My RWBY Opinions

So it's been a while since I wrote a RWBY Review.  Since the production of Volume 3 was announced, I wanted to continue writing about Volume 2.  But after Monty's passing, I thought harsh reviews of RWBY would be out of place if not disrespectful.  But after asking the RWBY Reddit page, it seems reviews won't be seen as distasteful as I thought they would be, as long as they don't go too far.  A few other things I learned from the Reddit post are bits of advice to improve my reviews overall.  A few of these tidbits include providing more explanation as to why something didn't work, mentioning the positives and not just negatives, and just keeping a neutral perspective.  And so I tend on doing just that.  
Before I start the review of Chapter 5, I will sum up my opinions on main characters, key aspects, and provide my overall viewpoint of the show itself.  The point of this is so my gripes and insults about characters and etc are explained, and not just thrown out for entertainment purposes.

Ruby Rose- RWBY's main character.  With a unique design and spin on a 'Little Red Riding Hood' like character, Ruby is a fun character to look at.  She is also a fun character by herself.  Being younger than many of the main cast members, Ruby still shows a decent portion of immaturity and innocence compared to the others.  However, this adds to her bubbly personality which is a common source of humor for the show.  Throughout the combat history of the show, Ruby is shown to be one of the strongest characters.  Her fighting ability is definitely hidden by her personality and appearance.  
Despite the humor and the awesome combat, Ruby is not a favorite character of mine.  I believe her character is highly misused and misdirected.  Even though a main focus of RWBY is its humor, the show does not balance out humor, story, drama, and combat very well and Ruby is a major example of that.  Ruby is involved in almost all four of the mentioned aspects, and so her character is with out a doubt inconsistent.  Instead of making a great overall personality for her, Ruby is what she needs to be for whatever it is she is needed for.  If she is needed for combat, she is all of a sudden a great leader and fighter.  If she is needed for humor, she is all of a sudden clumsy and silly.  If she is needed for story or drama, her innocence and immaturity just fade away and she is all of a sudden responsible and wise.  Even though she is the main character, she is unbalanced and in turn not very entertaining and not a great character.

Weiss Schnee- my personal favorite out of the four trailers before RWBY came to be.  Her trailer showed her to be an elegant, fierce, and sophisticated character.  With her main color palette being a piercing white, her design was very strong.  But as soon as she was introduced into the show, her character proved to be almost opposite.  She is a rich, spoiled, snotty, and rude 'little princess', and this is a character we as the audience have seen in countless other forms of media before.  After her misleading trailer feigned an interesting character, I was disappointed.  A spoiled brat can never be a character you want to know more about, at least through my perspective.  

Even though her character has matured slightly over the course of the show, her slight rise in maturity makes her an inconsistent character as well.  Her attitude and opinions on things can change on a dime, and the only proper reason the show can provide is she 'thought about it'.  Weiss's character does reveal certain bits of information about her and her life that if developed properly, can make her out to be not only a great character, but a fascinating one as well.  But this is one aspect the show does not jump on, and instead lets Weiss dissolve back into her spoiled brat personality over and over again.  

Blake Belladonna- my personal favorite character.  Blake is one of the few interesting characters the show is able to provide.  Besides some villains and one or two main characters, Blake is a character that is shrouded in mystery besides a few vague explanations.  Her backstory is one that is dying to be told, since it is obviously much more complicated than other characters.  Blake is one of the only characters that shows a wide range of emotions consistently and not just for one or two scenes.  Her character is balanced, written well, used well, and can provide funny moments for the show nonetheless.  Blake is also one of the few characters that has to face multiple conflicts other than just physical combat.  She must face segregation, regret from her past, and etc.  These aspects are what make Blake my personal favorite character, and probably one of the best on the entire show.  
If I had a few complaints about her character, one of them is the possible romance between her and Sun.  Even though the close friendship and possible romance is an entertaining aspect, it was unnecessary for the sake if improving Blake and San's character and/or contributing to the overall story of RWBY.
Also, despite her being interesting, her overall character is nothing too new either.  The mysterious girl who reads books, doesn't talk too much, and has cat ears.  However, the show does change up her a bit from the norm, so I can't complain too much.

Yang Xiao-Long- my opinion on Yang Xiao-Long is more of a neutral one.  She is written and has proven herself to be a very simple character, which isn't a huge fault.  However, throughout Volume 2, Yang shows a surprisingly vast amount of sudden emotion and character.  These sudden emotions clash with her simple character, and is it very interesting.  However, the timing was poor for when  her character did suddenly develop.  Her character developed almost instantly, leaving no build-up or time to react.  One minute she is making a pun, the next she is explaining her party girl personality is sort of an excuse for her.  Yang's character also suffers from inconsistency in the writing, which is very disappointing.  Her character actually became almost as interesting as Blake's, before the show brings her right back to the puns, forgetting about her more complicated side.  

Jaune Arc- another favorite character of mine.  Jaune is without a doubt one of (if not the) funniest character on RWBY.  Jaune represents the shows humor at its best, getting a laugh almost every scene is he in.  However, Jaune may not be an interesting character himself, but he has been involved and has created many interesting stories for the show to focus on.  The storyline and scenes involving him and Pyrrah are some of my favorite.  Whether it be Pyrrah training him, or the possible romance, Jaune and Pyrrah have an incredible chemistry.  
However, yet again, Jaune suffers from inconsistency in the writing.  Even though various portions of the show Jaune improving his skill in combat, he is still not really worth anything in a fight.  For example, my rant about the food fight of my review of chapter 1.  Jaune can still improve in his combat, but that doesn't mean he can still be a loveable loser.  

The Rest of Team JNPR (Pyrrah, Ren, Nora)- Team JNPR as a whole aren't a main focus at all.  Ren and Nora are treated more like background character, only there for what the scene calls for them to do.  Ren isn't focused on at all, so I have no complaints or faults to point out about him.  

Nora, on the other hand, is a character I almost despise.  Nora is a forced character, which means the show tries to make you feel one way about her, and that is love her.  From what I have seen, most of the RWBY community adore Nora, so it seems to have worked.  I compare Nora to the Minions from Despicable Me.  There main purpose was obviously for you to love them, and how can you not love such a silly and spontaneous character?  I can not stand forced characters of any kind, and Nora is no exception.  Besides her impressive combat scenes, her personality and humor is nothing new and is just downright annoying.  She is the attention of every scene she is in, even though scenes are never about her.  There is slight potential for a decent character, but I don't see RoosterTeeth changing anything about her anytime soon.  There is no need to develop her, or give her an interesting backstory since the audience already adores her.  And that is why Nora is almost guaranteed to never mature her character, which is why I can't stand her.  

Pyrrah is also a favorite character of mine.  The main thing I adore about her is that Pyrrah shows something not too many characters have, and that is vulnerability.  Pyrrah has shown even though she is strong on the outside, she has a fragile personality on the inside.  That alone makes her an interesting character.  The way I see it, all of the characters can bounce back from anything.  Whether it be a punch or an insult.  Pyrrah is the only character that makes me think that if something does upset her, it will severely affect her, or 'break down' if you will.  Her vulnerability and Jaune's humor is what gives those two characters such a strong chemistry, and that is why I adore these two characters.

Ozpin, Roman, Cinder, and other characters I have already spoken about relatively thoroughly throughout my reviews.  In case you don't want to skim through finding them, I will do my best to quickly sum them up.

Ozpin is a tremendously likeable character.  He is a great talker for the show, and his dialogue and conversations with characters are some of the highpoints throughout RWBY's script.

Roman is an awesome villain.  Even though he may not be the first villain of his kind, his arrogance, cockiness, and sinister attitude make him such an enjoyable villain.

Cinder was extremely fascinating, before the show ruined her completely.  Hiding her face could have been an interesting concept to develop, but that concept was thrown out the window for no good reason, since they revealed her face immediately.  She is a poor villain, with such unoriginal dialogue and no elaborate personality.  


Now that the characters are done, I will go over what I think is the show's major downfall.

Inconsistency.  Characters, storylines, the show is tremendously inconsistent.  Like I have stated in previous reviews, many aspects of the show seemed to be 'forgotten'.  Once something is introduced, it is left to die and never used again.  One of those aspects is Dust.  The main focus of the villains in Volume 1 was to collect dust, but in Volume 2, the villains didn't even want it.  This is just one of the many examples.  It feels as if the show is uninterested in its own ideas, and so why should the viewer be interested?  When I watch the show, I see so much potential.  Whether it be with characters such as Blake or Yang, or storylines and aspects like romances or rivalries.  But the show just doesn't seem to know what to focus on, or if it wants to focus in the first place.  
Something the team behind RWBY needs to do is pick one thing, and stick with it.  For Volume 3, for example, I hope the entire volume is dedicated to the tournament.  There doesn't need to be drama about The White Fang, Grimm, etc.  If the show can dedicate an entire volume to the tournament or any other subject, imagine what can get done.  For the sake of the Tournament example, imagine if two members of team RWBY have to fight each other?  That alone can provide such an interesting story, nevermind Character development.  
If the show bounces between different topics, nothing can get done, just like it hasn't so far.  Penny, Roman, Cinder, The White Fang, Grimm, the show just brought these things up and didn't bring them anywhere further.  Sure, one evil plan kind of worked.  But that didn't affect anything in the long run.  There were no character deaths, no altering revelations, nothing that could keep going or develop a story.  This is why the show proves to be inconsistent.  I'm not saying something has to be brought to a complete close this early on, but there has been no progress in getting anything closer to a complete close yet either.  How many times can Roman hatch a scheme that doesn't work before something actually works or someone gets hurt and/or etc.  
If you can put my entire thought into one sentence, it's basically 'Something in the show needs to get done.'



Now even though I have had a lot to say about the show, that doesn't mean I hate it.  Some of my most favorite video game and movies I even criticize without mercy.  When I watch RWBY, I don't see a terrible show.  I see a great show with a lot of things wrong with it.