I’m thinking of getting into RWBY. What should I know going in (regarding content TWs, pacing, etc.)?
I know almost nothing about it and have minimal experience with Rooster Teeth outside of some Achievement Hunter stuff.
I tried, was even in the room at RTX when it was revealed by Monty Oum (R.I.P.), I really tried. My biggest problem, at least in the first season that I watched before I dropped off, was the universe seemed to have no rules. Much like Monty’s fan animations its purpose seemed like it was just to look cool.
In general I’ve completely fallen off RT content, perhaps I outgrew it. I am acquaintances with a couple people that work at Achievement Hunter and despite that their content hasn’t grabbed me in years.
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I’d say maybe? Pacing has serious issues, the early seasons were made on a shoestring budget and some passion, with tools and process being developed as they made episodes, and it shows, and I feel like they still haven’t really gotten fight scenes right since Monty passed. It’s got enthusiasm and goofy fun, but I have dropped off and stopped watching over time. Go in with level expectations and it can be a good time, though. It’s been a while so I don’t think I can weigh in on CW, though.
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I think RWBY is a pretty alright show. I think its strength lies mostly in the characters and their individual arcs. The overall plot is okay at best and mostly just serves as a way to spend time with the characters. The pacing of it all can be a little all over the place both in terms of big picture/per season but also on a smaller, per-episode scale. I think they eventually got pretty good at it and found their stride in Season 5 (and continued it in S6).
If you’re not sure about it, I’d suggest checking out some of Season 1. It’s really short (16 episodes, most of them in the 5-10 minute range) and after just a few episodes you may be able to get a good idea about if the show will be for you or not. Although the first two seasons seem a lot more like a slice-of-life/school show with occasional action and from Season 3 onwards it becomes a much bigger world-travelling action show.
As for content warnings, I remember season 3 getting pretty dark and having some more intense violence than the rest of the show. And also there’s one villain that is just an absolute shitbag who is abusive and grooms another character and he’s a real bad dude.
I have a lot of thoughts about RWBY that I have trouble articulating into coherent thoughts but if you have any individual or more specific questions, I’d be more than happy to talk about it more.
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It’s one of those shows that’s a very slow burn. It however tackles a lot of rather poorly done subjects very well. The world crafting in later seasons is on point though.
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I enjoyed the first couple of seasons for their over the top (albeit clunky) action scenes and music, with some relaxing lighthearted comedy and anime high school shenanigans mixed.
Things definitely get more serious later on, and the production value increases significantly.
Visually they never get to the level of say Houseki No Kuni but the last seasons had some pretty cool fight scenes.
the meanest albeit accurate description i saw of it after watching 3 and a half seasons was “full metal alchemist fanfiction” which to me isnt necessarily a bad thing if that sounds like your jam go for it, i was mostly there for the fight scenes but sadly those kinda fell away without Monty’s direction (R.I.P) from what ive watched, if you dont mind ropey voiceacting its a pretty fun show.
but i watched it at a time of my life before i became more critical of the handling of subject matters by media i watch and even then i was fairly uncomfortable with the fawness animal people being substituted for exploring themes of persecuted peoples… i cant remember whether they pulled it off its been a while but i remember being uncomfortable.
It’s pretty good in my opinion. While it’s not top tier anime quality, it has its moments that are memorable. Plus, it has some really cool character designs
I used to be hardcore RT fen once upon a time, even went to the S2 premiere at RTX, and I just cannot rec it. The writing is super duper rough in both the sense of “cis white dudes writing about oppression” and in a technical sense of “hm this could have been structured a loooooot better.” If you can get into something with writing problems, I hear the latest two season are dramatically better. But it’ll be kind of a slog to get there. 8\
Is it still Miles and Kerry writing?
It’s real hard to recommend anything when you have to start with “well the first two seasons are kinda bad but push through it”. I didn’t really think season 3 was that much better and dropped it halfway through. I say nah, skip it
If you were going to ask me critically I’d say I don’t think RWBY is a particularly good show - but also I really enjoy it. It feels very amateur, but in a good way? If you can find the same wavelength as the show is on, it can be a real fun time.
As others have said, the pacing, writing and animation are all over the place. Each era of the show absolutely has different priorities (1-2 fight scenes and slice of life antics; season 3 the story takes more of a forefront and becomes the focus as it goes on), but the thing that keeps me is investment in the individual characters and their arcs.
I get a similar amateur vibe which really bugs me because it’s a show produced by Rooster Teeth. It’s been ages since they were known mainly for Red Vs Blue, they’ve since become a multi-million dollar company and this is still the best animation they can put out. Outside action scenes, it’s not far from the quality of animation from that V-tuber show airing right now, which was probably made for the same budget as a v-tuber video - very little.
I think Rooster Teeth invests a lot into the show and they definitely have talented animation talent (I won’t deny the fights are impressive, I was initially excited because of those fight trailers and then I heard the voice acting and was MUCH less so), but the poor writing and rather bad and janky animation during non action scenes makes it REALLY hard for me to stomach because I know the company behind it and know they can do far, FAR better if they really wanted to.
I can’t speak for recent seasons, but I remember that there was a controversy around the first and maybe a few after where the series was using a really poor piece of 3D modeling and animation software to produce each episode. It’s been years so I can’t remember the specifics, sadly.
I’d say just watch, like, an actual anime because it’s never been easier than it is today. Though preferably not a light novel adaptation because they odds are good it will have multiple attempted assault scenes or have the core message of “slavery is good actually” because everything is terrible.
Yeah this is a very fair point, and one that didn’t even occur to me because I’ve paid exactly zero attention to what else Rooster Teeth’s been doing these past few years (it mostly looks like Hashtag Content). Makes me wonder how the production quality of Gen:Lock is going to be, and whether they’ve invested more into it or scaled up their animation team. I don’t recall any specific mention of janky animation on the recent Waypoints discussion (maybe I missed it?).
Also yeah a very good suggestion.
This was something that they changed between Seasons 3 and 4. It does kind of show in Season 4 that they’re still getting the hang of it but by the end of that season and into seasons 5 and 6 I think it’s a much better looking show.
I had never thought about the amateur vibe of the show vs the size of Rooster Teeth as a whole, that’s a pretty good point to bring up. I had only ever seen Red Vs Blue (back in middle school, I remember seeing the episode where they first switched to Halo 2) and then only watched RWBY last year. I will say, it seems like they’re throwing more of their weight behind gen:Lock because, on a technical level at least, that show seems like an improvement in almost every way.
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They did move from Maya to Poser. Plus I think that was when Miles and Kerry took over the writing.
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Miles and Kerry worked with Monty and wrote it from the jump, they are the original writers and it shows.
The amateur aspect is fascinating because y’all RvB around that time had a massive amount of custom animation too and it looks dramatically better in comparison.
Yeah, don’t watch RWBY.
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The animations added to RvB did make it look better but didn’t make it better but I might just hate change
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I hear you, and yet I think I would rec RvB in its entirety over RWBY. That series Sure Got Stupid later on, but I recall… really liking the Reconstruction arc, when Washington was first introduced. I stopped watching in Project Freelancer because the emotional beats just started to fall completely flat. But you know, Reconstruction might still be solid.
Or maybe I will return to it someday and go “well this is crap.” WHO KNOWS. 
If I remember right the last season of Reconstruction is when they started animating but I only remember… Three scenes? In that season.
