User blog comment:CaveJohnson333/RWBY Characters Hurt/Heal/@comment-5717877-20160323031619/@comment-26397825-20160323220021

Roman got a larger role because the creators loved him, not because the fans loved him (though they did too). And Neo was only made because the creators decided they wanted to use Roman more and Monty felt that he needed his own helped instead of it just being him hired by Cinder with nonone on his side. Their increased roles were purely a creator thing, not a fan thing like Velvet.