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itsclydebitches · 4 years

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I’m a broken record, but I just can’t help myself: if RWBY didn't try to be complex this nearly perfect friendship wouldn’t be a problem. Plenty of shows that have a group of heroes working together sometimes have them barely, if ever, actually fight and argue with one another. Unfortunately, in the real world even the closest relationship will have arguments, just another thing that’s ruined by RWBY’s unnecessary “the real isn't a fairytale" theme.

Exactly! Hence the Sailor Moon reference - from what I remember from my childhood, anyway. If you have a morally simple story (here’s our Purely Evil threat combated by our Perfect Good heroes) then yes, there’s nothing wrong with providing a cast whose interactions are equally straightforward. Most internal conflicts, if they show up at all, are resolved in a single episode. Maybe two or three if it’s a special case. Oh, so-and-so are fighting? Give it 20 minutes and they’ll work it out. It’s not just fighting shows that do this either. As an episodic show, Star Trek: The Original Series is one of my favorite examples of a story functioning under the unspoken rule of “By the end of the episode everyone needs to be back exactly as they were in preparation for the next.” You reset with the bridge. It doesn’t matter how many would-be gods the Enterprise runs into, or how many times they disobey an Admiral’s orders, or whether two characters had a particularly emotional arc like surviving Pon Farr, come next week everyone is acting/functioning as if this stuff never happened (with a few very minor continuity references and ignoring the films). Bones is forever grumpy, Spock forever logical, Kirk forever charismatic - and the idea of them having a multi-episode falling out just doesn’t fit.

Notably though, ST:TOS is not simple. At all. It’s poised somewhere between a morally simple show that doesn’t engage in character growth (Sailor Moon) and a morally complex show that does (Star Trek: Deep Space Nice). TOS, in a genius move, uses its static characters as a baseline for grappling with heavy external conflicts, bringing some of that internal conflict into the mix. Meaning, the characters might not grow, but they were designed to create friction. Spock’s logic is always bumping up against Kirk’s emotion. Kirk’s recklessness is always bumping up against McCoy’s need to keep everyone safe. McCoy’s oath to help others is always bumping up against the Prime Directive. Not to mention the larger conflicts like Alien vs. Human. TOS gives us complex political questions each episode and then slammed that together with a cast that is designed to disagree. Which isn’t me saying that the trio is always fighting or anything (they’re not), just that the were crafted as individuals with radically different backgrounds. Even when they agree on the end goal - we need to help people - how they go about that is debatable. We get conflicts like:

Hey, Bones. Your excellent desire to save a woman from being hit by a car has nevertheless created an entirely new timeline. That’s a biiiig problem.

Hey, Kirk and Spock. In order to undo this damage you have to survive in the past, which means stealing stuff you need to blend in, survive, and lying to everyone around you about who you really are. These are “bad” things that have become necessary under the circumstances.

Hey, Kirk. You’ve falling in love with the woman who cannot live in order to restore your timeline. You’re going to grapple with your personal desires vs. your duty as a Captain and your duty to the rest of the world.

And that’s just one episode! None of which carries over into the next episode. Kirk doesn’t spend the finale grieving for Edith’s loss because that story is over and done, but that lack of continuity doesn’t mean it wasn’t compelling. Engaging in that reset/keeping characters relatively static isn’t a bad thing - it can, in fact, be very freeing if you want to tell a simple Good vs. Evil tale or make space to explore morally gray situations - and we could have gotten either option in the RWBY post-Volume 3 era. RT hasn’t managed it though. When was the last time the group actually disagreed? Had a different perspective? Grappled with what they wanted vs. what was needed and actually chose the greater good? RT introduced complex situations and complex characterizations that necessitated growth... and have, by and large, failed to deliver on either.

#color2wheel #rwby #rwde #mymetas

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