Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-14138255-20160807005311/@comment-26018514-20160813172642

ChishioKunrin wrote: Alhazad2003 wrote: Nikoli the rebel wrote: Well that sucks. I liked Roman. But in the scope of narration, I don't think he was ever strong enough of a fighter to challenge the main characters. And if the four main girls are going to get stronger then Roman seems more and more like a puppy dog and not a threat going forward. He was originally supposed to be a one-time enemy, but after RT saw how popular he was, they made him a main antagonist. How many times do I have to tell people this?

Roman staying in RWBY had NOTHING to do with how popular he was with the fans.

Miles, Kerry, and Monty loved writing for Roman and loved Gray's voice acting for him, and THAT is when they decided to keep him!

In other words: They decided to keep him before any of us ever got to see him in the show. Alhazad never said fans, they said popularity... which is still true, I'm pretty sure they said more input than those four went into it, but it was as you pointed out in-office popularity.