No it really isn't. By that logic something like 90% of all anime characters are murderous psychopaths because they often hit people with enough force to send them crashing through stone walls. Nevermind that in their worlds that's the equivalent of a light slap to the back of the head, since it would have been lethal in our world we have to treat it as being lethal in their world even though it clearly isn't and so therefore they have to be psychopaths because they go around trying to kill people! Truly the epitome of rational and reasonable criticism.
Context? Ah yes, we have dismissed that claim.
Yeah, it definitely looks like you dismissed context, given that as of her trailer,
no context for her actions exists. And the Yellow Trailer is how we are introduced to her, so impressions here will color how one judges her actions later.
A summary of the Yellow Trailer when viewed in isolation, as it was originally:
An unknown girl shows up at a nightclub, somebody doubts she's age appropriate. She grabs him by the junk while smirking and demands info. She singsongs at the now named Junior and is clearly signposted to be playing with him. This extends to after she finds out he has no info to give and lets him go. The Junior's boys arrive, armed with axes and ready to defend him. She suckers him in with a promise to kiss and make up, which Junior actually takes - and then punches him in the face. When the boys rush her, she backflips and the camera deliberately slows down to show the blonde's eager smile. Blows all of them off their feet in a single punch, then dismantles them all while grinning. She's got shotgun fists, all the boys have axes. She easily handles them all and beats them down. One guy starts shooting at her from the DJ booth and she jumps up there and throws him off the balcony with a shotgun assisted throw. Two non-mook women show up, and blondie gets thrown for a single moment, but then returns and dismantles them too. Oh, and she breaks a bunch of shit in the club while fighting. She clearly outclasses them in raw power and skill. At this point Junior returns, rocket launcher in hand and fires a bunch of rockets at her, then smacks her with the launcher-bat. She then stands up, still smiling, and powers up, then beats the shit out of Junior. The big guy gets thrown back with his broken bat handle and a lock of her hair. She gets visibly mad for the first time, her eyes go red, and she rocket punches Junior out the window. When she hops out and sees Red girl, her eyes go back to purple, she calms instantly and we find out her name is Yang.
There is no context for this trailer other than 'this show is going to be about 4 color-themed girls.' This is part of the intro to RWBY, and we have has gotten the barest smidge of world info. We just watched someone who clearly outclassed every single person in that joint waltz in, demand information, and then beat up everyone in it for fun. Then when she loses a lock of hair in a fight
she initiated, she gets extra mad and punches the info broker from the sizable club floor into the street. Even if we accept that nobody died because we didn't see any blood, cartoon physics in full effect and everyone walked away fine - Yang is thoroughly unlikable in this trailer. Other than 'this show is supposed to be about her.' there is zero signposting that she's intended to be a hero. In fact her singsonging, taunts, resorting to immediate and casual violence and constant grin as she wrecks a nightclub and beats multiple people into the ground are signposts I would expect from a villain.
She doesn't ask Junior first, and resort to harsh coercion when he rebuffs her, she leads with the ball vice. She isn't rebuffed at the door and have to punch her way in to see Junior. There's no obstacle that she needs to overcome by violence. She marches up to him, leans in and grabs his wedding tackle to force him to answer her question when it hasn't been established that force is necessary. This makes her the clear aggressor, but we have no reason why she's doing this other than 'looking for this lady.' Yang isn't dressed in a uniform, so we can't assume she's law enforcement, and that's before she shotgun-fists the club into smithereens.
She's punching
down the whole time, and there no indication or backstory that makes it justified. We cheer at Batman punching mafia mooks because we know his tragic backstory and personal code, we know he's meticulous about info so he's not punching non-villains, he has a clear purpose in foiling a crime or acquiring information to foil a crime when he's doing it, and most importantly, while he is more skilled and better equipped than the mooks, he's still human. Yang exhibits clearly superhuman traits here, while none of her foes do, other than the ability to take shotgun blasts to the head at close range and not explode like ripe melons. It's never established that the club, the men, or Junior are criminals or otherwise 'acceptable targets.' She doesn't have a clear purpose as 'find mysterious lady' is awfully vague. We don't even know who she is until the very end of the trailer.
On top of this Batman's purpose is to stop crime. He doesn't enjoy the fights, they are necessary to his end goal. Yang's constant grin signals that she's loving every minute of beating on her lessers. And distinct from shonen protagonists who enjoy a fight like Goku - this isn't a fair or challenging fight. Yang is enjoying
dominating the fight, not the thrill of a worthy opponent. How can any of them be her equal when she shits all over them with only a brief break in her stride, and the only injury being the loss of a lock of hair? This is more in line with Frieza's portrayal than Goku's.
Then there's the eyes going red with anger thing, which rarely signifies anything good, but we have no context for beyond the obvious.
There's nothing in this trailer that makes me think Yang is a good person. On a meta level, I know Yang is based on Goldilocks, and this fits perfectly. Goldilocks is a criminal asshole who feels she has the right to break into other people's houses, steal their food, smash their stuff and get off scot-free. This trailer actively portrays her as a powerful, sadistic, sociopath who enjoys abusing those weaker than her. The other trailers wisely give their girls something inhuman to fight against and show off - grimm wolves, giant statue, robots. Yang punches
people and clearly enjoys it. And at this point in the show we don't even have a point of reference to know if people are resistant to cartoon violence or if the non-mook characters have superpowers. Because this is the first trailer to include multiple people. None of the others do, even Black is just Blake and Adam.
As for the rest of it, I can completely understand what the writers
intended. What they actually showed us was something different. It's like the accidental incest vibe in Ben10. Yang is only nominally present for much of the show in the first two seasons. We have episodes following Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and
Jaune even gets multiple episodes. Yang is mostly in the background if she's onscreen at all. We never get a hard multi-episode focus on Yang and her character in S1 or S2, and the two best 'focus' bits that reveal what she is like are the Yellow Trailer, and the bit in Burning the Candle. Burning the Candle is great. It's the Yang the writers were shooting for, keeping people at a distance with humor but secretly vulnerable and caring about her teammates. She's actually a decently complex character that isn't just bad puns and grins and shotgun punching. The rest of the show completely fails to set that bit up properly, since she's hardly there during most of it, but it's good.
The Yellow Trailer on the other hand, depicts at best, an uncaring bully who enjoys violence. At worst, a monstrous psychopath which would make more sense as the villain than Cinder. There are minor writing mistakes that could have been written off as nothing - Yang encouraging Jaune to keep trying to woo Weiss when it's clear she hates him, and later her clear enjoyment of the fact that his attempts bother Weiss. Ruby acting like an abuse victim from time to time, etc. They're not nearly as strong indicators without the Yellow Trailer giving a base to build the psychopath interpretation from, but they are there, and it's an interesting take on someone who's supposed to be one of the heroines.
For the record I've only seen the first two seasons, so I'll grant it's possible they recontextualize Junior and the assault on the club into something personal later with a flashback, but as of S2 that doesn't exist.
