What is RWBY?

RWBY started as a web series created by Monty Oum and produced by Rooster Teeth in 2013. With it's brightly colored fairy tale allusions, girls with guns and anime-inspired look, it was fairly popular with a wide audience.

The story follows four main characters, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao-Long, and their journey to save the world from Creatures of Grimm, Gangsters, Fantasy Racism, and an Immortal Witch. I first picked up RWBY around 2015-16 after seeing a ton of cool fan art on tumblr and friends cosplaying it on facebook. I started binge-watching what was available (at that time, Volume's 1 through 3) and then excitedly trying to get anyone in my vicinity to watch it over with me.

It was a hard sell, and still is quite frankly, to get someone to consider RWBY. Then, it was just an indie web series done in Poser, the animation was low budget, backround characters in scenes were just black sillhouettes, and the voice talent was raw and untrained. But I think that was the draw of it for me. It was someone's creation being presented without pretense, it was a love of action and fast paced choreographed fight scenes, silly antics with characters that felt like they could be my friends. I managed to get one of my roommates interested and we watched together for a while, up until about volume 5 where she became more interested in She Ra (2018) and The Owl House.

Around that same time in 2018, Life hit me really hard and I dropped a lot of my favorite hobbies and shows in favor of just surviving. I had just gotten out of a long term relationship, moved out of a shared apartment into a single bedroom flat, and was well and truly miserable for a year and a half. I wouldn't be able to enjoy any of that stuff again until late 2019. FNDM spaces were popping off with the release of Volume 7, the musical score was making the rounds in my youtube algorithm, and I remembered this little web series called RWBY. By that time it was much more than just a little web series, attracting some big names in VO talent, a sizable viewership, and was airing on RT's own website instead of YouTube.

After that I was back on the binge-watching train, catching up to where I left off, joining FNDM communities like r/RWBY on Reddit, and RWBY Nation on facebook. In a way, RWBY kept me from sinking further into a deep depression that had been threatening to pull me into it's dark waters. The message of hope and love keeping me afloat just before the Pandemic started in 2020. If I hadn't had that I don't know where I would be now.

Now, I've talked a whole lot about myself and RWBY, but not a whole lot about the show itself. I hope you can forgive my rambling!

As I said in my earlier summary about the show, RWBY is about it's four main characters that make up Team RWBY with a bit of a Chosen One narrative for Ruby in particular as she gets into Beacon Academy at around 15-16 years old, wields what is considered one of the most dangerous weapons, and she has these enigmatic Silver Eyes.

The first couple volumes set up the series like it will be a Slice of Life, Monster of the Week type show, with the girls meeting, forming a team, and attending classes to learn how to slay monsters. All the while, a bigger plot is being alluded to with the introduction of Roman Torchwick and Cinder Fall as villains, and a mysterious headmaster Ozpin with his group of secret operatives that work to keep the population safe from an unknown enemy.

By the end of Volume 3, it is obvious to the viewer that this is no longer just a sweet and silly series, as the world as our characters know it is shattered by an attack on the Academy, the seeds of panic and doubt sewn so meticulously into the public's subconscious as Cinder Fall enacts her plan to take the Fall Maiden's powers and find a relic hidden within Beacon. Character death, the awakening of Ruby's special powers, and a broken Team RWBY are among the last things we see before the volume wraps up.

Volume 4 picks up with Team RWBY all split up across Remnant, and the true journey to collect ancient magical relics and stop the evil witch Salem and her various minions begins.

So... I have a few complaints.

As much as I love RWBY, I would be remiss if I didn't also talk about some of the issues that chafe at my enjoyment a little bit. Overall, it is a series that's trying to show empowered women battling against despair and apathy, with a message that we have to keep moving forward for a better tomorrow. And I can certainly vibe with that, that is for sure the intentions of the writers, it's plain to see. However as the volumes have progressed the show feels like the odds continue to stack up against our heroes without them earning comparable power to topple them. And while RWBY is technically ongoing, RT had to close it's doors and the rights to the show were purchased by VIZ Media, so this change of hands could prove difficult for the storytelling direction.

My other big gripes are the timeline/pacing. Each volume has a varying span of time in it, but there aren't any indicators within the world to really tell us how much time has passed from volume 1 to volume 9. This is why things like Ruby's age are very difficult to gauge, and why some volumes feel like they drag on while others feel like they happen in the span of two weeks.

Additionally, it's quite obvious that Jaune Arc, previously a secondary character and now considered a main protagonist, is the self insert of one of the writers, and he kind of tarnishes the 'women empowerment' message when he swoops in the save the day all the time.

Despite the critiques I have for RWBY, I think it's still a show worth giving a shot. The world of Remnant is an interesting place, rich with ideas to explore. The FNDM, while it has it's less desirable parts, creates such lovely fanworks from comics, fanfictions, alternate universe retellings (including some more indie web series!), to roleplay communities on discord where original characters are born and traipse around!

I hope you will give it a try :3