It might have actually been better for her character if she died in Volume 5, as sad as that is to think
Why?
Ren there’s not much to say since he’s intentionally “The boring guy”. I kind of appreciate that.
Ren is just the straight man who reacts to Nora's outlandish behavior. And he does his job. Great work rate, to borrow a term from pro wrestling.
I think the biggest problem Volume 3 caused with the show is that it made things too dark too quick. But it is indeed still the best Volume.
There's also another issue: The Vytal Festival doesn't have much reason to exist, in the sense that it doesn't do anything for the story of the characters. I've heard that it was put in because Monty wanted to do a tournament arc, but the issue is that tournament arcs reveal something about the world and/or its characters, mainly in the sense of 1. Why the tournament is a thing and 2. Why do characters want to participate in it? The Chunin Exams you mentioned are a great example of that when you consider a lot of the Konoha shinobi and Gaara.
At least we got Kali and Ghira out of that story, and I haven't heard anybody say anything bad about either of them. But also, it was kind of funny to see Menagerie drop a nuke on everything the show has tried to say about the Faunus.
Lionheart has one good moment where he calls Raven on her bs
Really? I must have missed that.
Also, TheFloofArtist did an hourlong breakdown of animation issues for the final showdown.
There’s also some good set up for the big reveal in Volume 6 and the conflict with Ozpin.
Really? Last I heard about Ozpin in this volume is that V5 really just showed how he was a shitty Dumbledore, and V6 was them overcorrecting to make sure people remembered that Salem is supposed to be the actual villain of the show instead of Ozpin.
Nothing would have worked. It’s funny that by the end of the Volume we’ve reached Berserk levels of “shit’s fucked and things are hopeless for our heroes”.
This would be after the Eclipse, right? Or was it Griffith coming back after Kentaro Miura died?
And the Curious Cat, a fantastic villain who’s genuinely difficult to pin down and predict. At first he seems like just another random member of the Ever After like the Red Prince, you wouldn’t think he has the role he does. Even the opening doesn’t make it seem like he’s anything special. And he’s so genuinely helpful at first and disarming, he doesn’t seem like a villain. Even after meeting up with Jaune and suspicious stuff coming up there’s enough genuine reason to think Jaune is mistaken or wrong or that the Curious Cat isn’t evil but just views things in a different way. And he’s based on the Cheshire Cat which while kind of a problem at times was never an actual enemy or threat to Alice. He’s a good character, interesting, and tragic when you learn the truth about him. But tragic doesn’t mean he gets to automatically be forgiven for the stuff he’s done and he shows zero remorse for any of it, so that’s why he still dies. But frankly I love his character, I thought the reveal of his true nature and desires was great, and I think he’s one of the better villains in RWBY.
Kind of interesting to see someone go against the grain of recent times and be fond of a twist villain.
And then all through Volumes 4-6 she’s dealing with her PTSD, anger, and abandonment issues in some form or another and surprisingly it’s all actually done well.
I think you may be the only person here who thinks those things were done well.
Cinder’s a really good villain in Volumes 1-3. After that it becomes a little muddy. Her strength as a villain in early Volumes is her ability to capitalize on new information and opportunities that present themselves, rather than being some grand mastermind. Even when shit goes wrong she adjusts. And when she learns about Penny through sheer happenstance she realizes immediately the opportunity she provides and it makes the Fall even easier. A couple of well placed comrades and Watt’s virus and that’s all she needed to do. She’s calm, competent, knows her strengths, gets the perfect allies for what she needs, and gets some nice fights in the meantime.
As one YouTuber put it: There are so many ways Cinder's plan could fall apart if Ozpin wasn't stupid. But lucky for CInder, he is.
She’s a good villain, I think the fandom has a warped perception of her. Nice design and voice too.
Well, would you believe me if I were to tell you that long ago, there was a fan named Soarel who believed that Cinder was some kind of revolutionary who was working to destroy the system Ozpin made to keep himself as shadow emperor of Remnant (with Salem doing the same thing)?
Instead, I just think she's discount Azula. And she's probably going to try and usurp Salem at some point.
As for other villains, Adam Taurus isn’t ruined in later Volumes, he’s barely a character in the first 3. I wouldn’t say he becomes any better or worse than when he first appears.
I thought the issue was that Adam went from angry leader of the WHite Fang/Monty's take on Jetstream Sam/a guy who has a reason to take on all four members of Team RWBY when all is said and done...to an abusive ex-boyfriend/incel.
Watts is a good villain, the difference between someone who’s just an asshole like Jacques and a genuine villain like Watts. Smart but not omniscient, he’s just a fun villain and definitely one of the better characters in Volumes 7 and 8. Tyrian is good, he’s just the crazy psycho villain but he’s good at that, and it’s really funny at the same time because despite being a nutjob he’s the only one who seems to fully understand what he’s doing. Everyone else working for Salem is delusional. Tyrian is the only one who’s like “Oh she wants to kill everyone? Awesome.” and it’s hilarious.
You kind of forgot to mention Hazel in your analysis of the villains. Alongside the main villain herself Salem.
Anyone who thinks Ozpin should’ve reincarnated in Jaune is insane.
Why is that? Last I heard, the issue with Oscar is that 1. He only exists to keep Ozpin in the plot, especially considering that he eventually just goes along with Ozpin taking control of his body as a host, and 2. Oscar serves as an example of a recurring problem that ends up emerging of just bringing in new characters rather than finding new roles for the existing ones. At the very least, Jaune makes more sense than Roman Torchwick, as Celtic Phoenix did in his version of RWBY (which I believe led to the same complaints of Jaune in canon: a writer having a character be their self-insert).
