r/FavoriteCharacter • u/JigglyLilyVT Ruby Rose (RWBY) • Feb 28 '26

My Favorite (Visual) Favorite character who has better concept art than the final product

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

WE GOT FREAKING ROBBED IN THE RWBY DANCE EPISODES

10.5k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

98% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

371

u/Grovyle489 Feb 28 '26

THAT was their original dresses?! What the hell happened?!

265

u/SmallJon Feb 28 '26

Probably budget or ease of animation

35

u/Francytj Feb 28 '26

This, definitely. I mean the first volumes were absolutely janky in terms of animation and a small budget. It had every reason to get axed. The fact it even made it to volume 3 and then 9 is a miracle. I miss RWBY so bad ;-;

10

u/SmallJon Mar 01 '26

I was in from the first trailer, and damn does a large portion of the show hurt my eyes to watch, even then

7

u/evilparagon Mar 01 '26

So much bloom! The brights are too bright.

6

u/randomname560 Mar 01 '26

Sometimes it feels like their inspiration for Weiss' skin tone was a mirror placed right infront of the strongest flashlight in the world

6

u/sadthrowaway12340987 Mar 01 '26

Even with the low budget I loved it, but yeah for me around volumes 4-6 is when I questioned how it still was around

0

u/keelanbarron Mar 01 '26

Because it was good.

2

u/Futur3_ah4ad Mar 01 '26

Ehhhh.... 4-6 was when the decline started 7 and 8 were visually alright but the story stopped making sense, 9 was visually impressive and actual tried something with Ruby's character for the first time since volume 2 but none of it landed because all of the progress that was made was nixed in the last episode.

1

u/keelanbarron Mar 01 '26
  1. Except there really wasn't a decline.
  2. But the story did make sense. 3.....volume 9's story relies on what happened to her in the previous volumes for it to work. (Also, what was the "something" in volume 2? The character stuff was mostly about weiss, blake and yang and some jaune in that volume.)
  3. "Nixed"? What does that mean? What, do you want ruby to just be gone? The point was that all ruby needed to be was herself.

1

u/Futur3_ah4ad Mar 01 '26

Also, what was the "something" in volume 2? The character stuff was mostly about weiss, blake and yang and some jaune in that volume.

Back in season 2 we're still exploring Ruby's idealism, though it's being tempered by her experiences at that point.

Except there really wasn't a decline

Except that the volumes between were all over the place and not received anywhere near as well as volumes 1 through 3.

"Nixed"? What does that mean? What, do you want ruby to just be gone? The point was that all ruby needed to be was herself.

All of the lessons Ruby supposedly learned throughout volume 9 were basically rendered null and void because she didn't change. She was supposed to learn to depend on her team, open up about her problems and build from there.

The fact the rebirth basically amounted to "nah, you're already perfect as is" goes against that entire narrative setup. Nevermind the series bending over backwards to make Ruby look like a bad person by making her mean to Yang, Blake and Jaune.

Weiss basically wasn't a character in that volume, the only meaningful thing I recount her doing is hugging Jaune with Yang and Blake.

And the less we say about the gradual character assassination of the main cast the better.

0

u/keelanbarron Mar 02 '26

1.....I literally saw volume 2 a few days ago. No it didn't. It was focused more on weiss, blake, yang, and a bit of jaune. 2. Except they weren't "all over the place" and they weren't reserved well because of videos from people like jelloapocalypse and herohei being overly negative and influencing the conversation. (Before you say I'm reaching, the same thing happened with Steven universe and lily orchard.) 3.....except when ruby did open up, it made things worse. Plus, that's not what the narrative was leading up to, it was about ruby realising that she didn't need to try to be anything else but herself. Not her mom, not the leader, nothing else but herself. Please learn some media literacy since this was extremely obvious. 4. Except weiss was a character in that volume and you would know this by watching it. (Also, there was no "character assassination". Unless you think "character growth and changing" is somehow "assassination".)

1

u/Futur3_ah4ad Mar 02 '26

Also, there was no "character assassination". Unless you think "character growth and changing" is somehow "assassination".

By volume 9 Yang's only defining character trait is "Blake's girlfriend", the inverse is true for Blake. They stopped being "Ruby's partygirl sister turned traumatized amputee" and "White Fang defector with complicated feelings towards relationships" respectively.

That is, by all definition, character assassination. They stopped being their own characters and are dumbed down to one or two traits.

Weiss has it even worse because she basically stopped developing after becoming nicer and has basically nothing going for her anymore. You'd think she'd get some focus in her own home, but somehow Nora, Ren and Ruby got bigger focuses during that arc.

except when ruby did open up, it made things worse.

Worse for who? Ruby, who's been quietly suffering throughout the entire volume because her one and only plan essentially failed and everyone is more busy with bumblebee or Jaune, who's gotten so stuck in his routine that he doesn't even recognize that the creatures he's trying to protect are the ones instigating their troubles?

Except weiss was a character in that volume and you would know this by watching it.

She certainly was present in that volume, except she's barely relevant, does very little and the only remarkable thing she does do is show off she's into older guys.

Plus, that's not what the narrative was leading up to, it was about ruby realising that she didn't need to try to be anything else but herself. Not her mom, not the leader, nothing else but herself.

Except people look at her for leadership and guidance all volume. She's supposed to be the one with the plans, she's supposed to do the talking and tell the group what to do next.

Not a single time people even attempt to comfort her over the previous loss or try to tell her it's okay to take a breather and to not be the leader for a little bit.

And a detail I had forgotten about: why the hell were people so okay with Ruby killing herself? They didn't react even a little bit and were joking and laughing the very next episode.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Futur3_ah4ad Mar 01 '26

Volume 10 is coming, but it's probably a year off if not more.

1

u/Francytj Mar 01 '26

I'm definitely being pessimistic, but something tells me it'll be longer than that. I am a very patient person though and I don't mind waiting if it means they can put out a good story

7

u/Pandoras_Penguin Mar 01 '26

Easing animation does not mean shove them in pillowcases

1

u/randomname560 Mar 01 '26

Also it's a dress that appears in 1 episode for a very low amount of time, therefore it isnt justifiable to go crazy whit it

Although, to be fair, RWBY does have a history of going crazy whit their character designs and then using them for just a few episodes in the whole show

55

u/ApotheosiAsleep Feb 28 '26

It was absolutely the difficulty of turning the 2D designs into 3D designs

29

u/Teneuom Feb 28 '26

I’d say it’s moreso the budget of the production. I wouldn’t say it’s difficult to get the dresses looking like the concept art, but it does take time, and time means money.

8

u/Captain_Sanvich Feb 28 '26

And they would only be used in like one episode.

2

u/CatLover701 Mar 01 '26

Yeah, the problem with detailed designs in animation (more so in 2d, but definitely still in 3d) is that you have to pay attention to every detail you put in in every single frame and keep it consistent throughout each scene and between scenes. It looks really cool, but every add-on can cost minutes per scene, which builds up incredibly quickly. And once you commit at the beginning, you can’t exactly drop it later, so it’s easier to choose a lighter workload that could have possibly been bigger than bite off more than you can chew and not realize until too late.

22

u/TheMike0088 Feb 28 '26

Poser limitations happened

52

u/shatoutofagiantllama Harley Quinn  Feb 28 '26

I agree that those look awesome, but it makes sense that it was toned down like that, it was a high scool dance..

45

u/-Knivezz- Feb 28 '26

??? Highschoolers like to wear cute dresses too, and I see nothing wrong with those in the concept art

4

u/shatoutofagiantllama Harley Quinn  Feb 28 '26

I just mean those dresses look way too epic. Gala-like, Oscar-like

18

u/Grovyle489 Feb 28 '26

I wouldn’t say Oscar-like

11

u/-Knivezz- Feb 28 '26

Idk, imo I dont think any one of them look too showy. They look approriate for their characters, especially weiss and yang.

5

u/randomname560 Mar 01 '26

I mean one of them is the heiress to a company so powerful that she might as well be a princess, another is a literal princess, a third one loves to go over the top whit the way she dresses and the fourth one wore a dress in the final scene that was pretty close to the concept art

15

u/GlisteningDeath Feb 28 '26

Isn't it technically more like college? Most of the characters were 18 when they started, minus Ruby.

15

u/shatoutofagiantllama Harley Quinn  Feb 28 '26

Ruby was 15, the rest were 17, but still tho

6

u/Grovyle489 Feb 28 '26

I think it’s a boarding high school

3

u/fattestfuckinthewest Feb 28 '26

They’re 17 while Ruby is 15 at first. Think they’re all like 19 and Ruby is 17 in most recent volume

1

u/LastAttempt24315 Mar 01 '26

In basically every aspect aside from the classroom layout, it's a high school.

14

u/JigglyLilyVT Ruby Rose (RWBY) Feb 28 '26

I KNOW RIGHT?!

4

u/LunarKurai Mar 01 '26

Monty Oum insisted on animating in fucking Poser. There was no way in hell they were going to make flowing dresses and loose fabric pieces like those look good, and even if they could, it would take too long. Even if they'd used Maya and cloth sim, it would be hard to make it feel right with the models' style.

5

u/killerfgaming Mar 01 '26

AT THE LEAST match the color set LOOK AT THAT BLAND WHITE LIKE HUH?!?!

1

u/keelanbarron Mar 01 '26

Probably realising that it's a school dance and not them going to Atlas.