RWBY Revisited: The Villains 

Fatmanfalling put it best. Ozma: Humanity was united. Against you.

Its not impossible to out bred the humans there. Osma would need new bodies. She would have kids and they would breed and the cycle would keep spreading for many years. Her idea had potential.

You ask the genie how to create a cage powerful enough to contain Salem get exact details and then you take those details and give them to the male Genies so he can magic up the anti-magic cage

The way you describe the villains makes them seem so interesting. Unfortunately, the writers didn't give the same amount of thought to their psyches when actually writing. The characterization in the show gives the idea of characterization rather than actual characterization because the writers don't seem to understand how to do characterization in a consistent and rounded manner. It's not not there, but it's not fully realized either.

this was put together extremely well and my hat goes off to you, keep up the great work!

Thr background music around the 3rd minute was fire

How I would have handled the villains: Cinder: First off I’d change a little bit about Cinder’s backstory, make it so that she slowly becomes unhinged from the torture of her “family” , show that the Hunter was trying to put together some plan to free her, then have the revelation that the sister found out about her training and plant the idea that if the Hunter actually wanted to he would have already freed her. This would cause a snap in her mentality causing the murder spree that insinuated. I would still not show the meeting between her and Salem. As for her character, I would keep it as it was shown

18:14 Mercury’s semblance was taken by either his father’s semblance as he was a notorious murder and an ability like that would explain how it was so easy for him to do so, as well as explain why Mercury was so adept at fighting hand to hand to the point that he can fight on the level of people with semblances, since his father was making him be his protégé. The other theory was that he lost his semblance after loosing his legs, there have been 2 examples of something like this happening 1-Ironwood since loosing half his body made it impossible for him to make aura and thus lose his semblance. 2-Penny’s father, he chose to extract his aura to bring her back, in the process he still has some aura but can’t use a semblance

Adam Taurus and Cinder Fall are honestly fascinating characters

I kind of want Mercury to have a redemption arc just because it will be boring if every male villain ends up getting killed off and every female villain ends up redeemed. Maybe he'll somehow get his semblance back. There were a couple of male characters who could have had decent redemption arcs. It seems like Neo only got her redemption arc because fans find her hot and mysterious, and didn't want to see the pretty pink parasol girl connected to Roman Torchwick die. She was a simple character who was interesting to look at, but not too pivotal to the series, especially since they already gave a girl whose semblance is identical to hers a redemption arc (Emerald). Neo will probably have some role in the end of the series- it wouldn't shock me if they end up having her come back in the body of whoever the summer maiden is. I suspected Emerald would get a redemption arc from the very beginning and am ok with her having gotten one, but felt that the execution was just very flat. Salem is a sociopath who has had chance after chance to learn the lesson the gods want her to learn and just needs to die, even though she is an interesting character. Cinder, I'm up in the air about. I 60% just want her to die in an epic battle (just not by Salem's hand. I want her to get a chance to confront/betray Salem without being killed by her), but 40% wouldn't mind her getting some kind of redemption, as long as it's not a simple one like Emerald's.

Simply put, how I would handle the antagonists requires rewriting the entire series altogether, just to make a much more coherent idea as to how the story could work. -Maidens, relics, and the gods would all be removed. The only form of magic within the show would be auras and semblances, nothing else. -Salem would be rewritten to never be a human in the first place. She would could instead be an ancient Grimm broodmother, simply following her instincts and producing endless hordes of Grimm to follow what she believes to be the natural order, which is to have the Grimm continually assault humanity with the intention of wiping them out. -Ozpin would have to be rewritten as well, likely becoming an older man who’s seen a lot of things with war and survival efforts, merely doing his best to try and help the people stay united, possibly even rewriting the world at large to have more animosity between the kingdoms. Things like the Vytal Festival tournament could even fit into this as an idea to keep the kingdoms working together to survive as long as possible. -While Adam and the White Fang as a whole weren’t really mentioned in this video, I would definitely rewrite them to be more similar to that of the Black Panther Party; more than willing to fight back, but never making the first move. It goes without saying that making what’s supposed to be the marginalized society into mindless terrorists was a bad idea by the writers, so naturally, I want to express my desire to rewrite them from the ground up.

I have low hopes for the villians. Cinder back story... Stupid and useless. Why have a human slave when a Fanus slave is easier and not frowned upon especially with the whole issues facing them and the racism theme. Salem? Most stupid action is the most likely one. The gods - I hate thrm, you hate them, other people do... But my money is on them killing Salem and doing magic snap to fix everything and everyone being happy as the gods claim that humanity did their job as now everyone is united (or they would have died by grim). So them admitting the gods were the true villains in this story or they were jerks is not likely.

Redemption isn't that straight forward, but rather along the lines of balancing the scales of their wrongs and rights. it's why we see in some stories of such Unredeemable characters do things akin to a sacrifice play for one reason or another or just despising their current path (even if the character doesn't change all that drastically) Salam, just from the get go, she was planned on being redeemed from the start (much like Adam was to be before he was split into his dead edgelord psychomania and Illia the gay chameleon. Why couldn't she be that one friend of his that evens him out idk). While she is the cause of death by an innumerable number, doesn't mean she understands "Loss" & "acceptance" as her inability of losing Ozma was what prompted her approach of the childish gods (Immortals as a whole in writing are always Badly/horribly done as they are kept either naive/ignorant) which I'm hoping beyond hope that Rooster teeth (if they can even continue the series) doesn’t do a whole "all was a dream" of her mentally accelerated personal world her and Ozma shared.... The possibility is not impossible for consideration. Another example is that she had no attention of or acknowledgement of her children dying at anypoint in time, just that Ozma was Betraying or "leaving her" again. This could be partly due to the grimm pool/darkness exasperating this as well. Mercury: he's already showing Hesitance at many times, he's an ass... no two ways about it, but having met people like that. He feels that others should know what it's like to suffer if not come close to death. Likely seeing their suffering as like "Awe look at the kids running terrified at this small thing" or like seeing someone get nutshotted in a family home movie. (though I recall he recorded this as meant to be something to be Aired... could likely be wrong in that respect, as cinder had asked him if he was getting it all which he acknowledged.) All the same, like anyone else being unfamiliar with emotions they can't identify, Mercury despite all his experiences and battle capability is still "Growing up" and learning these new emotions. His current approach would be more akin to the late Roman Torchwick "do whatever it takes to survive" even if it means sticking with Salem (which is similar to how Hazel gets roped in despite his dislike for killing needlessly and his ability to do so on a whim.) Emerald: she was one people/fans were debating if she would even be redeemed at all or just die by cinders hands pathetically, given her character type is often seen in all sorts of stories. If anything, apart from the psychotic zealotry, she could have become no different that Tyrian in that type of role; as much like Mercury, she relished (on smaller or more personal scale) in others pain or suffering in the same vein of what she had gone through before cinder and was still able to be redeemed despite her Sins (Penny's OG death and the play for the Haven relic). Watts: likely won't get any kind of overt redemption, work with the good guys, or any such things. He's either going to die or retire quietly and discreetly somewhere and wait out till the fallout happens or start a new "life" Cinder: she's well on her way to dying literally or in a metaphorical sense (which you covered so well in your video, just to add) and the closet to redemption she'll get is turning on salem as one last "F*** you" and/or dying to Neo for the 3 time betrayal and manipulations. Her backstory... was something that came out WAY too late for the point in the story it was shown, and something that would have done well for her and the story if it were shown earlier in V3 as got to the climax. or in the middle of V4 where it would still be suitable. Not as it did when she's already gone full megalomaniac at that point.... Hazel: he got his redemption moment, he died, but he got it. The biggest disappointment is that he wasn't a 3rd party to the secret wars of ozpin vs Salem, much like Raven is technically, and just harass ozpin's faction off the Manipulative leads from salem as like a merc for hire. that would have played off the notion and feel given off when Oscar first sees and meet Hazel and would be a nice sub plot to pop up every now and again. Tyrian: Exactly as you covered in the video. Though I do wish RT did kinda do a background video on how he becomes what he is now as well as explored the whole "[Jaune] looks familiar..." bit in the Anima journey where RNJR firsts confronts him. That's still up in the air for me.

Yeah I don't think redemption for mercury is out of the question. It's not out of the question for ANYONE. The severity of the crime doesn't really matter. There are characters in fiction who have objectively done far worse than anyone in this story and still managed to be redeemed. Mercury's actions wouldn't exclude him from a redemption.

I’m a huge Cinder fan, and my theory/headcanon (whichever you want to call it) is that what she really wants is for her suffering to have meaning to it. I find it interesting that the word destiny was never used once throughout her backstory. So I think it stands to reason that Salem planted that idea into Cinder’s head. I also believe in Cinder redemption as well, but I mostly just hope she’s given the chance to reform. Especially after V9, if Neo can get a good ending, then I don’t see why Cinder can’t get something similar.

Everybody keep saying how do you kill her when they should be asking how to make her a non-threat

cant neo just materialize organs to speak and ozmas kids would just be like ozma and salem since ozpin always has magic maybe his descendenats whill have magic

Honestly i never really found Raven to be a coward. She just has different priorities and cares about different different people than she is expected to. She mentioned that her brother left the tribe that she described as "family" and as far as she is concerned she is taking her priorities towards the people who raised both her and her brother. For all we know Tai was just a fling that resulted in a daughter she probably didnt want and when she had Yang she left her at a place that she knew that theyd be safe. So in a way she maybe a absent mother but she isnt dumb enough to put her daughter in the same kind of danger that she grew up around. Her probably wanting to only save her once could just be a result of minigating chances if members of the tribe thinking shes soft and resulting in a revolt. She isnt cowardly shes smart. Shes really smart. She is cautious i will admit that. But compared to the other rwby cast she is VERY VERY smart.

raven isnt really a villain

she is just a coward if she knew about what the relics and the ways to defeat salem then she could be better

Sorry but you're wrong about redemption. A character doesn't have to regret anything. Nor do they have to "want" redemption to be redeemed. All redemption is is just another form of character arc. To say that a character has to want to change in order to change is like saying characters have to want to develop in order to develop. When in reality it's the exact opposite. NO ONE wants to change initially. Thats how humans are. We don't like change. We fight it every step of the way. Redemption like any other Character Arc **forces** the character to change. They are begrudgingly dragged kicking and screaming to redemption and change whether they like it or not.

People love to blame the brothers for everything when they were justified in their actions albeit extreme. The god of life told Salem no and why but she refused to listen and went to the god of death who did fulfilled her request out of gratitude and then undid that request when he found out that he was used which is very fair on his part. They gave Salem's curse a way to lift itself and when all of old humanity attacked them the god of death responded as he had been described and dusted them. Extreme but he was most certainly justified in striking back, you don't attack gods whom you had a good relationship with and expect to live, and after so long of being neglected, used, and then assaulted it is no wonder that the god of death just decided to bugger off. The god of life had mercy and brought Ozma back because he is the only one that Salem would listen to and it is uncertain as to which humanity he was referring to when he set the conditions because they had no oversight over new humanity. So how they the bad guys? Who was the one that caused all this. Well that would be the witch herself Salem. She was the one who refused to take no from a god that clearly knew what he was talking about, she tried manipulating them, she got all of humanity killed and justifiably got left on a barren earth for untold eons, she pushed her lover away and killed him multiple times, and she has had all the time in the world to ponder the nature of life and death yet she has not for a single moment reflected on any of this. Her current state is entirely her own fault and unfortunately everyone else has to deal with it.

Yea, still waiting for them to off Cinder. But possible to become a real threat again, just at this point in the plot, she's already something they have to get help to deal with. Main cast vs Cinder, she's got the upper hand in raw power alone. But beyond that, it's more she's just not been an interesting character. I /am/ curious what they will do with Mercury, though. Emerald changing teams makes him a card that /has/ to be important later. And I hope they don't off him off-screen instead.