User blog:ChishioKunrin/Why the introduction of ABRN is not a bad thing

People have been absolutely freaking out over the fact that we're getting more new characters next volume, and if the circumstances were different, I would be too. But here's the thing: It looks like Team ABRN being introduced is not going to be a problem.

Side note before I explain: From the moment they revealed there will be a tournament, way back in volume 1, I actually honestly expected them to bring in new characters for the tournament. So, I was surprised that everyone was so shocked about this.

So... AfterBuzz interviewed Miles and Kerry at RTX, and the question of how they're going to handle introducing the new characters came up. Kerry said, and I quote:


 * "We’re hoping the characters will really speak for themselves when they’re fighting, with their fighting style, and that people will get a kick out of it that way. It’s the kind of thing where we have so many characters, that it’s already balanced and we wanna make sure that all of our current characters progress."

Some people have freaked out about what he said. To be honest, what he meant to say was good. It's just that it all came out wrong. So, allow me to translate.


 * "We’re hoping the characters will really speak for themselves when they’re fighting, with their fighting style, and that people will get a kick out of it that way."

Translation: "You're going to get to know the new characters through their fighting, not through a whole bunch of casual scenes with them. We hope that getting to watch them fight will be enough for you guys because that's pretty much all you're getting of them."

Basically, ABRN is not here to get a spotlight. They're just some extras who were created for the specific purpose of making the tournament actually feel more like students from all over the world have gathered to compete. They're here to make the tournament feel less lopsided. Because, honestly, the tournament would feel rather empty and lopsided if they didn't introduce new characters for it because then we'd have With Team ABRN there, it already feels a bit less empty and lopsided. Then, there's the fact that Miles mentioned a "Team Funky." It's entirely likely that these new teams are mainly just going to be seen in the tournament setting.
 * 3 or 4 Vale teams (RWBY, JNPR, CRDL, possibly CFVY)
 * 1 Mistral team (SSSN)
 * Penny
 * Cinder's group

Now, here's the part that people freaked out about...


 * "It’s the kind of thing where we have so many characters, that it’s already balanced and we wanna make sure that all of our current characters progress."

It's not what it sounds like. Just take a moment to think about it.

Translation: "We have so many characters that we already balanced, and there's no room for new characters like Team ABRN. Since we really want to make sure that all of our current characters progress, we decided to have ABRN only fight and do nothing else. That way, we keep the balance that we had set up."

TL;DR:

Team ABRN isn't important. They're not going to get a spotlight and they're not going to take away from the main characters because their sole purpose is to make the "students from all over the world" thing feel more real and the tournament feel more alive. They're going to fight in the tournament and pretty much do nothing else.

So, everyone, calm down and stop freaking out over this so much.