- Pronouns
- He/Him
his "talk" with cinder was my favorite part
IWIW RWBY
- Thread starter michaelb958
- Start date
- SPOILERS
Farmboy, everyone loves Farmboy.
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Except the rewriters, but they're usually busy making Roman the hero
- Pronouns
- He
I'm laughing but this isn't a joke.Except the rewriters, but they're usually busy making Roman the hero
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
engiSonic
Yesterday's Minder
- Location
- Deep below ground
Yep, Autodesk Maya. With the exception of this short, the outlined, cel-shaded look iconic to the art style going forward is thanks to the PSOFT Pencil+ 4 plugin.
According to Word of God, this village is on the outskirts of Vale, which fits with the short taking place between V3 and V4, since V4 starts with RNJR already on the continent of Anima.
Named by the concept art as a Beringel, possibly derived from the species name Gorilla berengei.
Considering this short was released in October 2016, there were unsurprisingly jokes about Harambe, who had been shot a little over four months prior.
Also note the appearance of the rare warscythe configuration for Crescent Rose.
Showing off the fluid physics, of course!
I... didn't even think about the interpretation that that's (english why) why he changed his mind on JNRR. That's heartbreaking.
Also note Ruby's face immediately falling when Nora goes "Thank you, Schnee Dust Company!" because it makes her think of Weiss.
Does give some foreshadowing for where Blake's headed, though.
Lyrical easter egg:
Move
Onward,
Not
There
Yet
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It's also worth noting, the reason why RNJR are travelling cross country is very briefly mentioned in passing in episode 3 (?) of this volume.
A news broadcast makes mention of Vale reopening its borders. RNJR hoped that travelling cross country would be quicker, and it was, along with performing various Huntsman duties for people along the way... Although Ruby wasn't expecting it to take quite this long.
engiSonic
Yesterday's Minder
- Location
- Deep below ground
I don't think Vale ever closed its borders. RNJR still had to take a regular sea ship from Sanus to Anima; they're two separate continents.
The news broadcast you're probably thinking of is talking about how the council is continuing to ban all air traffic (i.e. airships and whatnot) not related to evacuating stranded tourists back to their native kingdoms.
The news broadcast you're probably thinking of is talking about how the council is continuing to ban all air traffic (i.e. airships and whatnot) not related to evacuating stranded tourists back to their native kingdoms.
michaelb958
(Verified Michael)
- Location
- Wherever I am, there I am
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
To be very fair to them, most fics die early enough that most rewrites would die long before they got here.Except the rewriters, but they're usually busy making Roman the hero
Holy cow does that take me back.
If I'm finding interpretations that people who know things haven't, I've clearly become too powerful and must be stopped.
In my unfathomable power I have lost my sight.
Does it really count as an easter egg if it tastes like sadness?
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
... No. I'm going to show mercy.
V04C02 Remembrance
michaelb958
(Verified Michael)
- Location
- Wherever I am, there I am
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
...This is absolute Worm levels of powers not solving people's problems, second only to Neptune.leoryff said:
V04C02 Remembrance
This is the first time the titles have both included a title card near the beginning and been shown in full every Chapter (instead of just at the end of the first), making it the first Chapter we've seen two title cards at the start.
Welcome back to the Schnee mansion. Weiss has to walk a very long way to her
Lingering shot of what looks like a Schnee family portrait. None of them look happy, except maybe the father. Maybe.
Cut to Ruby having a nightmare of her last moments of consciousness at Beacon. Now it is her turn to snap awake. With a headache, even. Having been waking up with headaches a lot recently, I sympathise immensely.
Cut to Team RNJR walking along the road. Ruby can't find their current location and has already forgotten the name of the next town. Jaune has not forgotten - his family used to visit all the time. Cue the place being unrecognisable, I reckon.
Nora remarks that it "explains a lot" that Jaune has seven sisters. Nora remains beyond mortal comprehension.
Ruby and Jaune are so engrossed in reminiscing about the latter's childhood that it is left to Nora to point out what's ahead. Yep, the town of Shion is unrecognisable. Because it's a freshly burnt-out ruin. Ruby drops the map, and at least one bag is dropped in the scramble to look for survivors.
There is a survivor, but not for long - only long enough to cough out that an entire bandit tribe happened to the place, and then... Ren fills in that Grimm happened to everything that was left. Ruby and Jaune, who were planning out how to get the guy medical attention, are extremely disheartened to find that he died in the about ten seconds they spent planning. Ren doesn't want the team to stick around even long enough to bury him:
It's not enough Jaune lost his future (Beacon) and his present (Pyrrha), now he's losing his past as well. Even Ruby can't find anything to say to that.
Ren gets barely paces away before finding a symbol burnt into the ground. Nora looks just as apprehensive once she sees it.
In
I'm not sure who to root for here. On one side, we have Jacques Schnee, who is Weiss' father (with all that that fills in about him) and is currently trying to make more money than he already has (which is already all of it) by shouting at Ironwood. On the other hand, Ironwood isn't just a general and an Academy headmaster, he also occupies two seats on the Atlas council, which makes him seem like a walking monopoly on power. On the extra hand, he's being shouted at by the guy in charge of the Schnee Dust Company, which is what you find if you look in your dictionary for 'monopoly'.
Weiss forgets not to let the door close behind her, and the sound draws both of their attention. Ironwood realises the time and shows himself out. On the way, he effectively offers Weiss a place at Atlas Academy, which is a good (if nepotistic) thing to do but I feel it's given Jacques more ammo.
Jacques oscillates wildly between being outraged that people blame Atlas for the Fall of Beacon and being outraged that Ironwood still has a job.
Okay, Jacques has a point here: Ironwood has banned Dust exports to prevent anybody wanting to start a war with Atlas. Not sure that's how that works. But then again, Dust fuels most economies and militaries, so actually that is how that works - Ironwood is reminding them who holds the emergency brake on their economies (and militaries). I'm still with Jacques on this one. If only he were less insufferable about it.
And here he is whitewashing the SDC's image with philanthropy, and signing Weiss up for it against her will. He's coated the latter in plausible deniability but we all know what he's doing.
Outside, Klein does a much better job of fathering Weiss than I suspect Jacques has in his life - definitely in the past decade.
Ruby wakes up from another nightmare, then somehow continues to hear Pyrrha's voice. Jaune is missing from his bedroll. These things are connected: Jaune is training his sword forms to an instructional video Pyrrha made for him. Pyrrha, having been Pyrrha, takes half a minute at the end to switch from combat instruction to emotional instruction.
I have been attacked by onion ninjas and will need a minute to tend to my wounds. In the meantime, some music:
(If it sounds like a happy pop song, you're not listening closely enough.)
Now that I'm paying a little more attention to the new and improved Rooster Teeth post-credits outro, I recognise a shot in the middle from Ruby's character short.
Next time: Random encounters.
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Really, Schnee Manor, especially in this shot, but elsewhere as well, does very well at illustrating that it's not a place intended for living in, it's for Jacqueass to show off his trophies.
There's an old saying that applies here. "RIP EACH OTHER APART!"
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engiSonic
Yesterday's Minder
- Location
- Deep below ground
Note the smoking wreck of an airship in the background. Back to walking!V4C1 said:
Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point
LordDarthYoda
#1 Jenova's Witness
- Location
- The Bottomless Pit
I'll admit I really like the boardroom of doom scene from v4c1, it does a great job setting up the new villain dynamic. Emerald and Mercury were secondary antagonists who's intro scene had them murdering a book store owner and here they aren't even allowed to sit at the big kid's table. Cinder was our main antagonist and now she's not the biggest fish in the pond, the rest of Salem's group don't hesitate to mock and ridicule Cinder to her face without any real fear of repercussion. Cinder isn't even the biggest now (that's Hazel at over 7 feet tall apparently) the rest of them clearly think they're on her level. But it's nothing compared to Salem herself, she doesn't need to scream or horribly threaten to show everyone knows she's the one in charge.
Hmm. I'd forgotten that Jaune had been to that village before.
V04C03 Of Runaways and Stowaways
michaelb958
(Verified Michael)
- Location
- Wherever I am, there I am
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
V04C03 Of Runaways and Stowaways
I think weird art style guy behind Jacques in the titles is just Ironwood with a face out of an optical illusion.
Here's a boat with Blake on it. I predict Sun in the near future.
Blake is so jumpy that when the captain comes for a chat, she almost draws on him. He's not awfully fazed by her jumpiness or reclusiveness; apparently the solo ship travellers have the best stories.
Even the subtitles are pointing out Blake's jumpiness: "*Blake is startled by kids running by*" The captain backpedals from calling Blake paranoid, then leaves, pointing out on his way off that it gets boring at sea.
For reasons that probably make sense to Blake, she now throws her bow overboard. As she leaves the deck, the camera pulls back to reveal a cloaked figure watching her. Is this Sun, or one of those mystery guys from Yang's bit of the titles? We'll find out sometime. A big-looking sea creature then eats the bow.
Meanwhile on Patch, Yang is doomwatching TV. (Mood. Also Zwei is here, alleviating my fears that were based on not remembering seeing him since Beacon.) The fourth news channel she surfs to reminds her that Adam Taurus is a thing, which is enough to make her think that perhaps she shouldn't be doomwatching. (Also mood.) Just after she turns the TV off, Tai returns with some shopping, including something "for you and you only": the very finest Atlesian prosthetic lower right arm, courtesy of none less than Ironwood himself. Yang is going to feel either pleased as punch, despondent, or mortally insulted. Tai passes on a message from Ironwood that she "fought admirably" and should be proud of herself, which makes me lean away from pleased. Yep, Yang says she isn't feeling great right now and leaves. Fortunately the metaphorical door is left open for later.
Later, Yang does chores. It's not the easiest with fewer hands than she's used to. And if you thought that was bad, she fumbles a glass in the kitchen, and the racket it makes shattering on the floor cues up an instant PTSD flashback, and unlike most of the times people on the Internet say "PTSD flashback", I'm not kidding at all. Camera pulls back, that'll be Tai having seen it. Yep. The best he can do is give her space.
Now back at sea, where the sun is setting. Blake sees a couple of other faunus walking around openly, which hopefully makes her feel a bit better. The lighting is brilliantly done.
Blake sees the cloaked figure from earlier on the upper deck. Being Blake (and a bit paranoid right now), she goes for her weapon and challenges them. They flee.
And now, a bigger problem: the big-looking sea creature is here to eat them all. It's a Grimm, and it looks hungry. And big. The captain exposits it's the biggest one they've ever seen, but they don't really have an option but to fight.
Blake has nearly a year of Hunter training. What's she going to do, not help? ...Well, she tries. It's a big Grimm, and her weapon isn't heavy enough to do much. That's been a bit of a theme this season.
The ship has a lot of cannons. I guess if every piece of personal equipment is also a gun, there's a lot of room on a ship to make parts of it also guns. Blake has another go, but is working at cross-purposes to the cannons, and strains something in the process of recovering back onto deck.
Oh, none of those were the heavy cannon.
Aw hell, the Grimm flies. This allows it to dodge the heavy cannon. It prepares its own ranged weapon; Blake prepares to do something about it, but is used as a springboard by the cloaked figure doing something about it. The cloak flies off, revealing that it is indeed Sun.
Sun points the Grimm's doom beam away from the ship. Beam expended, the Grimm resumes maneuvering, and Sun realises he's now stuck on its wild ride until it dispenses with him - which it does, very high up and over there. It is up to Blake to rescue him onto a nearby small island.
"My hero!" says Sun, in a very visible callback to Jaune and Weiss during initiation.
Blake is not amused.
They reboard the ship (during which time it tanks a couple of less-doom beams) and now think it might be a good idea to coordinate with its crew. The plan is to prevent it from dodging the heavy cannon. Blake is still not amused by Sun.
And here come the lyrics!
Blake and Sun make an acceptable team, even if they keep getting distracted trying to be the last one to springboard off each other. Blake wins the competition and gets enough height to then descend through one of the Grimm's wings sword-first, inflicting a fair bit of damage.
The song pauses long enough for Sun to expect Blake to grind out a "My hero", but not long enough for Blake to actually consider it before the Grimm reminds them they're in a fight. It gets mad and starts chasing them through a minor rocky archipelago. Eventually they run out of archipelago and have to stare down the doom beam. What trick do they pull out to disrupt it this time? They don't, the ship rams it from the side, and now it's a sitting duck for the heavy cannon. Boom, headshot.
Blake is so not amused by Sun. (Protip: When tempted to write slapstick comedy with emphasis on the slap, ask yourself if it would still work if you swapped the characters; if not, don't write it.)
Later, Sun finishes reassuring a couple of other passengers, then settles in to work out what Blake's problem is. Blake, being Blake (and a bit paranoid right now), accuses him of following her. She's not even wrong - Sun was taken aback that she fled Vale without explaining anything to anyone.
Sun's theory is that Blake took it personally when the White Fang showed up to trash Beacon. The information he's missing is Adam.
Sun is, in fact, more wrong than that: Blake insists she has some things to sort out first. Sun wonders why she couldn't have done so with her team, which leads to Sun defending his solo passage on the ship as "You really think I could get Neptune on the ocean?" (ouch) before calling back to the last time he took a ship without them. Blake remains unamused.
Blake explains she's going home for the sorting-things-out. Sun invites himself along, on the entirely reasonable basis that the Grimm are getting worse and the White Fang might come for her even if she doesn't come for them, and also he's already here. Also, home is called Menagerie. Whose idea was that.
{{Of course Sun Wukong makes a Journey to the West joke. The writers just couldn't stop themselves, could they.}}
In Salem's conspiracy meeting room, Cinder is doing the world's most unsettling physical therapy. Emerald and Mercury were unsettled already; they upgrade to silent wide-eyed panic when something that resembles a Grimm crossed with a balloon floats in. Salem appears to silently receive a message from it, then demands that Cinder answer with her own voice whether she (Cinder) killed Ozpin. Cinder eventually manages to gasp out "Yes.", her first word of the season. It's like watching the recovery milestones of the world's most despicable long-term-care patient. Salem orders the balloon to send reinforcements to Beacon - "the relic is there" - then wonders to herself "What are you planning?"
- Apparently Salem can outright order the Grimm around. I'm upgrading my threat assessment to "it never wasn't too late to run".
- What is who planning? Ozpin, who's dead? Cinder, who's not in any condition to plan anything? Someone else entirely?
Next time: The birds and the ...birds.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Blake likes to pretend she's pragmatic but actually loves big melodramatic gestures. Also the bow would be more hindrance than help where she's going. Still, if she was really practical and cold she'd keep it in her luggage or something.
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
So, apparently the slo-mo was the result of miscommunication between the writing and animation teams, but you know what? He deserved it. He stalked a girl for weeks or longer, hiding his identity and failing to make contact until a situation in which she couldn't escape him. Yes, his intentions were good, and he did not have the information that she was fleeing her abusive ex, but as I often say about Sun, this is a classic case of Pure of Heart, but Dumb of Ass.
Also, while it doesn't come up in the show proper, he didn't inform his teammates where he was going. Again.
Maybe it's not actually meant to be funny, but show how bad her mental state is that she resorts to it first. Sun not taking it seriously after he followed her looking kind of creepy isn't a bad sign for him, since it might be him accepting he handled that poorly.
Probably not a Faunus at least.
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I can't remember WHERE it came up, but it was named by the Four Kingdoms when they gifted the Faunus the land. Insult in the gift.
V04C04 Family
michaelb958
(Verified Michael)
- Location
- Wherever I am, there I am
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
V04C04 Family
I must say that the ending of this title song feels the least like an ending, in that it feels most like it wants to resume with a second verse. Don't ask me why, I'm not a music theorist.
Welcome back to the farm. After completing this phase of today's edition of farm chores, farmboy is startled by his own reflection, which the background music tells me just isn't quite the reflection he was expecting. He asks it hello. Understandably, at first nobody answers. Understandably, he then has the biggest jump-scare reaction of all four Volumes when Ozpin answers in his head. What? What on Remnant is this?
Somebody well away, having heard farmboy ("Oscar") screaming in shock, chides him to be careful with the farm tools. What, not even gonna check if he's just maimed himself? Now fade to black.
We're going to have to wait a bit to find out what on Remnant that was, for it is Yang's turn to have a nightmare. Absolutely no prizes for guessing she's in the Beacon dining hall (but bleaker) with Adam spoiling for a fight. (She's wearing her has-both-arms outfit from the titles. I shall call her Nightmare Yang.) Her attempts to ward off Adam by shooting at him are utterly useless, he just ignores being shot. Now her weapons and amputated-part-of-arm have vanished. Now Adam's teleported up to her and is drawing his sword. (Just no, guttermind, thank all our lucky stars we're not going there.)
Now, fortunately, she wakes up.
What woke her up was noise from downstairs. For some reason, Tai has Professors Port and Oobleck over. They're having a great time reminiscing about the time Qrow was tricked into thinking a skirt was the uniform kilt that he was supposed to wear. This somehow escalates to present-Port overbalancing, which is riotously funny, even to Yang. The festivities grind to a halt immediately when her mild laughter is noticed.
Except, apparently, Professor Goodwitch.
The festivities gradually start again with a landing strategy joke. Tai then tries to stop discussion of his younger self (presumably his involvement with Raven) on the grounds that Yang is present, filling Yang with the righteous indignation of a teenager being talked over. Tai then makes one of the worst responses possible:
I mean, really, when has saying that to an indignant teenager ever helped with anything?
Correction, it's going worse: busy channelling his somewhat understandable overprotectiveness of a wounded child, he accuses her of having "lost some brain cells along with that arm". Probably the only reason Oobleck hasn't blurred out of the room is that he'd be abandoning Port to the imminent fire maelstrom.
I cannot begin to describe to you how relieved I am that there is no fire maelstrom: Yang has found it funny.
This helps create a permission structure in which the visiting professors can ask why she hasn't tried on the prosthetic yet and not be dismissed out of hand. The answer is that, as much as others might want to see her "return to normal", she has a new normal and she's (understandably) scared of disrupting it. This is an extremely mature outlook on what we'd call 'disability issues' and/or 'unconscious ableism'.
Tai reckons he can still help. Yes, Yang has literally lost part of herself. But that doesn't have to stop her from being her best self, with a little help from some friends (named James Ironwood, and/or the unquestionably more important Taiyang). Now here's Port with wise words on fear. Oh no, is he starting a story? No he's not.
Yang returns upstairs, in time to eavesdrop on the conversation out the front door as the professors are leaving. Given Oobleck assured Port no mice were present, I half-expected Yang to find one. Instead she gets to hear Tai saying he's thought about going after Ruby but he's "got to take care of some things (gestures at Yang's window)", which seems like the kind of overheard utterance that will set Yang back as far as she's just moved forward.
Speak of Ruby and she will appear on screen, assuring the rest of Team RNJR that they can reach the next town by sunset, yes Jaune of course this one will still be there (
). Ren has heard of the place; Nora is mainly happy to hear they won't be camping in the rain. They reflect that they're lucky - they could have been beset by a lot more Grimm. The way the camera turns from them to the landscape makes me think they've just tempted fate. Yep, there's one. Then it dies, courtesy of Qrow. There are more dead Grimm decomposing behind him. He scoffs derisively about luck as another bird (clearly not him) flies off.It is raining when they arrive at the town of Higanbana. I was actually just wondering when the animators were going to try doing rain. As Team RNJR negotiate for a room, Qrow watches from the tavern across the street (which is weird, because I would have thought the inn would serve both functions in the same building...). He's not expecting to be bought a drink, courtesy of "the woman upstairs" who knows his preferred drink. It unsettles him enough that he only puts half his energy into leering at the waitress as she leaves. Although maybe that was just because she called him lucky.
Would you like to guess what woman might have shown up there and know what Qrow drinks? Yep, it's Raven. What's the bet she turns into a bird too. What's the bet she was that bird from last scene.
That definitely fits Raven's characterisation. She just wants to know "Does she have it?", which is another one of those pronoun-laden short questions we're probably not gonna get the answers to for a fair while. Qrow calls her out on not caring about Yang. Raven doesn't care, she told him so about Beacon falling and Ozpin failing, now "Does Salem have it?". Okay, we're filling in the "she" already, and I can take a fair stab that "it" is the "relic" Salem was telling her balloon-Grimm about.
Qrow wonders why Raven even cares about that, then calls her on thinking of herself as being part of some "we" and asks her to return to it, to which she accuses him of being the one who left "the tribe", who "were family" (but "killers and thieves"), and is quite incensed when he wonders what "family" means to her exactly. I'm not sure exactly what "family" means here either, but I'm certain that that meaning includes 'messed-up'. Qrow clarifies by linking Raven's "family", "her people", to the end of Shion village. So Edgy McEdgelord II runs a roving band of edgelords. Yep, that's messed up. Imagine when Ruby finds out. Now imagine when Yang then finds out.
Ye gods, Raven Branwen is like Sophia Hess grew up and went on a power trip (yes, more power). She gets extremely defensive when Qrow brings up the extent of the damage to Shion, then flips back to attacking when he wants to know where the Spring Maiden is "or we're all going to die" (the lantern a table over goes out on cue), throwing back his line about "we" before leaving via portal. The portal - also much better-animated than last we saw it - understandably rather freaks out the returning waitress. Fortunately, Qrow can solve two problems at once by ordering another drink.
Back at the Xiao Long place, Yang has put the new arm on. Clearly she has not been set back nearly as far as I thought. I keep underestimating this kid. Maybe she's Semblancing her emotional balance or something.
"Okay," says Tai, "let's get started." I predict sparring in their future.
Next time: Tropical snakes.
dragonx99
Actually Satan
If memory serves, this is around when Goodwitch's VA got fired for going on a drunken twitter rant against some members of the company, so that probably played into her being left behind.
Also, does the framing of how Oobleck and Port are able to be here feel kinda weird? Like the fall makes it seem like Beacon is turbofucked and someone is going to need to do something about that dragon frozen ontop of the school, but then herr the situation is handled enough to leave it all to one woman and they can talk about it like they're just not on the clock for teaching instead of needing a break from the front lines? It just feels like the latter would have worked well to seque into trying to help Yang a bit, and reassuring her its ok to need the time off after what she has been through.
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- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Essentially going 'it's not my fault the monsters drawn to human fear showed up when my group of murderous bandits attacked a village! How could I have known that would happen?' Also note that she and her tribe then ran off and left the village to deal with the monsters. Such a brilliant demonstration of strength. Raven Branwen, Giant Piece of Shit.
michaelb958
(Verified Michael)
- Location
- Wherever I am, there I am
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
The more I hear about Rooster Teeth, the more dysfunctional it seems/seemed.
The impression I got was that the Beacon site was abandoned entirely due to stuck dragon, and Port the born storyteller is probably embellishing the process of finding and obtaining a new site.
Now that you mention it, it does seem like a missed writing opportunity to tell Yang that everyone needs rest cycles between their combat cycles.
I'm eagerly awaiting the Edgelord Highlander Championship that hopefully occurs at some point.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Yeah, Raven's group are basically just parasites, or worse parasitoids. They make nothing, they just take, and they frequently destroy the ones they take from, permanently decreasing the world's resources and one day they may run out of things to prey on that aren't Kingdoms with armies. Then what will they do? Who will grow their food? Who will make their weapons?