Heroes and Monsters (RWBY) – Overly Animated Podcast #111
By: Dylan Hysen
Dylan Hysen and Delaney Stovall discuss the latest episode of RWBY, “Heroes and Monsters”.
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Dylan Hysen
Dylan is a software developer from the DC area who hosts the Overly Animated podcast discussing everything animation.
5 Comments
A lot of this is interesting and thanks for the response! That being said I articulated my intense criticisms of the Adam scene very clearly and I don’t think “I disagree” is a reasonable response given the content of what I was saying. You do get into some reasoning at the end but my argument had nothing to do with the plot for most of it, and is about the abhorrent portrayal towards our female characters, and I’d encourage you to look at my criticisms from a social issues angle. Not saying I’m infallible or my argument was, but you seem to not even be considering it from that perspective.
From a plot perspective: there has to be an intermediary between a villain providing a struggle for the hero and what we saw with Blake. It was absurd given how competent we’ve seen Blake be but more than that it was just eternally frustrating.
Blake loosing I hope is a prelude to her eventually building up to taking out or beating some sense into Adam who by her words was a better man at one point.
I will agree that Adam’s behavior towards Blake should have been more “pure”, she betrayed the cause now she must pay. The writers shouldn’t have made Adam an abusive boyfriend trying to get his woman back.
I am looking at this from a story telling perspective. Making Adam the psycho ex-boyfriend was a cliche, while good man gone bad to realize his ambition is another it would have been better in this situation. A Male vs Female confrontation that is tinged with rapacious subtext/undertones is another;couldn’t the male aggressor be cold or professional enough just to defeat his target?
The writers answered no they just had to play “that card”. And by doing so taints the relationship between both characters and makes a possible reconciliation unacceptable in the eyes of many fans.
I do wish Blake would have put more of a fight, I just hope that it was more that she wasn’t really fighting back rather than she wasn’t capable of doing so.
I have no problem with Adam beating both Blake and Yang without taking a hit. As it demonstrates just how dangerous the Villain is. Yang is team RWBY’s heavy hitter if there is somebody who can even slow her down let alone beat (Neo) her it serves to reinforce the severity of the threat.
I am also betting that Yang being disarmed is what is going to push Blake to the point of beating Adam.
#Grudgematch.
I liked this episode all around.
I must disagree with you on Adam, the only problem with his depiction is that the motivation that he was given for hunting Blake were entirely to personal and petty. Way to take away from the characterization of a man who could have been a gloriously fanatical “well intentioned extremist(see Tv Tropes)” . Now we have a nothing more than an a crazed Ex something?
I didn’t like Blake not putting up more of a fight, though I’ve seen the trope of the hero that can’t “yet” bring themselves to harm the loved-one gone dark. I have also seen the trope of the hero that while willing to allow themselves to be harmed, would go ballistic if a loved-one was hurt.
So I think and hope that Adam’s maiming of Yang is the trigger that Blake need build up the nerve to confront Adam,He is her monster to slay or redeem and I’ll be sorely disappointed if anyone but Blake beats him.
Adam handling both Blake and Yang was completely appropriate to me. It is poor writing to have a nemesis/rival/villain introduced then have the hero just toss beat them.
I think the cast is too big to give everyone enough character development. To top it off they don’t do well with the time they do have.
I didn’t mind the Adam scene. I think they should have developed him earlier to make what he does seem more satisfying but I am hopeful they can develop him more afterwards.
I think most of RWBYs problems revolve around the fact that they are trying to release this show as if it’s a broadcast television show when we only have 15-17 minute episodes. I think a Netflix like approach would be better for this show where they make the entire season as a movie with a cohesive plot written from beginning to end and released all at once. What do you guys think?
Well I think we have proof of a Netflix type release working better for RWBY because the show is on Netflix and a lot of people watch it that way! Personally I liked season 2 a lot better rewatching it all at once on Netflix than I did week-to-week last year. I assume the same will be true of season 3, but probably to a lesser extent because of the long term plot problems of this season (we may podcast on the season as a whole and discuss this in 2 weeks). But yeah I do think they try to do too much in too short of a time and that a week to week release hurts them for what they’re currently doing.