

There are a lot of semblances that achieve similar means through other ends- Vine’s hardlight arms and Neo’s brand of illusions come to mind. And many of the faunus have traits that, in another superpower-based setting, would just be their baseline superpower. Tyrian, Tuskus, everyone in Ilia’s white fang kill crew, and Ghira come to mind. 

I was strongly considering chalking this up to, like, animation limitations, but what really drove this home for me was that out of everything the main cast has seen, the thing that really comes out of left field for Yang and Weiss is that Raven can turn into a bird. Granted, they know she has another semblance already, but from there they were more willing to run with “magic might be real” instead of “someone in the camp has a semblance that turns people into birds.”

The closest I can think of here is that if the semblances are conceived as an expression of the user’s core identity, then it might be inherently impossible to get a semblance that could potentially radically alter your identity. Alternatively, it might be that most semblances are things that can run out- where do bone growths or other shapeshifted mutations go if your power cuts out halfway through growing them? Exactly.

[tumblezwei]

Since you're doing meta on Ruby Rose (which I eat up), can I please get your thoughts on Ruby's arc in Volume 7, regarding her lying to Ironwood as well as her worries on doing what Ozpin had done?

HOO BOY LET’S GO

I think a lot of people like to write off Ruby’s conflict as being hypocritical or poorly written just to make Ironwood look bad, and it’s the top most annoying debate this fandom has created. 

Like, yes, it’s supposed to be hypocritical. It was supposed to get us thinking about how RWBYJNR treated Oz. RWBYJNR and Qrow, in their shock and panic, were downright cruel to Oz, coldly rejecting any excuse he had to offer and caring very little about his sudden departure. Sure, their anger was justified, but Oz suffered for years and years with the weight of his secret as he saw no doubt countless people succumb to their fear and lust for power. 

So when confronted with a situation that’s highly similar to what Oz has been dealing with for millennia, Ruby begins to understand that being a leader doesn’t mean you’re always making the seemingly morally correct choices. 

The core lesson for Ruby, baked deep into the narrative of the story, is what she was first taught in volume 1, by Ozpin himself, no less. The Badge and the Burden. Leadership is hard, and it’s not always pretty. My favorite moment in volume 1 was Ruby’s pep talk to Jaune, because if you really look at what’s being said and think about Ruby’s personality, it’s....not the lesson I think Ozpin wanted her to take from him.

“You’re a leader now, Jaune, you’re not allowed to be a failure.”

“...because it’s not just about you anymore. You’ve got a team now, Jaune. We both do. And if we fail, then we’ll just be bringing them down with us. We have to put our teammates first, and ourselves second.”

It’s put over this soft, inspirational music, and it’s the catalyst for Jaune realizing that he’s been neglecting his team due to his cowardice. But think about what we’ve seen from Ruby since, and what’s always done since she was a kid: repress her emotions and push herself forward no matter what she might be thinking or feeling. 

I say all of this to support my point that I believe volume 7 was the start of us seeing Ruby adopt Ozpin’s bad habits. Sure, in the beginning, they had a justifiable reason to keep Salem and the relic a secret from Ironwood. But as time goes on, and they start to trust him, her team begins to question whether it’s the right choice. So, eventually, Ruby decides that “the right thing” is to not do what Ozpin did and tell Ironwood their secret. And he takes it well! 

Until he doesn’t. 

And then suddenly, the secrets that they kept are being used against them, a man they thought they could trust is trying to arrest them, their new allies fight them without hesitation, all because of the distrust that sprouted over their secrets. 

And so, in volume 8, I think we’ll see the culmination of all of this. Ruby is the leader, this is her responsibility. She can’t let anyone else help her carry the weight because look what letting people in got them in the end. Maybe she tries to go off on her own, maybe she shuts herself off just a little more from her team, maybe she tries to keep even more secrets because, just like Oz, she’s afraid and wary, and this puts her at odds with her big sister who hates when people tell lies and still hasn’t forgiven Oz. 

Or maybe, none of this will happen, and we’ll see these tendencies arise in a completely different way.

[artbyblastweave]

As of V7E5, RWBY is just doing an incredible amount of legwork to make Ironwood super likable- having him graduate the team to full huntsman status, complete with endearing awkward speech, juxtaposing his new approach against the failed approach of Ozpin, bringing up the idea that he actually is entitled to information that RWBY is withholding from him, making the loudest voice in opposition to his creeping power grab Jacque Schnee, having him look down on his huntsmen with a proud smile- and never, ever demonstrating the consequences of someone seriously pushing back against his plans. Fascinating, when you’ve picked up his end state via tumblr osmosis.