IWIW RWBY

Speaking of Hazel, he has incredible Aura regen, either from being Dustjacked or just from seasonal power creep, and he and Lionheart have just shot down Weiss' summoned Queen Lancer. To this scene arrives Blake with a war cry and a Goomba-stomp to Hazel, to Weiss' mild surprise.
I figure it's because he's had a lot of years to work on it. Hazel's not a mook or someone their own age, he's a trained fighter with at least a decade on any of team RWBY.
 
Post-credits: Tai is gardening. He startles at a bird noise. A single feather descends through the air, incredibly like Raven's departure from the Relic vault. Tai isn't that impressed.
I mean, if the Useless One needs advice, might as well start with the one who ended up useless for a time, but then tried to correct past mistakes. Or maybe she just wants to yell at him for telling Yang how her sembleance works.

I actually saw a theory on this scene recently that I liked; The idea goes that the reason Raven portled to Tai was that he was the only option she had with Vernal dead, her not caring about most of the bandit tribe, and Yang and Qrow being the people she is trying to run away from.

And Tai might not know the situation, but he knows that if she just portled over to him for a flyby its because she needed an escape, so his displeasure is the realization that she just used him as a get out of jail free card.

As for Lionheart... I think having him revealed as the traitor in Ozs team before we even met him hurt the character somewhat. We never saw who he could have been, or the struggles he faced. One thing that's come up, both in behind the scenes details, along with parts from the Grimm Campaign RPG, was just how little respect Leo had in Mistral, and how isolated he was. He had no real allies in the area, everyone else in on the secrets was off on another continent, and as a faunus, he was isolated politically and culturally in Mistral. In many ways, he was set up for failure from the start. It doesn't excuse his actions, but it does explain some of them.

Seconding the idea that Leo was not used as well as he could be. Both because him being a traitor is one of the first things we learn about him, so it really doesn't carry any weight that he is compared to if they had kept it secret for a bit and tried to get us to sympathize with this guy who is clearly not taking anything that is happening to the world particularly well, and because we didn't see all the pressure that led him to breaking.

As is it really does come across as just Leo turned coat because he was a coward. Which yes, cowardly lion is the reference being made here, but it just raises the question of why Ozpin ever even trusted this guy to begin with.

I admit, it's part of why I like that one fan animation someone made of the Qrow vs Leo fight where they still are, rightfully, not excusing him joining Salem but he comes across as someone who rather than always being a coward, was someone who was brave once but was broken when faced with something so much worse than what he prepared himself for.

 
Post-post-credits: A trailer for gen:LOCK. (shrugs)
Yeah, first season was interesting, second one was... Shit-show would be a compliment.
I mean, if the Useless One needs advice, might as well start with the one who ended up useless for a time, but then tried to correct past mistakes. Or maybe she just wants to yell at him for telling Yang how her sembleance works.
Or anyone else she might have a portal to is already in Haven or dead.
 
Because Mercury doesn't know what to do when people don't break.
I was more concerned with his failure to expect Lionheart to break.

Which as we all know, totally justifies her doing it! Idiot.
"I gotta get the murder in before somebody takes my chance away!" - Raven, probably her entire life

In the words of the Doctor, bravery isn't about not being afraid. It's about being afraid and doing what needs to be done anyway.
Yang proceeds to do exactly that. Go Yang!

Try it from BLAKES point of view. She thought she was here to stop a terrorist attack by an extremist cult that had overtaken the rights group she used to be part of. She'd never even HEARD of Salem!
Ouch.

- everybody, for about three Volumes

AHAHAHAHAHA!

Some context is required. Gray Haddock [proceeds to use his department as his personal intern agency]
...What a guy. And Rooster Teeth continues to look like more of a bin fire the more I learn. Thanks capitalism!

Season Two saw a lot of creative control handed over to HBO Max in exchange for funding, and the result can be summed up as burning the franchise down (Also, badly animated on-screen sex).
I have two thoughts on this:
  1. I'm trying not to combine the concepts "badly animated" (with which I have become quite familiar) and "on-screen sex" (less so) in my head because I'm pretty sure I won't like the result.
  2. "Volume 10 saw a lot of creative control handed over to (TBD) in exchange for funding, and the result can be summed up as burning the franchise down..." {{to the extent it wasn't already(?)}}

Man, I just can't get over how the White Fang mostly got its arc wrapped up with "and then the bad minorities plans to bomb a school were foiled, because the good minorities came in and stopped them with the help of the local sundown town police department."

Like there are many a thing you can say about stuff in RWBY so far (and there is a lot to say, for good or ill) but man that just leaves a awful taste in the mouth when you let it sit for a bit.

Like I can't even hate Adam at that point because with how FUBAR'd the racism stuff got it's just bashing on a caricature, one where an actual, tangible person to dissect and rip into could have existed instead in a better timeline.
Honestly I'm too white and non-American to fully appreciate the sad realities of such concepts as sundown towns (yes, I do know the basics of what those are) and/or how much the RWBY writers may or may not have also failed to appreciate such concepts. So all that's left in my head is that, for Mistral, it's a start. There's a long way to go, but it's a start.

My YouTube recommendations have been full of 'they wasted Adam's character' videos lately, which I haven't watched because (1) rant videos just aren't really my thing (yes, some of them probably aren't rants, but I'm anxious) and (2) spoilers.

Yeah CRWBY have said the money issues is part of why the v5 finale fighting is kind of underwhelming. All the fighting animation budget went into the WBY character shorts so they really only had enough left to make the Maiden fight good. The Battlenof Haven was reduced to bursts of fighting and then them just standing around. Thankfully they only went with one character short for v6 and things got a bit better IMO Really looking forward to your v6 thoughts, it's gonna be a fun one.
...They actually blew the budget on the trailers? Sometimes I just don't even.

I actually saw a theory on this scene recently that I liked; The idea goes that the reason Raven portled to Tai was that he was the only option she had with Vernal dead, her not caring about most of the bandit tribe, and Yang and Qrow being the people she is trying to run away from.

And Tai might not know the situation, but he knows that if she just portled over to him for a flyby its because she needed an escape, so his displeasure is the realization that she just used him as a get out of jail free card.
When you put it that way, I wouldn't be impressed either.

I admit, it's part of why I like that one fan animation someone made of the Qrow vs Leo fight where they still are, rightfully, not excusing him joining Salem but he comes across as someone who rather than always being a coward, was someone who was brave once but was broken when faced with something so much worse than what he prepared himself for.
The counterpoint that even I managed to think of is that that's basically already Raven's backstory, differing only in the exact consequences of the break. And Raven might get angry at being copied (/s?).
 
(1) rant videos just aren't really my thing (yes, some of them probably aren't rants, but I'm anxious)
No, they probably are. And also tend not to be the kinds of people that think he did much if anything wrong.
...They actually blew the budget on the trailers? Sometimes I just don't even.
Initially no, but someone kept sliding the budget for the rest of the season away from them and... Well, here we are.
 
  1. "Volume 10 saw a lot of creative control handed over to (TBD) in exchange for funding, and the result can be summed up as burning the franchise down..." {{to the extent it wasn't already(?)}}

Gen:LOCK season one had a lot of good groundwork, interesting characters, and so on. Season two contradicted all the groundwork and killed a lot of the interesting characters. Or made them evil.

My YouTube recommendations have been full of 'they wasted Adam's character' videos lately, which I haven't watched because (1) rant videos just aren't really my thing (yes, some of them probably aren't rants, but I'm anxious) and (2) spoilers.

Those are almost all by people who are still convinced Adam was supposed to be a conflicted anti-hero who totally was going to be a main character, and that Blake was a disloyal little (Insert slur of your choice here) for betraying him. Also, some stuff about monty's vision.

it's a start. There's a long way to go, but it's a start.

This is very much the case. Now that Blake has rejoined the team, and learned about Salem, she's directly involved in the main plotline at this point, as opposed to the last two volumes where all of RWBY had separate plots that converged here. As such, the racism plot does take a back seat. We do get glimpses of it from time to time still, from bit characters making racist remarks and people reacting to them, 'no faunus' signs in front of a few shops still, and at one point we hear a faunus commenting on getting kicked out of a place, which has no story behind it, but you can guess the context (Especially since he's trying to play it off as a joke for his human colleagues.) But it's no longer the driving force behind one of the plotlines. It's not magically cured, but they've at least started to turn things away from Salem provoking an idiot into starting a race war.
 
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...What a guy. And Rooster Teeth continues to look like more of a bin fire the more I learn. Thanks capitalism!

Sadly the worst is still yet to come.

The counterpoint that even I managed to think of is that that's basically already Raven's backstory, differing only in the exact consequences of the break. And Raven might get angry at being copied (/s?).

I mean if we're looking at it that way they already basically share a backstory. Ozpin thought it was to trust them with the information but oh no, they're cowards who took one look at the situation and decided 'fuck risking my life.'

I do like that they had Raven not actually live up to her own proclaimed ideals of caring only about strength and had her actually being a coward beneath it all, but the second they did she was inevitably going to have overlap with the cowardly lion character. The only real way to avoid it would be for Oz to have not cut her into the situation at all like he did with Qrow
 
No, they probably are. And also tend not to be the kinds of people that think he did much if anything wrong.
Those are almost all by people who are still convinced Adam was supposed to be a conflicted anti-hero who totally was going to be a main character, and that Blake was a disloyal little (Insert slur of your choice here) for betraying him. Also, some stuff about monty's vision.
Ah, the best (/s) kind, gotcha. Note to self, don't watch those.

Initially no, but someone kept sliding the budget for the rest of the season away from them and... Well, here we are.
:(

Sadly the worst is still yet to come.
My new least favourite sentence.

I mean if we're looking at it that way they already basically share a backstory. Ozpin thought it was to trust them with the information but oh no, they're cowards who took one look at the situation and decided 'fuck risking my life.'

I do like that they had Raven not actually live up to her own proclaimed ideals of caring only about strength and had her actually being a coward beneath it all, but the second they did she was inevitably going to have overlap with the cowardly lion character. The only real way to avoid it would be for Oz to have not cut her into the situation at all like he did with Qrow
Raven, at least, had the absolutely minimal decency to desert instead of silently turning traitor. Until Cinder Fall came to visit. I'm not sure where I was going with this.
 
Fic Recs: This One Goes To Eleven
{{Happy diurnal cycle! Except at Salem's place, where I'm told the diurnal cycle does not apply. Somehow. Anyway, with stuff ranging from the Vytal Festival Tournament to Jaune's Semblance now covered, many more possibilities open up for recommendation:
  • A Last Night Together (milesmorales): We will start with a sad. Jaune copes unhealthily, with Velvet's help.
  • I Will Follow Your Colours (WobblyJellyfish): Have a palate-cleanser. "I adore Soulmate AUs and I adore JNPR Berries, so it had to be done." What more need I say? Also starring Pyrrha's insecurities.
  • Going Back is Never That Simple (The_Unreal_State): I love a good time travel fic, and I keep claiming I'll allow cancelled fics into these recommendations. So here's a fragment from a fic that will probably never be. Ruby is returned from the future and concealing it, but in the worthy cause of trying to prevent Jaune's absolutely awful serenading, accidentally convinces Team WBY that she's a changeling.
  • Partner (Logar3): The fixfic I would have written, but somebody else has written it so it might not be terrible (even if it can't quite spell Pyrrha half the time). Neptune makes an extra remark at the dance, leading directly to Arkos happening immediately, leading directly to better things happening in the Beacon basement.
  • Event Horizon (BryonNightshade): Mix the above two foundations under competent authorial supervision, and you get this, the (current) gold standard of RWBY time travel fics. Ciel Soleil, Penny's Vytal teammate who canonically gets about two scenes and five lines, dies at the Fall of Beacon and wakes up the previous day, repeatedly - but contrary to the usual time loop formula, she doesn't have forever to micro-optimise. Also starring teamwork-makes-the-dream-work.
  • An Old Fight, Remembered (Selene Sokal): In which Raven drags Qrow out to spy on the setup for a White Fang rally and they get into a fight with some minion they'll surely never see again! Also nothing bad ever happens (except maybe Raven), which is nice.
Stay tuned for Volume 6, where Knowledge happens.}}
 
However, it left a scar on the company. Both in the eyes of the fans, and also investors. Season Two saw a lot of creative control handed over to HBO Max in exchange for funding, and the result can be summed up as burning the franchise down
Goddamn. I knew Gen Lock went majorly downhill for season two, but not the specifics of why, nor that it mucked with production of other shows. Rather depressing how Rooster Teeth seems to have been a shambles behind the scenes.

Why can't many companies seem to just treat employees nicely, pay them on time, and make a product people want? The last bit is at the whims of customer interest, but the first two tasks aren't!
 
And to say HBO had a 'lot' of control is something of an understatement. It was an entirely different team of writers and almost no one in RT was involved. And, you know the thing fanfic sometimes does, especially fanfic based on fanfic, where they change setting details without thinking about it and shift some characters majorly to fit their story? Yea, a lot of that.

Genlock season 1, solid, recommend. Genlock season 2, avoid avoid avoid.

And genlock s1 is my go-to example for how something can be creatively cool but a very bad business decision and did a lot to hurt the company, I don't feel they ever fully recovered.
 
And to say HBO had a 'lot' of control is something of an understatement. It was an entirely different team of writers and almost no one in RT was involved. And, you know the thing fanfic sometimes does, especially fanfic based on fanfic, where they change setting details without thinking about it and shift some characters majorly to fit their story? Yea, a lot of that.

That said, it's since come to light from multiple sources that a number of staff at RT did recognise the problem and tried to warn management of the meat grinder they were about to stick their hands into regarding season 2. And they were dismissed and told to keep quiet, because 'any attention is good attention for advertising', and surely all the blame would fall on HBO.

It's amazing how management never learns from their own past mistakes.
 
Why can't many companies seem to just treat employees nicely, pay them on time, and make a product people want? The last bit is at the whims of customer interest, but the first two tasks aren't!
Treating people nice doesn't look like profits on a spreadsheet, paying people cuts into profits, and the executives that make decisions have little to no connection to what the people that consume their content want because they see them as consumers of content rather than people who want to see good, or at least entertaining, art.
 
Going Back is Never That Simple (The_Unreal_State): I love a good time travel fic, and I keep claiming I'll allow cancelled fics into these recommendations. So here's a fragment from a fic that will probably never be. Ruby is returned from the future and concealing it, but in the worthy cause of trying to prevent Jaune's absolutely awful serenading, accidentally convinces Team WBY that she's a changeling.
Well, here's a couple good time travel fics, one finished one not, that I can recommend in turn.
Fighting For the Future: Unfinished but quite good. Young Weiss receives older Weiss's memories when her Semblance awakens. This actually manages to make her life worse for a while, but the start of the fic is her running away to Patch.
No Such Thing As Destiny: Ruby sends her memories back in time when her silver eyes activate during the fall of Beacon and decides it's up to her to save the future (Complete).
 
Well, here's a couple good time travel fics, one finished one not, that I can recommend in turn.
Fighting For the Future: Unfinished but quite good. Young Weiss receives older Weiss's memories when her Semblance awakens. This actually manages to make her life worse for a while, but the start of the fic is her running away to Patch.
No Such Thing As Destiny: Ruby sends her memories back in time when her silver eyes activate during the fall of Beacon and decides it's up to her to save the future (Complete).

Avoid Fighting For the Future until after V7, that's the point Weiss comes from, and there are spoilers. It's FANTASTIC though.
 
Well, here's a couple good time travel fics, one finished one not, that I can recommend in turn.
Fighting For the Future: Unfinished but quite good. Young Weiss receives older Weiss's memories when her Semblance awakens. This actually manages to make her life worse for a while, but the start of the fic is her running away to Patch.
No Such Thing As Destiny: Ruby sends her memories back in time when her silver eyes activate during the fall of Beacon and decides it's up to her to save the future (Complete).
Thank you very much! One binged, one on the read-later pile.

"Showtime," says Mercury, and starts taking Ruby seriously. Ruby attempts to Semblance past him - no, at him, which was the worse idea because we know how well Ruby doesn't fare in unarmed combat.
I would like you to keep this fight in mind for the future. Won't say why since spoilers, just please do so.
Mercury takes an L (the L is Ruby's head)
 
V06C-- Adam's Character Short

V06C-- Adam's Character Short




Only five characters get character shorts (I checked): Team RWBY, and Adam "Cancer" Taurus. Ugh.

...Oh man I hope there's no crab faunus, or I'm going to have a lot to explain to them.

Anyway, some folks wearing improvised masks are turning off the exterior lights of a Dust processing plant. Then they get into an argument about how sure is sure enough that the cameras are nonexistent or also off. They nearly lose their nerve.

Cue Adam, here to egg them on into stealing a bunch of Dust. He's slightly Adam about it, but they're already primed to listen to his kind of rhetoric. One of them asks about his custom Grimm mask, to which he replies they should be collectively memorable. "Now," he says, breaking the door open, "it's time we got what we deserved."



A truck is being shot at. A White Fang minion dives out of it and takes cover with friends on the other side. Also there are Ilia (I think), Adam, Sienna Khan (I think), and most notably Ghira, who is trying to diplomacy the convoy's way out of being shot at, and being rebuffed. "There's no need for violence!" he says, and is shot at again and actually hit this time.

Adam and Sienna nod at each other, then Adam employs counter-violence. (Here come the lyrics!) It's pretty effective. Only one guy dies, and it's the absolute bright spark who decided to flank Adam and advance on the convoy with weapon drawn, and took the brunt of Adam's Final Smash when he realised he'd been flanked and the convoy crew was in danger.

The non-combat members of the ambush flee. Ghira, thinking long-term, is annoyed with Adam for the death. Sienna, thinking short-term, reminds Ghira that the death could have been his own. Most of the convoy crew share Sienna's opinion. I see this is the top of the slippery slope.



Adam is apologising to Blake. I don't buy it for a second. "I told you, it was an accident" seems to concur; sure enough, Blake is unimpressed with yet more human death on yet another Adam-led mission.

"What, do you want me to just abandon our cause? Like your parents?" Adam using his mastery of the low blow to get Blake right where he wants her.

I don't believe this apology any more than the last one. The emotional manipulation rolls on. And on...



Sienna Khan fight scene! She, and supporting cast (including Adam and Ilia), are dealing with a bunch of security robots whose designs I swear I haven't seen since the Black Trailer. The sword designs are easily dispatched. The gun designs cause more trouble, shooting at least one White Fang minion (I think he's dead) before the gang deal with them.

The next obstacle is human SDC security, who use gunfire to drive the White Fang back, then a smoke/gas grenade to ...I'm not sure what they were trying to accomplish, but the smoke allows Adam and Sienna to regroup having not been affected by any gas that might have been there. The security guards have clearly not played enough Counter-Strike to realise that improperly deployed smoke hurts them just as badly.

Anyway, Adam and Sienna emerge from the smoke and overwhelm them (Ilia and the minions had a worse time and are still coughing as it dissipates). Nobody dies yet, but once the guards are all subdued, Adam goes to execute one; Sienna manages to stop him by reminding him that they have an objective to get to.



In the throne room (in Mistral, remember), Sienna promotes Adam to leader of the Vale branch, and dangles the carrot of overall deputy leadership if he keeps performing. He leaves.

No-transition to a bunch of minions entering to report to Adam, seated on the throne (well after having murdered Sienna), that the attack on Haven is now more complicated. "Don't worry, nothing will stop us now," says Adam. "It's time I got what I deserved." A rather different Adam to the first scene.



On the path by which Team MEH fled Haven, Adam limps away himself, discarding his mask (he is only seen from the back). Well, he's some way to getting what he deserves.

("Short"? Entire Chapters have run shorter than this. Mainly in V1, but still.)



Next time: Grimm on a train. (The joke would work better if King Taijitus were among them.)
 
V06C01 Argus Limited

V06C01 Argus Limited


Oh I say, a Rooster Teeth pre-where-the-titles-would-be intro. How decadent, even if it's pretty minimal.

Open on a snowscape. After a couple of views of it, over which we get some movie-style production intro cards, we meet a train in motion. It is accompanied by rather a lot of flying Grimm attempting to land on it, which Team RWBY are doing their best to dissuade and/or kill.

Further forward, past at least one deck gun (trains sure are metal here), Team JNR are trying something similar. Have the animations of Nora's grenades improved, or have they just not been seen for about as long as Blake spent on Menagerie?

Oscar, further forward still, shouts that a tunnel is approaching. This starts a mad scramble to get off the top of the train. Which is weird, because the tunnel has to have clearance for the deck guns, which have got to be a metre tall, so hitting the deck would suffice. Weiss gets clipped by a fireball from presumably a Grimm of some new and terrifying description; Ruby rescues her, before Semblancing them both (with definitely far improved animation) to safety just as they reach the tunnel. I think (it's difficult to tell) the deck guns have folded down to half a metre, which would be a much more challenging fit.

(Yes, Weiss wouldn't have fallen to her death given her own Semblance, but the train would quite swiftly have left her behind.)



At the White Fang throne room, Adam has lost control of the situation. No amount of killing those who disagree with him will make the others fall in line, so now he's killed them all. And now he's lost control of himself, destroying the throne in a fit of rage.



And now, a train station. I'm startled to see the number of trains to Shion (†) listed on the departure board, especially given they're not annotated as out of service like the ones to Vale are. Wait a minute, isn't Vale on a different entire continent? How does that work?

Anyway, Qrow narrates that the official story is that the attack on Haven two weeks ago was thwarted by the Menagerie militia, with assistance from a visiting Hunter and students, and the headmaster, the latter of whom was unfortunately killed in battle. Those responsible for planning the attack were not apprehended.

Qrow, it turns out, is narrating-writing a letter to General James Ironwood. Obviously he's not writing down anything really juicy, but in case the letter arrives before they do, they aren't just bringing bad news.

Ruby is exasperated by Qrow's lack of haste. She then hastes through the station to the rest of Teams RWBY, JNR, and Oscar (except Blake). Turns out she's incredibly excited to have visited the gift shop. Weiss is not impressed. Yang is.

The only one more excited than Ruby is, of course, Nora, who is looking forward to reaching Argus on the northern coast of presumably Anima. "You think it's too early for beach season?" she asks, summoning a daydream of such intensity that the real Ren briefly finds himself holding a beach ball. Actual comedy.

(I have just remembered to turn the subtitles back on. Still way out of sync. Is that where they've been getting the extra animation budget? Or are they just still being Qrow'd?)

Weiss isn't looking forward to going back to Atlas. Ruby promises "Team RWBY won't leave your side for a second", so for Comedy™ purposes I give it five until Ruby and Yang run off somewhere else.

...I was wrong, the next thing that happens is a couple of randoms turn up. Apparently they're the train security. I'm guessing the start of the episode was a flash-forward, from which I am not confident in these two at all. Yep, here they are soliciting bribes. Ugh. Qrow arrives to tell them off. "Looks like Mistral's really scraping the bottom of the barrel these days," he says, and knows full well it's true. He follows up by informing them they left the caboose wide open, which is probably characterising these two as idiots, but I can't rule out Qrow making it up or even doing it himself.

«I do hope those weren't Beacon graduates,» adds Ozpin in the safety of Oscar's head. Actual comedy. But also, Ozpin, you ought to have known that's where Team CRDL were probably going, so what stopped the CRDLs of past years? (Possibly nothing, that's what.) Oscar, out loud, reinforces the comedy:
"You know, sometimes the burden of saving the world feels overwhelming. But then people like that come along and make me grateful that it's our job and not theirs."
None of them laugh. As a computer of great intelligence and questionable wisdom once said, it would be funny if it weren't so sad.

They're just waiting for Blake now. Blake is just farewelling Ilia, who has accidentally become part of Mistralian leadership of Ghira's replacement organisation, not to mention a civil rights icon. It's not fun for her to say goodbye to Blake again, but they both know Blake's got a world to help save.

Also, here's Sun for the farewelling. And here's Neptune to reveal that Sun almost overslept it. When did we even last see Neptune? (checks) V03E11. That was ages ago.

Neptune reminds Sun they've got their own trip to plan, and immediately gets distracted, leaving Blake and Sun to chat as an incredibly transparent excuse to go flirt with Ilia. Blake and Sun reckon he'll eventually work out Ilia's guaranteed not to be into him. Sun explains they're going to Shade Academy, Vacuo, to avoid the absolute chaos surrounding Haven at the moment, because Sun hailed from there originally, and also he's realised he's not been a great team leader what with not having even seen his team between the battle of Beacon and the battle of Haven. Character development?

Blake was somewhat getting used to having Sun around. "I go where I'm needed!" declares Sun. "And... you don't need me anymore." Well, there are some things that are true - she's back with her own team - but could be phrased better. Anyway, they part amicably.

Neptune, who got Ilia's memo at some point, doesn't like the sound of his battle-hardened team leader preparing them for the wastelands of Vacuo.



And now, the train. The deck guns appear to retract nearly flush with the surrounding roof, which makes the mad scramble to get below for the tunnel make more sense.

Bunk beds! And Team RWBY didn't even have to build them!

It appears today's little conflict moment is Blake treating Yang like somewhat of an invalid. Or perhaps Blake's trying to seem useful because she thinks she has to compensate for her absence. Either is saddening to see. Fortunately Team RWY pull her out of it.

Qrow also showed up at some point. He has a cocktail in hand, but loses it when the train shakes to herald the start of the Grimm attack.

Yep, there's a few of them. One of the train security, limited to a melee weapon, charges in like an idiot and is immediately carried off to his death.

Holy cow, those Grimm looked way smaller without a scale reference. Blake asks Ruby what the plan is. "Don't let anyone else die," plans Ruby, and with that they deploy. That's not a plan, that's a goal, at best.

Oscar tells Ozpin he (Oscar)'ll keep control, then runs into Team JNR who don't quite know the situation yet.

Yep, these beasties spit fireballs. Team RWBY and Qrow deal with a bunch of them as the surviving security ("Dudley"), finally having a moment where he neither has to flee nor panic, is able to activate the train's defenses. Armour covers all vulnerable portions, and the deck guns deploy.

Unfortunately, the Grimm (okay, there seem to be two kinds, one much larger) are smart enough to target the deck guns. Two of them are already down by the time Team JNR and Oscar reach the roof (as flashed-forward). Qrow directs Oscar to get the deck guns shut down; they might be able to repel light attacks, but here they're presenting tasty targets for the Grimm that are close enough to the passengers to induce panic when struck, which is just making things worse. Oscar, with the lamp hanging from his belt (seems unsafe), reaches Dudley, but can't convince him to shut the guns down - they seem effective from here.

Oscar pleads with Dudley that the Grimm need to be lured to the back of the train, but Dudley isn't doing that without an explanation, which I'm also interested to hear. Before anything can be explained, the Grimm all bail. The explanation is the tunnel. Oscar hits the deck; Dudley tries to get in a side hatch, but isn't fast enough. He's really, really lucky not to have been given the full Yang treatment by the tunnel entrance at the speed they were going, escaping with only a broken arm. (On reflection, I'm not sure how much his Aura did or didn't help here.) Qrow tries to intimidate him into shutting down the guns; Dudley isn't interested in yielding his authority on the train's security.

Meanwhile, Ruby can see the Grimm entering the tunnel on foot. With Qrow having been bad cop, Ruby brings Jaune to play good cop, with added bonus quick-healing. This works better.

Nora and Ren hatch a plan to have Jaune amplify Ren's Semblance (that's a thing that Jaune's does - we must ensure that Qrow is never wounded) so Ren can mask everybody on the train. With no gunfire and no detectable emotions, the Grimm won't be able to track them. Ozpin requests control and explains the one surprise complication to this plan: the Grimm are tracking the Relic. "Oz, are you serious?" asks Qrow. I'm with Qrow on this one - that would have been a great thing to explain, like, two weeks ago.

New plan, courtesy of Ruby (who stops the recriminations on Ozpin before they start): they'll divide the train. Team JNR will stay on the front part with all the passengers and get them to Argus under masking; Team RWBY, presumably Qrow and Oscar, and the relic will stay on the back part and fend for themselves. I'm loathe to split the party, but last time went okay. On the other hand, it mainly went okay because they rejoined...

Preparation are made, the guns are shut down, and Blake decouples them (complete with flashback Adam). Has a single train been depicted reaching its destination in one piece in this entire show? ...I get it, it's called the Argus Limited because a limited amount will make it to Argus!

And here come the lyrics! Not subtitled, though. How come the sound effects get subtitles but the lyrics don't?

Team JNR mask the front part of the train. Oscar, at the head of the back part, is busy watching them pull ahead and nearly gets stomped by a Grimm.

Team RWBY have gotten pretty good at Grimm-fighting. At one point they use the about-to-disintegrate corpse of one Grimm as a missile to dissuade another one from cooking Oscar. Qrow is also here, and does tank a fireball.

Eventually they work out they need to ground the biggest (and last surviving) one. Just like old times. Yang and Blake get to opposite sides of it and pass Blake's weapon-ribbon around it in order to bind it to the carriage roof; it's now unable to avoid Weiss, on glyphs travelling alongside the train (...okay then), freezing its wings and shattering them off. It's not happy about that, but there's a limited amount it can do about Qrow and Ruby bisecting it at the waist. That's instant death for Grimm as much as it is for humans (and faunus).

But not instant! The disintegration travels outward from the death wound, and the head manages to spit one last fireball before vanishing. The fireball does not vanish - it arcs over the front of the train and destroys the rails about one second ahead of them. Weiss, doubtless thinking something along the lines of 'Not again...', doesn't even try slowdown glyphs, instead anchoring them all where they are so they get thrown around as little as possible in the imminent train crash.

Yep, that's a train crash. The glyphs failed at the last moment, but the results were survivable.

What! A passenger we saw a couple of times - elderly, very elaborate glasses - avoided the evacuation and somehow survived everything since then. Is that a skull shape on top of her walking stick.



While we're left to wonder what's going on there, title sequence! Still two-and-a-half minutes left in the episode... No lyric subtitles here either, did they hear me last Volume and give up? (Of course I look for the YouTube version moments before posting and it has subtitles. Make a foll of me, why don't you.)

  • Dramatic transformation sequence of Crescent Rose. Now here's Ruby, wielding it. Now here's the rest of Team RWBY joining her on this featureless snow plane.
  • Title card. Its background is either the new moon or a snowball. Now it's the shattered moon.
  • A remarkable absence of percussion instruments as Team JNR, Oscar, and Qrow sit on benches at the train station.
  • Ruby and Weiss are having a lot more conspicuous fun on a train than Blake and Yang are. Which is odd - you'd expect Ruby and Yang to be having the conspicuous fun. Oh I see, Blake and Yang are hallucinating Adam's reflection in the window. Camera pulls back (return of the percussion instruments) to reveal the train they trashed already this episode, not trashed yet.
  • Ruby and Qrow are in the snowy forest around the crash site. So is our mystery elderly lady. Camera dramatically enters one of her eyes, then does the same to one of Ruby's. I'm sure that means something, but not enough information yet to know what.
  • Qrow, still outside there, has a drink, then gets abducted by a forest of Grimm arms.
  • The same fate comes for Ruby, underground somewhere. She fares better with the aid of Crescent Rose.
  • Some absolute random walks down a crowded street somewhere, their face in shadow. Roman Torchwick's hat blows past them?
  • Adam stands in the White Fang throne room, wordlessly insisting he's not owned! he's not owned!
  • Tyrian and Watts now get screen time alongside Team MEH. Their image is in a crystal-ball Grimm, which Salem looks up from. She's mad about something.
  • Blue mist transitions us to some woman standing in front of a statue. Almost five seconds (forever in the titles) of screen time on this one shot, so it must mean something... {{Yes. Yes it does.}}
  • Multiple men stand in a white room. The camera glides past them to focus on the last: Professor Ozpin. So probably past reincarnations. Ozpin fades to Oscar, who looks unprepared. Now Jaune's here, but angry with Oscar. Uh oh.
  • Qrow fights the Grimm we met on top of the train, on top of the train.
  • The shadowed random fights with apparently nobody in a darkened room that looks like some kind of eatery.
  • Team RWBY fight the Grimm on top of the train.
  • Weiss helps Ruby stand in the snowy forest, with Blake, Yang, Team JNR, Oscar, Qrow, and mystery elderly lady all standing behind them. Cut to creator credit.
I swear the title sequence gets longer every Volume.

This song takes the prize from V4's for most abrupt ending. Overall lyrics assessment: Still overall hopeful. (I nearly didn't have amateur lyrical analysis for you because it's not subtitled and reading a lyric sheet just isn't quite the same.)

Almost as many voice credits as V05C10, owing mainly to the subordinates Adam soon killed. I swear the credits get longer (by playtime) every Volume too.

The Rooster Teeth post-credits outro has been retooled for their fifteenth anniversary; its RWBY scene is Ruby ordering Checkmate on Hazel (V05C14).



Next time: Two can keep a secret...
 
Wait a minute, isn't Vale on a different entire continent? How does that work?

I'm guessing that's a train route to a station that's a dedicated air or seaport to vale.

At the White Fang throne room, Adam has lost control of the situation. No amount of killing those who disagree with him will make the others fall in line, so now he's killed them all.

And this is the final blow to Adams fang. Even if there are groups out there that might still follow him, he just killed the people who actually knew how to contact them.

Turns out she's incredibly excited to have visited the gift shop.

Sadly, due to some restructuring of plot lines after this scene was animated, we never do find out on screen what Ruby got. Team themed friendship bracelets.

He follows up by informing them they left the caboose wide open, which is probably characterising these two as idiots, but I can't rule out Qrow making it up or even doing it himself.

Yeah, it wasn't Qrow.
We have a stowaway...


he's realised he's not been a great team leader what with not having even seen his team between the battle of Beacon and the battle of Haven. Character development

The second vacuo book showed that the lesson needed further beating into his head.

Neptune, who got Ilia's memo at some point,

He totally didn't. However, pay close attention to Suns first comment in this moment. There are times the guy is alright.

Or perhaps Blake's trying to seem useful because she thinks she has to compensate for her absence.

It's this one, but it's a nice reminder that Blake is still feeling guilty, and Yang recognises that and is understanding of it. Emotional maturity, we love to see it!


Qrow directs Oscar to get the deck guns shut down; they might be able to repel light attacks, but here they're presenting tasty targets for the Grimm that are close enough to the passengers to induce panic when struck, which is just making things worse. Oscar, with the lamp hanging from his belt (seems unsafe), reaches Dudley, but can't convince him to shut the guns down - they seem effective from here.

I think the logic is to try and preserve them for hitting the more important targets once the heroes have worn down the rank and file, as opposed to them firing blindly into the horde and being swarmed as obvious targets.


Oscar pleads with Dudley that the Grimm need to be lured to the back of the train, but Dudley isn't doing that without an explanation, which I'm also interested to hear.

The back of the train is all cargo, so fighting them there poses less risk to passengers if a Grimm manages to breach the walls.


"Oz, are you serious?" asks Qrow. I'm with Qrow on this one - that would have been a great thing to explain, like, two weeks ago.

And THIS is where Ozs secret keeping bites him in the ass. Mentioning it only when it becomes a problem catches your allies off guard and forces them to have to adapt in a hurry. It does explain why the relic vaults weren't just buried as far away from civilisation as possible, and instead set up at places already expected to have Grimm approach.


Preparation are made, the guns are shut down, and Blake decouples them (complete with flashback Adam).

Remember the open caboose? About that...

Has a single train been depicted reaching its destination in one piece in this entire show?

Not even in the video games.


What! A passenger we saw a couple of times - elderly, very elaborate glasses - avoided the evacuation and somehow survived everything since then. Is that a skull shape on top of her walking stick.

Meet Maria. She was meant to show up in v5, but things didn't work out. She is freaking awesome in every way and the show is better for her presence.

Adam stands in the White Fang throne room, wordlessly insisting he's not owned! he's not owned!

Well, yeah. Salem has no need for him anymore. He's garbage in the bin now.

I'm sure that means something, but not enough information yet to know what.

Nah, totally the animators playing around :p

What plot point have we seen about Ruby's eyes?
 
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A rather different Adam to the first scene.
Less than he'd like you to think, but that's in part due to no one noticing to stop him from going down what was the easiest path for him.
Neptune, who got Ilia's memo at some point, doesn't like the sound of his battle-hardened team leader preparing them for the wastelands of Vacuo.
This gets expanded on in the Vacuo books that are happening at roughly the same time as the next few volumes, just not having any of the main characters around for it.
It appears today's little conflict moment is Blake treating Yang like somewhat of an invalid. Or perhaps Blake's trying to seem useful because she thinks she has to compensate for her absence. Either is saddening to see. Fortunately Team RWY pull her out of it.
Or Blake acting on one and Yang thinking it's the other.
 
A truck is being shot at. A White Fang minion dives out of it and takes cover with friends on the other side. Also there are Ilia (I think), Adam, Sienna Khan (I think), and most notably Ghira, who is trying to diplomacy the convoy's way out of being shot at, and being rebuffed. "There's no need for violence!" he says, and is shot at again and actually hit this time.

Adam and Sienna nod at each other, then Adam employs counter-violence. (Here come the lyrics!) It's pretty effective. Only one guy dies, and it's the absolute bright spark who decided to flank Adam and advance on the convoy with weapon drawn, and took the brunt of Adam's Final Smash when he realised he'd been flanked and the convoy crew was in danger.

The non-combat members of the ambush flee. Ghira, thinking long-term, is annoyed with Adam for the death. Sienna, thinking short-term, reminds Ghira that the death could have been his own. Most of the convoy crew share Sienna's opinion. I see this is the top of the slippery slope.

Honestly I'm not really sure you can say Ghira is being long-term here. Cause here is another problem with the White Fang subplot I've been waiting to be able to talk about; Ghira makes the peaceful side of the civil rights push look suicidal.

Cause again, Ghira was attacked by a group of assassins and his response was to put his hands up and ask to talk it out while they were in the middle of trying to assassinate him. He didn't want to fight back against them at all even when they made it very clear that they were here to kill and wouldn't be going until there were bodies on the ground. It's obvious why things didn't get better under him, and makes it very questionable how hopeful we should be about this third (fourth?) era of the White Fang that Volume 5 started.

«I do hope those weren't Beacon graduates,» adds Ozpin in the safety of Oscar's head. Actual comedy. But also, Ozpin, you ought to have known that's where Team CRDL were probably going, so what stopped the CRDLs of past years? (Possibly nothing, that's what.) Oscar, out loud, reinforces the comedy:

Honestly I don't even think it is a possibility so much as a certainty. Remember, Cardin was comfortable enough in his racism that his response to a teacher going 'Racism is terrible, be better than that' was to immediately start saying racist shit. And as far as we are shown he never suffered any official consequences for that.

Nora and Ren hatch a plan to have Jaune amplify Ren's Semblance (that's a thing that Jaune's does - we must ensure that Qrow is never wounded) so Ren can mask everybody on the train. With no gunfire and no detectable emotions, the Grimm won't be able to track them. Ozpin requests control and explains the one surprise complication to this plan: the Grimm are tracking the Relic. "Oz, are you serious?" asks Qrow. I'm with Qrow on this one - that would have been a great thing to explain, like, two weeks ago.

Thirding at this point but yea, this was a huge wtf moment for Oz. Yes he is just coming off of a betrayal regarding this relic, but come on man you're going to let people plan to take that thing onto a vehicle filled with Civilians when it's basically Grimm Bait and not say anything?
 
Honestly I'm not really sure you can say Ghira is being long-term here. Cause here is another problem with the White Fang subplot I've been waiting to be able to talk about; Ghira makes the peaceful side of the civil rights push look suicidal.

Cause again, Ghira was attacked by a group of assassins and his response was to put his hands up and ask to talk it out while they were in the middle of trying to assassinate him. He didn't want to fight back against them at all even when they made it very clear that they were here to kill and wouldn't be going until there were bodies on the ground. It's obvious why things didn't get better under him, and makes it very questionable how hopeful we should be about this third (fourth?) era of the White Fang that Volume 5 started.

The fact that the new era is a militia and is talking about action makes
me hopeful.

The first era was way too passive and Ghira was naive. The second era was active and made a difference, but had some long term image problems. The third group was 'working with human terrorists to attack schools? We're in!', caring about the size of impact but not direction. Ghira now is a Ghira who's learned from Sienna and Blake and knows passivity won't work, that they need to be actively involved with direct action, just with a different angle.
 
I'm guessing that's a train route to a station that's a dedicated air or seaport to vale.



And this is the final blow to Adams fang. Even if there are groups out there that might still follow him, he just killed the people who actually knew how to contact them.



Sadly, due to some restructuring of plot lines after this scene was animated, we never do find out on screen what Ruby got. Team themed friendship bracelets.



Yeah, it wasn't Qrow.
We have a stowaway...




The second vacuo book showed that the lesson needed further beating into his head.



He totally didn't. However, pay close attention to Suns first comment in this moment. There are times the guy is alright.



It's this one, but it's a nice reminder that Blake is still feeling guilty, and Yang recognises that and is understanding of it. Emotional maturity, we love to see it!




I think the logic is to try and preserve them for hitting the more important targets once the heroes have worn down the rank and file, as opposed to them firing blindly into the horde and being swarmed as obvious targets.




The back of the train is all cargo, so fighting them there poses less risk to passengers if a Grimm manages to breach the walls.




And THIS is where Ozs secret keeping bites him in the ass. Mentioning it only when it becomes a problem catches your allies off guard and forces them to have to adapt in a hurry. It does explain why the relic vaults weren't just buried as far away from civilisation as possible, and instead set up at places already expected to have Grimm approach.




Remember the open caboose? About that...



Not even in the video games.




Meet Maria. She was meant to show up in v5, but things didn't work out. She is freaking awesome in every way and the show is better for her presence.



Well, yeah. Salem has no need for him anymore. He's garbage in the bin now.



Nah, totally the animators playing around :p

What plot point have we seen about Ruby's eyes?

I think that you're getting a little too close to spoilers here, even if you're hiding things behind spoilers. I'm excited too, but let's make sure that this WIW is as unspoiled as possible.
 
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