I recently got into TMA because so many mutuals are into it, and I've noticed a major difference in how the writers for that series handle their timeline in comparison to CRWBY. Rusty Quill keep things tight, and even relied on the FAN RUN WIKI to help them keep certain details straight as they were writing so they came up with as few plotholes/inconsistencies as possible. CRWBY actively decided not to have a timeline at all. Deliberately keep time vague. And it really came back to bite them.
As someone who just finished the third season of TMA and is enjoying it immensely: all of this. One of the (many) great joys of this series is looking back on the first season and realizing the staggering amount of setup there was. How many important characters were introduced, the beginnings of driving concepts, details that were merely creepy at the time but we now know hold deeper meaning… “keeps things tight” is right. Previous parts of the story fit neatly into new parts because it was planned from the get-go. Or rather, given stories’ tendencies to take on lives of their own, it’s likely a combination of planning and Sims’ skill (plus the happy benefit of the story already being made up of characters with limited information, at times unreliable statements, and protagonists who are likewise often unreliable narrators). But the point is that Sims has very clearly put in the effort, the results are excellent, and thus any remaining, inevitable mistakes are happily overlooked.
We can certainly discuss issues like cancel culture, but generally speaking people don’t look for reasons to criticize media. We want to love and celebrate the stories we’re given. Thus, there’s a reason TMA has garnered so much praise and RWBY so much criticism. RWBY has failed in many of the ways TMA has succeeded, which includes giving us a timeline that benefits the story and a story that’s consistent enough for us to easily fall into. When something notable comes up in TMA I am so eager to see what becomes of it. When will this character return? What’s the significance of that statement? When will this question be answered? What detail that has entirely escaped my notice suddenly turn the story on its head? That eagerness — that enjoyment — is a result of trust in Sims because he’s proven episode after episode that he knows how to manage these expectations. RWBY? RWBY keeps breaking that trust. There are lots of notable things in RWBY, certainly — our “rule of cool” — but at the end of the day it’s rare if they go anywhere. Instead they’re ignored, forgotten, contradicted, or just treated shoddily, to the point where when the next cool thing crops up I’m not excited, just wary of how RWBY will drop the ball this time. That’s become the norm, particularly post-Volume 6. TMA? The norm is quality, making any deviation from that something I’m happy to shrug off as simple human error on Sims’ part, not evidence of a lack of effort or skill. He’s more than earned that.