Okay, so Season 17 premieres tomorrow. And just yesterday alone, we got a blog post from Joe, a blog post from Jason, and a trailer alongside a synopsis for the plot in a Collider article. I was debating where to post my thoughts on all of this, and figured the best place to go about it was just to make a whole new post about all of these topics put together.

So first of all, Jason's writing the majority of the season. Which definitely gives me some mixed feelings overall, though not all of them have to do with Jason specifically being the lead writer. Because the rest of the circumstances behind this season are so... bizarre that it's impossible to look at the whole thing from just one point of view.

Jason's in a weird spot for me. For all intents and purposes, he actually wrote a lot of the worst parts of Season 16 for me; he wrote Episode 7 (the Gusclops episode), Episode 11 (the entire three wishes disaster), and Episode 13 (the hamfisted backstory of the Cosmic Powers), among other things. All of that stuff was conceptually already pretty bad, but the execution just made them even worse. These are among some of my most disliked parts about The Shisno Paradox, not helped by the buildup to said events not adding up either in the end.

Not all of his writing is bad, I'll stress; stuff like the Calmelto bit and Caboose's slideshow shenanigans, I'd argue, made for the best integration of time travel in RvB compared to everything else which was either too wacky for RvB or not creative enough to bother with the time travel concept in the first place. But a fair amount of Jason's writing also falls into the problem Joe had about relying too much on situational/referential humor rather than character-driven humor, and I can't recall any instance where Jason's been particularly clever about integrating continuity during his S16 run. None of it came across as having any sort of distinct novelty either, at best it felt like discount Joe. However, it's impossible to say for sure how much of this writing was due to Jason himself, or came directly due to Joe's direction as lead storyteller of the season. And outside of one-and-done PSA's, that's all Jason has going for him from an outsider's perspective.

Even now with Season 17, we can't say that it's Jason's season the way that Season 15's was uniquely Joe's or the way Chorus was uniquely Miles's. Because the conceptual stages were a joint effort between Jason, Joe, and Miles, the latter of which is especially eyebrow-raising for me. Miles is even writing a small chunk of episodes for the season to boot. He's more involved now than he's ever been since his initial departure, and I guess that's a good thing. I like his work. A lot. I'm wondering how his involvement will change up the signature Nicolosi formula but it doesn't automatically save the season either because the concept is still so farfetched. But I digress.

Not only does Season 17 have the clear possibility of not fully representing Jason's writing chops if (and I do mean if) he's being heavily mandated by Joe's initial concepts and Miles's executive involvement, but that also means that this arc, whatever it's called? It's not really Joe's anymore. And I don't know what to think about that.

Joe's gone on record to say that Season 17 as it is now, is different from Season 17 the way he initially envisioned it. Now he's also gone on record to say that he thinks it's ultimately better off for it, and I have no reason to believe or doubt him for that. That's just gonna be left as a mysterious what could have been.

But what this tells me more than anything, is that unfortunately Joe by his lonesome kind of left on a low note, leaving a lot of his work as an undeniably unfinished narrative to be cleaned up by his successors, and leaving very little positive impact on the series as a whole despite having some great ideas and a few memorable characters here and there.

Which is a shame, because as much as I don't have really have any confidence in the story arc Joe started, I was legitimately hoping for Season 17 to be Joe's big swan song that proved he can adapt to criticism and give more fans something they can be happy with while staying true to his own philosophies as a writer. If any season was capable of doing that, I'd argue that the "clean slate" season was the best opportunity Joe was going to get. And even past that window of opportunity, I don't think so lowly of Joe that I think he'd be incapable of that kind of conclusion. He's not a lost cause, not in the least. So in that respect, I'm sad to see him go so suddenly. No matter how much I thought Season 15 had lost potential, no matter how much 90% of Season 16 really didn't gel with me, and no matter how much (or little, you never know) Season 17 required Miles to come in and involve himself more in Joe's initial creative process, I at least wanted to see Joe finish his story arc in his own hands before moving on to other things, and whether or not that was Joe's call, I think he still deserved that much.

Especially because as much of a hit-and-miss writer that Joe's been, he's still a stellar director and that much was what helped give Seasons 15 and 16 their own novelty that I don't think you'd get out of your run-of-the-mill veteran machinimators, no matter how well I think Austin and Josh would handle the job at a face value level (side note, despite the writer/director position being separated for the first time, I still can't imagine the contrast would get in the way of the initial vision. They'll do fine).

To see Joe's work go in this sort of weird Guardians 3 state of affairs, no matter what his saga was like now or could have been like before, still feels bittersweet regardless of any circumstances surrounding it.

At least here it comes across more as if Joe just had other pressing jobs to take care of rather than being outright barred from finishing his story, but still.

Joe Nicolosi's work may not be stuff that I'll look back on as fondly as other RvB stories, but I still saw enough merit in his ideas and in bits and pieces of his execution that I wouldn't have asked for him to retire from writing/directing before his story arc was even complete. No matter how much I criticized a lot of parts of those stories, no matter how good Season 17 could now potentially be, I still think I would have preferred to watch Joe see it through to the end on his own two feet. As is, I'm sort of left feeling a little more empty about the whole thing than I was even before finding out about all this news. And most of it isn't even BAD news. But it does change up my perspective in a way that makes me more apathetic about what's to come despite anything else Season 17 may have going for it. Like it's more of a mandatory obligation to get done, rather than the Part 2 of someone's great vision for the RvB characters and world. But I hope Joe still had enough of a hand in the season's plot that it still feels like his story, even if he's handing off major responsibilities to others at the end of the day.

All this to say: Joe, no matter how much you think your work is better off with the extra helping hands along the way towards the endgame, I do sincerely feel bad that it had to come to a point where you couldn't throw your signature touch into the story past the initial linework. I would have been genuinely interested to see that come to life, both because and regardless of your past attempts. Here's to your potential for future shows; I know enough about your style that I think you'll do great with whatever you're given from here on in. Good luck, and thank you for all your hard work.

As for the season itself, Jason's blog elaborated on how his work on Season 16 was mostly just following directions from Joe. He had a few ideas here and there, but most of it was still Joe's story. And the same can still hold true for Season 17 as well. So I can't even put Jason at fault for a lot of the issues I had with his writing thus far. And here and now, I can't in good conscience fully judge Jason's work without any further elaboration on how much of Jason's brain juices were meshed together in this story, which is going to make reviewing Season 17 more difficult than ever now.

Whether the season is good or bad, I can't compliment or criticize the guy writing its entirety if 66% of it is just relaying someone else's outline. Or more importantly, if I don't know whose idea it was to throw what in the pot. I can't even say in good conscience “Oh the good parts were obviously Miles' ideas” because not only are Joe and Jason not terrible writers by default (they HAVE done good things for the franchise), but even Miles, despite his stellar RvB track record, hasn't always hit home runs when it comes to his work on other shows. Everyone makes mistakes and everyone's got merit behind their writing style. So judging the execution behind this season is just... going to be really weird. If Jason ends up being head writer for future story arcs from here on in, I'd be excited to see what Jason comes up with on his own; then and only then do I think I'd have the capacity to really assess his value as a storyteller. But as is, I just hope he can work well with whatever he's been given. Here's hoping.

And as for the story, all the trailer really tells us is that Season 17 will be an adventure across all points of RvB history, across all the games and across all the locales. How much of it will be retreading old ground versus how much of it will be a whole new story, I don't know, and honestly I hope that not too much time is spent recapping shit we already know just with inconsequential differences along the way. Especially if the season covers such a long span of history; Seasons 1-16 take up about ten years' worth of history in terms of continuity so unless there's a lot of back-and-forth time travelling on Donut's part, or a lot of time skips, that's what has me most worried at this particular time.

Past that, it sounds as if most of the season is going to be about Donut this time, which is a huge curveball for me. I kind of figured that he'd at least be the catalyst to the season's conflict and that out of all the protagonists, it was the most likely that he'd be the one to remember the pre-paradox events the most vividly, but I also figured that once he was there to get the plot rolling, the perspective would go back to guys like Tucker and most importantly, Grif.

Grif doesn't get any focus in this trailer, nor does he get a single word of dialogue, and that both surprises and intrigues me. This may have to do with Joe not being the only writer this time around, and ultimately he along with Miles and Jason came to the decision to downsize his relevance if whatever Joe had planned for Grif proved to not be as integral as he believed it to be, just as that ended up being the case with Season 16. Or maybe Joe never had any plans for Grif in the first place, in which case, bravo for that. Oooor maybe Grif will still have some semblance of a story arc but it'd just be a sideshow rather than taking up too much attention, especially if Huggins ends up being alive after all. Whatever the case, this is already a breath of fresh air. I wasn't totally sold on Donut's arc in Season 16, but putting him at center stage in Season 17 could be the key to help fill those missing gaps and give him a narrative that I could see for what it was ultimately intended to be, a narrative that's worth what it says it's worth, and already I think Donut has potential based on his actions in the trailer alone. No longer is he someone else's puppet, he makes his own decisions that have entirely to do with his values and his heroism and the care he has for his friends. At least, that's what I get out of it, who knows. They may go for something different that could be just as good.

Donut “trapping” Chrovos in a cell which will delay permanent damage to the timeline for as long as he's imprisoned makes for a solid set of stakes. Genkins is doing what I figured he'd always do, and try and stop the Reds and Blues under the guise of Church. Past that, we don't really know much else about the season. But at face value, the synopsis (which, side note, REALLY should have been in the YouTube description rather than in some outside article) sounds promising, despite how I really... REALLY still don't like the idea of time travel in my RvB. But if they focus on the characters and the actual narrative rather than constantly sidelining the main conflict in favor of wacky hijinks the way Season 16 did until its last, like, fifth of the story? It could change my tune.

I ultimately have my fingers crossed for a universal retcon that deletes the Cosmic Powers, Chrovos and the past two seasons' events from existence, because I still think that the power scaling, no matter how good this season's plot is, could damage the potential for future story arcs and the integrity of the franchise's scope as a whole. But, I want to keep an open mind, so if they have any ideas that ultimately turn out for the better without sacrificing Joe's contributions almost entirely? I'm game.

I still have my FIRST subscription from my earlier incentive of supporting RWBY's improvement, so I'll be tuning in on Day 1 simply because I have the access to it anyway, but hopefully by the time the season is over (unless it just ends before my subscription expires, it is a short one), I'll be renewing RT FIRST because I have just as much faith in RvB returning to a state where I'd be willing to financially support it specifically. Fingers crossed.