#rwde

[spectralpixelsredone]

I know people question are they friends since they barely interact and show less care but I mean Ruby and Blake don’t seem to barely tolerate each other like both of them get along just fine.

[maswartz]

Glad to see we're finally around to point this out. His half assed video (literally, he only watched half of it at the time) has done so much damage to the fandom.

[psyga315]

I can't prove it, but the fact that this handles the Maidens plot hella lot better than RWBY has me convinced this is one of those cases where someone watched it and went "fuck this, I can do better"

[penny-the-pissed-poltergeist]

I'm never going to become a Monty's visioner just because it's basically impossible to tell if something was a natural casualty of the creative process or some spite at Monty that probably didn't exist. (at least from the creative side)

The only things I really lament are the actually good weapon upgrades (RIP Hoverboard Crescent Rose and Blake's knife block of swords), and Qrow, Raven, and Winter. Qrow and Winter seemed very personal to Monty and Sheena with them seeming like not quite self inserts (which might have made them getting changed unavoidable) and Monty's plans for Raven were clearly very different from what we got and RT actively forced change onto them with volume 2's end credits getting retconed.

I guess you can throw Adam in there too because he was supposed to work for Raven at some point (which feels kinda obvious in retrospect) but I once again don't know if my problems with his character would still be there so ehhhh.

[rwbyuser24]

Should Adam Taurus have died?

Okay, new poll. This is a classic.

Personally, I think Adam deserved to die and that it was the right thing to do. After all the people he killed.

And if there are those who say that Adam was forced by Cinder to participate in Beacon, it doesn't matter. If you watch his scenes, Adam is quite willing to participate in the battle. He seems to believe it's the right thing to do, or at least, the best thing for him. His dialogues indicate that.

Added to that, his character card in RWBY: Combat Ready literally says that he wants to destroy the pillars of society (which includes the academies) and thus enslave humanity.

Think of it this way: the White Fang normally steal Dust. But under Roman, they stole even more Dust.

Just because they were forced to cooperate with Cinder doesn't mean Adam didn't want to participate. What bothered him was having to serve under a human.

And Adam didn't care about his soldiers either, since he was willing to let them all die in the bombs at Haven. If you're wondering why he seemed concerned for them, we can say that he simply can't admit that he doesn't care about their lives.

Yes, this has some headcanons involved. But it's a coherent explanation with everything we've seen.

Anyway, Adam destroyed Yang and Blake's auras, and he was about to grab Blake's weapon. It was either act fast or die.

But that's just my opinion. What do you think?

Should have Adam died?

He deserved to die and was right to kill him

He didn't deserve to die but was right to kill him

He deserve to die but wasn't right to kill him

He didn't deserve to die and wasn't right to kill him

Remaining time: 2 days 17 hours

[invested-in-your-future]

One of the key issues I have with the RWBY worldbuilding and the concept of Brother Gods and everything that came after is that it falls into the classic pitfall of worldbuilding and magic systems, where the author goes "wider" rather than "deeper".

There's this inherent allure to adding more new things, to tacking on new systems and rules.

You do it too many times, and you break it altogether.

Now, magic systems can be hard or soft, they can be bound by logic and rules or only limited by whimsy. That's a choice for the author to make.

BUT the more vague, mysterious, and irrational the magic system is, the less viable it is to use it directly as a plot device.

As Brandon Sanderson put it, for a magic system to be a solution, the reader has to understand the logic behind it.

Also what all magic systems are is self-sustaining closed loops. A rational system acts on predictability and an irrational system on the unknown.

A rational system runs on logic that the audience can understand, and it works within the laws of the universe you create. Irrational works off the vibes and emotions and doesn't necessarily have the same limitations.

However at the same time irrational system can't be used as a direct plot device. Magic only works to advance the plot if the reader understands how it works. A good example of writers using irrational magic systems to solve plot and how outlandish it can be is golden/silver age superman comics and the bizarre powers he manifests there, like manifesting mini versions of himself and the like. Now in that case it was intentional to match the tone of what Superman represented, but you would obviously not do it the same way in a proper big story. Because irrational magic is about vibes. You are using it to set the tone. Grandalf doesn't just blink and the ring is in Mt Doom. A more grounded character carries it there with Grandalf's support setting the vibe for the decisions at hand.

So yeah the opposite ends have differences.

But both have the same defined cause and effect. As an author, you are using it to justify a story beat. You know the why.

A magic system has to be cohesive, whether the audience sees the full picture or not. It's a system for a reason.

So, you create a sort of loop where specific parts of the world connect together within the rules you laid out. It's the same logic as bookends and call-backs, where you start off your character in a specific situation, and then you will call back to that situation.

One of the first things you decide when writing something is what you do with the equivalent of "magic system", and if it's there, you usually define that early on.

And right off the bat, RWBY clearly settled on a rational system with semi-defined outcomes based upon elemental properties of Dust.

The magic system of RWBY as it was till the end of V3

Dust is defined and limited by the elemental logic and the logic of elemental combinations. It's the most clearly defined aspect of the world that, as far as worldbuilding goes, is basically science. The world runs on Dust, technologies depend on Dust, which in turn means that it is predictable, its effects are easy to replicate, and static.

Aura also has defined rules and limits. It's literally a force field made out of one's soul. It runs out and is quantifiable, and while the show plays fast and loose with how fast people lose their aura, it's still a completely logical part of the world, and of the human body within the setting.

Semblance is the active manifestation of Aura and is more "vague" and less defined (which feels on purpose). But it still has limitations, has rules in how it manifests and how it reflects the wielder, etc. And once your Aura depletes and is shattered, your Semblance goes out too.

The Creatures of Grimm represent the unknown and the eldritch, so they are more on the irrational side, but they also function according to very specific, defined rules (negative emotions, evolution, being older means being stronger, and so on), so it's a quantifiable side of the unknown.

Then there's Magic that exists as a counter that defies established rules, and that's all fine. Magic, as it is portrayed in V3, is a mystery. Something that still has its own rules, something lacking boundaries of other elements, but there's still an implied reason for its existence. The way V3 portrays it suggests we would learn more about it and how it functions. It's the show peeling back a curtain and going "Hey, there's so much more to this world you don't know about!" both to the characters and the audience.

But then the show not only stops deepening those subjects, but also keeps adding new ones.

Magic Relics. Brother Gods. Ever After. The creatures in Ever After. Whatever the logic Ever After runs on.

The show keeps piling on new elements that not only remain on the far end of irrational side, but also don't really "loop back" into the system as a whole.

What's more, the show uses those irrational elements as deus ex machina plot devices, playing loose with the rules.

Even Semblances and Dust become more of an "anything goes" kind of deal without clearly defined rules.

The majority of the magic system worldbuilding shifts hard into soft and irrational, even the previously defined parts. Semblances can do anything now. The concepts of Grimm evolution and other defining factors are now ignored. Aura and Dust are left in the (hic) dust, completely forgotten. Multiple new additions are added that can do literally anything and have no defined rules that matter.

It's no longer a magic system as part of the world-building. It's now merely an excuse to make things happen.

Each of the relics exists to move the plot along and to make specific things happen without the need to write the HOW. The show attempts to make new rules out of thin air for how they work, but ultimately, those rules don't matter at all. Likewise, The Brother Gods and then the Blacksmith (ugh) are plot devices to explain character states and motivations without putting in the work. Blacksmith, RWBY's poor stand-in for a religious all-knowing deity, specifically exists to just tell the audience that Team RWBY are great and rightful chosen flawless heroes and to point Team RWBY towards the plot.

Magic itself is merely an "explanation" of how something is possible, but in itself means nothing. How do Relics work? Magic! How did Maidens come to be? Magic! Why is Ozpin—? Magic! There's no meaning behind it, no reason for it to exist. Just a magical word to use in justifying plot decisions.

Ever After is literally jump-the-shark land that acts as one massive plot device without any consequences, and that doesn't slot into the overall world-building in any way.

None of those additions really loop back or connect to the rest of the setting in any tangible way. None of those additions serve a purpose beyond a plot device, nor deepen the worldbuilding, nor add some thematic depth to the narrative.

In fact, you can remove the entire magic system lore from V4 onward, and nothing is affected.

They are writers' toys. Something that grounded the world and fascinated the audience is now merely a plot device.

I firmly believe this is part of the issue with why the RWBY doesn't feel like RWBY past a certain point, why the setting feels so much less defined now.

The show's writing kept adding new, more vague concepts to explain away specific plot decisions without putting in the work. It didn't bother to tie things together tighter nor deepen specific already existing concepts.

[cassandrarose]

The most disturbing thing about Cinder being a woman who was written ridiculously evil by male writers so she'd just have to be ripped apart or stabbed to death at the end of the story...

...is the fact that those writers seem to want to make an example of her BECAUSE she is an abused woman. You can see it in the Arthur Watts rant (I have to admit, it was clever to have that rant come from a character whose name sounds like "author") and in the glee with which Miles talks about them going out of their way to make her hated to that we'd want her to get 'everything she has coming to her.' Cinder was written as if some dude in the writing room thinks abused women are a coddled demographic (a common opinion among misogynists) and that it's edgy to portray an abused woman with no redeeming qualities and give her a brutal ending. It's incredibly petty and goes against RWBY's theme of letting go. Even with Adam, there was an inkling of pettiness around his abuse. But unlike Adam, Cinder's suffering is going to be drawn out because she's a bad girl instead of a bad guy.

[penny-the-pissed-poltergeist]

Anti-rwdes complain about "people who didn't actually watch the show" being critical, and then publicly post about a critical video being bad without actually watching said video.