The RWBY Thread
- Thread starter Herdo
- Start date
Looks like there's going to be a Justice League/RWBY comic crossover. Launching digitally in March, physically in April
So I finished watching Volume 3. Jesus Christ this is going to be a long post. Since discussion in this thread pretty much died at the start of V4, I may start to write out these posts every couple of episodes from now on as a sort of 'resumption' from where we left off, and get some episode-by-episode discussion, even if most of the people here have already seen well past that.
Now, I remembered mentioning that I was a little disappointed with the ending of V2, in the sense that it was building up to bad stuff happening, and then basically three teams and a couple of teachers basically mopped the floor with the Grimm in a couple of streets of fighting. V3...more than lived up to that. Having the extra volume helps, really. It builds up the characters and school/kingdom some more before bringing it all down hard at the finale.
The opening to each episode 'When It Falls' is really nice in that regard. It hammers that home with its lyrics. Don't get your hopes up. There's no 'hero is going to rise up and save the day'. It's going to be a bad ending. And holy damn, it is. The bad guys pretty much have literally no setback up until the very end when Ruby uses a deus ex machina at the very end literally foreshadowed once, and even then it's not a critical blow, since the giant dragon mother queen spawn thingamajig Grimm is still drawing lots of other Grimm to Beacon, and Cinder gets the Fall Maiden's complete powers (presumably).
I guess maybe the ending was controversial to some at the time? I didn't really see it. It may be because I had some light cultural awareness of RWBY when going in, but I mean, they live in what was pretty obviously a crapsack world so I was expecting something to happen (and I went through it all a few days! Others would have had that opening theme hammered into their brains over and over for months!). Team RWBY falling apart is pretty much like the breaking of the Fellowship of the Ring, too, which is actually a major thing. Since it happened on Ruby's watch, good character development in V4 for her would be feeling guilty over that happening on her watch, and developing as a person and a leader. Maybe some angsting over taking the empty spot on Team JNPR. I noticed the symbolism they do with the seasons, too, at the end of the last episode. The death of fall and the turning of winter is usually thematically supposed to be used to signal rebirth, not to mention the Fall Maiden literally just died, too.
Salem finally appears in-show. I've still got the World of Remnant clips to go through, but I guess that must have been a surprise that this obvious big bad person was the one who was narrating the WoR vids. Since she drops Ozpin's name directly, I'm guessing Oz is going to be the 'big good' to some extent for Remnant.
Monty Oum died between Volumes 2 and 3, but going off how production schedules work, I know a lot of the pre-production stuff for V3 would have already been settled (as well as many of the major plot beats, like a certain character's death). Most of the fights seem fairly smooth still. The only part that felt lacklustre was Weiss + Yang vs. Neon + Flynt (though it was still fairly fluid), and occasionally, character models' legs seem wonky. I think if I had to express what I've liked about the fights in the series so far, it's that they're typically fast, fluid, and the fighters have displayed a large variety of fighting styles.
Some random thoughts (I write some of these things down both for my own referral and to amuse people who are caught up and know where I'm catching onto foreshadowing and where I'm just wandering down my own epileptic trees)
I'm a little sad at how quickly they moved away from Team RWBY being at, y'know, a school. They had a few times where they were in classes in the first season, then that was about it. Afterwards, it's peripherally important, like going on the mission with Oobleck, but it fell off hard.
In Episode Chapter 3, Qrow, Ironwood, Ozpin, and Glynda have a conversation that was extremely confusing to me, able to follow only bits and pieces. It took me a little bit to understand why. They're not expositioning for the viewer. When they say things to each other, all four of them know stuff already to understand context without needing every little thing spelled out for them as a dummy proxy for the audience. Watching this scene again after the end of the season, it makes a lot more sense. Whether it's good or bad writing, it's at least a break from the norm.
It's actually a little surprising how tender the character development moments are, such as with Qrow mentoring Ruby/Yang and Winter mentoring Weiss. I get a little worried that character development was moving too quick in volume 2, because if somebody becomes a 'better person' quickly enough, it leads to smaller, more marginal character moments later on. However, not only were the moments here and there nicely done, but the ending of the volume also helps to reset the status quo enough so everyone has brand new struggles. Weiss is broken up from her team who was legitimately her friends, Blake is a cowardly runaway, Yang is both physically and mentally crippled, and Ruby probably has a lot of guilt from her team falling apart and may question her legitimacy of leading a new team.
Ruby really has been a full-on genki girl for the first three volumes of RWBY. For other characters from other series, this would annoy me and get old after a while, but she doesn't do that to me here. I'm not particularly sure why. It may be because her personality is fairly tempered otherwise, and she's not a massive burden to the rest of her team. Her 'genki girl' isn't one-sided in one direction, instead being fairly steady most of the time, rounded out with lots of cute moments like seeing Zwei or Uncle Qrow again. Instead of blatant arrow signs pointing at her saying "This is our main character! And to prove it we're going to give her all sorts of special techniques and amazing luck and things only she can do!" for 3 volumes, Ruby gets a more consistent build-up. She starts to overdraw her luck a little bit in the penultimate episode with Roman getting eaten by a Grimm, and then finally it turns out she is special in the last episode with her silver eyes, but it took 3 volumes to get to that point! Her animation in the second half of the last episode is absolutely amazing. They really captured Ruby's expressions well, struggling between immense heartbreak and trying to soldier on, and the voice actress does amazing work as well. Honestly, the saddest moment in the episode for me wasn't a certain character's fall, but Ruby saying "I love you" to Yang after Yang has closed her heart off. Her expression at the time is absolute heartbreak.
Jaune's really got to make some big character strides after this. I mean, he already has been, but now he's been set free to soar. I had to cringe at whenever it was that Pyrrha talked to him outside the school in the cotton candy scene, because Jaune's words of inspiration really were setting her down her path. And now that you-know-what's happened, Jaune's definitely going to have some heartbreak for a while. Amusingly, it didn't escape my attention that Jaune and Taiyang have at least a superficial resemblance, and now him and Ruby are together on the same team. Zany idea team: Some sort of strange RWBY/Scott Pilgrim mash-up, where for Pyrrha or Ruby whoever to conquer Jaune's heart, they have to fight his seven evil exes sisters
Four maidens, four seasons: No idea if Summer Rose has any relation, or if her name is a red herring.
Blake is cutest in the first chapter, especially the way she obsesses over her fish bowl.
Ironwood being half-machine didn't surprise me one bit, and the solution for Yang's arm seems obvious to me there. I like how Ironwood is so straight-laced that when he delivers Yang's punishment to her in Team RWBY's room, he doesn't say anything about their bunk bed set-up. He really loved Penny.
I picked up fairly quickly on that somebody had an illusion semblance (both Emerald and Neo, apparently?). At the time, I predicted they'd use it on a broader scale to somehow incite a panic that would cause Grimm to invade. I mostly hit that spot-on (they didn't use an illusion on a larger crowd but one well-placed illusion on a single person was able to trigger one). Lots of little foreshadowing that happened in-volume I also picked out.
Velvet (who, by the way, has the most adorable Aussie accent) really must have been a first-year who got slotted into a second-year team missing a member to form Team CFVY. The way she basically goes 'Coco-senpai' at points, and her Semblance copying mostly team RWBY's weapons in addition to Coco's suggests that more and more. Bun bun has a nice break-out fight against the droids, and some cute moments with the two times she takes picture of Ruby. Cardin during the whole invasion destroyed like a couple of the little droids only to get surrounded, while Velvet took on two goddamn big droids and beat them both up. Clearly Coco does wonders for mentoring. Quite the turnaround from when Cardin was pulling Velvet's ears.
Cinder seems powerful, but not well-connected enough to set this all up, so her group must still have some more powerful backer behind her. Well, that, and she was able to control a Grimm. No idea how many layers there are between her and Salem, if Salem indeed is the woman behind the man behind the man behind Cinder. It was nice that Roman was able to break out and get a last hurrah. While his death was a rather ignoble and anti-climatic one, I really do hope it was his death. There's a limit to how many times you can re-use the same lower-tier villain.
Yang's red eyes are some sort of 'I get angry and I get stronger' thing, but Qrow, who is her biological uncle, has his eyes red all the time. So either he was born with them red, or he has Yang's technique activated all the time.
Adam was...honestly a meh villain. The yandere villain can be done well, but he felt more like a yandere chuunibyou villain. I'm not sure how chuunibyou you can be when you actually do have special powers, but that's how he came across to me as.
For the little post-credits scene, Qrow turns into a literal crow. I assume he was the crow outside of Yang's window right before the cut to Salem, but...is there any points earlier in the story that he would have appeared as a crow that I would only catch now on a re-watch? Also, re:Crow. I initially wondered if he would hate Taiyang, since Taiyang married both of the female teammates only for them both to die shortly thereafter. Their interaction in the last episode shows it's probably not the case, especially since Crow very much knows Raven also isn't dead...
I've seen the 'useless lesbians' term thrown around from time to time about some of RWBY's characters. Episode 10 has to be the start of it for me, when Blake and Weiss spend half the episode just talking to each other while Grimm are running right around them. Then while Weiss actually does some stuff after, Blake and Yang continue to only do a minimal amount for the rest of the battle (I think Blake knocks back some White Fang mooks, and can't remember if Yang even does anything at all, before they both get beaten up by Adam). Soooooo, in honour of that meme, my ratings for this volume:
Now, I remembered mentioning that I was a little disappointed with the ending of V2, in the sense that it was building up to bad stuff happening, and then basically three teams and a couple of teachers basically mopped the floor with the Grimm in a couple of streets of fighting. V3...more than lived up to that. Having the extra volume helps, really. It builds up the characters and school/kingdom some more before bringing it all down hard at the finale.
The opening to each episode 'When It Falls' is really nice in that regard. It hammers that home with its lyrics. Don't get your hopes up. There's no 'hero is going to rise up and save the day'. It's going to be a bad ending. And holy damn, it is. The bad guys pretty much have literally no setback up until the very end when Ruby uses a deus ex machina at the very end literally foreshadowed once, and even then it's not a critical blow, since the giant dragon mother queen spawn thingamajig Grimm is still drawing lots of other Grimm to Beacon, and Cinder gets the Fall Maiden's complete powers (presumably).
I guess maybe the ending was controversial to some at the time? I didn't really see it. It may be because I had some light cultural awareness of RWBY when going in, but I mean, they live in what was pretty obviously a crapsack world so I was expecting something to happen (and I went through it all a few days! Others would have had that opening theme hammered into their brains over and over for months!). Team RWBY falling apart is pretty much like the breaking of the Fellowship of the Ring, too, which is actually a major thing. Since it happened on Ruby's watch, good character development in V4 for her would be feeling guilty over that happening on her watch, and developing as a person and a leader. Maybe some angsting over taking the empty spot on Team JNPR. I noticed the symbolism they do with the seasons, too, at the end of the last episode. The death of fall and the turning of winter is usually thematically supposed to be used to signal rebirth, not to mention the Fall Maiden literally just died, too.
Salem finally appears in-show. I've still got the World of Remnant clips to go through, but I guess that must have been a surprise that this obvious big bad person was the one who was narrating the WoR vids. Since she drops Ozpin's name directly, I'm guessing Oz is going to be the 'big good' to some extent for Remnant.
Monty Oum died between Volumes 2 and 3, but going off how production schedules work, I know a lot of the pre-production stuff for V3 would have already been settled (as well as many of the major plot beats, like a certain character's death). Most of the fights seem fairly smooth still. The only part that felt lacklustre was Weiss + Yang vs. Neon + Flynt (though it was still fairly fluid), and occasionally, character models' legs seem wonky. I think if I had to express what I've liked about the fights in the series so far, it's that they're typically fast, fluid, and the fighters have displayed a large variety of fighting styles.
Some random thoughts (I write some of these things down both for my own referral and to amuse people who are caught up and know where I'm catching onto foreshadowing and where I'm just wandering down my own epileptic trees)
I'm a little sad at how quickly they moved away from Team RWBY being at, y'know, a school. They had a few times where they were in classes in the first season, then that was about it. Afterwards, it's peripherally important, like going on the mission with Oobleck, but it fell off hard.
In Episode Chapter 3, Qrow, Ironwood, Ozpin, and Glynda have a conversation that was extremely confusing to me, able to follow only bits and pieces. It took me a little bit to understand why. They're not expositioning for the viewer. When they say things to each other, all four of them know stuff already to understand context without needing every little thing spelled out for them as a dummy proxy for the audience. Watching this scene again after the end of the season, it makes a lot more sense. Whether it's good or bad writing, it's at least a break from the norm.
It's actually a little surprising how tender the character development moments are, such as with Qrow mentoring Ruby/Yang and Winter mentoring Weiss. I get a little worried that character development was moving too quick in volume 2, because if somebody becomes a 'better person' quickly enough, it leads to smaller, more marginal character moments later on. However, not only were the moments here and there nicely done, but the ending of the volume also helps to reset the status quo enough so everyone has brand new struggles. Weiss is broken up from her team who was legitimately her friends, Blake is a cowardly runaway, Yang is both physically and mentally crippled, and Ruby probably has a lot of guilt from her team falling apart and may question her legitimacy of leading a new team.
Ruby really has been a full-on genki girl for the first three volumes of RWBY. For other characters from other series, this would annoy me and get old after a while, but she doesn't do that to me here. I'm not particularly sure why. It may be because her personality is fairly tempered otherwise, and she's not a massive burden to the rest of her team. Her 'genki girl' isn't one-sided in one direction, instead being fairly steady most of the time, rounded out with lots of cute moments like seeing Zwei or Uncle Qrow again. Instead of blatant arrow signs pointing at her saying "This is our main character! And to prove it we're going to give her all sorts of special techniques and amazing luck and things only she can do!" for 3 volumes, Ruby gets a more consistent build-up. She starts to overdraw her luck a little bit in the penultimate episode with Roman getting eaten by a Grimm, and then finally it turns out she is special in the last episode with her silver eyes, but it took 3 volumes to get to that point! Her animation in the second half of the last episode is absolutely amazing. They really captured Ruby's expressions well, struggling between immense heartbreak and trying to soldier on, and the voice actress does amazing work as well. Honestly, the saddest moment in the episode for me wasn't a certain character's fall, but Ruby saying "I love you" to Yang after Yang has closed her heart off. Her expression at the time is absolute heartbreak.
Jaune's really got to make some big character strides after this. I mean, he already has been, but now he's been set free to soar. I had to cringe at whenever it was that Pyrrha talked to him outside the school in the cotton candy scene, because Jaune's words of inspiration really were setting her down her path. And now that you-know-what's happened, Jaune's definitely going to have some heartbreak for a while. Amusingly, it didn't escape my attention that Jaune and Taiyang have at least a superficial resemblance, and now him and Ruby are together on the same team. Zany idea team: Some sort of strange RWBY/Scott Pilgrim mash-up, where for Pyrrha or Ruby whoever to conquer Jaune's heart, they have to fight his seven evil exes sisters
Four maidens, four seasons: No idea if Summer Rose has any relation, or if her name is a red herring.
Blake is cutest in the first chapter, especially the way she obsesses over her fish bowl.
Ironwood being half-machine didn't surprise me one bit, and the solution for Yang's arm seems obvious to me there. I like how Ironwood is so straight-laced that when he delivers Yang's punishment to her in Team RWBY's room, he doesn't say anything about their bunk bed set-up. He really loved Penny.
I picked up fairly quickly on that somebody had an illusion semblance (both Emerald and Neo, apparently?). At the time, I predicted they'd use it on a broader scale to somehow incite a panic that would cause Grimm to invade. I mostly hit that spot-on (they didn't use an illusion on a larger crowd but one well-placed illusion on a single person was able to trigger one). Lots of little foreshadowing that happened in-volume I also picked out.
Velvet (who, by the way, has the most adorable Aussie accent) really must have been a first-year who got slotted into a second-year team missing a member to form Team CFVY. The way she basically goes 'Coco-senpai' at points, and her Semblance copying mostly team RWBY's weapons in addition to Coco's suggests that more and more. Bun bun has a nice break-out fight against the droids, and some cute moments with the two times she takes picture of Ruby. Cardin during the whole invasion destroyed like a couple of the little droids only to get surrounded, while Velvet took on two goddamn big droids and beat them both up. Clearly Coco does wonders for mentoring. Quite the turnaround from when Cardin was pulling Velvet's ears.
Cinder seems powerful, but not well-connected enough to set this all up, so her group must still have some more powerful backer behind her. Well, that, and she was able to control a Grimm. No idea how many layers there are between her and Salem, if Salem indeed is the woman behind the man behind the man behind Cinder. It was nice that Roman was able to break out and get a last hurrah. While his death was a rather ignoble and anti-climatic one, I really do hope it was his death. There's a limit to how many times you can re-use the same lower-tier villain.
Yang's red eyes are some sort of 'I get angry and I get stronger' thing, but Qrow, who is her biological uncle, has his eyes red all the time. So either he was born with them red, or he has Yang's technique activated all the time.
Adam was...honestly a meh villain. The yandere villain can be done well, but he felt more like a yandere chuunibyou villain. I'm not sure how chuunibyou you can be when you actually do have special powers, but that's how he came across to me as.
For the little post-credits scene, Qrow turns into a literal crow. I assume he was the crow outside of Yang's window right before the cut to Salem, but...is there any points earlier in the story that he would have appeared as a crow that I would only catch now on a re-watch? Also, re:Crow. I initially wondered if he would hate Taiyang, since Taiyang married both of the female teammates only for them both to die shortly thereafter. Their interaction in the last episode shows it's probably not the case, especially since Crow very much knows Raven also isn't dead...
I've seen the 'useless lesbians' term thrown around from time to time about some of RWBY's characters. Episode 10 has to be the start of it for me, when Blake and Weiss spend half the episode just talking to each other while Grimm are running right around them. Then while Weiss actually does some stuff after, Blake and Yang continue to only do a minimal amount for the rest of the battle (I think Blake knocks back some White Fang mooks, and can't remember if Yang even does anything at all, before they both get beaten up by Adam). Soooooo, in honour of that meme, my ratings for this volume:
At the risk of sounding controversial, I think Vol 4 is actually one of my favorites from before I dropped the series. I liked "Team RNJR" more than I did Team RWBY, simply because I never found Blake or Yang to particularly likable.
Also didn't really care one way or the other for Pyrrha's death, but the fact the episode debuted on Valentine's Day was kind of funny.
Also didn't really care one way or the other for Pyrrha's death, but the fact the episode debuted on Valentine's Day was kind of funny.
I mean, like I've said before, I have no real 'years of obsession' building up to watching each volume, so something that might be upsetting to somebody who's watched since 2014 or 2015 might just pass by me.
And finally got to watching all the World of Remnant videos. I assume they updated these, since a couple of times it mentions plot points that occur at the end of V3. It does give some historical context, but they've done a reasonable job in-show at least with making me be able to figure this out just from the context of little things, instead of a big info-dump. Though, the Great War...supposedly, this wrapped up a mere 80 years before the start of the series. It feels really strange, since there's not much underlying tension between the people of different nations when we see them interact up to V3. The worst we get is Ozpin and Ironwood arguing about Ironwood bringing all his military carriers into plain sight for the Vytal Festival, and they don't even hate each other, just have a disagreement of philosophies.
And finally got to watching all the World of Remnant videos. I assume they updated these, since a couple of times it mentions plot points that occur at the end of V3. It does give some historical context, but they've done a reasonable job in-show at least with making me be able to figure this out just from the context of little things, instead of a big info-dump. Though, the Great War...supposedly, this wrapped up a mere 80 years before the start of the series. It feels really strange, since there's not much underlying tension between the people of different nations when we see them interact up to V3. The worst we get is Ozpin and Ironwood arguing about Ironwood bringing all his military carriers into plain sight for the Vytal Festival, and they don't even hate each other, just have a disagreement of philosophies.
I will also add, an ending like V3 is useful from a writing perspective in that you can basically reset character arcs. The girls could have been developed to much of their full potential before (though their character arcs weren't in actuality close to concluded there), but it was in a relatively comfortable, secluded life in a school setting with teachers around to guide them. Rip away that comfort and blow up their home for the last year, and now you can start over with developing them since now their outlook on life has been seriously overturned.
Whether the writing team actually makes use of that or not remains to be seen for me lmao
Whether the writing team actually makes use of that or not remains to be seen for me lmao
So RWBY hit their 100th episode.
Anyways. Watched through the first six episodes of Volume 4.
I gotta say, I kind of like the opening theme for this volume. It's pretty chill, and it's pretty much exactly the direction I was expecting the story to go after the end of Volume 3. What feels weird to me is that...the first six episodes feel both too slow, and yet too quick at the same time. I think it's just because the story has to follow all of Team RWBY, and now they're split in four completely separate parts of the world. The storyline for each girl seems to move along way quicker than ideal as far as character development (like, Yang's PTSD and general reluctance to take up fighting again could have used another entire episode on its own), but it feels slow as a whole because the show needs to flesh each of their arcs out.
Something I neglected to mention before, but I love how they show concept art for characters and objects and areas at the end of each episode during the credits roll. It's one of those things that I wish other shows would copy. It's such a nice touch.
The animation and new graphics engine...I can sort of see why people might not like this. The new style has a much better feeling to the 'depth' of a scene, where stuff in the background seems to really have depth to it compared to Poser. However, the actual character models themselves have changed. Most characters it's not particularly noticeable, but good lord, what did they do to Yang?! The fight scenes have been pretty fun so far, especially the boat fight with Blake + Sun vs the eastern dragon-esque Grimm.
Good to know Ruby is still a little girl at heart with her mannerisms and general cuteness through the episodes. She's still very hands-off with actual 'leadership' of the team, just like with RWBY. I guess her biggest character moment of the first half of V4 is eavesdropping on Jaune's training session (and damn, what a scene that was).
I actually like how Taiyang and Yang's interactions played out. Taiyang is kind of good at giving Yang some room. I definitely was not expecting how Yang reacted to his whole 'losing some brain cells, just like how you lost your arm' comment. I feel like this is something that would have resulted in an overwrought dramatic moment in other series. Here, it's not precisely played for laughs, but it's definitely a breath of fresh air. Also, Taiyang calling Yang his 'sunny little dragon'. I only know like 20 Chinese words (and not even the pinyin, just the Romanised words and how to pronounce them), but I actually knew all three words in Yang Xiao Long, so understood that comment. Still, I do like that they at least showed Yang's PTSD and her struggling, even if it was fairly brief.
Weiss is showing her own neat signs of character development. I'm getting some strong caged bird feelings from Weiss...and then she sang 'This Life is Mine' at a live concert with her father in attendance lol. One writing trope that doesn't get broken. Nobody in-universe ever actually listens to songs and poems and realises the deeper meaning, lol. Interesting to see Weiss also has a younger brother, Whitley. He gives off kind of that 'obnoxious little sibling' feeling, but also appears to genuinely mean good. However, porn may have spoiled me. If Whitley was actually a decent guy, there would be hundreds of incest pics with him and Weiss, because that's just the kind of thing porn artists would love to draw, and there aren't. Klein's eyes changing colours are some sort of Semblance, I assume.
Blake...actually doesn't show that much development, in my opinion. She's running away and returning home, but it feels like there's no real impact to her personality or character. There's a couple of lines of self-loathing for being a coward, but that's about it. I guess it's also that she's just not emoting anything to make me think it was more than just a Tuesday to her. Which is a funny complaint, because Blake gets all the best expressions so far otherwise. Sun Wukong is still top-tier character as always, and Blake makes a lot of great facial reactions to almost anything Sun says or does. Since Blake ditched her ribbon, even her cat ears get lots of cute flopping and perking reactions.
Also:
What they did there. I see it.
So I finally get to see Salem, who I guess is kind-of sort-of the big bad of the entire series? I dunno. Well, she certainly gives that vibe off pretty well, between her general appearance, her castle being in a blasted wasteland where Grimm just form out of puddles outside, and the company she keeps. Considering the multiple times she's mentioned Ozpin so far, there's definitely some history between the two.
I had no idea who Oscar was supposed to be in his first appearance. Funny enough, in his second appearance, when he was looking at the mirror, I was thinking to myself, "Hah, I bet Ozpin's going to make some sort of reappearance now" like a second before it actually occurred!
Raven is a bitch, Qrow is a cool uncle. I only recently thought about this, but I guess Ruby thinks of Qrow as being an uncle because he's a family friend and/or because he was a teammate of Summer and Taiyang. Technically, Qrow is Yang's biological uncle and could have been hanging around enough that Ruby would associate him as her uncle like with Yang, but I recall one of the S2 episodes, Yang mentioned something to the effect she didn't even really know Summer wasn't her birth mother until later in life.
I guess I kind of like Ironwood? It seems so easy to want and try and distill him down to a few characteristics, and also to lambast him as a jerk, but I feel like he's actually decently developed. Genuinely a guy who wants to do the best he can for his kingdom and global society as a whole, and doesn't seem like the type to like schmoozing, but is willing to do it for money and support for the kingdoms' strength. Gives Weiss praise for standing up for herself and showing some backbone.
Anyways. Watched through the first six episodes of Volume 4.
I gotta say, I kind of like the opening theme for this volume. It's pretty chill, and it's pretty much exactly the direction I was expecting the story to go after the end of Volume 3. What feels weird to me is that...the first six episodes feel both too slow, and yet too quick at the same time. I think it's just because the story has to follow all of Team RWBY, and now they're split in four completely separate parts of the world. The storyline for each girl seems to move along way quicker than ideal as far as character development (like, Yang's PTSD and general reluctance to take up fighting again could have used another entire episode on its own), but it feels slow as a whole because the show needs to flesh each of their arcs out.
Something I neglected to mention before, but I love how they show concept art for characters and objects and areas at the end of each episode during the credits roll. It's one of those things that I wish other shows would copy. It's such a nice touch.
The animation and new graphics engine...I can sort of see why people might not like this. The new style has a much better feeling to the 'depth' of a scene, where stuff in the background seems to really have depth to it compared to Poser. However, the actual character models themselves have changed. Most characters it's not particularly noticeable, but good lord, what did they do to Yang?! The fight scenes have been pretty fun so far, especially the boat fight with Blake + Sun vs the eastern dragon-esque Grimm.
Good to know Ruby is still a little girl at heart with her mannerisms and general cuteness through the episodes. She's still very hands-off with actual 'leadership' of the team, just like with RWBY. I guess her biggest character moment of the first half of V4 is eavesdropping on Jaune's training session (and damn, what a scene that was).
I actually like how Taiyang and Yang's interactions played out. Taiyang is kind of good at giving Yang some room. I definitely was not expecting how Yang reacted to his whole 'losing some brain cells, just like how you lost your arm' comment. I feel like this is something that would have resulted in an overwrought dramatic moment in other series. Here, it's not precisely played for laughs, but it's definitely a breath of fresh air. Also, Taiyang calling Yang his 'sunny little dragon'. I only know like 20 Chinese words (and not even the pinyin, just the Romanised words and how to pronounce them), but I actually knew all three words in Yang Xiao Long, so understood that comment. Still, I do like that they at least showed Yang's PTSD and her struggling, even if it was fairly brief.
Weiss is showing her own neat signs of character development. I'm getting some strong caged bird feelings from Weiss...and then she sang 'This Life is Mine' at a live concert with her father in attendance lol. One writing trope that doesn't get broken. Nobody in-universe ever actually listens to songs and poems and realises the deeper meaning, lol. Interesting to see Weiss also has a younger brother, Whitley. He gives off kind of that 'obnoxious little sibling' feeling, but also appears to genuinely mean good. However, porn may have spoiled me. If Whitley was actually a decent guy, there would be hundreds of incest pics with him and Weiss, because that's just the kind of thing porn artists would love to draw, and there aren't. Klein's eyes changing colours are some sort of Semblance, I assume.
Blake...actually doesn't show that much development, in my opinion. She's running away and returning home, but it feels like there's no real impact to her personality or character. There's a couple of lines of self-loathing for being a coward, but that's about it. I guess it's also that she's just not emoting anything to make me think it was more than just a Tuesday to her. Which is a funny complaint, because Blake gets all the best expressions so far otherwise. Sun Wukong is still top-tier character as always, and Blake makes a lot of great facial reactions to almost anything Sun says or does. Since Blake ditched her ribbon, even her cat ears get lots of cute flopping and perking reactions.
Also:
What they did there. I see it.
So I finally get to see Salem, who I guess is kind-of sort-of the big bad of the entire series? I dunno. Well, she certainly gives that vibe off pretty well, between her general appearance, her castle being in a blasted wasteland where Grimm just form out of puddles outside, and the company she keeps. Considering the multiple times she's mentioned Ozpin so far, there's definitely some history between the two.
I had no idea who Oscar was supposed to be in his first appearance. Funny enough, in his second appearance, when he was looking at the mirror, I was thinking to myself, "Hah, I bet Ozpin's going to make some sort of reappearance now" like a second before it actually occurred!
Raven is a bitch, Qrow is a cool uncle. I only recently thought about this, but I guess Ruby thinks of Qrow as being an uncle because he's a family friend and/or because he was a teammate of Summer and Taiyang. Technically, Qrow is Yang's biological uncle and could have been hanging around enough that Ruby would associate him as her uncle like with Yang, but I recall one of the S2 episodes, Yang mentioned something to the effect she didn't even really know Summer wasn't her birth mother until later in life.
I guess I kind of like Ironwood? It seems so easy to want and try and distill him down to a few characteristics, and also to lambast him as a jerk, but I feel like he's actually decently developed. Genuinely a guy who wants to do the best he can for his kingdom and global society as a whole, and doesn't seem like the type to like schmoozing, but is willing to do it for money and support for the kingdoms' strength. Gives Weiss praise for standing up for herself and showing some backbone.
I mean, you saw what they did to Yang.
Or rather, what Adam did to Yang.
Or rather, what Adam did to Yang.
I guess he also disarmed her, too...
Anyways, watched V4 C7-C9. Slowing a little bit down here because now I'm basically caught up with where this thread died off completely years ago, so if anyone else wants to throw their thoughts in as I go through, that'd be swell.
The fight scenes have actually been still pretty fun to watch. Not too sure if there's some point in this volume where they drop in quality, or if maybe I just need to re-watch stuff obsessively to see a 'before' and 'after' difference
I actually was thinking Tyrian's tail would be venomous. Cuz he's a scorpion faunus. Would have expected the characters in-universe to be at least as savvy. It's not like it's a logical break where a viewer can be savvy but the in-verse characters shouldn't be. He's a faunus with scorpion characteristics, scorpions can be venomous. If he was a snake faunus, same thing.
So Ozpin has become part of Oscar, kinda sorta, sharing thoughts and soul blahblahblah. Given the stuff going on with the Maidens, I guess Ozpin and Oscar have a sort of similar hereditary power, though geared in a different strength than what the Maidens have, and more anti-Salem in nature. It probably has a different method of being inherited, since I can't (yet) see why Ozpin would have been thinking about some random farmkid at the moment of his supposed death.
Speaking of Maidens' powers, I find myself intrigued that the Spring Maiden at least is apparently part of Raven's bandit tribe. I'm sure that'll be explored. And on that front, finally get some more mythology stuff. Cool. Given Ozpin says the same thing happened to him that's happening to Oscar, it's fair to say he has first-hand knowledge of these brothers God from some ancestral knowledge of his.
Blake can't handle hot drinks. Does that mean she has cat tongue?
It took me a couple of episodes to click, but she's hella pale compared to her mom and dad. Almost like Menagerie is a southern climate with lots of sun and Vale, well, isn't. Sun Wukong is the perfect tagalong for her. She's the straight man, he's the funny guy. It's worked out well for the most part, but the last couple of chapters, it's starting to get overused.I guess I was right about Whitley being a jerk. Porn logic doesn't mislead!
Love that Jaune and Ren BFF hug in Chapter 9 before they split up.
Something else that occurred to me is that this volume has focused hard on Team RWBY's family. Prior to V4, we've only seen glimpses of each member's family throughout the series as a whole. Winter got about two episodes' of appearances, and Qrow gained some relevance in V3, but that was generally it. This is the first time I'm seeing Weiss' father and brother, and Blake's parents. Raven showed up for a brief bit in V2. Taiyang had one really brief appearance at the start of V3 and then just the last half of the last chapter, but now he's to the forefront. Raven has had at least one known appearance in her chat with her brother (considering there's a raven bird in at least one scene, there's the possibility that's her too. Especially since Qrow was 'going for a walk' when that raven appeared), and Taiyang talks about her some too. Blake's parents show up for the first time. That basically leaves Weiss' mother and Ruby's mother as the only ones who haven't appeared yet. Weiss' mother I think was mentioned to be alive (something about how Weiss says the Schnee family legacy isn't Jacques', but 'theirs'. I forget the exact line, but the gist of it was that her mother was still married to Jacques). Summer Rose is said to be dead, but it was a 'never found the body' scenario, just like Raven...so if my line of thought is correct, she'll appear in some form by the end of the volume.
And finally, a funny
Last edited:
Just the Vol7/8 skins for RWBY, no love for JNPR and it's just for Switch, yeah, so just a digital download.
Also, having watched the finale yesterday, I'm even more frustrated with this show than I already was. At the time I was just waylaid, but by this point I'm just...
Frustrated. Disappointed. At the time I was surprised, amazed that I didn't foresee anything that happened. But looking back, I can only see how they made everything so much worse.
Also, having watched the finale yesterday, I'm even more frustrated with this show than I already was. At the time I was just waylaid, but by this point I'm just...
Frustrated. Disappointed. At the time I was surprised, amazed that I didn't foresee anything that happened. But looking back, I can only see how they made everything so much worse.
-
Approve
1
- Show all
RWBYond.
Masta-
"Most people who feel like you, tend to either just drop the show entirely, like I did, or get chased out by the most toxic elements of the fanbase, who can't stand seeing criticism of any kind leveled at the show."
I dropped out of writing RWBY fanfiction (well, fanfiction in general) for much that reason. I only really hang on because I want to see Jaune's arc resolution- since Blake is just there for blatant tumblr-appeasement at this point, and she's my favorite female character. ... as if that wasn't obvious.
Masta-
"Most people who feel like you, tend to either just drop the show entirely, like I did, or get chased out by the most toxic elements of the fanbase, who can't stand seeing criticism of any kind leveled at the show."
I dropped out of writing RWBY fanfiction (well, fanfiction in general) for much that reason. I only really hang on because I want to see Jaune's arc resolution- since Blake is just there for blatant tumblr-appeasement at this point, and she's my favorite female character. ... as if that wasn't obvious.
Last edited:
Finally watched chapters 10-12 of Volume 4. Not as many notes this time.
If it weren't for having been exposed to mild spoilers for later seasons, I totally would have expected Qrow to bite the dust in the last episode. It felt like it was being set-up for that, and then it was averted with a last-minute rescue. Especially after Team RNJR defeats the Nuckelavee, they could have had a whole 'passing down the torch' scene between two generations, with Qrow being still stronger in general, but recognising RNJR as having the potential to surpass him. Maybe that was originally the plan, but Qrow being popular saved him, or something? I guess some fanfic author with chops could do something with that, though it would definitely become the darker timeline.
I'm guessing we'll have a big reunion at Mistral, followed by a volume of intrigue and shadow wars before everything erupts out into the open in a big mess for the volume finale with another big city-deciding clash.
Personally, I enjoyed Volume 4. It slows down the overall plot significantly, but it definitely helps to develop each of Team RWBY in her own right, separated from each other, and starts to round out some of the cast of side characters. Oscar definitely has the potential to be a new X-factor as well. No doubt he'll be a complete newbie at Haven, but he's got Ozpin mentoring him.
I find it a little funny how Kali bowls over the door eavesdropping on Blake and Sun, right like how Sun fell over while eavesdropping on Blake and Ghira.
Something I've been thinking off-and-on and haven't yet mentioned is that the Grimm very much remind me of the Hollows from Bleach, at least in terms of aesthetics, and Kingdom Hearts' Heartless to a lesser extent. I keep expecting the Hunters and Huntresses to be targeting the Grimms' masks.
If it weren't for having been exposed to mild spoilers for later seasons, I totally would have expected Qrow to bite the dust in the last episode. It felt like it was being set-up for that, and then it was averted with a last-minute rescue. Especially after Team RNJR defeats the Nuckelavee, they could have had a whole 'passing down the torch' scene between two generations, with Qrow being still stronger in general, but recognising RNJR as having the potential to surpass him. Maybe that was originally the plan, but Qrow being popular saved him, or something? I guess some fanfic author with chops could do something with that, though it would definitely become the darker timeline.
I'm guessing we'll have a big reunion at Mistral, followed by a volume of intrigue and shadow wars before everything erupts out into the open in a big mess for the volume finale with another big city-deciding clash.
Personally, I enjoyed Volume 4. It slows down the overall plot significantly, but it definitely helps to develop each of Team RWBY in her own right, separated from each other, and starts to round out some of the cast of side characters. Oscar definitely has the potential to be a new X-factor as well. No doubt he'll be a complete newbie at Haven, but he's got Ozpin mentoring him.
I find it a little funny how Kali bowls over the door eavesdropping on Blake and Sun, right like how Sun fell over while eavesdropping on Blake and Ghira.
Something I've been thinking off-and-on and haven't yet mentioned is that the Grimm very much remind me of the Hollows from Bleach, at least in terms of aesthetics, and Kingdom Hearts' Heartless to a lesser extent. I keep expecting the Hunters and Huntresses to be targeting the Grimms' masks.
