#v8c14

[rubykaryatis]

what if for rubyneo day tomorrow i made a compilation of every scene where theyre talking or thinking about/to each other

[dailynnd]

#26: Symbolism

Penny's very first tears were shed for Ruby in V8C14, after she fell into the void and Penny probably thought she died in the process.

[coldgoldlazarus]

Just realized something

In V2C4, Penny hides Ruby in the dumpster before being escorted off by her Atlas soldier handlers. Afterwards, Ruby is accosted by a mouse or rat in that dumpster, going by the squeaking.

In V8C14, Ruby falls into the void before Penny is killed, and her Maiden powers and spirit merge with Atlas specialist soldier Winter Schnee. Afterwards, in V9C1, Ruby meets a certain cute mouse, Little.

Why do I suspect this is not a coincidence?

[princess-of-the-corner]

One thing to note about RWBY is that it REALLY "grew the beard" over the course of its runtime.

Volumes 1-3 were animated in Poser (software that wasn't intended for use in animation), with rougher backgrounds and more simplistic writing related to complex themes. They were also only ever intended to be an extended prologue to the ACTUAL show, with the Big Twist of the Volume 3 finale being that the climax was actually just the inciting incident to the show's ACTUAL conflict.

Starting from Volume 4, the crew switched to Maya (software that's intended for use in animation), got better at writing more complex topics (the White Fang is treated more sympathetically than in the "Beacon Arc"), and Jaune was actually an interesting character for the entirety of the "Anima Arc" that lasted from Volumes 4-6.

Volume 7 is probably the best season of the show (I don't have a Crunchyroll account and so I haven't had the chance to watch Volume 9 in its entirety yet, even if I know what happens there). It deconstructs the whole "America Saves the World" trope with Atlas, and has some pretty good political satire that wound up being eerily prophetic. Also, Robyn Hill is one of the best characters the show has ever introduced.

Volume 8 contains both the best and worst moments of the series. V8C1-V8C11 features some of the best storytelling and most tense action from the franchise ever, but V8C12 has the overall message of "Okay but, the people who dehumanized Penny over her mechanical body KINDA had a point, let's fix what isn't broken!", V8C13 is a pretty descent villain episode, and V8C14 is by far the most offensive piece of media I've ever been subjected to. But still, up until those last three episodes, it was basically flawless.

I've heard Volume 9 is pretty good, but I'm side-eying everything involving Jaune because I honestly DESPISE the direction they took his arc in. But if we ignore EVERYTHING related to Jaune's role in the Volume, I like basically everything I've heard about it.

RWBY: After the Fall is a very good spin-off novel focused on popular side characters Team CFVY and shows what they've been up to since the Fall of Beacon in Volume 3. it also has a really interesting gimmick, as every other chapter is a flashback to something that happened in Team CFVY's past, further fleshing out their minor roles in the show.

RWBY: Before the Dawn is actual garbage. Sun's character arc (wherein his hypocrisy from the show is actually acknowledged and challenged) and Coco's and Velvet's shiptease are probably the only redeeming qualities. Taking this book into account actually makes Ironwood's reluctance to call Vacuo for help look REASONABLE. 2/10.

RWBY: Roman Holiday is a prequel novel focused on Roman and Neo, but Neo is the true protagonist here. The first few chapters leading up to their first meeting alternate between their perspectives, with the book being largely Neo focused after they finally meet.

RWBY: Fairy Tales of Remnant is an anthology of in-universe fairy tales. You can read it at any point in the series, but the further into the series you are when you read it, the more hints to RWBY's overarching plot you'll notice. While all of the Fairy Tales are works of fiction, some of them are dramatizations of actual events in the shadow war that RWBY's plot revolves around.

RWBY x JL: Super Heroes and Huntsmen is a 2-part film series wherein Team RWBY teams up with the Justice League. Part 1 features the Justice League visiting Remnant (kinda) during the events of Volume 7, and Part 2 features Team RWBY visiting DC Earth after the events of Volume 9.

There's also some ambiguously canonical comics published by DC, as well as 2 explicitly non-canon RWBY/DC crossover comic series. One features alternate versions of the Justice League cast who were born on Remnant, another features Remnant and DC Earth fusing due to Salem tricking Lex Luthor into helping her by playing off of his hatred of Superman. Neither of these crossovers are in continuity with the crossover movies.

Fascinating actually

[theywhoremain]

rwby V8c14 spoilers

[vanphanel]

I agree entirely, just wanted to add something: I think what people miss about early Jaune is that he has a dual role in the series: One, he is the tragic character that you described. Being in over his head, getting bullied, finding his way, finding his love and losing her basically at the same time, then having to deal with that on top of everything else that went wrong. And two, he serves as an explanation tool for us, the audience. Particularly in the earlier seasons, he is used to explain things that from an in-world perspective he should absolutely know, but that we the audience don’t. At times, this makes him seem extremely stupid and naive, when really the show just needed a concise way to explain something. The best example is probably Pyrrha’s aura explanation from V1C6. Let’s be honest, even if he didn’t have proper training, there’s no way he wouldn’t have learned at least the basics of what an aura is. This happens less in later seasons, but naturally, the first impression of a character sticks with us. Present day Jaune still has issues, but he has also grown more than any other character (if only because he started so far behind; but still he now stands besides the others as an equal).

He’s also often used as the butt of the joke, which makes him seem stupid, when really he’s just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ultimately though, the ball in V2 established Jaune as the genuine “good dude”, as you put it, that he is.

Oh yeah and - obviously - a lot of the people wildly shipping Jaune with everyone just desperately look for hetero ships.

Speaking of being the butt of the joke, I recently wrote a little something starring him that I will shamelessly plug here - Warning: alternate rendition of a certain scene in V8C14. Do NOT read if you haven’t seen that chapter and/or you aren’t in the mental state to relive it - https://archiveofourown.org/works/47170045

Appreciating Jaune Arc is so hard.

People are either hardcore fans who put him in harems all the time, or hardcore haters who see him as nothing more than a waste of screentime.

He deserves neither.

[mitski]

08x14 // 09x07

I'm just tired of losing everything.

[onceuponastark34-blog]

About to watch RWBY and then it opens like this. It doesn't bode well for Yang I don't think.......

[cosmokyrin]

[clears throat] AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

LISTEN I SAW SOME THINGS TODAY and ye I’d cry too if Pyrrha was the Lady of the Lake THERE TO RETURN THE HALF-DESTROYED EXCALIBUR BACK IN FORM  CROCEA MORS

—

You may support the artist through the following links! (Tumblr post).

Artwork powered by Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS): Linux Mint MATE 19.1 and Krita 4.3.0

[crtq]

That would be gruesome yeah, glad they didn't go that route XD But they could've had anyone use one of Penny's swords to do it. They could've used Weiss' or Blake's weapon, or had Jaune fall earlier, leaving his sword behind, and when Penny says "Let me choose... this one thing," she could look and reach towards it as a signal, prompting Nora or Emerald or Ruby or whoever to take the hint. I mean, I wouldn't have killed off Penny at all, much less have it be her "choice" the way it was presented, but there were ways to have a character with more connection to her be in her dying moments.

If it HAD to be Jaune for some reason we've yet to find out, they could've established a connection between him and Penny's arc sooner. Instead he just pops up at the end of her story to end it. Side note, but I still don't understand why they didn't just have his aura shatter prior to this moment so he can't heal her. It'd make more sense to me than him trying for a second and her saying there's no time despite there being time to try. Also, the Maiden transfer is about who's last in your thoughts, which is often the killer but not always. Ruby could've told her not to give the powers to her (I do like the idea of Nora or Emerald being a Maiden, though). I get the "Ruby wouldn't do it!" argument, I do -- but that's what's so compelling about the idea of her being forced to face this decision. Either she complies and it plays out similarly to canon, or Ruby hesitates too long, and Cinder gets the powers with her grimm arm. Either one would contribute to Ruby's development and bring her inner conflict to the surface in a brutal, heart-wrenching, fresh way to be explored going forward. She was Penny's first and closest friend, and she was integral to her arc both at Beacon and in Atlas. It's disappointing that she had nothing to do with her ending. They built up Nora and Penny's relationship this volume, even giving them a parallel scene to the one with Fria and Penny (and Nora isn't part of Team RWBY so she feels more fair game to be a Maiden). She was a great candidate for this. And Emerald? She already killed Penny once, helped save her once, and now is faced with the choice of trying to save her and potentially causing Cinder to get the powers, or complying with her wishes and killing her one last time. There's a lot of potential here, ESPECIALLY if the others didn't hear the request and just saw Emerald killing Penny. Cinder would see it and either be furious Emerald took the powers, or she'd be convinced Emerald's still on her side and is backstabbing the heroes. Emerald would have to try and explain herself, and some characters may not believe her or forgive her for it, but since she's a Maiden now, they can't really let her go. It'd add a layer of conflict to her joining that I worry the writers will drop by the time we next see Vacuo. But I'm hopeful :)

Anyway those are just my thoughts! I like when plot moments tie into character moments in ways that feel in line with their arcs and the themes. Again, I wish Penny hadn't died at all, but there are ways it could have been done that would allow Ruby or another character who had arcs set up this volume to be more involved and further their development.

Ah fuck now I know why they had Jaune of all people be the one to off Penny (again). He was one of the few characters in the whole show with an actually clean way of doing it.

It can’t be any of the main characters because the show’s not ready for any of the main 4 being Maidens, it can’t be Ren because that makes even less sense than Jaune doing it. And Nora couldn’t do it at all because Nora’s weapon just results in a mess.

Like, can you imagine the response from the community if Nora had just up and crushed Penny’s head like a watermelon?

[lunarwby]

h- he just mouthed "Ruby" I'm-

😭😭😭😭😭

[dailynnd]

#15: Backup

In V8C14, the reason why Penny chose Winter to transfer the Maiden powers was probably because she thought Ruby had died by falling into the void earlier.

[yinyangofnevermore]

Just like Beacon

Beacon - V3

Atlas - V8

Checkmate

Yang rushing to protect someone she loves

Blake reaching for Yang 

Feral Blake

Penny dying

Pyrrha scattering vs. Penny fading

When it Falls

[swapauanon]

Okay but like, having Ironwood's opponent defeat him by proving their physical superiority (via discarding their mobility aids before finishing him off), takes attention away from his fascist idealogy and toxic behaviors, and instead focuses it on the fact that he's disabled.

The implication in the Volume 8 finale is that Ironwood's fascist policies would have been just fine if he WASN'T a disabled person. The implication V8C14 carries is that Ironwood's status as a disabled person was more worthy of scorn than the fact that he was a fascist, authoritarian dictator and control freak who hoarded power to himself and lead his country to ruin just to avoid admitting he was wrong.

You do not deconstruct fascist idealogies by dehumanizing fascists, you need to show that they're STILL human beings, understand HOW they were radicalized in the first place, see how YOU can be radicalized as well, and take steps against that.

Linking Ironwood's downfall to his cybernetics in an effort to dehumanize him only serves to hurt the overall message of the Atlas Arc, as it's using fascist talking points to argue that Ironwood isn't human, instead of having Ironwood use fascist talking points so that the viewer can recognize how he convinces otherwise reasonable people into doing monstrous things.

And like, here's the funny thing: the one time the show DOES have Ironwood use fascist talking points to dehumanize an enemy (his treatment of Penny), the show ultimately TAKES HIS SIDE by turning Penny human and then killing her off, while presenting it as a happier ending for her than letting her live her life as a mechanical being.

A better way to deconstruct fascism would've been to have Ironwood insist his humanity makes him superior to Salem, refusing to get prosthetics himself while having everyone he looks down on be a cyborg, and then contrasting his human body and cruel soul with Penny's inhuman body and kind soul so that we can see how dim his view of humanity is.

Have him turn Winter into a cyborg against her will to get her back on the field as quickly as possible instead of having him stop at giving her a mobility aid and treating that as the most heinous thing he's ever done to her. Instead of Winter discarding her mobility aids to rise above him, have his own weapon literally blow up in his face when he overclocks and overheats it while trying to vaporize Winter (with her dodging every blast and never able to land a hit on him) in order to show how self-defeating fascism is.

Linking Ironwood's fascism to his cybernetics completely removes any applicability his story could've had, making the message "cyborgs shouldn't have power" instead of something actually HELPFUL in the fight against fascism.

[kizzycannon]

So uh...nothing bad ever happened right?

They’re just taking a beach trip, it’s all good...

[marithlizard]

First impressions of RWBY v8 finale, “The Final Word”

Finale time!  uh.   That is NOT a content warning I was expecting.

A suicide prevention hotline message?   When I said Qrow might jump, I wasn't *serious*. Mostly.  Damn it,  there isn't a single character  I want to die that way, villain or no.   This is upsetting and I haven't even started watching yet.

GDI Rooster Teeth you better not have had that kind of end in mind for Qrow all along.  I imagine everyone else saying something similar about their favorites.  (My tentative guesses right now are Cinder or Harriet, but there are so many plausible awful possibilities.)

Dissolving whale, looking like the biggest murmuration of birds ever.  So we're skipping back in time a bit.  Something flickers in the ashes.  Salem starting to reform? I can't tell.

GO WINTER don't you dare die here  either.  Ironwood's actually pleading his case with her,  as he hasn't deigned to with anyone else.  It's not a convincing argument, but he cares what she thinks of him enough to try.

Penny looking like a brilliant dragonfly, darting around with her swords like wings.

Just how far can that Grimm arm extend?

Jaune my boy! You remembered mission priority!  You've grown so much since the fall of Beacon, when you forgot all about calling Glynda for help in favor of melodramatically smashing your phone.   This is a horrible situation, but you've got a job to do and you know what it is.  

...Maybe you should just stop trying to sound like Mignogna, Liebrecht.   Right now you just sound like you've got a painful sore throat.  

Harriet finally looks unsure of herself.

One last flicker of luck...was it real? I dunno. But Qrow certainly believes it.

Watts, what did you just do?  I thought the bomb was already on a countdown.  Did you stop it, or start one?  And am I going to be right about where you want it to go off?

Ruby vs Neo round two!  They've both improved a lot.  Interfering with her umbrella is still a good tactic, though.

And YEET she goes through the portal to Vacuo!  One threat deferred to next season. (I highly doubt she'll get there and start slaughtering refugees, she has no reason to. She'll  fade into the background and regroup.)

- wait, how'd she do that?? The portals are one-way! Was that an illusion of herself that got yeeted? Someone explain this.

oh carp, Ruby's unarmed now.

30-second countdown.  Harriet is right, that's not enough to escape.  You were about to blow up thousands of civilians out of spite,  woman - Vine, what are you going to do?  You can't possibly shield a thing like that, how could you get it out of range?

You ARE going to shield. Huh.  Qrow doesn't have a word to say - they never knew each other more than slightly, and there's no time to fumble with phrases,  but he could've said "thank you" or "sorry".  

I didn't think that would work, but heroic sacrifice  gives you a lot of power points, we all know that from anime and superhero movies.  

Yeek, they're really teasing this fall thing.

YEEK did not expect that.

YEEK

Knowing it was going to happen takes a lot of the shock out of it, but still.  And *Penny* doesn't have any meta knowledge.

Jaune goes off mission, but despite what I said earlier, I can't fault him - Cinder's holding two relics! Ooh, and he and Nora don't know the portals are one-way yet.   They weren't even present when Weiss announced the specs.

Oop, what's going on with the arm?  She's had it under control for a long time, is it just coincidence that it would rebel now?

"She's  back".  OH.

Oh, that's disturbing.  Almost as much as the bug she used on Amber. Cinder doesn't need proxies to Grimmsuck the power out of someone anymore.

oh no Penny - that isn't going to WORK is it?

oh, no, no, no, Penny

You can't ask that of Jaune. You just can't.

You did.

Aw man, now i'm crying.

I mean, that's seriously badass, and all, but - but -

Those frost birds are beautiful!

And that makes four.

That was Salem screaming, wasn't it?  I can only imagine how loud it sounded outside of gatespace.

Why are the portals  disappearing?  Cinder didn't use the staff, she's just holding it.  Did RWBY specify an end condition when they designed them?  

Five!  Did not expect that.

Could really use  some Vacuo cavalry about now.

Or, y'know, a Maiden. That'll do.

Cinder, lying as rapidly as possible.   She blames the loss of Ruby and the lamp's last question on others.  Will Salem buy it?

She will!

They're just going to ignore Ironwood.  Seems fitting.  Why even bother?

Oh.  Cinder *wasn't* lying about that part. She did use the staff, and that's why the portals disappeared.  Can't really bring myself to mind much.    (Especially since the portals being gone means they can't follow the survivors.) But I would’ve liked to see her talking to Ambrosius.

And Ironwood is left alone on a  crashing Atlas.

Qrow, Robyn, Elm, Harriet, and Marrow overlook the rubble. 

Oh,  no....Qrow's getting the news through an earpiece,  I don't  know who from.  I think we're all glad not to be able  to hear him.

A flood? Pretty,   but where'd the water come from?  

Annnnnnnd that's a wrap. For Atlas and Mantle.

While the credits are playing,  let me take stock.  Where is everyone?

RIP:  Ironwood, Penny, Watts, Vine.

The ruins of Atlas:  Qrow, Robyn, Elm, Marrow, Harriet, Pietro, Maria, Salem, Cinder.

Vacuo:  Nora, Ren, Oscar and Oz, Emerald, Winter, Willow, Whitley, Klein, and an unknown number of refugees. And Mercury and Tyrian and CVFY and SSSN.   And presumably FNKI.   And the rest of the Happy Huntresses, what was that about slimming down the cast?

Fallen:  RWBY,  Neo, Jaune.  

(who *did* give Qrow the news?  Maybe no one, and he’s just calling and not hearing any response.  I’ll go with that, it’s less awful. He can hope they made it to Vacuo and are simply out of range.)

Post-credit scene!  Water. Ocean of magic water.  Beach. Jungle, with giant shells.  Crescent Rose is waiting for Ruby.  A very big tree.  And that's it.

I'm...not really sure what I think, overall.   Ironwood just seemed to fizzle out into irrelevance, and while I'm sure a lot of people will find that appropriate, none of it is what I  would've hoped for his character arc.  Penny's fate was moving and unexpected.  (In contrast to her first death, they took care not to show her body or what Jaune had to do to her. They didn't want this to be gruesome.)     Amity, Maria and Pietro just seemed to get totally forgotten.  Watts didn't seem to have a plan for the bomb after all besides idle malice.

RWBYJNeo will be fine, but the others are going to spend the volume believing almost all their friends are dead.   That's  just brutally depressing. It does not put me in the mood for wacky Alice-in-Wonderland adventures.  (Time travel or somesuch that shows us  more about Oz and/or STRQ,  that I'd still love to see.)    

We didn't get despairing suicides, we got heroic sacrifices, and not wasted ones either.  That part's okay with me.  

Mmph. Mostly I think I feel numb. How about the rest of you?