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English
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Part 1 of RWBY Short Stories
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Published:
2019-03-28
Updated:
2020-10-26
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40,298
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56/?
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72
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481
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RWBY Short Stories (Collection)

Chapter 56: An Important Update/Open Letter

Chapter Text

Hi All,

 

I feel like I need to speak about the lack of updates on my RWBY work. I have spent the last few weeks considering how to say this and what to do so I would appreciate it if you read through to the end.

 

As I’m sure most of you will know, Rooster Teeth aren’t in the best place right now and the actions of certain members of staff have left me feeling shocked and betrayed and to understand why I would like to detail my experience of being an RT fan.

 

I was first introduced to Rooster Teeth and Achievement Hunter when me and a friend discovered Fails of the Weak after becoming obsessed with Halo Reach. I was in my early teens at the time and quickly fell in love with Jack and Geoff and AH content. I also began to religiously watch every single video RT put out at the time. 

 

I remember watching the first Minecraft Lets Play and was blown away by how well AH gelled, especially because I didn’t really know too much about Ray, Micheal and Gavin at the time and before long I fell in love with all of them. It was at this time I discovered RvB and the Podcast and began to binge episodes and podcasts whenever I could. I felt RT content was getting stronger as new faces and personalities came to the camera.

 

One of these was Ryan Haywood. I remember watching the MariO let’s play and not hearing Ryan at all, though his name was on the screen and I could see his character moving, that being said I immediately took a liking to him because one of my best friends as a young child was called Ryan.

 

As he began to appear in more content he quickly became one of my favorites, his interactions with Gavin and Ray are hilarious even to this day and I felt he completed AH in a way no one else could match.

 

As time went on I remember more and more faces joining RT and AH and what I once recognised as a small, almost family like atmosphere was gone, this first part of this was the podcast being made visual, I couldn’t watch it live due to living in the UK and I didn’t have the time to watch every episode anymore. This felt alienating and was disappointing but it wasn't the end of the world. I was still excited by most content though and was really looking forward to the new, bigger budget shows and the prospect of growing up alongside RT was exciting. One of these shows was RWBY.

 

I remember not liking the show when it came out, I made it seven episodes in and couldn’t find a character to relate to so I dropped it. I also remember RvB taking a drop in quality during season 11. This was when I noticed cracks. I’m not sure if it was genuinely content getting worse or if I was just maturing to see it, looking back now it's probably a combination of both.

 

The one consistent thing I was enjoying though was AH, despite new faces such as Jeremy and Matt appearing the group felt consistent and new additions added something even if I wasn’t particularly fond of them. 

 

Then Ray announced he was leaving.

 

I was sad about this but understood his reasons, my Dad had left jobs he enjoyed before so it was easy to understand why he was going. Then I read something about RT not letting him stream so he quit. I don’t know how true this is but it did lead me to realise RT had been bought which provided a lot of reasons to why it felt like RT was no longer a small family.

 

As years kept passing I noticed content getting worse, RvB was a mess by the end of season 13, AH felt like they were only posting content because they had to, not because they were enjoying it and most of the onscreen personalities I had grown up with were too busy to appear in content regularly. Still though I loved AH and Ryan was the one person in RT who could always make me laugh and was the reason I kept watching almost every AH video.

 

It was at this time I gave RWBY another shot and this time I enjoyed it. I knew the writing was terrible and the characters were poor but the show had a lot of charm, it reminded me of the earlier RT works and I fell in love with the show, binge watching it multiple times. This was when volume 4 was being premiered.

 

This was when things started to go downhill. I was a FIRST member and enjoyed content when RWBY volume 5 and RvB season 16 came out. I’ll talk about RvB first. I hated season 16, it felt like an insult to watch to the point where I’ve blanked most of it from my mind. Then RWBY volume 5 hit and it was even worse. I won’t go into detail about why I don’t like it but the main reason was the writing and animation. The cast did nothing, Blake was insufferable and the plotline was stupid, convulted and boring. 

 

Next year RvB 17 came out and made me drop the show. I don’t want to talk about that but it was even worse than the previous season and the only thing I enjoyed was the Wash plotline. Then there was RWBY volume 6 and it was good. The start of the volume was fantastic, it was like a show reborn and had finally found its footing. Then the Argus arc happened and my excitement for the show fell off a cliff. At this point I decided to start writing to give me an excuse to watch the older volumes and fall in love with it again. This worked. I enjoyed writing the Smuthology and was really happy with the praise it was getting. 

 

I wrote until I burned myself out and my personal life took over. While this was going on I noticed RT had a lot of controversy about it. The first I remember was Vic and while I think they made the right choice in the end this wasn’t apparent for a long time as a lot of misinformation was being spread and RTs silence on the matter didn’t help. Then they doubled FIRST prices and screwed over most international RT fans by cancelling conventions and announcing US exclusive content so I cancelled my membership (though I still had benefits until April this year). 

 

At this point I was fed up. I was disappointed by RT’s decision making and greed and the only content I could enjoy anymore was AH and a large reason for that was Ryan. With other members coming and going or taking breaks Ryan, Micheal and Jack were the only things that felt familiar, off topic was great and hilarious and Lets Plays always had a laugh or two to be enjoyed.

 

I began working full time just after this so I had even less time to watch content let alone RT. I remember being anxious for RWBY volume 7. 6 started well but had the worst ending of any volume but it did look like RT had learned and new writers set the stage for something special. Then it was just kind of eh. I had no real reaction to it, some stuff was good, others bad but most if it was just average which in a way made it worse than if it was bad as it was hard to even ironically enjoy.

 

After that I remember a bunch of staff being laid off. This made me angry, especially after doubling membership prices, it felt greedy and scummy. Then the BLM movement gained massive traction and it came out how poorly Mica had been treated by RT. I was appalled at this, especially with how most of the RT cast behaved on twitter and I was shocked they’d let it happen. Then I found out about Joel, a founding member who was let go in silence. Grey had been horribly mistreating animators. It was awful, it felt like RT was a lie, everything positive they said was contradicted by something behind the scenes proving them to be lying and greedy except for one branch. 

 

AH still felt like they had some semblance of an identity and their content was still enjoyable. Until a few weeks ago.

 

This caught me off guard. The person at RT that I liked the most and had made me laugh and stay with the company was a monster. I felt disgusted and betrayed by Ryan Haywood’s actions and for those out of the loop I strongly recommend reading through this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Achievement_Hunter/comments/j761ok/if_youre_out_of_the_loop_click_here/

 

I didn’t know what to do so I read through the words of his victims while trying to process things and I couldn’t believe the things he had said and done. This was the reason I stopped writing RWBY. I needed to give myself some space so the only work I finished was a commission which I had started before this all came out.

 

I have decided to distance myself from RT content for a while, this means I will no longer be writing any RWBY content for the foreseeable future. I’m sorry for everyone who enjoys my RWBY work but I cannot bring myself to write anything related to RT at the moment. I must also stress that this isn’t RT’s fault and do not blame them for Ryan’s actions. I just need to distance myself.

 

If you have any questions please leave a comment or tweet/DM me @openlionAO3 on Twitter. I aim to be open about this and will answer honestly.

I will say I am enjoying writing so my other works will continue alongside new works that are coming soon.

 

Thankyou all for reading and I appreciate everyone who enjoyed my work, left kudos and commented. I hope you all have a great day!

 

OL.

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