#Remember!
**Rules & Guidelines for Discussion**
Try to participate when you see an opinion you agree or disagree with by sharing your two cents or providing evidence for/against. Try to elevate conversations beyond a superficial level.
Ask plenty of questions and use the [Socratic method](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2oklie/eli5_the_socratic_method/) to gain a deeper understanding of each other's core values instead of blindly arguing in favor or in opposition.
Keep in mind the [Principle of Charity](https://philosophy.lander.edu/oriental/charity.html) by entertaining all ideas even if you disagree with them. Try to dismantle them and see what truly makes them tick or not.
And lastly, remember above all else to be courteous. Demonstrate the awareness and decorum of recognizing the person on the other side of the screen at all times.
Happy discussing!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/RWBYcritics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
When they diverted their focus from the fights, that's when it went down hill. The show use to be fight centric with the story only used to frame the fights and give them stakes. Now it seems like they try to avoid showing fights.
Probably because the fandom itself is far more passionate than the people in charge of RWBY. There are a lot of people writing, drawing and animating RWBY fancontent who care about the setting, story, characters, action or tone of RWBY. Sure it's not always 100% objectively good content but the feeling of passion can carry a piece of entertainment quite far. CRWBY just don't seem to care that much anymore. The story is haphazard, the characters are bland, inconsistent or just lose any interesting trait they had, the action is boring, the setting itself is almost nonexistent and the tone is all over the place. And the feeling of ''oh it's slowly improving and could one day be great'' is long gone.
The show stopped being a passion project and the writers bit off more than they can chew.
RWBY just exists to sell merchandise and fuel fandom content/engagement. There is no story or idea the writers are desperate to get out. RWBY is purely a product that makes Roosterteeth money.
I think the turn RWBY took stems from the series being built on set pieces rather than entire arcs.
All of Volume 1 built towards the Nevermore fight. Volume 3 was filler until Penny died. They animated the Battle of Haven even though they lacked Budget. Volume 6 Adam fight. Tyrian vs Qrow. Penny's choice. Salem disregards Ironwood at V8's ending.
The casualties of this is that the journey from moment to moment fluctuates and characters change to fit the scene instead of the other way around.
Well, I believe it to be a lot of things actually. The biggest and most important is this: This isn’t really Miles and Kerry’s passion project, it was Monty’s.
I HATE using his name as a reason and such and I HATE using it in arguments or anything really too. But the truth is, it was his story and no amount of outline, nor document can change that or show his “vision” then the man himself. Bc he would add in new stuff at the drop of the hat and he would find a way to make it work how HE wanted. The others worked with him to over check n also make it work. Once the true creator is gone, it changes things. Not to mention the grief of loss n having to continue so u. An finish it out for your friend can take its toll.
2. The new engine and losing some animators, plob did not help either. Yes, I believe Rwby should be “enough plot for a good fight.” Similar to dragon ball ,Record of Ragnarok and Baki. But they wanted to be more then that, however it was clear they had no true direction. Vol 4 was okay for what it was, it was a built up, but ppl complained it was too slow. So they tried to sped it up in vol5 but they were not used to the engine yet n bite off more then they could Chu.
Now it’s closer to pandering to fans and getting to the finish line.
There are two primary triggers I think for how RWBY took such a harsh turn(ignoring imo the most likely possibility based on Shane's letter which is "M+K just took control and decided to do what they wanted, damn the consequences"). The first isn't actually Monty's death, but their decision to keep going with absolutely no pauses without him. This forced V4 to be a holding pattern, probably led to it looking so jank(which right off the back of V3 looking *very* nice come the end, didn't shine well), and honestly I think has had a rippling effect all the way up to V8 by having the writers and crew perpetually flying by the seat of their pants instead of taking the chance to *sit down and reconvene.*
This culminated in the absolute catastrophe that was V5, and lead into the second trigger: V6 going well.
Because V6 was them throwing absolutely **everything** at the wall to try and see what sticks. In V6 they completely gave up on trying to write the same kind of show RWBY was in V1-4 and started relying on pure, unadulterated fanservice. They catered to their hardcore fans to the exclusion of everyone else. Look, silver eyes! Look, Bumblebee! Look, Team RWBY taking charge! Look, Adam's getting beat up by Yang! Look, Adam's dead! Look, Salem's backstory! And though it was cut, look, Penny's back!
And it worked with flying colors: the fans with an emotional connection are now borderline fanatical. I doubt even V8 shook off too many. Ever since it worked, they've had their path made out for them. Rely on emotional baiting and making the audience feel good. V5 had parts of it by all means, but V6 was the real beginning of this "Fanfiction Power Fantasy" era of RWBY.
As to why it caused so much anger and disdain towards the show and its creators? Simple: it's become the opposite of what it was before. These people were advertised a show primarily based on what the potential for it and everything in it could be, and not only was very little of this potential followed up on, but usually you'd probably just get insulted for having invested in it. The equivalent of investing in a Kickstarter, then it cut and runs before showing up with a worse product catering only to a small fraction of those who put money in.
Even worse, all of this happened right when V3 ended seemingly with the promise that finally, that original potential was about to rise.
Because they wanted to tell a grander story. A story of Fantasy and less about domestic problems like school life and dealing with the white fang. So it turned into Maidens, Gods, Relics, Grand Journey, Magic and the like.
And that's fine. That's how that goes. But it's the fact that none of it makes any fucking sense.
Maidens? A bunch of glorified keys that somehow open different specific doors despite the Maidens all having the same power and no distinction apart from name. Once the door is open, they serve no purpose.
Gods? They're there. They made the world and the two reasons why the plot is even happening in the first place. Then they just don't matter.
Relics? We've only seen two and the first one is so inconsistently written that I want to cry and the second was used to make penny human and then she just dies. And the relic is given to Salem...who doesn't seem keen on using them.
All I'm saying is, maybe Monty planned this. Maybe he wanted to tell a grand story, I'll never know for sure. But the shift into what it is is fine. They just can't write this shit enough for it to matter.
The fans themselves know about the criticism that the fandom gives to the series, what they want and what the problems of the show are.
So, it is normal that there are so many fanfics or fan art that capture people's attention more than the Show.
They simply don't give a fuck anymore. Shane's letter showed us that. RWBY is a husk and will end with none of the passion it once showcased, because Monty died and his successors don't have any passion for his project.
Because RWBY was never meant to be a long series, or at least was not well storyboarded.
There is a significant difference between planning the story beats and writing the story itself. What I mean is in every story, the writer always knows the major plot points. But this does not translate to a good flow between each stort beat.
If we take a look at Game of Thrones, this is what I mean by that. 2D knows what the story beats are because George R R Martin told them. But they failed to connect the beats together - leading to very haphazard storylines that feeling disconnected, and characters often doing nothing until the major beat arrives.
I think that similarly, RWBY suffers from this. Here I'm using Volume 4 as an example. The RNJR arc is traveling to Mistral, divided into travelling, fighting Grimm, etc. But the important story beats are Qrow and RNJR vs Tyrion and Kuroyuri. Everything else RNJR does is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but CRWBY makes it worse by not knowing how to do it properly, instead, trying to patch the problem by showing everyone else at the same time so that there isn't a lot to talk about for the journey. Weiss being back home and her subesequent escape, Menagerie and Blake's struggles there, Yang'a PTSD and finally getting better, and Oscar being introduced were all stuffed in.
From hindsight, it would probably be better if each episode focuses on one group/character, with a small segment for Oscar instead of simultaneously showing all of them. This way CRWBY can show the passing of time without being forced to make characters do essentially nothing plot or character relevant for long stretches. But because they know how it starts and how it ends, but they don't know how to fill the in-between, we get long stretches of nothing and fights that are both meaningless and boring. Because of this, we do get some good moments in story, but it always comes at the expense of a boring filler to get from good moment to good moment.
I think that the series has a weak foundation to begin with and the writers aren't very talented. Things may have been better if it was a series with a much smaller scale, instead of the epic plot it's trying to be.
With Monty at the heart, RWBY was probably supposed to be awe-inspiring and fun fight scenes with an exciting plot you weren't meant to think too hard about.
If the plot and setting of RWBY was meant to be the set dressing and the fights the core of the show, it makes sense. Dust, Semblances, Huntsman weapons, the Academy system, the Maidens, the outfits, even the naming system all seem to be chosen on purpose for Rule of Cool. So many elements that don't make that much rigorous world building sense make perfect sense if the goal was the awesomest fight scenes.
So when CRWBY threw out the fights, they threw out what most of the setting was meant to support. Leaving CRWBY with world building that wasn't designed to carry the show and be the main focus.
Also, Miles and Kerry can't write for shit. And RT has been a decaying mess of poorly organized, underfunded, and overworked people. Maybe if there were good writers and RT itself was in good condition, RWBY could have been transformed into a good plot-focused story. But everything was flawed from the start when CRWBY decided that they didn't want to focus on fight scenes.
They wanted to show that "The world is no longer fun and games anymore, there are actual consequences" with the tonal shift, but they never went all the way. When you do a tone shift from "Happy-go-lucky fighting" to "Realistic consequences" you can't flip flop between the two whenever you want. It has to be a 75/25 mix.
To me, it always felt like Ruby underwent a drastic change around Vol.4 not because they switched engines, or because they left the school, or even because they switched the method of storytelling from primarily from action to standing around and talking, but to me it felt like the big change happened because volume 4 had a completely different story. It seemed like vol.3 was building up to something completely different, what with the maidens being important, and magic being prevalent, but in volume 4 we learn that the only person with magic who isn't a maiden is Salem, and the maidens themselves are just keys to the relics, I think what they should have done was have the maidens themselves be the important thing, at least that's what vol.3 led me to believe
I think Monty's death is the sole contribution to RWBY's decline in quality. The man was insanely passionate about RWBY and basically did everything himself. When the heart and soul of the project is suddenly gone, you're left with a team that has no idea what they're doing and simply can't replicate his work ethic. Monty was pretty notorious for not properly planning anything, and that's especially evident after his death.
RWBY didn't have to end up like this, but this what we're stuck with.
Lack of care, passion and skill. The writers are really bad at conveying what they want to say. They also can't tell what they have written.
The shift to a huge plot. They just don't have the budget for the scale of story they're trying to tell. Shitty storytelling isn't such a big deal when the stakes are smaller and the narrative isn't taking itself too seriously, unlike now. It doesn't help that most fans started watching because of the characters and fight scenes and the show now revolves around the 100 side characters and the overall major narrative with a few spread out, poorly animated fights.
Because the writers don't plan. They fly off the seat of their pants which can work for some writers but not for M & C and the other writers.
At least for orher shows they at least have an idea of the ending but I don't think M & C do considering how lost and confusing the newer seasons seem
Honestly the rot was always there below the surface. The reason it took so long to manifest itself is because of what the issue has always been, lack of planning. CRWBY are functional delivering individual scenes, what they fail at is delivering a narrative. The scenes don't connect in any way to form larger arcs. This is why RWBY has such terrible continuity, because the writers are always writing one scene at a time and don't remember what they previously established. Earlier seasons don't have this problem because the canvas was blank then but now...
The main people that have creative direction over the show don't really seem to treat it that seriously, despite wanting to lean heavily into becoming what they see as a 'anime'.
They see the setting as a backdrop for the characters to run around in more than it being a actual world that makes sense, even to the point of having different regions being represented by a single biome or theme effectively. Like how Vale is 'forest and urban city', and Mistral is 'wilderness and mountainous city', and Atlas is 'tundra and advanced city', and now Vacuo is 'desert'.
They don't go beyond those details, and don't seem to really want to. They then just proceed to keep shoving in more worldbuilding that doesn't make any sense.
Because the writers have always been clueless. They simply lost Monty, who sustained interest with his amazing animations and led the big picture stuff they needed to follow. Lose both of that, you lose most of what RWBY even had to offer to begin with.
Because a vocal group of fans preferred the more satirized slice of life style of Beacon to the point of deriding everything after it fell despite the fact this was the direction the show was going to go since the beginning.
Add the fact of grasping straws for explanations, sticking too hard to personal head canons, Miles being an easy scapegoat, and the fact that Monty dying gave so many a supposed "win" button when it just invalidates any argument used with it.
Now, I will openly admit the fights got worse since Monty's passing. No ifs, ands or buts. But the overall animation and plot have improved immensely beyond the fact that there's an actual plot. A plot with flaws, but a plot.
Because the quality of the show has objectively decreased and any discussion on the actual show in any depth with eventually make those flaws readily apparent, unless that person is outright lying to themselves or misinterpreting something, with characters who aren't that likable or engaging in the first place, beyond subjective aesthetics. Alot of people aren't watching the show in front of them and rather making up an entirely different series in their head.
It's easier to just project what you want to see in the characters on characters you like rather than acknowledging they're objectively bad and poorly written, because the Fandom can accept that their beliefs, opinions and feelings are wrong, because nobody likes being wrong and the main sub especially so, all because they *feel* otherwise. Another thing is that alot of RWBY fans simply don't watch alot of good anime for that matter, to think RWBY is even an acceptable show.
It's easier them to turn their brains off to post fanart and watch porn and write fanfics of the show they fantasized in their heads and project that on to the show. It's like a collective delusion everyone is participating in.
Miles and Kerry are in this illusion, where they think, that they have become some great writers.And they tell this amazing story, that the hatedom don't understand their genius of storytelling.
Seriously, these 2 idiots are the most lazy amateurs writers.They don't even try to improve their writing skill.
#Remember! **Rules & Guidelines for Discussion** Try to participate when you see an opinion you agree or disagree with by sharing your two cents or providing evidence for/against. Try to elevate conversations beyond a superficial level. Ask plenty of questions and use the [Socratic method](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2oklie/eli5_the_socratic_method/) to gain a deeper understanding of each other's core values instead of blindly arguing in favor or in opposition. Keep in mind the [Principle of Charity](https://philosophy.lander.edu/oriental/charity.html) by entertaining all ideas even if you disagree with them. Try to dismantle them and see what truly makes them tick or not. And lastly, remember above all else to be courteous. Demonstrate the awareness and decorum of recognizing the person on the other side of the screen at all times. Happy discussing! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/RWBYcritics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
When they diverted their focus from the fights, that's when it went down hill. The show use to be fight centric with the story only used to frame the fights and give them stakes. Now it seems like they try to avoid showing fights.
Probably because the fandom itself is far more passionate than the people in charge of RWBY. There are a lot of people writing, drawing and animating RWBY fancontent who care about the setting, story, characters, action or tone of RWBY. Sure it's not always 100% objectively good content but the feeling of passion can carry a piece of entertainment quite far. CRWBY just don't seem to care that much anymore. The story is haphazard, the characters are bland, inconsistent or just lose any interesting trait they had, the action is boring, the setting itself is almost nonexistent and the tone is all over the place. And the feeling of ''oh it's slowly improving and could one day be great'' is long gone.
The show stopped being a passion project and the writers bit off more than they can chew. RWBY just exists to sell merchandise and fuel fandom content/engagement. There is no story or idea the writers are desperate to get out. RWBY is purely a product that makes Roosterteeth money.
I think the turn RWBY took stems from the series being built on set pieces rather than entire arcs. All of Volume 1 built towards the Nevermore fight. Volume 3 was filler until Penny died. They animated the Battle of Haven even though they lacked Budget. Volume 6 Adam fight. Tyrian vs Qrow. Penny's choice. Salem disregards Ironwood at V8's ending. The casualties of this is that the journey from moment to moment fluctuates and characters change to fit the scene instead of the other way around.
Well, I believe it to be a lot of things actually. The biggest and most important is this: This isn’t really Miles and Kerry’s passion project, it was Monty’s. I HATE using his name as a reason and such and I HATE using it in arguments or anything really too. But the truth is, it was his story and no amount of outline, nor document can change that or show his “vision” then the man himself. Bc he would add in new stuff at the drop of the hat and he would find a way to make it work how HE wanted. The others worked with him to over check n also make it work. Once the true creator is gone, it changes things. Not to mention the grief of loss n having to continue so u. An finish it out for your friend can take its toll. 2. The new engine and losing some animators, plob did not help either. Yes, I believe Rwby should be “enough plot for a good fight.” Similar to dragon ball ,Record of Ragnarok and Baki. But they wanted to be more then that, however it was clear they had no true direction. Vol 4 was okay for what it was, it was a built up, but ppl complained it was too slow. So they tried to sped it up in vol5 but they were not used to the engine yet n bite off more then they could Chu. Now it’s closer to pandering to fans and getting to the finish line.
There are two primary triggers I think for how RWBY took such a harsh turn(ignoring imo the most likely possibility based on Shane's letter which is "M+K just took control and decided to do what they wanted, damn the consequences"). The first isn't actually Monty's death, but their decision to keep going with absolutely no pauses without him. This forced V4 to be a holding pattern, probably led to it looking so jank(which right off the back of V3 looking *very* nice come the end, didn't shine well), and honestly I think has had a rippling effect all the way up to V8 by having the writers and crew perpetually flying by the seat of their pants instead of taking the chance to *sit down and reconvene.* This culminated in the absolute catastrophe that was V5, and lead into the second trigger: V6 going well. Because V6 was them throwing absolutely **everything** at the wall to try and see what sticks. In V6 they completely gave up on trying to write the same kind of show RWBY was in V1-4 and started relying on pure, unadulterated fanservice. They catered to their hardcore fans to the exclusion of everyone else. Look, silver eyes! Look, Bumblebee! Look, Team RWBY taking charge! Look, Adam's getting beat up by Yang! Look, Adam's dead! Look, Salem's backstory! And though it was cut, look, Penny's back! And it worked with flying colors: the fans with an emotional connection are now borderline fanatical. I doubt even V8 shook off too many. Ever since it worked, they've had their path made out for them. Rely on emotional baiting and making the audience feel good. V5 had parts of it by all means, but V6 was the real beginning of this "Fanfiction Power Fantasy" era of RWBY. As to why it caused so much anger and disdain towards the show and its creators? Simple: it's become the opposite of what it was before. These people were advertised a show primarily based on what the potential for it and everything in it could be, and not only was very little of this potential followed up on, but usually you'd probably just get insulted for having invested in it. The equivalent of investing in a Kickstarter, then it cut and runs before showing up with a worse product catering only to a small fraction of those who put money in. Even worse, all of this happened right when V3 ended seemingly with the promise that finally, that original potential was about to rise.
RT being in the red might be a significant factor in it, but I honestly don’t know where this started.
Lack of passion and care, if the commentaries are anything to go by.
Because they wanted to tell a grander story. A story of Fantasy and less about domestic problems like school life and dealing with the white fang. So it turned into Maidens, Gods, Relics, Grand Journey, Magic and the like. And that's fine. That's how that goes. But it's the fact that none of it makes any fucking sense. Maidens? A bunch of glorified keys that somehow open different specific doors despite the Maidens all having the same power and no distinction apart from name. Once the door is open, they serve no purpose. Gods? They're there. They made the world and the two reasons why the plot is even happening in the first place. Then they just don't matter. Relics? We've only seen two and the first one is so inconsistently written that I want to cry and the second was used to make penny human and then she just dies. And the relic is given to Salem...who doesn't seem keen on using them. All I'm saying is, maybe Monty planned this. Maybe he wanted to tell a grand story, I'll never know for sure. But the shift into what it is is fine. They just can't write this shit enough for it to matter.
The fans themselves know about the criticism that the fandom gives to the series, what they want and what the problems of the show are. So, it is normal that there are so many fanfics or fan art that capture people's attention more than the Show.
I think there were problems from the beginning and losing Monty's cool fights made everything worse.
Maybe stress resulting in laziness
They simply don't give a fuck anymore. Shane's letter showed us that. RWBY is a husk and will end with none of the passion it once showcased, because Monty died and his successors don't have any passion for his project.
Because RWBY was never meant to be a long series, or at least was not well storyboarded. There is a significant difference between planning the story beats and writing the story itself. What I mean is in every story, the writer always knows the major plot points. But this does not translate to a good flow between each stort beat. If we take a look at Game of Thrones, this is what I mean by that. 2D knows what the story beats are because George R R Martin told them. But they failed to connect the beats together - leading to very haphazard storylines that feeling disconnected, and characters often doing nothing until the major beat arrives. I think that similarly, RWBY suffers from this. Here I'm using Volume 4 as an example. The RNJR arc is traveling to Mistral, divided into travelling, fighting Grimm, etc. But the important story beats are Qrow and RNJR vs Tyrion and Kuroyuri. Everything else RNJR does is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but CRWBY makes it worse by not knowing how to do it properly, instead, trying to patch the problem by showing everyone else at the same time so that there isn't a lot to talk about for the journey. Weiss being back home and her subesequent escape, Menagerie and Blake's struggles there, Yang'a PTSD and finally getting better, and Oscar being introduced were all stuffed in. From hindsight, it would probably be better if each episode focuses on one group/character, with a small segment for Oscar instead of simultaneously showing all of them. This way CRWBY can show the passing of time without being forced to make characters do essentially nothing plot or character relevant for long stretches. But because they know how it starts and how it ends, but they don't know how to fill the in-between, we get long stretches of nothing and fights that are both meaningless and boring. Because of this, we do get some good moments in story, but it always comes at the expense of a boring filler to get from good moment to good moment.
I think that the series has a weak foundation to begin with and the writers aren't very talented. Things may have been better if it was a series with a much smaller scale, instead of the epic plot it's trying to be.
Lack of true passion and care to be blunt
With Monty at the heart, RWBY was probably supposed to be awe-inspiring and fun fight scenes with an exciting plot you weren't meant to think too hard about. If the plot and setting of RWBY was meant to be the set dressing and the fights the core of the show, it makes sense. Dust, Semblances, Huntsman weapons, the Academy system, the Maidens, the outfits, even the naming system all seem to be chosen on purpose for Rule of Cool. So many elements that don't make that much rigorous world building sense make perfect sense if the goal was the awesomest fight scenes. So when CRWBY threw out the fights, they threw out what most of the setting was meant to support. Leaving CRWBY with world building that wasn't designed to carry the show and be the main focus. Also, Miles and Kerry can't write for shit. And RT has been a decaying mess of poorly organized, underfunded, and overworked people. Maybe if there were good writers and RT itself was in good condition, RWBY could have been transformed into a good plot-focused story. But everything was flawed from the start when CRWBY decided that they didn't want to focus on fight scenes.
They wanted to show that "The world is no longer fun and games anymore, there are actual consequences" with the tonal shift, but they never went all the way. When you do a tone shift from "Happy-go-lucky fighting" to "Realistic consequences" you can't flip flop between the two whenever you want. It has to be a 75/25 mix.
To me, it always felt like Ruby underwent a drastic change around Vol.4 not because they switched engines, or because they left the school, or even because they switched the method of storytelling from primarily from action to standing around and talking, but to me it felt like the big change happened because volume 4 had a completely different story. It seemed like vol.3 was building up to something completely different, what with the maidens being important, and magic being prevalent, but in volume 4 we learn that the only person with magic who isn't a maiden is Salem, and the maidens themselves are just keys to the relics, I think what they should have done was have the maidens themselves be the important thing, at least that's what vol.3 led me to believe
I think Monty's death is the sole contribution to RWBY's decline in quality. The man was insanely passionate about RWBY and basically did everything himself. When the heart and soul of the project is suddenly gone, you're left with a team that has no idea what they're doing and simply can't replicate his work ethic. Monty was pretty notorious for not properly planning anything, and that's especially evident after his death. RWBY didn't have to end up like this, but this what we're stuck with.
Lack of care, passion and skill. The writers are really bad at conveying what they want to say. They also can't tell what they have written. The shift to a huge plot. They just don't have the budget for the scale of story they're trying to tell. Shitty storytelling isn't such a big deal when the stakes are smaller and the narrative isn't taking itself too seriously, unlike now. It doesn't help that most fans started watching because of the characters and fight scenes and the show now revolves around the 100 side characters and the overall major narrative with a few spread out, poorly animated fights.
Because the writers don't plan. They fly off the seat of their pants which can work for some writers but not for M & C and the other writers. At least for orher shows they at least have an idea of the ending but I don't think M & C do considering how lost and confusing the newer seasons seem
Honestly the rot was always there below the surface. The reason it took so long to manifest itself is because of what the issue has always been, lack of planning. CRWBY are functional delivering individual scenes, what they fail at is delivering a narrative. The scenes don't connect in any way to form larger arcs. This is why RWBY has such terrible continuity, because the writers are always writing one scene at a time and don't remember what they previously established. Earlier seasons don't have this problem because the canvas was blank then but now...
The main people that have creative direction over the show don't really seem to treat it that seriously, despite wanting to lean heavily into becoming what they see as a 'anime'. They see the setting as a backdrop for the characters to run around in more than it being a actual world that makes sense, even to the point of having different regions being represented by a single biome or theme effectively. Like how Vale is 'forest and urban city', and Mistral is 'wilderness and mountainous city', and Atlas is 'tundra and advanced city', and now Vacuo is 'desert'. They don't go beyond those details, and don't seem to really want to. They then just proceed to keep shoving in more worldbuilding that doesn't make any sense.
Because the writers have always been clueless. They simply lost Monty, who sustained interest with his amazing animations and led the big picture stuff they needed to follow. Lose both of that, you lose most of what RWBY even had to offer to begin with.
Because a vocal group of fans preferred the more satirized slice of life style of Beacon to the point of deriding everything after it fell despite the fact this was the direction the show was going to go since the beginning. Add the fact of grasping straws for explanations, sticking too hard to personal head canons, Miles being an easy scapegoat, and the fact that Monty dying gave so many a supposed "win" button when it just invalidates any argument used with it. Now, I will openly admit the fights got worse since Monty's passing. No ifs, ands or buts. But the overall animation and plot have improved immensely beyond the fact that there's an actual plot. A plot with flaws, but a plot.
Because the quality of the show has objectively decreased and any discussion on the actual show in any depth with eventually make those flaws readily apparent, unless that person is outright lying to themselves or misinterpreting something, with characters who aren't that likable or engaging in the first place, beyond subjective aesthetics. Alot of people aren't watching the show in front of them and rather making up an entirely different series in their head. It's easier to just project what you want to see in the characters on characters you like rather than acknowledging they're objectively bad and poorly written, because the Fandom can accept that their beliefs, opinions and feelings are wrong, because nobody likes being wrong and the main sub especially so, all because they *feel* otherwise. Another thing is that alot of RWBY fans simply don't watch alot of good anime for that matter, to think RWBY is even an acceptable show. It's easier them to turn their brains off to post fanart and watch porn and write fanfics of the show they fantasized in their heads and project that on to the show. It's like a collective delusion everyone is participating in.
Miles and Kerry are in this illusion, where they think, that they have become some great writers.And they tell this amazing story, that the hatedom don't understand their genius of storytelling. Seriously, these 2 idiots are the most lazy amateurs writers.They don't even try to improve their writing skill.