It should go without saying from people who have experience with watching actual good shows that RWBY is categorically one of the worst shows ever made. Whether due to characters, plot, the background, the worldbuilding, or basically anything except the music talent; people will find a plethora of story content to criticize. There will surely be defenders arguing that if they hate the series, then they should just stop watching it and stop criticizing it. These sorts of people often confuse criticism of the story with wrongly assuming that people will lambast them for enjoying the show; this sort of behavior also occurred during the heydays of the Naruto fandom when the quality of that show began to drop around the Summit arc and especially after the Pain arc. Believe it or not, this is not why so many are hopping onto the RWBY hate wagon to criticize the show. I would argue that it has nothing to do with people enjoying it; if you enjoy watching RWBY, then neither your enjoyment of this show nor the show’s popularity are why people are criticizing it. Nor do the reasons have anything at all to do with LGBT representation. Some of the greatest written stories of our time have positive LGBT representation in the wake of criticism for more positive portrayals; for example, the character of Kiku in One Piece. One could argue RWBY at least has the representation through two of its main cast and that is the source of anti-LGBT hate, but in the case of RWBY, it is doubtful that has anything to do with it for one very simple reason. This reason began prior to the Bumblebee pairing and has continued to worsen until more Youtubers, even those highly supportive of LGBT representation, began to make lengthy essays criticizing the story. This simple, but powerful reason impacts 81% of the entire US adult population and it is highly likely that similar statistical research or perhaps even higher statistics can be found from the US population of children. It is a reason so fundamental and so crucial that everyone across the world could potentially find value in RWBY critique videos or Youtube videos similar to RWBY critique videos. By now, many of you who don’t know the significance of that statistical percentage from research into a very specific subject are probably thinking I’m exaggerating, or making absurd claims, or you’re totally confused by what on earth I could be talking about. What reason could there be to criticize RWBY that has anything to do with 81% of the US adult population?
It is because RWBY provides a wealth of information on what not to do when writing your own fictional story. Before, when looking into what to avoid, people could only use vague ideas on how stories were badly told from obscure books that didn’t do well, or boring Friends-style sitcoms that people who preferred thrilling adventures in a fantasy land couldn’t relate to, or from Youtube Creators who criticized other Youtubers books from a book most people would laugh at, but probably never spend their own money to read because why waste the time, effort, or finances? At best, Booktubers could provide a wealth of critique on poorly written fantasy books that were boring and a chore to read. These different alternatives to learn what to avoid was a massive time sink. RWBY is largely a free web series that doesn’t require much time to invest compared to a 30-minute or hour-long long series on a Streaming service, it has graphical effects that show the difference from Monty Oum’s talented CGI effects of Volumes 1 – 3 to the more poorly done effects of Volume 5 where characters stand around during “fight” scenes. It is a series that is relatively fast, short, and easy to find Youtube content of. You can easily go to Youtube to click around multiple Youtubers giving solid advice by showing you real-time and useful information on what to avoid for your potential novel or comic from their use of segments of scenes and explaining the problematic issues. Free blogs or organizations providing help for upcoming authors on writing their own fantasy stories often had contradictory information or advice that people disagreed with, but couldn’t really give substantive reasons why they disagreed. However, with RWBY, potential authors can see the advice in real-time and they have a better grasp of why such advice can be important, compared to advice that is irrelevant, because they have a visual representation, scenes, characters, and set pieces that give a more concrete understanding of what to avoid when writing a novel or comic. They can see for themselves why such ideas can be problematic and don’t work with writing an interesting plot or a group of characters.
Want to know the Dos and Don’ts of LGBT representation from LGBT people themselves? There’s a RWBY critique video for it! Want to know how to make a respectful story on the struggles of racism paralleling the US Civil Rights movement? There’s a RWBY critique video on what not to do! Want to know how to avoid wasting potentially intriguing and cool villainous characters that you’re writing, but don’t know how to integrate into your story? There’s a RWBY critique video! Want to know how to properly do a Character Arc to motivate the character onto the journey towards the main plot of your story? There’s a RWBY critique video for that too! Want to avoid making your lead antagonist seem shallow? Want to avoid a potentially poorly written backstory? Want to avoid making your worldbuilding seem completely meaningless? Want to avoid making your worldbuilding filled with plot holes? Want to avoid infodumping your worldbuilding with extra content and then making that extra content utterly irrelevant in the main story in your later story arcs? Want to avoid making your characters bland or shallow or stupid? Want to avoid awful plot twists and worldbuilding failures? RWBY critique videos galore! From Peanut-butter-jelly time to RWBY time!
RWBY has become the gold standard for Youtube critique videos. All potential authors have to do is watch a short web series (compared to other TV Show series) free off of RoosterTeeth to better understand the context and then watch a plethora of critique videos explaining what to avoid. No need to read boring blogs, no need to potentially hunt through the internet for Dos and Don’ts of LGBT representation when LGBT individuals themselves are explaining what they like and dislike off of Youtube. No need any longer for looking up building blocks of writing, when you have Youtubers explaining those building blocks while critiquing a show for failing at them repeatedly. Boring work turned into an entertaining medium with a show’s visuals to provide as an example for eye-candy and more concrete ideas. Of course, this creates potential future issues; many future fantasy books could end-up becoming the Anti-RWBY instead of their own stories, looking up only RWBY videos vs Youtube author critiques or blogs about writing could have a potentially disastrous opposite effect, and much like the era after Harry Potter with Young Adult fiction focusing on dystopian settings and love triangles; anti-RWBY stories from new authors could potentially become its own subgenre of snubbing RWBY, but having futuristic fantasy settings + LGBT love triangles. Of course, only time will tell and that is pure speculation at this point.
I first learned of using RWBY in this way from a fellow writer who pointed out how useful it was while he also enjoyed watching the actual show with his younger brother. RWBY will never be one of the great stories of our time; but it is so much easier to watch RWBY and look-up a bunch of critique videos than it is to watch longform series from paid subscription services. Picking out the plot holes and other writing failures is faster, easier, and potentially more fun than other shows because you have a legion of people giving their own critiques as well in a community-style organization shared by potential writers and regular audience members who just want to watch / read stories. Thereby, you get both the critiques from fellow writers and avoid the bubble of alienating how a reader or watcher might view your story by comparing it to how RWBY has failed based on an audience member’s perspective. These critiques come from a wealth of different backgrounds too; from ethnic minorities in the West, to people from other countries, to LGBT people, and so much more! This mishmash is potentially even greater than the Game of Thrones viewership, because so much is more focused on RWBY’s failures of telling a good story and how RWBY could have improved in that. However, there is an obvious potential pitfall to this: people are starting to make their own “re-write” RWBY Youtube videos and let’s face facts: that is a complete waste of time and energy. If you have an interest in re-writing RWBY with endless one-to-two-hour length videos, then it is best to stop wasting your own time and use those ideas to create your own fictional stories. If you’re making lengthy hourly videos “fixing RWBY”, then what you’re essentially writing down is your learning experiences in good storytelling from watching RWBY’s poor-quality storytelling. It’s probably in your best interests to use those ideas for your own fiction rather than creating fanon for a story that is already made which the RoosterTeeth writers and RoosterTeeth itself already hold a copyright for.
To conclude, the plethora of criticisms against RWBY on Youtube may not have anything to do with anti-LGBT views, or views on CRWBY, or opinions on RoosterTeeth as a company, or even jumping on a bandwagon of hate. Criticism of RWBY may instead be linked with the utility of RWBY as a series to point towards on lessons to avoid in the writing process for people who wish to be authors. RWBY categorically does nearly everything wrong and thus, it is potentially the most useful series for prospective writers to use to form concrete ideas on story pitfalls. From the terrible characters with weak protagonists and poorly written villains, to the forced LGBT relationships, to the allegories to racism, to the disastrous worldbuilding, to the confusing magical power system, and so on. RWBY provides a deluge of information on Dos and Don’ts that nearly everyone can find objections with or take an interest in critiquing, which enables comments from both an author and audience perspective within the RWBY critique community. Many of the supposedly anti-LGBT accusations against this portion of the RWBY fandom are ignoring that many of these critiques are focused on correcting character arcs to be more relatable and realistic, many critique videos are supportive of LGBT side characters who seem more well-written than the main cast, and many critique videos by LGBT people have arguments for improving LGBT representation within the story cohesion instead of forcing LGBT relationships due to fan demand (such as with the Bumblebee pairing). The critiques obviously range far beyond depictions of LGBT relationships and the earliest videos were simply about how Ruby Rose wasn’t much of a protagonist due to her lack of compelling motives. The range of topics have branched across a wide scope of material that isn’t limited to any particular topic and none of the videos pertaining to the LGBT seem to hold any ill will or discriminatory views against LGBT individuals from what I could find. Most of it seems focused on the lack of compelling motivations from the heroes and villains or how the worldbuilding doesn’t make any sense. The core motivation for all of these Youtube videos is that RWBY is just short enough in length and large enough in content for prospective authors to use as a concrete example to improve their own writing in hopes of making their own comics or fictional books.
” It should go without saying from people who have experience with watching actual good shows that RWBY is categorically one of the worst shows ever made.”
Yeah I’m gonna pass. Starting it off with the statement that” it’s a fact that RWBY is bad,” not just your opinion, is an instant turn off for me.
It’s a line that instantly tells what views the author holds. Seriously to declare RWBY as “one of the worst shows ever”, like some bad Deviantart post, it tells me the author hasn’t seen that many shows or just hates RWBY if he thinks RWBY is one of the worst shows ever or in that same category.
oh man are you dumb. you read one line and instant turnoff? at least reading why they say that. and yea i agree with them. rwby is (sorry to break your fantasy) an amalgamation of bad writing, poor fight direction and all round bad characters.
Bruh? Man?
you’re the same as Jarin.
Your hate reminds me of those who bash a show religiously, trashing on female characters, lgbt characters, while promoting male characters and “straight-shipping”
whenever I see a RWBY “critic” ALL i see?
Is “RWBY bad, nothing good, anyone can do better”
But they never use comparisons.
They simply embrace concepts like “male characters are entitled to this” they say “female characters don’t do anything” despite female characters having 90% of the screentime, and male characters doing barely anything in their 10%.
Jarin…your hatred for Monty, for CRWBY, etc…
it is so clear…
you are not a critic…you are nothing but a yellow muck-raker.
It would probably help if the female characters weren’t sitting around having tea for most of their screentime while Jaune gets all the cool scenes and gives plot advice that solves issues. Y’know, something Ruby, as team leader, should have been the one to do since she’s suppose to be the main character and all she ever gives is vague positive peptalks. That’s not a character, that’s a walking infomercial.
If I wanted to enjoy watching good female characters as protagonists, I’d play Scarlet Nexus’s Kasane Route or watch Birdy the Mighty: Decode, Re:Creators, Carole and Tuesday, Death Parade, or Madoka Magica. All of which have better written characters than the main RWBY cast who drop plot points and forget details at the drop of a hat. The entire RWBY show, the only character to get any emotional development was Jaune, who is voice acted by Miles Luna. They don’t know how to write well-developed female characters and anyone defending their atrocious writing at this point is lying to themselves. What does Ruby want? What does Salem want? 8 seasons and we still don’t know. Don’t even get me started on Cinder.
Both in volume 5 and volume 8 , jaune barely had ANY screentime, while the female characters had the most screentime.
What does Salem want? It was fucking established!
Salem wants to bring the gods back to remnant to wipe out humanity, and end her curse.
What does Ruby want? To Stop Salem.
How are you so ignorant?!
It is said word for word in the show, the answer to each of your questions!
WORD FOR WORD!
Adam literally said he just wants to kill humans.
You ignore it.
Ozpin points out Salem wants armegddon…you ignore it!
How the hell do you ignore everything in the show, and make these false claims?!
Yang and Weiss both get development and have more screentime than Jaune…HOW do you ignore their character moments?
How do you ignore EVERYTHING in the show in order to make shit up?!
Jaune was the only one with any development with the mysterious Pyrrha-look-alike. It’s never said what Salem wants.
The fact that you dropped the show… And make that claim established you do not pay attention.
Yang learned to trust again.
Ruby learned the confidence to carry herself as a huntress.
Blake chose to fight her demons, aka Adam.
Qrow found new self-worth and gave up alcoholism.
And Ozpin and Hazel established in Volume 8 that Salem wanted to die.
There was literally a scene stating it.
But of coursr, if you refuse to watch the show, and only listen to anti-rwby hate videos, then of COURSE you are going to miss SO NANY DETAILS.
Which,by being a Blacksun defender and BB hater?
You did miss so many details.
your statement there is clear.
You’re a vexedviewer sycophant.
All you do …the ONLY thing you do?
Is listen to his anti-rwby videos where he speaks hatred of the show, and nothing else.
you literally don’t even watch rwby.
I cited more than just Vexed Viewer. lol
Yes. Adel aka, VV, eruptionfang, hero hei, that God awful UK trash talker who Spent years insulting Monte on reddit then made a 3 hour video pretending to be his friend so he could insult every last bit of monte’s work.. And let us not forget Thomas who basically took out of context everything involving different characters and Made false accusations and false claims where there were none.
Not to mention the homophobia from some of these people is immense.
None of these people will ever say something nice about the show because they hate it…. Not to mention their hatred of female protagonists is a positively disturbing.
Do you have any concrete evidence supporting your allegations of homophobia from any of these people?
I’m looking at hardcore anti-lgbt statements from AA, EF, and VV who bash Bumbleby, Nuts and Dolts and QrowxClover, accusing the writers of “making qrow gay” when men can be bisexual.
FMF will just make up hateful statements on the fly.
Finally, I’m looking at one more homophobe.
YOU.
You really shouldn’t go around accusing people of anti-LGBT stances just because they don’t like your show.
Your attack on female and LGBT characters, and also claiming heterophobia due to not getting a malexfemale ship?
Sun literally spoke of Blake’s feelings for Yang in V4.
Adam spoke about how Blake held Yang dear.
Yang and Blake had that speech and hug on V2C6, which people ignore due to xiao long rose family backstory.
That backstory in particular has been ignored by practically everyone for not suiting their head cannons.
And let’s not forget your monkey king just so happens to abandon every single one of his teammates…
He doesn’t care about it.
In volume 5 Yang is shown to care more about Blake…
So you claim heterophobia…
Legend of korra had a woman drop 2 male relationships for a female X female relationship.
No doubt you’ll hate the ATLA sequel for that and make up some other bull crap.
Finally you go after any woman with personality but no fan service and get angry at her entire existence.
The only female protagonist shows you take an interest in involved fan service and nothing else…so basically you choose the worst shows.
How was Adam able to criticize anything about Yang, if he didn’t even know who Yang was?
You don’t know the first thing about me.
“As I set out to give this world the justice it so richly deserves, I will make it my mission to destroy everything you hold dear…starting with her”
You know nothing about Adam.
“What does she even see in you” he said to Yang.
“Why won’t you leave me alone” he said to blake after she foiled his terrorist attack.
“I knew you were afraid of me” he said to blake in v5.
I pay attention to your favorite male characters…shall I go over Sun pushing Blake towards Yang in v5, Sun encouraging Blake to be with Yang in v6, Sun talking about Blake’s feelings for Yang in v4?
Of course, you won’t pay attention.
A rwby hater NEVER pays attention.
Yeah, that’s wasted potential and pretty terrible. They turned a racism story into bad boyfriend, terrible.
I’ve seen plenty of shows and I strongly stand by the statement that RWBY is among the worst.
“the statement?” you mean YOUR statement.
This feels like the volume 4 scene where Ironwood speaks of “The Council’s authority” and Jacques Schnee calls Ironwood out on abusing his privilege of two council seats and says “Don’t you mean, YOUR authority?”
Ironwood doesn’t deny it, but instead threatens Jacques to stay on his good side.
Though being an ironwood apologist who supports the idea of power being in the hands of one man rather than a society?
you’ll still defend the antagonist.
Honestly, the fact that you refuse to acknowledge the good in rwby is so disturbing, as many people, even ACTUAL critics, speak of the good in the show.
Though you and those Haters on youtube are OBSESSED with spitting on Monty’s legacy and his friends.
you literally said you don’t watch rwby.
You also said on Reddit that you only listen to rwby haters.
So you know nothing about the show, other than one random dude shitting on it.
I watched all the way up to the finale of Season 6 before dropping it.
In volume 6 it was shown what Salem wanted and in volume 8 it was shown what Salem wanted.
Ozpin even explained that.
Yang and blake and ruby all went through development in volume 6…
But if all you do? Is ignore anything that happens to ruby and yang to focus on a male?
Them in typical anti-bumbleby pro-adam taurus fashion?
You of course dropped the show V6 like an angry shipper.
Ruby even helped qrow stop his alcoholism.
Ruby didn’t go through development in Volume 6. LOL. Wanting to protect her friends, which she’s said since Volume 1, is not development. lol
are you seriously saying that Ruby’s speech to Qrow was not important to you?
Are you saying that Ruby not being confident originally about being a huntress vs willing to confidently confront Cordovin or lend her assistance to the Atlesian military in v6 or wanting to stop Salem is not development?
Did you SERIOUSLY forget EVERYTHING that a woman does in the show, while focusing on nothing but male characters?
I can literally point out scene by scene the examples of Ruby’s growth.
How is it that BlackSun shippers fail to notice a single detail?
How is it that you fail to pay attention to ANYTHING in volume 6 that does not involve a male character?
Those weren’t really growth examples. The plans weren’t hers. She just gives peptalks in support of them. That isn’t even really development since she went out on her own with Jaune’s crew in the first place.
So whenever a male does something it’s character development but whenever a female does something it’s pep talk?
Those shows you mentioned that involved female protagonists had no female character growth that I saw….
Legend of korra however had female development, and a great lgbt pairings.
Take a wild guess what other show is hated by rwby haters?
Thats right, legend if Korra.
And what LOK and RWBY also have?
A refusal to do fanservice.
Something Blacksun fanatics hate.
The character of Ruby has no internal motivation and no clearly defined goal. As a main character, that’s pretty weak. I can’t comment on Korra because I have yet to watch it.
Ruby has a defined goal…Stopping Salem.
Her motivation, to defend the people she cares about, save the lives of others, and make the world a better place.
HOW THE HELL IN GOD’S NAME do you LITERALLY ignore EVERYTHING in the show, EVERYTHING said by female characters, just so you can bullshit?
here, Character Development by Winter Schnee.
That’s the same problem as Bleach. No real motivation, that’s just her being reactionary to the circumstances.
I’m sorry, but then what of Naruto?
“I’m going to become Hokage!”
What of One Piece?
“I’m gonna become King of the Pirates!”
Black Clover?
“I wanna get this Nun to notice me”
Ruby in volume 4 ” I don’t want to lose anyone else”
Motivations change BECAUSE of reactionary circumstances.
Its the same thing.
Yang “I wanted to travel the world and get wrapped up in adventures”
Is now about helping others more than thrills.
Rwby haters triggered because she’s no longer their party girl..
Blake was hiding herself and who she was while trying to do the right thing..
She cast aside her bow, and makes her own decisions, helping Ruby out and being supportive.
I can go into Weiss, Winter, Nora and more.
But you have no goddamn interest in a woman’s character development all you are interested in is trashing LGBT characters like Blake and Yang or trashing female characters.
All those examples you listed from actual anime are self-perpetuating goals that those people wanted. Luffy wants to become Pirate King, Naruto wanted to be Hokage, and so on. That’s not being reactionary at all. Honestly, the way you’re so diehard about RWBY makes me realize that I shouldn’t worry about half-assing my first real novel, since there’ll always be an audience if garbage like RWBY is popular. Also, One Piece’s main cast, consisting of two female characters, has actual motives for why they’re on Luffy’s crew. Robin wants to uncover the world’s history as an archaeologist and Nami wants to make a map of the entire world as a navigator. They’re both better than anything Miles and Kerry have ever written.
Ruby: I want to become a huntress.
Yang: I want to get mixed up in as many goals as possible.
Weiss: I want to change my family legacy.
Blake: i want justice.
Hey! They all have goals…better goals than what you will spit out as nothing more than a means for you to shit-talk
Realistic. Obtainable. Related to the backstories.
And of coursr? Completely ignored by people like you who HATE rwby to the point of blindness.
Ruby actually is never asked that question by Ozpin unlike the others. They also don’t do anything in pursuit of these so-called goals and the narrative dropped those ideas right after mentioning them.
Ruby already stated several of her reasons for why she was enrolling in beacon.
and they weren’t “protecting her friends”
But hey, you DON’T pay attention….at all.
You REFUSE to allow Ruby any positive comparisons to male shounen protags…because she’s a woman.
what does motoko kusanagi from GIST or Bird the mighty want?
At least Ruby’s goals expand over the show.
The narrative didn’t drop those goals.
I know you NEVER pay attention, but come on!
Yang changed to wanting to help people over adventures.
Weiss salvaged her family’s legacy.
Blake took back the White Fang.
How…how are you so inadequate at criticisms that not only do you parrot rwby haters, but fail to do your own research by watching the actual show?
Of course a blacksun shipper would do that shit.
All you do is vaguely make accusations.
Bash Bumbleby in favor of Blacksun.
Ignore all actions of female characters to promote male side characters.
And you REFUSE to admit anything good about the show, dude.
You’re not a critic…you’re a hater.
You’re jumping on a bandwagon of hatred.
there are so many reasons and examples to enjoy rwby, and you MOCK those who are actual fans, in favor of glorifying haters and fanfic writers who shove male characters to take the place of females.
did you literally say that you do NOT watch rwby at all…and ONLY watch the anti-rwby “critique” videos?
TRULY you are NOT and NEVER were a fan…all you did was watch rwby haters bash the show, and then decide to make a Slander article.
Did you seriously use VexxedViewer as your excuse for criticism?
So a man who NEVER , EVER speaks positively of rwby….
and you…who NEVER, EVER watch rwby…
That is your idea of criticism?
it’s true what they say…
lying about a show promotes misinformation and slander.
Vexxed hates female protagonists, he hates RWBY as a whole.
He has NEVER supported the show.
And you are blinded by his hatred.
Vexed has said positive things about the show before.
Far in few between.
The last time he said anything positive about the show was before Adam was killed and raven was shown to be the coward. Not to mention vic micnogna…finally. the writers confirmed that qrow was NOT ruby’s father.
And we got bumbleby.
VV hates bumbleby.
And he worship Adam.
So when his hope for a very wicked murderous male terrorist to to have redemption was ended?
When two girls became a couple?
All he has done was make videos hating on the show and lying.
His one or two “positive” videos are literally saying 1-2 nice things while then saying 20 nasty things.
Because Bumblebee was forced in due to fan demand. The criticism had nothing to do with it being a lesbian relationship.
So…hardcore straight-shipper.
I assume Ironwood apologist, here, let me give you this
https://aspiringwarriorlibrarian.tumblr.com/post/664053884010020864/dunno-if-this-is-a-stretch-but-thinking-about
no doubt an adam apologist
https://short-wooloo.tumblr.com/post/190241878844/so-what-if-a-character-was-changed
shall I go into detail about How Blake and Yang complement each other well?
“The criticism had nothing to do with it being a lesbian relationship. ”
you mean LGBTQI relationship….
Don’t forget how wonderful Fairgame is…the fandom LOVES IT.
And so do so many fanfic writers.
But of course you dislike it.
did you literally not get it?
How are you just ignoring it.
Adam is basically lashing out at the world and anyone in his way.
Society, people, etc.
He was NOT “ruined into ex-boyfriend”
He was taking revenge on blake for standing in his way.
You are CLEARLY unable to see that Adam basically does not discriminate between person or society.
To him?
Blake standing against him was the same as society, and he would have revenge on both.
If you cannot see that it had NOTHING to do with “boyfriend”…
then you sir, have NO IDEA what psychology or writing is about!
Then again, given you wrote an article attacking Apostates, that is telling that you have no idea of anything.
So generic Saturday night psychopath villain instead of someone with an actual motive and goals just like the RWBY critics said? Pretty terrible writing like they mentioned.
did it not occur to you that a human-hating dude with a thirst for blood and violence would join a terrorist group for the opportunity to kill as many humans as possible?
No of course not…you don’t think, you only parrot hate against shows.
Ah yes, those terrorists who are… literally trying to stop the oppression of their race while they get abused, tortured, and often killed. Adam himself having a brand mark on his face; gee, wonder why he wants to fight people who literally burned his face including one of his eyes. lol
I just realized that you had made a blog that encouraged the silencing of ex muslims.
Given your support of apostasy and blasphemy laws…
I realize now why you are such a fan of Adam.
I don’t encourage the silencing of Ex-Muslims. I encourage people to block all Ex-Muslims of the Western world because it is clear they’re full of lies and bigotry.
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