/rwby/ - RWBY

>>17915

Post from one of Monty's brothers. Using a Twitter link because nothing is worth posting a direct link to something as cancerous as Facebook:

https://twitter.com/RWBYFans/status/731069296227442688

>>17915

RT is a niche media company, not a national television. Nobody involved is connected to politics in any big way. This can die and be forgotten very easily. If there is dirt to be found in this, it will get swept under the rug or archived to be used when someone involved will want to achieve some political power.

It may feel imporant to us, but in the big picture it's almost irrelevant. Not enough money going on.

http://roosterteeth.com/forum/rwby/topic/3213361?page=20

"Well, another extremely reliable source has told me directly that Sheena wanted to be as involved in RWBY's production as possible, but there was a very good reason for not hiring her that I'm not at liberty to share. Suffice it to say that she wasn't cut out of anything just for the sake of it."

"The first one, that was brought to me, was an unconfirmed source. My own source is someone who was intimately involved in RWBY's production from start to finish. They aren't breaking any rules or such to tell me, but they're also planning to speak for themselves about it at some point, and I don't want to undercut them."

I'm on the edge of my seat. (hoping this doesn't become Eron 2.0, aka "I could tell you and destroy an asshole's life, but I'm a huge wimp and don't have the balls")

SHEENA = BITCH CONFIRMED???

So we got Shane's letter, and right now we're wondering who dun did it? We should make more digging threads.

>>19049

I'm pretty confident that everyone's guilty by association.

Okay anons, this is the first time i browse /rwby/, i had no idea something of this scale was happening behind the scenes and i need a quick recap of what the fuck is going on.

>>25564

Same. First time here as well. Had no idea any of this was going on.

>>25564

>>25565

Just don't mind the CYOAs. HalfChan's /trash/ used this for CYOAs.

I digress, we've been digging as much as possible to learn the truth on what actually happen to poor Monty. So far my possible theory is a ambitious murder, or the doctor being a quack.

Ever since Shane's letter got out, we might some possible dirt for this.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-H0KuOwKFYwZTJxbXg0SG5CTEE/view

Anyways here's the open letter.

>>23160

POTTERY

So we might get over the possible theories we've got…

>Sheena must've murdered him in a ambiguous way possible

>The doctor might be a quack

>Possible accident?

We need to think further about this.

>>27454

I always wondered how he died from an allergic reaction in a HOSPITAL. At least that's how much I know about the subject.

I never looked into it myself, but I suspected something was afoot, even if it was just sheer incompetence, but the ingenuity of fools is astounding at times.

>>29099

That kind of shit reinforces the idea of the doctor being a quack. Has anybody ever tried to get info on them?

Also keep in mind Monty overworked a lot, and probably messed his sleep schedule to work even more. Just look at how many times they mention him suddenly falling asleep in the middle of doing something, there is even videos of him doing it, and whe he doesn't he seems to be awfully tired. His immune system was probably weak as fuck due to lack of proper rest.

>>29612

That still doesn't sit right with me though.

Don't they give you a "small" dose of anesthetic if you don't know if you are allergic (before putting the rest in)? I can only go by the UK and having local anesthetic for my teeth. Not to mention if it's "routine", then his reaction means it was something that went straight to a vital organ (resulting in the allergic reaction in the worse location) and can't be routine. Or, Monty's allergy was so severe, even a dose in a "routine" area killed him.

So- if it was a bad doctor, why didn't Rooster Teeth raise hell? I can understand not doing anything after the wake of it all, but if it was malpractice, I'd have thought they'd have let the fans know (for closure). Or do they really think online amateur sleuths would dox the doc?

Neither of the above paragraphs ring right to me. IMO, his weakened immune system + cat allergy certainly played a part, but I don't think there's any malpractice. I think there was some "long con" foul play (possibly unintentionally) from Sheena, and his friends couldn't do anything shy of illegal action (as much as we'd all claim to go John Wick on the ass of someone who hurt our friends, I think most people would be paralyzed. Less so after death or serious injury).

Or hell, maybe Monty faked his death to get away from Sheena and he's back with his family in hiding.

>>29615

>Monty's allergy was so severe, even a dose in a "routine" area killed him.

I think this and the weak immune system are the issue here.

Some people have speculated that the "bad" doctor could have be involved in the con, but that sounds like a big stretch to me.

Here's an archive of "the Shane letter" from the other thread

>>30269

https://archive.org/stream/AnOpenLettertoAllWhoTreasuredMontyOum/AnOpenLettertoAllWhoTreasuredMontyOum_djvu.txt

The guy is almost fanatical over Monty. Resulting in some oddities.

Sheena acts nothing like we imagine, if this is gospel (it isn't), and Rooster Teeth constantly pushed Monty to work via their method.

What strikes me as odd, is if you have a cash cow (Monty), then I can understand making him work faster- why would Bernie/heads of staff make him work by a different methodology?

Apparently Monty started working from home since Sheena and RT had bad blood. Maybe she got bitchy, maybe they caught on to her being no good for Monty- either way he worked more at home. Where the cats he was allergic to are.

Another oddity is no mentioning of the plug being pulled. The family are spoken about as though they were there and consented.

No doubt's Shane's depression tints this story, but RTs reaction (Barbra crying on Twitter, the company bar-one-person condemning him as being a fanatic, even insinuating he wanted to bang Monty's widow).

Pretty much two autists & a woman who may or may not have been a gold digger got told to work differently under RT, then when Monty died, RT did everything they could to boot out Shane and Sheena.

I retract my idea about Bernie orchestrating Monty's death- even through accidental means

>>30343

In addition:

If Sheena has the most complete vision of RWBY- and she hates RT (be it for spiting her departed husband or cutting her out of the pie) why didn't she spill the beans on the "original" plot? She doesn't seem like the girl that'd plan ahead (in either interpretation of her), and a massive "fuck you" to Rooster Teeth seems in character. Yet- we've heard nothing. It's not like RT could sue, right?

Or was she ever paying attention when Monty explained the world to her?

I certainly agree with the notion that the original plot of the story has gone off course. Everything does feel slapped together (characters that appear briefly without lines like 3 of the tournament fighters, character attitudes drastically changing in season 4, pacing being break-neck or non existent).

What shocks me is that no one took notes. Not even Monty. Did Monty give up passing his ideas along to the crew?

I do agree that Sheena had no place at RT. Even as a "consultant", I imagine she'd had wanted paying. And Shane wouldn't have fished for plot elements to feed back to RT. However, with no writing or animating skills, she didn't have a purpose. Beyond transcribing what the hell they needed to do.

> But Monty left RWBY in such a way that if only someone had dropped their pride and stopped treating Sheena like a nobody, or as a threat to their power… we would have been able to keep things intact for quite a while.

This is a hint if I ever heard one- but who?

Miles and/or Kerry? We know they can't write, but would they do better than Sheena? If Bernie was happy with how M&K were running it, why would M&K have to fear Sheena being a replacement? Why would anyone fear Sheena replacing them if Bernie wanted it "his way"? Was Monty's threat of walking out really that heavy/used often? If so- how come they stopped doing it his way? Sure he'd lose the IP, but Monty could rename some shit and re-release it… except everything was fucking linked and had a purpose.

Monty might have been the one over a barrel now I think about it (get a butchered version of your story, or fuck off and we'll own it and do whatever we want).

>>30349

> Monty gave so much to me, and now I was never going to be able to repay him. The least I could do was help his wife, who was now alone, without a US driver’s license, with unfinished immigration paperwork, endless court documentation, etc

If Sheena was fishing for a green-card, that's another angle we could consider if the "bad" Sheena is the true one.

> First I was questioned for being in his office. Then I was told that he was going to move the new game dev guy into that office. Then I was told we were likely going to be leaving Poser in the dust to use Maya for RWBY in Volume 3. I was reminded that “Monty’s behaviors are unacceptable”.

This doesn't sound like the way you describe a friend- even if he worked in a way that you thought sucked. You'd say "His work was slow" "his work made it so no one else could do stuff easily". Unacceptable implies no one liked it. And it was making bank- so it must have been acceptable at some point.

Again, this might be Shane exaggerating or quoting something said in anger, but if Monty was treated like shit so much- did the heads just not voice their anger at Monty? They had his IP by the balls. If Monty left at the end of a season, they could have (in vain) trained someone else up, and make good with the PR later- assuring they kept the vision (since they know Monty wouldn't confront them and reveal the story being warped).

We know at least Monty, Michael, and Lindsy got on (since he was invited to their wedding)- possibly Gavin as well. And if either of those two made threats to Bernie, I could see him bending over backwards to keep two of his most profitable idiots. Then again, even Mercury's voice actor got axed. It seems like anyone who had stood up for Monty got kicked out. Why? Were they all autists raging, or did RT just want to silence any dissent on Volume 3 (stop them saying what Season 3 is not like… by firing them and risking them saying "they booted me over bad blood"?)

Dillon sounds like another angle to investigate. Though with the "he dragged me off my work" lie- I dunno if he was in on it or a patsy.

> Daniel Fowler

> In the middle of those 4 months they brought on a very cool guy named Daniel Fowler who took the HR position. For once, Rooster Teeth had someone in a position of power who had the best interest of their employees in mind.

Could the hatred toward Shane/Sheena come from HR spreading rumors? Wouldn't be the first time in a corp.

He was fired. Perhaps due to allying with Shane? Or just because he wasn't part of an existing HR clique?

> Monty stood his ground and kept moving forward in the way he knew best, for you guys. People did not like him for it within the Rooster Teeth walls. Yes they smiled and pretended to love him to his face, but I heard the conversations and the muttering of words from one person to another.

> […]

> Let me make this clear: the people on the team are all really cool people. But they also had no clue what had been going on or what sort of things I was dealing with there. They only know what they were told. And even now, I can only guess what sort of things are said within the walls that would make me look like I’ve lost my marbles and hold up the show runners on a heroic pedestal, further reinforcing them and their decisions as being the best way to have done it.

> For the most part, the scene was blank in the scripts — and that is how Monty and I liked to work. It always gave us directorial control, choice of camera work, etc. Even though they tried to make a storyboard so the production people could feel better, it was a big waste of time, money, and energy. That was the main reason we stayed away from it all those years in the action department. Pre-scripted fights just look… scripted, and I avoid them like the plague. You need that organic freedom to be able to go in, knowing the characters and their abilities, and just let them go at it.

Certainly sounds like the production team were mad they couldn't use the "skills" they learned at animation school. The same schools that lead to flash-based animations and the same mistakes mass-produced western shows make.

In fact, with the discussion of hard-drives vs network and "red-tape", it seems the company was trying to behave like a big-boy company with plans and so forth- instead of an internet show for dorks by dorks.

They ignored the old addage "If it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid."

>>30350

> But guess what — they didn’t even write it in the script because they didn’t look at what Monty created for the scene before they began! It was all available to them before Monty passed away, and after he was gone I made sure all those scenes were available to them — that they had them in their hands. It was even more of a surprise to me since I had rendered out Monty’s timelines for them, at the Producer’s request, before production even started. They didn’t even look at what Monty, the creator of the show, made for his show.

So (despite what Shane said earlier) something did get written down, but it was just ignored. If so- why?

Could no one animate it? Did they not have the time to do it? Did they just find it dumb?

They had Shane- Monty 2.0- who could have done every single fight scene as Monty wanted. Leaving the only conclusion that- despite the warm reception- RT did not want to do the story Monty's way, or the fights. If not- why hire him in the first place?

Were they hoping RWBY could crash and burn in one season, then they could get him back on other projects? (I know Monty "had" to work on RvB 10 before he could make RWBY).

What bugs me the most is every-time we see RT on camera- they act like they love Monty. I'm sure some of the VAs did. I think Miles and Kerry did. Bernie looked like he'd cried all fucking night when he did the wake-stream. But, he's the boss. He wanted the professional environment and Shane gone.

If they loved him- why did they hate how he worked? Why did they fix a system that wasn't broken? Who in the animation/HR department hated him and/or Sheena? How much of this is exaggerated (another ex-RT member said it was "true", but nothing beyond that), and how much is true? If they abandoned Poser, why raid the personal hard-drives while firing Shane? Why were they interested in Monty's work then?

What would have happened if Monty was still alive? Were they looking for an excuse to fire him & "steal" the IP?

If I'd have know what I did earlier, I'd have never bought any of the music. I'd have never watched Season 3.

But the only way I'm watching Season 4 is through re-uploads here. I'm not even going to give them the click to downvote a video on Youtube.

>>30351

One last thing.

After working with GG, I've learned how easy it is to fall into conformation bias, and how shills work.

Apologies if the following are dumb questions but:

- How do we know Sheena was the one who pulled the plug?

- How do we know Sheena did it before Monty's family could get there?

- How do we know Sheena got the money raised by RT? (Especially since- if Shane's word is true- they'd do anything to keep her mitts off of it)

I saw she got a boob job (very odd behavior to have after your husband died), but I'm wondering if early posts making us focus on here weren't someone from RT trying to throw us off the scent.

Of course, this is all theorizing. What we have so far seems to indicate Sheena did not remove cats from the home of her allergic husband.

>>30355

One last thing I promise, then I'll STFU.

Shane was under a lot of stress, so who betrayed him or not might be wildily off base. He says how people he trusted started saying things behind his back.

People that didn't know about the BS mocking Shane for going off the rails?

People who had to agree with the new direction of the show, or risk being fired (like that other animator that stood up for Shane)?

Basically, they'll be people in the company against Monty's wishes, and people who had to tow the line even though they hated it.

And if this ever blows up, everyone will say they had to tow the line, and working out who's lying is gonna be a pain. Not impossible though.

>>30343

>why would Bernie/heads of staff make him work by a different methodology?

I figured Monty just worked in a certain way, an amateurish and improvisational way, that didn't really follow the professional demeanor that RT expected and the creative control it wanted. Shane talks about listening to music and watching videos while working like it's normal; I'd bet that other people didn't get to do that.

But since Monty did good work and already had a following, he got the right to work that way, albeit with people talking behind his back and being jealous. This also explains how Monty could work more from home. RT *could* have fired him once they got some talent to replace him who they could more easily control, but it would have caused an enormous backlash as well as a big portion of their fanbase leaving.

Monty getting sick and dying was sort of like a godsent grace to them then. They got the creative control they wanted AND could claim their changes were in Oum's memory. Remember, RT's expanding into live-action as well as producing original animation; I'd bet they want to use RvB as a stepping stone to bloom into a full production company and get cozy with Hollywood. They've already commissioned composers and Powerhouse Animations before. Season 14 should be a prime example of the connections they've gathered. With Monty gone, RT's free to rake in all the success of RWBY and decide what to do with it.

>>30343

>Sheena and RT had bad blood

As far as I know, Sheena also wanted to land a job in RT probably in the same way Meg did, but since she didn't have a working visa RT rejected all her attempts at it to avoid legal issues.

She even had RT listed as one of her jobs on her website's bio, and only deleted it after RT staff publicly denied it.

>>31114

So that buys into the "Sheena hunting for money and a green-card" theory.

And Rooster Teeth being bitter to her, on top of the cat allergy… Yet still wanting Monty to work by their methodology. Wouldn't they given Monty what he wanted to help leverage and stop Sheena? Or did they fear Monty taking Rwby (or walking off), leaving him more vulnerable to Sheena- and costing them a cash cow.

Christ, it's only Shane that Monty dealt with who wasn't shit.

Some more analysis on Shane's letter in an older thread.

>>27538

>>31118

>Sheena hunting for money

I believe that practically is a given at this point when you realize she still keeps the donation pool for Monty's medical bills running, plus the amount of money RT gave her, and the amount of money we have seen her use since then (cosplay stuff, moving to another state, trips to england, the boob job, etc.)

Well, we know Monty's (((Wife))) was in his death room, but is there anyone else who visited him? Maybe some chance to learn anyone else's motives or was she alone the entire time?

Since big posts fuck up

>>31149

>>32337

http://pastebin.com/axfmAXZX

>>31149

http://pastebin.com/vUZ1Pwr6

>>30343

>why would Bernie/heads of staff make him work by a different methodology?

>>30399

> an amateurish and improvisational way, that didn't really follow the professional demeanor

There is something that the corporate methodology has going for it: namely, continuity of operations. It tries to set up assets so that people can take vacations or die unexpectedly and not severely impact the production. I'm guessing that while Monty had notes and such, they were not organized in such a manner that they were accessible to the rest of the staff at RT. Another continuity of operations thing is preventing one man shows: Monty Oum was a one man show. He did everything; he was accustomed to doing everything. And when the one man leaves, the show is over.

Another thing about the different methodology is that the other animators likely demanded it. In order to move up and on in their careers, the professional animators need experience with the industry standard tools: not whatever-the-fuck-Monty-Oum-felt-like-making-things-with. If the animation staff of RT feel that no one in industry uses Poser, then they don't have any incentive to learn it from a career growth perspective.

I don't blame any animator for being salty over being forced to work in poser tbh. And say what you will about the story but the animation quality has gone massively up over the course of season 3 and 4. Hell if we're being honest the fights in Dead Fantasy were more thrilling and fluid than anything in RWBY season 1 or 2.

>>33648

True. But they also didn't have to make sense. RWBY had to pause action for plot occasionally.

Season 1 Episode 8 is the exception, though. The Nevermore takedown was art.

>>25564

>>25565

Some other imageboard seemed to stumble onto evidence that Monty was murderd by his wife. People have been looking into it.

>>32974

I have a love hate relationship with RT

I mean what kind of balls do you have to be to criticize and change the workflow of a man who clearly has the optimization and low budget skills of a god when you yourselves only got your company off the damn ground thanks to Improvisation and optimization of capturing live game footage and overdubbing

RWBY was over the day Monty Died. It should have been buried with the man so it to could find peace. Now it's just a shell that moves tee shirts

>>30351

>Bernie looked like he'd cried all fucking night when he did the wake-stream. But, he's the boss.

Burnie might not have been the problem. He loved Monty and likes RWBY, but many of the other old time RT folks, who seem to have equal share in the company even if Burnie is currently the boss, don't really care for it, and Geoff in particular is extremely hostile towards RWBY and anime and it's fanbase in general, and gets visably cheesed off when he's reminded that RT's current hot property is a not-anime and not their game and comedy stuff.

I'm starting to think that Bernie, and/or others at RT disliked Sheena and blamed her for Monty's death. So, when Shane decided to white knight for her, he had to go. And if she came across to some of the staff as the gold digger she has come across to some fans, he really had to go. For legal reasons, however, they can't call her out and have to frame it as something Shane, which it is true in part.

Shane may have learned from the master, but he needs to stay in Michigan until he stops being a white knight.

>>34432

I've noticed people trying to blame either Rooster Teeth or Sheena- when it's quite logical that it's both.

A company that hates Sheena's money grubbing and cats, along with Shane's (allegedly) fanatical devotion and manic depression. (If you believe them)

Likewise, Shane hates RT for trying to put in contingencies in the worst way possible- and even hire people who they wanted to avoid, going against Monty's wishes, etc.

Usually Shane's testimony would be suspect (depression and being fired making things seem more stacked than they are)- if not for the fact Season 4 confirmed what Shane said. It's by committee, everyone working on it demanded "industry standard" Maya but produced something only graduates could make. Even little details like Winter being out of the show (since she's "based" on how Monty saw Sheena).

Sheena put Monty's body under great stress, RT put Monty's mind under great stress, and neither saw what they were doing to him because they were too focused on their own goals (getting Monty's money, or making RWBY production "safer", quicker, and having more people involved).

Part of me wishes he had faked his death and flew back with his family to escape this crap.

>>32435

>Is the pool still open?

Last time I checked it was.

>Who is donating?

Hardcore Monty/RWBY/Sheena fans probably. The kind people so deluded that will believe Sheena's shit word by word and think this money will help her and Monty's family.

Plus friends. Jessica Nigri donated a lot of money when she was in good terns with Sheena iirc

>Did RT give Sheena money

A big sum, Monty's full year pay and a little bit more I believe. My theory is that was Burnie's way to get rid of her so she stopped bugging them asking for a job, wanting to take control of RWBY.

>>35858

>>>/leftypol/

>>35896

I assume some of the staff must see this board (they use the internet, temptation to see the "cathedral of misogyny" is too great, and massaging their ego looking for praise or to argue with the screen and justify hating the "haters"), but there's been very little shilling against discussion in this thread until that (as far as I can tell).

Investigation is at a dead end until new evidence comes to light though.

This might be a stretch, but do you guys think this "Monty's Vision" is just a meme made up by the writers just to keep people talking?

I always believe it all boils down to knowing Monty as a person, knowing him he's just a workaholic who's really good at what he's good at. Which proves how he's not really good at telling a narrative.

>>36514

Henlo friend

Less the writers, and more the fans who've misinterpreted what the writers have said in order to give them more license to hate the show because it's *allegedly* not following 'Monty's vision'. Like you say, Monty was great at creating concepts, but not great when it comes to the nitty-gritty of storytelling. That's where M&K came in, they still provided a large portion of the writing even in Volumes 1 and 2. They're arguably just as responsible for RWBY as he was.

Monty left an *outline* for where the show was supposed to go, and the writers said as much, but not some detailed story bible as some people like to pretend. And even so, these sort of things are constantly changing. 'Monty's vision' one day was probably much different from how it ended up a few weeks or months later as they got further into the writing and creative process. People who get upset over 'muh Monty's vision' clearly don't know much about the man's creative process, or the creative process in general, which even a little cursory research would show in both cases.

>>36514

>>36526

Its pretty clear that Monty was a spur of the moment type of guy. Outlines where probably nothing more but a a few sentences.

>Explain what Ruby's silver eyes do this, then have a boss battle.

Looking at some of the interviews, before and after his death, this project wasn't meant to be a serious project. This was a portfolio filler. He cared because he was working on it, and his name was on it sure, but this was not suppose to be his magnum opus. I find it more sad he never got to make his serious project, if he had even one in his head yet.

>>36533

I do think he genuinely wanted to create RWBY. While he might have thought of using RWBY in that way down the line I do think he took it seriously–it's just that, as you say, he was a spur of the moment guy, and more focused on cool action and concepts than on the nitty-gritty of storytelling. You're probably completely right about his outlines.