Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24.1.105.23-20140715074343/@comment-76.104.210.252-20140718023157

GlassGolem wrote: 76.104.210.252 wrote: Ever seen Mobile Suit Gundam 00? At least that's one of the shows that explained what Celestial Being's doing and how the world's responding to their global intervention. Within five episodes, I already identified the main character's motivations of eliminating war with the Gundams, what kind of personalities they have, a brief, but not full novel about their backstories, and other supporting characters that blend in well with the main cast. And how is that not what we have in RWBY?

I went and checked my DVDs, and we only get a little of Allelujah's backstory in ep.05, and we don't in particular learn about his "space trauma" until Season 2. Setsuna and Lockon's backstories are not properly revealed until ep.07, and we much more near ep.20. and for Tieria we get next to nothing until Season 2. Similarly, we don't learn the details of the event that lead Sumeragi to join Celestial Being until Season 2, or that Graham accidentally killed a superior officer until around ep.15, or that  Sergei has a family until Season 2.

As for Attack on Titan? Yes, we do learn a lot about our "core" main characters backstories in those first five episodes... except that, 20+ episodes in, we still don't know why Eren is a Titan Shifter, or even how he became one; In fact, we have even more mysteries added to his backstory with the reveal that he is also the "Coordinate", which manly explains why the group that's blackmailing(yes, blackmailing) the other Titan Shifters to capture him want him. And we know nothing about that group.

My point is not that those series are bad, far from it. But that they didn't get us to care about their characters by revealing their entire life's story in the first five episodes; they instead revealed some of those backstories early on, told us more later, and let us infer much more.

I know it's normal for us in the internet age to want everything right now, but that runs almost completely opposite to how you write a good story. That's less a problem for you, and more a problem for those who want everyone's backstory right now.

You obviously haven't read my post entirely. Why don't you think about the bigger picture first before only focusing on the "characters alone" concept. I wasn't talking about how soon I wanted to know the backstory of the innovators for instance, but more about what sort of actions they're currently doing in response to how the plot's developing. Look at Garrus Vakarian from Mass Effect. I didn't know about his backstory until much later, but I liked him more than I do most of RWBY characters because I already knew what kind of person he's going to be and how he was introduced into the Mass Effect plot. Took a whole another game to fully describe his views on justice and how to deal with criminals with his loyalty mission.

It's not just about how soon do you describe the character's backstories, but more about the, "why do I care about them in regards about what's going on" aspect (aka setting up a solid base). The whole mood of RWBY went all over the place, because we have no idea what the purpose of its universe is trying to say, other than typical school story tropes flying in left and right (i.e. initiation, taking classes, school district tournaments). The trailers gave me the impression of fairy tail-inspired characters fighting the forces of evil, and the school was just a cover for what it was hoping to be; an agency that detects and prevents the forces of evil from attacking their home, whether it be monsters, evil corporations, or other evil fairy tail characters. Heck, I had the impression of a, "about time you got to something interesting," 15 episodes after you showed a villain with some plan (Torchwick). Then it just suddenly was revisited by a brief scene, making me think, "what did he do again?" as opposed to, "so that's why Torchwick was attacking localized places with Dust."

Say what you want, because all that matters in the end is opinions of your own thinking. Now if you'll excuse me, I got my own stuff to work on now.