Ranting about Jaune killing Penny and also rambling about VRAINS a bit

Greetings ladies, gents and other friends! I just had A Thought and now Im unreasonably angry and need to rant. Unlike in previous posts, I wont really explain anything because I just need to get this out of my system as fast as possible, so if you need me to elaborate just ask, I would be happy to explain some shit. Also apologies in advance for probably being a bit incoherent.

Oh god there are so many issues I have with Pennys death but the biggest one was definitely that Jaune just had to be the one to kill her! Like, Im not gonna say Jaune is a self-insert even though he is because thats not a legitimate critisism because SIs are not inherently bad. But jesus f u c k the writers are far too attached to this stupid bitchboy!! I dont even understand why!

Like, I get that the typical Heroes Journey is easier to write but if its just that then why not Oscar? Hes not the main character either obviously, but hes actually somewhat interesting simply by virtue of having Oz around.

Hey, you know that tweet where Miles Luna was like "hehehehehe this volume is truly ending in a darling massacre!"?

Uh, yeah, where the fuck is it? Jaune is arguably the biggest writer-darling and hes not only alive and well, but GOING WITH THE ACTUAL PROTAGONISTS TO A COMPLETELY ISOLATED MAGIC BEACH LAND

The only thing that got massacred this volume was Pennys arc tbh

This was like, the big defining moment of the volume where A Beloved Character is killed off by one of our protagonists for Tragedys Sake, and literally all I felt was annoyence because it was Jaune instead of, oh i dunno, THE ACTUAL TITULAR PROTAGONIST RUBY ROSE???

And for the love of god, if I have to hear that stupid defense thats like "oH iT wOuLd Be OuT oF cHaRaCtEr" I will literally burst into flames out of anger. Luckily I havent heard it in a while because everyone seems to have gotten mostly over it, and honestly, me even bringing this up is kinda beating a dead horse at this point but fuck it. This dead meat deserves to be beat! Like

Like

Hey, heyheyheyheyheyheyheyh ey hey.

Hey

You know who else has a kinda goofy AI friend that they would usually never ever hurt because they mean so much to them, but is then forced to do so anyway?

Yusaku "The fucking Playmaker" Fujiki

Like, dude, thats literally part of what makes the final duel so incredibly heartwrenchinh!! The fact that Yusaku still loved Ai, still saw him as his Friend and Partner (HIS PARTNER) but had no choice but to defeat him anyway. Why would you not want this?!? Why would you rather have Vomitboy, who had NO interactions with Penny, to kill her instead?

I literally blacked out for more than half of VRAINS when I first watched it and I still havent rewatched it, and I have felt infinitely more during those final episodes than the entirety of V8, because it wasnt just that Yusaku and Ai dueled and Ai basically died; it was that Ai turned to villainy during the last part, it was that Yusaku still seemed somewhat hesitant in some ways, despite the fact that losing meant certain death, it was the fact that Ai set up this messed up suicide trap to begin with, it was Ai asking Yusaku to merge conciousnesses with him because he still wanted to exist in some form, it was the fact once Ai was defeated, Yusaku still got to hold him and tell him that his name means 'love' and cry and Ai got to say that he loved Yusaku and also cry and ugh.

Man its just. Much sad. Very feelings. Would not recommend, but will watch again. Twice, atleast, if everything goes according to plan.

But anyway, the point I was trying to make here was, you cant just kill a beloved character and expect that alone to make an impact. The context is just as, if not more more, important as the death itself. Even more so in a series like YGO or RWBY, where (permanent) deaths are very rare.

If a character dies and Im meant to feel sad because a characters dead but Im too busy being annoyed at the writing afound the scene, you failed as a writer. Hell, if I, as an audience member, am even conciously thinking about the writers during the series AT ALL, thats a failure.

Like, jesus fuck, imagine writing what I assume to be a YA-series only to have less good writing than one of the fucking card game anime, all of which are aimed at like, twelve year olds.

So yeah, in conclusion: Jaune Arc? More like Jaune Shouldve Died During The Fall Of Beacon With Or Instead Of Phyrrah And Ren's Semblence Being Able To Mask So Many People All Of A Sudden Should've Been Handwaved With A Line That Implies Ren Having Trained His Semblence A Lot Recently

Thank you for coming to my rant, I am much less angry now and will probably have a fine day