#rwby v9c4

[yinyangofnevermore]

THE CAT!

Maybe we shouldn’t worry about home? We’ve got enough problems to-

THE CAT!

*squeaky bouncing noises*

[koringus]

Is the Curious Cat the only one who remembers Ciel Soleil?

[strqyr]

— Pre-Beacon Team RWBY in V9C4 aka "This Smoke Is My Enemy Number #1"

[herecomesthesunduhnahduhda]

Today’s episode (V9C4) gave so much perspective on each of the girls’ respective struggles and how they’ve grown and I LOVED IT. It felt like Mountain Glenn came full circle.

It’s interesting to consider how, back then, Ruby was the only one who understood who she was and what she wanted, but the roles have now flipped. Weiss, Blake, and Yang all understand how being heiress to the SDC, being a Faunus, and being disabled have shaped them and wouldn’t trade that for anything. Ruby, on the other hand, had a specific vision for her life and Penny’s death, Salem’s wins, and the fall of Atlas (among everything else RWBY has been through) has made that infinitely harder to maintain. She isn’t who her optimistic self hoped she would be so it makes sense that she’s so lost:(

Side note: I miss JNR:(

[wolfbetweenrivers]

My thoughts on RWBY V9C4 (SPOILERS)

In the previous Chapter, Team RWBY, in an effort to find their way to the Tree that can get them out of the Ever After and back to Remnant, went to the Crimson Castle to meet the Red King, only to find the Red Prince in his place. They were still able to challenge him to a board game though, but it involved shrinking Weiss, Blake, and Yang to the size of a playing piece as they acted as substitutes for missing pieces. If they won, the Prince would have to help them get to the Tree. However, upon learning that Ruby was a human, he turned against her. Team RWBY was still able to win in the end, but the Prince banished them, refusing to uphold his end of the deal while also leaving Ruby’s teammates stuck in their small size. However, they were able to escape with the help of a new ally, the Curious Cat and chased after them in an effort to try and get to the Tree that can take them back to Remnant. Meanwhile, the Jabberwalker was attacked by Neopolitan in another Acre. Neo had not only just fallen at that time, but her Semblance also somehow evolved, making her a huge threat, even to the Jabberwalker.

In this Chapter, Team RWBY catches up to the Curious Cat and strike a deal with them. They answer all of the Cat’s questions about Remnant while they take the girls to the Tree. The Cat also promised that they would stop on the way at the Garden Acre to find ingredients to make a medicine that could return Ruby’s teammates to normal size. The result is that the Cat is filled in on everything about the events of the entire series up to this point. When the Cat asks Ruby how she plans to defeat Salem now that Atlas is gone, it’s a sore spot for her and her depression resurfaces, causing her to lose track of the Cat in the Garden. While looking for the Cat, they encounter another new entity; the Herbalist, who is able to make the medicine needed to return Ruby’s teammates back to normal size. However, while making the medicine, they interrogate Team RWBY about their identities. When they initially fail to give clear answers, the Herbalist tells them that they cannot help them become what they want to become if they don’t know what they are now. So they take the girls to another room in their home were the Herbalist starts smoking a hookah pipe, blowing out a strange smoke that causes Team RWBY to be faces with illusions of their past selves. The past versions of the girls offer the present versions a chance to be something else. Yang is offered a chance to be who she was before the Fall of Beacon and have her arm back “to be whole again”. Blake is offered a chance to be either a human or a cat so that she doesn’t have to struggle with bridging the gap between humans and Faunus “to be something simpler”. Weiss is offered a chance to be a nobody with no baggage associated with her name “to be free”. All three girls reject the offer. Yang argues that her losses have taught her how to grow and that she needs to keep going to find what’s missing from her life. Blake argues that throwing away her identity would be betrayal rather than simplicity. Weiss argues that she will define her own name rather than allowing it to be the reverse. But meanwhile, Ruby is stuck and lost. She is mercilessly confronted through her past self by all of the feelings that she has been trying to avoid for so long. The feeling of failure, and that she couldn’t live up to her ideal. She is offered a chance to not be Ruby Rose. Before she can decide though, the Curious Cat returns and intervenes, saving the girls from the Herbalist. The Herbalist then apologizes before suddenly sinking into the ground, to the horror of Team RWBY. The episode ends. 

This was the most powerful episode in the series so far, and it’s mainly because of Team RWBY’s confrontation with their past selves. It was a brilliant reflection of their respective character development and how far they’ve come, and a full circle moment from Volume 2′s Mountain Glenn. Weiss, Blake, and Yang who in V2 were uncertain of who they were and what they wanted have now reached a moment of self actualization. But Ruby, who in V2 was most certain, is now uncertain and lost, and isn’t sure who or what she is, since she feels that she couldn’t live up to her idea of a Huntress, having lost Penny, unable to save Atlas, and having lost her mother to an immortal enemy. Ever since she wound up in the Ever After, she has been repeatedly asked by all of its inhabitants “what are you?” It’s a questions she’s gotten so tired of hearing because she feels increasingly targeted by it, given her current crisis. And now, she has been brutally confronted with the issue during the smoke scene. 

In the beginning of the series, Ruby Rose was a girl who wanted to be a Huntress, which she defined as people who protect those who can’t protect themselves. She recognized that life wasn’t like a fairy tale, but argued that that was making the world a better place was the point of being a Huntress. It was the single thing she would strive for and define herself by. But by the end of Volume 8, she feels she has failed all of that. She kept the truth of Salem from Ironwood, not being able to trust him for good reason. But once she told him, Ironwood was close to doing the right thing for Atlas and Mantle but then it got sabotaged by Cinder, putting the Kingdom in danger. She tried to launch Amity Tower to warn the world about Salem and call for help, but Amity fell and no help came. Her plan to launch Amity made Penny vulnerable to Watts’ destructive virus. Her attempt to evacuate Mantle using the Schnee Dust Company cargo ships was shot down by Ironwood who gave her an Ultimatum to turn over Penny lest Mantle be blown up. She took a risk to try and get around it, giving Penny a body of flesh, free from the virus, and using the Staff of Creation to evacuate the Kingdom, both plans being vulnerable to Cinder who sabotaged everything, killing many evacuees and killing Penny. And now Ruby has fallen into a different world, away from all that, unable to do anything. Through her ideal of being a Huntress and a leader, she has burdened herself with the idea that everything depends all on her and that she can’t let others down. She has tried to avoid it and keep it from her teammates, but now it’s getting much harder for her to do that, as she is constantly targeted with questions about who and what she is and not being able to answer. This raises the question of whether she will eventually come to being able to answer the question at any point and how she will come to that conclusion.

We are seeing more instances of Blake basically switching places with Ruby in relation to the beginning of the series. When Ruby couldn’t define what a Huntress is to the Herablist, despite having done so in V1, it was Blake who stepped up and echoed Ruby’s V1 definition of it. 

There is something about the Curious Cat. Something curious. When the Cat first appeared in C3, it stopped the Red Prince from beheading them by doing something to the Prince’s heart. It did the same thing to the Herbalist to make them remorseful about the ordeal they put Team RWBY through. In this Chapter, this was revealed to be the Cat giving those people a piece of their own heart to seemingly make them more compassionate. It raises questions about how and why the Cat is able and willing to do that, and what their purpose is. The inhabitants of the Ever After are described as each having a purpose they must fulfill at all costs. There is also the idea that the inhabitants change in some way at certain points in their life. Based on the words of the Herbalist, the Red King BECAME the Red Prince somehow and a human who fell before Team RWBY had something to do with it. “This is how a King winds up a Prince”, the Herbalist said in response to Ruby not knowing who she is. Does this somehow tie into the them of Purpose? When the Cat intervened, they told the Herbalist that they were “done” because they had failed their purpose right before the Herbalist was absorbed into the ground. Is this what happens when an inhabitant of the Ever After fails their purpose? Do they later come back but as something new? The way this whole thing was framed and being at the end of the 4th episode makes it seem like this is some kind of dark twist in which Team RWBY learns something disturbing about the Ever After. 

It seems we are now getting to the point where we begin to dig really deep into the realities of the Ever After, now that we’ve witnesses something strange and disturbing happen to one of its inhabitants. Why does the question “what are you?” matter so much to the inhabitants of this place to the point of being so fixated on having a specific purpose while also making it seem as though the idea of change seems ominous? What are Team RWBY going to do with what they are now seemingly about to learn?

Perhaps the next episode will answer at least some of those questions. Whatever it is, I’m on the edge of my seat now, anticipating it.

[theaudientvoid]

RWBY V9C4, in which Team RWBY trip balls.

[yinyangofnevermore]

Huntress

[yinyangofnevermore]

Clearly this is significant

The question is just HOW significant?

[yinyangofnevermore]

V9C4 Wrap-Up

The Cheshire Cat has--disappeared.... again, and is also kinda cagey?

Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Belle/Beast and Goldilocks tripped BALLS

Also they are Huntresses��️ (funnier when you consider Snow White was hunted by the Queen’s Huntsman)

Though Little Red is much less sure and is just barely keeping it together

Goldilocks IS whole; in fact she’s juuuuust right

Belle is coming to terms with her duality and complexity; both Beast and Beauty

Snow White is her own person, dammit, and doesn’t need to become a recluse in a cabin in the woods

The Caterpillar in Wonderland is still VERY concerned about identity, but more about the what than the who

[yinyangofnevermore]

“It’s like a movie but there’s not a happy ending, every scene fades black and there’s no pretending this little fairy tale doesn’t seem to end well, there’s no knight in shining armor who will wake me from this spell.”

[yinyangofnevermore]

She’s SO proud of herself!

[yinyangofnevermore]

So, what are you gonna be?

[yinyangofnevermore]

When I tell y’all I GASPED at this line

Also TOOK

The invincible monster TOOK her mother

Not KILLED

[yinyangofnevermore]

Little is hiding under Yang’s hair

😂😂😂

[yinyangofnevermore]

love when shows make fun of themselves

[yinyangofnevermore]

Hwhat?

the fuck happened to the king??

He lost site of what he is?