#that story's backbone is rooted in commentary on redemption for the person seeking it and healing for the people they hurt

[unofficialadamtaurus]

Your reblog about feeling a writers earnestness and heart despite the writing itself maybe being shit really got me thinking. There is so much wrong with RWBY’s writing, but one that and I think is apparent now more than ever that is just as unquantifiable: Respect. And it’s the complete and utter lack of respect for the characters they’re writing for that is part of reason RWBY is fundamentally broken.

And look, I am by no means a writer, so maybe you can correct me here, but I think that dictates a lot of what a writer does? Whenever I do happen to write, draw, or generally interact with a character, I try to respect it. To me I get a sense that somebody, like my siblings or my friends, my parents, or even their friends, experienced what that character has. Somebody can identify with it in a personal way, and that should be respected imo.

Obviously, you need to tell a story first and foremost, so characters are a means to an end, really. But it’s that sense of mindfulness to the character that I believe makes the part they play in the story all the more compelling.

But again I’m not writer. I won’t try to pretend that I know or understand what goes behind a well told story. But the complete lack of care MK(EK) have wafts through.

I don’t know why I didn’t expect this shithole of a season honestly. These are the same people that botched a racism plot line and used the character who has suffered the worst of oppression and racism in-universe as a scapegoat, the people that made the man that struggled with the weight of the world on his shoulders evil because of his neurodivergence, the people that chopped a young woman’s arm and didn’t explore the repercussions of it because they thought it was boring, the people that wrote off a woman who lost her entire country as a joke, and now? Those people made their main character, whom they clearly don’t love, or even like, suicidal and very, very clearly alone.

This show is awful lol.

You can 100% tell when a writer respects a character and it absolutely impacts the quality of the work. It's not quantifiable, but I think it can come through in the little things: consistency, depth, plot beats, that sort of thing. The mentality that someone, somewhere, is connecting with a character is - to me - a key aspect of good character writing.

And it seems like all of the writers either don't know or don't care about that. They have a list of plot beats they're going to hit, damn the consequences.

Put another way: characters are vehicles through which to tell a story. If you don't respect your characters, you probably don't respect your story.

#anon #unofficial adam answers #rwde #long post #another part of judging 'heart' might be whether the work has a clear purpose behind it #a clear creative vision #and is clearly trying to achieve that vision #early rewuby had that in spades #flashy and fun and all about the fights #now? i honestly don't know #what's the point of this show now? #what do the writers *want*? #they have their list of plot beats and presumably and overarching plot but... #what's the point of it all? why are they telling this particular story? #like HP is all about coming back from rock bottom and forgiveness and all that jazz #that story's backbone is rooted in commentary on redemption for the person seeking it and healing for the people they hurt #i am driven to write the story in a way that enables scenes that focus in on those themes #just like how early rewuby was driven to enable fight scenes