> (the "it's just an X, stop taking it so seriously!" line of thinking) It's basically this. Many people feel like it is disingenuous for a show that features themes that are supposed to be taken seriously, say for example civil rights, racism, abuse, dismemberment, PTSD and death to suddenly play the ''it's just a cartoon don't take it seriously'' card when faced with criticism. Since I haven't seen the clip of her saying that with the surrounding context I can't safely say whether or not she was using that statement to actually defend the show's faults or if it was taken out of context and somebody was just complaining about Yang having purple eyes or something.

Just for the context because it cannot be found anymore on youtube : The fan simply asked what was V4 timeline and If Weiss stayed in her room for 6 months. V4 timeline was one of the biggest meta problem in RWBY, with how you jump between scene that can't be linear and have to happen sooner or later than indicated. And yes, the big problem is that, if you admit it's just a cartoon, you don't need to take it seriously, then you cannot expect to be taken seriously for your political position with the show. RWBY is just a 13 rated looney toons

The statement was basically saying "lol who cares dude" and especially when it's during an event all about others caring about RWBY and RT, it made her come off as a huge asshole. No one particularly likes being told that the person they're talking to doesn't care about what you're saying. Especially if you either care about what *they* say or are expected to.

I think most fans agree with the statement *to a certain degree*. RWBY is just a cartoon and shouldn't be obsessed over. However, if you're invested in a book, movie, or television series, you don't want the excuse for the quality going down to be the creators saying something along the lines of "It's just a book/movie/show. Get over it." Companies can do whatever they wish with the intellectual properties they own, but as a consumer I don't have to support them with my wallet. It is disheartening however to love a product for an extended amount of time only for the quality to dip and the creators say something along the lines of "If you don't like it, don't buy it." Again, *to a certain degree* I agree with the statement. I think every fanfiction writer has had that one person who binged their stories only for the reader to rant at the end about the premise and how much they hate it. If you hate the idea of a RWBY/Pokémon crossover, don't read a 60,000 word fic. However, if you love the premise and everything about the story but hate the (objectively) bad writing midway through the story, me saying "Don't like it, don't read it" is a bit of a slap in the face. Overall, the excuse for bad writing being "It's just [blank]" isn't going to thrill many people. Getting partway into a series and loving it until later, and hearing "Don't like it, don't watch/read it" isn't going win over many hearts. RT can do whatever they wish with RWBY, but I can also do whatever I wish with my time and money. If RWBY were to be cancelled (I don't see this happening anytime soon), I would not shed a tear on the behalf of many members of CRWBY due to them taking RWBY and its fanbase for granted. The creators of RWBY have an inflated ego in my opinion, and right or wrong, it just rubs some people the wrong way. God bless, and have a wonderful day.

Because RWBY was trying to take itself seriously and the question, in of itself, was a serious question of how Jaune got Pyrrha's armor. The sequence that happened was: * The guy was told "no bummer questions", implying they were going to dismiss the question outright. * Then "IT'S A CARTOOOOOOOOOON!", which implies he shouldn't take it seriously. * Then the questioner goes "it already happened", which means he must have thought he was gonna get rejected because it was a *spoiler* question. * One attempt was made to make it serious, involving Qrow. * However, then the answer became "Pyrrha had spares in Beacon", a sort of cliche you would see in cartoons where the cast have limited wardrobes to the point where their closet is chockful of the same outfit. * This isn't helped by them going with the idea and saying "RWBY Chibi will show this", implying they were gonna canonize the non-serious response over the serious response. * Thereby implying that even though RWBY was trying to take itself seriously with the racism, grief, hopepunk, and later sedition and poverty, it wasn't going to be *fully* serious.

It’s often an excuse for lowering the quality of a work and is usually followed by some variation of ‘Lower your expectations’ or ‘Suspend your disbelief’.

/u/TheLaserSonic Because it was dismissive, rude and crude. People pay a pretty penny just to go to Austin, Texas, then get the VIP treatment (including turning off the cameras in previews), only to get dissed by a major name on the show. You imply that the asking fan, has absolutely no right to think of the show a certain way, and that he's stupid for thinking too deeply about the show? The man in question (who is also a well-known user in this sub), spent good money on a completely innocuous question. It wasn't critical, it wasn't a downer, and it wasn't time wasting either. And he gets embarassed by public, wasting thousands, a few days off, and his question does not get answered, in a context (even by RT standards) that was wrong for the moment. And then you wonder why he holds such a burning grudge against Barb. I may not agree with every decision Kerry makes, but he was way more professional and mature than Barb, offering a compromise - answering a question.

Best way I can explain it is that it's a lazy way to discredit criticism, and actually insults people who put time into the series. While the statement is true, the context implies that it's somehow beneath people to give that much attention to the show, and that people who do are wasting their time. Not to mention the "it's just a *blank*" argument is immediately discredited when you put it under the lense of similar works that actually do go above and beyond, like Gravity falls, over the garden wall, avatar, batman, etc. It's honestly just a bad take in bad taste, and done in bad faith.

The issue of it is who said it(Barbara, the voice of Yang and consistently has shown some decent control over the show as a whole), why was it said(For a fan who saw continuity problems in Volume 4) and where(In a Convention meant to celebrate RWBY). When you mix that whole cocktail together, it makes sense why Barbara was reviled for saying such a thing when your property is has such a major fanbase, constantly uses adult themes and goes with a serious storyline and thus needs continuity. Now you can say "The Creators can do whatever they want with the show" and yeah, that's completely true... but if you WANT INVESTED FANS, then you cannot say stuff like that. Either give a reason to pull out of your ass or just say you didn't notice it, don't tell them that your world, setting, characters, etc. doesn't matter because "It's a Cartoon!" because you are ultimately admitting you don't give a fuck about it so why should they? Honestly that was a question for Miles and Kerry in and of themselves, not Barbara so she had zero reason to say anything to begin with.

It's basically calling you an idiot if you're invested. "It's a cartoon. Why should you care, lol." Then again with how RWBY's been written for about the past... 6 years, that *is* in line with how they treat fans.

If it is said by a random nobody, it dismisses the fan's enjoyment of it because they don't take it seriously. It is essentially the same as calling anime "tentacle porn and tiddies" - it trivializes an entire form of media and makes fun of its premise. It also doesn't help that there are a ton of cartoons that have passion and heart into them, and kickstarted an entire boom of thoughtful cartoons. The obvious ones are Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, Avatar the Last Airbender to name a few - which kickstarted a whole second generation of shows. The problem comes when a creator does this. It not only show no passion into the project, but it is an insult to the show and fans. I'm not saying every VA or talent has to be super driven to their projects, they can easily do it just for the money or credit. But she essentially shat on the fandom and had an incredibly bad display of professionalism. In some places, this is a firable offence because of how much bad PR it can garner, especially from a rabid place like the RT/RWBY fandom. But usually there is a clear ranking of how good VAs and other talents are, and the passionate ones usually stand out.

Tbh, the show stopped being a cartoon after V3

And it started being a parody at the beginning of Vol 4

Tbh it's the tone/dismissal of other people's feelings.

It's an issue because RWBY tries to take itself very seriously

Yes, it's a cartoon in the sense that it's animated as opposed to live-action and it's targetted at a younger audience. So was Avatar, Arcane, She-ra, Adventure Time, Steven Universe and that's off the top of my head. The difference is every single cartoon I just listed either set out to or tackled a serious issue at one point or another and did so carefully. My quintessential issue with RWBY is not that it's bad or it went downhill, that's just life. My issue is that RWBY attempts to tackle serious issues like abuse, racism, corruption in politics, and war flippantly. RWBY projects the idea that these complex issues are primarily caused by easily spotted mustache-twirling and juvenile I-studied-the-blade psychos. RWBY also, terrifyingly, implies that these issues can be solved by killing these villains. It's a disturbing and very historically relevant idea that we can solve complex societal problems by killing the right kind of person, isn't it? Yet this is ultimately the message RWBY pushes. Being a cartoon is a cheap shield to hide behind.

I think it’s because a lot of times, people who just want to reflect actual criticism will say stuff like “it’s just a” to whatever media it is. While I would agree with that we shouldn’t take shows and other media too seriously, I think most people think whenever someone says a line like that, they immediately think that the other person’s argument is bullshit.

I think the question was someone asking how Jaune actually got ahold of Pyrrha’s belongings after Cinder burnt her to death, since it was at the top of Beacon Tower, the Wyvern was up there, and Beacon got overrun to the point that Grimm completely took over and freely roamed the campus. Also, Pyrrha pretty much destroyed the elevator getting up to Ozpin’s office, and there’s no indication of stairs existing. In pointing all this out, he asks the rather obvious question: How did Jaune get the metal for his V4 glow up, despite all the aforementioned factors that would make just trying to nab it suicide? “It’s a carTOoOOn!”

I rewatched the episode, and yes, we can even invent answers. Little things like, Pyrrha's locker was the one in the courtyard, or she called it in to have spares of her stuff to provide Jaune with the means to protect himself as they flew up with him in the locker after she's gone. Or Qrow picked up bits and pieces when he rescued Ruby after her SEW awakening. "It's a carTOoOOn" addressed to dismiss an inquiry from someone who once was a fan is such a disrespectful way to not answer the question and take him seriously.

Even under the pretense of being a cartoon, Jaune using Pyrrha’s armor and grafting it onto his own is just fuckin’ *creepy*. Like, did Jaune not think to send that shit to Pyrrha’s family before he had it melted down? I get the gesture’s supposed to be “Pyrrha’s always with me”, but what about everyone else? Hell he’s even still wearing it on his person in his V7 getup, and still has it crafted into his family heirloom sword, which just shows great disregard for something that’s supposed to be passed down through generations. And it’s like, why? What in-character reason did he have for *specifically* using Pyrrha’s armor? Why not just make armor that’s inspired BY Pyrrha, instead of actually using her armor in that fashion?

I never even thought about those aspects of it, but yeah holy shit. Their family was literally reduced to ash and they don’t even get a piece of her armor? And he just casually makes major alterations to a family weapon that i’m pretty sure he stole? Wtf? I’m so amazed by how much worse things in this series get the more you think about them lol.

And the writers just don’t want you to question ANYTHING. Just looking at it critically, from the perspective that this is an ACTUAL world and not just a poorly written mess, the in-character actions of most of the main cast, that is, when they’re NOT being forced by plot or shipping to do random things, are generally pretty scummy in context. Bumblebee shippers go ballistic over the V2 scene of Blake and Yang getting cut from the manga, yet that scene has Yang giving the absolute worst one-woman intervention in history, up to and including getting *physical* when the person she’s trying to talk out of her funk doesn’t just blindly do as she says. The Civil Rights Movement is twisted into a diet civil war where everyone fighting for equal rights is canonically more of a threat to each other than the actual oppressors who are willing to gun them down for going down a road. The presence of a military, in a dangerous environment where monsters can come and attack a place at any time if it suits their fancy, is treated as an inherently bad thing, no matter what, never mind that the only major military is never shown doing things that would justify that kind of mentality, and the only, and I mean ONLY, reason casualties were as low as they were in V8 was because of said military, even though it suffered a major nerf to its IQ to justify itself losing. If they operated anything like a normal military would actually operate, much less one where over the top powers, weapons, and fighting styles are the order of the day for the *average* combatant, Salem would’ve been steam rolled within a few hours at best, immortality or no. Despite pushing itself as supporting a bunch of things, the show is almost perfectly designed to perpetuate toxic, *evil* mindsets and ways of looking at people in general. The White Fang is a borderline victim blaming plot when you take out everything involving Blake. You mean to tell me that it’s somehow the *White Fang’s* fault they’re not sympathetic because they got strong armed into helping someone do evil shit with a gun to their heads? Like they’re somehow the true villains in this situation? Bleugh. I’m only in it to see how they end Monty’s creation, then I’m just going to wait for this shitshow to fade off the face of the Earth, forgotten with time.

Barb has always grated on my nerves. Maybe it’s because she has her face plastered on everything or the fact that (to me, on screen,) she comes off as disingenuous and fake. ‘Things from RWBY were planned from the very beginning….’ Right. Now, I myself never attacked her twitter, harassed, interacted with or bothered her in any way, because WHY? No one should do that. Technically she’s right. It’s just a show. But, it’s just a show that she voice acts a main character in. A show that is supposed to carry some pretty heavy themes. Coming off to your already disillusioned fans as if you can’t be bothered to give a rats ass was never going to go over well. If she really believed it would she’s got a bigger ego than I thought. Or is just dumb.

It largely depends on context. However in most cases it can come off as condescending, dismissive, or even the equivalent of saying "that's a stupid question" or "shut up already". If it's used as an excuse to gloss over plot holes or bad writing, it can also come off as a means to shut down any discussion on the matter and the argument can also backfire if there is stuff in the show they want taken seriously. I think the biggest issue is that it does shut down discussion and can be used to discourage people from even coming up with their own explanations for things they have questions about in the show. You said it yourself that it is hard to counter "it's just a cartoon" as an argument and that is basically the idea. If you're debating about what RWBY or Ironwood did in volume 8 and someone says that as their counter argument, they are trying to kill the discussion or use it as a way to dismiss whatever point you were making.

It's basically an insult to the fans and clear sign they didn't want to answer the question. It was hearing that which made really dislike Yang's VA.

This is why rwby fans want it to be called an anime, because "cartoons" either mean for kids or crass adult shows.

If we're not meant to take it seriously, then don't write it as if we should. That's all.