I'm really sick of seeing comments along the lines of "Well, it's because Monty passed away." That is INCREDIBLY rude. It's SO RUDE to imply Monty was the only one who ever did anything good for RWBY. Sit down and watch the credits for a volume, and see all those names. Every single of of those people worked hard to make the show what it is, and it's incredibly rude to imply they had no hand in it, and it was only Monty. It is RUDE to only give Monty all the praise and push any blame onto his old friends and colleagues. And it is RUDE to try and use Monty's name to shit on current RWBY, the people he called friends. It's fine if you want to give Monty praise and discuss how inspirational he was, but STOP using his name as an insult towards current RWBY. STOP striping the hard work the rest of CRWBY did to make RWBY a great show and say Monty was the only one who ever did anything. It's disgusting seeing people using his name that way. EDIT: Since some of you don't seem to actually understand what it is I'm talking about, here's some examples. Copy and Pasted from a comment of mine this thread. Giving Monty praise and acknowledging how much he did for the show, is perfectly fine, and encouraged. "Monty was an inspiration and I don't think we could ever truly replicate the impact he had on the show's creative development" GOOD comment! Using Monty's name to attack the people who used to be his friends, is NOT okay. "Lol. Monty would be spinning in his grave. Miles and Kerry have ruined his vision, and if Monty was alive I bet he would slap them over what they did to his show." BAD comment.
Yea a lot of people seem to forget that Monty’s wife and best freinds were right there working on the first rwby seasons. It wasn’t just one dude. (Though apparently the Monty team got pushed out which explains the death of the character outfits/weapons/animation and such)
I think the biggest problem is the combination of writers. Monty, Miles and Kerry, working together, were worth more than the sum of their parts. The new writers aren't really adding anything to the mix, at least nothing unique to them. Miles and Kerry are decent writers, but in my opinion, they're at their best when they have people to bounce ideas off of, and I don't think Eddy and Kiersi are the right people for that, judging by Volume 8. But I do understand where they're coming from. If you're not well versed in the behind the scenes, it just seems like Monty died, and then the show went downhill. Monty dying wasn't the reason the show went downhill, it's because they didn't get someone to replace him until it was too late, and the people they got were evidently the wrong people. In my opinion, I believe that the best choice would be one of the other lead animators, but we'll probably never know.
It’s true though. I’m not saying they don’t care about Monty or his series but when you see, fan-animation, fan-art or even some fanfics that have that care and time into they feel more like Monty’s work then the official studio. The series fixing RWBY by Celtic Phoenix. Is one of the best examples of this. Plus rooster teeth has fired. A lot of animators that worked with Monty.
Yes! A red accent would look quite nice. I also think the wing design can spread all the way around into a circle so that she has a shield/circular saw gauntlet for close quarters.
Even in the military, there was a long tradition of accessorizing personal weapons. For example, George Patton was as much famous for his personalized ivory handled paired revolvers as much as his temperament and campaigns. Note that they were revolvers, and not the M1911 that was standard issue at the time. It's not as common now, but even nowadays, you can have a pistol or rifle personalized, from pragmatic features like carbon fiber accessories and rubberized grips, to the absolutely elaborate, like Damascened gold inlay and intaglio engraving. The latter themselves tend to be as much a priceless work of art as they are a weapon. I see no reason why the Ace-Ops as an elite unit wouldn't have personalized weapons, especially since they all use wildly different and unique ones, rather than having been trained to all use the same mass-produced government issued models.
Then we have Trench Weapons from WW1 made by frontline soldiers out of materials locally available. Those have way more personality than some RWBY Weapons, and it's cool to recognize some of the parts they're made from. Things like cogs and empty grenade cases being used as mace heads, coil springs used as shafts/handles, or a knife made out of a single flattened spike.
Both momentum and simple principles of martial arts. Coil… and then snap back like a spring. Build tension in the body and release to create power. Create power, and recycle it by following your momentum.
Speed I think was a factor. Key there, a factor, not the whole. There were several factors or elements working together that made the original fights so good. Combined with the momentum Flame mentioned and the martial arts moves all working together with the right timing. To often you see with such things where someone tries to recreate this level of greatness in a thing and they want to find that single one element that was the key to greatness, they think they find it and run with it, but end up failing because it isn't just a singular thing that made the greatness great. Not just with fight scenes here in rwby, but other things too, including whole series.
Feel like the weapons have been more ...simplified? To make it easier for choreographers to plan out a scene with different animators and streamline the whole process which has sacrificed the unique aspects they had to each character. Thinking on this, have to say my favorite weapon that " is also a gun" is not from RWBY but from power rangers and its the power axe/Mothbreaker. And I loved that thing as a kid and it's still memorable to me even now and still think it's cool. Had such a simple transformation and think they only did it cos of how the weapons combined but still cool.
deadlines might have something to do with the simplification. you do have to make genuine sacrifices to conform to time and/or budget constraints. of course I dont actually know what the production is like for the show.
I mean to be fair, i think the “weapon + gun” inspiration they took from was actually from games like BlazBlue. I think they mentioned Ragna’s sword, inspiration for Ruby’s weapons. For reference, i can transform into a scythe and has cartridges it uses.
Yeah I definitely think that has something to do with it. I cannot imagine the pain of trying to describe exactly how Crescent Rose functions and transforms to a whole group of animators who all have to somehow keep it consistent.
You also probably need to have to come up with the mechanical process as a drawing, then you'd probably have to hire an artist that specializes in machines/mecha stuff. Just look at the supplemental art for mecha shows like Gundam, Macross, etc. They draw interior mechanisms despite it rarely being in the show itself.
Based on Shane's letter, I think that's probably the case. One of the things he mentioned that happened after Monty's passing is that the producers made a lot of changes to how their animation process worked. For instance, IIRC, rather than the same people animating an entire sequence as a whole they would instead divide it into the "action" parts with the combat and the "character interaction" parts with dialogue, and assign them to different animators/teams of animators. This was done so that they could streamline the animation process, and I could definitely see the weapons being downgraded to something more simple being influenced by that kind of compartmentalization. It kind of comes off as what you see with a restaurants that turn into fast food places: It's quicker and easier to make the product, but the quality usually drops as a result.
Even Port's dumb weapon has more personality than the later ones. It's dumb and stupid, but it fits Ports as a person completely. He's a big oaf who was basically a hunter, it makes sense that his weapon would be just a shotgun axe. It fits him. Seeing Port with a spear or scythe would look weird, but seeing him with a large axe fits him.
I could see Port with a spear, that's an effective everyman weapon. Practical, fundamental even. Just make it like a boar spear, which was used in hunting.
@Vigriff they're the same thing. The only reason why the blunderbuss has a huge barrel at the end was so that pouring powder and bullets would be much easier.
In honour of this video being about weapons , let’s have a moment of silence for Cinder’s bow (a fallen hero.) idk if her using a spear/sword is supposed to be a middle finger to Pyrrha but I miss the Cinderella in cinder.
See, before V7 I had actually given CRWBY credit because it reflected her loss of depth perception that she needed to adjust to. Then she whips it out again like nothing and I realised that that was not the intent.
I remember her backflip into an instant three-pronged shot against Ruby in V2. That was cool as hell! It was also a good twist on "guns also being swords." Instead it's a bow also being a sword.
@@goodbro2046 ok aside from her backstory very obviously being a reference to cinderellas story we also have: 1. vol 1-3 she wears glass slippers 2. in "dance dance infiltration" she changes her outfit to a dress using dust 3. her name is a shortened version of cinderella 4. her bow is called "midnight". theres more but this is all i can think of atm
I think there's a big difference between being fast and fluid. The old fights weren't necessarily fast but they were so incredibly fluid and intentional that the fights felt really fast. Now the fights are just a flurry of blows that do nothing.
They more like ,swing weapons not even like a raipeir or a actual syth it's more like they all use swords and they overlay the flipping other weapons over it I didn't noticed it from before but from my dad himself "it looks bland"
I feel like Salem not having a weapon makes sense because she comes from a time of magic and continued to live through that. But at the same time Mommy Salami going out with a shotgun would've been hilarious.
This video reminded me of a quote from ATLA. "The sword is a simple tool but in the hands of a master it becomes the most versatile of weapons, and just as the imagination is limitless so too are the possibilities of the sword." A weapon design can be simple or complex, it how it's used that makes it memorable for me at least
The same rules apply to superpowers. A character can have a relatively simple and ordinary power but it's how they use it that makes them interesting. Like the character Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece has the power of rubber. Thats it. He just stretches. Sounds lame when you first hear it. But when you see all the crazy ways he uses it and how inventive he is at coming up with creative solutions to problems with his powers it becomes amazing. The same rules should apply to weapons. A character doesn't need an overly complex super weapon to be strong. I wanna see more characters with relatively simple weapons used in more creative ways that tell me something about their personality. At the same time the lack of creative use of these weapons in the show hurts them. In the same way that a simple weapon used creatively makes it interesting, a complex weapon that isn't utilized effectively makes it frustrating. Because then a weapon with all these capabilities not being used as often as it should just makes it a useless piece of metal they're swinging around.
"RWBY was sold to us as an excuse to see cool weapons kill cool monsters in cool battles." I think that sums up why my college DND group ran a few RWBY games back in the day. Those were some fun games honestly.
@@griffinbaker3509 D20 Modern with an additional homebrewed ruleset attached for the Semblances. Also, some rules about transforming weapons and team attacks.
@@griffinbaker3509 My game group has recently actually tried to restart some of it using pathfinder and the 3pp system Sheres of Power/Might/Guile using some Lite Gestalt rules with the Armiger class from Spheres of Might. Haven't had a chance to try it yet due to other games, but still. A little homebrewing can go a long way.
Every time someone brings up how Weiss is basically a wizard now I get so upset. Summing something to fight could be interesting, but she never fights alongside the summons. She just has the summons fight. Most of the characters feel weaker than they did in earlier volumes because they don't have Monty animating them, but I think Weiss is the only one in the lore of the show that has actually become weaker. The first thing we see Weiss do is show that she was a better fighter than the knight she summons. She has to beat something to summon it, which inherently means that it is not as strong as her. This wouldn't be a problem if she also fights, but she doesn't. If she won't fight alongside the summons, then she is only fighting worse.
Weiss’ weapon is the perfect encapsulation of how she has virtually no merit behind any of her life outside of Myrtenaster. It’s the only thing that she made all her own, unlike her glyphs that are hereditary, her family’s wealth that she didn’t earn, and her connections to Ironwood through her sister. That sword should be her dearest possession because it proves she has something to offer that no one else can. Instead she’s just Diet Winter, fighting like her sister does, but less effectively. Winter constantly criticizing her technique should have seen Weiss embracing her own path to success through techniques not learned from Winter. Can’t have that though.
idk man, if i could choose between swinging a sword fast vs summoning an ice titan and shooting fireballs id probably pick the latter. Really cant blame Weiss for being a tryhard.
Yep. I think the closest we've gotten to seeing her fighting alongside her summons was in the first Ace-Ops fight. She actually took advantage of the fact that Marrow could only direct his Semblance in one direction at a time by attacking him from different positions so that he was basically forced to choose between restraining her or the knight, which in turn meant that when one was frozen the other could continue attacking. Which is honestly all the more disappointing, because it shows that the animators/choreographers *can* come up with ways for Weiss to fight creatively with her new skills, but either due to the production process or their own effort (I personally suspect the former) they just don't.
@@AMVhuntingSyndrom Being a tryhard implies you're using the best strats and overpowered techniques to win. Wiess relaying almost entirely on her summons, even in less advantage situations, is the opposite of tryhard, if anything it's more scrub-like. Volumes 1-3 she had Glyphs for speed, pressure and mix-ups, Dust for enhancing her whole kit plus range attack options, and she could also apply those benefits directly to her teammates for ultimate synergy. Now she just tends to immediately summon and stand there at the start and end of fights. Is it more safe? I guess. Does it look more interesting or win fights? Hell no.
They could have fixed Marrows weapon so easily. Give it more color and let him shoot it while it's flying. Can you imagine him freezing someone and then he lets loose a buzzsaw of bullets on them.
Or just give it more impact. It hits so lightly for such a huge, heavy boomerang that it's not worth using over the actual gun functionality. I mean, semblance aside, he's unarmed after he throws it, but I don't ever remember that being used against him. Like, everyone is super skilled, but only he's capable of catching it? Not even Blake does?
12:29 Hush, Neo's parasol, also allows her to "fall or fly" with style thanks to her body's light weight. And in Roman Holiday, it is teased that she can also use it as a javelin or as a hook to climb or grab stuff (ex: tie a flying vehicle's wire to it). Ironically, despite Hush being mostly just a normal parasol in shape, it's one of weapons that sees the most variety of creative uses. Not to mention Hush is one of the few weapons that has an actual background story, that explains how it was created and why Neo chose a parasol as a weapon. If only they put this amount of attention to detail and care into way more weapons in the actual show, including team RWBY's. 9 years, and we still don't know how and why Ember Celica became Yang's weapon of choice, or if she even design them, same for the weapons of other main characters.
We know even less about team RWBY's semblances' awakening and why they have those specific superpowers. The lack of backstory for their weapons is far from being their only issue.
@@quehay45 Part of me suspects it is because RWBY (the group) are based on fairy tale characters, and fairy tales are not places you go for deep backstories and extensive worldbuilding. Meanwhile Neo is based on neapolitan ice cream, which is first recorded in the 19th century, so a more modern approach is taken accordingly.
@@quehay45 Quite the contrary, I feel like ONLY Team RWBY's semblances have been kind of explained (minus Ruby). Blake herself explained how her semblance symbolizes her past of running away and leaving an empty/shell of person behind. Weiss' is passed down throughout the Schnee lineage (a few mysteries left like: why only women Schnees shown with the ability) but it seems like different Schnee's may have different specialties within the semblance i.e. summoning/time dilation/dust utilization. THAT concept could use some explaining tbh, and finally Yang's semblance representing her personality is subtle, yet obvious. She dresses and acts like a brawler, and her semblance backs it up. It's offensive, yet defensive- just like Yang! She's a fun, electric, and open person but is also traumatized, cautious, and stubborn. She's fine and good until she hits a breaking point- just like her semblance! That's how I choose to think about it anyway ~
I think you are 100% right. I’ve noticed my love for the series has dropped over the last few years, and it’s because it’s lost that touch with the creativity and love for weapons and the animation. My favorite part of early RWBY was the choreography of the fights, and the details that went into weapons. I rewatched the first three volumes of RWBY 4-5 times just because I LOVED the animation and personality the fights had. I haven’t rewatched a single volume since volume 4. Unfortunately RWBY lost a lot of its personality when the animation for things such as weapons and choreography dropped. There have been a couple gems, but overall I haven’t cared too much. Really nice video! I agree with pretty much everything you said. You’re probably the first critic I actually enjoyed watching.
Tbh I stopped watching because of the honestly bad writing that was there from day one buuuut I could see ppl sticking around for the character designs, the cool weapons and the fight scenes but now I don't think those things can hold the show either because they're so lacking. I'll also say that I really hate how overly complicated the designs have gotten, who's gonna tell them that it doesn't make the design better??!
And right beside him is oobleck who has the coolest fucking weapon in the show. A flamethrower staff that's also a thermos for his coffee, I mean cmon.
If the plainer weapons were intentional that could also lead to another great conflict in the show: Form vs. Function, and the sliding scale of practicality. On one end, you have weapons that are mass-produced and churned out by the millions going up against an masterpiece art project. Also, it would be interesting to see when personalization goes too far to the point of being a major detriment to the user. But then again, we can also include things like Logistics into the mix. With such unique weapons, could you imagine trying to supply Huntsmen/Huntresses to meet all of their custom weapons' needs? Uniform weapons make sense if you're trying to equip an entire army, but specialized/customized weapons would better suit Elites. Neither one of these weapon production ideologies are inherently wrong, they're merely filling out different niches and were created for different purposes.
Agreed. It'd be a nice little bit of worldbuilding to show the difference between how Atlas functions and how the rest of the kingdoms function. It's mentioned in Volume 3 how Beacon keeping the military separate from the academy/civilian sector is so much different than it is in Atlas, and we see throughout the show that Huntsmen and Huntresses aren't trained as some kind of uniform fighting force that functions as an army for the nation in most of the other kingdoms. Instead they're basically independent agents who sometimes work together. Having most Atlas-based Huntsmen/Huntresses using far more standardized tools would be a good way to demonstrate how their graduates are expected to serve in or with the military (and thus are limited by how the military is willing/able to maintain the unique requirements of their equipment), rather than just going off and doing their own thing. The military will fund your equipment, but might not have the time, resources, or expertise to cater to any and all of the wild things that every single individual in the military wants to incorporate into their weapons, so they have to put some limitations on what they can do. An independent Huntsman or Huntress can do anything they want to with their weapon, but they'll also have to be responsible for maintaining its upkeep - finding places where they can get their supplies, affording to get everything they need, taking the time to make or wait for their specialized tools and ammunition, etc. As you said, neither is inherently wrong, but they serve different functions. Not only could it have been an interesting side plot for the characters to explore, but it would also allow them to streamline the animation/production process in a way that actually worked within the context of the story. But since it was never really explored in any way, it just feels like a drop in quality.
@@VenathTehN3RD My main peeve with the whole Academy/Hunter System is the fact that it relies primarily on Huntsmen/Huntresses (And yes, I get that's the the point) because of the simple fact that there are too many threats out there and they are stretching themselves too thinly to deal with them. My issue is that there aren't that many of them compared to the millions of basic grunt soldiers. I was thinking that a Defense in Depth Strategy would be a better way to do the Hunter System akin to that of the late Roman Empire. We can have a bunch of part-time soldiers and militias who defended the borders from skirmishes and invasion attempts as well as act as guerillas when a massive invasion actually made it in, and a small group of elite professional soldiers who did the real heavy lifting and only deployed to address these major threats. I guess my main takeaway is that I feel that the Hunters need to integrate themselves more with the common person, or at least have assistance from normal everyday people who can do the mundane jobs that would take away from the Hunters important time.
In a narrative there's nothing wrong with these ideologies, in reality there is. Namely balance, durability, stamina drain, practicality, self-harm (look at Port's blunderbuss with the axe heads on the stock), compromising functionality (don't want to bend your rifle/staff),speed vs. power, etc.
@@Cykeys You're assuming that Remnant is on the same scale as Earth. Civilization might not be as widespread, and the planet itself might be smaller. If Remnant was equivalent to Earth, or if society expanded, that would be a problem, but we don't know much about it.
I was over here like “pretty sure she used it before that…” honestly was questioning if she had used her bracers before that because critter said it in such a matter of fact way
One of the better decisions of the series in my opinion was having Ironwood (and Watts to an extent) just use a straight gun. It sets him apart from the rest of the cast as an "other" in their world but at the same time it fleshed out his character just as much as the other weapons. Ironwood is a simple and straightforward person, you see that in both his actions and his beliefs (as well as his fighting style). Despite pushing for progress in science he can still be seen as a very "traditional" kind of person, for him unlike the others his weapon is more or less a tool that he only uses when he needs to This even comes through in the design of Due Process, at first glance it looks like a polished futuristic gun but the base of the gun is that of a traditional revolver (insert Gun-Gun meme). And it compliments his fighting style so well, with his strength and durability he excels in close quarters combat, he uses a lot of holds and grapples to subdue enemies and his gun is there mainly just to add lethality. Instead of having it transform when he runs out of ammo, he simply switches to using it as bludgeoning weapon, simple and straightforward. I even liked that the second pistol uses gravity dust as a means to add maneuverability and speed so he can close the gap when he needs to. It made him feel more like a tank who found a way to circumvent a flaw in his preferred method of combat through ingenuity rather than just him becoming faster. And then they gave him that ugly and unwieldy cannon weapon... Edit: Adding on to this Like in-universe he needed it because his regular guns wouldn't be powerful enough to potentially take down a maiden. But there are so many better ways to give him an upgrade. For example, half of Ironwood's entire body is mechanical (something that they don't bring attention to enough imo). Instead of giving him an additional cannon weapon why not augment his guns to attach to his mechanical side or it's power source (like Genos from One Punch Man) or retrofit a cannon arm onto his mechanical side, that way he loses the utility of an arm for power. Or give him the Guts treatment where the hand detaches or gets pushed aside to reveal the cannon. And we know something like this is possible because Yang's prosthetic arm (which Ironwood gifted to her) was essentially given the same shotgun function that her Ember Celica had and was even upgraded again in Atlas. (Could've just as easily made it a function of his new left arm too) Would it really have been hard for Ironwood to commission a cannon arm attachment or gun upgrade instead of a giant unwieldy full sized cannon, that requires both his guns to be inserted into it, leaving him defenseless in the (likely) event he gets disarmed.
The show used to be about the characters combat abilities and their weapons, which I loved. And I agree with all you talk about The characters, their weapons and style of combat should be the main point of the battles. Semblance are there to accent the character. Ruby had a big heavy weapon, her speed is there to balance that out. Weiss is has light and fast attacks while not outputting much damage, he glyphs accent her by granting extra mobility such as arial combat and her summons and elemental attacks should be used as more hard hitting, but nowadays they make her do those attacks far too often and utilize her mobility.
That was what drawn me for sure. You could tell many parts of their character through how they fought. Just like some weapons, their fighting style should of been personalized. With stuff like their semblance, dust, and use of weapons could show you a lot of their character. But now it feels so stock footage like. If you got a brawler, they fight the same. Using a gun feels the same. A melee weapon swings the same not even adding a bit of their flourish. Hell, Ruby treats her Scythe more like a sword, and that I feel is a huge mistake.
What bothers me the most about Weiss is that she probably has the most potential for creativity and variety in her skill set. Due to her combination of dust-infused glyphs, summons, and melee combat, the kind of things that she could pull off could be amazing to watch. We saw plenty of it in the first few volumes, with her adjusting how she utilized her skills based on the situation, so we know that the character *can* pull of creative and adaptable tactics in terms of lore. The result is that it feels like the character has actually become a less competent fighter in the story ever since learning how to summon. And that could be a fun character arc if they actually used it - she finally learns to use this cool technique she was always failing at before, gets so caught up in trying to use it that she stops being as efficient, and after getting her ass handed to her (like at Haven) she has to learn how to incorporate her new skills into her fighting style rather than almost completely relying on the new skill. Instead, she mostly just chooses between either her summons or her old skill set, and when using the old one it seems far more simplified and less creative in how she uses it.
The other trick with her glyphs, was that she could use them to boost the whole team not just herself. We see a lot of that in the first couple of seasons, how the team works together combining their talents and skills and weapons together to enhance each other. Weiss especially shined as a support character using her various mobility or anchoring glyphs on her teammates to boost tier movements or attacks.
Semblances no longer feel like they were made specifically for their character, and instead just feel like a power stuck on a random character. Like Ruby's "petal burst" I can't imagine anyone else having, but with semblances like Marrow's "Stay" or Vine's "Aura vines", I feel like they could've gone to any of the onslaught of one-time/background characters.
Marrow’s gunmerang, Fetch, could’ve had a timer switch in boomerang mode that would’ve caused it to fire a spray of bullets in the middle of it being thrown, it could actually have been a neat way for it to have a cool function.
It's also the fact about that these weapons have lacked weight ever since the switch to Maya. Ruby used to Crescent Rose's big size and weight to swing herself. I have seen literally fan weapons [that may or may not be stolen by RT themselves I dunno] that are way more creative than the ones we currently got. Hell. I MADE WEAPONS THAT ARE MORE CREATIVE THAN THEM. Now, creator bias is there for obvious reasons, but still, unless you design a weapon to be bland from the start, don't make them bland at all.
I am far from a very creative art person, but even I have come up with better designs. Freaking machine gun that turns into a glaive that can turn into a sword and shield. It was a messy project to draw out and required multiple revisions, but to this day I still love that drawing.
The other thing that's lost was weight, like they always kinda played loose with weight but typically something heavy felt heavy and it showed in the choreo, crescent rose being whipped around by Ruby shooting with it for instance, that all went out the window in recent volumes and now all the weapons swing around like they're made of plastic.
Alongside the weapons, there’s also another aspect that was introduced early on and left to be forgotten, especially with the lack of effective fight choreography: dust. It was mentioned at the very beginning how dust was revolutionary and key to humanity making a living and becoming as great as it is, yet people hardly use it now. Even Weiss stopped using it creatively as it was reduced to toss fire or ice, as compared to the more ingenious uses like lightning for a haste effect. The fact that there is a resource that lets you cast the elements could lead to many more fun ideas when combined with technology, rather than just blast it and hope for the best. Unfortunately it’s not well explored now, which makes it seem pointless when they hyped it up so much in the first few volumes, especially gravity dust, which could have had many fun uses if they actually did some creative work rather than let others do the work for them. This all culminates in me rambling about what was a type of magic system that had been ignored in favor of other ideas, since having the elements in a bullet and at your disposal seemed like a fun concept when they actually used it
Agreed. It took me about five minutes to work out that if Remnant had any creativity whatsoever, they could be dropping thermonuclear weapons on Grimm. Use fire and gravity dust in combination to achieve fusion temperatures and pressures and let the fun begin.
The only time I can think of in the last several volumes where we actually saw dust being used in any even remotely creative way was the finale of V7, during the fight between Ironwood and Watts. They didn't do a *lot* with it, but a zero-gravity fight in Amity at least actually made use of the thing that the series built up as basically being the foundation of modern technology. I mean for heaven's sake, they didn't even make any use of dust during a fight in a dust mine or a massive grimm invasion of Mantle and Atlas. Sure, there's obviously dust that's technically in use (such as propelling bullets or providing power for vehicles), but it's such a tiny and insignificant background note that it can be easy to forget it's even being used. I'm not even really sure if the writers/animators remember that those things are powered by dust at this point.
And sadly since dust has become a background feature of the series, there’s no chance to go into things like other unique kinds of dust with gravity as an example, how dust can effect semblances with Weiss and Blake being big examples early on in volume 2, practical uses for dust outside of operating machinery, and how there could have been conflict and intrigue over the mining and acquiring of dust, which was attempted and forgotten in volumes 1 & 2, and the embargo from Atlas was never a direct problem so it was nothing more than a background note with no consequences on the plot. It’s just another case of RWBY ditching a core idea that could have been fun to expand on and develop, but was forgotten like most things to keep tossing new ideas at the board with little effort to do much with them. Just another rant about the lack of exploring core ideas with promise
Coming back to this video after looking up some fan made RWBY weapons, someone's character is also a fisherman who uses a fishing pole/harpoon to fight alongside a shield that turns into a chair for when he's fishing. AND IT STILL LOOKS SO MUCH BETTER AND MORE PRACTICAL THAN THE THIGN THEY GAVE CLOVER. LIKE SERIOUSLY.
It’d be kind of interesting if Ruby overcame conflict primarily by examining her opponents’ weapons. She can fight sure, but what if the running theme of the show was that Ruby is a hero not because she kills shit, but because she understands people through their unique self-expression that most other people ignore. While everyone else just smacks each other around, Ruby could have been the instrument by which we come to understand everyone because she looks for what matters most to each person. She could still learn a harsh truth every now and then that not everyone can be befriended, but if Ruby’s supposed to be a weapons nut, then why not make that the key to her success instead of just having her blunder into victory, failing upward at every turn? As for the increasing emphasis on semblances, I think the Silver Eyes foreshadowed that unintentionally. While the eyes aren’t a semblance, they are a hereditary gift that doesn’t reflect personal merit and instead function as Ruby’s final answer for all her problems. The eyes are the only thing that lets Ruby hurt Cinder, and it’s reasonable to suppose they’re a threat to Salem as well. And they have nothing to do with Ruby’s personality (her weapon.). She didn’t work for them or express herself through them. They’re just her ‘Eye Win Button.’ And even then she still sucks at using them. There’s not even a penalty for using them, like they’re extremely taxing on her or they kill her vision the more she uses them, or something. Weiss and Ruby are the perfect demonstration of Weapon Decay because they both have hereditary abilities that they use in favor of their weapons. While Ruby doesn’t SilverEye as much as Weiss summons and magics, the eyes are presented as the most important thing about her, and have endgame implications. Meanwhile, Weiss can’t just be a ballet fencer because summoning is what makes her ‘unique,’ except she has a whole family of summoners, one of whom is now also a MAIDEN which is another thing that has completely overtaken the importance of weapons. So yeah. Weiss is probably the biggest victim of the Weapon Decay in RWBY.
All you've done is take one character trait and take it to its logical conclusion, and yet the amount of changes to canon this would make (if done how I think you mean it to be implemented) is astounding.
Oh this would've been so much fun Also I feel like they could've pulled Silver Eyes back into being more personal for Ruby by having her try her hardest to train in using them, and still be bad at doing it the normal way, or have drawbacks that are too demanding the normal way, so instead she engineers some cool assistive device that helps her use them in her own way. Either like, through some cool hi-tech eyewear that focuses and controls the light better, or she figures out how to channel the energy into something that can store it, and then use it to power up her weapon. Mainly just because the imagery of her scythe temporarily getting a cool glow and dealing "super-effective" damage against Grimm for a moment, and/or having bullets that petrify any Grimm that gets hit, would be sick as hell.
Speaking of intentionality: Yang’s yellow+boxing style makes me think of “float like a butterfly sting like a bee”. And its cool because we all know they did that intentionally and we responded to that. That is missing now.
You can forgive a more military like country like Atlas from standardizing their weapons so anyone can pick one up, while other places specialize in more unique variables. And while 'anyone' can build a weapon, I'm betting more people just get a cool pistol from a gun store or something. And having a guy who specializes in upgrading unique weapons in ways the user of said weapon wouldn't think of or had the supplies or tools to do? I love that. We just need to mix this back up so we can have both bland and colorful working together.
In the case of the Ace Ops though I don't think we can consider their weapons standardized since they are unique designs not used by other soldiers. Customizing or personalizing weapons is a thing in the real military too, so there would be precedent to stylize their gear some more. Personally, I find it hard to care about the Ace Ops in general, but it was just a thought I felt like sharing.
I also think that only signal gets people to make their weapons, and other academies don't or its a more simple procedure. At least... thats my excuse for the lack of diversity.
@@snakeman830 They're students not military, you can't arm one soldier with an AK and then arm the next with a Sig your logistics team would literally shoot themselves over the amount of work they'd have to do. Professional armies since the Romans have issued standard military equipment because it's effective, easy and cheap to replace.
@@vincentmalasawmkimajongte7489 in Atlas, the military is the school. It doesn't make sense to have the students learn on unique, personalized weapons, then switch them to something more standardized later. If anything, they would do the opposite.
Honestly I'm fine with Salem not having a weapon but they should have given her something other than a giant magic laser. It would have been really cool if they made her a shapeshifter or something for combat. Just constantly creating and using new body parts, maybe growing grimm out of her shoulders or whatever. One second shes swinging bone blades and the next shes spewing acid and the next its a rain of nevermore feathers. Simultaneously makes her more unique and more terrifying while also connecting her more to the grimm. It would require much more teamwork and quick thinking just to survive and it adds another layer of difficulty for when they do figure out how to kill her permanently, doesn't matter if shes possible to kill if you aren't strong enough to actually do it. She could also use magic to shift the battlefield itself for extra difficulty, lava geysers? sure! collapsing floors? she can fly so why not. Also she had several opportunities to kill people outright in her fight, shes grimm and wants to wipe out humanity, why didn't she just kos everyone who was trying to get in her way? It even would have made Hazel's turn more interesting since he could just keep attacking her even after getting maimed.
That's something about the show's handling of magic that just kind of annoys me in general. Magic is supposed to be this ancient power given directly to humanity by the God of Darkness. Something so fantastical and awesome that modern civilization considers it a thing of myth and legend. One of the prizes that the God of Light suggests they'll return to humanity if the species proves itself capable of learning from its mistakes, and which will make the species "whole" again. Yet most of the Semblances we've seen are far an away more astounding than the majority of the magic that we've actually seen on screen. I think the only time we've actually seen magic that I'd argue was clearly superior to most Semblances was with Amber, who was doing things like flinging lightning around, deflecting bullets, combining elements to turn leaves into a storm of bladed projectiles, etc. But that's about the only time it's ever happened. Sure, we've seen the results of some impressive magic. We know that Ozpin created the vaults and granted Qrow and Raven the ability to turn into birds. But in terms of actually seeing people *perform* magic, just about the only thing we've gotten aside from generic magic beams is slightly stronger versions of what we've already seen people do with dust and aura. Nora can absorb electricity and convert it into muscle strength. Ren can mask and sense emotions. Pyrrha can control magnetism. Jaune can boost auras and Semblances. Ruby can teleport. Yang and Adam can both absorb and redirect energy. Blake can create shadow clones (of various different types, if given dust). Weiss, Winter, and Willow can summon avatars of their defeated enemies. Harriet has super speed. Qrow and Clover bring bad and good luck respectively. Marrow can seemingly slow down time for a given target, or otherwise negate their ability to move/think. Raven can create portals between her and other people. Emerald can cause hallucinations. Neo can create physical illusions. Velvet can perfectly imitate fighting styles. Yatsuhashi can induce memory loss. Fox is telepathic. Flynt can create multiple clones that amplify the power of his attacks. Glynda is telekinetic. Robyn can detect lies by making physical contact with someone. May can turn people invisible. Fiona has freaking hammerspace in her palms. But no, please, continue to impress me with Ozma and Salem firing shiny bursts of light at things. Truly their displays of magical might are awe-inspiring.
I also miss when Blake actually used the ribbon of Shroud. I mean, she had a machine pistol-kusari-game-kitana. Like, she has a machine pistol, that can accelerate the speed, and recoil her LONG RANGE Kusari-game form around waves of enemies. Now all she does it use it as a YoYo for Yang... Like, the Ace ops vs RWBY fight... Blake has the ability to clone herself and fire a Kusari Gama at her enemies and yet they let Vine just wiggle his arms about and she stood around doing the bare minimum. She threw YANG around, who is heavier when she could have quite easily ripped Vine out from the ceiling.
I think that goes straight to the fact that no one seems to know how to show Blake actually fighting considering how cutthroat her fighting style was when Monty did it. Now, she borderline hasn't done any real blade-for-blade hits with anyone since around volume 5 with Ilia, and that fight was very lukewarm. We could say she did with Adam, but really looking at the fight, all she really did was deflect. If Blake was animated like she was in the first few Volumes, Ilia shouldn't have stood a chance (or she probably would have had a different weapon), and the Blake vs Adam could have easily been one of the best fights we have ever gotten, but because of Monty's passing, that fight got scrapped way back in Vol 3.
You know... Given the whole thing of Monty assigning "anime homework" that Miles and Kerry talked about, I have to wonder if the shift from focusing on weapons to focusing on Semblances is a conscious or maybe even subconscious choice to try and make RWBY more like a very similar show with a similar concept... My Hero Academia. Plenty of people have said how Semblances and Quirks are incredibly similar concepts, so I really do wonder if the shift to Semblances is an attempt to replicate HeroAca's wider popularity.
Probably not. They very clearly got inspiration for aura and semblances from Hunter X Hunter, where characters also have aura as well as a single, unique ability that also consumes that aura.
@@coranbaker6401 Oh shit, that would explain the abortive attempt in V1 to explain that Aura did stuff on its own. Remember Pyrrha trying to explain Aura in combat to Jaune? Sounded a bit like there was meant to be a whole system there. Aura was basically supposed to be Nen. But then nobody cared, and it got tossed to the wayside like so much else.
RWBY used to be one of the best shows I have ever watched. MHA I can’t even watch, mostly due to the wimp main character bullied by his “best friend” And Izuku is an aider and abettor to his bullying. Like watching a horror girl walk into the blood-stained area for a dumb reason. Or watching next-to-last girl cut herself to act as bait. Now, RWBY is just mediocre, rather than the female-lead Final Fantasyish it looked to be. Sad.
Remember when Glynda said Cynder fought with glass…what happened to that? She seems to summon her weapons out of nothing ever since she became the Fall maiden.
She's obsessed with her maiden powers which is a detriment now. Cinder used to be a avid threat but now after having gotten the power she just can't help use and flaunt it like a toy she can't get enough of. I can't really take her seriously with them especially since she doesn't use them to the max like in her fight with Ozpin and the fact that its made clear that maidens have access to all elements fire, ice, lightning etc but Cinder only uses Fire, used ice ONCE against Raven and played with lightning again ONCE when she shot Ruby at the end of V8.
@@derrickdaniels3955 I think Cinder essentially had the same issue that the maiden she stole it from had, lack of experience and knowledge of her power and what she could really do with it. It was stated that the only reason they took the maiden down was because she was still young and inexperienced with her power. She made some critical mistakes in that fight which she might not have made if she had more combat experience. Cinder was essentially the same, lots of new power, no real experience in how to use it or what it can do.
Honestly the weapons were my draw to the show entirely, I was fresh hot off the soul eater manga and was really obsessed with how one would fight with a scythe. Just the fluid elegant nature of both Maka's and Ruby's fighting styles are compared to their weapons being larger than them made it all seem awesome. I also can't lie when I saw yang in the death battle I thought shotgun gauntlets made so much sense and where the most ingenious invention ever created. Sadly the way the show is now I doubt they will focus on their weapons in favor of just more diolog oriented scenes. Im hoping for a training arc is implemented in the next season and maybe they explore the idea of one of their weakness in the fight for atlas was their disconnection from their weapons thus making team rwby rebuild them on their own. Just a thought
Personally I always loved Port's weapon. It is so incredibly and stupidly designed, while at the same time being so simple I can't help it. I mean, the first time I saw it I told myself : "This is ridiculous, it would be massively impractical to shoulder and fire this thing", then I remembered that I was watching a show who's main character is a 16 year old in a skirt with a warscythe crossed with a sniper rifle bigger than SHE is, who regularly hip fires the damn thing. So I just fell in love with it. Its so simple and corresponds to him so well. He's the old guy who likes simple stuff and telling stories. He isn't going to embrace the massive overengineered flashy weaponry. He needs range ? Take a good ol' blunderbuss. And if an enemy gets close ? Need to slice them, but a bayonet, or any other kind of edged weapon, can't be attached to the barrel. Then just slap a battleaxe on the cross and BAM ! Huntsman weapon. I freaking love it. And honestly I'd love to see more of the 'old', less technologically advanced weaponry. Like the Grim Reaper's weapons, the scythes are clearly less advanced than modern huntsman gear, but I almost feel that they have an added weight thanks to that. They have two tricks, you can recall a scythe to another and stick them together to make a double scythe, that's it. I don't know, I guess a lot more people want the weapons to be as flashy as possible, but I think there should be some that are deliberately simple like that, if only for the sake of contrast.
I kinda wished we got more instrument themed weapons like Flynt’s weapon is pretty cool! I love that the valves of the trumpet are dust ammo that’s really smart.
I could see salem not using a weapon for the same reason that Palpatine rarely draws out a lightsaber in Star Wars: it’s beneath them. In the case of Palpatine, he only uses it to mock his enemies.
The reason i think people still talk about ruby's semblance is how they decided to show it off after the style change. It kind of went from a trump card like Yang's to full utility like Blake and Weiss. The trailer and the food fight made it look like a burst of speed. but after volume 3 they started making it visually look like she was flying around in whatever direction she wants (Kind of invalidating how she uses her gun in a way). the show flipped from just calling it speed to "turning into rosepetals". And even after penny explains the power, its still not consistant, considering weight is not supposed to matter, but when she used it early on to carry penny, she got weighed down, now she can carry 4 people. It's a definitive answer so i cant say im "confused" on what her power is supposed to be, i just think they changed it to something alot less interesting. Its also a bit weird having to be sat down and told what the main characters power in 8 volumes in. It definitely takes away from my favorite aspect of her combat, which was her using her gun for movement.
@@TechBlade9000 i think so. Starting at volume 4. Because the ruby character short has her split into 3 rose trails to warp around the opponent, when volume 3 had her get kicked out of it. It might be a case of misunderstanding the limits of her semblance. I don't recall her using it much outside of battle, so monty probably handled most of ruby's semblance usages and probably had a specific idea 4 it. Maybe after volume 3 they just decided to do what looks cool, because even if its not the same, you can just argue her semblance got stronger, which was what I assumed happened. Then they see people unclear on her power, so they settle it in volume 8 and make a cheeky joke about it. Regardless of the reason though, Ruby was left with unclear powers for most of the show. Id argue all 4 of the girls have confusing semblances.
Also don’t wanna be that guy but for the explanation they gave in the show where penny explains it if I didn’t know ruby semblance is speed I would think it’s a dnd Misty step
One thing I've noticed about weapons in the show is that they all feel like they're the same weight. You get these big hits from characters like Ruby and Nora, which makes sense because their weapons are huge and they need to move them with a lot of force to do anything, but you also get the same kind of big hits from people with lighter weapons like Blake and Ren. Also, a lot of the times big weapons move like they are only a few ounces, like that scene where Ruby deflects Emerald's bullets in V5 by spinning her scythe around. That weapon should be heavy as shit, and swinging it around would be tiring, but everyone in this show is also weirdly superhuman when it comes to strength and fatigue, which I also find weird.
Even in the earlier volumes Ruby could spin her weapon pretty effortlessly. Definitely COULD not do it fast enough to block bullets like in V5 which was stupid. I’m pretty sure it comes down to Aura giving them superhuman strength. Like Yang in V2 is sent flying into the air and lands like forty+ seconds later and is fine. Or how Ruby casually (albeit using recoil) carry’s a giant fricken bird up a cliff. However, what I would LIKE to see is when Ruby’s Aura is broken she can’t use her weapon very well, because I’m pretty sure canonically it weighs like 50-ish pounds. THAT would be an interesting concept.
I think the best weapon introduction for me was Coco. The setting of an experienced and well known upper classmen team joining they fray by jumping out a ship. Everyone pulls out their weapon or does something cool and coco casually walks up to a grimm kicks the fuck out of it and smacks it with her bag. Then she open fires on the nevermores by turning her bag into a freaking gatling gun. That was such a powerful and memorable introduction for a character we never met and hasn’t really had any relevance since then. But we all still remember her and her badass weapon reveal. I didn’t even know Vine had a weapon let alone use it
I always thought that giving Salem some sort of ancient broomstick weapon from the old world would have been cool. She uses it to fly, the twigs can be controlled to pierce her enemies, it can be used as a conduit for her magic in order for her to use more focused magic attacks, etc.
If anything, she can make her own weapon out of magic. Ozma used a staff as a conduit for his already powerful magical skills. For me personally, I would have loved to see her with a sword, made of sharp metal and crystal, much like her castle in theme.
Going back to Jaune’s sword or just Jaune as a character is a shame. His progression could’ve been so many things. I found the concept of using a family heirloom in a new era of warfare exciting, more so that he didn’t even know how to use it because it showed his desire for glorious heroics. I wanted him to get better with the weapon, like when he is going through Phyrra’s drills in the forest and see it amount to something. I actually imagined the scene where it would pay off not against grim but against Humans or Faunus targets much like his great^2 grandfather would. Phyrra’s voice echoing instructions in Jaune’s mind as he is mentally locked into systematically cutting down his foes like bloody butter. Not only would it show how his growth as a person, help finding closure for Phyrra but show the over romanticised nature of chasing after glory in war. Another pet peeve I have is his customisation of the weapon, I’ll allow phyrra’s metals used to accent the weapon as a means to honour the dead. However I could only imagine Jaune’s Families’ reaction to the broad sword and hologram fortnite glider shield mods. Example, imagine I go to beacon with my grandfather’s actual tommy gun from WW2. Now imagine I come back but the tommy gun has a sawn-off barrel, a shoddy folding wire stock instead of a wood stock and a holographic sight welded to the darn thing. If he going to do all that then have him make his own sword and shield. I wanted to see some “If you’re nothing without this sword then you shouldn’t have it” energy, to see jaune forge his own legacy despite fully knowing being glorious is not entirely righteous. Overall I just think it’s a shame where his character ended up, I’m entirely sure where that is exactly.
For comparison, I think One Piece did a wonderful job of incorporating a new power into their world without completely upstaging the unique abilities that were already established. Haki is almost always shown to amplify a character's existing powers/abilities; it doesn't do all that much on its own.
Neo's fighting style reminds me of how airbenders fight. They're evasive and use their enemies force against them by redirecting the force of their attacks.
That made me think about a open letter of one of Monty's friends. At the time I didnt know exactly what he was talking about, but you nail it. The crew know how to make fun colourful and interesting designs, you can see it on Whatts weapon, Tac's whole design, Penny's redesign. But the new heads didn't have the same understanding of what the show was really about, and focused on the less important aspects, lead the creative team elsewhere. Its cern has changed. Maybe if it the show was presented this way since the beginning it wouldn't feel that bad, because somewhere between the volumes the RWBY had became a whole new concept.
Ports weapon may be stupid, but that's nothing compared to Ironwoods hodge podge cannon which looked so awkward to wield; it's basically a turret without a mounting device. You try holding out anything like that with your arms, and you'll struggle within seconds to hold it up.
The weapons in RWBY used to be so damn cool but now they are sorely lacking and I feel it's either due to a lack of creativity or a lack of budget considering they do have to animate the weapons transforming and such but still man they could have done so much cool shit in Atlas for example and just didn't. For example. Ironwoods guns were just that. Guns. They didn't really do much special and sure they gave him added mobility but THATS IT. They didn't combine or have another firing function or anything. Just plain guns...that he tend stops using for that stupid ass cannon they gave him 🙄😑
What would have been cool for ironwoods weapon that makes it special to him would be that literally no one else could handle the recoil. The gun would be designed so that you had to either be absurdly strong or have a prosthetic to fire it without causing you any harm
the worst part is Ironwood's white revolver used to fire explosions. Like the rounds just blew up when you shot them at something. Which would have been an insane compliment to his other revolver. But no it now fires generic pew pew lasers.
@@WiserOdin dude imagine if his guns combined into a laser gun or a shotgun or something. Hell imagine if they combined and turned into an axe?! James is based on the tinman after all
Critter: carefully explains why it's not just "also a gun" and why each weapon is unique in its own way (thanks for your whole explanation, it felt on point. I don't know that much about RWBY so these explanations make it easy to learn about it) Internet: unfortunately for you... the *memes* will not see it that way.
Kinda amazing how much thought the weapon were given within the early seasons. This video gives me a lot of inspiration to create and research weapons and how someone should fight with them now(for character design to be exact.)
Im upset phyra only used the gun rifle part of her spear in the crimson woods like in the tournament vs bronze when they have to take out the sniper she had a gun never used it her weapon was in my top 5 but never got used in a cool way
I would argue that Salem is the ONLY character who SHOULDN'T have a weapon. She's the big bad yes, but shes also the antithesis to the heroes. Shes nasty and mean and ordering entire cities destroyed. Having her be the ONLY character without a weapon would make her unique in a way that makes her stand out from the cast. Cinder in her first few appearances had no weapons, later on we see her make glass swords and bows, but most of the time she uses her Maiden powers. Maiden powers that are just weaker versions of Salem's powers. Having Cinder directly copy Salem, hell having her actively try to avoid using weapons and then having THAT be her downfall would be suitably poetic for her. Salem not having a weapon is fine, the problem is, shes not the only person who doesnt have a weapon, which diminishes the impact.
Your videos have really been helpful for me lately with working on a rewrite of the show. You make awesome content and make me think more critically about the different aspects of the show, and this one is no exception.
Weiss I love her she’s amazing but after she learned how to summon she really lost her way of fighting because mostly she does is summon or keep using her semblance what happen to time dilation make her go faster and her cool attacks and dancing style she had
They gave her too many abilities to start with, so she comes off as one of the wimpiest fighters because she uses them so poorly and keeps losing fights. Then they gave her more powers and she still sucks at using them, while forgetting to use all her other abilities.
And for some of them it's so easy to find a good idea for. Maybe the boomerang can use the gun canisters to jolt round and start spinning after it stopped or change direction mid air. Maybe the fishing hook's tip unfurls and becomes a blade that can be swung around, and the harpoon in the back can use the same string as the main line allowing you to hook each and to something and letting the rod itself move between them, there's so much stuff you can do
The transformation or weapons was so important that (if I’m remembering this right) each weapon had its own unique bank of transformation sounds in the first few seasons. I hate to say it, but I think a lot of this comes back to the loss of Monty. The fights were Monty’s favorite parts, and the complex and interesting weapon designs were an extension of that. Without him, that certain spark that every weapon and fight had is barely if ever present.
I've been having this weird personal "retrospective" on RWBY since I saw the first three episodes of Ice Queendom, and I say "retrospective" in quotes because I dropped RWBY partway through Vol. 3, and I can't really 'retrospect' something I haven't seen. And the more I see videos like this and the more I talk with friends who have watched the later volumes, the more I feel reminded of why I dropped the show in the first place. There really was something special about the choreography of Volumes 1-2 and the original color trailers, how so much of these characters' personalities and styles are expressed better in combat and in motion than in their actual spoken dialogue. I can't agree more about how much these weapons are more than just props; more than "also a gun", more than "a combination of items", because every aspect of a character (their weapon, their personality, their Semblance) all come together to form a cohesive fighting style that defines 100% of who they are. I distinctly remember wondering how Pyrrha's three-way transforming spear/sword/rifle is used in actual combat, and then we get the Pyrrha vs CRDL scene to show *exactly* how and it's breathtaking! I even recall Monty pointing out that he made extra-sure that Ruby properly ejects a shell after each shot, owing to Crescent Rose's functionality as a bolt-action rifle. While I would relent to say this makes Crescent Rose more """realistic""", it does make it more "plausible" and grounded in its own logic; it gave the weapon tangible mechanics that Ruby herself had to interact with and master. And every weapon had something like this; the slow clicks of Myrtenaster's cylinder rotating, the way Gambol Shroud's blade folds back onto the barrel, that little cross-arm flourish that Yang does to prime Ember Celica's next shot, everything just felt so personal and expressive. That bit about Semblances really disappointed me the most, because I've always seen Semblances as a smaller component of combat than what they appear to be in later volumes. Semblances are there to *compliment* a character's fighting style, to be used in tandem with their weapons to create a uniquely personal fighting style. Everything down to the way characters simply move around the environment to how the weapons actually fire was all uniquely personal and special. When a friend of mine was explaining the fights in the later volumes to me, we had settled on describing them more as "power battles", where combatants simply take turns throwing powers at each other to see who comes out on top, something you'd find in more typical shonen fair. If Vol.1-2 fight scenes could be described as a fighting game or a character action game like Devil May Cry in terms of its dynamic combat, volumes 3-5 fight scenes could be described as a turn-based RPG, where characters often just *let* themselves get hit or somehow forget to fight back against incoming attacks, waiting for their "turn" to retaliate. It's all so sorely disappointing, and it hurts to know that it only continued to get worse over time.
Even a simple weapon can show the personality of it’s user, and a master can turn a simple weapon into an armament of destruction. For example, my self insert OC wields two identical sword that are black and red. Each blade has a smooth edge and a serrated edge. This way my OC can chose to either cleanly cut though something, or forcibly buzz saw his way through an enemy. And when he combines both sword, then it becomes a big sword with completely serrated in one form. This goes with the fact my OC can be merciful or sadistic towards his enemies since mid slice he can swap the side he uses. Madara Uchiha uses a big war fan or a Gunbai, and it does is turn enemy chakra in to wind nature chakra to launch back at enemies. Simple but effective.
,@@jonnjones8263 I highly doubt they gonna do that, remember? Back in v1&3, Ren, Cinder, Qrow & Amber had aura techniques as well. Ren used the aura block technique against twin snakes, Cinder & Amber used aura block against bullets. Qrow used aura slash to break Winter's glyphs. But in volume 8, Winter used aura strike against Ironwood. (That's new)
these kind of videos are genuinely so fun to watch at like 3 am. ive started to binge watch a lot of these videos whenever i’m bored or see them on youtube.
I think you touched on something super important at the end there. Monty Oum started out as a fight animator, you can find all of his old work on youtube, and it's all excellent. When he started RWBY, the story was pretty clearly just a way to get from one cool fight to the next, and maybe care about the characters involved. But as you say, the trailers don't emphasize character, or plot, they emphasize weapons and combat, that's clearly what Monty cared about and truly enjoyed doing. Current RWBY doesn't feel like the animators enjoy animating or choreographing the fights. Rather than animating actual weapon twirls, they use the weird blurry weapon spin animation. Weapons that do transform, often transform so fast you can't see how they transform like with Robin's weapon, or they transform off screen like the boomerang at 25:35. I don't get the sense that the people making the show enjoy making the fights. The RWBY community watched the show for the fights seasons 1-3 so they feel obliged to give us at least 1 or 2 big fights per season. But I get the feeling that if they could get away with not having fights, they would.
The writers were actually kind of strung along by Monty Oum's antics. Basically they'd write a script, and then at some point they'd go "". Then Monty made a fight scene and would sometimes introduce characters or situations/locations out of nowhere, and the writers and the rest of the animation team suddenly had to scramble to compensate. I mean, it made for an extremely enjoyable show, so I'm not complaining at all. But to pretend that his loss had no impact whatsoever on the quality of the combat is just... Denying reality. Yes, the current animators are working as hard as they can. But clearly they aren't anywhere near as good. Which can be fixed in two ways. Either make them get better, or hire new blood. But it's rooster teeth, they'll never replace people they already have.
If you want another example of all the guns feeling 'samey', then look at the guns that Ghira and Kali's guards were using back in Vol 5. They're quite obviously modeled after flintlock pistols (which hold only one shot), but Kali and the guards use them as if they semi-autos by firing multiple shots without reloading. Now granted these are weapons designed for nameless redshirts, but they could've at least made the guns look like an actual weapon that held more than one shot.
It always bothered me that the happy huntresses (aside from Robin) all had the exact same weapon. It doesn’t even have a unique name, the wiki just lists it as “crossbow staff”. I suppose they wanted to focus on the characters’ semblances than their weapons (though I don’t even think they gave Joanna a semblance), but then why not give them unique weapons that can help show off their semblances more? I understand we don’t see them fight as much, but if they’re supposed to be the Mantle equivalent to the ace ops then why not treat them as such? Instead of giving them all unique variations on crossbows or something along those lines, they gave them those staffs cause like you said “the characters needed a prop to hold”.
Yes I been wondering when you would talk about the weapon’s in RWBY because the weapons are one of the most important parts in RWBY I love this video I love the points you made and agree with them , and keep up the good work with RWBY
the thing with weapons is that, a lot of the cool factor can come from *how* you use the weapon, not just what it is. for example, see the use of Escudo in World Trigger. It’s a tool that makes a solid barrier (fixed shape, custom size) pop up from a surface within a set range and push anything “above” it out of the way. A lot of its cool factor is just in how someone with enough power can say “ok this entire area is sectioned off” or “here, eat a car to the face.”
I always liked how the weapons had properties inherently unique and exclusive to RWBY's designs, in part *because* "it's also a gun." Ruby using Crescent Rose's recoil to slice through a Grimm is iconic in the trailer, but that wasn't her speed or strength, it was inherently a part of the weapon's design. Sun using Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang's shotguns for _both_ acceleration of his physical strikes _and_ to fire off shots at his opponents in the heat of battle is a brilliant add-on and perfectly encapsulates his eclectic and skilled fighting style (because imagine someone else trying to use those gunchucks and shooting their own face off by accident.) Even the most simplistic of designs like Adam's Wilt (the sword) and Blush (the rifle/scabbard) works when he uses the rifle recoil for iaijustu techniques with his semblance. *That* was a cool as hell design that Jetstream Sam in Metal Gear rising used that same year and it's cool af! ...Now they're just weapons that really have nothing unique about them beyond maybe having the component parts to two different weapons. Being a rifle doesn't help a boomerang (even if they could have it do things like fire off a disco circle pattern to accelerate faster but *that* would be too much I guess)
It says something about early RWBY that when I come up with my own fan weapons a good half of my effort goes towards figuring out all the logistics of reloading. Everything from buying and carrying ammo to the mechanics of getting the correct Dust type into the chamber while surrounded by Grimm. And then the other half is figuring out how to use simple and reliable transformations to achieve maximum tactical versatility while also serving to express, well, myself. Which is particularly tricky because I gravitate to an overcomplicated jack-of-trades style befitting my ADHD moods, so indulging in that while keeping to good and reasonably grounded design principles is a challenge.
I think the biggest example of Semblances taking precedent over Weapons as representing their user is from conversation from the show itself. I can't remember whether it was V4 or V5, but more or less they brought up the idea that Semblances are either based on the personality of an individual, an individual's personality is formed from their semblance, or even both. This was probably the biggest indicator that they'd be what truly presented a person over the weapon itself.
Something I noticed while watching the video: I really started to dislike Crescent Rose with each passing season. Not because the design is bad or bland, but because to me it didn't make sense why Ruby would design her weapon that way. Like, why build in a sniper rifle when you aren't act like a sniper. Why does she use one of the weapons with the longest range when she is the first to rush into close quarters? But rewatching the scenes of the first few volumes reminded me, why CR was a cool weapon. The way Ruby used it in the earlier seasons showed why she choose the weapon: to boost herself and to change her direction midair. Stuff like that is really missing in the newer volumes and it shows how much got lost over time.
What I found out that’s really fun is that despite one of RWBY’s main thing being it’s weapons, they still get outdone. Take stick figure animations for example, if you watch the imitator collabs 1 and 2 you’ll find that the weapons the characters use are pushed as far as they can. A character Chronos has a time slowing grenade that affects non-living creatures and uses it to assault someone with the speed of an explosion. Or Fordz, whose dual head scythe lets him turn into a beyblade(no I’m serious he does this). Other characters have such unique weapons and use them in amazing and creative ways
Watching this video has definitely helped me understand that I probably need to redo some of my characters designs and weapons. Because a lot of them use hand-me-down weapons or ancient weapons use more standard military equipment that have ever been modified or just pure energy based weapons from there abilities
I actually like the fact that other characters and especially most of team WTCH don't have a big emphasis on weapons. Makes it seem like the weapons are built for the purpose of fighting Salem and her forces. Salem's team feels like they are untouchable without things like maidens and high tech weapons (and bombs). Salem and her team are such titans that they don't need any extra help.
And I don't hate the bad/boring weapons in general. Some people just have bad taste, even in real life. Ruby has that obsessiveness where she would get all giddy and intricately design her weapon with all these features. Whereas I could see Ironwood being much more practical and simple with his. And you brought up the point with Jaune which make sense, but you're right in that It just became too many people with the bland choices. Bland kinda accented Juane and Ironwood, but now you wouldn't even differentiate that.
Honestly even the old simple weapons like Adam's Wilt & Blush were so directly tied to their personality. It gave the sense their fighting style was built by them. Ruby was trained by Qrow, they're two of very few scythe users left. Crescent Rose has a name, it's used frequently, and it's unique. I vaguely recall that Qrow's scythe is named Harbinger, but I couldn't recall how I know that or if he ever says it. Weiss' sword is named Myrtenaster, Winter's swords have no name. The weapons had personality. They don't anymore. Characters would use their names because they mattered and were important, but they don't anymore.
The way semblances are designed is different nowadays too. Early semblances were utility. Modern semblances are the main combat tool. Ruby doesn’t use her semblance to hit someone. She uses it to get in a better position so that she can hit her enemy with the scythe. Vine, however…
I would like to note that while yes, monty is not the only incredibly hardworking talent who worked on rwby, but it is worth noting that he was a major part of the CREATIVE direction and the show lost a lot of soul imo in the post-monty reel when they were struggling with where to go and what to do. The animators are fantastic, but part of the issue is the DIRECTION, which definitely took a hit as monty was the DIRECTOR as well as an animator.
With Ozpin saying that crescent rose is “one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed,” I would’ve loved for Salem to have a scythe too. Everything would’ve come full circle. It would’ve been great.
Bit late, but I have to say I really like that idea. In terms of appearances I feel like it'd also fit really well with her general appearance (deathly pale, generally black clothing with maybe a bit of red here and there), and it kind of fits the theme of her having control over the creatures of death and destruction. I could see her having a real Grim Reaper vibe.
I totally forgot the first time Harriet deployed her weapon. After seeing the clip you put, it reminded me of how disappointed I was when I first saw it. It was hardly given attention and it didn’t have the satisfaction of every piece sliding into place to form it. It was just to fast to appreciate it. I remember just thinking, “ that’s was it, we’re not gonna talk about that or linger on it”?
I remember when salem was introduced and there was no weapon on her it felt .... perfect This was the villain, her not having a weapon separated her and made her ...unhuman to the rest of the cast And then weapons started being more simplified and lame The ace ops ok i get it, simple militaristic colore because they are meant to be mindless soldiers But then the robyn crew all have the same crossbow staff....why? They are not mindless soldiers It's so sad to see a cool aspect of the show vanish to a point that when ruby loses crescent rose in vol 8 it feels....empty, they are not that important anymore And for the final question My favorite weapon is nora's hammer i mean just....heart shapes make anything cooler for me And the least favorite as you can guess from the comment are the robyn crew crossbow staff thing
While I mostly agree with out-of-universe points you made, like the weapon transitions being phased out kind of, I do feel like there are some explanations for some of the in-universe points you were trying to make. As far as the weapons in the later seasons being unimaginative, most of those weapons are from soldiers, teachers (lookin at Port), and non-huntsman who either don't focus on combat or probably don't have resources to make super complicated weapons (namely Robin and the HH.) The Ace Ops not having flashy or colorful weapons could be because they're soldiers, they're more focused on augmenting their personal fighting styles AND their team cohesion, rather than focusing on having cool looking and flashy weapons (it could also be that Ironwood was behind their weapons being one-note in color so they looked more uniform.) And the teachers with "lame" weapons can be explained away to an extent as well. As teachers, they spend more of their time supervising other students on missions and teaching, so they wouldn't have much of a necessity to upgrade or update their weapons. Just some points I wanted to throw out there. Overall great video!
I'm really sick of seeing comments along the lines of "Well, it's because Monty passed away."
That is INCREDIBLY rude.
It's SO RUDE to imply Monty was the only one who ever did anything good for RWBY. Sit down and watch the credits for a volume, and see all those names. Every single of of those people worked hard to make the show what it is, and it's incredibly rude to imply they had no hand in it, and it was only Monty.
It is RUDE to only give Monty all the praise and push any blame onto his old friends and colleagues.
And it is RUDE to try and use Monty's name to shit on current RWBY, the people he called friends.
It's fine if you want to give Monty praise and discuss how inspirational he was, but STOP using his name as an insult towards current RWBY. STOP striping the hard work the rest of CRWBY did to make RWBY a great show and say Monty was the only one who ever did anything. It's disgusting seeing people using his name that way.
EDIT: Since some of you don't seem to actually understand what it is I'm talking about, here's some examples. Copy and Pasted from a comment of mine this thread.
Giving Monty praise and acknowledging how much he did for the show, is perfectly fine, and encouraged.
"Monty was an inspiration and I don't think we could ever truly replicate the impact he had on the show's creative development" GOOD comment!
Using Monty's name to attack the people who used to be his friends, is NOT okay.
"Lol. Monty would be spinning in his grave. Miles and Kerry have ruined his vision, and if Monty was alive I bet he would slap them over what they did to his show." BAD comment.
Thank you! I’m tired of people disrespecting Monty and the crew.
They are still doing that? Unbelievable. That is incredibly disappointing to hear.
Yea a lot of people seem to forget that Monty’s wife and best freinds were right there working on the first rwby seasons.
It wasn’t just one dude.
(Though apparently the Monty team got pushed out which explains the death of the character outfits/weapons/animation and such)
I think the biggest problem is the combination of writers. Monty, Miles and Kerry, working together, were worth more than the sum of their parts. The new writers aren't really adding anything to the mix, at least nothing unique to them. Miles and Kerry are decent writers, but in my opinion, they're at their best when they have people to bounce ideas off of, and I don't think Eddy and Kiersi are the right people for that, judging by Volume 8.
But I do understand where they're coming from. If you're not well versed in the behind the scenes, it just seems like Monty died, and then the show went downhill. Monty dying wasn't the reason the show went downhill, it's because they didn't get someone to replace him until it was too late, and the people they got were evidently the wrong people. In my opinion, I believe that the best choice would be one of the other lead animators, but we'll probably never know.
It’s true though. I’m not saying they don’t care about Monty or his series but when you see, fan-animation, fan-art or even some fanfics that have that care and time into they feel more like Monty’s work then the official studio. The series fixing RWBY by Celtic Phoenix. Is one of the best examples of this. Plus rooster teeth has fired. A lot of animators that worked with Monty.
I think Robin's Crossbow should have had some red feathered accents, like the red feather in Robin Hood's Hat. It could also not be gray
I hate everything about Robin. From her design to her character to the people who made her
Why not make the crossbow resemble a actual Robin (the bird) and give it a hat?
That would've given her a weaPUN!
@@javelinmaster2 Channeling your inner Yang I see
Yes! A red accent would look quite nice. I also think the wing design can spread all the way around into a circle so that she has a shield/circular saw gauntlet for close quarters.
Or atleast utilize gray better.
Even in the military, there was a long tradition of accessorizing personal weapons. For example, George Patton was as much famous for his personalized ivory handled paired revolvers as much as his temperament and campaigns. Note that they were revolvers, and not the M1911 that was standard issue at the time. It's not as common now, but even nowadays, you can have a pistol or rifle personalized, from pragmatic features like carbon fiber accessories and rubberized grips, to the absolutely elaborate, like Damascened gold inlay and intaglio engraving. The latter themselves tend to be as much a priceless work of art as they are a weapon.
I see no reason why the Ace-Ops as an elite unit wouldn't have personalized weapons, especially since they all use wildly different and unique ones, rather than having been trained to all use the same mass-produced government issued models.
Then we have Trench Weapons from WW1 made by frontline soldiers out of materials locally available. Those have way more personality than some RWBY Weapons, and it's cool to recognize some of the parts they're made from.
Things like cogs and empty grenade cases being used as mace heads, coil springs used as shafts/handles, or a knife made out of a single flattened spike.
"These engravings give you no tactical advantage whatsoever" - Large Manager
Aww man all this shit is so cool
@@vincentmalasawmkimajongte7489 fluid serpent/six-shooter jungle-cat
@@vincentmalasawmkimajongte7489 Pinnacle Poohbah
The animators think that speed was what made the old fight animations good when in reality, it was *momentum*
Both momentum and simple principles of martial arts. Coil… and then snap back like a spring. Build tension in the body and release to create power. Create power, and recycle it by following your momentum.
Speed I think was a factor. Key there, a factor, not the whole. There were several factors or elements working together that made the original fights so good. Combined with the momentum Flame mentioned and the martial arts moves all working together with the right timing. To often you see with such things where someone tries to recreate this level of greatness in a thing and they want to find that single one element that was the key to greatness, they think they find it and run with it, but end up failing because it isn't just a singular thing that made the greatness great. Not just with fight scenes here in rwby, but other things too, including whole series.
Yup. Momentum and weight.
"That bitch fought with a hoverboard."
I love the way you said that.
Feel like the weapons have been more ...simplified? To make it easier for choreographers to plan out a scene with different animators and streamline the whole process which has sacrificed the unique aspects they had to each character. Thinking on this, have to say my favorite weapon that " is also a gun" is not from RWBY but from power rangers and its the power axe/Mothbreaker. And I loved that thing as a kid and it's still memorable to me even now and still think it's cool. Had such a simple transformation and think they only did it cos of how the weapons combined but still cool.
deadlines might have something to do with the simplification. you do have to make genuine sacrifices to conform to time and/or budget constraints. of course I dont actually know what the production is like for the show.
I mean to be fair, i think the “weapon + gun” inspiration they took from was actually from games like BlazBlue. I think they mentioned Ragna’s sword, inspiration for Ruby’s weapons.
For reference, i can transform into a scythe and has cartridges it uses.
Yeah I definitely think that has something to do with it. I cannot imagine the pain of trying to describe exactly how Crescent Rose functions and transforms to a whole group of animators who all have to somehow keep it consistent.
You also probably need to have to come up with the mechanical process as a drawing, then you'd probably have to hire an artist that specializes in machines/mecha stuff.
Just look at the supplemental art for mecha shows like Gundam, Macross, etc. They draw interior mechanisms despite it rarely being in the show itself.
Based on Shane's letter, I think that's probably the case. One of the things he mentioned that happened after Monty's passing is that the producers made a lot of changes to how their animation process worked. For instance, IIRC, rather than the same people animating an entire sequence as a whole they would instead divide it into the "action" parts with the combat and the "character interaction" parts with dialogue, and assign them to different animators/teams of animators. This was done so that they could streamline the animation process, and I could definitely see the weapons being downgraded to something more simple being influenced by that kind of compartmentalization.
It kind of comes off as what you see with a restaurants that turn into fast food places: It's quicker and easier to make the product, but the quality usually drops as a result.
Even Port's dumb weapon has more personality than the later ones. It's dumb and stupid, but it fits Ports as a person completely. He's a big oaf who was basically a hunter, it makes sense that his weapon would be just a shotgun axe. It fits him. Seeing Port with a spear or scythe would look weird, but seeing him with a large axe fits him.
I could see Port with a spear, that's an effective everyman weapon. Practical, fundamental even. Just make it like a boar spear, which was used in hunting.
More of a blunderbuss than a shotgun.
@Vigriff they're the same thing. The only reason why the blunderbuss has a huge barrel at the end was so that pouring powder and bullets would be much easier.
In honour of this video being about weapons , let’s have a moment of silence for Cinder’s bow (a fallen hero.) idk if her using a spear/sword is supposed to be a middle finger to Pyrrha but I miss the Cinderella in cinder.
See, before V7 I had actually given CRWBY credit because it reflected her loss of depth perception that she needed to adjust to.
Then she whips it out again like nothing and I realised that that was not the intent.
I remember her backflip into an instant three-pronged shot against Ruby in V2. That was cool as hell!
It was also a good twist on "guns also being swords." Instead it's a bow also being a sword.
To this moment I don't even know that cinder was the rwby version of Cinderella. 😂
Good Bro weiss father is jack frost and her grandpa is santa claus
@@goodbro2046 ok aside from her backstory very obviously being a reference to cinderellas story we also have:
1. vol 1-3 she wears glass slippers 2. in "dance dance infiltration" she changes her outfit to a dress using dust
3. her name is a shortened version of cinderella 4. her bow is called "midnight". theres more but this is all i can think of atm
I think there's a big difference between being fast and fluid. The old fights weren't necessarily fast but they were so incredibly fluid and intentional that the fights felt really fast. Now the fights are just a flurry of blows that do nothing.
you can speed things up or slow them down, bland animation and choreography are still gonna be bland. it's such a tragedy 😞
I still go back to RWBY fights to this day, just to pick them apart cus they're just so damn fun.
@@ethanlee8307 ikr, I get so pumped just watching the original trailers over and over again. Makes me wanna animate myself
Rwby rly disappoints me. I just want v1 and v2 to be foreverr
They more like ,swing weapons not even like a raipeir or a actual syth it's more like they all use swords and they overlay the flipping other weapons over it I didn't noticed it from before but from my dad himself "it looks bland"
"Did you know Robin's weapon is shaped like a bird."
"Yes... five minutes ago, in this video."
I feel like Salem not having a weapon makes sense because she comes from a time of magic and continued to live through that. But at the same time Mommy Salami going out with a shotgun would've been hilarious.
Mommy Salami: "Get off my lawn!" *fires shotgun*
But didn't she have an staff in the flashback.
@@princeofqrow3181 That was Ozma's staff
Have weapon be made of Magic her can shape as desired
@@mjcsandboxgames4021 now that would be interesting other than she's just shoot laser beam all day.
This video reminded me of a quote from ATLA. "The sword is a simple tool but in the hands of a master it becomes the most versatile of weapons, and just as the imagination is limitless so too are the possibilities of the sword." A weapon design can be simple or complex, it how it's used that makes it memorable for me at least
The same rules apply to superpowers. A character can have a relatively simple and ordinary power but it's how they use it that makes them interesting. Like the character Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece has the power of rubber. Thats it. He just stretches. Sounds lame when you first hear it. But when you see all the crazy ways he uses it and how inventive he is at coming up with creative solutions to problems with his powers it becomes amazing.
The same rules should apply to weapons. A character doesn't need an overly complex super weapon to be strong. I wanna see more characters with relatively simple weapons used in more creative ways that tell me something about their personality. At the same time the lack of creative use of these weapons in the show hurts them. In the same way that a simple weapon used creatively makes it interesting, a complex weapon that isn't utilized effectively makes it frustrating. Because then a weapon with all these capabilities not being used as often as it should just makes it a useless piece of metal they're swinging around.
@@jonnjones8263 "There are no weak powers, only weak users." - Jeremiah Cross from This Bites
@@TheWarmachine375 Facts.
@@jonnjones8263 sounds like Jojo stands, your stand doesn't get more powerful, you get better at using it and applying it to different circumstances
@@andrewgreeb916 Yes. Except in this case I'm implying both. They ability gets stronger from learning to use it in more diverse ways.
"RWBY was sold to us as an excuse to see cool weapons kill cool monsters in cool battles." I think that sums up why my college DND group ran a few RWBY games back in the day. Those were some fun games honestly.
What rules did you use? That sounds fun
@@griffinbaker3509 D20 Modern with an additional homebrewed ruleset attached for the Semblances. Also, some rules about transforming weapons and team attacks.
@@jakman2179 cool, thanks
@@griffinbaker3509 My game group has recently actually tried to restart some of it using pathfinder and the 3pp system Sheres of Power/Might/Guile using some Lite Gestalt rules with the Armiger class from Spheres of Might. Haven't had a chance to try it yet due to other games, but still. A little homebrewing can go a long way.
Every time someone brings up how Weiss is basically a wizard now I get so upset. Summing something to fight could be interesting, but she never fights alongside the summons. She just has the summons fight. Most of the characters feel weaker than they did in earlier volumes because they don't have Monty animating them, but I think Weiss is the only one in the lore of the show that has actually become weaker. The first thing we see Weiss do is show that she was a better fighter than the knight she summons. She has to beat something to summon it, which inherently means that it is not as strong as her. This wouldn't be a problem if she also fights, but she doesn't. If she won't fight alongside the summons, then she is only fighting worse.
And if she just uses summons to defeat and reuse other summons, she'd be no more interesting than your everyday Pokemon Trainer :(
Weiss’ weapon is the perfect encapsulation of how she has virtually no merit behind any of her life outside of Myrtenaster. It’s the only thing that she made all her own, unlike her glyphs that are hereditary, her family’s wealth that she didn’t earn, and her connections to Ironwood through her sister.
That sword should be her dearest possession because it proves she has something to offer that no one else can. Instead she’s just Diet Winter, fighting like her sister does, but less effectively. Winter constantly criticizing her technique should have seen Weiss embracing her own path to success through techniques not learned from Winter. Can’t have that though.
idk man, if i could choose between swinging a sword fast vs summoning an ice titan and shooting fireballs id probably pick the latter.
Really cant blame Weiss for being a tryhard.
Yep. I think the closest we've gotten to seeing her fighting alongside her summons was in the first Ace-Ops fight. She actually took advantage of the fact that Marrow could only direct his Semblance in one direction at a time by attacking him from different positions so that he was basically forced to choose between restraining her or the knight, which in turn meant that when one was frozen the other could continue attacking. Which is honestly all the more disappointing, because it shows that the animators/choreographers *can* come up with ways for Weiss to fight creatively with her new skills, but either due to the production process or their own effort (I personally suspect the former) they just don't.
@@AMVhuntingSyndrom Being a tryhard implies you're using the best strats and overpowered techniques to win. Wiess relaying almost entirely on her summons, even in less advantage situations, is the opposite of tryhard, if anything it's more scrub-like.
Volumes 1-3 she had Glyphs for speed, pressure and mix-ups, Dust for enhancing her whole kit plus range attack options, and she could also apply those benefits directly to her teammates for ultimate synergy. Now she just tends to immediately summon and stand there at the start and end of fights. Is it more safe? I guess. Does it look more interesting or win fights? Hell no.
They could have fixed Marrows weapon so easily. Give it more color and let him shoot it while it's flying. Can you imagine him freezing someone and then he lets loose a buzzsaw of bullets on them.
Agreed, Marrow's weapon had the most potential. The lack of creative uses was a let down.
Yeah, just let logic hang for a minute and say he could make it fire remotely, and it can shoot itself to rapidly change its trajectory mid-flight.
It would also be interesting in narrative if Marrows weapon had colour it would hinted at his future rebellious mindset
Or just give it more impact. It hits so lightly for such a huge, heavy boomerang that it's not worth using over the actual gun functionality. I mean, semblance aside, he's unarmed after he throws it, but I don't ever remember that being used against him. Like, everyone is super skilled, but only he's capable of catching it? Not even Blake does?
@@SwitchbackCh that's pretty cool. Maybe he could have had a remote on his wrist ala Falcon to control it's firing mechanic
12:29 Hush, Neo's parasol, also allows her to "fall or fly" with style thanks to her body's light weight. And in Roman Holiday, it is teased that she can also use it as a javelin or as a hook to climb or grab stuff (ex: tie a flying vehicle's wire to it). Ironically, despite Hush being mostly just a normal parasol in shape, it's one of weapons that sees the most variety of creative uses.
Not to mention Hush is one of the few weapons that has an actual background story, that explains how it was created and why Neo chose a parasol as a weapon. If only they put this amount of attention to detail and care into way more weapons in the actual show, including team RWBY's. 9 years, and we still don't know how and why Ember Celica became Yang's weapon of choice, or if she even design them, same for the weapons of other main characters.
We know even less about team RWBY's semblances' awakening and why they have those specific superpowers. The lack of backstory for their weapons is far from being their only issue.
@@quehay45 Part of me suspects it is because RWBY (the group) are based on fairy tale characters, and fairy tales are not places you go for deep backstories and extensive worldbuilding. Meanwhile Neo is based on neapolitan ice cream, which is first recorded in the 19th century, so a more modern approach is taken accordingly.
@@quehay45 Quite the contrary, I feel like ONLY Team RWBY's semblances have been kind of explained (minus Ruby). Blake herself explained how her semblance symbolizes her past of running away and leaving an empty/shell of person behind. Weiss' is passed down throughout the Schnee lineage (a few mysteries left like: why only women Schnees shown with the ability) but it seems like different Schnee's may have different specialties within the semblance i.e. summoning/time dilation/dust utilization. THAT concept could use some explaining tbh, and finally Yang's semblance representing her personality is subtle, yet obvious. She dresses and acts like a brawler, and her semblance backs it up. It's offensive, yet defensive- just like Yang! She's a fun, electric, and open person but is also traumatized, cautious, and stubborn. She's fine and good until she hits a breaking point- just like her semblance! That's how I choose to think about it anyway ~
it has a backstory?? i dont remember shit about rwby now im curious
@@TPNsBiggestFan They released books or light novels for team CFVY, Neo, and Roman.
I think you are 100% right. I’ve noticed my love for the series has dropped over the last few years, and it’s because it’s lost that touch with the creativity and love for weapons and the animation. My favorite part of early RWBY was the choreography of the fights, and the details that went into weapons. I rewatched the first three volumes of RWBY 4-5 times just because I LOVED the animation and personality the fights had. I haven’t rewatched a single volume since volume 4. Unfortunately RWBY lost a lot of its personality when the animation for things such as weapons and choreography dropped. There have been a couple gems, but overall I haven’t cared too much.
Really nice video! I agree with pretty much everything you said. You’re probably the first critic I actually enjoyed watching.
Tbh I stopped watching because of the honestly bad writing that was there from day one buuuut I could see ppl sticking around for the character designs, the cool weapons and the fight scenes but now I don't think those things can hold the show either because they're so lacking.
I'll also say that I really hate how overly complicated the designs have gotten, who's gonna tell them that it doesn't make the design better??!
love your rwby music videos dude
I never expected to see you comment here. It's a pleasant surprise.
Port's weapon atleast has personality. Blowhard is a really stupid looking and impractical weapon and I can't imagine anyone using it except for Port.
It's called BLOWHARD!? 🤣
And right beside him is oobleck who has the coolest fucking weapon in the show. A flamethrower staff that's also a thermos for his coffee, I mean cmon.
And it highlights a transition between the simple weapons of Jaun's ancestor and the crazy complex ones used by the students.
@@ChestnutRiceandKamehameha If you find that funny, notice that it's a blunderbuss with axe heads where you stabilize it against your shoulder.
@@robinthrush9672 well, he has Aura but that would be a bitch to try and aim precisely
If the plainer weapons were intentional that could also lead to another great conflict in the show: Form vs. Function, and the sliding scale of practicality.
On one end, you have weapons that are mass-produced and churned out by the millions going up against an masterpiece art project. Also, it would be interesting to see when personalization goes too far to the point of being a major detriment to the user.
But then again, we can also include things like Logistics into the mix. With such unique weapons, could you imagine trying to supply Huntsmen/Huntresses to meet all of their custom weapons' needs? Uniform weapons make sense if you're trying to equip an entire army, but specialized/customized weapons would better suit Elites.
Neither one of these weapon production ideologies are inherently wrong, they're merely filling out different niches and were created for different purposes.
Agreed. It'd be a nice little bit of worldbuilding to show the difference between how Atlas functions and how the rest of the kingdoms function. It's mentioned in Volume 3 how Beacon keeping the military separate from the academy/civilian sector is so much different than it is in Atlas, and we see throughout the show that Huntsmen and Huntresses aren't trained as some kind of uniform fighting force that functions as an army for the nation in most of the other kingdoms. Instead they're basically independent agents who sometimes work together. Having most Atlas-based Huntsmen/Huntresses using far more standardized tools would be a good way to demonstrate how their graduates are expected to serve in or with the military (and thus are limited by how the military is willing/able to maintain the unique requirements of their equipment), rather than just going off and doing their own thing.
The military will fund your equipment, but might not have the time, resources, or expertise to cater to any and all of the wild things that every single individual in the military wants to incorporate into their weapons, so they have to put some limitations on what they can do. An independent Huntsman or Huntress can do anything they want to with their weapon, but they'll also have to be responsible for maintaining its upkeep - finding places where they can get their supplies, affording to get everything they need, taking the time to make or wait for their specialized tools and ammunition, etc. As you said, neither is inherently wrong, but they serve different functions. Not only could it have been an interesting side plot for the characters to explore, but it would also allow them to streamline the animation/production process in a way that actually worked within the context of the story.
But since it was never really explored in any way, it just feels like a drop in quality.
@@VenathTehN3RD My main peeve with the whole Academy/Hunter System is the fact that it relies primarily on Huntsmen/Huntresses (And yes, I get that's the the point) because of the simple fact that there are too many threats out there and they are stretching themselves too thinly to deal with them. My issue is that there aren't that many of them compared to the millions of basic grunt soldiers.
I was thinking that a Defense in Depth Strategy would be a better way to do the Hunter System akin to that of the late Roman Empire. We can have a bunch of part-time soldiers and militias who defended the borders from skirmishes and invasion attempts as well as act as guerillas when a massive invasion actually made it in, and a small group of elite professional soldiers who did the real heavy lifting and only deployed to address these major threats.
I guess my main takeaway is that I feel that the Hunters need to integrate themselves more with the common person, or at least have assistance from normal everyday people who can do the mundane jobs that would take away from the Hunters important time.
In a narrative there's nothing wrong with these ideologies, in reality there is. Namely balance, durability, stamina drain, practicality, self-harm (look at Port's blunderbuss with the axe heads on the stock), compromising functionality (don't want to bend your rifle/staff),speed vs. power, etc.
@@robinthrush9672
Fair point, but RWBY was never particularly concerned with how effective or practical the weapons would be in the real world.
@@Cykeys You're assuming that Remnant is on the same scale as Earth. Civilization might not be as widespread, and the planet itself might be smaller. If Remnant was equivalent to Earth, or if society expanded, that would be a problem, but we don't know much about it.
That Harriet misdirect was genius. I actually genuinely believed it.
I really did forget about it because they really are so bland
I was over here like “pretty sure she used it before that…” honestly was questioning if she had used her bracers before that because critter said it in such a matter of fact way
One of the better decisions of the series in my opinion was having Ironwood (and Watts to an extent) just use a straight gun.
It sets him apart from the rest of the cast as an "other" in their world but at the same time it fleshed out his character just as much as the other weapons.
Ironwood is a simple and straightforward person, you see that in both his actions and his beliefs (as well as his fighting style). Despite pushing for progress in science he can still be seen as a very "traditional" kind of person, for him unlike the others his weapon is more or less a tool that he only uses when he needs to
This even comes through in the design of Due Process, at first glance it looks like a polished futuristic gun but the base of the gun is that of a traditional revolver (insert Gun-Gun meme).
And it compliments his fighting style so well, with his strength and durability he excels in close quarters combat, he uses a lot of holds and grapples to subdue enemies and his gun is there mainly just to add lethality.
Instead of having it transform when he runs out of ammo, he simply switches to using it as bludgeoning weapon, simple and straightforward.
I even liked that the second pistol uses gravity dust as a means to add maneuverability and speed so he can close the gap when he needs to. It made him feel more like a tank who found a way to circumvent a flaw in his preferred method of combat through ingenuity rather than just him becoming faster.
And then they gave him that ugly and unwieldy cannon weapon...
Edit: Adding on to this
Like in-universe he needed it because his regular guns wouldn't be powerful enough to potentially take down a maiden. But there are so many better ways to give him an upgrade.
For example, half of Ironwood's entire body is mechanical (something that they don't bring attention to enough imo). Instead of giving him an additional cannon weapon why not augment his guns to attach to his mechanical side or it's power source (like Genos from One Punch Man) or retrofit a cannon arm onto his mechanical side, that way he loses the utility of an arm for power. Or give him the Guts treatment where the hand detaches or gets pushed aside to reveal the cannon.
And we know something like this is possible because Yang's prosthetic arm (which Ironwood gifted to her) was essentially given the same shotgun function that her Ember Celica had and was even upgraded again in Atlas. (Could've just as easily made it a function of his new left arm too)
Would it really have been hard for Ironwood to commission a cannon arm attachment or gun upgrade instead of a giant unwieldy full sized cannon, that requires both his guns to be inserted into it, leaving him defenseless in the (likely) event he gets disarmed.
Im now in love with the idea of ironwood going blood and guts. Someone give him a dragonslayer
The show used to be about the characters combat abilities and their weapons, which I loved. And I agree with all you talk about
The characters, their weapons and style of combat should be the main point of the battles. Semblance are there to accent the character. Ruby had a big heavy weapon, her speed is there to balance that out.
Weiss is has light and fast attacks while not outputting much damage, he glyphs accent her by granting extra mobility such as arial combat and her summons and elemental attacks should be used as more hard hitting, but nowadays they make her do those attacks far too often and utilize her mobility.
That was what drawn me for sure. You could tell many parts of their character through how they fought. Just like some weapons, their fighting style should of been personalized. With stuff like their semblance, dust, and use of weapons could show you a lot of their character.
But now it feels so stock footage like. If you got a brawler, they fight the same. Using a gun feels the same. A melee weapon swings the same not even adding a bit of their flourish. Hell, Ruby treats her Scythe more like a sword, and that I feel is a huge mistake.
What bothers me the most about Weiss is that she probably has the most potential for creativity and variety in her skill set. Due to her combination of dust-infused glyphs, summons, and melee combat, the kind of things that she could pull off could be amazing to watch. We saw plenty of it in the first few volumes, with her adjusting how she utilized her skills based on the situation, so we know that the character *can* pull of creative and adaptable tactics in terms of lore. The result is that it feels like the character has actually become a less competent fighter in the story ever since learning how to summon. And that could be a fun character arc if they actually used it - she finally learns to use this cool technique she was always failing at before, gets so caught up in trying to use it that she stops being as efficient, and after getting her ass handed to her (like at Haven) she has to learn how to incorporate her new skills into her fighting style rather than almost completely relying on the new skill.
Instead, she mostly just chooses between either her summons or her old skill set, and when using the old one it seems far more simplified and less creative in how she uses it.
The other trick with her glyphs, was that she could use them to boost the whole team not just herself. We see a lot of that in the first couple of seasons, how the team works together combining their talents and skills and weapons together to enhance each other. Weiss especially shined as a support character using her various mobility or anchoring glyphs on her teammates to boost tier movements or attacks.
Semblances no longer feel like they were made specifically for their character, and instead just feel like a power stuck on a random character. Like Ruby's "petal burst" I can't imagine anyone else having, but with semblances like Marrow's "Stay" or Vine's "Aura vines", I feel like they could've gone to any of the onslaught of one-time/background characters.
Marrow’s gunmerang, Fetch, could’ve had a timer switch in boomerang mode that would’ve caused it to fire a spray of bullets in the middle of it being thrown, it could actually have been a neat way for it to have a cool function.
It's also the fact about that these weapons have lacked weight ever since the switch to Maya.
Ruby used to Crescent Rose's big size and weight to swing herself.
I have seen literally fan weapons [that may or may not be stolen by RT themselves I dunno] that are way more creative than the ones we currently got. Hell. I MADE WEAPONS THAT ARE MORE CREATIVE THAN THEM.
Now, creator bias is there for obvious reasons, but still, unless you design a weapon to be bland from the start, don't make them bland at all.
RT has stolen weapon designs
That fanmade bow/gun that showed up in this video was SO cool. I need more of that!
I am far from a very creative art person, but even I have come up with better designs. Freaking machine gun that turns into a glaive that can turn into a sword and shield. It was a messy project to draw out and required multiple revisions, but to this day I still love that drawing.
The other thing that's lost was weight, like they always kinda played loose with weight but typically something heavy felt heavy and it showed in the choreo, crescent rose being whipped around by Ruby shooting with it for instance, that all went out the window in recent volumes and now all the weapons swing around like they're made of plastic.
Alongside the weapons, there’s also another aspect that was introduced early on and left to be forgotten, especially with the lack of effective fight choreography: dust. It was mentioned at the very beginning how dust was revolutionary and key to humanity making a living and becoming as great as it is, yet people hardly use it now. Even Weiss stopped using it creatively as it was reduced to toss fire or ice, as compared to the more ingenious uses like lightning for a haste effect. The fact that there is a resource that lets you cast the elements could lead to many more fun ideas when combined with technology, rather than just blast it and hope for the best. Unfortunately it’s not well explored now, which makes it seem pointless when they hyped it up so much in the first few volumes, especially gravity dust, which could have had many fun uses if they actually did some creative work rather than let others do the work for them. This all culminates in me rambling about what was a type of magic system that had been ignored in favor of other ideas, since having the elements in a bullet and at your disposal seemed like a fun concept when they actually used it
Agreed. It took me about five minutes to work out that if Remnant had any creativity whatsoever, they could be dropping thermonuclear weapons on Grimm. Use fire and gravity dust in combination to achieve fusion temperatures and pressures and let the fun begin.
The only time I can think of in the last several volumes where we actually saw dust being used in any even remotely creative way was the finale of V7, during the fight between Ironwood and Watts. They didn't do a *lot* with it, but a zero-gravity fight in Amity at least actually made use of the thing that the series built up as basically being the foundation of modern technology. I mean for heaven's sake, they didn't even make any use of dust during a fight in a dust mine or a massive grimm invasion of Mantle and Atlas.
Sure, there's obviously dust that's technically in use (such as propelling bullets or providing power for vehicles), but it's such a tiny and insignificant background note that it can be easy to forget it's even being used. I'm not even really sure if the writers/animators remember that those things are powered by dust at this point.
And sadly since dust has become a background feature of the series, there’s no chance to go into things like other unique kinds of dust with gravity as an example, how dust can effect semblances with Weiss and Blake being big examples early on in volume 2, practical uses for dust outside of operating machinery, and how there could have been conflict and intrigue over the mining and acquiring of dust, which was attempted and forgotten in volumes 1 & 2, and the embargo from Atlas was never a direct problem so it was nothing more than a background note with no consequences on the plot. It’s just another case of RWBY ditching a core idea that could have been fun to expand on and develop, but was forgotten like most things to keep tossing new ideas at the board with little effort to do much with them. Just another rant about the lack of exploring core ideas with promise
Coming back to this video after looking up some fan made RWBY weapons, someone's character is also a fisherman who uses a fishing pole/harpoon to fight alongside a shield that turns into a chair for when he's fishing.
AND IT STILL LOOKS SO MUCH BETTER AND MORE PRACTICAL THAN THE THIGN THEY GAVE CLOVER. LIKE SERIOUSLY.
I can't help but image the character doing this:
Fisher: "I can't stand by this,"
*Turns shield into a chair.*
Fisher: "Okay, continue."
@@patrickcarter2829 haha niiiiice. I can now too
@@ChaoticNalilitoMCcan you tell me what he's called the fisherman guy that has a chair that turns to a shield?
@@marialourainebanosia26 sadly I can't since I don't remember the tumblr account I found it on
It’d be kind of interesting if Ruby overcame conflict primarily by examining her opponents’ weapons. She can fight sure, but what if the running theme of the show was that Ruby is a hero not because she kills shit, but because she understands people through their unique self-expression that most other people ignore.
While everyone else just smacks each other around, Ruby could have been the instrument by which we come to understand everyone because she looks for what matters most to each person.
She could still learn a harsh truth every now and then that not everyone can be befriended, but if Ruby’s supposed to be a weapons nut, then why not make that the key to her success instead of just having her blunder into victory, failing upward at every turn?
As for the increasing emphasis on semblances, I think the Silver Eyes foreshadowed that unintentionally. While the eyes aren’t a semblance, they are a hereditary gift that doesn’t reflect personal merit and instead function as Ruby’s final answer for all her problems. The eyes are the only thing that lets Ruby hurt Cinder, and it’s reasonable to suppose they’re a threat to Salem as well. And they have nothing to do with Ruby’s personality (her weapon.). She didn’t work for them or express herself through them. They’re just her ‘Eye Win Button.’ And even then she still sucks at using them. There’s not even a penalty for using them, like they’re extremely taxing on her or they kill her vision the more she uses them, or something.
Weiss and Ruby are the perfect demonstration of Weapon Decay because they both have hereditary abilities that they use in favor of their weapons. While Ruby doesn’t SilverEye as much as Weiss summons and magics, the eyes are presented as the most important thing about her, and have endgame implications. Meanwhile, Weiss can’t just be a ballet fencer because summoning is what makes her ‘unique,’ except she has a whole family of summoners, one of whom is now also a MAIDEN which is another thing that has completely overtaken the importance of weapons. So yeah. Weiss is probably the biggest victim of the Weapon Decay in RWBY.
All you've done is take one character trait and take it to its logical conclusion, and yet the amount of changes to canon this would make (if done how I think you mean it to be implemented) is astounding.
Oh this would've been so much fun
Also I feel like they could've pulled Silver Eyes back into being more personal for Ruby by having her try her hardest to train in using them, and still be bad at doing it the normal way, or have drawbacks that are too demanding the normal way, so instead she engineers some cool assistive device that helps her use them in her own way.
Either like, through some cool hi-tech eyewear that focuses and controls the light better, or she figures out how to channel the energy into something that can store it, and then use it to power up her weapon.
Mainly just because the imagery of her scythe temporarily getting a cool glow and dealing "super-effective" damage against Grimm for a moment, and/or having bullets that petrify any Grimm that gets hit, would be sick as hell.
Speaking of intentionality: Yang’s yellow+boxing style makes me think of “float like a butterfly sting like a bee”. And its cool because we all know they did that intentionally and we responded to that. That is missing now.
You can forgive a more military like country like Atlas from standardizing their weapons so anyone can pick one up, while other places specialize in more unique variables. And while 'anyone' can build a weapon, I'm betting more people just get a cool pistol from a gun store or something. And having a guy who specializes in upgrading unique weapons in ways the user of said weapon wouldn't think of or had the supplies or tools to do? I love that.
We just need to mix this back up so we can have both bland and colorful working together.
In the case of the Ace Ops though I don't think we can consider their weapons standardized since they are unique designs not used by other soldiers.
Customizing or personalizing weapons is a thing in the real military too, so there would be precedent to stylize their gear some more.
Personally, I find it hard to care about the Ace Ops in general, but it was just a thought I felt like sharing.
I also think that only signal gets people to make their weapons, and other academies don't or its a more simple procedure. At least... thats my excuse for the lack of diversity.
Team FNKI is from Atlas, and they are all very unique, personalized weapons.
@@snakeman830 They're students not military, you can't arm one soldier with an AK and then arm the next with a Sig your logistics team would literally shoot themselves over the amount of work they'd have to do. Professional armies since the Romans have issued standard military equipment because it's effective, easy and cheap to replace.
@@vincentmalasawmkimajongte7489 in Atlas, the military is the school. It doesn't make sense to have the students learn on unique, personalized weapons, then switch them to something more standardized later. If anything, they would do the opposite.
Honestly I'm fine with Salem not having a weapon but they should have given her something other than a giant magic laser. It would have been really cool if they made her a shapeshifter or something for combat. Just constantly creating and using new body parts, maybe growing grimm out of her shoulders or whatever. One second shes swinging bone blades and the next shes spewing acid and the next its a rain of nevermore feathers. Simultaneously makes her more unique and more terrifying while also connecting her more to the grimm. It would require much more teamwork and quick thinking just to survive and it adds another layer of difficulty for when they do figure out how to kill her permanently, doesn't matter if shes possible to kill if you aren't strong enough to actually do it. She could also use magic to shift the battlefield itself for extra difficulty, lava geysers? sure! collapsing floors? she can fly so why not. Also she had several opportunities to kill people outright in her fight, shes grimm and wants to wipe out humanity, why didn't she just kos everyone who was trying to get in her way? It even would have made Hazel's turn more interesting since he could just keep attacking her even after getting maimed.
True!
Maybe if she had more "spells' than just nebulous laser light show.
Or maybe if her "spells" required more interesting hand or arm movements.
That's something about the show's handling of magic that just kind of annoys me in general. Magic is supposed to be this ancient power given directly to humanity by the God of Darkness. Something so fantastical and awesome that modern civilization considers it a thing of myth and legend. One of the prizes that the God of Light suggests they'll return to humanity if the species proves itself capable of learning from its mistakes, and which will make the species "whole" again. Yet most of the Semblances we've seen are far an away more astounding than the majority of the magic that we've actually seen on screen. I think the only time we've actually seen magic that I'd argue was clearly superior to most Semblances was with Amber, who was doing things like flinging lightning around, deflecting bullets, combining elements to turn leaves into a storm of bladed projectiles, etc. But that's about the only time it's ever happened.
Sure, we've seen the results of some impressive magic. We know that Ozpin created the vaults and granted Qrow and Raven the ability to turn into birds. But in terms of actually seeing people *perform* magic, just about the only thing we've gotten aside from generic magic beams is slightly stronger versions of what we've already seen people do with dust and aura.
Nora can absorb electricity and convert it into muscle strength. Ren can mask and sense emotions. Pyrrha can control magnetism. Jaune can boost auras and Semblances. Ruby can teleport. Yang and Adam can both absorb and redirect energy. Blake can create shadow clones (of various different types, if given dust). Weiss, Winter, and Willow can summon avatars of their defeated enemies. Harriet has super speed. Qrow and Clover bring bad and good luck respectively. Marrow can seemingly slow down time for a given target, or otherwise negate their ability to move/think. Raven can create portals between her and other people. Emerald can cause hallucinations. Neo can create physical illusions. Velvet can perfectly imitate fighting styles. Yatsuhashi can induce memory loss. Fox is telepathic. Flynt can create multiple clones that amplify the power of his attacks. Glynda is telekinetic. Robyn can detect lies by making physical contact with someone. May can turn people invisible. Fiona has freaking hammerspace in her palms.
But no, please, continue to impress me with Ozma and Salem firing shiny bursts of light at things. Truly their displays of magical might are awe-inspiring.
I read a fanfiction where the writer gave her a staff-scythe combo weapon.
I also miss when Blake actually used the ribbon of Shroud. I mean, she had a machine pistol-kusari-game-kitana. Like, she has a machine pistol, that can accelerate the speed, and recoil her LONG RANGE Kusari-game form around waves of enemies.
Now all she does it use it as a YoYo for Yang...
Like, the Ace ops vs RWBY fight... Blake has the ability to clone herself and fire a Kusari Gama at her enemies and yet they let Vine just wiggle his arms about and she stood around doing the bare minimum. She threw YANG around, who is heavier when she could have quite easily ripped Vine out from the ceiling.
I think that goes straight to the fact that no one seems to know how to show Blake actually fighting considering how cutthroat her fighting style was when Monty did it. Now, she borderline hasn't done any real blade-for-blade hits with anyone since around volume 5 with Ilia, and that fight was very lukewarm. We could say she did with Adam, but really looking at the fight, all she really did was deflect.
If Blake was animated like she was in the first few Volumes, Ilia shouldn't have stood a chance (or she probably would have had a different weapon), and the Blake vs Adam could have easily been one of the best fights we have ever gotten, but because of Monty's passing, that fight got scrapped way back in Vol 3.
Hey, remember when her Sheath was ALSO a blade?
You know... Given the whole thing of Monty assigning "anime homework" that Miles and Kerry talked about, I have to wonder if the shift from focusing on weapons to focusing on Semblances is a conscious or maybe even subconscious choice to try and make RWBY more like a very similar show with a similar concept... My Hero Academia. Plenty of people have said how Semblances and Quirks are incredibly similar concepts, so I really do wonder if the shift to Semblances is an attempt to replicate HeroAca's wider popularity.
Probably not. They very clearly got inspiration for aura and semblances from Hunter X Hunter, where characters also have aura as well as a single, unique ability that also consumes that aura.
I came to the comment section to say something just like this 😆
@@coranbaker6401 Oh shit, that would explain the abortive attempt in V1 to explain that Aura did stuff on its own. Remember Pyrrha trying to explain Aura in combat to Jaune? Sounded a bit like there was meant to be a whole system there. Aura was basically supposed to be Nen. But then nobody cared, and it got tossed to the wayside like so much else.
RWBY used to be one of the best shows I have ever watched. MHA I can’t even watch, mostly due to the wimp main character bullied by his “best friend” And Izuku is an aider and abettor to his bullying. Like watching a horror girl walk into the blood-stained area for a dumb reason. Or watching next-to-last girl cut herself to act as bait. Now, RWBY is just mediocre, rather than the female-lead Final Fantasyish it looked to be. Sad.
@@mikato2 Togashi should make a workshop about power system,only he knows how to do it
Remember when Glynda said Cynder fought with glass…what happened to that? She seems to summon her weapons out of nothing ever since she became the Fall maiden.
She's obsessed with her maiden powers which is a detriment now. Cinder used to be a avid threat but now after having gotten the power she just can't help use and flaunt it like a toy she can't get enough of. I can't really take her seriously with them especially since she doesn't use them to the max like in her fight with Ozpin and the fact that its made clear that maidens have access to all elements fire, ice, lightning etc but Cinder only uses Fire, used ice ONCE against Raven and played with lightning again ONCE when she shot Ruby at the end of V8.
@@derrickdaniels3955 I think Cinder essentially had the same issue that the maiden she stole it from had, lack of experience and knowledge of her power and what she could really do with it. It was stated that the only reason they took the maiden down was because she was still young and inexperienced with her power. She made some critical mistakes in that fight which she might not have made if she had more combat experience. Cinder was essentially the same, lots of new power, no real experience in how to use it or what it can do.
Honestly the weapons were my draw to the show entirely, I was fresh hot off the soul eater manga and was really obsessed with how one would fight with a scythe. Just the fluid elegant nature of both Maka's and Ruby's fighting styles are compared to their weapons being larger than them made it all seem awesome. I also can't lie when I saw yang in the death battle I thought shotgun gauntlets made so much sense and where the most ingenious invention ever created. Sadly the way the show is now I doubt they will focus on their weapons in favor of just more diolog oriented scenes. Im hoping for a training arc is implemented in the next season and maybe they explore the idea of one of their weakness in the fight for atlas was their disconnection from their weapons thus making team rwby rebuild them on their own. Just a thought
Personally I always loved Port's weapon. It is so incredibly and stupidly designed, while at the same time being so simple I can't help it. I mean, the first time I saw it I told myself : "This is ridiculous, it would be massively impractical to shoulder and fire this thing", then I remembered that I was watching a show who's main character is a 16 year old in a skirt with a warscythe crossed with a sniper rifle bigger than SHE is, who regularly hip fires the damn thing. So I just fell in love with it. Its so simple and corresponds to him so well. He's the old guy who likes simple stuff and telling stories. He isn't going to embrace the massive overengineered flashy weaponry. He needs range ? Take a good ol' blunderbuss. And if an enemy gets close ? Need to slice them, but a bayonet, or any other kind of edged weapon, can't be attached to the barrel. Then just slap a battleaxe on the cross and BAM ! Huntsman weapon. I freaking love it. And honestly I'd love to see more of the 'old', less technologically advanced weaponry. Like the Grim Reaper's weapons, the scythes are clearly less advanced than modern huntsman gear, but I almost feel that they have an added weight thanks to that. They have two tricks, you can recall a scythe to another and stick them together to make a double scythe, that's it. I don't know, I guess a lot more people want the weapons to be as flashy as possible, but I think there should be some that are deliberately simple like that, if only for the sake of contrast.
I kinda wished we got more instrument themed weapons like Flynt’s weapon is pretty cool! I love that the valves of the trumpet are dust ammo that’s really smart.
AYe, a Nevan-inspired weapon would be pretty great
A tuba that is also a gun.
How did this video actually make me like Weapon: Trumpet?
@@snakeslife-uroborodjinn790 not just a gun. A mortar. That could be so heavy hitting
I really do miss the old RWBY combat. Shooting and swinging for high speed and mobility fighting looked so cool
I could see salem not using a weapon for the same reason that Palpatine rarely draws out a lightsaber in Star Wars: it’s beneath them. In the case of Palpatine, he only uses it to mock his enemies.
Watch clone wars , he uses it there alot more
@@dhakshkamra1553 oh ive seen all of clone wars. I love his fight with maul and oppress.
But even then, he's not to be taken lightly, he's skilled with it, but doesn't prefer it. But when push comes to shove he's competent with them
@@kanekikingstorm2113 Palpatines loves going to the mall (maul) where the price cuts were savage
Not the same
Palpatine is actually fun to watch when he fights
The reason i think people still talk about ruby's semblance is how they decided to show it off after the style change. It kind of went from a trump card like Yang's to full utility like Blake and Weiss. The trailer and the food fight made it look like a burst of speed. but after volume 3 they started making it visually look like she was flying around in whatever direction she wants (Kind of invalidating how she uses her gun in a way). the show flipped from just calling it speed to "turning into rosepetals".
And even after penny explains the power, its still not consistant, considering weight is not supposed to matter, but when she used it early on to carry penny, she got weighed down, now she can carry 4 people.
It's a definitive answer so i cant say im "confused" on what her power is supposed to be, i just think they changed it to something alot less interesting. Its also a bit weird having to be sat down and told what the main characters power in 8 volumes in.
It definitely takes away from my favorite aspect of her combat, which was her using her gun for movement.
So you're saying there's a chance they took what was essnetially anime smear frames and made them literal
@@TechBlade9000 i think so. Starting at volume 4. Because the ruby character short has her split into 3 rose trails to warp around the opponent, when volume 3 had her get kicked out of it.
It might be a case of misunderstanding the limits of her semblance. I don't recall her using it much outside of battle, so monty probably handled most of ruby's semblance usages and probably had a specific idea 4 it.
Maybe after volume 3 they just decided to do what looks cool, because even if its not the same, you can just argue her semblance got stronger, which was what I assumed happened.
Then they see people unclear on her power, so they settle it in volume 8 and make a cheeky joke about it.
Regardless of the reason though, Ruby was left with unclear powers for most of the show. Id argue all 4 of the girls have confusing semblances.
Also don’t wanna be that guy but for the explanation they gave in the show where penny explains it if I didn’t know ruby semblance is speed I would think it’s a dnd Misty step
One thing I've noticed about weapons in the show is that they all feel like they're the same weight. You get these big hits from characters like Ruby and Nora, which makes sense because their weapons are huge and they need to move them with a lot of force to do anything, but you also get the same kind of big hits from people with lighter weapons like Blake and Ren. Also, a lot of the times big weapons move like they are only a few ounces, like that scene where Ruby deflects Emerald's bullets in V5 by spinning her scythe around. That weapon should be heavy as shit, and swinging it around would be tiring, but everyone in this show is also weirdly superhuman when it comes to strength and fatigue, which I also find weird.
Even in the earlier volumes Ruby could spin her weapon pretty effortlessly. Definitely COULD not do it fast enough to block bullets like in V5 which was stupid. I’m pretty sure it comes down to Aura giving them superhuman strength. Like Yang in V2 is sent flying into the air and lands like forty+ seconds later and is fine. Or how Ruby casually (albeit using recoil) carry’s a giant fricken bird up a cliff.
However, what I would LIKE to see is when Ruby’s Aura is broken she can’t use her weapon very well, because I’m pretty sure canonically it weighs like 50-ish pounds. THAT would be an interesting concept.
I think the best weapon introduction for me was Coco. The setting of an experienced and well known upper classmen team joining they fray by jumping out a ship. Everyone pulls out their weapon or does something cool and coco casually walks up to a grimm kicks the fuck out of it and smacks it with her bag. Then she open fires on the nevermores by turning her bag into a freaking gatling gun.
That was such a powerful and memorable introduction for a character we never met and hasn’t really had any relevance since then. But we all still remember her and her badass weapon reveal. I didn’t even know Vine had a weapon let alone use it
I always thought that giving Salem some sort of ancient broomstick weapon from the old world would have been cool. She uses it to fly, the twigs can be controlled to pierce her enemies, it can be used as a conduit for her magic in order for her to use more focused magic attacks, etc.
If anything, she can make her own weapon out of magic. Ozma used a staff as a conduit for his already powerful magical skills.
For me personally, I would have loved to see her with a sword, made of sharp metal and crystal, much like her castle in theme.
Going back to Jaune’s sword or just Jaune as a character is a shame. His progression could’ve been so many things. I found the concept of using a family heirloom in a new era of warfare exciting, more so that he didn’t even know how to use it because it showed his desire for glorious heroics. I wanted him to get better with the weapon, like when he is going through Phyrra’s drills in the forest and see it amount to something. I actually imagined the scene where it would pay off not against grim but against Humans or Faunus targets much like his great^2 grandfather would. Phyrra’s voice echoing instructions in Jaune’s mind as he is mentally locked into systematically cutting down his foes like bloody butter. Not only would it show how his growth as a person, help finding closure for Phyrra but show the over romanticised nature of chasing after glory in war. Another pet peeve I have is his customisation of the weapon, I’ll allow phyrra’s metals used to accent the weapon as a means to honour the dead. However I could only imagine Jaune’s Families’ reaction to the broad sword and hologram fortnite glider shield mods. Example, imagine I go to beacon with my grandfather’s actual tommy gun from WW2. Now imagine I come back but the tommy gun has a sawn-off barrel, a shoddy folding wire stock instead of a wood stock and a holographic sight welded to the darn thing. If he going to do all that then have him make his own sword and shield. I wanted to see some “If you’re nothing without this sword then you shouldn’t have it” energy, to see jaune forge his own legacy despite fully knowing being glorious is not entirely righteous. Overall I just think it’s a shame where his character ended up, I’m entirely sure where that is exactly.
For comparison, I think One Piece did a wonderful job of incorporating a new power into their world without completely upstaging the unique abilities that were already established. Haki is almost always shown to amplify a character's existing powers/abilities; it doesn't do all that much on its own.
The mochi mochi dude was one of the best examples imo
Honestly feels tailor made for him specifcally
Neo's fighting style reminds me of how airbenders fight. They're evasive and use their enemies force against them by redirecting the force of their attacks.
Does anyone else think those little laughs Critter does often in her videos are just the cutest thing ever.
That made me think about a open letter of one of Monty's friends. At the time I didnt know exactly what he was talking about, but you nail it. The crew know how to make fun colourful and interesting designs, you can see it on Whatts weapon, Tac's whole design, Penny's redesign. But the new heads didn't have the same understanding of what the show was really about, and focused on the less important aspects, lead the creative team elsewhere. Its cern has changed. Maybe if it the show was presented this way since the beginning it wouldn't feel that bad, because somewhere between the volumes the RWBY had became a whole new concept.
Can we get a semblance video, because I’ve been waiting for that conversation! LOL I got plenty to say
Ports weapon may be stupid, but that's nothing compared to Ironwoods hodge podge cannon which looked so awkward to wield; it's basically a turret without a mounting device. You try holding out anything like that with your arms, and you'll struggle within seconds to hold it up.
Well he is half cyborg so i guess that would make it a bit easier to wield for him. I still agree though, the weapon just looks weird to hold
The weapons in RWBY used to be so damn cool but now they are sorely lacking and I feel it's either due to a lack of creativity or a lack of budget considering they do have to animate the weapons transforming and such but still man they could have done so much cool shit in Atlas for example and just didn't.
For example. Ironwoods guns were just that. Guns. They didn't really do much special and sure they gave him added mobility but THATS IT. They didn't combine or have another firing function or anything. Just plain guns...that he tend stops using for that stupid ass cannon they gave him 🙄😑
What would have been cool for ironwoods weapon that makes it special to him would be that literally no one else could handle the recoil. The gun would be designed so that you had to either be absurdly strong or have a prosthetic to fire it without causing you any harm
the worst part is Ironwood's white revolver used to fire explosions. Like the rounds just blew up when you shot them at something. Which would have been an insane compliment to his other revolver.
But no it now fires generic pew pew lasers.
@@WiserOdin dude imagine if his guns combined into a laser gun or a shotgun or something. Hell imagine if they combined and turned into an axe?! James is based on the tinman after all
@@redjumper687 we still don't even know how he lost his damn arm 😭
Ironwood's a military man, his pistol probably something that's standard issue but just upped to fire huntsmen issue rounds
I was just thinking about RWBY weapons and this videos comes out. What a perfect timing!
Critter: carefully explains why it's not just "also a gun" and why each weapon is unique in its own way (thanks for your whole explanation, it felt on point. I don't know that much about RWBY so these explanations make it easy to learn about it)
Internet: unfortunately for you... the *memes* will not see it that way.
personally, I've always seen the meme as a bit of a joke. oversimplifying it because that's what ruby did for Jaune.
Kinda amazing how much thought the weapon were given within the early seasons. This video gives me a lot of inspiration to create and research weapons and how someone should fight with them now(for character design to be exact.)
Im upset phyra only used the gun rifle part of her spear in the crimson woods like in the tournament vs bronze when they have to take out the sniper she had a gun never used it her weapon was in my top 5 but never got used in a cool way
I would argue that Salem is the ONLY character who SHOULDN'T have a weapon. She's the big bad yes, but shes also the antithesis to the heroes. Shes nasty and mean and ordering entire cities destroyed. Having her be the ONLY character without a weapon would make her unique in a way that makes her stand out from the cast. Cinder in her first few appearances had no weapons, later on we see her make glass swords and bows, but most of the time she uses her Maiden powers. Maiden powers that are just weaker versions of Salem's powers. Having Cinder directly copy Salem, hell having her actively try to avoid using weapons and then having THAT be her downfall would be suitably poetic for her. Salem not having a weapon is fine, the problem is, shes not the only person who doesnt have a weapon, which diminishes the impact.
Your videos have really been helpful for me lately with working on a rewrite of the show. You make awesome content and make me think more critically about the different aspects of the show, and this one is no exception.
Weiss
I love her she’s amazing but after she learned how to summon she really lost her way of fighting because mostly she does is summon or keep using her semblance what happen to time dilation make her go faster and her cool attacks and dancing style she had
They gave her too many abilities to start with, so she comes off as one of the wimpiest fighters because she uses them so poorly and keeps losing fights.
Then they gave her more powers and she still sucks at using them, while forgetting to use all her other abilities.
@@KrazyKelor yes, I actually never thought of it that way
I love your point on the different type of guns fitting different use and combat style!
I love this video. You taught me how to apricate the things I like
These are good points imma save this video so I can come back to when thinking about rwby ocs and fanfics.
And for some of them it's so easy to find a good idea for. Maybe the boomerang can use the gun canisters to jolt round and start spinning after it stopped or change direction mid air. Maybe the fishing hook's tip unfurls and becomes a blade that can be swung around, and the harpoon in the back can use the same string as the main line allowing you to hook each and to something and letting the rod itself move between them, there's so much stuff you can do
The transformation or weapons was so important that (if I’m remembering this right) each weapon had its own unique bank of transformation sounds in the first few seasons. I hate to say it, but I think a lot of this comes back to the loss of Monty. The fights were Monty’s favorite parts, and the complex and interesting weapon designs were an extension of that. Without him, that certain spark that every weapon and fight had is barely if ever present.
I've been having this weird personal "retrospective" on RWBY since I saw the first three episodes of Ice Queendom, and I say "retrospective" in quotes because I dropped RWBY partway through Vol. 3, and I can't really 'retrospect' something I haven't seen. And the more I see videos like this and the more I talk with friends who have watched the later volumes, the more I feel reminded of why I dropped the show in the first place. There really was something special about the choreography of Volumes 1-2 and the original color trailers, how so much of these characters' personalities and styles are expressed better in combat and in motion than in their actual spoken dialogue. I can't agree more about how much these weapons are more than just props; more than "also a gun", more than "a combination of items", because every aspect of a character (their weapon, their personality, their Semblance) all come together to form a cohesive fighting style that defines 100% of who they are. I distinctly remember wondering how Pyrrha's three-way transforming spear/sword/rifle is used in actual combat, and then we get the Pyrrha vs CRDL scene to show *exactly* how and it's breathtaking! I even recall Monty pointing out that he made extra-sure that Ruby properly ejects a shell after each shot, owing to Crescent Rose's functionality as a bolt-action rifle. While I would relent to say this makes Crescent Rose more """realistic""", it does make it more "plausible" and grounded in its own logic; it gave the weapon tangible mechanics that Ruby herself had to interact with and master. And every weapon had something like this; the slow clicks of Myrtenaster's cylinder rotating, the way Gambol Shroud's blade folds back onto the barrel, that little cross-arm flourish that Yang does to prime Ember Celica's next shot, everything just felt so personal and expressive.
That bit about Semblances really disappointed me the most, because I've always seen Semblances as a smaller component of combat than what they appear to be in later volumes. Semblances are there to *compliment* a character's fighting style, to be used in tandem with their weapons to create a uniquely personal fighting style. Everything down to the way characters simply move around the environment to how the weapons actually fire was all uniquely personal and special. When a friend of mine was explaining the fights in the later volumes to me, we had settled on describing them more as "power battles", where combatants simply take turns throwing powers at each other to see who comes out on top, something you'd find in more typical shonen fair. If Vol.1-2 fight scenes could be described as a fighting game or a character action game like Devil May Cry in terms of its dynamic combat, volumes 3-5 fight scenes could be described as a turn-based RPG, where characters often just *let* themselves get hit or somehow forget to fight back against incoming attacks, waiting for their "turn" to retaliate. It's all so sorely disappointing, and it hurts to know that it only continued to get worse over time.
You should do a rwby weapon tier list or a semblance tier list
What did I learn from RWBY?
- Anything is a gun
- Teenager has license to carry guns
- And anyone can dodge gun shots
Yet another great vid!
Well done young'n.
Even a simple weapon can show the personality of it’s user, and a master can turn a simple weapon into an armament of destruction.
For example, my self insert OC wields two identical sword that are black and red. Each blade has a smooth edge and a serrated edge. This way my OC can chose to either cleanly cut though something, or forcibly buzz saw his way through an enemy. And when he combines both sword, then it becomes a big sword with completely serrated in one form. This goes with the fact my OC can be merciful or sadistic towards his enemies since mid slice he can swap the side he uses.
Madara Uchiha uses a big war fan or a Gunbai, and it does is turn enemy chakra in to wind nature chakra to launch back at enemies. Simple but effective.
Kyoka Suigetsu is incredibly simple, and it does what you said: Reflect Aizen's personality, and be destructive in his hands
Jaune's weapon has 0 ranged capabilities. I prefer Pyrrha's weapon more in combat.
He won't need it if he can learn that aura slash move that Blake knows. I wonder if RT will let her remember she can do that.
,@@jonnjones8263 I highly doubt they gonna do that, remember? Back in v1&3, Ren, Cinder, Qrow & Amber had aura techniques as well. Ren used the aura block technique against twin snakes, Cinder & Amber used aura block against bullets. Qrow used aura slash to break Winter's glyphs. But in volume 8, Winter used aura strike against Ironwood. (That's new)
Am I the only one that watches tword the end to see at the new critters
The short range of shotguns is a videogame mechanic, real life shotguns are perfectly capable of hitting targets farther away than 9 feet.
With Aura existing at all I think we can agree they really liked video games and video game things
these kind of videos are genuinely so fun to watch at like 3 am. ive started to binge watch a lot of these videos whenever i’m bored or see them on youtube.
Another The Judgmental Critter amazing video.
Imagine Salem just pulled a Sukuna
"ah, my anti-anti-salem weapon… I haven’t used this since the brother gods era..”
I think you touched on something super important at the end there. Monty Oum started out as a fight animator, you can find all of his old work on youtube, and it's all excellent. When he started RWBY, the story was pretty clearly just a way to get from one cool fight to the next, and maybe care about the characters involved. But as you say, the trailers don't emphasize character, or plot, they emphasize weapons and combat, that's clearly what Monty cared about and truly enjoyed doing.
Current RWBY doesn't feel like the animators enjoy animating or choreographing the fights. Rather than animating actual weapon twirls, they use the weird blurry weapon spin animation. Weapons that do transform, often transform so fast you can't see how they transform like with Robin's weapon, or they transform off screen like the boomerang at 25:35. I don't get the sense that the people making the show enjoy making the fights. The RWBY community watched the show for the fights seasons 1-3 so they feel obliged to give us at least 1 or 2 big fights per season. But I get the feeling that if they could get away with not having fights, they would.
The writers were actually kind of strung along by Monty Oum's antics.
Basically they'd write a script, and then at some point they'd go "". Then Monty made a fight scene and would sometimes introduce characters or situations/locations out of nowhere, and the writers and the rest of the animation team suddenly had to scramble to compensate.
I mean, it made for an extremely enjoyable show, so I'm not complaining at all. But to pretend that his loss had no impact whatsoever on the quality of the combat is just... Denying reality.
Yes, the current animators are working as hard as they can. But clearly they aren't anywhere near as good. Which can be fixed in two ways. Either make them get better, or hire new blood. But it's rooster teeth, they'll never replace people they already have.
If you want another example of all the guns feeling 'samey', then look at the guns that Ghira and Kali's guards were using back in Vol 5. They're quite obviously modeled after flintlock pistols (which hold only one shot), but Kali and the guards use them as if they semi-autos by firing multiple shots without reloading.
Now granted these are weapons designed for nameless redshirts, but they could've at least made the guns look like an actual weapon that held more than one shot.
It always bothered me that the happy huntresses (aside from Robin) all had the exact same weapon. It doesn’t even have a unique name, the wiki just lists it as “crossbow staff”. I suppose they wanted to focus on the characters’ semblances than their weapons (though I don’t even think they gave Joanna a semblance), but then why not give them unique weapons that can help show off their semblances more? I understand we don’t see them fight as much, but if they’re supposed to be the Mantle equivalent to the ace ops then why not treat them as such? Instead of giving them all unique variations on crossbows or something along those lines, they gave them those staffs cause like you said “the characters needed a prop to hold”.
Yes I been wondering when you would talk about the weapon’s in RWBY because the weapons are one of the most important parts in RWBY I love this video I love the points you made and agree with them , and keep up the good work with RWBY
Why would salem would have a weapon when she has magic and is immortal 🤔
Because weapons are cool.
@@thejudgmentalcritter6584 fair point
> Shows Jak 2 when talking about guns
Me: *feints*
the thing with weapons is that, a lot of the cool factor can come from *how* you use the weapon, not just what it is.
for example, see the use of Escudo in World Trigger.
It’s a tool that makes a solid barrier (fixed shape, custom size) pop up from a surface within a set range and push anything “above” it out of the way.
A lot of its cool factor is just in how someone with enough power can say “ok this entire area is sectioned off” or “here, eat a car to the face.”
The gun you showed for Pyrrhas weapon was a Winchester, she actually uses an M1 Garand. Just a tis bit of information for you.
I always liked how the weapons had properties inherently unique and exclusive to RWBY's designs, in part *because* "it's also a gun." Ruby using Crescent Rose's recoil to slice through a Grimm is iconic in the trailer, but that wasn't her speed or strength, it was inherently a part of the weapon's design. Sun using Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang's shotguns for _both_ acceleration of his physical strikes _and_ to fire off shots at his opponents in the heat of battle is a brilliant add-on and perfectly encapsulates his eclectic and skilled fighting style (because imagine someone else trying to use those gunchucks and shooting their own face off by accident.) Even the most simplistic of designs like Adam's Wilt (the sword) and Blush (the rifle/scabbard) works when he uses the rifle recoil for iaijustu techniques with his semblance. *That* was a cool as hell design that Jetstream Sam in Metal Gear rising used that same year and it's cool af!
...Now they're just weapons that really have nothing unique about them beyond maybe having the component parts to two different weapons. Being a rifle doesn't help a boomerang (even if they could have it do things like fire off a disco circle pattern to accelerate faster but *that* would be too much I guess)
Explosive iaijutsu is rad. I've seen it used in other works too.
i know literally nothing about rwby but this was fascinating. you made it easy to understand even without background knowledge. great job!!
It says something about early RWBY that when I come up with my own fan weapons a good half of my effort goes towards figuring out all the logistics of reloading. Everything from buying and carrying ammo to the mechanics of getting the correct Dust type into the chamber while surrounded by Grimm.
And then the other half is figuring out how to use simple and reliable transformations to achieve maximum tactical versatility while also serving to express, well, myself. Which is particularly tricky because I gravitate to an overcomplicated jack-of-trades style befitting my ADHD moods, so indulging in that while keeping to good and reasonably grounded design principles is a challenge.
I think the biggest example of Semblances taking precedent over Weapons as representing their user is from conversation from the show itself. I can't remember whether it was V4 or V5, but more or less they brought up the idea that Semblances are either based on the personality of an individual, an individual's personality is formed from their semblance, or even both.
This was probably the biggest indicator that they'd be what truly presented a person over the weapon itself.
If those words were said in V1 - V3 it'd be like "Oh yeah duh just like the weapons"
Something I noticed while watching the video:
I really started to dislike Crescent Rose with each passing season. Not because the design is bad or bland, but because to me it didn't make sense why Ruby would design her weapon that way.
Like, why build in a sniper rifle when you aren't act like a sniper. Why does she use one of the weapons with the longest range when she is the first to rush into close quarters?
But rewatching the scenes of the first few volumes reminded me, why CR was a cool weapon. The way Ruby used it in the earlier seasons showed why she choose the weapon: to boost herself and to change her direction midair.
Stuff like that is really missing in the newer volumes and it shows how much got lost over time.
What I found out that’s really fun is that despite one of RWBY’s main thing being it’s weapons, they still get outdone. Take stick figure animations for example, if you watch the imitator collabs 1 and 2 you’ll find that the weapons the characters use are pushed as far as they can. A character Chronos has a time slowing grenade that affects non-living creatures and uses it to assault someone with the speed of an explosion. Or Fordz, whose dual head scythe lets him turn into a beyblade(no I’m serious he does this). Other characters have such unique weapons and use them in amazing and creative ways
script is amazing as always! never fails to crack me up :D
Watching this video has definitely helped me understand that I probably need to redo some of my characters designs and weapons. Because a lot of them use hand-me-down weapons or ancient weapons use more standard military equipment that have ever been modified or just pure energy based weapons from there abilities
I actually like the fact that other characters and especially most of team WTCH don't have a big emphasis on weapons. Makes it seem like the weapons are built for the purpose of fighting Salem and her forces. Salem's team feels like they are untouchable without things like maidens and high tech weapons (and bombs). Salem and her team are such titans that they don't need any extra help.
And I don't hate the bad/boring weapons in general. Some people just have bad taste, even in real life. Ruby has that obsessiveness where she would get all giddy and intricately design her weapon with all these features. Whereas I could see Ironwood being much more practical and simple with his. And you brought up the point with Jaune which make sense, but you're right in that It just became too many people with the bland choices. Bland kinda accented Juane and Ironwood, but now you wouldn't even differentiate that.
Honestly even the old simple weapons like Adam's Wilt & Blush were so directly tied to their personality. It gave the sense their fighting style was built by them. Ruby was trained by Qrow, they're two of very few scythe users left. Crescent Rose has a name, it's used frequently, and it's unique. I vaguely recall that Qrow's scythe is named Harbinger, but I couldn't recall how I know that or if he ever says it.
Weiss' sword is named Myrtenaster, Winter's swords have no name.
The weapons had personality. They don't anymore. Characters would use their names because they mattered and were important, but they don't anymore.
The way semblances are designed is different nowadays too. Early semblances were utility. Modern semblances are the main combat tool. Ruby doesn’t use her semblance to hit someone. She uses it to get in a better position so that she can hit her enemy with the scythe. Vine, however…
I would like to note that while yes, monty is not the only incredibly hardworking talent who worked on rwby, but it is worth noting that he was a major part of the CREATIVE direction and the show lost a lot of soul imo in the post-monty reel when they were struggling with where to go and what to do. The animators are fantastic, but part of the issue is the DIRECTION, which definitely took a hit as monty was the DIRECTOR as well as an animator.
With Ozpin saying that crescent rose is “one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed,” I would’ve loved for Salem to have a scythe too. Everything would’ve come full circle. It would’ve been great.
It would've been cool if it was a scythe / staff (for her magical stuff) / designed to look like a witch's broom.
Bit late, but I have to say I really like that idea. In terms of appearances I feel like it'd also fit really well with her general appearance (deathly pale, generally black clothing with maybe a bit of red here and there), and it kind of fits the theme of her having control over the creatures of death and destruction. I could see her having a real Grim Reaper vibe.
I totally forgot the first time Harriet deployed her weapon. After seeing the clip you put, it reminded me of how disappointed I was when I first saw it. It was hardly given attention and it didn’t have the satisfaction of every piece sliding into place to form it. It was just to fast to appreciate it. I remember just thinking, “ that’s was it, we’re not gonna talk about that or linger on it”?
I remember when salem was introduced and there was no weapon on her it felt .... perfect
This was the villain, her not having a weapon separated her and made her ...unhuman to the rest of the cast
And then weapons started being more simplified and lame
The ace ops ok i get it, simple militaristic colore because they are meant to be mindless soldiers
But then the robyn crew all have the same crossbow staff....why? They are not mindless soldiers
It's so sad to see a cool aspect of the show vanish to a point that when ruby loses crescent rose in vol 8 it feels....empty, they are not that important anymore
And for the final question
My favorite weapon is nora's hammer i mean just....heart shapes make anything cooler for me
And the least favorite as you can guess from the comment are the robyn crew crossbow staff thing
While I mostly agree with out-of-universe points you made, like the weapon transitions being phased out kind of, I do feel like there are some explanations for some of the in-universe points you were trying to make.
As far as the weapons in the later seasons being unimaginative, most of those weapons are from soldiers, teachers (lookin at Port), and non-huntsman who either don't focus on combat or probably don't have resources to make super complicated weapons (namely Robin and the HH.) The Ace Ops not having flashy or colorful weapons could be because they're soldiers, they're more focused on augmenting their personal fighting styles AND their team cohesion, rather than focusing on having cool looking and flashy weapons (it could also be that Ironwood was behind their weapons being one-note in color so they looked more uniform.)
And the teachers with "lame" weapons can be explained away to an extent as well. As teachers, they spend more of their time supervising other students on missions and teaching, so they wouldn't have much of a necessity to upgrade or update their weapons.
Just some points I wanted to throw out there. Overall great video!