So I've been told a few times that some characters didn't impact the plot... Mostly Adam, but I've been told Sienna and Roman.
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Yes, Adam didn't impact the plot. He totally didn't cut off Yang's arm. Totaly wasn't why Blake ran. Was definitely not why she meets back up with her team. He most certainly didn't almost cause a city to be destroyed by proxy. And I don't know what you're talking about, he never killed the White Fang leader.

Sienna was simply taken before her time. She was a character with a purpose, to die.

Roman... He was meant as a one-off so I'd say he did pretty well all things considered. Also, the entire arc for Cinder and Neo that's coming is because of him so...

Now I don't know about you but there are a few unimportant characters. People who had no real impact. Anyone on SSSN that isn't Sun, CFVY, I'd say the atlas students but I'm behind so idk.

does anyone else know of some truly unimportant characters?

Depends what you mean by unimportant.

7057607
The tournament contestants who weren't major characters already.

7057617
Just characters that don't impact the plot. People who don't really matter in the grand scheme of things could be removed and not much changes.

I'd say Tock but she's actually important so...

7057797

Ah. In that case...pretty much the entire White Fang. Personally, I found them to be...there. Just there for being there. Not really much of a threat. They only seem like a threat due to how everyone’s been handling them. Reactionary instead of preventionary. Coordinated attacks with mobile armor support would crush them easily.

7058324
In fairness to the Fang and reactionary handling, the only characters we've seen ever find them are Faunus, specifically members and Sun... Yeah, that's expected.

They seem to be pretty good at hiding their activities, remember they were helping steal Dust and they were barely suspected at all, they were only really suspected because of racism tbh. And no one had any idea they were at Mt. Glenn either, RWBY knew Cinder's OP was their but not the Fang. And in the final battle, they just popped up outa nowhere really.

In short, either the Fang is really good at hiding or the Vale police are useless, likely both

7058377

Increased security measures would prevent White Fang from instigating minor raids from the fear of too many losses.

But my main point is you can give em a different name, a minor change in look, and they’ll still have the same purpose.

7064136
Well in fairness, they needed tournament goers and not all of them could be bland personality blanks

7058324
The white fang are important for Blake’s arc

7112427

That was quite literally the only point they had value in my eyes. Otherwise...they’re just there.