It’s 2015! Good riddance to 2014, that was a terrible year. The only good things I can think of off the top of my head that were good about 2014 are Korrasami being canon (for which I am still singing my praises) and Taylor Swift openly being a feminist and not giving any fucks (for which I am also still singing my praises).
You’ve probably noticed that it’s January 2nd and the titles still says “RWBY” not “Adventure Time”. Yeah, sorry about that. I got thrown off schedule. This will be the last RWBY review (until Volume 3, probably) and then it will be back to Adventure Time.
Now, let’s get to it.
This last review will be going over the (way too many) characters in RWBY, because ultimately they are what keeps me interested in the show aside from its set-up. It’s extremely rare that you have a show with an abundance of female characters, let alone four female characters as leads, like RWBY does. So even if they’re poorly-written the majority of the time, I can’t help being drawn to this show.
There was a great post on Tumblr about how Jaune is framed as the main character more than anyone on Team RWBY. I suggest reading that post because though it is slightly dated now, it still points out something very important about the treatment and framing of RWBY’s characters. In relation to that Tumblr post, I’ve come to realize something else about our team leader and titular character, Ruby. There is nothing about her that makes her seem like a main character. The only thing that marks her as such is the fact that the show is named after her. As the Tumblr post points out, there are certain trends and tropes that come attached to main characters and Ruby has none of them. Jaune has most of them.
What do we really know about Ruby? We know that she’s fascinated by weapons. She’s quirky and energetic and innocent. She wants to be a Huntress. Okay, cool. We know of one of her interests, we know what her personality is like, and we know what she wants to do. But for that last one, that’s one of the most important things about a main character. We need to know what they want to do, and even more importantly we need to know why they want to do it, how they’re going to do it, and what obstacle (whether physical, mental or emotional) is in their way. Ruby wants to be a Huntress. Cool. Why? What’s her reason? Why should I care? Because she wants to help people? Okay. That seems too simplistic, but fine. It’s something. So how is she going to become a Huntress? She’s going to train to be one? Great, she needs to start somewhere. What next? That’s it? Well… is there anyone trying to stop her from training? Is there any reason she can’t complete the training? No? Does she have any lessons to learn? Any obstacles to overcome? Anything that would make us interested in her story? No? She’s just a cute girl with a cool weapon who can fight well and wants to help people? Huh.
I actually like Ruby as a character. She’s cute, and she’s funny, and her childlike innocence is endearing. She’s a perfectly likable character, but she just isn’t an interesting protagonist. There’s nothing about her to make her interesting. No reason to care about her or her story. Her ambitions are vague, we know next to nothing about her history, she has no challenges to overcome, she has no real connection to the villains (she’s met and fought Roman and Cinder but she has no relationship with them aside from the fact that she knows they’re bad guys). Yeah, sure, when the show began, they tried to give Ruby a story. Yang wanted her to break out of her shell and make her own friends but Ruby didn’t want that. Ruby accidentally made an enemy of Weiss. Ruby tried to make friends with Blake. Ruby ends up with Weiss as a partner and they bicker a lot before eventually agreeing to work together. Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang become a team and Weiss won’t accept Ruby as a leader which makes Ruby insecure until the two make up and Weiss apologizes. That’s where Ruby’s character development ends, it seems. There was a story being set up for her, a cliche one but a story nonetheless. Ruby is an introvert who has a hard time making friends, she becomes a team leader but struggles with the responsibility. But that story is over by the halfway point on Volume 1. Ruby has made friends and she seems to be doing fine with her responsibility as leader, even the fact that she’s two years younger than the rest of the classmates isn’t an issue anymore. What else is there to care about?
Weiss’ character ended up being a surprise to everyone, I think. Ruby’s was a bit of a surprise too, but I think Weiss’ was even more so for a lot of us. In the White trailer, we see Weiss alone on a stage, performing in front of a huge crowd as she sings about how she’s the loneliest of all. So we all thought Weiss would be this quiet, soft-spoken, modest girl.
Boy were we wrong.
Weiss is cold. She’s hostile. She’s spoiled. She’s arrogant. She’s intimidating. She’s nothing like what we thought she would be. And yet, her trailer still makes perfect sense for the character. Weiss’ history and life outside Beacon, for the most part, has been told in pretty subtle ways so far. Her father so far has not been painted in a positive light, we know he runs the Schnee Dust Company in an unethical manner and there’s implications that he was abusive. Weiss mentions having grown up in the public eye and how this has caused her to get attention similar to the kind Pyrrha gets. When Weiss is in the communication tower about to make a call to her father’s company, we see her literally practicing smiles and preparing herself for the happy face and performance she’ll have to put on when she makes the call. When you watch the White trailer again knowing all of this about Weiss, it starts to make much more sense. The trailer isn’t about the way Weiss presents herself or her personality, it’s about how Weiss feels. Her life is a performance, she always has to act like everything about her life is perfect because she is constantly in the public eye. She is always on a stage for everyone to see, and she can’t tell anyone how she really feels or what her life is really like behind closed doors. It’s a lonely existence for her.
Most of Weiss’ character development is about her learning to open up to people and, you know, be nicer. Her characterization in Volume 2 follows up on a lot of this. She’s nicer to Ruby, but she’s still a bit reluctant. From the way she speaks, you can tell she still hasn’t let go of her desire to be team leader, but she is less of an ass about it. She’s the first to notice that there’s something wrong with Blake and brings up the promise Blake made to Weiss about coming to the team for help. In general she seems to be more openly friendly to Blake than she is to Ruby or Yang, showing concern for her feelings and giving her the Dust in a later episode to help with her fighting. But she also dismisses Blake’s feelings a few episodes after the one where she showed concern for how she was feeling. Inconsistency on the writers’ part.
Volume 2 also had that horrible subplot with Jaune and Neptune where Weiss really got the short end of the stick, but that’s already been talked about in detail. What I haven’t talked about in detail yet is how out of character Weiss’ crush on Neptune is. Seriously, that is really out of character. Weiss talks about how her whole life boys have only been interested in her for her name and place her on a pedestal, sort of like Pyrrha, and therefore she understandably has difficulty trusting them. So why does she fall for Neptune after two seconds of flirting? Is it because, like Pyrrha with Jaune, she likes him because he didn’t know who she was? I have a really hard time believing that. I seriously doubt no boys (or girls? she only mentions boys) have ever pretended that they didn’t know who Weiss was as a pick-up attempt. The only reason Weiss has to like Neptune as far as I can tell is that he’s good-looking. Okay, I’m not going to pretend I’ve never had a crush based primarily on looks, but given Weiss’ history with boys and flirting wouldn’t she be more weary? And a crush based on looks isn’t really something I can root for in terms of shipping and I think we’re supposed to ship Weiss/Neptune, but how can I when the only on-screen conversations they’ve had lasted no more than a few seconds and weren’t at all significant?
Weiss’ writing in this volume is pretty shaky. There are some great moments for her but there are also inconsistencies and out-of-character-ness, and sometimes she was just treated horribly in the narrative (coughthejaunearccough) so by the end of the volume I wasn’t totally sure how I felt about her anymore. Weiss was my favorite character in Volume 1 and I still think of her as such and name her as such when asked, but Volume 2 wasn’t good to her. I think Weiss is the best written main character so far (which isn’t saying much but still), which is partly why she’s my favorite, but I really hope her treatment and writing improves in Volume 3.
Blake, on the other hand, has improved this volume, which isn’t difficult because she got barely any attention in Volume 1 until the end. Volume 2 seems to be Blake’s story more than any other character’s. She’s the most motivated and driven one and has the most reason to be so. Unlike Ruby, Roman actually knows her by name and knows a bit about her, making Blake the only character who really has a connection to one of the main villains. Plus her history in the White Fang gives her a connection to them (thought I suppose you could say Weiss has somewhat of a connection to them), and Adam has come into the story now and Blake has a complicated relationship with him that I’m sure would be very interesting to explore. Really, Blake and Weiss are the most main character-ish of all of the main characters. They have the most motivation and the most room for growth.
Blake had a good moment in Volume 2, during the scene where she, Weiss and Yang are talking about why they want to be Huntresses. Yang describes Blake as “not one to back down from a fight”, but Blake says that she is. She ran when she realized how far Adam was willing to go for the cause, and when her teammates found out she was a Faunus. She even talks about how her Semblance allows her to leave behind an empty copy to take the hit for her while she runs, which I thought was kind of an interesting metaphor. Blake sees herself as a coward, but I think she’s very brave. I love her passion and her dedication to social justice, but I think she also puts too much responsibility on herself. She wants to change the world for the better and end inequality and injustice, but she doesn’t seem sure of how to go about doing that, and if she expects to do it on her own she’s not going to get far. Everyone should be like Blake, everyone should have her dedication to social justice, but not many people do and she’s overwhelmed. Blake is great, everyone aspire to be Blake.
Yang is a weird character for me. I want to like her, and I do like her, but her writing is so inconsistent and she’s gotten so little screen time and development that sometimes it’s hard to. One minute she’s like Team Mom, showing support and concern to everyone and being a pillar of strength for them, the next minute she’s dismissing Blake’s feelings when she was clearly stressed out and anxious or she’s encouraging boys to harass Weiss. Sometimes she has outbursts that just don’t make sense. I get the feeling that the writers aren’t totally sure what to do with Yang. They’re not sure what her place in the team or in the story should be and they’re not sure if they should be writing her as Barbara in animated form or as her own character. They did seem to make an effort in Volume 2 to give Yang more presence and make her feel like more of an actual character, at least. Barbara’s voice acting has improved too, which definitely helps. Still, it’s hard for me to decide how I feel about Yang a lot of the time.
What I do like about Yang… well, she oozes confidence and I think that’s wonderful to see in a female character. She’s both fun and funny, which is also wonderful to see in a female character. I liked finding out about her mother, and Yang’s search for her. I liked what she said about how she never lets the search control her, I think that says a lot about Yang’s character, how her happy-go-lucky party girl persona isn’t ignorance or because she’s never faced hardships, it’s because she knows she can’t let those hardships take over her. She stays optimistic and while she is driven she also knows that she has to give herself a break now and then.
The frustrating thing about Team RWBY is that all of them are likable and interesting, but they get so little attention in their own show. All of them are in desperate need of more development and screen time, individually and as a team because their relationships to each other are also underdeveloped. They’re supposed to be great friends but they don’t act like it a lot of the time, but I think that partly comes from the writers not knowing what girls are like with each other in general.
That covers RWBY, and I don’t really have that many thoughts on most of the other characters beyond “I like them” or “meh”, but I’ll go over them quickly.
Penny is just adorable, and so far the most like the character she’s based on. She’s an android who wishes she was a real human, she fights with swords attached by strings that she controls like a puppeteer, and she hiccups when she lies (which is the cutest thing btw). Unfortunately Penny is one of those characters that just reeks of death. I don’t know if any significant characters in RWBY will actually die at any point, but if there are any I would bet Penny is one of them, either by sacrificing herself or because she’s so powerful that she needs to be destroyed.
Jaune I’ve already talked about and I don’t want to spend any more time on this entitled shitbag. I hate how the narrative is constantly rewarding him for his shitty behavior and that’s all that needs to said.
Pyrrha, as I’ve also already mentioned, is a character that I really like. There’s not much to say about why, she’s just really nice and I like that. I don’t like how so far her character revolves almost entirely around Jaune and any development she does get only serves to further his. I’m also really afraid that they’re setting up some possible danger for Pyrrha that Jaune will end up saving her from. God, I hope that doesn’t happen. I just want Pyrrha to be a character in her own right, not just an extension of Jaune’s.
Nora and Ren are… there to fill up the rest of Jaune’s team? They don’t have much of a point, but they’re pretty fun characters. They have such an unlikely friendship but something about it just works. There have been hints that a romance between them could happen some time in the future and that Nora may have romantic feelings for Ren right now, but I really hope there is never anything romantic between them. I want them to just stay close friends without a romance having to be forced in there.
Sun and Neptune are entirely pointless characters. Sun was introduced only as a plot device, so that we could get the White Fang backstory out of Blake and so that Blake has a Faunus friend to hang out with, and then for some reason he was featured in the finale of Volume 1 more than the rest of RWBY. Now Sun is being forced into the show even more as a love interest for Blake and I don’t like that either. I’m not a fan of Sun in general. The way he was introduced wasn’t a good start and I don’t like how he’s getting more attention than he needs. Neptune I thought had potential to be an okay character, at the very least he could have made decent comic relief, but he was ruined in the dance plot and I don’t know if he’ll ever recover from that.
Most other student characters haven’t been seen enough for me to have an opinion on. Team CFVY looks really cool and I’m already in love with Coco (and considering cosplaying her) but there isn’t really anything I can say about them. They’re just cool.
Ozpin is being set up as the Dumbledore of this show. He basically is Dumbledore, except hotter and more useless. Okay, maybe calling him useless is a bit mean, but, you know, he hasn’t exactly been useful. He’s been the wise mentor with a calm disposition and strong morals that everyone either trusts and admires or dislikes and misunderstands. It’s been hinted that he has a complicated past and has made many mistakes, but every teacher at Beacon loves him and trusts him wholeheartedly because, apparently, he’s never let them down. Now they’re setting up a conflict between Ozpin and Vale’s government where we can assume that Ozpin’s capability and sanity will com into question by them which will cause even more distrust to come his way even though he’s really working for the greater good as much as he can… yeah, he’s totally Dumbledore.
Even Glynda is sort of similar to McGonagall. She’s Ozpin’s strict, tough right-hand woman. Glynda also hasn’t done that much yet, which is a shame because I thought they were setting her up to be much more important than she has been so far. She appears in the first episode, which is usually an indicator of a character’s importance, and in that episode she fights Cinder and is the one who brings Ruby before Ozpin which leads to her being accepted into Beacon. It makes it seem like Glynda will be an important character, maybe a role model for Ruby or a rival for Cinder, a kind of good witch vs bad witch thing, but after that episode she never really does anything big again. I love Glynda, mainly because she’s voiced by Kathleen Zuelch who I adore, but as the only adult female character on the show so far (I’m not sure how old Cinder and Neo are supposed to be), I wish that she had more importance.
Ironwood is one of those characters that I’m “meh” toward. I get the feeling that we’re not meant to like him very much. I’m guessing he’ll end up playing a similar role to Solovet from The Underland Chronicles or Coin and Plutarch from The Hunger Games, where he’s ultimately doing what he thinks is best but his motivations and methods are questionable to say the least.
Dr. Oobleck is a really fun character and probably my favorite adult character aside from Glynda. I like how even though he’s a capable fighter, he’s more interested in intellectual pursuits and would rather be a teacher because he thinks passing on his knowledge is the best way to help the world. I also like how his coffee mug is also his weapon. And he also drinks out of it. Never change, Oobleck.
As for our villains, Emerald, Mercury and Neo are my favorite ones so far and Neo hasn’t said a word yet. I actually hope she never does say a word, I headcanon her as mute and we should have some disabled characters in here? Emerald and Mercury are just fun. I like their dynamic and I’m interested in finding out how they got involved with Cinder. Cinder is bad ass but so far I don’t find her particularly interesting, and her voice actor is… not very good. I feel bad for saying it because I really like Jessica Nigri but voice acting is just not her thing. Roman is okay, he’s not a very threatening villain and for some reason he always dresses like he’s doing a Clockwork Orange cosplay, but I kind of like him anyway for some reason. He just tries so hard to be a bad ass but he’s so clearly out of his league with Cinder. I get the feeling Roman will try to double-cross Cinder at some point and that will lead to his downfall. Either that or he’ll get some kind of redemption arc.
So RWBY is full of underdeveloped characters and one who has gotten more development than he needs or deserves. Part of the problem is that there are way too many characters to begin with and another part is that the writers do not know how to prioritize or what to prioritize. And it’s such a shame, because animated shows with this many significant female characters are seldom seen and it’s the reason a lot of us were interested in the show, but we’re not getting what we were promised.
Maybe things will get better, but sometimes I think it may be too late. Let’s hope I’m wrong.