>>402
It was always lame and gay, but I know what you mean. RWBY is a posterchild for failed potential: it maybe could have been SO COOL if they didn't do X and Y and Z in the later seasons and also A-V in the early seasons. RWBY has been incredibly valuable to me if only as a showcase of what you should never ever ever EVER even dream of doing with your story.
The chief sin of RWBY was giving it a plot. The Red trailer is my perfect vision of RWBY: no dialogue, no real directions for plot, just stylized action with neat costumes and other setpieces. Could've been neat for a season or two. Unfortunately we got the worlbuilding clusterfuck that is Remnant and the bassackwards characterizations and tone of s3 forwards.
Season 1 and arguably 2 are watchable because they have the underdog charm. Clearly a small team just doing this shit for fun. Helps that everything was freely available on YT. After that the series got some real popularity and budget and wham, no more underdog effect. I don't mind s3 so much because it does an almost passable job balancing intrigue and wacky character moments, even if the finale was the death knell for any remaining quality in the series. I have nothing good to say about s4 onwards aside from one or two characters that are sort of neat in a vacuum even if they got screwed over by an incompetent and disorganized writing staff. I have kept up with the series as a case study of sorts despite my abysmal opinion of it. So, RWBY is shit. Realistically, there's no way it couldn't have been shit. It was shit practically from day 1 with no visible path out of the shit. Maybe a decent writer could have made something engaging, but then it wouldn't be recognizable as RWBY. What went wrong? Too much to list. What frustrates me the most?
>played quick and loose introducing new characters
>cheap deaths that just feel like a middle finger, see above
>Characters treated like a game of hot potato
>Awkward comedic relief
Early seasons get the pass because they're awkward in general but later seasons get really bad with this, remembering "oh yeah we used to try and be funny sometimes" and then slaughtering an attempt at drama with it.
>Retarded worlbuilding
>Retarded magic system
>Tonal bait-and-switch (audience betrayal variety, not clever subversion)
>pandered
I've spent far too much time on this series. I've been watching since season 2 I believe. It's SHIT and there was never any other option. I might recommend the first two seasons, maybe, as a homework project for someone who wants to know about creative processes and common pitfalls. That's it.

Isn't it "Anime rip off" by westerners then actual anime?