RWBY IX: Fractured Fairy Tales

[LaZodiac]

Between genuinely bad sleeping habits and work being a touch rougher than usual if only because my boss is on vacation so everything's kind of up to me, I've leaked on my blood oath. But I'mma fulfill it damnit, time to bleed.

Spoiler: V5C9

Show

I watched the opening with Peace Sign playing and spoilers it makes everything better. Also the video kept on pausing and getting horribly corrupted so that's making watching it difficult beyond personal acceptable reasoning.

We open on Raven using a whetstone to make her sword sharper. I imagine slicing wholes in space time could put some serious wear and tear on your sword, yeah. Also the fact that she needs to sharpen it and her sword is identical to Adam's probably means that the "it's a dustblade that's how he was able to cut off Yang's arm" theory is DOA. Good, it was stupid. Her sharpening is interrupted by the...blanking on season Maiden coming in to be like "oh no Salem found us". She tells Solstice to give her special talking to people hat, which she dons and goes out to meet with Cinder and the loser squad. I feel like Raven's mask is supposed to be more important than it actually is and it kinda bothers me.

...I'm sorry. I'm sorry Raven, give me a minute here. Just off to the side. What the **** did you just say? "I don't remember inviting so many guests today. Either I'm losing my memory or YOU'VE ALL LOST YOUR SPINES!!"

Raven no. What are you talking about? Are you referring to your men being spineless because that makes no sense at all and I feel like just randomly attacking people is NOT the best solution to have for your gang of idiot losers. Also consider that they DID attack the last "guests" you had AND FAILED MISERABLY. Being peaceful to outsiders is a good idea, even if you do intend to do them a violence, and just aggressively attacking anyone who comes near is just stupid. Second...WHO ARE YOUJ TALKOING TO ONLY CINDER'S PEOPLE ARE HERE! Are you trying to say "lost their mind" and you just did a verbal typo and NO ONE NOTICED? This is really baffling to me, of all the possible things Raven could of said, WHY DID SHE SAY SPINES??? I'd even potentially argue this scene isn't really BAD, it's just...WHAT?! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT WARP MOM???

Cinder's next comment makes it clear it IS the former interpretation, that she's threatening her men for not attacking any rando that comes by. Which makes no sense since no one is in the area except for Cinder, her buddies, Equinox, and Raven herself. Cinder says that clearly they just recognized the power of a maiden when they see one, so they let her in. She then shows off this amazing magical power by making a fire come out her eye. Not in any malicious way or anything she just gets an eyeball aura. I want to take a second to point out that up to this point we've not seen one single iota of evidence that the maiden power is all that impressive...and given the last episode and it's obsession over how being able to turn into a bird is this really scary thing, I think RT might just not have any idea how to properly frame these magical powers. If you want us to be impressed or shocked, you have to show us why we should be. Of all the random nonsense bull**** powers to be shown off in this series, I so far think Ruby's eyeball wings are probably the "best" despite coming out of ****ing nowhere because we at least have some idea of how powerful they are. She looked at that dragon so hard it's frozen in place, and she looked at Cinder so hard she had an eye torn out, had her voice almost permanently destroyed, and an arm ripped off. That's just from looking at someone. THAT is an impressive display of power. I'm not saying the maidens have to kill everyone in every single frame they're in, but some degree of "this is a big deal" would be appreciated.

Raven then tells her men to start tear down the camp. It's time to leave. I feel like this would work better if Raven convinced the bad people to leave and THEN did this, so that the next time our villains show up to be like "hey birdmom wanna fight?" they come to an empty spot. Also I feel like the idea that the bandits are entirely nomadic is hard to swallow given the huge spike walls they've got going on. I'll believe they can move around quickly, they only live in tents. But the huge walls and the little stage Raven is standing on during this entire scene feel like they'd be too bulky to just tear down and carry with. It's not things a nomadic group would really HAVE, not because they wouldn't want one of course, but because for a group that survives by moving away really fast, having tons of heavy, tanky, barricade-y stuff doesn't really make sense in the long run.

Mercury's voice sounds different here. Not surprising given how expensive Yuri is. Mercury taunts Raven and Raven correctly asserts that Mercury is a small baby child with no intimidation factor at all. He gets pissy but Cinder stops him because Raven's very correct. Cinder introduces them all to Raven and...sigh.

It just occured to me that Cinder's last name is Fall. As in the season. I realize this isn't a big revelation or anything I've just never really clicked in my head that that's a thing.

...Raven's response to this introduction is that wow Cinder, your last name's real appropriate. I bet you picked it all yourself too.

RT I have to level with you. That's not good. You're not actually capable of making that joke work given the in universe justifications for the names. It's explicit that yes people in this universe name themselves or are named by others in a very specific and thematic way on purpose in the actual canon of the world. You can't have a character make fun of someone's name for being self chosen in a series where everyone explicitly is named on purpose after things. And it's her LAST NAME so it wouldn't...BE chosen, and we can assume this is true because Mercury (an orphan who killed his adopted father) and Emerald (a runaround thief) have no last names because they have no families. I really do like that they TRIED to make a good joke out of this, but it doesn't work. It just doesn't hit. The further ripping on Cinder is also only slightly funny and I really wish it was better executed. Also we learned Watts is from Atlas but I kinda expected that given his design.

Cinder makes a threat to do a violence, because "oh we could of killed you whenever but you have something we wanted so we haven't" which...doesn't work at all. Raven calls in VerNAL (weird pronunciation on that name) to...I suppose also show off? Also god Raven your Spring Maiden is called Vernal, and you find it appropriate to make fun of Cinder's last name? Come the **** on.

Cinder asks Vernal to prove that she is a magical wizard person. Vernal...makes it cloudy and a little windy. I don't...look. I don't see this as impressive. Yang punched someone 100 feet into the air with a roast chicken this isn't impressive. I MADE IT SLIGHTLY WIIIIINDY AND ALSO OVERCAAAAST. This doesn't seem very impressive in the slightest, and I also really fail to see how this proves she's a Maiden because as I've harped on many a times, we don't know the difference in scale between what a Maiden can do and what regular aura powers can. Weiss can summon the SOULS OF HER SLAIN FOES AS ICY CONSTRUCTS, that seems more impressive than weather control.

Raven's eye lights on her helmet are wrong for where her actual eyes are on her face and this is bothering me immensely.

Cinder says she won't underestimate them, but also says that they should stop insulting her inteligence. No. Never. She says that while yes there is a slim chance they could escape (I feel like it'd be piss easy to just get everyone to escape to a predetermined location because Cinder's team only wants the maiden and Raven. Send all the men to the predetermined spot, warp yourself and Vernal over to BigYang's house, then everyone regroups at the new location of the bandit home.) if Raven really does know Salem as well as she claims, she knows they can't keep running forever. This is probably true, given Salem has clearly found Raven here, and likely has found her before?

Cinder says this is an olive branch, that all they need to do is get VerNAAL to open up the secret macguffin vault no one talked about until this and last season, and then everything Raven's done that is bad towards Salem will be forgiven. They even say it'll be easy given Lionheart is on their side, which...fair. This is still obviously a bad decision.

Speaking of bad decisions what the **** is with that blue feather duster on your dress slit Cinder what the hell. Your design isn't terrible but that feather duster kinda ruins the overall flow of your outfit and it bothers me. Almost as much as your kinda gross looking tights and those obviously illfitting rings on your leg.

Cinder explains that everything will be fine if they just help them get the Relic. They can go "squabbling in the woods" afterward, which...is another pretty severe verbal typo. Raven is somehow convinced enough by "you can just do whatever if you help us it's fine" enough that she needs a second to think about it. There's no reason what so ever helping Salem win is good. If Salem wins the entire world is destroyed probably. She's bad news. Helping out someone evil for short term gain is the dumbest thing you can do.

Watts says she doesn't HAVE time, because the White Fang will destroy all of Haven in two days (which means a month passed by REAL ****ing quick, which I'm actually kind of okay with) and that she basically has to decide now or just die along with everyone else.

Raven then reminds everyone she's also a bad guy by saying that if she accepts this deal, she wants proof they're trustworthy. So kill Qrowe for her. This is Raven making a very huge tactical error. Raven wants Qrowe killed because he knows she has the maiden, and will bother her about that. But if the Relic is obtained he will have no reason to pursue the maiden because she's not useful anymore, since as Cinder said, "the maidens are a means to an end". They're not ACTUALLY important. So Raven's betraying what little good she has for basically no reason. Bitch THIS IS WHY HE DOESN'T TRUST YOU, YOU JUST ORDERED AN ASSASSINATION ON HIM FOR NO REASON. God, what an idiot.t

Watts then makes things worse by mentioning that nooo...the reason why it's so easy to get the Relic is that they can just walk in and out no problem. Killing Qrowe will be violent and loud and make it harder to do that.

HOW?! I'm not on your side you ****ing idiot but HOW?!? Qrowe is your only opposition. Lionheart is the guy in charge and no one else is even guarding the ****ing relic. Killing Qrowe BENEFITS YOUR SIDE ENTIRELY and NOTHING NEGATIVE HAPPENS FROM IT OTHERWISE. Watts is an idiot. Raven also claims that all of them vs Qrowe means Qrowe would die instantly so it's fine. That's...see, in ANOTHER SERIES I might take THAT comment as Raven clearly lying and intending to do a traitor. Because she knows how strong Qrowe is, and knows his power is that "bad luck happens around him" which means that any attempt to actually do a sneak attack on him is gonna **** up for them a little bit just by the nature of him being the target. So in a better series I would be thinking about how Raven is ACTUALLY thinking about betraying them in a really clever sneak move. I have no belief this will actually happen though. And then something happens that makes me genuinely ****ing laugh my ass off.

Emerald, the only person on team bad guy with any interesting personality traits, mentions that Qrowe isn't around. He has SMALL CHILDREN WITH HIM. HE HAS THE STUDENTS. And credit where it's due, her voice acting and the animation make her look ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED of these SMALL CHILDREN. On the one hand this is hilarious because they're ****ing highschool students. Emerald come on. On the other hand it makes me realize just how out of her element Emerald is in all this. Mercury is a professionally trained murderboy who killed his own parental figure and had his legs torn off and replaced with robot ones. Cinder is some kind of pain freak nihilistic who hates life and wants to eat her own soul. Watts is a rich person. Emerald IS JUST A THIEF. She wanted lunch one day and it ended up with her being the right hand woman to someone trying to end the world. She doesn't want to be here and I kind of like it. Cinder's response to this is "...he sure does". Watts just face palms.

Watts then, at least, explains some stuff. Murdering everyone would make the police antsy, so that would ruin the White Fang's attack. Not for nothing Watts but if "the police are slightly more into doing their job" is enough to COMPLETELY RUIN your terrorist plot, it's a bad plot. But then this IS RWBY so *badumtish*.

Cinder actually gets a smart idea. Then just wait. Wait until the night this happens.

Because again, she doesn't know that Qrowe's power is an aura of bad luck. And Raven does.

Raven accepts this, and Cinder goes to shake Raven's hand with the most awkward forced smile I've ever seen on another human being, even counting the fact that the modals in this look slightly off all the time.

Buuut Watts puts a stop to it. Because he sees a thing no one else mentioned. Cinder's sarcastic "he sure does" comment was in relation to Ruby being there. The bad luck aura has already started to work it's way in. Cinder has no desire to kill Qrowe, she could not care less. She wants to get revenge on this small teenager. Watts says he will not take the blame for everything going **** end up because of her "grudge with a small child". Cinder's response is then "okay bye whore" and she burns Watts hand and goes to shake Raven's. Which means the plan has immediately failed since now they're probably down a man since Watts will probably ACTUALLY leave because he's an idiot, and as we all know Emerald is an out and out coward because she doesn't want to be here, and there's a chance Raven is genuinely just tricking them if this series wants to try and be good. The only person who's actually going to go along with this assassination plan is the assassin. What a surprise.

Talking over now for Blake Dad to do some heavy Dading. Really wish there was more blood when she CLAWS WHITE FANG PEOPLE DOWN WITH HIS BARE HANDS. I'm not bloodthirsty but if you want your BRUTAL TIGER MAN'S CLAW STRIKES to have some weight you need a splash of blood. He's supposed to be hulking out, give us some red.

One of the fox wizards manages to peg BlakeDad with a fireball from his tiny sai dagger wand thing and it...breaks his aura? Somehow? It's unclear because this series is bad. But the fox wizard almost gets a spear slammed through his skull in return so I'm happy for that at least. And he's forced to remove his robe so now we can see how stupid he looks and HOW stupid does he look. Wow, what a terrible design. I actually love how awful this idiot looks.

Blake and Wukong come to help and the two dumb fox wizards combine their weapons to do a tornado and this fight is not interesting at all good lord.

BlakeDad tells Blake to go save her mom, while he and Wukong deal with the fox idiots. Wukong's been talked up as being a big deal by her, time for him to prove it.

I swear to ****ing god if BlakeDad dies here I'll be having NONE OF IT.

We're done with this scene now. Time to go back to Raven, who looks like she's having a sad on her bed. VerNAUT appears and tells Raven all the sneaky information she gathered by following Cinder's crew to their boat house. Then asks Raven if she really thinks they'll be fine after helping them out. Raven makes it clear that no, of course not. She's not an IDIOT she's just a bad mom. And here in we learn the secret truth. Raven is gonna try and steal the Relic for herself. VerNAAAAAL asks if Raven's okay with Yang possibly dying over this. Raven does a really bad job of hiding the fact that when push comes to shove she's probably going to risk everything to help Yang. Raven also says that they must do what's best for the tribe. Vernal says she knows.

which of course means that Vernal is going to do the traitor, and go over to Salem's side to protect the rest of everyone. Sigh. Raven flies away as her bird form, and it's implied she flies past Qrowe's window. Speaking of which, Qrowe and Ozpin are having a chat. By which I mean they're going to, we're cutting over to Blaketown again. Blake confronts Illia, and the episode ends.

And that's the episode. My thoughts are as follows;

Spoiler: V5C9

Show

overall it wasn't bad? I feel like the characterization for the villains at least makes sense, and I like the minor reveal that Emerald is a ****ing hyper coward who just doesn't want to be here at all. I like that the plan to focus down Qrowe, who has a bad luck aura where everything that can go wrong typically does, immediately falls to pieces as every single person involved has an ulterior motive. Sadly, Vernal's "I'm gonna team up with Salem" tell in that final scene means it's basically moot. All that speculation on wheter Raven means she's gonna really leave everyone to die, or if she'll help out Qrowe, it won't matter because she's the one getting backstabbed first. That being said, I don't hate this? It's just a case where I can see the writing pretty plain on the wall and it's just kinda dissapointing they're going that route, personally. It's not what I'd of written, but it's not inherently bad because of it.

Nothing of interest happened in Blake's minor scenes, and I like the idea that BlakeDad wants Wukong to prove he's useful. If BlakeDad dies because of this I'm basically just shutting down all conversation related to "Wukong might be good actually". He's barely tolerable here and if he's responsible for the death of one of the whole good characters in this show I'll never be able to so much as look at him. But yeah overall it was an alright episode.

STill really amused that Mercury's ****ing terrified of school children.

[Rater202]

Between genuinely bad sleeping habits and work being a touch rougher than usual if only because my boss is on vacation so everything's kind of up to me, I've leaked on my blood oath. But I'mma fulfill it damnit, time to bleed.

Spoiler: V5C9

Show

I watched the opening with Peace Sign playing and spoilers it makes everything better. Also the video kept on pausing and getting horribly corrupted so that's making watching it difficult beyond personal acceptable reasoning.

We open on Raven using a whetstone to make her sword sharper. I imagine slicing wholes in space time could put some serious wear and tear on your sword, yeah. Also the fact that she needs to sharpen it and her sword is identical to Adam's probably means that the "it's a dustblade that's how he was able to cut off Yang's arm" theory is DOA. Good, it was stupid. Her sharpening is interrupted by the...blanking on season Maiden coming in to be like "oh no Salem found us". She tells Solstice to give her special talking to people hat, which she dons and goes out to meet with Cinder and the loser squad. I feel like Raven's mask is supposed to be more important than it actually is and it kinda bothers me.

...I'm sorry. I'm sorry Raven, give me a minute here. Just off to the side. What the **** did you just say? "I don't remember inviting so many guests today. Either I'm losing my memory or YOU'VE ALL LOST YOUR SPINES!!"

Raven no. What are you talking about? Are you referring to your men being spineless because that makes no sense at all and I feel like just randomly attacking people is NOT the best solution to have for your gang of idiot losers. Also consider that they DID attack the last "guests" you had AND FAILED MISERABLY. Being peaceful to outsiders is a good idea, even if you do intend to do them a violence, and just aggressively attacking anyone who comes near is just stupid. Second...WHO ARE YOUJ TALKOING TO ONLY CINDER'S PEOPLE ARE HERE! Are you trying to say "lost their mind" and you just did a verbal typo and NO ONE NOTICED? This is really baffling to me, of all the possible things Raven could of said, WHY DID SHE SAY SPINES??? I'd even potentially argue this scene isn't really BAD, it's just...WHAT?! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT WARP MOM???

Cinder's next comment makes it clear it IS the former interpretation, that she's threatening her men for not attacking any rando that comes by. Which makes no sense since no one is in the area except for Cinder, her buddies, Equinox, and Raven herself. Cinder says that clearly they just recognized the power of a maiden when they see one, so they let her in. She then shows off this amazing magical power by making a fire come out her eye. Not in any malicious way or anything she just gets an eyeball aura. I want to take a second to point out that up to this point we've not seen one single iota of evidence that the maiden power is all that impressive...and given the last episode and it's obsession over how being able to turn into a bird is this really scary thing, I think RT might just not have any idea how to properly frame these magical powers. If you want us to be impressed or shocked, you have to show us why we should be. Of all the random nonsense bull**** powers to be shown off in this series, I so far think Ruby's eyeball wings are probably the "best" despite coming out of ****ing nowhere because we at least have some idea of how powerful they are. She looked at that dragon so hard it's frozen in place, and she looked at Cinder so hard she had an eye torn out, had her voice almost permanently destroyed, and an arm ripped off. That's just from looking at someone. THAT is an impressive display of power. I'm not saying the maidens have to kill everyone in every single frame they're in, but some degree of "this is a big deal" would be appreciated.

Raven then tells her men to start tear down the camp. It's time to leave. I feel like this would work better if Raven convinced the bad people to leave and THEN did this, so that the next time our villains show up to be like "hey birdmom wanna fight?" they come to an empty spot. Also I feel like the idea that the bandits are entirely nomadic is hard to swallow given the huge spike walls they've got going on. I'll believe they can move around quickly, they only live in tents. But the huge walls and the little stage Raven is standing on during this entire scene feel like they'd be too bulky to just tear down and carry with. It's not things a nomadic group would really HAVE, not because they wouldn't want one of course, but because for a group that survives by moving away really fast, having tons of heavy, tanky, barricade-y stuff doesn't really make sense in the long run.

Mercury's voice sounds different here. Not surprising given how expensive Yuri is. Mercury taunts Raven and Raven correctly asserts that Mercury is a small baby child with no intimidation factor at all. He gets pissy but Cinder stops him because Raven's very correct. Cinder introduces them all to Raven and...sigh.

It just occured to me that Cinder's last name is Fall. As in the season. I realize this isn't a big revelation or anything I've just never really clicked in my head that that's a thing.

...Raven's response to this introduction is that wow Cinder, your last name's real appropriate. I bet you picked it all yourself too.

RT I have to level with you. That's not good. You're not actually capable of making that joke work given the in universe justifications for the names. It's explicit that yes people in this universe name themselves or are named by others in a very specific and thematic way on purpose in the actual canon of the world. You can't have a character make fun of someone's name for being self chosen in a series where everyone explicitly is named on purpose after things. And it's her LAST NAME so it wouldn't...BE chosen, and we can assume this is true because Mercury (an orphan who killed his adopted father) and Emerald (a runaround thief) have no last names because they have no families. I really do like that they TRIED to make a good joke out of this, but it doesn't work. It just doesn't hit. The further ripping on Cinder is also only slightly funny and I really wish it was better executed. Also we learned Watts is from Atlas but I kinda expected that given his design.

Cinder makes a threat to do a violence, because "oh we could of killed you whenever but you have something we wanted so we haven't" which...doesn't work at all. Raven calls in VerNAL (weird pronunciation on that name) to...I suppose also show off? Also god Raven your Spring Maiden is called Vernal, and you find it appropriate to make fun of Cinder's last name? Come the **** on.

Cinder asks Vernal to prove that she is a magical wizard person. Vernal...makes it cloudy and a little windy. I don't...look. I don't see this as impressive. Yang punched someone 100 feet into the air with a roast chicken this isn't impressive. I MADE IT SLIGHTLY WIIIIINDY AND ALSO OVERCAAAAST. This doesn't seem very impressive in the slightest, and I also really fail to see how this proves she's a Maiden because as I've harped on many a times, we don't know the difference in scale between what a Maiden can do and what regular aura powers can. Weiss can summon the SOULS OF HER SLAIN FOES AS ICY CONSTRUCTS, that seems more impressive than weather control.

Raven's eye lights on her helmet are wrong for where her actual eyes are on her face and this is bothering me immensely.

Cinder says she won't underestimate them, but also says that they should stop insulting her inteligence. No. Never. She says that while yes there is a slim chance they could escape (I feel like it'd be piss easy to just get everyone to escape to a predetermined location because Cinder's team only wants the maiden and Raven. Send all the men to the predetermined spot, warp yourself and Vernal over to BigYang's house, then everyone regroups at the new location of the bandit home.) if Raven really does know Salem as well as she claims, she knows they can't keep running forever. This is probably true, given Salem has clearly found Raven here, and likely has found her before?

Cinder says this is an olive branch, that all they need to do is get VerNAAL to open up the secret macguffin vault no one talked about until this and last season, and then everything Raven's done that is bad towards Salem will be forgiven. They even say it'll be easy given Lionheart is on their side, which...fair. This is still obviously a bad decision.

Speaking of bad decisions what the **** is with that blue feather duster on your dress slit Cinder what the hell. Your design isn't terrible but that feather duster kinda ruins the overall flow of your outfit and it bothers me. Almost as much as your kinda gross looking tights and those obviously illfitting rings on your leg.

Cinder explains that everything will be fine if they just help them get the Relic. They can go "squabbling in the woods" afterward, which...is another pretty severe verbal typo. Raven is somehow convinced enough by "you can just do whatever if you help us it's fine" enough that she needs a second to think about it. There's no reason what so ever helping Salem win is good. If Salem wins the entire world is destroyed probably. She's bad news. Helping out someone evil for short term gain is the dumbest thing you can do.

Watts says she doesn't HAVE time, because the White Fang will destroy all of Haven in two days (which means a month passed by REAL ****ing quick, which I'm actually kind of okay with) and that she basically has to decide now or just die along with everyone else.

Raven then reminds everyone she's also a bad guy by saying that if she accepts this deal, she wants proof they're trustworthy. So kill Qrowe for her. This is Raven making a very huge tactical error. Raven wants Qrowe killed because he knows she has the maiden, and will bother her about that. But if the Relic is obtained he will have no reason to pursue the maiden because she's not useful anymore, since as Cinder said, "the maidens are a means to an end". They're not ACTUALLY important. So Raven's betraying what little good she has for basically no reason. Bitch THIS IS WHY HE DOESN'T TRUST YOU, YOU JUST ORDERED AN ASSASSINATION ON HIM FOR NO REASON. God, what an idiot.t

Watts then makes things worse by mentioning that nooo...the reason why it's so easy to get the Relic is that they can just walk in and out no problem. Killing Qrowe will be violent and loud and make it harder to do that.

HOW?! I'm not on your side you ****ing idiot but HOW?!? Qrowe is your only opposition. Lionheart is the guy in charge and no one else is even guarding the ****ing relic. Killing Qrowe BENEFITS YOUR SIDE ENTIRELY and NOTHING NEGATIVE HAPPENS FROM IT OTHERWISE. Watts is an idiot. Raven also claims that all of them vs Qrowe means Qrowe would die instantly so it's fine. That's...see, in ANOTHER SERIES I might take THAT comment as Raven clearly lying and intending to do a traitor. Because she knows how strong Qrowe is, and knows his power is that "bad luck happens around him" which means that any attempt to actually do a sneak attack on him is gonna **** up for them a little bit just by the nature of him being the target. So in a better series I would be thinking about how Raven is ACTUALLY thinking about betraying them in a really clever sneak move. I have no belief this will actually happen though. And then something happens that makes me genuinely ****ing laugh my ass off.

Emerald, the only person on team bad guy with any interesting personality traits, mentions that Qrowe isn't around. He has SMALL CHILDREN WITH HIM. HE HAS THE STUDENTS. And credit where it's due, her voice acting and the animation make her look ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED of these SMALL CHILDREN. On the one hand this is hilarious because they're ****ing highschool students. Emerald come on. On the other hand it makes me realize just how out of her element Emerald is in all this. Mercury is a professionally trained murderboy who killed his own parental figure and had his legs torn off and replaced with robot ones. Cinder is some kind of pain freak nihilistic who hates life and wants to eat her own soul. Watts is a rich person. Emerald IS JUST A THIEF. She wanted lunch one day and it ended up with her being the right hand woman to someone trying to end the world. She doesn't want to be here and I kind of like it. Cinder's response to this is "...he sure does". Watts just face palms.

Watts then, at least, explains some stuff. Murdering everyone would make the police antsy, so that would ruin the White Fang's attack. Not for nothing Watts but if "the police are slightly more into doing their job" is enough to COMPLETELY RUIN your terrorist plot, it's a bad plot. But then this IS RWBY so *badumtish*.

Cinder actually gets a smart idea. Then just wait. Wait until the night this happens.

Because again, she doesn't know that Qrowe's power is an aura of bad luck. And Raven does.

Raven accepts this, and Cinder goes to shake Raven's hand with the most awkward forced smile I've ever seen on another human being, even counting the fact that the modals in this look slightly off all the time.

Buuut Watts puts a stop to it. Because he sees a thing no one else mentioned. Cinder's sarcastic "he sure does" comment was in relation to Ruby being there. The bad luck aura has already started to work it's way in. Cinder has no desire to kill Qrowe, she could not care less. She wants to get revenge on this small teenager. Watts says he will not take the blame for everything going **** end up because of her "grudge with a small child". Cinder's response is then "okay bye whore" and she burns Watts hand and goes to shake Raven's. Which means the plan has immediately failed since now they're probably down a man since Watts will probably ACTUALLY leave because he's an idiot, and as we all know Emerald is an out and out coward because she doesn't want to be here, and there's a chance Raven is genuinely just tricking them if this series wants to try and be good. The only person who's actually going to go along with this assassination plan is the assassin. What a surprise.

Talking over now for Blake Dad to do some heavy Dading. Really wish there was more blood when she CLAWS WHITE FANG PEOPLE DOWN WITH HIS BARE HANDS. I'm not bloodthirsty but if you want your BRUTAL TIGER MAN'S CLAW STRIKES to have some weight you need a splash of blood. He's supposed to be hulking out, give us some red.

One of the fox wizards manages to peg BlakeDad with a fireball from his tiny sai dagger wand thing and it...breaks his aura? Somehow? It's unclear because this series is bad. But the fox wizard almost gets a spear slammed through his skull in return so I'm happy for that at least. And he's forced to remove his robe so now we can see how stupid he looks and HOW stupid does he look. Wow, what a terrible design. I actually love how awful this idiot looks.

Blake and Wukong come to help and the two dumb fox wizards combine their weapons to do a tornado and this fight is not interesting at all good lord.

BlakeDad tells Blake to go save her mom, while he and Wukong deal with the fox idiots. Wukong's been talked up as being a big deal by her, time for him to prove it.

I swear to ****ing god if BlakeDad dies here I'll be having NONE OF IT.

We're done with this scene now. Time to go back to Raven, who looks like she's having a sad on her bed. VerNAUT appears and tells Raven all the sneaky information she gathered by following Cinder's crew to their boat house. Then asks Raven if she really thinks they'll be fine after helping them out. Raven makes it clear that no, of course not. She's not an IDIOT she's just a bad mom. And here in we learn the secret truth. Raven is gonna try and steal the Relic for herself. VerNAAAAAL asks if Raven's okay with Yang possibly dying over this. Raven does a really bad job of hiding the fact that when push comes to shove she's probably going to risk everything to help Yang. Raven also says that they must do what's best for the tribe. Vernal says she knows.

which of course means that Vernal is going to do the traitor, and go over to Salem's side to protect the rest of everyone. Sigh. Raven flies away as her bird form, and it's implied she flies past Qrowe's window. Speaking of which, Qrowe and Ozpin are having a chat. By which I mean they're going to, we're cutting over to Blaketown again. Blake confronts Illia, and the episode ends.

And that's the episode. My thoughts are as follows;

Spoiler: V5C9

Show

overall it wasn't bad? I feel like the characterization for the villains at least makes sense, and I like the minor reveal that Emerald is a ****ing hyper coward who just doesn't want to be here at all. I like that the plan to focus down Qrowe, who has a bad luck aura where everything that can go wrong typically does, immediately falls to pieces as every single person involved has an ulterior motive. Sadly, Vernal's "I'm gonna team up with Salem" tell in that final scene means it's basically moot. All that speculation on wheter Raven means she's gonna really leave everyone to die, or if she'll help out Qrowe, it won't matter because she's the one getting backstabbed first. That being said, I don't hate this? It's just a case where I can see the writing pretty plain on the wall and it's just kinda dissapointing they're going that route, personally. It's not what I'd of written, but it's not inherently bad because of it.

Nothing of interest happened in Blake's minor scenes, and I like the idea that BlakeDad wants Wukong to prove he's useful. If BlakeDad dies because of this I'm basically just shutting down all conversation related to "Wukong might be good actually". He's barely tolerable here and if he's responsible for the death of one of the whole good characters in this show I'll never be able to so much as look at him. But yeah overall it was an alright episode.

STill really amused that Mercury's ****ing terrified of school children.

Spoiler: v5C9

Show

1: There has never been blood in RWBY. In the first volume, decapitating Grimm resulted in a shower of rose petals.

2: Those School children are seemingly prodigious, are all trained monster hunters learning to be better monster hunters, and one of them has a Legendary Super Power that let her petrefy a Dragon and Cripple one of the strongest people on Mercuries team, who is also Mercury's direct superior. It's reasonable to be wary of them.

3: I think Ghira is supposed to be a wolf--he's got that Wolf Shoulder Guard, he founded the "White Fang" which, I don't know about you but makes me think of wolves over other animals, and he kind of looks like a classic Wolfman. His "feral battlemode" is also reminicient of being a werewolf.

And no, I don't know how Wolf+Panther=House Cat. I think one of the world of Remnants said that when fauni pairings don't match, the kid comes out as a random animal.

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: v5C9

Show

1: There has never been blood in RWBY. In the first volume, decapitating Grimm resulted in a shower of rose petals.

2: Those School children are seemingly prodigious, are all trained monster hunters learning to be better monster hunters, and one of them has a Legendary Super Power that let her petrefy a Dragon and Cripple one of the strongest people on Mercuries team, who is also Mercury's direct superior. It's reasonable to be wary of them.

3: I think Ghira is supposed to be a wolf--he's got that Wolf Shoulder Guard, he founded the "White Fang" which, I don't know about you but makes me think of wolves over other animals, and he kind of looks like a classic Wolfman. His "feral battlemode" is also reminicient of being a werewolf.

And no, I don't know how Wolf+Panther=House Cat. I think one of the world of Remnants said that when fauni pairings don't match, the kid comes out as a random animal.

Spoiler: V5C9

Show

There's been blood in this and last season. If Dad is clawing people to death show me some bloodshed please because otherwise it looks like he's just slapping them really hard.

[Calemyr]

Spoiler: v5C9

Show

1: There has never been blood in RWBY. In the first volume, decapitating Grimm resulted in a shower of rose petals.

2: Those School children are seemingly prodigious, are all trained monster hunters learning to be better monster hunters, and one of them has a Legendary Super Power that let her petrefy a Dragon and Cripple one of the strongest people on Mercuries team, who is also Mercury's direct superior. It's reasonable to be wary of them.

3: I think Ghira is supposed to be a wolf--he's got that Wolf Shoulder Guard, he founded the "White Fang" which, I don't know about you but makes me think of wolves over other animals, and he kind of looks like a classic Wolfman. His "feral battlemode" is also reminicient of being a werewolf.

And no, I don't know how Wolf+Panther=House Cat. I think one of the world of Remnants said that when fauni pairings don't match, the kid comes out as a random animal.

Spoiler: v5c9 - Faunus genetics

Show

I don't think there's much practical difference between Panther and Housecat in physical manifestation. Blake comes off as a housecat because she's young (a kitten compared to Cali) and because she's so timid. She wasn't so timid back in the day, and probably would have been better equated to a panther. But her semblance suggests she's never been overwhelmingly courageous.

That said, I believe the World of Remnant regarding Fauni (from what I remember) stated that mismatched pairings usually took after one parent or the other, though there was always a slim chance for atavism, leading them to take after another animal altogether. ("Leading them to take after another animal.")

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: v5c9 - Faunus genetics

Show

I don't think there's much practical difference between Panther and Housecat in physical manifestation. Blake comes off as a housecat because she's young (a kitten compared to Cali) and because she's so timid. She wasn't so timid back in the day, and probably would have been better equated to a panther. But her semblance suggests she's never been overwhelmingly courageous.

That said, I believe the World of Remnant regarding Fauni (from what I remember) stated that mismatched pairings usually took after one parent or the other, though there was always a slim chance for atavism, leading them to take after another animal altogether. ("Leading them to take after another animal.")

As someone who does world building as a sort of hobby since I'm an author I ****ing hate this so much by the way. It makes no seeeeeeense aaaaah. And like, yes yes "you're saying these cat people don't make sense" har har congrats you did comedy. Goof can still be sensible goof.

[Ramza00]

As someone who does world building as a sort of hobby since I'm an author I ****ing hate this so much by the way. It makes no seeeeeeense aaaaah. And like, yes yes "you're saying these cat people don't make sense" har har congrats you did comedy. Goof can still be sensible goof.

No no it makes sense if the faunus has an ancestor that was X 12 generations ago. If mom and dad are different it could be a callback to any of your ancestors, fauni traits can skip a generation or 12

[LaZodiac]

No no it makes sense if the faunus has an ancestor that was X 12 generations ago. If mom and dad are different it could be a callback to any of your ancestors, fauni traits can skip a generation or 12

See this is why I created strict and actual breeding rules into MY story.

[Ramza00]

See this is why I created strict and actual breeding rules into MY story.

Inserts the 3rd edition reincarnate spell to mess up LaZodiac's story

[Reddish Mage]

As someone who does world building as a sort of hobby since I'm an author I ****ing hate this so much by the way. It makes no seeeeeeense aaaaah. And like, yes yes "you're saying these cat people don't make sense" har har congrats you did comedy. Goof can still be sensible goof.

Not...really. It's just a matter of how deep one wants to look at it.

The leap from cat people to different cat people producing a third type of cat people doesn't seem like a big jump.

No no it makes sense if the faunus has an ancestor that was X 12 generations ago. If mom and dad are different it could be a callback to any of your ancestors, fauni traits can skip a generation or 12

You use blue text, but I find it hard to see why this shouldn't be read straight. genetics work that way, a recessive trait can skip a generation or 10, random stuff happens. Inheritance occurs in hundreds if not many more complex ways.

Sure, it doesn't make sense that most Faunus somehow have only one animal trait (plus I guess they all see in the dark, since that's a thing that was mentioned) if they are always interbreeding, but whatever.

See this is why I created strict and actual breeding rules into MY story.

That seems so wrong... wait that's not what you meant? But isn't that Eugenics? Not what you mean either?

Yeah, really, there's just no reason to put strict laws on fantasy animal trait inheritance.

There is much to be said for world-building (I am pretty sure you've had and will say it sometime) but nailing everything down to the nth degree in a fantasy world just seems to take out the mysteries. Also, you are still violating the laws of physics, biology, psychology, sociology and probably economics in incredibly obvious and perverse ways to those who know anything about it.

I'll be going back to working on my fantasy world, where everyone is rich and has hundreds of servants.

[LaZodiac]

Not...really. It's just a matter of how deep one wants to look at it.

The leap from cat people to different cat people producing a third type of cat people doesn't seem like a big jump.

Yeah, really, there's just no reason to put strict laws on fantasy animal trait inheritance.

There is much to be said for world-building (I am pretty sure you've had and will say it sometime) but nailing everything down to the nth degree in a fantasy world just seems to take out the mysteries. Also, you are still violating the laws of physics, biology, psychology, sociology and probably economics in incredibly obvious and perverse ways to those who know anything about it.

I'll be going back to working on my fantasy world, where everyone is rich and has hundreds of servants.

I mean yeah, but they're like "a lizard and a dog could create a horse" and that just seems really silly to me.

I should clarify that I'm not narrowing down like the nitty gritty genetic structure of the human genome in my series or anything. It's just "X+Y=Z". It's part of keeping things consistent, which is something I like in a story. Stuff that breaks what feels like the norm is still allowed obviously, as long as it makes sense under the surface. I like things to "have an explanation that makes sense in universe" at the very least. Not everything is perfect, and not everything will be, but I can assure you that nothing will be Complete Nonsense. That's what I'm railing again.

[Silver Swift]

Spoiler: V5C9

Show

So Raven, uhm, you are aware that you can teleport, right? You can make those portal thingies that people can walk through and be somewhere else? So the second the bad guys leave the camp you just make one of those and then you and your tribe can just go set up shop somewhere else? Sure, they'll be able to find you again eventually, but you literally only have to stay hidden for two days.

It is not a long term solution, of course, but that is because there isn't a long term solution that doesn't involve either beating Salem or giving her what she wants. I kinda fail to see how stealing the thing the bad guys are after is going to make them leave you alone.

[Calemyr]

I mean yeah, but they're like "a lizard and a dog could create a horse" and that just seems really silly to me.

I should clarify that I'm not narrowing down like the nitty gritty genetic structure of the human genome in my series or anything. It's just "X+Y=Z". It's part of keeping things consistent, which is something I like in a story. Stuff that breaks what feels like the norm is still allowed obviously, as long as it makes sense under the surface. I like things to "have an explanation that makes sense in universe" at the very least. Not everything is perfect, and not everything will be, but I can assure you that nothing will be Complete Nonsense. That's what I'm railing again.

Well, the way they did it here, the origins of the Fauni are lost to time, so that the mechanisms of their genetics aren't well understood even to them. So it is consistent with the "broken world, focus on survival" nature of societal evolution in the setting. Understanding where animal-human hybrid babies come from (beyond the practical) is not a good use of resources compared to developing technology to keep the world connected, protected from the Grimm, and, possibly most importantly, keep the populace content enough not to make the Grimm situation worse. There's just no obvious benefit to the research. Researching applications of Dust for societal and military applications? Smart use of time. Airships and communication towers? Smart use of resources. Developing artificial combatants and mechanized armor to serve as force multipliers in combat while reducing strain on Huntsmen (a limited resource requiring extensive training to be effective)? Pretty darn smart. Why a cat and a dog can have a gerbil for baby? That's best saved for when you're life isn't on the line every booping day.

And, as I just said, we don't know the origins of the Fauni. If they're just genetic mutations, an evolutionary branch that didn't get nipped in the bud, then they wouldn't work if subjected to any scrutiny. If they're supernatural in origin (tied to a god or goddess or a forgotten brand of magic), the rules become arbitrary to the point of "a wizard did it". Trying to explain it in a series with episodes as short as this (even now only 15 minutes on average) would require more time than the writers would want to devote to it, more time than the audience would tolerate (think of how people rebel at the World of Remnant episodes), and would leave at least half the audience unsatisfied in any case. Remember that we're not here for a lecture on theoretical genetics, we're here to see a bunch of cute girls with tricked out weapons engage in over-choreographed battle with faceless monsters that we can watch get slaughtered en masse without feeling guilty about it. That's the touchstone we have, here: pure rule of cool. Besides which, the nature of the Fauni may be an important plot element in the future and they don't want to give us all the answers up front. You could (and I predict will) describe this as poor storytelling, but not all art is high art. Sometimes it's just dumb popcorn fodder.

Now, from a personal perspective, I share your opinion. Little nuances like breeding complications are things I feel obligated to hash out when building my own worlds, whether or not the audience ever learns the rules, just so that they remain consistent. I do so because that's the kind of guy I am, always prodding at the cracks to see how things fit together. RWBY is not something I would have created, nor could I have. I don't think that way. But just because it doesn't follow my rules doesn't mean I can't enjoy it.

For example, I'll include the logic from one of my own stories.

Spoiler: My own nonsense

Show

Magic in the setting is treated as a sort of proto-energy that tends to aborb into things exposed to it. Up to a certain point, this augments the nature of whatever absorbs it: objects become more durable, creatures become stronger or faster or more aware of their environment... things like that. Inanimate objects can even become animate, imitating creatures they're exposed to, resulting in mountain goats that are actually made of stone, but it's just mimicry and not actual life. After a certain threshold, however, it starts changing them mind and body. They become more aggressive and more focused on absorbing ever more magic, to the point that they will become predatory and choose their prey based not on caloric value but on the amount of magic that can be absorbed from a potential target. At this point they are classified as monsters.

Since magic in the setting is affected by force of will and most creatures have a strong will to live, the mutations magic places on creatures tends to be beneficial (or at least functional) rather than detrimental, albeit odd at times, based on a combination of factors ranging from the subject's nature to the original source of the magic absorbed. In one case, a subject's arm became petrified but remained fully animate. When the magic was removed, the arm remained stone but ceased to be animate and quickly fell apart under the wear and tear of everyday life. While in a sense random, the probabilities of mutations are not uniform and certain combinations are common enough to be classified as a "breed" despite inconsistencies and a lack of common post-transformation bloodline.

Before reaching the monster threshold, creatures breed as per usual. Some amount of magic is passed on to children, predominantly what is accrued during gestation, leading to a little augmentation but no dramatic change. After reaching the threshold, the drive for consuming more magic generally overrides the drive for reproduction, so breeding is rarely worth consideration. When it does happen, monsters rarely breed true and infant monsters are rarely viable. Humans turned monster are more likely to breed than more instinct-driven creatures, and some types of human-based monsters do breed true, creating bloodlines that have developed into races in their own rights, though their populations tend to be extremely small. Such races are typically created due a shared culture in a consistent environment, setting up the right conditions for predictable mutations. Despite these mutations, some such monster races do not display the hostility and magic-obsessed nature common in monsters and can co-exist with humans despite the inevitable conflicts in perspective. Cross-breeding between races (including with humans) typically does not result in offspring, and those that do (as is typical with monsters) are rarely born in a viable state.

There are also (decidedly rare) cases of "transformational" monsters, roughly analogous to lycanthropes, who maintain a functional base form and the ability to take a monstrous form when agitated. Such monsters typically do not breed in their transformed state, but can in their base form, and their children breed true to their base form with the potential to inherit the transformed state as well. Since the transformed state typically comes with severe psychological consequences, most commonly resulting in split personalities, children who inherit more than one transformed state are too unstable to survive childhood much less survive to maturity. Transformational monsters are typically created due to the subject resisting the mutational effects of magic, and thus are infinitely more common in human-based monsters where the influence of magic can conflict with humanity's inborn force of will and sense of self.

Now, if you read that and your eyes glazed over, you probably understand why the genetics of the Fauni are not discussed in detail. It works best as a "show don't tell" thing, where the rules create consistent results but don't bore your audience to death. I honestly don't know if RWBY did that, or simply went with the stated rule of "A + B = A or B (with an extremely slight chance of C)". We'll need more evidence, or a peek at the logic, to know for certain, but I don't think an in-depth answer in story would be wise. As you can see, that would be extremely boring.

[jindra34]

Spoiler: Volume 5 Episode 10

Show

Well Zodiac I guess you don't have to go all (or more...) bloodthirsty on Sun yet, given that he at least partially saved Ghira. Also minor discussions on the relics and morals. And a very telling scene where someone takes the consequences of blind rage. Also I'm sorry, wasn't Ruby supposed to be the leader because right now Blake would look to fill that job better. Also Illa joins the team.

[Ramza00]

Reminder on Tuesdays it is RWBY day if you are not a paid subscriber. All you need is a free account to see the video that paid subscribers see 3 days earlier on Saturday.

Most recent episode is Volume 5 Chapter 10 True Colors and the plot moves forward

http://roosterteeth.com/episode/rwby...-10saoiju23lkj

[Reddish Mage]

RWBY Rewind #10 released and supposedly its more accessible than previous shows. They say their "live for everyone" and suggest heading over to RT to see the last episode, so I suppose they are on YouTube as well (ahead of the episode they are actually talking about!).

Normally it releases with a few minutes of the next episode but this week instead they tease

Spoiler: S5E11 Something Really Big

Show

that "something really big" happens in the next episode.

I believe the next episode is still on track for release Saturday. RT is then on break for a week, but comes back the week after.

Spoiler: S5E11 Speculation

Show

So what do you think is about to go down?

[Silverraptor]

Wait, am I missing something with the latest free episode (Ep.10) in the same episode they make reference to the same thing happening in 2 days and 2 weeks. Does this mean the Blake story is in the past and they are telling what had happened now for dramatic story effect?

[jindra34]

Wait, am I missing something with the latest free episode (Ep.10) in the same episode they make reference to the same thing happening in 2 days and 2 weeks. Does this mean the Blake story is in the past and they are telling what had happened now for dramatic story effect?

Somewhat still spoilers, but yes.

[LaZodiac]

Wait, am I missing something with the latest free episode (Ep.10) in the same episode they make reference to the same thing happening in 2 days and 2 weeks. Does this mean the Blake story is in the past and they are telling what had happened now for dramatic story effect?

As I've pointed out multiple times yes. Blake's story starts one month previous to everything Ruby and friends are doing in Mistral.

Also I'll watch the new episode later I have Things What Need Doing.

[Rater202]

Spoiler: Volume 5 Chapter 10

Show

I really want to punch Bad-Bird-Mom. In the face.

Illia's Heel/Face Turn seems a bit rushed, but it kind of works considering that she was forced to break down and admit that she's scared and doesn't know what to do, almost died becuase she refused to stop fighting, her bosses did nothing to help her and were kind of just mean to her, Ghira, the guy she was there to help murder, risked his life to save hers when he dind't have to and them being enemies, one of her bosses died becuase he refused to stop fighting and tried to take advantage of Ghira's mercy, and the other just got pissed and blamed Ghira for all the damage that he and his brother had caused.

Kindness from enemies and contempt and obvious evil from one's allies is a time-honored method of getting sympathetic antagonists to join the hero's side.

Also i's pretty clearly a work in progress considering that she broke down after taking out the surviving Fox-Jerk.

[Reddish Mage]

Wait, am I missing something with the latest free episode (Ep.10) in the same episode they make reference to the same thing happening in 2 days and 2 weeks. Does this mean the Blake story is in the past and they are telling what had happened now for dramatic story effect?

Spoiler: S5E11 speculation

Show

I think the "something big" in this episode is RWBY coming back together. Blake's arrival comes with either a warning about the White Fang (or occurs in response to their invasion). They want to tell Blake's story simultaneously with the other stories. Blake's story just ended, she might take a month to travel to Haven but they are likely to skip over that just to show her arriving.

The end of the episode probably is going to signal the start of a 3-episode long conclusion.

By the way, I see RWBY isn't up on the website, looks like they'll be releasing the next episode next week.

[LaZodiac]

I thirst for blood. I thirst for rwby. Again sorry this took so long.

Spoiler: V5C10

Show

Had subtitles on because of Kizuna Ai so I almost had to learn what the lyrics to the song are. Oops! That bullet dodged.

It opens with Qrowe and Ozpin having that conversation they were going to have last time. Long and short of it, things are Bad but could be Worse. Qrowe makes especially sure to point out the obvious to anyone watching; that many hunters dying at once means someone did a murder. Salem's getting stronger and reaching her fingers into everyone's pies. Qrowe takes this to mean that they're failing, and Ozpin just counters back that true, but there's still more people who are good. Fair, I suppose.

Ruby shows up, but I'm distracted by the incredibly bad way Qrowe is holding his coffee cup. Look man, there's bad luck fields and then there's just asking for a spill. Hold that cup properly.

Ruby asks a genuine question. If the bad guys need the maidens to get the relics, and the bad guys have Cinder, who has the Fall powers, then do they have the relic? WE know they don't, but the characters DON'T and it's important for them to ask, I feel. Ozpin answers that while this is a very good worry to have, it's okay. He made sure the Relic is far more challenging to find in Beacon.

Why? I mean I get it, you wanna hide it good. But why not do that for the others? There's no reason not to? Also unrelated to anything this reminds me of the super huge elaborate puzzles put in place to stop people from finding the Philosopher's Stone in Harry Potter. And then for the chamber of secrets they just put a really mean snake in some rando pit. Differences in kind man. This **** is important, treat it all with that level of importance.

Also, thinking on it, why hasn't Salem focused on getting that Relic? It's completely unguarded and entirely safe to get, there's no reason not to devote time to getting that. The other Kingdoms can wait. I mean we know such and such reason Salem thinks Ozpin HAS the Relic on him, so it's gonna be inside the staff or whatever, but it's still a little silly she's not devoting seemingly any resources into getting one of the four macguffins she needs to win the game.

Nevermind Ruby has one more question, and Ozpin explicitly says "my cane is not the relic" so...I mean I guess it isn't, since I don't see why Ozpin would lie about that. But then he's Oz he'd lie about basically anything.

Ozpin's phrasing with regards to why the cane is precious to him, and how it has tricks up it's sleeve, make me think the relic is definitely hidden inside of it. Exact words. The cane is not a relic. That doesn't mean it does not CONTAIN the relic. Anyway, conversation interrupted by Lionheart phoning Qrowe to set up the ambush plan. Ruby goes to get the others, while Oz and Qrowe make it very clear that um...they're not stupid. They know this is a trap.

We cut to Lionheart's office, where Raven is asking Leo why all he's even helping Salem. What does she have over him? Leo makes it clear that all she has over him is a ****ing guillotine. She cannot lose and will win and will kill basically everyone in her way. Better to be beside her then beneath. Raven agrees, but tries to justify this as being smart as opposed to being afraid. Different kinds and all that. Leo for his part doesn't care. Call it whatever you want they're the bad guys. Your reason doesn't matter, you're helping the people who want to seemingly destroy all of the world. I actually kinda like this, I figured Lionheart would be crappy but right now he at least has some kind of character going. I wonder if he'll stand up to Salem, or at least steampunk doctor man, when he realizes that being on her side means absolutely nothing to her end plan of killing you. Raven says he should man up, and stop pittying himself for doing what he needs to to survive. Leo rightly asks who she's trying to convince. I really like this scene, I'm glad the most cowardly person in the show is entirely capable of just badmouthing Raven directly to her face. She storms out, and Leo gives a deep sigh.

Back to the previous coup de taut against the king and queen mayor of animal town, already in progress. BlakeMom's guards prove to be useless so she has to beat a batman half to death with a food tray. I approve. Blake is now confronting Illia. Illia continues to be an idiot, but in ways that aren't terribly written just terribly executed. Illia launches the first attack but it was just a shadow clone, and also the effects for Blake's shadow clones are never the same between episodes and it bothers me. A fight ensues. It's not super great but it's better than the rest of the series so far? I can't actually tell.

Illia and Blake clash swords, and Blake asks Illia why they use methods that hurt people. She counters it's because they work, and Blake says that doesn't make it right. Arguable, like so much else in this entire plot line, but not something I'm going to get indepth into. Illia does something ACTUALLY NEAT and uses her sword's electric powers to stun Blake to make her drop her sword, the perfect anti sword clash tech that I actually find interesting. Illia is mad that she's being lectured too, and turns out the lights so they can fight...in the dark. Which Blake being a cat person means she has the advantage in. Unless it's still canon that ALL Faunus have nightvision for some reason.

Look, I get it. She's a chameleon. The intent is that she's supposed to be more invisible than she actually is to US because that allows us to see her better, for purpose of suspense. But no. That suit is black and the entire environment around it is browns and whites. Even in the dark she'd stand out pretty well, ESPECIALLY given...again, faunus are supposed to have nightvision eyes. Illia's eyes should also be pretty clearly visible, given how bright they are. Blake gets sneak attacked but responds by rolling into the recovery and shooting her gun, hitting nothing.

Illia asks why Blake didn't just leave. Let's ignore for the moment here that Blake couldn't leave. Where the **** would she go? Does Illia really think they'd just let her leave? What would leaving actually accomplish in the long run here? I get that Illia is irrational and an idiot, but they could still make her dialogue make a bit more sense. Anyway, Blake gives a good answer: because she keeps on running away.

Coulda...delivered that batter. Maybe worded it better too. But I mean it's okay a line.

Blake decides that instead of fighting it's time to burn the house down, so she loads some fire ammo into her gun to shoot a firebullet that'll set the house on fire. I mean that's fair. That's a good option. It's not the best, and will likely backfire spectacularly, but setting the house on fire because it's infested with ninjas is always a solution. Also the light of the fire forces Illia to reveal herself so we get a climactic fight in a burning house.

Except I don't care about Illia...at all, so it's not that climactic.

Illia says some **** about how if no one is going to help protect the Faunus from being attacked, they will have to attack back. Blake shoots ice bullets at Illia, tricking her into freezing her whip sword into a useless puddle. I actually kinda like that, that's making inventive use of the series established things in a way we hadn't seen before. Also Illia really really sucks at this huh.

Look I'm not going to get into this. But I'll just say that what they're discussing in this episode, and the last couple ones, and just kinda the faunus racism plot in general, what they're trying to get across here. It's way more complicated than this. Illia eventually breaks down saying she just doesn't know what to do, but she wants to do SOMETHING. Unfortunately this leads to stupid ****, but also makes a pretty clear case for something.

BlakeDad smashes through the wall with one of the twins, but stops short of violence because Blake is there. The distraction causes him to get stabbed in the back literally by the other twin (which makes no sense as both daggers were thrown to the ground) and THAT distracts Blake, giving Illia the time to regain her composure to kick Blake off of her and rejoin the fight. Because in the end Illia does know what else to do, and that's called be a lying bitch.

Which of course leads us to The Thing. Illia has a clear chance to help either Blakedad or her partner one of the twins. Blake is disabled because apparently she sucks that bad, so she's free to choose whichever way she wants. Let's see which way she goes, person who started crying and really opening up to her friend before IMMEDIATELY throwing her into a table the minute her guard was down. Chameleon, more like crocodile.

Thankfully the twins are ****ING AWFUL at this, and Blake Dad is winning this fight 1v2 and without any aura left. Then Wukong comes in ruining how cool this is by his prescence. Thankfully Dad tells him to go ruin Blake's scenes instead of his. Wukong actually pretty easily beats Illia (Dad was clearly carrying him during the other fight so he's not as tired) but Blake stops him before he...I mean I guess he was about to kill her. He was at least trying to, you don't typically shove someone up against a wall and try to crush their windpipe with a staff unless you intend to kill them. Blake interrupts, letting Illia slip away and wukong shove enough force into the pillar they were pushed up against to shatter it. So yeah he was definitely going to kill Illia. The rubble falls down and...

BlakeDad saves Illia from being crushed to death by the rubble. ****ing sigh. He tells Illia to run, which she does, and Wukong uses his light clones to help lift the debris off of Dad so he doesn't die. The more awake of the twins runs to try and ambush BlakeDad, ignoring the fact that he has sais that shoot blasts of fire and ice, and Blake see's this. She throws her weird sash thing connecting her gun to her pistol to...grab her Dad, pulling him out from under the debris, causing it to fall down onto the two Light Clones. And also the twin, because he overshoots his attack and lands underneath the debris. It explodes and he dies.

Why? Why would you do it like this? There are like five different solutions to this that accomplish the same thing (BlakeDad lives, twin gets killed). And they went with the stupidest and cartooniest. Mom comes in with the half dead batman she beat up, and everyone hugs...only for the wolf twin to be very upset and say a very dramatic shout that gets interrupted by Illia zapping him. I'd care about this death and betrayal if we knew any of these characters enough. Illia is barely important, these twins only exist to betray Adam and that's clearly not happening since one is dead and the other defeated. What was the point of ANY OF THIS??? Is the other twin dead now? Does it even matter? What did this entire plot arc accomplish? We got some minor characterization and major background information for Blake, and that's basically it. While that may actually be a big deal since this series has done basically none of that, it means that literally a third of the show's run time for this season has been dedicated to...things we should of learned a long time ago.

If anything, what HAS been established here is that the instant Sienna was killed, the White Fang lost their only competent member. Adam's crack squad of assassins and hitmen failed entirely. The only actual damage done was a stabbed shoulder and also the house is burning, but that's Blake's fault. And of course this is going to COMPLETELY galvanize EVERYONE against Adam's fangs now.

In the wrap up of the incident a guard captain asks the living twin if it was worth it. No. No it was not.

And the episode ends with Blake giving one of the worst ****ing speeches I've ever heard for the situation they're in. Jesus ****ing christ.

Also Illia's a full on good guy now. Yay I guess.

Oh **** off wukong

And that's the episode. Thoughts?;

Spoiler: V5C10

Show

Last episode was really positive so I think we've hit the part where everything falls apart again. Fittingly like last year it happened around this time and with Blake and Wukong as well. The opening bit with Ruby was, for the most part, good enough.

Then we had the entire rest of the episode. I'm not going to get into it because of board things and because I genuinely just don't want to talk about it, but everything in Blake's speech is really REALLY bad writing with regards to racism plots. It's VERY poorly thought out and just a massive mess of nonsense. RT can barely write a coherent story, what made them think they could handle something that requires actual nuance?

I don't care about twin one dying other than the fact that it means we won't get a story event of them backstabbing Adam. Illia becoming a good guy would matter if she had given us any reason to like her. Wukong pinching her arm because she stabbed him the one time is really ****ing annoying to me for reasons I cannot actually fully understand. We're in peak RWBY folks. Strap in.

[Callos_DeTerran]

I thirst for blood. I thirst for rwby. Again sorry this took so long.

Spoiler: V5C10

Show

Had subtitles on because of Kizuna Ai so I almost had to learn what the lyrics to the song are. Oops! That bullet dodged.

It opens with Qrowe and Ozpin having that conversation they were going to have last time. Long and short of it, things are Bad but could be Worse. Qrowe makes especially sure to point out the obvious to anyone watching; that many hunters dying at once means someone did a murder. Salem's getting stronger and reaching her fingers into everyone's pies. Qrowe takes this to mean that they're failing, and Ozpin just counters back that true, but there's still more people who are good. Fair, I suppose.

Ruby shows up, but I'm distracted by the incredibly bad way Qrowe is holding his coffee cup. Look man, there's bad luck fields and then there's just asking for a spill. Hold that cup properly.

Ruby asks a genuine question. If the bad guys need the maidens to get the relics, and the bad guys have Cinder, who has the Fall powers, then do they have the relic? WE know they don't, but the characters DON'T and it's important for them to ask, I feel. Ozpin answers that while this is a very good worry to have, it's okay. He made sure the Relic is far more challenging to find in Beacon.

Why? I mean I get it, you wanna hide it good. But why not do that for the others? There's no reason not to? Also unrelated to anything this reminds me of the super huge elaborate puzzles put in place to stop people from finding the Philosopher's Stone in Harry Potter. And then for the chamber of secrets they just put a really mean snake in some rando pit. Differences in kind man. This **** is important, treat it all with that level of importance.

Also, thinking on it, why hasn't Salem focused on getting that Relic? It's completely unguarded and entirely safe to get, there's no reason not to devote time to getting that. The other Kingdoms can wait. I mean we know such and such reason Salem thinks Ozpin HAS the Relic on him, so it's gonna be inside the staff or whatever, but it's still a little silly she's not devoting seemingly any resources into getting one of the four macguffins she needs to win the game.

Nevermind Ruby has one more question, and Ozpin explicitly says "my cane is not the relic" so...I mean I guess it isn't, since I don't see why Ozpin would lie about that. But then he's Oz he'd lie about basically anything.

Ozpin's phrasing with regards to why the cane is precious to him, and how it has tricks up it's sleeve, make me think the relic is definitely hidden inside of it. Exact words. The cane is not a relic. That doesn't mean it does not CONTAIN the relic. Anyway, conversation interrupted by Lionheart phoning Qrowe to set up the ambush plan. Ruby goes to get the others, while Oz and Qrowe make it very clear that um...they're not stupid. They know this is a trap.

We cut to Lionheart's office, where Raven is asking Leo why all he's even helping Salem. What does she have over him? Leo makes it clear that all she has over him is a ****ing guillotine. She cannot lose and will win and will kill basically everyone in her way. Better to be beside her then beneath. Raven agrees, but tries to justify this as being smart as opposed to being afraid. Different kinds and all that. Leo for his part doesn't care. Call it whatever you want they're the bad guys. Your reason doesn't matter, you're helping the people who want to seemingly destroy all of the world. I actually kinda like this, I figured Lionheart would be crappy but right now he at least has some kind of character going. I wonder if he'll stand up to Salem, or at least steampunk doctor man, when he realizes that being on her side means absolutely nothing to her end plan of killing you. Raven says he should man up, and stop pittying himself for doing what he needs to to survive. Leo rightly asks who she's trying to convince. I really like this scene, I'm glad the most cowardly person in the show is entirely capable of just badmouthing Raven directly to her face. She storms out, and Leo gives a deep sigh.

Back to the previous coup de taut against the king and queen mayor of animal town, already in progress. BlakeMom's guards prove to be useless so she has to beat a batman half to death with a food tray. I approve. Blake is now confronting Illia. Illia continues to be an idiot, but in ways that aren't terribly written just terribly executed. Illia launches the first attack but it was just a shadow clone, and also the effects for Blake's shadow clones are never the same between episodes and it bothers me. A fight ensues. It's not super great but it's better than the rest of the series so far? I can't actually tell.

Illia and Blake clash swords, and Blake asks Illia why they use methods that hurt people. She counters it's because they work, and Blake says that doesn't make it right. Arguable, like so much else in this entire plot line, but not something I'm going to get indepth into. Illia does something ACTUALLY NEAT and uses her sword's electric powers to stun Blake to make her drop her sword, the perfect anti sword clash tech that I actually find interesting. Illia is mad that she's being lectured too, and turns out the lights so they can fight...in the dark. Which Blake being a cat person means she has the advantage in. Unless it's still canon that ALL Faunus have nightvision for some reason.

Look, I get it. She's a chameleon. The intent is that she's supposed to be more invisible than she actually is to US because that allows us to see her better, for purpose of suspense. But no. That suit is black and the entire environment around it is browns and whites. Even in the dark she'd stand out pretty well, ESPECIALLY given...again, faunus are supposed to have nightvision eyes. Illia's eyes should also be pretty clearly visible, given how bright they are. Blake gets sneak attacked but responds by rolling into the recovery and shooting her gun, hitting nothing.

Illia asks why Blake didn't just leave. Let's ignore for the moment here that Blake couldn't leave. Where the **** would she go? Does Illia really think they'd just let her leave? What would leaving actually accomplish in the long run here? I get that Illia is irrational and an idiot, but they could still make her dialogue make a bit more sense. Anyway, Blake gives a good answer: because she keeps on running away.

Coulda...delivered that batter. Maybe worded it better too. But I mean it's okay a line.

Blake decides that instead of fighting it's time to burn the house down, so she loads some fire ammo into her gun to shoot a firebullet that'll set the house on fire. I mean that's fair. That's a good option. It's not the best, and will likely backfire spectacularly, but setting the house on fire because it's infested with ninjas is always a solution. Also the light of the fire forces Illia to reveal herself so we get a climactic fight in a burning house.

Except I don't care about Illia...at all, so it's not that climactic.

Illia says some **** about how if no one is going to help protect the Faunus from being attacked, they will have to attack back. Blake shoots ice bullets at Illia, tricking her into freezing her whip sword into a useless puddle. I actually kinda like that, that's making inventive use of the series established things in a way we hadn't seen before. Also Illia really really sucks at this huh.

Look I'm not going to get into this. But I'll just say that what they're discussing in this episode, and the last couple ones, and just kinda the faunus racism plot in general, what they're trying to get across here. It's way more complicated than this. Illia eventually breaks down saying she just doesn't know what to do, but she wants to do SOMETHING. Unfortunately this leads to stupid ****, but also makes a pretty clear case for something.

BlakeDad smashes through the wall with one of the twins, but stops short of violence because Blake is there. The distraction causes him to get stabbed in the back literally by the other twin (which makes no sense as both daggers were thrown to the ground) and THAT distracts Blake, giving Illia the time to regain her composure to kick Blake off of her and rejoin the fight. Because in the end Illia does know what else to do, and that's called be a lying bitch.

Which of course leads us to The Thing. Illia has a clear chance to help either Blakedad or her partner one of the twins. Blake is disabled because apparently she sucks that bad, so she's free to choose whichever way she wants. Let's see which way she goes, person who started crying and really opening up to her friend before IMMEDIATELY throwing her into a table the minute her guard was down. Chameleon, more like crocodile.

Thankfully the twins are ****ING AWFUL at this, and Blake Dad is winning this fight 1v2 and without any aura left. Then Wukong comes in ruining how cool this is by his prescence. Thankfully Dad tells him to go ruin Blake's scenes instead of his. Wukong actually pretty easily beats Illia (Dad was clearly carrying him during the other fight so he's not as tired) but Blake stops him before he...I mean I guess he was about to kill her. He was at least trying to, you don't typically shove someone up against a wall and try to crush their windpipe with a staff unless you intend to kill them. Blake interrupts, letting Illia slip away and wukong shove enough force into the pillar they were pushed up against to shatter it. So yeah he was definitely going to kill Illia. The rubble falls down and...

BlakeDad saves Illia from being crushed to death by the rubble. ****ing sigh. He tells Illia to run, which she does, and Wukong uses his light clones to help lift the debris off of Dad so he doesn't die. The more awake of the twins runs to try and ambush BlakeDad, ignoring the fact that he has sais that shoot blasts of fire and ice, and Blake see's this. She throws her weird sash thing connecting her gun to her pistol to...grab her Dad, pulling him out from under the debris, causing it to fall down onto the two Light Clones. And also the twin, because he overshoots his attack and lands underneath the debris. It explodes and he dies.

Why? Why would you do it like this? There are like five different solutions to this that accomplish the same thing (BlakeDad lives, twin gets killed). And they went with the stupidest and cartooniest. Mom comes in with the half dead batman she beat up, and everyone hugs...only for the wolf twin to be very upset and say a very dramatic shout that gets interrupted by Illia zapping him. I'd care about this death and betrayal if we knew any of these characters enough. Illia is barely important, these twins only exist to betray Adam and that's clearly not happening since one is dead and the other defeated. What was the point of ANY OF THIS??? Is the other twin dead now? Does it even matter? What did this entire plot arc accomplish? We got some minor characterization and major background information for Blake, and that's basically it. While that may actually be a big deal since this series has done basically none of that, it means that literally a third of the show's run time for this season has been dedicated to...things we should of learned a long time ago.

If anything, what HAS been established here is that the instant Sienna was killed, the White Fang lost their only competent member. Adam's crack squad of assassins and hitmen failed entirely. The only actual damage done was a stabbed shoulder and also the house is burning, but that's Blake's fault. And of course this is going to COMPLETELY galvanize EVERYONE against Adam's fangs now.

In the wrap up of the incident a guard captain asks the living twin if it was worth it. No. No it was not.

And the episode ends with Blake giving one of the worst ****ing speeches I've ever heard for the situation they're in. Jesus ****ing christ.

Also Illia's a full on good guy now. Yay I guess.

Oh **** off wukong

And that's the episode. Thoughts?;

Spoiler: V5C10

Show

Last episode was really positive so I think we've hit the part where everything falls apart again. Fittingly like last year it happened around this time and with Blake and Wukong as well. The opening bit with Ruby was, for the most part, good enough.

Then we had the entire rest of the episode. I'm not going to get into it because of board things and because I genuinely just don't want to talk about it, but everything in Blake's speech is really REALLY bad writing with regards to racism plots. It's VERY poorly thought out and just a massive mess of nonsense. RT can barely write a coherent story, what made them think they could handle something that requires actual nuance?

I don't care about twin one dying other than the fact that it means we won't get a story event of them backstabbing Adam. Illia becoming a good guy would matter if she had given us any reason to like her. Wukong pinching her arm because she stabbed him the one time is really ****ing annoying to me for reasons I cannot actually fully understand. We're in peak RWBY folks. Strap in.

Spoiler: V5 C10

Show

Well...you want to know what Blake's story (as far as we've seen it anyway) has accomplished..

Fairly major character development for Blake, I wouldn't call it a little.

The mobilization of the Faunus to stand against the White Fang.

The perspective of someone, not a leader, that actually serves in the White Fang, why they would join, and why they think its right. Which..not well executed but its not something we had so getting that context was important.

The exposing of the White Fang to Menagerie as the terrorists they are.

A bit of development for Sun Wukong, not much, but a little.

And, main plot related, a an idea of what's going to be happening at Haven very soon.

Also, on Salem and the Fall relic, Salem IS putting effort into tracking down the Knowledge relic, its a single line in Volume 4 but she does order the Grim at Beacon to continue tearing it apart in search of either the relic or the vault the relic is hidden inside. So she remains competent, she just hasn't dispatched oned of her lieutenants to do it.

[Reddish Mage]

It has arrived (for subscribers at least)

Spoiler: V5C11 Bad Moon Rising

Show

We start out getting to see what the Full Moon looks like, a completely full moon with lots of chunks coming out of it and this means what you think. This is the night the main gang is now at Haven Academy and the grand conclusion to the season is starting now.

They enter a room the looks familiar to the opening but with a statue in the center along with a podium where Lionheart is. He's carrying his shield with which he covers so he can ask them why they have their weapons with them (not suspicious at all). Qrow answers "we're huntsmen [duh, what's wrong with you]." Yang then notices that the raven is Raven. Qrow fires and dialogue ensues.

The episode clearly makes us feel Raven, if not on Salem's side, is clearly all in for the fight against the good guys. I'm not especially sure about this. Raven tells Vernal to hold back. Also, I still don't see Raven's interest in wanting Qrow dead, the idea that Raven is so venal as to want to kill Ozpin's team (with special emphasis on her brother), when we know she still opposes Salem agenda in her own way, is just nuts.

Cinder's team comes out of the portal along with Vernal (note to self- Raven can portal to Vernal). Hazel comes from the front door saying the White Fang are outside the school with the bombs already in place. Cinder then goads Juane into attacking her. June attack allows Cinder's team to choose their opponents set the pace for the ensuing 7 duals (Jaune - Cinder, Emerald - Ruby, Mercury - Yang, Weiss - Vernal, Qrow - Raven, Oscar - Leo, Hazel - Ren and Nora).

I'd go into each one in turn but its too early to give that much detail with a review. I'm a little disappointed thing devolved into a set of barely-related duals rather than going crazy with team attacks. I just don't know if we're ever going to see something as spastic as the food fight or as co-ordinated as the attack on the Paladin in Volume 2 again.

Vernal appears to be MVP because she locks down Weiss and prevents her from doing anything. Despite Raven's instructions not to break out her power, I think her use of fire is Maiden-magic, maybe.

Cinder enjoys playing with Juane, who is definitely our perspective character for the battle. If Juane's semblance is activated by strong emotions it should well be triggered.

The "something big" happens towards the end

Spoiler: Watch First - You've been warned

Show

Ruby breaks out the silver eyes just to get knocked out by Emerald. Juane attacks the disabled Cinder only to collapse from a mysterious case of muscle spasms to the side.

Cinder, after literally gloating over Juane, throws a javelin into Weiss causing her to collapse.

I think Weiss is clearly ok though, the javelin clearly has struck her side

To lightly say where I think this is going:

Spoiler: S5V11 and Speculation

Show

The conclusion is going to be a three parter. The climax isn't coming into Episode 13 with perhaps something of a Denoument. This is just meant to get the action started, and already our team looks like they are near total collapse.

The villains are clearly fighting from a superior position, which I think is a first, but our team still seems to have all the cool moves.

Its really time next episode for Juane to show us what he got.

Next episode is also high time for Blake to show up, although I don't think she's coming to the rescue this early in the fight, probably later into the episode. Its even possible she could come in on Episode 13, but prior to that, a lot of things need to happen in the first few minutes of Episode 12 to prevent the fight from coming to a swift and anti-climactic resolution.

I suspect those things happen and things devolve into various splinters from each group chasing each other in a chaotic hunt through a possibly burning and exploding Haven.

Those things include

Spoiler: Watch First- The Big stuff spoiled here- warning!

Show

Juane needs to activate his semblance now or we'll be talking about how he pulled a Poe Dameron. Other than that...I really don't see what's going to save everyone.

Raven and Vernal need to break away soon, but I think they are waiting for RWBY-etc to turn the fight around.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Spoiler: V5 C11

Show

Okay, this chapter is very straight forward..there is a whole lot of action that goes down in this episode...as in literally a whole lot of action in that good old fashion RWBY way so rather than try, and fail, to address it all in the order that it happens I'mma just break it down fight by fight after addressing the talking bits.

It IS indeed the night of the full moon now and it does mean that everything is going down now...which means Qrow is leading everyone to go and meet Leo and I do mean EVERYONE. Also, minor note before I forget, did we know that Leo was a Faunus before now? I feel like we didn't but he's very clearly sporting a lion tail in this chapter. Anyway, on to other matters!

We get more proof that Leo is absolutely terrible at improvisation and lying once he's thrown off his game, which he is once he sees everyone that Qrow has brought to the party. The guy couldn't be more obvious if he tried to be and honestly its a clear sign that none of this is sitting well with him and the guilt is eating away at Lionheart. Yang spots Bird-Mom which ruins the whole ambush thing and Qrow lays into Leo on what I postulated a long time ago...that Leo hasn't just been doing idle things like forging Cinder's Haven paperwork (also confirmed this episode) and trying to help them get the Creation relic..he's been feeding her information on where and when he's been sending Huntsmen out so they can be killed. Which, yeah, pushes Leo from unwilling but sympathetic traitor to an unsympathetic one which seems to be the intent. Raven defends his actions though, apparently seeing a kindred soul who's willing to do whatever it takes to survive and says he looked at all of the information, information she's surprised didn't prompt Qrow to make a different choice, and made a choice just like everyone in that intro hall has and just when the fight is about to kick off...Ruby interrupts.

She makes an admirable effort to try and convince Raven and Leo that they made the choice to side with Salem because they couldn't fight her on their own but they don't HAVE to fight her on their own. By working together they can do incredible things which prompts a remarkably bitter sounding 'you sound just like her' (Summer I will bet) from Raven before she opens a portal to Vernal. Which upgrades the total number of people we KNOW a portal goes to up to four. And through it...yep...here comes Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, and Vernal!

Ruby in particular is unhappy to see Cinder but they don't give us a good shot of Jaune, for good reason, as Cinder gloats about Lionheart's betrayal and what it means before Jaune cuts her off. This gloating includes the fact that if Leo hadn't betrayed the huntsmen than Hazel and Tyrian would have hunted them down anyway. Cause Jaune is mad as hell that Cinder is so messed up inside that she sounds like she enjoys the fact she is responsible for getting so many people killed and is going to kill even more. Cinder's response is one that makes perfect sense and is a fine character point for her.

...She has absolutely no idea who Jaune even is.

At some point Hazel comes in to inform everyone the White Fang is in place and placing explosives to demolish Haven and make sure no one comes in..or gets out of the Academy that isn't supposed to. This also reveals that Adam is personally leading the assault. Say what you will about Adam being a creepy, psychopathic stalker with severe spite issues but I will give him a tiny point of credit in that he is personally willing to lead these attacks when he doesn't have to anymore.

This also shows Oscar's fear that Hazel has arrived and..honestly I'm kind of feeling that as well. The dude has been completely unflappable through out all of his screen time, even when in the lair of the human-phobic White Fang and didn't bat an eye. Never mind his motives in all of this are the most obscure even if his loyalty isn't.

Never mind all of that, its fight time! And..some of the pairings make sense but there's two that actually struck me as rather peculiar so I'll break this down by pairings.

Qrow vs. Raven: We actually barely get to see this. Qrow and Raven both seem to have been correct that they are relative equals to the point that they neutralize one another. That or they plan on cutting to this fight at the beginning of the next chapter as part of the cliffhanger they leave us on. Though..how equal are they? If Raven is still Qrow's equal despite his unluck aura and her own Semblance being utility oriented doesn't this mean Raven is actually just stronger but Qrow's semblance keeps them balanced?

Nora/Ren vs. Hazel: Its interesting to note that Hazel didn't start this fight. In fact he was just standing off to the side observing everything when Nora and Ren approached him to throw down. He even says he doesn't want to fight them which they reciprocate. ...Thing is, Hazel might not want to fight them but I don't think that will stop him from ending the power couple if he gets the chance. Its also a very minor detail that you have to pay close attention of to see..but it looks like Hazel's arms are covered with scars from just the tiniest bit past his sleeves and up...what...what is going on underneath of Hazel's jacket?

Leo vs. Ozcar: Oscar actually seems to go un-noticed by everyone as he sneaks around to confront Leo directly and..Leo has an odd weapon. Its a shield, which is strange on its own, but it seems to work by combining two different kinds of Dust for various projectile attacks which is nifty. At first Leo tries to convince Ozcar to jsut run but when he sees the cane he doesn't assume its Ozpin but does try to murder the farm boy. When said farm boy survives said attempt he picks up on the fact that Ozcar has come and..has a very curious little mental breakdown while Ozpin just wonders what happened to Leo. How different is Haven's Headmaster from when he last spoke to Ozpin...? Anyway, Leo wasn't joking about being past his prime but Ozcar seems competent at least...and either has already had his aura broken or he's called Ozpin out..but considering when we do hear Ozpin its in his internal voice I don't thin...ohhhhhh....they were showing Ozcar engaged his aura right before he was hit. Alright then, wasn't super clear though. However when Leo does get unhinged...well...he has a moment where he talks to himself about if he does one last thing for Salem..if he can give her Ozpin..than she'll have to let him out from under her. Boy...I hope you don't succeed at all Leo but for your sake I hope you aren't wrong about that.

Yang vs. Mercury: Alright, this was probably the most expected fight but its also the one we see very little of and there's not a lot of banter either. I think this is another fight being held off on, not the least of which is because I feel like Yang is being saved for a confrontation with Adam down the line.

Ruby vs. Emerald: This is the first of the weird pairings..because I figured Emerald fighting Jaune was a sure thing! It seemed just perfect to further Jaune's hang-ups about Pyrrha's death to fight Emerald who both knows Jaune (Mercury and her were the ones that interacted with people, not Cinder) and could use her Semblance to **** with him in that way. Instead, Emerald makes it very clear that she wants Ruby to get nowhere close to Cinder and intercepts her. So..Emerald isn't Salem-loyal...she's Cinder loyal because Cinder has given her everything. Makes sense, just wish we knew more about it. We do get a brief shot of her using an illusion of Cinder to take Ruby off guard but the big scene between them is that when Cinder gets Jaune on the ropes and Ruby, in a fit of panic, actually starts to use her Silver Eyes again (and the effect for them looks SO MUCH better than the eyeball wings from before, kudos on the vast improvement there RT) just for Emerald to shut that crap right down and...I think knock Ruby out cold. The big thing here was Emerald openly saying she's completely devoted to Cinder and the new Silver Eye effect that looks much better.

Cinder vs. Jaune: This is arguably a more important fight but has things relating to the next one, so going to address it first. For one we see the return of Cinder making weapons seemingly from nothing which we can probably assume is Maiden powers..and while we get a moment from Jaune where we again get an indicator that he's really, really strong physically..Cinder still crushes him in this fight and outright plays with him. To the point that when Weiss gets into a tough spot she has the gall to taunt him that he can keep fighting her but he'll be letting Weiss die in the process. The brief flash of Silver Eyes brings Cinder to her knees though and Jaune actually goes for the goddamn kill with Cinder leaning out of the way at the last second so it knicks her...mask...which we get a clear view of. And..it doesn't just look like Cinder got her eye damaged its downright gone. Ouch. But once she has Jaune literally beneath her heel she decides to twist the knife rather then finish him off...by summoning up a big honking spear and CHUCKING IT RIGHT THROUGH WEISS' F***ING TORSO. WHAT THE HELL RT?!

Weiss vs. Vernal: This is, in my opinion, the best fight of this entire episode in large part because at one point they do one long, uninterrupted shot at one point that's very nice and it has a bit of basic fight psychology to it. Raven told Vernal to save her mojo for later so we know for a fact that this is all just Vernal, her semblance, dust, and/or her weapons. So she challenges Weiss to prove she's more than just the Schnee name which is an interesting wrinkle, is Vernal projecting a bit? In either case once the fight start Vernal doesn't give Weiss ANY breathing room, any time Weiss gets some distance to set up her dust shenanigans or summon Vernal is either chucking her chakrams at her or closing the distance to keep the pressure on. Its nice, simple fight psychology that works, especially when they throw in details like Weiss' closest attempt to a successful summon looking like the Gigas is clawing its way out of the ground in a show of Weiss' desperation to just summon the damn thing without interruption. But she does constantly be interrupted which is good...for the bad guys that is, bad for Weiss because after that last attempt Vernal blade locks with her and fires her weapon, in what looks like Dust lasers, into Weiss at point blank range to shatter her aura. Which again leads to WEISS BEING SHISH-KABOBED but Weiss, one of the heavy hitters on the good guys side..below Qrow and maybe Ozpin, depending on what he can really get up to, but tied with Yang just cannot land a solid blow on Vernal. Compared to Amber, Vernal seems like a far more lethal combatant which is admittedly a good thing especially since we know for a fact she's not using any Maiden powers and is still accomplishing this.

And what does the episode end on?

This was a fun, action-packed episode that had some more serious moments such as Ruby's flashback to Pyrrha when Cinder says she's going to get serious with Jaune, the ending shot of Weiss falling to her knees with her head down, and...Leo's seeming derangement. We also get the return of smug, gloating Cinder which...I actually don't mind so much anymore because the improved facial animations means we get to see Cinder continue to emote despite the return to the hateable personality from before...man..the difference between Cinder around Salem and on her own is night and day! And also the fact that Watts isn't around is very telling..I mean I know he said he wouldn't have anything to do with the murder plan for Qrow because he doesn't want to take the fall if it goes wrong but..he's also not helping get the relic right now either. In other words, I feel like Watts is off doing something terrible right now.

[Reddish Mage]

Spoiler: V5 C11

Show

Okay, this chapter is very straight forward..there is a whole lot of action that goes down in this episode...as in literally a whole lot of action in that good old fashion RWBY way so rather than try, and fail, to address it all in the order that it happens I'mma just break it down fight by fight after addressing the talking bits.

Spoiler: V5C11

Show

One on One Duels taking place simultaneously are the traditional RWBY fashion now? I must have missed something somewhere along the line...

Also, I'm pretty sure this is the first time we see Leo's tail.

Spoiler: V5C11

Show

Nora/Ren vs. Hazel: ..but it looks like Hazel's arms are covered with scars from just the tiniest bit past his sleeves and up...what...what is going on underneath of Hazel's jacket?

Leo vs. Ozcar: nyway, Leo wasn't joking about being past his prime but Ozcar seems competent at least...and either has already had his aura broken or he's called Ozpin out..but considering when we do hear Ozpin its in his internal voice I don't thin...ohhhhhh....they were showing Ozcar engaged his aura right before he was hit. Alright then, wasn't super clear though. However when Leo does get unhinged...well...he has a moment where he talks to himself about if he does one last thing for Salem..if he can give her Ozpin..than she'll have to let him out from under her. Boy...I hope you don't succeed at all Leo but for your sake I hope you aren't wrong about that.

Spoiler: V5C11 Fight!

Show

Good catch on Hazel's arm. It sounds like Oscar, not Ozpin, fighting, Ozpin is all in his head doing a <insert remote supporting character here - I'm thinking Oracle, Old Man Bruce Wayne, Martin Stein, probably a few dozen others without getting super obscure>. Oscar probably is shown engaging his aura to block the meteor.

Also Leo's wrong, of course, Salem doesn't care about people and discards them when she's finished with them. Raven has mentioned that and she is apparently in a position to know this having spied on Salem from way back when. However, Leo is like the only fight that doesn't look like its going the villains way

Spoiler: V5C11

Show

Yang vs. Mercury: Alright, this was probably the most expected fight but its also the one we see very little of and there's not a lot of banter either. I think this is another fight being held off on, not the least of which is because I feel like Yang is being saved for a confrontation with Adam down the line.


Ruby vs. Emerald: This is the first of the weird pairings..because I figured Emerald fighting Jaune was a sure thing! It seemed just perfect to further Jaune's hang-ups about Pyrrha's death to fight Emerald who both knows Jaune (Mercury and her were the ones that interacted with people, not Cinder) and could use her Semblance to **** with him in that way. Instead, Emerald makes it very clear that she wants Ruby to get nowhere close to Cinder and intercepts her. So..Emerald isn't Salem-loyal...she's Cinder loyal because Cinder has given her everything. Makes sense, just wish we knew more about it. We do get a brief shot of her using an illusion of Cinder to take Ruby off guard but the big scene between them is that when Cinder gets Jaune on the ropes and Ruby, in a fit of panic, actually starts to use her Silver Eyes again (and the effect for them looks SO MUCH better than the eyeball wings from before, kudos on the vast improvement there RT) just for Emerald to shut that crap right down and...I think knock Ruby out cold. The big thing here was Emerald openly saying she's completely devoted to Cinder and the new Silver Eye effect that looks much better.

Spoiler: V5C11 Fight! Part 2

Show

Yang is totally being saved for the Adam fight. This doubly means something has to send this neat little arena into chaos. Yang actually has very little emotionally invested in a Mercury revenge match. She does have quite a bit of issues to work out with Adam. By which I mean the recommended therapy for Yang's tremors is hitting Adam repeatedly in the face.

Spoiler: V5C11

Show

Cinder vs. Jaune: This is arguably a more important fight but has things relating to the next one, so going to address it first. For one we see the return of Cinder making weapons seemingly from nothing which we can probably assume is Maiden powers..and while we get a moment from Jaune where we again get an indicator that he's really, really strong physically..Cinder still crushes him in this fight and outright plays with him. To the point that when Weiss gets into a tough spot she has the gall to taunt him that he can keep fighting her but he'll be letting Weiss die in the process. The brief flash of Silver Eyes brings Cinder to her knees though and Jaune actually goes for the goddamn kill with Cinder leaning out of the way at the last second so it knicks her...mask...which we get a clear view of. And..it doesn't just look like Cinder got her eye damaged its downright gone. Ouch. But once she has Jaune literally beneath her heel she decides to twist the knife rather then finish him off...by summoning up a big honking spear and CHUCKING IT RIGHT THROUGH WEISS' F***ING TORSO. WHAT THE HELL RT?!

Spoiler: V5C11 Fight! Part 3

Show

Juane has been the golden boy of the franchise. So far he's managed to be alternatively awesome or cutely incompetent. Now, he's basically threw everything off by launching at Cinder like she was a Manadator-IV Dreadnought. I suspect he's going to be vindicated by having his semblance unlocked. Otherwise he has to face that his actions got Weiss skewered (women take note: Juane liking you means you will inevitably be mortally wounded by Cinder).

Either way, once again Juane's character development is absolutely a top priority for this series and they are sidelining (when they aren't literally killing off) many other characters and plots for it.

I don't mind the return of classic Cinder, that's her face to the world. I suspect soon enough we will see angry and afraid Cinder again.

Spoiler: V5C11

Show

Weiss vs. Vernal: This is, in my opinion, the best fight of this entire episode in large part because at one point they do one long, uninterrupted shot at one point that's very nice and it has a bit of basic fight psychology to it. Raven told Vernal to save her mojo for later so we know for a fact that this is all just Vernal, her semblance, dust, and/or her weapons. So she challenges Weiss to prove she's more than just the Schnee name which is an interesting wrinkle, is Vernal projecting a bit? In either case once the fight start Vernal doesn't give Weiss ANY breathing room, any time Weiss gets some distance to set up her dust shenanigans or summon Vernal is either chucking her chakrams at her or closing the distance to keep the pressure on. Its nice, simple fight psychology that works, especially when they throw in details like Weiss' closest attempt to a successful summon looking like the Gigas is clawing its way out of the ground in a show of Weiss' desperation to just summon the damn thing without interruption. But she does constantly be interrupted which is good...for the bad guys that is, bad for Weiss because after that last attempt Vernal blade locks with her and fires her weapon, in what looks like Dust lasers, into Weiss at point blank range to shatter her aura. Which again leads to WEISS BEING SHISH-KABOBED but Weiss, one of the heavy hitters on the good guys side..below Qrow and maybe Ozpin, depending on what he can really get up to, but tied with Yang just cannot land a solid blow on Vernal. Compared to Amber, Vernal seems like a far more lethal combatant which is admittedly a good thing especially since we know for a fact she's not using any Maiden powers and is still accomplishing this.

Spoiler: V5C11 Fight! Part 4

Show

In opinion is the REAL RWBY fight of the episode. The rest are all sideshows and fail to show anything of note. Juane fight is important mainly because it drives the drama and the action, but he himself is basically just whaling against Cinder, who spends most of her time blocking and being amused.

Weiss is also not awesome mainly because her strategy is to get the space to summon her Gigas. She should be attacking Vernal with her awesome speed. Instead, she uses her skills mainly playing defense.

I don't know where the RWBY members rank on a scale honestly. If Season 3 choices was an indication of strength than yes, Weiss is second strongest in RWBY. However, the skills of the team vary greatly, and Weiss, as the "mage" definitely has her weak points. Hardiness, lacking Yangs ability to take a hit or Blakes clones, is probably one of them.

I don't think you are giving Amber enough credit, the one fight scene we see she fights CME on her own and appears to win and limp away. Cinder pulls a victory out of nowhere.

Vernal is fighting Weiss basically one on one and ultimately, she doesn't beat Weiss, Cinder comes along and finishes the job for her.

Spoiler: V5C11

Show

also the fact that Watts isn't around is very telling..I mean I know he said he wouldn't have anything to do with the murder plan for Qrow because he doesn't want to take the fall if it goes wrong but..he's also not helping get the relic right now either. In other words, I feel like Watts is off doing something terrible right now.

Spoiler: V5C11

Show

Watts was obviously not going to be around since he said as much. He can't very well be helping getting the relic and still not be around.

What's he doing? I imagine he is readying to bring down Atlas in the next volume. Any chance Winter is actually the Winter maiden? What do you think the chances are of Jacques turning out to be a Salem proxy? Will Ironwood go full-on antagonist or will he admit his approach is just playing into Salems hands?

Ah it doesn't matter yet. Volume 6 is still here and the question is what's going to happen in Episode 12 and 13

[Lemmy]

Well... That's underwhelming.

Spoiler: V5 E11

Show

For an all-out 3-sided royal battle, there are surprisingly few fight scenes, and none of them is very good or even last more than a couple seconds... They really did give up on making RWBY an action series, didn't they?

Instead we get a cliff-hanger that we all know won't stick.

[Reddish Mage]

I thirst for blood. I thirst for rwby. Again sorry this took so long.

Spoiler: V5C10

Show

Illia and Blake clash swords, and Blake asks Illia why they use methods that hurt people. She counters it's because they work, and Blake says that doesn't make it right. Arguable, like so much else in this entire plot line, but not something I'm going to get indepth into. Illia does something ACTUALLY NEAT and uses her sword's electric powers to stun Blake to make her drop her sword, the perfect anti sword clash tech that I actually find interesting. Illia is mad that she's being lectured too, and turns out the lights so they can fight...in the dark. Which Blake being a cat person means she has the advantage in. Unless it's still canon that ALL Faunus have nightvision for some reason.

Look, I get it. She's a chameleon. The intent is that she's supposed to be more invisible than she actually is to US because that allows us to see her better, for purpose of suspense. But no. That suit is black and the entire environment around it is browns and whites. Even in the dark she'd stand out pretty well, ESPECIALLY given...again, faunus are supposed to have nightvision eyes.

Blake decides that instead of fighting it's time to burn the house down, so she loads some fire ammo into her gun to shoot a firebullet that'll set the house on fire. I mean that's fair. That's a good option. It's not the best, and will likely backfire spectacularly, but setting the house on fire because it's infested with ninjas is always a solution. Also the light of the fire forces Illia to reveal herself so we get a climactic fight in a burning house.

Except I don't care about Illia...at all, so it's not that climactic.

And the episode ends with Blake giving one of the worst ****ing speeches I've ever heard for the situation they're in. Jesus ****ing christ.

Also Illia's a full on good guy now. Yay I guess.

You obviously really dislike Illia like she personally killed your puppy, but why?

Illia turning off the lights makes a lot of sense if nightvision doesn't give Blake the ability to see black on black better than she can see Illia in full light.

Spoiler: V5C10

Show

Last episode was really positive so I think we've hit the part where everything falls apart again. Fittingly like last year it happened around this time and with Blake and Wukong as well. The opening bit with Ruby was, for the most part, good enough.

You really feel the end of the volume was a downside to last season and to this?

This is the part of the season that has the action, when major revelations are made, where stuff goes down. Most complain that it takes to long to get to this part.

I get you don't like the show, but sometimes it seems like you are watching a different show entirely, or blocking large parts of it out.

Spoiler: V5C10

Show

Then we had the entire rest of the episode. I'm not going to get into it because of board things and because I genuinely just don't want to talk about it, but everything in Blake's speech is really REALLY bad writing with regards to racism plots. It's VERY poorly thought out and just a massive mess of nonsense. RT can barely write a coherent story, what made them think they could handle something that requires actual nuance?

You brought up Blake's speeches time and again but won't detail what is wrong. Forum rules don't prohibit you from analyzing the political message of the work itself (as it relates back to the work), but if you don't want to analyze it you shouldn't constantly make it clear this is the lynchpin of why you hate the entire Menagerie arc (possibly also the White Fang).

I simply can't see what is urking you so much.

Her main argument is basically that if the crowd doesn't come to defend Haven they are letting the White Fang speak on their behalf. The world will see them as White Fang sympathizers. This seems consistent with the racism as we've seen it.

Blake's speeches and ideas sound to me like something Blake could say. At times she blames or is defensive in responding to the crowd (not good speechifying) and as someone mentions she "deals in absolutes." Blake will talk about Faunus and Humans and White Fang and make a lot of generalizations. This has long been consistent with how Blake thinks and probably doesn't work for a real life civil rights activist.

The content of what Blake says however, is that she puts forth these grand idealistic entities like society and social groups and talk about their actions and tendencies in ways I have trouble thinking of as describing group members. I don't see enough that I can reach out and say Blake thinks all Faunus are like this and all Humans are like this, even if she tends to slip into those terms.

So maybe Blake isn't talking like a real activist or a historical one, but there's just nothing she says that I can see striking someone like it strikes you.

Well... That's underwhelming.

Spoiler: V5 E11

Show

For an all-out 3-sided royal battle, there are surprisingly few fight scenes, and none of them is very good or even last more than a couple seconds... They really did give up on making RWBY an action series, didn't they?

Instead we get a cliff-hanger that we all know won't stick.

Spoiler: V5C11

Show

Come now. Its one thing to critique the fight scenes but its another to deny they exist. The fights go on for the greater part of this episode. This volume has had quite a few fights (Yang against the bandits, Weiss against the Lancers, Blake's story arc, and we get them in the Vol 5 previews). Overall each volume has had many episodes without fight scenes and many scenes leading up and after fights. They have actually been rather consistent this way.

This battle featured quite a lot of action, and while some characters only got a few seconds of animation (at a time) Weiss v Vernal was pretty well sustained.

We are missing the spastic quality of Monty's fight scenes, and what I see is here is slower, cleaner, with a lot more talking and pausing in the middle of the fights, but this is still definitely a fight scene.

Compared to a lot of action anime, they are also doing a whole lot more fight animation of a higher degree of detail and realism to the movement.

[LaZodiac]

You obviously really dislike Illia like she personally killed your puppy, but why?

Illia turning off the lights makes a lot of sense if nightvision doesn't give Blake the ability to see black on black better than she can see Illia in full light.

You really feel the end of the volume was a downside to last season and to this?

This is the part of the season that has the action, when major revelations are made, where stuff goes down. Most complain that it takes to long to get to this part.

I get you don't like the show, but sometimes it seems like you are watching a different show entirely, or blocking large parts of it out.

You brought up Blake's speeches time and again but won't detail what is wrong. Forum rules don't prohibit you from analyzing the political message of the work itself (as it relates back to the work), but if you don't want to analyze it you shouldn't constantly make it clear this is the lynchpin of why you hate the entire Menagerie arc (possibly also the White Fang).

I simply can't see what is urking you so much.

Her main argument is basically that if the crowd doesn't come to defend Haven they are letting the White Fang speak on their behalf. The world will see them as White Fang sympathizers. This seems consistent with the racism as we've seen it.

Blake's speeches and ideas sound to me like something Blake could say. At times she blames or is defensive in responding to the crowd (not good speechifying) and as someone mentions she "deals in absolutes." Blake will talk about Faunus and Humans and White Fang and make a lot of generalizations. This has long been consistent with how Blake thinks and probably doesn't work for a real life civil rights activist.

The content of what Blake says however, is that she puts forth these grand idealistic entities like society and social groups and talk about their actions and tendencies in ways I have trouble thinking of as describing group members. I don't see enough that I can reach out and say Blake thinks all Faunus are like this and all Humans are like this, even if she tends to slip into those terms.

So maybe Blake isn't talking like a real activist or a historical one, but there's just nothing she says that I can see striking someone like it strikes you.

Spoiler: V5C11

Show

Come now. Its one thing to critique the fight scenes but its another to deny they exist. The fights go on for the greater part of this episode. This volume has had quite a few fights (Yang against the bandits, Weiss against the Lancers, Blake's story arc, and we get them in the Vol 5 previews). Overall each volume has had many episodes without fight scenes and many scenes leading up and after fights. They have actually been rather consistent this way.

This battle featured quite a lot of action, and while some characters only got a few seconds of animation (at a time) Weiss v Vernal was pretty well sustained.

We are missing the spastic quality of Monty's fight scenes, and what I see is here is slower, cleaner, with a lot more talking and pausing in the middle of the fights, but this is still definitely a fight scene.

Compared to a lot of action anime, they are also doing a whole lot more fight animation of a higher degree of detail and realism to the movement.

Illia is just really boring. She alternates between boring and frustratingly poorly written. I'll admit I was tired when writing this so I may of gone overboard on stuff.

Nightvision would explicitly allow them to see black on black better based on what we know of Faunus nightvision.

I'll admit I just forgot how last season really went. I know I took a hiatus from watching it just as we hit the Blake and Wukong part and basically the entire season from that point on was bad.

Spoiler: people don't know how to write racism plots

Show

The problem with Blake's speech is that in this massively, poorly written race war, she's on the Black person side of it. And she's effectively telling the people in zoo "no one seems ready to talk about black on black crime rates, so lets go show the white people we're good by helping stop the bad black people" which is just not the thing anyone in this position should be talking about at all. Why is it the Faunus' job to save the stupid humans from their idiot racist caused terrorist group? That is my problem with the entire speech, basically.

My problem with the White Fang is that Sienna Khan is right. Sometimes you need to do a violence. Sometimes people do not listen. Sometimes you have to refuse to go to the back of the buss. Sometimes you have to hurt someone. Sienna is right. Adam takes it too far, Adam is a terrorist. Sienna is written poorly enough to make her a terrorist too, but on the crux of the issue she's right, and Illia is right. Sometimes there is no other option but to punch the nazi sympathizer in the face. And then you do that. The entire way they're writing this storyline is that "actually no it's okay we can just hug and stop the really bad ones and it's okay" and that's not how it works.

It's a problem a lot of people have, not just RT. At the end of the day they are white people trying to write about what it feels like to be an actual oppressed group, and how said oppressed group should go about convincing the oppressors why they are worth being on the same level as them. And they always write stuff like this. This idea that we can solve everything by just being nice and polite about it, and helping clean up the messes caused by the oppressor's terrible ways. The White Fang exists because people like Weiss and her family use Faunus like shovels, discarding them when they're broken, and for some reason it's the Faunus' job to fix this problem? **** that. Derail a Schnee train. No one works on them they're all automated this does nothing negative. Sometimes you have to hit back because people are notorious for not listening to peace because "I have mine why should I care about you?"

The problem is not that the Faunus don't want to fight the White Fang. The White Fang don't want to fight the White Fang for very clear obvious reasons. The problem are all the humans who don't seem to care that the reasons why the White Fang exist are still in play even though the world is "better now". I hate Velvet as a character and as a person, but if I was in the room I'd of stood up for her being bullied by Cardin. I stood up to my ****ing supervisor at work for telling my co workers to only speak english around me. Because that's not right. We need to fix our own problems, and it shouldn't be up to the oppressed to do it for us. That is why I don't like this entire plot line.

Again, sorry for going a little harder on this episode. I was tired and didn't want to miss it and work was frustrating and stupid little microaggressions are getting to me right now.

[Ramza00]

People are talking about zoo, and they are actually misrepresenting how they think zoo operates with the white fang and the difference between Gheera, Sienna, and Adam...

Breathes, nope. I am not going to talk about Zoo, for lets be honest Zoo is not worth it, and it is so not worth getting into a canon fight and how some people are not seeing / missing some of the nuances that RT actually put in there (OMG this is so surprising coming from RT)....But I repeat, it is not worth it for Zoo is just flat out boring and seems side quest / perpendicular to the main story and thus a waste of time.

[LaZodiac]

People are talking about zoo, and they are actually misrepresenting how they think zoo operates with the white fang and the difference between Gheera, Sienna, and Adam...

Breathes, nope. I am not going to talk about Zoo, for lets be honest Zoo is not worth it, and it is so not worth getting into a canon fight and how some people are not seeing / missing some of the nuances that RT actually put in there (OMG this is so surprising coming from RT)....But I repeat, it is not worth it for Zoo is just flat out boring and seems side quest / perpendicular to the main story and thus a waste of time.

I actually like that Blake got a lot of characterization here, as well as background information and backstory information. I just wish it was a better put together story. Honestly that's probably why I'm as upset as I am about it. RT keeps tripping over it's own feet on it's way to making an approachably good story.