Hey, everyone.
This blog entry is brought to you by my new novels: Remnants of Chaos: Chaotic Omens and Heroes of Majestia: The Company of Flight. You can buy ROCCO here and HOMCOF here.
So I was looking at my blog and I noticed that the RWBY Critiques and Reviews don't get many views. Not that I'm too surprised, but I didn't realize how popular my RWBY Theory/Speculation series was, or rather, how important it was to this blog. So I guess I have to keep writing them. I mean, I'm going to continue write the critique and review series because someone has to critique them--we can't all gush over the new episodes just because they're new and it's RWBY--but they will still be the main fare while the speculations will be done once in a while until the season is done.
Anyway, the point of this post... the other day I was thinking about why and how Blake sucks. I know it sounds mean, but her lack of popularity is a fact in the RWBY FNDM. But as I was talking to myself, something I do quite often, I had a revelation as to why Blake is on Menagerie doing this political stuff with the White Fang and whatnot whereas the rest of the team seems to be on Anima and doing actual stuff that seems more pertinent to the story. And it all goes back to Volumes 1 and 2, specifically the chapters "The Shining Beacon" and "Search and Destroy."
What am I talking about? I'm talking about story(line) and character development. I'm talking about our girls going through difficult situations and changing. All good characters change and go through what is called an "arc." It's what makes them better characters, and sometimes better people, by the end of the story. For those of you who read my critique on the musical Grease, you'll remember that the reason why I said Grease sucks is because only one of the characters really change and she changes for the worse, not for the better. So, how does this apply to RWBY and why is "The Shining Beacon" and "Search and Destroy" involved?
The answer is because these are the episodes where we found out why our girls wanted to be huntresses. For Ruby, it's about being a hero; for Weiss, it's about restoring her family honor; for Blake, it's about ending corruption and inequality; and for Yang, it's about getting a thrill. But here's the problem: if you're a writer, you can't just give your characters what they want, and sometimes you want to give your characters something better, but in order for them to understand why what they're getting is better than what they wanted, their perspective has to change. (If you can't tell, I'm talking about Yang for that last one.)
So then, in order for the girls to get what they wanted, what changes did/do they need to go through? Well, the way I came to this revelation was when I was thinking about Blake and her Vol. 5 storyline. Blake is definitely the political one of the group--almost every group of friends has one, the one who is on top of every political thing going on no matter how mundane or irrelevant it is to you--she's wrapped up in ending corruption and inequality, but when Oobleck asked her how, she didn't have an answer because she just straight up didn't know. Ergo, in order for Blake to know how to stop corruption and inequality, she has to get her feet wet in the political field hence why her story is more political and more about making public addresses and demonstrations than it is about fighting.
Ruby, who wants to be a hero, has to learn that being the hero isn't always about happily ever-afters and riding off into the setting sun. Being the hero is difficult; sometimes you have to watch people you care for die and sometimes you have to push yourself to your limits and beyond. Weiss, who wants to restore her family honor, has to learn that she can't rely on the sympathy and resources of her father especially if she wants to distance herself from his image, hence why she had to leave home and forge her own path because she's essentially forging her own legacy.
Finally, we come to Yang. Now, Ruby's reason why she wants to be a huntress is partially self-motivated, but Yang's is completely selfish. There have to be hundreds of ways to get your heart pumping in Remnant and none of them involve running a-foul of Grimm. As a result, she has to learn that there's more to life than just having fun; that there are things out there, such as family and friends, that once lost, can never be reclaimed and that they're more important than whatever we may want. Yang's storyline demands that she becomes a huntress not because she wants to have fun, and if there's time help people, but because there are real reasons to fight evil.
It is a little amusing to me that I didn't see this coming. I think somewhere I may have made the connection between what Weiss was doing and what she needs to do in order to fulfill her dream, but I mentioned it in passing and I didn't realize that that was the point of her story. So I do kick myself for not noticing that this would be where and how RWBY would get our girls to where they need to go in terms of their storylines. So, what does this all mean for RWBY? Well, nothing very specific other than the fact that our girls are right on course with their desires and reasons to become huntresses, except Yang. I mean, all the girls probably will learn a lot of valuable lessons before journey's end and they may end up changing their minds about their dreams, but there's not that much of a disparity between what they wanted and where they are now. The end of Vol. 3 didn't derail their stories, it was the catalyst for them.
Next week/time, I think I'm going to write a post on the clothing in Remnant and about dorm life in general. That doesn't sound very interesting, but what I have to say is important to the world building of RWBY and attempts to address some things that the CRWBY just seem to have glossed over. So, be on the look out for that.
Keep writing, my friends.
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