RWBY V9E07 Liveblog Thoughts
Hah, actually early for once in my life!
- “May be distressing for some viewers” okaaaaaay, but that’s so incredible vague that it’s kind of useless, RT, at least link to a place to find out what specifically might be triggering or distressing instead of forcing people to seek out what happens in the episode from other sources. (Spoilers: It’s suicidal ideation and off-screen suicide.)
- The bird is cute, but, uh, is it controlling the match?
- As someone that has had to room with multiple people that snore, I commend RWB for not murdering Yang in her sleep. For real though, I do like this quiet moment of Ruby staring at her weapon, it’s nice.
- “I’m late!” ...for a very important date? Shit, though, Jaune’s frantic about this - feels like maybe his confidence he may have built up in the decades may have taken a couple hits yesterday.
-Oh, arson - and apparently this is a regular occasion. Fire bird?
- ....Did you not notice the paper last night? Jaune’s house has some in it. Also, this score is a bit upbeat for burning a village down.
- Okay, I do kind of like this. Jaune’s somehow settled into basically the role of a huntsman, protecting this village of paper stars from the near certain death they seem to face every day. I like this idea, him taking on the responsibility and clearly treating it with the respect it deserves. The stars remind me of someone/something, but I can’t quite remember what.
- I am a sucker, this is adorable
- “You named them after your teammates?” “No... I named them after everyone.” Okay, but why did you name the blue one Ren? But seriously, not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, names help differentiate and humanize them and can help keep the memories strong, on the other naming them after your friends feels a bit... projectionist? Like, it’s one thing to name the jackalope after your team name, another to give a sentient being the name of one of your best friends.
- Lay off him, Yang - he’s got a job to do, people to protect, and it’s not like you can find something that may not exist. He clearly has been searching when he gets the time, and I suspect that most of it has been under the cover of night when the Paper Pleasers are asleep like the marketplace.
- The schedule is pretty cute - “watch out for tearable twos” “keep away from Shredder” (please be a TMNT reference), “If you wouldn’t give it to a baby, don’t give it to the Paper Pleasers”, “tea shop fiasco” “Stop the Second Fire”, “sandpaper knife shop”, “STOP. THE. GOOSE.” Seriously, read this thing over if you have the time.
- “Patience pays off” - it does! But what’s the difference between patience that’s self-enforced and patience that’s required?
- “I’m not crazy” Oof... no, you’re not, Jaune. This does seem like he’s been making the best of a bad situation - but if I had to poke holes... what was he doing before he went to the village? He only came after Alyx poisoned him, and he was already much older at that point. Was he still exploring then, or was he just waiting for someone to arrive?
- “We just can’t count on him” - WHAT? BECAUSE HE WANTS YOU TO ACTUALLY GIVE A DAMN ABOUT HELPING HIS VILLAGE? I’m sorry, I thought you were huntresses - you know, people dedicated to helping those that can’t help themselves? I know it’s not fighting off man-eating monsters, but these are life-and-death situations Jaune’s listing off (mostly), not just random chores. He’s established himself as a protector of these innocent people that have helped him and so many others, and you’re acting like he’s asking you to be a janitor or something instead of helping to keep this town safe? What exactly did you expect a huntress to do when they aren’t fighting the Grimm if not help keep the villages safe in other ways? Between this and them just running away from the market, I’m just about done with the girls’ attitudes towards actually doing their damn jobs of helping people.
- Ah, so... all self-inflicted harms. I’m... not sure how I feel about this. The Cat marked ascension as being for when the Ever Afterian has ceased performing its role correctly and needed to be retuned, but the stars seem to think its more like “our work is done, it’s time to move on and be reborn” when that doesn’t seem to jive with what the cat says. They’re still performing their roles just fine, even if they’re at the end of their “arc”, so there’s no need for them to change or ascend if they’re still doing their part. It doesn’t feel right with what we’ve been told about ascension up to this point. And then how this connects to Jaune... with what happened to Penny and him naming the stars after his friends, I understand why he’d be so opposed to them trying to ascend and taking it upon himself to keep them safe, but I hate that this episode will, if it continues to go where I think it will, punish him for this idea, call it wrong for him to stand in the way of the stars and self-inflicted death (I’m wondering if that’s where the content warning is coming in). I also hate that it would let RWBY off the hook, that Jaune was “wasting his time” watching after the village and that he should have just left them to their own devices long ago, thank goodness RWBY’s here to slap him out of that and leave them to die, cause that’s what they want! Yeah, no, I don’t really like this at all.
- Wow. Rude. And how did A MAN IN RUSTY ARMOR SNEAK UP ON YOU.
- Uhhhhhh.... that’s uncomfortable, and I hate that that undermines the idea that he’s grown to care about the stars, that he’s actually just babysitting stupid children from his POV.
- “Because I can actually protect these people!” Good line - Fall of Atlas trauma, Fall of Atlas trauma, Fall of Atlas trauma -
- Who gave the Ever Afterians a bomb, damn - Ah, Neo, thank you and curse you. Thank you for the potential action scene and a threat that (might) need to be dealt with that causes actual death, curse you from halting the character progression.
- That is the most flat line I think I’ve heard from Weiss - Kara, are you okay? - and thank you, Blake, for admitting you all just ran away last time because so many people in the FNDM seem to think that they were just evacuating.
- An alright action scene! I really appreciate that they’re working as a team, that it’s a group fight instead of one on one duels happening next to each other, even if some of the choreography is lacking. Ruby’s visions are also refreshing, seeing her actually suffering from flashbacks and PTSD, and the movements of the Jabberwalker as it morphs and creaks are very well done, very unsettling.
- “They eat and grow” ....Actually yeah, what the hell is up with that? That’s not just glass illusions, that’s creation.
- WOULD YOU LET THE GIRL ACTUALLY HAVE HER TRAUMA ARC INSTEAD OF CUTTING AWAY FROM IT EVERY TIME THE OTHERS MIGHT ACTUALLY NOTICE?
- Yeah, I.... really don’t like the framing of this. At all. Like this was nothing, that those aren’t lives that were still ended, even if you believe they were reborn (even if that’s the most convenient explanation for you -).
- But that scene was refreshing as all hell. See what happens when you let character actually disagree and fight? I want that Ruby telling off B///B gif on my desk stat, btw. I feel like I should probably break down the entire argument, but that would take more time than I have (it’s my birth-weekend, woooo!), so I’ll just say I really enjoyed finally getting past all the bullshit interruptions and letting Ruby actually vent, letting Jaune vent, let the characters actually fight and be truly upset and frustrated in a way that’s not petty. Good job, why couldn’t we have gotten to this sooner?
This is honestly probably the best (or at least most well executed on a structural level) episode of the volume so far. It actually let the characters talk and fight, it used the Ever After set piece to its advantage for once in forwarding character development (which only really the Herbalist has done so far imo, which is a shame), and had a fight scene with an alright song. I’m... really not comfortable at all with how the ascension idea was handled, though, either tonally or in how it affects RWBY’s frustration with actually having to give a damn about living people - no, it’s okay to not want to keep them safe! They want to die anyway, and Jaune’s just sitting around protecting the equivalent of paper puppets instead of actual sentient beings he wants to keep safe, isn’t that insane? Like, way to let them off the hook of actually having to make a hard decisions or do their job in any way. And this hot off the heals of Jaune helping Penny commit assisted suicide? Framing this mass-suicide as something that’s okay because they wanted it and believe that they’ll just be reborn, and Jaune as in the wrong for not wanting them to hurt themselves? It leaves a really bad fucking taste in my mouth.
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