Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-14138255-20160214165601/@comment-73.165.21.136-20160220025311

I am so sorry, but I just need to vent.

First, I do believe that from a purely mechanical perspective, Volume 3 was the best. I felt the fights were grander, the animations smoother, and the world just looked neater.

From a story perspective, I find this is my least favorite volume, and for a series that is only 3 very short volumes long, that is not a good thing.

 First, volume 3 falls victim to what has been one of RWBY's greatest weaknesses: characters. RWBY has so much potential with its characters, but none of them ever get real development. Volume 3 was the worst. In earlier volumes, Jaune started to come into his own, and Weiss was able to be more accepting of Blake and her teammates. None of the other characters have (really) changed.

 Seriously, most of the volumes have been the exact same characters reacting to things in predictable ways. Yang doesn't change, Blake doesn't really change, Ruby, the bloody main character, is almost irredeemably two sided. Flat. And. It. Kills. Me. Oh, and Ren and Nora? I forget they exist until Team JNPR actually gets a fight.

 As for all the other characters we saw in Volume 3, most of them were filler content. Team NDGO, Team SSSN, Team BRNZ, all of the other teams are almost totally without purpose. They give viewers some pretty good fight scenes, but all the time wasted to animating these fights was obviously taken from developing characters.

 And it gets worse. There were two characters in this Volume that got anything approaching development; Cinder and Pyrrha. One of these characters is a rather uninteresting villain, and the other one gets killed off. Yes, Pyrrha is dead. In my fanfiction she lives, but she is canonically as dead a doornail. And Roosterteeth wasted all their limited character development on someone they planned to murder. Great. One of my favorite characters is dead, and for what?

 I've heard fans say that this was needed, that a traumatic, dramatic event was needed to inspire real change in the characters. Really? Then why was it so poorly executed? They could have simply let the Grimm take Vale, and call it quits there. And if you need some sad stuff, you can take Yang's arm. Fine. Drive off Blake? Fine. But killing Pyrrha? What does that actually achieve? We lose the first legit romance in the series, Jaune loses his character development catalyst, and the fandom is heartbroken (yes, that includes me).

 And if the loss of a friend was supposed to change the characters, it failed. Ruby was temporarily distraught, but she soon forgot about Pyrrha and became focused on Yang. Weiss is out of the picture anyways. Yang was seemed only to care that Blake ran. Blake buggered off to God Knows Where, and team JNR didn't seem too traumatized when we saw them last. So, Pyrrha's death happened only because Monty wanted it to happen. Fine, that's what the man wanted, fine.

 But hey, all of these sins could be forgiven, if the finale did a good job of wrapping things up, at least a little bit. The finale offered some of the worst closure I've seen, ever. So, Ruby, Jaune, Ren, and Nora just walk to Mistral after a big time skip (As seen by the changing of the seasons) because something may be there? What are they actually looking for? Hell, what about those other people we saw during the voiceover? Professor Goodwitch was running out of steam in the middle of occupied Vale, Weiss's father (who we know nothing about) showed up, General Ironwood vanished, along with Teams CFVY, SSSN, NDGO, and BRNZ, and nothing was even close to being resolved.

 Here's the problem: it felt like Part I of a Volume Finale. We saw nothing about Jaune reacted to Pyrrha's death, we don't know where JNR went, we don't know what happened in the time skip, and we don't know what happened to Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, or Neo.

 I know some people think that some of this information should be saved for Volume 4, but the end of a Volume (or any season) should at least solve some existing problems before introducing anything new. This was something Volume 2 did well. It solved the Volume with a dramatic fight, but other than that, it only introduced enough questions to make you excited for Volume 3. The bad storytelling of Volume 3 might just put me off Volume 4. If this volume sets a trend, then I might find another show to fill my time.

I guess the only good news about Pyrrha's (needless) death is that it opens the possibilities of some more shipping. Oh wait! There is now only one viable candidate for shipping (Ruby), unless RT decides to take the Avatar: The Last Airbender route and introduce a new love interest a couple seasons later. 'Cause Yang is out of it, Weiss is out of it, all the other females are out of it. And hey, given how little development these characters get, adding a new character to fulfill Jaune's love interest is an awful idea. I guess if RWBY had more episodes, or longer episodes, this would not be a problem. But given how little time we actually have with the characters in canon, the fanfictions are starting to seem the better of the two, with good development in some stories, and satisfying conclusions. Volume 3 was anything but satisfying.

Yeah, sorry, but my final message is this: Keep. Shipping. Jaune. And. Pyrrha. Regardless of the jiggery pokery RT pulls in Volume 4, it would be a shame to forget the first (read, only) romance to really happen in RWBY.

And hey, remember that this fandom does have power. We loved Roman, so he lived past his planned expiration date. It is possible, if only slightly, that Pyrrha could make a comeback in some small capacity. And if she doesn't, well, we have enough talented writers of our own. We can continue to make worlds, level kingdoms, and build romances in our own minds, our own stories. Thanks.