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EDIT 19/07/2020: - I've made quite a few changes to this video, including completely rewriting a few parts and adding some more stuff. I really appreciate the feedback I've been given so far, to the point I'm annoyed people are still going to be seeing this version for a while until the new one goes up. Thanks so much for helping me out with all your notes and criticism!

While I wait for final approval from some lawyers and get the animation finished, I've replaced the video with an improved draft. Apparently it's five minutes longer? I didn't even realise, lol.

END EDIT

It's working! It's working!!!!!

After multiple rounds of re-edits, working with a lawyer to make sure the video is safely within the territory of fair use, and making some interesting discoveries about the depths of YouTube's Content ID system, we have a version of the RWBY video which actually works on YouTube!

One minor thing - since we decided to expand on some of the animated sequences while I tried to get this sorted out, and I wanted a version up for patrons as soon as it became possible, two of the video's animation segments are still not totally finished. One is 2ish minutes in and the other's around 20 minutes in. They're marked as WIP for now. I'd rather get this posted as soon as possible than keep you waiting any longer!

Thanks to all of you for being so patient about this. Ideally I wanted this to be up well over a week ago, and I've had a really frustrating sleepless couple of days trying to get it all working, but knowing that it actually works now is a huge relief.

I'm going to keep working on it for the next few days for the public release, so if you have any feedback, let me know!

-H

Files

[BACKER VERSION] RWBY is Disappointing, And Here's Why

uh oh

Comments

Christine

Congratulations! Can’t wait to watch!

Boolgrim

Yes!! Very excited to see the rest of this video

Redd575

Yiiiiisssssss. I'm glad I bumped my donation amount up. Lawyers aren't cheap :s

Alana

thanks king

Deftpariah

I WAS going to sleep due to having an early work day........ oh well

Ailís Scott

so glad its finally here! looking forward to parts 2, 3 and maybe 4!!

JJ Athey

Two hours? You’ve been a busy boy, Harry. I hope you’re able to settle all the B.S. fair use claim strikes.

Veelk

Thank you, hbomb. I'm hyper excited to watch it. I'd still love to see the intended, uncut version of it. I mentioned last week that I dislike the minor edits from Sherlock to make it copyright proof, but after this fiasco, I have to imagine that there is a major difference between the version you wanted to put up a week ago vs this one. You made a fantastic video on directors cuts that made me question their value, but here, I think there's no debate about how we need one here. So, I really hope you consider uploading the original video file somewhere up for download. Either way, much love <3 and I'm diving into the gloriousness now.

zozozo

i'm so excited!!!!!

Marcia

You're an absolute legend, thank you for working so hard to get this past content ID

Diazdia1

Congrats !!! So excited to watch ! The first 20 minutes were so good

Evan Pappas

Congrats man. The process sounded painful but im glad it seems to have worked out. Good work!

lettersandpunctuation

I hope "youtube is garbage and here's why" is coming soon because of this mess!

Ewan Day

You posted this on my birthday and it's the best present I got, thank you Hbomb

Dom Guilfoyle

I see that Phantom Menace reference you son of a bitch. Also, keen as hell.

Alexa B

Was gonna go to bed but hey, I can stay up another two hours for this! So excited!

Semilocon

I'm not even going to skip the 20 minutes I already saw four times.

Elly Powers

All I can see when I look at animated Hbomb is the kid from Monster By Mistake.

cal tal

2+ hours hoLY crap you have been hard at work. I hope you're proud of how it came out!! we appreciate u

Jon Kimbel

Now that's what I call pod racing

Pherna

this Hbomb animation is uncanny valley as fuck. please do it more

Peaches

that camp camp shade lmao. i think this is my first 'the man who says the right words online does not like The Good Thing' for hbomb. i guess i cant be a parasocial megastan anymore, truly a tragedy.

DirtyClicksDirtyBits

Yay! I've been waiting and watching the issues with YouTube. Glad you are finally free!

adam

I have no idea what RWBY is, but I saw new hbomb video and immediately subscribed on patreon

Iridium

Congrats!!! I saw the Red trailer when it came out and was super impressed... And I remember the event of watching the first episode when it came out, but not a single thing from said episode, so... that happened lol (+1 for the drop off). The shirt your avatar's wearing lmao. btw Artemy's eyes are so scary lol... And what are Artemy & Daniil talking about in the background there?

Eben Sullivan

This RWBY dissection feels parallel to the Pathologic video - something akin to enjoyment derived from a lot of suffering.

Elder Dog

This is the most thought I've ever seen put into this show. Well done.

Gwemmie

Maybe Harris can make a side video about it???

Arrison Warner

My only connections to RWBY is being turned off by the animation and a dude I used to know when to an anime con and hung out with who they would later find out later was Mounty and his fiance and the guy I knew openly mocked RWBY and apparently Monty laughed at this while other people were horrified. Needless to say I'm excited.

Étienne Lévesque

dude you look like the villain in the incredibles great vid btw

Johnee

I've never seen and probably wouldn't even be interested in seeing RWBY but I can pretty much watch you explain why anything is great or sucks in a feature length any night of the week.

Team Eagle Knight

I really, really like the video. I was a fan at the very, very start when episodes of seasons one and two came out. This is... probably a fairer shake than the series deserves. I just wish you could have touched on the topic of LGBT rep just a little more. Maybe you didn't feel that was a part of the show you felt able to talk about, but it was a huge, huge part of it for me and a lot of people I knew. Everything to do with the wink-nods about Ruby and Weiss early on, the ship name uses, the food fight Standalone Scene Show ending, but also the way that Velvet's team leader was outed as gay only in a supplementary novel, the obvious Blake-Yang-Adam mess, the brief scene of Blake and Yang dancing together at the stupid bloody prom thing... That's ultimately why I stopped the show. I've enver watched past the end of Season Two, and everything else I know secondhand because I was just so tired. It feels especially on-point because we had She-Ra's ending, the representation in shows like Steven Universe, and, heck, Korra's ending and comics come out as the show was being made. I wish they'd rip off Avatar one last time. As a lesbian, it would have meant so, so much to me if one of the protagonists just... could have been the same as me, when they teased and joked about it and referenced it. That's what personally ended RWBY for me. I didn't expect or want anything really from the show, and I liked the aesthetics of it. I guess I'll have to wait for the next series.

Charlie hart

Iv been watching for 5 minutes and I needed to stop so I could search up the Anaconda music from Time Splitters, the greatest video game ost of all time

Team Eagle Knight

Also, hello, fellow Bleach fan. Did you break with Deicide too, or did you stick around for the Fullbring? (Also do a Bleach video at some point, just vent about it. I heard the anime is getting picked back up again so it might be topical and trendy...)

Matt Keeley

Really digging so far, but on a technical side, the RWBY clips seem really quiet compared with the narration. Maybe run it through an audio compressor?

Gynedroid

Oh god I need more of that "intro" song.

Kat

OH HO HO WELL STAY TUNED FOR PART 2

Tspoon

Holy shit is that Jet Force Gemini music for a bit near the beginning?

Kat

in approximately 2025

Sid

I have some criticisms and I think you make a couple of tiny nitpicky mistakes; as I understand it in general you're not criticizing *concepts* which I think is fine, but mainly *execution* and this is great, and gives me as per usual with your videos a lot to think about in how I think about and engage with my own writing and creative works and how I should always be striving for perfectionism and to strain to be its best possible version of itself. Thank you. As for my criticisms I think the only ones are 1. I think the idea of being unsure if Yang is ever in danger helps add to dramatic tension, there's pros and cons to this argument and I think it can work. 2. I think you kinda go a little too hard on the lack of exposition at the beginning in a way that feels like you're saying they should do the opposite of Show, Don't Tell without acknowledging that too much telling can ALSO be bad and that it is legitimately difficult to find the sweet spot between the two and you sorta neglected to preface or couch your criticisms in that context. As a result it becomes a little jarring when talking about the Gigguk voice: TOURNAMENT ARC!!!!! in Season 3 you flip around to say they are doing too much explaining and not enough SHOWING which is !?!? But, I get that the main point was that the timing of the new and pertinent information was all mostly wrong and weird; I get it; but ironically maybe your execution of it could've been phrased a little better. :) Minor mistake, you say very strongly that Velvet only appears for the first time at a certain scene, you probably meant to say this is the first time in *volume 2*. But you made it sound like this was the first time ever, despite showing her in volume 1, about half an hour earlier. I'm sure you meant to say Volume 2, its very minor. Last thing, regarding Barbara's advice of "If you don't like it don't watch it"; lets be fair here that as a Community Manager she probably sees mostly 99% of the time hate mail and *probably* can shift through the mountain of terrible lack of human decency for the nugget of constructive criticism, that just isn't her job. "Don't like it don't watch it" is I don't think a statement on the idea of engaging with criticism, but like, "Don't Feed the Trolls" is simply a survival reflex to deal with the internet audience at large. "It's a cartoon!" though, yes that could've been better, but reminds me of the "A wizard did it" from the Simpsons, if it was Barbara(?) who is the voice actress, it isn't her job to answer to continuity errors. Thats what the writers should be doing to own up to.

Wakelyn

dear god, can we please have the full jpg of the rebecca sugar is a fascist galaxy brain meme

deucemoosevvm

I caught that watching through but feel like I'm missing context. Was that something on the discord or some bit of more general discourse I missed?

Subspace Jet Witch

I have a preferable title to this video: How and Why RWBY Could and Should Be Improved

Joe Meadows

Yo, this was legit. The dedication to Monty had me in tears. Well done.

Wakelyn

it's a reference to some other lefty youtuber who's famously very inflammatory and made a widely derided video (called "steven universe is garbage, and here's why") in which she called rebecca sugar a fascist for extremely dumb reasons

Bridie O'Dare

Loved this vid, I have a couple of pieces of feedback from it: 1. The WIP animation. This may be because it is unfinished at this moment, but I found it really hard to absorb any of the information in this section because it was so at-odds with the rest of the video leading up to that moment that I just couldn't concentrate. My brain needed time to catch up to the new style. Maybe it'll be easier to absorb once the animation is complete, but I'd recommend getting someone who hasn't seen any of this project to watch the first 30~ mins once that part is polished and see if they have the same struggles I did. 2. I wrote a whole essay about like assumed knowledge and expectations of the audience and then scrolled up and read Kat's comment saying stay tuned for part two and so now all I can say is "Please put a more explicit reference to there being a part two at the end of this video, even if it's just 'Part 2 in 2025 stay tuned kids!'"

MDH

I can't believe I just watched a 2 hour video about a show I haven't seen and a genre I don't particularly enjoy. 10/10 keep up the good work

Barial

I'm happy with the amount of time, effort and research goes into making your videos. I know when I sit down to watch a H.Bomberguy vid, it may not be entertaining or something that I agree with, but it'll absolutely get me to think more critically about the content I consume. I'm looking forward to the Monty Oum video because I feel like he was this avatar of animation and perseverance that is almost criminally unknown outside of a few, lets face it, small circles.

Fawkes

Lmao why are you wearing the Lunar Module shirt :'D

Yvhi

As a fan of RWBY (I'm a shonen-anime loving lesbian, so I hold out hope for it becoming good eventually), I'm really liking the video so far. I have about 40 minutes left, but I wanted to give you some quick feedback while you're working on little things here and there. So, the intro song 20 minutes in is pretty rad. The only thing I'm kinda iffy on is the use of the word "lame" as it has an ableist history. Also the use of ADHD to describe the professor guy who explains faunus is also...not very good. It's all goofs, I'm aware, but it spreads misinformation about what ADHD actually is. Maybe edit that out if you're able to. Other than those bits, it's looking alright!

Sean

I just wanted to say, thank you, for making this. I’ve been a massive fan of your videos for years. Two things I’ve been a fan of much longer are Rooster Teeth and the works of Monty Oum. I still remember seeing Haloid for the first time in the 4th grade, a good friend showing it to me on a classroom computer. We got in a stupid fight about if it meant John Halo was a woman in cannon. And even before that I was watching RvB, I’ve seen seasons 1-10 countless times and adore it to pieces. So when the two joined forces I was over the moon. Even more so for the trailers for RWBY. Unfortunately the show itself didn’t hold much water, and I feel that is around the time RT as a company started losing its magic for me. Yet I still loved and admired the work Monty was putting into the show. I kept thinking to myself ‘wow, whatever he makes next is going to be amazing.’ Sadly due to a tragic and sudden death we’ll never get to see it. I remember sitting at home, reading the dedications to the man posted by his friends, family, and coworkers. One that stuck out to me was by Matt Hullum, which I sadly can’t find, but at one point it basically said ‘if you want to honor Monty’s memory, the best way to do it is by doing what he would be if he were still with us. Creating.” That night I wrote two short stories basically about how I was processing things that ended up winning awards, getting published, and eventually getting me into college. This is when I barely managed to scrape through highschool. So I mean it when I say Monty Oum literally changed my life. Right now, I’m on the verge of tears because I feel this video is such a beautiful dedication. It captures how I felt watching the series (I stopped watching after volume 3), and seems to have such a love for and understanding of the man as a creative. So I again say thank you for making this. You put in so many brilliant and heart tugging moments discussing the man. I think my favorite is right at the end when you discuss how he felt about the first two volumes. Over the years I couldn’t help but grow bitter thinking of the show. How others butchered Monty’s last work, but to know he had such a wise and cool reaction to it was something worth hearing. This whole video feels like a better dedication to Monty Oum’s legacy than a million seasons of RWBY ever could be. So for the third, and final time, thank you. I eagerly await whatever you do next.

Fawkes

Went looking for that comment after reading yours. Looked like a joke to me. I think there's just supposed to be a Monty focused short video coming?

lordponty

thank you for watching RWBY, so we don't have to

Max Colmenares

Daniil and Artemy arguing made my night. Thank you

Kat

Interesting point, we’ll discuss if there should be a more explicit reference to part 2. The intent is for all the RWBY videos to be able to operate as standalone video essays (especially given that Part 2 will probably come out after the monty video and a misc palette cleanser video because I promise this hasn’t become a 24/7 RWBY channel).

Kat

lol, John Halo

deucemoosevvm

Oh thanks haha. Never watched that one and now I at least have another better reason not to haha. Given the way the list was framed I guess I just misunderstood that it was being included facetiously. Really threw me for a loop to suddenly see that and not immediately be able to tell whether it was meant to be an actual Thing or not haha.

Glyph

What an absolutely epic magnum opus of media criticism. In this era of spurious and unnecessary reboots I oddly found myself starting to hope in the third act of this video that maybe, just maybe, the team behind the series will see this, take it in the spirit that it's given, do some real deep soul searching and do a complete reboot that captures the soul of what the series could have been without the seasons… err "volumes"… of accumulated incoherent baggage that they're now burdened with.

Kat

Also, 😭

Eli Youngs

Great video, and A+ use of Mischief Makers music

Dom Guilfoyle

My only note is that the mention of Monty's death could probably stand to be much earlier in the video, just so it doesn't come across as a gross twist or something.

Glyph

Also… did anyone else pick up on the through line between "CTRL+ALT+DEL | SLA:3" and this video? Like the "racism" arc and dramatic tone inconsistencies in RWBY is what happens when you give "Loss" a multimillion dollar annual animation budget. Gaming webcomics and RWBY's flaws both evoke a syncretic, agglutinative design style; a "plot by association" in this case rather than a "joke by association". Self-inserted characters with pointless romantic sub-plots. And most importantly… authors who desperately *want* to be saying something serious about the human condition and the world we live in but are missing really important analytical tools, historical knowledge, and empathetic context...

ATypicalPlague

Now that Hbomb's outed himself as a weeb, when do we get a 3 hour series on leftist critique of the soul society from Bleach?

Sethzard

Was the bit about the drop after episode one not meant to be in the previous video you posted or did it get cut and that's why it's not there anymore?

Pria

I've been waiting for you to do this...basically since after I discovered you when I learned you'd plan to do it back in 2016, after Seas- Volume 3 ended. Me watching Volume 3 of RWBY coincided with a pretty emotionally heavy time in my life, so I have a weird emotional connection to it. This is going to get a bit personal and way too long, but it's necessary to explain my thoughts, if you're willing to indulge. To preface, I had a very rough time getting through college, and during the year I watched RWBY, I was really struggling hard to get a hold of both my depression and my ADHD so I could actually finish college. I had to limit myself to two classes per semester, and even then I struggled to focus to get my work done. A little bit after the beginning of that semester, the point where I was optimistic about getting everything together, is when RWBY finishes. Pyrrha was my favorite character and I was not a fan of how they just straight killed her off, and since I had somehow convinced myself that her relationship with Jaune was good (not sure how I managed that feat of mental acrobatics), I was really interested in seeing her relationship with someone who 'doesn't see her as a celebrity' (but that only came up like, once), because I like that trope. I'd commend you not making a single joke about her death flags because almost every person I talk to about her mentions them. One of the things about my depression (I'm unsure how much other people feel like this) is that I can get unreasonably emotionally attached to things if I let myself, which I like to do because I think that emotional resonance is part of what makes stories worth telling. A similar thing happened to me with Undertale and I hate to admit it but for a brief period I was like that part of the fandom that people think about when they think about bad fandoms. Me getting into RWBY *right* when volume 3 ended meant that I got attached to the show RIGHT at this point in time. I didn't have any time to let the show sit until I had gotten emotionally attached in a sad way, and had basically watched the entirety of this slipshod, poorly constructed, but sometimes really badass show, just because a friend really recommended it. The episode that I caught up with was right at the point of Volume 3 where it started to get good, and those expectations are exactly what you talk about in this video. Suddenly there are real emotional stakes: the episode where Yang gets tricked is some fucked up existentially horrifying stuff, as you mention, and I really wanted to see some closure to that, and I wanted to see Pyrrha's sacrifice actually mean something because why else would you kill off your best character? And then Volume 4 comes out, and the expectations and emotional attachment combined with the sheer nothingness of what happened...it felt so hollow. I couldn't watch the rest of volume 5 and haven't even considered picking it back up again because there's this thought of getting emotional closure for something I grew so attached to and then realizing how bad it actually all was. I probably realized it at the start but ignored it because hey it's just an internet production by a small internet studio you can't expect everything and also wow those fights are really good so it's worth watching for those right? RWBY left an emotional void in me at a time when I was emotionally vulnerable and instead of something like Undertale, which fulfilled it in every way, the show completely turned away from what I thought it could be, and despite it being just a fictional universe, I have a lingering emotional attachment to it. Lots of media have affected me like this: Ghost Trick, Undertale, Persona 4, Madoka to name some examples off the top of my head, but I've rarely ever seen a piece of media where my emotional resonance was an example of a fluke of storytelling, and completely unrepresentative of what was to come later. Part of me says that it's silly to feel this strongly about characters and media like this. There's always others you can watch, right? But I firmly believe that this engagement is actually one of the most important things you can do in your media because it really speaks to the human condition. Why watch at all if you don't care enough to get attached? Many of the times when I reached a low point with my depression, anything I've been emotionally attached to almost permanently binds itself to my brain. This is why it stuck with me as an eternally frustrating series, because as you said, it's a series that promised greatness, initially showed something rather pathetic, and then suddenly showed a glimpse of something potentially amazing before revealing that, no, it was all a ruse, and you're left attached to emptiness. If you've made it this far then, to conclude, I can't thank you enough for giving me this catharsis. (also, slightly unrelated, it's also super frustrating as someone who wants to write professionally see people have a dream writing opportunity fall into their laps and do THIS poorly with it)

Sethzard

Agreed, he does dedicate it to Monty in the into but it's not massively obvious. I also think that it could serve to talk about how a lot of fans say the show was great before he died, and it's just since Miles and Kerry took over that it went badly despite the fact that it's had a bunch of the problems since the start.

Nora

Another great video, friend. You make 2 hours seem like 30 minutes. Keep shining.

Sol

I havent finished watching this yet but I'm VERY MUCH ENJOYING the animated segments and everything thats in them

Toby Gleeson-Stack

Well that all makes me feel better about never making it past the first few episodes back in the day.

Anne Adler

Great video! Especially the stuff about the Faunus! I feel like this could easily be double the length with all the things that could also be mentioned like the (lack of) LGBT representation.

Valastrius

No, Hbomb, you're not alone in having committed the sin of Bleach. It's okay. We are legion, and do not forget.

ball gobbler

"Let's kill all humans, and then they'll respect us. Cuz they're dead." - Magneto, probably

ball gobbler

I've never seen this show but it sounds like it could've used a professor X character of sorts

Help Lucy Yeet Her Meat @ givealittle

jesus christ who let you have so many backers and why are we enabling your (absolutely terrific) garbage. Also you made me hit the desk so many times in this video. Thank you.

Evie Moon

"There's plenty of black people in the first season" Ok I ugly laughed :D

Iridium

This might be a weird hang up but can someone explain to me why would a relationship between blood relatives be inherently horrible? I'm not sure if it has something to do with me being asexual and likely viewing relationships quite differently from most, but I don't see anything morally wrong with it as long as there's no issue with consent.

Edward Price

I mean, there's a Prequels video coming soon, right??

Starved For Time

I think this is the angriest I've heard HBomb be.

Kit Tonkin

I am loving the energy of Donkey Kong t-posing in a trans flag tie

Casey Gecko

hbomb really be out here dropping feature length documentaries every 3 months

Matt Raebel

18:58 I got way too excited when I saw my boy Artemy in the audience sat next to Daniil Dankovsky

John Newman

Might be your best work so far, Hbomb and co. The artists and animators you brought on did an amazing job. The writing is clear and succinct. If this is what "Hbomb 2.0" looks and sounds like, I'm incredibly excited. The wait was definitely worth it.

Cinnamon Challenge-memory

Haha, the characters in t-poses and other generic videogameposes in that animated segment looks fun.

June Gallagher

I've been a big fan of RWBY since around when season 2 started airing, so I'll admit i was a bit nervous when I heard you were working on this video. However, you've made a lot of good points and I really appreciate that you give the show credit where credit is due.

JNA Solo

This was a great video! I’ve never watched RWBY but I like hearing your thoughts on things. The way they pronounce Schnee kills me though since it’s German for snow and should probably be pronounced Shnay not Shnee

QuothTheDesk

Hi, another asexual here. Ships have the connotations of sexual or romantic interactions, so that kind of relationship is not appropriate for siblings, even half siblings. The incest stigma still stands with half-siblings or same sex siblings. Lots of people get squicked by it. Which is interesting, because in leaving out the only pair that may be seen as desirable non-sexual, they kind of make the point about plug-and-play relationships, just drop the characters into a stock template and draw heart eyes over them. By not including it, they make a choice, and that choice makes a statement, and that statement set a precedent for how ships would occur in the show. (Poorly. They occur universally poorly)

Alex Hambrock

I got to the section about the Faunus and then started going "Wait...wait in this footage why is like every single person white" EDIT: He just went there too lol

TyeSynclaire

Now give us the 4 hour cut to tell us how you really feel, I need more =o

SibirianBlue

I only had it in me to watch the first season, because of well..everything listed here. But, I really don't understand why the director can't see that his two lead writers are terrible.

JJ Athey

I genuinely loved that show but I’m so glad I stopped watching after the Aizen arc finally closed.

Imogen Geier

You didn't get around to it, but two of the biggest weaknesses in RWBY are the character design (which is embarrassingly homogenous—all women have the exact same body) and the constant sexualization of a couple of the younger characters like Yang. It's a fantastic video! I just wanted to get those two things out.

FitchersBird

You've outdone yourself with the video! Despite being movie length I would have been happy to listen for longer. Probably says a lot about RWBY that there is so more you could have gone over! I'm sure you are, but hope you're proud of what you've made here cause it's great stuff.

ChloeM8

ok i haven't finished the video but if i can't get that into music on spotify or download it or somethingi will unsubscribe (jk)

ChloeM8

Also, congrats on getting it working. you are a hero of the people

Jack Hockaday

"I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed"

StillNotALemon

That bit where they constantly explain the game is exactly how it feels watching the Superbowl in the UK as an NFL fan.

Heather Fox

I know they're still WIPs at the moment but the animated sections are frankly fantastic and I think they work so well with the video. Serious props to the animators because getting that scene to work looks like it would've been an absolute nightmare! The Pathologic and DK cameos in the back are also fantastic (the faster movement on the Haruspex kind of took my attention away from the HBomb animation for a bit if I'm honest) but genuinely a fab fab video all in all. Definitely understood it all as someone who's only consumed RWBY through reluctant osmosis! Seriously a super good job

Heather Fox

Man, and good ole Jezza C in the same scene can't believe i missed him

Sol Rabbit

I love the use of the Bomberman Heroes ost.

Donovan Boyle

They actually have done a pretty good job in recent years with LGBTQ representation. Blake and Yang are practically a couple, theyve had a good few LGBTQ characters in recent years, including a trans character voiced and mocap'd by a trans woman. For another example, in a spin off novel, Coco is confirmed to be a lesbian.

Theo Lane

10/10 would, OH MY GOD THAT WAS 2 HOURS AND 20 MINUTES?!?! again.

BlackMambaJesus

Great video as always. I have always been curious to see some deep analysis of RWBY. As a person who is up to date on the show and recognizes some of the good ideas that the series has, but just doesn't execute them all too well, watching this video summed up a lot of feelings I couldn't put into words for many years.

Kat

Yes, great point

Translator Dlique

I felt like there were some weak parts of this video where you could have made sure that we knew you were going somewhere with a point, and that you would bring things up later. You did, of course, eventually make things fit, but in the moment while watching it felt weird and disjointed. The video has a really strong finish though, and overall I liked it. Thanks for making it.

Elliot Lawful

I also remember far too much of Bleach and wish I remembered far less.

Kewl0210

Thanks, that was great. I think you did a good job of explaining why a large portion of people that like anime don't really understand that the characters and their emotions within the framework of the world building are why they like it, way more so than the lore or the fights or the powers on their own devoid of context. I think this explained that really well. Incidentally, a lot of manga in Shonen Jump that get cancelled within 3 volumes have the same sort of problems. They feel like cheaper slightly-different versions of Dragonball or One Piece or something.

Emma McCartan

I went with bleach over naruto in middle school, saw it finish in college and realized I wasted so much time with a series that only concluded with disappointment after disappointment. Thank you for vindicating us Hbomb, and great video as always!

@woubuc

How much have you had to cut from this video due to Content ID issues? Will you post the "original" version on Nebula eventually?

Brandon

Haven’t seen ATLA or TLOK yet but White Fang and the Faunus give off vibes of someone trying (and failing) to copy the “systemic racism” theme from FMA Brotherhood portrayed through the Ishvalans and Scar. Must be pure coincidence that Miles listed it as one of his favourite anime because this video shows he’s full of original ideas.

Frère Tempête

They cribbed everything else from Korra, why not the surface level understanding of social issues to make lame two dimensional villains? Also the guy who voices Flynt is a rapper whose stage name is Flynt and that seriously fucks with my head.

Levi

Amazing work! I can’t lie though I was very distracted by Artemy Burakh continuously turning around to look at you and talk shit to the bachelor during the animated segments. Not in a particularly bad way, I just found it very amusing.

Matt Raebel

I followed RT's stuff closely for about 6 years, despite not actually liking the vast majority of their output. RWBY was a great example of this. I watched the first season because I liked the cool anime fights, but the story and characters always fell flat for me. The thing I liked about RTs stuff is that it was always the same creators, and those creators were clearly very passionate about the work they did, even if that work wasn't very good, in my opinion. I was a much bigger fan of their unscripted content, anyway - I loved their podcasts and (some of their) Let's Play videos. Their "Until Dawn" and "P.T." videos were some of my favorites. The thing is, the RT crew consists of people who are entertaining to watch when they're playing video games together, but they don't seem to realize that that doesn't make them good writers. I admire their company culture, which seems very nurturing and encouraging to young creators who have big ideas that they desperately want someone to take a chance on. The problem is that not only do they not seem to care about how good their shows actually are, but their audience also doesn't care. I've talked to other RT fans about their work, and I've consistently gotten the impression that the appeal of RT lies not in admiring their shows, but in worshipping the individuals who make them. I've always particularly disliked Miles Luna, who in my view is the personification of all the things I think are wrong with RT. I must admit, I loved watching you call out all the things about him and RWBY that are utter trash. That kid is so far inundated in his own privilege that he doesn't seem to be aware of his own flaws, and I felt tremendously validated watching this video shine a light on them after years of thinking, 'does nobody else really see how gross Miles Luna actually is?" Oh - and I once tried watching "Camp Camp," another of Luna's RT creations. The first episode I watched, there was literally a joke where a loudmouth character voiced by RT's Michael Jones "almost said THE homophobic slur, but then he gets cut off before he can say it." Haha, jokes! Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Alex

I really wasn't aware of Monty Oum as a creator before I watched RWBY, so a lot of what I took from this is a new appreciation of the parts of the show he created and the sort of work he did; looking forward to your video about him. (also I share pretty much all these exact frustrations with the show, which I stopped watching a couple "volumes" back - esp the "this is palpably a white nerd guy's show about young cute girls with a plot centered around a metaphor explaining what he thinks racism is and how he thinks it works" bit; also the thing where the third season was actually good for a moment there.

peachtree

oh my god they stole the "non-benders are oppressed" storyline from Korra too. I can't with this

Kitty Goldwood

Gotta say, "Boruto's Dad and his Army of Frenemies" made me laugh particularly hard. Otherwise, the current WIP 3d animations are a bit frightening to look at as it stands, but we'll see how they turn out. Overall I found this very interesting. Back in the day I tried to watch RWBY and stopped around the time it came out that Blake was a faunis, because a combination of the faunis stuff already seeming incredibly hamfisted and Jaune getting way too much attention despite being incredibly mediocre tired me out. It's a shame to see that a lot of those flaws ostensibly only got worse with time. Which is a shame because it evidently got a lot more aesthetically polished as it went. I've known people into RWBY and I'm glad that they have managed to enjoy it, and I can see charming stuff about the characters, but this video does make it clear i never could have enjoyed it myself. The whole "said plot element is only ever mentioned or built up the very second its become center stage" is a massive turn off for me. Also I can't believe the number of things they ostensibly brought up and then never followed through with.

Anonymous Unknown

As someone who spent way, *way* too much time watching Bleach back when this 'anime' thing was new and exciting to me... You are validated. That show got terrible. Pretty much everyone I know who watched Bleach can agree that it *did* get terrible, but nobody seems to agree exactly *when*.

Iridium

I'm not familiar with the show, but have seen it accused of throwing out shipping baits... and what's in this video does make me doubt the writers' ability to write characters, let alone character interactions/relationships. Still, tbh I don't really see anything inherently morally wrong with the incest thing, even with a sexual relationship, as long as no offspring is involved.

Elaine Murphy

Yeah I completely agree re: Miles. I always disliked him but never had any explicit reasons why, so I thought I was just being unfair towards him. The first time I remember thinking he was really gross and off putting was after his pretty public (but amicable, iirc) breakup with Blake's voice actress. They made some kind of public statement and then on the next RT podcast he makes a point to tell a story about how he recently got a blowjob on a first date. He just comes off as so sleazy. I'm not surprised at all that his character in RWBY is just a self insert character who gets to be in love triangles with hot teen girls.

Miriarra

This was a good vid, and anything complimenting Cowboy Bebop gets a pass in my book. I do have some comments on it more so as a differing opinion and less of editing the video. If you see this maybe you'll appreciate it, I don't know. As an animator who works in 3D I don't fully agree with your comments on the animation. Even the better animated pieces of RWBY are very stiff in terms the actual way characters move and have a very little/strange sense of weight to them. This includes Monty's work, which may have been due to outside constraints, but I still think it's worth a mention. And the better character animation is still... bad, I'd say. It's noticeably weird movement-wise with some incredibly strange character acting choices that feel like attempts at exaggeration that turn into awkward flailing. I'd also argue that you're a little soft on Monty's own responsibilities, I agree that his fight scenes are incredibly entertaining and vastly better than what the main writers did, but he was still the showrunner and part of that responsibility is overseeing the process. I think if he stepped off that role, let someone else do the showrunning so he can focus on doing fight choreography and supervising/direction the animation, the writing could've improved. Also, and this isn't really even a critique, just more of a comment: this 2.5 hour video barely scratches the surface if it went beyond the writing and some of the visuals. I'm sure you had to cut a lot of stuff. The character design, ESPECIALLY in later seasons, gets... very, very bad. And all the female characters have serious Disney Princess same-face syndrome and you could probably make a sequel video on post-Monty RWBY if you even wanted to. Things get... messy. A whole bunch of characters from S3 who died have been brought back in the last year or so, I'm waiting for them to bring Pyrrha back in some weird deus ex machina "we're sorry we killed off the fan favorite and are out of ideas" way.

Morrigan

Interesting question. Even without offspring being involved, I think there are emotional and social risks involved with family dynamics: unhealthy relationships, power imbalances, emotional blackmail and the like are common within families. I can see how it would be bad to add sex and the associated strong emotions, such as possessiveness and jealousy. My own instinct does tend towards "Oh, brother/sister incest can't be *so* wrong, can it?" But I'm an only child. Perhaps if I'd grown up with siblings, the question would feel more real, and I'd be squicked out by it.

Morrigan

You know what, it's simpler than that. Societies that *don't* taboo incest tend to die out, because in very few generations there are no longer enough viable offspring.

Jae Armstrong

Thought: "tournament manipulated by nefarious forces as prelude to massive invasion of the protagonists' hometown, with dramatic climax lightly spiced by major character death that radically alters the course of the plot going forward" is more or less exactly the final act of Naruto's Chuunin Exam arc. lmao

Jae Armstrong

On the video: I think I have two main critiques, as someone who has never engaged with RWBY before: 1) It feels like there's a lot more to tell here. You've said, I know, that a part 2 may or may not happen and that you wanted this to work as a standalone, but I definitely felt the absence of that second part when approaching the conclusion of the video. I think a clearer framing of this video as focusing specifically on the Oum-era of the show might help with that. 2) I feel like Oum gets off very lightly in your telling of the tale. Again, I really know nothing about RWBY or Oum himself other than what you've presented in the video, and what's been said in the discussion around the video, and you do make a compelling argument that Luna and what's his face are abysmal writers (and certainly drastically worse writers than Oum was an animator), but I'm not certain I believe that Oum is as blameless as you present him. For a start, "here's some cool fight scenes, find a way to stitch them together into a coherent narrative," isn't really a fair burden to lay on anyone, regardless of how competent they may or not be.

Matt Raebel

God, I forgot about that...ew.

Marc Neilson

One of my biggest problems with the show is how terrible the voice acting is especially early on. When most of the cast was RT Staff Members like come on just hire some decent anime/video game VAs for the main cast and it would way more enjoyable. I know later on they got more veteran VAs for other roles but it’s almost too little too late.

AutumnRi

Great video. I especially like the bit about season 3’s end; i enjoyed rwby for 2.5 seasons as dumb fun and then got super hype after season 3 because IT WAS GOOD NOW, they figured out how to do a real show. Then they didn’t. I haven’t seen much rwby lately. Also rwby chibi is good and it gives the characters more pesonality than the entire show.

Jigabachi

Now I want a video of you just shitting on Bleach.

James Chesson

I absolutely loved this video. You brought up many of the points I usually do when trying to when talking to friends about this show, while also covering so much that I had never noticed or didn’t have the anime knowledge to spot. You managed to make me feel smart while also teaching me things in a video about a show I had complicated feelings about - this is genuinely everything I could ever want from a media analysis video! And as someone who still watches a lot of Rooster Teeth content even now, I thought you got the tone spot on between recognising both the good and bad elements of the company.

Zim

I remember watching the trailers for RWBY and the first few episodes when they came out with a friend of mine. I didn't get far before kinda just dropping it, and I couldn't really explain why it just wasn't sitting with me to my friend (who was way more into it, though I think also dropped it a few seaso... err... volumes later). I didn't really have the vocab or experience to pin what my issues were with it at the time and, watching this now and remembering the show's parts back then and how I felt about them, you really helped articulate most everything that turned me off it at that time, which I really appreciate. So, super thankful for this thing coming out. It's kinda helped me realise how far I've come as a story consumer and storyteller from those old highschool days.

Andrew

I really enjoyed this, as someone who's a fan of RT but has never really watched RWBY. Echoing some other people's sentiments though, I feel like the conclusion is a bit sparse. I would have liked to see more about the direction the show took once Monty wasn't there; how the animation has changed, what's missing from the show now that Monty and Shane aren't there. As someone who was around in the fandom when Shane's letter came out, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and how that applies more broadly to the show - but I can understand why you're not wanting to get into that.

Adrian

I just watched this with my boyfriend and now he won’t shut the fuck up about Bleach. Great video tho

Mop

I never watched RWBY for many of the same reasons you've detailed here - you could sort of tell from trailers and snippets that the show had a lot of writing problems and some cringe decisions were made about characterization and tone, but it's good to see someone who actually put the work in going through it all point-by-point. I almost can't believe the creators would make fun of audience members taking the show seriously during panels. Makes me glad to skip that dumpster fire. On a side note, though - and this is a very small part of your video - I don't think you need to be so self-deprecating about having watched a lot of Anime. You have robust analytical skills, good reasons for liking things, and a pretty wide range of interests. Anime's a medium. It has good and bad examples, like anything else. It has a large place in culture, and it's worth investigating. IMHO it's not worth the time trying to justify it to people who dismiss it all outright. Like, would anyone say that about film, or music? It's quite strange if you think about it.

robbie robbins

great video! just for kicks, none of my friends guessed which character was using magic and not their semblance, and he only guessed it because he hadn't seen the character before on the internet, not because of the powers itself. is there gonna be a poll soon about what to do next (so i can vote for more rwby please god)

Christoph Kolb

Holy shit, didn’t he date another girl at RT (I’m not saying her name because I don’t want people to have make that connection about her without knowing her) right after? The fact that he openly brags about stuff like that and then goes on to make his relationships so public is just super uncool.

Iridium

That's an interesting point, although my impression is that the "high breeds" (in both European and Asian cultures, which are the only ones that I have some knowledge about) used to prefer incest (not siblings but certainly cousins - I'm sure they all had some restrictions over bloodlines that were too close) over "marrying low", which, sure didn't do them any favor lol, but now that I'm thinking of this, I'm even more interested in the origin of the taboo. To your other point - I'm a single child as well so all of my opinions would be assumptions too, but to me the unhealthy family dynamic which can be very common likely comes from flawed/problematic people living under the same roof, in small units that society expects (to some degree) to solve most conflicts internally - which can easily become a poisonous environment, with or without blood ties. (Which is the reason that I personally believe all long-term relationships should be approached with caution.) I agree that adding sex/"romance" to already unhealthy relationships is a horrible idea, however I don't think that's the basis for the incest stigma, as, for some reason, the society at large still expects family members to be "close", instead of "complicated". (It's still funny though - they should be close, but NOT LIKE THAT!!! - Eh okay...?)

Maru Malandra

That was fantastic, i honestly find the way your videos focus so much on an analysis of artistic failure and what can be learned from it (yr Fallout 3 vid, the one on Rick Dyer and Dragon's Lair' legacy, SLA:CAD etc). One thing i was expecting was for you to bring up issues around mistreatment of workers at RT, which you mentioned on the Master List. Considering how your videos never shy away from such issues, i was surprised you left it out. I understand that you wanted to focus on issues around writing and the creative process, but it still feels like a missed opportunity. The other thing i found it odd you didn't highlight more is how the writers fell upwards into the job of writing an animated series, in a way most marginalised creators, no matter what their CV is, never will. It reminded me a lot about the interviews with Weiss and Benioff about how they learned to run a show and write it as they were doing it, AFTER they were given the reins of the most expensive TV show in history. I know in terms of scale it's different, and Monty Oum wasn't a white dude, but there's still a lot of privilege at play. I just sat there watching your video getting angry about the other two writers being so mediocre and how people like me will never get an opportunity like that, to run our own (admittedly relatively low budget) anime series. Tl;dr, good video in terms of media analysis, but i feel you could've, to paraphrase one of your favourite filmmakers talking about one of your favourite movies, 'gone a bit farther in places'* (This is a joke, i don't know you, I'm just getting in a prequel dig, don't hate me I'm too delicate to be hated)

pedantry

Your Bleach comments gave my partner Nam-style flashbacks, and now he won't stop crying. Great job as always, well worth the wait, yet it was all weirdly horrifying to watch as someone who used to live and breathe RoosterTeeth before RWBY. In summary both my partner and I feel dead inside now, thanks, I love it!

No Justice

I now know what exposition means I now also know why the name 'Basil Exposition' is a joke in Austin Powers

Peter Kelly

Judging by the comments I'm very much in the minority here, but in case you want some feedback from a very specific, minute demographic within your Patrons: as someone who has never heard of RWBY and hasn't watched any anime for the past 20 years or so, this was a really interesting and easy-to-follow explanation of the programme's history, context, and production & artistic issues. The only things I actually recognised were the Diary of a Camper Quake machinima and the Gametrailers logo, but I never felt lost or that my dog had eaten any prerequisite homework. A lovely watch as always!

GarrulousMonolith

The sad thing is it kinda had one, and it was supposed to be Sephiroth Dumbledore

Jay Rogers

I really enjoyed the video, I always have a great time seeing you break down the intricacies of different media, and I've been a big fan of your work as a whole. but there was one part of the video that kinda struck me as flippant and dismissive in a way i don't think you really meant, and that has to do with shipping So, I don't want this to come across as me asking you to like something your just not into or that makes you uncomfortable. I completely understand why someone would not engage with media and fandom through shipping, but it doesn't feel great when it's dismissed so quickly as creepy or perverted. Shipping for me just extends from the basic tenants you laid out for why people like different stories: because they like the characters. I as a shipper very rarely ship for what I think would be canon, I ship because I find the character dynamics interesting and the themes or situation compelling. Dark and more "problemabtic" ships serve the purpose of exploring darker parts of the world or evoking more complicated feelings in the creator and reader. Shipping can It also could be a way to explore a persons sexuality and fantasies in a safe and controlled matter. And I think the off hand dismissal rings out as a little ...well not sex positive or kink positive. peoples fantasies they play out with characters they have grown to love or care for isn't indicative of how they think real relationships should go. I think shipping has always been the low hanging fruit of fandom wank and with the rise of current intracommunity fandom attitudes around shipping it feels kind of hurtful to be on the receiving end form a creator I look up to so much. I know it's not your job to agree with me, but since I feel like you might not be involved in the community, I wanted to let you know about how your words come across to the people involved in this part of fandom, and also maybe give you more insight into what shipping entails for the people involved as always thank you so much for your time, and I'm really looking forward to the finished video!

Stormbourne

The stuff in this about offhandedly waving-away bad writing with "well, real life doesn't have plots or arcs or climaxes!" really just reminds me quite unfortunately of some other fandoms that sort of shat the bed in the ending. I never consumed an instant of RWBY and, until quite recently, didn't know that Monty Oum was involved in it. Didn't even know his name! Just "the Dead Fantasy guy." I imagine this is all very common knowledge nowadays, but it's a circle of the internet I never intersected with. So seeing it all laid bare like this is really fascinating. I can't get super invested or relate to what you're saying myself, but it's academically interesting. Also it's funny to me that three of the main characters are based on characters with very specific color motifs to match their designs, and then the one that's associated with black isn't associated with like, black cats in nursery rhymes or something, but with Beauty and the Beast. What a weird decision.

Lucas M

ya bois daniil and artemy in the chapel at 19 mins

OH

I am surprised you didn't touch on the baiting with Blake/Yang they do

Alex G

Great analysis as always. I appreciate how much work must've gone into this. Since you asked for feedback, I may have found two small errors: 1:04:35 "Potentially remove these frames" appears in red - note to yourself? I could be misreading this though. 2:05:15 Ozpin says some gibberish that looks like mismatched editing for "most powerful weapon ever" - this might be a joke that I'm just missing.

Kat

...yes but there’s a reason my avatar in the video’s anime intro looks the way it does

Subspace Jet Witch

I mean, most people consider half-sibling relationships to be gross for a very good reason: they bring with them an inherent power dynamic that can leave mental scars one may never heal from

Jess

Hi,HBomb, my roommate would like you to know she remembers bleach and validates you for it. I do not remember bleach so I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

Adrian Thornburg

a show where almost all the main characters live in a racist society and have to grapple with the fact that their status quo is built on the backs of a genocidal ruling class? Oh you mean like Fullmetal Alchemist? great video btw, 3D animated Harris will be a staple of my nightmares for years to come!

M.P. Fitzgerald

GAAAAH! Your critique on their issues with racism was spot on. I would almost want to see a shorter video based only on that, but your execution overall was amazing. As a creative myself (and not a successful one, dear lord), I was always annoyed at how little risk this show took. You can miss your mark, but at least risking taking it is worth something (which they did, only once). I know you have threatened to make a video game for years, please, take that risk. I love your work, and hyperbole fails when I say just how much your videos have inspired me. But, I desperately want to see you taking the plunge yourself. No shade: H.bomerguy staying safe would be more critique videos. Your criticisms are valuable, but something something Ratatouille. I will buy it. Anyways, thank you!

Harry Wilkinson

Great video! Could be worth pointing out that Joel Heyman, the guy who voiced Caboose in RvB and the racism-explaining professor in RWBY has himself had a history of racist comments and has been forced out of the company due to it?

Koorivlf

I'm so sad I saw this right before bed cause 2hrs and 20 mins of your analysis sounds amazing. Especially after the first 20 mins. >:3c A morning video it will be!

Kat

Oh yeah, I should totally watch Cowboy Bebop again!

Elizabeth

Great vid. One critique though, I think Sun is supposed to be Asian. (he is based off of Sun Wukong of myth, who is a monkey) even if he is voiced by a white guy and has blonde hair.

CarrotOfDoom

i hope we get separate upload for just anime intro song, would be really great

Iridium

The art style of RWBY feels so much like a Japanese anime that I didn't even notice the racial representation issue until it was brought up, as in many animes (actually, most of the little collection that I've read/watched) skin tone & hair color are not used to represent character's race. But ~99% of Japan's population is Asian (wiki said so, data from 2018) and race is not a major topic in this type of communities, while the situation in the US is very different. That said, I do think the creators might have just overlooked it because... anime homework.

Amanda Thoyre

RE: the faunus section - the entire argument that society has achieved equality, and racism is now just the result of ignorant, bigoted individuals, which means all activism for racial equality is actually a Trojan Horse for minority supremacy, is a deeply right wing talking point, and one that is not surprising coming from the two head writers. I feel more time could be spent on how this isn't just the result of lazy writing but borne out of the limited perspectives from the head writers and their refusal to listen to any kind of outside critique. There are also parallels that can be drawn between the politics of RWBY and the shallow understanding of politics within white gaming/weeabo culture. Otherwise, a solid video, one I've been excitedly anticipating for months!

Oliver Hood

So that's why I never bothered going back to it after season 4.

Bosstown Dynamics

I thought the Ozpin bit might have been a mix of humour and evading ContentID

Kieran Gee

A friend of mine who's a big RT fan showed me RWBY, I always though I was a big dumb for not being able to follow the plot and often looked up plot summaries to discuss the show with her. Really glad I wasn't alone.

Starboi

Holy shit! Such a good video! It was really accessable for someone with very little prerequisite knowledge of the show. I think you did a fantastic job of highlighting what worked and what didn't in a way that didn't just shit on the entire show. The editing is really clean and the comment id workarounds aren't distracting. That all being said, I have a couple of comments. First: There are a few spots where it seems like you had two ways of making a point and you weren't sure which one to go with, but they both got left in and so it just comes off as repetitive. I'm on my phone rn so I can't find the exact timestamps but I'll add that in a second comment. Second: I agree with a few comments I've seen in regards to the audio levels. I don't know if this is related to the copyright issues you were having but the audio clips from the show itself are super quiet and I found myself having to adjust the volume to understand the dialogue that you were critiquing. Third: The animated bits are FUCKING TERRIFYING! It's probably just me but they fall into an extremely uncomfortable uncanny valley. I think you have some interesting points to make during those sections but I have no idea because I just spent them going "oh god oh god please make it stop." I don't think there's anything that can really be done about it because that would be really unfair to the animators to just cut their stuff but... Yeah. It really stuck out in a viscerally unpleasant way to me. Overall I think it's a really solid video and I'm looking forward to the video on Monty!

ruru

That was an absolutely amazing video!!

willow H

i never actually watched rwby, didn't really vibe with me. now im kinda glad i didnt because oh my word its actually offensive to my eyes. great video, feel like i Get It now. i think i had some useful feedback but it kinda went poof

Liz Jones

I have never watched RWBY and am not familiar with Rooster Teeth except for a vague awareness of Red vs Blue as a thing that exists. I'd never heard of Monty Oum, either. I really enjoyed this video and had no trouble following it despite having no prior context. I watched the trailers for RWBY when they initially came out and have always been perplexed about the appeal. Yes, the Red trailer had cool fight choreography but the animation just looked really, really bad to me, to the point where I felt like I was missing something – I didn't get why that this was a real show people watched and enjoyed. After watching your video I finally understand what's going on and, even though this was a critical take, it gave me a better understanding about why people WOULD like it in the first place. Regarding the animated bit... it took me a long time to realize that was supposed to be a representation of you. It don't think it looks like you, and it's also a bit uncanny. I mean no offense to the animator. Maybe that was intentional, or maybe it's just because it's a WIP, I'm not sure.

Jackelyn Thompson

That was really killer, dude. As I’m sure you’ve heard many times before, you have a real knack for holding my attention while talking about a thing I’ve never heard of. I don’t know how you do it but I go in thinking “what’s a rwby” and by the end I’m thinking “gosh I should recommend this video to everyone I know”. You’re compelling. Also I wish I had a way of showing you my face from the moment I saw the animated you because I clapped my hand to my mouth in surprise. I have no idea what I was excepting when you said there would be animated bits in the video but it wasn’t that! It’s so much fun. I love it. Especially because he has your flat earth shirt (and your dark circles - let him rest, oh my god). I don’t have any criticisms because I know literally nothing about this topic outside of what I’ve just learned from you but I did wanna say that it was great fun to watch and utterly interesting.

Zoe Fuchs

I know this is completely besides the point but my friend and I have literally poured over the idle animation of Burakh and Dankovsky in the chapel scene for several hours now bc it has so many endearing details. Stellar job 🙏🏻

Mallow

I really love the animated bit! I can't wait to see it completely finished. Wondering if the specific voice actors will be addressed in more detail in the future, especially Vic Mignogna playing Qrow.

eljest

as a huge valve fan, i appreciate you being animated in the tf2 artstyle, with wallace breen and eli vance in the background of the chapel :D also i had a feeling tantacrul was involved in this as soon as i saw the ubuntu font and music theory

Miriarra

Ah, I believe I was asked about samples of what I consider good 3D fighting animation? I can't seem to find that comment (apologies if it was deleted and I'm not meant to respond? Please let me know if I should delete this!) but I would say that a great place to find good anime-style fights is Studio Orange's work on Land of the Lustrous. The character designs there suffer from Shoujo Leg Syndrome but I think it really works because the animators are able to exaggerate their stances when they prep to fight and land which helps show the impact. Dia's fight in episode 10 has some great examples of weight... I love the difference in the way she moves when she falls off the wall and picks herself up and the way her stances when she lands on the creature she's fighting! Very excited to see what you guys come up with for the Monty animation video, it's really wonderful when prominent YouTubers talk about animation as a genuine art form!

Stormbourne

And, of course, the most salient point: stop telling hbomb to be less political, everything is political!

Alex the Excellent

I know nothing about RWBY except that I've seen the guy with the cane and the white coat before in a clip online. Coming from this perspective, this video was pretty easy to follow and pretty enjoyable as well. I can't offer much critique since I'm not familiar with the subject matter, but I thought I'd just check in to say you didn't lose me as someone who didn't know the source material.

Funny Hats Incorporated

I've been dreading this since the polling... finally Hbomb comes after something I personally like

Silhouetters

Dang I knew RWBY sucked, but I didn't know it sucked THIS much!!!

PlatinumBard

Watched half of an episode and dropped it cause it looked kinda bad to me. Dunno what the hype about the animations is all about cause the style just looks so... ugly to me. Liked the trailer tho... The weirdest thing is how similar some of the designs are to the drakengard 3 women

Jim Dietz

Only vaguely aware of RWBY, was a fan of RedvsBlue but fell off of Rooster Teeth years ago. Yet I found this video very entertaining and informative. Thanks!

BizarreLogo

I noticed a line read that seemed off and/or wrong. Capitalized for emphasis, but at 1:56:09 "throwing them off a train at high speed where their REMAINS will be shattered and smashed into a pulp and their REMAINS will be devoured by Grimm". Seems like it should have been, "where their BODIES will be shattered..." Other than that it looks real good! Glad Monty Ohm got plenty of love in the video as well!

Hbomb

wow how did i not even notice that. THANK YOU

Elaine Murphy

God, it is actually ridiculous how much of RWBY is just straight lifted from Avatar. The non-benders being oppressed, but the movement to fight back just boils down to wanting to take bending away and having them be the real bad guys, etc. The tournament arc is reminiscent of book 1 of Korra as well, when the equalists attack during the final pro bending match. Amon shows up, takes a guys bending away, and then gives a speech about how benders are evil. I was watching clips from Korra and had a hunch, so I went back watched the first pro bending match. The announcer is explaining the rules of the sport as the match is taking place. Of course, because the show is actually written pretty well, it's done in a way that teaches the viewer the rules naturally and doesn't detract from the action. Once again they just lifted the idea and the explanation, but then executed it poorly. It really is Avatar all the way down.

BizarreLogo

Hey that's why extra ears are always good to have! Just glad I happen to catch it for ya.

Dustin Morrill

Thanks for the video Hbomb, I especially enjoyed the Bleach jokes. I also just started watching Cowboy Bebop since you mentioned it. Obviously the White Fang has parallels to the Equalists, but did you notice that the story about the White Fang being good but then getting a new leader and becoming violent is almost identical to the way that the Space Warriors are described in episode 4 of Bebop? I'm watching the episode for the first time now and it's like, "ah, that's where they got that from too!"

Kat

Oh weird, I think I responded to you but my comment disappeared (do you have the text for my comment in your notifications? I forgot what I wrote). Land of the Lustrous was one of the first CG animes I think I had seen, but I never finished it because I was still uh, acquiring CG anime as a taste. It'll be great to rewatch it through this lens!! Thank you!

JoeyBangledesh

I was starting to feel crazy that RWBY was so popular yet every time I tried to watch it at best I could give it a shrug and at worst I threw up every time Jean was on screen.

Amon

This video is 2:20:22, a mere two minutes from OCD perfection!

Michael Pattie

Speaking as someone who mostly enjoyed RWBY, I wonder how much of it comes down to the expectation going in. I saw the series on crunchyroll in one long binge last year which meant my experience was really different. I was vaguely aware that it existed because of someone showing me the red trailer like a decade ago, but other than that I'd just seen the first 8 seasons of RvB and season 1 of Genlock and saw ruby without any of the hype or down time for speculation and wiki browsing. I mostly just knew that I was watching the RvB people try and make a thing from scratch and found a lot of endearment in the early season jank when the show was on a shoestring budget. I also hadn't seen most of the "anime homework" or any of the fan buildup, though I had watched Airbender and Korra for the first time like 6 months earlier. But I wasn't marinated in those stories and tropes so a lot of it was new to me even if I missed a lot of references. There is a chance that I'm just naturally more forgiving of this story structure because a series that was formative for me was Reboot, which I feel like is the unintentional template for stories that are mostly zany one off adventures for like 2 seasons and then suddenly something essential to the safety gets pulled back and the show suddenly develops stakes and a plot. This has made me stuff like Steven Universe, RWBY, and Red vs Blue come off a lot better to me than they seem to for other people.

Michael Pattie

Oh I almost forgot, on crunchy roll, the world of remnant segments are salted throughout the series like their just normal episodes or the info graphic bumpers from Attack on Titan. (I should clarify that I've seen anime, just not those specific anime.) They were usually placed near where they were relevant so it spackled over some of the exposition issues.

Calysto

finally managed to finish watching the video. great points all around. as someone who likes the show you were really preaching to the choir here. you articulated a lot of things that are just so obvious. i do think that there are some good bits in later seasons too but its a lot of up and down. i still dont get why, when writing a show primarily with female characters, RT didnt think to have like, one woman on the writing team but i mean we all know why. its tragic we never got to see where monty would have gone with the show. either way great video as always

Argonautilus

thank GOD someone finally put into words why the Faunus racism allegory always felt so fucking weird... Could never really put my finger on why it made me so uncomfortable.

Kyriathe

you know, you don't gotta like what the fandom do, but can you lay off getting judgemental about them in a video that's supposed to be about the flaws of the canon? It's kind of a cheap shot, for one. And given the state of fandom everywhere these days, they almost certainly already get suicide baiting, death threats, and a whole bunch of shit a touch more immediately harmful than Ships You Find Gross, and you adding it into this video is only going to empower the side of the fandom that thinks it's okay to send violent threats to real people based entirely on fictional content.

robbie robbins

Is this seriously about him not liking incest shippers? Are you fucking kidding me?

Kyriathe

this is about taking a shot at people who are not actually the topic of discussion, who have zero actual influence over the topic of discussion, and who already get a bunch of shit from other people. You are otherwise welcome to take it how you like.

AndreGG

What was that about Rebecca Sugar?? D:

Kamilio

Love the bit of Bleach music at the end, I would have gone with Will of the Heart but that might have been too sad. It was an awesome anime(at least the first 65 episodes were anyways). Great video!

ash

oh the days of lily orchard. i wish that was all that was on my mind these days

Alex the Excellent

I had to ask the same thing. I took it unironically at first, I was like "wtf steven universe is fascist? fuck"

Marcia

I stopped watching RWBY after Monty passed. Gave season 3 a shot but it didn't feel the same to me. At the time they made a big deal about Miles and Kerry "having all Monty's notes and knowing how he wanted the plot to develop", but watching this video made me realize that even if that is true, it definitely didn't matter. Doesn't matter that they had all the details if the finished product is half assed.

BagelHero

Enjoyed the current video, but with the update you made im excited to see the final edit w/ changes too!

Caroline Hill

I was gonna say. A+++ ‘shipping fictional siblings isn’t a crime and no deserves to be harassed for it. And, so often, people act like it’s real activism or helping people who are victims in some way. That’s not how

Caroline Hill

It works. Your enjoyment of whatever ship you want doesn’t really impact survivors or victims or actually help people from being victimized.

Sonja Valentine

I would love to see a similar video on Darling in the Franxx. It'd be worth the heartache just to say "sex mechs" as many times as you want

A Very Small Bird In A Tophat

There are victims of CSA who process their trauma by shipping things that in some way reflect their abuse. This can include incest ships. Obviously not everyone who ships incest is doing so because of PTSD but that joke does indirectly call people who are struggling with traumatic events "gross" for not processing their trauma in a palatable way. Which sucks to see... Even if you think that it's an unhealthy coping mechanism that doesn't mean it's funny. It would be in pretty poor taste to make a joke about someone's scars which might be from self harm, right? You don't have to engage in a ship you don't like, but that doesn't give an excuse to shame and harass people. Especially not when they're victims who are just trying to find some outlet for their trauma.

Leslie Henderson

finally got around to watching this, and i am *so* excited for the finished product. idk how you do it, but your feature film-length analysis videos are so engaging, to the point where i was crying with laughter almost two hours in! you're amazing at what you do, and i reeally hope this blows up once it's released publicly. and, speaking honestly, as someone who's been following rooster teeth for what, 11 years? i loved the points you made. these were very important criticisms not meant to harm, not meant to degrade, but to simply state the fact that these people have made mistakes and need to learn from them. i think that's something that i've always loved about your videos: your intent is never to harm, just to discuss. and i especially love that you never drag down the fans of these properties either, especially since there are far too many content creators that do. your videos make a lot of people happy, including me, and this video is proof that you somehow only keep getting better. keep doing what you do :) (and i hope you get some rest!)

Zack

i think correlating calling out people who ship UNDERAGE SIBLINGS in public online spaces to the degree that a creator knows not to include any potential reference to a “ship name” vs people who engage in toxic ships as a way to process trauma is a bad thing but also understand that the majority of people who OPENLY SHIP UNDERAGE SIBLINGS just get fucking hot for incest. and should rightfully be called out.

Morrigan

"How did you get in here?" *shk-shk BANG* I'm calling it, this is going to be stolen, sorry, *referenced* in the next Philosophy Tube video. Don't get me wrong: I love PT, but write your own jokes Olly. Jeez. Speaking of references, I'm delighted to see Tantacrul here. The cheese melts in the microwave. T̵h̶e̷ ̴̢̺̱̳̓̆̔m̶̨̩͉̓ṷ̶̔̈̚͘s̵̡̭̅̀̒i̵̙͚͍̓̾͘c̴̢͓̘̍́͘͝ ̵̢̙̫̓͗̓̈̆̅͗̅͊̅̊̊̒̐̾̀̐̕m̷̢̛̙̬͚̥̪͇͕̤̘̠̗̰̪͇̿̑̄̈́͂͛́̉̎͌͑̂̑͂̀̅̓͒̿̊̕͜͝͝͠è̸̛̤́̾̀̐̅̂́̾̆́͛͗̒̐͛̿͑̇̈͗͘͝͝l̶͇͓̜̲̠̣̙͓̠͕͚͔͂͂̏́̈́̓̆͆̈́̄̓̽̿̊̈́̀͒̃͑̊̓̾̕͘̕͜͝͝ͅt̴̛̩̺͈̻̲͖͙̤̙̱̟̗͂̈́̏̂̋̀̽̚ͅṧ̵̛̳̗͓̠̣̈́̅̃͂̏͒̄͌̈̀̔̅̕͜ ̴̡̙̦̹̫͔̞͚̳̫̔̉͘i̷̡̡͉͉͉͖̝͈̗͉̤͕̯͎͚̠̔͜͜ň̵̢̡̨̧͓̞͕̭͕̲͈̘̘̹̓̂͛͌͌̓͌̌̅̾̚͘͜͠ ̷̛̯̤̯̺͇̇͆̔̔̆̉̾̈̋̽̔̅́̈́̑͗̏͋͗́̚͘͝͝Ṣ̶̠̳͖̹͈̈́̽̌̎́͒̓̀̂͒̃̋͆͊̔̋́̔̈́̽͑͘͜͝ī̴̢̖̞̺̝̺̬͇̣̥̌́̑ͅb̵̛͕̞͔̖̯̜͐̓͂̌̌̒̆̂̓̀͠͠ȅ̴̡̨̟̠̠̣̗͓͔͖͖̥̟̪̙̗̳̫̓͛̈́̈̿̊͒͊͋́̄̈́͋̃͌̎̐̎̚͜͝͠͠l̴̡̯̳͓̯͈̝͘͜į̸̨̗͓͕͕̬̮̣͇̘̜͇͇͚͕̹͇̣̾͗͌u̸̺̺͑̈́̃͋̍̾̓̆̑͊s̶̽̇̏́̎́͜

Devon Smith

Still not as disappointing as Loonatics Unleashed.

Kyriathe

I like the bit where I say those are actual people getting death threats, and I basically get a bunch of people tacitly saying "public shaming and death threats for being cringey on the internet is Totally Valid" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Zack

I think what gets me about Blake being “The Beast” and the contrived and ill conceived Faunus plotline is all the issues could’ve been solved if they’d taken out the Bad Fantasy Racism as Written By White People and just made Blake a goddamn werewolf

Berry Tired

Hmmm... do I rewatch it a third time so I can enjoy the edits? Or shall I wait until it's officially released and experience it anew? Seriously I've been thinking about this video since I watched it. And ngl i replayed the opening intro more times than I'm willing to admit.

OH

I recall they did admit it was too ambitious for rwby especially since it was white guys writing it

Hbomb

I've just now edited the post with a newer draft!

Kathryn Bristow

I wouldn't normally rewatch a over two hour video about a show I'm not interested in at all, but I'm okay with it in this instance.

sandy

I might be too late for feedback but I just watched the video and it's a bit jarring that you point out all the instances of the writer being creepy about the teenage characters but then make a sexual joke about the bunny girl.

Berry Tired

I need to apologise to every boy in my old film school........Now I get why they geeked out over different cuts of the same piece of media.

Cassidy Marble

Thank you! I always wondered why RWBY made me so angry and disappointed even though I was so excited for it. Coming back to it again by watching this video helps me but words to that feeling. It's soul crushing to see something with this level of promise be only occasionally good.

el Storko

The Jim Sterling henchmen crack me up every time, how can it be so 1 to 1???

Greg Jensen

One of the things that comes across in this synopsis & critique is that RWBY has what one might call "00's Webcomic Energy," something that RvB also frequently had but arguably suffered less from. You raise the point several times, and it's an important one, that it's unusual for a show of this scope to come together outside the ordinary channels of animation production, and part of learning the critical lessons that outsider art has to offer is figuring out the creative & commercial constraints of the production pipeline. Very original and innovative shows (regardless of their national of origin) typically still have producers who can rein in a creator's excesses and help them sharpen up their ideas. Furthermore, lead writers and showrunners ordinarily rise through an apprenticeship process, playing a supporting role in other productions and learning what *not* to do long before they have to make critical creative decisions. But RWBY, like RvB before it, feels like a 00's webcomic because its leads have only ever need to live up to their own standards and those of their fans. When a show's core creative team is mostly self-educated, its initial creative vision is almost certainly going to end up fueled by a simultaneously honest and constraining passion for the media they wish to emulate. Like many 00's webcomics, RWBY's storytelling, pacing, and characterization is rife with unforced errors, cribbing from beloved sources, and wildly uneven tone, because the creative leads are doing their apprenticeship in full public view, and interfacing directly with a fan base that self-selects to be uncritically accepting and encouraging of their more cringeworthy instincts. There are non-trivial parallels to CAD here, honestly.

QuothTheDesk

Youtube dmca strike? Sibelius crashed.

M. C. Matz

Hi, it’s not playing for me now either here or in my YouTube watch later lust. Did you update it again and if so, can you leave a link?

Ewan Deveaux

If you want a great piece of Japanese media that tackles systemic racism, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance & Radiant Dawn are excellent! Also good video!

GhostSnake

Video is coming along great. cant wait for monty oum is genius heres why featuring having to be rewriten entirely due to the original script being apart of another vid ala darksouls 2 lol (hopefully it wont have to be made like that would be funny though

Kat

The video linked in the post now should be the most recent version!

Tormuse

If this isn't the final draft, I wonder if there's room for a comment about the fact that "Yang Xiao Long" is an obviously Chinese name, but her character and voice actor are white... and both Yang's parents appear to be white too.

Vi Levitt

Despite having given up on RWBY before an episode ended this is still a hot watch. Tiny thing though: at 13:16 you don't have a clef (the squiggly thing) with the notes - doesn't super make sense without them (even though the music plays anyways). Just a small thing but thank you anyways for the content~

Ellie

It's amazing how dumb it is to just pause the plot for like 3 episodes to do prom stuff. Like, ya know how in She-Ra they had all the characters go to a prom so they could do relationship drama and stopped the plot for it? Oh no, wait, they actually had the plot stuff happen ALONGSIDE the character building and relationship drama and lead into the next couple of plot movements organically. Almost like, they thought out the actual story for 5 minutes.

DeadName but like In a cool way

ugh, itll take me just under 11 hrs to watch all of RWBY which seems daunting but also ivve seen this video about 4 times now

Juliet Saxton

Oh that halo girl and samus bit, shskshk, women-- (also actual comment, I stopped RWBY after like maybe season 3, but I was hopeful for the delivery of those awesome trailers, and in my opinion, good music and clever ideas, but darn did it not deliver. Love the breakdown of what's happening)

scubaghost

give us back the T-posing donkey kong, you coward

Hedrigal

Honestly, you mentioning She Ra made it click for me that She Ra is actually a lot like what I imagine a good rwby could have been like.

Hedrigal

The thing that gets me is why didn't they try to hire outside writers for the show if they had no experience with writing an original and more dramatic leaning show.

Hedrigal

I'm pretty sure that's a misunderstanding of his comment that he's making a separate video about Monty Oum, but which I didn't understand to mean a second part.

Hedrigal

My overall editing point is that I think front loading the stuff recognizing Monty oums death and talking more about the impact it had on the series and how it was handled would help a lot.

Hedrigal

The only ship he identified that was bad was the incest ship, and they're the ones who actually do deserve to get relentlessly bullied.

Queso

Young white men who stumbled into power and money and think they can do it themselves?

Shelbymarx

Tbh I honestly think most of your criticism is really spot on with mine but I do think not bringing up the fact that this show was kind of created with no other of its kind and no real reference to work off. You can definitely tell that in first season they have a really hard time finding their footing. Which might be because everyone working in the show was inexperienced prior to rwby which think was worth bringing up. I don’t necessarily want to give them the pass for not knowing what they were doing because even when they “found” their footing the show is still convoluted. I think they’ve made improvements in vol 6 in terms of their female characters with Maria. But my point is I think it a bit unfair to not mention the improvements the video comes off as mean spirited to people who do enjoy the show.

OH

He mentions he'd rathe not talk about rep and diversity because others can do a better job

OH

it's a good video overall but yeah. i dislike the ending bit where he says crew members are wasting their talent on the show

Fawkes

Your avatar dialogue example where they explain waterbending is interesting cause it totally works for your point, but at the same time it's one of the most cringe, contrived & ham-fisted bits of writing in Avatar.

Reload Last Save

Dark Seed music. That's all I want to bring up. Because I'm a nerd.

Vic Stein

I love that there are your more political videos that my partners love, and then your labour of love videos, and so I tell my partners that, well, ok, he made a video about a labour of love thing that's a weird Western anime show that I've barely heard of, and you've probably never heard of and also the whole point is that he thinks it's depressingly not very good... and they're like, no: sure, we don't play video games or watch that sort of stuff or care about that subject matter, but, it's hbomerbuy, we're in, let's watch it.

A.j. Gatrell

Hey H-Bomb! I had one note that I hope I’m not saying too late: when you get into the actual critique of the show, I think it’d be nice to add and few lines regarding the show’s structure. You talk a lot about how “this info isn’t revealed until season x episode x” or whatever, but I don’t think you ever talk about how many episodes each season is and how long each individual episode is. Just a few words about the actual length and scale of RWBY might help the non-fan audience understand your points about pacing a little better, as I found myself have to google that information during the video. Love your work!

Tormuse

Fair enough.

Hedrigal

That doesn't explain it in my opinion, because the writers weren't the ones who had money and success, they were in fact relatively low ranking people who happen to work in the company. I don't know why the people who actually had the money and the ability to make decisions didn't I think this waa a situation that justified an outside hire.

Vic Stein

Also, let me know when there's a backer option for getting your at length thoughts on Jojo, titled: "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, it's so good throughout, even the parts where people claim Araki forgot, but actually what is it even doing," I will pay cash money

Aletheia

Well, tbf, he's talking about bunny girls writ large rather than that specific one, and he's talking about how teenage boys would behave, not his own personal feelings. It's not "I want Velvet to step on me" it's "if bunny girls were real, teenage boys would wait on them hand and foot and ask them to step on them."

QuothTheDesk

OH BOY who's ready for some feedback :) :) :) :) So there are a few things that do bug me. I started rewatching the series, and I got to the "I love books" line. Here's what comes immediately afterward at Volume 1, Chapter 3, 5:21 on the youtube version: "Yang used to read to me every night before bed. Stories of heroes and monsters. They're one of the main reasons I want to become a huntress" "Why is that? Hoping you'll live happily ever after?" "I'm hoping we all will. As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books. Someone who fought for what was right, and who protected people who couldn't protect themselves." "That's... very ambitious for a child. Unfortunately the real world isn't the same as a fairytale." So this Ruby's actual "What I really want and why" scene, and characterize her as someone who has an innocent, romantic worldview fostered by looking up to heroes, something that was echoed in the interrogations scene with the line about her parents teaching Ruby and her sister to help others. What is actually clever is, we later find out in this season that Blake, the character who responds to Ruby in this scene, was involved in the Faunus protests from a young age, also fighting for what was right, but over time became jaded, and left that cause behind as things did not work out like a fairytale. That's setup, and it tells a lot more information than the video now is giving it credit. As someone doing editorial studies, reacting to this as a joke about how simple and narm it is, and using it as a throwaway joke later on to reinforce a point undermines your credibility more than the segment you added about how Miles responds to criticism. It comes across like you were laughing at the line that wasn't meant to be a joke with the video still running, and when asked to explain the joke, it really falls apart. It's funny when you present it your way, but it hurts your interpretation of the source material through the video as a whole. Incidentally, I think you heap a lot of the blame on Miles and not as much on Kerry, and it informs the idea that what the problems are with the series came from Miles, when he and Kerry collaborated on the story. That's like saying only Mike or Bryan were responsible for the different parts of the show, when it was a collaboration of them and a few others. It comes across as bias against one person and again undermines credibility. My recommendation is to smush the two writers into one word, like Kiles or Merry, like of like Bryke for Avatar. This problem does come up with the 'Ruby makes her own weapon" segment-- the line right after is (At V1CH2 5:14) "You made that?" "Of course, all students at Signal forge their own weapons. Didn't you make yours?" "It's a hand-me-down--" So this line is showing that Ruby designing/forging her own weapon isn't that unique (everyone who goes to the training schools does it). When you actually combine it with the inference that huntsman weapons are designed for close, midrange, and ranged combat, that she learned from her uncle who uses the same weapon, and she probably based it off his, her being a 'weapons inventor' doesn't seem so novel later on, so I can see why it was never brought up again-- being a weapon designer in this universe isn't novel. It also sets up Jaune's backstory in two ways-- it shows that he is NOT from a training academy, as he forged his transcripts, and that his weapon was passed down from a line of hunters, which we find out later he's trying to live up to. (poorly, as you point out). Instead of a missed characterization, What I interpret happening is the weapons are, V1CH2 1:25, "An extension of our selves, they're a part of us." Ruby outright admires meeting new weapons, and therefore people, and sees them as the same. But when Jaune's weapon is reforged, it's not about meeting new people, it's reflecting on and accepting the changes that happened after the events of season 3. Later on in the show, the characters are given a refresh, and several of their weapons change and upgrade to signify their need to meet new challenges. Weapons-as-an-extension-of-people is a theme of the show. Ruby relates, at first, more to weapons than people, around whom she's nervous. When season 4 rolls around, she's passed this worldview. And again, she designed her weapon, which she ripped off her uncle. She had to have. Otherwise, how could this new sniper-scythe be the most dangerous weapon ever designed? You kind of prove my point. As for the 'forging' line, I'm going to use your own technique against you and say they probably got the idea from the meteorite sword from Avatar. But I think it's just as ridiculous that someone inexperienced 'forges' their weapon, as in physically crafts it, as way too much time watching Man at Arms on Youtube has taught me not to do that kind of thing in the backyard. What is more probably they mean is something that was prototyped in My Hero Academia, where there is an entire industry to designing and creating weapons for hunstma-- heroes to use, even built into the school. I'd have to check the timelines for when those ideas appeared to find likely influences. But it's ambiguous enough that may have been what they were going for. Instead, you could make a joke about how Jaune doesn't recognize Pyrrha as the girl from the cereal box commercials, despite his sweatshirt literally having said cereal's mascot on it. That always bugged me. The other thing that stood out to me was the Boop thing. In the script so far it reads like they're making a big referential scene, hey look at my shirt, when in context the characters are having a casual conversation and one is just studying, wearing pajamas. What probably happened was, they took a little time building the t-shirt mesh, dropped a merch preview jpeg into the file, and boom. The scene was going to happen anyways, she was probably going to wear a black shirt anyways, but using the character as a literal billboard (billbo-obs?) is just what they wanted to do. Something really key to this is understanding this was done before RT was bought in November 2014. Season 2 came out in July 2014, but the merch and scene had to have been in production earlier. That means that until they were taken over, RoosterTeeth was operating on their small business model. In a Burnie vlog (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6Jz5dU90nc) a few years later, Matt Hullum says something that makes RT unique in the time of the adpocalypse is how it interacts directly with the community, "not having to go through a middleman". He clarifies there are five diversified streams of revenue: Advertising, Subscriptions, Licensed Production and royalties, like RWBY in Japan or selling DVDs in Walmart (Did you know here in the US you can by RvB at Walmart? Do they do that over there?), Events business like RTX and Let's Play Live, and Merchandise. From that, we can infer that how RT took in revenue was in these small business ways, not through big corporate meddling. At the time, having the shirt appear in the show was a great way to show fans that new merch was available, and drive sales. Like a homeless tweaker shelter shirt. If you're familiar. I wonder how long it took to model that, and why it was left in the wip animations. Inadvertently, the point comes across as hypocritical. (I love this idea of diversifying streams of revenue so much, I use it for planning my zines and posters and Patreon stuff. It really helps to plan for income from other sources when Youtube is being shi-- *COUGHCOUGH* Oh excuse me I was choking on the irony.) I watched the video with my dad (who has seen the show, he's the coolest dad he got me into anime with GITS:SAC) ((Also he's financially supporting me right now so he's backing me who's backing you so I have no shame saying I shared the video with him)) and we had to pause the video at these points and discuss them. He enjoyed the video, but the experience took him out of the argument and we had more fun correcting these points than moving on with the video. Since some of these points are referenced in the source material, I can see them being easy targets for the comment section. And that's about it for now. I've watched it several times and I do overall like it. Congrats to you and your team!

QuothTheDesk

Oh hell no one's gonna read this.

Alexander Powers

>Oh hell no one's gonna read this THAT'S WHERE YOU'RE WRONG, BUCKAROO. I read the whole thing and, as someone who has never seen RWBY, have some points in response to your response. 1) This one *may* be a fair cop, and I'm speculating a little bit about hbomb's motivation for putting it in there (though I'll point out you did as well, a bit), but the way I interpreted it that surrounding context didn't really affect how I took the joke. "I love books," in addition to being bland, is a sort of weird, stilted line (normally a person would say "I love reading" or maybe "I love [x genre] books," and it's not super well voice acted which just makes it sound more "off" to your average viewer, which makes it work well as a joke regardless of the context surrounding it- and it does by itself sort of speak to that poor characterization even if the line is later tied into backstory stuff because it's so weird and bland. It's not just the information your character gives that's important- how that information is conveyed is equally important for good characterization (as mentioned in the video). I know I personally love reading as well, but I would only ever state that if explicitly asked, and as someone who's consistently been surrounded by avid readers all my life I don't know anyone else who has ever said that in that kind of context. Someone who loves books would *show* that by talking or asking about the subject matter of some particular book, series, or author when the subject comes up. For example, the last time the topic of reading came up among my friends, I started talking about one of my favorite childhood authors and the parts of her books that most interested me. Someone who is doing a good job characterizing their protagonist will know why the character likes books and how they would express that interest. Maybe she goes off about the most recent book she's been reading, or she talks about her favorite stories from childhood, or maybe details about grim that she learned in a particularly exciting book she read. Any of these would have felt natural (as long as they didn't go on too long), been an example of good characterization, and even been a chance to world build a little in an organic way (something they clearly had issues with). Of course, I can't say why hbomb put the line in as a gag, but at least based on my interpretation as a non-fan the surrounding context didn't make the line any better characterization; it just means it wasn't a meaningless throwaway. This was an issue I noticed more than once in the 4 or 5 episodes of RWBY I watched and in the video- the characters are consistently written in a way that feels like the writers haven't really thought them through on more than a superficial level, and it makes them come off pretty flat. I guess tl;dr IMO it's still a bad, flat line worth making a joke about even if it's not a meaningless line in the surrounding context.

Alexander Powers

2) I can't really speak much about this one because I wasn't really paying attention to how much hbomb was emphasizing one writer over the other, but I can say that by the end of the video, having never heard of either of them before I watched it, I actually found Kerry the one I felt I understood better? But that might have just been because I found the things he said particularly distasteful. Overall I didn't get the impression he was focusing on one more than the other, but that's just me and I don't really have any solid points to back that up.

Alexander Powers

3) Oh boy, here it is. This is the one I really wanted to get into, the whole reason I decided to reply. This is the one I feel you really missed the point on the most. The others I felt I could go either way on, but this one I really do feel like you misunderstood what hbomb was saying, because honestly all the surrounding context you gave I felt didn't make any difference whatsoever and was mostly aside from the point. Hbomb was saying with this point that the fact that a 15 year old child designed the most (or one of the most) dangerous hunter weapon ever made was an idea with great potential that could have made Ruby a very interesting and unique character. It doesn't matter one bit if everyone from hunter school makes their own weapon or not- Ruby is only 15 and apparently her weapon is more deadly than the vast majority of weapons *in the world.* That *could* have been used to make Ruby, who comes off as innocent and naive, an interesting and complex character who despite her outward appearance is apparently a child prodigy in *creating machines that kill.* Instead, they let that characterization fade into the background over time and didn't really do anything with its potential. Now, you did mention that she borrowed from her uncle's design, and it's unclear if she just modeled after it or copied it, or if her uncle's weapon was *also* one of the most dangerous weapons in the world and it wasn't her doing, but either way, that wasn't like an immutable part of the story the writers *had* to put in there. If anything, making the most potentially interesting thing about the character just a product of her uncle's genius showcases even more that the writers had no idea what a good idea they were failing to capitalize on. There are a million different directions they could have taken that idea, and a lot of them would have been gold. Since Ruby seems to be a pretty compassionate character (based on the little I've seen), and is a literal child to boot, making her confront the conflict between the violence inherent in the thing she's literally better than anyone else in the world at could have produced some great nuance into the character. Or, what if someone copies *her* weapon and uses it to kill innocent people, and she has to grapple with the idea that even if *she* never uses her weapon unjustly, the fact that it's out there and the fact that it's apparently such a genius design means someone *else* could, and due to how great a weapon it is that might mean they could wreak untold havoc with a thing *she* lovingly created. Those are just a couple of quick ideas off the top of my head, and I'm sure there are plenty of much, much better ones, but my (and I'm fairly certain hbomb's) overall point here is that the contrast between her age, her genius, and the nature of the thing she's a genius at had massive potential, and they squandered all of it by letting that aspect of the character fade into the background, and (at least based on what you've said here) even eventually re-writing it so that it wasn't *really* her design anyway (at least not fully), so maybe she's not such a genius after all. It's a huge example of the potential RWBY had that was largely squandered.

Alexander Powers

4) This one may just be a matter of personal taste, but I'm not a huge fan of the idea of putting merch like that in your tv show, especially not if it's self-referential. Making an article of clothing a character wears *into* merch is one thing, but like, the "boop" thing is *clearly* a reference to an in-universe scene that nobody in-universe would have a reason to buy a shirt referencing- especially not the character who did the action that's being referenced. It's the bad kind of fourth wall breaking that pulls you out of the world and reminds you this is just a bunch of characters on a tv screen because you, the viewer, know what that shirt is clearly referencing, and you also know it doesn't make sense for that shirt to even exist in-universe, much less why someone would be wearing it (a background Easter egg in a clothing store, for example, would probably have been less jarring IMO). I guess what I'm saying is I, personally, see a lot of reasons to dislike that decision that have nothing to do with whether or not they were a small production team with no money and/or no middle men at the time. I get needing to find a way to advertise your merch, especially if you're the size they apparently were at the time, but if you really need to do that to stay afloat please do it in a way that's more clever and less jarring to a viewer who wants to be immersed. (And for the record, at least to me the fact that it's merch, specifically, is an important point- not *just* that it's a nonsensical shirt in-universe. Shows like Dragon Ball had characters with a bunch of silly stuff on them- often, bizarrely, the character's own name or some other bizarre nonsense- but this, to me, came off as just a bizarre and whimsical tone choice because A) clothing designs were *consistently* a little nonsense, and B) it wasn't an obvious advertisement being thrown at me for the show I'm currently watching). Those are just some minor counterpoints; honestly I do think it mitigates my irritation at the subject a good bit to know it was more of a "a few guys trying to get by" kind of decision and not a "being a corporate shill out for profits" kind of decision. (I will also point out as an aside, though, that afaik hbomb has not tried to monetize the Homeless Tweaker's Shelter shirt and said in the video itself that if you ever see it in the store it is the one copy of that shirt that he made, and for that reason it seems like a non sequitur to me that you brought up that he used it in the video and had it in the WIP version- it's not an ad, it's a reference to a previous video by having a model of him wear a shirt he has actually worn in the past in real life)

Alexander Powers

Anyway, I hope you take the time to read this if you can (sorry it's all so long, and sorry it's now 5 separate comments- I shouldn't have tried to do this on my phone). I guess it's a bit obvious to say it at this point, but I'd like to point out that though you framed these points as "corrections," it felt to me like they were more disagreements with a couple of points, and there are differing perspectives on it. It made me a little uneasy to see the word "corrections" in there because it gave your comment a sense of objective fact that I don't think it had; if you ask me it seems like most of your disagreement was largely opinion-based. Which is fine, there's nothing wrong with that- I actually disagree with most of the points hbomb makes in his Sherlock video for largely opinion-based reasons and I still think I'm right- but you consistently framed those disagreements as objective faults with the video that reflect sloppiness, dishonesty, or hypocrisy on hbomb's part (whether intentional or unintentional), and I think that's a bit unfair. I can see how a lot of the surrounding context you gave might lend itself to a different interpretation of those parts of the show depending on how you look at it, but I don't think any of them constitute actual misrepresentation of RWBY or even those specific parts of it.

QuothTheDesk

Hiya, I wanted to jump in earlier, but you were on a roll! Thank you very much for reading and responding so thoroughly- I really appreciate it! I'm not only glad someone took the time, but also to counter several points. I do agree I used the term correction incorrectly, and will use suggest as an alternative.

Lowry65

harry you better have read all of this or you’re cancelled

Nicole

Really like the video, and I think the edits add a lot to it. One additional thing that I think would be interesting to explore is the voice acting since most of the characters are voiced by in-house staff, and it really shows. Even now, looking over the list of people working on RWBY, it still does not appear they have a dedicated vocal director, and that seems super weird for a cartoon that's been running this long.

Kat

oh no

SausageSalad

I love your series analysis videos because I'm writing a story myself that I hope I'll one day be able to make into a long comic series and I'm just furiously taking notes about your storywriting points cause I'm still learning what makes a story good. Also thanks for reminding me about Soul Eater I've been meaning to rewatch it, even though I'm in the middle of watching so many other series (like Avatar) but let me just start another one just because I want to and I can

Levi Darbyshire !

I heard something a while back about some of the character models use in RWBY being stolen from another (smaller?) studio/creator. Have you seen this / looked into it / will it be mentioned at all?

Charlie page

i cant believe somneone else loves that cringey af coffee song, i feel so validated hbomb

Chuu

Aw, you got rid of the T-Posing Trans Rights Donkey Kong :(

OH

I feel like I should mention in case you don’t know but the maidens were Monty’s idea

Fiore

The moment you adressed the ways they are heavily leaning on the animes that they are inspired by, more specifically AtLA and Legend of Korra, I could NOT unsee the Amon scene from Season 1 in that whole scene where they wear the masks in order to watch and listen to the speech he's giving. Like,,,, wow I sincerely cannot unsee it. But hey, it made me wanna rewatch both of these shows, which is a positive!

QuothTheDesk

I am equal parts honored and terrified that you commented.

Helena Harper

holy shit dude i dont even know what to say except yes incest is gross and if it cuts that deep you might wanna do some introspection on yourself here

Elder Dog

I think it's because Rooster Teeth at the time was a company that was influenced largely by their founders and who they believed could be let into the "Rooster Teeth Family". My theory is that they just picked Kerry and Miles because they were already employed by the company and they had developed a rapport with people like Geoff and Burnie to get the job.

Kristopher L Arseneault

Signed up for this and was not disappointed. I missed the initial launch of the show and I think when I got VRV a few years ago I decided to try it out and couldn't get through the first episode. And... wow, talk about some cringe. I can definitely relate to something that feels like it could get good or at least has some really good moments; that was what Naruto and Bleach for me. I remember thinking what a good idea the whole Bount season was because it clearly was at least trying to create a story compared to the endless disconnected stories of Naruto's endless filler. Ended up dropping both not long after that (though I followed both through the manga, though I skipped quite a bit of it with Bleach after the fourth special Ichigo power-up. And I did want to say that it looks like RWBY's good point IS kind of related to anime homework, but they managed to make it their own. Seems very reminiscent of the Chuunin War of Naruto (Tournament goes to hell as ultimate villain reveals self), but they actually managed to make it their own rather than simply making it a hollow copy. Ends up showing the difference between being inspired by something and merely being referential to it.

thequeerquartz

everytime you mention disappointment with bleach i screamed, i've never been so validated since the sherlock video. the bleach music is also a nice touch. honestly one of the clearest visual similarities was the white fang crowd the characters snuck into and the equalist rally from korra

thequeerquartz

honestly one of the clearest visual similarities was the white fang crowd the characters snuck into and the equalist rally from korra

Izzy Ikigai

"working with a lawyer to make sure the video is safely within the territory of fair use" I hope you also got a few more lawyers for the HP stuff. As a trans ally and with the current mood of a certain "clumsy and middle-aged" author you'll probably need them if said author accidentally SLAPPs you.. >.>

Jon Kimbel

Coming back a week later to rewatch the intro... It's very good

Sparks & Rainbows (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-14 06:00 I kinda like this version more. Any chance we can have it back? Or not really?
2020-08-02 18:39

bluetybloop

i liked the bunny girl joke tbh