RWBY is a reflection of its own creative process, Part 1
For the last 15 years, Rooster Teeth has been blazing a digital trail on the back of fan works like Red vs Blue, The Strangerhood, PANICS, 1-800-MAGIC, and Supreme Surrender. However, it wasn't until 2013 that they decided to sink their rooster teeth into a fully original, built-from-the-ground-up production. They started with RWBY, a modern day fairy tale created by the late visionary Monty Oum that still remains one of Rooster Teeth's most iconic series ever produced.
I'm...not a tremendous fan of RWBY. I mean, I don't hate it and I even understand from where it draws its audience, but it's just not my thing. I really do want to talk about it though, and I especially want to dive into the interesting way the show has developed and evolved over time, both internally and externally. I want to explore this idea that RWBY as a series and as a story has become a reflection of its own creative process. But real quick, we gotta set the stage...
How did we get here? Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum
Back in 2003, before the dawn of Youtube, Rooster Teeth Productions made their internet debut with Red vs. Blue, a micro series that takes place (very roughly) in the Halo universe and was focused on the squabbles and shenanigans of the red and blue armies of Blood Gulch Canyon. All of the footage for the show was shot in game, and the series' writing and performance were largely focused on character-driven comedy. Despite the technical limitations they were working under (or more likely because of them), the series amassed an impressive and enthusiastic audience with it's funny writing, voice acting, overall coordination and generally competent cinematography. As the show went on, more software and editing was implemented into the show's construction, but the heart of the show came from shooting as much of the content in game as possible (which I think is actually a very underrated aspect of the show that isn't talked about enough, but that's neither here or now). While Red vs Blue maintained it's snarky, witty and especially dumb humor for 5 seasons, it was clear that Rooster Teeth wanted to shift the show to focus on heavier action set pieces moving forward. For now, let's put a pin in that.
Monty Oum was a high school dropout who found his calling in the Newgrounds/Ebaum's World fanbase, and proceeded to devote most of his efforts on making fan videos starting in 2002 (again, before the dawn of Youtube). For a number of years, Oum had developed a uniquely frenetic style of action, choreographing absurdly elaborate fight scenes that lead to the creation of a 2007 short film Haloid, pitting the iconic Halo SPARTAN against Samus Aran of Metroid fame and lighting a fire under the pants of kids and teenagers everywhere, as well as some noteworthy video game developers. After a few brief engagements working for companies like Midway Games and Bandai Namco, Oum had a chance encounter with Burnie Burns, co-founder and current CCO of Rooster Teeth. One thing lead to another, and Monty Oum started working with Rooster Teeth on the Red vs Blue series, which means we can remove that pin from earlier.
It's pretty easy to tell which scenes Monty Oum had a hand in...
As an animator and episode director, Monty Oum applied his particular style of action to many scenes of the show, most prominently during its 8th-10th seasons. At some point during the development of season 10, Oum stated pitching an idea for a brand new show, to which Burnie was willing to try on the condition that season 10 hit its production deadlines. Thus, RWBY was born, which means we can finally start diving in.
Also, while I won't be going in depth into every episode of every season, there will be a spattering of spoilers from here on out. That's your warning.
Volume 1 - Locked, Loaded and Lost in the Woods
For this brand new show, Rooster Teeth had to figure a few things out. First, Monty Oum had never headed a project like this before; the pipeline for a video game and a visual series are very different, after all. Second, Rooster Teeth had hardly any experience making a series without existing framework. Red vs. Blue required the Halo games, The Strangerhood used The Sims, and every other show followed a similar trend. RWBY featured a completely new everything, a first for this animation company. It's daunting, it's crazy, but it's also incredibly exciting (especially if you're Monty Oum getting to helm your current dream project). In fact, it was so exciting, that a few shortcuts had to be taken to streamline the process, namely in the usage of the Poser software to streamline basic animations (at the cost of those animations maybe not being super great), and heavy use of matte paintings to cover environmental shots that would've been too time intensive to model out. It makes sense that the show would probably start out explosive, yet aimless, and that's exactly what Season 1 ended up being.
The entire first half is dedicated to introducing the characters, teams and general expectations of the series. Oum was sure to introduce the main cast with their generally quirky behaviors and some existing relationships, but more importantly he was setting the series' most important precedent: There will be copious amounts of action, and especially fighting. The second half splits its time into three stories, each focused primarily on small character relationships: Weiss of Team RWBY gets two stories in which she needs to learn humility first and understanding second regarding the other members of her team; and Jaune of team JNPR needs to learn confidence and also a degree of humility and trust with other members of his team. Following the set precedent of the first half, fight scenes are scattered throughout showing up about once every other episode. Otherwise, the existing cast gets maybe a small handful of bonding opportunities and there's is a bit of setup for some antagonists introduced in episode 1 to be "doing some shady stuff". Over the course of 16 episodes, barely anything especially meaningful happens.
But goodness is there energy and spirit to this production. Any opportunity the creators had to go for broke, they dove in head first. The first action scene is Ruby stopping a store robbery. In most series that would probably end with her beating up the villains around the store and maybe kicking one out the store window. But this is RWBY; She knocks multiple people out the front window, then does some crazy acrobatic onslaught against a ton of robbers outside with a foldable scythe that's also a rifle, THEN chases the main villain to a HELICOPTER FIGHT at the top of a nearby building. Don't worry, that's just the warm-up. Later, the new students aren't asked to travel through a monster infested forest for initiation, they are literally CATAPULTED OFF A CLIFF, and each one manages to use uniquely bizarre techniques and abilities to either land safely or just go faster. The first major battle involves two monsters the size of large houses (which are basically a scorpion and a crow), and the characters fight them with such intensity they completely destroy a set of ruins lying in the woods. That's just the first half of the season.
I ain't even mad, the choreography on these scenes is dazzling with aplomb, their frenetic nature working wonderfully within the high fantasy environment RWBY creates. A lot of the walking and running animation is fairly horrendous (in action scenes, characters are flying around in the air so much, you're less likely to notice), but I won't deny that the show is loaded with passion and big ideas in plain sight. When I watch Season 1 of the show, I sincerely feel that I'm watching something the team is excited to work on and would be excited to watch. At the same time, I can't shake the dangerous feeling of the show's shallow depth, and I'm left wondering if the creative team really knew what they trying to accomplish. By the end of the season, we hadn't really gotten that much farther than when we started, and that's kinda what I expected from a show that literally spent half its run time getting lost in the woods.
I obviously can't speak to the artist's intent here (a fact I must begrudgingly face going into this whole show), but Season 1 definitely felt like a production that the team absolutely needed to get out there and show off to the world without necessarily figuring out why. Ultimately, it led to a premiere that was explosive, yet aimless, and it was somewhat addressed with...
Volume 2 - Can't stop this Crazy Train
It was the first episode that really got me realizing that the precedent of "make action happen" was going to be the series' most definitive uphill battle (ha). There was an expectation for "the Monty Oum show" to be all about ridiculously over-the-top engagements, which meant that moments of calm were never really possible. What do you do when you can't even eat a meal in peace?
Look, I'll admit, it's a fun scene. Again, I see this as further proof that this is a team of people that are clearly having a blast making this show; I don't think it's possible to construct a scene like this unless you love what you do. It doesn't move the plot forward and it hardly develops the characters past what we already knew about them, but it was still fun.
But one thing I was thankful for was the pulling away from the shenanigans with a refined focus on moving the narrative forward (albeit, after the food fight of the century). Pretty much right away from episode 2 onward, Team RWBY had a very definite goal to accomplish, and the show had a direction to move towards. The shady going-on's of the villains from Volume 1 were being actively investigated by our characters; all of their team decisions and most of their individual ones were motivated by identifying/pursuing a group of criminals that were causing severe emotional harm to one of their members. As story motivation and plot direction go, this is not a bad path to take, and as a result Volume 2 was significantly more watchable and its climactic finish all the more effective. I still have many issues with Volume 2 (writing and dialogue are weak, pacing needs work, standard animation still abysmal, I pretty much disliked the entire "school dance" arc for completely lacking nuance), but I won't deny that the team managed to address the show's structural issue. The show went from "characters fighting" to "characters fighting for something" (even bothered to ask them "why" they were fighting in the process), and that to me is a definite victory.
My biggest issue with RWBY is that the creative team jams so many amazing action set pieces into their show, but in regards to the narrative only a couple are ever truly earned. Volume 1 is loaded with crazy choreography, but it's so frequent and overdone I hardly feel any of it. But the end of Volume 2, they earned that. The earned their big flashy collision by preceding it with a series of slower respites, soul searching and an arrangement of character focused moments.
In a lot of ways, I view Volume 2 as the creative team's highest point in terms of confidence and union. A lot of work needed to be done to make Volume 1 even possible, but for Volume 2 most of the construction work was done and the team could focus on refinement. There was a chance to really buckle down and ask "what story are we telling, and why". Granted, I'm sure a fair chunk of the story direction was built around pleasing a newly discovered fanbase; again, not a fan of the school dance teen drama arc, but much like its characters during said dance, this was the high point of the emotional journey for everyone. Tragedy was right around the corner, and RWBY and it's production team would never be the same...
Volume 3 - A Series of Unfortunate Events
The third run of RWBY is, in an interesting fashion, the season with both the least and most connection to the series' brand. Featured in Volume 3 is everything you should expect from RWBY: generally overindulgent fanfare, character development that continually misses the mark, the introduction of way too many pointless/gimmick characters, and the largest arrangement of action for action's sake the series has ever seen. On the other hand, Volume 3 also features some of the best character and dramatic moments up to this point, very reservedly uses some of its better characters to solid effect, develops plot in ways that completely challenge and eventually obliterate the status quo refreshingly, and while most of the action scenes feel really tacked on, they are all executed well and show off some of the series' best choreography to date. Volume 3 is like watching a drunk attempting to do an acrobatic pirouette off the handle, slamming its body all over the floor over and over before eventually landing with the grace of an angel (and then falling over again).
That being said, I don't think there was any other possible outcome for Volume 3 than to be inconsistent, flailing and occasionally very emotional, largely because the season was ultimately defined by loss.
By the end of Volume 3, it's actually easier to keep track of what characters have lost rather than what they've gained, and that's also true of the story as a whole. There were 3 main character deaths with ascending levels of emotional plunge (the third being probably the lowest point of Ruby's "hero's journey" so far). The entire setting of "Beacon Academy" - the safe haven that the majority of the story exists within - is completely destroyed. One member of Team RWBY loses an arm, and all of them are forcibly split apart by the end of things. Even the primary antagonist after having stolen an ultimate power, practically loses everything in the process. What was there to gain? Ruby learns more about her destiny/birthright, and is even able to make decisions regarding her future, but at the cost of losing a close friend. And, of course, there was the most tragic loss of them all.
Midway through the development of Volume 3, Monty Oum suffered an allergic reaction during a standard medical procedure, rendering him comatose and in critical care. Things were looking terrible, and despite the support of friends, fans and family, Monty Oum passed away tragically young and early in his career. He was loved, he was mourned, and he left behind a world with a now uncertain future. For any creative project to lose its creator is difficult beyond measure, and is only more difficult for a show as upbeat and energetic as RWBY. Imagine being Rooster Teeth in this situation: What do you do? You've already completed a large portion of the development of Volume 3, but you're now without a director and are left with a grieving team.
I unfortunately don't have all the details or facts on how things went internally. I do know what's been made public though: Gray Haddock, the Animation Head of RT, announced that Volume 3 would premiere in 2015 as planned (and was only a couple months behind the intended release), the show found a new director with Kerry Shawcross (who has been the director ever since), and RWBY has continued strong through an overwhelming show of passion, both from its team and its fanbase.
But I can't help but see Volume 3, in all it's cluttered mess, as a reflection of the internal creation at this point. The show starts off in its standard upbeat, frantic fighting mindset and having all the fun in the world when it is suddenly and violently jilted mid-season, forcing one of its main characters out of commission and leaving them with a degree of lasting mental trauma. Only a couple episodes later, the story completely flips over and threatens to destroy the characters' home, which is (due to a lack of other settings in this world so far) their entire world and functional safe haven. They struggle, throwing everything they have at the problem, but not only do they lose the battle but also lose one of the most iconic figures in the story altogether...and ultimately for almost nothing. I may be reading too far into it, but there's just too much matching structure of events for me to write off as entirely coincidental. I sincerely think the creative team fashioned Volume 3 not just with the story in mind, but also to help their audience empathize with how they feel right now: defeated, scattered and grieving.
But the show must go on, and whether the team has realized it or not, the passing of Oum didn't cripple the show. If anything, it gave them a moment to take a pause and reevaluate where the story stood, and RWBY would be all the better for it...
