Quick thoughts on the vol 3 DVD commentary summary.
- A lot of the commentary for the early eps makes RWBY sound poorly planned as a show. What was Cinder’s original plan? Was there one? How do you suddenly shoehorn the maidens, a major plot point, into the show without fully considering its impact on all other aspects of the RWBYverse and the way powers work in it? What does it have to do with silver eyes, if at all? Was the original plan to focus more on the silver eyed folk?
- Until vol 3, no pre-production and storyboarding was not done for every scene, nor was director at each mocap session. Wow.
- I’m actually glad they scrapped the alternate ending to the NDGO/SSSN fight. That outcome would’ve been terrible.
- Alas for the Pyrrha/Nora vs Sun/Neptune fight. Wonder if that could make it into an extended edition.
- They really love Qrow and think he’s a great character. I foresee being salty in vol 4. Just when they made Jaune decent tsk.
- They’re trying to make the manga’s canon stay canon. Hopefully that remains true because manga Weiss is awesome.
- Kind of want to see more about Mercury now but at the same time I’d rather they spent more time developing Ruby first.
If the Volume 2 Prom Arc + the Weiss/Neptune scenes had been replaced with Ruby + Pyrrha interaction, it would have foreshadowed everything so much better. The only real marker we have in Volume 2 that Pyrrha is going to Be Important later on is that Cinder seems hyperfocused on her (while ignoring Ruby), but there’s no point of narrative connection that links Ruby, Pyrrha, and Cinder into a proper triangle.
Ruby goes after Cinder because of some vague suspicious feeling, Cinder focuses on Pyrrha’s abilities, and Pyrrha is off talking to Jaune. Despite the fact that the three of them were meant to all end up on the tower together, the chance to forecast this in Volume 2 never happened.
#there’s no reason Pyrrha couldn’t have given her ‘I hate being on a pedestal’ speech to Ruby#Ruby’s the girl who got launched two years forward and doesn’t want to be considered special#they could have bonded about that on the balcony and at least there would be some development#rwde#I guess#rwby meta
(via sailorscooby)
@whiterose-never-sank, reasonable enough. Posting instead of reblogging your points because the combined responses would be extremely long in the Dash. Readers who’d like to read their post can do so at: http://whiterose-never-sank.tumblr.com/post/136903505074/npc016-the-brotherhood-vs-maidenhood-in-rwby
My response under the read more.
deepestflowerenthusiast asked: How could you be okay with winter slapping weiss for no legitamate reason? Like, I get the whole "tough love" thing and all, but the scene just kinda hit a bit too close to home for me to forgive her.. also, I highly doubt ozpin's secret organization intend on taking credit for anything the maidens do purely because that would kinda defeat the purpose of having a -secret- organization.
Assuming this is discussing my recent opinions on the Brotherhood, what does that have to do with the sisters? Also, have you ever had siblings? I have a few. I know what an abusive sibling dynamic with no love lost looks like, and it’s not Winter-Weiss.
Credit - they don’t need to attribute it to any organisation or Maiden. All they have to do is attribute it to someone they want to credit in order to deflect it away from the Maiden.
Who knows, maybe that’s how Ozpin achieved his position. By appearing to be a powerful, wise man despite him not displaying any abilities so far and making some questionable decisions that have yet to pay off 2 volumes later.
After all, the original Wizard of Oz was actually just a salesman using mechanical smoke and mirrors to trick everyone into thinking he wielded powerful magic. But let’s see what happens the next few episodes.
The Brotherhood vs Maidenhood in RWBY
Something doesn’t sit right whenever I think about how Ozpin picks the Maidens. I say “pick” because while it’s said that the power transfer has RNG factored in, Maidens are also said to “choose themselves”.
But can a Maiden choose herself if she has no idea those powers exist in the first place? Ironwood himself says that “this Brotherhood” caused the Maidens to “fade away into legend”, and their existence known only to the select few. So by keeping the existence of Maidens a secret known only to the Brotherhood, they can basically dictate which woman gets Maiden powers. And in doing so, they have put themselves in a good position to use her for their own goals.
Why this doesn’t go over well with me is because one of the issues I have with RWBY is that it claims to be about strong females, yet it has a distinctly male chauvinist streak running through it.
After seeing some reactions the past couple of days, the more I think about the Brotherhood and the Maidens, the worse it gets.
Basically what they’re saying is that a group of men erased the four most powerful women in the world, ostensibly to protect them. Hey, that kind of sounds familiar?
Then they pick the best candidates that they think would best serve the Brotherhood’s vision of what a Maiden should be. These Maidens will play a large part in keeping peace in the world, but their efforts may never be recognised, since they’re not supposed to exist. Basically they are the perfect self-sacrificial Madonnas behind the men who will eventually take credit for their work.
That Brotherhood had better be bigger than three men who think they can play god, or Ozpin had better be the old man in the story (which again - the source of all power is male). Otherwise this is really just another variation on the benevolent sexism present in too many shows of old.
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.
RWBY Vol 1 - without Jaune Arc
Video was cut into two parts to meet platform requirements. Direct links:
Part 1: http://bit.ly/1m0htYb
Part 2: http://bit.ly/1Y9vJzf
So after a couple of Skype chats with friends about RWBY’s pacing and writing issues, here’s an edit where any scene or shot where Jaune Arc plays a major part is cut out to see how it affects the show.
Original runtime of vol 1: 113 mins
Jaune Arc-less runtime: 85 mins*
*The Jaune Arc-less runtime excludes shots where he features prominently and parts where characters are talking to or about him. Leaving those in would make no sense. There are still glimpses of him in scenes where other characters are taking center stage, so it sort of evens out.
Personal observations below the read more. It does not cast Jaune in a positive light. If you’re a Jaune fan who’s easily offended, please go find other posts that make you happy. I hear there are some good ones with puppies on Tumblr.