Vol 9 is really once again showing why it's so great that RWBY didn't go with the constant dark dreary, depressing edgy route post V3 like some people said it "should" have done

V9 has our characters at some of the lowest points they've ever been, particularly Ruby, and what makes it work so well is that it wasn't like that before, Ruby didn’t lose her hope and optimism after V3 and the low points the characters had been brought to in V3 had largely been overcome by the end of V6

But had RWBY gone the route people said it "should" have gone after V3, where it's all dark, and the characters are edgy, and Ruby says "fuck optimism that's stupid", then V9 and it's downtrodden tone would feel tiresome and numb, because this tone and attitudes of characters wouldn't be anything new, its would be the 6th volume of that