#Also all of the shots of Jaune in the sequence where hes talking about what happened were so pretty too

[wildtornado-o]

brb sobbing

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Amity”

Welcome back, everyone! I hated this episode.

As in, I’m nominating “Amity” for the Most Stupid Episode of RWBY award. Was there some cool action? Yes. Good Penny development? Mm hmm. Some surprise cameos in the Maya Engine? You know it. Was all of it almost entirely undermined by the sheer number of times I went, “Wait, what?” over the course of twenty minutes?

Sadly, yes.

But let’s start at the beginning.

We get a gorgeous opening shot of Amity Tower and, aesthetics aside, my first thought was, “There’s no one around to protect it?” I mean, this was Ironwood’s super secret project. Watts just tried to sabotage it a few hours ago. Prior to the reveal that Amity wasn’t finished (cough), Team RWBY was trying to convince Ironwood to give calling others a chance, but you’re telling me after all that there’s not a single guard there? Pietro, Maria, and Penny just waltzed up without any problems? The only reason it might be abandoned—yes, even with a grimm attack looming—is if it was useless. Because remember, it was supposed to be useless. Unfinished. Not worth protecting in its current state because its current state is non-operational. That would have explained why Ironwood would leave it undefended, yet as we’ve known since the premiere, Amity was apparently finished by magic at some point, leaving the question of why it’s unguarded (or why Ironwood wouldn’t want to use it himself for something) up in the air. Pun not intended. 

So these three have free rein to do whatever they want and what they want to do is, apparently, blow up the dust mine. Love that we spent an entire volume worrying about dwindling resources! I’d find the sacrifice justifiable under the circumstances if this Amity plan weren’t so foolish. Also, I’m not going to pretend that I know anything about explosives and whether providing that kind of “thrust” would actually work, but in this case I think RWBY’s sci-fi/fantasy status gives it a pass.

Penny, however, isn’t so sure. “Dad? This… does not seem like a very good idea.” Yeah. Pietro gives a short speech about good ideas not necessarily being best ideas, which would have been a great perspective to adopt for the series’ massive Ironwood arc, not a three minute solution to a problem I didn’t even know existed until now.

Pietro also weirdly teleports during this scene? He’s talking to Penny outside of the tower, tinkering with things, and then the next sentence he’s suddenly deep inside it. I mean, based on the dialogue this sentence could have come later, but it doesn’t read that way given that they were just chatting. It feels like a continuous conversation. He was outside one second, now he’s not. 

During all this Maria is doing… something with a mech. That she got from who knows where. I really don’t know what the point of this was besides a very brief airship fight, but I’m just happy Maria is doing something. In fact, she’ll do far more later in the episode—we’ll get to that—so congratulations, RWBY, we can officially ignore half of your Maria square on the bingo card. Keep her alive for the next nine episodes and you’re golden. 

Our trio has the message ready to go which they recorded… when? Sometime before everyone split based on the fact that Ruby is standing in the Happy Huntress’ hideout. This episode throws out a LOT of information that seems to come out of nowhere and doesn’t hold up well in terms of timing. Or, you know, general sense. Take, for example, the next exchange between Penny and Pietro. She wants to stay here in case no one is able to come help Atlas and Pietro panics about her staying with them, heavily implying that they’re leaving leaving. Once they go up they can’t come back down because otherwise… why not just send out the message, land, and then Penny goes off again to help? Later in the episode landing seems inevitable and then it seems planned for—what, are Pietro and Maria just going to hang up there forever? So what’s the conflict here?

Specifically, what’s the conflict for Penny? Amity should just be a quick side mission she completes before heading back into battle. Why does she care about doing what’s essentially an errand while Ruby nurses Nora back to health? She’s not missing anything. I’m having a hard time understanding why she’s acting like getting the message out means she’s removed from the fight indefinitely. Pietro, however, makes a little more sense if we read it simply as him not wanting Penny to be involved in the fight, period. As we see later, he fears for her safety and will do everything he can to keep her here with him, safe: “I’m your father. I’m telling you, you belong on Amity.”

Penny gives a sad “Yes, sir” and Maria chides Pietro with, “Don’t you think Penny has had enough people telling her what to do?”

Oh boy. There’s so much wrong with this line. The general demonization of ever following orders, even when those orders are sound. The comparison between Ironwood’s new villainy/his “bootlickers” (“Yes, sir”) and a father’s justifiable fear. Ignoring that Ruby has also been giving orders and no one is reminding her that Penny is an autonomous person capable of deciding things for herself. Where was this sort of chiding when she took away Penny’s scroll and spoke for her to Ironwood?

So Penny, of course, flies up and I guess provides them with the launch sequence or something? She sort of perks up and makes tech noises, then the tower is ready to go. Just like that. 

Pietro makes a joke about not having time to install seatbelts.

Funny, shouldn’t there be safety measures for the people operating the tower? If the tower was finished and ready to go? 🙃

Everything is going to plan until Cinder shows up, melting a giant hole while Neo pilots the airship through it. So she came! Too bad she’s not going to achieve anything. Despite the stowaways, the bomb Penny left goes off and the dust mine explodes in a massive cloud of color, sending Amity up into the sky. This pops up on Ironwood’s feed and he gives an ominous “It’s time.”

For the first minute or so no one can move due to the pressure and Cinder takes the time to taunt Penny some, saying she expected her friends to be here and, since they’re not, she’s just “a tool to be used.” While she lashes verbally she also summons a massive number of swords. When they’re able to fight Penny is briefly overwhelmed…

…Until Maria comes to her aid!

“Get away from her, you bitch!”

That was great. If anyone other than Tyrian was going to curse, you know it had to be our snarky grandma. So I’m cheering, watching Maria make use of her (acquired off screen) tech to help, despite the fact that she’s too old to fight anymore and—

Wait.

Okay, here’s my problem with this battle. First of all, Cinder’s group should have decimated them. This is an experienced Maiden (see: Raven fight) with a grimm arm vs. a girl who only got the powers a few hours ago. I know a few weeks back I mentioned how insanely powerful Penny is in theory, but that was before she was nearly taken out by the Ace Ops. You know, the group who was all knocked unconscious by a bunch of half-trained, exhausted teenagers. So the comparisons here don’t make Penny look too good. More importantly—because Cinder doesn’t have a great track record anymore either—she’s backed by ‘I was kicking a Maiden’s ass before she whipped out her magic’ Neo and ‘I can make anyone see anything and I just mentioned last episode that I’ve been working on this semblance’ Emerald. They are a power team. Who is Penny backed by? A non-combat scientist and a woman who stopped fighting years ago.

Right?

I have no problem with Maria being powerful. In fact, after her Grimm Reaper reveal I had hoped we’d see her fight, both to give the group a power to aspire to—here’s what a fully trained huntress with experience looks like. This is what our personal inspiration and a huntress beloved by the world looks like—and to have an older fighter providing diversity. Sure, there’s Ozpin, but he reincarnates into young bodies. Maria is a Mexican coded, disabled, old as balls fighter and that’s AWESOME. Problem is… she never fought. She hobbles around with her cane, using it in a way Ozpin never used his, implying that she really needs it. She’s not spry anymore. Every time there’s a battle she’s in an airship or other tech, providing help through the use of an assistive device. She never offers to train anyone. We never see her accompanying a group—like JNOR—to provide extra protection. During the grimm attack Maria exchanges a fearful look with Pietro and then presumably hides in his shop off screen. Why has the story been ignoring Maria when she can fight like this? How can she fight like this when we haven’t seen her throw so much as a punch since we met her? 

I mean, this is Neo! Neo. One of the most powerful, non-Maiden fighters we’ve seen to date. She took out Jaune, Nora, Ren, and Oscar without breaking a sweat, but a few minutes with Maria has her collapsed on the ground?

Something is very wrong with this fight. Either the writing nerfed Neo to allow Maria to win, or the writing has been pushing one of the most powerful characters off screen, relegating her to comic relief. Maria should be insanely powerful given her Grimm Reaper status. I had come to accept that she was powerful and, like people in real life, simply lost that with age. Now, the story suddenly reveals that this was never the case.

During all this Emerald helps Neo one (1) time, despite presumably standing there watching the entire fight. Before it begins Neo randomly decides to turn into Ruby, but then has dropped the illusion by the time we return. Maria is laughing like a loon for the first half of the battle. The only reason she (briefly) looses is because she gets distracted. Then Penny K.O.’s Neo’s aura with a single blast.

See, this is why I rarely enjoy the fights anymore. Beyond that fact that I thought some of it was rather lackluster compared to our Penny vs. Ace Ops fight, it just doesn’t make sense. There’s moment after moment that has me scratching my head and if you’re going, “Huh?” at the screen the whole time, it’s pretty hard to get immersed in the story.

During all this they reach the necessary altitude to broadcast, but it won’t go through because of a “stabilizer fail.” You mean the giant hole that Cinder blew in the side of the tower? 

Never mind that everyone except Penny should be dead by now. How are they breathing up there? It’s like if someone blew a hole in your airplane and everyone just went about their tasks as usual. 

You’ve gotta input the code, Penny.

I joke, but Pietro does start desperately typing. I guess because stabilizers might be fixed with a code or something? Anything is possible in this show.

It’s the Penny vs. Cinder fight that I’m bored with though. At least before Cinder manages to nearly the powers. I think part of it is because we already got this fight last volume, partly because they don’t do much that we haven’t seen from them both before: Penny flies around a lot, Cinder tosses variously summoned weapons, etc. Details I did appreciate though were the return of Cinder’s arrows and the fact that she didn’t let Penny lead her from Amity for long. Look at our villain making a smart decision!! Love that.

Cinder starts destroying the tower instead and Penny asks why she’d want to serve Salem. “I don’t serve anyone and you wouldn’t either if you weren’t built that way!” Penny looks sadly down at Pietro and for one horrible moment I thought the story would actually have her buy into that nonsense, but then Penny rallies and announces that she chooses when to fight because she wants to protect those she loves.

Penny has some really great moments here. What’s less great is the setup for them. I mean… why is Pietro in danger? Penny is clearly trying to keep the top portion of the tower from collapsing after Cinder’s attack, but you’re telling me the tech-obsessed scientist hasn’t put flight capabilities into his chair? That’s not how he got way up high on the outside of the tower, it was just a random hatch or something? When every piece of tech in RWBY serves triple-duty, the Atlas tech mastermind hasn’t included the one thing in his massive chair that would save him here? It’s all very… “Really?” Especially when Cinder is smart enough to realize that Penny cares about the tower, but not realize she cares more about her dad. Just grab Pietro and threaten him, demanding that Penny stand down so Cinder can grab the powers. Penny, horrified by her father’s potential death (and ambivalent about having this responsibility in the first place) lets her. Something other than this weird setup of destroying the platform itself. 

Penny’s scream though is fantastic. Kudos to Taylor for that moment. So yeah, Cinder starts taking the power—did she get a bit then, like with Amber?—before Penny rallies and knocks her off. From then on Cinder doesn’t stand a chance. Emerald reappears to provide assistance in the form of an illusion, except that Penny’s tech allows her to see through it with ease. The real Cinder is marked with ‘Danger’ and Penny takes her out easily once Cinder doesn’t think she needs to dodge anymore.

I should be feeling something considering that Penny just won a battle against the woman who orchestrated her murder volumes back, in the exact same place where she died… but I’m not. Penny’s resurrection was shrugged off. Amity was used for joke license parties. I’m endlessly confused about what message RT is aiming for in regards to Penny’s autonomy (a real girl, but hackable) and this fight has been a collection of power ups, power downs, or skills just conveniently not working. What improvements has Emerald made to her semblance? This is everything we’ve seen from her before. When did we establish that Penny’s android nature makes her immune to techniques of this nature? I don’t mind that she is immune—in fact, it’s a cool skill to give her—I just wish this sort of stuff didn’t suddenly appear in the story only when the plot most needs it to. Or, to be more charitable, it would be a cool reveal if the rest of the fight held up better. I don’t mind a, “Hell yeah, Penny had the trump card she needed to win!” if the whole scene wasn’t Team Cinder being oddly weak the whole time. The most they manage to do is escape via Emerald threatening to fill the tower with holes from her gun… after the tower has had a hole blown through it, shot with flaming arrows, and had two of the beams keeping it in place melted. The most Cinder accomplishes here is unintentionally putting Penny in a position where she falls when she’s hacked. That’s it.

The villains should have won. Not just because of the team dynamics making victory a very likely outcome, but because allowing the group to successfully get their message out was one of the worst things RWBY has done to date. 

Gimme just a moment to get there. 

Amity is drifting back down, out of the range they need to send the broadcast, so Penny offers to “hold Amity in place” until the message is done. Pietro freaks out… why? He starts to say “Even just the temperature out there—” implying that the cold and altitude can kill Penny, except she fought Cinder outside no problem. Literally minutes ago. Hell, Cinder was fine outside and she’s not an android. 

There’s that massive hole letting the atmosphere in too. I’m so confused by these conflicts that randomly appear and, as such, I can’t take the emotion attached to them seriously. How can I be invested in Pietro’s worry about this killing Penny and Penny offering to sacrifice herself when I don’t understand why it’s dangerous to begin with? 

And it is treated like a sacrifice. Penny tells him that she’s trying to “live her life,” kisses Pietro as a sort of goodbye, and spends a few moments enjoying the beauty of the night sky. 

She’s acting like she’s about to die and yet none of this comes across as particularly dangerous. Indeed, Penny pushes Amity for as long as Ruby’s message needs her to and then, presumably, would have come back inside, a-okay, if she hadn’t been hacked. This is like that Parks and Rec moment:

Except it’s treated seriously. Penny is doing something mundane based on what we’ve seen her do before and the fact that this cold/pressure isn’t negatively impacting anyone else who experiences it, let alone the android. So why is the story trying to convince me that this is a death sentence?

Combine this with Penny’s origins: she was built to “save the world.” That’s why Pietro created her, to fight these exact sort of battles. So why is he so resistant to her doing just that? I’m not saying he can’t change his mind and grow to love her as more than a tool—in fact, their relationship is one of the few things I’m enjoying about this volume—I just wish we’d seen how that came about. When did Pietro move from building Ironwood a weapon to having a daughter? Back in Volume 3 he was on Ironwood’s side about Penny not having friends or going out because it was too dangerous for someone like her. She has secrets to maintain and responsibilities to prep for because she was, first and foremost, created for a specific task. We get an inkling through is admission that he can’t bear to see her die again that Penny’s first destruction really changed his view of her, but all of that happened off screen. We had a whole volume with Pietro prior to this where we might have watched him struggle with his new understanding of Penny as his child, rather than dumping this on us literal seconds before she engages in this non-sacrifice. We know almost nothing about Pietro except what tiny scraps we’ve been told, so dramatic lines like, “I don’t care about the big picture, I care about my daughter!”—while wonderful—appear to come out of nowhere in regards to his development. It’s jarring. Early RWBY presented Pietro as a morally ambiguous scientist aligned with Ironwood, then he suddenly became a scientist who loved his creation in Volume 7, the scientist who betrayed Ironwood, then Volume 8 has Penny dropping “Dad” left and right and Pietro willing to throw away helping a kingdom for her sake. When did all these changes happen? Where’s the progression?

Also, I hope people understand that this is why the world needs someone like Ironwood. Is it heartwarming that Pietro wants to ditch their plan at the last second for the sake of his daughter? Hell yeah. Is that good for the millions of other people who would like their own family members to survive this war too? Nope. “I don’t care about the big picture,” while human and great characterization, is dangerous when the rest of the world depends on you. Whoever runs this show doesn’t have the luxury of saving their preferred, individual life at the expense of everyone else.

So Penny goes out and gets Amity high enough for Ruby’s recording to start, complete with her acting funny-awkward for the first few seconds.

The cameos we get throughout this? Excellent. The speech itself? Rather horrifying. So the good: we get glimpses of everyone else in this show that the story has essentially left behind. Saphron, Terra, and Whitley start things off. 

(Interesting that Whitely went to his father’s office rather than his room...) 

Sun and Neptune (even though that “Dude” again messes with tone).

Ilia getting a call from Ghira.

The group sitting with a recovering Nora while Ruby watches her own words with the most ridiculous expression.

Tai, desperate not to lose the one link to his daughters he’s seen in years. (Side note: I’m not interested in any of the Tai hate. He’s still at home because the writers don’t know what to do with him and because Ruby literally ran away. Are people made at Ghira and Kali for not running after their daughter too? No, because they’re minor characters that the story needed to sideline.)

Tyrian, sitting beside a very pleased looking Salem... 

(Love that she’s petting him.)

Even the shop dude!

Oh yeah, and MOTHERFUCKING GLYNDA.

I’m thrilled to see her. In the sense that I love getting her in the new engine, but I’m salty that she’s unlikely to become an important part of the story again. In fact, there are so many characters at this point that she shouldn’t be re-incorporated, just because that would bloat the cast even more. That… and did they really have to give her massive cleavage? The darker glasses are fine—even if I personally found them a bit distracting compared to her original lenses—but seriously, why does a woman always reappear with even bigger breasts?

At this point everything in RWBY has a sour taste attached to it because it’s been handled so badly for so many years. It’s only now, watching them do many of the things I wanted them to do volumes ago, that I realize how badly they’ve played themselves. RT messed up so many core aspects that when they re-appear they can’t hope to provide the same sort of enjoyment we would have gotten if they’d never been dropped and/or messed up to begin with.

Case in point: Ruby’s speech. I’m not going to cover the stupidity of telling the world about Salem because I’ve already talked about that to death on my blog, but I do want to add that Ruby managed to accomplish that dubious task in the absolute worst way possible. I need a list for this one.

So, about RWBY ruining core parts of its story? We had a whole volume about how horrifying learning about Salem’s immortality was, something we never resolved because the cast randomly went from thinking they’d entered a doomed war to being #confident about how they’ll win. But at the very least they’ll be careful and considerate when they tell others that very demoralizing info, right? Ha. Ruby never even uses the term “immortal.” She mentions Salem being around for “centuries”—which, remember, was info the group also had but never put two and two together—and then says that “Just because she can’t be destroyed doesn’t mean she can’t be beaten.” What does that mean to people who have never heard of Salem before now? Ruby doesn’t even explain who she is! What’s a “force” in this context? A person? An entity? Endless grimm? She gives the people nothing here.

Alongside just casually dropping that Salem has been around for “centuries,” Ruby says that she is “a force we’ve faced before,” as if the world has ever had to deal with an outright attack from her. No, Ruby. They haven’t faced this before. That’s the point.

“I know the idea of Maidens and Relics seems crazy”—does she even mention them before this?? I don’t think she does. Ruby just name dropped two things and never bothered to explain wtf they were.

Also, great job telling the whole world, filled with bad guys not already aligned with Salem, that there are two powerful, mystery things out there that they can now start hunting down. That’s why Ozpin decided to keep the Maidens quiet in the first place. He says in Volume 3 that people were killing them when they knew they existed.

She tells everyone that Glynda and Theodore can vouch for all this information, just casually dropping that responsibility into their lap. I mean, can you even IMAGINE being Glynda right now? This kid you taught for one year heads back home after your school falls, you lose touch with the inner circle after Ozpin dies, and then said kid suddenly appears on every scroll and TV in Remnant, telling the entire world that YOU, personally, can explain to them the things you’ve helped keep hidden for a good portion of your adult life. You are one of two people they can now turn to for answers. If I were Glynda I would be furious.

She also says that Theodore and Glynda “might even be able to organize a way to fight back” RUBY. WHAT DO YOU THINK THE INNER CIRCLE WAS? A KNITTING CLUB? WHAT ELSE HAS OZPIN BEEN DOING FOR A THOUSAND YEARS EXCEPT “ORGANIZING A WAY TO FIGHT BACK”? 

“But, sadly, General Ironwood can no longer be trusted.” Wow. That’s one hell of a simplified take to give to a world already working under the incorrect assumption that Atlas caused the Fall of Beacon, an assumption Ruby admitted was wrong to Cordovin. So let’s unite the world except for this one leader, right? So much for practicing what you preach. 

“If she was really unstoppable she wouldn’t have acted with such caution before now.” Oh boy, that’s risking a lot on Ruby’s interpretation of Salem’s motives. After eight years even we, the audience, don’t know why Salem didn’t attack until now, so where did Ruby get the idea that it must be because she fears them? That’s not the real explanation based on how happy Salem looks while hearing the message. When did Ruby even think about this? Outside of Nora’s realization that maybe someone other than Ozpin could beat her, we haven’t seen the group discuss Salem at all, but now Ruby thinks she has everything figured out? I honestly want her to explain her thought process here. Does she think Ozpin was mistaken about the immortality business and if he’d just had the guts to unite everyone and attack her, Salem would have been defeated lifetimes ago? 

(Funny how that was Ironwood’s plan...) 

Ruby ends with another call to band together because “That’s how we’ll win!” complete with smiling energy.

With the exception of the cameos I hated every moment of this. The unclear reason why Ruby thinks bringing the world together is the answer in the face of how badly that’s gone each and every time others have done it, Amity magically becoming available for them to use, her dropping in random beliefs we’ve never seen her express before, turning the whole world against Ironwood, failing to actually explain any of this… I mean, imagine you’re in Remnant’s place for a second:

This child (looking entirely unprepared) suddenly hacks every device and tells you that the most powerful kingdom in the world is under attack. Who is attacking it? It’s someone you’re familiar with! But not really. It’s Salem. Who’s Salem? I won’t say, but she’s responsible for every bad thing from the White Fang to the grimm themselves. Those Relics and Maidens, those are real crazy sounding, huh? Oh, I forgot to say what they are? Nm that’s not important. Talk to my old teacher and someone I’ve never met if you’re confused. What is important is that we all come together. Except Ironwood. I don’t trust him. But I expect you all to trust everyone else, including me! Because we can totally win against this “force” I haven’t defined. You should help us. In whatever non-specific way you choose. Should you come to Atlas and save us all from the confusingly explained attack we’re under? Fight an immortal enemy somehow, with the forces you don’t have, cross who knows how many miles in under a day? I don’t know. You all can figure the preparations part out :) 

If I were watching I would, at best, think this was a prank. At worst I’d be panicking over a whole lot of scary information, none of which I understand. Which in this world brings grimm.

Ruby should, in an internally consistent story, have just caused a massive number of attacks across the globe. She should be responsible for the biggest mass grimm death Remnant has ever seen. In fact, that’s my final hope for the series. I want the world to lose its mind at this confusing, terrifying announcement, from rioting in the streets to grimm swarming major cities. Ruby is left dumbfounded at the destruction she’s caused. No one can—or will—come to assist Atlas. The Kingdom falls, taking plenty of civilians with it. Ozpin escapes and is finally allowed his anger, wanting to know how the safety measures he spent lifetimes building were undone by her in one profoundly stupid move. Ironwood (if he’s still alive) coldly tells them that they could have left and saved who and what they had at the time. Ren is proven right.

I need this story to decimate our heroes, humble them, and then let them rebuild. Teach Ruby something and let her grow from it, making up for her mistakes as she goes. Because for two and a half seasons now we’ve watched this girl commit one horrible act after another—whether it’s attacking allies or unintentionally giving the world the most damaging message possible—and something needs to come out of all that.

Can’t say I’m too hopeful of seeing that though :/ 

The rest of the episode isn’t any better. Ironwood continues his stupidity streak by trusting Watts to do the hack himself. I really can’t believe this is what his character has been reduced to. Granted, it appears as if Watts really did do what he was asked, it’s just that none of them could have known Penny would be outside of Amity and at the height of an airplane when her systems went offline. That trust does, however, allow Watts to nab Ironwood’s crushed scroll before he’s taken back to his cell. Because, you know, at this point Ironwood is so stupid he just chucks personal tech at a villain and thinks nothing of it. 

Also... all this happens before the jail scene last episode when Watts was returned, but after Ruby’s group gets to the Schnee manor. The bingo board is getting another check.

Ironwood says that “It seems Polendina’s proxy trick worked.” So Pietro deliberately built Penny with this kill switch (for lack of a better word) embedded? In this villain!Ironwood world, is the story ever going to acknowledge that Pietro is far from innocent, having helped to create and support all the things people hate about how Ironwood (supposedly) interacts with Penny? 

Penny’s hack doesn’t take until Ruby’s message is complete, because of course it doesn’t. 

Yang’s group is all excited—“That was the broadcast!”—despite not having a signal last episode. If they can use their scrolls at the outpost, why didn’t they call for help?

Penny then says “I love you” to Pietro before she—maybe?—falls to her second death. I don’t know. This absolutely deserves a longer rant because either Penny was resurrected for a brief, narratively meaningless existence before dying again, or we’re expected to believe that she’s falling far and fast enough to become a meteor, but will turn out just fine. Perhaps the show will forget that Pietro said he couldn’t rebuild her again. I pretty much expect it at this point. 

(Either that, or Pietro will sacrifice himself for Penny. Coming at it from a father-daughter relationship, I like the idea. As a black man dying for his white daughter in a show notorious for how it has handled its race allegory... ehhhh.) 

Then, we end this episode with “a river of grimm.”

????????????????????

What?

Seriously, am I the only one who laughed during that moment? It sounds ridiculous. What does that even mean, “a river of grimm”? Did Salem expand her territory somehow? Is this the same grimm soup she makes them out of? What, can she just cover the whole world with grimm making goo now? Out of everything that could have been coming out of the ice, THAT’S what we end on? 

I think this episode may have broken me lol. There was so much that I knew I was meant to be invested in, so many moments trying their hardest to be emotionally compelling… and only the tinniest slivers of it worked. I want to care about Penny falling. I want to care (more) about an unexpected Glynda appearance. I want to be cheering for Ruby’s message getting out, but it’s all just so badly done. I ended this episode feeling like I had watched a RWBY parody rather than an episode. Like for funsies someone had pulled together the most ridiculous ideas they could think of, like:

The villains come and then immediately leave again, like in Fury Road except in this case that’s not the point of the story.

Super powerful fighter gets her ass kicked by laughing grandma.

Nonsensical sacrifice going on but give it just a hint of ~real~ emotion.

Huge reveal for the rest of the world but the message with be near incomprehensible.

Toss in random characters we haven’t seen in years, people love that.

End the episode with grimm soup flowing towards the kingdom.

It honestly feels like someone set out to write an absurd episode, but then gave it just enough artistry that the viewer finishing the vid goes, “Why am I actually invested in this omg lol.” Except when that’s your canon we’ve got a problem.

I don’t know. At this point RWBY is so broken I can’t even articulate everything that’s continually going wrong when we get an episode like this one. For anyone who may have missed it, we’ve got two more episodes before a six week hiatus and frankly I’m glad. Mostly because I obviously want our crew to have the time they need to keep their sanity intact during the hell that is 2020 and the likely hell that will be 2021, also because that will give them time to spruce up the second half of the volume… but there’s also a part of me that’s just glad for a break. There are still pieces in RWBY I enjoy (like the Hound, or dad!Pietro, always Ozpin) and I love writing these recaps, but it says a lot about the writing that I hear we won’t get RWBY for two solid months and I am, at best, indifferent. Can’t mess up what you don’t air, right? 😂

Man, this bingo card… it’s getting three marks today. “Two day timeline wreaks havoc on continuity,” “Needless episode cliffhanger” (grimm river??), and “The team gets Amity up and running.” Yet we somehow STILL don’t have a bingo. Amazing.

Alright, I’m done. If you enjoyed this episode, bless you. I’m really glad. Please enjoy it for the both of us. And pray for us all over the next two weeks 💜

[Ko-Fi]

[lostatsea303]

Let’s Talk About The Finale

Hey guys before we talk about that last episode we’re going full spoiler in this post so if you haven’t seen it yet you may want to stop here

So I wanted to make this post after seeing so many different opinions on the content of this episode and I figured I could add my two cents in and hopefully bring some praise and constructive criticism from my point of view.

First let’s talk Directing, Choreography, and Acting

First off let’s tip our hats to the VAs this episode they all did an amazing job! Elizabeth Maxwell, Miles Luna, and Taylor McNee all deserve recognition for being standouts in an episode where everyone nailed their parts.

In terms of choreography I think this met the RWBY standard. The Ironwood and maiden fights were top notch and while the RWB fight against Cinder and Neo felt a little off I think this was intentional; Team RWBY has been fighting and without rest for nearly 24 straight hours, they’re going to be slow and tired.

Directing I thought was very solid. There are some great shots I want to highlight in fact:

I think all these shots are excellent and there are a few more I’ll be using later. Directing and lighting has been something I think this volume has done exceedingly well! However there is one scene I think fell short.

This kinda looks like a meme doesn’t it? This moment completely took me out of the moment and I was wondering why. It’s not because of Harriet’s action’s I think she was sick of physically fighting and just wanted everyone to leave so she could die going down with the ship. No, I realized it was this shot: if this sequence had a close up of Qrow struggling against the weight of the bomb and cut back to another close up of Harriet yelling where you could see the desperation on her face (cause CRWBY did a great job with facial animation) it would work. Instead the framing, drab lighting, and stillness really hurt this scene.

Outside of this one scene however, I think this was a stellar finale in terms of production value!

WRITING

Overall I thought this was another good episode for the writers. Character dialogue was on point:

“You chose nothing, this was a gift”

“Whatever you wanted, I hope it was worth it.”

“I’ve only done what’s best for Remnant, and no one is grateful.”

And of course the whole Cinder and Salem interaction.

The events within the episode, I think, were all very good choices but there are two in particular I want to focus on:

The Sacrifice

I’m gonna talk about this first because I know this is where there is the most division right now and understandably so. We all love Penny, she has always been one of the purest characters within the show. That is why her death, even so shortly after she became human, is not only the right decision but a good one.

When you think about it Penny and Pyrrha are very similar characters: Morally upright, strong, and viewed as paragons amongst their peers. Pyrrha was chosen to be Vale’s Guardian and Penny was the protector of Mantle. They were people who always did the right thing for everyone else. However, their journey’s, not as people within the show but characters within a piece of art, would always require them to meet their end. 

Penny’s development was never about her learning what it was like to be a “real girl” because she already got that from being friends with Ruby. Her development was based around one of the key themes of this show: choice and control

RWBY has always focused on the question of who do we choose to be and what do we let control us. Penny rarely had a choice, and was always in danger of losing her control to someone else. At Beacon she was at Ironwood’s behest, in this season Watts had control over her in spurts. She was always in a battle to decide who she would be, and this was shown literally in the show with the fight between the virus and her soul. So when she became human she completed the biggest step in her journey of development: she no longer had any strings.

And she finally got to feel the warmth of the heart.

And that left her character development at an end. She had already learned what it meant to live, she finally got to experience the physical side of it, and finally she couldn’t be controlled again.

So when faced with the threat of someone taking away her control (Cinder) the completion of her character arc comes with her making the choice that Ruby didn’t earlier. But this time she was at peace with it, because she wasn’t dying because she had to due to an uncontrollable circumstance. No, now she chose to give her friend’s a chance, give Remnant hope in a new Winter maiden, and take from the enemy what they once took from her.

She chose.

While this completes her character arc it also develops everyone else’s which leads us into our final section

The Separation

We all knew that they were going to fall, you don’t have foreboding lines like “Do not fall” and not explain why.

But now all of the events have culminated in a perfect storm for our characters next season. Here’s what I mean:

This finale, especially with Penny’s sacrifice sets up every single character in this show for major developments. Starting from the outside:

Winter now has to learn to be a leader, not just a soldier anymore. She has to unlearn the years of regimenting and oppression that she’s been a part of.

Ren and Nora get to truly figure out who they are: There will be no team leaders among them, they will have to become them.

Oscar and Ozpin have to become the heroes that the former has always wanted to be and the latter always had other to become.

Qrow continues to learn to deal with loss and how even in spite of it he can keep moving forward and that the pains of the past can push him to better instead of holding him down.

Neo will learn what family is supposed to be, and coming to understand forgiveness for the things others do.

Jaune has to come to grips with the reality of being a hero and that sometimes the best choices we can make for others are the ones that cost the most of us.

Ruby will have to face not only another close loss in her life but she’ll have to learn about sacrifice and the unfortunate necessity of it. She’s been surrounded her whole life with people making the choice to sacrifice for her: Summer, Yang, Qrow, Weiss, and now Penny. She’s going to have to face Jaune making the choice she wouldn’t (Not to say that situation called for it but understanding the differences in those situations) and understanding that sometimes people have to go. While we should always do our best to save everyone we can, sometimes running away from the grief in our lives can creating greater loss than if we face it when we have to. 

Weiss has to learn to let go of control. She tried to protect and save everyone but in the end she was the last one from her team left. We’ve subtly seen through out this volume, and really the last couple of them if we’re being honest, Weiss always trying to be moderate within the team and be the glue and protector of the team as a whole. She’s always trying to be the best teammate she always promised to be but that has made her terrified to fail and in the end it’s stopped her from reaching her full potential. It’s a noble thing she does, but she’s so beholden to the expectations of other’s (now her friends instead of her family) that it secludes her. We’ve seen moments of her true strength when she focuses and trusts herself but she still hasn’t fully gotten there.

Blake is the flipside to Weiss, she needs to learn to take control. She’s still held down by the fear of being what Adam said she was that she won’t take the step forward. Whether this be with her relationship to Yang or even in situations like the one we saw in the second to last episode frozen and unsure how to proceed at the end. She tries to play it safe because of what she’s gone through. But Penny’s sacrifice and when she thought she lost Yang will push her.

Yang has already learned to necessity of sacrifice but she has to learn that not every situation requires it. Put simply she has to learn what she means to the others. Yang has always been the first to throw herself in the line of fire for others and take the risk when it’s time. But she’s never thought about how she affects others with her sacrifice. Penny’s loss may initially affirm her current view but she will have to come to face that Penny’s sacrifice happened only when absolutely necessary and when it was best for everyone else. Yang needs to know she’s worth more than what she can do for other people.

CONCLUSION

Honestly guys this was alot and if you read all this way thank you! I’m sure some people will disagree with some of my thoughts and that’s totally ok! In the end we’re all fans, and we all care alot about this show.

See you guys next season!

[huntsman-ash]

RWBY LiveThoughts: Episodes 8 and 9

So I missed last weeks episode since I got busy with stuff (school mostly, basic bitch busy day and all) so here’s two for one.

Gotta say, Im interested to see where this is going...

So something I missed the last few episodes; the final shot of the opening has the words “happily ever after” turn into “happy never again”, which I am both trepitided by and also intruged.

Cut to the jail cell AGAIN...Schnee’s looking a bit ansty. Boi probably thought he was getting out sooner. Suck it mate, your lawyers are DEAD.

Convinent blast of fire is convinenet...knocks out the cell doors and punches a hole but thats it. My money’s on Cinder

Qrow becomes bird on reaction. Makes sense really. 

Two fade to blacks in less than 2 minutes? Come on RT...

Ohhh its Nora waking up. So does that mean Robyn’s dead? I doubt it, but that drama spike is def a thing.

IV tech in Atlas is almost the same as our world. Interesting.

Whitley A poses like a god. 

Looks like Penny’s back snapped. Or something...maybe a coolant pipe or something similar.  And the return of British Klein.

And there goes the power. Probably a Grimm getting smashed into it during a fight...or they left it unguarded. Either or. Lot of explosions, either way...

Bombing run...has Atlas gone to area denial now?

...ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! THOSE FUCKING FLYING JELLYFISH GRIMM CAN MELEE AIRSHIPS?! Can we just...how in the... (LONG SUFFERING SIGH OF MILTIARY FAN) Not...going to comment. MOVING ON.

Honestly that animation seems oddly...flat. Like they just did the bare minimum...the ship breaks cleanly too. ~12 or so bits in between its nose and tail section. Kinda reminds me of how the UNSC Savannah blows up after suffering a reactor breach in Halo Reach’s “Long Night of Solace” mission.

Yes, its too much Ruby. ITS WAR. Huntsmen and Atlas were not ready for it. Never have been. Welcome to the bloody grim fable.

Oh hi Willow, where did you come from. Also, vodka.  Wait. Generator near the-Oh, I bet I know where THIS is going...fuckin Five Nights style shit at this. Slash Jurrassic Park...

Whitley showing the first signs of being human...utilizing Atlas cargoships for evac. Nice. 

Shit, the storms spread across all of Atlas. How the hell are they gonna get out through that? Also DEF getting fuckin’ Jurrasic Park vibes here. 

Why does a power startup sequence take so long...

Oh so they can talk. Also Blake says “as a girl”. Soooo what, she thinks shes older than RWBY mentally? I mean maybe she is (she did kill a man) but whos counting?

Ladybug fans getting FED right now.

Hehe, the houses CANDLES are fed by the main power. How quaint.

YEP. Knew shit was gonna hit the fan. CONTACT. Hound

The chess set seems to have black loosing. Wonder if that means anything. Or if its just random.

Yep its the Hound. Knew it.

DID IT JUST ONESHOT RUBY’S AURA?! THE FUCK RT WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT BEING RESILIANT?!

Oh its trying to kidnap her. Also those wings just EXPLODED out of it. Must have learned from last time. No weird screaming noises.

DAMN THOUGH WEISS’S MOM GOT THAT CAKE! THICC SCHNEE ASS

WOOPS. No more booze for you Mrs Schnee

And Pennys back up and SHES NOT PLEASED.

Also I like how completely dead and robotic Penny is while hacked. It amuses me. Unfortunatly for Watts hacking something with MAIDEN POWERS doesnt seem to work too well. SURPRISE.

Oh and of course its got backup, DISRUPTING WEISS’S SUMMONING AGAIN

Ha, it thought Ruby was Penny. Lul. Makes sense, young girl, whatever.

Oh look, a Hydralisk. Or, Salems horrible attempt at making a Hydralisk. 

Hacking denied BY THE POWER OF BUTCH LESBIANS!

Willow having a panic attack, doesnt really surprise me. Then again she IS a Huntress, or was, maybe she’ll get over it.

Chandelier. Phantom of the Opera time?

Unsurprising twist is unsurprising...makes sense Whitley would get covered in that green shit.

Further proof to my theory the Hound is eyeless

And Willow doing her fucking job. NICE.

I know I should be worried for them while running but again, THAT SCHNEE ASS THOUGH GOOD LORD.

These bigger Grimm are getting smarter. They’re learning how to handle CQC. 

Target DOWN. Sadly, did not explode into showers of acid when Ruby cut it down.

Okay that was pretty cool with the arm. Always was a fan of “useless limbs only for smashing”.  Ah THERES the Silver Eyes. PROBABLY SHOULDNT HAVE TAKEN HER ROBOT WIFE PRISONER BIIITCCH.

Penny is just getting ALL KINDS of fucked up rn.

WELL THEN. The Hounds not ACTUALLY a Grimm. Just a parasite on a host. Salem couldnt get them smart enough by themselves (to no ones surprise, they’re completely SHIT in terms of actual lethality) so she steals a...faunus of some kind looks like. And just makes him wear a Grimm suit. Useful. Good to know.

Also this episode has been making excessive use of sweat drops. Did they get that figured out or what

HA! Grimm dont handle physics well do they!

The Grimm arm that results looks like Cinders. Intentional, Im compleretly sure. Also the fact theres bone underneath proves to me more what I thought. Its just a host. 

How...UNIMPRESSIVE.

However the fact that the bones have TWISTED and resulted in the Hounds form is...interesting. Unless those were there first (and they seem to be as they last past the Hound vanishing)...was that a secondary feature? He had the ears...

We’ll probably never know.

Ah so it WAS Cinder breaking in. To get Watts most likely.

Kinda feel bad for these three troopers. Shoulda brought shotguns, boi.

Fucking moron with a rocket launcher. WHY is he firing this thing INSIDE? Against a humanoid target? Though it is nice to know that Atlas does in fact have rocket launchers.

And now, Episode 9

...wow, way to start us off. Field littered with dead Atlas troopers. Yeah MAYBE IF YOU HAD SOME DEFENSIVE POSITIONS buddy...least they still got fire from the Paladins.

You know this kinda feels like an Imperial Guard moment. Point made, RT.

Also those Mantas peeled off without DOING anything. Least you could do is drop some ordinance...

Wait I t hink they did...also, for about 2 seconds you can see the silverfish Grimm that won that contest.

Alright, so RJY is inside the whale now. Good. 

Good question Yang. Probably cause you dont really have any other options?

I feel like Jaunes hair has become less plant-like and more realistic.

New fairy tale; The Girl who Fell Through The World. Interesting. Wonder if thats in the book somewhere.

So hes got access to magic but it makes them fuse faster. Alright, cool. Nice limitation.

...my god. Trenches. Standing formation. HUNTERS IN ARMOR?!

Its...its beautiful. Its everything Ive ever wanted! Seriously you HAVE to see this.

Just look at it. The lights, the Mantas in he background, the fact that FNKI is there and WEARING ARMOR!  Neon in her skates with weapon at the ready, everyone else standing firm, winter Walking the trench line like shes fucking Commissar Vale...

Its. Just. SO. GOOD.

And then they rush to glorious battle moments later. OH YES PLEASE

“Right now, just kill Grimm.” PERFECT

Hazel short-walking amuses me to no end.

Hazel has “II” in roman numerals on his arm band. I doubt it means anything but its funny

Spontanious Emerald is spontanious. And convinenent. 

Glowy blue titty woman yeahhhhhh

And there goes Hazel with his change of heart. Been good knowing you pal...I can guess where THIS is going.

Oscar is distracted by the big glowy milkys.

Also; Neo can...thats most interesting. Fully camoflauged. USEFUL. And of course you can see her ass for ONE SECOND and I bet the FANDOMS HAVING FUN WITH THAT

If Yang wasnt afraid right now I’d be very surprised.

Random floating Seer as well.

MAN THERE IS JUST TOO MUCH FUCKING CONVENIENCE GOING ON RIGHT NOW LIKE

I get it.  Nice to see things not going according to plan for Salem exactly but 

Ehh.

Hahaha. Juan. Bro doesnt even remember Jaunes name.  Also that short section of fight is magnificent. This is what I have always imagined the HKs being like.

CLEVER. Nice work Emerald.

Also uhhh...dont need no semblance ot see THAT Ren, she got that confused scared face right on there.

Tsundere Emerald continues

Also, the fact that all the troops stand in line around the bomb when it arrives amuses me. Like, yes, we must worship this tool of horror we have created.

Timer...ohhhhh thats gonna end poorly. WHY AM I GETTING SHADES OF LONG NIGHT OF SOLACE AGAIN?

Did Salem straight up make a door right through the wall? With a perfectly good one behind her? God damn.

Also on that subject uhhhhh off the walls guys, not to hard. Landing strats right?

OH NO WAIT FIGHT TIME.

Magic still doesnt seem impressive to me. Just...mildly forceful. Yeah it whacked Jaune and Ren off their feet but

Still. No 40k psyker is she.

Ohh ho. OH THATS NICE

Also Yang punched her titty. That is hilarious to me.

 BREAK, BITCH! SUFFER AND SHATTER!  In the words of the Chaplain Grimaldus; “BURN HERETIC!”

Addit; First time we see her regeneration. Seems its literally anything, she pulls herself back together using Grimm bits. Obviously shes not fully human considering that blast Yang hit her with should have liquified her organs. Makes SENSE of course.

Okay, magic seems to kinda work, she didnt like that much.

I paused at the perfect time and Yangs ass is riiigghhhttt at Oscars crotch more or less. Unintentional I know but its funny to me.

Also those sigils...like Weiss’s glyphs perhaps?

Huh. Two kinds of magic. The bright sunshiny ranbow one she used to hit Ren and Jaune, and now this void looking shadowy stuff.  So...two kinds perhaps? Creation and Destruction or...light and dark maybe is more accurate.  Makes SENSE, shes studied in both and uses both. All aspects.

Okay NOW Im seeing why RT got Jen Taylor to do Salem. We jussttt had to wait to the point she got mad enough to really start showing off.

Also Salem seems oddly unconvinced about Summer.

Awww, Emeralds crying. HOW PATHETIC

Someones gotta distract her...well this works. Again, RIP Hazel, you were pretty cool.

Homie goin ALL out on this. YEAH!

Okay, magic seems to be both, she has the void walker balls shooting rainbow light...

I like how casually Salem takes it. Seeing that Grimm ichor splatter was REAL nice though

IMMOLATIOIN OH YESSSS

Good, SHE DOES BURN!

Awwww. And it ends there. Of course it does.

Well hey maybe hes NOT dead. Albiet that looked like him passing out/getting strangled so who knows. Good news; Salem burns just like anyone else. If it feels pain you can kill it

And thats this weeks!

[voroxpete]

Here is a completely unprompted rant about the ending of RWBY Volume 6

So, I wanted to take a moment to talk about how much I loved this season finale and why, and most importantly what kind of lessons it offers to writers.

In general, RWBY has always suffered from a tendency to let procedural plotting ("what is the immediate, physical problem in front of the characters and how do they overcome it?") drive the action while dramatic plotting tends to get slotted in around it. The ending of the first two seasons are both good examples, leading up to really badass fight scenes that ultimately do very little to express or advance the characters and their personal journeys.

In more recent volumes we saw attempts to rectify this, but the writers approached the problem by simply taking the action that resulted from their procedural plotting and awkwardly shoving dramatic resolution into it. The end of season 5 is a great example of this. The fight in Haven is a fucking mess. Everyone just sort of awkwardly pairs off in ways that don't make any logical sense, it's just done to create opportunities for ham-fisted character moments. It's so bad that in a couple of shots you can actually see Ren and Nora standing around very obviously doing nothing because the desperate need to force character moments into the fight means that its not their turn to get involved yet.

The ending of season 6 on the other hand... Oh my God, this was fantastic. What's key to how well this ending works is the multitude of ways in which the action and the themes directly support each other. We start with the action splitting in two, leading to the mech fight and the Adam fight... But notice how these scenes aren't actually disconnected. Everything about Cordovin - a character really only introduced for this moment - is designed to reflect and echo the elements of Adam that we're being asked to focus on. Cordovin is an abusive person. Not in the sense of abusive relationships specifically, but she uses her power to bully people. She's a narcissist, and even her physical design is meant to emphasise this dichotomy. She's a tiny person who loves to look down on others.

In this context, her misuse of the battlemech makes complete sense. Sure, she could have sent her airforce, and that would have made more sense, but it wouldn't have satisfied her personal need to be the bully, to be (literally) big and powerful and in control.

And all of this reflects perfectly in Adam. Just like Cordovin, he's ultimately small, and weak, and desperate to be powerful and in control. Even the damage that he's suffered plays into this. He's been hurt, and now he hurts other people to regain the control that he lost.

This plays out in his fight with Blake and Yang through some especially on point dialogue choices. The line "I wouldn't have to be doing this if you would just behave" left zero doubt where they were going with all of this, and was a bold choice that really raised the stakes for the scene. The decision to really lean into "Adam is an abusive ex" took a fight that was already excellent on a technical level and turned it into something really powerful. It's also kind of neat that both sequences lead up to a moment where the heroes give the villain a chance to stand down, and both fights conclude with the villain being astonished when the hero literally disarms them. Again, all of these parallels are reinforcing the central themes. The story being told through these two action sequences is very explicitly one of the characters (notably, women) standing up to powerful abusers. That shot of Ruby alone in front of Cordovin's mech, and the follow up where her eyes narrow in disappointment is seriously fucking powerful, and her smallness in the face of her bully perfectly reflects the way Yang and Blake feel facing Adam. Reflections on reflections on reflections. It's brilliant.

This is how you craft an action sequence that is also a character moment. Not by shoehorning character moments into a fight, but by writing action that parallels and enhances your dramatic themes.

It's not perfect of course. The arrival of Grimmzilla feels a little sudden and a touch forced, but it creates an excellent moment, allowing the writers to kind of recap and summarize everything that's just happened. We've seen, through the Cordovin fight, how Ruby has outgrown her uncle (a theme that's been playing out throughout this season), and giving her this moment to really emphasise what the character has become is a really nice way to allow those themes to breathe. It allows us to see the team reunited (something we've been desperately needing ever since the end of season 3), and really foregrounds the counterpoint to this theme of standing up to abusers, which is that you can't easily do it alone. One of the most dangerous behaviours of abusers is that they isolate people. While Ruby may be the only one with the special plot power that can slow down the Grimm attack, everyone is a part of helping her do it. There's even a great little moment where we see Blake, lacking any ability to physically assist, is still involved, acting as an emotional support for her friends, giving them whatever strength she can (it's also fun to note how "giving others strength" is literally Jaune's semblance, and it's cool to see the ways that got used throughout these scenes; there's a really interesting thematic tension between Jaune and Qrow specifically as opposing models of masculinity, and both the fight with Cordovin and the Grimmzilla scene clearly foreground the ways in which Qrow's model of trying to be the powerful patriarch figure who puts everything on his own shoulders is anything but helpful, whereas Jaune's masculinity - supportive, loving, kind - is the one that makes a difference, as Qrow discovers when he stops trying to carry everyone and starts, as Calvera puts it, catching them when they fall).

Again, thematically, this is more than just action, and that's why it resonates. From a purely mechanical point of view it's easy to see the Grimmzilla fight as disappointing, but that completely neglects the obvious purpose of that moment. We've already had two giant action sequences, the story didn't need another big blowout fight. What it needed was a coda, and Grimmzilla did that job beautifully.

All in all season 6 has made me excited about this show again, but more importantly I think that it offers a lot of great lessons to writers. People often criticise the writing in RWBY in very glib surface level ways; complaining that a certain line was cheesy, a certain moment was predictable. They're not wrong; the Blake and Yang fight definitely had a few moments where the dialogue choices felt painfully obvious or perhaps a little awkward. But writing is so much more than just plotting and a few lines of dialogue, and in so many of the ways that count the writing in this finale was superb and well worth studying.

[hypeathon]

RWBY - Volume 6, Chapter 12 Production Analysis

Previous Volume 6 Production Analysis Posts:

Chapters one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, & eleven

“Defining” would probably be the best way to describe a lot of the moments in this episode, as both plot lines had practically as much to highlight and analyze as the last chapter. Let’s break down all the whys and hows through the production.

Opening the episode is some interesting motion capture with the Atlessian soldiers. Although mo-cap in RWBY is nothing new and there was probably some touch-up through key animation, it’s strange in terms of how noticeable it felt. Then again, they’re faces are hardly shown so all there is to read are the body gestures, hence why it probably felt more obvious than usual. Not really a good or bad thing, just an observation. Skipping ahead a bit, as Oscar explains a blind spot to the others, we see some more of dust cannon fire effects, likely ice dust since the same blue-colored smoke effects are there. At this point, there’s not much particularly new to say about the type of effect so much as how it looks viewed from another angle. This actually helps give a bit more to analyze as to how the effect is constructed when fired. It seems that at least in this case, given the shapes of parts of the the cannon fire as it dissipates, there may be a bit more of 2-D effects than presumed. There’s also a blue-filter effect layered through composting somewhere within the effect of the cannon fire that increases width at first and then thins out.

There will be more to speak in terms of effects, but there are a couple of side notes to quickly mention. First is just the way Ruby climbs up the cliff side. It’s a small moment and a little funny-looking given the circumstances, but it’s also great little animation considering that it may not have been mo-capped at all. First she squats a bit more as she pulls Crescent Rose, then she makes a great leaping pose when climbing up and once her weapon pierces through the cliffs, her body suddenly drops as she holds on. From then on, it’s rinse and repeat and combined with the way her weapon bends as she pulls and swings it and how her cape flaps as follow-through animation as she settles in a squatting position and the gesture feels more convincing. Considering that there’s definitely a wrong way to pull and swing a tool akin to a giant scythe, there’s something to appreciate about the whole sequence as an animation enthusiast. And speaking of Ruby’s weapon, Crescent Rose, that’s the other side note. It’s easy to forget, but despite it’s size during scythe mode, when viewed from the front or back, it’s relatively thin, which helps somewhat to remind the viewer how a 17-year-old girl can easily carry something so seemingly-massive.

Skipping ahead a bit, we have Ruby getting into position to fire at the missile carrier. Seeing a close-up of a bullet fired has been done a few times before, both in RWBY and even in RWBY Chibi. The way the effect is done tends to vary slightly in each occasion and here, there’s no trail until after the bullet ricochets against the missile carrier. Similar to the mo-capped movement of the Atlessian soldiers though, this is just a neutral observation. That said, what’s more interesting is what comes after. When Cordovin preps up a lightning dust blast, we get a close-up shot of Ruby with her pupils gleaming while viewing the lightning. This trick was likely from the compositing team, but ever since it was revealed back at RTX Austin 2018 that lead compositor for volume 6, Penelope Nederlander and Amanda Gotera both came up with the electricity effect flowing around Hazel’s arms during volume 5, I’ve felt especially curious to learn which ideas for effects have come from who. Though this is a question that may not have an answer any time soon, assuming there will be one at all. On another note, although I’ve talked extensively about the lightning dust cannon fire in the chapter 10 production analysis and this effect is more or less the same, I’ve neglected to mention the way it fires. Whereas the earth dust fires in split-second bursts, ice dust fires more like a beam with a poofy smoke effect and wind dust fires being shaped and timed to draw a combination of the earlier two dusts, lightning dust fires starting with a brief electrical spiral and then follows with a flash and then a laser expanding in size with a series of electric rings surrounding it. The overall blast itself actually lingers the longest in comparison and constantly emits an array of electrical stream effects that reach and extend to the airship, its controls and Maria’s specs for at least several seconds. This just goes to show how much thought is considered as to keeping the timing of each dust cannon fire consistent.

Next up is the scene where the airship crashed. Right before cutting to it, we get an off-screen bird transformation from Qrow and though there was nothing wrong with it being animated, it shows how the idea of having Qrow transition from his human form to his bird form can be trickier to make the idea feel more seamless rather than the other way around. Once getting to the crash site itself, we get what is essential a damaged model of the ship as part of the environment as oppose to it being its own model. This is actually now as good of a time as any to mention something that I’m a bit upset for not spotting sooner. Since chapter 10, the staff credits included a vehicle designer within the art department named Scott Zenteno. As one would guess, this position refers to him designing vehicles for the show which upon reflection, there have not been much of between volumes 4 and 5 outside of the design for the average Mistral airship and the ship Blake took to Menagerie. Now what being a vehicle designer for volume 6 means for Scott is not just limited to designing the airship the gang steal since he apparently also designed Cordovin’s mech suit. Just a quick acknowledgement to make about a rather late entry in the ever-growing production staff.

As Cordovin approaches the crash site, we get a sequence of Ruby attempting to face her while Qrow tries to stop her. At least most of this sequence was confirmed to have been animated by Hannah Novotny via her Tumblr account through the tags underneath her reblog that say “my shots, except the last one”. Having spoken of her before, her animations here are a bit more nuanced and some of the tells I’ve mentioned about how she does character acting seems to be lacking. Although with Qrow, the way his eyebrows greatly raises and then slightly lowers as he is slightly taken aback in response to seeing Ruby’s stern face and the way his mouth slightly opens is an indication of small anticipatory action that I’ve used to describe Hannah’s animations before. The same observation can be referred to the next shot when Ruby slightly raises her head while saying, “I need you...”, and then firmly lowers her head when saying, “...to trust me”. Moving on to the next sequence, we get Ruby’s defiance against Cordovin accompanied with some very abundant, emotional character acting out of her in a couple of shots. After learning that Alyssa Lisiecki animated much of Jaune’s meeting with the Red-Haired Woman a few episodes back who I initially assumed to be Asha Bishi, I’ve been careful not to conflate the two and their animation styles. However, since it was confirmed that Asha animated a much later scene in the episode, it is somewhat safe to assume that this was Alyssa. In the shots that focus on Ruby there is a combination of the glimmer in her eyes, the the mouth movements, way her head shifts, and the way her shoulders raise and lower respond accordingly to each part of what she says to help further make it clear at which points is she feeling defiant, frustrated and stern. It’s the kind of character acting one would see in animators who excel at that kind of thing in anime such as Shinji Suetomi, Toshiyuki Tsuru, Akira Hamaguchi, Masayuki Nonaka, Yuki Hayashi, Masami Mori & Masashi Kudo, the character designer for Bleach.

Once Cordovin prepares to fire, Ruby zips into the barrel of the cannon with a whip-like animation akin to when Joel Mann animated Ruby in the volume 4 character short. As Ruby mounts her weapon and aims at the dust, she dons a very wide stance with her posture down, then bounces herself back up a bit and then back down again to prep herself. Assuming that it was Alyssa who did the previous sequence, it may have extended to here as well. Whether it was her or someone else though, Ruby this entire episode has been granted with character acting that greatly reminds the viewer who Ruby is in action. She then breathes in to signify how crucial it is that she times her move just right and as she fires and escapes, we get an amazing assortment of rock and ice suddenly forming, explosions, lightning, debris, steam, and bursting air/water. It’s so absurdly incredible that one would wonder how difficult thing of a thing it was to pull all that off. The bursts towards the bottom, possibly done via compositing, emits a transparent effect akin to seeing through streams of rushing water. The explosion effects are very similar to the ones from when Ruby maneuvered around all the missiles in the last chapter. Then there’s the earth and ice sprouting which convincingly creates small debris. It’s one hell of a spectacle. Finally, we get Ruby falling down the sky unconsciously and having her left arm and leg be limp enough to effectively be lifted a bit along with her body rotating while coming into contact with each of Weiss’s glyphs helps sell how much her stunt took out of her.

Once all is said and done with that part of the episode, we’re out of the conclusion of one fight and into settling another one that starts with some more character acting. As mentioned previously, it is pleasing to see how the facial expressions coming from Adam unmasked helps compliment Garret Hunter’s vocal performance, making it much more convincing (*note: that footage has audio). That’s not to say Garret was never improving over the course of the show until now, but since this is the final scene featuring his character as he currently is, what Adam says, how his lines are delivered and what his eyes and mouth emote makes what he says and does feel more engaging. Of course, it helps that Arryn Zech and Barbara Dunkelman equally put forth convincing performances as well, but more on that later. Also, side note, in case it was not made clear by now to some viewers, the ending credits displays Adam’s unmasked design (likely drawn by lead concept artist, Erin Winn) with the branding mark clearly stating “SDC”, short for Schnee Dust Company and not “600″ like some reactors initially thought.

What comes next is the final conflict between these characters and within the first ten seconds is a very interesting observation. I previously pointed out how the first 10 seconds of the fight sequence were very similar to snippets of the fight between Naruto, Sasuke & Momoshiki in Boruto, episode 65 which that specific part was animated by Weilin Zhang. It’s not confirmed whether this was an intentional nod or not, but if it is, then I can’t help but suspect Kevin Harger once again provided the storyboards. The reason for this is back during RTX Austin 2018, Kevin was a panelist for the Just the Fights panel hosted by Torrian Crawford and each panelist was to present a fight sequence they were fond of, be it their own or someone else’s. Considering Kim Newman was the one who provided clips of episode 65 of Boruto, expressing how some parts excited her while other parts made her cry, Kevin was made aware of the episode by at least that point, if not sooner and might’ve used it as partial inspiration. Of course, I could be reaching at the end of the day but if that’s the case, then Blake and Yang vs Adam plays a light homage while still having each of the characters consistently fight in their own respective ways.

At the very least, what is clear is the animation team behind the fight consisting of assistant lead animator, Melanie Stern, Matt Drury, John Yang, Megan Pellino, Joe Vick, Vito Ferber & Asha Bishi at the end. This is mostly the same team as the last episode and having to proceed with things back-to-back, as exciting as it probably was for them, must have been equally exhausting. The fruits of their labor definitely shows though, starting with the double-teaming effort on Blake and Yang’s part who I presume Melanie did, though at this point, it’s not totally clear. What’s probably so great about this portion is that the camera is positioned at dynamic angles that help to draw the viewer’s eye to where each character is in a given moment. In one shot, when Yang exits the shot from the front, Blake appears from the side. When Blake kicks Adam, Yang in the next shot is positioning herself to attack. When Adam recovers, we see where both Blake and Yang are positioned at a given shot. Once Blake gets a kick in and then dodges Adam’s strike, Yang steps in and after she gets a few hits on Adam, Blake appears again after Yang is off-screen. Even the moment where Adam deflects Blake’s gambol shroud has a long shot of Yang in the middle which cuts to a close-up of her being alert only to have her appear two shots later to grab the weapon. This is similar to what I mentioned liking about the train fight sequences in the chapter one production analysis. There is a smooth transition between characters in a given space that the fight feels more interconnected and it’s something that certain storyboard artists/animators in anime incorporate into fights.

Skipping ahead slightly to right before Adam and Yang’s portion of the conflict, we get another small character acting moment that once again displays the synergy between Garrett’s acting and Adam’s facial expressions. This also extends a bit to when Adam remains on the offensive when he lashes out at Yang who just quietly observes Blake climbing up. This segment also seems to have said character acting mo-capped, though obviously polished with key animation by whoever animated this segment. We then get a couple of strikes from him, including his buzz-saw trick (there’s audio within the footage) from the last episode which according to sound designer/engineer, Philip Spann, is supposedly based off of the foley sound of skill and power saws running using a tremolo effect. Adam of course being as charged as he is, comes equipped with red-accented lightning and forming a black silhouette while in mid-air and when he strikes down, Yang herself gets a near-black silhouette for a split-second. Once Adam sends another blast at Yang, we get the attack viewed from Yang’s back accompanied with some wavy blur compositing  and more realistic-looking smoke effects. An interesting touch is that when the smoke appears, we get one brief yellow lightning and then a bit of red lightning afterward.

Then comes the big part. Despite being unsure prior, it’s very safe to say judging by the very dynamic poses and great anticipatory action that John Yang without a doubt animated Yang’s “gotcha” punch. There’s obviously a lot to talk about this moment in general, the first being how he has Yang’s fingers smear to convincingly present the wind-up which leads to the next cut of Yang pulling Adam’s sword towards her, thus creating a bigger wind-up and then the effects of her punch with a bright trail to show the arc of it which follows with a couple of seconds of slow-motion. Then it gets to the next cut where sparks, ring effects and another trail effect shows to add to the sense of impact right before Adam is flown away. That’s all just one thing about the moment to talk about for the record. There’s also the effect of Yang’s semblance itself, a first since the production staff migrated to using Autodesk Maya and 3DS Max. Up until now, the hair on Yang’s semblance simply had a quick burst of fire and energy and the rest was just a matter of keeping her eyes red and having her fight more aggressively. Even the idea of Yang’s semblance according to Miles in the volume 1 blu-ray director’s audio commentary was initially meant as a bit of a running gag for her character:

Miles: “So this was um... A bunch of people were like "Does her hair give her power, what's goin' on with her hair?" Honestly, it's just because we thought it'd be funny. It, she's Goldilocks!”

Kerry: “She takes care of herself.”

Miles: “She takes care, and. And a bunch of people were like "Oh, this, this self-confident girl like why does she care what other people think about her?" She doesn't care what other people think, but her hair is something that she takes care of and she really likes it and they're screwing it up.”

Monty: “Yeah.”  

Somewhere along the line though, the trait was presented more earnestly and in this specific case, the effects are much different. Instead of being a brief burst, the fire-like glow coats over her hair and does so consistently and it features small fire sparks emitting off of her hair. Complimenting it of course is a burning sound effect as Philip Spann describes it that unsurprisingly took inspiration from the Dragon Ball franchise. Finally, there’s the voice acting. At the risk of being frank, Barbara Dunkelman who otherwise provides great acting in dialogue scenes, was lacking in expressing shouts and grunts when fighting. In anime dubs, voice actors in action-oriented scenes often put forth a sense of build-up in a yell which can vary from actor-to-actor, from scene-to-scene depending on the context of the direction. Even Christopher Niosi who has only been consistently voice acting for a few years as of this post has worked on roles that required such a vocal delivery. Sometimes voice actors have their shouts and grunts change depending on what the character goes through over the course of the story, such as how Johnny Yong Bosch once explained how he had his character from Bleach, Ichigo yell differently between the beginning and the end of the Soul Society arc. In comparison,  whenever Barbara shouted as Yang before, there generally was more of a strain. Granted, Barbara is not a voice actress first and foremost, but she has dipped into more voice acting on occasion through characters like Cosmos in Fairy Tail. That and her type of yells have been a consistent thing since the beginning of RWBY. This is why it was a very pleasant surprise how much of a difference was made when her shout had more of that kind of build-up to it, to the point where if one didn’t know any better that it could have come from a different voice. Then again, it sounds similar to how Barbara sounded when Yang performs her astral finish in Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle, which as a fighting game, how a character shouts or grunts can affect a gamer’s playing experience. It is possible that by that point, Barbara was getting a better grasp of how to handle such vocal delivery. It also helps how much the yell aligned with the timing of the wind-up for the animation.

After the punch, it is shown how Yang’s semblance dissipates which releases the flame coating off of her hair. Staying on the subject of her semblances, there has been some consistent confusion on when one’s aura shimmers and when it breaks. Philip Spann once again provides insight from an audio perspective about the matter, stating how canon sounds do exist for both characters and that aura breaks in particular have a bass drop effect. While it is difficult to tell if that’s what happened with Adam, it’s definitely clear that this was what happened with Yang. Skipping ahead, we get Blake climbing back up with a surprise attack which then leads to one cut after another of Adam and Blake noticing the Gambol shroud and Adam first lunging after it with Blake to soon follow, which between the timing that displays “show, don’t tell” and the sound effect of Adam kicking the pieces as he’s knocked back should’ve made it clear that one intended to go for the kill first and the other quickly reacted as a result with Yang to follow. Speaking of which, there is an interesting touch where in the shot where as Blake is about to strike, a glistening effect is shown on the tip of the Gambol Shroud piece she has. What follows is another interesting bit where the blood spreads around where Adam gets stabbed, though it’s unclear whether this was at all done in compositing or something else. Adam’s slow walk and fall was all actually animated by Matt Drury which was quite fascinating considering how much of a fan of the character he was. This does however serve as a reminder that he and the other people involved with each segment of the fight are animators and not just “fight choreographers”, meaning that they can be equally capable at character acting. To cap off the death, Philip Spann once more gives sound design insight stating that despite not having any influence over the script, he did try to give an explicit bone-crack sound as he hit the rock. Finally, we get the aftermath where Blake breaks down and this was the part Asha Bishi animated. There are cues in the scene that make it evident it came from here, the most obvious tell being the way Blake’s arms and hands harshly shaking and her hands clenching as she drops to the ground she felt about what she did which followed with her abdomen strongly inhaling and exhaling as she cries in front of Yang who readily consoles her. What adds to the scene is the long shot of the two in front of the waterfall which carries over the framing from the end of the last chapter where just their hands were in front of the cliff to now having the both of them in front of it.

Ending the episode is not much, as it simply is a setup for the finale episode. Though we do get a small funny bit with the communication device, an amusing,  flabbergasted expression from Cordovin and a good gulp from one of the soldiers in response to witnessing the Leviathan Grimm. This penultimate episode did not have as much going on as the previous one but due to the moments themselves being bigger in terms of both presentation and production, there was just as much, if not more to break down. As the finale comes, there’s something interesting to mention about updates regarding the production itself or rather lack thereof. Usually by now, certain members of the Crwby like lead animators or one of the producers would mention when a certain phase of production would wrap-up. Back in volume 5, then co-lead animator, Joel Mann confirmed on January 9th, 2018 that the animation stage ended before the finale premiered on the 20th. For volume 4, Joel confirmed that animation was done on January 26th, 2017 before its finale on February 4th. Before that, Gray Haddock mentioned how volume 3′s animation ended on January 23rd, 2016 while that finale premiered on the 13th of February.

Usually, there is a 2-3 week period where the main production phase is ending before post-production needs to be finished. However, no mention came from anyone this time. The closest we got to anything remotely resembling a confirmation was Kerry talking about doing some super casual, relaxing things on January 19th (which he very much deserved), which at least implies whatever production that involved him overseeing and approving as the director was likely done. It’s not clear this lack of sharing the status of the production was due to simply forgetting or if it was a personal choice or if the fact Gen:Lock was around the corner that all attention was directed towards that instead. It’s hard to say but I’m not really worried about what that could mean for the finale episode. That said, Neath Oum, the voice of Lie Ren, did once again state that whatever big moment coming in these last batch of episodes didn’t even occur yet. What could that mean for the finale? We all would just have to hold out butts until then.  

[i-am-the-entertainer]

RevieWBY Volume 6, Chapter 8: “Dead End”

You know, in retrospect, it was kind of our own fault for hyping it up to be Winter. But good on them for not making this new character like a big reveal.

There’s really not that much to say about this episode overall. I think it’s along the lines of Chapter 2 and Chapter 4: it’s dealing with the aftermath of something and setting up for something much more major down the line, thus it can’t really stand on its own. But like with those two, there’s some interesting stuff going on in this episode that’s worth touching upon, especially when it comes to worldbuilding.

Oh, and fyi: some major fandom crtq at the end.

Such Wit! Such Tenacity! Much wow!

This chapter offers up a new perspective on the Atlas military: Caroline Cordovin and her nationalist, racist attitude. We’ve been told in the past that Atlas is the kind of modern military nation, acting without reason, being very self-centered, blah blah blah. The problem is, we haven’t really been shown that: the only real Atlas military characters have been Ironwood and Winter, and (being generous) they’re the good guys. Volume 4 kind of showed just how shitty Jacques Schnee and his circle of buddies can be, but it wasn’t really a perspective on the military: in fact, in the post-gala scene Ironwood, as the military’s representation, seemed the direct counterpoint to the rich assholes of Atlas. With this in mind, this volume has sort of run with the assumption that Atlas’s support will be a piece of cake, but Cordovin present a reasonable obstacle while also giving us more insight into the kind of people who actually make up the Atlas military.

Qrow v. Ruby

Based on his bit from this volume’s intro sequence, how he’s been reacting to the revelations regarding Ozpin, and some comments from Miles on this week’s RWBY Rewind about how he feels awful because Qrow is making all the wrong decisions, this is definitely the volume where Qrow is going to officially hit rock bottom (if he hasn’t hit it already). Whereas Team RWBY is willing to stick to their guns about getting to Atlas even after Jinn’s story and Brunswick Farms, Qrow has given up. Remember, he had possibly the strongest reaction to finding out Ozpin doesn’t have a plan, because he devoted his entire life to Ozpin’s supposed cause and lost so many friends and family along the way: another obstacle has kicked him down even further. After three seasons of Qrow being the drunk uncle who’s still a hero, we’re closing in on dark territory for him.

Ruby has always kind of just accepted Qrow’s alcoholism as one of his quirks, but with this volume’s events she realizes it’s an actual problem, offering a new angle on their relationship after it’s remained at a constant level since Volume 3. This arc is developing quite well: from cautious awareness in Chapter 5 to an attempt to reach out in Chapter 6 to complete frustration in this chapter. I’m curious as to where this will go: it’s the most development/insight into Ruby we’ve gotten that wasn’t straight up told to us.

Well, You’d Be Mad Too

With the previous episode, it vaguely seemed like JNR finding out the truth about Ozpin was about to get glossed over, but NOPE. Their reactions were exactly as they should be, if not strong enough. It’s important to remember that they lost one of their closest friends in the fight between good and evil, and they have essentially been told that her death was for nothing. It’s almost on par with Qrow’s reaction, especially when you take into account how much Qrow has lost from siding with Ozpin all this time. I’m not defending their actions, especially Jaune’s, but rationalizing them in the context of this show. They were not going to take this news lightly, and anything lighter would have been unrealistic.

Can I just add: sidelining JNR for half the volume was a good writing decision. Not only does it decrease the number of characters we need to pay attention to for a storyline that needs razor-sharp focus in order for it to be delivered well, it prevents the utter mess that would’ve occurred if they AND Qrow had been present for Jinn’s story. It also provides a counterpoint to Team RWBY’s perspective: besides having witnessed everything in person, they have had a few days and a traumatic experience to rationalize their next moves. JNR has had no such thing, and they’re going to have to deal with this differently.

Learning Is Fun

In an example of planting-payoff, we finally get some insight into the silver-eyed warriors, three years after we were even aware it was a concept, and three years since we knew anything new about it other than you could use it against Grimm. I like the wink at just how little Ruby (and by extension, the audience) knows about such an important power.

This is a moment where a lot of information we get comes from talking, which is why I think this episode may feel a little slow, comparable to some of Volume 4 and 5′s lower moments. That said, I think the show deserves some leeway on this because this volume so far has really stuck to show-don’t-tell, plus since this is much-desired information having it in the first place is useful no matter how it’s delivered. It can also be said it makes sense to have this story delivered through dialogue, as presumably that’s how Maria learned: it’s like sharing a legend orally, and emphasizing just how rare the silver-eyed warriors are and how dangerous being one can be.

There’s something interesting going on in this scene that a few people have touched upon: Ruby commenting that her silver eyes were activated when she saw Jaune and Cinder sparring, prompting Maria to suggest that perhaps there was something she wasn’t seeing. On first thought, it refers to the fact that Cinder has a Grimm arm. Except the thing is, there’s no point in framing it the way they do: it’s framed as though there’s something mysterious for the viewer to think about, but we all know Cinder’s arm is Grimm. What does this imply about Cinder? Well, we know the whole reason she got the Fall Maiden powers was because she cheated: she used what could be best described as a parasite Grimm. We also know from her “training” with Salem that the new arm is almost a separate entity from her, but she needs the ability to control it herself rather than the other way around. There appears to be a broader implication that Cinder’s connection to the Grimm may be stronger than just a supplement to her powers or a prosthetic to her lost arm: is she becoming a Grimm/Human hybrid along the lines of Salem?

But then again, I could be overthinking it, it could just be an acknowledgment/reminder that Ruby herself doesn’t know about Cinder’s arm. But I guess it’s something to keep an eye on for the rest of the volume.

Conclusions

This is another set-up episode, and it’s not a particularly exciting one at that. It’s hard to judge these on their own considering they’re designed to service a larger storyline, but overall I just thought “Okay, things are gonna be harder than they thought, they reacted as we thought they’d react, we finally got some insight into stuff, and we’ve got our next major arc.” So I’ll just accept this as it is: straightforward set-up, some insight into the show’s mythology. I didn’t hate it or love it, I didn’t dislike it or like it, it was just eh. And considering pretty much all the chapters last volume made me feel “eh” and most of the ones this volume haven’t, I’m still happy to call Volume 6 an improvement.

By the way...if you’ve been on the RWBY tag these past couple of days, you’ve probably noticed my posts about the highly entitled part of this fandom complaining about the sneak peek for the next chapter on RWBY Rewind having animation errors, and the more rwde part of this fandom once again shitting on Miles for calling out someone for being an asshole about it. I admit, I’m getting a little too worked up about this, but honestly this whole business has really made my blood boil over the past week, a week I’ve been trying to use to relax after school let out for break, so, rant time.

IT WAS SO CLEARLY UNFINISHED, DID YOU SERIOUSLY THINK THEY WERE GONNA BROADCAST THE EPISODE WITH SUCH A BLATANT ERROR? It happened because they weren’t done with the episode before they sent the clip in for RWBY Rewind’s live broadcast. And don’t give me that bullshit about how you’re paying with a FIRST account for a 60 second sneak peek to be perfect, you’re paying 3 bucks a month so you can watch the episodes a week early, you know, like the rest of us with FIRST accounts are doing, never mind the hundreds of hours of exclusive content we get in that subscription! And shit, if you’re really on about those 60 seconds of a thirty minute RWBY aftershow needing to be perfect, you could’ve just watched the version that they put up online afterwards, which is so clearly the finished version not just because they fixed the compositing error but they added ambient effects and additional pedestrians in certain shots! I mean, I don’t even watch RWBY Rewind live half the time, most people don’t, I’ve just been paying to watch it starting the day after it’s recorded!

And god forbid Miles tell an asshole he’s being an asshole! I mean, how do you hold up A FUCKING 60 SECOND SNEAK PEEK as evidence of a drop in the show’s animation quality?! Have you been watching this fucking season? The animation is the best it’s been in ages. Like it’s actually absurd how much detail and attention they’ve put into shots, even non-fighting scenes! And don’t even get me started on how good the fights have been! Better sparingly used quality fights than overused often subpar fights (god, Volume 5 was a shitshow)!

You idiots go on and on about “Oh, I’m harsh on this show because I love it! They should listen to legitimate criticism no matter how I deliver it!” Newsflash: you don’t love this show. At this point you’re only criticizing it because you hate it. Because if you were actually criticizing it out of love for the show, you’d be pointing out actual issues this volume. You’d be saying something like “Oh, this kid of information should have been dropped earlier” or “This volume should not have set up Adam as a major player only to more or less not use him for the past 7 chapters.” Or, you know, point out actual problems with the show, even nitpicks like the weird fireplace effects at Brunswick Farms or some animation errors that popped up in Chapter 6. But the funny thing is, you’re not pointing that out. You’re pointing out a 60 second sneak peek that was clearly presented with no pretense of it being the final product and acting like you’ve found the ace in the hole, the proof that CRWBY is lazy and disrespecting of Monty’s legacy.

You don’t love this show. You love to pretend that you’re protecting the show from the very people that make it. But the fact is, it’s them who are in the writers’ rooms, it’s them who are sitting at the computers, it’s them who make the show you pretend to love. And if you’ve resigned yourself to just hating whatever it is they put out, then I’m sorry, but you’re not a fan of what the show is now. So you can either keep moaning about “Oh, Monty wouldn’t have done this,” or maybe accept the fact that there’s no way the show could do whatever it is Monty did because no one can do what Monty would do. They can only do what they do. It’s no longer just Monty’s show, it’s CRWBY’s show too. And if you’re just never gonna be satisfied with that, if every little thing they do and say is gonna make your blood boil, if every choice they make is completely against the show you’ve built up inside your head, then just don’t watch it. It would make all of us, including you, feel better.

[violetren]

RWBY Wonder Egg AU episode 10

Blake's plan is some extreme anime bullshit. And somehow really fucking gay on like multiple levels???

Like first all of the mirroring and equalling Weiss stuff and then all the You (and Ruby) will wake me up after we save Weiss, with that look.

To the surprise of no one Blake's nightmare is what she'd have become if she willingly stayed with Adam and bought into his beliefs. This is all very awful for her but I gotta say, the black and red suit is a look on her. The heels are a whole new level of impractical though.

I swear some of the stuff Shion does with their strings is just for the fucking drama. Like just transfer the nightmare with some chain gloves? Maybe some tongs? Stop eating the animating budget when you know there is gonna be a big fight, you guys already struggle with that.

For example when Weiss jumped through the air, just a minute fraction of the attention paid to making Shion's strings undulate could have been used to add some speed/motion lines so it didn't look like she was just floating along like a blimp in the middle of a past paced action sequence.

Anyways. Negative!Weiss's reaction to Negative!Blake? The confusion and unwillingness to believe it is a real Blake (probably because it can sense the other nightmare but is sticking to script) Hella fucking gay vibes too, classic Weiss if we're being honest.

Yang only discovering her bike can ride sideways on walls was neat. Kind of a Deus ex machina at this point but neat.

I'm gonna say it, if Jaune starts swinging that oversized fucking sword again and somehow wins I am rioting. He couldn't even lift the thing before and accidentally boosting Ruby and Shion with his Aura is not enough ability growth to make him capable with a sword he couldn't even fucking carry.

I admit I laughed when Ruby shot Whitley to get the relic back and then mused aloud if that's how Weiss intended her to use Crescent Rose. She might have been talking about her stance or technique but it's funnier if she was talking about just shooting Whitley.

The final frame of Ruby vs The Nightmare was very cinematic and also if she doesn't pull the damn trigger and shoot that thing right in the face the very second the next episode starts then what even was the point of acting like Weiss moving where Crescent Rose shoots from was intentional?

Also if anymore gets read into that or implied than just Weiss having opinions about the logic of Crescent Rose I am gonna riot over that too, because the alternative is that Weiss somehow knew how this whole fucking thing was gonna play out in order for Ruby to need to shoot like that and if that's true then she probably could have been out of this dream days ago. Weiss is dramatic but she's not kill herself and her teammates stupid level of dramatic.

[randomaccount2]

EVERYTHING WRONG WITH: RWBY VOLUME 5 CHAPTER 11

> Just what is that statue even? Is there any reason as to why it's there? Any history behind it? > "You seem to be more than last time." That's a little obvious don't you think Leo? > "Why do you have your weapons with you?" At that moment everyone should be running for their lives. It's that obvious! > Who shot her? Yang isn't in her combat stance, and nobody else has their weapons out. > Wait... Lionheart is a faunus? REALLY?! The most powerful man on remnant is a member of the supposedly horribly oppressed group? How is that even racism in any form? He couldn't have hid that all this time! That totally nullifies any claim of racism in this show at all! HE'S THE HEADMASTER OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST KINGDOM FOR FUCKS SAKE AT LEAST STAY CONSISTENT! > "... and made a choice." Actually it seems like Leo didn't have a choice at all. > All that time everyone said Salem can't be defeated, yet nobody gave any reason why. > Oh you're one to talk Ruby, you only heard about Salem from your intoxicated uncle in a shitty campfire scene. > Cue the motivating speech sequence. > Raven is not pleased > Oh shit, she dropped the bomb! > Fireball shoots out of newly opened portal. Nobody has that reaction time. > Fireball perfectly and directly shoots Ruby, as if Cinder could see through it. What if Raven wanted to escape and got shot instead? > Cue the dramatic music > "Hello boys and girls." Cinder, you had time to think about a dramatic entrance since Volume 3, and that's all you come up with? This isn't even better than Adam's dramatic entrance in Volume 3. > Hazel just comes in as if he magically knew that the cat is out of the bag yet. He could have ruined everything, EVERYTHIIING. > He didn't even look at anybody, and unveiled the great nefarious plan. FFS Hazel it could have just been innocent visitors. > In only two minutes the white fang arrived, took out the overly large supply of bombs and placed bombs everywhere without making a sound? > Also these bombs are way too close to each other. For something of this size, you'd think only one of those could blow up I don't know... an entire train wagon! > Uh, yeah Adam what do you think everyone places these bombs here for. They probably already know Haven is going to fall. > Wow Weiss, you sure are fast. > Wow Qrow, you sure are fast. > Yes Jaune, what is wrong with Cinder? She's been here since episode one and nobody knows anything about her at all. > Why are they taking out their weapons? They have absolutely no reason to. They should really listen to Qrow. > Miles voice acting is really great! Minus one sin - > Weiss and Nora are taking out their weapons too? Why though? None of the bad guys even have their weapons out! FFS LISTEN TO QROW! > Cinder doesn't need her fire powers to deliver burns. > Jaune it's obvious she's trying to provo- oh, there he goes. > Ruby you can instantly break the sound barrier, you don't need to waste ammunition to go fast. > See, Ruby if you used your semblance, you could have gotten past the chain. > Cue the gay subtext > Cinder charges at Jaune, but they magically disappear in the next shot. > We hear Merc's gunboots go off as if he jumped, but in the next shot, he stands exactly where he was before. > "Let's see what the Schnee family name really means." "I'm more than a name!" **mortal combat's "Fight!" can be heard in the distance.** > Hazel can see Oscar sneak up away, clearly Oscar could become a threat, so why doesn't he act on it? > It's been entire 5 minutes, and Ren and Nora are still standing there, wordlessly facing Lionheart. > Really Leo? You know about Salem and magic, but you can't guess that Ozpin can reincarnate and that he is probably behind this child right now? > IT'S TIME TO DDDDD-DUEL! > Seriously now. A child with an ancient spirit inside him fight a man with what might as well be a duel disk? This really is Yugioh. > Why is there a magic circle now? I thought only maidens and Ozpin have magic. > Uh WHAT even is that thing? > Is Oscar's Aura already depleted? Or did he just activate it? Horray Oscar got better with his Aura! > I know they're trying to make Oscar look badass, but why isn't Leo attacking? He's a trained Huntsman against a 14 year old boy! > Leo do you honestly think Salem is going to leave you alone? Once she has the relic she's just going to dispose of you. > Obligatory Yugioh reference. > Isn’t it obvious Oscar? > Meanwhile Weiss is playing The Floor is Lava > This would be a great opportunity to put in a new song for the soundtrack. That only consists of 3 songs. That we last heard before Chapter 1. That was eleven weeks ago. > At this point Weiss should have learned that summoning doesn't work. Weiss, you have a broad repartoire of glyphs, but you choose to use the slowest against the fastest enemy? You can bend time for fucks sake! > Ruby is just casually watching Jaune during a fight. > Instead of hitting Ruby with her blades or doing anything, Emerald just spams bullets. > Ruby can magically deflect all the bullets with the handle of a scythe that's bigger than most humans. > Weiss didn't learn from her mistakes and turns her back to her enemy. Then this happens. > Everyone stop fighting to the death, somebody almost got hurt! > Ruby is in the middle of a fight, but turns around to look at Jaune. > Cinder can fly apparently. > Please ignore the sudden artstyle change, we didn't have the resources to remake the models. > Okay, now Ruby is about to activates her silver eyes, which itself is enough to bring cinder to her knees, but why didn't she know how to do that in the first place? She had all the time to ask Tai, Qrow and even Ozpin himself, but she didn't. It's been almost a year since she knows about the Silver eyes, and that she can basically beat any Grimm and every maiden with just one look, but she doesn't try to control it, because plot. > Come on Jaune, she's on the ground without Aura, but you try to stab her instead of slashing like any sane person would do? You could have finished this god dammit! > Jaune you trained for all this time, and still don't know how to stand properly when using your weapon? Also you could have just taken a step forward instead of falling over like a sac of potatoes. > Why did you drop your weapon? You're trying to survive! > Reusing opening animations > Jaune did you honesly think she'd listen to you when you basically say, don't kill them? > Does this fire spear look familliar? Here's a hint: It's Pyrrha's spear. > Jaune you have more than enough time to get up and throw yourself onto her, or stab her in the back. Instead you just scream NOOOO like somebody who is completely incapacitated. > Reusing Pyrrha's death animation > Weiss didn't make any sound, but yet everyone magically stops fighting to their bloody death for a second, only too look at Weiss being stabbed to death. Like what did you expect? > Apparently Jaune didn't cry, even though we saw him cry for the first time three times already. > Weiss faints, and the spear dissipates. Meanwhile Cinder sees a wounded Weiss that she wanted to kill. If Cinder really wanted to kill Weiss, she could have just burned her this instant, so why does she leave Weiss alive? > Black screen of death. Along with the worst damn cliffhanger RWBY has ever given us. > The CRWBY only knows one way to end an episode. Which is a cliffhanger.

BONUS SINS:

> Whenever one person stops talking, the camera just cuts to another person that starts to talk. For a fight scene this was an awful lot of talking. > Aparently one week isn't enough for Blake to arrive at Haven. And it looks like all the bombs have been set already. Let's see how Miles and Kerry try to save this one. > Nobody believes that Sienna Kahn is dead. Nobody believes Weiss is dead. It seems to me like something with the writing isn't right.

[team-crtq]

Volume 5 Episode 1 Review

Helllllo, RWBY Fandom! I’m Mod Quartz of the CRTQ Blog! The blog dedicated to actually critiquing RWBY!

For Volume 5 we’ll be reviewing each episode. And no, I won’t be the only one reviewing. My fellow Mods Cobalt, Regalia and Tangerine will also be reviewing alongside me. We each take an episode from the first twelve episodes and divide them between us! As for thirteen and fourteen: Well, Good ol’ Quartz managed to snatch them up so you’ll be getting a special helping of mineral this year!

But enough chit-chat: Let’s go!

First up we have the introduction to the Volume 5 which also serves as the establishing shot of Mistral. The build up with the ominous underground hallway was rather good, the detail on the bricks was pretty good, the lighting has improved immensely since before and considering all the crap that people have gone through with Volume 4: the light hearted banter before we see Mistral was relaxing. However, I do think that Ruby should have been called out for almost dying since she almost got caught by Tyrian and Jaune of all people shouldn’t be joking about death. 

Then was have the heroes (and Jaune. No offense to Jauen fans, I just love making jokes about him.) actually seeing Mistral for the first time. The actual shot we get at first really captures a look of “ancient but noble Eastern city” with the beautiful but worn building sprouting out of gorgeous mountains with winding path ways and even more mountains in the background. However, I do have a small issue with the waterfall in this shot because, judging by how the water is flowing and falling, it can look like it is falling onto the walkway below and even so, I must criticize that said water would be splashing in the faces of people walking down it I know this seems nitpicky but tiny details like that can throw people off (plus I can’t spend this whole review praising RT.)

Next is the views of the city through 2-D shots. I’m pretty neutral on the whole 2-D aspect as while it’s jarring what with the establishing shot of Menagrie was in 3-D: We seem to be having longer episodes as well as two extra so this is certainly not jarring enough that I would demand resources to be moved. As for the shots themselves: They are well made still shots with plenty of detail and stuff going in the background to entrance the audience and make Mistral feel alive. I am getting a distinct The Last Airbender vibe from these shots which I must commend RT for being able to at least be reminiscent of such a beautiful show without insulting it. The character designs all follow RWBY’s rule of at least trying to make people seem distinct and unique, with hairstyles or facial features only being repeated a handful of times (one time I believe to denote familial ties) and for 53 people: that’s pretty good. 

(PS: Huh. Two guys with one holding bamboo heart. ... Neat. They look nice enough together that I’ll ignore the cartoonishness of the bamboo heart.)

The dialogue in this scene mostly consists of Team RNJR making comments about Mistral while Qrow pulls a WOR and describes Mistral to them. Considering the fact that I love WOR, this works very well for me and I think Qrow did a good job of giving an overview of Mistral’s culture and functions. Of course, this isn’t enough for Mistral as a whole so I do hope we get more.

The next scene is introduced with a rather nice transition by Nora. Not too much to say about this one due to the fact that it takes place mostly inside a single room inside of a ship. It’s nice to see Weiss again and in a nice contrast to her Volume 1 self, she tries to apologize in case she’s been trouble to the pilot which is a great show of humility on her part. To also show off her development from being the selfish brat she was: Weiss hears a distress signal and asks to help them. This would normally be the part where the pilot heroically goes off to help Weiss save these people in some awesome action scene but I have to commend RWBY for doing the opposite and having him try to avoid the ship in order to just get home. I know this seems cowardly to us but that’s actually how a normal person would react to deadly monsters nearby, showcasing the difference in mindset between a Huntsman and a normal person.

The next scene focuses on introducing Lionheart. First we had a bit of build up with an empty looking Haven as the heroes relaxing as they finally make it to their destination. However, Qrow does point out latter that there is a disturbing lack of students and teachers which causes everyone to go on edge. So everyone rushes to the Headmaster’s room, with all of them preparing for battle in a pretty cool sequence of everyone drawing their weapons. Then Qrow kicks down the door and reveals...Leonard Lionheart, startled as hell. The reactions from RNJR were honestly pretty funny due to the unison scream but Qrow’s reaction was...too Looney Tunes for me. I dunno, probably just me.

Anyway, Qrow and Lionheart recover and banter a bit and afterward Team RNJR introduces themselves and I gotta say, RWBY has done a great job at body language. Lionheart gives an air of constant fear in his body language due to him being tense all the time and his actions constantly tells me “I’m afraid!” which suits his design as the cowardly lion. Meanwhile, Qrow gives off an air of easily created anger with his slouching back, fisted hands and slight leaning. And with RNJR you could get their base personalities just from hwo they move when introduced: Ruby being happy but slightly professional showing her idealistic view on being a Huntress, Jaune not moving much showing his status as the normal guy, Nora being very cheery showing her to be the energetic one and Ren putting his arms behind his back and bowing his head showing him to be the calm, collected one. Very rare you get that level of communication in simple actions.

The final part of this scene consists of Lionherat trying to shoo Qrow and RNR away by informing them that his staff is gone, Qrow getting up in his face while we have another example of good body language (IE the sudden widening of eyes the instant Qrow yells) and Qrow revealing that he filled RNJR in on the relics and maidens, which seems to disturb Lionheart. A nice little exchange to show the dubiousness of Lionheart.

The next scene is introduced with a few shots of the outside of the Belladonna household which...confuse me. they don’t really do much for the scene and the build up they offer is minimal at best. They should have cut the shots and saved the time and money.

Anyway: the true scene begins with Ghira and Sun bursting into the house yelling about how despicable and deplorable someone is. Kali makes a small comment about how they are finally agreeing on something, which causes Sun to get embarrassed and Ghira to, I’m assuming, snapping Sun in two to avoid the embarrassment when Blake comes in and tells them that everything will be alright. Between her soft but firm force, the dramatic lighting and her confident and assured stance it does give off a feeling that Blake would be a good leader so if this is build up for her taking control of the White Fang-Kudos.

Then we have Blake walking onto a balcony and dismissing a guard from her duty. ... Why we didn’t see any guards before is beyond me: this is just a mistake from the CRWBY. Then we have Illa appearing and attempting to talk with Blake. We get a bit of exposition as to what had happened before hand as Balke and her family went to try and arrest the twins from EPisode 5 but they managed to pin everything onto Illa and escape scott-free Interesting to note that Illa turns her head away when Blake mentions her taking the fall, as if she was ashamed for it. Then Illa tells Blake that she doesn’t have anyway of proving anything was true and Blake retorts by planning on showing the information to the fanaus of Menagrie to sway them against the White fang.

What comes next is a very moving scene where Illa removes her mask as she warns Blake that her plan will fail and then begging her to leave before it’s too late. This works on three levels: the first one being the most basic, the eye to eye contact in order to convey the message she is trying to get across not just to Blake but to the audience as well. It helps her face express even more than before and it touches people more easily. The second is symbolic: The White Fang were the masks because they are acting like the Grimm as they commit crimes in order to force equality. With Illa removing the mask but not tossing it away as she pleads with Blake, it enforces that behind her actions and behind her allegiance: there is a person who truly wants to help Blake while also showing her loyalty still to the White Fang. And third: it’s easy for people like us to hate the White Fang because most of them don’t really have faces. Just as we feel no empathy for the Grimm because of their disconnect from humanity, we feel less inclined to side with the White fang because without a face, we see them similar to the Grimm. By removing her mask, Illa and the writers force us to acknowledge that she is a person, just like we are ad her reasoning behind her actions is just as complex as ours are.

Sadly, Blake refusing by stating that illa will have to make her, which causes a great amount of sadness in Illa as she says “I know” before leaving: Again, enforcing she is a person. Then we end with a shot of Blake looking angry before her expression breaks and she just looks worn, showing that she can’t stay mad at Illa.

The upcoming scene is an exposition based scene with Lionheart and Qrow tading information. Usually I don’t like exposition scenes because it’s mainly just two characters talking plainly to each other (Hence why I enjoy the history lesson style of WOR) but there is enough personality in this scene to keep me interested. Lionheart goes on about the troubles that Mistral ahd to face due to the Fall Of Beacon (with a nod to Penny in there), the people they’ve lost and the difficulties they are facing now with the Grimm and the Kingdom of Atlas due to Ironwood’s actions from before and finally the issue with the Spring Maiden. Qrow retaliates and probably tried starting a fight but then Ruby comes in and shuts them down before they can fight and reassures them. Again, showing that she is deserving of the title of leader.

We then get something that many people were hoping for: An explanation on the connection to the Maidens and Relics. Apparently the relics are sealed away onside certain chambers and only a specific Seaosnal Madien can unlock it and get the relics. Now I might have been upset about such a blatant grap to connect the two but A.) This is the norm for gods, they pull this shit all the time and B.) This explains why the Maidens are so important, why Ozpin and Co. needed to protect them, why Salem is so focused on them and why Cinder is needed. SO yeah, I understand. 

We also get some info on the Spring Maiden: Apparently she ran off ten years ago due to the stress of her powers and the weight they carry and seeing as she is a living key for a godly power: Yeah, that’d happen. Lionheart claims that he doesn’t even know where she is and Qrow reveals that he knows. And the news isn’t good: She’s with Raven.

(PS: Okay, what is with high tech wooden desk? there was no foreshadowing for that and Qrow just flings his scroll onto the desk as if the desk knows what is going on. Seriously man, cut out the Belladonna house shots and have Qrow type some stuff into the desk.)

Also, apparently RNJR knows who Raven exactly is as Yang’s mom. I’m guessing Ruby told them but how did Ruby know? Did Taiyang tell her when he told Yang? Did Qrow blurt it out while drunk? Did Raven try kidnapping yang when she was a child and Ruby saw it? I really hope this gets answered.

Anyway, Qrow tries to convince Lionheart to go get the Maiden from Raven but eh refuses on two fronts. One is that the Council of Mistral won’t devote resources to fighting bandits (and the whole Maiden-Relic business is very hush hush) and considering the strength of Raven and the Spring Maiden alone: Qrow can’t just rush in by himself and RNJR. He emphasizes the importance that they wait for the right time. He and Qrow trade a few verbal blows before the subject changes to that of info about Cinder and her little group which Lionheart tells that they can’t find anything valuable, just fakes and forgeries. The group of five leaves and Dr.Watts informs Lionheart that he needs to work on lying. That brings everything the Headmaster said into question as he could be a liar and trying to stall for time but due to Lionheart’s resigned expression, I also question if he’s on either side really. All in all: This keeps the audience on it’s toes.

The scene shifts to a remake of the final scene from Volume 4 so I’ll just skip that. All I have to say is; Oscar looks better this time around.

The next scene takes place somewhere else in Mistral where yang is getting a glass of water and taking a break before continuing her journey. While this happens, some really skeezy looking guy starts hitting on her, apparently missing the definition of “personal space”, “tact” and “no.” We get a nice little Goldilocks reference before he tries touching her hair and he promptly gets smack out the rest stop. The act of Yang smacking a gross perv out was damn awesome but the guy pinballing around was just terrible. It could have just been the guy landing right outside and it would have worked so much better. The owner thanks her and hands her a drink. Yang reaches out and her hand, the one that punched the guy, starts shaking and freezing up so she has to stop it. While I think this is a hint that her PTSD isn’t away yet: I can’t say for certain. But I am thankful if it is a hint that she’ll be dealing with it.

So we get a little talk from the owner about how far out from the Kingdom they are and how the only person he really sees is Yang’s mom, to which Yang replies that she knows. The owner warns her that bandits are dangerous, Yang brushes him and prepares to leave when the guy from before stops her and talks about how he heard she was looking for someone. How the guy heard her is a little dubious considering eh only just then recovered but I’m more concerned with the implication that Yang is looking for Raven than Ruby, which is what we’ve been lead to think. Yes, RT could have been misleading people but it just kind of invalidates her build up. However it can be forgiven if this road yields results.

The final scene shows us with Ren, Nora and Jaune all looking exhausted as someone knocks on the door. The three person team exchanges looks before Jaune walks up to the door and slowly turns the knob to open, building up the tension due to the rising foreboding music and the slow movement, to reveal the newest member of the cast Oscar standing there, looking rather nervous. He asks for Ruby, which makes Ren and Nora suspicious as Nora asks him why he wants to see her. Oscar stays silent for a bit until Drunkle Qrow, blitzed harder than Poland in 1939, stumbles in, mumbling about how “he found him” until he slips onto the couch while Oscar tells them that he might need some help.

Ruby storms out, apparently reading comics as she sees her uncle drunker than the country of Ireland as she facepalms and asks if he got drunk again, showing us that this is apparently a common occurrence. Oscar jumps in and seems surprised as he says that she has silver eyes, a call back to what Ozpin said when they met face to face. Ruby asks who he is and Oscar nervously explains who he is but who they probably know him as while Qrow makes drunk commentary in the background. The episode ends with Qrow triumphantly yelling “I did it!” before passing out on the floor while Nora winces. Honestly, the only way this could have gone better is if things cut to Patch with Taiyang saying “Qrow just passed out again, didn’t he?”

All in all, this was a very good beginning. There were a few missteps here and there but overall I think it was an amazing start to Volume 5!

Now I’ll see you all in Episode 5!

[belladxne]

RWBY REACTION: i’ve kinda lost track of the number. ep 9?

Zwei is a Good Dog

"We’ve been at this for weeks” so what you’re saying is... RT decided... to skip right over development and presumable emotional moments... I didn’t get to see Yang getting tired and frustrated when she was first getting used to it??? Really??? RT why do you do this???

Omfg Yang: [having a moment feeling good with her arm] Taiyang: [pUNCHES HER IN THE FACE]

“You were predictable” are you telling me punch everything in a flurry of violence is a predictable strategy my good sir

dad she’s literally missing an arm i think she’s figured out she’s not invincible

“You’ve always been one to burn brighter than everyone else, whether it was with your smile, or---well, I remember your first hair cut.” this is the kind of Good Family Content i signed up for

AW SHIT WE GON TALK ABT RAVEN UP IN HERE?

“Raven was great in so many ways” with that dopey smile even after everything she did, this a dude who was (was) in love lmao

THIS WHOLE SEQUENCE IS SO GOOD UGH

Omg Weissbby. I like that she’s using just the sword to practice?

“What could a single huntsman do that an army couldn’t, that’s why we have one” 1) the specialists in your army are literally huntsmen and huntresses so like... still need them kiddo 2) i don’t actually have a second point aside from fuck you kiddo

Something tells me Weiss doesn’t actually get to choose the decor in her own room (it doesn’t exactly scream individuality) which means her dad thought she ought to have a portrait of the giant knight that scarred her in her room

Omg Weiss’s little smile at Klein. She’s so happy and proud of herself and pure?

AND HE’S SO ON BOARD WITH THIS

Are those scales on Hot Ninja?

SUN SCREAMING GOTCHA AS YOU TRY TO GRAB SOMEONE IS ABOUT THE SAME AS SCREAMING SNEAK ATTACK AS YOU RUN AT THEM WITH A SWORD

oh, now Blake wants his help

is sh E A CHAMELEON FAUNUS?? IF THERE ARE BUGS AND REPTILES THERE ARE DEFINITELY BIRDS (im really hung up on all the great bird faunus ocs i’ve seen ok)

...That face and grunt before Hot Ninja switched from gun to whip. Was that because Blake was charging, because she was ordered not to take the shot herself (just to lure Blake to Adam or something), or because she knew Blake and couldn’t take the shot?

OH SHE HAD SUN’S SCROLL I DIDN’T REALIZE

omg CLONEPILE

i am even more convinced it’s Adam on that scroll

of course she knows her Sun smh I knew this as soon as she didn’t take the shot

BLAKE’S SCREAM WHEN SHE HURT SUN I WANT TO DIE

please honey use your concern over him right now to fuel a willingness to apologize and talk things through and legitimately open up about where you’re at emotionally and why you need him to give you the space you need

AAAAAA THE WAY SHE SCREAMS HIS NAME SHE’S SO DISTRAUGHT I WANT TO DIE

"NO, NO, NO, NOT AGAIN, PLEASE!” im literally going to die she loves him so much friend or otherwise she’s so scared for him

wait wait WHAT IS THIS QROW IS SAYING “Tai... Tai... She’s not, coming... Tai...” is this post-Raven leaving or post-Summer’s death what is he quoting back

Guys come on that village is obviously Ren and Nora’s old home

sjbsbgsgsgkj I WANT TO DIE, REN’S SMILE WHEN NORA COMES UP WITH A GOOD REASON FOR THEM TO NOT GO HOME IT’S SO PURE HE’S SO GRATEFUL TO HAVE HER THERE

Oh no Ren and Jaune’s tight hug lmao kill me. I don’t care how you feel about Jaune’s emotions, that was Pure and Good and we need so much more of that kind of content.

“Just take care of each other.” “We always have.” right do me a favor and kiss for like five hours while you’re taking care of each other also pls

Ruby’s trying so hard to be encouraging and Jaune’s so tired of losing his team

what the fuck kind of grimm are you two following??? EDIT: belatedly have realized that was obviously the symbol of raven’s tribe

HOLY SHIT THO THIS EPISODE WAS SO MUCH BETTER THAN I COULD HAVE HOPED FOR AFTER THE TRAINWRECK THAT WAS LAST EPISODE I GOT THE BEST KIND OF YANG AND TAIYANG BONDING I GOT BLAKE SHOWING HER WORRY FOR SUN I GOT WEISS BREAKING THE FUCK FREE AND KLEIN CARING I GOT THE PUREST OF RENORA MOMENTS AND JAUNE AND REN BROSHIP I’M GONNA  D I E.

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Vol. 5 "Lighting the Fire"

This is a re-posting from Nov. 4th, 2017 in an effort to get all my recaps fully on tumblr. Thanks!

I would like to begin this review by extending a heartfelt apology to Yang Xiao Long. I should have never doubted her.

A few posts ago I mentioned how surprised I was that Yang would choose her Mom over Ruby, especially given her character short on top of an already single-minded personality. If there’s one thing that can be truly said to define Yang, it’s the love and protective streak she has for her sister. So I was thrilled at the reveal that this whole trip was essentially a strategic smokescreen. As Yang puts it bluntly: “I’m not here for you.” She’s always been heading towards Ruby. The only reason Yang is making this emotional pit-stop is because Raven can save her time.

We’ve known since the train that Raven can open portals, but until now it’s been up in the air whether that’s her semblance, something extra (like Qrow’s morphing ability), something that was bestowed on her, etc. Well, it turns out that first time’s the charm. Raven’s semblance allows her to bond to certain people—Yang, Tai, and Qrow—and form portals to their immediate location. Pretty nifty when you think about it, especially since Yang knows Qrow will have found Ruby by now. If she gets to Qrow, she gets to her sis. Except for the fact that Qrow is off looking for more huntsmen. Potential problem?) Still it’s a wonderful twist, especially since RWBY already has enough character arcs about kids trying to reconcile with their abusers. Given Yang’s headstrong nature, it just didn’t feel right for her to try and bond with a long-absent mom. Demand a favor though because “nothing is going to keep me from my sister”? Yeah. That’s Yang.

Not to say she hasn’t changed, of course. Though many are still uncomfortable with the way her PTSD is being written, I’m glad to see that this persistent shaking remains. Obviously not glad in the sense of, “Yay kids suffering!” but glad that we’re given acknowledgment that trauma has lasting effects and Yang will need to continue to work at her new life and against her new fears—things aren’t solved through one good crying session. We get to see her in a real fight for the first time since Beacon and, as many guessed, her new arm is outfitted with a gun to balance out the other half of Ember Celica, doubling as a decent shield in a pinch. It’s also notable that Yang’s style has changed a bit. Her movements are more controlled; graceful even, more like Weiss’ (and isn’t that something given the end of the episode). In short, Yang’s hand-to-hand has become more measured, as opposed to the ‘charge and hit as hard as you can’ technique that we saw pre-Volume 3. It makes sense, given that the last time Yang rushed in without thoroughly evaluating her opponent she lost that arm. Even her conversation is a little cooler. “Good to know, thanks.” This is a Yang that retains her confidence, but with less of the arrogant taunts. She’s growing up and though much of that growth stems from trauma, it’s still lovely to see.

Back in Haven training has begun. Ruby is… really not good at hand-to-hand. But she’s improving! This whole sequence is a study in excellent facial expressions, as two kids—both of whom are uncomfortable with this situation—attempt to beat each other up the old-fashioned way. The animation moves smoothly from comic fear to stubborn determination. Oscar actually manages to land a punch that knocks Ruby down and I laughed aloud at his frantic apology. He shouldn’t have lost focus. Ruby comes back with a swing of her own seconds later.

However, as usual there are significant details paired alongside these humorous scenes. After Oscar takes his hit Ozpin asks, “Mind if I give it a shot?” and immediately takes control. This is interesting, given that just last episode (only a day earlier?) Oscar had to focus and deliberately give up control to Ozpin. It took time. Now we don’t even get to see whether Oscar agrees to the switch—Ozpin is already there.

Now yes, they’re eventually meant to merge into one person, or at least share this body in a way reminiscent of that. That’s presumably the end goal (unless Shannon McCormick’s recent comments hint at something we don’t know yet). However, the fact that we see Ozpin’s power over Oscar in the same episode that Raven drops her cryptic comments brings back the theory that Ozpin isn’t quite as benevolent as we’d like to believe. The only true evidence for that (given his actual kind nature and the fact that Raven herself definitely can’t be trusted) is because that’s just how these stories go. Oh, I have no doubt that he’s doing things for “the right reasons,” but like Dumbledore and Gandalf before him, Ozpin’s quest to do what’s right for the world no doubt involves a great deal of sacrifice, complicating the morality there. If Raven considers Ruby a “lost cause” for so much as associating with Ozpin, that’s a pretty heavy implication--if we choose to believe her--that anyone near him will get chewed up and spit out by this war, regardless of what Ozpin might do to try and stop it. AKA, Pyrrha. Casualties are inevitable. (In fact, there’s a lot of potential similarities here between the corners Ozpin is backed into and Qrow’s semblance. For both, everyone around them suffers, regardless of intent). Ozpin’s screen-time this season has been just a little too lighthearted and his persona just a little too grandfatherly. I’m waiting for when these complications come back up and bite everyone on the ass, reminding them that they’re in the middle of a war. 

Anyone who spends five minutes with me in the RWBY fandom knows that Ozpin is my favorite and I’d like nothing more than for him to remain the wise, kindly headmaster figure indefinitely. I want him alongside Team RWBY to the very end. However, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Raven drops some very uncomfortable information about him next episode, the “truth” that she insists Yang and Weiss don’t know about yet. She could be referring to Ozpin’s cursed nature, but Raven has already admitted that she was once in his employ and can clearly never go back to that, so I suspect there’s far more to her discomfort than just a little reincarnation. Whether we believe her—whether that will be enough to turn the audience against Ozpin even more than they already are, especially when it’s coming from someone like Raven—we’ll have to wait and see. And no doubt all of this will tie back to Raven’s work in securing the Spring Maiden.

The implications of all this are still at least a week off though. For now the training session remains as happy as possible when you’re preparing to take down your world’s embodiment of evil. Ren has a lovely moment where he explains various theories on semblances: how they might be a reflection of your personality, or vice versa, or have no true connection to who you are at all. So basically... semblances could be anything. The magic structure keeps getting flimsier as time goes on. Regardless, Ruby confirms a long-held belief that her semblance came out during training one day (with Qrow?) and Nora was… struck by lightning. And survived. Good god this girl’s life is horrifying.

The big question then is: What is Jaune’s semblance? And what is Oscar’s? It honestly never occurred to me that he’d have a semblance of his own to unlock, rather than just inheriting something from Ozpin. In fact, what’s Ozpin’s semblance? Does he still have one? Or was it lost long ago after his first merge? I'd like to think that he has at least two at all times: his original semblance (or magic, perhaps) and whatever his host is capable of. I'd actually be interested in seeing an Ozpin who retains the semblances of every person he's merged with, but given that Cinder managed to kill him, I doubt we'll be seeing that kind of power. I suppose time manipulation is still a possibility given how that fight was animated, but again, I think we’d have already heard about such a powerful ability if that card was on the table. It's certainly not the curse itself… that was forced onto Ozpin by the Gods. So maybe—just maybe—Volume 5 will give us three semblance reveals instead of just one. And Ozpin’s comment that there are heights to achieve beyond just unlocking your semblance opens doors for power-ups within our main cast.  

This is actually a lot packed into the shortest episode of the Volume thus far and if you thought we were finished…

Weiss: “Your mom kidnapped me?”

Yang: “YOU KIDNAPPED HER?”

I nominate this as one of RWBY’s greatest moments. I honestly couldn’t have asked for more from their reunion. Harking back to last week’s episode, Weiss demonstrates that she really doesn’t need anyone to save her. Yes, she was still in that cage, but only because she was going for subtly and strategy over a brute-force escape plan. (Remember, that’s Yang’s territory.) When she sees that Yang is somehow here that plan goes straight out the window. One knight at full strength and Weiss has busted out of her prison, running to back up Yang in a very outnumbered fight.

RT knows when to cut things back though and reminding everyone that, ahem, the Grimm are still a formidable enemy was a smart move. Raven might not have any qualms about fighting family, but she won’t let that anger draw a whole horde of Grimm to her camp. She gives Myrtenaster back to Weiss and invites them inside for that talk.

But first we have this.

I love that Weiss hugged first. I love that she freely abandons Myrtenaster in hostile territory to do so. She never would have done that a year ago. They’ve been through so much though and the fact that she can freely say how much she missed Yang says heaps about her character development.

It’s a beautiful shot to end the episode on. And if you listen closely, there’s the sound of Freezerburn shippers sobbing happily in the distance…  

Other Details of Note

Raven’s bandit sitting waaaaay far back on Yang’s motorbike. Bet you ten lien he tried to wrap his arms around her waist and got another punch for his trouble.

The click of gears we hear as Yang stretches her arms. Nice touch there.

“I’m her daughter, after all.” There’s some of the taunting Yang we know and love.

Can’t say I was a fan of the music during the RJNR-Ozpin-Oscar chat scene. It felt… sitcom-ish? That’s not quite right, but too upbeat and noticeable for the moment. I shouldn’t be distracted from the conversation by whatever the music is doing.

I found Raven’s first greeting to Yang creepy in the extreme. You’re so strong and patient, doing everything you can to make your dream a reality. Talk about trying to butter someone up when you don’t actually know anything about that person. Raven’s attempts at welcoming Yang ring so false that it just hits home how estranged they are.

We've had a lot of 'crane shots' (for lack of a better word) this Volume: during Salem's conversation with Lionheart, before Sienna's assassination, now as Yang confronts her mother. I'm not sure what exactly to make of this yet, only that it's been a frequent technique the last few episodes and has definitely caught my attention.

[hypeathon]

RWBY - Volume 6, Chapter 10 Production Analysis

Previous Volume 6 Production Analysis Posts:

Chapters one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight & nine

The first RWBY episode of 2019 also marks what seems to be the beginning of the last act of this volume. By now, this usually means action sequences and coordination and entanglement between various characters. But how does all of that hold up in this chapter’s presentation?

Since the first scene in this episode involves a cooperative operation between the main cast and Saphron’s family, now is as good of a time as any to go into one character in particular. Adrian is... a fascinating character to put simply, though it’s not just because of what he’s capable of but also because of how he exists. Though not common, models of kids and animals have existed before in the show, but never a fully rigged model of an infant. The closest instance there was of one prior was in the premiere chapter of this volume and even then, the model wasn’t really moving at all. Given his body size, it would not be surprising if Adrian’s model was entirely key-animated which can potentially lead to some awkward motion to make a baby’s fidgety nature look and feel right. But not as much has been needed out of Adrian’s animation outside of a few giggles and small gestures, with one exception of course but more on that in a bit. One last note, Adrian has an actual “voice actor” despite not having any audible words named Lucella Wren Clary who is actually lead producer for volume 6, Joe Clary’s baby daughter.

Going back to Adrian’s animation, the whole opening scene with him, Saphron, Weiss and Caroline was animated by Colin McAtee, Alex Hoyle, Vince Cappelluti and Hannah McCravy. Most of these animators, have been mentioned before through these analyses with the exception of Alex, who confirmed to specifically have done the cut with the Nubuck guards trying to tend to Adrian’s fake crying whereas Colin supposedly animated the cuts that came right before and after. Colin also stated that Kerry Shawcross gave them quite a bit of freedom regarding how to animate the characters. Since Kerry became the main director of the show back in 2015, he has been accused of having a draconian grip over what animators are or are not allowed to convey, namely with fight scenes. This has stemmed from some critics wanting a justification to point fingers at someone for not having certain aspects of the show be as ideal as they want without needing to spend time fact-checking. The reality is that Kerry will always have a vision for how he wants a given scene to be expressed, he simply needs to as the director. However, he is willing to let any animators assigned to a scene (as well as storyboard artist, camera layout artists and whoever else involved) to provide their own creative input to depending on the scene. With some exceptions, he’s actually more easy-going with action sequences than dialogue ones, the latter involves the animators being more precise with character acting (and the animators themselves don’t usually mind it either). So to see confirmation that he gave the assigned animators more creative freedom with the Adrian distraction scene is an interesting change of pace.

In the next scene at the cliff side, there is concept art accompanied with a couple of set design notes. First is, “boulders cover path & jut up from rock wall along entire cliff side” while the other says, “Path width: 20-30 ft, tree height: 30 ft”. In the first place, these design notes are likely to provide details for environment modeling team to maintain the dimensions and key features of a given setting. That said, these same pieces of information can also help give an idea as to what is in store for the story from here on. Between the boulders and trees, they may potentially serve as cover for the main cast once they start fighting Cordovin’s mech. It’s also possible that the height of the trees specifically may serve for another fight within this episode, but more on that later. One other quick thing to mention are the splash effects at the bottom of the cliff side. Splashes have been done before in the show, but given the setting, it’s appropriately presented with more nuance.

Taking a moment to skip ahead, this is a good opportunity to touch on the visual effects in this episode a bit. More specifically, the effects when Cordovin fires the warning shot from her mech. There is a lot of great timing with the build-up where the ball of energy swells up in small bursts within the cannon while a shock wave releases to help sell that effect. The small shock waves themselves also dissolve into particles which were an interesting touch. The swelling ball also has two bits of animation going on in which the layer of roundish shapes give off a backspin while the slender pen-stroke like shapes spin to the left. The best comparison to make would be the way veteran animator of the Pokemon franchise, Masaaki Iwane, animates effects such as explosions and flames. Iwane very similarly uses that swelling build-up effect in many instances such as this sequence in Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back and this one (about 54 seconds in) from Pokemon: Spell of the Unknown. Describing all of this is frankly very difficult but that is simply a testament to how intricately handled the visual effect itself is from just one cut alone. This is not even counting the next cut of when the cannon fires. From then on, there is an extended swelling effect from the ball of energy as well as small sparks appearing in the form of particles and streams. Once the cannon does fire, we see a couple of split-second white flashes on the screen. This is honestly the only part where a small opportunity was missed to capitalize on the effect and apply something called impact frames. They are basically effects in the form of a few frames that are inverted in color to make a sort of flash to help give off the sense of impact as the name suggests. The white flashes from when the cannon fired almost did something like this and could have benefited from adding say, a more blackened silhouette of the mech and the burst from the cannon, similar to what was seen in these stills which may have come from this sequence in Naruto Shippuden.

Despite calling the lack of impact frames a missed opportunity, it’s also nitpicking, as it doesn’t take away from the outstanding work done in just one instance. It is hard to tell how much of each aspect of the moment was due to the visual effects team or the compositing team or whether 2-D Effects artist, Myke Chapman had any part at all in say, the sparks all over the control panels in the ship Weiss and Maria hijacked. Regardless, this is the most creatively handled work from those departments done yet, outmatching that of the electricity swirling around Hazel’s arms in volume 5 or Cinder’s wind column in chapter 5 of this volume.

With all of that gushing of the effects out of the way for now, let’s rewind back to a scene with Maria and Weiss being found out by Cordovin. In terms of animation, there was one bit of confirmation from Nyle Pierson and what he contributed to this episode, that being the comedic and now meme-worthy part where Maria is chewing cashews. If you recall, Nyle was also the one that confirmed to have animated Ruby’s reaction to seeing Jaune’s sister as well as Blake and Yang treading through the snowstorm to the shed. With three confirmed sequences, this should help give a small idea of how he animates. His timing with character acting can be a bit comparable to Hannah Novotny’s in terms of how he applies small bits of anticipatory action before body gestures or head shifts. That said, they don’t approach animating mouths and eye pupils the same. Where Hannah is more likely to shrink the pupils and makes a snarl mouth shape when say, characters get angry (in fact, she may have animated Cordovin threatening Maria through the intercom), Nyle keeps pupils fairly dilated and the mouth movements can be similar to characters in various Sonic the Hedgehog games. 

One aspect of this episode’s production that has been neglected are the storyboards and that’s because there was not much to highlight. Or rather, it was a struggle to find anything to bring up. Part of the problem was that aside from a couple of having establishing shots that make note of the terrain of the different characters and Qrow being framed at certain moments to show him being opposed to everyone else’s plan, the visual direction felt standard overall. There was one fairly clever instance of Qrow blaming himself where the main cast were several feet away from him, only for Ruby to wind up in front of him a few shots later after talking some sense into him (along with an interesting “misty” effect likely from the compositing). Other than that, not much else. That is not meant to be taken as a criticism so much as an observation. Not every episode needs to hit it right out of the park, as this one served as mostly a build-up episode. That said, there’s also the matter that in this episode, there were six storyboard artists which makes this and chapter 2 the most credited. This is strange because usually, an episode will vary from 3-5 storyboard artists and the number is never really dependent on episode length either. Chapter 3, the longest episode in the series (not counting credits) had only Rachel Doda, Kevin Harger and Mari Yang credited while chapter 4 which served as a transition episode, ran only at 13 in-a-half minutes and had all of the previously mentioned names as well as Emily Little, making for four artists. It’s honestly unclear as to why this type of pattern occurs aside from maybe scheduling. 

Moving on to the last segment of this episode, we have the start of a fight sequence between Blake and Adam. As much praise as there was with the effects from the cannon fire prior, the moment where Adam launched his attack at Blake was nothing to sniff at either. The attack came with everything expected from what Adam has done before where the screen dims and parts of his body glow. But this time, some black and red-colored spark effects were added which have never been done before and thus gave off an extra menacing feel. The effects of the slicing wave were also a little different from his character short where in that instance, it felt more like a stream of wind. Here though, the shapes are more defined with a heavy blur layered on top. Then there’s the animation. The only animator confirmed to have had a part in Adam and Blake’s fight this episode was John Yang who very likely animated this segment, though it’s unclear whether he animated anything after that though. John has been involved with the show since volume 5 and some of his previous sequences include Blake firing on Ilia which came prior to Kim Newman’s sequence, Oscar vs Leo, Ozpin vs Hazel, and part of Maria vs the bandits. In the chapter 1 production analysis, I speculated that he may have done Oscar leaping from train car to train car to get to Dudley. After some observation, I’m more convinced that he actually animated Qrow’s initial fight against the Sphinx Grimm and Ruby and Weiss helping Oscar defeat the Manticore Grimm. The way John times movement is with a brief but explicit sense of anticipatory action before each strike and movement is suddenly unleashed. The movements and strikes feel swift but intense in ways that feel a bit similar to animation director for volume 6, Joel Mann. In fact, John’s sense of timing can be compared to animator Yuya Takahashi who depending on whp you talk to, is known for contributing to various fan-favorite sequences in both Dragon Ball Super and Fairy Tail.

All of that aside, one last thing of note towards the end of the sequence were the cold-air effects when Blake and Adam spoke their lines, likely done by the compositing team. This was a neat touch in that it helped indicate the temperature of where they are. It’s one of those neat attention to details that along with the dust particles showing through the light in Lionheart’s office in chapter 1 of volume 5, many viewers would not think of acknowledge but none-the-less add a touch to the atmosphere.

That marks the end of this production analysis. This one was admittedly a bit more scarce and scattered in terms of what to talk about, but the parts that were noteworthy through the presentation definitely had much to breakdown. With the first of what seems to be a set of action-oriented episodes out of the way serving as build-up, we seem to be in for a bit of a wild ride as teased by assistant lead animator, Melanie Stern. Here’s hoping that there will be quite a bit more to touch on through the production of the next chapter.

[hypeathon]

RWBY - Volume 6, Chapter 9 Production Analysis

Previous Volume 6 Production Analysis Posts:

Chapters one, two, three, four, five, six, seven & eight 

With the holiday break behind the CRWBY and the show’s fan base, it is easier to look back at how things have been steadily maintained in volume 6, minus a couple of small bumps in production and presentation. So let us now see what chapter 9 provides.

Since the first scene centers with the two characters that originally were seen to help make Cinder look more intimidating, Emerald and Mercury, this is a convenient time to highlight some notes from the February, 2018 CRWBY Ask Me Anything event over on the RWBY sub-reddit. A few things were hinted at as to what they planned on covering in volume 6′s narrative, some of which have more or less already been shown prior to this episode. Director and co-writer, Kerry Shawcross answered that beyond Jaune being at the younger end, we would find out more about where he places compared to his sisters. He also addressed the matter of having to push a character out of volume 5 and reserve him/her for volume 6 which may have been likely Maria Calavera. He even casually mentioned Salem’s backstory as being the one to look most forward to in the future. Then there’s the matter of why Mercury decided to work for Cinder, to which Kerry vaguely replied that it’s “not simple”. There were other questions answered that directly tie to this chapter, but for now, there’s one more thing regarding Mercury’s character that was touched on by Gen:Lock director, Gray Haddock, along with Miles Luna and Kerry via the volume 3 directors audio commentary:

Miles: "More uh, more subtle hints at family life! Apparently Mercury's Dad smells like Qrow after a long day."

Kerry: "Yeah."

Miles: "Daaark co-me-dy!"

Kerry: "Yeah uh, we're not gonna get into it right now probably. But uh, yeah, Mercury's had a life."

Miles: "Yeah, we didn't get as far into Mercury's backstory as we were going to mainly because we were like, "why reveal all that right now", and uh, looking forward to more of that."

Gray: "But a lot of fans are already starting to clue in the real differences between him and Em and uh, which one you might actually be more sympathetic in the end despite kinda how you thought that dynamic was work going to work out after volume 2".

This insight is basically to further reinforce that despite Monty Oum not being around anymore, there was always a forward momentum with what to tell with many characters and aspects the show and Mercury was among them. There was another answer from that AMA that plays into this episode specifically, but let’s save that for later in this analysis. For now, let’s shift focus into the set design, which is nothing short of breathtaking. There were no mentions from anyone in the art department via Twitter about the set, but there were a few notes from a screenshot of the artwork shown during the ending credit (courtesy of Changyuraptor). One to the far left says, “windows on opposite side filled in w/ stone”, while three on the bottom say, “book wall”, “ignore floor texture”, and “use texture from the old circular training room but as square tile.” The last three notes can’t be fully seen from the above picture (at least not without adding the end credits text being there), but let’s examine what these mean. With the last note, by “old circular training room”, this is probably referring to the one in chapter 11 of volume 4 which was likely used as a reference while at the same time straying away from the design to make it be more of Emerald and Mercury’s scene. The added tatami mat designs were probably also there to further indicate that the setting was more of a sparring room compared to the one Cinder was in.

However, the one note that was especially intriguing was the one about windows on the opposite end being filled in with stone. This was a deliberate choice to make the lighting from the stained windows be one-sided and I believe the reason has to do with providing visual subtext to the story behind the scene. Both Emerald and Mercury deeply wanted something before meeting Cinder for different reasons and while both take the fact Cinder is not around to guide them very differently, they do feel currently muddled and express that in their own ways. One could even interpret the lighting through stained glass can serve as a Christian metaphor for wanting to seek salvation and the shot composition supports this. In one shot, Emerald sulks in the light, explicitly stating she doesn’t know what to do next while Mercury actively trains right outside of it, as if he’s fine. Then cut towards the end of the scene and both of them are seen in the light after talking with Tyrian. Speaking of which, both he and Watts are first shown from utter darkness and the former playfully goes right back in. It’s also worth adding that the colors of the stained glass themselves are the same as Salem’s palace, helping further indicate that despite wanting better, both won’t easily find it through Salem.

I’ve gone on record on how much the cinematography has been utterly incredible this volume, which is saying a lot considering how previous volumes had already been praised. There have been excellent uses of staging and framing through objects like windows, doors, and stair banisters, as well as the usage of height to display conflict and power struggle. But rarely has lighting played a key factor in volume 6, so to see it done so effectively here makes a great way to mix things up. Of course, the animation helps compliment things which I suspect Hannah Novotny may have done the first half before Tyrian arrived. The the types of facial expressions being emoted by Emerald and Mercury are a bit of a giveaway, what with the snarl-like mouth movements and shrunken pupils to help sell the tension between them. Finally, there’s Tyrian’s new tail which had a few notes, including the stinger having a retracting ability.

With that out of the way, next is the Argus scene which the work-in-progress version emitted a bit of controversy a few weeks prior. The matter had already been addressed in detail through a previous post, so not much more will be touched on here. But to put simply, the one shot of this scene simply did not go yet through the compositing and final rendering stage where lighting, effects, and characters could be properly layered to avoid the phasing through aspect. The animation was already done if you compare the shots in the video side-by-side.

What’s much less controversial to talk about and more intriguing is the Argus setting in general. To say a great quantity of thought was put into this setting would be an understatement and in the eighth episode of CRWBY - Behind the Episode, a lot of insight is shared with screencaps provided once again from Changyuraptor. First, there’s the matter of it being a combination of San Francisco in terms of the landscape and trolleys (which most fans recognized) and Greco-Roman architecture. Second, there some notes about the structure of buildings for both residential homes and shops in order to distinguish them from each other, right down to the latter having “flatter fronts” than the former. There were also designs and notes about the plants and trees and lamp posts which altogether, just make for a very pleasing-looking setting that no doubt took a lot of time, planning, and crafting to make. The scenes in this episode especially help sell the bustling, yet peaceful and vibrant feel. RWBY has done nighttime city settings, most of which were in Beacon during the earlier volumes. But the differences are just night and day (pun not intended) and while it’s definitely a coincidence, as a fan of the Tales Japanese role-playing games series, I got strong Flanoir vibes from Tales of Symphonia.

The next scene to follow is of course the one fans could not help but get deeply emotional over. Though to sidestep from talking about how gut-punching the scene was for a moment, let’s break down certain aspects of it. Based on how her design the concept art for the courtyard matches that of concept designs by Ein Lee, I imagine that the statue was based on Pyrrha’s exact model in volumes 1-3 which would be rather fitting. Moving on to the character animation, there were very strong moments on Jaune’s part. The way his shoulders lowered as his clothing and hair were briefly blown by the wind to express shock and bewilderment when he first saw the statue and how in another shot, he wanted to say something but hesitated to and attempted to pardon himself as if he didn’t deserve to say anything all concisely present how he felt without a word being uttered. There was also a cute and endearing moment of him gently rubbing the red cloth besides him as he talked to the red-haired woman. Even his expression when he learned the woman already knew who he was only made his guilt seem more explicit which followed with him initially puzzled by what the woman meant by Pyrrha already standing there.

As stated, the character acting told so much and maintained great nuance, which is why I was especially surprised to find out that at least part of the scene may have not been animated by Asha Bishi, but rather by Alyssa Lisiecki. I’ve gone on record on how much the former’s character animation can feel snappy yet abundant and lively. So I really did believe at first it was Asha was the one who animated the sequence between Jaune and the Red-haired woman. But this isn’t the first time I’ve been tripped over between a sequence either her or Alyssa animated. In chapter 6, Alyssa confirmed to have animated, “Qrow being angsty”, which I responded through the production analysis for that episode by expressing uncertainty that she did the part where Qrow stormed back inside the house to drink and thought that was Asha instead. This was honestly due to not having a clear grasp on how Alyssa animates in general. While it’s still a bit unclear how she animates, it’s possible she conveys similar approaches in character movement that Asha does. Then again, it’s also possible that be it between the both of them or whoever else animated the courtyard scene, they were asked by Kerry to make the animation feel seamless. It wouldn’t be the first time that would happen as a noteworthy example of this was Jaune and Pyrrha’s scene at the Beacon Academy courtyard as mentioned again in the volume 3 blu-ray directors audio commentary:

Kerry: “This was a tough scene, this was uh, again, just the new style of animation, some of the rig challenges that we had this year just with having so many different characters built at so many different times. All of our new rigs are great! Some of the older ones are starting to show their age a bit.

Uh, this is the first scene that four different animators animated this scene. Kim (Newman), Paula (Decanini), Melanie (Stern) and Millie (Gonzalez), I believe, and ya can’t tell! I don’t think there’s a single scene where you can actually see the shift and I thought they did a phenomenal job working with each other and uh...

Koen Wooten (lead producer): “A lot of that, ya know, some of that goes to the leads as well. The animators did an amazing job, I don’t want to take away from that. But the leads also, they go around with you Kerry and they look at every single shot to give your opinions and everything else. there’s a lot of work from day-to-day that goes into that to kind of make it seamless.

Kerry: “Yeah, there’s a lot of, “hey, Melanie, you’re working on this shot right now. Millie was just doing the shot right before this, you should go look. let’s get the continuity right”, and there’s some things they had to go back and fix. But again, they wanted to fix it and they wanted to make it right because they realized that between Paula and Kim, the hand shifted.

At the end of the day, having to second-guess these things to such a degree makes things more perplexing, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, as it encourages examining some scenes between different animators more closely. The last part of this scene to cover of course is the visual direction. It’s simple, but the statue is focus of every shot composition. When Jaune meets the Red-haired woman, at first, it’s shots of just their own expressions with the only shot of the both of them together being the statue framed to stand between them. It’s not until the woman acknowledges Jaune as someone close to Pyrrha that we see a shot of both of them. Once she turns to face Jaune directly and openly expresses what she believed Pyrrha’s last actions meant. By the next long shot, Jaune turns to face her in a way that the statue doesn’t feel like it’s keeping them separate but is instead bringing them together. This is supported by the following shot of Jaune openly talking to the woman with the latter also being in the shot. Slightly later on, when Ren and Nora run into Jaune, we get the same kind of long shot of the three of them gazing at Pyrrha’s statue and then when Jaune attempts to apologize, the camera pans to Ren and Nora who try to be closer as well. By the end of the scene, Jaune looks up at Pyrrha’s statue one last time as a plane aptly flies by to probably hint at Jaune eventually coming up with a plan.

Intimacy is the theme of the storyboards in this sequence. It’s similar to Yang and Blake’s scene in the Brunswick farms shed, but with a nice, slight variation. Now some may notice the persistence on referring the the character Jaune spoke to as simply “Red-Haired woman” as displayed in the ending credits and not whoever various fans think she really is. While I and others have our respective guesses, I'd rather keep the speculation out of this analysis. All there is to go on is that according to the voice of the character, Jen Brown, there is a particular identity behind the character. Beyond that, she has no idea when or even if he identity will be properly revealed and that apparently, a lot of fans have theorized wrong. As frustrating as that may be to some, the lack of confirmation shouldn’t be seen as hindering how the role of the character was crafted into the scene in all the ways it was.

Moving on to the next scene, there’s one more thing to talk about regarding environment designs, that being the Cotta-Arc home. Rooster Teeth’s twitter account released the set designs themselves and with it, came a few interesting notes. One of which stated, “the Arc house is slightly wider than main modular buildings. This is to account the interior floor plan.” One educated guess to make is that since Saphron and Terra’s living room would be a setting for the main cast, making their house a bit wider would help make things more believable to viewers. Then there’s the note that says, “metal Atlas tech shutters and heating”, which help indicate to what Atlas contributes to Argus right down to an individual home. Honestly, given the whole, “Atlas and Mistral”, collaboration, it wouldn’t be wrong to compare the cultural-fusion design philosophy to Republic City from Avatar: The Legend of Korra. A couple of other notes aside, there is finally the note of the choice of flowers sitting in front of the windows. Apparently, Terra has blue rose flowers while Saphron has yellow pansies/primroses. What these choice of flowers are suppose to say about the two characters beyond their relationship is something I won’t go into here since it may invoke endless speculation (even the matter of what the flowers the Red-Haired woman carried were suppose to represents varies from one fan to another).

With that said, now is the time to address the elephant in the room: Oscar’s scene. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that every fan who took issue with it, did so for the same reason. Whether everyone agrees on the sense of scale regarding the conflict of Oscar’s agency, the fact he is bound to carry on a seemingly hopeless burden all of his previous incarnations were tasked with had definitely made him anxious. When he got accused by Jaune in the previous episode, the end of that scene combined with the cliffhanger implied more would be centered on Oscar’s concerns before moving on to the next phase of the story. So to have that conflict that would otherwise be addressed and resolved, be instead glossed over in a manner comparable to how Weiss got over the fact Blake was once a White Fang member by not caring, it would definitely rub a lot of viewers the wrong way.

Back on October 10th,2018, Miles Luna posted a Tweet expressing how he had to commit a “darling massacre.” This amusingly led to a misunderstanding of what he meant, but basically, there was an idea for a story he worked on that ultimately had to be cut out of the script. This is far from the first time a narrative beat had to be either pushed out of the current scripts or be cut entirely, as trimming a script is a necessary process for various reasons Miles spoke of before like allowing time for home video authoring for a scheduled release. It could be argued that maybe Oscar originally had a scene written where he managed to transition his state of mind more positively but that had to be cut. The only problem is that it would be inconsistent with what was said about where Miles and Kerry were up to with the script for volume 6 back during one of the RWBY panels at RTX Austin 2018. Now it’s possible that he was really referring to having to cut something for the next installment of say, Camp Camp and not RWBY. But assuming another scene dedicated to Oscar was cut, maybe it was something that got to the storyboard stage but had to be cut then due to whatever the circumstances were. This wouldn’t be the first instance of something having to be cut altogether as oppose to be reserved for a later volume. To summarize an extensive anecdote from the volume 3 director’s commentary, there was supposed to be a comedic fight between Sun, Neptune, Pyrrha and Nora during the double rounds of the Vytal Festival tournament that had swamp and anti-grav biomes. While the former two characters would lose, Neptune was given an opportunity to overcome his insecurities after being made fun of by Weiss and then the whole audience for showing off his “water wings” to help out Sun. had storyboards and even an animatic, but it had to be cut to avoid putting a strain in volume 3′s scheduling and production. 

So that could’ve happened or maybe something else occurred behind the scenes. Either way, the execution behind Oscar’s resolution definitely felt a bit clumsily handled and maybe in a more ideal situation, what may have been cut could’ve been kept as is. Then again, something may not have cut at all. Without more concrete information, all there really is to do for now is speculate. One thing that doesn’t need to be speculated though is who did the animation for the cast hilariously dog-piling on Oscar, which was Vince Cappelutti. His name has been mentioned before, having been credited for doing part of the Adam Character Short and doing the first scene and the tunnel chase scene with fellow animator, Nicole LaCroix in chapter 6 of this volume. But this is the first time he confirmed to have done something by himself. As a result, there’s not much to comment on regarding his style, but if nothing else, it’s likely that his sequence extends to Weiss, Ruby and Nora asking questions towards Oscar since the quirky animation is carried through, albeit presented differently. Moving on to another sequence is Jaune telling Qrow his plan, which was confirmed to be animated by Hannah McCravy. Her name has been credited in the show since chapter 2 of this volume, so she is among the newer recruits. Regardless, she nails the right reactions out of each character, including when Adrian giggles. Though beyond that cut, it’s unclear if she animated anything afterward. My best guess is that when comparing to the timing of the animations of the scene between the main cast and the Nubuck guards, Nicole LaCroix animated Jaune explaining how he didn’t think of the details to the plan yet before Qrow shut his idea down. But that part is once again, left to speculation.

One last thing to go over in the scene is Ruby’s character. As mentioned earlier, there was something from the CRWBY Reddit AMA that directly connects to this episode that Miles Luna answered. Among the things he and Kerry believed they could improve on was “ More attention and meaningful conflicts for Ruby.” Seeing the titular character be given the kind of focus she has been is definitely considered welcoming to many fans of the show. But to give Miles and Kerry some credit, they have been conscious about giving Ruby a sense of conflict before. There are a couple of interesting quotes from the volume 4 blu-ray directors commentary that demonstrate this.

Chapter 6:

Miles: “Oh, this is another fun little moment too where we really are kind of pointing out the fact that Ruby... she’s very idealistic and optimistic, but not always super practical and really, he’s (Tyrian) putting her on the spot like, “y-you really don’t know what you’re doing out here kid, do you?”

Chapter 7 (when Ruby stepped in to fight Tyrian):

Miles: “Ruby you’re optimism is gonna... really bite you in the butt here, girl. There are things at work that you do not know about.”

Chapter 8:

Kerry: “So this is um, another good example of what happened a second ago (when she asked Qrow “what should we do”) and what’s coming up in a second (when she asked Qrow about not trusting her) about Ruby’s... ya know, like, her naive nature being both a good and a bad thing. She’s hearing all this stuff, she’s starting to learn what she’s wrapped up in and the consequences of everything and she’s still like “alright, what’s next?” Ruby, like... Tyrian just wrecked y’all. You shouldn’t, like she shouldn’t want to be badly into this, but she is and it’s just a really important thing to her character.”

Similar to Mercury’s character, there is a forward momentum with Ruby’s character and it seems that in her case, it has a lot to do with exploring when her decision making can be a benefit or a detriment and why. Volume 6 can be seen as a juxtaposition of her character in volume 4 where she criticized by Maria for not giving herself enough credit. Speaking of Maria, if the character/sub-plot that was taken out of volume 5′s script was actually her, then given what role her character played into volume 6 so far, it’s possible that more focus to Ruby’s character was planned at the time but ultimately had to be reduced.

That marks the end of a rather lengthier production analysis this time around. This was the episode where some major story ideas expressed via audio commentaries or Q & A’s in hindsight are being presented explicitly here and more attention to design notes for the settings in this episode helps provide insight as to what kind of thought goes into helping make scenes have a bit more going on than just be aesthetically pleasing. With the main party having a plan to go on, it’s safe to say that volume 6 is entering its third and final act in the story which will doubt result in potential action sequences and hopefully more interesting analyses to touch on.