Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26986589-20161029210635/@comment-26986589-20161031163429

WC-83 wrote: Chbedok1 wrote:

In the end, every element of RWBY serves as a simple engine on four wheels that would get you from one place to another. Its not a story, but a platform from which an author tries to talk about his or her own views about the world. Social commentary if you will, which results in the characters being simplistic placeholders for particular points of views or ideas, instead of people with stories I want to listen to. That is.....not true at all. There is literally no political message I can see in RWBY, except maybe "America can anime too!!!"

The previous points you made about the characters being shallow are valid, except for Cinder (and Jaune a bit, but not nearly as much). Cinder is shallow because we haven't seen her backstory yet. She doesn't have a grudge against the Fall Maiden, she just needed to steal (sorry, violently reappropriate) her powers to fuffill her boss' evil plan, the rest is draped in mystery that has yet to be revealed.

Jaune meanwhile would probably be more interesting as a freeloader with a heart of gold, but I don't know how people would react to that Jaune with knowledge of our Jaune.

And keep in mind, Chibi is a straightforward comedy, something the Roosterteeth honestly does good work at. And it also relies on elements from this show, but blown to comedic levels. Their characters are just as badly written, but they flanderize their characteristics (Jaune's casanova tendencies, Blake's cat characteristics, Cinder's EEEEEEVIIIIILLLL, etc.) to make us laugh.

I won't say that it is a political message as much as an ideal or idea of the creators. When I first started writing fanfiction, my characters were like what I earlier described. Just my ideals and personal values put into story form, which made for bad characters as they become one dimensional place holders and are no longer interesting. There is no political message, just an idealized version of my view on the world. The same is in RWBY, the characters are an embodiment of the creator's ideals regarding a story or concept, not a political message or commentary.

A good villain should have his or her ideals and motivation established early. For example, it should be made known that Cinder chose to pass of as students in Beacon because she had a connection there or something. Hindsight villainy should be avoided where possible, but that's just me. Once again, its not the details that should be revealed, but the backstory and the motivations that should be established early.

Can't argue about the shorts though.