Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-34633327-20171110205409/@comment-33555628-20171113061716

ChishioKunrin wrote:

1. I kind of see it like what happened with Blake in Volume 3. Blake got a pretty strong focus in Volume 2 and the end of Volume 1, so throughout the first half of Volume 3, she took a back seat for a while until it was time for something important to happen to her again in the end of Volume 3. A lot of fans were freaking out and upset like "Why is Blake suddenly in the background now?! Why is she on a back burner?! Miles, Kerry, why are you doing this to her?!!" She had already had quite a bit of focus and she was going to get some more later, so it was actually a good move to give her a break. Those fans just didn't see it at the time.

Plus, when a character (or multiple characters) takes a short break after getting a large focus, it allows other characters who haven't had as much focus lately to step up to the spotlight.

2. Volume 1 was the absolute best volume for Ruby character-wise. We got to see a lot about her as a person, beneath the surface. She felt more like a real person in that volume. But then, from Volume 2 to 3, she started feeling more and more like just a walking, talking plot device to a lot of people. We stopped getting to see her being a person so much and started seeing her more as just "that hero" who was doing plot things and reacting to whatever was happening right in front of her face at that moment. Once a moment was over, she stopped showing how it affected her, as if she just brushed it off like water off a duck's back. A lot of fans don't like that because it makes her feel like a Mary Sue who doesn't get affected by anything that happens.

In Volume 4, we saw a little bit of how the Fall of Beacon affected her, but the focus for that was mainly on JNR and WBY, with Ruby mainly just getting to step into the spotlight either because of plot things (Tyrian going after her) or as support to Jaune and his characterization. She's way behind Jaune and WBY when it comes to characterization, and while she did get a little in Volume 4, it didn't feel like quite enough to make up for the deficit.

3. Indeed, another reason why it would've been so much better if Volume 4 hadn't timeskipped or had barely timeskipped. Also a good reason why Miles and Kerry went back and said "Nevermind, it wasn't 6-8 months, it was an unspecified amount of time, just don't apply a number to it at all."

4. In one of the exclusive cast interviews that was shown at the theater screening of Volume 5 Episode 1, Miles said that Ruby is bottling everything up and that will all come out at some point. In RWBY Rewind, Lindsay said that Ruby's attitude is "I don't have time for my emotions. I gotta make sure everyone else is okay." So, Ruby losing her cool is just a sign that the bottle is getting too full, the cracks are starting to form. Eventually, it's all gonna come out because she can't hold everything in forever.

However, it's one thing for a writer and her voice actress to say that this is what she's doing, it's another for the show to finally show that to us, and I can't wait. 1.      1. Yeah, I agree with you in that regard, like I said is understandable; but bear with me a minute. We saw Jaune being angry at Qrow for what happened to Pyrrha, right? Of course he wouldn’t let anyone kill him out of that anger because that’s his nature and duty as a huntsman, but in V5 Chapter 1 we see him smiling at him like nothing happened. And when Ozpin appeared again? Jaune, Nora and Ren were just amazed and happy, and even curious, not aware or angry because of what happened to Pyrrha. Let’s be honest here, Jaune even accused Qrow to use Ruby as bait to attract the enemy. The lack of scenes (where it doesn’t show he got past that) just made scenes from previous volumes lose their value. That’s the problem I have with cutting scenes for characters that had development from before.

2. You are contradicting yourself; you said that Ruby needed character development, yet she had a lot from Volume 1 to volume 3, we’ve seen her grow, and you also said that other characters need to shine or take the spotlight to make them grow as well. As spectators, we have to see the personality for each character; Ruby is just like that, she is weak on the inside and even if we are starting to see her weakness showing up, that doesn’t mean her character development is starting late, it means she is strong enough to swallow the grief and keep moving forward. We should not confuse those kind of things. Besides, you said it in your point 4, she will eventually break.

3. Indeed, other mistakes that they are still making are the ones I pointed out in my point 1; the fact that some scenes don’t have any value or stopped meaning something because of their attitude in this volume.

4. Yup, although I must say that because she knows Ruby’s dialogues she can have some ground on what she feels like before anyone else (besides the tone voice the script tells her to have as well).