Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25247233-20160513080632/@comment-27997419-20160517125836

SomeoneYouUsedToKnow wrote:

-There may be some merit to what you say...Monty only knew about animation. He only knew how to make awesome fights. When he came up with ideas for different things, he did it to provide cool fights, not thinking of how good they would be from a storytelling PoV. On their own they may sound cool, but this isn't like Dead Fantasy which is nothing but mindless fights one after another. RWBY's actually trying to tell a story.

-The thing is...it was always meant to be like that. The writers make a good story, the animators bring it to life. It's not about making mindless fights carried out by some thin plot thread that barely exists, like Dead Fantasy. It's about making a story, with the fights being part of it. If Monty wanted to do the former, he should've sticked to Dead Fantasy.

Hell, many of the things complained about in Vol.1 and 2, like the heroes being too strong, was thanks to Monty, since he hardly tried to scale their strength to their level.

-It was always like that. The only difference back then was that 1 of the animators, Monty, doubled as creator, and offered his ideas and plans.

-What they should've done was not that. What they should've done was to allow input from Sheena. She was Monty's wife, if anyone knows the most about what Monty had planned, it's her. Shane's letter implied that the writers weren't even checking Monty's ideas and plans anymore, as if instantly assuming they would be crazy and dumb (which, granted, a good number of Monty's ideas were like that), which is just plain wrong.

-Replacement? Or addition? In both cases, bad idea. For the former, he's just 1 person, used to nothing but animation. To replace Miles and Kerry would be more than he can handle. For the latter, he idolized Monty like if he was Jesus in the cross. He would've fought tooth and nail to keep his plans in their original form, regardless of how good/bad they were, and wouldn't care much about Miles or Kerry's thoughts on the matter. It would require much persuasion everyday.

-It's still his cliché creation. He was the creator, everyone knows that, and no one will take that title from him. But it never belonged only to Monty. It was made through teamwork by the people at RT, including him. From the start, the ideas and plans were discussed between Miles, Kerry and Monty, not just Monty. RWBY's still RWBY.

Though I agree with the animation part. The current remaining animators...I don't feel like they match Shane and Monty. And if Shane's letter was any indication, Shane and Monty already had it difficult because of executive meddling. Yes, RWBY is trying to tell a story...but the origin for that story has always been the cool animated fight scenes. As long as the fight scenes don't directly contradict the storyline, then a fight scene shouldn't be modified just because it "feels useless".

Also the point that I get from Shane's letter goes beyond the fight scenes, but also the weapon animation, and other things which would have been made for cool animation are now being overlooked to give importance to the plot. (E.g. Red Trailer the scene of Ruby unsheathing Crescent Rose, one of the coolest scenes ever. Would be completely overlooked if Plot was priority).

Also the animation of Semblances. Animation of dust. Animation of anything... That is what it seems the focus was...and Monty had an idea of what and when things were going to have cool animation, which was then ignored after he died, because it didn't further the plot.

And yes you are right...TRADITIONALLY, writers create the plot and animators bring it to life.

But this was different. RWBY was created by an animator. The animator wanting to show off what is capable. Showing off cool animation. The point of the writer then, is to take cool new animation and fit it into the existing storyline. The animation is not just to display the plot, but RWBY was created for the animator to create cool animation in their own free time and then hand it to the writer who would then attempt to find a place where that cool animation could be included, even if it was in a future episode/season. I keep repeating myself, but this cannot be understated, the original purpose for RWBY was for animators to create original content, and the afterthought was the storyline.

About Shane being part of the creative team...when I said replace, I meant to replace Monty. Once Monty died, Shane should have taken Monty's place at the creator's table. And together, the writers and head animator, they should have worked together! Because while the writers knew the plot, Shane knew the special purpose that animation had within RWBY. Because Shane, just like Monty, is an animator!!

Sheena should also obviously be made part of the creative process, even if it's just to provide ideas and opinions.

While I understand that Shane's letter was very biased, it makes very perfect sense.