#thread: a man and his co...rooster

[dragynkeep]

rooster teeth + their antisemitism.

bringing this thread over but it can also be found on twitter here. ♥ 

disclaimer : i am jewish + have been watching rt's work (mainly rwby) for like 3 years now. i'm not saying they're aggressively antisemitic but bigotry doesn't need to be violent to be bigotry. ignorance is also not an excuse.

the most foremost + prominent of their antisemitic behaviour is their animated show "camp camp", which i've pointed out before in other tweets the absolute bucket full of antisemitic caricatures + "jokes". they were asked about this in an ama + this was their response.

this ... is a piss poor response. the featuring of antisemitism in their show for jokes did nothing to address how cruel + hateful + harmful antisemitism & those who follow that mindset are. they did nothing to "condone" antisemitism in their jokes because there's no push back.

the characters used for these jokes, a literal adolf hitler stand in, are idolized + adored by the fandom. by the creators themselves. all you need to do is google the character's name or look in their tumblr tag + you'll find cute fanart for days. of a literal dictator stand in.

camp camp has been called out by jewish people before, for the weird amount of antisemitic "jokes" in it that feature the character "dolph" (our adolf hitler stand in) targeting the only jewish character in the cast, neil. this features mainly in the episode reigny day.

the show is directed by a jewish man, @/JordanCwierz (not that it excuses the antisemitism, you don't need to propogate hate against your own people with your shitty comedy show) but the episode itself was written by @/kerryshawcross, who is not.

in the episode reigny day; there are multiple references to jewish suffering + prominent jewish figure anne frank. from neil hiding in the attic, writing in his diary; to dolph demanding the other kids write numbers on their arms in reference to the concentration camps.

& for all rt said the want to "condone this hate"; at the end of the episode, dolph is given an award for all he did during the episode. this isn't condemnation, this is literally praise! this is making fun of a genocide that some people still to this day don't believe happened.

and when you look at the comments, well. i'm not seeing any condemnation, rooster teeth. i thought you were shedding light on the dark parts of the world to not condone it? mind telling your fans that?

the references to the tragedies during Shoah (the holocaust) isn't just contained to reigny day; it also featured in the premiere episode of season 2 of camp camp — cult camp. there, they reference the gas chambers used to murder jewish people. & they lampshade it too.

again: while this show is directed + overseen by a jewish man, that does not erase the fact that these tragedies, that are *still denied by a good chunk of people in modern day* are being used for comedic value with no push back or condemnation. & are written by two non jews.

it's even more frustrating when in the episode reigny day, there was a genuinely funny joke about neil's jewish identity that didn't play on tragedy or antisemitism! they can do this but choose to be lazy + co opt a genocide for humour !!

i haven't even gone over the breadth of "jokes" mired in antisemitism or just plain RACISM in that episode but to quote a handful : 

adolph saying juice to mean "jews" when neil was hiding in the attic

adolph not approving of "mixing colours"

adolph does the nazi salute

so this was camp camp. unfortunately, the antisemitism is not contained only to camp camp, it has it's roots in rooster teeth's other main ip; rwby. mainly with the treatment of the characters coco adel + adam taurus, though in different ways + from different audiences.

the antisemitism through coco adel comes from the person her character is modelled after; known nazi collaborator, coco chanel. coco adel is a "fashionista" who follows her teams "themeing" of sweets; her's being chocolate. however a large portion of her design is based on, coco chanel, as seen through her famed necklaces, beret, the bag, her emblem and her colour scheme of black + gold.

while coco chanel is known for her fashion company; she's also known for the fact that she built that fashion company on the back of being a nazi collaborator. this woman spied for + slept with nazis. it's not outright antisemitism but it is uncomfortable + inappropriate.

especially when : a. coco (adel) is a lesbian, + would've been killed by the people that her major inspiration supported & b. we need to stop elevating antisemitic icons to fame because they were "infamous." there were plenty of other fashion designers to use.

i had brought this up before + non jewish people in the rwby fandom were quick to jump to rooster teeth's defence, despite their previous antisemitism, & play the martyr for this company of majority non jewish people.

rooster teeth are not stupid, no matter how much they try to convince you they are so they can have excuses for things like the entire white fang plotline or how may zedong sounding like mao zedong is just a coincidence, or how they refer to a chinese character as a ninja.

from coco we go onto adam which is more of a fandom thing, but has been encouraged with the weird amount of ableism coming from vas + writers alike with his backstory + storyline. adam is a faunus, an ethnic minority in the world of remnant that are poc - coded.  in his backstory he was a child slave to a racist company who was scarred using a branding iron over his eye. this was very reminiscent of african slaves being branded when they tried to escape but is overlooked by the majority white fandom.

people also feed into the hate for this character with a va, arryn zech’s unfounded headcanons that he was a "psychopath who tortured animals as a kid"; miss zech has her own history of ableism that's excused but to put this on a minority character is disgusting.

this all feeds into how the fandom will call adam a "nazi"; he follows his own ideal of how faunus are superior to humans + that they will rule remnant given the chance. a gross mentality but not one appropriate to call him a nazi. why?

because nazism is white supremacy.

nazi ideology is directly tied to the ideal of a white, superior race that should rule. adam is a POC CODED CHARACTER. he is part of the minority in remnant + the writers compared him to malcolm x, which is a whole other bag of cats that is inappropriate for me to comment on.

comparing fictional characters to nazis is antisemitic in and of itself. nazis are still very much real and a dangerous threat to jewish people to this day. we don't need goyim appropriating our struggles + fear to hate on a fictional character. yet it keeps happening.

overall; rooster teeth is not outright with their antisemitism. but that's the point. these are majority non jewish creators either unaware or uncaring of the hatred they are validating + do not care enough to fix it when we are tired of it.  this mentality then bleeds into the fandom itself + puts jewish members of the fandom at risk. it makes us feel uncomfortable, it hurts us to see other members of the fandom idolize people with this mindset + the antisemitic characters they create.

at the end of the day, there is a culture here that has not been addressed completely. they will pay lipservice to jewish fans (with the chanukkah tweet) but then keep playing into stereotypes + harmful antisemites. it has to change + be acknowledged. by rt + the fandom alike. @ people in the rooster teeth fandom, who enjoy rwby or camp camp, LISTEN TO JEWISH PEOPLE. we are uncomfortable!! we are hurting!! we are tired of you not fucking listening to us because you don't think it's antisemitic as if you're the people being hurt. do fucking better.

[nevernevadahq]

Everyone suspects CYRUS LAURENT ROUSSEAU of at least one of the cardinal sins, but in Nevada, the worst sins are bound by blood and this is HIS: THE BROTHERS OF ICHOR. HE rolled the dice THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS ago as the HEAD OF THE ENFORCERS. Under the desert sun, they claim the act of the CO-OWNER AND MANAGER OF ROUSSEAU'S. They’re often mistaken for BEN BARNES before those crimson colored glasses slide down their nose. CY better get busy living, or they’ll get busy dying by the ripe age of THIRTY-SEVEN. There are no second acts in a marked life, and it’s measured out by the melody of ROOSTER BY ALICE IN CHAINS.

DATE OF BIRTH: June 11th, 1984

GENDER AND PRONOUNS: Cis Man, He/Him

HOMETOWN: Las Vegas, Nevada

MARK: Jacket & Tattoo

CHARACTER BIOGRAPHY

Cyrus was brought up in the life from a young age after being born to a model mother and a proud Brothers of Ichor father. Some indiscretions in his youth were followed by the only logical thread he could: joining the military. Now a former Navy Seal with an incredible military record, Cyrus returned from war with the training necessary to take up the spot his father had left when he went missing, both in the Brothers of Ichor and the Rousseau family. A hard, no bullshit, cold, serious, unshakable man, most see Cyrus as a complete hard ass, save for the circumstances surrounding his family. 

CYRUS ROUSSEAU IS WRITTEN BY ALI.

[hypeathon]

RWBY - Volume 6, Chapter 7 Production Analysis

Vol 6, Ch 1 Production Analysis

Vol 6, Ch 2 Production Analysis

Vol 6, Ch 3 Production Analysis

Vol 6, Ch 4 Production Analysis

Vol 6, Ch 5 Production Analysis

Vol 6, Ch 6 Production Analysis

With Brunswick farms behind us, it’s time to move on to a series of different settings and a few surprises in this chapter that mark the halfway point for volume 6. With interesting story beats this episode, there are as always equally interesting aspects of the production to add to the discussion.

Before actually getting into the production analysis itself, I wanted to take a moment to briefly highlight on Gen:Lock. I’m unsure if or when I want to get around to throwing my two cents on the upcoming mecha show, but with this preview and the last one prefacing the latest episodes of RWBY, it’s intriguing seeing how this show has been building up attention between interviews and announcements about it’s cast and production. It’s also a bit concerning the kind of feedback from viewers and what they’ve been approving of and expressed being bothered with. Again, whether or not I’ll touch on its production is up in the air right now, but I wanted to put forth my quick thoughts on the matter.

With that out of the way, let’s start the analysis proper by touching briefly on the Haven Academy vault scene. Not a whole lot to say other than the character acting, which I suspect may be Hannah Novotny. The way mouths are seen as either puckered or with teeth shown clenching are the supposedly calling cards, though beyond that, I’m not really sure whether it’s Hannah or it’s someone else. Regardless helps sell the kind of interpretive facial expressions for a character like Neo and the little gestures of Cinder casually forging different knives add to her overall character in a manner similar to what Kim Newman and Millivette Gonzalez did with Pyrrha in the skit they animated during episode 8 of RWBY Chibi season 1.

Speaking of RWBY Chibi, now would be a good time to move on to the next scene highlighting Maria Calavera’s younger self and the behind-the-scenes story behind her being called “the Grimm Reaper”. Tom Alvarado, a writer brought for RWBY Chibi since season 2 who had a small prior experience in the American animation industry writing the “Metalhead” episode of the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series was inspired by Miles Luna’s thread of tweets about the Apathy Grimm to share his own anecdote. Although presented in a more comical tone, the fascinating piece of information to take away was that he thought of calling Jaune’s superhero alter ego, “The Grimm Reaper” before it changed to “The Hunts-Man.” Although Miles and Kerry Shawcross didn’t specify why at the time, they apparently already had the former title planned for something else. What’s also worth noting is how back during the CRWBY Reddit “Ask Me Anything” event back in February of 2018, Kerry answered a question mentioning that during the writing process, a certain character and sub-plot had to be cut out of volume 5′s script and pushed for a later, yet to be tangible point in the story. Between that and Tom’s tweets, it’s very likely that Maria was suppose to be that character.

Just a theory worth sharing based on scattered pieces of information about the behind-the-scenes of the story’s creative process. Moving on to analyzing Maria’s scene itself which the first minute of it was uploaded via Rooster Teeth on Youtube prior to the episode proper, the choice of camera shots and overall setting display an array of callbacks from certain scenes in past installments of the show. The way we see Maria walk across the bridge and responds to the incoming Nevermore Grimm is definitely reminiscent of both the Red trailer and the volume 4 character short and the overall setting and the is akin to that of of the setting against the Nevermore Team RWBY fought in chapter 8 of volume 1. What makes this work so well is how instinctively recognizable the callbacks themselves feel. This is also not the first instance of callbacks being made instinctive through the cinematography. As stated in the production analysis for chapter 2, the reveal of Salem in her past is very similar to that of Salem’s first proper reveal in the end of chapter 12. Another example was when Weiss got stabbed by Cinder’s spear at the end of chapter 11, where storyboard/camera layout artists, Rachel Doda and former lead producer, Koen Wooten, both stated in episode 11 of RWBY Rewind that Kerry was very deliberate about having that shot be a callback to both Amber and Pyrrha being shot at by Cinder. These are just things worth keeping in mind when watching the show going forward.

At the risk of being a broken record, choreography has its place in a fight scene, but so does staging for both the physical aspect and the story being told. In this case, the choice of camera shots help sell what kind of character Maria was as The Grimm Reaper and what her reputation meant for characters like Qrow and Ruby and how they made their weapons and have fought. With all that being said, the similarities between Maria’s scene and the other scenes with Ruby mentioned end there as the rest of the visual direction from here on gives Maria her own identity. Speaking of which, from the start of her bout with the Nevermore onward, most of the scenes were animated by Megan Pellino, Joe Vick, John Yang and Matt Drury with assistant lead animator, Melanie Stern providing the Maria vs Tock segment in particular. If these names sound familiar, that’s because with the exception of John Yang, this is the same set of people involved with the Cinder vs Neo fight. Since volume 3, the process animating fight scenes changed from Monty Oum and Shane Newville doing individual fights by themselves to having fights be done in groups of 2-4, if not more. The names of people involved with fights may have varied from volume-to-volume, but the approach has remained the same.

  Unfortunately, despite being familiar with these names, it’s still difficult to entirely tell the difference between all the animators and how they go about fight sequences, particularly Megan Pellino and Joe Vick. However, as an educated guess, it’s likely that they animated the beginning segment with Maria and the Nevermore while the latter sequence between Maria and Tock’s group were done by John Yang, Matt Drury and Melanie Stern. There are confirmations of previous sequences done by John and Matt, making it easier to tell their styles apart. In the past, John did a bit of the Blake vs Ilia fight (likely right before Kim Newman’s sequence), Oscar vs Lionheart, and part of Ozpin vs Hazel. In Matt’s case, he animated Ghira vs the Albain twins in chapter 9 of volume 5 (might’ve been his first action sequence) and much of Adam’s fight segments in his character short. Based on these confirmations and comparing those scenes to Maria vs Tock and the bandits, John may have animated the segment from the start of the fight up until Maria’s aura broke while Matt animated the next sequence after. John seems to have this way of how before or after certain swings, strikes and other attacks, a character will maintain a pose for a split-second before striking again, kind of similar to how the animation director of volume 6, Joel Mann has animated scenes. His sequence also tends to have the camera move a bit wildly but still steadily-enough follow each character’s actions, though how much of that is due to John or whoever provided the final camera layout is unclear. Matt on the other hand does not seem to emphasize as much on the poses leaving a dynamic impression and has the animations feel a bit more continuous. Also unlike John, he’s more conservative with the camera shots being more steady, to the point where it feels like watching a side-scrolling fighting game like Tekken or Street Fighter. Again though, how much of that aspect is the animator as oppose to who does final camera layout is uncertain.

At the end of the day, this is all guesswork so it’s totally possible that I may have mixed-up who did which segments. But it’s still fun to estimate none-the-less. At the very least, it’s definitely confirmed that Melanie Stern animated Maria’s eyes being slashed and quite possibly Tock getting the upper hand on her right before and the rest of the scene right after. What’s more interesting is that since her position as assistant lead animator, this is the first episode where she helped lead a fight in a manner similar to how Kim Newman led the newer animators when she was assistant lead back in chapter 10 of volume 5. Hopefully, this serves as another reminder of how it’s important to pay mind to newer talents working on the show, as I’ve stated in previous posts, even when comparing to some anime productions. Before moving on to the next scene, the choice of having the ticking clock sound incorporated into the action sequence also deserves a mention. It’s amazing how intentionally well-timed it came off right down to the timing being precisely 60-seconds, which I imagine was no easy feat to pull off with director, Kerry Shawcross and co-director/lead editor, Connor Pickens having to coordinate between the storyboard, editing, animation and audio departments. 

With that out of the way, let’s shift focus from Maria’s flashback to the next scene in the present. There’s honestly not a whole lot to say about the scene between elder Maria and the others other than that there were some great facial expressions between Qrow and certain other characters to expressed how flabbergasted they were about the former Grimm Reaper’s reputation. There was also a bit of neat choice of angling the camera to highlight both Maria’s praise to team RWBY while having Yang’s self-doubting reaction be made clear. Where the visual direction really picks up though is once Ruby answers Jaune’s call and she holds her scroll towards the path towards Argus. Given the earnestly melancholic discussion about whether to follow the foot steps of one who deemed herself poorly and whether one of the older generation could still contribute something to the newer one, seeing an old throwback to character nicknames via Ruby’s caller id for Jaune provided quite an appropriate change of tone for the scene. From here on, things get uplifting, through the piano instrumentation of this volume’s opening theme, the shift of lighting to create warmer color schemes as a result of likely the art and lighting departments and having the camera get closer towards with each invisible wipe transition of the trees as they travel uphill until the payoff of the city in their site is shown.

Next is the reunion scene between the two teams and while there’s again, not a whole lot to add, there are a couple of interesting notes. First, when Nora is first seen, there’s a moment where the camera suddenly zooms towards Nora. This is to serve as another reminder that choice of camera direction between different characters is indeed a thing as mentioned previous posts and in Nora’s case, shots can sometimes have zippy panning or zooms to compliment her very enthusiastic nature. The second thing is a little mention from Asha Bishi about how another animator did the moment where Jaune and Ruby hugged. She didn’t say who it was exactly, but it’s just something I wanted to acknowledge.

Then there’s the scene establishing Argus which has definitely been a highlight for fans. In volume 5, a lot of fans were especially critical due to how what little of Mistral was shown at the time was partially via the composited still art of residents in one of the market. The backlash, though not immediate, was very understandable and it does seem like a bit of a waste to not have enough on-screen interactions between the main cast and whatever new settings they set foot on given Monty Oum’s intention from the beginning. However, if I were to speculate as to why Argus was provided more premium treatment in its production instead, it may be because the main cast are expected to interact and traverse more within the setting. Knowing this, Kerry Shawcross and Miles Luna wanted to make sure more time was allotted specifically for however many episodes would take place. Combine that with a shift in software to model and animate crowds from Autodesk Maya’s Golemn Crowd plugin to Side FX’s Houdini and the creative process behind the color aesthetic and architecture from the art department and here is the end result. As breathtaking as the setting is, it shouldn’t be dismissed how time-consuming it must have been making this setting as fleshed out as it is.

Moving on, we get the first introduction of a character teased for the longest time since chapter 7 of volume 2, one of Jaune’s seven sisters, Saphron Cotta-Arc, fully voiced, modeled, animated and everything! There’s a lot to cover about the Cotta-Arc family scene in general, first and foremost being Saphron’s voice actress, Lindsay Sheppard, who has previously done some voice acting work, most notably Aria from the Pokemon XY anime. Second thing to mention is that seeing team RWBY meet Saphron was actually animated by Nyle Pierson, who you may remember for first contributing to volume 6 through his animation of Yang and Blake walking through the blizzard in chapter 5. Seeing someone new to the show’s production do facial expressions and the right combination of surprise and eagerness from Ruby is delivered very effectively, all while making sure to show the other characters in the background express finding the behavior awkward in response. It’s unclear if the next set of animated cuts are also from Nyle or not due to the similarly exaggerated nature of the expressions and body language of the characters, but kudos to him either way. This is also a good opportunity to talk about the storyboards for the Cotta-Arc living room scene which were done by Cassidy Stone. This is the same storyboard artist that provided the scene of the main cast eating the ramen hot pot in chapter 7 of volume 5 and it was actually Cassidy’s first work on the show. Between that, the scene of Ruby and Weiss in the storage room and now this, it’s clear that her forte is providing lively banter between characters in a way that rekindled some of the aspect more prominent in RWBY’s earlier volumes. The camera layout also deserves some credit, namely for that bit where Jaune firmly points at Adrian and the camera is timed to shake at that moment to sell his annoyance. One more thing to note was Jaune and Saphron’s family photo which may have been drawn by art director, Patrick Rodriguez.

Next is the introduction of Terra Cotta-Arc, Saphron’s wife which has undoubtedly invoked the fan base into a fervor of positivity over a visible representation of a married lesbian couple. As significant as these characters are for adding another log to the fire of making a minority feel more inclusive through fictional media, what especially works here is that in the short screen time, we get an inkling of what kind of relationship they have. Between the expressions, gestures, choice of dialogue and types of voices from Lindsay Sheppard as Saphron and Rooster Teeth layout coordinator and associate producer, Jamie Smith as Terra, we can tell that one is slightly more free-spirited and easy-going while the other is a bit more grounded, stressed and concerned with ethics (i.e: whether students helping professional huntsmen is “legal” or not). Both clearly have a strong rapport at the end of the day, but it’s the small bits of information in-between that gives that insight. Straight or gay, romantic or otherwise, that’s important to depict in any relationship between characters.

That small tangent aside, one more thing to add about the scene was the cast eating sandwiches. This moment was at least partially animated by Collin McAtee who funnily enough, did the scene while eating a Jimmy John’s club lulu sandwich. The animation was nicely done, especially with Ruby’s eagerness to chow down as well as Blake’s subtle reaction through her cat ears. Though what I wanted to note in particular are the modeled sandwiches. Since it was confirmed that the modeling team handled the ramen food in chapter 7 of volume 5, I assume that they also handled the models for the sandwiches by providing different ones for certain characters depending on how much was bitten off. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, though I felt with Ruby eating her sandwiches in particular, there could’ve been different models of the sandwiches not being bitten off as much to make the animation of her eating them feel more seamless. But it’s all really minor.

There’s one more shot at the end of the episode of the gang at the Atlessian base, though given the preview for next week’s chapter on RWBY Rewind, it’s best to put a pin on that until the next production analysis. Speaking of which, that marks in end of this episode’s analysis. Definitely a variety of scenes that all provided different purposes and different tones, all done very effectively. To go from Cinder and Neo to Maria’s backstory to the present to reuniting with team Jaune, Ren & Nora to meeting Saphron and her family, all in roughly 15-16 minutes, was done very effectively and never felt jarring. We’re now officially at the halfway point with what seems to be an overall more well-received volume thus far and it’s pretty exciting to see what else will be in store from here on.

[codenamemalachite-blog]

A man and his co...Rooster || Junho & Open

This was the second time in the short months that he had to escape from the hospital. Second time he got the shit beat out of him, but at least he fought back and hoped that Remy was smarting too. But who knew really...That man can fight. Either one of them got off better or both were worse for the wear after the battle in Detroit to keep the aliens at bay. Junho Lee was not curious enough to seek out the man, especially when all he wanted to do right now is find a new place and go into hiding for a while. Not be seen unless the man wanted to be found or if they sent a bloodhound after him. 

He wouldn’t be surprised if both sides had one. Wonder who will go first? 

But that was beside the point. It hurt him even more to leave behind a lot of stuff in his old apartment, Junho had to move on. Refocus. Get back on track. The man had taken such an emotional blow that he was a liability. Emotions ruling his decisions and swirling around inside of him like a violent storm. But the wounds have been reopened, leaving the once calm and collected double agent a hot mess. One thing for sure, he couldn’t leave his new friend behind. It was funny actually. How at the beginning, he wanted to just be rid of such a useless gift. A single egg that hatched and would have been his dinner in the future. 

Now? The baby rooster happily peeked over the box in Junho’s arms. Curious about the outside world. Of course people will stare. Who the hell has a rooster in the city? They belonged on a farm in the countryside. Not in a bustling city with dark alleys and danger lurking around every corner. 

“New place wont be as spacious, but it will do little guy” The injured man continued to limp down the sidewalk, taking comfort at having a companion. Sort of. Odd how he just pushed people away...Until Tyler did something. Awakened a change in him. Bastard, but may he rest in peace. No sense in letting the past continue to control him. But Larry was not a person...he was an animal that just seemed to bring out a smile...had him talking more. But that didn’t stop the demons from ripping that smile away. Forcing him back into silence. A lost cause, but that was why he needed to get away. 

Retrain himself to have more control. Lock everything away until the deed was done. But what was there for him after that? Nothing. Just him either dead from attempting his goal or forever closed off from the world. 

He’ll think about it when the time came. Until then, it was just going to be him and Larry. Perhaps he should visit Jack...if the man was still around...or if he even survived the battle. If Jack was around, then maybe he can hand Larry over to be taken care of. Maybe...

Junho hissed in pain when a civilian bumped into him. Ribs on fire from the jostling...No, they were on fire already, this was more painful than that. Approaching a bench, the asian man carefully placed the box down before wincing in pain as he removed the backpack before sitting down. Better to ride out the pain sitting down than to act like a man and suck it up only to end up on the ground. Larry started to make noises, scratching the inside of the box. Paper being ripped up. “Yeah..yeah..” Box in lap, he leaned his head back to stare up at the sky...the beautiful blue sky.