RWBY General Discussion

As swiftly demonstrated. I agree, though. The Wo R segments are of questionable use, but interesting to watch either way.

Some are useful, others just repeat information we've already heard without stating anything new.

edited 24th Feb '18 11:46:34 PM by LSBK

In some cases though the repeated information was first revealed in WOR, such as Jacques marrying into the Schnee family or how the CCT works.

I've never watched them because they felt extraneous. Then I was proven right.

Yes, it's mostly that way around. I've found them interesting, and I don't believe the overlap is quite as extreme as people make out (most of it occurred as a result of the information first appearing in the WoR and then later making its way into the main show). There's certainly less contradiction that people make out.

What I don't like about them is that they needed to exist at all. Except for the Story of the Seasons — because that was just funny to hear Ozpin trying to fake female voices.

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.

The first few WOR's weren't extraneous when they first came out. Each had something to do with a topic that hadn't been explored properly in the show itself, and each set off a great deal of discussion within the fanbase.

The first WOR's came out when Volume 2 was coming out - Dust, Kingdoms, Grimm, and Aura - Oobleck gave Ruby a brief lesson about what the Grimm are and what they do that same chapter. Dust was relevant because we saw Cinder use what at the time appeared to be dust infused into her body, long before Hazel came into the picture, and the only other information we had was what Weiss had told us in Volume 1. Kingdoms were important because we were just learning about Atlas, Ironwood, and the political situation in Vale. Aura was an ongoing mystery in Volume 2.

The Vytal Festival Tournament, Huntsmen, and Four Maiden WOR's were all relevant to the events of Volume 3, if redundant. And Volume 4's, while most were extraneous, they all provided a bleak, engaging picture into what their topics were like. Vale, Mistral, Vacuo, and Atlas WOR's were each given a harrowing tone and teased the expansion of RWBY's setting.

Between Kingdoms added onto what little we had heard before in either Volume 3 or 4 about people choosing to live outside the kingdoms. Again, world building.

I skipped the last four, but the fourth one is about The War. The War that Ozpin described in broad strokes in Volume 2.

These videos are supposed to be supplementary material. It used to bug me a little that they existed, but they're fine for what they are. People keep saying "they're inconsistent," but where are the inconsistencies?

edited 25th Feb '18 6:11:56 AM by Soble

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

I think it was a matter of the recent volumes conflicting with what was given in the World of Remnant episodes. Not everyone liked the world building when it started because (I'm guessing people felt this way) it interfered with the "actual" episode schedule. People were more accepting of the during Volumes 3 and 4. It made sense to provide the world building prior to the start of Volume 4 because we could just watch without waiting for weeks at a time.

The "inconsistent" part seemed to be more focused on Dust and Aura. I imagine people would have been more accepting if there was a preface that that is all the people of Remnant knew thus far.

[DATA LOST]

Initially WOR ran during off weeks. There wasn't a RWBY Chibi to fill the gap, but then, Rooster Teeth hadn't merged with Fullscreen and didn't have the same crew/budget back then either, so producing new episodes was more difficult.

So if anything it felt like we were getting a dose of RWBY instead of getting nothing at all. I was fine with that. I saw no complaints in this thread about WOR back during Volume 2 at least. Admittedly, releasing them during the wait for Volume 4 was probably the best time to do them and provided more narrative tension ^note Qrow noting how bad the world has gotten post-Volume 3 and wishing that Oz was still around. But even so, they've rarely offended me with their existence.

But what exactly are the inconsistencies? Salem narrates the Dust WOR and makes it clear that humanity doesn't know all there is to know about Dust. Meanwhile the Aura WOR ends on a pretty ominous note when it shows Ozpin's silhouette, indicating we don't know all there is to know about Semblances.

I reviewed both WOR's just to make sure I didn't miss the inconsistencies:

None of that's been contradicted as far as I can see. ^note Even if it were, I'd give some leeway given the Dust WOR was made back when the show had a different captain. Same with the here-to-fore unexplained dream sequence with Raven in Volume 2's finale that was probably supposed to have some relevance/importance but obviously didn't.

edited 25th Feb '18 6:45:41 AM by Soble

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

Dust bullets are supposed be used by the undisciplined normies, but everybody seems to use them. Even Pyrrha and Ironwood.

Semblances being unique is contradicted by the existence of the Schnees. Also, as we all know, the whole "passive forcefield" thing about Aura is BS.

The Grimm WoR has several inconsistencies:

• The info dump about the two brothers in Volume 4 contradicts everything here. The younger brother made them before man existed to destroy everything, but the WoR states they exclusively target humans (even though the WoR doesn't even know what that word means within its own segment due to the animal skirmish thing).
• It's stated they do nothing but kill, but then the Goliaths exist to be lazy.

edited 25th Feb '18 7:20:55 AM by Karxrida

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?

You also need to remember that they can adapt and learn over time during bouts of conflict with humanity. The Goliaths should be no different as to why they just didn't march on top of team RWBY when one of them noticed Ruby and Oobleck at the ruined city. He said they were waiting. Ruby asked for what. The implication is that the larger Grimm are smart enough to know that just flat out attacking the kingdoms is suicidal when properly prepared and aware.

It took sabotage and a speech to whip up the negativity to be potent enough for a massive invasion. Of course, the White Fang also brought in Grimm at certain locations, which I still think is strange that they weren't attacked for simply existing.

edited 25th Feb '18 7:26:38 AM by VoidsEmpathy

[DATA LOST]

Yeah, the goliath are pacient and wait until the oportunity arise, even RWBY chibi kinda said that when marty(one of the grim) said "I have this urge to destroy and be evil"

" However, as I said, I'm not sure the creators got quite the level they were aiming for."

I will said is kinda monty fault, is really hard to said "this student are rookies" when you have this badass sequence showing up left and right, is also the fact we talke into volume four with Tyrian vs Qrow to see how things play up.

and WOR are good, it just their worldbulding barely plays a role, like heaven being a place of artist and criminals, that show up....no at all.

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"

Wouldn't say it Monty's fault, at very least I noticed a clear gap between Glynda between students.

Really? is hard to said since glynda dosent fight at all, at best she used her semblence and that it.

The closer to it will be Roman but his combat preformence is all over the place.

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"

She does have the one fight in the first Volume, which admittedly isn't much to go on, but it did leave me with what the skill difference is supposed to be.

She is also shown to be capable of swatting Grimm aside with great ease in both volume 2 and volume 3. She repairs the breach in a matter of moments also.

"When I offered to make Norea my third back-up girlfriend she just glared at me and started throwing things at me.." Renee Costa

If all Semblances are unique, wouldn't it be unique for a Semblance to be hereditary?

In that case, no, the Schnee Semblance isn't contradictory. In fact, it's perfectly in-line with the thing that Semblances are unique: If only ONE Family has a Hereditary Semblance, and no other family does, that's a unique Semblance

That only said she have a good semblence, not that she is a good fighter.

And yeah, WOR said each semblence(from person to person) is unique, them retcon that wit the schenee which mean they have a unique semblence....for reasons.

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"

The Schnees are noted to be the exception in series so, no, it isn't a contradiction.

I think I don't like the direction Wiess's story took in season 4, and the semblance is part of that. Her initial presentation of "snotty heiress who needs to learn to play well with others" was good, but it seems season 4 is trying to tell us that the problem isn't that she was haughty about her heritage but that she was haughty about the wrong parts, judging by how both of her Reason You Suck Speeches towards Whitley and Jaques were not about how they were improper heirs to the Schnee legacy by being dicks but because they didn't inherit the right genes (Whitley) or had to marry into the family (Jaques).

So regardless of how the family runes work in a Watsonian perspective I think they definitely fail in a Doylist perspective.

edited 25th Feb '18 10:20:19 AM by Sigilbreaker26

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"

Which it was establish waaaaay after WOR said all semblence are unique, it dosent break the canon too hard, but it clearly a sightly minor retcon.

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"

There pretty much one and the same here. Glynda fights using her Semblance and she uses it very effectively.

The clear intent of the statement the show and creators have made multiple times is that nobody has the same superpower. (To quote the Aura WoM: "The power associated with a wielder's Semblance is completely unique.") If multiple individuals have the exact same superpower, that's a contradiction.

Or maybe a retcon. Can't tell.

edited 25th Feb '18 10:50:59 AM by Karxrida

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?

Neither the show nor the Dust WoR have claimed that. What the Dust WoR says is as follows:

"Dust ammunition serves as a more practical application in today's modern society. With the technological advancements in weapon design, warriors need simply choose the right cartridge for the job and pull the trigger. While this has become the standard method of use, it is not uncommon to find individuals still practising more archaic forms of Dust manipulation...."

The image accompanying this segment is that of crouched soldiers aiming a rifle and shooting. The segment ends with the rifleman pointing the gun at the ground, blasting himself into the air and off-screen. The use of the word 'warriors' is usually used to describe special fighters like Huntsmen.

The episode indicates that we would expect absolutely anyone who has a reason to use a weapon will be using Dust ammo as standard. That's exactly what we see in the show.

The Aura WoR actually doesn't say Semblances are unique. It says "the power associated with a wielder's Semblance is completely unique". That's a subtle difference, but worth noting. For example, we've seen a couple of people with clone-creating Semblances, so we know that 'clone-creating Semblance' is not unique to a single person. However, the nature and use of the clones are quite different between different people.

Take, for example, Blake and Sun. One has clones of shadow, the other has clones of light. They both activate their Semblances in very different ways, the clones manifest in very different ways, and the clones are used in very different ways.

Winter point-blank states that the Schnee family is unique for having an inherited Semblance. That strongly implies there's something very unusual about the Schnee family for them to have such a strange inheritance. It's made clear in-universe that the Schnee family is not normal here.

That kind of contradiction isn't an accident. It's a lamp-shaded plot-point.

The Grimm WoR makes it clear that humanity doesn't know what the origin of the Grimm are and Salem says "for as long as humanity can recall walking the surface of Remnant, so do they remember this wicked force". So, the episode tells us that the Grimm have existed for at least as long as humans. Salem also points out that the more humans study the Grimm, the more questions they have.

Salem also lists what humans know about the Grimm: Grimm exclusively attack humans and their creations; humans believe Grimm don't need to feed, they merely choose to; the Grimm are lured by negative emotions; captivity is very hard (they die or kill the captors); Grimm corpses evaporate; Grimm are not as mindless as they first appear (young are reckless, older ones learn from the experience and act with caution). Salem states that, in the end, the only thing that matters is killing.

Qrow's tale of the Two Brothers tells us that the God of Darkness created the Grimm to share his innate desire to kill anything and everything. Humanity was created later by both gods.

The WoR episode and Qrow's tale agree on the Grimm's desire to kill, Salem mentions two origin theories that evidence debunks, Qrow mentions an origin story that doesn't get mentioned in the WoR segment. Qrow's tale states the Grimm predate humanity. The WoR episode only states that Grimm have existed for as long as humanity remembers. While Qrow's tale states the Grimm originally killed anything and everything, it doesn't explain why Grimm now only kill humans. The WoR episode mentions that Grimm only kill humans, but also states humanity doesn't know why.

Basically, Qrow's tale tells us why the Grimm exist and the WoR episode tells us the Grimm only hunt humanity and humanity doesn't know why. This isn't a contradiction, it's a knowledge gap. It invites the obvious question of how and why did something get from A to B (The Grimm used to kill everything, now only kill humans, why?).

Given that the person in charge of the Grimm has a stated goal of killing humanity just to get back at Ozpin for some unstated reason, clearly the issue of why the Grimm hunt humanity is a plot point.

Oobleck said those huge Goliaths were waiting. The Grimm WoR states that older, more experienced Grimm become cautious. Neither claim the Grimm are being lazy.

edited 25th Feb '18 5:31:39 PM by Wyldchyld

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.

Better than I would have put it.

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

WOR segments are also explicitly in-character explanations and thus aren't true Word of God examples. They were all talking about things that were either common knowledge or commonly believed. Even the Tale of Two Brothers is something that Qrow heard from Ozpin and is unlikely to be the complete and total truth.

edited 25th Feb '18 9:44:49 PM by Shaoken