Reply To: Rooster Teeth

Heroes and Monsters (aka FANSERVICE INCARNATE)

Lets go ahead and get the silly stuff out of the way:

The fandom. They named it Kevin.

Mary Poppins.

Kerry and Miles be like:

http://i.imgur.com/CDPXUYc.gifv

Yang gets her Luke Skywalker moment.

As usual, fans have an uncanny foresight when it comes to designing fan art. This picture is apparently several weeks old.

http://49.media.tumblr.com/f9713f95446277896fea19a760582e82/tumblr_o25btbWfXB1sg10yyo1_400.gif" />

Now for the serious discussion.

Could they have crammed in even one more jaw-dropping scene of shock or long-in-the-making fanservice payoff moment? I don’t think so.

– They finally revealed Velvet’s weapon (and they played I May Fall for more than 10 seconds!!!)

– Weiss (partially) summoned the White Knight!

– Neo vs [insert any character here]!

– Ruby reminds us of why she’s the main character!

– Torchwick is dead!? (At least, we’re supposed to think so. More on that later.)

– Ironwood is a freakin’ Terminator!

– Qrow finally used his scythe!

– Blake vs Adam!

– Pyrrha’s gonna take the maiden’s pow–! Oh, wait, nevermind…

– Cinder got the rest of the fall maiden powers!

This was a loaded episode if I’ve ever seen one.

~~~

Jaune had ONE JOB. But he turned around for five seconds and blew it. It was probably for the best though.

~~~

Let’s talk about Torchwick.

What was that? He was the best villain! If they really killed him off, that would be a rather underwhelming death, especially after his long absence. It makes sense in-context (his negative emotions as he rants about the “real world” and smacks a young girl with a cane probably drew that Grimm to him), but it still felt like a “Wait… that was it?” moment once the initial shock wears off.

Still, I found this whole episode to be rather humanizing for him, and I think Gray’s excellent vocal performance was a big part of that. He truly expressed concern for Neo when she fell off the ship. I’m sure the Roman x Neo shippers were ecstatic… for a minute. And then they cried. His “real world” speech sounded quite personal. Sadly, it seems his villainy is the result of life dealing him the short end of the stick, and as he said, if you can’t beat ’em…

Now for the fan-wanking. I may just be grasping at straws here, but I’m not 100% convinced that he’s really dead. There’s plenty of convincing evidence both ways, but let’s think about this. Ruby kicked him once in that fight. That was the only hit he took, so his aura should still be perfectly intact. That Grimm was also killed almost immediately after swallowing him, so it’s body should dissipate before long, but depending on how long that takes, he might have had a giant, winged meat-shield when the ship crashed. AND on top of that, we still don’t know his semblance. Maybe it could have helped him? With so many unknown variables here, I feel like this situation was completely survivable for him (just replace “shoe” with “hat”).

On the other hand, I fully understand that if Penny and Torchiwick and anyone else we’re lead to believe kicked the bucket has an easy out for the whole “I’m dead” thing, then such shocking deaths would start to feel cheap and pointless, and certainly lose most of their impact. Eventually, SOMEONE has to stay dead with no realistic chance of returning. I just don’t want that someone to be Torchwick at only 3 seasons into what might be a 10+ season show…

At the very least, I am now extremely interested in his backstory. Dead or not, they have to give us that at some point, right?

Oh yeah, and Neo made her first audible sound. Did anyone else catch that? She gasped when Ruby hit the button on her umbrella.

~~~

Now for Blake, Adam and Yang.

Wow, Adam is now the textbook definition of “creepy, abusive ex” with a little yandare sprinkled in for good measure. At least his voice acting improved… for some of his lines.

Blake got STABBED. I didn’t see that coming. That decapitation though. I was like “WHAT THE F– …oh right, shadow clones…”

Yang loses it BIG TIME. Are we about to get Fullmetal Yangchemist, courtesy of Ironwood? In a way, it was kinda Blake’s fault too. She shot at Adam earlier, who’s sword absorbed the attack and charged up his epic super-slash that he uses on Yang later. I feel like that’s a detail a lot of people missed.

I hate to admit it, but Bumblebee is kind of an actual, in-universe thing now. They’ve teased the shippers before, but this episode took it to a new level, and they weren’t even subtle about it. Still, I don’t see Blake and Yang actually becoming a couple. With the direction this show is going, I’m expecting more of a tragic “not meant to be” kind of thing. Sun’s abs trump all.***

Also, where did Zwei go? He was just… gone. Ditto for that random guy Blake saved.

***That actually gives me an idea for some silly fanart. Stay tuned…

Next time on RWBY: Ozpin vs Cinder

HYPE CANNOT BE CONTAINED

Raven has to show up too, right? We still don’t know what the heck V2’s post-credit sequence means.