And keep in mind that R. Lee Erney in FMJ was in fact a real drill sargeant, and was using his experience as one to give the film a more authentic feel. They gave him free reign because he knew what a REAL drill sargeant would act and sound like, and edited out anything unnecessary in post production.
RWBY is a series where things get thrown in because "why the heck not," which is not a good way to write a story unless you're just that damn talented.
And of all the people I feel bad for in this, I feel bad for Monty especially, because maybe it's just me, but I highly doubt this was what he envisioned.
He even said in commentary and some of the live chat things that this was originally a much smaller story that got expanded, and that he's wanted to cut some things out of the plot but the writers won't let him.
If that's the case then it's possible the writers have gone and hijacked his own concept and turned it into the first two volumes of liquified 'ech' that we've seen so far.
Now don't take my word on that, because it's based on hearsay. I'd have to double check the volume 2 commentary to be certain.
Now music! Since our good friend cookie monste--erm, I mean Redry mentioned it, music in RWBY is well composed. I gave the ost of volume 1 and 2 a listen and Jeff is really working to give a relatively diverse set of songs. Unfortunately they're not as good as the trailer work for the most part because of the fact that the trailer music blended a few things together. I mean, the Red trailer had a largely orchestral feel to it, the White trailer kinda starting out with light piano into a finale that mingles it with...I dunno, a techno-ish beat underneath? The Black trailer was a sorta D'n'B into Rock deal, and Yang's was a trance-like remix of the previous trailers finishing with Yang's own theme.
A lot of the ost music is really really standard, and doesn't do anything new or interesting. Oh, and then there's the fact that Jeff has Casey Lee Williams singing every. Single. Song. He literally has NOBODY else to do any vocals (except like, one dude, probably himself), and as a result Casey Lee is singing every. Single. Song. Even ones that go outside of her vocal range causing her to 'scream' lyrics instead of singing them (listen to volume 2's OP, you will hear it when she comes to the main chorus). Team CFVY's theme is the most egregious example of how bad some of the songs get.