Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-26417457-20190727003315/@comment-39854843-20190727082707

Good analysis. I'm mostly in the 'RWBY's villains suck' camp, but I do recognize that some of them show some potential. I rate villains based on 5 major factors. Namely personality, motivation, capacity to menace, likability, and complexity. I also take into account appearance and fight style, but to me those are less important. I'm going to leave out several of the less developed villains that I don't feel I can fairly judge at this point in time. With that said, here's how I rate everyone.

Cinder
Cinder is a one-dimensional villain, plain and simple. She demonstrates no capacity for mercy, empathy, or any kind of emotion other than rage. She has no identifiable motivation beyond wanting power, which typically is a means of attaining something, but for Cinder is the end goal (imagine Thanos if he wanted the infinity stones purely for the sake of being powerful, rather than for the purpose of universal-scale population control). She's like the rough draft of a fully formed villain, one that functions more as a force of nature than a character, because she bears none of the traits that make characters autonomous and interesting. She herself is the opposite of interesting, mainly because what drives her is nothing more than primal cruelty and lust for power (not unlike a vicious, feral animal). There is no nuance to counterbalance that drive.

This wouldn't be a problem if she had a personality or the raw charisma to make up for it, which she does not. She speaks in the most monotone, inflectionless, and boring manner imaginable. This is partly to blame on the writing, partly on the directing, and partly on the acting; but overall the character is completely flat and unconvincing. This also neuters her capacity to menace the viewer, because her raw unlikability makes her more annoying than scary, which only further draws attention to her defecits.

I agree with you, she should die in Volume 7, or at the very least in the Atlas arc. She has overstayed her welcome, contributes nothing of value to the show, and is harming the overall legacy of RWBY merely by being present in it. She needs to go.

Neo
I like Neo despite her inability to speak. I think her lack of dialogue serves to make her more mysterious and more menacing. This works only because she's a supporting villain, who bears little weight when it comes to contributing to the plot. Rather, her role is to dazzle with her incredible defensive fighting style, as well as her quirkiness, which she does very effectively.

However, she's not a nuanced villain. She has no backstory, a stunted personality (due to her inability to speak), and little motivation beyond avenging Roman. She's also not particularly menacing, though she is quite likable. So, in summation, she's a cool villain, but once you peel back her exterior, she's underwhelming.

Emerald
Emerald has the capacity to be a good villain, but only if she gets a well written redemption arc. They've done a good job building her up towards that for the first six volumes of this show, but executing it (as they did with Ilia) is the key to actualizing her as a character. It's really hard for me to judge her at this point because it's so clear that her story is far from finished.

What I've seen so far is a character that has capacity for cruelty and evil, but counterbalances it with clearly defined moral dilemmas and crises of conscience. Her relationship with Cinder is emblematic of this. Right now, she sees her as her mentor, but as she progresses through her redemption arc, that picture of Cinder will begin to degrade and her opinion of her will likely change. I look forward to seeing that play out, and that's why I consider Emerald an effective and intriguing villain.

Mercury
Mercury is basically Cinder, but less vicious and far more personable. I don't really like him very much, and to me he serves only as input into Emerald's character development and doesn't really function as an autonomous character, at least as of this point.

Roman
Roman Torchwick is the perfect example of a likable villain. He's evil, no doubt, but he never causes harm to anyone we care about, and his personality is transcedently awesome. This allows him to function as a successful villain despite the fact that he has no backstory, and no real motivation to speak of. He doesn't need it. He has charisma to make up for it.

Tyrian
Your typical psychopath with no identifiable traits other than being balls-to-the-wall crazy. He's entertaining, but ultimately he's just a glorified sycophantic grunt with virtually no grip on reality.

Hazel
My feelings on Hazel are basically identical to Emerald. I think he's a person in tremendous pain over his past who needs to grapple with it, and ultimately redeem himself if he is to be an effective villain. I do find his being somewhat of a pacifist, juxtaposed with his apparent role as a berserker when he's fighting to be a bit odd. Not sure what RT was thinking there.

Raven
I liked Raven's arc more than most people did, though I do think it could have been handled better. I think her ethos of 'the strong live and the weak die' is fascinating when you consider that she's actually a total hypocrite. I agree that she's more of a villain than an anti-hero. My problem with her is that her rushed development causes her to oscillate between caring mother and psychopathic killer whenever it suits her.

Adam
I'm not even going to dignify this cretinous assbag with any kind of serious analysis. He's a creepy, abusive stalker and I'm glad he's dead.

Salem
I think her backstory elevated her to new heights, if I'm being honest. I always felt that she was the typical, overarching mega villain who sits on their ass and has incompetents do all the dirty work. But after watching Volume 6, I find her farm more interesting as a villain than I did before. I sympathize with her, and I understand why she's in the dark place that she's in. She feels that she's waging a war against tyranical gods and she believes that this premise gives her the right to commit unspeakable attrocities for the greater good. She's wrong, of course, but I understand why she so delusionally thinks she's right.

=
=================================

So, with that all said, here's how I'd rank them.

1 - Roman

2 - Salem

3 - Emerald

4 - Neo

5 - Hazel

6 - Raven

7 - Tyrian

8 - Mercury

9 - Cinder

10 - Adam

Oh, and you forgot to put Tyrian in your chart, just so you know.