Introduction
Well, I said I’d do more RWBY content in the future, and I’m feeling energetic enough to start typing! With any luck, I’ll have around 500 words out in no time. Yeeeeeah… Anyway. Bumbleby, the ship that split the fandom, so I’ve heard. It’s either Yang and Blake or Blake and the monkey man she spent most of Volumes 4&5 with. His name’s Sun, he’s chilled out and jokey (the name’s a reference to Journey to the West, his last name is Wukong. Because the writers are being cute – honestly I appreciate the reference if I think about it for long enough). I get why people think they’d be cute together.
(If you feel like giving Rooster Teeth money and/or YouTube views, feel free to go watch the episodes. Or do what I did and watch reaction videos. Like I said on the RWBY and Writing post, I trust you to know how to Google things. Though I’d still recommend the specific channels I listed in said post. A lot of channels don’t have the quality they do. It’s either low budget or no critical thought. Not naming names, because I can’t remember any in specific.)
Also sorry for the late upload.
Why Them?
Now, I can name a myriad of reasons why Bumbleby was popular, so I will! (I like bullets points; my notes are literally in bullet points.)
#1 The characters have cool designs and people have a superficial side that means they want the interesting looking people to get together.
#2 People like romance, be it heterosexual or not. My favourite book’s Song of Achilles (it might be something else now) and it’s fun seeing two people get together and live happily – or see one go berserk at the death of their lover. Having said which, killing off the gay couple is a tired trope and it’d be nice to see these two just get a happy ending. If and when RWBY ends.
#3 The writers put in moments that could be construed as romantic early on, which then fed into points 1&2. I imagine this was just to build character rather than drop hints at these two eventually kissing (and more than kissing if the fan art is anything to go by), but this is me doubting the creators’ word that they intended for them to be a couple from the beginning.
#4 This last point is more a byproduct of fans liking Bumbleby, but it could partly explain why the company want to take credit for finally doing the thing everyone wanted, if too late: Money. They get a boom in merchandise and get more eyes on the episode that has the kiss in it. Is that cynical? Yes. But they’re also a company and need money to live and support themselves. Frankly, it’s shocking they’ve not done more merch.
As for why other bits of the fandom didn’t like the ship, I imagine it’s due to overexposure. Fans can tend to go off on one or shout about how much they want the ship to happen. People who wanted to see Blake and Sun get together had reason to think so, given they hung out a lot in Volumes 1-4.
I think it’s fine. The fan art’s nice. It’s… Bumbleby. It’s not my favourite ship, but it’s there and I get to watch as people other than Rooster Teeth do a better job with it. must be galling to be a creator and see a fan do your work better than you. I can only hope that one day my work gets more notoriety and actual fans.
Conclusion:
To give my thoughts on Bumbleby: The ship should have happened sooner. Flat out. There’s not much else to say on the matter. Just get to the point, even if romance isn’t the point of the show.
In conclusion, if you’re putting something like Bumbleby in your book, just put thought into it and give the romance enough time to breathe. Build-up is good, but so is having the relationship there for us to enjoy. Some might say that’s me being impatient, but no one deserves to wait 9 Volumes to get to the good bit. Get to the good bit, that’s what I, as a writer, and you, as the reader, want. Preamble isn’t the point.
- Thanks for reading! If you like this, please check out my published work:
- The Spider and the Moths, on Impspired.
- A Model Dwarf, Wolf in Sheep’s Therapy, on Impspired.
- Cramped Quarters, on New Contexts 4.
- Endure, Reclaim, in New Contexts 5.
- Lost and Found, in New Contexts 7.
- The Cleaner’s Burden, in Apocalypse Now?.
- The Last Man Standing on the Ash Heap, on Impspired.
- Or, you could have a look at my last blog post, which you can find here.
- Also, I have a Fiverr page, check it out if you need proofreading or copywriting work done. Link here.