u/Aryzal

https://preview.redd.it/h4n3j9tuf1mh1.png?width=579&format=png&auto=webp&s=835b55bd34dd6e579cc910fe7d25c2de7cabc0bc

But hey, I got a new hater, so at least I know I'm doing something right.

For context, some loser (will not name names because unlike him, I don't witchhunt) got mad because he made a post about how he deserves to be unbanned from RWBYCritics because he wants to post some crap about something I couldn't be bother to look up. Why he got banned was because he/she had witchhunted an artist, who he/she pissed off so hard that the artist refused his/her service. So he/she made an entire post about how he is "calling out" the artist, trying to bully the artist for not making art for him/her. Apparently he got banned from the RWBYCritics subreddit, so good riddance.

Then, yesterday, this loser made a post in this subreddit. He/she was complaining about how he/she was banned from Critics and begging to be unbanned. I made a comment, saying I've seen it happened firsthand and he/she deserves the ban, also elaborating on why he/she deserved the ban. The post got removed, but I found that this loser has went to another subreddit by stalking my profile and said this. The comment was removed (I presumed by a mod, but maybe this loser realised how stupid it is), but I did receive an email notification for this, which is the attached screenshot showing the different subreddit, and his comment. I'm mildly disappointed that r/FuckYouAryzal has been either taken down or never existed, because it sounds pretty cool to have a dedicated hater subreddit for myself.

One of the arguments which this loser has presented is that he/she is, as I quote "don't wanna be viewed as a bad person on the Critics side of the RWBY community". Constantly saying "I'll redeem myself" and "I'm a good person", mainly because... he/she stopped stalking the artist who blocked him/her. Congrats? You hit the bare minimum of not being a creepy loser by being BARRED from taking action as a creepy loser? I think most people manage to do that BEFORE being banned but sure.

Then he/she decides to do this to me. Going to a different subreddit by stalking my profile, and commenting this. And creating/insinuating he/she created a subreddit just to hate on me. Yea, I somehow don't think this is what a "good person" would do. The lack of self-awareness of this loser is hillarious.

Also a second PSA: Remember to introspect and try to see things from other people's point of view. Nobody can read other people's thoughts last I checked, so saying you are X doesn't mean you are X.

I fully expect this post to be taken down. And possibly even get me banned from this sub. But damn I really hope that loser reads this first.

I'll first preface this as one of the people in the front row seats in the Vytal festival. I was there for the event, and it was a nailbiter tournament.

Watching the matches between the academies was great, but what impressed me the most was Ironwood, even though he was just the head of security.

First of all, when he arrived with his army, I was at first surprised, then relieved. It is good knowing that we have disposable robots to serve us as security in this world where if I leave the borders, some Grimm is probably going to eat me for lunch. This means maybe more of the world is open, so I can visit some far off relatives in the boonies who refused to move to the city, but at least now I won't be wondering every day if they were murdered by a bunch of roaming monsters. I even have some huntsmen friends, they always grumble about how unrealistic it is for just a handful of guys to protect an entire kingdom, so this might elevate a lot of pressure. Its not like this will take away huntsmen/huntresses' jobs, since there are so much Grimm in the world even a robot army won't be enough to wipe out all of the Grimm.

Second, I'm pleasantly surprised that of course we get THE General Ironwood as head of security, coming down even though its not even his kingdom. He is taking away time from his own kingdom just to provide security for this festival? Its really a sign of peace between each kingdom that they can collaborate to make this event a memorable one. I for one would be happy that the huntsmen in my kingdom also participate in this show of faith. It is great that the Vale council is working together with other kingdoms. Some people might say this is Ironwood's secret invasion, but honestly, those guys are conspiracy theorists. After all, even in the off chance Vale gets destroyed, I doubt Ironwood would stay in here to take over and instead protect his own kingdom, showing that he isn't some power hungry dictator.

Thirdly, there was the fight between this grey haired boy who is adept at kicking, versus this yellow hair girl who is adept at boxing. Honestly, I was a bit upset that Mercury lost as I was rooting for him. But then, I saw his opponent who looked like she goes berserk if anyone as much touches her hair, and she decides to smash his legs in. What the hell? She won, why does she need to go absolutely crazy and maim one of the top fighters? Truly despicable, I didn't expect sore winners to come out of Vale. Was she planning this all along, to beat Mercury THEN cripple him for life?

But what impressed me was the speed where Ironwood reacted. Immediately, he had personally entered the field and stopped the fight, without even hurting Yang. I was up for him to pummel that crazy girl honestly to stop her, eye for an eye, leg for a leg. Sure, Ironwood pointed guns at her, but we don't know without the threat of retaliatory violence if she would stop. As it is, no shots were fired, and the girl was escorted off and disqualified. Good riddance. In a festival of unity, we don't need some crazy people who would cripple the best of other kingdoms.

I'm worried for the boy. Honestly his aura was out and he might have taken permanent damage. I even heard rumors that he might get his legs amputated and replaced with prosthetics. Truly a sad end for the boy's career. I heard some crazies in the crowd that said losing his human limbs for prosthetics could mean he will lose his humanity, and honestly those guys need to stop with the crazy pills. Hopefully nobody will ever sling those allegations against the great General. If anything, the crazy girl is the one should have those allegations. After all, she crippled the boy for life. If anything, I hope she gets her karma. If she loses a limb though, people who say someone who lost a limb lose their humanity should really consider that Yang should also have lost her humanity using this logic, assuming she lost an arm when some random terrorist cuts it off in one slice. Just spitballing though.

Bear in mind its still in the Vytal tournament for me here, and I'm not writing this as a subreddit post over a decade after the tournament with insights of every single character and the overall plot. I'm currently here in the moment watching Mercury get carted off to the sickbay because some crazy girl with anger issues decided to almost kill him after she won her fight. Thank god for Ironwood stepping in immediately to prevent further damage, and not shouting at her with some microphone. Imagine if she landed another blow. His legs could be blown clean off, it looks like he is completely out of aura which is why he lost in the first place.

Anyway, I'm off to watch the next match against Vale's best huntress versus Atlas's best huntress. I'm sure this wouldn't cause a bigger kerfuffle than the current match. And even if it did, it will be really stupid if someone blames Ironwood for every problem in the Vytal Festival, especially if Mercury vs Yang didn't turn out to be the biggest shitshow in the entire festival that led Grimm to get attracted by heightened worry. Don't know why am I so pessimistic today, maybe its a sign I should take off before the world completely ends. Speaking of Ironwood, I heard one of the girls is also from Atlas, and might even be his protege. I'm excited to watch this match, you could even say I'm beside myself for this, and am thrilled to bits to watch it live at Beacon.

Considering some random individuals glazing Arrowfell, saying "oh its the best game ever" or anything like that, I decided to make a comprehensive guide on whether you should buy Arrowfell or not. Read this as a drop down flowvchart.

Edited Note: "Best game ever" is a hyperbole. But copying a comment directly that I've seen, "Yeah I really liked it. I wasn't expecting all that much (got it cheap on a playstation sale) but it was a blast. Characterisation was peak, fit into canon well (enough), simple and enjoyable."

1. Do you play games (in general)?

If you have played more than 1 game in the past month, do not buy Arrowfell. As a person who has played more than 1 game, I can tell you that you probably want to play better games in general. If you only play one game in the past month, or just don't have time to play games in general...

2. What is your budget?

If your budget is <$25, the answer is no, because this falls under the indie game category. You won't be able to afford Arrowfell unless it is on sale. So how about I interest you in: Balatro, Undertale, Hollow Knight, Hollow Knight Silksong, Hades, Stardew Valley, Terraria, Minecraft etc. Most indie (or formerly indie games) have a very low price tag for literally hundreds of hours of content. Arrowfell is by default $40, so it is out of your price range.

If your budget is $25 - 50, then congratulations you can afford it! The answer is no. This sounds like a cop-out answer, but any indie game that made it is already better than Arrowfell. Just buy two of those instead. Also most Pokemon games are here, except the much newer ones. Oh yea and last year's GOTY Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is here.

If your budget is $50 - $100, then congratulations! Anyway, no. This is the AAA level of games. You can buy any top budget tier game that looks significantly better than Arrowfell, with a polish that is much better. Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077. If there is a niche-r developer you like, you can go for them too, such as Last Defence Academy, Octopath Traveller, Metaphor Refantazio etc. You can even buy an entire pack of games such as the entire Persona collection (3-5), the entire Ace Attorney first Trilogy. The entire Danganrompa trilogy. The entire Zero Escape Trilogy. Or easiest cop out answer, like 5 indie games.

If your budget is >$100, or your budget is "Screw you I want something RWBY-related" move on to the next step.

3. Can you control your spending habits?

If yes, can I recommend you Genshin Impact, Wuthering Waves, Honkai Star Rail, Zenless Zone Zero (this one RWBY fans like for some reason), Fate Grand Order, and the new one Neverless to Everness. Gacha games have surprising amount of content and they are completely free. If you can control your spending habits, you'll get much more out of these than Arrowfell. Actually, even as a whale you probably have more fun there and have a better time/cost ratio by the sheer fact that they keep updating those games.

If no, move on to the next step.

4. Are you OK with something other than a RWBY-related game?

If the answer is yes, then literally go play any other game. They all have more content, better game design, better art, and so on which is why they made it on a larger global scale than Arrowfell, which at its peak has 140 players. For context that is worse retention than some student projects. Currently FPS Chess is sitting at 294 players playing the game as of this second, with an all time peak of 3142. Meanwhile Roosterteeth, the people behind the RWBY IP, has a million subscribers but fail to get more than 140 peak players. Even Roosterteeth fans couldn't bring themselves to buy the game, and Arrowfell sits at a 68.22% rating which is terrible considering nobody really bothered to review bomb it.

If the answer is no,

Play RWBY: Grimm Eclipse. Its basically a student project level game, and is likewise really bad from a game designer perspective, but at the very least its half the price and still has everything Arrowfell had to offer.

TLDR: No, there are better games out there. There are so few people who have ever played the game that I don't think you can justify it, especially with RT backing the IP. It was a colossal flop that isn't worth delving into.

After a lengthy discussion with a random redditor, I decided to write this short essay because I felt like trauma, PTSD and other mental illnesses is so poorly portrayed in RWBY that I want to say something about it, even if I'm shouting into the wind.

In RWBY, there are surprisingly a few cases of "trauma" shown. We have Ruby drinking tea, Yang having PTSD over her lost arm and apparently now we have Blake being groomed by Adam. For the sake of argument, let's assume these premises are true, because I want to deconstruct why they are still badly written, all for different reasons.

Ruby's case is a simple case of glorifying the actions. We are shown that the consequence of Ruby committing suicide is that she gets reborn better than ever. Her friends don't even mourn her death when she died, and then she pretty much comes back with no issues. This is more on the writer - being unable to write a tasteful way of a very triggering topic to write about, and unintentionally glorifying killing yourself. Simple example.

Yang's case is a simple case of forgetting the consequences. Yang's arm being cut off, and she has PTSD flashbacks for a season. The next season onwards she adopts a new personality, and her arm is never referenced again. While it can get grating to have someone constantly point out a fact, the problem is Yang goes in the opposite direction - nobody gives a shit about her missing arm, so it basically becomes a moot point. If someone skips season 4, nothing changed in Yang except she loses her happy-go-lucky outward persona, and she doesn't even thank Ironwood for giving her the arm. So it just becomes a nice ornament instead of a life-altering event, because even Yang moved past it so fast.

Blake's case is a lack of build-up. Apparently she got groomed by Adam. But besides not showing any signs of trauma, Blake was able to access the situation and perform the best possible outcome, saving Yang, escaping and leaving Adam behind in season 3. She exhibits more fear towards Homophobic Ruby in season 9 than Adam in 6 seasons, which is inconsistent with her apparent fear of Adam.

So why did I bring this up? Because of Amo from Gachiakuta.

The protagonist group of Gachiakuta is looking for the Lady of the Tower, which turns out to be Amo. This was a diplomatic mission to trade information with her, the specifics is irrelevant to this discussion. But soon, she loses her temper and begins to use her Jinki (Vital Instruments, i.e. weapons), hypnotizing the protagonists to various degrees causing them to attack each other to "protect" her. It is then revealed that her ability bring out memories of her victims' feelings that matches hers, and she in her twisted way was making everyone feel feelings of love for her to protect her.

The first point I want to point out is not everyone is affected equally. The more nonchalent characters barely feel the effects, while the ones who experienced profound love/loss were massively affected. The obvious ones are main character Rudo who was mutilated as a kid and the older Cleaner who had a wife and an entire life before becoming a Cleaner, but what is curious is Riyo who is a happy-go-lucky girl being equally affected. The characters who are more moderate like Enjin the chill mentor and Zanka the child prodigy. This is the anti-Blake moment, showing little hints and buildups of each characters' backstory, including how badly Rudo was traumatized having his parents mutilate him and his foster father murdered in front of him, and he got blamed for it, we get a short flashback about minor character Delmon who had an entire life with his wife before she died, and build up about how Riyo's cheerfulness is simply a mask.

The second point I want to make is that later, the lore revealed behind certain Jinki is that they were part of the Watchman Series, artifacts so powerful that anyone using them will go insane. - unless there is something so irrevocably wrong with the person, then they can use it normally. The main villain of the anime has one. Main character Rudo has another. And we know how bad Rudo's life was at this point. What is curious is Amo, the villain of the episode is also able to use it properly. This is a retroactive realization that Amo truly is a tragic figure because she suffered so much that she can use the Watchman Boots safely. This is the anti-Yang, because we constantly get reminders of how each character suffers, building up the lore in a comprehensible way without any headcanoning.

Trigger Warning Ahead.

And the final point I want to mention, is Amo herself. After defeating her, it is revealed that >!Amo was sold to slavery by her mother. And it turns out the slaver didn't want to traffick her, the slaver just wanted sex.!< This is depicted in the most horrifying way possible - a child's drawing depicting her "learning" what love is. This is the most effective way of smashing the point into our faces that Amo was so stunted as a child >!because the only way she learnt love was with an adult man having sex with her child self and telling her its love, after being sold to him by her own mother!<. Despite her despicable actions just one episode before, you cannot help but feel sorry for the girl and wish she can get better. Most of the scene is shown in an animated cartoon drawing, which hammers the point home harder how Amo is still a child (young teenager oldest) and >!There is no gratituous sex scene!<. This is how you do a disgusting scene tastefully. The animation did not shy away from the source material by sugarcoating it, they explicitly showed what happened, how disgusting it was and didn't go into the common route of "fanservice". Compare this to Ruby's scene, where she "drinks tea" (conveniently hiding the suicide implications), then rewards her for drinking tea when it is obvious that should never be shown in a good light. It is extremely disrespectful of the topic in every way possible, and considering CRWBY placed a trigger warning in that episode it meant they knew it and did it anyway.

I really hate it when writers take a difficult topic to talk about, and butcher it for shock value for their show, and RWBY feels like it does it multiple times - with the drinking tea, with Ironwood's semblance and with the faunus subplot. The only good one the show did is death of a friend (Pyrrha), but then they proceeded to revive Penny to kill her off again so that feels like a net zero. Basically get CRWBY away from all sensitive topics and tell them to never write any of those again, because all they can do is slapstick crude humor and not tell a deep, serious story.