RWBY General Discussion

'Shutter bunny' is news to me.

I have some interesting news from RT Ruby VA Lindsay Jones and Sun VA Michael Jones got jobs at Funimation voice acting in the English dub of Overlord playing the characters Hekkeran and Imina. [1]

...yaaaaay, I have mixed feelings about this because I like and hate that show.

The guy who voiced Abridged Doctor Gero is voicing the lead.

I guess I'll have to watch Overlord and listen to see if Lindsey's voice is still high-pitched.

Oh good, they get to play a cute couple that get to be together forever.

how is Overlord? its a show I heard about but that all I heard is it good or does I fall down the bad Anime tropes like every girl wants to jump the main male charter cock who has the personality of plan white bread.

Personally speaking, I like it. One thing to keep in mind is that it's a Villain Protagonist story that often revels in black comedy. Nazarick are not the good guys, something a lot of people seem to forget or fail to realize until it slaps you in the face. Also, Ainz internally freaking out tends to be very amusing.

Edited by Cross on Sep 5th 2018 at 11:46:48 AM

I personally had a bad introduction to it and didn't really give it a chance. What got me interested in Overlord was that it was supposedly about a hardcore Villain Protagonist who was trying to take over the world. Rather than do the the typical "Captain N gets stuck in Videoland and fights the bad guys," it's instead, "Guy becomes Skeletor and proceeds to conquer Eternia."

Now that sounds incredibly badass, but the first season of the anime doesn't emphasize this very well.

So anyway, that is why RWBY is the best anime ever made.

Edited by Soble on Sep 5th 2018 at 3:56:48 AM

I watched the first season of Overlord, it suffered from the Fire Emblem Fates problem of being so mastabatory it turned me off.

Everything I've heard about the following stuff doesn't make me want to read more, since it's basically him just wrecking the fantasy world for the inhabitants. Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy, basically.

The anime does water down a lot unfortunately because the LN give a lot more detail and the anime rushes. However your descriptions of them are off: Demiurge isn't a butler, the twins are just as bad as the rest, Albedo isn't dress a nun and the fetish fueled vampire has her beaten in both of those departments, and Shalltear is the aforementioned fetish fueled vampire.

What exactly do you mean?

Also, while there is a bit of DIA, despite initial belief they aren't ruining the world. A large part of the story is them trying to build a legitimate kingdom albeit through less than savory mean, which is where the DIA stems since they're magnitudes worse than any criminal in the New World. With the best, or worse, part being Ainz's obliviousness to most of "his" plan.

I mean the main character being suddenly given huge amounts of power and having the entire female cast trying to jump him.

My descriptions were off. I non-conspiciously blame that on my vast distaste for the cast and will amend the following statements:

Demiurge looks like a butler. The twins don't come off as being "bad as the rest" far as I can remember, Albedo has an all-white outfit that would make me think "healer/white mage" at first glance (if not for the giant, stonking airbags filling out said outfit), and Albedo has a Dakimakura of Ainz that she tries to coat in her scent where Shalltear doesn't.

Nabe is the only one who didn't have a trait, running gag, or archetype I despised.

Edited by Soble on Sep 5th 2018 at 4:03:23 AM

Agree to disagree here I guess.

In the anime, Demiurge doesn't come off as bad in the first season despite the fact he's running a farm where they skin humans for scrolls, feed them each other's babies, and other interesting experiments.

One of the first things we learn about Albedo is that by design her appearance doesn't match who she is. Looks like a proper lady of white magic, is actually a slutty tank.

Shalltear literally got off due to Ainz's aura and tried to shame Albedo because she didn't.

Edited by Cross on Sep 5th 2018 at 1:05:16 PM

Honestly I can see why one might assume Mare Bello Fiore doesn't look like a threat, but season 2 makes it clear he definitely deserves his -100 alignment.

Season 1 the floor guardians don't get to do much of note so I can see why one would have to gauge their level of evil based on appearance alone.

Overlord is one of more fun takes on the MMO Land genre, but it won't be for every one.

Overlord is an Isekai, which are usually Wish-Fulfillment series with the MC getting super powerful and popular in the new world. Overlord has the twist of the MC becoming a villain in the game instead of the usual hero, but still seems to carry a lot of the other tropes and play them straight, including the wish fulfillment. I was put off because it feels like a hypocritical parody, which seems common in anime.

Not interested in watching the show, but out of curiosity how was Lindsy and Michael's performances? Also wasn't Qrows voice actor part of the same episode?

I am actually curious about that since I have really only seen a few moments of the season 3 dub.

Can't remember if anyone posted this but the Adam short is on Youtube, not just the RT site. The bit where Sienna and Adam are fighting together is just excellent.

Edited by Soble on Sep 7th 2018 at 4:32:04 AM

RWBY Chibi Season 3 episode 10 is on Youtube

So, there was this Aura retcon everyone was on about months ago...

...I've yet to learn why this is a retcon.

It isn't a retcon. As people attempted to explain,it was just people believing aura worked in a way that didn't even make sense from what we had already learned. Then, when more information showed up, people were upset that it agreed with what we had already been shown instead of their fanon.

Well, in all honesty, it was never shown or explained that aura needed to be activated (it was then told but trhough Word of God), it was simply explained what it is, so many assumed it was constantly active

The basic gist of it is this: Back in Volume 1, Pyrrha gave a loose explanation about the way Aura and Semblances worked that led people to a specific interpretation of both concepts. This interpretation was then loosely supported by Word Of God on many occasions, both on the internet and in events when people asked at panels. For the first four volumes, this interpretation seemed correct and nothing in the show directly contradicted it, so it was assumed as correct. Let's call this interpretation "Interpretation 1".

Fast-forward to Volume 5, or, to be more specific, Yang's trailer. In there, she does something that goes against the rules as explained in Interpretation 1: she uses her Semblance after her Aura has supposedly broken. A lot of discussion was had about it, particularly because, a few days before the trailer came out, Miles, Kerry and Geoff confirmed somewhere on the internet that Semblances can only be used while your Aura is active, something they then said wasn't the case after this trailer. (I can't remember where the link to that is, I'll add it here in case I find it.)

Fast forward to the actual points of contention: Volume 5, Episode 4, the scene where RNJR is training with Oscar. In that scene, two major things happen: First is that Ren explains Semblances as "something that can have a direct connection to who you are as a person, not have a connection at all, or simply just be something else". This goes, first of all, directly against something said by, I think, Monty outside of the show and Pyrrha inside of it, and reinforced by several other characters when explaining their Semblances: the idea that Semblances are unique and a direct expression of the individual's self. Second, it is an explanation that sounds wise, but means nothing: "Semblances can be one thing, the opposite of this thing, or something else entirely" doesn't really tell us what Semblances are. It's a platitude that gives the creators a way out in case a Semblance does not fit the character or if they don't want to come up with something more detailed. This strengthened a discussion that was already present because of Weiss' Semblance (If Semblances are unique to each person, why do the Schnee have one that can be inherited?) and muddled things further.

What that scene also contained was the first instance where a character intentionally activated Aura and mentioned the mechanic itself, in-universe and out of it: Ozpin mentions Oscar has his Aura down and activates it for him. This, as mentioned, contradicts Interpretation 1 directly. When discussion started on the internet, the creators defended this and remarked that it had always been the case, going further and explaining that there was a difference between the visual and auditory cue for Aura breaking and for Aura being stressed. The cue itself is questionable, as it's very subtle and they never pointed to any specific examples.

What the entire problem revolves around is that these things introduced in Volume 5 (The explanation about Semblances, the concept of activating Aura and the cues for Aura breaking and being stressed - Let's call them Interpretation 2) go against Interpretation 1, but are also being defended by the creators at this point in time. Given that Interpretation 2 makes a lot of the writing process easier, as it makes looser rules that can be abused more easily during the writing process or used to retroactively excuse most mistakes found in the finished product (such as in the Yang Trailer, where one can conceivably say Yang's Aura was just stressed instead of breaking), together with the fact that both interpretations have had creator support, made several people cry out retcon, for several purposes. It's not clear whether this was an actual retcon, but the discussion has remained.

Personally, I think it might be. These rules are far too convenient and have all been introduced way too quickly and closely to each other, and since Word Of God is more inconsistent than the actual rules on the matter, I can absolutely see them cooking up these rules as a way to cover for writing mistakes. I wouldn't put it past Miles in particular, who has explicitly said in an event that "it's better to keep rules unclear so you can cover up any mistakes". But I have no proof of either possibility.

TL:DR - It's not clear whether or not it's a retcon, but since Word Of God has supported both the old interpretation of the rules and the rules told to us in Volume 5, people are suspicious about it, because these rules can be easily abused to excuse any mistakes in the writing, past and future. The situation has also been exacerbated by the general discontent with Volume 5, turning it into a point of contention.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Sep 9th 2018 at 8:02:18 AM

The part I'm confused by is

Interpretation 1 is based on what Pyrrha said. Interpretation 2 is based on what Ren said.

But why does Ozpin activating Oscar's Aura directly contradict what Pyrrha said?

Interpretation 2 is based on both what Ren said and Oscar activating his Aura. Him doing so goes against Interpretation 1, because one of the conclusions Pyrrha's explanation led to was the idea that Aura was a permanent thing, not something that could be activated and deactivated. The implication at the time seemed to be that Aura was something you had to unlock at some point in your life, and, once unlocked, it stayed up indefinitely, only ceasing to function if it broke, at which point it presumably recharged over time and resumed it's function.