I hate having to come right out and say it, but it's a fact. Dudes watch shows like RWBY specifically to waifu the mains. If you throw in a yuri pairing late in the game, it's essentially a signal to the audience that those characters are no longer waifu material, that they are forbidden to you. That's a recipe for a massive shitfit from the fans, no matter what, and it is easily avoided by making it clear from the outset that you intend to do same-sex pairings. For instance, nobody gets into watching Utena thinking that anyone in that show is going to be even remotely straight.
I, personally, don't watch shows to fixate on the protagonists to that degree, nor do I personally give a shit about shipping, much less shipping wars, but a lot of people do, and I can tell you from experience, you can't spring shit on people. As a writer, you have to telegraph your intentions to the audience well in advance, not throw shit in at the eleventh hour, after people have invested their precious time into multiple seasons of your show.
Gushing Over Magical Girls?
Show is fucking awesome, though it's kinda hilarious that the three main magical girls in it could pass for college students if they weren't specifically called out as being middle-schoolers (especially Azure and Sulfur).
But, yeah; you've got Kiwi gushing over Utena, who is just a BDSM porn addict; you've got Alice, who's an innocent kid but even then there were a few... off moments, like when she morphed herself into an "adult nurse" to cure Utena's cold; you've got those two defectors from Lord's faction, who were basically childhood friends-turn-lovers...
Oh, and let's not forget when Alice brainwashed Sulfur into thinking she was another one of her teammates' husband.
The Yuri is strong in that show, but everyone who watches it
knows what the show is about/its themes. This all wasn't just
sprung on the audience.
Conversely, RWBY was a fucking mess from the get-go after Monty's death, with Sun being teased for Blake until he just, well,
vanished, as an example. It went from a sismance (as in bromance) to outright Rainbow Tumour shipping shit, and it ultimately helped kill the show.
Hell, they even killed the slowly blooming Jaune/Ruby thing that was starting/building since Volume... Five, I think?
