History YMMV / WeightOfTheWorld

** Is England a well-meaning if [[KnightTemplarBigBrother Knight Templar-ish]] older brother who only wants what is best for America and will go to admirable and understandable lengths to keep him safe? Or is he a ManipulativeBastard, JerkAss, and [[FantasticRacism anti-Remnant]] hypocrite who wants to destroy ''anything'' to do with Vale, regardless of what America wants and how many innocents get hurt? One the one hand, Remnant put his family through hell and his anger is {{Justified}}. On the other, if England succeeded in performing the ritual, Ruby, Yang, and all the people of Vale [[LossOfIdentity would have suffered from the loss of their personification]]. It becomes worse after it's implied Ilia grew gravely ill because Mantle's people lost their connection with Canada and she only survived because she sees Menagerie as her home now.

* SugarWiki/BetterThanCanon:
** Many fans think the story handles subjects such as loss, PTSD, and grief with much more realism and grace than canon RWBY.
** Plotlines like Silver Eyes being a SuperPoweredEvilSide and [[spoiler:Ozpin's [[AmbiguouslyEvil questionable morality]]]] are praised for giving characters like Ruby more depth and nuance and being more interesting than how [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot those plots are handled in the show]].
** The series also has loads of worldbuilding for Remnant which gives the world its own vast history and culture that is distinctly different from those found on Earth. The audience is ''shown'' the world, not merely told about it through exposition or a World of Remnant segment.
** Hazel's reasons for hating Ozpin are also praised for its implementation in this series. He hates Ozpin and works with Salem because [[spoiler:Ozpin sent Gretchen's ''first'' year team on a ''third'' year mission to test the [[SuperpoweredEvilSide unstable Silver-Eyed]] girl on their team. The team did not know the mission was meant for third years and were woefully unprepared. The Silver-Eyed girl ended up losing control and slaughtered her team, including Gretchen.]] Hazel's sister did ''[[UnwittingPawn not]]'' know what she was getting into. She died directly because of Ozpin's arrogance and manipulative tendencies.
** Adam's characterization as a WellIntentionedExtremist who has no romantic interest in Blake (and thus is not a Yandere), and whose actions are [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse understandable but not excusable]] has been unanimously praised for the complexity and depth it gives him compared to his [[CrazyJealousGuy canon characterization]]. It in turn gives more weight and nuance to the White Fang and Faunus Rights conflict as a whole.

* BetterThanCanon:

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Yang's joking threat to "punch Alfred in the stomach so hard he won't wake up until the end of the Vytal Festival". She does exactly that with a shotgun blast while [[DeliriousMisidentification under the influence]] of Emerald's Semblance.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The author realized Blake was not well-liked by fans and [[DemotedToExtra gradually lessened her role]] in the story. She also threw away a plotline which would have been Blake-centric, stating the decision was for the best since readers "would probably see it as a waste of time".

** To a portion of readers, [[UpToEleven Remnant as a whole]] is this. Some feel Earth has been forced to sacrifice too much compared to Remnant even though Earth was not involved in the war until Remnant dragged them into it. This made several readers hope that the forces of Earth will have enough and use nuclear weapons on Remnant. This is despite only Atlas, Salem, and Ozpin being responsible for Earth's involvement in the first place, and [[MisaimedFandom Remnant being home to half the main characters and millions of innocents]].

* AngstWhatAngst: Averted. Characters react appropriately to trauma and loss, most notably [[StepfordSmiler America]], [[BadPowersGoodPeople Canada]], [[ShellShockedVeteran Pyrrha]], and [[IronWoobie Ruby]]. For example, Ruby mourns Penny and suffers flashbacks from the trauma of losing an eye and America goes to therapy in an attempt to work through his trauma.

** All the times Ozpin did not trust his followers with vital information and made them fear he may hurt them becomes a lot harder to read after it turns out canon Ozpin has the exact same characterization. In canon, he does not trust anyone with all the information and he lunges for Ruby when she attempts to discover his secrets. In other words, what appeared to be AdaptationalVillainy in ''Weight of the World'' was revealed to be [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting nothing of the sort]]. ''PlayedWith'' as Ozpin in canon is nowhere near as malevolent as he has become in the fanfic--his actions never become as severe, he is given a more sympathetic excuse and backstory for his secretive nature, and [[TheAtoner atones]] for his mistakes in Volume 8 after secluding himself in Volume 7, resulting in him being properly forgiven by the heroes.

** All the times Ozpin did not trust his followers with vital information and made them fear he may hurt them becomes a lot harder to read after it turns out canon Ozpin has the exact same characterization. In canon, he does not trust anyone with all the information and he lunges for Ruby when she attempts to discover his secrets. In other words, what appeared to be AdaptationalVillainy in ''Weight of the World'' was revealed to be [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting nothing of the sort]]. ''PlayedWith'' as Ozpin in canon is nowhere near as malevolent as he has become in the fanfic--his actions never become as severe, he is given a more sympathetic excuse and backstory for his secretive nature, and [[TheAtoner he atones]] for his mistakes in Volume 8 after secluding himself in Volume 7, resulting in him being properly forgiven by the heroes.

** All the times Ozpin did not trust his followers with vital information and made them fear he may hurt them becomes a lot harder to read after it turns out canon Ozpin has the exact same characterization. In canon, he does not trust anyone with all the information and he lunges for Ruby when she attempts to discover his secrets. In other words, what appeared to be AdaptationalVillainy in ''Weight of the World'' was revealed to be [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting nothing of the sort]]. ''PlayedWith'' as Ozpin in canon is nowhere near as malevolent as he has become in the fanfic--with his actions never being as severe, is given a more sympathetic excuse and backstory for his secretive nature, and [[TheAtoner atones for his mistakes]] in Volume 8 after secluding himself in Volume 7, resulting in him being properly forgiven by the heroes.

** All the times Ozpin did not trust his followers with vital information and made them fear he may hurt them becomes a lot harder to read after it turns out canon Ozpin has the exact same characterization. In canon, he does not trust anyone with all the information and he lunges for Ruby when she attempts to discover his secrets. In other words, what appeared to be AdaptationalVillainy in ''Weight of the World'' was revealed to be [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting nothing of the sort]].

** [[ItsAllAboutMe Atlas (Ciel Soleil)]] is the personification of the Kingdom of Atlas. After Vale was attacked by Cinder and left comatose, Atlas sought out a personification to put her Aura into in order to prevent the rest from going to Cinder. She kidnapped America and Canada, imprisoning and [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing]] the twins to test which one was more "worthy" of getting a Remnant personification's Aura. After the fall of Beacon, Atlas opens the Transformation Institute, a facility that brainwashes her people, and throws hundreds of citizens in there. When America confronts Atlas in the Institute and refuses to surrender to her, she threatens to break all of his bones and to have her men either torture or rape him. Later, she stabs America repeatedly while he's protecting Ruby and Weiss, pinning his injuries on Ironwood. She later selfishly unlocks the Relic of Creation and teams up with Emerald and Watts in order to kill Canada. Despite claiming that what she does is "[[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist for the good of Remnant]]", Atlas truly only cares about boosting her own ego, and sees everyone--even her own citizens--as being disposable.

** Cinder Fall is one of Salem's henchmen. She attacked Amber (Vale) and took part of her Aura, leaving her comatose but aware and [[AndIMustScream unable to interact with the waking world]]. She successfully causes Grimm to invade Vale during the Vytal Festival by orchestrating the AccidentalMurder of Penny Polendina at the hands of Pyrrha Nikos. Possessing part of Vale's Aura gives Cinder an empathic connection with the Kingdom of Vale's people, which means she feels echoes of their emotions. Usually this connection causes the personification distress like a part of themselves are being hurt, but Cinder is the opposite. She [[{{sadist}} relishes in the pain and terror she causes]] during the fall of Beacon. Upon realizing America has part of Vale's Aura, she hunts him down with the intent of torturing him to death for daring to "steal" part of the power that's "owed to her". She is defeated by Canada but remains unrepentant for everything she's done. Her attempt to stab him in the back fails and he kills her.

** Plotlines like Silver Eyes being a SuperPoweredEvilSide and [[spoiler:Ozpin's [[AmbiguouslyEvil questionable morality]]]] are praised for giving characters like Ruby (a VanillaProtagonist in the show) more depth and nuance and being more interesting than how [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot those plots are handled in the show]].

* HolyShitQuotient:
** Quite a few moments, particularly in chapters seven and sixteen of ''Weight of the World''. Chapter seven reveals Remnant has nation-tans (one of whom is Amber) and chapter sixteen has Yang unknowingly attack America and get arrested.
** Chapter twenty-six of ''The Depths of Deception''. The heroes lose the Relic of Knowledge, Canada's connection with Mantle's people is severed, and America, France, Romano, and Australia are captured by Atlas soldiers and taken back to Remnant. [[{{HSQ}} Holy]] [[PrecisionFStrike shit.]]
** In ''The Atrocities of Atlas'' a soldier tortures America and scars him in chapter six. In chapter seven, it's revealed ''Vale is alive'' and stuck in America's head. And in chapter nine Penny 2.0 is activated and ''slaughters'' Polendina and his soldiers.
*** Chapter twenty-three: America fights Atlas and almost beats her. She overwhelms and tortures him before turning on Ruby. Qrow intercepts the attempted killing blow and collapses in front of his niece. As a result, Ruby activates [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Silver Eyes.]]
** In chapter twenty-five of ''The Charlatan of Choice'' [[spoiler:Ozpin tries to [[HumanSacrifice murder]] America to get more power.]]
*** Chapter twenty-seven: [[spoiler:Blake Belladonna dies and Canada is captured by Salem.]]
*** Chapter thirty: [[spoiler: Roman and Salem use their powers to near-completely incapacitate all of the heroes and America is captured by Salem's forces.]]

* HilariousInHindsight: There is a trading town that the heroes stay in on the northernmost part of a continent. The town has a heavy Atlas military presence. Which town is being described: Frontier or Argus?

* AngstDissonance: Blake receives more anger, frustration, and disgust than sympathy for her angst over Sun's revealed secret and her misery over her damaged friendship with Yang. It doesn't help that Sun willingly told the group his secret while Blake continued to hide hers from her team, and it was Blake's actions[[note]] running away without a word and not seeing her actions as wrong when she returned.[[/note]] that damaged her and Yang's friendship in the first place. This makes her angst self-inflicted and unsympathetic to some readers.

** Many fans think the story handles subjects such as loss, PTSD, and grief with much more realism and grace than canon RWBY. Plotlines like Silver Eyes being a SuperPoweredEvilSide and [[spoiler:Ozpin's [[AmbiguouslyEvil questionable morality]]]] are praised for giving characters like Ruby (a VanillaProtagonist in the show) more depth and nuance and being more interesting than how [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot those plots are handled in the show]].

** Many fans consider the story to handle subjects such as loss, PTSD, and grief with much more realism and grace than canon RWBY. Plotlines like Silver Eyes being a SuperPoweredEvilSide and [[spoiler:Ozpin's [[AmbiguouslyEvil questionable morality]]]] are praised for giving characters like Ruby (a VanillaProtagonist in the show) more depth and nuance and being more interesting than how [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot those plots are handled in the show]].

* AngstDissonance: Blake receives more anger, frustration, and disgust than sympathy for her angst over Sun's revealed secret and her misery over her damaged friendship with Yang. It doesn't help that it was Blake's actions[[note]] running away without a word and not seeing her actions as wrong when she returned.[[/note]] that damaged their friendship in the first place, making her angst self-inflicted and (to some) unsympathetic.

** The author's notes state she was worried Yang would seem unsympathetic when she yelled at Blake for abandoning her team. The author needn't have worried. The ''opposite'' reaction happened, with a majority of fans rooting for Yang and cheering when Blake was given a well-deserved TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.

** Many fans agree that the story handles subjects such as loss, PTSD, and grief with much more realism and grace than canon RWBY. Plotlines like Silver Eyes being a SuperPoweredEvilSide and [[spoiler:Ozpin's [[AmbiguouslyEvil questionable morality]]]] are praised for giving characters like Ruby (a VanillaProtagonist in the show) more depth and nuance and being more interesting than how [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot those plots are handled in the show]].