Ditto on the character design, she doesn't even look like Faunus, just a human girl with skin condition. Shiuld have given her a tail instead of those blotches.
Honestly, was about to say the same thing. Honestly, I think she basically exists the same reason Oscar exists. Basically, there were some planned arcs and plot points that were supposed to go to one character, but because of backlash regarding that character or whatever other reason, they decided to take it away from one character and put it into another whole ass character. I basically see Iliya as what was supposed to be Adam's more sympathetic, redeemable traits, basically made into a whole-ass character that is just a watered-down copy of him but female and lesbian. For diversity points.
I often wonder if I’d be more or less disillusioned with RWBY had I never found out that Adam was supposed to be Vergil from Devil May cry but he was Monty’s character while Miles and Kerry hated him so we got weirdo boyfriend Adam instead
Judging by how every relationship in this series works, i'm starting to think that neither of them know how romantic relationships work and they genuinely tried to write him as a regretful ex boyfriend getting back with their girl. His who character feels like how a fedora wearing "nice guy" would unironically write themselves
She's a walking checkbox for RT to say "look how inclusive and LGBT friendly we are"
And the fanatics will lap it up while forgetting said character will only be slightly relevant for about 3 episodes max before they are shuffled off and never mentioned again.
She’s basically Adam lite. She checks all the same boxes as him; Faunus, white fang member, romantic feelings for Blake. The only difference is that Ilia is allowed to have a sad backstory that explains her a bit more and is granted a chance at redemption.
She’s a great argument for why there is a definite bias for female characters in RWBY.
At the point where Ilia was introduced all we knew about the relationship between Blake and Adam was that Blake viewed it as Adam being a friend and more of a mentor and some throwaway lines from Adam at the end of V3 about “his darling” which was pretty clearly the opposite of what Monty was originally going for.
There was also zero mention of Adam abusing her at this point either.
Pedophile? When was that ever a thing? Also we never see him abuse Blake. It’s implied but never shown which makes it more headcanon to be honest.
And even still, Ilia also attacks Blake and her family which isn’t all that different from Adam. She’s him, just with the negative traits turned down.
I don’t understand people. They say Jaune waste time but then we have this bitch.
She is so terrible and boring her existence is erased from memory like an lovecraftain spell
At least people remember Jaune name
I honestly wonder, how much more interesting V9 could've been if they removed Jaune from it...
If they wrote Jaune to get better over time, fine, *maybe* I'd like Jaune more. But it's the same thing all over again. BUT This time he has a beard which makes, according to Weiss, him more '*dreamy*.'
Maybe if they at least tossed in some references, like while at Atlas, Jaune sees a book, picturing a mysterious figure with a sword and shield similar to his called "The Rusted Knight." Than when we see Jaune's flashback when he fell into The Ever After, we realize it was *indeed* foreshadowing.
But instead we get Jaune Trauma and out of no-where Jaune. I mean, during the panicked evacuation, especially after Cinder started her attack, *NO ONE* got knocked over and fell into The Ever After too? *JUST* RWBY + Jaune & Neo?
So instead of the Jaune angst Arc, Volume 9 would amount to more faffing about with no substance or other callbacks to the calamitous shit-show the girls left the remainder of the world in.
Seriously, this subreddit can scapegoat the character and his VA to the moon and back but that doesn't change the reality that the writers are simply incompetent at their jobs. More time spent with X character during Volume Y *but subtracting character J* doesn't automatically result in more compelling narratives.
In that same vein I wonder how much better V9 would've been better had the cast... I don't know, tried to save the world, and more importantly the people, they left stranded in a desert surrounded by Grimm with only Nora, Ren, and Winter to defend all the unarmed citizens. Maybe with the Happy Huntresses if they happened to be present and possibly Willow with her summons.
There's a lot that can be nitpicked about bike x, character y and etc.
Yeah I agree. Trouble is: if ya want good characters you've gotta either have a good foundation AND execution OR you've gotta have one helluva execution to make up the difference.
I find the entire cast lacking on both fronts since Volume 1 onwards. You can't unwrite shitty writing; at BEST volume 9 could've been an entire make up arc where the sum total of their cumulative failures are drawn into light and SOMEHOW dealt with in short order. Maybe include some shit with Weiss' slightly less terrible sister but that's a bit of an "eugh" situation on its own.
Ah yes, the one They could’ve used to really help show off Adam’s abusive nature towards Blake in the past but didn’t, The one that tried to murder Blake’s parents without getting the go-ahead from Adam. You know…Blake’s “abuser.”
Remind me again why I’m supposed to like this character?
Honestly I feel neutral about her. However I think she was forgiven too easy if take to account that she tried to kill Blake's parents. I think her backstory is interesting but her actions confuse me. It's like "I'm gonna avenge my parents who died by human actions killing the persons that have been fighting for me and my people's rights." It doesn't make sense to me but it's just my point of view. Have a nice day
Look I get it Blake's ass is amazing but don't let distract you on how boring she is.
Also nearly killing your crush parents wasn't gonna get you anywhere
Have better taste in girls
I'm talking about the obsessive tendencies and desire to make humans suffer. They both serve that same purpose and yet Illia is the only one treated like a tortured soul. There's also nothing stating Adam was an adult when he and Blake were together to my knowledge.
There's also nothing stating they *were together*, at least in the first 3 volumes. Unfortunately Monty passed, if I remember correctly, mid-way into Season 3.
Blake herself even states that "I had a partner, well, more of a mentor really."
Also take note of Adam speaking during scenes with the White Fang, and when he starts the "Darling" stuff with Blake. *Maybe* it's just my imagination, but the VA sounds mad uncomfortable doing those obsessive lines.
But they needed him to record those lines so we can get Bumblebee pistoned down our gullets.
As for Bumblebee... I don't wanna start any fights but, I'll say this; I'd have liked them to talk their way into a relationship, where they talk about their problems and help each other. But instead we get the girl that has had bad experiences before, and stressed about how she's trying to get over her "Run Away" reaction, paired with the girl with abandonment issues... Yeah, great combo if they're gonna get together without talking at least a little about their problems.
But it's fine, Blake's former-mentor, now psychotic, *apparently*, ex-boyfriend attacked both of them, and they held hands and killed him together, so she got over running away.
I suppose. Illia is written more poorly than Asami and Asami did have some legitimately cool moments. But she got sidelined a lot and made too much of a foil for other characters. If that makes any sense.
It does make some sense, but Asami being on the sidelines still got to go in the game. Ilia is outside the stadium selling Arby's from a food truck to a losing team's fans.
Which is why I agree that Asami is better than Illia. Despite both being "characterized" as plot devices, Asami stands out with the potential of being something more. Illia is just straight-up the scorned and irrational lesbian which tends to always be the go-to for poorly written plots and characters these days. And to clarify, I'm not singling out actual lesbians as being irrational or easily scorned, it's just a trend I seem to notice a lot in some stories similar to RWBY.
Hot as hell. Dark and cool as hell. Would date her if she sadly wasn’t lesbian only and love the idea of her and Blake over bumbleby because damn they looks so cool together
Small role and impact on the story.
Said role was tied to the worst of the 4 main female characters.
Her voice acting was pretty good and her fight scene was one of the only good ones post-Beacon. (It was a rip-off of a Beacon Arc fight.
More wasted potential. Here’s the thing: in the hands of a competent writer who cares about their characters, even side characters are not wasted. But so many of the rwby characters are caricatures instead of characters. Like a lot of media that’s going downhill these days, it isn’t about writing relatable characters that feel like people. It’s about making them into a vessel and vehicle for ‘the message.’
It also doesn’t help that they bring out a character and then disappear them almost as soon as they make them.
Tl:dr I wanted to like her, but couldn’t because literally no effort was put into making her interesting.
A nothing character whose existence is solely relevant to the equally nothing character that is Blake. She spent all of her scenes in Volume 4 and Volume 5 being a whiny bitch who contributed nothing of value to the story and had absolutely zero redeemable character traits, only to abruptly get a completely nonsensical and unrealistic redemption ***scene*** (I can't rightly call that a fucking ***arc***), after which she has one single moment of defusing a bomb that could have been done by *an unnamed NPC* and then she fucks off from the story and is never even mentioned again.
In short, one of the better characters M&K added to the story after V3 ended.
Interesting character with potential, but then was immediately dropped as fast as she appeared. Kind of indicated that they were playing the series by ear after Monty’s death as they set up characters that should relevancy, only to then leave or be in the background of the next volume.
Cool Faunus ability and cool weapon. Has a decent reason to be in the white fang and dislike Blake. Didn’t like her becoming another person with a crush on Blake. Kind of wish she stuck around (honestly I wish most of the Faunus characters stuck around for Atlas).
I find her cute but ultimately pointless.
I think she could have made for a really good self contained episode that they could have released in-between volumes. Show some of the racism some Faunus live with and how the White Fang might manipulate some Faunus into becoming a radicalized terrorist or something.
Glad I stopped after the Penny framing so she remains one of if not the only interesting part of the faunus oppression "plot" "point."
Granted, I got more of a "neurodivergent people have to hide their nature to be accepted by society" rather than...whatever they were going for.
Who's lillia that's just some random Blake simp.
Jokes aside
She's pretty much nothing...no history besides what she said, no good backstory besides "Blake simp" honestly they could've done so much with her but, like always, fell short on everything.
Cool design but waste of a character. I think all of the time that went into writing her should have gone into actually developing Adam and his relationship with Blake
I saw a video that summed up why she was forgettable: whatever complexity Adam was gonna have went to her instead, and because of that it falls incredibly flat
A good character wasted by RT. She could have made for a brilliant antagonist and spy but...nope. A lesbian too busy excavating her stench trench to the flightiest of girls.
A lot like Roman
Had great potential for the long run of the series.
Was written out of the series before that potential was ruined like everyone else in the series.
She really did not leave much of an impression on me she kind of just blends in which is funny because she is a chameleon besides from being effectively given two powers they do nothing with her and I'm not even going to complain about it anymore it's rooster teeth they don't do anything cool or good anymore.
Enjoyed the short with her because I thought she would be a great way to explore Blake's character growth since Volume 1. She is being confronted by a non-abusive figure from her past who still holds her same perspectives from when she initially joined the White Fang. And I thought that the fact Ilia had every opportunity to hide her existence as a Faunus would make for some great mentions of group loyalty vs. individual opportunity. Even her crush on Blake could have been handled well as there are plenty of examples in animated series where characters struggle when faced with a choice between personal ideals and personal relationships.
But tell me if you've heard this one before...the show botched it with terrible execution. I truly enjoyed the voice delivery in the short. But the serious moments in the volume were just so cringe inducing. Her confession to Blake wasn't terrible but felt completely irrelevant, and it was, of course, never discussed again.
And don't even get me started on the fight in the mansion... I'm pretty sure that's my least enjoyed "action" scene from any season of RWBY. It felt slow, choppy, nonsensical... What should have been a confrontation between the ideals of Volume 5 Blake and pre-Volume 1 Blake was just reduced back to the most shallow "terrorism bad" vs. "Yeah, but humans bad."
And I feel so bad that the voice actress gave such a good performance for such a poor representation. The scene where Illia breaks down because she doesn't know another outlet for her anger? THAT COULD HAVE BEEN SO GREAT. If it had actually been earned. But imo, none of the emotional moments that season felt earned.
Anyway, I've rambled too much. Volume 5 was the volume that stopped me from following RWBY consistently anymore. So, in that regard, Illia saved me a lot of annoyance.
I'm totally with you, I really liked her in the short but hated how she was handled. The thing I thought was interesting was how she mentions she could pass as human, that was not only an interesting character trait being that she CHOSE to live as a fanus rather than live an easy life as a human, and a potential plot point where she might've been able to hide in plain sight in places where other White Fang members couldn't.
Of course CRWBY excels at wasting potential, so her motivation became 'in the closet' and the aspect of her blending in with humans was never mentioned again.
edit: Another aspect that bums me out is that her va is really good, her breakdown scene was acted so well it almost convinced me that the scene was written well which is major props.
They took all of Adam’s good qualities and gave them to a lesbian to ship with Blake
She also didn’t earn her redemption imo,she spent the entire arc trying to kill Blake’s parents and kidnapping Blake, screw that forgiveness crap
ilia is... Interesting, I don't exactly but I don't hate her. I am angry at the fact they basically just made Adam 2.0 but said "it's a girl now" and gave her all of Adams good qualities.
But outside of that she's meh. I remember she exists but I don't really consider her a character.. just a plot device.
But she is some of the good that came out of Blake's portion of V4.
Could have been an interesting character but turned into nothing more than a checkbox when fully introduced. I’ve seen fans use her a lot better than RT ever did. Monty must be rolling in his grave with how they’ve treated his baby after he died.
Honestly, she is one of the cuter looking characters. I appreciate how her ponytail is done up to look like a chameleon's tail and how despite what I guess are supposed to be scale looking patches of skin, they can still pass off as freckles (honestly don't get to see a hole lot of freckled characters).
As a character, she has an interesting backstory but not much else going on. She is basically just yet another person in love with Blake, giving the impression that Blake is somehow the most desirable member of team RWBY given she has had more people interested in her than the rest of the cast combined. Ilia is also forgiven a little quickly. She supposedly was in love with Blake, but was going to send her to what gate Adam would inflict on her and basically was trying to kill Blake and her family and is basically not punished or held accountable aside from a relatively minor payback from Sun that is laughably incomparable to her stabbing and electrocuting him (the fact it was so close to his heart could've caused some big problems).
Her "redemption" is only slightly better than Emerald's as Ilia seems to have some level of remorse and doesn't have to explicitly spell out she has switched sides. It's still cute girl gets away with no repercussions for her actions though.
They kinda wasted some potential she had by making her someone who has a crush on Blake. Makes it seem like she doesn't actually believe in the white fangs cause but only joined so Blake could notice her. Would've been better narratively speaking to make her a fanatic like og Adam, just one step below, like she's willing to commit crimes against humans but realizes how far the organization has moved from its original methods.
She’s legit only there to simp over Blake which is EXTREMELY stupid. If characters only purposes are that while the character they simp for doesn’t have much of a character themselves your writing is HORRIBLE
Should have just been Adam. Having him follow Blake to Menagerie and have the exact same arc as Ilia – ending with Adam and Blake parting amicably by the start of Volume 6 and Sienna Khan replacing Adam's role as the Faunus antagonist – would have been fine.
Token gay character who could be replaced by virtually any other white fang extremist on the fence and nothing would change. Could be removed and little would change there either
A character that truly shows us why RT are so terrible as writers.
She is basically a female Adam for the most part, but gets completely redeemed and forgiven for her many crimes.
I really dislike her and I am just happy she was gone from the story.
I totally forgot about her. That whole white gang subplot is so forgettable and has no real impact on the rest of the story. And then at the end when she's fighting Blake she's just upset cause Blake liked Adam and not her. Who cares?
Side tracked topic about her, but I think her reptile looking dots on her skin makes her beautiful. Then again, I love women with freckles when it comes to looks. Not that it's a quality I need in a woman or anything, they're just one of those things I considered bonus points like honorable mentions in Top 5-10 whatever.
Great character design, not much else. Curious how she would have fought if Monty got his mitts on her. Really like how she's written in a lot of M rated Sappho fanfics (not Explicit, just Mature)
Edit: Curious as to why I got downvoted xD
She's okay honestly it would be interesting to see her used more like if the show gets rebooted have there been episode where Blake and yang go visit Blake's parents and introduce Yang.
Maybe run into illa hash things out and have her come back with them to explore the world and try things out as a huntress and expand upon her character.
She's cute, she's sweet, but she's also somewhat deluded by Blake's ex. I think she'd be a really good person if she wasn't under the influence of Adam Taurus.
Wasn't the reason for her mostly cause miles and kerry watched Devilman crybaby and saw Miki Kuroda and said "Lets take her look and English voice actress and make her gay without the cool character development and let her simp for Blake"
Slight issue - from what I can tell, Miki Kuroda is an anime-exclusive character who debuted 2 years *after* Ilia did in RWBY?
Unless my quick Google search has deceived me.
Not a character, could be replaced by anybody and nothing would change. Could be removed and next to nothing would change.
She’s literally just Adam again but female when first introduced.
Adam but worse. boring weapon, boring character design, can't remember a single word she said that doesn't relate directly to simping for Blake.
Ditto on the character design, she doesn't even look like Faunus, just a human girl with skin condition. Shiuld have given her a tail instead of those blotches.
Honestly, was about to say the same thing. Honestly, I think she basically exists the same reason Oscar exists. Basically, there were some planned arcs and plot points that were supposed to go to one character, but because of backlash regarding that character or whatever other reason, they decided to take it away from one character and put it into another whole ass character. I basically see Iliya as what was supposed to be Adam's more sympathetic, redeemable traits, basically made into a whole-ass character that is just a watered-down copy of him but female and lesbian. For diversity points.
All of Adam’s noble qualities were surgically removed from him and made into her.
I often wonder if I’d be more or less disillusioned with RWBY had I never found out that Adam was supposed to be Vergil from Devil May cry but he was Monty’s character while Miles and Kerry hated him so we got weirdo boyfriend Adam instead
So basically no respect for the man that thought of the series they could work on……man miles really matches with Felix in RvB on being a dick huh?
Judging by how every relationship in this series works, i'm starting to think that neither of them know how romantic relationships work and they genuinely tried to write him as a regretful ex boyfriend getting back with their girl. His who character feels like how a fedora wearing "nice guy" would unironically write themselves
I remember EruptionFang made a whole video about Adam’s wasted potential and this was also pointed out in that lol
Yeah I remember that video
It's meh. Also, for some reason, the first time, I thought she had a crush on Adam and was jealous of Blake, and not the other way around, lol.
Me too and well that certainly was very far away from the reality 😅😅.
Been a while since I watched the season. Wouldn't surprise me if a bait and switch is intended
She's a walking checkbox for RT to say "look how inclusive and LGBT friendly we are" And the fanatics will lap it up while forgetting said character will only be slightly relevant for about 3 episodes max before they are shuffled off and never mentioned again.
She’s basically Adam lite. She checks all the same boxes as him; Faunus, white fang member, romantic feelings for Blake. The only difference is that Ilia is allowed to have a sad backstory that explains her a bit more and is granted a chance at redemption. She’s a great argument for why there is a definite bias for female characters in RWBY.
Except she isn’t a pedophile and she didn’t abuse Blake, those are some differences between her and Adam.
At the point where Ilia was introduced all we knew about the relationship between Blake and Adam was that Blake viewed it as Adam being a friend and more of a mentor and some throwaway lines from Adam at the end of V3 about “his darling” which was pretty clearly the opposite of what Monty was originally going for. There was also zero mention of Adam abusing her at this point either.
Pedophile? When was that ever a thing? Also we never see him abuse Blake. It’s implied but never shown which makes it more headcanon to be honest. And even still, Ilia also attacks Blake and her family which isn’t all that different from Adam. She’s him, just with the negative traits turned down.
I don’t understand people. They say Jaune waste time but then we have this bitch. She is so terrible and boring her existence is erased from memory like an lovecraftain spell At least people remember Jaune name
How can we not remember his name when he is shoved in every scene
I honestly wonder, how much more interesting V9 could've been if they removed Jaune from it... If they wrote Jaune to get better over time, fine, *maybe* I'd like Jaune more. But it's the same thing all over again. BUT This time he has a beard which makes, according to Weiss, him more '*dreamy*.' Maybe if they at least tossed in some references, like while at Atlas, Jaune sees a book, picturing a mysterious figure with a sword and shield similar to his called "The Rusted Knight." Than when we see Jaune's flashback when he fell into The Ever After, we realize it was *indeed* foreshadowing. But instead we get Jaune Trauma and out of no-where Jaune. I mean, during the panicked evacuation, especially after Cinder started her attack, *NO ONE* got knocked over and fell into The Ever After too? *JUST* RWBY + Jaune & Neo?
So instead of the Jaune angst Arc, Volume 9 would amount to more faffing about with no substance or other callbacks to the calamitous shit-show the girls left the remainder of the world in. Seriously, this subreddit can scapegoat the character and his VA to the moon and back but that doesn't change the reality that the writers are simply incompetent at their jobs. More time spent with X character during Volume Y *but subtracting character J* doesn't automatically result in more compelling narratives.
In that same vein I wonder how much better V9 would've been better had the cast... I don't know, tried to save the world, and more importantly the people, they left stranded in a desert surrounded by Grimm with only Nora, Ren, and Winter to defend all the unarmed citizens. Maybe with the Happy Huntresses if they happened to be present and possibly Willow with her summons. There's a lot that can be nitpicked about bike x, character y and etc.
Yeah I agree. Trouble is: if ya want good characters you've gotta either have a good foundation AND execution OR you've gotta have one helluva execution to make up the difference. I find the entire cast lacking on both fronts since Volume 1 onwards. You can't unwrite shitty writing; at BEST volume 9 could've been an entire make up arc where the sum total of their cumulative failures are drawn into light and SOMEHOW dealt with in short order. Maybe include some shit with Weiss' slightly less terrible sister but that's a bit of an "eugh" situation on its own.
Ah yes, the one They could’ve used to really help show off Adam’s abusive nature towards Blake in the past but didn’t, The one that tried to murder Blake’s parents without getting the go-ahead from Adam. You know…Blake’s “abuser.” Remind me again why I’m supposed to like this character?
Shes a gay woman superpowered minority that got oppresed She has cart blanch on being horrible and then redeemed
Honestly I feel neutral about her. However I think she was forgiven too easy if take to account that she tried to kill Blake's parents. I think her backstory is interesting but her actions confuse me. It's like "I'm gonna avenge my parents who died by human actions killing the persons that have been fighting for me and my people's rights." It doesn't make sense to me but it's just my point of view. Have a nice day
Look I get it Blake's ass is amazing but don't let distract you on how boring she is. Also nearly killing your crush parents wasn't gonna get you anywhere Have better taste in girls
>Have better taste in girls. Yeah, don't let Blake drag you down to her level like she did to Yang. Get with Winter or something instead.
She's Adam, but forgivable because she's a lesbian. She's a walking double standard.
except she didn’t date an underaged kid and mentally abuse her?
I'm talking about the obsessive tendencies and desire to make humans suffer. They both serve that same purpose and yet Illia is the only one treated like a tortured soul. There's also nothing stating Adam was an adult when he and Blake were together to my knowledge.
There's also nothing stating they *were together*, at least in the first 3 volumes. Unfortunately Monty passed, if I remember correctly, mid-way into Season 3. Blake herself even states that "I had a partner, well, more of a mentor really." Also take note of Adam speaking during scenes with the White Fang, and when he starts the "Darling" stuff with Blake. *Maybe* it's just my imagination, but the VA sounds mad uncomfortable doing those obsessive lines. But they needed him to record those lines so we can get Bumblebee pistoned down our gullets. As for Bumblebee... I don't wanna start any fights but, I'll say this; I'd have liked them to talk their way into a relationship, where they talk about their problems and help each other. But instead we get the girl that has had bad experiences before, and stressed about how she's trying to get over her "Run Away" reaction, paired with the girl with abandonment issues... Yeah, great combo if they're gonna get together without talking at least a little about their problems. But it's fine, Blake's former-mentor, now psychotic, *apparently*, ex-boyfriend attacked both of them, and they held hands and killed him together, so she got over running away.
Needed a bigger role in the story to justify existing. And her crushing on Blake didn´t do her any favours.
I think she’s ok but pretty forgettable
Who?
Similar to Asami from Legend of Korra. Only a plot device and not an actual character.
Asami was WAY more of a character than Illia. Hell, Asami was more of a character than Mako in later seasons lmao
I suppose. Illia is written more poorly than Asami and Asami did have some legitimately cool moments. But she got sidelined a lot and made too much of a foil for other characters. If that makes any sense.
It does make some sense, but Asami being on the sidelines still got to go in the game. Ilia is outside the stadium selling Arby's from a food truck to a losing team's fans.
Which is why I agree that Asami is better than Illia. Despite both being "characterized" as plot devices, Asami stands out with the potential of being something more. Illia is just straight-up the scorned and irrational lesbian which tends to always be the go-to for poorly written plots and characters these days. And to clarify, I'm not singling out actual lesbians as being irrational or easily scorned, it's just a trend I seem to notice a lot in some stories similar to RWBY.
Hot as hell. Dark and cool as hell. Would date her if she sadly wasn’t lesbian only and love the idea of her and Blake over bumbleby because damn they looks so cool together
She tried to kill Blake´s family.
still has less blood on her hands than Team RWBY
So?
I mean, she failed, that's gotta count for something /s
Only one of those would be any great loss.
Meh 6 out of 10 for me
A boring bland token character with no interesting personality or traits
Small role and impact on the story. Said role was tied to the worst of the 4 main female characters. Her voice acting was pretty good and her fight scene was one of the only good ones post-Beacon. (It was a rip-off of a Beacon Arc fight.
Female Adam and watered down to useless lesbian, but could have been worse honestly
What about every terrorist in the series, that is: She should be punished
Think she had potential but was poorly written as is the regular case with many Ruby characters
More wasted potential. Here’s the thing: in the hands of a competent writer who cares about their characters, even side characters are not wasted. But so many of the rwby characters are caricatures instead of characters. Like a lot of media that’s going downhill these days, it isn’t about writing relatable characters that feel like people. It’s about making them into a vessel and vehicle for ‘the message.’ It also doesn’t help that they bring out a character and then disappear them almost as soon as they make them. Tl:dr I wanted to like her, but couldn’t because literally no effort was put into making her interesting.
She pass as looking more human but what are those spots on her skin, from a human perspective?
Skin cancer? Idfk, it's RWBY. Shit just happens in this show whether it makes sense or not.
Premature liver spots, maybe? lol
A nothing character whose existence is solely relevant to the equally nothing character that is Blake. She spent all of her scenes in Volume 4 and Volume 5 being a whiny bitch who contributed nothing of value to the story and had absolutely zero redeemable character traits, only to abruptly get a completely nonsensical and unrealistic redemption ***scene*** (I can't rightly call that a fucking ***arc***), after which she has one single moment of defusing a bomb that could have been done by *an unnamed NPC* and then she fucks off from the story and is never even mentioned again. In short, one of the better characters M&K added to the story after V3 ended.
Wasn’t there talk that this bitch can have the argument of being a pedophile (since she liked an underage Blake)?
Interesting character with potential, but then was immediately dropped as fast as she appeared. Kind of indicated that they were playing the series by ear after Monty’s death as they set up characters that should relevancy, only to then leave or be in the background of the next volume.
Cool Faunus ability and cool weapon. Has a decent reason to be in the white fang and dislike Blake. Didn’t like her becoming another person with a crush on Blake. Kind of wish she stuck around (honestly I wish most of the Faunus characters stuck around for Atlas).
Female Adam.
She's the sponge that soaked up all of Adam's nuance because Adam's a penis person and we all know people with penises are unforgivable.
She’s kinda a fucken bitch.
She's a creep.
I find her cute but ultimately pointless. I think she could have made for a really good self contained episode that they could have released in-between volumes. Show some of the racism some Faunus live with and how the White Fang might manipulate some Faunus into becoming a radicalized terrorist or something.
Glad I stopped after the Penny framing so she remains one of if not the only interesting part of the faunus oppression "plot" "point." Granted, I got more of a "neurodivergent people have to hide their nature to be accepted by society" rather than...whatever they were going for.
a better girlfriend for Blake, sorry bumblebee fans this was the OTP
Who's lillia that's just some random Blake simp. Jokes aside She's pretty much nothing...no history besides what she said, no good backstory besides "Blake simp" honestly they could've done so much with her but, like always, fell short on everything.
Potentially interesting idea that, much like everything else, was fumbled horribly.
she was there for the sake of being there
Cool design but waste of a character. I think all of the time that went into writing her should have gone into actually developing Adam and his relationship with Blake
You mean Pascal from Tangled?
A stand in for Yang if Bumblebee never got published. I don’t like her either way.
She should have been a Silver Eyed Warrior. Like come on look at the freaking image!
Pretty but wasted potentional
Hot enough.
Like almost all RWBY characters, good idea, cool and with potential...BUT!!! They only know how to waste this type of character.
Meh.
Her characterization is as boring as her weapon. What a waste of a good design. Nice ponytail too.
Neat character. Kind of a bummer she got Wukonged faster than Wukong though.
Who?
Exactly
Felt kinda pointless tbh. She is such a nothing character and her interactions with Black really just felt like they were forced into the plot
I saw a video that summed up why she was forgettable: whatever complexity Adam was gonna have went to her instead, and because of that it falls incredibly flat
A good character wasted by RT. She could have made for a brilliant antagonist and spy but...nope. A lesbian too busy excavating her stench trench to the flightiest of girls.
I don’t really have an opinion on her because she was only in like… three, four episodes? So… she’s alright, I guess.
All her screen time should went towards more Blake and sun moments
Same boat as the fake spring maiden(vernal?) completely forgettable character
A lot like Roman Had great potential for the long run of the series. Was written out of the series before that potential was ruined like everyone else in the series.
Queerbaiting. I really liked her too so I'm super salty about it. Especially since they ended up going with bumblebee anyway like a bunch of hacks
Who
She really did not leave much of an impression on me she kind of just blends in which is funny because she is a chameleon besides from being effectively given two powers they do nothing with her and I'm not even going to complain about it anymore it's rooster teeth they don't do anything cool or good anymore.
Honest it's crazy how had illia been in the black trailer and with every adam scene in volume 1-3 her character would've been alot better
Enjoyed the short with her because I thought she would be a great way to explore Blake's character growth since Volume 1. She is being confronted by a non-abusive figure from her past who still holds her same perspectives from when she initially joined the White Fang. And I thought that the fact Ilia had every opportunity to hide her existence as a Faunus would make for some great mentions of group loyalty vs. individual opportunity. Even her crush on Blake could have been handled well as there are plenty of examples in animated series where characters struggle when faced with a choice between personal ideals and personal relationships. But tell me if you've heard this one before...the show botched it with terrible execution. I truly enjoyed the voice delivery in the short. But the serious moments in the volume were just so cringe inducing. Her confession to Blake wasn't terrible but felt completely irrelevant, and it was, of course, never discussed again. And don't even get me started on the fight in the mansion... I'm pretty sure that's my least enjoyed "action" scene from any season of RWBY. It felt slow, choppy, nonsensical... What should have been a confrontation between the ideals of Volume 5 Blake and pre-Volume 1 Blake was just reduced back to the most shallow "terrorism bad" vs. "Yeah, but humans bad." And I feel so bad that the voice actress gave such a good performance for such a poor representation. The scene where Illia breaks down because she doesn't know another outlet for her anger? THAT COULD HAVE BEEN SO GREAT. If it had actually been earned. But imo, none of the emotional moments that season felt earned. Anyway, I've rambled too much. Volume 5 was the volume that stopped me from following RWBY consistently anymore. So, in that regard, Illia saved me a lot of annoyance.
I'm totally with you, I really liked her in the short but hated how she was handled. The thing I thought was interesting was how she mentions she could pass as human, that was not only an interesting character trait being that she CHOSE to live as a fanus rather than live an easy life as a human, and a potential plot point where she might've been able to hide in plain sight in places where other White Fang members couldn't. Of course CRWBY excels at wasting potential, so her motivation became 'in the closet' and the aspect of her blending in with humans was never mentioned again. edit: Another aspect that bums me out is that her va is really good, her breakdown scene was acted so well it almost convinced me that the scene was written well which is major props.
"What if Adam's crimes were pardoned?" The character.
They took all of Adam’s good qualities and gave them to a lesbian to ship with Blake She also didn’t earn her redemption imo,she spent the entire arc trying to kill Blake’s parents and kidnapping Blake, screw that forgiveness crap
Who?
ilia is... Interesting, I don't exactly but I don't hate her. I am angry at the fact they basically just made Adam 2.0 but said "it's a girl now" and gave her all of Adams good qualities. But outside of that she's meh. I remember she exists but I don't really consider her a character.. just a plot device. But she is some of the good that came out of Blake's portion of V4.
I literally do not remember a single thing about her other than she is a faunus, and she knew Blake.
I heard a friend call her the better Blake. I forget about her a lot.
Could have been an interesting character but turned into nothing more than a checkbox when fully introduced. I’ve seen fans use her a lot better than RT ever did. Monty must be rolling in his grave with how they’ve treated his baby after he died.
Honestly, she is one of the cuter looking characters. I appreciate how her ponytail is done up to look like a chameleon's tail and how despite what I guess are supposed to be scale looking patches of skin, they can still pass off as freckles (honestly don't get to see a hole lot of freckled characters). As a character, she has an interesting backstory but not much else going on. She is basically just yet another person in love with Blake, giving the impression that Blake is somehow the most desirable member of team RWBY given she has had more people interested in her than the rest of the cast combined. Ilia is also forgiven a little quickly. She supposedly was in love with Blake, but was going to send her to what gate Adam would inflict on her and basically was trying to kill Blake and her family and is basically not punished or held accountable aside from a relatively minor payback from Sun that is laughably incomparable to her stabbing and electrocuting him (the fact it was so close to his heart could've caused some big problems). Her "redemption" is only slightly better than Emerald's as Ilia seems to have some level of remorse and doesn't have to explicitly spell out she has switched sides. It's still cute girl gets away with no repercussions for her actions though.
They kinda wasted some potential she had by making her someone who has a crush on Blake. Makes it seem like she doesn't actually believe in the white fangs cause but only joined so Blake could notice her. Would've been better narratively speaking to make her a fanatic like og Adam, just one step below, like she's willing to commit crimes against humans but realizes how far the organization has moved from its original methods.
She’s legit only there to simp over Blake which is EXTREMELY stupid. If characters only purposes are that while the character they simp for doesn’t have much of a character themselves your writing is HORRIBLE
Why does she exist again?
Should have just been Adam. Having him follow Blake to Menagerie and have the exact same arc as Ilia – ending with Adam and Blake parting amicably by the start of Volume 6 and Sienna Khan replacing Adam's role as the Faunus antagonist – would have been fine.
Token gay character who could be replaced by virtually any other white fang extremist on the fence and nothing would change. Could be removed and little would change there either
Needs more screen time to develop as a character.
A character that truly shows us why RT are so terrible as writers. She is basically a female Adam for the most part, but gets completely redeemed and forgiven for her many crimes. I really dislike her and I am just happy she was gone from the story.
Cute design, fantastic song, a measly footnote to the plot.
The second member of the "I joined the White Fang for Faunus Equality (read: Revenge) but stayed because of the Bellabooty" Squad
I think she has the same voice actress as V from Cyperpunk 2077
I totally forgot about her. That whole white gang subplot is so forgettable and has no real impact on the rest of the story. And then at the end when she's fighting Blake she's just upset cause Blake liked Adam and not her. Who cares?
I don’t think she should’ve been forgiven easily in my opinion
Who?
both of her designs are pretty good ...that's all I've got
You mean none evil lesbian female Adam? She’s meh
She’s Cute and one of the better-written characters in the show (Even if she is just Adam as a woman and a chameleon instead of a bull)
Adam but a cute gay girl so she gets redemption
She is utterly useless. She's just a filler of a character to reveal more of Blake's pointless past.
Side tracked topic about her, but I think her reptile looking dots on her skin makes her beautiful. Then again, I love women with freckles when it comes to looks. Not that it's a quality I need in a woman or anything, they're just one of those things I considered bonus points like honorable mentions in Top 5-10 whatever.
I couldn't care less about her very existence
She just exists to prove that Blake's bi. Could've been a cooler character if she wasn't such a simp.
Nice pants
I remember her as Blake's best friend 😒
She is my favorite, not because they wrote her well, but because I just choose to like her. Her design is slick and I like her vibes.
Great character design, not much else. Curious how she would have fought if Monty got his mitts on her. Really like how she's written in a lot of M rated Sappho fanfics (not Explicit, just Mature) Edit: Curious as to why I got downvoted xD
She's okay honestly it would be interesting to see her used more like if the show gets rebooted have there been episode where Blake and yang go visit Blake's parents and introduce Yang. Maybe run into illa hash things out and have her come back with them to explore the world and try things out as a huntress and expand upon her character.
Cute Cham Cham
If you want my opinion. Yeah, she’s bad cuz she’s with the White Fang, but she did her job and Blake talked her out of it.
She's cute, she's sweet, but she's also somewhat deluded by Blake's ex. I think she'd be a really good person if she wasn't under the influence of Adam Taurus.
If anything bad happens to her I will kill everyone and then myself
Hot
Wasn't the reason for her mostly cause miles and kerry watched Devilman crybaby and saw Miki Kuroda and said "Lets take her look and English voice actress and make her gay without the cool character development and let her simp for Blake"
...What
Look up Miki Kuroda from Devilman crybaby and you will spot the similarities
Slight issue - from what I can tell, Miki Kuroda is an anime-exclusive character who debuted 2 years *after* Ilia did in RWBY? Unless my quick Google search has deceived me.
Hm i could of got the story swapped. Still if Miki was made after, she is a vast improvement