Rooster Teeth

Lots to digest in this episode.

All things considered, Yang seems to have gotten off pretty easy, considering she’s basically just under house arrest (or maybe not? I guess that wasn’t made clear), aside from being disqualified.

Ren’s apron is amazing. RT needs to sell that on their store PRONTO.

Velvet’s camera has become a big point of speculation, since she clearly stores it in “the box.”
I’m not really sure what to make of it myself, but something I keep seeing come up is the suggestion that she wasn’t trying to take a proper photo of Sun at all, but rather his weapon, which was right in the middle of the frame, which could suggest that she can copy other people’s weapons from special photographs, with the bulk of the box acting as a “3D Printer” of sorts, and that the thing she had “built up” by the end of Volume 2 was a stockpile of weapon photographs.

Kinda out there, but that’s what some people are saying.

As for Mercury not laying low and choosing to confront Ruby, two ideas come to mind for me.
The first, is that they’ve decided to go ahead and remove Ruby from the equation sooner rather than later. She’s been a thorn in their side on several occasions and seems to be figuring out what’s going on rather quickly (which is funny, since she’s the last person I would’ve thought we’d see piece all of this together).

The second, and I may be grasping at straws here, is that Mercury is just another of Emerald’s illusions. He was told to lay low after all, so unless the plan already changed I can’t see him disobeying orders of his own volition, and it’s pretty clear Emerald did make eye contact with Ruby. We don’t know exactly how her powers work or what the range is, so maybe this is totally unrealistic, but it’s just a thought I had.

Penny vs Pyrrha is a disaster waiting to happen.

Arkos be like:

iloveit1

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag115/LGKillpack/1143251JK60QBz9_zpsswqhyldy.jpg" />

That is, of course, assuming no-one dies, which I guess we can’t rule out, but you’ll have a hard time convincing me that it’s a sure-fire thing that’s going to happen. So, there my optimistic speculation on the future of the fall maiden plotline.

All things considered, Yang seems to have gotten off pretty easy, considering she’s basically just under house arrest (or maybe not? I guess that wasn’t made clear), aside from being disqualified.

http://badlydrawnsunwukong.tumblr.com/post/137062789290” class=”bbcode_url”>http://badlydrawnsunwukong.tumblr.com/post/137062789290

http://40.media.tumblr.com/a5bacd468a1b43aa0e02ad0aed8d2af5/tumblr_o0rr61Q3xF1uldtd0o1_500.png" />

http://41.media.tumblr.com/b0c0ec86707a32c2a38fab8aafe0a4bf/tumblr_o0rr61Q3xF1uldtd0o2_500.png" />

http://41.media.tumblr.com/c1af19d0ce41aa2367b1f153494d53e1/tumblr_o0rr61Q3xF1uldtd0o3_500.png" />

On a more serious note, I had a thought. A pretty out there thought, but I figured I’d share it. I really hope I’m not on to something here.

I’m worried about what Emerald is going to do. She’s there, at the match. Surely she’s not just going to sit there and watch. Pyrrha vs Penny is surely going to end badly, and you would think that would be enough. But what if it’s not? Let’s assume for a second that Penny gets wrecked bad. What if Emerald makes Pyrrha think she actually slaughtered a normal girl? I don’t think RT would outright show anything graphic, but with some clever cinematography they could imply that Pyrrha is seeing the whole bloody mess. This would conflict with the “Mercury is an illusion” theory though, since we know Emerald can’t handle more than one illusion for any significant amount of time.

Now, Penny would probably be fine. She’s a robot after all and can likely be repaired. And Pyrrha could obviously be told this afterwards, but some things you just can’t unsee. That could really mess Pyrrha up in the head. It sure seems to be smooth sailing for the villains and their plan to systematically bring down all of the students that pose a threat to them.

Also planning on getting RWBY sometime this Summer or Fall. Anything I should look for?

Well, we all saw that coming.
http://i.imgur.com/aBtRw9q.gif" />

Here’s the updated Status Chart for this week’s episode:

http://i.imgur.com/ekKZRA1.jpg

A fairly straightforward episode. Everything hit the fan, but there’s not as much to really speculate on this time, but there are a few points we can bring up.

Regarding Penny…
As has been quickly pointed out by fans, nothing of importance seems to have been hit. We also saw who we can assume is her “father” watching the match. He’ll probably play some part in future events (and can maybe fix her?)

http://41.media.tumblr.com/997d016e8eb3988c831e49fe32c7cc9a/tumblr_o12pepKYvI1s84wnwo1_500.jpg" />

I can’t help but feel that Glynda and Qrow hesitating to follow Ozpin’s orders immediately might be more important than we think. What would they have done had they stayed at the school instead of rushing to fight the Grimm approaching the city? Protect Amber and/or Pyrrha? Something else? Either way, that could be bad. With Ironwood in the arena, Ozpin is the only one of their group still in the school. I would love to see him pull a Yoda in Attack of the Clones and have a crazy awesome fight scene with somebody.

I’m so glad Torchwick is back. Was worried he wouldn’t be in this volume at all. We finally get to see Neo with her normal hair, which looks much better than it did before. Can’t quite put my finger on why, but the textures seem to be much more detailed than last season.

Also, and this might sound nit-picky, but whoever voiced Adam is not a great voice actor. No offense to him. He’s not terrible, but he’s not consistent. The voice work in the Black trailer was pretty blah and his one line in V2 wasn’t much to go on, though it didn’t stand out to me as particularly poor. I actually thought he sounded just fine in Team BDGY’s (see what I did there? ) flashback episode, but once again his line in this episode just… didn’t sound good.

Anyways, I’d put money down on them keeping us in suspense with a World of Remnant next week

Yukinojo

Participant

ok regarding penny, she may have not received unrepairable damage, not being hit in the head or chest. However this does take her out of the picture as probably the only one that can fully repair her is her father.

Pyrrha is most likely going to be in deep depression and unable to do anything in the next ep.

At first, Mercury letting Ruby go seemed like a bad move, but considering that Grimm are literally breaching city limits, makes the matches that were rigged seem insignificant.

I honestly have a suspicion that Ozpin or Ironwood may die in the end, the writing just seems like a setup for a bigger death in mind

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b84/harleybmw/1453169121603_zps3gun458e.gif" />

http://img05.deviantart.net/d897/i/2014/304/0/e/_rwby__this_is_no_paladin__by_aikiyun-d84qwmz.png" />

Cookies vs. Cream!

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b84/harleybmw/1454416286227_zpsoo6xccxs.gif" />

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.

Barbara is on point, as usual.
The caption: “#RWBY cosplay”

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CauW-NoWIAEgieg.jpg" />

The puns cannot be contained.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CauXTpKWIAAbQYQ.jpg" />

This is too perfect:

http://i.imgur.com/wb0lvXf.gifv

[BBvideo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGse0J-xf6E[/BBvideo]

Best YT comment?

“I don’t know why people are so concerned about Yang. Prosthetic limbs are so cheap in Vale.

I hear they go for about a Penny a piece :^)”

Also, here’s some fanart and comics.

A Murder of Qrow’s

http://i.imgur.com/FNZrPMB.jpg

Blake vs Yang

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CYER10hUsAAFSFR.jpg

Spoilers and Puns

http://36.media.tumblr.com/ee3883bf759c3a55d906836f95c5a66f/tumblr_o2b59pg5Mo1r93ft6o1_500.png

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7e/Oobleck_Cover.png" />

It makes me curious just how large this area is supposed to be. This V1 art shows only green stretching from the school in all directions, but that’s clearly not the case any more, at least right around the cliffside port.

EDIT: wow, did I really post this? I was just jotting down notes for the full post. Meant to save it as a draft.

wth2

Anyways…

RWBY – Episode 12

~~~

Ozpin finally got his Yoda moment. And it was glorious(ly short).

~~~

Lots of potential plot points and returning faces for this quest to Mistral.

Now that we’re likely to actually see Mistral in V4, I’m thinking it’s inevitable we’ll get a really heart-wrenching episode where we meet Pyrrha’s family and either Jaune (most likely) or Ruby has to break the news to them that she’s dead. All hope is not lost Jaune. Maybe she has a sister?

Team SSSN also hails from Mistral, so assuming they evacuated Vale during the timeskip, they’re very likely to show their faces there.

The White Fang may also be based out of Mistral, as Adam mentions returning there in V3E7 before Cinder and Co. rope him into their evil plot.

CMEN was also posing as students from Mistral. Whether they’re actually from there or not is unclear, but Merc and Emerald might pop up at some point.

~~~

We all knew Pyrrha was based on Achilles. But did they REALLY shoot her in the Achilles? Come on, that’s like… the most cliche thing that could’ve happened. And it wasn’t even metaphorical. She literally got shot -with an arrow- right on the bulls-eye.

At least she went out with an epic fight. I’m rather surprised she was able to hold her own against a maiden, though I suppose Cinder could have been weakened from her fight with Ozpin. I did find it odd that, even though she now has the full power of the Fall maiden, Cinder still only used fire magic, and even then would only manifest her powers briefly when she needed to do a quick attack/deflection or to float.

The whole “Ruby has crazy powers of legend” thing is a bit confusing, especially considering we already know of another legend that also involved special powers. A lot of people simply jumped on the “Ruby must be a maiden” bandwagon, but I think Qrow makes it pretty clear the “Silver-Eyed Warriors” is a completely separate legend from the tale of the Maidens. It’ll be interesting to see how both of these legends progress. I think it’s a safe bet we’ll meet the other three maidens at some point, and slightly-less-likely-but-still-possible that we could meet another huntsman with silver eyes along the way.

Going back to Cinder, I doubt she’s dead, though I do wonder if she’s “frozen” like Kevin (aka the dragon). As Qrow said, that power was notable for being super-OP against Grimm. Would it even work against a human, only being intended for Grimm? Or does it work on anything, but it’s just particularly effective against Grimm? It’s hard to say at this point. I hope somebody finds her up there covered in bird poop next Volume.

Also of note is that Kevin’s silhouette is obscured by clouds during Blake’s brief scene. We don’t know if it’s literally frozen in ice, or “frozen” in some other way. Frozen in time, perhaps? Ozpin with his clock/gear motif is one thing, but the idea of Ruby having time-altering powers is kinda… out there. At the very least, we know it’s frozen stiff, in the sense that it has completely stopped moving. Anything beyond that is just conjecture.

On another note, Cinder’s “WHAT!?” reaction to Ruby’s powers is my second favorite scene from the entire episode, behind only Salem’s closing narration. I love it when confident villains lose their composure. I always have a stupid, “You deserved that” grin plastered on my face whenever I see that happen.

~~~

I had my mind blown when I realized something about Salem’s narration. Just looking at V3, she seems to be talking to herself, but think back to Jen Taylor’s opening narration way back in Episode 1 of Volume 1. Rather than a monologue, it’s a dialogue. Her narration in the V3 finale is a direct rebuttal of Ozpin’s statement from V1E1 (which I had totally forgotten about until I rewatched it). Taking that into account, she seems to be talking directly to Ozpin, who was probably captured and is likely right there with her, having this conversation some time after the events of Volume 3.

Guardians. Smaller, more honest souls. (And “simple” things. V1’s opening anyone?). The level of forethought they put into planning this series is incredible.

(skip to 1:15 if you want to jump straight to the relevant part)

[BBvideo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV6Qsm-DIBQ[/BBvideo]

~~~

Now for the pulled-out-of-my-butt theories.

I was going to talk about a bit more in-depth about a fan theory for how Pyrrha might not really be dead. She could be playing coy, and plans could always change down the line, but Pyrrha’s voice actress has since all but confirmed that she’s gone for good, so I’ll just summarize.

We see a million of these theories each time someone dies, but this one actually made a fair bit of sense. It suggested that Cinder actually teleported her away rather than scattering her ashes to the wind, perhaps to wherever Salem is. To what end? Not a clue, though the idea of Ruby and JNR (especially Jaune) having to confront a corrupted Pyrrha would be pretty cool.

The other half to this theory comes from trying to find an explanation for Ozpin’s disappearance. It’s clear to me that he was captured by Cinder and taken to Salem where they proceed to have their existential conversation they started in V1E1. But how did he get there? And how did Cinder end their fight so quickly when they seemed to be pretty evenly matched? Perhaps she did that to him what she did to Pyrrha, transporting him away in the same manner and leaving behind his cane which Qrow finds later, much like how Pyrrha’s headpiece was left behind when she disintegrated.

On the other hand, unless Oz’s green force field just couldn’t hold up to Cinder’s Kamehameha, this doesn’t explain how she subdued him long enough to actually do this, and it’s not entirely clear WHEN Ozpin and Salem’s discussion takes place.

Speaking of Salem, where the heck is she? Another realm/dimension? Maybe, but the shattered moon is still there. What place could possibly be so… alien… in comparison to Vale, and presumably to the other kingdoms as well? My crack theory is that she might be on that funky dragon-looking continent to the north of Vacuo. It’s shape is pretty ominous and has to mean something. It’s also the only full-sized continent without a kingdom, meaning it’s probably uninhabited and overrun with Grimm. It would be the perfect base of operations for her, but that’s just a random theory that crossed my mind.

Oh yeah, and where the funyuns was Raven? We haven’t seen her in-person since her cryptic dream talk with Yang at the end of Volume 2. I thought for sure she’d make some kind of appearance in this Volume. I initially thought the bird outside Yang’s window during Salem’s narration might have been her. While watching the episode I spaced it that she already has a voice actress (from the V2 post-credit teaser) and briefly thought that perhaps SHE was actually the narrator and main villain, until Salem’s reveal, but now that we know Qrow can turn into an actual crow, it seems more likely that was him checking on Yang before he flies off to catch up with Ruby & Co.

I wondered where the rest of team RWBY was in that clip as they didn’t show them until the final few seconds.

https://twitter.com/MPHadwin/status/783791431135686656

More pics:

https://twitter.com/TheMilesLuna/status/784023992634052608

~~~

Pics of new RWBY merch from NYCC are making their way online.

The official V4 poster is out in the wild.

https://twitter.com/kerryshawcross/status/784025383012368384

Character-specific posters

http://imgur.com/a/exWep

EDIT: Better shots of Blake and Yang posters

http://curiousscientistkae.tumblr.com/post/151443812151/sorry-for-the-glares-on-the-posters-but-atm-im

Vinyl chibi figurines

https://twitter.com/graymartigan/status/784025906507575296

T-Shirts (not confirmed for sale, but I’d be surprised if they didn’t)

https://twitter.com/graymartigan/status/783525148561473536

Trading Cards (looks more like Baseball cards though, it’s not a card game)

https://twitter.com/graymartigan/status/784103004098138116

The tees look soawesome1 . Though I would love to see one of all four of our heroines together.

What I would love to see would be in a word: plushies, if they haven’t done any already.

Firstly, Viz confirmed they will be releasing the RWBY manga. It will be joining the English Shonen Jump lineup in the near future.

RT showed the OP and a two minute clip from episode 1 of V4, but cut the livestream when they did so. With only two weeks until the premiere, I don’t think we’ll have to wait long for them to put the OP online though.

In addition to the 4″ figures I mentioned previously, there will also be 2″ blind box figures for sale.

They also showed off the design sheets for Ren and Nora’s new looks.

http://imgur.com/a/TosPg

Though it was mostly a joke about how Gray wasn’t completely out of characters to voice now that Torchwick is out of the picture, they did off-offhandedly mention that “White Fang Lieutenant” (guy with the mask and chainsaw) is “still out there”. Not counting Cinder’s flashback episode in V3, he hasn’t been seen since the train crash at the end of V2. We didn’t know if he survived or not.

And lastly, Qrow is confirmed as the narrator for this seasons World of Remnants.

EDIT:

I knew I was forgetting something. The game should be on consoles by Winter. JNPR character DLC will cost about $5 and will be released alongside an update that adds a Horde mode to the game. This should happen by the end of the month.

happens to my favorite member of Team JNPR and now wish I hadn’t. sadface1

Oh and I didn’t know that about Weiss beimg anti-Faunus when she and Blake first met.

next month I will order vol.1 as well.

https://twitter.com/RoosterTeeth/status/789583306291486720

It looks so good! soawesome1

A great first episode all around.

Ah, the miracle of birth. Disgusting, oozing monster birth. They were even playing some notes from Merlot’s theme from Grimm Eclipse.

Did not expect to see Salem again so soon, though now that we’ve seen her she probably won’t pop up again until the end. Cinder is still kicking, though she’s seen better days.

I still can’t get over how pretty the environments look now, and I’m liking the Asian aesthetic of Mistral’s continent. The new shading looks good, though it could use a refinement in places, hair in particular. Even with some adjusted faces, everybody looks good and still like themselves… except Salem. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something about her face just looks off, compared to her appearance in V3. Eyes a little too far apart, maybe?

Rena and Nora arguing over the top two fan team names was great. It’s good to see the show will still be funny.

Interestingly, they actually confirmed a concept first introduced in the manga. During Weiss’ manga chapters, significant detail and context was added to the events of the White Trailer. One new detail was that the giant knight she fought was actually referred to as a “Possession-type Grimm” (fan translation term, not necessarily the official one), some new variety of Grimm that could possess and control… things, albeit this was an artificially-created one. We see a “real” one in this episode. The Geist, the new apparition/spectre Grimm that was possessing the Golem (which was really cool, btw)

New characters up the wazoo. The new members of the League of Super Villains are pretty cliche so far, so hopefully they get properly fleshed out by the end of the volume. Given the lengthy focus on him, Farm Boy has got to be a pretty important character too. Were those supposed to be Blake’s parents in the OP? Or at least an aunt and uncle, as I had always assumed she was an orphan, though I don’t know if that was ever explicitly stated.

A little surprised to see Emerald and Mercury allowed at Salem’s place, they were only pawns that Cinder picked up and not really part of the grand plan or essential or valuable. I only expected Salem only to use Cinder and not a team, although it would make sense because she wouldn’t depend on one person only like Ozpin did. I know Salem had said Cinder had killed Ozpin, but i feel Cinder may have lied or believed she did but actually didn’t.

We’re only two episodes in and we’re already on the feels roller coaster.

I did not expect Weiss to have a brother (or that her mother is alive and probably an alcoholic). I don’t doubt that Whitley cares about Weiss, but his personality and mannerisms scream “insincere”, like the bulk of his nice-guy routine is an act.

I also did not expect Weiss’ butler to literally be all of the seven dwarfs in one person. I don’t have a problem with it, but surely there are other butlers that the personalities could have been divided between.

I love his new uniform, but don’t care for Ironwood’s 5 o’clock shadow. I think he’d look better with some actual scruff, like Qrow.

Papa Schnee is a douche, re-confirmed. At least we might get to hear Weiss sing in the show proper.

We keep hearing about Jaune’s sisters. I really hope at least a few of them make an appearance this Volume.

We also get red blood for the first time since the White trailer, and what is possibly the beginnings of some backstory for Ren and Nora. The way they glared at that symbol/footprint on the ground was suspicious. The same raiders or grimm that killed their parents, perhaps?

That scene at the end with Jaune training while listening to an instructional video from Pyrrha, and Ruby watching quitly at a distance was heartbreaking. Jaune’s basically just torturing himself with that video. That is not a healthy way of dealing with your emotions after a tragic loss. I would not be surprised if both Ruby and Jaune hit a tipping point in the not-so-distant future.

Ruby’s dreams were weird though. There’s gotta be something supernatural going on with that. It makes it seem like it was just triggered by the recording she was hearing in her sleep, but if you listen closely you can actually make out some of Cinder and Pyrrha’s exchange right before she was killed, which Ruby was not around to hear. Hmm…

About a week late on getting my thoughts written out blush1

We finally get both Blake and Yang this episode, with no Weiss or RNJR in sight. It seems like everybody but the Ice Queen is suffering from a little PTSD, aren’t they?

I know the robot arm thing was a popular theory, bit I did not think Yang would get access to one so soon, if at all. I also did not see her unwillingness to try it coming either, though that probably has more to do with me thinking she would get it much later after she’d worked some things out, rather than right at the start of the season before making any significant strides towards improving her mental state.

Sun is here finally, and he actually uses his semblance for something. I’m glad she has a traveling companion to keep her company. I’ve always liked him. He’s a great source of comic relief, and his out-of-nowhere sexy poses were hilarious. Sun clearly has this idealized version of Blake in his head though, which could turn into an issue later.

We finally get an aquatic Grimm too, and it’s a Chinese dragon of all things. Which is awesome, but not quite what I was expecting after Qrow’s mention of “fish stories” in one of the World of Remnants. Also, the bulk of this fight was clearly inspired by the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children movie. That wing slice from Blake? Sun helping launch her up there in mid-air with his semblance? Straight out of one of AC’s fight scenes. I dig the new song too, but need to hear it without all the sound effects.

I also liked how Blake and Sun didn’t have to literally do everything when fighting this Grimm. The boat captain and his crew were quite resourceful, and likely having sailed the oceans outside the kingdoms many times, were certainly ready to combat some Grimm (this line almost turned into a Penny joke, but I restrained myself). It shows that some of the people of Remnant, especially those that venture between the kingdoms regularly, aren’t completely helpless without a huntsman around.

The one thing that continues to bother me is how… lackluster the fight scenes have been. This is definitely the biggest hit the show took after Monty’s passing. They’re full of spectacle and flashy scenes, but everything just feels so weightless and floaty. They fly all over the place like Superman. Where are the physics? The heft to their movements? The momentum of their strikes? This is something Monty excelled at, but the rest of the animation team just don’t know how to do this well. Ruby herself is especially egregious. While it does make sense that she would have learned to utilize her semblance much better than before, her over-reliance on it kinda feels more like an excuse for the animators to simply have her zip around as a red ball instead of a much more ambitious utilization of her weapon’s movements and bullet momentum to fight, as she did in the past.

Having said that, while Volume 3’s fights were all over the place, most of them were pretty good, and they got better overall as the season progressed. I’m hoping that’ll be the case here, or that this is a side-effect of having just migrated to new animation software, and future season’s will see improvement. Fortunately, the writing and the rest of the animation make up for a lot of this. The quality of the show has basically flip-flopped completely since V1. The main selling point then was easily Monty’s amazing fights, certainly not the subpar writing, voice acting, and wonky non-combat animation. It’s basically done a 180 since them, with everything BUT the fights being worth watching the show for.

These last two paragraphs may have sounded rather negative, but I want to make it clear I don’t think the fights are bad, per se. They’re okay, and still well above average for what you would usually expect from an indie web series, but it’s just that the bar was set so high by Monty right out of the gate, it’s hard not to feel disappointed. Hopefully we hit the level of V3’s best non-Monty fights sooner rather than later.

Also, funny picture I found (unrelated to the current episode).
https://img.ifcdn.com/images/64acb64612653941e65e6f12e2803c3f23ed10de9b40a38bffb2eb3c8d759f23_1.jpg" />

I need me more Blake and Weiss! 😆 isawitplz1

That’s how he is .

Seriously though I do perfer to watch on DVD, nothing against streaming. We still have a lot of time for me to get caught up in any case. It’s not like there’s some big hurry or anything.

Late on the review once again. I’ll keep it short.

A fair warning though. I talk about some cut content in the spoiler under the Raven section that likely confirms a future twist which has only just been teased in the show proper. Some may find this too spoilery.

~~~

Holy heck, lots of stuff happened in this episode. Qrow’s here, Oobleck and Port are back, Yang is finally making progress on her emotional state, and HOLYOMGBBQ RAVEN. IS. HERE.

But I’ll get to her in a minute. I think the biggest reveal from this episode is that Ozpin is still… around? I do think he’s probably still “dead”, physically at least, but he’s clearly not gone. Voice in his head aside, Oscar (yes, the credits confirmed that was his name) behaved as though he was seeing someone else in his reflection. I think the reasonable assumption was that he was seeing Ozpin. That opens up another whole can of worms about our mug-wielding headmaster though…

Ah, Raven. They teased her SO HARD in V3, and gave us practically nothing. I think this easily makes up for it though. Some interesting things came out of her and Qrow’s conversation. Namely, the fact that her bandit “family” was responsible for the destruction of Shion, the village from Episode 2. The fact that Ren and Nora recognized that symbol on the ground that seemed to be the bandit’s calling card brings up some interesting implications…
…especially considering that a Raven vs JNPR fight was originally planned by Monty really early on in production for V3 as a “tease” for some kind of future plot point, but ultimately scrapped. It’s not hard to guess what they were getting at though…