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dextixer · 1 year

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How the RWBY fandom played and still plays a significant role in harming RWBY and itself.

WARNING: LONG POST

TW: ABUSE

Link to the original Reddit post - HERE

I have been a part of this community for a long time now, over 10 years even, with varying levels of activity throughout. Just like many, i started the series bright-eyed and full of hope, falling down into a massive hole of hate in V5 only to crawl my way back in V6-7 and become not a hater, not a super-fan, but a critic. Someone who enjoys the series, but also likes to criticize the show and its inner workings.

Over time, many have experienced the same journey that i have, they have banded together and are collectively known as "critics" of the show, not exactly the most accurate description, but it suffices. I am not going to sit here and say that all critics have been good. Amongus are the people who genuinely hate the show, there are those that use bad argumentation and the like.

What always comes as a surprise to me is just how hateful parts of the RWBY community are and just how much distain they hold for the critical parts of the community. Blaming us for harming the show and the fandom by just existing. And whenever such opinions gain popularity, there are problems.

I am here to refute this logic, and point out that the problems of the fandom, and how the anime and other communities perceive the RWBY fandom are not caused by the critics. But rather, the fandom itself, or rather, the loud parts of it, since most people who watch RWBY do not engage with it further than that, as is with many other products.

Self-Victimization and Abuse

First, let us cover a very commonly seen or talked about "meme" in the community.

The "Stop liking what i dont like" statement. I think RWBY is one of biggest communities i have ever seen that has such a culture of self-victimization. While i dont deny that there might be a few individuals that actively seek out to tell people to not enjoy RWBY. That is barely an existing ammount of people.

Whenever a critique is made, most of us critics do not even think about the fans. We do not care if our opinions will be read, if anyone will see them. We do not care if you watch or dont watch the show. Enjoy it or not enjoy it. We have no reason to care. Your life is yours.

And yet, the RWBY community sees critical videos and posts as directly INTENDED to get people to dislike the show. Even when the poster says that all they want is to share their opinions or to have a discussion, their actions are attributed to being an "attack" on someone enjoyment.

In fact i have even seen statements of people saying that after watching a critique video they started enjoying RWBY more, and then proceeded to blame the critic for it.

And this self-victimization is not reserved just for seeing critique. There are people who perceive that a person arguing their point itself is agression. If for example one makes a statement about RWBY that a person disagrees with, it is seen as a "personal" attack. If you say something as simple as "I think you are misrepresenting this scene or this argument" it is not perceived as an argument, its perceived an attack.

While there are people that agressively claim the RWBY fandom to be a cult, which it is not. At least some of the behaviours exhibited from the more extreme fans can be genuinely scary. As an example there is an interaction i had here on Reddit.

This interaction serves as a perfect example of the behaviour i am talking about, but this is not a unique interaction i have had. In the argument chain i stated that the person in question misrepresented a few scenes that we have argued about in the show. Instead of seeing this as an argument, they saw it as an insult, and that initiates what i can only describe as Abuser Logic.

A) An innocent statement/argument is perceived to be a direct insult of a person.

B) This perceived insult then results in abuse (In this case, verbal), as a "justified" response seen by the person.

C) Then the person proceeds to gaslight the victim by saying "I would not do this if you had not done x" "I just wanted to do Y but you brought this upon yoursef".

I am not here to say that this behaviour is EQUAL to real life domestic abuse. It is not. At the same time, the logic exhibited by some people in the RWBY fandom is genuinely scary, and it can happen to new users too.

Some people are so invested into RWBY that any criticism of it, is a genuine attack. This goes hand in hand with the entire "You are trying to make me not enjoy RWBY" meme. A person cant just see criticism as is. It is perceived as an intentional attack.

An attack that deserves retaliation...

And this victimization does not stop there. I have often seen statements of "RWBY has a uniquelly bad critic community" "RWBY is uniquelly hated" "RWBY is uniquelly unfairly criticized", when in reality, RWBY is barely a blip on the anime community radar. And yet the RWBY fandom, or at least parts of it always make it about themselves. The problems it perceives are not just common fandom interaction. No. The fandom is "under unfair attack".

It gets tiring at points...

Otherization and self-isolation

The self-victimization and abuse then leads to the otherization of other communities and self-isolation of the RWBY fandom. An in-group forms and many people outside that in-group are seen as either potential fans, or enemies. I will cover how the otherization effect manifests itself with specific groups in mind.

Youtubers -

The RWBY community is no stranger to youtubers, from the very start of the series it has been covered by youtubers that analyzed theories, posted music, made AMV's, even reaction channels. Later on it was joined by the more critical Youtubers who started cropping up in V4+.

It was then that Youtubers were slowly starting to become "other" an "enemy". They were no longer considered fans of RWBY. They were considered haters, or doing it "just for money and clout", even now that view persists. People say that Youtubers make people not watch RWBY, state that they are harmful.

Some of this is merited. Some critical youtubers have definitely not acted their best and their arguments have been shallow. But there have also been many cases of outright harassment and even what i can only call "banishments" from the RWBY community. This even affects the traditionally positive Youtubers, because if they make critical content of any kind, some parts of the fandom quickly rise up to say that they have been "corrupted".

And the funny thing is that these complaints persist even though most of the biggest critics of RWBY are barely even active right now. Hbomber and JelloApocalypse made their videos THREE years ago. The last time Eruptionfang talked about non-queendom content is 11 months ago. Last time Vexed Viewer or Celtic Phoenix made RWBY videos was 4 months ago. From the biggest offenders only AdelAka and HeroHei have talked about RWBY, and they have not only branched out but only covered the RT controversy, that most other critics did not even touch.

Even when they are barely active they are still seen as some kind of "dangerous" presences. And people cant blame the Youtube algorhythm either. Sure, Hbombers video is popular, but besides that there is barely any critical content that is easy to see. One can also easily block it or not press it.

And yet they are STILL demonized

Critics -

This hits me close to home. It is often that i see people accuse critics of "Brigading" despite the fact that most critics belong to both this and the critical sub. It is often that people seem to believe that we should not even exist in this community, just leave r/RWBY entirely. We are not seen as members of the same community, we are "other", we have to be segregated, and if we express our opinions and god forbid interact with the community, then its some kind of "organized attack".

Not only that, but we are also lumped together into an amorphous mass. We are at a point in time that even if a SINGLE person says something, it is a view of ALL the critics. Let us take for example JudgementalCritter who once portrayed Ruby cutting off Tyrians tail as a negative. That is their view. It is not shared by literally every critic around. And yet... And yet we are all blamed for it. Same goes for any other "popular" view that is assigned to us. No, not everyone of us likes Adam, not everyone of us likes Ironwood, not everyone of us wants to rewrite the show. Not everyone hates the protagonists. Its a community with many varied opinions.

Not only that but the whole "Dont like dont watch" meme usually also comes out during times like these despite the fact that many critics still like the show. And yet we are told that we do not like the show. Because we criticize it and because we dont talk positively about it. Which is a weird way to hoist responsibility on us to be positive in a fandom where anyone can be, and either chooses not to, or when they do, they get 1k upvotes for something as simple "Idk why ppl complain about show, show great".

This is especially hurtfull when the RWBY community engages in what i can only describe as its own brand of homophobia/racism/ableism. I have made a thread in the past in which i posted various people being bigoted in the RWBY community as long as the target was a "critic" or a character that was disliked. That is of course rare in comparison to another kind of, sometimes intentional, sometimes not attack...

The denial of ones identity. It is a very oft seen accusation that all critics are "straight white males", or at least, the implication is. I myself am growing tired of constantly being attacked that way because in Bi. And yet this assumption continues to persist. Since RWBY is considered a diverse community the critics are otherised as being not that.

It is especially grating when seeing statements as such. Which are just direct statements/implications that people with different opinions are just outright bigots or of certain political persuasion. Which also takes the form of words such as "Bootlicker", and yes, i will keep bringing this up as long as this kind of behaviour lasts.

Anime Communities -

The outright hatred and arrogance that some parts of the RWBY fandom exhibit over Anime is sometimes unbelievable. Some people who argue that RWBY is great usually do so at the expense of other anime. It is common to see claims such as "RWBY does not utilize anime tropes" "RWBY is unique in how it handles LGBT+ relationships" "RWBY is unique in how great it is". While these claims would usually not be as much of a problem. They become one when these arguments usually contain an underlying distain for Anime. RWBY is not just claimed to be better, Anime is usually denegrated at the same time. Its not "RWBY is great!" its "RWBY is better than those shitty anime".

Its a combination of almost religious like adoration with hatred of anything that isnt it. This has even happened with the RWBY Ice Queendom release. What was supposed to be a happy and joyous occasion was quickly darkened... By the RWBY fandom itself...

Instead of celebrating and advertising the work, some parts of the fandom started before even the release of the Anime complain about how a Japanese studio is now going to RUIN the "best" things about RWBY. How RWBY is going to become *shudders* Anime. This kind of wory would not make sense if one is not fammiliar with how some people put RWBY on a pjedestal.

It also is often times mixed in some kind of anti-asian sentiment. Not directly, and not openly. But one can quickly notice how much time is spent focusing on that the Anime is made by a Japanese studio. That its not just "Anime", but also made in Japan is seen as some kind of problem.

Homogenization and Stalking

Parts of the RWBY fandom have also been exhibiting a new, but no less worrying behaviour in regards to other opinions. I think everyone loves making theories and the like, sharing their opinions of characters and how they perceive them.

But during this year it has changed. While i can understand that because of the hiatus that is extremelly long in comparison to others many arguments have been repeated and beaten to death. There has been a worrying trend to imply some kind of "deficiency" when a person is disagreeing or has a different perception.

Let us say that two people watch the same scene but see it differently. For the sake of the example that most people are familiar with i will use the discussion about Atlas closing its borders between Ironwood and Jacques. Some people will see that scene as Ironwood threathening Jacques. Others will not. Its a different in opinion and perception. There is nothing wrong with that. Both sides can be argued for and against.

But what is more commonly happening now is that if a certain opinion is accepted, it no longer can be questioned. If you do then "You are not watching the show" or "You are lying/trolling". Disagreement becomes less and less acceptable, disagreement is not a sign of a different opinion, its a sign of one being "stupid" or "silly".

This is not me saying that every and any argument should accepted or acknowledged as correct. But one can at least ACKNOWLEDGE why someone might be thinking the way they do besides "They are stupid and dont watch the show". As the latest picture above that i posted, people "Must be imagining it" is becoming more and more common, and that is not a good sign, especially with a new volume coming up and at least currently looking like it will be more symbolic/weird.

Dont like - Dont watch/read

As i have noted before, this has been an often touted phrase by some parts of the fandom on the innacurate assumption that people dont like the show. Ironically enough though, the people who hate critique, genuinely hate it, cant stop talking about it. Unlike the show that the critics like, the fandom usually does not like critics, but instead of choosing to NOT engage with that content, they go out of their way to do so.

There is no better example of this than RWBY Tumblr. As i have mentioned in one of my posts before, Tumblr has an active RWBY community and a great tagging system for people to search for specific things they want, or to block things they do not want, simmilar to AO3 in that regard for readers of fanfiction.

Over time due to complaints the tag RWDE formed in Tumblr, exclusively meant for RWBY critiques. Anyone who did not wish to engage with them could just block the tag and enjoy the RWBY content they wished.

And yet...

Instead of that happening, the people who just said that they "dont want to see" criticism then started to go to RWDE tag for the explicit purpose of harassing those users. And if that wasnt enough they quickly formed the "Anti RWDE" tag for that specific purpose. Which defies all reason, does it not?

If the community dislikes criticism, why did the RWBY community on Tumblr go out of their way to intentionally engage with it and harass the people involved? And they did not even stop there, after some time they started going after Reddit posts, posting them on Tumblr or sharing them on other websites with no censorship of names or with direct links.

A RWDE member made an excelent analogy of kids playing in the playground. All kids play together until a group decide to play a different game and are harrased for doing it, those harassed kids then leave the playground to play in the park. And then instead of enjoying playing their games in the playground, the kids go to the park to harass some more.

So this is not about people not wanting to see critique.

Some parts of the RWBY fandom dont want for it to exist at all...

I have even noticed some users that make threads and then have 100+ people blocklists, they complain about critics, talk about positivity while activelly shielding themselves from any possible pushback with blocklists that look longer than this thread.

Ending Word

So before anyone else thinks about once again complaining about critics, or how Youtubers ruined the RWBY fandom. Maybe decide to look inward. Because the RWBY fandom has not made itself look in any way good to other fandoms, or even people in this fandom.

The RWBY fandom is in an never ending spiral of purity-testing and more and more increasing resistance to any kind of negativity. Even the RT drama that happened not even a long ago passed and now people barely even remember it happened.

Everyone is now back in their places, supporting the show and shouting in their threads "Lol, still going to support the game".

And then those of us who complained, people of minority communities that rang the warning bells for years. We are yet again are ignored or boxed in. That would not be nearly as bad if the same community did not once again choose to shit-talk critics and youtubers.

#rwby #rwde #r/rwby #rwby reddit #rwby community

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