RWBY Thoughts, Continued

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So yeah, I've had some time to sit with RWBY after binging the series mostly by way of reaction videos, and subsequently learning about what a shitshow Rooster Teeth is as a company. Luckily that seems to be mostly the upper echelons and not the people who actually did most of the work on RWBY, but it still muddies the waters. I've also been exposed to more of the FNDM (as the RWBY fandom tends to refer to itself), as well as to the hatedom, of which RWBY has one strong enough to rival Star Wars. And what do I think, now that I've gone through all that?

Honestly? I still like it. If you just look at the work, separated from all the meta stuff, it's a fun adventure fantasy, and in terms of quality I'll rank volume six's episodes 10-13 especially against just about any of my favorite stuff. Not everything in the entire run is amazing, but we're talking about somebody who unironically loves Star Trek: The Animated Series and the Street Fighter movie here, warts and all.

Unfortunately, the future of the property is pretty murky right now. Rooster Teeth is owned by Warner Media, which is going through all kinds of collective spasms to begin with, before you look at the RT controversies driving viewers away from their projects. The looooooooooooong gap between volumes eight and nine, ostensibly to allow quality-without-crunch during the time of COVID, has instead produced an anime spinoff series, a Justice League crossover (?!?!???) that as far as I can tell nobody wanted, and a mobile phone game? Plus crunch has still been just as bad, if showbiz gossip is to be believed.

Even if volume 9 is in the can and ready to go (unlikely, with RT's record), will anyone show up to watch it when it finally comes to light? Will RT even survive long enough for that day to come? The franchise is popular overseas (in Japan particularly, I gather) so it wouldn't surprise me if the whole kit and kaboodle were to be siloed off into its own production company and/or sold off to... somebody. I don't know who. But if that happens, will any of the people who made RWBY, "RWBY," still be there for it?

I mean, that could be a good thing, if it gets bought by, y'know, anybody ethical. But the animation industry is very thin in that regard currently, and getting thinner from the sound of things. And the way WB is going, "locked in a vault and forgotten forever" is another distinctly possible fate.

So, who knows? But either way, I've enjoyed the first eight volumes. I hope to see more.

-TG