Volume 8 Final Thoughts (Part II)

[surgeworks]

Volume 8 Final Thoughts (Part I) | Table of Contents | Volume 9

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Welcome back to the Final Thoughts for Volume 8 of RWBY. We left off with the Characters slot about three-quarters done. Let’s finish that up now.

 

Qrow Branwen and Robyn Hill

They weren’t here this volume. They sat around in prison, connecting, while a war happened outside. Qrow’s determination to kill Ironwood came off as nonsensical and another form of railroading, and I have this disgusting, hideous feeling that, now that he’s been separated from the kids by a whole dimension, he’ll have nothing left to do other than become Robyn’s boyfriend. If we lost Clover for this I’m going to lose my mind.

Even if I put aside those suspicions, they just weren't compelling. Qrow's spiral right back into his manpain about his bad luck semblance just came off as another form of course-correcting, undoing a positive development for him in exchange for something I was already used to from and tired of. Robyn was robbed of her desire to help Mantle and fight against the establishment in favor of just trying to talk Qrow through his aforementioned manpain. These two may as well have vanished into the void with Pietro and Maria.

Winter Schnee and the Ace Ops

Winter Schnee was in an unfortunate position this volume. She’s one of the few characters that didn’t feel radically changed, railroaded, nerfed, or abused throughout the volume—which gives her the nonetheless unenviable position of having to be up under Ironwood’s ass while he’s losing his goddamn marbles and murdering someone every ten minutes. She reacts about the only way she can—doubting her loyalties the whole volume and then eventually betraying him. I don’t feel anything for her big fight with him at the end, because Ironwood was so derailed that it didn’t mean anything on his side, and Winter’s screentime this volume wasn’t spent exploring why she was so loyal to him in the first place (because this would’ve risked Ironwood looking good in some fashion). She’s another one of those reasons you can tell things where events were railroaded to reach certain points without a care for how they got there—once she gets the winter maiden’s power, absolutely nothing about the situation with Cinder changes, and Cinder still leaves with everything she needs and 100% intact—in story terms, she got the power not to actually move the story along, but simply so it was her to possess it.

But I felt even less for the Ace Ops, who without Clover and still bound to Ironwood, became rather grating. Much like the excuses given for Ironwood, the excuses for the Ops going along with Ironwood’s lunatic plans rings hollow—so they don’t know anything about friendship and haven’t had support for their trauma, so it makes sense for them to assault Penny, manipulate her, get her hacked, and then try to blow up a city? Even the more lowkey members’ less enthusiastic support is far and away too much. You could’ve done better just by making them afraid Ironwood’ll kill them.

Harriet in particular is a sore point, easily outstripping Qrow from any particular volume in how utterly insufferable she is. She is irritating as hell to watch onscreen—she’s spiteful, rude, caustic, throws her weight around, and is bizarrely determined to follow Ironwood’s orders even when Ironwood himself goes down—up to and including blowing up a city full of defenseless people, for no reason. I’m sorry, but grief over losing one’s captain—whose closeness to you is something entirely told and never shown—does not mean it makes sense when you try to blow up a city, without even the intended excuse of some stupid semblance or a descent into authoritarianism. Even when she gets removed from the equation, she doesn’t seem sorry she tried to nuke a metropolitan area, just sorry she accidentally got her friends and herself in mortal danger. She is yet another proof of sexism and hypocrisy on the part of Miles and Kerry, who seem determined that a female character should be able to act as inhumane and unlikeable as possible and still retain sympathy with the narrative, but that Ironwood should not.

Hypocrisy: 48

Similarly, I don’t feel anything for Vine’s big sacrifice. Why should I? Who the hell is Vine? What does he do, what does he want, what are the things he’s giving up besides his life? What did he do to earn this big fanfare around his death? Why should I care?

I said in my Final Thoughts for Volume 7 that it was good to see the Ace Ops interact with each other rather than just the protagonists, as it made them feel more like a real team and real characters, who exist when they’re not speaking to the heroes. But what we got in Volume 7 was not nearly enough for us to feel the slightest bit of regret for this dude dying. You could swap him out for any other given member of the group and it would make no real difference. Certainly I can’t express anything but bafflement that he’s the one to ultimately save Mantle, with no prior expressions of any particular care for its inhabitants.

Salem’s Forces

Barring Cinder Fall and Neo, who had everything handed to them on a silver platter, none of these people presented well this volume. I already went on at length about how horrible and unforgivable Emerald Sustrai’s actions were, and suffice it to say that the usual accusation—that if she were male, she’d never have been redeemed—is still one I’d level at Miles Luna very easily. She’s just another example of railroading, with absolutely no care given to exactly what she did during her time as Cinder’s associate and how many lives she took and destroyed, because she’s hot and a girl so she must be sympathetic on some level. What does warrant mention is this:

Hypocrisy: 58 (+10)

Because I’m sure you will have noticed, but when James Ironwood acts so utterly evil that it’s irreconcilable with his prior character, the heroes don’t even wait to turn on him or question if he’s really all that bad, and he is touted as deserving pretty much anything he gets. When Emerald Sustrai commits acts of evil that are well-documented and make up a major part of the show’s history, and was honestly more entertaining that way, they’re quickly brushed to the side as being done out of fear or desire for Cinder’s approval and she’s added to the heroes’ roster with anyone who begs to differ quickly hushed by Oscar.

*coldly* I wonder if things would’ve been different if Ironwood had tits.

There’s also Hazel, who barely warrants mention. After Volume Five’s utter ruination of him, he became a laughingstock, and no one was really looking forward to seeing him again. The fandom’s only major disagreement was whether he’d be redeemed or killed off—surprise! Both sides are right.

Mercury and Tyrian warrant even less mention—they did nothing, and then left halfway through the volume. Well, actually, they do warrant mention for something: homophobia. Tyrian, a demented serial killer, is still getting touchy-feely with Mercury, who doesn’t like it, and it makes me want to get a baseball bat and work out some anger.

Watts, unsurprisingly, remains the most entertaining villain, calling out Cinder on still thinking she can smugly walk around and brute force her way to every goal even when she now has a loss record that far overshadows her victory streak. He remains impressive in how competent yet hate-able he is, manipulating the situation right up until the very end, where he tries to take out the Ace Ops, Robyn, and Qrow, and then blow up Mantle. That he was killed off by Cinder with little fanfare after such a great showing really only proves again how Miles and Kerry are willing to hurt their own story to get back at the people that changed it (sensing a pattern?), because Watts was easily the best asset the villainous faction ever had.

But worst of all is the disappointing showing from Salem. Contrasted sharply against Cinder, who revels in a world-wide nerf that doesn’t affect herself, Salem doesn’t do anything of note throughout the volume before menacing the heroes as they attempt to leave Monstra, and then…getting blown up. She’s booted out of the story, truly, in a bizarre fashion, and what doesn’t help is the utterly poor showing she gave before the kaboom went off. Apparently, one of the things that got scrapped was Yang using her semblance to strike Salem, and this doing absolutely nothing—which is a detail that, if not anything else, should’ve stayed! Salem should’ve been provided with some utterly shocking power or durability rather than getting blown in half by Yang and then smashed to bloody pulp by Hazel. But no, the problem has changed from “how to defeat Salem” to a very strict “how to keep Salem down”. Probably her most interesting thing as a character by now is how she’s able to turn silver-eyed warriors into Grimm slaves, but that just means her biggest asset as a character is another whole character.

Speaking of the mutant Grimm, it was cool. That’s all.

Everyone Else

Uhhh, who am I missing? Way too much shit happened in this volume for me to keep track, it was total chaos. I don’t think I left out anyone all that important. Lemme see…

• Whitley and Willow…eh, I said everything I needed to say about them in Weiss’ segment.
• I’m not exactly unhappy Jacques Schnee’s dead, but I do wish he’d died some other way.
• Did Klein do anything of note? Nora only got healed up once Jaune arrived. What was the point of him being brought back?

Love To Be a Part of It Someday: 103

• It’s funny how Fiona, Joanna, and May all get more screentime than Robyn this volume. But then again, Fiona and Joanna stop mattering after the first act, and May stops mattering after the second. Speaking of that,
• Oh hey! I was right, May’s character and involvement totally ended after she brought up her status as a transwoman. I know full well she will not appear in Volume 9, or probably ever again given the way Kdin Jenzen was treated while at Rooster Teeth, and I do not regret the points that accrued. All we have to add is this:

Love To Be a Part of It Someday: 104

That wraps up the characters. Next we move on to…

Music

*head falling to the desk* Right. Music. Well, here’s the tracklist.

• 1. For Every Life
• 2. The Sky Is Falling
• 3. Be Strong and Hit Stuff
• 4. The Truth
• 5. Treasure
• 6. Friend
• 7. Awake

Right off the bat, you can kind of tell that Jeff Williams is burning out. This volume’s soundtrack was delayed due to personal issues with his and Casey’s family life, which might explain why Jeff only composed six of these songs. The last one was composed by Casey’s band Ok Goodnight, and wasn’t actually written with the show in mind, by their own admission, but added on here anyway.

“For Every Life” is our opening track. The bent of this one is generally of despair, with some digs in at Ironwood and Salem. It’s…not that great. It’s rather like the volume itself: chaotic and discordant. The parts don’t gel together all that well, at least lyrically. It kind of sounds like Jeff Williams’ attempt at channeling Akira Yamaoka. Suffice it to say this is a far cry from his best work.

“The Sky Is Falling” is another track with a dour, downcast ‘despair’ angle. It’s the one that plays during the chase scene when the mutant has kidnapped Oscar. It’s…more of the above, really. A little smoother and more well-put together, but Casey’s honestly never been best paired with the ‘oh god we’re all fucked’ style of tracks her dad occasionally puts out. The choruses are entertaining but the song as a whole is dragged down by the verses. Lamar Hall is back, and his rap verses are great as usual, but ending it off with “I need therapy” just made me laugh out loud. Certainly it wasn't a worthy follow-up to 'Touch the Sky' which it references.

“Be Strong and Hit Stuff” is the only song I actually remembered by the time the volume was done, mostly because it played during the JNPR+Winter fight with Ironwood. This is of course Nora’s image song for this volume, embodying her self-doubt and desire to grow as a person. Moderately enjoyable.

“The Truth” is the song that played during Cinder’s misery montage in her Tragic Backstory, so I don’t care about it. However, it’s absolutely hilarious for being fifty-two seconds long. Not even just the cut of the song played for the scene—the whole song is less than a minute long! Probably the biggest indication Jeff’s getting sick of this show.

“Treasure” is the song that plays when Ruby and Yang and their respective groups reunite at Schnee manor. It quickly makes up the difference by being five minutes long, so I’m skipping it. It’s the same style of happy-joy softness we’ve had around since “Gold”, so I’m over it.

“Friend” is a song about Penny Polendina that plays during the end credits, the nerve of which has me royally pissed off and I’d wager I’m not the only one.

“Awake” is the aforementioned song that Ok Goodnight composed, and while it doesn’t have any relation to RWBY, it plays during Cinder’s fight with the huntsman in her flashback—so yeah, I still don’t care.

If we’re using music as a general additive, then this soundtrack definitely failed to salvage this volume. Not that salvaging this volume could’ve been done at all, really, but there’s just…less here. It’s been a while since the music in RWBY was getting the heights of praise, but I really can’t blame anyone for not being enthralled by this soundtrack, nor do I blame Jeff Williams if he didn’t end up putting all that much effort into it. Hell, Weiss’ “Mirror Mirror Part 12” would’ve been unoriginal, but it would’ve been good.

But with that out of the way, let’s move on to our retrospective.

First-Impressions Retrospective

Alright, well, let’s see what’s up. Does the volume intro build hype for things that aren’t in the volume?

• Atlas covered in flames and Grimm? Check.
• Clover’s memory as clung to by the Ace Ops? No check.

The Ace Ops’ memories of Clover were not explored at all this season. Harriet was the only one to even react, hence her antagonism with Qrow that their shared position on his four-leaf pin indicates. But the rest of the Ops didn’t so much as think about him the entire volume unless confronting Harriet.

Rooster Tease: 32

• Qrow and Robyn in prison, but working together? Check.
• Oscar menaced by Salem? Check.
• Jaune, Nora, and Ren hanging out in some sort of snowfield with weird pillars? On reflection, this one seems to have been hinting at Nora’s confusion regarding Ren, so I’ll let it pass.
• Winter promoting to head of the Ace Ops? Check.
• Whitley and Willow, erm, being present? Check, since they actually contribute to the volume.
• Salem and Ironwood on the chess board, warring against one another? No check.

Salem and Ironwood never so much as met one another, guys. The war Salem brought to Ironwood’s doorstep only lasted three episodes, and ended up having zero impact on Ironwood’s character or actions, since apparently he still had enough military left to destroy Mantle’s evac forces once that was done. The plot of this arc was not “Salem vs. Ironwood” in any capacity, and despite the implications of Ironwood losing, the actual combat does end with her defeated. Slapping “And that’s checkmate” from Cinder as Atlas falls doesn’t make this a faithful follow-up to hype, especially since so much of Ironwood’s opposition this volume was actually Ruby and friends.

This is what happens when you lie to your audience, and this is just another example of it. That shot was probably directed in order to try and prop up the “Ironwood became as bad as Salem” angle when the actual volume just showed a lunatic wearing Ironwood’s face.

Rooster Tease: 33

And trust me, fans noticed and complained.

• Arthur Watts and Pietro Polendina counter-hacking one another? No check again.

Watts and Pietro never interacted this volume, despite the former’s professed disdain for the latter. And Pietro’s hacking via wiring into Penny was a one-off scene that ultimately didn’t matter much since the Amity launch project went nowhere, which reminds me—Road to Nowhere points, too.

Rooster Tease: 34

Road to Nowhere: 40

• Penny getting broken? Check, god fucking damn is that a check. I hate it. I wish that one had been a lie.
• The snowflake dissolving in Jaune’s hand? …Check. Assholes. Wish that one had been a lie, too.
• The flower petal floating past Nora? No check.

It was Ren that developed the emotion-reading powers this volume with all of the flower petal auras, not Nora. And that was just a way for the crew to hold the audiences’ hand through what the characters are feeling, rather than anything significant, like showing it through their behavior.

Rooster Tease: 36

• Cinder freezing time and being put through pain? Check.
• Salem obtaining the lamp and the staff? Check, unfortunately.
• RWBY falling beneath the snow into Grimm water? Oh please, no check.

RWBY themselves save Yang never even knew about the Grimm river, which is what that shot references. It was a one-off bit of nonsense that was never built up despite being used to penetrate Atlas’ shields and start the war, and after it was gone? It was never referred to again. People just forgot it existed, despite the presence of a river of Grimm liquid flowing beneath the earth being something with utterly massive implications you’d think the characters would be more concerned about. Which means more Road to Nowhere points, too.

Rooster Tease: 36

Road to Nowhere: 41

• The ending being a complete downer? Check.
• Penny turning red? I think that’s referring to the hack, so check.
• Crescent Rose left abandoned in the snow? Oh, come on now. No check.

This was definitely a lie to the audience, because while Crescent Rose does get separated from its owner later, putting it in a snowfield is just trying to hide the “big reveal” that they saved for the stinger—in which it washes up on an island beach. Why even try to tease that if you couldn’t actually tease it properly?

Rooster Tease: 37

So I guess in the end, Rooster Tease did make a comeback after all, although not in the way we expected. The opening animatic consists less of things actually in the volume and more of representative images, which makes it harder to decipher, but in this case it’s proved that Miles and Kerry can still lie to their audience. Much of this stuff seems to be either extrapolated based on one-off incidences in the volume, or an attempt to sell what they keep saying they wrote, but didn’t.

What I am noting is that there’s a lot of stuff that’s in the volume that quite visibly isn’t in the opening, such as the Amity project or Emerald turning face, which were both quite large parts of the show even if the Amity part went nowhere whatsoever. Poor Maria doesn’t even get to be in the opening at all, despite doing more in her limited screentime than was done by Tyrian or Mercury, who got to be in there.

But I shouldn’t belabor the opening too much. It’s really just a reflection of the volume it teases, and since the volume is a mess, the opening naturally would be, too. So let’s go on to some points that we can definitely belabor, that being the writing style of this volume, and why it was so messy.

Style

The Volume 8 Crew Commentary is four hours long. But I had all I really needed to know once they said Volume 8 was their OG plan for Volume 7. And suddenly my theories aren’t just theories—they stuck with their original plan…and did not feel like changing it one single bit to account for what actually became Volume 7.

Dragged Kicking and Screaming, Current Score: 51

If anything, it seems quite clear they doubled down and went out of their way to deviate from it. I mean, what more do you want? Well, there’s also this tidbit, which also made it onto the wiki for everyone to see:

“Neither Kerry Shawcross or Kiersi Burkhart can remember which one of them wrote the introductory scene for The Hound, so Kerry decided to give the credit to Kiersi.[6]”

They…can’t remember. They can’t remember? How the hell do you forget something like that? It’s not like it’s a small tidbit, it’s a pretty significant scene. This definitely isn’t working to convince me Kiersi contributed nearly as much to this volume as the last one.

So yeah. There’s plenty of red flags about the development of this volume that really, really scream that certain people should just leave things the hell alone. But let’s take a look at what the actual resulting product looks like and what that says about the writing style, too.

I said that every thumbprint and earmark Kerry and Miles have is littered throughout Volume 8 after a suspicious absence in Volume 7, and you can tell. Characters just standing around and watching while bad things happen? That’s back. Using Ren to talk at the audience and hold their hand, explaining how other characters have grown and are feeling? That’s back. An overly sympathetic casting of Emerald, along with an overly dickish casting of Ironwood? That, too, is back. Tyrian acting overly-touchy and bordering on a sex offender? Also back. A particular side of the conflict being nerfed to hell and back so that the other side can cinch an easy win? That’s back. Jaune coming in for a bizarre amount of relevance and doing something wildly unpopular with fans? That’s also back. Random interjections of in-story fairy tales that are obviously going to be super-relevant, to the point they’re relied on rather too much? That’s back, too. Ozpin himself is back, to my own displeasure. Hell, the cane nuke Ozpin set off is basically just the silver eyes reveal all over again—dropped as soon as it’s needed with zero buildup whatsoever.

There’s a complete unwillingness to navigate. Things just happen with absolutely no care taken for whether they’re properly built up, dropped at the right time, or how the characters react to them. They’ll write down something they need to happen, and then they’ll take the most direct route towards getting that to happen and often the first idea that comes into play, and this speaks less to inexperience or lack of know-how when writing than it does to just not caring.

There’s also something of an over-reliance on pain and suffering this volume. Aside from the various confidence issues faced by the protagonists, the brunt of ‘drama’ in the volume seems to involve kicking the shit out of the protagonists to evoke some sort of emotion, with Salem and Hazel torturing Oscar, and the various awful abuses Penny goes through. Oscar’s largely fell flat because of Hazel, who was once again beating up children despite professing to hate Ozpin for endangering children. With Penny, it fell flat the very second Penny was killed off—thus rendering all of her struggling and suffering largely pointless. But even had she lived, it still would’ve felt very disgusting just watching it happen over and over. We’re also made to watch Cinder’s ever-relevant Tragic Backstory, for seemingly no reason except to tug at the heartstrings, since it doesn’t affect her present-day motivations at all, and thus it falls flat, too, failing at its one purpose, because no one was going to waste any tears on Cinder Fall, regardless of how abusive her home life was, when she behaves the way she always has.

One thing that’s technically changed from the usual Miles and Kerry style is that characters still have aura now, but the difference is negligible since auras now break within one or two hits, basically removing it from the equation because extended fight scenes are things they’re still bad at storyboarding. This results in scenes like the final battle with Cinder and Neo, where someone’s swathed in some glow-y, glitchy shorthand for “defeated” what seems like every ten seconds, like a glitter party gone wrong. So rather than actually improve the action sequences, they’ve stayed just as bad as before.

Evisceration Evasion: 35

Barring those, we are in pretty bad shape. The writing style on its own, well…it sucks. What about other stylistic choices? What’s left for the rare RWBY fan that stayed? Everything is just as ugly as it was in Volume 7, but the writing has regressed back to Volume 5. Is there anything left for fans to enjoy?

You’ll have noticed that the Band-Aid Brigade count was back in action for much of Volume 8, though still not to the extent of Volume 6. Miles’ and Kerry’s primary concerns may have been “correcting” Burkhart’s version of RWBY back to one they felt was right, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t make time to try and get fans to love them again. But I mean, we already covered how successful that was with Volume 6, and it wasn’t any more of a winner with Volume 8. The parts where Yang finally remembered Summer Rose as her real mother came way too late, the interjection of Jaune’s fraudulent acceptance into Beacon even moreso and that was getting openly mocked… Pretty much the only band-aid that was a moderate success was Nora trying to figure out what she is without Ren, but I’d say that case was marred by officially breaking them up. Renora fans’ loyalties will only stretch so far.

So as far as Volume 8 goes, we’re again on a precipice wherein the Blake/Yang shippers remain the only ones really happy with it (thanks to all the gay bait). The rest of those band-aids wouldn’t have been able to salvage the show to begin with, especially not when, quite unlike Volume 6, Volume 8 goes out of its way to destroy a lot of other stuff fans actually liked. The push to shred and burn Volume 7 to create Volume 8 seems to have caused quite a bit of collateral damage. One of the things that the end of Volume 7 hyped—which fans actually got rather excited for!—was Salem finally entering the war herself. But the push to get her out of the way and make Ironwood the major remaining threat meant that Salem made her exit only ¾ of the way through the Volume after having barely even gotten her war off the ground.

Rooster Tease: 38

Road to Nowhere: 42

This of course not being the only subplot dropped but only the most important one. Yang’s team and their attempt to help the citizens of Mantle didn’t really go anywhere, quickly being replaced by a chase for some mutant Grimm that kidnapped Oscar, and they never make it back to Mantle at all, since the war starts thereafter. The Amity launch project, naturally, just stops being relevant the second the fifth episode ends. In the grand scheme of things, fans who had been excited to see how RWBY would overcome Salem didn’t get to see it, and fans who had been excited to see Penny become a confident girl and overcome Ironwood didn’t get to see that, either.

And throughout it all, the whole season, there’s that utterly ill vibe of contempt, like everything that happens now is a direct, angry response to the prior season.

I know Miles’ and Kerry’s writing too well by now to think they only took an even share of the plot. This whole thing reeks of them taking back the reigns in full, and probably not with the blessing of everyone else involved who had to work around them. I imagine the actual process behind writing this volume of RWBY was hell, because in September of 2020—two months before Volume 8 aired—it was revealed Miles Luna had actually left Rooster Teeth—yes, seriously!—though he’s still contracted to do writing and voice work for RWBY.

And that’s not all. Once Kdin Jenzen posted her story of how she was treated at Rooster Teeth, the floodgates opened. Many other ex-employees of Rooster Teeth—including ones that worked on Volume 9!—corroborated her story and supported her, and many began posting their own stories, confirming that yeah, the crunch Rooster Teeth worked so hard to assure us would be fixed the last time this sort of thing happened has, in fact, not been fixed at all. Right now, as of writing this, people are still royally pissed and Rooster Teeth is in danger of losing its only real lifeline, which is RWBY.

Curiously, the writing staff did not catch too much fire in these allegations, but that ultimately doesn’t change what the patterns say, and the patterns say that the writers’ room is as difficult to be in as any other. So it’s my guess that Volume 9 will likely be Miles Luna’s last volume. That, or Burkhart’s—when stuff like this happens, someone always leaves. Remember Georden Whitman? The show creator for Nomad of Nowhere that we discussed prior? Yeah, he posted, too—detailing exactly how his story was stripped from him and how he was mistreated while trying to bring his own IP to life. I’d be a fool to think none of this affects RWBY.

It’s just sad how this volume and the show as a whole have suffered for some dudes’ egos. I mean, I had so much rage and anger throughout the volume at all of the bullshit happening, but when I stop and look at it as a whole, really read what’s written on the wall…I just get sad. No show should have to go through this. It shouldn’t have been dragged down by the bitterness of writers who couldn’t accept that someone did better for the show than they could.

I have something to say, and I really can’t be ashamed of saying it: no matter what happens, Miles and Kerry need to go. In fact, they needed to go ages ago. The last few volumes have really just been extended displays of how they shouldn’t be in charge of RWBY, and how another author could do so much better for this show. Someone had to have recognized that at some point, or we wouldn’t have had other writers brought in for the first time since the show started airing. I don’t like to state that the solution is that someone just shouldn’t write, but maybe those two should return to Red vs. Blue and write comedy. This action fantasy show is simply not suited for them, nor are they suited for it.

Having seen Volume 9, I can assure you that M&K‘s description of it and Volume 8 as a single story is right in all the wrong ways.

Hiatus Observations

A hiatus observation, at this point, could boil down to a very quick “it’s finished, bud”.

I have remarked many times on the various deathblows that came to RWBY with each successive volume. Volume 3 was popular but made decisions that were shaky with the fanbase, and questions of the show's quality without Monty were common. Volume 5 was so epically bad that it started the first major exodus of the show, and this trend continued with Volume 6, because Miles simply couldn't stop pissing people off. Volume 8, however?

Volume 8 is what put the show in the dead state it's in now. There's a reason the only people you ever seem to see talking about RWBY these days are the few lifelong diehard stans left, or people that hate the show and intend to drag it to its last breath. There's a reason that Volume 9 had basically no hype to benefit from and why #GreenlightVolume10 is a thing now, with a virtual guarantee it will never happen. Rooster Teeth's various talents are continuing to leave their podcasts, Achievement Hunter is over, Red vs. Blue is getting one last season and won't even have music by the guys that had been making it for years... The only lifeline they have left is RWBY, and it's safe to say that it's flatlining.

I’m not kidding when I say people hated this volume. Just like in Volume 5, M&K’s hand was shown with complete clarity, and the fanbase despised them for it. Everybody could see what was happening with Ironwood and Salem and Penny and Cinder and Emerald and Qrow and...basically everything, and no one liked it. M&K have, once again, dropped the ball and pretty much given a middle finger to their fanbase by axing everything they liked and wanted, and I imagine they’re now regretting it.

I was certainly not the only one who saw the absolutely vile mean-spiritedness behind this volume, either. Just ask Michael Basile, the guy who wrote the review of it for Anime News Network:

“What I can't overlook, however, is a new element present in the writing that I did not anticipate and, frankly, is far more troubling than rushed plot points or botched characterization, that being that the end of Volume 8 felt…mean. Not nihilistic. Not edgy. Mean. Ironwood going full Terminator and killing non-combatants because that's just how they wanted to write him. Atlas citizens led to a slaughter in Vacuo in a scene that echoed a bit more of Jurassic World than I would have liked. Bringing Penny back after she was dead for 3 volumes only to kill her off again two volumes later right after she became human, and having Jaune of all people do it; you know, the guy who is still traumatized by losing one of his closest friends and has basically acted as the party's healer ever since the end of Volume 5. It all feels just too nasty and mean-spirited compared to how this show used to be written, something I never would have imagined this series becoming, and I truly hope it doesn't stick around for Volume 9. I understand that writing styles will inevitably evolve over the years, but this tone stands in direct contrast to the themes of the show and how it always managed to implant a small spark of hope and heroism in even its darkest moments. This element, far more than any other, would definitely keep me away from RWBY for good if it becomes a permanent fixture. I wish I had more to say about this particular point because it is so incredibly concerning, but sometimes the most central criticisms end up being fairly easy to explain.”

How unsurprising. With that in mind, there is some extra material Rooster Teeth have released for RWBY in the longer-than-usual hiatus between this volume and Volume 9. In the politest way, they will not be sufficient to save this crap, but it’s worth commenting on anyway.

You’ll recall by now the comic books that roll out with each hiatus, which first starred CFVY with After the Fall, then (allegedly) SSSN with Before the Dawn. 2021 then brought us Roman Holiday. I can’t remember this one being as outright disliked as the prior two, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that fans warmly received it, either. The choice to focus on Torchwick and Neo was probably calculated given the massive fanbases those characters once possessed, though it serves little point now. Neo gets her own little backstory and adventure set before the series here, a move which I would say pretty much kills the best thing about Neo, which is her aura of mystery. So, that’s there.

In fall 2022 they launched “Rooster Teeth Digital Creators Program” which seems like a whole bunch of nothing and probably related to searching out more student hires, which is a practice they’ve abused before, only now they’re making people compete in a ‘talent showcase’ for the chance of a 1-year contract at Rooster Teeth. Which will, of course, then be allowed to expire.

There’s another RWBY video game, Arrowfell, that I also don’t care about. What most people would probably find most notable is the RWBY anime, Ice Queendom, that finished airing a year or two back. Twelve episodes, based roughly on the first volume of RWBY, but with original characters and stories. Apparently it revitalized some fans’ love for early RWBY, though not everyone was totally into it.

However, what I’m most curious about is “RWBY: Fairy Tales”, the animated versions of some of that anthology Myers published. Published in 2021, it was six short, animated stories transcribing, well, fairy tales in the world of RWBY. Directed by Eddy Rivas, and written by E.C. Myers—that person that wrote the comic book series where Scarlet David got his gay badge, and then two unfortunately-canon comic books that took care to stomp on everyone’s favorite neglected side cast with a cleated steel boot. And, for some reason, it’s available on YouTube. I guess Rooster Teeth are trying to walk back a slight bit on keeping their content on their own site and trying to draw back in fans who hang out there? Maybe? Nope, lol, they moved RWBY Volume 9 to Crunchyroll exclusives and won’t let up on watching without a subscription for an entire year! Nevermind!

The fairy tales allegedly tie into the main show rather like a set of World of Remnant episodes, and I find that tiresome. I’ve never enjoyed Miles’ and Kerry’s over-reliance on fairy tales whenever they can’t seem to think of a new plot point or a way to get to the one they like. This feels like assigned reading, but I know none of the fairy tales provided has anything to do with Volume 9, so don’t hold your breath for a recap of them.

What’s Next?

Probably, nothing good. Let’s do something different for a change—let's watch the Volume 9 trailers. At the time of this post going up, I've already recapped Volume 9, but I'd just like to go over with you what Miles and Kerry evidently thought fans would like enough about Volume 9 to justify teasing it.

YouTube provided us a “Sneak Peak” posted by MurderofBirds, from RTX 2021, and then there a short trailer was posted plus a 4-minute clip by Rooster Teeth Animations. Let’s look at them in that order.

RWBY Volume 9 Sneak Peek (Work-In-Progress)

We start out on a few seconds of black screen, overlaid by a heartbeat and guitar riffs. We see multiple shots from the finale of Volume 8, from Ruby’s point of view, culminating in her and Blake falling into the abyss. From the same point of view, we also see her and Neo falling through the void, Ruby at first seeing some fiery orb in her hand that floats away, before Neo attacks her, shapeshifting into different allies of Ruby’s while beating on her. The last shape she takes is Penny, through which she tries to choke Ruby before Ruby kicks her away. We then fade to white until finally fading back in on an island beach. Ruby wakes up upon hearing someone call her name, but no one is nearby. She looks around and sees starfishes populating the sand, plus two suns in the sky, one orbiting the other. The island is dominated by a huge, multicolored tree, which Ruby begins to make her way towards. The clip ends.

RWBY: Volume 9 - Official Teaser

???: This is the story of a girl who had a lot of problems.

Said over a shot of Ruby sitting in a basin of some kind of flowing, purple fog. We see shots of someone falling down a very bizarre multi-colored tube, with a blue butterfly floating around, and then Ruby stares at a crystalline sword of Penny’s, seeing the girl herself reflected in it. Then we see Ruby staring at something, with a mouse tucked into her scarf. RWBY are shown in the center of the island, staring up at the tree. There’s multiple shots of various enemies, including a knight, some kind of lizard demon-looking thing, and Neo.

The voiceover from the unknown woman continues, and I truthfully don’t care to transcribe it. There’s some mention of a lot of people asking ‘what are you’ and I…can’t be assed.

After shots of each girl’s face, we see “RWBY Volume 9” fade in and the trailer ends.

Now for the longest one.

RWBY Volume 9 Chapter 1 Clip

We open on shots of Ruby traveling through this World of Warcraft-esque technicolor forest. She ignores the wailing of two green pelican-like birds whose calls sound like human screaming, and keeps moving. She passes a mouse, resting on a large conch shell, which perks an ear as she passes.

Ruby passes a third bird, but as she passes the mouse again, it becomes clear it’s actually the same bird, and she’s been going in circles, despite only moving forward. The mouse can be seen watching her go absolutely nowhere despite her valiant attempts, and her mounting frustration. When Ruby finally gives up and slumps against a tree to cry, it starts to rain. The mouse wanders over, and begins trying to tug a plant to uproot it from the ground, failing miserably. Ruby tugs it out of the ground for the mouse, which crawls up onto her hand when she offers it. And then the mouse fucking talks.

R: Now if only you could help me…

???: I can try.

Naturally, there is some huh-larious wailing from Ruby, surprised that an animal is talking to her. *sigh* The mouse asks what Ruby is, apparently coming up short when confronted with words like ‘human’, ‘girl’, and ‘huntress’. Ruby then introduces herself and thus dubs the mouse ‘Little’. Little does not seem to know what Ruby is talking about when Ruby asks if she’s seen her friends, yet naturally freaks out when told that one of her friends has cat ears.

RSVP: 72

Now that the racism subplot’s over I guess this is what Blake and other faunus amount to, now.

The mouse offers to take Ruby back to her village to ask about her friends, and the clip ends.

*sitting down cross-legged on the floor* Notice something? Yeah, none of this has anything to do with anything that happened in Volumes 7 or 8. Or any other volume. Not a single one of these three videos has picked up the Vacuo plot. And having watched Volume 9, I can tell you that they don't pick it up throughout the entire volume, either. Not once.

And now we have some talking mouse mascot character. This whole thing is serving the sort of vibes you get when another Alice in Wonderland adaptation comes out and you can tell the spirit isn’t there.

And this is...yeah, really, really bad. You know why?

Rooster Teeth’s biggest mistake with RWBY, one you would hope they wouldn’t repeat twice, is thinking that their fanbase will put up with anything. They thought they could put Volume 5 on the backburner until it went up in smoke, and publish it anyway, because Volume 4 had made them feel like their fanbase would stick by them through anything. Surely if Monty’s death wasn’t enough to shake them, nothing could? But then they paid for it dearly, and Volume 6 became a tainted attempt at damage control to try and regain their fanbase.

They really shouldn’t have let Miles and Kerry have the writer’s room again, because not only has Volume 8 alienated a great portion of what little fanbase there was left, but Volume 9 (which has been described as the other half of Volume 8) has absolutely nothing to do with it or any of the volumes that came before.

There is nothing here to make amends to anyone dissatisfied with RWBY or Rooster Teeth—nothing to draw anyone back in. All we’ve got so far is a new plot about a fantasy magical island involving a talking mouse. No one is here for this, no one can get excited for that. No one cares. RWBY is the lifeline, and reeling people back into this series was important for more than just Volume 8 being a trash fire that pissed off the fans. Because now we get into the real hiatus observations—what happened in the years 2021 and 2022.

Let’s talk about the state of Rooster Teeth, for a minute.

Since 2020, over 80 people who worked on RWBY have left Rooster Teeth—not counting those laid off. That’s quite a number. Then, in late 2022, Kdin Jenzen has made it clear her time working there was pretty much miserable, and she’s only the latest in a string of people willing to speak out about Rooster Teeth’s bad practices. And as of when I was first drafting this post, the storm she kicked off had only intensified. Pretty much as if on cue, a 15-year-old video of Kdin exhibiting racist behavior started to make the rounds—one she apologized for previously and apologized for again, and I don’t think anyone’s fooling themselves imagining that that timing is a coincidence. But this attempt to distract from and discredit her didn't work, because others were speaking out. More ex-Rooster Teeth employees piled on, adding their own experiences and describing the company culture there as abusive, racist, homophobic, transphobic, negligent, anti-union, and elitist. Many wages were unpaid and many have described their experiences as traumatic, up to and including thoughts of suicide—and at least one reported case of being encouraged to commit. That’s absolutely insane.

Rooster Teeth’s name is shit now, guys. There’s still the tiniest portion of annoying, absolutely fake people out there that qualify as diehard RWBY stans, who have predictably taken this opportunity to bleat that this doesn’t affect the “CRWBY” and that they still deserve support, despite both ex-fans and ex-employees pointing out that RWBY’s staff is deeply involved in this, too, and at least one ex-animator who worked on Volume 9 encouraging people to pirate it. Don’t have to tell me twice.

RWBY stans are some of the most unfortunate people I’ve ever met on the internet. They act like if you criticize RWBY or Rooster Teeth, you’re doing them some actual harm. People act like if you dare to suggest RWBY or Rooster Teeth might not have treated Monty or his project with the attention and love they deserved, you’re being a hater. The term “HTDM” has become mildly popular since I last frequented RWBY circles, and it’s more than a little exhausting, because it’s just another sign of RWBY stans devolving into BTS stans, complete with an imagined narrative involving some grand enemy that needs to be defeated, who just hate their precious show because ‘something something obsessed haturz with no life’. It’s especially pathetic, because the noose is tightening and there’s not even that many of these crazed idiots left.

But it pisses me off, so much, and it makes me so very sad. Rooster Teeth abuses their employees, fakes being a lot more progressive than they really are, and even what remains of their reputation is probably more than they deserve. I can only hope the RWBY fandom eventually learns what it actually means to stand with employees sometime in the near future.

And that’s all that’s to be said about it. I’ll see you guys in Volume 9, where things stay just as bad as in Volume 8, but less coherent.

Counts:

• Jaune: 83
  
• It Was Right There: 63
  
• Fauxminism: 61
  
• Hypocrisy: 57
• Reliable Leaders: 80 + 17
  • Prowling Wolf Fallacy: 17 (RETIRED)
• Threatening Enemies: 59
• Love to Be a Part of It Someday: 104
• Your Fight Scene Sucks: 155 + 33
  • Evisceration Evasion: 35
• Ill Logic: 192
• Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Veil: 111 + 89
  • Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge: 34
  • Band-Aid Brigade: 55
• RSVP: 72
• Road to Nowhere: 42
• Dragged Kicking and Screaming: 52
• Y.A.S. Queen: 18
• Rooster Tease: 37
• LuLaRwe: 61
• The Lovegood Fallacy: 15
• How to Piss Off Gay People: 87
• Invisembl: 14
• Broke-Ass Clowns: 34
• Shut the Fuck Up: 18
  

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Volume 8 Final Thoughts (Part I) | Table of Contents | Volume 9