YMMV / White Sheep (RWBY)

• Angst? What Angst?: The author expressed distaste for the way Yang's arm was handled in canon, but in the fic she also gets over it relatively quickly. Suddenly having a son takes a bit longer, but is still covered in a chapter or two. Likewise, she doesn't have a single moment of trauma regarding Adam himself, though in fairness that probably has more to do with the way he was unceremoniously eaten by a dragon. Hard to be afraid of a guy when the last you heard of him your friend was complaining about being covered in his gore.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The concept of Salem trying to be a housewife becomes somewhat less funny after Volume 6 of RWBY reveals that Salem already had a family and it ended quite tragically. That she was able to find love and start a family again in this story makes it somewhat sweet as well.
  • Qrow is derided by everyone in the cast as a shameless pervert after he gropes Sapphire during a fight, which he tries to justify by claiming to have thought she was just a humanoid Grimm. This bit of humor became uncomfortable in hindsight after Vic Mignogna, Qrow's voice actor at the time of the story's creation, was fired from the show for alleged sexual misconduct.
  • Another example: In-story, Jaune and Ironwood engineer a coup which has both coming out of the situation smelling like roses and sets Ironwood in position to takeover Atlas and "force" the Grimmlands into a peace treaty. During Season 7, Ironwood ends up declaring martial law - still with good intentions, but with far less positive results.
  • Towards the story's end, Ozpin goes behind Ironwood's back, straining their relationship, and he's willing to physically sacrifice the Kingdom of Atlas for what he perceives to be the greater good; which is portrayed by the fic as a bad thing, though Ozpin's reasoning is portrayed sympathetically. Less than a year after the fic was completed, Teams RWBY and JNR in the main show starting in Volume 7 and continuing into Volume 8 basically did more or less the same as Ozpin, and unlike the fic's version, the sacrifice of Atlas was not averted and their relationship with Ironwood never recovered — the show portrays this as an ultimately good or at least necessary thing, but how justified it was from a meta critical perspective is one of the more contentious issues in the show's invokedBroken Base.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • Salem as a mother doesn't look so far-fetched now that Volume 6 revealed her past... And the fact that she did find love again makes it even more sweeter.
  • With Season 8, we now know about Cinder's Dark and Troubled Past. The fact that Nicolas Arc manages to redeem Salem and, in the process, provide a loving home for Cinder in this story is heartwarming.
    • Becomes somewhat of a Tearjerker when one considers what Cinder could have been if she hadn't been abused and exploited as a child.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The author's notes confirm that Ironwood read Penny's accidental innuendo-filled diary entry recounting her "intercourse" (friendship) with Ruby and Jaune offscreen after Chapter 16, and that no, he couldn't bring himself to confront Penny at all about what he read in there. This gains an extra layer of hilarious after the makers of RWBY stated that Ironwood's canon Semblance was basically a Heroic Safe Mode enforcer. Apparently, not even having emotion suppression and inhuman hyper-focusing as a magic Semblance was enough to make the leader of Atlas confront Penny about that diary entry's contents.
• Memetic Badass: Nicholas Arc is a mild in-universe example, being famous for taking down entire hordes of Grimm without a single injury, with the Grimm actively avoiding his hometown. This is because all Grimm are under strict orders to never harm Salem's husband.
• Romantic Plot Tumor: As the author himself admits, the "Dance Arc" revolving around multiple characters trying to get a date with Jaune was way too long, not humorous enough and didn't fit the overall story.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Pyrrha is largely Demoted to Extra, mainly made into Jaune's Satellite Love Interest. Pyrrha is eventually given a subplot where, instead of dying during the Fall of Beacon, she's kidnapped and brought to the Grimmlands to see Salem, as Cinder learned that Pyrrha had a crush on Jaune, and Salem wanting grandbabies but still being protective of her son, would want to meet Pyrrha and see how she is. Pyrrha then proceeds to ingratiate herself into Salem's household to the point Salem approves of her relationship with Jaune. Thing is, the epilogue has Jaune maintain his marriage with Yang, but invite Ruby into the mix... but doesn't really do anything with Pyrrha. The only other time Pyrrha is mentioned is during the epilogue where its said she's the new headmaster of Haven Academy, and no reference is made to her gaining Salem's approval or any of their mother-in-law/daughter bonding.
  • Hazel is almost entirely absent from the fic, sent on a Snipe Hunt to find a Grimm Unicorn early on. By Word of God, this was done deliberately due to having no idea what to do with Hazel. Hazel's own legitimate grievances with Ozpin could have made an interesting plot, particularly once Ozpin finally faces his inner demons and reconciles with Salem, as Hazel would be forced to both confront Ozpin on his issues but also realize Ozpin truly is remorseful. Alas, he instead was on a Snipe Hunt.
  • Ozpin's story arc peters out towards the end. He moves from planning to sacrifice the entire kingdom of Atlas to the Grimm in order to show the world that the Grimm can be fought to seeking forgiveness for his actions and being genial with the main cast again, making an extremely fast Heel–Face Turn from his former Knight Templar personality. Him being the final villain, or perhaps even a longer, more detailed redemption arc, could have been great for the character.
  • Sun and Ilia don't seem to have much purpose other than "Blake's sycophants and hangers-on". Any character traits they had like Sun's roguish demeanor or Ilia's issues with humanity are instead brushed aside for the sake of making the two into Satellite Love Interests for Blake that constantly bicker with each other.
  • Ruby seems to exist solely for the purpose of allowing Jaune to spend his future having threesomes, despite being the original main character.

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