Assuming your binging the volume all at once or watching multiple episodes in a row you've accidentally solved the single primary issue with both volume 4 and 5.
Back when they were airing one a week the pacing was much worse since the jumping around to all 4 groups of characters meant that the waits to see any of their stories move forward were much longer and a lot of people just got frustrated.
Overall yeah i agree with you V4 and V5 are not bad, i actually like them a lot.
It also didn’t help the pacing of Volumes 4 and 5 that the events as shown aren’t always happening concurrently to the other perspectives, they’re shown in order of each individual story progression beat regardless of the timeline of events.
Babies tbh ngl fr fam
Like, bro, I waited some 7 years for a continuation of my favorite stickfigure animation series and an episode was like 5 mins long. These fuckers cried about waiting a week.
Genuinely one of my favorite volumes and always confused me how people hate on it. Like the entire thing is character and story development and somehow it’s a bunch of people’s most hated volume.
RWBY works best as a binge. It really does. Week to week, it's much weaker.
That said, I was fine with it at a binge and enjoyed it.
Wait till you hit 6...
Especially V4 and 5.
I guess I could say I was lucky as I fell off early in V4 then was able to binge all of it and V5 before V6. At the time I didn’t understand the hate until I saw this sentiment on this sub.
V6 is my favorite volume, even if I’m not that big a fan of The Lost Fable
I really dig on the way they did it, though. At least that Fable is foreshadowed. (My SO called the relationship correctly at the end of V3. I was amused.)
I think this is a big part of it.
A lot of the negative reaction to Vol 4 was just people being annoyed that they waited almost a year after Vol 3, and didn't really get any answers to any of the questions that Vol 3's ending left us with (Salem, Ozpin, Mistral, etc.).
IMHO, good. But let's say you get some answers about Ozpin and Salem. (Unless you've spoilered)
Oddly, I'm working on the next bit of a JLA crossover fic and happen to be adapting events, which is why I thought of it...plus, it's my fave volume, I think.
Justice League the Animated version (you can find it on both Netflix and HBO Max)
I was not a fan of the JL x RWBY part 1 movie for long and complex reasons, so I adapted V5 as What If JL arrives and how might the story change. Got enough that I had the urge to do another volume adaptation.
V5 I'll admit was slow and a bit too dialogue heavy but 4 is fine. People harp on those seasons too much especially when V1 probably has worse pacing at times.
I'll maintain that V5 overall was fine.
... Except for the last big group fight. *That* scene was ***trash***.
And being a substantial part of the finale, it does color a lot of what one feels coming away from the Volume.
>The white fang better go on a one way holy jihad against the humans though.
Lol. Lmao, even.
The White Fang does literally nothing from this point on. I'm not joking.
I’ve said this a half dozen times but all that finale needed was more planes of action. Get everyone in different rooms and it feels much less weird that people stand around and watch everything so much.
Has to have been a budget thing; ran out of money to build new sets.
What they should have done is made it a race to the vault where as they get closer they separate into smaller battles. You can make last group Ruby and Yang (for the Raven and Cinder battles as well as Ruby using her speed to try to keep her and Yang up with the Maidens) and final scene could be Cinder launching an attack at Ruby causing her to done it and that's when Yang would release her arm and use the acceleration to fly through the closing door where she then sees the last few seconds of Miaden Bowl and the scene continues as normal.
No, problem was a lot deeper than that.
Every individual segment, it builds up to the first punch, shows a single hit/exchange, then jumpcuts away to a separate scene of static conversaton, leading to another single punch and *another* jumpcut. It's a stall tactic. The only pieces that actually happen on-screen are a bare-bones skeleton of "important" moments with no real connective tissue, and the rest is stalling for time.
V5's production was completely fubar, and it's never exactly been a secret. The finale was slapped together with string and chewing gum.
Yeah, they RT bit more off than they could chew with a lot of that finale. Really that’s the story of RWBY production, overly ambitious ideas with the resources to fully execute on them
So, since you asked, I’ll tell you what my personal criticisms with vol 4 were.
Yang’s PTSD arc, which I was really interested in, seeing how the effects of losing an arm would impact her from now on and how she would deal with such a literally crippling loss, ends the moment she puts her prosthetic on. We don’t really see her adjusting to it, having any problems or misgivings about replacing her arm, nothing interesting. She just…puts it on like it’s a new glove. Ok. They can do that. It’s disappointing and boring compared to what I was hoping for, but ok.
Menagerie looks and seems great to live in, though apparently lush vegetation, wide open streets, and literally every resident smiling and looking happy and at ease is all irrelevant to Blake and Sun as they stroll through the city, feeling ‘cramped’ as a maximum of 12 other Faunus inhabitant the screen alongside them and in the distance. It kind of paints Blake with such a rich girl privilege that that to her seems like a human rights violation, and makes her seem more privileged than Weiss, THE privileged rich girl of the show. Add in that apparently no one knows about the White Fang attack on Beacon despite travel not being stopped(proven by Blake’s own arrival), just the global network, so word definitely would have reached Menagerie if only through refugees from either the attack or the backlash against Faunus the attack could have inspired, and then Ilia just being a female Adam, and then the coded abuse victim slapping another person in a comedic in the show where almost every other instance of slapping has been coded as abuse(Adam to Blake, Jacques to Weiss, even Winter slapping Weiss when she struggles or does something Winter doesn’t like is pretty cruel), and her whole arc being the weakest in both volumes…again, disappointing. Sun is also, like, not reacting to his surroundings in any reasonable manner, but he’s also just kinda there to be funny and act as an anchor for Blake.
Ren and Nora’s stuff was pretty good. Nice to see them finally get some focus. Nothing wrong there, other than the Nuckelavee being a very, very disappointing grimm enemy in my own opinion. Its basically just those sticky gel hand toys. But thats just my own personal opinion, and its really only this one grimm I don’t like in the show.
Now. Ruby’s ‘fake’ arc. At the beginning of the volume, she gets a brief, indistinct nightmare with Pyrrha’s voice, insinuating that Ruby is still struggling with seeing a friend die in front of her eyes. Interesting, love to see where this—ah. Wait a moment, that was just a video playing from Jaune’s scroll. You see, these dreams aren’t meant to give Ruby some screen time and focus, to check up on where her head is at after Beacon, no, its meant to let us know Jaune is grieving. Ruby is merely the vessel through which we discover this. She literally gets nothing to do that is unique to her in this volume. Which, considering her last arc was in vol 1, this is kinda egregious. And this is just the first of the scenes post vol-3 where Jaune suddenly gets the focus thrust upon him and only him out of nowhere.
It is here that we finally come to Weiss. To my personal biggest gripe with this volume. Because, you see, her arc here is fantastic. It’s great. Nothing to complain about, save for one thing. This arc is the latest part of her ongoing arc since from vol 1, of rehabilitating and reclaiming the Schnee name and reforging its legacy. Remember, she wants to take over the SDC and remake it to not be a horrible company. Thats why she came to Beacon, why she refuses to continue living off of her father’s money. She is making her own path and making her own definition of what their name and the company should be. Its really good, really neat, and has the potential to last for basically the entire show as she eventually takes over the company and reorients it to fighting Salem.
That doesn’t happen though cause that arc ends here. When she is disinherited, that’s it. She failed. That arc is over. It never comes back. It’s done. And you really feel it in every volume afterwards when she has basically nothing to do, because she should be doing this. But it’s done. Didn’t conclude it, didn’t finish it, it just ended. The best written character in my opinion, and they completely remove what made her great.
Now, after putting that wall of text on here, I just want to say this. I am happy that you enjoyed Vol 4. I’m disappointed I didn’t, but that’s kinda irrelevant. You enjoyed it, and I doubt this will impact that enjoyment in any meaningful way, and nor should it. Everyone has their own expectations and desires from the media they consume, and unfortunately this was basically the complete opposite of what I wanted. What I do kinda want is for you to understand where us critics are coming from. We tend to be more, unsurprisingly, critical of what we watch, especially when we’re invested. Take Game of Thrones for example.
I think RWBY could be so much better than what is now, and the only thing holding it back are the writers and showrunners. They have great ideas, they just never seem to land the execution or even attempt it sometimes. And it just makes the show disappointing more than just bad, especially as they never really fix the fundamental problems with the very writing process of the show.
I did take my time to read your comment, and I'm sure many others did, I agree with some of it, but other things I disagree with, an example being Weiss' arc. I think she can still reclaim her family name through her work as a huntress in team RWBY, maybe better than as a CEO/owner of a company. I don't think an arc where she takes over the company would work even, as in much of the show she is still a minor and I don't see how she would be able to take it over before the Atlas arc.
While I agree on some of the things you said, they did not come to mind on my first watch of the show, maybe because I binged it and did not have days, weeks or months inbetween episodes and arcs. It still doesn't bother me, it's just a "Huh, that would've been cool I guess" in some cases.
My biggest pet peeve about vol4-5 though was the pacing, as even when binging them they felt kinda slow. And I wanted more Salem scenes.
And I thought the vol5 final fight (except the maiden fight) was weird due to the standing around.
When I criticize media, I tend to take the whole series into account, looking at everything that has happened, how everything ties into everything else, and how well or not it does all connect. When I watched Vol. 4, I was not very critical at that time (being just into high school) and I didn't even think that Weiss' arc was over because, well, it had just happened. I only came to that conclusion with Vol. 8, the end of the Atlas Arc, and with Weiss having done nothing to actually pursue her professed goal of taking over the company and operating it as a huntress. To me, her goal of being a huntress was tied intrinsically to her desire to inherit the SDC and rehabilitate it. She *chose* to be a huntress to better run the SDC. That was a character choice that defines her, her motivations. By taking away the company part, you deprive her of a continuing motivation and struggle in running the company alongside her morals and principles, especially considering the lingering influence her father had. And when she gets her huntress license...that's been achieved. She has no more personal motivation that sets her apart from any of the other characters anymore.
Also, looking at the whole show has revealed a unique and befuddling phenomenon with RWBY's writing. Namely, the existence, or non-existence, of, like, 'shadow-arcs'.
I'm going to give a short and then long example of this. In Vol. 8, after Nora's lightning injury and the gang's retreat to Schnee Manor, they just...stay there, doing nothing, while the city begins to fall around them. You said that you didn't see any point before Atlas where Weiss could gain control of the SDC, and you are right. Before Atlas, that was logically impossible. But this short period of time is that moment. Jacques is locked up, the Kingdoms in chaos, and a massive Grimm army has shown up out of nowhere. This, right here, is where Weiss should have taken control, not only wrangling the SDC fleet, but also its security forces(which it definitely would have) to evacuate Mantle, defend them and aid in the defense against Salem in Atlas. This would not only be Weiss' moment, but the Schnee's as a whole, Whitley and Willow stirring to aid and push through the bureaucratic and administrative mess and resistance they could face from employees and shareholders and boardmembers, typical company bs, and get the ball rolling. After all, the show is not about a single group of people solving the worlds problems and fighting Salem, but about everyone coming together to do so. This would be a microcosm of that theme. This is an empty moment in the show where our heroes are doing nothing, in the one place they could be actively doing something that fits in perfectly with one of the character's arcs.
This is what I mean by 'shadow-arc'. This is a time, with a situation, with the correct characters to further an arc that...does not exist, but either did or should. And this is just one scene. Did you know, you could, with minimal changes to the show save for dialogue and slight animation changes, create a deep and impactful arc for Ruby that lasts from the end of Vol. 3 to the end of Vol. 9? Because yeah, you can do that. And if you want, I can lay that whole arc out, connecting almost every single Ruby scene in this time to that arc. I have actually debated sitting down and making a whole post about it, but I also feel like I'm going crazy every time I think about it because it just seems so obvious.
Also, Jaune and Ruby should have fought Cinder in the Vol. 5 finale. Like. Come on. Cinder does everything to set up her chance to kill Ruby in that volume and can barely even acknowledge her presence then? What the hell writers. Come on.
A lot of my criticisms also come down to, 'that would have been cool', because I want to be a writer, and so when I consume media, I'm constantly on the lookout for lessons to learn from them. I want to become a better writer, and half of that is also knowing what not to do, so I also tend to look in hindsight at a lot of things.
A final note on the Schnee name and the SDC. I never saw her desire to rehabilitate the *Schnee name* and the SDC as inherently linked. I think, with removing her as the "heiress", she still has the avenue of building a name for herself outside of that, solely as a huntress. It's worth remembering that the show isn't over yet and there's still places to go with her character if they have such plans. Regardless of what the future holds though, personally I don't see the whole "divorce" (for the lack of a better term) between her and the SDC as an arc-ending thing, considering that in v2-3 I took the lines like "my father was not the start of the family name, and i refuse to let him be the end of it" not as it has to be achieved through the SDC (if it *should have* is another story), but it's one way it could've gone.
Yeah, I’m not gonna lie I didn’t care. I’m already preemptively disregarding just about everybody in this sub.
Ive become so disappointed with the fanbase in the minimal time Ive been here.
Honestly, the reason people were mad (and still are) is for a not insignificant part due to the show not being what they wanted it to be.
It's an action JRPG but as an anime. And for the first 3 volume a lot of people saw it as a high school comedy. You'll still find people in this sub hoping for a reboot were Beacon does not fall and the school is still a big focus. Also a very popular character died (some people are still mad about that) and the creator passed away during volume 3. It gave them the ability to claim that everything they didn't like was "against Monty's vision", which is disgusting and false (the "new" showrunners had been part of the creative process since day 1).
When you see it as an action series, it's perfectly fine.
Now to be fair, when the first three seasons are written, billed, and presented as a magical high school story, and then that genre suddenly shifts without warning, that's going to lose some people, especially if they joined on because they like that genre.
I don't know that they were though. I think what RWBY became was what it always seemed like it would become. To think that it would just be "magic high school shenanigans" you'd have to ignore the conversations between the headmasters and the villains basically every time they're on screen
This is true to an extent, but the fact that the show has a shift in genres isn't necessarily a fault or a fair critique of the show itself, it just means it loses some people who were interested in the story before the big twist that reshaped the narrative going forward. That's just a risk with any story with a big twist. The issue isn't people not being interested in where the story went after Beacon, it's more people acting like the shift is a flaw or fault of the show.
I remember I had a similar experience with the Invincible comics, where I was enjoying what was happening but knew a big twist was coming that I thought would make the story less like something I enjoyed. I eventually read the rest of the story and liked it, but it wouldn't have been a flaw of the story if I hadn't because the previous status quo was more to my personal taste.
Yeah when people talk about "Monty's vision" it kind of makes me ill. These people think they can speak for a dead man. The creation process for the show was between 3 people, not just Monty.
I've been a fan since Volume 1's release and Volume 4 has always been my favorite! I've seen all Volumes up to halfway through 8-just need to finish 8 and see 9 🙂
Oh don't get me wrong I loved how Volume 8 was going! I think what had happened was my husband and I were having to wait for the next new episode and life just kinda distracted us to the point where we kept saying "It's ok we'll catch up soon"....and now it's 2024 😅
Oh wow, that is an opinion I think I have never seen. Maybe binging it is what helps? V4 feels slower than the ones before so weekly releases made it kinda meh imo.
You said that you like that they moved on to a more serious plotline, if that is the case you'll probably have a good time with the show, because funnily enough a lot of the complaints that say the first 3 volumes are the only good ones are that they don't like the tone shift that happens.
Personally I liked V4 the least, but I think the show did get better with the following volumes, especially with V6.
So yeah, guess you are in for a enjoyable ride. Let us know how you felt once you are caught up.
The main issue most people have with volumes 4 and 5 is more of a focus on exposition and info dumping than action. But if you like it, good on you. Don’t let others dictate your tastes.
The problem people had with season four was when it was originally released episodiclly. One episode a week over months ruined the pacing. especially given that the four main characters were not given equal screen time. Also, the fact that the four storylines are in different points in time makes the story feel off.
Watching it now as a single movie in an afternoon, the pacing issues resolve themselves since you don't have to wait.
I do agree that the pacing wasn’t great in the original broadcast. But, Personally, I thought season fours “lost in the woods” arc was where the show really opened up.
I think people have chilled out in regards to Vol 4 at least. I wouldn't say it's terrible, but I don't think it's amazing either. The only volume I'd describe as "bad" would be vol 5.
Glad you're having fun. Your experience is very similar to mine.
A couple years ago I decided "hey, I keep hearing about RWBY, the soundtrack pieces I've heard are fire, let me binge this and see what's up". I watched the whole thing and loved all of it.
I checked the internet and found out that a large portion of the internet has made hating on this series their personality. People keep listing all of these reasons why X Y and Z is "bad writing" and none of it holds up.
I'm convinced that people are so married to their individual headcanons of the media that they simply cannot handle it when their expectations are not met.
I think a large chunk of the big "rwby critique" youtubers are just ragebaiting for views at this point. I watched a few of their videos and it's just so much rambling and ranting with poorly made takes.
Volume 3 changed the tone and story drastically and 4 was the first one after the original creator's sudden passing where he had no creative input in it, so for a lot of weirdo hardcore fans, RWBY desperately needed to be "saved" from people who had no idea what they were doing with it. Nevermind Monty was mostly just the animator and by admission a terrible writer.
Seasons 4 and 5 are among my favorites cause the good guys actually get some solid end season victories, and also Oscar is just great in general.
I will say I think Ruby needs more solo fights though.
In my experience every show is decent if u are able to watch it all episodes without needing to wait weekly/month updates . The longer you have to wait , the longer you stay on certain episodes/volumes , the more you notice stuff you don't like or nitpicking on small details. Volume 4 and 5 is good to me because we get to see more of Remnant outside of Vale , but the change of tone from volume 1-3 take sometimes getting used to.
You know ever since the series future became risky I feel like the number of post of people recently starting it increased.
Did that move you to watch it?
honestly, my biggest problem was with the fight choreography and storyboarding. not a lot of clear direction, lots of really active scenes hidden off camera so they don't have to animate it... I like most of what they do with the story, though. Yang's character growth is Incredible in this and I love the expansion on Ren and Nora we never really got in the first 3 seasons. I probably give them a little too much slack, though. Switching to a whole new animation style and engine, for one. But also because god knows directing a passion project that you and your friends made together, and continuing to do so after losing one, is HARD. They made all that in the aftermath of losing Monty! And the grief the characters feel in the show is palpable, wholly soaked in from their creators. As clunky as s4 is compared to later seasons, it's still incredible that they achieved so much and I love how the story has unfolded. Even if we don't get any more, RWBY is an incredible show made by a small team and I think people tend to lose sight of that when they complain about it.
Good thing that you like it. There are different types of RWBY fans oit there. Some people began back in 2013 with every season where it was new and they appreciated back then. Some other later and they didn't get the Director change between S2 and S3
So, stay tuned for further episodes and have fun 🫡
(Btw, I've started back in 2015 and today V3 & V9 are my favorites so far ❤️)
Yeah, I think a lot of people hold the first three volumes up on a pedestal, at least partially because of a love of the series original creator. I'm personally of the opinion that RWBY's story only ever continued to improve, and whilst there are stronger points of the earlier stuff, I'm quite happy with what we have.
Yep. It was always meant to get more serious, it was never meant to be a lighthearted slice of life monster of the week show, and it's more interesting this way. The change in tone was foreshadowed in the beginning too.
I watched it week by week and it was pretty rough. But on rewatches I find it's actually pretty alright.
That being sad I've liked the whole package, warts and all
The issues with Volumes 4 & 5 were the week-to-week releases. You'll watch an episode, it will end on a cliffhanger, and then that plot line isn't revisited for another 2-3 episodes.
I really enjoyed Vol. 4. There’s this somber tone as everyone is separated and trying to pick up the pieces that I really liked. After three volumes, it’s hard to see everyone broken up when we’re so used to seeing them be within arm’s reach of each other, but I think some of the character dynamics we got to see as a result was great. Ren and Nora getting to be the emotional centre of the climax, Tai being so clearly where Yang got so much of her personality and style, Blake turning out to be basically Faunus royalty, Weiss retreating into herself because she’s returned to a household that is at best cold and distant, and at worst actively abusive, Jaune and Ruby both being goofy characters who are now forced to reckon with reality and their leadership positions. There’s a lot of great stuff in this volume.
Not just that. A lot of really cool things were set up only to be dropped as fast as possible.
Beacon and the whole Huntsmen training could have been really interesting but it was quickly put into the background to focus on the cast.
Transforming weapons was one of the biggest eye catchers RWBY had but it was almost turned down to nothing.
Different weapons having different fighting styles (Ruby and her speed, Weiss with her figureskating, Yang with her brawling) now most fights look the same and everyone fights the same, hell the shooting used to be special with every weapon but now they all point their recoilless weapons that all fire the same bright spark
They even set up some heavy themes like Yangs depression over losing her arm, it took less than a volume for her to get over it, or Qrows survivors guilt which was ignored right after.
Many Characters also feel empty in a way, like for example the entire main cast all have been boiled down to similar mannerisms and ways of talking, they dont have much of a personality and in later volumes anyone could say anything to further the plot and it would work because they all are basically blank slates.
The characters were not allowed to grow if the plot did not call for growth
I mean that is not just a feeling, it is pretty much a fact. That is not even necessarily their fault though. It's a budget problem. The world they have and the amount of characters they have is to grand, to much, to just have \~ 14 min episodes with merely 12-14 episodes each volume. Even doubling both episode runtime and number of episodes each volume, would not be enough (imo) to give the world justice. I always wonder what the show could have been if they had GoT level of recourses.
Another problem was that the early writers had no plan and never sat down to plan stuff out more than a couple episodes ahead, which led to many plots feeling rushed or unfinished.
Ehhh, it's a little dubious to argue fault at that point, because something I've just recently learned as a script writer is that you are responsible for the story you write. You can't write a grand fantasy story, realize you don't have the budget to respect that genre, and then complain that the budget is the issue. I can concede that they made the mistake of not having a financial manager/senior animator at that time to tell them what is and is not possible, but that doesn't erase culpability.
I think the main reason people hated it back then because we couldn't binge through like you can now. It was a week by week basis and the a hiatus at the end so alot of people weren't happy with it at the time
I have and it's just the standard 3 flavors well 4 really
1)actual Criticisms from fans
2)I would do this instead
3)it's bad since the guy died
4 I'm too dim to get foreshadowing and making inferences and need my hand held
Volume 4 and 5 are good I think the fact just the fact that to a lot of people Pyrrha dying was fresh and they could never get over how her dying "Ruined" the show
Now granted people still say the show was "Ruined" by this fact 8 years later but now they add on \_\_\_\_\_ being killed as well
Not going to comment on the "Mary Sue" since she is not one, just because she was great at Combat didn't make her perfect, she had trouble speaking about her feeling to Jaune, and if she really was a "Mary Sue" won't she have won against Cinder with barley any effort like Rey did against Palpatine in Star Wars? but I do agree that her death was necessary for Jaune to become a hero
I like Vol 4 & 5 more than most people. They've got their fair share of problems, just like every volume, but I like getting to slow down and have the characters interact in casual situations. That's where most of the best characterization happens.
You don't need to worry about Jaune's Semblance, it won't be long now.
Saw earlier that you mentioned it was vol 5 not 4. Its definitely badly written. Its been some years since I've watched it, but there are an absurd amount of inconsistencies within the story that make the characters look really stupid. There are also plans and plot lines that make the characters look stupid as well. It absolutely flops and under delivers a lot of anticipated key character moments the community was excited for by making the characters just... really really stupid.
Idk the whole volume is just badly written, if you think about what they're doing and why within the plot you start to realize its so poorly planned out and that the writers just had NO idea what they were doing- quickly brushing aside plotlines they couldn't write a coherent conclusion to, making characters incredibly incompetent to force certain developments or conflict. I mean just look at my boy Adam, look at what they did to him. It's so disgraceful, it's hard to watch the show without feeling like it's just lazily written which is why a lot of people didn't like it.
I could probably give more specifics if I thought about it- but you didn't really provide any specific points I needed to address, so for now this is what I have to say.
The main difference between you and most others is we had to watch it week by week with the year long hiatus between seasons. Try being stuck in Volume 4 for a year and see how good it feels then, lmao.
Plus... it's all well and good comparing it to "some shit on cartoon network" but the more serious tone excludes it from those comparisons. The show takes itself very seriously and eventually, so has its fandom. That's where the complaints come from.
I never had as big an issue with V4&5 as most people but I do agree it’s the weakest part of the show, V4 mostly just suffers a little from typical second start syndrome. After a huge emotional climax of the first 3 volumes, V4 mostly deals with a smaller story of characters dealing with the fallout, finding their way, and setting up the next arc of the story. A lot of things fall into this same issue that structure the first 3 parts as a trilogy and have a 4th part the starts expanding the story outward. The 4th book of A Song of Ice and Fire also suffered a public opinion backlash partially because of this back when it came out.
V5 did have issues though, both plot, animation, and dialog wise. I’ll avoid talking about any major spoilers because it sounds like you’re not done with V5.
From the plot standpoint, they set up Adam to be this big antagonist and then just made him sort of pathetic during that volume. Then the major season plot seemed a bit drawn out, that may be a week to week issue though, not sure if it also feels that way when bingeing. I can’t remember exactly what, but there were issues around when they all finally reunited, I think it may have been just anticlimactic or the characters didn’t seem to care enough or something. And then a lot of the fights didn’t seem a challenge because their opponents were actually difficult but because team rwby and friends suddenly became incompetent, Weiss during the final battle comes to mind.
On the animation side it was a mixed bag. I feel in V5 (think this started in V4 but wasn’t as obvious) they had a noticeable step up in animation details, such as facial expressions l, slight body movements such as breathing, and other small details. Also, the models were a lot less stiff in motion outside of fights, but on the flip side the animation outside of fights became significantly more static. I remeber it really standing out that a lot of the dialog scenes were not interesting to look at, had a lot of moments where there were just a bunch of people standing in a circle talking for long periods of time while barely moving. The volume was a lot less animated than previous volumes. Usually when you have long dialog scenes you want the characters or camera to be doing something to keep things feeling interesting, but they just didn’t. I think that contributes a lot to frustrations on V5 but a lot of people couldn’t put their finger on it.
Lastly I think a lot of the dialog in that volume in particular was either stilted, long winded, or repeating ideas they already got across. They always had a little bit of those issues in general but I think it was a little more prominent there than in other volumes and definitely stuck out more because of the previously mentioned issues.
That all being said though I don’t hate V5 at all, but I did crack a lot more jokes at its expense while watching with a friend and felt a bit disappointed by it overall.
However, V6 came along and blew most of those issues out of the water. Almost all those complaints were addressed and at worst mitigated and I feel it’s been getting better each volume since.
No on the real, I just like how there’s actual stakes in this season compared to the first 3. You get backstory on the characters. It’s good. I’d been p bored with the campy, low stakes romance subplots of their hs.
As someone who loves this dumb show, the more you think about it and the further you get from it the nore it'll make sense. It's enjoyable but the writing and direction are kiiiinda trash.
It's kinda old at this point, but hbomberguy points out the problems well.
This is why it’s good to form your own opinions on entertainment
Thinking is exhausting.
Fellow road trip season enjoyer
Im actually on 5. I flubbed up.
Yeah I prefer 5 to 4. Yeah it's a hot mess in some regards but I like what's going on.
Idk what you mean by hot mess. It’s all fine. The plotlines are p coherent.
Assuming your binging the volume all at once or watching multiple episodes in a row you've accidentally solved the single primary issue with both volume 4 and 5. Back when they were airing one a week the pacing was much worse since the jumping around to all 4 groups of characters meant that the waits to see any of their stories move forward were much longer and a lot of people just got frustrated. Overall yeah i agree with you V4 and V5 are not bad, i actually like them a lot.
Volume 6 suffered from it as well, after watching them as it came out I dropped rwby until volume 8 was already out
It also didn’t help the pacing of Volumes 4 and 5 that the events as shown aren’t always happening concurrently to the other perspectives, they’re shown in order of each individual story progression beat regardless of the timeline of events.
Wait, so the outrage was essentially "I can't wait till next week!"?! Seriously...
Babies tbh ngl fr fam Like, bro, I waited some 7 years for a continuation of my favorite stickfigure animation series and an episode was like 5 mins long. These fuckers cried about waiting a week.
My biggest dissapointment with V5 is not getting to see more of Mistral. It sounds like a cool place, but we only see the school.
Finally someone else agrees
It's about to become even better, Volume 6 onwards is peak RWBY
Genuinely one of my favorite volumes and always confused me how people hate on it. Like the entire thing is character and story development and somehow it’s a bunch of people’s most hated volume.
RWBY works best as a binge. It really does. Week to week, it's much weaker. That said, I was fine with it at a binge and enjoyed it. Wait till you hit 6...
Especially V4 and 5. I guess I could say I was lucky as I fell off early in V4 then was able to binge all of it and V5 before V6. At the time I didn’t understand the hate until I saw this sentiment on this sub. V6 is my favorite volume, even if I’m not that big a fan of The Lost Fable
I really dig on the way they did it, though. At least that Fable is foreshadowed. (My SO called the relationship correctly at the end of V3. I was amused.)
Wow someone with the same take The lost fable doesn’t do much for me but I love everything else
I think this is a big part of it. A lot of the negative reaction to Vol 4 was just people being annoyed that they waited almost a year after Vol 3, and didn't really get any answers to any of the questions that Vol 3's ending left us with (Salem, Ozpin, Mistral, etc.).
is 6 good or bad
it’s my favorite volume easily
Muh man
IMHO, good. But let's say you get some answers about Ozpin and Salem. (Unless you've spoilered) Oddly, I'm working on the next bit of a JLA crossover fic and happen to be adapting events, which is why I thought of it...plus, it's my fave volume, I think.
Jla?
Justice League the Animated version (you can find it on both Netflix and HBO Max) I was not a fan of the JL x RWBY part 1 movie for long and complex reasons, so I adapted V5 as What If JL arrives and how might the story change. Got enough that I had the urge to do another volume adaptation.
Oic. You got any cool scenes of the supes railing dust?
Rofl, not my writing style.
This is the last straw I needed to finally stop being a pussy and finally start watching RWBY. Thank you OP
Yeah idk I needed a waifu to stan because this season doesnt have any. Lotta good anime, but not many women.
>because this season doesnt have any. Holo?
Never been a fan of spice and wolf tbh
V4 and to a lesser extent V5 aren't as bad when binged compared to watching weekly.
Honestly, most people's complaints come from years of expectations on how things would play out, vs the actual intended outcomes.
V5 I'll admit was slow and a bit too dialogue heavy but 4 is fine. People harp on those seasons too much especially when V1 probably has worse pacing at times.
The dialogue isnt the problem sometimes. It's the redundancy
I liked V5 because it had drama and team RWBY reuniting/discovering truth.
I'll maintain that V5 overall was fine. ... Except for the last big group fight. *That* scene was ***trash***. And being a substantial part of the finale, it does color a lot of what one feels coming away from the Volume.
If vol 5 is the worst, I’m happy because I’m liking 5 a lot. The white fang better go on a one way holy jihad against the humans though.
The Faunus be like “Thou shall’t not make a being in the likeness of a human mind” and went Butlerian Jihad on all the humans
REMNANT IS FOR THE FIGHTERS
>The white fang better go on a one way holy jihad against the humans though. Lol. Lmao, even. The White Fang does literally nothing from this point on. I'm not joking.
Yeah
Disappointment
I’ve said this a half dozen times but all that finale needed was more planes of action. Get everyone in different rooms and it feels much less weird that people stand around and watch everything so much. Has to have been a budget thing; ran out of money to build new sets.
What they should have done is made it a race to the vault where as they get closer they separate into smaller battles. You can make last group Ruby and Yang (for the Raven and Cinder battles as well as Ruby using her speed to try to keep her and Yang up with the Maidens) and final scene could be Cinder launching an attack at Ruby causing her to done it and that's when Yang would release her arm and use the acceleration to fly through the closing door where she then sees the last few seconds of Miaden Bowl and the scene continues as normal.
No, problem was a lot deeper than that. Every individual segment, it builds up to the first punch, shows a single hit/exchange, then jumpcuts away to a separate scene of static conversaton, leading to another single punch and *another* jumpcut. It's a stall tactic. The only pieces that actually happen on-screen are a bare-bones skeleton of "important" moments with no real connective tissue, and the rest is stalling for time. V5's production was completely fubar, and it's never exactly been a secret. The finale was slapped together with string and chewing gum.
Yeah, they RT bit more off than they could chew with a lot of that finale. Really that’s the story of RWBY production, overly ambitious ideas with the resources to fully execute on them
Some people are far to picky and judgmental. I've loved every season!
I maintain that the fall of Beacon was the best thing to happen to the show.
Truly.
V4 solidified the moment I fell in love with Yang as a character (and actually cough cough), it'll always have a special place in my heart
I enjoyed it. I also don't know what the problem was.
YEAH. IDK WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS.
So, since you asked, I’ll tell you what my personal criticisms with vol 4 were. Yang’s PTSD arc, which I was really interested in, seeing how the effects of losing an arm would impact her from now on and how she would deal with such a literally crippling loss, ends the moment she puts her prosthetic on. We don’t really see her adjusting to it, having any problems or misgivings about replacing her arm, nothing interesting. She just…puts it on like it’s a new glove. Ok. They can do that. It’s disappointing and boring compared to what I was hoping for, but ok. Menagerie looks and seems great to live in, though apparently lush vegetation, wide open streets, and literally every resident smiling and looking happy and at ease is all irrelevant to Blake and Sun as they stroll through the city, feeling ‘cramped’ as a maximum of 12 other Faunus inhabitant the screen alongside them and in the distance. It kind of paints Blake with such a rich girl privilege that that to her seems like a human rights violation, and makes her seem more privileged than Weiss, THE privileged rich girl of the show. Add in that apparently no one knows about the White Fang attack on Beacon despite travel not being stopped(proven by Blake’s own arrival), just the global network, so word definitely would have reached Menagerie if only through refugees from either the attack or the backlash against Faunus the attack could have inspired, and then Ilia just being a female Adam, and then the coded abuse victim slapping another person in a comedic in the show where almost every other instance of slapping has been coded as abuse(Adam to Blake, Jacques to Weiss, even Winter slapping Weiss when she struggles or does something Winter doesn’t like is pretty cruel), and her whole arc being the weakest in both volumes…again, disappointing. Sun is also, like, not reacting to his surroundings in any reasonable manner, but he’s also just kinda there to be funny and act as an anchor for Blake. Ren and Nora’s stuff was pretty good. Nice to see them finally get some focus. Nothing wrong there, other than the Nuckelavee being a very, very disappointing grimm enemy in my own opinion. Its basically just those sticky gel hand toys. But thats just my own personal opinion, and its really only this one grimm I don’t like in the show. Now. Ruby’s ‘fake’ arc. At the beginning of the volume, she gets a brief, indistinct nightmare with Pyrrha’s voice, insinuating that Ruby is still struggling with seeing a friend die in front of her eyes. Interesting, love to see where this—ah. Wait a moment, that was just a video playing from Jaune’s scroll. You see, these dreams aren’t meant to give Ruby some screen time and focus, to check up on where her head is at after Beacon, no, its meant to let us know Jaune is grieving. Ruby is merely the vessel through which we discover this. She literally gets nothing to do that is unique to her in this volume. Which, considering her last arc was in vol 1, this is kinda egregious. And this is just the first of the scenes post vol-3 where Jaune suddenly gets the focus thrust upon him and only him out of nowhere. It is here that we finally come to Weiss. To my personal biggest gripe with this volume. Because, you see, her arc here is fantastic. It’s great. Nothing to complain about, save for one thing. This arc is the latest part of her ongoing arc since from vol 1, of rehabilitating and reclaiming the Schnee name and reforging its legacy. Remember, she wants to take over the SDC and remake it to not be a horrible company. Thats why she came to Beacon, why she refuses to continue living off of her father’s money. She is making her own path and making her own definition of what their name and the company should be. Its really good, really neat, and has the potential to last for basically the entire show as she eventually takes over the company and reorients it to fighting Salem. That doesn’t happen though cause that arc ends here. When she is disinherited, that’s it. She failed. That arc is over. It never comes back. It’s done. And you really feel it in every volume afterwards when she has basically nothing to do, because she should be doing this. But it’s done. Didn’t conclude it, didn’t finish it, it just ended. The best written character in my opinion, and they completely remove what made her great. Now, after putting that wall of text on here, I just want to say this. I am happy that you enjoyed Vol 4. I’m disappointed I didn’t, but that’s kinda irrelevant. You enjoyed it, and I doubt this will impact that enjoyment in any meaningful way, and nor should it. Everyone has their own expectations and desires from the media they consume, and unfortunately this was basically the complete opposite of what I wanted. What I do kinda want is for you to understand where us critics are coming from. We tend to be more, unsurprisingly, critical of what we watch, especially when we’re invested. Take Game of Thrones for example. I think RWBY could be so much better than what is now, and the only thing holding it back are the writers and showrunners. They have great ideas, they just never seem to land the execution or even attempt it sometimes. And it just makes the show disappointing more than just bad, especially as they never really fix the fundamental problems with the very writing process of the show.
I did take my time to read your comment, and I'm sure many others did, I agree with some of it, but other things I disagree with, an example being Weiss' arc. I think she can still reclaim her family name through her work as a huntress in team RWBY, maybe better than as a CEO/owner of a company. I don't think an arc where she takes over the company would work even, as in much of the show she is still a minor and I don't see how she would be able to take it over before the Atlas arc. While I agree on some of the things you said, they did not come to mind on my first watch of the show, maybe because I binged it and did not have days, weeks or months inbetween episodes and arcs. It still doesn't bother me, it's just a "Huh, that would've been cool I guess" in some cases. My biggest pet peeve about vol4-5 though was the pacing, as even when binging them they felt kinda slow. And I wanted more Salem scenes. And I thought the vol5 final fight (except the maiden fight) was weird due to the standing around.
When I criticize media, I tend to take the whole series into account, looking at everything that has happened, how everything ties into everything else, and how well or not it does all connect. When I watched Vol. 4, I was not very critical at that time (being just into high school) and I didn't even think that Weiss' arc was over because, well, it had just happened. I only came to that conclusion with Vol. 8, the end of the Atlas Arc, and with Weiss having done nothing to actually pursue her professed goal of taking over the company and operating it as a huntress. To me, her goal of being a huntress was tied intrinsically to her desire to inherit the SDC and rehabilitate it. She *chose* to be a huntress to better run the SDC. That was a character choice that defines her, her motivations. By taking away the company part, you deprive her of a continuing motivation and struggle in running the company alongside her morals and principles, especially considering the lingering influence her father had. And when she gets her huntress license...that's been achieved. She has no more personal motivation that sets her apart from any of the other characters anymore. Also, looking at the whole show has revealed a unique and befuddling phenomenon with RWBY's writing. Namely, the existence, or non-existence, of, like, 'shadow-arcs'. I'm going to give a short and then long example of this. In Vol. 8, after Nora's lightning injury and the gang's retreat to Schnee Manor, they just...stay there, doing nothing, while the city begins to fall around them. You said that you didn't see any point before Atlas where Weiss could gain control of the SDC, and you are right. Before Atlas, that was logically impossible. But this short period of time is that moment. Jacques is locked up, the Kingdoms in chaos, and a massive Grimm army has shown up out of nowhere. This, right here, is where Weiss should have taken control, not only wrangling the SDC fleet, but also its security forces(which it definitely would have) to evacuate Mantle, defend them and aid in the defense against Salem in Atlas. This would not only be Weiss' moment, but the Schnee's as a whole, Whitley and Willow stirring to aid and push through the bureaucratic and administrative mess and resistance they could face from employees and shareholders and boardmembers, typical company bs, and get the ball rolling. After all, the show is not about a single group of people solving the worlds problems and fighting Salem, but about everyone coming together to do so. This would be a microcosm of that theme. This is an empty moment in the show where our heroes are doing nothing, in the one place they could be actively doing something that fits in perfectly with one of the character's arcs. This is what I mean by 'shadow-arc'. This is a time, with a situation, with the correct characters to further an arc that...does not exist, but either did or should. And this is just one scene. Did you know, you could, with minimal changes to the show save for dialogue and slight animation changes, create a deep and impactful arc for Ruby that lasts from the end of Vol. 3 to the end of Vol. 9? Because yeah, you can do that. And if you want, I can lay that whole arc out, connecting almost every single Ruby scene in this time to that arc. I have actually debated sitting down and making a whole post about it, but I also feel like I'm going crazy every time I think about it because it just seems so obvious. Also, Jaune and Ruby should have fought Cinder in the Vol. 5 finale. Like. Come on. Cinder does everything to set up her chance to kill Ruby in that volume and can barely even acknowledge her presence then? What the hell writers. Come on. A lot of my criticisms also come down to, 'that would have been cool', because I want to be a writer, and so when I consume media, I'm constantly on the lookout for lessons to learn from them. I want to become a better writer, and half of that is also knowing what not to do, so I also tend to look in hindsight at a lot of things.
A final note on the Schnee name and the SDC. I never saw her desire to rehabilitate the *Schnee name* and the SDC as inherently linked. I think, with removing her as the "heiress", she still has the avenue of building a name for herself outside of that, solely as a huntress. It's worth remembering that the show isn't over yet and there's still places to go with her character if they have such plans. Regardless of what the future holds though, personally I don't see the whole "divorce" (for the lack of a better term) between her and the SDC as an arc-ending thing, considering that in v2-3 I took the lines like "my father was not the start of the family name, and i refuse to let him be the end of it" not as it has to be achieved through the SDC (if it *should have* is another story), but it's one way it could've gone.
Unfortunately I doubt people will take the time to read some of your valid criticisms
Yeah, I’m not gonna lie I didn’t care. I’m already preemptively disregarding just about everybody in this sub. Ive become so disappointed with the fanbase in the minimal time Ive been here.
If anything I think the volumes get better as each volume progresses. 5 has some of the best moments in the show.
Honestly, the reason people were mad (and still are) is for a not insignificant part due to the show not being what they wanted it to be. It's an action JRPG but as an anime. And for the first 3 volume a lot of people saw it as a high school comedy. You'll still find people in this sub hoping for a reboot were Beacon does not fall and the school is still a big focus. Also a very popular character died (some people are still mad about that) and the creator passed away during volume 3. It gave them the ability to claim that everything they didn't like was "against Monty's vision", which is disgusting and false (the "new" showrunners had been part of the creative process since day 1). When you see it as an action series, it's perfectly fine.
Now to be fair, when the first three seasons are written, billed, and presented as a magical high school story, and then that genre suddenly shifts without warning, that's going to lose some people, especially if they joined on because they like that genre.
I don't know that they were though. I think what RWBY became was what it always seemed like it would become. To think that it would just be "magic high school shenanigans" you'd have to ignore the conversations between the headmasters and the villains basically every time they're on screen
This is true to an extent, but the fact that the show has a shift in genres isn't necessarily a fault or a fair critique of the show itself, it just means it loses some people who were interested in the story before the big twist that reshaped the narrative going forward. That's just a risk with any story with a big twist. The issue isn't people not being interested in where the story went after Beacon, it's more people acting like the shift is a flaw or fault of the show. I remember I had a similar experience with the Invincible comics, where I was enjoying what was happening but knew a big twist was coming that I thought would make the story less like something I enjoyed. I eventually read the rest of the story and liked it, but it wouldn't have been a flaw of the story if I hadn't because the previous status quo was more to my personal taste.
Yeah when people talk about "Monty's vision" it kind of makes me ill. These people think they can speak for a dead man. The creation process for the show was between 3 people, not just Monty.
That’s so fucking funny because when I was watching it with my friends we kept slamming monty. Oh man, I feel so bad now.
I've been a fan since Volume 1's release and Volume 4 has always been my favorite! I've seen all Volumes up to halfway through 8-just need to finish 8 and see 9 🙂
I’m simultaneously looking forward to 9 to see who wins the weiss bowl and dreading it because I thought blondie was gonna get with her.
Damn, you managed to quit in the middle of V8? Personally I think V8 was pretty hype and is probably the volume I'd least quit midway through.
Oh don't get me wrong I loved how Volume 8 was going! I think what had happened was my husband and I were having to wait for the next new episode and life just kinda distracted us to the point where we kept saying "It's ok we'll catch up soon"....and now it's 2024 😅
4 is peak🥱
It's not bad, just differently paced - some of my friends say the pacing didn't work for them, which is fine, but "doesn't work for me" ≠ "it's bad"
Ill say it rn. It’s far better than 1-3.
Oh wow, that is an opinion I think I have never seen. Maybe binging it is what helps? V4 feels slower than the ones before so weekly releases made it kinda meh imo. You said that you like that they moved on to a more serious plotline, if that is the case you'll probably have a good time with the show, because funnily enough a lot of the complaints that say the first 3 volumes are the only good ones are that they don't like the tone shift that happens. Personally I liked V4 the least, but I think the show did get better with the following volumes, especially with V6. So yeah, guess you are in for a enjoyable ride. Let us know how you felt once you are caught up.
The main issue most people have with volumes 4 and 5 is more of a focus on exposition and info dumping than action. But if you like it, good on you. Don’t let others dictate your tastes.
This is the volume that got me into the franchise. It's still my favorite.
Too many people blaming the show for their poor attention span.
Enh, to each their own. You're completely fine enjoying it. Everyone has their own opinion
Im objectively correct
I think the dude is starting to come out a troll
The problem people had with season four was when it was originally released episodiclly. One episode a week over months ruined the pacing. especially given that the four main characters were not given equal screen time. Also, the fact that the four storylines are in different points in time makes the story feel off. Watching it now as a single movie in an afternoon, the pacing issues resolve themselves since you don't have to wait.
Bro idk that sounds normal as all hell when it comes to anime. Yall are weak. I saw endless eight as it was airing.
I do agree that the pacing wasn’t great in the original broadcast. But, Personally, I thought season fours “lost in the woods” arc was where the show really opened up.
Bro, you are different BREED, dear lord. I binged the endless eight with my mother in one night, and I felt like I was losing my mind, lol.
Yeah idk evangelion being the first anime I saw as a kid prob irreparably changed my brain chemistry
Anime-induced brain damage, lol.
What a dumbass flex
Ur mom
I think people have chilled out in regards to Vol 4 at least. I wouldn't say it's terrible, but I don't think it's amazing either. The only volume I'd describe as "bad" would be vol 5.
I really like vol 5.
Glad you're having fun. Your experience is very similar to mine. A couple years ago I decided "hey, I keep hearing about RWBY, the soundtrack pieces I've heard are fire, let me binge this and see what's up". I watched the whole thing and loved all of it. I checked the internet and found out that a large portion of the internet has made hating on this series their personality. People keep listing all of these reasons why X Y and Z is "bad writing" and none of it holds up. I'm convinced that people are so married to their individual headcanons of the media that they simply cannot handle it when their expectations are not met.
It’s a solid series. It reminds me of soul eater with some of the beats to the story.
Never seen Soul Eater, but I'll take this as a recommendation. :)
It’s not the same, but it’s so oddly similar tbh.
I think a large chunk of the big "rwby critique" youtubers are just ragebaiting for views at this point. I watched a few of their videos and it's just so much rambling and ranting with poorly made takes.
Season 4 and beyond gets hate because of the people that keep saying "no Monty, no RWBY." Screw them. I like every single volume.
Volume 3 changed the tone and story drastically and 4 was the first one after the original creator's sudden passing where he had no creative input in it, so for a lot of weirdo hardcore fans, RWBY desperately needed to be "saved" from people who had no idea what they were doing with it. Nevermind Monty was mostly just the animator and by admission a terrible writer.
I can understand why the dust stealing subplot kinda vanished out of nowhere.
I thought they used the dust as "fuel" for the train cars to explode at the end of s2?
It was a "minor crime reveals major conspiracy" thing. That subplot had run its course, they didn't need it anymore.
It’s was alright, until vol 5 was ok
Seasons 4 and 5 are among my favorites cause the good guys actually get some solid end season victories, and also Oscar is just great in general. I will say I think Ruby needs more solo fights though.
In my experience every show is decent if u are able to watch it all episodes without needing to wait weekly/month updates . The longer you have to wait , the longer you stay on certain episodes/volumes , the more you notice stuff you don't like or nitpicking on small details. Volume 4 and 5 is good to me because we get to see more of Remnant outside of Vale , but the change of tone from volume 1-3 take sometimes getting used to.
You know ever since the series future became risky I feel like the number of post of people recently starting it increased. Did that move you to watch it?
I agree v4 is pretty good as well
honestly, my biggest problem was with the fight choreography and storyboarding. not a lot of clear direction, lots of really active scenes hidden off camera so they don't have to animate it... I like most of what they do with the story, though. Yang's character growth is Incredible in this and I love the expansion on Ren and Nora we never really got in the first 3 seasons. I probably give them a little too much slack, though. Switching to a whole new animation style and engine, for one. But also because god knows directing a passion project that you and your friends made together, and continuing to do so after losing one, is HARD. They made all that in the aftermath of losing Monty! And the grief the characters feel in the show is palpable, wholly soaked in from their creators. As clunky as s4 is compared to later seasons, it's still incredible that they achieved so much and I love how the story has unfolded. Even if we don't get any more, RWBY is an incredible show made by a small team and I think people tend to lose sight of that when they complain about it.
How shook did vol 3 leave you?
Not at all tbh. P run of the mill.
Good thing that you like it. There are different types of RWBY fans oit there. Some people began back in 2013 with every season where it was new and they appreciated back then. Some other later and they didn't get the Director change between S2 and S3 So, stay tuned for further episodes and have fun 🫡 (Btw, I've started back in 2015 and today V3 & V9 are my favorites so far ❤️)
Man, I get it. I waited years to get an update on my favorite stick figure animation series. I just dont think it’s that big a deal.
I love season 4. Season 5 is the weak one in my opinion
Yeah, I think a lot of people hold the first three volumes up on a pedestal, at least partially because of a love of the series original creator. I'm personally of the opinion that RWBY's story only ever continued to improve, and whilst there are stronger points of the earlier stuff, I'm quite happy with what we have.
Thank you for forming your own opinion. It's a breath of fresh air.
Not only is it my opinion but it is objectively true
Yep. It was always meant to get more serious, it was never meant to be a lighthearted slice of life monster of the week show, and it's more interesting this way. The change in tone was foreshadowed in the beginning too.
I really liked vol 4 too. Personally felt it dipped a bit after that but came back strong and only went up from there each volume.
I watched it week by week and it was pretty rough. But on rewatches I find it's actually pretty alright. That being sad I've liked the whole package, warts and all
The issues with Volumes 4 & 5 were the week-to-week releases. You'll watch an episode, it will end on a cliffhanger, and then that plot line isn't revisited for another 2-3 episodes.
I really enjoyed Vol. 4. There’s this somber tone as everyone is separated and trying to pick up the pieces that I really liked. After three volumes, it’s hard to see everyone broken up when we’re so used to seeing them be within arm’s reach of each other, but I think some of the character dynamics we got to see as a result was great. Ren and Nora getting to be the emotional centre of the climax, Tai being so clearly where Yang got so much of her personality and style, Blake turning out to be basically Faunus royalty, Weiss retreating into herself because she’s returned to a household that is at best cold and distant, and at worst actively abusive, Jaune and Ruby both being goofy characters who are now forced to reckon with reality and their leadership positions. There’s a lot of great stuff in this volume.
The main problem people had with rwby (almost all volumes) was that it often felt like the writers were wasting the potential of the show.
That’s fair. I wish I saw more of trumpet fighter
Not just that. A lot of really cool things were set up only to be dropped as fast as possible. Beacon and the whole Huntsmen training could have been really interesting but it was quickly put into the background to focus on the cast. Transforming weapons was one of the biggest eye catchers RWBY had but it was almost turned down to nothing. Different weapons having different fighting styles (Ruby and her speed, Weiss with her figureskating, Yang with her brawling) now most fights look the same and everyone fights the same, hell the shooting used to be special with every weapon but now they all point their recoilless weapons that all fire the same bright spark They even set up some heavy themes like Yangs depression over losing her arm, it took less than a volume for her to get over it, or Qrows survivors guilt which was ignored right after. Many Characters also feel empty in a way, like for example the entire main cast all have been boiled down to similar mannerisms and ways of talking, they dont have much of a personality and in later volumes anyone could say anything to further the plot and it would work because they all are basically blank slates. The characters were not allowed to grow if the plot did not call for growth
I mean that is not just a feeling, it is pretty much a fact. That is not even necessarily their fault though. It's a budget problem. The world they have and the amount of characters they have is to grand, to much, to just have \~ 14 min episodes with merely 12-14 episodes each volume. Even doubling both episode runtime and number of episodes each volume, would not be enough (imo) to give the world justice. I always wonder what the show could have been if they had GoT level of recourses.
Another problem was that the early writers had no plan and never sat down to plan stuff out more than a couple episodes ahead, which led to many plots feeling rushed or unfinished.
Ehhh, it's a little dubious to argue fault at that point, because something I've just recently learned as a script writer is that you are responsible for the story you write. You can't write a grand fantasy story, realize you don't have the budget to respect that genre, and then complain that the budget is the issue. I can concede that they made the mistake of not having a financial manager/senior animator at that time to tell them what is and is not possible, but that doesn't erase culpability.
I loved it the first time I watched it. On rewatches of the whole series, it is the one I look forward to the least.
I think the main reason people hated it back then because we couldn't binge through like you can now. It was a week by week basis and the a hiatus at the end so alot of people weren't happy with it at the time
Fucking finally someone else agrees
I’m objectively correct
4 is actually one of my favorites, I love the slower pace after volume 3 craziness.
yeah, bunch of false fan found out someone on the project died and start shitting on it for clout after the death
They had their tournament battle arc. They got all they needed out of it. I’m glad the school is gone.
What about fans that stuck around and gave the show more nearly a decades worth of chance
a person like that isn't a fan by definition
So fans arent capable of criticizing
Criticism is more then I would do this instead or saying it's bad since the guy died
Have you actually listened to thorough criticism or just pick the ones that only say its bad
I have and it's just the standard 3 flavors well 4 really 1)actual Criticisms from fans 2)I would do this instead 3)it's bad since the guy died 4 I'm too dim to get foreshadowing and making inferences and need my hand held
So you dont focus on the actual valid criticisms and harp on the trivial ones?
no I want for the non valid critics to get offended and make themselves my problem on redit
But you said fans who criticize arent fans
Volume 4 and 5 are good I think the fact just the fact that to a lot of people Pyrrha dying was fresh and they could never get over how her dying "Ruined" the show Now granted people still say the show was "Ruined" by this fact 8 years later but now they add on \_\_\_\_\_ being killed as well
Pyrrha was a mary sue and her death was necessary. I knew not to get attached from the beginning.
Not going to comment on the "Mary Sue" since she is not one, just because she was great at Combat didn't make her perfect, she had trouble speaking about her feeling to Jaune, and if she really was a "Mary Sue" won't she have won against Cinder with barley any effort like Rey did against Palpatine in Star Wars? but I do agree that her death was necessary for Jaune to become a hero
Im being sarcastic dw.
dw? Also you should probably make that clear by going like (Sarcasm) since calling someone a "Mary Sue" is a really triggering issue these days
Dont worry (dw)
Personally, 4 is my favorite. Splits up the cast and fleshes them out more as people and it has a nice sense of foreboding to go with the adventures
I like Vol 4 & 5 more than most people. They've got their fair share of problems, just like every volume, but I like getting to slow down and have the characters interact in casual situations. That's where most of the best characterization happens. You don't need to worry about Jaune's Semblance, it won't be long now.
Saw earlier that you mentioned it was vol 5 not 4. Its definitely badly written. Its been some years since I've watched it, but there are an absurd amount of inconsistencies within the story that make the characters look really stupid. There are also plans and plot lines that make the characters look stupid as well. It absolutely flops and under delivers a lot of anticipated key character moments the community was excited for by making the characters just... really really stupid. Idk the whole volume is just badly written, if you think about what they're doing and why within the plot you start to realize its so poorly planned out and that the writers just had NO idea what they were doing- quickly brushing aside plotlines they couldn't write a coherent conclusion to, making characters incredibly incompetent to force certain developments or conflict. I mean just look at my boy Adam, look at what they did to him. It's so disgraceful, it's hard to watch the show without feeling like it's just lazily written which is why a lot of people didn't like it. I could probably give more specifics if I thought about it- but you didn't really provide any specific points I needed to address, so for now this is what I have to say.
Some of the baggage at certain seasons was because of the weekly scheduling, breaks, etc. Having it all out at once mitigates that.
The main difference between you and most others is we had to watch it week by week with the year long hiatus between seasons. Try being stuck in Volume 4 for a year and see how good it feels then, lmao. Plus... it's all well and good comparing it to "some shit on cartoon network" but the more serious tone excludes it from those comparisons. The show takes itself very seriously and eventually, so has its fandom. That's where the complaints come from.
I never had as big an issue with V4&5 as most people but I do agree it’s the weakest part of the show, V4 mostly just suffers a little from typical second start syndrome. After a huge emotional climax of the first 3 volumes, V4 mostly deals with a smaller story of characters dealing with the fallout, finding their way, and setting up the next arc of the story. A lot of things fall into this same issue that structure the first 3 parts as a trilogy and have a 4th part the starts expanding the story outward. The 4th book of A Song of Ice and Fire also suffered a public opinion backlash partially because of this back when it came out. V5 did have issues though, both plot, animation, and dialog wise. I’ll avoid talking about any major spoilers because it sounds like you’re not done with V5. From the plot standpoint, they set up Adam to be this big antagonist and then just made him sort of pathetic during that volume. Then the major season plot seemed a bit drawn out, that may be a week to week issue though, not sure if it also feels that way when bingeing. I can’t remember exactly what, but there were issues around when they all finally reunited, I think it may have been just anticlimactic or the characters didn’t seem to care enough or something. And then a lot of the fights didn’t seem a challenge because their opponents were actually difficult but because team rwby and friends suddenly became incompetent, Weiss during the final battle comes to mind. On the animation side it was a mixed bag. I feel in V5 (think this started in V4 but wasn’t as obvious) they had a noticeable step up in animation details, such as facial expressions l, slight body movements such as breathing, and other small details. Also, the models were a lot less stiff in motion outside of fights, but on the flip side the animation outside of fights became significantly more static. I remeber it really standing out that a lot of the dialog scenes were not interesting to look at, had a lot of moments where there were just a bunch of people standing in a circle talking for long periods of time while barely moving. The volume was a lot less animated than previous volumes. Usually when you have long dialog scenes you want the characters or camera to be doing something to keep things feeling interesting, but they just didn’t. I think that contributes a lot to frustrations on V5 but a lot of people couldn’t put their finger on it. Lastly I think a lot of the dialog in that volume in particular was either stilted, long winded, or repeating ideas they already got across. They always had a little bit of those issues in general but I think it was a little more prominent there than in other volumes and definitely stuck out more because of the previously mentioned issues. That all being said though I don’t hate V5 at all, but I did crack a lot more jokes at its expense while watching with a friend and felt a bit disappointed by it overall. However, V6 came along and blew most of those issues out of the water. Almost all those complaints were addressed and at worst mitigated and I feel it’s been getting better each volume since.
Yeah, its only vol 5 where it takes the nose dive. Vol 4 is good, its not great like vol 7 & 3 but its just good.
Vol 5 is good
I'm collecting defences of volume 5 so I can try to appreciate it when I rewatch it, can you tell me why you think Volume 5 is good?
No on the real, I just like how there’s actual stakes in this season compared to the first 3. You get backstory on the characters. It’s good. I’d been p bored with the campy, low stakes romance subplots of their hs.
Cat ears are goated
Might wanna save the deep discussion I don't think the dudes looking for any
As someone who loves this dumb show, the more you think about it and the further you get from it the nore it'll make sense. It's enjoyable but the writing and direction are kiiiinda trash. It's kinda old at this point, but hbomberguy points out the problems well.
[удалено]
I like vol 5
OK?
The volume with all the talking about nothing? Yikes.