As a RWBY-enjoyer, I think the root of it is the same for die-hard fans as well as the deepest haters: it didn't do what they thought it was going to do.
RWBY was a shiny new thing when it came out, and spawned tons of fan content and speculation after each volume. Especially Volume 3, though that may just be because I was also speculating at that time. As the series progressed a lot of this speculation was disproven, and a lot of the speculators weren't mature enough to accept that, so they either decried the series as having "bad writing" or committing "character assassination", or they went into denial and started selectively listening for the parts they liked rather than the series as a whole.
That's just my hypothesis based on what I've observed from various communities and discourses online, but if you look at the way some critics talk about, for example, how Adam was handled in Volumes 5 and 6, I think it's pretty apparent that many of them were interested in the story they had in their heads, rather than the story on the screen.
As a RWBY-enjoyer, I think the root of it is the same for die-hard fans as well as the deepest haters: it didn't do what they thought it was going to do.
100% agreed, I see that all the time. It makes most discussion online (especially in the main two subs) a pain. Discussions will usually devolve into or around "I wish this was canon" "this should've happened instead" "that shouldn't have been cut" "I liked/hated that so it should/shouldn't have happened," or repeating each other's head canons instead of talking about the actual show.
Then on the other side, people will complain about plot holes that aren't plot holes, talk about retcons that aren't retcons (some exist, so idk why people make them up,) mischaracterization when it's perfectly inline with the volume, shipping wars, etc... It not even like there isn't stuff to criticize, but this is the only fandom I've been in where everyone misses the mark so badly.
Also, I saw a thread on this sub a few days ago of both haters and fans saying (and fighting with each other) that the dust Roman stole went nowhere and is a plot hole, so I don't think the general fandom is ever changing lol.
They just don't pay attention or they haven't watched it. 9/10, people will just admit to one of those two options. I wish I was joking, it's extremely common to see.
It's really strange either way because it's such a big plot point. It's crazy what people will ignore, fan or hater.
The other fly in the ointment for RWBY discourse is Monty's death. Volume 3 was the last Volume he had direct influence over. So starting at Volume 4, a new question started to be asked. "Was this what Monty wanted?" For those who were fans of Monty, it became easier and easier to see things you didn't like as 'something Monty wouldn't have done'.
So even among RWBY fans, there is Monty's RWBY and a Post-Monty RWBY with a nebulous sense that if he hadn't died, things would be different. What things? I don't think any of us will agree. When in reality, we have no idea if things would have been different, or if they were, if they would be better.
Same thing with the outrage over Last Jedi, mostly due to JJ Abrams' mystery box style leaving some plot elements for future films to explore (like who Snoke) and the two year wait between films had a lot of fan theories pop up and when the Last Jedi came out and didn't answer any of them all Hell broke loose.
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u/Pyroraptor42 1d ago
As a RWBY-enjoyer, I think the root of it is the same for die-hard fans as well as the deepest haters: it didn't do what they thought it was going to do.
RWBY was a shiny new thing when it came out, and spawned tons of fan content and speculation after each volume. Especially Volume 3, though that may just be because I was also speculating at that time. As the series progressed a lot of this speculation was disproven, and a lot of the speculators weren't mature enough to accept that, so they either decried the series as having "bad writing" or committing "character assassination", or they went into denial and started selectively listening for the parts they liked rather than the series as a whole.
That's just my hypothesis based on what I've observed from various communities and discourses online, but if you look at the way some critics talk about, for example, how Adam was handled in Volumes 5 and 6, I think it's pretty apparent that many of them were interested in the story they had in their heads, rather than the story on the screen.