#everything about her in that fight scene in the snow vs. ruby is EVERYTHING | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dascarecrow · 3 years

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Hi, all. First post so please have patience and don’t judge too harshly.

So I absolutely love and adore the hit web animation known as RWBY from Rooster Teeth. The first time I saw anything for it was the teaser at the end of the Season 10 finale of Red vs. Blue and I was instantly drawn in.

So I’ve followed from the series from the beginning and decided to dedicate my first post ever to a topic regarding RWBY that I find quite fascinating.

A recurrent idea I’ve seen throughout Tumblr is the idea of Oscar Pine’s Fairy Tale inspiration being that of the Little Prince. I quite like this idea and will go into depth about my thoughts and feelings about it in this post. Fair warning I haven’t read the actual story so if I get anything wrong or inaccurate I apologize.

Just for those who don’t know, the story of The Little Prince is as follows. A pilot crash lands in the desert and meets a young boy who reveals he’s a prince from a different world entirely. The prince tells the pilot the story of how they reached the moment they’ve met. A major part of the backstory is how a rose grew on the Prince’s planet and the two fell in love. The rose was vain and demanding but truly cared for the Prince. The Prince loved her despite her demands but eventually felt he was being taken advantage of by her and set out to see the universe. During his travels he met many different adults who embodied different criticisms of society. The Prince eventually made his way to Earth and landed in a desert before finding rosebushes, which left the Prince heartbroken because he thought the rose he knew was unique but now he saw that she truly wasn’t. After finding the rosebushes the Prince met a fox who helped him come to a realization about his rose, in that the love and care he had for the rose did make her special after all. After the meeting with the pilot the Prince meets a snake who offers him a way to return to his home by biting him. The ending is essentially the Prince allowing himself to be bitten by the snake but it’s left deliberately ambiguous as to whether or not the Prince did return home or simply died. There’s more to be certain but these are the main points.

Anyway, on to the main stuff.

One of the main themes of RWBY is the usage of different Fairy Tale inspirations in their characters. I have seen several posts about how Oscar’s Fairy Tale inspiration is that of The Little Prince, particularly from MiraculousCoraZone and LittleMissSquiggles, who I would recommend looking up on Tumblr. These posts lay out good talking points for how and why this is the case and I decided to throw my hat in the ring for it.

I like this idea tremendously for a few reasons. The first is that the fairy tale itself is a more obscure one to the extent that I discovered it through the posts that presented the idea. Second is that it would be thematically resonant with Oscar’s personal journey of wanting to be his own person and helps to set him apart from Ozpin who is meant to be the Wizard of Oz. The final reason is that I am a hopeless shipper and this theory let’s me indulge in my personal favorite ship of the series, Rosegarden.

One of the things that stands out about RWBY is that it doesn’t play the fairy tale inspirations straight. For example Weiss is based on Snow White but rather than a vain and cruel queen for her stepmother she actually does have a family that loves and cares for her but is too consumed by their own faults and failings to properly tell her this. Similarly Blake is based on Beauty from Beauty and The Beast but shows what happens when the Beast is completely rejected. So if Oscar is inspired by the Little Prince what would be the deviation for him?

My belief? What if the Little Prince met the pilot before he met his rose?

Now, let’s go into all of the characters who could tie into this and how.

The Prince

The Little Prince of course is seen to be Oscar himself. This is supported by Oscar’s personal journey. The Prince before he met his rose mainly tended to the soil of his little planet which is similar to Oscar being a farmhand. The Prince was prompted to go explore the universe through the actions of the rose he loved and while Oscar is similarly prompted it’s not by a rose but by the old pilot, who in this case would be Ozpin. Oscar is the newest incarnation of Ozpin’s eternal and reincarnating soul throughout the ages and inherits the role of uniting humanity and fighting Salem. Now Oscar isn’t like the Prince at this point, as the Prince was innocent and cheerful but also possessed of wisdom when he met the pilot. Oscar by contrast is more weary and reluctant to follow the role he’s been given, largely unwilling to abandon the life he has now despite dreams of being more than a farmhand. Ozpin is the more optimistic of them at this point and is the one who prompts Oscar to set forth on his journey. It isn’t until he meets his rose that Oscar starts showing true warmth instead of the resignation of following Ozpin.

Cue Oscar’s first meeting with Ruby where the Young Prince finally meets his Rose. Oscar is taken by her right away, amazed and enamored with her Silver Eyes. The early interactions between the two can easily be read as those of a budding romance, at least on Oscar’s end. One of the biggest moments for the two is the scene in the dojo where Oscar breaks down, overwhelmed by everything, and Ruby reveals the pain she’s been holding inside of herself before noting that Oscar is greater than he thinks.

Now this is where the pilot’s presence helps the Young Prince and turns the story from it’s path. Oscar gets into thinking of Ruby as a truly special Rose, the greatest Huntress at Beacon, an ephemeral being one might say. Ozpin is quick to curtail these thoughts, acknowledging that she was indeed gifted in some ways but also noting that Ruby is ultimately only human. Not a figure of some glorified ideal that she can never truly live up to. The pilot sells the idea that while Ruby is a special rose she isn’t special for being a rose.

And this idea actually does resonate with Oscar. He cares for her a great deal and will even fight against Ozpin to help her but he doesn’t hold her to some elevated pedestal. When Ruby chooses to hide the truth from Ironwood he clearly disagrees with the course of action and speaks with her about his doubts. He’s respectful and doesn’t automatically treat her actions as inherently wrong and his own concerns as right by default. Oscar never gives any indication that he’s going to go against Ruby’s decisions despite his concerns because he trusts and respects her, in a sense he knows how to love his rose which was a lesson the Little Prince learned the hard way.

A key part of the Prince’s journey is that he meets other adults on other planets and discovers them to be absurd, irrational and self absorbed to ridiculous extremes. Oscar, throughout his own journey, finds nearly every adult member involved in the battle against Salem to be highly dysfunctional at best or outright corrupt at worst. Leo, Raven, Ironwood, they all eventually wound up turning against Ozpin for their own selfish reasons. Even Qrow, otherwise the most loyal member of his Inner Circle, coped with his tragedies through alcoholism and violently turned against Ozpin when he discovered the truth. Oscar dismally discovers all of this through his own eyes, especially while Oz is absent.

We’ll get to the fox and snake in a moment but for now let’s switch tracks to another character.

The Pilot

Ozpin takes the role of the pilot and at first seems to be a complete defiance of the pilot’s role in the story. The pilot’s journey in the original story was recognizing the inherent cynicism and pessimism in adults and coming to realize he was no better. Ozpin at first seems to outright reject these notions, seeing the best in humanity and believing they can triumph and overcome anything through working together. But as the story goes on it shows that he’s arguably more broken than any other character the battle against Salem. He knows all too well that full truth of what humanity faces could and more than likely would completely break anyone who discovers it so he hides the truth from his allies and allows them fight an impossible enemy that he knows can not die in war that will never end.

This ties into how Ozpin subverts the pilots role. The original story had the pilot as a passive figure, someone who is told a story and reacts to that which occurs to what is right in front of him. But Ozpin is different, he tries to be a mentor to the Young Prince that is Oscar. He is the one that pushes Oscar forward and encourages him to go forward. But eventually Oscar starts to push back against him and tries to choose his own path rather than follow and defer to Ozpin. In these times, such as the battle at Haven or when the truth was revealed to the others, Ozpin tries to overpower Oscar and assert his own authority. Contrasting how the pilot in the story came to see his own faults and failings and sought to regain some of the lost cheer and light that goes with childhood innocence by seeking the Little Prince once more, Ozpin is so consumed by the notion that people simply can not rise above the darkest truths of the world that resolves to never share anything that isn’t needed.

This is where Oscar as the Prince enters his journey. Oscar is able to return to Ozpin some of the faith and hope for humanity that he had long since forgotten, much as the Little Prince did for The Pilot. Ozpin begins to defer to Oscar and help him along, acknowledging the truth that Oscar shows him.

This is ultimately the purpose of the bond between the two. The God of Light set Ozma’s reincarnations to make it so he was never truly alone but with Oscar there is a wall that stems from Oscar’s worries for his own identity and Ozpin’s cynical outlook on humanity’s virtue. The two souls are meant to merge, with neither claiming dominance as Oscar fears but to work in harmony. Ozpin fails to do this but he does impart an important lesson to Oscar regardless of his other failings.

The dojo scene. As mentioned above Oscar begins to see Ruby is greater than she truly is, that she is a special and ephemeral Rose. Ozpin, who has the benefit of the ages he’s lived, dissuades Oscar from this belief. Not only because Oscar’s belief is patently untrue but because Ozpin has seen first hand countless others like Ruby. Fairytales of Remnant all but confirms that Ozpin has lived lives where he met other Warriors with Silver Eyes and possibly other Roses. Ozpin knows that while Ruby is a special Rose she is not special for being a Rose or for having Silver Eyes. Ozpin extols that Ruby is indeed a fine Huntress and has traits that raise her high but she also is lacking in other ways and imparts this to Oscar who can see her as the Rose that he will know in this life and no other.

The Rose

Ruby is the Rose that the Young Prince falls in love with, as we’ve already covered. The story of Ruby as the Rose the Prince comes to love differs in that The Prince has already met the Pilot by the time he meets her. Ruby is quite joyful to meet Oscar personally, even before she meets Ozpin yet again. This highlights a key difference between Ruby and The Rose. The Rose was vain and demanding, wanting the Prince’s care and attention however she could get it. Ruby freely offers of herself a comfort that Oscar desperately searches for throughout the series, that he is his own person and not simply another life that Ozma has to suffer through. In this way Ruby subverts the Rose’s role.

Another subversion happens in the dojo scene when Oscar breaks down and questions how Ruby can possibly be okay with what has happened. The Little Prince felt his Rose took him for granted, choosing to look at her harsher words instead of her kinder actions. Ruby goes against and openly reveals another side of herself, showing how overwhelmed and hurt she feels by everything that has happened. Oscar, the Young Prince, sees the side of his Rose that the Little Prince wasn’t able to and he comes to know her far better. The tragedy of the Little Prince and his Rose was that they loved each other but were too young to know how to be in love. That is not the case here as Ozpin’s advice to Oscar leads him to temper his own enamored beliefs. So when they time comes and they do come to love each other, if they ever do, then they will know how to be in love.

The final aspect of Ruby’s role as the Rose is her hiding the truth from Ironwood. Oscar is not pleased with her doing so and speaks his mind to her about how he sees it as a hypocrisy given Ozpin’s own actions. The Rose chooses to put her own desires ahead of the Prince’s freely given support but instead of wallowing in his own grief about it Oscar actually speaks to her as an equal. He has his concerns but never for a second does he consider going against her for what she’s done. He fervently believes in Ruby and isn’t going to let one moment of self concern change that. Ruby and Oscar excitedly speaking with another about finally revealing the truth shows how much they honestly care for each other. Ruby made the choice to hide the truth but she won’t make the choice to reveal it if Oscar won’t agree with her. The two are utterly joyous at being on the same page with each other.

The Snake

This one is about the only character I can’t solidly determine a counterpart for. If you go with the interpretation of the snake as killing the Prince then Salem would take the role. If you go with the idea that the Snake kept its word and returned the Prince to his world then the role would go to either Hazel or Emerald. Hazel would be fitting as it subverts the Snake’s intention of freeing the Prince’s soul from his body because Hazel is well aware of Ozpin’s ability to reincarnate and it would be thematically fitting for him to begin his redemption by freeing his current life from Salem. Emerald would be fitting as the Snake’s actions, if altruistic, would be a Samaritan’s act and Emerald could begin her redemption by helping to free Oscar.

The Adults

On his journey the Little Prince met several adults who embody criticisms of society. Oscar actually encounters counterpoints for these adults on his own journey.

Ironwood embodies both the King With No Subjects and The Narcissist. The King gives orders but they are only orders that can be followed and he adjusts his commands to fit the situation. Ironwood similarly demands everyone follow his orders but doesn’t recognize others refusing to follow them as anything other than them being enemies. He also refuses to adjust his methods even after they have failed him countless times before. This ties into his role as The Narcissist as it’s shown that Ironwood is motivated by the desire for personal validation and a refusal to admit his own flaws. Ironwood countless times has acted with the conceit that he is the one people should follow for no other reason than that he says so. Oscar comments on this, noting he does believe in Ironwood when the General asks him for validation “But not only you”. Oscar refuses to see Ironwood as the only one with answers the need or the only one fighting against Salem.

The Drunk is embodied by Qrow. Oscar first met him in a bar and their first interaction consisted of Oscar getting Qrow home after he got drunk. The Drunk drinks to forget his shame at being a drunkard. Qrow goes into a destructive spiral after discovering the truth, claiming that meeting Ozpin was the worst luck of his life. Qrow is actually able to break through his own pessimism and give up on drinking.

The Businessman is embodied by Jacques. The Businessman endlessly counts and catalogues the stars so he can own them all, unable to see their beauty. Jacques made the Schnee Dust Company the most powerful in Remnant but at the cost of the traits that initially made it so great to begin with, such as integrity and honor. Jacques opposition to Ironwood’s increasingly drastic methods isn’t motivated by altruism or how the General is hurting people but because of the profits he losing because of the General’s actions. Jacques can not see value in anything other than the company he stole away from it’s rightful inheritors.

The Lamplighter is embodied by the Atlesian Military. The Lamplighter blindly follows orders to put out and relight a lamppost for his whole life because a whole day is only a minute on the planet he lives so he has to do one of the other every thirty seconds, rather than just leave the lamppost lit. The Atlesian Military, and especially the Ace-Ops, are blindly obedient to every order Ironwood gives them regardless of their personal feelings or morality on the matter. They actually break away from the mold in that every order they are given, every justification they come up with to try and explain why they are in the right, is just slowly pushing them further and further towards breaking away entirely.

The Geographer is embodied by the Happy Huntresses. In the story the Geographer is meant to be a diatribe on how pointless it is specialize in something in a contemporary world. The Huntresses are seen to be as going against the grain in Atlas, choosing to help Mantle rather ignore it and left the military to do so. This unquestionably shown as a good thing, as the right thing to do. May especially sees it as more important to protect Mantle as Atlas has always had the means to protect and support itself while Mantle struggles to get by.

With all of that said there is one final character to cover and they could be the most important one in Oscar’s journey as the Young Prince.

The Fox

Yes Ren is the character I feel could be the Fox. In many ways Ren is the most composed character of the main heroes, generally being far calmer and trying to have his head on straighter. I say trying because in many ways he is far more emotional than the rest, trying to bury things down until they boil over. The other members of RWBY and JNPR have had meltdowns and blowups but they are especially notable with Ren because he’s normally more composed. He and Jaune are the only ones who gotten suicidal in their reckless meltdowns but where Jaune cooled down after getting overpowered in his Ren stubbornly insisted on fighting even if he got himself killed. So why does Ren fit the role of the Fox?

Because my belief is that he’s growing into that role still.

In “Fault” Ren has a meltdown and posits that RWBY and JNPR are just kids in over their heads and that the adults involved are better suited to handle the problems they are dealing with. This patently shown as false as Ironwood and the Ace-Ops barely know what they are doing any more the heroes do. One of the themes of the Little Prince is how adults try to pass themselves off as mature and reasonable but ultimately are little better than children because of how far they take their flaws.

Ren witnesses this in “War” where the Ace-Ops argue with JRY about allowing them to try and rescue Oscar from Salem. He comes to realize that the adults who should be able to get a handle on things are better at it than the children that are being condemned. This leads to two moments that are resonant with the Fox’s role in the story.

When Ren declares that “No One Is Replaceable!”

In the Little Prince the Fox is able to help the Prince come to terms with his heartbreak over his Rose not being as special as he thought. The Fox claims that you are responsible for what you tame. The Prince tamed his Rose, he cared for her and loved her, and so she was special because she was his. Special not because she was a rose but because she was his Rose.

Ren’s declaration carries similar sentiments. Oscar is important to them because he’s their friend. They need no other reason to work to save him. The Ace-Ops don’t see this, they refuse to see it, and they condemn JRY for believing it. Which leads to the second moment.

Ren’s Semblance evolving and letting him see the true emotions of the Ace-Ops.

One of the most powerful lines in the story, something that sticks with me personally, is the Fox declaring “It it only with the heart that we can see rightly.” The Fox states that it is only by looking with our heart, by choosing to do what is right, that we are able to anything of true importance.

Ren can see the Ace-Ops deepest, most well hidden feelings. He sees their hearts and he beseeches them to listen to what they are trying to ignore, trying to fight against. Because it is the only way they will be able to grow and evolve to their full potential.

And when Ren reunites with Oscar he will be able to see the heart of the Young Prince. And the heart of the Rose that The Young Prince loves. And he’ll be there to guide them so they know how to be in love.

Okay that was a doozy. But hey I hope it’s one heck of an opening act and the beginning of many posts to arrive.

#RWBY #Rosegarden

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blackcatmanor · 4 years

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RWBY V7 E9 Photo Review (spoilers)

A solid episode that mostly could have been tacked onto E8, but with notable moments.

Characters done right:

Robyn- A dark horse that emerged as MVP of the episode by a hair. Her snark was toned way down and you felt the frustration when Jacques says “I only meant to win the election” and she throws a chair with a scream of “ONLY?!” Her concern for Mantle citizens upon learning of the Grimm invasion also felt genuine and raised the tension of the episode.

I will say though she also had the dumbest line in the episode with

“You don’t trust your own council to help you? Operating in secret? These are the actions of someone who’s hiding something.”

What do you think a secret is?! A secret is something that is hidden! What is this line?!

Best Girl Weiss: A close second goes to best girl Weiss with the line of “Jacques Schnee, you’re under arrest…..can I do that?” OMG I hate how cute you’ve become!

Special Mention- Clover: A lot of cool character moments with Clover this episode, featuring his team bonding and general bad-assery. The moment he holds onto Elm for support and then they shake hands before she jumps shows that the team cares for each other, which is going to make me even more homicidal if Clover turns out to be a Spy. If any of the Ace Ops are going to be a spy, I think it’ll be Harriet or maybe Vine (okay maybe that’s because they are the two Ace ops I like the least- don’t @ me)

Characters done wrong

Obvious Neo is obvious- the super long pan on her face made the “reveal” at the end super lame. It would have been better if they cut the scene before the Neo evil smirk, as it would have just looked like a waitress that was just shocked by a bunch of huntsmen darting out the door. It would have given the end a lot more shock factor when the waitress enters a room to have an out-of-shot woman ask “Tell me you found what we are looking for” before the waitress changes back to Neo and Cinder’s stupid face is revealed.

I do hope that Neo is going to betray Cinder. Cinder’s character is the absolute worst in both writing and acting. The character has zero depth, motivation or charisma and the delivery of lines is atrocious with the cringey attempts at sounding cool and seductive. Neo constantly rolling her eyes at Cinder is a mood, and it’s like she’s an audience stand-in.

If Cinder dies it could also be a great catalyst for a lot of interesting changes, including having a maiden whose identity is unknown. Or Neo could become the maiden and go rogue, giving us a chance to see her as more than a sidekick.

Story stuff done right:

Villains- Although the Jacques story line was wrapped up too soon, it was still a nicely done arc and does a good job of depicting the villainy of Watts who, like Salem, only uses people until they are no longer useful. Using Jacques’ codes to shut off the heat without Jacques’ knowledge is proof of that.

I am excited to see Watts’ true evil prowess going forward, especially now that people know he’s alive. Hopefully Watts will evade capture and cause further mayhem right under Ironwood’s nose, which will show that the Villains in RWBY are actually capable of being competent and doing evil things. In each volume after V3 they have been bumbling idiots incapable of securing a single victory, but V7 thus far has been good at maintaining a decent level of menace with Tyrian and Watts teaming up.

Building a universe- I like the rapport being built with the council, because it anchors the characters’ actions in a real world setting, whereas previously their actions and story felt independent of a greater universe. We are now getting into a phase where these characters have to make decisions along with a political infrastructure, which is a cool new dynamic. The dialogue also felt a lot more realistic without Jacques snarking, as the council was able to outline real concerns and Ironwood felt legitimately on the defensive. I’m a little disappointed they skipped the part where Ironwood tells them about Salem, because seeing their reaction in real time would have been interesting, but it’s a cool development that he shared that info with them nonetheless.

Story stuff done wrong

Opening scene: This scene should have been the cliffhanger in the last episode before the break- with people worriedly trying to get answers and Pietro and Maria exchanging uncomfortable looks. I understood that the snow meant people would be freezing in Mantle but the kid’s excited reaction last episode made for a really non-tense cliffhanger.

Evil Jacques we hardly knew ye: I think the reveal of Jacques’ betrayal was too premature. I would have liked to see him reap the rewards of being underhanded a little, maybe become emboldened and try to solicit Watts for more evil schemes, only to have it crash down around him. I know the writers wanted it for Weiss to absolve Ironwood at the last moment, but maybe they could have had the meeting interrupted by the Grimm invasion of Mantle, and the council re-convenes next episode to make a final ruling in Ironwood’s position as council member and headmaster for Weiss to make the grand reveal. That would have also allowed this episode to be dedicated to the action surrounding the invasion.

So. Much. Shipping: I love a good ship, but it was so awkward this episode. The tone of the entire episode felt tense, with huge arguments, revelations, arrests, attacks, but it interrupted by the onslaught of shipping moments crammed into the middle. I think the concept of some of these are cute- especially Ruby and Oscar (though depending on what Ozpin is up to it may be creepy), but it all should have been put aside because these people are supposed to be professional huntsmen. The inserts were so jarring it was actually kind of cringey (like the Bumblebee run-by when Rosegarden are talking, and the sexy Bumblebee smirk after the Renora moment). As for the Ren and Nora moment, I didn’t think was as ship-ey because she was trying to be reassuring since Ren seems so tense, and without the Bumblebee smirk it would have actually been very sweet.

Ozpin’s return? The weird tease about Ozpin being back is jarring, especially in a volume built around trust and telling the truth. I hope it is just Ozpin coming back in brief moments- like in the Volume 6 crash- and Oscar doesn’t know what to make of it so he doesn’t want to tell the group until he knows what’s doing on.

However, I have a feeling it may be more sinister- based on the bits in the last few episodes how Ironwood remarks Oscar is becoming more like Ozpin, and this episode he said “It’s like you were there.” I think maybe Oscar proper is slipping away, being absorbed by Ozma’s soul and he’s aware of it, but isn’t saying anything. In either case I don’t like it because it means Oscar is hiding something which contradicts literally everything he’s been saying the whole volume and it also puts a creepy undertone on the Oscar/Ruby cuteness from the episode.

Lack of action:

This episode had a *fair* amount of action with the dragon grimm plane chase, but I wish the talking parts were wrapped up last episode or put on hold this episode to address the Grimm invasion. Volume 7 is following a lot of the same patterns it’s been criticized for in the past, which is ALLUDING to action, but having it all happen off screen (the riots after the SDC closure, the Grimm attack after the election, etc). This volume has been better than previous volumes with little snippets of action- such as Tyrian’s attack and the scuffle between Robyn and Bumblebee, but there hasn’t been a great big fight since Episode 3, which is 5 episodes in an action anime without a substantial fight, and to keep the blue-balls going after the break is annoying.

I do think that next week will deliver on the action and we will finally get to see the Robyn/Qrow vs Tyrian fight in the opening credits. Maybe Ironwood, too since he is shown in the credits shooting at something in Mantle…? I hope so at least.

Overall score: 7/10

A lot of this episode could have just been part of last week’s episode, which would have given us a nice dose of action after the break. Also the panic about Salem from the council and Robyn could have also been part of the reason the Grimm invaded in this episode, in addition to the heating riots. Nonetheless it doesn’t mean it was a bad episode, though the shipping was a bit distracting.

Random thoughts:

I wonder if they’re going to have to address the fact that they crashed an airship into mantle....

I also wonder if Whitley will bring his dad a shiv in a cake to bust out of jail. In seriousness though, I hope they address Whitley more this season. This episode actually made me feel bad for him. 10/10

#rwby #rwby bumblebee #rwby spoilers #rwby v7 #rwby ozpin #ozpin #rwby rosegarden #Robyn Hill #jacques schnee #weiss schnee #ruby rose

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shadows-twilight · 5 years

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RWBY Volume 7, Chapter 1

What is up, FNDM!!! At long last we are back with an all new volume of RWBY, and thus I am back to gush about it! Let's just jump right in with my thoughts and opinions on Chapter 1 of RWBY Volume 7, "The Greatest Kingdom"

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW:

I swear, the moon gets prettier and prettier every volume. This opening shot is incredible.

When we heard his one line in the trailer, I was blown away with how little I could tell that Qrow had a new voice actor, even though I was listening for it. Now that we get to hear more of it, the differences are admittedly starting to stand out a bit more. That being said, I don't think it will take long at all to get used to it, andJason Liebrecht is still doing an amazing job. I certainly look forward to his performance moving forward.

Looks like I was right in the finale in that the lower area is Mantle. I must say, it looks amazing. Everything about it just looks so dirty and industrial, definitely what I would imagine for the slums of the technological giant that is Atlas. Major kudos to CRWBY for this setting design.

Ooh, both Ironwood and Winter get new outfits. They look good, though something about Ironwood's beard looks off to me. Maybe I'm just not used to it, but something about the shading makes it look photoshopped on. Maybe it'll look better in the future.

Decided to pause on the newsboard that the purple haired dude is looking at, and I must say, while there isn't a lot there, what can be made out is...foreboding. The bottom middle headline I believe says "Outer Wall Damaged" which certainly seems like it will be important later, while the one to its left seems to be an opinion piece on the dust embargo. The standouts, however, are the top two. The first on the left talks about a journalist being found dead (always a good sign in politically charged climates) while the one on the right talks about an upcoming council election. Specifically, it talks about a "Mantle Hometown Hero" (whom I am assuming to be the woman on all of the posters that looks like she wouldn't look out of place in The Dragon Prince) going up against an "Atlesian Tycoon." Five Lien on who THAT could possibly be. Are Team RWBY and Friends going to have to go up against Jacques in a political arena? Because that could get pretty interesting.

I'd say that drone was too cute to die the way it did, but quite frankly it was far too funny for me to muster up that much compassion.

Yeesh, our first look at the Faunus Dust Miners, and it is not a pretty sight. Or maybe it's just the drunk asshole spouting casual racism. Either way, it's an ugly sight.

Thank you Weiss. We were all thinking it, put the trash where it belongs.

So did the drunk with the blue beanie know who they were? I feel like that was what he was trying to say before he decided to eat shit.

I don't know who the mouse Faunus girl was that exited the clinic, and we'll probably never see her again, but she was adorable as hell and I feel like that deserved mentioning.

Hmm, a robotics technician that resides in Atlas, has similar hair style and skin tone to the guy we cut to when Penny died, and is currently wearing a pink bow tie? Yeah, no idea who this is.

I love his chair. That is all.

"Days Since Last Nonsense: 0" I like the added touch of 'nonsense' being written down the side where room ran out.

If we never get to see Nora try Pietro's dancing shoes, this entire volume will be considered a waste.

So, seeing how incredibly obvious it is as to who this Pietro guy is, did anyone else perk up a bit when he referred to his daughter in present tense?

Hehe, convenient-reveal-delaying Grimm attack is conveniently-reveal-delaying

I see the Atlesian are as useless as always.

This score sounds like it's based on a song we'll be getting later, but even if it isn't I am loving it all the same

Even though his pose was completely different, when Oscar stabbed the Sabre Grimm in the head, it reminded me of Scrooge Mcduck's pogo attack in the old Ducktales game.

And there it is. The major even that they have been teasing us about for months, the big Vol 7 premiere surprise, the one, the only PENNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so excited to see our precious robot girl back! Now all we need is Pyrrha and I will be happy once more

Let's face it Ruby, any other greeting simply would not have done this reunion justice.

Plus side, the status of RWBY redheads just got a lot less endangered.

"We have so many things to catch up about" Oh, Penny, you have no idea.

Dangit, Qrow, you had to jinx it, didn't you. I mean, I guess that's pretty on brand for you, but still.

These Ace-Ops guys certainly seem...colorful (despite most of them wearing the standard boring Atlas white color palette). I'm particularly interested in who I'm assuming is the leader, who the credits name Clover Ebi. I don't know who or what his character allusion is, but I feel like him being covered in stereotypical good luck charms is a sign.

Woohoo! New intro time! Just like last time, there's a lot to unpack here, so let's get into it

-The opening silhouettes remind me a lot of the original trailers, and quite frankly I love it for that. Not sure how I feel about the more pastel color pallet, though. -The shot of Team RWBY flying through the sky and shifting throughout all of their main outfits? A stroke of genius. -They seem to have updated Yang's semblance effect from the Bees vs Adam fight. It looks amazing and I love it. -Ironwood alone in a dark war room certainly doesn't seem ominous-Hmm, now the Ace-Ops guys get there own silhouette portraits? I am certainly interested in getting to know these guys. -When we zoom out on Watts's computer, alongside the Ace-Ops we see something to do with Mantle's security network as well as an election map. This election is definitely looking like it's going to be a main focal point of this volume. -Nothing too special here, just a few character shots, a silhouette of Tyrian looking creepy, Ironwood looking angry and sad (though the effect of the snow and ice consuming him is interesting), Jacques and Whitley looking smarmy, Weiss and Winter looking at each other (their facial expressions are certainly telling of what their relationship is going to be like this volume), Pietro and Maria, a group shot of Teams RWBY, Team JNR, and Oscar, and of course, Penny looking adorable. -Now that we're getting to see it in motion, I must admit that Jaune's new haircut doesn't look too bad. Also, I noticed his shield now incorporates hard light dust. I wonder if it just widens his shield a little or if it will manifest in other ways as well. -When the Mantle citizen threw a rock at the hologram of Ironwood, it briefly flickered to Jacques. That's concerning. -The action scenes are a lot of fun, with Oscar training with Ironwood, and Weiss and Blake in the dust mines, but the really interesting one is the Mantle Hero and Qrow going up against Tyrian. I wonder if Qrow knows her. -The group shot at the end is very My Hero Academia and I absolutely love it. -Wow, even Qrow gets a new outfit. It only took him twenty years. -Ooh, a brief look at the Relic of Creation. I admit, I was hoping that the relics would each have different color schemes, like having all of them be gold is fine, but I was slightly hoping where the Relic of Knowledge was blue, the Relic of Creation would be maybe green and the Relic of Destruction would be red, or something like that. Still looks cool though -There was not a single hint of Cinder or Neo in the opening, and that somewhat worries me.

Hehe, credits humor "Drunk Mann played by Joel Mann" Ah, once again, RWBY shows that it knows how to come out the gate swinging. They've set up a lot of interesting things in this first episode, and I can not wait to see how it all plays out.

#rwby #rwby volume 7 #rwby spoilers #rooster teeth animation

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sir-adamus · 5 years

Text

RWBY timeline

The show doesn’t give us too much reference for how much time has passed in-show, but we do get some indications throughout the show so i’m gonna try and lay them out (and line up some things roughly that were happening around the same time). i’m gonna break things up into seasons as we’re never given specific dates and one of our key frames of reference is gonna be Ruby’s age, as she’s introduced to us in the Red trailer at age 15, and we now know through Chibi that her birthday is the 31st of October, and from there we can roughly map out when everything takes place

everything else under the cut because obviously this got looong

~80AGW

okay so we know the Vytal Festival is held once every two years and has done since the end of the Great War, with the year the series starts being one of those years, and we’re told it’s the 40th Festival since it’s inception, so lets call this year 80AGW (After the Great War)

Winter

so we’ll start at the start - the winter of this year

only a few things happen here, namely the Red trailer/its manga adaptation by Miwa and presumably Weiss’s training with Winter in the flashback segments of the Weiss Character Short (but it’s Atlas so it could be later). the White trailer/its manga adaptation by Miwa could also potentially happen here

Spring

quite a lot happens here - so its best to bullet point from here out

White trailer/Miwa 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 Beacon, where she wants to go

Black trailer/Miwa manga chapters 5 & 6 - set at the same time as the flashback in 3x07 and the flashback of Blake’s V5 Character Short (that it’s set in Forever Fall doesn’t help, though 3x07 helps suggests it’s not winter and 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/Miwa manga chapters 7, 8 & 9 - not long prior to 1x01 (as we see Roman hiring Junior’s thugs)

1x01 - not long after Yellow trailer, implied to not be very long before beginning of the semester

the assumption that these all take place in Spring is based on that during the school year we see, several months do pass and it ends in Autumn/Fall (though still before the end of October, we’ll get to that), so Spring is what makes the most sense here. now we get into the Semesters - the first semester seems to span Spring-Summer given the very temperate weather we see in Vale during this time

- Semester 1 (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 three days, then skipping some time further). within this, the non-Red trailer parts of manga chapters 1/2 occur, happening 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 (there’s a slight retcon with Ruby only deciding to wear her hood over her uniform after this event)

Summer

this semester takes place over a few months - this is when the preparations for the Vytal festival begin, and exchange students begin arriving, Ruby comments that it’s been “a few months” since she ran into Torchwick in 1x15

this episode also gives us a sense that the semesters at the other academies must occur in parallel with each other, as Cinder makes her reappearance, along with Emerald and Mercury, at the end of volume 1. we learn in volume 5 that they used Lionheart to get entrance into the tournament, and as the Haven students would notice a team they’d never met before representing them, the implication is that the posing as students was happening at Haven itself before they arrived back in Vale - this also serves as an explanation for why Cinder wasn’t directly involved in volume 1 and an in-universe explanation for why Neo wasn’t around to help Roman out, because she was the fourth teammate (and being used as blackmail against Roman no doubt) - this will be important later

a short time after 1x16, we get the flashforward at the end of chapter 6 of the Miwa manga, with Blake waking up having dreamed the events of the Black trailer and Yang getting extreme cuteness proximity over Blake’s ears

at some point following this, chapters 10-15 of the Miwa manga occur, depicting 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

- Semester 2 (summer-autumn/fall)

when the show resumed in volume 2, we’re told there’s been a minimum of a two week break since the last semester ended (Ruby mentions that “the last two weeks have been great” but that might not necessarily have been their entire holiday, for all we know Ruby and Yang went home to visit their dad)

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!”. this establishes that volumes 2 and 3 occur within the same semester (and this is going to be important later), and while yeah, there’s a season change, we know from volume 1 that semesters span ‘months’ (which does make it seem like there’s a two long semester school year and then they have winter off)

Volume 2 has a much more contained timeframe compared to volume 1, 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 volumes 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) against the mutant Grimm created by Dr Merlot, who also had a big hand in the destruction of Mountain Glenn (i’m just adding flavour text at this point)

Autumn/’Fall’

volume 3 wastes no time in establishing that we’re now in the tail end of the year - the leaves have turned, they’re falling, we get mention that the weather has gotten colder right before Ruby establishes that it is fall at this point

we also know that it’s happening before the end of October, as Ciel gives Ruby’s age in her profile of her and mentions that she’s 15 (and Ruby doesn’t move to correct her on that)

the volume itself is very tightly contained, with most of it taking place over the course of about 5 days (i’m gonna be using episodes as reference points but there’s some overlap)

- Day 1, 3x01 - 3x03: RWBY vs ABRN, JNPR vs BRNZ and SSSN vs NDGO and Winter arriving and Qrow causing a ruckus all happening on the same day (this also establishes that Qrow’s been on mission since at least before the volume 1 finale, as we got his message about Salem having pawns way back in 1x16)

- Day 2, 3x04: Takes place the next day, depicting the first of the doubles rounds EM vs CY, Qrow’s talk with Yang and Ruby and Winter’s talk with Weiss, and ending as Winter leaves

- Day 3, 3x05: next day, PC vs CD, WY vs FN, Cinder finds out about Penny (it’s dark outside the window in this scene compared to the next scene which is still late afternoon)

- Day 4, 3x06 - 3x07: Pyrrha gets her entire reality shattered, Yang vs Mercury later in the evening and how that all ended up

- Day 5, 3x08 - 3x12 (pre-timeskip): literally everything else happens in the same day

Ruby wakes up from her silver-eyes induced coma, implied to be a few days later

Winter

there’s a time skip in 3x12 that jumps to wintertime, when Ruby leaves with JNR to go to Haven, following Qrow’s tipoff. this means that Ruby is 16 from this point on - and she visits Summer’s grave, creating a bookend with the Red trailer. it’s unclear when exactly she left, it could’ve been December, it could’ve been as late as February, we don’t know

~81AGW

Spring

Ruby’s volume 4 character short, which features a village on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Vale (confirmed by Kerry) being attacked by Grimm, Ruby notices and goes in to clear the place - this is the earliest confirmed point in the second year of the show (as the winter sections of the volume 3 finale could still be happening in the first year, we got no clarification) but probably not too long after the volume 3 finale (although long enough for the snow to have melted) given how RNJR are still in Vale at this point, they hadn’t even left the Kingdom let alone the continent

now before we get to Summer, i just wanna point out a few things about the synchronicity of the arcs for each character in volumes 4 and 5:

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 side 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. Blake’s arc is, however, a few weeks ahead of everyone elses, with things wrapping up in Menagerie two weeks before the events at Haven which the other protags were only a few days away from

Summer

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)

In 5x01, Haven is noted to not be in session a month prior to the Fall semester starting. The commentary for this volume notes that they are between semesters at this point, not school-years, thus suggesting a month-long gap (at least) between semesters

While a month passes in Ruby’s timeline by the end of this volume, two days before the Fall semester, it still appears to be Summer time, as the leaves haven’t begun to turn (Mistral is in a similar east-west lateral line as Vale and a fairly temperate climate on a mountain, the effects of Autumn should have set in by this time) - this makes sense when you remember that the semesters of the Academy school years more or less line up with each other; so the Fall semester has to line up with Beacon’s second semester, which means the battle for Haven is taking place roughly a year after volume 2′s Best Day Ever

now we move on to our latest volume, volume 6

now despite the snowy setting, only two weeks have passed in-universe, as confirmed in 6x01. the reason for the sudden climate difference is that the heroes are going from the more temperate regions of Mistral to the colder, snowier parts of the continent in the north

this also places most of the events of the volume about a year after the dance arc - just for reference, we’re still a couple months out from Ruby’s 17th birthday at least (i know Lindsay’s said on two occasions that Ruby is now seventeen, but a couple of points against that; the timeline the show gives us doesn’t support it, it’s not direct word of god and both times Lindsay was answering a question quickly, which means it’s not great confirmation as it’s hard to answer accurately when you’re on a time limit or distracted and without reference materials to confirm it)

and it’s actually pretty easy to determine this, because here’s what Patch looked like in volume 3 Fall, prior to Ruby’s birthday

and here’s how Patch looks at the beginning of the Fall semester

these are very clearly not the same time of year

volume 6 itself has a case of the main plot taking place over about 4 days (day 1, everything from the Argus Limited to finding Brunswick farms, episodes 1-5. day 2, escaping Brunswick and arriving in Argus, episodes 6-7. day 3, trying to reason with Cordovin, JNR getting caught up with the plot and Oscar disappearing and getting a new outfit, episodes 8-10. day 4 - which could be a few days later, but not necessary - pretty much the rest of the volume and ending with arriving in Atlas that night) and then other plots going on at different times

- Adam’s slaughter of the remaining White Fang is some point in the two week time skip, as we see him with his new blindfold - it’s hard to see under the hood but you can see it - during the Argus Limited attack, presumably he just waited in Argus for Blake to show up again, as his appearance in 6x07 was a hallucination, as evidenced by his vol 1-3 outfit and mask

- Cinder arrives in Little Miss Malachite’s territory a month after the Battle of Haven, already a few weeks behind the team, and she’s attacked by and forms an alliance with Neo a week later. their progress involves trekking back to Haven and then stealing an airship, so it’s difficult to pinpoint where they are timelinewise right now

- everything with Salem and the other villains happens at some point in between these two events, as by process of elimination, Hazel was ‘the big guy’ asking after RWBY that Little Miss’s bodyguard mentioned having arrived a week prior - as this is pretty much the only way he’d know that Ozpin’s taking the lamp to Atlas

#RWBY #long post

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rwbyconversations · 5 years

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A retrospective on the first half of Volume 6

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I hated RWBY’s fifth volume. I felt it was a slog that started on the right foot but as time went on more and more cracks started to appear until the Battle of Haven episodes which were... unpleasant. I made my thoughts on them very clear over the summer. I will also note that I was very cynical regarding Volume 6 during the period between the V5 finale launching and RTX Austin, where we got Adam’s character short. Even with the short being good I remained only tentatively interested in Volume 6, since Volume 5 had good shorts too and look where that got the season proper. Volume 5 was a failure on many levels for RWBY, and while I’ve found things to enjoy about it, it’s ultimately my least favorite volume in the show. Coming off Volume 5, I felt concern that RWBY had peaked in Volume 3, and everything from there on in would just be a painful slide downwards in quality.

Thankfully, I’ve never been happier to be wrong.

ALL HAIL THE BRINGER OF END TIMES AS SHE BESTOWS THE FLAMING MERCY OF DEATH WITH A SMILE ON HER FACE

RWBY Volume 6 Chapter 7 is now out for First members, and as such, we’re now at the halfway mark of the volume. I have to say, going in with lowered expectations even in light of the Adam short, I have utterly adored this entire volume thus far, in fact it’s probably my favorite set of episodes in the entire show to date, and I’ve had very little to criticize in each episode beyond just “Give me more Mercury and Emerald.”

As such, this week at the perfect halfway mark of the volume, and to celebrate my third hundred post, I’m doing a retrospective of each episode of Volume 6 and see how the chapters do their best to avoid the slights that dragged down Volume 5. As well, I’ll be consulting comments made by Miles and Kerry pre-release of Volume 6, specifically concerning what they wanted to focus on this year. In particular, I’ll be cross-referencing Miles’ three points that the crew wanted to improve on for Volume 6. I’ll also look at most of the episodes and see how they handle elements that were previously condemned in Volume 5 (which also means some potshots at Volume 5 if that’s a thing you need to know). This gets long, forward warning, hope you enjoy.

0.5) Adam’s short

Adam’s short might have been thinly veiled damage control made with the intent of re-building Adam’s fear factor after the disaster that was his outing at Haven, but the short proved to be good damage control nonetheless. From an acting perspective, Garrett continues to grow his vocal talents and for fans of the gone-too-soon Sienna Khan, the short gave her some posthumous feats and showed her in the field. Really, none of my criticisms about the short were significant enough to lower my enjoyment- barring CRWBY’s continued love of the weapon spinning circle, both Adam’s solo fight and the fight that makes up the back half of the short were both enjoyable bouts. Adam’s short was the only short we got this year, but it proved to be an entertaining short that provided some fun battles and a killer song by Jeff- Lionized is already one of my favorite vocal songs in the show, I must have watched the first battle in the short like fifty times now just so I can hear the first verse.

You’ll see, I’m their hero, I’ll be Lionized!

All in all, a very solid short and a great way to win back some fans after Haven before the season started off.

1) Argus Limited, the beginning of the redemption arc.

Despite Adam’s short, my expectations were low for Volume 6, almost deliberately so. Volume 5 had burned me hard, and I wanted to avoid getting burned by my own hype. But you know what? Argus Limited might be the best premiere in the entire show. It’s damn near flawless in everything it sets out to do.

In the AMA, Miles set out three things that the CRWBY needed to improve on for Volume 6- more fights that better utilize abilities and weapons, giving Ruby more agency in the plot, and fixing the “tell don’t show” problem that plagued Volumes 4 and 5, especially whenever RNJR were stuck listening to exposition monologues. And for the most part, Argus Limited does take steps towards all three of these problems. RWBY get a great fight which sees Ruby and Weiss especially using a lot of their skill-set that had been left to the curb in Volume 5, which is my nice way of pointing out that Ruby never used her Semblance in Volume 5 and Weiss over-relied on her Summons, which was a huge point of contention among Weiss’s fans in the now-infamous “Weiss vs Vernal” debacle. Ruby’s also given a stronger sense of being a leader than she’s conveyed for much of the past few years, being quick to take command of the situation when Qrow and Dudley start getting into an argument and forcing the team to focus on the Grimm instead of Oz’s newest round of omitting the truth. While there is a fair bit of exposition in regards to the timeskip, we do get a lot of information shown to us- particularly the sendoffs of Sun and Ilia.

While I’m still bummed that Ilia didn’t join the team going to to Atlas since I feel her character would have greatly benefited that arc, alongside her interactions with Weiss, she still gets a touching sendoff. And my Sunny boi shines as he usually does when in the spotlight. Absence makes the heart go fonder and Christ I miss Sun already.

Argus Limited is unique in that barring Adam’s short scene at the beginning, it’s the only premiere entirely focused on the heroes. The even numbered volumes beforehand had started with Emerald and Mercury, with Volume 4 also formally introducing the rest of Team WTCH. Argus Limited focusing only on RWBY and JNR allows for each member of the team to contribute during the episode, and also allows for more time to be spent on JNR’s departure for the rest of the first half. Jaune and Ruby’s quick scene near the middle has a great dynamic to it.

And of course it goes without saying that the music is to die for. Be it the soft acoustic of Like Morning Follows Night as Sun bids Blake farewell, or the two new songs in Miracle and Rising, Jeff, Alex and Casey came out of the gate running musically. Argus Limited to conclude was a fantastic opening episode, so good that even notorious RWBY critic FatManFalling was impressed. And if that’s not a sign that even the most diehard of RWBY critics was impressed... I dunno what is.

2) Uncovered- the truth comes out

Uncovered is a setup episode for a lot of the remaining first half, but one that executes its set up well. We immediately open with confirmation that Cinder survived the Battle of Haven, which is as much the crew going “Look you know we didn’t kill her, she’s on the damn poster,” as it is an acceptance that everyone capable of narrative comprehension understood that she wasn’t dead. Cinder gets a new outfit, meets a board game villain, and displays shreds of character development that I hope are carried up on. Meanwhile with RWBY we get one last scene in the Dreaded House where Ozpin flat out lies and Nora undoes the bad will of “They really ARE magic!” with some fantastically funny lines.

“Can we ask for more wishes? CAN WE ASK FOR MORE WISHES?!”

I also love the camera shot of Ruby promising they’ll protect the Relic before cutting to her digging it out of the snow. I’m easily impressed with camera trickery like that.

Uncovered addresses a significant criticism of V5, specifically how RNJR’s plot devolved into them just sitting around and receiving exposition from Ozcar and Qrow. While we get another such scene in the House where Ozcar explains the Relic and its powers, it’s much more lively- the kids weigh in more and are much more dynamic, particularly Nora. They’re not just sitting in chairs in a circle, they actively move around or are on the floor packing. It’s the same vector of information delivery, but it’s much less passively received.

Ozpin’s debate with RWBY is also similarly well-executed. The kids were soundly mocked last year for just blindly accepting Ozpin at face value barring the one instance of Yang bringing up the birds. Here, Yang and Weiss are openly confrontational of Ozpin, and while his argument of not telling the team about the Relic attracting Grimm has a logical reason behind it, the girls are tired of being spoon-fed information, especially after Oz bluntly promised no more lies or half-truths (Yang really should have included “omissions” in that list too in hindsight). It’s an argument where both sides have their reasons and both have good points that are presented, with everyone getting to weigh in (barring Maria, who is super chill during all these shenanigans).

What’s that again? Oh. Good writing. Sorry, wasn’t used to it being there after “OZPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN,” “Because you’re afraid of Salem!” and “This is bad.”

Regardless, Uncovered is a stellar setup episode that flows smoothly into...

3) The Lost Fable- OZPIN FUCKED

The longest episode barring the Volume 3 and 4 finales, Lost Fable is an episode I was cold on when I first watched it- after Volume 5, numerous times, spelled out that Ozpin was shady and not to be trusted, I was expected some deep skeletons in his closet- that he created the Grimm, that he caused Salem to become evil, something so horrifying that the Gods saw fit to curse him with eternal life.

I didn’t expect the secrets to be “Ozpin’s first life looked like an isekai protagonist, he died of herpes, got Thanos’d like six times, fucked Salem at least four times and fathered the spiritual predecessors to the Maidens, had a life where he looked like my Starbucks server and... isn’t actually the bad guy.”

That Ozpin wasn’t too evil- more his secrets are because of lifetimes of dying over and over, he just has severe trust issues to work through- was something that caught me off guard. That everything is the Gods of Light and Darkness’s fault rubbed me the wrong way at first, since it felt like revisionism, the show going “We can’t have Oz be too evil so let’s just put most of the blame on the Gods and Salem.” That said I do like how the God of Darkness is actually surprised and pleased when Salem came to him for help. It was a nice bit of character to the God that no one ever came to him for help, just punishment, so he basically gave Salem what she wanted on the spot just because of that. As he says to Light, “you may bask in the powers of creation but you do not own them.”

Granted, there is still one massive story flaw in the episode- the handling of the Faunus just showing up during Ozma’s vacation in purgatory and slavery having already been implemented. It just feels like an awkward last-minute addition and one I do not very much like. It’s pretty much the one thing I outright hate about the episode, the rest execution wise is spot on. Hats off to CRWBY for the technical side of this tale, and to Salem, Ozma and Jinn’s actors for carrying this as well as they did.

I’m still not sure where I sit exactly on Lost Fable- it’s no doubt a well executed episode and answers/raises a lot of questions about Remnant and its mythologies (like how the moon is shattered because Satan yeeted out too hard), and the animation is some of the best in the show, barring some slight irritation at the understandable reasons for not seeing Ozma vs Salem onscreen. It’s technically very proficient, my problems are just a few small preconceptions of my own holding me back.

This planet empty. YEEEET.

... also that plushy dog was the cutest fucking thing and if we learn Salem kept that toy after digging it out of the rubble I may actually cry.

I will buy this dog plush if you just make it RT, you are passing up my money for God’s sake!

Also just so we’re all clear, that holy war Ozma accidentally helped start was totally Remnant’s version of the Crusades, right?

Also also, no, the kids weren’t the first Maidens, they’re the spiritual successors. Let’s just get that clear while I’m on a soapbox.

4) So That’s How It Is- Best Kids Finally Show Up

Merc and Em were in this episode so I’m contractually obliged to love it. Good thing I really do love their scene. It was good to finally see what the villains at large were up to while RWBY processed the knowledge Jinn had bestowed... while Qrow bestowed his fist unto Oscar’s jaw. In all seriousness, it’s good to see that RWBY retain the dynamic nature in the short final argument with Ozcar. Volume 5′s nightmarish scenes of just sitting around and passively listening are a thing of the past.

Mercury as usual is relegated to short but sweet moments, namely “Back off, freak!” and his being the first to realize that Salem’s about to snap. Please RT, give him things to do, don’t waste Spider Man while you have him in the booth. Pacing wise I suppose this was really the earliest we could have gotten Em, Merc and WTH unless the first episode got a lot of additional padding, but it still hurts to see my favorite characters all of once in the entire first half of the season. Like I said, absence makes the heart go fonder, and I miss the kids.

Also props for making me give a shit about Hazel again. Turns out he’s not a bad dad when you ignore the whole... “OZPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN” thing.

Ruby also gets a few short but sweet moments- she’s initially calm at the beginning, allowing Ozpin to explain his plan. She only gets more visibly angry after Ozpin admits that he has no plan, but doesn’t lose her cool like Yang does. She’s also the only member of the team to separate Ozpin from Oscar at this stage, taking the time to reassure him before they leave the train wreckage. It shows again that the crew are striving to make Ruby feel like a leader, by having her take charge and be there for everyone under her wing.

Meanwhile Yang’s only interaction with Oscar is to demand he bring Ozpin back. ... When you think about it Oscar must have so many issues that he refuses to talk about Jesus Christ someone give this kid a therapist.

I wrote about how much I loved how Salem conducted herself in the short clip released for RWBY Rewind, and while ultimately her temper did snap rather explosively, I love that she visibly tries to contain her rage, something the animators put a lot of painstaking work into.

On the hero’s side, this is largely a cooldown episode and a conclusion to the “arc” surrounding Jinn in the first half while getting the team in place for the Brunswick episodes. For the villains it’s a chance to check in, and also see what they’ll be up for the year. The villain scene alone makes this a delight, with Watts being snarky and Tyrian continuing to be a walking :D in every scene he’s in.

... also who flew the airship that MEH took to Evernight? We never see the pilot.

5) The Coming Storm-

Let’s get the obvious praise out of the way, Neo vs Cinder? One of the best fights in the entire damn show, like damn they knocked it out of the park!

Fun fact, I got an ask the day before this dropped asking if I thought Neo would be in this episode and I said no. This is where you all laugh at me.

Neo vs Cinder is a sterling example of the fights becoming more creative and better utilizing abilities. Neo’s Semblance shattering looks great in Maya (shame it came at the cost of her hair) and the fight flows smoothly. I was worried that if Neo came back, her fighting style wouldn’t be well-represented without Monty able to bring his magic, but the crew have managed to create a fight on par with Neo vs Yang in sheer spectacle. I especially loved the segment on the bar top where Neo used bowls as weapons. And if it wasn’t great enough, One Thing grants an additional look under the mirrors into Neo’s inner turmoil over Roman’s death- Casey finally got her wish of voicing Neo, at least.

Also between this and Lionized, why do the villains get the best songs?

The Brunswick segment may not be as dynamic, and I’m sure some people groaned when they saw RWBY would be in another house, but at least this time they use more than one room. Weiss and Ruby get a nice scene near the end and there’s a great unspoken moment of Weiss getting why Ruby doesn’t want Qrow to find the beer stash- since remember, her mother’s been a drunk for at least seven years.

I appreciate the continuity touch in the garage scene that Yang saw Adam in his Beacon outfit when she hallucinated him, as she hasn’t seen his newer outfit. Regarding the garage scene, I can’t help but feel like it was misread by... a lot of people who were looking more for romantic validation than they were actual character reasoning. I’m not a fan of how Blake has acted around Yang this year, she’s been almost... condescending to her. Rushing for her bag in chapter 1 when Yang already had, the whole “I’ll protect you” line. Blake doesn’t see Yang as the strong person who stared a Maiden down and won, she sees... damaged goods. And that’s the last thing Yang wants or needs to hear. Yang didn’t crawl her way into recovery and ride off to another continent just so the girl who ditched her the first time without even waiting for Yang to regain consciousness could provide empty platitudes about not leaving and then assume that Yang needs protection in a manner that felt very patronizing to me. I particularly disliked how Blake reached over Yang’s real hand to grasp the cybernetic one, and how that got spun hard. Yes, the gesture was well meaning from Blake but all it takes is one look at Yang's reaction and that moment is just... not great at all for them. Yang is still hurting and shut off when she made that good intentioned but horribly misunderstanding gesture. Blake is trying to be there for Yang like Sun had been for her, but she can't help her because Yang isn't communicating what's wrong. That's not romantic. It's so awfully, bitterly sad. Yang is hurting and Blake can't undo the damage that she did when she left during the Fall of Beacon. It's not development, it's insight into the poor state of their relationship (regardless of how you view it, I just mean friendship here myself) after the events and the distance they suffered. Barbara herself has said that Volume 6 would see Blake and Yang’s relationship would never return to the way it was pre-Beacon after Volume 6, and this may have been what she was referring to.

The Coming Storm has a great fight, so it’s already a great episode in my book, but it adds a cherry on top in some quietly good character moments as well.

And of course, Burrito Weiss is Best Girl.

6) Alone In The Woods- Ruby’s Redemption Arc

Right before Volume 6 started, I wrote a whole post about why the fandom had grown cold on Ruby in Volume 5. At the time I noted that part of me wanted to wait until Volume 6 just in case things either improved or Ruby’s character failed to develop for another season, giving me more citations regarding her developmental stump since Volume 3.

But thankfully, Volume 6 has been very good for Ruby so far, and this episode is the peak of that. Ruby takes initiative, drives the team forward, and actually gets angry at a few points. Lindsay sells this so well and I’m so glad she finally toned down Ruby’s squeak in the more serious moments, because this episode would have otherwise died on its feet if Ruby still had the Squeak. In fact, if this positive trend of Ruby development continues into the back half of Volume 6, I’m planning on a post talking in more detail about Ruby and her development.

The Apathy were terrifying, and are easily my new favorite Grimm. Funnily enough, in another case of me writing a post before Volume 6 that was partly addressed, I asked why the Grimm failed to scare the audience, and one of my ideas was just that with the protagonists being so strong, no Grimm can really pose a threat. Well the Apathy prove that such a thing is possible. Fans have been suggesting that the Grimm employ more psychological or emotional based attacks over sheer physicality for some time now, and it seems that all this time, the answer has just been waiting for the right moment. Miles revealed on Reddit that the Apathy was his “favorite Grimm” that he’s been working on getting into the show for a few years, and later added on Twitter that he’s been sitting on the idea of the Apathy since the start of the show’s creation, well over six years ago. It’s proof to me that Miles can have some stunning ideas when his heart and soul is dedicated into a project, and regardless of what some people on Tumblr, Twitter and/or Youtube may think, Miles cares about this. Add in the unsettling atmosphere and the amazing work that went into everyone’s eyes and making them dull and disturbing, and you have a stellar attempt at horror by relative newcomers to the genre. The Apathy worked at being terrifying for a large portion of the vocal audience, creating a villain that solved a problem that the Grimm have had since Volume 2, while also letting Ruby finally step up and gain the agency she’s needed for several years.

While Maria being a SEW was something most everyone guessed, it was good to finally see Maria gain plot prominence, since some people had been complaining about Maria joining RWBY feeling somewhat arbitrary. Regardless, she’ll serve as an important vector into getting SEW lore, which is one of the only major significant mysteries left now that we know about Salem, the Gods and the Moon.

I haven’t mentioned it in the prior segments, but I’ll stop here to give the writers praise for finally giving Qrow an arc. While it is a bit odd to go from Volumes 3 through 5, where Qrow’s alcoholism is played for comedy (in fact it’s the punchline of the first episode) to Volume 6 playing it very seriously, I will still take any development for Qrow. He was the hardest hit by Ozpin’s secrecy, learning Raven was at least partly right in leaving Ozpin and as a consequence, learning that Summer likely died for nothing. He fell into depression, becoming an invalid wreck of a man. The Apathy had little to do to make Qrow a desolate waste, had he been left in that bar he’d probably have drunk himself to death while his nieces died just feet away from him. It takes seeing the Apathy to finally break him out of the stupor that hung around his neck like a noose, and I wouldn’t be shocked if we see Qrow hanging up the flask for good by the end of the volume.

Alone In The Woods is probably the best episode of the season so far. Somewhat sloppy running animations aside it’s a stupendous attempt at horror in an action show, and signals our protagonist finally becoming our lead.

7) The Grimm Reaper- Tick tock, tick tock

I’ll be honest, when I saw the Haven vault in the Rewind for this episode, I expected Cinder to open the episode by kicking Vernal’s corpse into the water out of jealousy. I’m not sure if I’m impressed or not at how brazen Cinder’s loophole abuse is, but I am impressed at how both Cinder and Neo are visibly hesitant at different points in the scene to trust the other- the show is clearly setting up Neo backstabbing Cinder.

Maria’s flashback was amazing. I didn’t expect a new fight scene so soon after Neo vs Cinder but Maria hasn’t got time to waste on my opinions. She was such a badass in her youth. I loved her weapons (I still think they’re a reference to Darksiders 2, fight me) and as someone who’s wanted to see Gravity Dust in action for years, my expectations were more than met. Continuing the promise in the AMA of unique fights, we get Maria using Gravity Dust to whirl around the battlefield like a hurricane of sharp death, her weapons combining into a scythe was a cool moment. I loved how ferocious the fight felt, like there was barely any stopping for posing and everyone was moving. They even avoided using the Weapon Spinning Circles for much of the fight, which is always a nice touch. The ending was viscerally brutal too. I think it’s safe to say Maria vs Tock might break my top 10 favorite fights of the entire show, easily top 5 Maya era fights at least.

Tock continues the show’s trend of one-off villains having really cool first outings and making me wish they’d stop dying so quickly. Regardless, Tock was a great one-off villain. She got a fantastic fight, had cool weapons, a unique design, and she wasn’t a reference to Tracer you idiots go read Peter Pan. Anyway, Maria’s flashback was really cool and I loved every second of it.

Ruby got another great moment when after Maria destroyed herself and Qrow in the most vicious self-burn in recorded history, she tried to lift Maria’s spirits by asking her to teach Ruby to use the eyes. Ruby was said in 4 and 5 to be inspiring without much to back it up, and we see that now. Her bonds have grown closer with everyone on the team over the first half- even with Blake. Let me repeat, Ruby and Blake have interacted onscreen. I never thought this day would come.

I didn’t expect the show to reach Argus by the halfway mark, in all honesty. The city looks breathtaking, I love the San Francisco vibe to it and how the entire trip to Saphron’s house is in 3D environments, unlike the Mistral scenes in V5E1. I have to admit, I did miss JNR a little. Nora was in peak comedy this episode, Ren was... back to being the exposition guy, nothing much changed there but Jaune was pretty decent. Miles remains a criminally underrated voice actor, if he doesn’t go pro in the event he leaves RT, the VA community is worse off.

The handling of Saphron and Terra’s marriage was masterful, and I love the two of them already. V6′s new characters have been very consistently good I must say. I love how despite the first half of the episode being very dark and having someone lose their eyes onscreen, the back half is very cutesy. This time last volume we had the dinner scene, and the sandwich scene blows it out of the water. I love how everyone who talks to Oscar is far softer than they were to Ozpin, it’s good to see that the gang know the difference, and it’s good for the team to unwind before the next few storms hit their shores. Ruby and Qrow in particular were peak adorable.

I guess the baby was cute too but... look at them wiggling! :D :D

The Grimm Reaper was a great mid-season checkpoint. Getting another new fight was a surprise to be sure, but it being easy “standout fight of the year” material made it a welcome one. Argus looks like a fantastic location and I would kill for a spinoff here, it seems like such an interesting city.

8) Conclusion

Volume 6 had a lot of problems facing it on the onset- Volumes 4 and 5, 5 especially, had received lukewarm to poor reviews from the fans, and the pressure was on to prove that RWBY was a show worth watching. And judging by the first half of the Volume, Volume 6 is on its way to becoming the best volume in the entire damn show. We haven’t had a string of episodes this consistently good since Volume 3′s back half, and if Chapter 8 retains the quality, it’ll have exceeded that half numerically. Almost every major grievance I had with Volume 5- the protagonists being too passive, the excessive exposition, weak fights, the lackluster threat of the Grimm and Ruby’s placid lack of solid character growth- have all been addressed with gusto, as I hope I’ve explained above. At the very least, it does seem that the crew are meeting the three goals posted in the AMA with gusto. Add in some genuinely hilarious lines, spine-tingling horror and suspenseful action that rivals and at times exceeds what Monty was doing, and Volume 6 part 1 is this show’s redemption arc. While the second half could and likely will take a dip in quality, nothing short of a Battle of Haven level disaster can taint this volume, and I feel comfortable at this halfway mark saying we may be witnessing the new best volume of RWBY... if they gave Emerald and Mercury more screentime. But otherwise! New best volume.

I think it’s telling that while I roughly knew what to expect around this time last year for Volume 5, I have no idea where Volume 6′s back half could take us and that excites me. I’m being led along for the ride and loving every damn minute of it. Keep it up CRWBY, let’s make Volume 5 a distant memory in the rear-view mirror as the show and fans go onwards to greener pastures.

Or to put it in a more comedic way:

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed the piece, please share it around, Tumblr’s current state means that I can never be sure what works and what doesn’t so outside sharing goes miles.

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ayasakihumblr · 7 years

Text

Love Live Sunshine + Yugioh

So here’s a rambling idea for this ridiculous AU:

Basically it’s the plot of Yugioh season 1 with some fundamental differences. Namely, there’s no Egyptian religion/mythology BS, no millennium items, no puberty-on-demand, and everyone is a cute moe girl.

You is basically Yugi, the up and coming rookie who just so happens to be good at a card game. (Now imagine the YGO OP with images of You dueling and the vocals shouting ‘YOU MOVE!’ in the background. I think that’d be pretty awesome :P)

Chika is basically Tea, You’s best friend and number one supporter who can’t really duel but tags along anyway because friendship.

Riko is sort of a cross between Joey and Mai; more on that later.

Mari is Pegasus: fabulously wealthy and fabulously gay.

Dia is Kaiba, the reigning champion who’s competing too.

Ruby is Mokuba, but instead of getting kidnapped constantly she just runs off with Hanamaru. Dia is cool so long as Ruby texts her every hour.

Hanamaru is just a nice, casual duelist Ruby meets on the boat ride over. She’s a legitimately good person who is also legitimately good at card games.

Yoshiko is the personification of all the weirdness of season 1. Her intro scene is her fighting some random girl, declaring actions that would never work in a card game. (Like attacking the frigging moon!) After getting told that her shit won’t fly, she says screw it and dark holes everything, clears magic and trap cards with heavy storm, and summons some monster to attack directly and win. This is her basic strategy.

Kanan is like Bakura, who spends most of the time stalking You and friends, beating up scrubs for star chips, and only appearing for screen time when its time for her to duel. Unlike Bakura, she’s not evil.

SO! Now that the exposition is out of the way...

Everyone gets to Mari’s island for the tournament, Ruby meeting Hanamaru on the way and becoming fast friends with her. When they get to the island, You duels Riko with Chika cheering on the side. Riko gives this whole spiel about how friendship is stupid and the only way to victory is through self-reliance. (Like Mai does.) She takes an early lead with her signature Different Dimension Damsel (1300, 1300).

You of course makes a comeback with Chika’s constant belief in her, and summons her signature monster, Aquarius Maiden (2500, 2200). She wins.

Riko is very upset about having her entire philosophy shoved in her face, but Chika and You invite her to join them, as RIko is still in the competition and they want to be her friend. Somehow, they manage to convince her, and they slowly melt her heart over the series. You and RIko support each other during their duels, and even have a tag team match. (Like with Joey.) The three of them become best buds, and perhaps something more. ^_^

Ruby and Maru come across Yoshiko as she pulls off another Dark Hole + Direct Attack victory. Maru recognizes her, Yoshiko freaks and runs away, and Maru runs after Yoshiko while Ruby runs after Maru. Long story short, they become BFFs, supporting each other in their duels. Ruby is best cheerleader.

As a side note, as the first years become BFFs, Dia calls Ruby demanding to know if she’s okay because she was supposed to text her two minutes ago.

Anyway!

After a long and arduous journey beating up countless named scrubs, the relevant cast members make it to Mari’s castle for the final. (Two of these named scrubs can be Saint Snow, who team dueled YouRiko and lost. Mari calls these sisters the trolls that live under her castle.)

Round 1:

Hanamaru vs Dia

This duel is relatively short, with Dia getting an early lead and keeping the advantage, systematically taking apart Hanamaru piece by piece. At duel’s end, Dia crushes Maru, her Elder Destroyer (2250, 1000) annihilating Maru’s signature Animate Tree (1250, 1750).

Ruby and Yoshiko comfort Hanamaru, but she’s super casual and doesn’t mind losing at all.

Round 2:

You vs Yoshiko

This duel is long, painful, and absolutely ridiculous. Yoshiko keeps shouting out nonsensical actions that Mari, watching from her throne, keeps allowing “because it’s fun, but only for this duel”, so You is kept against the ropes.

She is rendered unable to attack any of Yoshiko’s monsters because of the blunette’s signature Guilty Eyes Restrict (?,?), so when she summons Aquarius Maiden, she has to resort to Yoshiko’s own tactics.

She basically says Aquarius Maiden will jump into the air and fire artillery directly at Yoshiko’s life points. Mari allows this “because it’s fun, but only for this duel” and You wins.

Round 3:

Riko vs Kanan

If round 1 was a brutal beatdown and round 2 was an absolute slogfest, then round 3 is nothing short of a flawless execution. Within three of her turns, Kanan manages to destroy Riko. Her signature Swift Orca from Beyond the Abyss (2100, 1300) overpowers Riko’s Different Dimension Damsel, and Kanan emerges victorious.

Before the final round (a 4-way match because it’s more fun) tomorrow, You, Chika, and Riko have some alone time. While Riko beats herself up over losing so horribly, Chika and You tell her Kanan (who is still their childhood friend) is super good and there’s no shame. More emotional stuff happens, and, because I’m OT3 trash, the three of them consummate their relationship.

Kanan walks by, intending to congratulate You for making it to the final, but stops when she hears the noises coming from You’s room. She thinks to herself, ‘Hey that reminds me of when Dia, Mari, and I used to- Nope! I’m outta here!’ and she walks away.

Round 4:

You vs Dia vs Kanan vs Mari

This is basically 3rd years trying to destroy each other while You tries to stay afloat in the middle of this maelstrom. Because KanaDiaMari have history, and want to demolish each other.

There’s some scene where they all summon dragons to the field, Mari taking out her signature Shining Rainbow Matriarch (3000, 2500), vs Kanan’s Undead Leviathan of the Oceans Deep (2850, 2400), vs Dia’s Dread Queen of the North (2900, 2500), vs You’s rather pathetic Traveler of the Starry Sky (1600, 1200).

Because, you know, this is the final duel. Everyone should get dragons.

But this passes, and there comes a time when Kanan is about to defeat Mari, but Dia plays a card that stops it and Dia defeats Kanan her next turn. Because only Dia can beat Mari and Kanan. Basically 3rd years kinda hate each other, and Kanan goes down first.

Somehow, You summons Aquarius Maiden (again), and plays an awesome card to summon more monsters. Her first is Composer of Dreams (1100, 2200), much to Riko’s confusion.

Riko: Wait, that monster looks like me! WTF?!

Chika: If you think that’s weird, check this out.

You summons Kan Kan Mikan (2100, 2000). It looks like Chika.

She attacks with all 3 monsters and wins the tournament.

Stuff happens, and after realizing they all got beat by a rookie who has no business being as good as she is, the 3rd years reconcile their OT3, and You gets a trophy.

The End

#love live sunshine #yu-gi-oh!#yugioh #you watanabe #fanfic #chika takami #riko sakurauchi #dia kurosawa #mari ohara #kanan matsuura #ruby kurosawa #yoshiko tsushima #hanamaru kunikida #chikayouriko #kanadiamari #llss #aqours #You-Gi-Oh!

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

Note

RWBY didn’t “pretend” to take the “real world isn’t a fairytale” seriously. This is a problem that has been shown in V1-3. Faunus racism was ALWAYS a problem, and they killed off Tuskon in V2 to establish the world is cruel and unpredictable thing. V3 was meant to be the point the world finally caught up with Ruby. It’s so supposed to be idealistic realism. The world is harsh, and full of Grey areas, but you still move on and try your best. The show became too idealistic.

Not to imply that my memory is the be all and end all of RWBY analysis - beyond the obvious problems with that, the fact that every day I go “Oh yeah!” about an aspect of the show certainly says something lol - but I think the fact that I had no idea who Tuskon was makes my point. The fact that I had to look up this minor character who existed in a single scene and remind myself of his (supposed) importance demonstrates that the impact of his death isn’t anywhere near the level of someone like Pyrrha’s - for Ruby or the viewer. Tuskon didn’t tell us that the RWBY world is a cruel, unpredictable place. It told us that our villains are villainous, hunting down people who escaped the Evil White Fang and were just trying to live quiet lives as bookstore owners. That’s simple: villains being villains. And we don’t care about Tuskon. Tuskon doesn’t shake the very foundations of our expectations for the show.

I’m not going to pretend that RWBY didn’t mess up its racism allegory - it absolutely did - but RWBY also isn’t the first show to use discrimination as a simplistic backdrop. And Volumes 1-3 pre-Fall (or, more accurately, pre-having Pyrrha struggle with the Maiden powers) was very simplistic and, as a result, idealistic. That extended to the Faunus. How we as the audience think the show SHOULD be tackling a topic (seriously and with nuance) doesn’t erase how the show WAS tackling it (simply and with a Good vs. Evil lens). There are lots of examples here - Blake as the Good Faunus, the group smashing White Fang goons with a smile - but I think the most obvious is Cardin. He’s presented first as a generic bully, then as a racist bully who targets Velvet. How is this solved? By Jaune, the white dude, standing up for himself. It’s a double whammy of a) ignoring the race aspect in our “solution” and b) the solution being an absurd - but very familiar - message of, “Just show your bully you’re a person with worth and they’ll back off!” That’s not a story that tells us the world is dark, but you should keep shouldering forward regardless. That’s a story that tells us the world has pretty straight forward problems that can be solved with equally straight forward actions.

Early RWBY was like a cartoon with some extra violence thrown in and, occasionally, an overt hint at that more complex world. (Example: Yang telling Blake about Tai’s struggle after Summer’s death.) I’m on the record as saying that RWBY handled nuance better in the earlier volumes, but it was still a kid’s level nuance with one Obvious Right Answer. Early RWBY conflicts read as something like, “Susan took Sally’s bike to give it a new, surprise paintjob for her birthday. Sally is very upset when she thinks her bike has been stolen and then later angry at Susan. The audience is suppose to understand both Sally’s anger and Susan’s good intentions, but in the end Susan learns not to take things without permission.” Ironwood learns not to be too hasty. Penny learns that Good People will accept her existence without question. Weiss learns that racism is Bad. It’s all very neat and tidy because although we were always able to read into how bad the world actually was, the story didn’t draw overt attention to it. It didn’t want to tackle it. Compare something like the Mountain Glenn battle to the Argus battle. The first is Good Team RWBY fighting established Bad White Fang Goons, breaking rules because their headmaster explicitly allowed them to with a wink, grappling with a personal conflict about what they want out of life (generic coming of age), and ending it all by peacefully watching the sun set. Argus is the Now On a Secret Mission to Stop a Horrific War Team RWBY fighting an allied woman who is trying to do her job, causing the battle in the first place by stealing an airship/drawing the grimm, absolutely breaking the law without any wink-wink permission, grappling with a personal conflict surrounding their betrayal and rejection of another ally, ending with them flying into a dystopian looking Atlas. That is way more complex than what we had before. And RWBY wasn’t able to manage that complexity well. They should have kept to their simple world that only hinted at more. We can take any story, think about it realistically, and go, “Man, that’s messed up.” It doesn’t mean that the story itself is drawing attention to that and encouraging its audience to grapple with it. Volume 1, 2, and a good chunk of 3 discouraged us from overthinking these conflicts.

I didn’t get into RWBY until the end of Volume 3, so I didn’t have the experience of watching it live, but I absolutely remember my reaction to all the events. In Volume 1, 2, or early 3 would the average RWBY viewer really have expected something like the Fall? The conflict in the snow? Atlas? I certainly didn’t. If someone had told me, “In a few years, RWBY will be killing off/maiming main characters, attempting realistic depictions of PTSD, doubling-down on the (supposedly) morally gray aspects, having our heroes turn against their allies, and showing us child torture across two episodes” my reaction would have been asking if this?? was the same show???? And that there is the difference. Early RWBY was a fun romp that (mostly) ignored its dark undertones, admittedly causing problems with the audience who wanted them to take sensitive subjects like racism more seriously. Current RWBY is a show doing everything possible to emphasize the dark and complex nature of this world, the morally gray, insisting that they’re no easy, right answer anymore... while also insisting that one girl’s optimism can really solve these (now overt) problems and ignoring how they’ve failed to write Ruby as the Pure and Good Hero they want her to be.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #mymetas #Anonymous

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