#I THINK SOMEONE POSTED HIS MMD MODEL THOUGH....

[saltwukong]

As someone who works with MMD and makes MMD models, I must admit that before getting into it I legit thought RWBY was some sort of fan-made show made by someone like me. Like... for real! How is no one giving RT the shit it deserves for stealing assets like that?

Because Rooster Teeth is the type of company that presents a face to their fans that they are the same as their fans. To the Rooster Teeth fandoms, and various subfandoms thereof (RWBY, RvB, Achievement Hunter, etc...) Rooster Teeth itself does not appear as a company or corporation the same way that, say, Bethesda or Nintendo do or what have you. Despite the fact that they are a company that is violating a fair few rules, what Rooster Teeth looks like to its fans is Pewdiepie, or Extra Credit, or some other “personality on the internet”.

RT is a personality to its fans, not a company, and for some reason that projects a barrier that deflects the idea that they could be flawed or intentionally do wrong. It’s easy to point fingers at big, faceless corporations when they do wrong because hey, they’re professionals, they know what they’re doing and they can be held accountable. When fans think of Rooster Teeth, they think of someone that they don’t quite know, but who they get along with and wish to know. 

Rooster Teeth survives its repeated bombshells because of the same mentality that protects figures like Pewdiepie (and I use him because he’s basically the Ur example, the internet juggernaut) and causes its fans to brush off any perceived wrongdoing. You will still find fans that are stammering that Pewdiepie casually saying “n*gger” isn’t a big deal, and these same fans would probably shred any employee from Microsoft, Youtube, Sony, Atlus, or what have you if they were found using it. You should compare it directly to Gavin being able to say “f*g” because hey, it’s british cigarettes! Even though Gavin shouldn’t have “priveleges” that upset his primarily American audience, many of whom have been very hurt by that word growing up and all their lives.

Rooster Teeth, to its fans, isn’t someone they occasionally await a product from. It’s someone they interact with, laugh with, talk with. They brush any perceived wrongdoing off of this company the same way they’d brush it off a close friend. That’s not their fault. They’re not intentionally being hypocrites or blind fans. They just haven’t had the veil stripped away. That post from yesterday where someone fiercely decried the idea that taking a few assets here and there wasn’t “stealing” or “illegal” is a very fine example.

Although it does boggle me how any group of people that regularly taze one of their employees for cheap laughs can get away with doing this shit. Ya’ll. Wake up.

Of course, the recent trainwreck that shook Channel Awesome, “Not So Awesome” and which resulted in over 50,000 subscriber losses and the loss of every single persona on that group proves that no internet kingdom is 100% secure. I initially thought Shane’s Letter would be Rooster Teeth’s Not So Awesome. It wasn’t, but perhaps one is on its way.