Sorry of im beating a dead horse, but the mobile game Honkai Impact has these two songs, Befall and Nightglow. They're amazing songs, and theor composition kind of gives me a vibe of how RWBY's songs could be if their writing went beyond generic good vs evil and blatant loves ballad tied to the same guitar rift every time. If RWBY's music more resembled the heart in HI's, the soundtrack could be incredible.
You know this is kind of funny because I was just thinking how (barring gross over-sexualization prevalent in it) that game basically does exact same RWBY premise:
a threat of horrible monsters that targets humans and nobody knows their origins, with world and civilization kind of being built around the fact that those things can appear.Â
an academy to train those who fight the said monsters(complete with shady secrets and the principal who is a bit more than they appear)
a past cataclysm connected to the said monsters that is implied to have wiped out all life on the planet once before.Â
a substance connected to cataclysm that can infuse people with powers.
relics and artifacts from before the cataclysm that hold tremendous power.Â
AÂ âposition(s) of ancient powerâ that gets transferred from one person to other.
a happy go lucky protagonist, with big mysterious past and mysterious dead mother figure. Who then proceeds to enter the school(because secrets) and haveâŠarguably more than platonic interactions with a heiress to a corporation.
A morally gray ârebelâ faction.
A big âfirst actâ story structure that starts with things going wrong on entrance mision, goes to school hijinks, involves a detour to past secrets and ends with third act that involves a hopeless final stand and giant monster dragon.Â
Iâm pretty sure its more than just a little bit âinspiredâ by stuff like RWBY(alongside other things like EVA), especially now that they outright started using 3D CGI cutscenes for fights of the big âfirst act finaleâ.Â
Except that you know most of those elements while not exactly original, actually gel well together:
In RWBY you could literally remove all of Ozma flashback, replacing it with âlol I have no planâ and nothing would change in the story, while in honkai, the cataclysm and previous civilization thing ties together into various plot aspects - it impacts the development of the current world, it directly impacts character motivations and how the world works and what the human characters(both good and bad) would have to prevent.
The monsters actually have a valid logical reason to exist within the world instead of âlol they were there kind of and then this woman fell into a giant pool of oilâ. Thereâs coherent internal logic on why the said monsters exist or why they target specifically humans.Â
While monsters themselves are an example of Blue and Orange Morality, the human âgoodâ and âbadâ guys are painted as more of gray area instead of clear-cut âthis side is genocidal minority terrorists allied with monsters that deserve to be killed and this side are just good guys whose worst crime is having no plan and turning two kids into birdsâ that RWBY pulled. Â
While the protagonist has mysterious past and power and their mother is surrounded by mystery, thatâs actually some of the first things the story ends up delving into. Mainly because it does not just dump all of lore in a single flashback. so for example finding out the motherâs backstory still leaves enough questions to get answered latter on.
While relics exist they are less of âthis is four jrpg plot devices of immense specific powerâ and more of justâŠpowerful old things that might not even get used in plot, but whose existence affected the technological development of the setting.Â
And yeah the OST is basically RWBY ost, complete with (at least the newest tracks) using character points of view. The first time I heard of that game was through an ad on youtube and my first thought was that it was basically rwby ost. Although unlike RWBY OST it seems to be a bit more genre eclectic, as it varies from a more rock-ish sound RWBY uses to stuff like dubstep.
RWBY certainly could learn both about story structure AND about diversity within music from stuff like that game.Â
Ok I donât like this post at all. Like I really donât like this post, it has pissed me off in a way no other post âcriticizingâ RWBY has EVER been able to do. Like I donât really care or know anything about this game youâre talking about so Iâm just going to ignore that and just talk about what you said about RWBY.Â
So the first thing you said was this âIn RWBY you could literally remove all of Ozma flashback, replacing it with âlol I have no planâ and nothing would change in the storyâ Thatâs wrong like everything about that statement is wrong even when I assume this was written during volume 6 itâs still wrong and hereâs why. We learn so much about the past of Remnant and the war between Salem and Ozpin like why the moon is broken? What are the relics and why is Salem after them? Why can Ozpin reincarnate? Why does Salem hate Ozpin? We now know (while it was implied and not directly stated we can still assume this is the case) that aura is most likely remnants of magic left behind by the gods and that dust is most likely magicly charged moon rocks.Â
Also, Team RWBY(Plus Qrow) wasnât angry because Ozpin didnât have a plan they were angry because he lied to them about Salem. He knew that Salem couldnât be destroyed/killed and he made them believe that she could. Team RWBY, JNPR, Qrow, and Oscar learned that they were basically fighting a losing battle. An endeavor that they could never hope to win. That is HUGE!Â
The Ozma flashback gave us something that is important to every story CONTEXT. The flashback gives some much context to songs like Divide and Sacrifice. It fleshes out both Ozpin and Salem and makes them some much more than just remnant Dumbledore and Wicked Witch of the West. It made them interesting characters with a motive and backstory. The Ozma flashback gave answers to question many fans had been asking about Salem since Volume 3, question fans had been asking about Ozpin since volume 1Â and then it dropped a bomb on us and the characters by explaining that Salem canât be killed.Â
Which we wouldnât have known if Ozpin had just said he didnât have a plan. Boiling it down to just that is completely missing the purpose of that scene. The purpose of the flashback was to give CONTEXT AND TO ANSWER QUESTIONS.Â
You also said this BTW âThe monsters actually have a valid logical reason to exist within the world instead of âlol they were there kind of and then this woman fell into a giant pool of oilâ. Thereâs coherent internal logic on why the said monsters exist or why they target specifically humans.â ...Wow okay thatâs also wrong. Have...you seen Volume 4 Chapter 8 in which Qrow tells Team RNJR the story of the two brothers? Where he said that there used to be two gods, the god of light and the god of darkness and that the god of darkness created the Grim to destroy all of which his brother created (humanity btw) because he felt that they were inferior to them. And then in Volume 6 Chapter 3, we learn that to true and not just a story.Â
Also, Salem didnât just fell into a pool of oil, she fell into a pool of destruction that she thought would finally kill her but instead, it transformed her into the Salem we know today. Using creatures that already have a lust for human blood as tools to destroy humanity is actually kind of genius.  Â
This confused me a little at first but I think I got it now âWhile monsters themselves are an example of Blue and Orange Morality, the human âgoodâ and âbadâ guys are painted as more of gray area instead of clear-cut âthis side is genocidal minority terrorists allied with monsters that deserve to be killed and this side are just good guys whose worst crime is having no plan and turning two kids into birdsâ that RWBY pulled.âÂ
Okay so I will be the first to admit the White Fang could use some work but I also know about a little thing called time constraints. With how short both RWBYâs volumes and chapters are compared to most other shows it means they canât get to everything they want to, which will affect how less important parts of the plot are written. Also when have the White Fang ever allied with monsters that deserve to be killed? Unless of course, you mean Cinder which in that case only the White Fang members under Adam did that. Sienna Khan disapproved of the attack on Beacon and punished him for it. Also, Ozpinâs worst crime isnât not having a plan and turning Raven and Qrow into birds but lying about Salem and basically sending people to their deaths.Â
Itâs sacrificing them in his war against Salem. Â
âWhile the protagonist has mysterious past and power and their mother is surrounded by mystery, thatâs actually some of the first things the story ends up delving into. Mainly because it does not just dump all of lore in a single flashback. so for example finding out the motherâs backstory still leaves enough questions to get answered later on.â Repeat after me THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH A SERIES WIDE MISTERY AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH A FLASHBACK THATâS PURPOSE IS TO GIVE CONTEXT AND ANSWER QUESTIONS THAT FANS HAVE HAD SINCE THE START OF THE SERIES!
Iâm not going to even talk about the last point on your bullet list as it seems more like an opinion like itâs cool if you would prefer that this was the case but I think the relics and their purpose in the plot is rather cool! Also again this is probably has a lot to do with a game Iâm not familiar with and is really just a comparison between the twoÂ
(Also I recommend you watch these videos right here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7HS5vdKIV6it_C8Odsseq1PicEHGeD70 to get a sense of how varied the RWBY OST is from professional musicians)
