They’ve done things like this a few times in MLP and every time I’ve been fully prepared to hate them on the grounds that they’re not the characters I’ve spent all this time investing in, but every time I get to be pleasantly surprised by how well they were handled. I think Starlight Glimmer was my least favorite of the new additions and that was just because she was a character type I’m predisposed to not liking, and I still DID warm to her pretty quickly. And the Young Six are my children and I actually wish we’d got to spend MORE time with them

I think the biggest factor with me is how well they merge with the established cast and whether their addition feels natural. In RWBY we added a few new characters in volume four because the world had just gotten a lot bigger, but they were written into the story organically instead of just showing up- we were introduced to the big bad, naturally she was going to have minions beyond the couple we’d already met. We spent a whole season occasionally jumping over to Oscar while he made his way to join the group but his scenes were few and far between enough that it didn’t feel like we were ignoring the other four stories happening around him.

I guess it comes down to whether the character is integrated into the story naturally or whether they take it over. MLP didn’t become the Starlight Glimmer show after she was introduced, she just became a new source of stories and a new way to look at friendship. On the flipside, Clover was introduced and now he’s the only person Qrow interacts with, and I can’t wait for him to either die or reveal himself as a traitor so Qrow can go back to interacting with, you know, other people. And so the shippers will be upset but that’s the spite talking