#then after vol 5 they said jnr and oscar were going to be that team

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

anyway weve all been knew about jaune being the rusted knight but when he named his jackalope "juniper" after his old team 6 seasons after pyrrha's death i almost cried

[rwby-sk]

My ship thoughts

This will be a long post, so I’m putting it under a ‘keep reading”

Bumbleby  - Until Vol.4 I wasn’t sure if the Bees liked each other. Like yeah, we’ve had solid evidence since, like, their Vol.1 trailers. But still. I wasn’t sure CRWBY would do it. But wow was I impressed.  - Probably my favorite well-known ship - Their EYES are the colors of each others SOULS what more do you want??? - I wish my gf would throw a motorcycle at my abusive ex...

Nuts and Dolts  - I tried pushing this ship out of my mind for so long. I did. I wasn’t ready for it  - I appreciated the things people made for the ship. I knew it had potential  - But wow. Vol.8 really said “Nuts and Dolts rights” and I respect that - They’re so cute together. It’s like if Pyrrha came back to life and could be with Jaune again.  - But healthier this way (see Arkos)

Renora  - Wholesome - Cute - ‘Boop’ is one of my favorite songs - We all saw it coming. But how we got there was the fun part  - That Vol. 4 finale though...

Arkos  - First off, Arkos is my favorite ship from Vol.1-3 - Himbo is taught how to drink his respect women juice by an Amazon? Sign me up  - The character development, the mutual respect, the CARE - ForeverFall still fucks me up. I cry when I listen to it - I love Pyrrha, she’s my girl, but... She really betrayed Jaune’s trust at the very end. He told her specifically he never wanted to be helpless and watch his friends fight for their lives again. And she did exactly that to him. Making him wonder if he could have made a difference had he been able to fight by her side with her in the end.  - But it’s not really even Pyrrha’s fault. Ozpin’s expectations and Cinder’s plan are more to blame - Still high tier - It’s just so tragic

WhiteKnight  - Cute in theory  - But it’d have to be done so carefully to be a good romantic pairing  - As friends? I LOVE IT. Make these two best friends right now! - But Jaune moved past his feelings for Weiss in Vol.2 when he finally realized she meant it when she told him she didn’t like him  - I’m shocked though that so few people pick up on Ep.3 Vol.1 when Weiss is making fun of Jaune and mockingly calls him a “cute boy”. I think Jaune just thought Weiss liked him already, and went from there. He hits on Pyrrha pretty quick in Ep.4 too - I think it could work with who they are now, but I think they’re better as friends 

WhiteRose  - The sole reason I didn’t ship Nuts and Dolts sooner  - Vol. 6 messed me up okay? That red scarf really threw me for a loop - Chasing each other in the Argus Limited?  - Weiss sassing Ruby non-stop Vol.1-3?  - It also completes the RW BY JP NR pairings. I like to joke that the Emerald forest is actually “true love” forest. And whoever you lock eyes with first you fall in love with them. But that only works sometimes  - Also that part where they call out each others names when Jinn shows them Ozpin’s past 

Ladybug  - Cute and interesting  - I’m not against it. I would just need more of it to ship it myself - They just have such solid connections with other characters  - I do love Blake’s introduction to the main cast though, and how much Blake looks up to Ruby 

Freezerburn  - Similar to LadyBug  - Cute, but I just ship them more with other people  - That hug in Vol.5 was a bit sus though - Yang does seem to open up the most with Weiss - And Weiss defended Yang so quickly after the Mercury fight  - It’s not unfounded, I’ll say that  - Analyzing it has opened my eyes 

Crosshares  - Yes  - Just  - Yes  - High femme fashion ICON Coco Adel  - With fan-fave Velvet Scarlatina - WLW powercouple  - I wish I was Coco and Velvet is cute, not much to understand here, keep scrolling 

RoseGarden  - I have my concerns  - Oscar is a wonderful kid  - He probably has a crush on Ruby  - And he is a wholesome boy who deserves all the happiness  - But he also has a manipulative immortal Wizard in his head  - So - You know

Lancaster  - I never saw Lancaster. Jaune is the first boy Ruby meets. And Jaune calls her cute and quirky once, but... - I love Ruby’s talk with Jaune about failure in Vol. 1, then his return to that speech in Vol. 4 in return.  - I think they lean on each other as leaders - But I don’t see it going further - Cute though. I’ve seen nice fanart 

BlackSun  - I read an analysis a long time ago that really sat with me  - Blake asked for space (not out loud, but in action) when she ran away - Yang gave her what she wanted. She didn’t like it. But she gave Blake what she asked for.  - Sun on the other hand, didn’t. He followed and helped her anyway. (Believe me, Blake could have used all the help she could get in Vol. 4-5) But in doing so, he kinda took himself out of the running as love interest.  - He’s and excellent Foil for Blake though, so I love him

SeaMonkies  - Two bros, chilling in a hot tub... - Is it gay to become junior detectives with your best friend and only hang out with him for like 3 seasons?  - These two are just  - So fucking stupid  - Apart, they are fine. Very competent.  - Together though - They are just so dumb I think its cute as hell 

JNR  - Wholesome  - I could see it in Argus. In front of Pyrrha’s statue - They love each other  - Maybe its not 100% romantic  - But they love each other  - I could be happy here

JNR+Neo  - CRIME + Ren  - The pure chaos of Nora and Neo  - The exhausted mom-friend energy from Ren and Jaune - The power polycule that could take on Salem alone and maybe win? - I think it’d be cute, but I personally ship them in the two pairs a bit more. 

Bees Schnees  - We add Blake and Yang’s angst, Yang and Weiss’ trust, and Weiss and Blake’s mutual understanding and growth  - Wow okay  - I have to give it to you, I kinda like it

Neo x Jaune x Ruby  - Based on my response to Lancaster, you might be able to guess my answer here - I think a lot of the ship’s points lie in “What’s better than one short girl dating the tallest guy in the cast? Two short girls dating the tallest guy in the cast!” - Cute though, I think it’d be chaotic and wholesome  - But poor Jaune would be exhausted trying to make sure the house doesn;t burn down every five minutes 

May x Winter  - Look - If I hadn’t made a Neo x Jaune side blog  - I would have made a May x Winter side blog  - The comparisons  - The family legacies  - The pure amount of how attracted I am to both characters  - What happens when two tops date each other?  - What if they were partners in Atlas?  - What if May was Winter’s first crush. And after May came out, Winter was like “Oh thank the gods, I was worried I liked all women and only one guy for some reason. Cool, crisis adverted. So anyway, Marigold, here’s how you do your makeup” - I could go on - Haha don’t tempt me - I’m serious  - Please let them sass each other at some point

GuardDogs  - Marrow = Just doing his best  - Jaune = Just doing his best  - Marrow and Jaune = two himbos just vibing in this world  - If we don’t get Silentknight, I’d be proud to get GuardDogs - Marrow sure has been worried about “Juan” this whole time, huh?

Emercury  - The sass - The pure sass  - Mercury’s unearned confidence paired with Emerald’s quick temper  - Wow, I hope Em can turn him away from murdering people.  - If Em gets 1 friend, I hope its Mercury and not Cinder  - At least Mercury cares about her (But he’s too cool to admit that outright) - Mercury is going to see Em on RWBY’s team and just immediately walk over and join up. No questions asked. “I guess we’re good now. Sorry Tyrian, its been cool, not really”

Happy Huntresses - Yes - Look at that HUG - Ladies, is it gay to go off into the tundra and form a rebellion against the fascist government with three of your hottest gal pals? 

[albion-93]

RWBY Analysis: Who is the Main Antagonist of Volume 6?

Disclaimer: Contains intense RWBY theorising and speculation inspired by Volume 6 Chapter 9 that is subject to being made redundant should the rest of the Volume go along like nothing as follows in this post.

RWBY has an interesting history when it comes its villains and antagonists. From Volumes 1 to 3 we saw a succession of rogues who fit the bill, each nastier than the last, from the likes of Roman Torchwick to Adam Taurus, Cinder Fall, and finally Salem. When it came to these four especially, and their criminal cohorts, the terms villain and antagonist went hand in hand. And with good reason, they were in active or indirect opposition to our protagonists’ actions, and their intentions and deeds ranged from petty theft to Machiavellian manipulation, terrorism and mass murder. Roman was a solid rival and foe to Ruby Rose, while Cinder served her role as main villain and antagonist well in Volumes 1 to 3, with Salem’s overarching series antagonist role revealed as a cliffhanger.

With Volumes 4 and 5, there were certainly plenty of villains but the role of main antagonist became somewhat complicated. As Team RWBY split up, most of them faced their own antagonist to overcome in various stages. In Vol 4 Weiss had her abusive father, Jacques Schnee; Blake had the White Fang operatives in Menagerie; Yang’s was at first psychological - the trauma of losing her arm and regaining her resolve to fight - and the second came in the form of her estranged survivalist mother Raven Branwen. Lastly is Ruby, who is sadly the most lacking in this department. Apart from her battles against the Grimm alongside Jaune, Nora and Ren, nothing came close to Roman or a potential enmity with Cinder, alas.

Now that RWBY is back together, things have changed. Cinder is now a month behind everyone else and unable to confront anyone. Salem is moving her minions into place in Atlas but doesn’t pose a direct threat to the heroes, though we will probably see Hazel, Tyrian and Watts out in the open at some point. Emerald is experiencing a crisis of allegiance, while Mercury seems to have chosen his side. Finally, Adam Taurus is as yet unaccounted for with no White Fang support to be found. 

You could argue that we’ve had the threat of personal demons and some excellent opposing interplay within the group, such as Ruby dealing with Qrow’s alcoholism and despair, Weiss’s reluctance to return to Atlas, Blake and Yang keeping a lid on their issues, and everyone falling into despair and anger at learning of Salem’s immortality. As effective as these are, there hasn’t been a single villainous character directly or indirectly circumventing the heroes’ actions. Odd.

So, I ask again, who is the main antagonist of Volume 6?

My personal take might shock many if you.

Since the start of Volume 6, this character’s words, choices and unfortunate past mistakes has led to more problems for the heroes than anything caused by Adam, Cinder or Salem. He’s nominally on the side of good but has failed in upholding his mission and his stagnation and secrecy has become a source of fear, discord, disunity and despair, more so than any servant of Salem. I am referring to Professor Ozpin.

Now let me be absolutely clear about this: Ozpin is NOT a villain.

Ozpin does not crave death, destruction, domination or the suffering of humanity. In the past, he was a kind and wise mentor to Ruby at Beacon, and a fair leader. He is ultimately someone who wants to put an end to Salem’s evil and somehow lift the curse, maybe once he believed he would be the one to finally do it. But now, he he’s a liability to Team RWBY, the remains of Team JNPR and of course his most recent incarnation, Oscar Pine.

If he had elected to tell the heroes that the Lamp attracts Grimm before boarding the Argus Express, and most vitally trust them, they might have avoided separation and being stranded. His constant omission of the truth, while claiming that it was for the greater good, is the same mentality that contributed to the Fall of Beacon. The more his pessimism, bitterness and double standard thinking emerged, the more the group’s distrust grew, culminating in Oscar briefly regaining control and revealing the Jinn in the Lamp. He was even prepared to use force to stop Ruby from asking Jinn what he was hiding. Overcome with despair and shame, he retreated deep into Oscar’s mind. They were left there to endure the Brunswick Farms horrors because of him.

I don’t blame him for retreating as he did, especially given the secrets regarding Salem. But when they finally reached Argus and the truth was revealed to Team JNR, he didn’t even re-emerge to come to Oscar’s defence from Jaune’s anger, and let him take the brunt of it. Again, there was no malice on Ozpin’s part, but in not intervening he allowed the rift between Oscar and the others to widen. In an older post, I said that if I were Oscar I would have taken my chances with the cold weather and Grimm rather than stay with people mad at me for another man’s mistakes. That came true in Dead End. So how is it he went from this...

To this?

The thing that struck me in the recent episode Lost was the reveal that Oscar had seemingly been waiting for the group at the Cotta-Arc house sporting new,  princely clothes and having cooked dinner for everyone. I do not think for a moment that that’s the real Oscar who welcomed the gang back. Absolutely nothing about what we saw in the previous episode, being threatened, isolated and emotionally dumped on naturally leads into him being relaxed, willing to reaffirm his mission to help RWBY, accepting his fate, easily forgiving Jaune and cooking dinner for everyone. Why would he do any of this? 

Looking at his body language and choice of words, he seems too calm, confident and controlled to be Oscar. His new combat outfit lines up with the green motif shared in other past Ozma incarnations, even with the red flourishes and leather fittings. Also, take a read of this dialogue, and instead of Oscar pretend it’s Ozpin saying this to the group:

Many have said that this sounds an awful lot like someone with a terminal illness would say, and that this could be a sign of the Merge happeninng. But why is the story acting like Oscar is the one who will fade away, when Jinn showed the different approaches Ozma had to coexisting with his hosts? 

Personally, I think it’s Ozpin imitating Oscar. He seemed surprised when he found out the group were looking for him, so how could Oscar not know why they were looking for him? For Ozpin, it’s a perfect cover since the group still doesn’t trust him but are are happy to see the boy safe. Asserting his desire to help extends a proverbial peace offering, while keeping the nature of the possession ambiguious. Also, isn’t cooking dinner for someone (or indeed twelve people) a pretty good way of making amends? 

But hang on, how could Ozpin still be an antagonist if he’s promising to help the heroes and wants to bury the grudges between them? He’s not telling the truth and remaining entrenched in the same mindset that has weakened their efforts in the past. Also, if Oscar is being locked inside his own head and being used for deception this is certainly a moral breach.

I think Oscar would have succeeded in running away or done something much worse if Oz didn’t forcibly intervene. Such a move would be very in keeping with Ozpin’s pattern of actions; the idea of committing a little evil in the name of the greater good, i.e. to return Oscar safely  to the group he had to forcibly take over. Also, the omission of vital truths and maintaining an amiable facade in the belief that everyone is happier for not knowing the full story. There’s even escalating a dangerous solution whilst potentially alienating or endangering others and removing the option of choice, just like in Volume 3.

It would be a cruel twist of irony if Jaune’s angry rant at Oscar in the house actually became a self fulfilling prophecy; “How do we know it’s really him?! What if we’ve been talking to that liar this whole time?!” By denying Oscar’s individuality when he was at his most vulnerable, he sowed the seeds for Oz to return and deceive the heroes into thinking Oscar returned of his own free will.

Now, imagine if all this crazy theory-crafting proved correct and the truth came out, Ozpin would have to contend with the wrath of RWBY and JNR, for duplicity, manipulation and subduing another’s will. And yet, unless something changes within him or his soul and Oscar’s battle for survival, there is nothing anyone can do. A once good mentor turned antagonist, with no villainous intent or goal, who cannot be challenged, driven away, imprisoned or killed without hurting his innocent host. Now that is a terrifying foe...

Aside Note: If it IS Oscar talking and this is something that he has decided himself, we didn’t see the process of making that decision for himself and go through classic character development or spiritual guidance to reach that point and signal his newfound commitment to the mission. This isn’t just a plot hole, this is an easy fix, and completely antithetical to good storytelling. After eight episodes where there were no easy fixes in the plot, why is this suddenly allowed? Maybe a character short could retcon character growth into place, but I have serious doubts.

The one point I will give is the look shared between Ruby and Ozcar when she complimented his new attire. That seemed like a genuine Oscar moment and expression, and I could buy that he chose red to earn Ruby’s attention. But I’m still suspicious.

Thank you to all who’ve read this long analysis post. I’m sure the next episode has a very different idea from what I’m proposing, maybe a much less dark outcome, but this was a very interesting train of thought to indulge.

[sir-adamus]

Timeline so far

I'm gonna piece together the timeline of the content of the show as we know it so far, not counting exposition of backstory

Year 1

Red trailer/manga chapter 1 - winter time, judging by the snow, so Ruby's already 15 here (as her birthday is 31st of October)

Weiss V5 Character Short - flashback sequence appears to be during winter (but could just be general Atlas weather due to how northerly it is); before White trailer as Weiss has her hair central and lacks her scar, which she gained in the trailer

White trailer/manga chapters 3 & 4 - time of year unclear, may be set not long before the start of school year as the purpose of the fight is Jacques (or rather his secretary) 'testing' Weiss, intending that she lose so she'll go to Atlas Academy where Jacques can still have control over her, instead of Vale, where she wants to go

Black trailer/manga chapters 5 & 6 - set at the same time as the flashback in 3x07 and the flashback of Blake's V5 Character Short. time of year doesn't seem to be winter (that it's set in Forever Fall doesn't help, though 3x07 suggests it's not winter, could be early spring)

Yang V5 Character Short - Yang mentions she'll be starting at Beacon 'soon' but evidently the two are still under the impression that Ruby will be staying at Signal this year. seems to be set around spring time

Yellow trailer/manga chapters 7, 8 & 9 - not long prior to 1x01 (as we see Roman hiring Junior's thugs)

1x01 - not long after Yellow trailer, not long before beginning of the semester

Schoolyear - Semester 1 (seemingly spring - summer)

Volume 1 - starts not long after the main events of 1x01. takes place over most of the course of this semester (episodes 2-10 being the first few days, then skipping some time further). within this, manga chapters 1/2 occur - barring the Red trailer flashback, most of these chapters happen sometime not long after 1x10, detailing an event of Jaune getting bullied by Cardin and Ruby fighting in the training arena for the first time (slight retcon with Ruby only deciding to wear her hood over her uniform after this event). this semester seems to take place over a few months - preparations for the Vytal festival begin, and exchange students begin arriving

Manga chapter 6 - a flashback at the end has Blake wake up from dreaming the events of the Black trailer at some point after 1x16 (as Weiss and Yang are aware of Blake's ears)

1x15 establishes that it's been 'months' since Ruby fought Roman at the Dust shop.

Manga chapter 10-15 - a training mission set after 1x16 (evidenced by Penny's appearance, mention of her having been 'influenced' by something - implied to be Ruby - and Roman scouting out the tunnels he will eventually be moving his operation into under Cinder's orders); RWBY and JNPR fight a Grimm that fuses together 4 King Taijitu into a hydra-esque monster; said Grimm was originally living in the tunnels leading to Mountain Glenn's undercity, and was accidentally released by Roman

Two week break between Semesters

Semester 2 (summer - autumn)

2x01 starts the day before semester 2 starts, Ruby mentions that the tournament marking the end of the Vytal festival is at "the end of the year" as preface for how "our second semester is going to be great!", so volumes 2 and 3 occur within the same semester

Volume 2 has a much more contained timeframe, taking place over the course of a couple of weeks and Vytal festivities beginning, starting with the dance prior to first year students beginning to take on real missions around the Kingdom - it's unclear if classes are still in session after this point for First Years (as higher year groups like CFVY are already on missions before this point)

Grimm Eclipse takes place somewhere between vols 2 and 3, and lasts a couple of days, detailing another mission team RWBY took on (JNPR are DLC for the game, so their presence isn't canon)

Volume 3 starts at the end of the semester, as autumn has really set in at this point (with colder weather, leaves starting to turn, etc.), suggesting it's September or, at most, mid-October (Ruby is still 15 as of 3x05, according to Ciel, and Ruby doesn't correct her). this volume only takes place over about 4 or 5 days

3x12 skips to winter at the end, meaning Ruby turned 16 in that gap, and visits Summer's grave (wrapping up the year started in the Red trailer)

Year 2

to start with, Ruby’s volume 4 character short, which features a village on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Vale being attacked by Grimm, Ruby notices and goes in to clear the place - this is the earliest point and probably not too long after the volume 3 finale (although long enough for the snow to have melted), likely early spring

due to the events of volume 5, we can assume that Blake's storyline in volume 4 starts first, but all four are several months after Ruby leaving in winter

the events of volume 4  for each character are actually all pretty self-contained to a few weeks (because they don't make sense if they spanned any longer), they're just not in sync with each other (though Yang's and Weiss's are close), and all appear to end not long before each character's start in volume 5

Blake starts volume 4 having only just recently gotten on to the ship to Menagerie - it seems to be spring/summer time, given that she's already dressed for warmer weather (and this arc ends not long before the 'present' sections of her character short and the beginning of her section in volume 5, which is two months before the start of the Fall Semester at Haven, which further suggests summer time) and her abilities have evidently taken a leap - it's possible the reason it's taken so long for her to leave the continent is she'd been traveling to the eastern part of the continent on foot and then got on a ship there, which'd explain the advancement in her abilities and the necessity for the new outfit

Ruby and JNR's story starts with 4x01, where they're helping out another village (so likely summer time, as this arc ends with them getting a lift to Mistral and Qrow recovering, with volume 5 starting not long after that, and that's a month before the beginning of the Fall Semester)

Yang's arc also seems to be summer time, again over the space of a few weeks (weeks are noted to have passed), and ends with a skip to her arriving in Anima, which can't be too long before her appearance in volume 5 (which is a few weeks after 5x01 for Ruby and JNR, as Oscar notes having had the cane for 'a few weeks' before Yang and Weiss arrive)

as mentioned Weiss's arc was more or less parallel to Yang's, seeming to take place over a few weeks and ending not long before where she was at the beginning of volume 5 (and she can't have been with the bandits too long before Yang showed up - they were planning on ransoming her and she was planning on breaking out with her summon)

this means Weiss and Yang reunite with Ruby at around the same time Blake's volume 5 arc in Menagerie ends (volume 5 for Blake went from 'two months' to 'two weeks', implying those events spanned the course of a month and a half)

it's noted in 5x01 that Haven isn't in session, and Ironwood remarks to Weiss that "a new semester will be starting soon" in volume 4 - this suggests that the school years at each Academy don't actually line up with each other (which makes sense, they're different nations with different systems, so one school might have a semester going on while another is on break), as 5x01 is a month prior to the beginning of the semester, yet if Haven's Fall Semester was its second semester, students should've been there, as the break between semesters, as per volume 2, is only two weeks

so, yeah, it's coming up on autumn with the start of the Fall semester, meaning it's now been roughly over a year since volume 2 in-universe

--

Volume 6 starts 2 weeks following the Battle for Haven, with episodes 1-5 (as of this writing) spanning the same day for team RWBY and co.

Cinder revives at an unknown point (though implied not long) following 5x14. her initial encounter with Little Miss Malachite takes place a month after Haven, and it's noted that 'the big guy' (likely Hazel) came through a week prior (which must be after the scene in 6x04).

[team-crtq]

Some Thoughts on Episode 14

Hello everyone! For reasons unknown to me, my mind drifted to the season finale of volume 5 today and I spent the morning mulling over what exactly made it so lackluster for people. So I’ve decided to break out of this blog’s self-inflicted hiatus to give some rambling thoughts.  

Now, I am fully aware that I am the hundredth person to talk about the problems with vol 5′s ending, but maybe this will entertain you regardless. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It’s kind of...difficult to pin down exactly where to start, but I think that the whole initial set up of the meeting is a good place. While seeing RWY, JNR, Oscar and Qrow (good lord they need a collective name) walk under the moonlight like the badasses they are was cool and all, it felt out of place to me. I can kind of understand the logic of walking into a trap knowing it’s a trap and ready to fight, I think the execution of how they ending up there would have run a lot smoother if it had felt a little more urgent. As in, it didn’t feel like they were just, willingly walking into something they had little knowledge of with seemingly no plan. 

Say that the team was preparing to meet with Lionheart in his study or they were planning to go out for the day, idk I’m coming up with this as I type, and Lionheart sends them an hurried message that says he needs them to come help him right away, like there’s Grimm in the meeting hall, or atrium, or whatever that big room was called. Again, as I type. That would give the team less time to really think as they grab their weapons and rush over to help. Maybe it’s there that they get jumped by Emerald and Mercury, or maybe Yang sees Raven first and the scene plays out like normal. Just something to make it feel less like Oz and Qrow had time to think of a better plan than “walk straight into the trap, completely ignorant, and with no back up plan.” 

Like, have at least one person stay outside just in case you need to contact the police. And hey! Maybe that would lead that one person to see Blake, who would then know you were being attacked by your old classmates and a deadbeat bird mom. 

Saying all that however, I think I could have forgiven it more if the later fight scenes were planned out and animated better. I’m definitely not the first person to mention how the fight scenes for this episode flopped. Especially after the fantastic Raven vs. Cinder fight  in episode 13. The fights in episode 14 lacked the kind of energy that 13′s had. The space wasn’t utilized and felt wholly unnecessary given how only two people were ever shown fighting at a time. And while I think the kind of slow-fast choreography (does that even make sense to y’all?) worked in yang’s fight earlier in the volume, here it was just awkward. 

That’s really the problem with the finale as a whole. It lacked that kind of tension building energy that makes fight scenes fun to watch. The dialogue scenes, like with Yang and Raven, Ruby and Raven, and Cinder and Jaune, were the best parts of the finale in my opinion. But in the case of Cinder and Jaune’s, which took place in the middle of the fight, the awkward, not-well-thought-out fighting hindered the emotion of the scene and made it a lot more disappointing than it should have been. And that’s not really something I can give suggestions on how to fix, since I’m not an animator nor am I a director. In the CRWBY AMA from a couple months ago, Miles and Kerry said that one of the things they knew they needed to work on was the fight choreography, so hopefully this won’t be something we’ll have to bring up again next time. The Raven vs. Cinder fight shows that the animators can live up to potential, they just need to learn how to expand that potential across the rest of the volume, and maybe even exceed it. 

And well, I think that’s it for now. Partly my reason for doing this, as in sharing my thoughts on this blog, was because we never got around to talking about episodes 13 and 14, and I wanted to get a few of my opinions out. And also because I would like for this blog to be at least partially active during the hiatus. So if you have questions for us, opinions on this post, or something from the season that you’d like for us to talk about, feel free to ask. Something’s got to hold us all over until volume 6. 

-Cobalt

[sillythoughtsthathauntme]

Reflecting on my past posts regarding volume 5

Though my critique on V5 were all of my honest thoughts at the time, marathoning the volume from episodes 1-current clarifies my doubts of this volume.

Pacing? It’s not actually bad. It’s even better appreciated if you marathon the episodes back to back. Watching it week to week makes it look like it is too slow, considering that there is a 6 day gap between each episode.

Sienna Khan? yes, I think her character is very compelling. Strong and interesting. Which is why I think it gives more weight to her death. Do I still want to see more of her? Of course! Within less than 1 episode, we are given a big impression of her character. And when she was killed by Adam, it gives it more weight to the story. (Though I think it is still a shame because of her character potential for future episodes) But her death shows us of how ruthless Adam is. I mean, if I were to write the story, sure, I’d do the same thing, but I would hold off Sienna’s death a little longer. Long enough to see how disjointed the white fang has become. But that’s just me, and I still trust M&K because they are the reason why RWBY still has a story.

Exposition and dialogue? Totally necessary. The audience have been left in the dark with a lot of things since the wake of volume 1. And each volume in the past have dropped a few red herrings and breadcrumbs for us to piece them altogether. Having so much dialogue and exposition in this volume is (in my own opinion) basically what we needed to have after being kept in the dark. Especially regarding Ozpin. Speaking of Ozpin...

I feel that the reason why Oscar is very important to the plot is not because he is Ozpin’s host, but it is because his character gives us a glimpse of who Ozpin really is. Since volume 4, even before the big reveal, I knew that this boy would have some connection to Ozpin. (didn’t see Ozpin’s soul merging part though) If anything, I feel that Oscar’s circumstances echo to what the professor had to experience in his past. Volume 5 I think won’t be giving us the full explanation of the process of the soul merging between Ozpin and his predecessor hosts other than what we’ve been given. But, since this volume’s theme is about growth, we’ll be seeing more of the growth of teams JNR and RWBY as well as the growing threat that awaits us at the finale of this volume.

White Fang/ Menagerie arc is still one heck of a slow burn. What V4&5 had with that arc would have been handled better, especially with Corsac and Fennec’s scripts. I mean, when they were first introduced, the first thing I thought was Jeremy Irons and Tim Curry level of over the top XD. It felt like they were out of place in the story, despite how they are necessary in that arc. the subject of the White Fang has been an ongoing thing since vol 1, but with the wake of episode 10, its safe to assume that one sub arc of the white fang will be put to a close by the end of this volume. But we all know that its not over yet, even at the end of the finale.

We have 4 episodes more to go, but 5 weeks left before V5 ends. With Christmas coming around the corner, we have a RWBY break so no episode 12 till the week after, I’d assume.

These are my thoughts as of this point. Menagerie/white fang arc still remains as the stickler of the series for me, but for better or for worse, that arc will still remain relevant to the future of this series. Especially if the faunus discrimination is more prominent in within the Kingdom of Atlas. (I would even go so far as to say that Atlas will definitely play a big part of the conflict with the White Fang, all things considered).

As I said, these are just my thoughts. I’m not going to say I’m right with what I said, but it only what I observed. Feel free to tell me wrong otherwise.