Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-25266931-20161112032800/@comment-25266931-20161114054757

WC-83 wrote:

My rebuttal to you not wanting them to be concerned with things like relationship drama and fitting in is baseless in this show because that's simply what people in their age range deal with, things they honestly should deal with at that age, being a natural part of life (and when done right, can give us glimpse into their character).

When you have a child/teen character that acts the way you are describing, that character usually has had horrible shit happen to them to make them that way (either that or they were sheltered, and that doesn't make them mature by default, if anything it'd make them timid and/or self-righteous), and it's not as normal as you'd think. A child character who is like that has been robbed of a happy childhood in that scenario.

Remember Batman in Justice League Unlimited when the League was turned into children? Wonder why he was the only one still acting like his older self? It was because he was never a child because he saw his parents get gunned down. And that's not a good thing, it's terrible for him to live through. When I made this thread it was never really about RWBY, it's about shows in general that do it. And how often they do it. It's all over the place and praised as great writing no matter how many writers do it the same way others do it. The same trope over and over.

With Batman in that episode (good episode by the way, kudos for the ref) he may have ended up that way. With a tortured childhood that forced him to mature fast to deal with it. But that's not always a bad thing. Other than Batman, there have been some who've have crappy childhoods, grown up bitter then lightened up and an bounced down to be a well-rounded caring human being. I gave you Edward Elric as an example. Another would be .Hack//GU's Haseo. He went from naive new-comer. Got tortured, became a bully. Learned to care again. And became a hero. If you look at his life in the game's beginning as his "childhood", the middle as his "teens" and the end as his "adulthood" then it's his hardships of his childhood that molded him to be the hero he became. Because he had suffered he knew that pain and could sympathize with others. He knew he didn't want others to feel that pain. Thus he saves them.

@ Highcastle: I don't want all characters to be the dark mature type, but those are my favorite. Any time a character embraces a fantastical or harsh situation and pushes on thru it, those are usually the stronger-minded characters to me. And usually the ones I become most interested in.