due-processs

[due-processs]

me & rwby

So, you’ve stumbled across my blog. You might be asking yourself why this blog exists and what I’m doing here. This post is meant to give some answers, and a bit of my history with rwby and its fandom. (scroll to the bottom for a tl;dr)

I first started watching Rooster Teeth and the various channels within it when I was probably too young to be doing so. But, being the middle schooler I was, I thought the gaming stuff was cool and I liked Red vs Blue. 

Inevitably, I ended up watching RWBY, which was nearing the end of its second volume (around late 2014). I would say that I was hooked immediately, but that’s not true. Even back then I had a hard time getting past the... interesting animation and voice acting. It took me two tries, but I did end up getting extremely invested in RWBY. I binged what was available, and once they were released, I asked for the dvds for Christmas. I even got a few of my irl friends into the show.

RWBY ended up becoming my first fandom. I had a now long-gone tumblr blog and a slew of various characters I shipped and even wrote a little fic for (never published, though). I wasn’t really invested in the adult characters or what they had going on, I just wanted to get back to the prom, y’know? 

Then volume three came out, and it was really good! I enjoyed it a lot. It felt like RWBY could only get better from there! And then it just... didn’t? I will say I actually did enjoy volume four at the time, but not as I liked volume three. I still think it has some good moments, but it didn’t follow with the quality three had left us with. 

When volume five was premiering in early 2017, though, my interest gradually started to decline. I was still watching RWBY and RT stuff, but it wasn’t holding my interest like it used to. By the time six was coming out, I had also become disillusioned with RT as a company after a series of scandals (think the crunch stuff, sketchy advertisements, etc). I slowly woke up from that parasocial nightmare over the course of a few months and stopped watching most of their stuff. I still held on to RWBY for volume six, but I would miss episodes and have to watch a bunch to catch up. 

Once volume six was done, I didn’t continue watching RWBY. Honestly, if you had asked me then what volume six was about, I could not have told you.

But, due-processs, you may ask, how the fuck did you then end up creating an Ironwood blog literally years later, especially when you did not care at all about him the first time around? That’s a really good question. a few things happened in my time away from RWBY.  

1) I grew up. I’m able to actually think critically about the media i consume now, lmao. Whether that means actually being critical, or just analyzing things on a deeper level. 

2) i developed a very specific type when it comes to the characters i like and get low-key obsessed with. That type is as follows: kind of a hard-ass, stern, but also obviously with a heart of gold/soft side. Bonus points if they have awkward parental energy or just are kind of awkward in general. More bonus points if there’s an element of them being morally gray. So you can see where this is going.......... 

I don’t remember how I become curious as to what was going on in RWBY these days, honestly. I checked in on RT as a whole when the Ryan Haywood is a sexual predator situation came to light, but it wasn’t then. Maybe I just thought of it randomly, or perhaps I saw hbomberguy’s RWBY video in my recommended. Either way, I decided to check up on the fandom. And I quickly learned that it had split itself between critics/RWDE/HTDM and anti-critics. Always the sign of a healthy fandom to be sure lol. 

I read through a lot of different posts and started to get far more interested in the RWDE side of things. RWDE posts tended to be a bit more deep (at least, in my opinion). Like, rwde posters and critics tend to really think about and analyze the show, and that’s what interests me. Thinking about where RWBY went wrong and what it could have been is extremely interesting. Generally, though not always, I agree with what a lot of rwde posters have to say (from what I know of the show).

One of the big complaints I saw was that Ironwood was really interesting and good in volume seven, but they ended up making him a mustache-twirling villain in volume eight and trashing his character. I remember thinking that I hadn’t really cared about Ironwood my first go-around, but I wanted to see what the fuss was about. So, I found clips of him in volume seven. 

I was blown away by a few things. First, his model was vastly improved compared to volumes 4/5. His face looks nice in V4/5, but his torso is so bad in that. But in the later volumes? Not only is that fixed, but they gave him a really nice beard and outfit. Not to mention he’s so tall and quite large. He’s like... easily the sexiest male character - to me, at least. Second, and more importantly, his characterization in volume seven was directly on the nose for that type I mentioned earlier. He’s a hard-assed military leader, but he is also extremely soft. I also began to revisit and appreciate his scenes from V1-6 a lot more. This fictional cartoon man really is the perfect storm to gain my interest. 

And then, of course, I turned to watch the volume eight clips with dismay. It was just as everyone had said. Not only had his character done practically a complete 180, but they ended up villainizing him in the most shitty, ableist ways they possibly could have managed. 

(I will say, I think if they’d gone for just Antagonist Ironwood, that would have been good. He doesn’t have to be right all the time or perfect for me to like him. In fact, I really like the angle of him being morally gray but still trying his best ultimately. They could have done literally anything other than “Ironwood is 100% evil now for shitty reasons” and I would’ve been fine with that. A little annoyed, perhaps, but fine.)  

So, I started dwelling on this character quite a bit, as I’m prone to with characters like him. I’ve decided that I think it would be fun to actually interact with other Ironwood fans and maybe do some fanworks. I also have the occasional rwde thought I’d like to toss in there, too. I will say I’m going to try to avoid the fandom at large. Interacting there just does not sound fun lmao. 

And there it is. My history with RWBY and what this blog is for. I don’t know why I decided to write a long ass post, but there it is. Honestly, it’s more for me to get my thoughts out than for anyone to actually read. But thanks if you did read!!

TL;DR

I watched RWBY from about 2014 to 2017/18 (volume six). Initially, I didn’t care about the adult characters at all. I stopped watching RWBY and RT stuff as I became disillusioned with the company after some scandals (e.g. the crunch stuff) and as my tastes/interests changed. From 2018 to now, I developed a love of hard-ass characters that are also secretly soft. I got curious about RWBY again recently and learned about James Ironwood’s arc throughout V7. Not only does he perfectly fit the type of character I really like, but he’s also super hot. V8 ruined him in shitty ways, but I still like who he was in V2-7 and what he could have been. This blog is to interact with other Ironwood fans and maybe do some fanworks and rwde discussions. Thanks for reading!