...well I liked it. Yea it had some strange/bullshit stuff like every RWBY episode, but it delivered on the epic fights as it always does. The one on one fights were all awesome, especially Neo vs Yang. That woman who looks ridiculously like Adam has me incredibly intrigued, I want to know where she came from and why!
I'm still baffled that people who rage so hard about this show continue to watch it. If you don't like it, why are you so invested in it? I don't understand why you subject yourself to it.
...well I liked it. Yea it had some strange/bullshit stuff like every RWBY episode, but it delivered on the epic fights as it always does. The one on one fights were all awesome, especially Neo vs Yang. That woman who looks ridiculously like Adam has me incredibly intrigued, I want to know where she came from and why!
I'm still baffled that people who rage so hard about this show continue to watch it. If you don't like it, why are you so invested in it? I don't understand why you subject yourself to it.
...well I liked it. Yea it had some strange/bullshit stuff like every RWBY episode, but it delivered on the epic fights as it always does. The one on one fights were all awesome, especially Neo vs Yang. That woman who looks ridiculously like Adam has me incredibly intrigued, I want to know where she came from and why!
I'm still baffled that people who rage so hard about this show continue to watch it. If you don't like it, why are you so invested in it? I don't understand why you subject yourself to it.
Alright, let me give you my personal view of RWBY.
No one was looking forward to this show more than I was. I really, REALLY, wanted it to be good. When I saw "Red" Trailer for the very first time I thought this was going to be something special. As the other trailers came out my expectations grew and it wasn't until the end of "Yellow" Trailer that I started to get worried. And like other people I had my own concerns about it seeing that this was a Monty Oum project.
So after the first sixteen episodes I can pretty much tell you this: RWBY Volume 1 was COLOSSAL disappointment. Borderline insulting to any Western fan of anime, both purist and in general. I couldn't remember the last time I was that let down. If fact I felt like I'd been lied to. RWBY, as of then and pretty much now, has no plot, no background substance, no polish, poorly directed, poorly paced, a story that's been done a million times over in anime, characters that are so generic you could have real interpretations in there and they would been a lot more interesting, cliched to the death, the action are well done as expected but everything else just falls apart, and the whole thing felt as if the production team had nothing better to do.
Now I'm well aware of the other problems Volume 1 had such as the animation, the lip-syncing, and even the voice acting, but honestly I was expecting that seeing that it was Rooster Teeth's first attempt at a web series. However, that doesn't excuse how bad it was. Anyone who has worked on any sort of film can tell you that this series was rushed and not planned out well and pushed out the door well before it was ready. Some people are unable to watch this show, a few have even ended their subscriptions and sponsorship's with Rooster Teeth because of this show because they don't like where they're going.
It kills me because I had such high expectations for this show. Trust me, I'd be screaming it praises from a mountain top, the FIRST one to comes to it's defense! But... I can't. In retrospect I think I was way too forgiving of Monty with the RvB Freelancer episodes. When everyone was criticizing him for making it too much like an anime I actually defended him because I felt that maybe he needed to grow up a little since this was his first big step into going big. But then comes a show that slaps me in the face! Making me realize that just because you consider yourself the greatest action choreographer in the world doesn't make you the greatest storyteller in the world.
Monty promised us an epic series with an epic story and characters and the trailers HE made supported those claims. We expected an action adventure story about four girls from different places of the world eventually coming together and defeating the Creatures of Grimm and the The White, maybe even a greater evil that wass unknown. But as you can see, that's not what we got. Instead, we get another School Academy show, a typical and overdone setting that all but plagues anime. It's the biggest reason why I stopped watching anime years ago because they're all the same.
As you can imagine, not many of us were very pleased with what we saw. First came the 2013 RWBY Panal and I was absolutely livid on how Monty deceived everyone with the concept of this show. This was not the engaging and epic story that we were promised. No, this a story that has been done over, and over, and over, and over again. To make matters worse, he stated that the trailers, especially the first two, were inaccurate and that Ruby and Weiss were out of character. That obviously meant that Ruby wasn't a badass like her trailer portrayed her but is instead a Mary Sue and Weiss isn't a singer with a gentle soul but instead is a spoiled brat.
But when episode 6 of Volume 2 premiered I went into a rage because when Jaune was revealing to Ren that he was in love with Weiss he said this line, "Have you heard her sing?" WHERE was it established in the series that Weiss actually sings? Nowhere. Oh, but wait, in her trailer she sings. Yeah the same trailer that Monty said was inaccurate. Now, all of a sudden she sings even though we never heard her actually do so up till now. So this pretty proves two things. One, Monty doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. And two, he's a god damn liar. Monty said that RWBY wouldn't embrace all the anime tropes and cliches and yet it does just that.
As for action scenes, they're enjoyable but in all honesty who cares about action scenes if you don't have a strong story to back it up or well-fleshed out characters to care about? Action scenes are not the most important things when it comes to telling a story nor should they be. What kills it for me, what hurts the show the most is it's writing. It's among the worst I ever seen. I can go on a entire rant and provide example after example on why this is but I'll leave these two review videos to do that.
Along with these.
It's bad enough when you got a pair of writers whose incompetence is clearly shown, with a few exceptions such as the last two episodes, but it's even worse when you got a director like Monty who doesn't give a shit about anything but himself. It definitely feels like RWBY was supposed to be something much greater but they just didn't want to bother to take the time to do so. And here was the result.
And then they charge $25 for Volume 1 on Blu-Ray. Twenty-five dollars? On BLU-RAY? A half-finished product that is just over two hours long and of poor quality is $25? I'm sorry, but that's not worth it. There are WAY better products that are worth that asking price. RWBY doesn't come close.
And before you start giving Monty excuses consider this: If Monty really cared about his creation he would never have let Volume 1 release in the state it was in, would have gotten better writers, would have taking his directing a lot more seriously, and most of all wouldn't have lied to his audience about the concept of the series with the trailer. We all know how reasonable Burnie Burns is. Monty could have easily asked for more time but he didn't and instead shoved Volume 1 out the door just to satisfy his fans.
Volume 1 was a disaster and there was no excuse for it. Problems that could have been easily fixed were ignored. Rooster Teeth should have known better than allow Volume 1 to release the way it was but it seems they're only interested in making money now. The time of giving excuses for this show is over. Volume 2 should have fixed the problems that were present in Volume 1. So far the animation and pacing has been significantly improved but the writing has not.
RWBY has a great concept but suffers from poor writing. Volume 3 is going to be the brink of this series and if it doesn't dramatically improved, then I see no point in continue to follow this series.
I'm still baffled that people who rage so hard about this show continue to watch it. If you don't like it, why are you so invested in it? I don't understand why you subject yourself to it.
And why do you care what other people think about it?
If you don't like our opinions, why read them? Why do you continue to read the negative opinions of people who have more issues with the show than you do?
Why even bother reading the dissenting side of things at all?
Why subject yourself to it?
To stick your nose up at people who don't like it? Except that we do and that's why we say these things? Because we don't want to see potential wasted? Well, feel free.
Ok so, 1stly, Mikeyfell, I just realized you were the guy who did that video of the volume 1 review. It helped a great deal when I began putting together my thoughts on the show despite having found volume 1 so utterly forgettable I couldn't gather my thoughts. Good on ya, I hope you do a volume 2 at some point; you do a pretty decent Plinkett.
Secondly, Izanagi, I'll say it again, you might not be right, but at the same time you might not be wrong. Considering what we've seen the team yank from other series, it's possible. At the same time, I wouldn't mind if they did if they actually did something decent with what they're working with. If it's all flash and no substance, yeah it looks cool and all, but even something like Gurren Lagann or Kill La Kill had substance with the flash. One Piece is a long running series that kicks a ton of ass and was planned out from the beginning, and it has its fair share of flashy moments too.
I think my main issue with this whole thing is that there are animes that do everything RWBY is doing, but better, but at the same time this is an anime newly being made that meant I could get into it off the bat instead of having to catch up on dozens of eps. Plus with the reduced runtime I would be able to enjoy the episodes in nice bite sized chunks rather than watching hour after hour.
But then I watched it, and at first I watched, but something wasn't right. It took me a couple episodes in to start noticing things weren't making sense, and that things weren't really being explained.
By the time it was over I barely remembered the whole of V1. I went into V2 hoping for something better. I watched and went 'meh.' I want to give the series a chance. Even if a lot of stuff was muddled, I still want to see things get better, if they do. The last portion of volume 2 is upon us. It's going to be a big fight, and that's probably about it.
At the very least, let it be a good fight.
As it is, all the Monty work has clashed horribly with the Miles and Kerry work. The fight scenes contradict the dialogue, and when things slow down, everything's in a state of bipolarity; things are either being forced along or nothing's happening.
At this point it'd be better to just pretend volume 1 never happened. Just pretend all the references, the contradictions, the derps from the previous season never existed. Volume 2 suddenly makes sense. Except for this episode, really, but remember, volume 1 never happened, so this is the REAL volume 1. They're just working the kinks out.
And why do you care what other people think about it?
If you don't like our opinions, why read them? Why do you continue to read the negative opinions of people who have more issues with the show than you do?
Why even bother reading the dissenting side of things at all?
Why subject yourself to it?
I don't like reading all the negative opinions of people. I clicked this thread on a whim since it appeared in the latest forum posts box on the front page, hoping it would be a decent discussion of pros, cons and theories/speculation, not just people shitting all over the show (I should have known better). Hence why I'm not reading DirectorK's lengthy post above, since just a quick skim shows it's more of the same.
If I don't like something I drop it. I was a fan of Assassin's Creed before 3, after I hated that game I dropped the series for good. I don't continue with entertainment products if I'm not entertained by them. I apologise for sounding so condescending but I legitimately don't understand why people get so invested in shows/games they don't even like very much.
And why do you care what other people think about it?
If you don't like our opinions, why read them? Why do you continue to read the negative opinions of people who have more issues with the show than you do?
Why even bother reading the dissenting side of things at all?
Why subject yourself to it?
I don't like reading all the negative opinions of people. I clicked this thread on a whim since it appeared in the latest forum posts box on the front page, hoping it would be a decent discussion of pros, cons and theories/speculation, not just people shitting all over the show (I should have known better). Hence why I'm not reading DirectorK's lengthy post above, since just a quick skim shows it's more of the same.
If I don't like something I drop it. I was a fan of Assassin's Creed before 3, after I hated that game I dropped the series for good. I don't continue with entertainment products if I'm not entertained by them. I apologise for sounding so condescending but I legitimately don't understand why people get so invested in shows/games they don't even like very much.
if it was a total failure like Terraformars and it's horrible censorship, I would stop. But this isn't a complete failure, there has been potential that has shined through with action and the two episodes before this. A total failure is not able to bring most of us to this kind of state, it's the projects that could work but didn't that get us riled up.
I clicked this thread on a whim since it appeared in the latest forum posts box on the front page, hoping it would be a decent discussion of pros, cons and theories/speculation, not just people shitting all over the show (I should have known better).
Thanks for making it sound like most of our issues with the show are petty and spiteful. Are all the fans with a hard-on for this show this condescending? So sorry we made you uncomfortable with our non-reverence for Oum and his series starchild. Sorry we had to go and criticize the series for its flaws instead of talking about how awesome it is.
Look, the action is fine, the music is good, the character design is great.
But look, the writing is bad.
But look, the characters are bad.
Some people find the VA's bad.
And it's apparent the writers are stumbling through Montyland where action reigns supreme and story takes a backseat.
And look, none of the writers actually care about the world they've established (and I use the term 'established' loosely).
And this is something they want to be this big epic thing? Is this something people want?
Don't act like the positives absolve the series of its flaws. Just because we get frustrated by the RWBY team pulling things out of their asses and carrying over issues from volume 1 doesn't mean we're "shitting all over the show." Spare me the "you are all just angry plebs" crap. If we don't contribute much to the discussion, that kind of attitude contributes even less.
Subjective quality and objective quality are 2 different things. Subjective is how you liked it, objective is how much effort was made in creating it. And I do like the series, but that's why it hurts to see it do stupid crap. That's why it hurts to know nothing about dust, or the kingdoms, or the Grimm beyond the same redundant information they've been throwing at us. That's why it hurts to have seen the trailers and ended up disappointed because the characters turned out to be unlikable twats when we hoped for a likeable ragtag band of misfits.
Hence why I'm not reading DirectorK's lengthy post above, since just a quick skim shows it's more of the same.
TL;DR? If you close your eyes you don't have to think about it, amirite?
If I don't like something I drop it. I was a fan of Assassin's Creed before 3, after I hated that game I dropped the series for good. I don't continue with entertainment products if I'm not entertained by them. I apologise for sounding so condescending but I legitimately don't understand why people get so invested in shows/games they don't even like very much.
Firstly, we do like it. We like the ideas in play here. We just don't like how they're being handled. If we really hated the show, we'd drop it and be dismissive like you say rather than spending our time talking about issues the show has. It's because we like it that we are invested and talking about it.
And honestly if you want speculation and theories, we've done that before. We can't really do that here though because it was a 'mostly fighting' episode. We can't exactly speculate; we KNOW there's going to be a huge fight. We can't guess people (any IMPORTANT people anyway) will die because the team's already stated they don't want anyone to die. The biggest speculation I can make is that despite the train going boom Toadlick did not die in the blast. Likely saved by Neo, if I were to guess.
Why is Toadlick considered a threat again? I mean, he did SUCCEED this time, sort of, but he's still a jobber.
To be honest the biggest thing on my mind is wondering if Oobleck uses dust to heat his coffee, and how dust-heated coffee would taste. Actually now that I think about it, since dust is used to make fire, does that mean no one in the team can actually make a camp fire the traditional way? In fact, since dust exists in this world we can assume there's no gasoline, or propane, or the like. In fact, since we know dust's main uses (fuel, weaponry, clothes, physical infusion, magic), we can assume they must have some level of technology, I mean, they must have agriculture, and Atlas is way more heavily militarized so they must've had mining operations to produce metals, so...
But then dust is only based off of four fundamental elements, but that doesn't cover certain things. I mean, you might not need dust for agriculture sure, but do they have like, dust power plants for energy?
Why are some Grimm non-hostile if 'killing is all that matters?' In fact why should the Grimm even care about self-preservation if they're just endlessly being reproduced from 'somewhere?' If it were so they could become more powerful that would make sense, but then why not fight amongst themselves rather than risking getting killed? Even fighting amongst themselves would produce frightningly powerful Grimm at later stages. What's limiting the flow of Grimm? We know they're being slain by hunters and huntresses but to what extent is this effective? How do we know there isn't like, billions of them gathering en masse to wipe out cities. In fact, why are they only drawn in by negative emotion when they're meant to be human-erasing killing machines?
You see how easy it is to get off track 'speculating?' You could write a whole page on this.
But no one can answer can they? Because:
But hey, you didn't read this either, because it's "more of the same." TL;DR, after all.
It's ok. You can go back to thinking RWBY is perfect now. When you want to actually talk about how the show can improve, you can come back.
Honestly I enjoy the more static angles at times. When it's a good angle, you really get to see the full choreography and that's good. It's a hell of a lot better than something like, say the Bay Transformers films where the camera angles are shifting so damn much you can't even tell what's going on.
I feel though that there's a lot of limitations that take away from the fight scenes. 1st up would be the static angles are sometimes poorly done. Static angles CAN work. It's just that the cinematography is hit or miss depending on the episode. 2nd is the animations are far from 100 percent clean. I mean, let's be honest here, they're not putting together the smoothest work, yeah?
I don't feel this is laziness on Monty's part, but because they're using mocap it certainly seems like it.
And now that I think about it, it's kinda frustrating that none of the fights really slow down on hits to show impact. People either get tossed about or shrug off hits, and that doesn't really show impact. Someone gets hit in the stomach, they would probably just double over (or lean forward slightly) for a sec before the fight continues. Monty keeps things fast and thus there's a lack of impact because he never really seems to slow down and just show the hit.
Like, for example, if Yang took a really hard hit in the gut. Impact would show her doubling over, maybe making a face, coughing up a bit, blood if you wanna get really gritty. I don't think we've really seen hard hits. And of course I blame the whole "halo shield aura" nonsense. No one gets badly hurt. No one's going to die either.
No threat = no tension. No tension = no investment.
I'm not saying we need choppy choppy stabby stabby. Just show the hit. And just because it makes a crater doesn't mean there's impact if the character just gets back up. It has to effect the CHARACTER, not just the environment to have impact, yeah?
You are correct that the character has to be affected by the hits but when the medium I'm comparing RWBY to has a scene where a person literally regenerates right after being nearly bifurcated by an energy blast from a mythical sword and then just brushes off the magical equivalent of a bunker buster, you kind of adjust just how much a person would be affected.
grated, none of the RWBY cast are Berserker who is
Hercules boosted by a spell that drives the target mad and has to be killed 12 times before being put down
But you have to realize that exaggeration is going to be a thing; if the impact targets don't show the power of the hits, the environment has to.
But your point does still stand. Even in the fights I showed, there still was feedback with Saber being bent due to kicks, Berserker taking cuts, and during overhead strikes, leaning back in order to brace against the strike.
I still think that we can say that, compared to the anime that inspired RWBY, RWBY is a poor facsimile in it's action department and worse than amateur in it's writing.
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