RWBY Month: From Shadows

Well, it has certainly been a long journey from watching 'RWBY', even if there has only been three volumes completed. From what I heard by the creators, they are ready for at least 20 more. Lets not get too ahead of ourselves here and just look at the stuff offered so far, shall we?

Three years and 40 episodes later, the 'RWBY' series of Rooster Teeth has gathered an impressive fan following. Despite the loss of its creator, the series has managed to improve over leaps and bounds since it was first released in 2013. Still, it is not without its inconsistencies and mistakes, but that will be later in this review.

The Good:

If there is one positive thing I can attribute to the series is that it has been improving since day one. From the animation to the characters and stories, you can see the progression that has been made since the first episode of volume one to the last of volume 3. Can you believe that at the start, any unnecessary background characters were just black shadows?

Speaking of the dark, I've read about many people enjoying the darker tone the series took halfway through volume three. I wouldn't exactly call it so much as a shift in tone but more like a pulling of the curtain to the true world of Remnant. After all, many viewers have been misled by the colorful characters and wonderful fight scenes. Is it any wonder that the creators had to put up 'viewer discretion' images when they learned that their show was being watched by children?

Lets take look at the world from Remnant: the place is overrun by creatures of darkness that openly hunt for mankind's extinction, with many children trained at a young age to fight them for the cause, all while living in a world with one a few kingdoms to call home, along with a terrorist group that seeks to use destructive means to get their way, as well as a hidden party trying to do...something that easily disrupted one of these few kingdoms to make it happen.

(When you look at the moon and see that, do you really think the world is all gumdrops and rainbows?)

Again, the dark part of RWBY has caught many people off guard because of the good work they put in other areas, such as their likable characters and incredible action scenes.

From the main four to the supporting cast and villains, many of the characters brought forward have enough personality to give each one a swathe of fans to follow them. The main four themselves are very distinct: the bubbling naivete of Ruby, the headstrong confidence of her sister Yang, the proven princess of Weiss, and the calm collected Blake. As the series goes on, we seem them (among others) develop in characters with depth, such as a interest from Yang to search for her missing mother and Weiss trying to remove herself from the hold placed by a controlling father.

Supporting characters like team JNPR, the teachers of Beacon Academy and the likes of Penny and Qrow also add a lot of personality to everything. It is enough to get you paying attention to the characters and stick with them through the crazy ride.

The action is, of course, a major standout of the series and among the show's finest moments. Combining standout weapons like the scythe-sniper rifle or gauntlet-shotguns along with superpowers against monstrous creatures or even against each makes it a sight to see each episode it is displayed. Not only does it help show off the characters in fighting style but also shows how well they can work off each other when on a team. You see it with in 'Painting the Town' with the titular team RWBY functioning like a unit against Roman in his stolen Atlas mech. They knew how to use their abilities and skills together in unison to take out a singular threat like that.

(The buildup for Yang punching that mech was fantastic)

Another stand out is the music for the series. Just about all of it is original work for the series and it really helps with setting up the mood for scenes. Whether with or without lyrics, you'll get the right idea of what feels you should have for the scene before the dialogue kicks in.

Also, I've been using a lot of the titles for said songs for the posts, so enjoy that little tid-bit.

The Bad:

Despite the improvement of the series, there are still plenty of faults and mistakes that haven't yet been addressed yet. Some of these have been brought up by the fans while some others have been spotted by myself.

The villains are the biggest problems of the series, both for the main cast and for some of its viewers. While they haven't been brought up that much at the start, their continued appearances have brought a lot of focus on them. Unfortunately, it has made them more open to criticism when you start looking at the big picture they are apart of.

Roman Torchwick had probably the most consistent personality and behavior of the group before being killed, Neo is just mostly a walking prop needed for different moments (especially since she doesn't have a voice actor yet), Mercury is just an asshole, but not a very well written one, Emerald's behavior and agenda seems weird and her interactions may look like she could be heading towards a Heel-Face turn, but that's still up in the air at this point.

Then we reach Cinder and Adam.

Two different can of worms that can rub people the wrong way.

Let's start with Adam.

His motivates as part of the 'White Fang' group make sense, as well as being forcibly conscripted into working with Cinder and her follows. However, its his characterization in the last few episodes of 'Volume 3' that have me scratching my head. He quickly acts like some stalker boyfriend to Blake upon first seeing her, a far cry from his usual collected manner that hides his dedication to the Faunus cause. Now, he is all about wanting to destroy everything about Blake. Its a weird bit that kind of throws the character off, though the creators of the series explain that Adam did have elements of acting like a 'domestic abuser' with Blake back when she was with the 'White Fang'. This is more personal complaining than actual fact.

Cinder, on the other hand, is a more troublesome issue.

Already gone through three volumes of RWBY with her and we still have little to no idea who or what Cinder is. Its clear she was after the Fall Maiden's powers and managed to accomplish just that. Aside from that, she is just so mysterious of an unknown that it borderlines and frustrating. 

Not to mention the fact that the villains have rarely seen properly defeated during these three volumes.

Outside of the Grimm fights, these villains have rarely seen a long-term or even short-term slow down of their plans, Heck, they may have even been helped along the way by the heroes at one point or another. Any kind of defeat they do is more to service the plot rather than as a testament to our heroes' skills. It really undermines them as competent characters and function more like minor nuisances.

When the final battle of Volume 3 occurred, it required a 'deus ex machina' to have the heroes pull off a victory. If this does lead to them getting better, good. Otherwise, I'd hate to see the series drop that point off and have all their big battles won by random luck.

Another problem with the series, and it is one of the biggest, is the matter of so many inconsistencies and dropped plot points.

The directors and writers for RWBY tend to have these bad habits of leaving some things unexplained or dropping certain plot points for the sake of the main story. 

Some examples include:

• Pyrrha's development as someone perceived as the ace, when in reality is more unsure of her role and desire to be treated as an equal
• The random appearances and disappearances of Zwei during the attack on Beacon (seriously, he isn't back with the dad?)
• How Qrow couldn't pick out Cinder and her lackies after rescuing the Fall Maiden (would've especially helped during the Vytal event)
• The random appearances and disappearances of 'Aura' during fights (which tends to get screwy when done for plot and such)
• How Penny is declared 'dead' except that she is a robot and can be rebuilt (they haven't even gotten into this, even during some interviews with the creators)
• Weiss trying to break away from her father but ends up being taken back to Atlas instead (kind of makes sense, but it makes all that previous development almost worthless)
• That meeting with Yang and her mother (the former still had that arm in that meeting, so is it non-canon now or what?)
• How Jaune managed to get into Beacon on face manuscripts (how convenient)

This is only a couple of them over the course of three volumes. Once the series gets into the double digits of seasons, we could easily be seeing more of these mishaps popping up. Even though Monty did plan out enough details to get that far, its hard to say if they all will make sense in the long run.

Which brings me to my last point...

The Ugly

The death of Monty Oum.

It is a tragedy, to say the least, to lose him during a time where he was with great friend, family and fans. The fact that he was able to plan out his main series 'RWBY' so far ahead showed that he had foresight and belief in his fellow creators to help continue that vision and bringing it forward.

Right now, all we can do is speculate on what could've happened were Monty still alive. Would he have stayed the course with his vision? Would he have decided to rethink the plot in areas to try and make it better?

Regardless, the important thing to remember is how much Monty put himself into his work and all the effort that helped bring RWBY to this level of popularity.

Here's to you, Monty.

This wraps up 'RWBY' month. Stay tuned next week for a new month and a new theme.

Until next time...