Since the mods took down my post, I’m posting this here: Why I don’t like Bumblebee (specifically how it was done in canon and the fan base)
You know, it’s funny, Bumblebee is one of the most divisive things about this whole entire show, with some saying it’s the best thing to ever happen, while others will hunt you down just for saying you like it. It’s honestly astounding how people get so invested in a single ship as if it’s the entire shows personality or premise, which has lead to tons of controversy within both CRWBY and the FNDM. Now, before I continue, I will say that this is purely my opinion, I’m not speaking out for anyone, that is not the intention, this is just me explaining as unfiltered as possible because if I keep this in any longer, it will eat me alive.
The pacing, or rather the near invisibility of buildup
The first part is not necessarily a problem with Bumblebee itself, but rather a problem I have with how “subtle” it is. If you were to tell me that on my first watch through Volumes 1-9 that Blake and Yang would get together, I would’ve asked where the buildup was. Volume 1, Blake and Yang don’t even interact for more than five minutes in terms of dialogue with each other, the only interaction they had was in the ballroom and even then, Blake pushed her off. That in itself of itself is fine, that tells us that Blake is a very closed off person and doesn’t open up easily, whereas Yang is very outgoing. Okay, they’re opposites, but a part from that and one very brief moment in the Initiation, there’s no notable hints at the two of them ever getting together. I would go into the other side of the spectrum, but other people explained the BlackSun side of things better than I ever would’ve been able to.
Volume 2, okay, there’s a bit more focus, with Blake being worried when Yang took a full powered punch from Torchwick’s Paladin, and now there’s the moment most people consider the first spark, that being the buildup to the dance arc, and for that, there’s a few problems I have: how does Yang get Blake’s attention? A laser pointer, and Blake’s a cat Faunus. I know that it was most likely a joke, but considering the implications, it’s kind of in bad taste, since racism against Faunus and exploitation of them are kind of a big deal in the earlier volumes, and are core to Blake’s character, which this could easily be considered exploiting Blake’s senses to get her attention. And then Yang opening up about her past, about how Raven abandoned her, which is a very strong moment in it of itself since this adds nuance to Yang’s character, which wait…didn’t Blake abandon her team at the end of Volume 1 and then reunited during the finale? Oh well, it must be a coincidence, I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt. And then Yang shoves Blake around to make a point that in her state, Blake can’t even beat Yang, let alone Torchwick, now the implication of Yang making her point is fine, but what’s not fine is how Yang shoved Blake, that in it of itself is wrong. Then Yang says she will save Blake a dance once she makes her point and leaves. This is a very highly debated topic on whether or not inviting someone to the dance is inherently romantic, and I’ll give my two cents on it: no, inviting someone out to the dance is not inherently romantic, and this is based on real world experience, I was asked out a few times, but all of them were by friends, and they just wanted to hang out. Does that mean it can’t be romantic? Again, no, it really comes down to tone and body language, which I’m only going to mention mentioning him a couple of times, but Sun seemed to be more romantically interested in Blake because of how his body language. As for the dance itself? I’ll admit, it’s a very sweet moment, but I didn’t see anything inherently romantic about it for either Sun or Yang really.
Volume 3, arguably the most iconic out of all of RWBY’s volumes, but this is where I start to see problems with Bumblebee. When Yang “breaks” Mercury’s leg, Blake opens up about her past about Adam a bit more than before, which in Volume 2, Blake describes Adam as more of a mentor, and in Volume 3, Adam tells Blake not to worry, going from accidents to slowly becoming self defense when it comes to his violence. And she points out it feels familiar about Yang “breaking” Mercury’s leg. This is one of the most easily forgotten moments about by both fans and critics, and it’s pretty easy to overlook, but it does put into perspective that based on how little we know about Adam up to this point, it paints the picture of Yang and Adam being two sides of the same coin, which we’ll have to wait to see if that’s actually the case. Then the Fall of Beacon comes around, and before any of this, let me do a subsection:
Up to this point, there has been no indication that Adam and Blake had a romantic relationship, in fact, before being forced to work for Cinder, Adam in fact tells the Lieutenant to forget looking for Blake and begin preparations to leave for Mistral, seeming as though Adam doesn’t really care about Blake that much. Then the Fall of Beacon comes around and Adam starts to call Blake “my love” repeatedly, even though by Blake’s own admission up to this point, there was no romantic hints to the two of them whatsoever, this deliberately feels like something shoehorned in for the sake of drama, since what does this add to the plot? Well, the parallels are a bit more clear, and then we get Adam cutting Yang’s arm off which is one of the best moments in the entire show since it raises the stakes and opens up a lot of potential storylines. And then you know what Blake does near the end of the Fall of Beacon? Run away, again…so you know how I said it was most likely a coincidence that Blake parallels Raven when it comes to running away? Yeah, that’s the second time within a span of two volumes. That sets off a lot of alarm bells in my head that this is very much not a healthy relationship, well, it can’t get any worse from here, right?
Volume 4, this is where the house of cards really crumbles, because you know how I said I wouldn’t be talking BlackSun? Yeah, I lied for this one instance. Blake’s arc in Volume 4 with Sun up to this point has been generally very well written, and in the last volume Sun made Blake blush, clearly indicating feelings or embarrassment (more likely feelings), and in this volume, they do the entire “meet the parents” trope, which is a staple of romance arcs in most media. What about Yang’s arc? Well, for this and Volume 5, she is mad about Blake leaving her, which isn’t that much of a reach, and we could’ve easily had a PTSD arc, but that was mostly done off-screen, I’m…sure, there’s probably a reason why that was done and surely more things don’t get off screened for major character development, right? You want to know why Yang went to Haven in Volume 5? It’s because she was concerned about Ruby, and you know what Ruby does unlike Blake? Actually apologize about leaving her for Haven, and Yang does seem to put it as water under the bridge.
Volume 6…this is where things start to become interesting for a bit of time, with Yang having resentment towards Blake for leaving her, at least for the beginning of the Volume, maybe this Volume will show them reconcile with each other—no, nope, that gets off screened as well, with them later on acting like nothing ever happened in the first place. Now, I actually like Volume 6 for the most part, we get some genuinely great moments in the post-Monty era, but then comes the most divisive fight in the entire series: Blake and Yang vs Adam…okay, I will admit, parts of it were actually cool, particularly when there’s no dialogue. In terms of dialogue, there is so much wrong with this fight. Starting off with Adam, his character was reduced to incel psycho ex-boyfriend, with his dialogue just being like nails on a chalkboard to the ears for me. Oh, and then the entire dialogue between Blake and Yang protecting each other instead of one protecting the other…what does that even mean? What were they trying to convey in that? Let’s just move to the next few Volumes.
Volume 7 and 8 do this whole thing of “Will Blake and Yang get together now?” Which in it of itself is fine, but during Volume 7, there is almost no moments where Blake and Yang aren’t on the screen together, which severely undermines a lot of dynamics. When’s the last time Blake and Ruby actually talked to each other in a meaningful way? What about Yang and Weiss? Yeah, it’s been a while, to say the least. As for what Blake and Yang do in Volume 7? Well, they chose to trust Robyn Hill with top secret information, who in earlier scenes were nothing but antagonistic to our protagonists, for all we know, her and the Happy Huntresses could’ve been spies for Salem, kind of like how Cinder, Emerald and Mercury were. I’m not going to go down the whole Ironwood controversy, since others have done it before me and in more detail than I can put into it, but all I will say is that Blake and Yang were lucky that Robyn was a decent person who just wanted Mantle to have better living conditions. Ultimately, this does start the domino effect of Ironwood’s spiral, which that in it of itself is fine. You know what isn’t fine? Volume 8, first episode, Yang blames Ruby for everything going wrong in Volume 7, and then we get an actually very interesting plot with the teams being split up, with Ruby’s group being her, Weiss, Blake, Nora and Penny. Meanwhile, Yang’s group is filled with her, Jaune, Ren and Oscar. Okay, these are a rather interesting set of characters in both teams that don’t interact often, at least for Yang’s side, I wonder what Yang’s conflict will be about—oh…she’s worried about what Blake would think of her, rather than the fact that she blamed Ruby for everything going wrong. Way to prioritize things, Yang. Way to prioritize things…now as for Blake, we do get a genuinely sweet moment between her and Ruby with Blake saying she always looked up to Ruby, I take back some of what I said about Ruby and Blake not interacting meaningfully. Now from here on out, the final stretch of Volume 8 is more focused on Penny, but there is one moment that does catch my eye, and that’s Yang and Blake having yet another romantic moment, you know what Yang never did once in this volume? Apologize to Ruby for unfairly putting all the blame on her, no, she’s more concerned about what Blake thinks of her instead of the conflict she created. Let’s just go into the next volume, which I have choice words for.
Volume 9…how much you never cease to amaze me in how bad you are. You know how I said I was going to try to stay purely objective? Yeah, well, Volume 9 is the only Volume I straight up got mad at because of one character: Yang. It’s already bad enough on how Yang was portrayed in Volume 8, but in Volume 9, they make it an entire plot point just for Bumblebee, during the worst time which is Ruby’s depression arc. And the one time Ruby does open up? Yang compares what Ruby is saying to Ironwood, shutting her up. Wow, way to be the sister who raised Ruby, Yang. And then we get to the confession scene…up to this point, every moment on screen with each other, Blake and Yang’s relationship was very in your face, so much so that it physically hurts. And as for the confession scene? Tell me this, if you and your potential love interest are on opposite sides that lead to the same platform, forced to confess your feelings or die otherwise, what would that feel like? Forced, it would feel forced. The Punderstorm literally forced them to confess and make out if they wanted to live. But beyond all of that is the timing…this was when Rooster Teeth was on its last legs, so it definitely felt like they knew if they didn’t do this now, there would be riots at their soon to be grave, and it happened during Ruby’s depression arc, at the expense of Ruby. And in the following episodes, Yang would only become even worse…Ruby’s meltdown was genuinely hearbreaking to watch, genuinely a hard thing to watch, and Yang didn’t do anything but stand against Ruby just to defend Blake from the verbal onslaught. Again, that’s only adding fuel to the allegations. As for when Ruby runs away? Yang blames everything on Ruby, AGAIN. In fact, it seems like it’s only when Ruby basically committed suicide did Yang seem to actually give a damn about her (ascension is basically another form of suicide, I don’t want to hear it). And even during the times which Yang shows remorse, Blake is the one to pull Yang back, it’s almost like they’re surgically attached to each other now. And that about wraps up Volume 9, and now I can actually breathe and move onto the other reasons as to why I don’t like Bumblebee…
Takes away from other dynamics
RWBY as a show has a huge amount of characters, which means there’s a ton of potential for dynamics, and especially during later volumes, we see some fun stuff between characters. Ruby and Blake in the early volumes had a very interesting sort of dynamic, with Ruby having cared so much for Blake, she wouldn’t go to the dance is Blake wasn’t going to go. That in itself of itself is very thoughtful, and shows how much Blake matters to others. And as for Yang and Jaune? They had this sibling dynamic where Yang seemed very supportive of Jaune, even going as far as to wish Jaune better luck next time in asking out Weiss to the dance. There’s even ones that I don’t think even happened that would’ve been great to expand on: Yang and Qrow, they could’ve expanded more on the Niece/Uncle relationship, and in Volume 3, it seemed like there was going to be more on Qrow and Yang’s familial bond down the line, with Qrow even saying he’ll help Yang on her search for Raven, which of course, that never came to fruition understandably due to the Fall of Beacon. And as for Blake and Weiss? This dynamic had so much going for it, and even had a strong start in Volumes 1-2, but then they never really seem to talk to each other in a meaningful way again until Volume 7 for one brief moment. By putting Blake and Yang together in a romantic relationship, it ultimately takes away from other ones in relevance, it wouldn’t surprise me that if Volume 10 does come around, some dynamics will be completely forgotten about or made worse just to keep Bumblebee as the “best” dynamic. But none of these compare to the third point.
The Fandom of Bumblebee
Yeah…this part, so I’m gonna start off by saying this: I didn’t always have a disdain for Bumblebee. In fact, I used to like it quite a bit, but around 3 years ago, one of the first posts I made here was met with some of the most toxic bumblebee fans (which are dubbed Wasps by some), who did nothing but hate on what I posted (which if you’re curious, it was fanart of Yang x Gohan from Dragon Ball Z), bullying me to the point one threatened to dox me if I didn’t take the post down. Never before have I felt so threatened and even at times scared for my life. And that was the first interaction with Bumblebee fans. Now I know some of you are going to say that it happened so long ago and to move on, but if I were to threaten to dox you, wouldn’t you also be worried to downright afraid for your life and those around you? If you answered yes, then you probably realize where I’m coming from, and if you answered no, either you’re insane or you’re one of the aforementioned Wasps who would threaten my life to shut me up just because I don’t like Bumblebee. First impressions are very strong, and nothing is stronger than your first interaction with a FNDM that is overwhelmingly toxic towards you just for having your own shipping preferences.
TL;DR my main reasons for not liking Bumblebee are from how it was done in the show, the dynamics that will be put on a back burner because of said ship, and also the rabid fans who seem to represent Bumblebee and don’t get shut down by the normal fans/CRWBY for how they treat others.