- Pronouns
- He/Him
I fully believe that ironwood did no wrong up until the nuke and that it
IWIW RWBY
- Thread starter michaelb958
- Start date
- SPOILERS
PrismatiChampion
Prismatic Flower
- Pronouns
- She/Her
So I am so sorry, but every time I think about someone using a steel chair I burst out laughing. For reference, I played FF7 and got to see Aerith use it.
I know others have touched on your first part, so I'll skip it.
I brought up Destiny as an example of it working. I never once said it will always work, I was just refuting your claim that a second death is always going to be missing something compared to the first and won't work well.
I'm gonna be honest. I don't think the White Fang aspect of the plot was handled badly. I think the part that was handled badly was the racism aspect of it. I can easily see a Civil Rights group head more and more down the path of violence, and end up becoming terrorists and enabling abusers. The problem, I feel, is not in making an abuser a prominent character in the Civil Rights movement or in making a Civil Rights movement be co-opted into doing the work of evil, but rather in making it seem both like the White Fang were the only protestors and/or in making it seem like the Faunus supported them. If they had put into place a separate organization that fought for Faunus' rights, but decried the White Fang and was openly in the story, I feel that there would have been a lot less outcry over the White Fang. Similarly, if they had put more Faunus into the story, and had more instances of these Faunus either openly hating the White Fang or shunning them for their actions, then it would have worked better too. Menagerie still would have worked as a place more accepting of the White Fang, considering they lack communications with the rest of the world, and I feel Blakes's story in itself would have benefited from there being more open distrust of the White Fang than just Sun, and/or another group that worked on lessening the fear of Faunus, counteracting the White Fang's actions. I think the problem there was that they still just lacked the time to put either of these options, so despite actually not handling the White Fang badly, they handled the Faunus badly.
If I'm rambling again up there, I'll put it in better terms down here. I don't think the White Fang plot or Adam's plot was handled badly, it's just that the story needed another plot element to prevent the Faunus from being handled badly.
I think alongside that, it shows both Ironwoods and Ruby's headspaces. Ruby was barely holding on, clinging on to the image of her mother, and Salem just shattered it. Its one thing knowing Summer died in a mission. It's a separate thing knowing your direct enemy killed her and remembered her.
And for Ironwood, well it shows that he's truly afraid(also might be a subtle hint of Mettle). That his grandeur about the might of Atlas is simply a cover for his fear. His fear of not having control, his fear of the unexpected. For the first time, he has truly lost control. Salem has shown up at his doorstep, other people like Robyn and RWBY aren't in his control, and it's all crumbling down. This is, for the first time I think, us seeing past the mask of control that he has. And as soon as that mask slips, he comes cracking down, trying to regain control by any means possible.
I think this in itself might have been his fear even during the first 3 volumes. I think that the incident with Watts faked death greatly traumatized him, and now that trauma is resurfacing alongside his trauma from V3. Eh.. I could be stretching here.
Wait a second. Do you know where they did this? Because that makes things so much worse. The very same people who hate the story and writers tend to scrutinize every word they say in an attempt to find something to hate about. If this is true, then they likely saw it and still decided to complain about how team RWBY is tired for no reason and still tried to dismiss the fact that it was two days.
I know someone else noticed this, but don't remember who, but it seems like Cinder didn't kill the step-sisters with her sword. I remember the same person theorizing that they may have died trying to take the sword away from Cinder when Cinder now has aura-enhanced strength. So Rhodes walked in on what might very well have been completely self-defense rather than partial self-defense.
Except for Roman and Neo, of course. :3
I may also be reading too much into it here, but I think a part of it is also that Salem considers it lying to her. Salem has already shown that she hates people lying(remember volume 6 where she basically tortured Hazel to get Emerald to admit that Cinder had failed), and now Emerald tricks her with her semblance. Even V8 lampshades this, with her frustration at Ozpin and anger at him lying. This also makes me wonder about the end of Volume 8 and Cinder lying to Salem, whether she knows or not, and whether Salem is mad at Cinder or not.
Because the same people who yap about internal consistency hate whenever the show shows *checks notes* more internal consistency by not letting Jaunes semblance heal faster?
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The problem with the white fang as I saw it was that it seemed that Adam was the most prominent part of it and he sucks while the rest of the White Fang are just background characters that he easily coops.
Volume 8 Checkpoint
michaelb958
(Verified Michael)
- Location
- Wherever I am, there I am
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Volume 9 watch status: Ongoing for a few weeks now, good progress. In the meantime:
I've not been responding to many posts lately, even though many of them are excellent posts that deserve thoughtful responses. This is mainly because I've been through Chapter 14 once watching and writing about it, once more editing and posting about it, and I'm not really in the mood to think about it a third time. This is one Chapter I will not be watching again. In the words of a wise man, who as it turns out was talking about this exact show about eight years ago (Volume 3-4 hiatus):
To add the words of a different wise man a bit before that:
RWBY is foreshadowing all the time, it's just that most of the time I'm not smart enough to see it. As a fairly long-payoff example, cast your mind all the way back to the Yellow Trailer, which opened with the following words:
(Speaking of Yang early on, it has been alleged to me that she was flirting badly during her first meeting with Blake all the way back in V01C03.)
Speaking of Yang and foreshadowing, Grimm Eclipse is a goldmine of foreshadowing, backshadowing (literally every Pyrrha voice line), and outright stealth spoilers. The big example is Jaune's Semblance, which everybody thought was a placeholder in Grimm Eclipse between when it was introduced in game mechanics there, and when Volume 5 canonised basically that exact thing. But the one that almost made me scream at my monitor might not even have been intentional! Chapters 5 and 6 (of 10) are set in the Forever Fall Forest. Immediately before the arena for the last enemy waves of Chapter 5 there is a notably steep slope to climb, which has the last environmental lines for the Chapter. Even Ren gets to pun about that ("uphill battle"). Yang of course gets a pun - one of quite a few - and, well:
(Speaking of Grimm Eclipse, only yesterday evening - 112 game-hours and all 10 ranks in - did I finally realise how to change character outfits. I'm blind, folks. In case anyone else is blind, it's during the character selection menu: the vertical arrows at the top and bottom edges of the selection.)
Here's some music I'm kinda kicking myself I forgot to put in somewhere during V8, probably sometime Salem was involved:
Folks watching outside the threadmarks may have previously been aware of Tumblr user intro-v's little compilation of RWBY V6 clips to SuperButterBuns audio. I laughed, until the end where everybody cried. Turns out they kept going!
Lastly, I have become aware that Viz Media commented for comedic effect about Ruby accidentallying their microwave. I haven't actually seen it (ew, Twitter), so I'm just hoping it wasn't salmon.
I'm so relieved I don't have to hang off the V8-9 cliff for (checks) twenty-three months.
volumes 7 & 8
- oh wow the kingdom run by the military is overpoliced and has a massive wealth disparity this is so shocking how could i have not seen this coming
- Local Man Discovers He Might Be Into Dudes. Sexy Dude Could At Least Have Done Him The Courtesy Of Staying Alive Long Enough For Him To Find Out.
- remember all the extra-creepy grimm from volumes 4-6? buckle the fuck up buddy we're kicking it into high gear
- you won't BELIEVE which of these people have killed their teammates! number 4 will shock you!
- y'know that feeling when you fall in a dream and you wake up in bed and it feels like you fell into an abyss? haha yeah
- weiss' sister rescues a dog and gets the confidence to tell her boss to shove it
- oscar explodes a whale, risking his individuality and heightening the chance that he can be marked down as scared AND horny
I've not been responding to many posts lately, even though many of them are excellent posts that deserve thoughtful responses. This is mainly because I've been through Chapter 14 once watching and writing about it, once more editing and posting about it, and I'm not really in the mood to think about it a third time. This is one Chapter I will not be watching again. In the words of a wise man, who as it turns out was talking about this exact show about eight years ago (Volume 3-4 hiatus):
But damn, it still hurts.Peptuck said:
To add the words of a different wise man a bit before that:
And that was when 'only' Penny was dead!BigBoom550 said:
RWBY is foreshadowing all the time, it's just that most of the time I'm not smart enough to see it. As a fairly long-payoff example, cast your mind all the way back to the Yellow Trailer, which opened with the following words:
It has been alleged to me that this was foreshadowing Yang losing half an arm at the Battle of Beacon.
(Speaking of Yang early on, it has been alleged to me that she was flirting badly during her first meeting with Blake all the way back in V01C03.)
Speaking of Yang and foreshadowing, Grimm Eclipse is a goldmine of foreshadowing, backshadowing (literally every Pyrrha voice line), and outright stealth spoilers. The big example is Jaune's Semblance, which everybody thought was a placeholder in Grimm Eclipse between when it was introduced in game mechanics there, and when Volume 5 canonised basically that exact thing. But the one that almost made me scream at my monitor might not even have been intentional! Chapters 5 and 6 (of 10) are set in the Forever Fall Forest. Immediately before the arena for the last enemy waves of Chapter 5 there is a notably steep slope to climb, which has the last environmental lines for the Chapter. Even Ren gets to pun about that ("uphill battle"). Yang of course gets a pun - one of quite a few - and, well:
Then in the shower that evening I thought some more about the foreshadowing qualities of "Forever Fall" and actually did scream.
(Speaking of Grimm Eclipse, only yesterday evening - 112 game-hours and all 10 ranks in - did I finally realise how to change character outfits. I'm blind, folks. In case anyone else is blind, it's during the character selection menu: the vertical arrows at the top and bottom edges of the selection.)
Here's some music I'm kinda kicking myself I forgot to put in somewhere during V8, probably sometime Salem was involved:
Folks watching outside the threadmarks may have previously been aware of Tumblr user intro-v's little compilation of RWBY V6 clips to SuperButterBuns audio. I laughed, until the end where everybody cried. Turns out they kept going!
Lastly, I have become aware that Viz Media commented for comedic effect about Ruby accidentallying their microwave. I haven't actually seen it (ew, Twitter), so I'm just hoping it wasn't salmon.
I'm so relieved I don't have to hang off the V8-9 cliff for (checks) twenty-three months.
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- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'm still particularly fond of the 'he had it coming' montage from V8.
*Stares into the distance* Dark Days indeed...
hellgodsrus
Actual Real Game Dev!
- Location
- Behind You
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Eh, nothing beats the darkness of Yorse post V6, those were Wild Times indeed. Wait, shit, V8 hiatus had Bloconut, which was Yorse but Worse.
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It might not have been the intent of the writers at the time, but given later developments, one can most definitely read it that way. I mean, compare it to yang's later flirting attempts. Girl is lucky Blake likes adorkable.
ColdGoldLazarus
Contrary Quester, Spreadsheet Queen, Pink Flamingo
- Location
- Challenger Deep
- Pronouns
- She/Her
To finally get a little bit into this, in brief form, I felt a bit better about the whole Penny thing when I found out that Pinnochio died twice in the original version of the story, and it was on second resurrection/third time coming to life in general, that being alive stuck. So in light of that, my copium is very real, lol. Writers are still a bit on thin ice for me until I see if (and how) they might follow through on that, but still.
I also feel like the human transformation was possibly them playing around with the whole "becoming a real kid" concept; in Pinnochio getting to become a flesh-and-blood human is a validation and a reward from the Blue Fairy... (Ambrosius in this case)
But from the start, RWBY has been very clear that Penny has been a Real Girl in every way that matters all along. Earlier scenes in Volume 8 even emphasize the upsides to her robotic nature, to offset the clear downside of Watts hacking her. The only real problem with her being a robot is how the Atlas MIC can endanger her personal autonomy, and while there are some benefits to the human form she didn't have before, it's generally treated as a sidegrade at best, necessitated by desperation more than anything else. (If not an outright downgrade once the last battle starts.)
Her second death kinda reveals the human form to be a dead-end (pun semi-intended) result for her, compared to the reward it's presented as in the original Pinnochio. And here, there's an interesting dynamic in that her first death is as a robot, because of her robotic vulnerabilities; her second death is as a human, because of her human vulnerabilites. The second offsets the first; there's a recurring failing point here, but it's not the fact of her being a robot, so despite the problems she's had from it, it isn't something that needs to be "fixed." (Since morbidly, she dies the same either way.) Given all of the various factors that led to each of her deaths, my question is what the writers mean to say the problem actually is instead.
But from the start, RWBY has been very clear that Penny has been a Real Girl in every way that matters all along. Earlier scenes in Volume 8 even emphasize the upsides to her robotic nature, to offset the clear downside of Watts hacking her. The only real problem with her being a robot is how the Atlas MIC can endanger her personal autonomy, and while there are some benefits to the human form she didn't have before, it's generally treated as a sidegrade at best, necessitated by desperation more than anything else. (If not an outright downgrade once the last battle starts.)
Her second death kinda reveals the human form to be a dead-end (pun semi-intended) result for her, compared to the reward it's presented as in the original Pinnochio. And here, there's an interesting dynamic in that her first death is as a robot, because of her robotic vulnerabilities; her second death is as a human, because of her human vulnerabilites. The second offsets the first; there's a recurring failing point here, but it's not the fact of her being a robot, so despite the problems she's had from it, it isn't something that needs to be "fixed." (Since morbidly, she dies the same either way.) Given all of the various factors that led to each of her deaths, my question is what the writers mean to say the problem actually is instead.
I do understand and partially agree with the criticism that killing her a second time feels repetitive after Volume 3, given it has a similar tonal function as it did there. But I don't really agree with the common followup point that resurrecting her again after that might risk feeling too comic-book-ish, at least depending on how it's handled if it does come to pass.
I'll be blunt here and say that Comic Books have a problem of just going on forever and ever until the publisher forces a reboot, and all of my problems with the MCU are inherited from the source material. No long-term plan, little creative consistency between authors/directors, too much ancilliary material Required Homework to follow the "mainline" story, and taking Shocking Swerves for cheap shock value and then having to walk them back sooner or later. The last point being the cause of all the stupid deaths and resurrections that nobody can take seriously anymore.
On the surface I can see the similarity, but the key difference is in the surrounding context. RWBY is one self-contained story, all the ancilliary stuff is exactly that, it'll enrich the main story but isn't required to understand it; and I hope they keep to that approach in Vacuo, fill in everything important from the books instead of assuming they've been read already. And while we lost Monty, and two additional writers have been brought on in more recent Volumes alongside Miles and Kerry and their input has been very good, there is still the core creative continuity of those two, rather than the show changing hands every Volume like what happens with Comic Books or the MCU (or gen:LOCK, for that matter.)
I disagree with the fandom about every last thing being planned out the way they claim, since we know there were ideas that had to be dropped or rearranged; but vitally, I also disagree with the hatedom claims about that being a bad thing, since some degree of flexibility is important to good storytelling, and the show has mostly been better for those alterations. But despite that, there is still clearly an overall outline they're working from, regardless of the finer details. Major things like character arcs and deaths would definitely be part of that outline, so regardless of the creative reasoning for it, or whether one likes it or not, I do believe that Penny's second death was a planned thing, not just a swerve thrown in last-minute for the sake of shock value. (Even if the tonal impact was clearly a consideration, I don't believe it was the only one.) And similarly, if they bring her back again again, that would also be safe to assume was part of the plan as well, not just backpedaling like comic book writers are prone to doing. How well it may play is entirely down to the execution, not the concept IMO.
So in short, I believe there was a reason for it; I'm just waiting to see where they go with it before judging whether that reason was good enough to warrant the move. Again, thin ice, but at least they're still on the ice.
I'll be blunt here and say that Comic Books have a problem of just going on forever and ever until the publisher forces a reboot, and all of my problems with the MCU are inherited from the source material. No long-term plan, little creative consistency between authors/directors, too much ancilliary material Required Homework to follow the "mainline" story, and taking Shocking Swerves for cheap shock value and then having to walk them back sooner or later. The last point being the cause of all the stupid deaths and resurrections that nobody can take seriously anymore.
On the surface I can see the similarity, but the key difference is in the surrounding context. RWBY is one self-contained story, all the ancilliary stuff is exactly that, it'll enrich the main story but isn't required to understand it; and I hope they keep to that approach in Vacuo, fill in everything important from the books instead of assuming they've been read already. And while we lost Monty, and two additional writers have been brought on in more recent Volumes alongside Miles and Kerry and their input has been very good, there is still the core creative continuity of those two, rather than the show changing hands every Volume like what happens with Comic Books or the MCU (or gen:LOCK, for that matter.)
I disagree with the fandom about every last thing being planned out the way they claim, since we know there were ideas that had to be dropped or rearranged; but vitally, I also disagree with the hatedom claims about that being a bad thing, since some degree of flexibility is important to good storytelling, and the show has mostly been better for those alterations. But despite that, there is still clearly an overall outline they're working from, regardless of the finer details. Major things like character arcs and deaths would definitely be part of that outline, so regardless of the creative reasoning for it, or whether one likes it or not, I do believe that Penny's second death was a planned thing, not just a swerve thrown in last-minute for the sake of shock value. (Even if the tonal impact was clearly a consideration, I don't believe it was the only one.) And similarly, if they bring her back again again, that would also be safe to assume was part of the plan as well, not just backpedaling like comic book writers are prone to doing. How well it may play is entirely down to the execution, not the concept IMO.
So in short, I believe there was a reason for it; I'm just waiting to see where they go with it before judging whether that reason was good enough to warrant the move. Again, thin ice, but at least they're still on the ice.
As for why they would do this in the first place, there are kinda three and a half main things I can think of; one that Volume 9 has done, and two that I'm hoping to see in future Volumes.
Obviously, without going needlessly into detail since most of us have seen V9 and OP is still watching it, Penny's death (and the fall of Atlas in general, but Penny is definitely the nail in the coffin) is there to push Ruby over the edge and force her into her darkest hour, and the character development that she's been quietly staving off ever since Beacon. And from this standpoint, it definitely had to be Penny, since she's arguably closest to her aside from her teammates and uncle, and WBY at least are off-limits for actually killing off. (At this stage at least, they could maybe pull a Sailor Moon in the series finale, lol.) So it does serve a purpose there, and V9 has indeed followed through on that part, so that has helped a little bit...
Though if this is all that the death amounts to, then it would also be a case of fridging, killing Penny just to further Ruby's development, which would be no beuno.
So the second point, and what I most hope to see, is if this can further Penny's own development, in the event of her being resurrected again somehow. Going back to what I said about Penny's "real girl" status never having been in question, her robotic nature not being a problem to fix, and the question being what the actual problem is instead, this could be something to explore through her. One that has been discussed previously is the themes of suicidal self-sacrifice that came up in Volume 8, and the parallels to Pyrrha in Volume 3, even if it's not as applicable to Penny's first death. That would definitely be something to work through, at any rate, and tie into that recurring theme.
Another angle that would apply to both of Penny's deaths, (since she was in the Vytal Tournament for this particular reason) is the whole Child Soldier Chosen One theme that she sort of exemplifies in a heightened manner from even the other Trainee Hunters, as Atlas's War Machine With A Soul. In the wake of the fall of Atlas, a second resurrection would inherently leave her free of that particular angle of control, and a lot of the associated tampering with her agency, leaving the door open for this third lease on life to be the one that sticks. (Pinnochio allusion, mythology/fairytale Rule Of Three pattern, etc.) But even then there could be room for internal conflict and development in that, whether she still feels lingering duty to that idea despite Atlas already being gone, or if she is well and truly free of Atlas... but the same ideas still apply to Hunting in general, and the question of where Unethical Child Soldiers ends and With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility begins. Which now that I've said that, kinda loops back around to adjacent thematic ground to the self-sacrifice stuff and Pyrrha's unwinnable dilemma.
My "and a half" wish is to see this (again in the event of a resurrection I'm really hoping for) impact not just Ruby and Penny individually, but their relationship. Die on me once? Just relieved to have you back. Die on me twice? Stiflingly Overprotective Ruby Mode, Activate. I love sweet fluffy NND as much as the next person, but at this point we definitely need some angst and conflict, and subsequent resolution between them. Much like with Blake and Yang during the Mistral Arc, it could make for a stronger dynamic in the long run.
(And yes I don't make that comparison lightly, if I'm already operating on hopes and dreams over concrete reality, I will go so far as to operate on the assumption of NND endgame. (Iceflower instead of White Rose during the Volume 2 Mech Fight was intentional foreshadowing/ship dissuading, and I refuse to believe otherwise. Fite me : V ))
And finally, an idea I've seen bandied about by others and I really really hope is on the right track, is that this second death creates an opening for some very interesting parallels and comparisons to be drawn between Ruby... and Salem. Depending on whether Penny's dead for good this time, or a third lease on life is in the cards like I hope, will probably impact the tone of those parallels, but they exist either way. There is now room for Ruby to understand Salem and her response to Ozma's death(s) on a different level than anyone else, which could make for an extremely compelling added layer of meaning in their final conflict and inform decision-making on both sides during.
(And if Penny does come back again again, she also has her own pseudo-parallel to Salem and/or Oz in the multiple resurrections department, that could also be interesting to explore.)
I don't know exactly what kind of shape that parallel may take by the time we get there, but I definitely hope that that is something they plan to explore once we do, and that could provide a powerful amount of narrative and thematic meaning to this event. I would even let her not coming back slide (albeit reluctantly) if this is the goal.
Obviously, without going needlessly into detail since most of us have seen V9 and OP is still watching it, Penny's death (and the fall of Atlas in general, but Penny is definitely the nail in the coffin) is there to push Ruby over the edge and force her into her darkest hour, and the character development that she's been quietly staving off ever since Beacon. And from this standpoint, it definitely had to be Penny, since she's arguably closest to her aside from her teammates and uncle, and WBY at least are off-limits for actually killing off. (At this stage at least, they could maybe pull a Sailor Moon in the series finale, lol.) So it does serve a purpose there, and V9 has indeed followed through on that part, so that has helped a little bit...
Though if this is all that the death amounts to, then it would also be a case of fridging, killing Penny just to further Ruby's development, which would be no beuno.
So the second point, and what I most hope to see, is if this can further Penny's own development, in the event of her being resurrected again somehow. Going back to what I said about Penny's "real girl" status never having been in question, her robotic nature not being a problem to fix, and the question being what the actual problem is instead, this could be something to explore through her. One that has been discussed previously is the themes of suicidal self-sacrifice that came up in Volume 8, and the parallels to Pyrrha in Volume 3, even if it's not as applicable to Penny's first death. That would definitely be something to work through, at any rate, and tie into that recurring theme.
Another angle that would apply to both of Penny's deaths, (since she was in the Vytal Tournament for this particular reason) is the whole Child Soldier Chosen One theme that she sort of exemplifies in a heightened manner from even the other Trainee Hunters, as Atlas's War Machine With A Soul. In the wake of the fall of Atlas, a second resurrection would inherently leave her free of that particular angle of control, and a lot of the associated tampering with her agency, leaving the door open for this third lease on life to be the one that sticks. (Pinnochio allusion, mythology/fairytale Rule Of Three pattern, etc.) But even then there could be room for internal conflict and development in that, whether she still feels lingering duty to that idea despite Atlas already being gone, or if she is well and truly free of Atlas... but the same ideas still apply to Hunting in general, and the question of where Unethical Child Soldiers ends and With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility begins. Which now that I've said that, kinda loops back around to adjacent thematic ground to the self-sacrifice stuff and Pyrrha's unwinnable dilemma.
My "and a half" wish is to see this (again in the event of a resurrection I'm really hoping for) impact not just Ruby and Penny individually, but their relationship. Die on me once? Just relieved to have you back. Die on me twice? Stiflingly Overprotective Ruby Mode, Activate. I love sweet fluffy NND as much as the next person, but at this point we definitely need some angst and conflict, and subsequent resolution between them. Much like with Blake and Yang during the Mistral Arc, it could make for a stronger dynamic in the long run.
(And yes I don't make that comparison lightly, if I'm already operating on hopes and dreams over concrete reality, I will go so far as to operate on the assumption of NND endgame. (
And finally, an idea I've seen bandied about by others and I really really hope is on the right track, is that this second death creates an opening for some very interesting parallels and comparisons to be drawn between Ruby... and Salem. Depending on whether Penny's dead for good this time, or a third lease on life is in the cards like I hope, will probably impact the tone of those parallels, but they exist either way. There is now room for Ruby to understand Salem and her response to Ozma's death(s) on a different level than anyone else, which could make for an extremely compelling added layer of meaning in their final conflict and inform decision-making on both sides during.
(And if Penny does come back again again, she also has her own pseudo-parallel to Salem and/or Oz in the multiple resurrections department, that could also be interesting to explore.)
I don't know exactly what kind of shape that parallel may take by the time we get there, but I definitely hope that that is something they plan to explore once we do, and that could provide a powerful amount of narrative and thematic meaning to this event. I would even let her not coming back slide (albeit reluctantly) if this is the goal.
I hope this all makes some kind of sense, I think I got kinda rambly there, but yeah. This is basically where my head is at about all this, just watching and waiting to see what comes of it. I have a few specific wishes for what they could do to make it worthwhile, but I am also wondering if they might go in a completely different direction than I have a frame of reference to expect at this stage. Ultimately, I just hope it has some sort of long-term meaning, beyond just what's readily apparent in what we have seen so far.
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Cinder is a common factor to both, one more directly than the other.
Fic Recs: Sometimes The Fall Does Kill You
michaelb958
(Verified Michael)
- Location
- Wherever I am, there I am
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
{{Volume 9 watch status: Ongoing. Current ambience: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. In the meantime, some recs!
- Nora's Paradox (Prior_System): Firstly, h*ck you, Penny lives (mostly due to this fic dating back to the mid-season hiatus). Secondly, Nora's earliest memories include the starry empty sky above Mantle. These two things are related.
- Four Huntresses Walk into a Manor (The_Escaped): And they walk out with Whitley Schnee, who is totally not kidnapped and totally not having a better time than ever. (Yang: "Weiss, look! I'm taking a page out of my mom's book- I kidnapped a Schnee!")
- Qrow Math (The_Escaped): As it describes itself, "the one where Qrow adopts every orphan in Remnant". Absolute fluffy fixfic hours, my favourite genre.
- Curiosity Kindled the Cat (A Selfless Feline, Burning Black) (Badendchan): Another rec I got from the SB thread and can now pass on to you. In which Blake eavesdrops when Cinder first comes to visit Adam, and eventually spills what she heard to Ozpin, which leads directly to everyone having a better time (with some exceptions, but none of them are any great loss).
- Midnight Rose (Just_Some_Dood): In the category of 'longer-form young Cinder fixfic', this entrant has Summer Rose find her before Salem does. Unfortunately this does not help Summer Rose avoid her canonical fate, although at least it's plenty better for everyone else.
- The Salvation of James Ironwood (BryonNightshade): Imagine how much better a time everyone would have had if Ironwood had fainted just before he saw that glass chess piece. Except you don't have to, because the excellent BryonNightshade has written it. (
Could someone explain to me what "neutral jing" means? Even Urban Dictionary isn't helping...Avatar: The Last Airbender-derived term for waiting until the right time to act. Makes sense.) - The Finer Points Of Faking Your Own Death (AirForceMuffin): In serious need of a pick-me-up? Here's nearly 4k words of Beacon being fine and Penny scheming to transfer there. Not just to be with Ruby. Totally not. Couldn't be.
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- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, time for my favorite 'Knowledge of V8' fic
The Gang Kidnaps a Child
Summer, Taiyang, Raven, and Qrow would normally never stay at a place as disgustingly Atlesian as this. Unfortunately, it's nearly midnight and they don't have time to find another hotel to—hey wait a second, is that a fucking kid?
In which team STRQ, back before they were total disasters (merely being kind of disasters), end up at That Fucking Hotel and child Cinder has a better future.
Oh ha! That's like the idea I mentioned back around the V7 ending of a Doctor sedating James! Glorious!
The Gang Kidnaps a Child
Summer, Taiyang, Raven, and Qrow would normally never stay at a place as disgustingly Atlesian as this. Unfortunately, it's nearly midnight and they don't have time to find another hotel to—hey wait a second, is that a fucking kid?
In which team STRQ, back before they were total disasters (merely being kind of disasters), end up at That Fucking Hotel and child Cinder has a better future.
Oh ha! That's like the idea I mentioned back around the V7 ending of a Doctor sedating James! Glorious!
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michaelb958
(Verified Michael)
- Location
- Wherever I am, there I am
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Into my bookmarks it goes!
(the doctor was his mangled arm)
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Pretty much. My idea had the chess piece go completely unnoticed because the doctor did something about the arm the moment he stepped off the airship, but this works too
Neutral jing is an Avatar the Last Airbender reference, generally being "wait and listen for the right time before you act" and the secret to being a good earthbender.
ColdGoldLazarus
Contrary Quester, Spreadsheet Queen, Pink Flamingo
- Location
- Challenger Deep
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yeahhhhh, I feel that. Been a year(?) since V9 came out, and I'm honestly still kinda processing it.
Anyway, rec-wise, I recently read the last two on that list, and can definitely back those recs. It's kind of incredible how much difference a nap would have made. Will definitely check out the others, too.
I was going to recommend another fic by ByronNightshade, Event Horizon, but you already covered that in a previous recommendation list so whoops.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
what you said filled me with a sense of such grand pity
dragonx99
Actually Satan
Do not feel pity, feel excitement; now we know what to make him watch once he finishes RWBY
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Good good we must show some masterpieces
Except for the romance, RWBY does that much better.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I have to disagree the romance was the worst part of both shows
dragonx99
Actually Satan
It's also the center of some of the most toxic arguments of the fandoms for both shows.
ColdGoldLazarus
Contrary Quester, Spreadsheet Queen, Pink Flamingo
- Location
- Challenger Deep
- Pronouns
- She/Her
That part at least I can agree with. I think the actual romance stuff has been handled pretty alright so far, no better and no worse, but as with anything else about the show, the ongoing war between the hatedom and fandom zealots is completely overblown and not worth paying attention to. For both shows.
V09C01 A Place of Particular Concern
michaelb958
(Verified Michael)
- Location
- Wherever I am, there I am
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Volume 9 watch status: Complete. Posting will now commence.
Narrator: "This is the story of a girl who had a lot of problems." And with that, heartbeat noises, that gradually accelerate as the sound of wind rushing by grows louder.
Please welcome the first-person perspective of Ruby Rose, in a series of disjointed flashbacks(?) from the last two Chapters over increasingly frantic background music: Cinder making herself known; Yang falling; Crescent Rose falling; Ruby herself falling despite Blake's best efforts.
The main sound is Ruby's breathing as she keeps falling, now in her very own liminal space (so maybe she's floating instead of falling...). The starry ambience that marked the top hemisphere of the Central Location (the bottom hemisphere was blackness) now spans the full sphere around her. The golden motes are all around, too; one is close enough to touch, revealing them to be not just harmless but fully clippable.
Here's Neo, who is still very, very mad if the way she tries to beat up Ruby is any indication. Ruby grabs both Neo's wrists to defend herself. Neo disguises as Oscar, so Ruby attempts to toss her away. Neo now disguises as Yang and resumes the beating, pausing partway through to change disguises to Penny. Yep, Neo still doing Neo things.
Ruby eventually manages to fling Neo away for good (the disguise breaks), but in the meantime it is confirmed that they both really are still falling rather than floating (so the motes are falling with them), as that looks like ground below them and it's rushing closer.
Okay, maybe it's just green smoke or something. The screen whites out as they both fall in and start breathing it.
After a sizable hiatus, it is once again time for michaelb958's Tangentially Related Storytime.
Contrary to popular belief, Britain has produced science fiction media other than Doctor Who. One example was Blake's 7, which the BBC aired between 1978 and 1981. The basic premise of the thing is that Roj Blake leads a band of guess-how-many improvised revolutionaries against the tyrannical Federation, and runs into interpersonal conflicts because he's the only ideologically-dedicated revolutionary amongst them.
I bring this up due to what my father calls British episodic television - at least the sci-fi part - being well ahead of its American equivalent circa 1980 in doing things like 'changing up the status quo'. As an example, Star Trek: Voyager (seven seasons) was clinging to its status quo as late as 2000 despite how little sense one could accuse that of making. Contrast Blake's 7, which by its second season (of four) was picking main characters to kill off. When I'm feeling snippy I like to say that this was because shows with less budget for special effects had to get good at writing instead, but honestly we all know that you're not even guaranteed one of those things.
The biggest one Blake's 7 did was killing off Blake for the third season. Yes, you read that right. The root cause was that the actor wanted out, but the character wasn't recast like others (albeit minor) had been and would be, and they didn't so much as change the name of the show to reflect that it no longer had a Blake - they just went on.
My thesis here is that not only would it not be impossible that we never saw Team RWBY again, but it wouldn't even be unprecedented in episodic audiovisual media. Fortunately, it does not appear to be the case.
The sky is orange over that jungle beach we saw briefly post-credits last time. Someone (Yang?) is shouting Ruby's name, but very distantly. If Yang did all this first (by minutes), it would make some sense that she recovered first, but how would she know to look for Ruby? Did she see Ruby falling in? Has she (Yang) lost her own mind and is clinging to the last thing she coherently thought of? Is this just Yang's last vocalisation echoing in Ruby's head and the actual Yang has nothing to do with it?
Another shout doesn't percolate into Ruby's conscious mind but does wake her up. I see we've left first-person. Ruby looks around. Weird beach, orange water (maybe just reflecting the sky), two suns(!). She climbs to her feet, which we see from a camera angle positioned just inside the jungle, which surely isn't foreshadowing anything (/s).
Back into first-person briefly to pan down from the really big tree in the distance. This is Ruby's 'I am completely lost' face.
Ruby treks into the jungle. I don't know nearly enough about wilderness survival to comment on whether this is a good idea, and even if I did, how much of it would even apply here, because have a gander at this wacky wildlife. Case in point, this flightless bird that jumps and wails as she walks by.
Ruby advances further into the jungle, and soon arrives in an extremely-similar miniature clearing with an extremely-similar wailing/babbling bird. ...Wait, the bird is laughing.
As Ruby advances for the second time, her shadow brushes over a mouse dozing on some kind of psuedo-rock formation, which takes very minor notice.
The bird hasn't stopped laughing when Ruby arrives in the miniature clearing for the third time. Clearly normal spacetime doesn't apply here. The mouse is now awake, and has a transitionless mini-montage of reactions as Ruby keeps walking by. After a hopefully single-digit number of attempts she gives up and sits down under a tree to curl up and start crying.
You thought we were doing the 'imply character is crying by showing tears falling on the ground' thing again? Surprise, it's started raining in the jungle. Although given that normal spacetime doesn't apply here, maybe the crying has caused the rain.
The mouse from earlier is attempting to pull some kind of root vegetable out of the ground; the mismatch of scale means it's not having a good time. Ruby locks on to a problem she can actually solve, offering the mouse one hand (it climbs on) and extracting the vegetable with the other. It has the appearance of a strangely-shaped block of cheese. I wouldn't eat that. The mouse does, with gusto.
"Now if only you could help me..." mutters Ruby to herself. First vocal line of the Chapter (other than Yang's which was sampled from a previous Chapter). It only took four-and-a-half minutes, more than a quarter of the runtime. Not that this is a bad thing; as precedent, note the film WALL-E, which went quite a while before its first vocalisation, and even longer before one that wasn't just a character's name.
The mouse finishes its mouthful, looks at Ruby and says "I could try!". Well doesn't that beat all.
Ruby screams in shock, so so does the mouse. They both take deep breaths after a few seconds; the mouse recovers first and asks why Ruby's yelling. Ruby has no words to articulate it. I'm actually not sure whether this counts as Comedy™ or actual comedy.
The mouse wonders whether Ruby wants to share, and seems profoundly disappointed at having to give up most of the vegetable even as they concede "it's only fair". To be fair, I'd sound disappointed too. Ruby apparently wouldn't eat that either, or perhaps reckons she could just grab another one from the patch; she now finally finds her words again:
Ruby tries answering with "a human", which results in murine confusion. Followup attempts of "a girl" and "a Huntress" only confuse her interlocutor more: "That's a lot of things..." Ruby tries again, giving her name. The mouse immediately mistakes it for her "purpose". This is going to continue to be an interesting conversation with these vastly different frames of reference.
The mouse apparently doesn't have a name yet because they're "still young". Ruby dubs them Little. I'd say I've seen that film, except I haven't. They are somewhat confused about how to verb that adjective; it seems that the culture here gives names that are verbs describing the "purpose" of the named being.
Ruby doesn't answer the question, instead getting caught in an unseen flashback; she asks Little (name pending confirmation) if any other "people... humans, like me" have been seen. Little wonders if Ruby's talking about copies of herself, and between the two of them they can't communicate the concept of 'mostly like Ruby', reinforcing for us the continual gulf in understanding between them. Ruby attempts to explain the distinguishing features of Yang and Blake, making the assumption that Little even knows what "blonde" and "hair" are while forgetting the obvious-in-hindsight minor matter that a mouse is not likely to react well to anything cat-related (and in her recovery making the even shakier assumption that Little would have any clue what a "cartoon" is).
Little doesn't confirm or deny having seen anything like Ruby, but recommends returning to their village to ask around. They also guilt-trip Ruby into pulling up a few more vegetables.
Another shot of the twin suns, one slightly smaller than the other. Do these symbolise Remnant and moon?
Pan down to treetops full of wailing birds (okay so either they can fly, they're brilliant at climbing, or the local excuse for spacetime is on their side) as somebody talks; firstly Blake, then Weiss starts (shamefully, I needed two guesses at the latter). They're looking for "Gambol Shroud", which I infer (and happen to {{know}}) to be (the other half of) Blake's weapon. We finally have a second primary-canonicalized weapon name! It only took 105 Chapters.
Just like Ruby, neither Blake nor Weiss has any idea where they are or what's going on. However, they have the data point of having linked up after Falling, so they can be confident that Ruby and Yang are also here somewhere.
Oh no, Blake wants to know what else Weiss saw in the Central Location. Weiss will either have to either clam up, or break it to her about Penny. Weiss picks the former option, only wanting to tell this story zero or one times.
Cue finding Blake's gun lodged in a heap of spiked vines. I predict it will not be easy to retrieve it. Weiss reports that she's low on Dust, implying that they can't burn their way in.
Cue montage. Blake has considerable difficulty trying to pull a vine out of the mass. Weiss has better luck slashing some away, but she's still tired from the battle she came from and has to take a moment to catch her breath, during which the vines regrow and undo all her progress.
Blake now climbs a nearby tree and tries to reach her gun from the side. Weiss is reduced to cheerleading. It takes some serious stretching, but Blake eventually manages to brush the weapon a little closer. This angers the vines, which reach out to engulf both of them, exactly as I was expecting to happen at some point.
Cue an army of Little-style mice to rush in, cheering, and declare that their trap was successful. I have no idea what they were trying to trap but I severely doubt it was these two. Weiss is hung up on the mice talking; Blake has bigger concerns (a cat cornered by mice definitely clears the bar for actual comedy).
Naturally, Ruby arrives back at the mouse village to find Weiss and Blake strung up in preparation for being burned at the stake or something similar. Ruby is almost completely immobilised by shock (particularly to see Weiss); she can only awaken Little, who was asleep in her scarf. "Oh, hey, it's your cat friend," says Little, and then realises they said "cat" and has a little panic.
The misunderstanding is quickly cleared up: Little tells the story of how they unsaddened Ruby and then Ruby extracted the entire cheese-plant (how did I not see that it was cheese? I was so close!) by herself!. (So why exactly was Little sent out as a foraging party of one?) One of the audience faints dramatically. The mouse-in-charge fearlessly scampers over to Blake, now with both parts of Gambol Shroud, to profusely apologise for the misunderstanding and the actions that sprang from it. Blake accepts.
While Team RWB are here, they ask about Yang. Yang has not been seen here.
Ruby explains to her teammates that she was trying to get to the cliff and get her bearings from higher ground. Not sure if that would even work when normal spacetime doesn't apply here, but what else can you really do? Cue Little to appear on Blake's shoulder and declare a willingness to be their guide. This startles Blake a bit; there are multiple perfectly good explanations for this, but 'cat scared of mice' is definitely the funniest.
Smash cut to Little fast asleep in Ruby's scarf again. At least they're on a path now, says Blake.
Blake is worried for Yang, who has been here (wherever the h*ck 'here' is) the longest. Ruby asks Weiss if anyone else fell. (She means Penny, doesn't she.) Weiss still doesn't want to tell that story yet, deflecting by saying they should find Yang first.
Ruby starts saying something else but is cut off by an utterly terrifying roar. Team RWB run towards it - of course - and are taken aback to discover what looks - and sounds - like the Hound's wackier-but-that-makes-it-scarier cousin. Weiss and Blake draw their weapons; so would Ruby have, if she still had it.
Whatever the h*ck this thing is abruptly charges for them. Blake engages first, and it trivially grabs her weapon. Any further combat is forestalled by Yang taunting it (but looking exhausted, and down her prosthetic arm) and bouncing a rock off its head. It retreats.
Weiss and Blake run off somewhere - after it? Ruby wants to reunite with Yang, but Yang isn't in the mood:
"I sort of thought you'd be a little happier to see us," says Weiss. It's not that Yang isn't happy to see them, says Yang, but that their presence implies that the battle in the Central Location must have gone badly. At this point Weiss starts heading for tears because she's run out of excuses not to tell them about everything, including Penny.
Weiss cuts herself off after the first time she says "Penny-". This makes it quite enough of a day for Ruby (who got the implications just fine even if she may or may not have heard Weiss making clear that Penny "sacrificed herself"), who faints.
It is raining again as Ruby awakens, possibly only a few moments later. Weiss is telling Blake that she doesn't actually know what happened to Creation or Neo or anyone in Vacuo, but she's not optimistic. Ruby confirms that Neo arrived at the same time she did.
Blake proposes that they recover their missing items - Crescent Rose and Yang's arm - and then look for a way out. (Cue ray of sunshine.) Weiss asks what happens if they "can't leave", and then cuts herself off before asking what Yang promptly takes over, which is "What if we're dead?". Yang was fairly sure she was in the afterlife before linking up with Team RWB, and still has doubts.
Blake asserts that they're not dead: She thinks they're in a fairy tale. Her words, not mine. Dramatic shot of the really big tree in the distance, and all sorts of fantastic landscapes around it.
Well, it's been a bit (fourteen Chapters of V8, all nearly twenty minutes long), but finally new titles!
Credits: Just for something different, the slide before the voice cast is the one with lots of names and small text. Speaking of the voice cast, a process of elimination tells me that the Hound's local cousin is called "Jabberwalker". I'll be using that name immediately, because it's way more convenient than any other descriptor I have for it. (It jabbers, and it walks. Close enough.)
Next time: Sure, start a fight with an entire kingdom you know literally less than nothing about.
V09C01 A Place of Particular Concern
Narrator: "This is the story of a girl who had a lot of problems." And with that, heartbeat noises, that gradually accelerate as the sound of wind rushing by grows louder.
Please welcome the first-person perspective of Ruby Rose, in a series of disjointed flashbacks(?) from the last two Chapters over increasingly frantic background music: Cinder making herself known; Yang falling; Crescent Rose falling; Ruby herself falling despite Blake's best efforts.
The main sound is Ruby's breathing as she keeps falling, now in her very own liminal space (so maybe she's floating instead of falling...). The starry ambience that marked the top hemisphere of the Central Location (the bottom hemisphere was blackness) now spans the full sphere around her. The golden motes are all around, too; one is close enough to touch, revealing them to be not just harmless but fully clippable.
Here's Neo, who is still very, very mad if the way she tries to beat up Ruby is any indication. Ruby grabs both Neo's wrists to defend herself. Neo disguises as Oscar, so Ruby attempts to toss her away. Neo now disguises as Yang and resumes the beating, pausing partway through to change disguises to Penny
. Yep, Neo still doing Neo things.Ruby eventually manages to fling Neo away for good (the disguise breaks), but in the meantime it is confirmed that they both really are still falling rather than floating (so the motes are falling with them), as that looks like ground below them and it's rushing closer.
Okay, maybe it's just green smoke or something. The screen whites out as they both fall in and start breathing it.
After a sizable hiatus, it is once again time for michaelb958's Tangentially Related Storytime.
Contrary to popular belief, Britain has produced science fiction media other than Doctor Who. One example was Blake's 7, which the BBC aired between 1978 and 1981. The basic premise of the thing is that Roj Blake leads a band of guess-how-many improvised revolutionaries against the tyrannical Federation, and runs into interpersonal conflicts because he's the only ideologically-dedicated revolutionary amongst them.
I bring this up due to what my father calls British episodic television - at least the sci-fi part - being well ahead of its American equivalent circa 1980 in doing things like 'changing up the status quo'. As an example, Star Trek: Voyager (seven seasons) was clinging to its status quo as late as 2000 despite how little sense one could accuse that of making. Contrast Blake's 7, which by its second season (of four) was picking main characters to kill off. When I'm feeling snippy I like to say that this was because shows with less budget for special effects had to get good at writing instead, but honestly we all know that you're not even guaranteed one of those things.
The biggest one Blake's 7 did was killing off Blake for the third season. Yes, you read that right. The root cause was that the actor wanted out, but the character wasn't recast like others (albeit minor) had been and would be, and they didn't so much as change the name of the show to reflect that it no longer had a Blake - they just went on.
My thesis here is that not only would it not be impossible that we never saw Team RWBY again, but it wouldn't even be unprecedented in episodic audiovisual media. Fortunately, it does not appear to be the case.
The sky is orange over that jungle beach we saw briefly post-credits last time. Someone (Yang?) is shouting Ruby's name, but very distantly. If Yang did all this first (by minutes), it would make some sense that she recovered first, but how would she know to look for Ruby? Did she see Ruby falling in? Has she (Yang) lost her own mind and is clinging to the last thing she coherently thought of? Is this just Yang's last vocalisation echoing in Ruby's head and the actual Yang has nothing to do with it?
Another shout doesn't percolate into Ruby's conscious mind but does wake her up. I see we've left first-person. Ruby looks around. Weird beach, orange water (maybe just reflecting the sky), two suns(!). She climbs to her feet, which we see from a camera angle positioned just inside the jungle, which surely isn't foreshadowing anything (/s).
Back into first-person briefly to pan down from the really big tree in the distance. This is Ruby's 'I am completely lost' face.
Ruby treks into the jungle. I don't know nearly enough about wilderness survival to comment on whether this is a good idea, and even if I did, how much of it would even apply here, because have a gander at this wacky wildlife. Case in point, this flightless bird that jumps and wails as she walks by.
Ruby advances further into the jungle, and soon arrives in an extremely-similar miniature clearing with an extremely-similar wailing/babbling bird. ...Wait, the bird is laughing.
As Ruby advances for the second time, her shadow brushes over a mouse dozing on some kind of psuedo-rock formation, which takes very minor notice.
The bird hasn't stopped laughing when Ruby arrives in the miniature clearing for the third time. Clearly normal spacetime doesn't apply here. The mouse is now awake, and has a transitionless mini-montage of reactions as Ruby keeps walking by. After a hopefully single-digit number of attempts she gives up and sits down under a tree to curl up and start crying.
You thought we were doing the 'imply character is crying by showing tears falling on the ground' thing again? Surprise, it's started raining in the jungle. Although given that normal spacetime doesn't apply here, maybe the crying has caused the rain.
The mouse from earlier is attempting to pull some kind of root vegetable out of the ground; the mismatch of scale means it's not having a good time. Ruby locks on to a problem she can actually solve, offering the mouse one hand (it climbs on) and extracting the vegetable with the other. It has the appearance of a strangely-shaped block of cheese. I wouldn't eat that. The mouse does, with gusto.
"Now if only you could help me..." mutters Ruby to herself. First vocal line of the Chapter (other than Yang's which was sampled from a previous Chapter). It only took four-and-a-half minutes, more than a quarter of the runtime. Not that this is a bad thing; as precedent, note the film WALL-E, which went quite a while before its first vocalisation, and even longer before one that wasn't just a character's name.
The mouse finishes its mouthful, looks at Ruby and says "I could try!". Well doesn't that beat all.
Ruby screams in shock, so so does the mouse. They both take deep breaths after a few seconds; the mouse recovers first and asks why Ruby's yelling. Ruby has no words to articulate it. I'm actually not sure whether this counts as Comedy™ or actual comedy.
The mouse wonders whether Ruby wants to share, and seems profoundly disappointed at having to give up most of the vegetable even as they concede "it's only fair". To be fair, I'd sound disappointed too. Ruby apparently wouldn't eat that either, or perhaps reckons she could just grab another one from the patch; she now finally finds her words again:
Isn't that a question. Aside from the somewhat obvious difficulties of answering it without inadvertently being racist (to faunus or otherwise), it implies that nothing the like of a human or faunus has been here in living memory.
Ruby tries answering with "a human", which results in murine confusion. Followup attempts of "a girl" and "a Huntress" only confuse her interlocutor more: "That's a lot of things..." Ruby tries again, giving her name. The mouse immediately mistakes it for her "purpose". This is going to continue to be an interesting conversation with these vastly different frames of reference.
The mouse apparently doesn't have a name yet because they're "still young". Ruby dubs them Little. I'd say I've seen that film, except I haven't. They are somewhat confused about how to verb that adjective; it seems that the culture here gives names that are verbs describing the "purpose" of the named being.
Ruby doesn't answer the question, instead getting caught in an unseen flashback; she asks Little (name pending confirmation) if any other "people... humans, like me" have been seen. Little wonders if Ruby's talking about copies of herself, and between the two of them they can't communicate the concept of 'mostly like Ruby', reinforcing for us the continual gulf in understanding between them. Ruby attempts to explain the distinguishing features of Yang and Blake, making the assumption that Little even knows what "blonde" and "hair" are while forgetting the obvious-in-hindsight minor matter that a mouse is not likely to react well to anything cat-related (and in her recovery making the even shakier assumption that Little would have any clue what a "cartoon" is).
Little doesn't confirm or deny having seen anything like Ruby, but recommends returning to their village to ask around. They also guilt-trip Ruby into pulling up a few more vegetables.
Another shot of the twin suns, one slightly smaller than the other. Do these symbolise Remnant and moon?
Pan down to treetops full of wailing birds (okay so either they can fly, they're brilliant at climbing, or the local excuse for spacetime is on their side) as somebody talks; firstly Blake, then Weiss starts (shamefully, I needed two guesses at the latter). They're looking for "Gambol Shroud", which I infer (and happen to {{know}}) to be (the other half of) Blake's weapon. We finally have a second primary-canonicalized weapon name! It only took 105 Chapters.
Just like Ruby, neither Blake nor Weiss has any idea where they are or what's going on. However, they have the data point of having linked up after Falling, so they can be confident that Ruby and Yang are also here somewhere.
Oh no, Blake wants to know what else Weiss saw in the Central Location. Weiss will either have to either clam up, or break it to her about Penny. Weiss picks the former option, only wanting to tell this story zero or one times.
Cue finding Blake's gun lodged in a heap of spiked vines. I predict it will not be easy to retrieve it. Weiss reports that she's low on Dust, implying that they can't burn their way in.
Cue montage. Blake has considerable difficulty trying to pull a vine out of the mass. Weiss has better luck slashing some away, but she's still tired from the battle she came from and has to take a moment to catch her breath, during which the vines regrow and undo all her progress.
Blake now climbs a nearby tree and tries to reach her gun from the side. Weiss is reduced to cheerleading. It takes some serious stretching, but Blake eventually manages to brush the weapon a little closer. This angers the vines, which reach out to engulf both of them, exactly as I was expecting to happen at some point.
Cue an army of Little-style mice to rush in, cheering, and declare that their trap was successful. I have no idea what they were trying to trap but I severely doubt it was these two. Weiss is hung up on the mice talking; Blake has bigger concerns (a cat cornered by mice definitely clears the bar for actual comedy).
Naturally, Ruby arrives back at the mouse village to find Weiss and Blake strung up in preparation for being burned at the stake or something similar. Ruby is almost completely immobilised by shock (particularly to see Weiss); she can only awaken Little, who was asleep in her scarf. "Oh, hey, it's your cat friend," says Little, and then realises they said "cat" and has a little panic.
The misunderstanding is quickly cleared up: Little tells the story of how they unsaddened Ruby and then Ruby extracted the entire cheese-plant (how did I not see that it was cheese? I was so close!) by herself!. (So why exactly was Little sent out as a foraging party of one?) One of the audience faints dramatically. The mouse-in-charge fearlessly scampers over to Blake, now with both parts of Gambol Shroud, to profusely apologise for the misunderstanding and the actions that sprang from it. Blake accepts.
While Team RWB are here, they ask about Yang. Yang has not been seen here.
Ruby explains to her teammates that she was trying to get to the cliff and get her bearings from higher ground. Not sure if that would even work when normal spacetime doesn't apply here, but what else can you really do? Cue Little to appear on Blake's shoulder and declare a willingness to be their guide. This startles Blake a bit; there are multiple perfectly good explanations for this, but 'cat scared of mice' is definitely the funniest.
Smash cut to Little fast asleep in Ruby's scarf again. At least they're on a path now, says Blake.
Blake is worried for Yang, who has been here (wherever the h*ck 'here' is) the longest. Ruby asks Weiss if anyone else fell. (She means Penny, doesn't she.) Weiss still doesn't want to tell that story yet, deflecting by saying they should find Yang first.
Ruby starts saying something else but is cut off by an utterly terrifying roar. Team RWB run towards it - of course - and are taken aback to discover what looks - and sounds - like the Hound's wackier-but-that-makes-it-scarier cousin. Weiss and Blake draw their weapons; so would Ruby have, if she still had it.
Whatever the h*ck this thing is abruptly charges for them. Blake engages first, and it trivially grabs her weapon. Any further combat is forestalled by Yang taunting it (but looking exhausted, and down her prosthetic arm) and bouncing a rock off its head. It retreats.
Weiss and Blake run off somewhere - after it? Ruby wants to reunite with Yang, but Yang isn't in the mood:
Go Ruby! Yang pulls the "You wouldn't believe me if I told you" card (with which she has recent experience) when Ruby asks about her arm, and is quite surprised to see Little (who comments that Yang "seems trustworthy"). Yang can barely get a question out about what's going on there before Blake, who evidently remembered the next thing on her priority list, returns and dives in at great speed for a heartwarming reunion.
"I sort of thought you'd be a little happier to see us," says Weiss. It's not that Yang isn't happy to see them, says Yang, but that their presence implies that the battle in the Central Location must have gone badly. At this point Weiss starts heading for tears because she's run out of excuses not to tell them about everything, including Penny.
Weiss cuts herself off after the first time she says "Penny-". This makes it quite enough of a day for Ruby (who got the implications just fine even if she may or may not have heard Weiss making clear that Penny "sacrificed herself"), who faints.
It is raining again as Ruby awakens, possibly only a few moments later. Weiss is telling Blake that she doesn't actually know what happened to Creation or Neo or anyone in Vacuo, but she's not optimistic. Ruby confirms that Neo arrived at the same time she did.
Blake proposes that they recover their missing items - Crescent Rose and Yang's arm - and then look for a way out. (Cue ray of sunshine.) Weiss asks what happens if they "can't leave", and then cuts herself off before asking what Yang promptly takes over, which is "What if we're dead?". Yang was fairly sure she was in the afterlife before linking up with Team RWB, and still has doubts.
Blake asserts that they're not dead: She thinks they're in a fairy tale. Her words, not mine. Dramatic shot of the really big tree in the distance, and all sorts of fantastic landscapes around it.
Well, it's been a bit (fourteen Chapters of V8, all nearly twenty minutes long), but finally new titles!
- Passing-starfield vision through those golden motes. Intercut are single-colour shots of first Jaune and Neo, then Team WBY, then Ruby (who is falling). A white light emanates from Ruby and washes out the screen.
- A red meteor falls from above - probably symbolising Ruby - onto/behind the really big tree, seen at twilight. There's some kind of explosion visual from behind it. Suddenly the scene is in standard-so-far orange sky and the series logo is here (and so is the electric guitar; it was just synth beforehand). Definite tree motif continues.
- More nostalgia shots! Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Ruby (in that order) are seen on a single-colour background (except for their emblems), walking towards the camera in first their V1-3 outfits on one side of screen, then their V4-6 outfits on the other side, then their V7-9 outfits in the center. Ruby breaks the pattern at the very end by not walking towards the screen in her V7-9 outfit, instead she's facing away looking sad as her emblem fades out and it starts raining. Then I've no idea what's obscuring the screen here.
- Yeah, Ruby doesn't look like she's going to have a good time.
- Ruby's teardrop forms into Crescent Rose. Wipe transition (it's those birds) to some of the mice foraging.
- An object I'd have to freeze-frame to see gets smashed by a hammer. There is definitely a blacksmith at work in the background of this next shot.
- What in the h*ck kind of army is this.
- Return to Crescent Rose, which hits the featureless ground and turns into dust that forms into Team RWBY (and a fifth person who looks female [so probably not Jaune...]) as the beach scenery appears around them in the style of a pop-up storybook.
- Pop-up storybook transition to an entirely different scene - a town - except with the same five foreground characters and background tree. Oh hang on, there's a technicolour cat too.
- Again, to something that looks like they're taking inspiration from The Nutcracker.
- And again, to some kind of neon forest. The characters have sped up each scene, now they're sprinting (without actually covering ground any faster). Except Ruby, who has slowed down (and fallen back) each scene and is now barely moving.
- What even is that?
- Jaune! And clock faces?
- Team RWBY try to work out where on earth they're going in a landscape of twisty paths that remind me of the later levels of Super Mario Galaxy, plus portals than remind me of late V8. When we get to Ruby, she turns to look down a rope bridge that we just faded to. In the mirror position is Storybook Shot Character #5, except as she turns to face the camera a really-big-tree leaf wipes across the camera, and now she's also Ruby. She falls/leaps downwards(!).
- Neo hosts a tea party, menacingly.
- Pages of a storybook, briefly obscured by whatever-that-was that Team RWBY 'fought' near the end of this Chapter. The book closes, and catches fire. Fire transition to some guy in completely obscuring armour.
- Team RWBY sprint along some irregular terrain. Camera pulls back to reveal that they're sprinting up the side of the really big tree, that's how big it is. Suddenly the gravity you'd expect reasserts itself and, despite their best efforts, they all fall off it. No! There's been enough falling!
- Ruby falls past a lot, culminating in a statue of Neo where the camera stays as Ruby plummets offscreen. Fade to Storybook Shot Character #5, who is lying on the ground looking a bit baffled. She gets up just in time to avoid an orange wave, which washes up Crescent Rose. More gradual camera pullback to show us the full beach and jungle and background really big tree, over which we see the creator credit.
Credits: Just for something different, the slide before the voice cast is the one with lots of names and small text. Speaking of the voice cast, a process of elimination tells me that the Hound's local cousin is called "Jabberwalker". I'll be using that name immediately, because it's way more convenient than any other descriptor I have for it. (It jabbers, and it walks. Close enough.)
Next time: Sure, start a fight with an entire kingdom you know literally less than nothing about.
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ColdGoldLazarus
Contrary Quester, Spreadsheet Queen, Pink Flamingo
- Location
- Challenger Deep
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Rewatched Volume 9 myself recently thanks to this thread, and I'm very much looking forward to your thoughts on all the places it goes.
Also Little is the bestest and deserves the world
Also Little is the bestest and deserves the world
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