RWBY vol 2: Jaune Arc-less edition

Long cut: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/3PjFvYjBmBs/

RWBY vol 2 original runtime: 153 mins
Jaune Arcless runtime: 137 mins*

*As with the first video, an edit where any scenes, shots or lines prominently featuring or being about Jaune was removed. He still appears in quite a few scenes with the other characters but with the cuts he’s now more of a background character.

I think  Vol 2 was a good improvement on the proportion of Jaune’s screen time. Just wish it had been better used. Commentary under the read more.

- Talking pure screen time, Jaune had about 16 minutes of screen time dedicated to him. This is about 10% of a 12 episode season with 12 to 15 minutes per ep. Or approximately 1 long episode. That, I think, is appropriate for a B-character/team.

- The process for cutting Jaune out of vol 2 was actually much faster than vol 1. It’s very clear when his presence is justified (RWBY horsing around with JNPR for example) and there are much less unnecessary shots of him and his reactions. That said, if I were to remove every shot of him, his screen time would be closer to 20 minutes. A little high since there are 3 other people in the B-team, but eh, we got a much longer volume too.

- So why was there still such an outcry over the focus on him?  I think part of the problem was that his storyline took up a large chunk of nearly a month’s worth of episodes. And it repeatedly validated certain behaviours that made many female viewers uncomfortable.

- If that entire arc had been condensed into a 1 episode side story “break” from the main plot, the arguments over his behaviour would still be there, but it would feel much less like he had once again hijacked the show.

- The arc came at the expense of not just sorely needed screen time for the main team, but at the expense of one of the main females. A main character was told off and framed as superficial for rejecting a boy she didn’t like, and who did nothing to change her mind by continuing to harass her despite her increasingly direct refusals.

- Finally with hindsight from the latest ep, the B-character they really should have focused on (and actually started to in episode 5 before aborting), was Pyrrha. She’s revealed to be Ozpin’s choice for guardian, so why didn’t she get more time and development than Jaune in vol 2?

At that point, none of the other members in JNPR were developed, and Pyrrha’s screen time and development was mostly determined by her crush on Jaune. Don’t even get me started on how we had to wait till the end of vol 2 and the first ep of vol 3 to get just a few lines about Ren and Nora.

That the show chose to focus on his manpain issues again rather than on JNPR as a B-team is just a lack of balance in development and portrayals.

- Was Jaune  a necessary character in vol 2? Strictly speaking, no. His biggest contribution to the ongoing overall plot was him ordering JNPR to help RWBY, and then the final fight was so disjointed that their impact felt minimal.

They could’ve been removed from ep 12 and it would not have made a difference to the story. Heck, the entire prom arc/love triangle could’ve been removed and the volume would probably have been stronger for it. The only thing I might’ve missed would be the JNPR dance scene at the end.

- I do think that it’s fine to have characters that are non-essential but play a certain function, such as comedic relief or to plausibly facilitate world building exposition. We don’t have to remove Jaune, but I think the writers need to improve their pacing and have much more plot/main character development before focusing another storyline on him.

- All that said, to give credit where it’s due, I feel that the writers did listen to the fandom and are doing an even better job in vol 3. I did like him in JNPR’s fight and his handling of the miscommunication incident. He’s slowly improving but not unrealistically so.

We’ve yet to see any hint of a Jaune Arc (I hope I didn’t jinx it by saying that hah), which has freed time up to develop Weiss, Yang and now possibly Pyrrha more. I hope that this improvement continues for vol 3 and possibly 4. Then maybe I’ll be ready for another Jaune arc.