#RWBY V4

[toaarcan]

I got RWBY and the Atlas arc on the brain again and I just want to throw some more praise at CRWBY for how they used Jacques in this arc.

They prime us to hate his guts before we even meet him. Everything Weiss has told us about her home life, and everything Blake has said about the SDC indicates to the audience that Jacques is an abusive, controlling, racist shitheel. We know he's awful before we ever see him.

So in these scenes they set him against Ironwood, a character who we're familiar with and came across as dodgy but ultimately on the side of the angels in his past appearances. Ironwood is one of the only two people in all of V4 who is actually supportive of Weiss, and he stands up to the antagonist of her arc every time they interact.

And then we get to V7, and slowly, gradually, it becomes apparent that most of Jacques' interactions with Ironwood are a giant case of "Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made a Great Point." He's frequently right for the wrong reasons (I.E. calling out Jimmy for closing the borders, not because unity in the wake of the Fall of Beacon is important, but because it's hurting his profit margins), but he's consistently one of the characters who calls Ironwood out the most for his fascistic shit.

But because we know he's Jacques and he's awful (and he is awful, this is not a Jacques Schnee Defence Post), the writers are able to bury that a little until all the pieces fall into place in Volume 7.

I could probably write a full-on essay about how good Ironwood's descent into tyranny is, and the role that the villains play in it, because this show is so fucking good when the writers get to cook. Maybe I will at some point.

[shana340artblog]

The last time I drew Ruby in her V4 outfit was like... 4 years ago?

[bugsbiann]

I'm sorry I'm your future

[jedidragonwarriorqueen]

[bumblebybelladonna]

"I don’t know who you think you are, but let me tell you who I am: I am the granddaughter of a hero and a child of a villain. I am a citizen of a fallen Kingdom and an heir to nothing. I will not be defined by my name because I will be the one to define it. I am Weiss Schnee."

[blackknight300]

Nora Perception Check

Team RNJR playing DND waiting for Qrow to wake up before Vol. 5 …

Jaune - "On the horizon of this forest path, you see a group of dark-cloaked figures slowly trudging towards you. What do you do?"

Ruby - "My half-orc barbarian braces her greathammer and- That's a one"

Jaune - "Critical fail. Ren, what do you do?"

Ren - "Well, I believe in anticipation, my rogue would try and hide behind a tree- ...Okay, I rolled a one"

Jaune - "That's another critical fail. Nora, what does your human bard do?"

Nora - "Active Perception Check"

Jaune - "...That's a natural 20"

Nora - "Let's fucking go" ( Starts playing a flute and singing)

I feel it in my fingers

I feel it in my toes

These muthafuckas mean to harm us

And they got to go

So come on, get 'em now!

You picked the wrong day to fuck around with my

Tight crew

There's no escaping it

I can perceive you

Here's what we're gonna do

Me and my boys gonna mess you up

Ruby - I rolled a one

Ren - I rolled a one

Nora - Fuck!

My boys are otherwise engaged

So I'm gonna bring it all myself

Nora - "Hey, I forgot, you're supposed to tell me what I see, right?"

Jaune - "Yes, thank you. Let's just slow it all down a bit. So, you notice that one of the hooded figures is a little shorter-"

Nora - "I cast Vicious Mockery, nat 20, let's go!!"

You're a short muthafucka

And nobody likes you

SHORT!

Everybody says "Look how fucking short that guy is"

And that stops you from forming meaningful relationships

When you were born, everybody thought that you were just a head

But then the doctor said

Nora - "Wait, this stupid muthafuckin' tiny short ass baby got a tiny little itty bitty body and I hate it"

Jaune - "Your attack lands and absolutely shatters the mind of the cloaked figure. Perception check, please"

Nora - "Nat 20, let's go!"

Jaune - "You perceive the figure was so short because it was a CHILD"

Nora - "It's always a kid..."

Jaune - "Specifically, the child you've been looking for for the last 15 days game time and 5 days of our actual lives"

Nora - "Okay, I'm sorry, I didn't know, I'll be better. His body's just lying there, right? ...Right?"

Jaune - "Yes...? Don't-"

Nora - Loot that body

Gotta loot that body now

Loot that body!

Gotta loot that muthafucka!

Play my flute when I loot that dead kid's body

Bitch!

[invested-in-your-future]

Why do you think RWBY v1-3 worked compared to the rest of it?

Hm.

Honestly a lot of the first three volumes doesn't - the pacing can be awful (and grinds to a halt within arcs dealing with Jaune), the writing decisions leave a lot of to be desired(and are beyond offensive at times).

To say what the first three volumes do well is to talk about what the volumes after dont.

The issue with V4 and onward is simple one:

Too many new redundant characters

I have been hammering on this point again and again - in a weird attempt to expand the world, the showrunners ended up filling it with things that overlap win purpose or outright have no purpose.

Generally if you want to have something happen and want to choose between existing character and new character as initiator, nine times out of ten it's better to go with an existing character.

For example, why did we need Salem's evil council of evil? Why did we need a whole team of villains on Salem's side that essentially fulfill same role and purpose as Cinder's group already did? They don't exactly do anything for the lore or the setting and most of their purpose is one-note - Hazel for example exists just to rage about Ozpin in a poorly executed attempt at making his intentions and role more ambiguous - but there are already plenty of characters who can fill that purpose, so why was Hazel, as a character made? Raven exists, Ironwood exists and is clearly having a crisis, even Haven's headmaster exists (let's say he does) - plenty of ways other characters can fulfill the same purpose as Hazel without Hazel existing. Same extends to the rest of Salem's group - Watts exists solely to "explain" the computer virus (why did we need it explained?) and to have a reason to go against Atlas (but Cinder already has a reason thanks to her backstory in-show???) and Tyrian is the same way.

Too many redundant story beats

The writing attempted to make the setting more complex, but in the end a lot of what's added has no real reason to be there - why do we need Relics when Maidens are already there? Even if we were to go with the same idea of Gods causing doomsday(as dumb as it is) the writing could just as easily have the exact same plotline with collecting Maiden powers, for example. So why have vaults and then relics on top of that?

The Gods are the same way too. Why have Gods at all when you can already comfortably just go with the idea of Salem getting Maidens powers to her side being just as catastrophic? Salem's backstory doesn't even need them - in fact if one were to remove the Gods and keep the backstory the same, the end result would be exact same story. But the show doesn't do that - instead, come V9, it adds ANOTHER layer of gods and magic trees and gives the god brothers a backstory that ALSO wasn't needed and doesn't do ANYTHING in terms of furthering the narrative.

Generally if there's a plot thread you'd want to do the first question to ask would be "Does this change ANYTHING for any of the characters?" - plot is an excuse to get characters through the story beats after all. In the case of God Brothers, the plot thread invents a new problem and then solves it - nothing changes.

Lost Focus

The show is titled RWBY for a reason.

Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang - that's the core of the show.

The show started with the color trailers focusing on them and their journeys. The Volume 3 ended with them each having their own issues to deal with and plot threads tying to those issues.

What do the Volumes that follow do with that set-up? Nothing.

Volume 4 is absolutely pointless in grand scheme of things.

Volume 5 is absolutely pointless in grand scheme of things.

Volume 6 is absolutely pointless in grand scheme of things.

In fact, I wrote about the story structure issues with V4 years ago

The narrative structure, at the basic level, is a game of Connect-the-Dots - you have specific story beats you want to reach that work in accordance with overall story and character outline - it's up for The Plot(tm) to lead the characters from one beat to the other.

The way RWBY works past V3 is by inventing a new problem that didn't and then resolving it, essentially staying in place. I sort of outlined it in the V4 structure chart in my write up in how nothing in that Volume serves any real purpose nor furthers the characters.

What does the mess at Haven Academy contribute to the story story that Beacon already haven't? Does what happen there affect the story going forward? No.

What does team RWBY and the whole absolutely dumb and boring mess with the mech and leviathan do for the story? Are there any lasting consequences from that happening? Nope.

What does the run-in with the Apathy do for the characterization? Are there any lingering psychological effects? Do we learn something new about how Grimm function or how the Eyes work? Are there any lingering implications or any story holes that the encounter slots in into? Absolutely nothing.

That's three big examples in those Volumes where the writing invents a new issue, resolves it and doesn't further characters or narrative by doing so.

In Connect-the-Dots, you don't stop hopping from dot to dot midway-through, you don't hop back and forth between existing dots. Story beats and character beats are beats for a reason - they move things forward, they affect things, they alter things. If you have something that leads the narrative back at the place it was before in then you might as well delete the entire thing.

Now this is not the same as characters being stuck in loops or the idea of repetition as storytelling device - repetition that the narrative is aware of WOULD be a story beat in on itself and this is not that.

In fact even going into Atlas arc - the endgame has almost nothing to do with the build up to it and would happen anyway even if most of the volumes leading to it were removed.

Anticlimactic Payoff

If the narrative is build up to something, the pay off should generally equal to the amount of time and focus spend on the build up (unless it's used as a contrast).

Yet in RWBY a lot of mysteries end up being more of matter-of-fact answers than revelations.

What happened to the moon? Oh something crashed into it.

Why are Ozpin and Salem the way they are? Gods did it.

Why is Raven angry at Ozpin? He...turned her into a bird?

What has been Raven up to? Nothing.

Is Ozpin shady or not? Eh, not really - he's just sort of there.

What's up with the creatures of Grimm? Gods did it.

All of these were teased and built up going forward and the actual revelations never justified the build up or teasing that came before.

None of those revelations did anything to further the narrative or develop characters.

It was as if the writers were going through a checklist of what needs to be revealed.

So, What about the first three Volumes?

Now, flip everything I wrote about V4 and onward upside down.

That's the first three Volumes.

The only characters that exist are the ones that have an use within the narrative.

The plot threads are revealed when they become relevant - Mt.Glenn comes up when it matters, for example. If anything there's not enough reveals.

One can easily trace the plot threads through the story - how Ruby's introduction to Beacon affects her dynamics with Weiss, how Jaune's and Ruby's struggles with unexpected positions of leadership affect the team formation, how the friction within the teams furthers the plot to crash into villains goals. And what's more - each mini-arc ties to the four leads and their characterization. Things don't just happen - each storyline starts with the character and ends with characters growing or their relationships changing.

The Payoff is extremely good - V3 takes every single thing the show did through the three volumes and makes use of it. Everything matters - Mt. Glenn exposition, Roman, WF stuff, Jaune's insecurities, Pyrrha's characterization, Yang's characterization, Blake's conflict, Ruby's growth and position int he story, Weiss growth, etc - everything gets used and everything affects the characters involved.

For all the flaws, for all the absolutely insensitive story decisions and bad jokes - the first three volumes manage to handle those key points well and the end result is far more enjoyable.

The volumes after don't.

While good action sequences helped one of many reasons I hold V1 through V3 dear to my heart is because the show pulled off something that was quite rare back then when those Volumes aired - delivering actual consequences and not being afraid of upsetting the status quo within the story.

[iamafanofcartoons]

RWBY is a show where a man and a woman can have multiple screentime together, and still end up JUST FRIENDS.

I do get that’s particularly hard for Jaune and Sun shippers who push that man’s fanfics, but its the truth.

https://twitter.com/E_Lord_Y/status/1646509857972039688

[bonez-yard]

“Ruby. We lost... We lost Pyrrha. You lost her, too. And Penny, and your team, and in a way... your sister. But you're still here, despite everything you've lost, everything you could still lose, you chose to come out here, because you felt like you could make a difference. You didn't drag us along, you gave us the courage to follow you.”

“The walker’s came for you! Because Neo hates YOU! Oh and let’s not forget the reason we’re in the Ever After in the first place is because of your plan that didn’t work! What about you? IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU!!”

I was supposed to have this finish a while back but I got,,,, distracted-

Anyways why yes my heart did in fact break bc these two mean so much to me and I’m *sobs* inspired by a post I saw on Twitter where it showed these two scenes

Please do not STEAL/COPY/REPOST my art!!!

[purgatory2]

RWBY PAGE IN THE RECOVERY JOURNAL RAAAA

i love this song! it speaks to me a lot

[nazis-get-punched]

Oh my god I just realised Zwei from RWBY IS A REFERENCE TO FUCKING EIN FROM COWBOY BEBOP

HOW DID I ONLY JUST REALISE

[toaarcan]

Hi, I’m still losing my mind over the revelation that BMBLB was spoilers.

“Jeff and Casey put it on there without RT’s direct approval” was a (very small) millstone for a while, one we largely ignored, because it’s not like they retracted it or put out a new version of the V4 soundtrack without it, but I still cannot get over learning that the reason they didn’t have RT’s direct approval to include it in the V4 soundtrack was that it contained spoilers for a scene five volumes in advance.

The feccin’ world spawned a garden!

[oddlyhale]

I just realized that RWBY could've introduced Salem's team if they all individually went after Ruby, like how Tyrian was sent by himself to hunt her down. They take turns after one fails.

It'd be just like introducing new bosses to the heroes, except the bosses are tougher the more the heroes get stronger. Not saying Tyrian is weak at all, btw. I think he would be way more difficult to take down compared to Watts and Hazel, but first, RWBY introduces him as a way to show how much Team RNJR needs to get stronger to get into a rematch with him.

And how it would've been SO cool to see a rematch between Tyrian and RNJR again??

[rwby-is-the-best]

you gotta love the action replay on this block

[magfairycircles]

Throwback to when raven acted like she didn’t enjoy the opportunities for stalking her ex and child that the bird form provided for her 🫡

[bumblebybelladonna]

Team RWBY and their flowers - V4 💐

By Ein Lee