#did I spend way too long thinking about this one scene in the show? maaaaaaybe

[thegingerwrites]

It’s like tuning into a radio frequency. The dial spins without his control and suddenly the audio sharpens into something intelligible.

I bet your Master found you difficult at times.

He’s still new to this. Dying and then living on, they don’t come as naturally as one might think. He came to in Obi-Wan’s arms, filled with Light for the first time in years. The first thing he heard in his new sort-of life was his name, the one his mother gave him, and Obi-Wan’s voice. Anakin.

It was enough joy to nearly break him. The pendulum swung so hard as to nearly topple over before finding something like balance.

He likes the feeling of it, balance. He understands now why the masters at the temple harped on it so much. Obi-Wan says that he might be more balanced than any of them now, that he understands more intimately than anyone what lies in the dark and what it means to find the light.

There is so much and so little to do in this kind of existence. The whole of the universe has opened up to him and it’s overwhelming to say the least. Obi-Wan says it is natural to stay close to those one knew in life, guiding them when necessary but more often than not simply offering a comforting presence.

He never had much experience with Force ghosts in life. He didn’t have that kind of intimate connection with a Force user until later in life and then spent so many of his years denying it. He didn’t know that Obi-Wan sometimes sought guidance from Qui-Gon after he passed. He didn’t know how often he failed to receive it. The thought tears at him, a little. Even though it’s in the past.

Anakin never got to finish my training.

The sound of his name coming from her brings the scene rapidly into focus, like giving a holoprojector just the right thump, the image shifting from electric blue fuzz to life-like clarity in an instant. He sees Ahsoka, knows the conversation she is having and who she is speaking to. He knows what she is about to say even if he can’t quite make himself believe it just yet.

Before the end of the Clone Wars, I walked away from him. And the Jedi.

The memory doesn’t hurt him anymore. Once, it was a wound he was unsure he would survive.

She did the right thing then. She became stronger for it. He is so relentlessly proud of her even now.

Sometimes even the right reasons have the wrong consequences.

This is the part that makes him want to shake her, to appear physically and give her a piece of his mind. It takes him a second to process her meaning, but once he does, once he thinks he does, he wants to make her take it back.

“How could she say that?” Anakin says—shouts to Obi-Wan. “She thinks she’s responsible? For everything that happened? For me?”

He knows Obi-Wan wasn’t paying particular attention to this conversation, but he forces Obi-Wan to listen in. He suspects that his new presence in the Force keeps Obi-Wan more present as well. That without him, Obi-Wan might have already joined the great oneness that is the Force. He suspects Obi-Wan likes it this way instead.

“She doesn’t really think that, does she?”

Obi-Wan strokes his beard, a habit he developed in life and hasn’t given up in death. “She’s lived a long life. Plenty of time to come to terms with what happened.”

“But how could she blame herself? She was a child. She should blame me, blame Palpatine. Someone actually responsible.”

Obi-Wan smiles at him a little sadly. “I happen to know something of guilt myself and it isn’t always logical.”

Anakin scoffs. “I might not be able to tell her how I feel but I can knock some sense into you right now. You weren’t to blame either. I was an adult. I made my own choices.”

Obi-Wan holds up both hands in mock surrender. “Don’t worry, I accepted things as they are long ago. I only mean to suggest that knowing something to be true and feeling it are two entirely different things.”

A lesson Anakin has learned intimately.

“You’ll get your chance to set things right in due time,” Obi-Wan says, placing a gentle hand on Anakin’s shoulder. They aren’t exactly corporeal as they are but they both had bodies long enough to find the gesture comforting. “I know it.”

Anakin takes a deep breath—another unnecessary gesture but one that accomplished the goal of calming him down. He releases his outrage to the Force and finds the same understanding as Obi-Wan. The opportunity will come, he just has to be patient. He finds that patience comes easier to him now than it ever did before.

What do we do then?

We wait. We hope. We fight. And we do better the next time. We have to.

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Remarks: As silly as this might sound on paper, Aaron Dismuke needs to reward himself with the very character he plays in RWBY for that amazing performance he gave in Episode 3. HOLY COW!

What’s up guys! It’s your gyal, LittleMissSquiggles here with another RWBY Episode Review. Not only is today RWBY Tuesday but it’s also October 31st and as a RWBY fan, you all know what that means. No I’m not talking just about Halloween, I’m talking about today being the show’s very own Ruby Rose’s birthday. So happy birthday to Miss Rose.

But as much as today is her special day, I’m not here to talk about Ruby. Not when EPISODE 3 just dropped! WHOOT! WHOOT!

So Episode 3 of RWBY Volume 5; did I enjoy it? OF COURSE I did. So much so that I’ve shamelessly watched it at least three times or more. I mostly watched it for that infamous scene with Team RNJR, Qrow and Oscar.

Firstly, can you just give a round of applause to Aaron Dismuke for his fantastic voice work as Ozpin-Oscar or OZcar as the fandom has sort of dubbed him. Thanks to all the folks who answered me when I asked about how the CRWBY handled Oscar transitioning into Ozpin.

I’m really pleased that they went with Aaron continuing to voice him even though it was a different character and as I’ve mentioned before, he did a commendable job. Although admittedly I did find the whole Shannon/Ozpin voice layered with Aaron’s Ozpin-Oscar voice a bit jarring and unnecessary at times. While it did help to truly sell the disconnection and instability of Ozpin’s curse (y’know talking from a body that isn’t entirely yours which is an amazing effect), I couldn’t help but think there were times when they could’ve just allowed Aaron to carry on talking as Ozpin cause he was already doing a perfect job. That being said, I only had this problem during the ONE moment when Ozpin-Oscar straight up Power Ranger style backflips onto the couch to announce that he was going to train Team RJNR.

The line where he said ‘...Well I believe I was the Headmaster of Beacon’ practically breathing confidence, like I dunno...I felt like we didn’t need the effect then. It didn’t distract me nor was it bad, I just felt like it wasn’t needed there, y’know. I guess you could say I really like hearing Aaron talk as Ozpin so I basically ended up frowning upon any point in his lines that took me out of my full enjoyment of performance, y’know what I mean? Cause as I say again, I REALLY LOVED OSCAR TALKING AS OZPIN! IT WAS SO COOL!

But then again I wonder if it would have had the same impact as it did without the voice layer effect; even with the background music. Not sure.

But overall, I was floored by Aaron’s performance this episode. While I’m not sure if story plans on prolonging the training episode; saving it for Episode 5, I’d love it if they continued the focus being on Team RNJR and Oscar/Ozpin in Mistrel. Even if they plan on saving the training montage til like half way through the season, it would be good to get some episode moments where the members of Team RNJR get to interact with Oscar, just as Oscar as he’s settling down to stay with them. It’d be cute if we got a moment where they show him to his room. The Volume poster did tease Oscar having a close friendship with Qrow.

Not sure whether that was an indication of it being canon in the series or a nice clever nod of nostalgia for those of us ole school FMA fans who know both Oscar and Qrow’s Vas are the original Elric Brothers so seeing them together and having that close brotherly bond again in another series would be a beautiful touch.

Not to mention, Qrow being a big brother to Oscar would be the sweetest thing ever. Things were a bit awkward between them in Episode 1 after Qrow got drunk and Oscar was forced to bring him home but...once he sobered up, things became light. I quite liked the moment where Qrow pulled the reigns in on Team RJNR badgering a very uncomfortable-looking Oscar and to see him smile gratefully at Qrow with a genuine thanks was quite sweet.

 I especially liked the bit where Ozpin announces that he’ll be training the team. As if we didn’t need further confirmation of how much of a badass Ozpin is. Plus this will truly be the first time in the series where we actually get to see Ozpin mentor the students. Yes he was the headmaster but when have we ever seen him really teach if it didn’t meant launching his students into the wilderness and forcing them to fend off the Grimm while searching for chess pieces. I laughed when Oscar’s all like “...Wait...WHAT!” when Ozpin is explaining that not even he will be exempted from his vigorous training regiment. So not only am I excited to see Ozpin train Team RNJR but also Oscar’s own training as well. However I’m curious as to how that’s gonna work though. Is Ozpin gonna teach RNJR the entire time but switchs controls back and forth between himself and Oscar so that he can mentor but Oscar would be included in the training process? Or will it be a thing where Ozpin takes full control of Oscar’s body to train Team RNJR but it will actually be Qrow who will be handling Oscar’s own training (another jab at the possibility of the two developing a strong big brother-little brother bond) with maaaaaaybe some assistance from Ruby. She could be his sparring partner---a worthy opponent (and a healthy distraction).

 I know there is a lot more stuff to cover with this episode; particularly that infamous RosePine/RoseGarden moment that I heard about even before this episode premiered. I’m actually going to save that talk for another musing post to be honest. There is always much for me to talk about regarding RoseGarden and I think having its own post with ties back to this episode will be a good thing. Plus, there are some things I’ve been itching to say about this ship...well...more things than I’ve already said previously.

But yeah, in a nutshell, I really enjoyed Episode 3. How could I not? The whole Ozpin-Oscar scene was flawless and easily my favourite part of this entire episode. Y’know how I love my smol bean farmhand avocado ‘Little Cute Boy Ozpin’ godchild. (I love how even the series itself acknowledges Oscar’s inevitable adorkableness. Thanks for that meta moment CRWBY) 

I know this week’s review was more talk regarding the Mistrel moments however I also enjoyed it for the Weiss moment too. Speaking of which, great introduction to the Spring Maiden character or the potential Spring Maiden candidate. I didn’t really catch her name from the episode. I think the bandit guy said her name was Vernal or something like that. They did hint at that strongly in the intro. Either she is the long lost Spring maiden or just someone who’s gonna have a really antagonistic opposing relationship with Cinder Fall once she gets to the Branwen Tribe.

Either way, I like her overall design and from the brief scene she was in, she’s definitely gearing up to be an intriguing new character this volume. That’s nice.

Well we all know that Weiss is definitely going to make her grand escape next time the season cuts back to her story.  Since Winter’s no longer in Mistrel, where is Weiss going to go? The whole objective of her journey was to rendezvous with with her sister in Mistrel. Does this mean that she’ll spend her part of the volume searching for her sister or...will she still decide to journey to Mistrel; ignoring what the bandits said and heading in that direction to make sure for herself (after all, it’s the only lead she has). That way, even if Weiss doesn’t meet up with Winter in Mistrel, she’ll still end up reuniting with Ruby, Jaune, Nora and Ren. That’s a plus no matter where you chose to look, actually.

I think Weiss might chose the latter and continue her search to find her sister in Mistrel. But there is still one question that remains unanswered for me. What happened to Atlas pilot guy? Did he survive the crash too and is also being held captive by the Branwen Tribe of bandits? I really hope so because, if Weiss is going to be travelling on her own towards...wherever she believes her sister to be, she’ll probably need a companion. And while I know he was only meant to be a side character, there’s that inkling part of me that really wants him to be alive so that he can, if possible be promoted to a supporting character for Weiss.

I wanna know his name! I wanna see his face, dammit! I didn’t expect to like Atlas pilot guy so much and now that I do, I don’t want him to be gone so quickly. Oh! Oh! Y’know what! Maybe it can be a thing where, after Weiss escapes, she discovers that the bandits are keeping Atlas pilot guy in another camp and she actually puts her journey to find Winter on hold in order to go rescue him. It’ll be a nice parallel back to how she wanted to help those other cargo ships from the Lancers but pilot guy was all like ‘...nah leave em to someone else to save.’

Weiss seems to have grown into the kind of huntress who is willing to step up to help others even if it means deviating from a goal she had originally set out. Maybe we can have her go to risk her life to save Atlas pilot guy; choosing to not leave him behind despite only knowing him shortly.

I honestly liked their dynamic. I liked how friendly he was to Weiss and I genuinely enjoyed their exchange of conversations together. REALLY want him to stick around in the show and stay with Weiss.

Speaking of which, I don’t think Yang is going to meet up with Weiss. I think Shady guy is either gonna double cross Yang leading to her having to battle her way past him (like maybe he was kicked out of the tribe and is leading Yang on) or even if he does lead Yang straight to the Branwen Tribe’s main camp, there is a possibility that by the time she arrives, Weiss would’ve already escaped.

So if Weiss does escape before Yang arrives, I’m hoping the CRWBY made her escape just to go back to rescue Atlas pilot guy (who fans would learn actually has a name) and the two end up becoming travel buddies. 

This is probably an unpopular opinion with RWBY fans but, I actually don’t want any members of Team RWBY to meet up; at least not yet. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying each of the four girls’ separate stories and development; particularly when it crosses with other characters whose roles were otherwise secondary or even tertiary in past volumes (For e.g. in the case of Sun Wukong and the remaining members of Team JNPR).

That being said, I don’t want Weiss to meet up with Yang. Up until this point, she’s been having her own journey so...let her continue to do that. And if she is to have a travel companion upon her grand escape from being sold back to her father by the Branwen Tribe (not like that is gonna be possible. Didn’t Weiss’ lil shithead of a younger brother say that her presence as the Schee family heir isn’t necessary anymore since he’s taken her place); let it be Atlas pilot guy.

I really cannot stress enough, how much I want him to be alive and be another friend and ally to the team. But I guess we’ll see how things go.

So those are my thoughts on Episode 3. Another great episode. I’m really enjoying the way things are shaping up this season. Seriously the more I watch Volume 5, the more I see it becoming one of my favourite seasons for sure. Look out for more of my musings coming out this week. In the mean time, I’ll see you fellow RWBY fans next time! 

~LittleMissSquiggles (2017)