The RWBY Thread

That really hurt to watch Jaune in that loop... With Pyrria... You could just tell, what Pyrria wanted to say. And How much loosing her has effected him. The feels wont stop :(

I think, Pyria is a part of Cinder now, and Ruby can hear her calling for Jaune. :(

The first chapter started with our villains, which was nice, but considering the rest of the chapter I feel like it was somewhat out of place. It'd have been better if they used that bit as a character trailer, much like what Ruby got, but for the villains. It would contrast quite nicely, even in the sense that one is fighting and the other is exposition.

The next thing that happens is us being thrown into the farm boy, which so far is seemingly just kinda there for little purpose. We're then thrown into a fight with team RNJR but given no context to the battle, with some of it being rather jarring. For instance, Jaune not having his weapons actually threw me off enough that I wondered if he had lost them in volume 3 and I had simply forgotten. The battle itself was fine enough, but some things like that, and the fact that Ruby herself was split apart from the rest of the team at the beginning, seemed odd enough that it became more of a distraction. The resolution where we find out they were helping a small town and they get Jaune's improved gear is nice enough however. The episode is simple enough, no real advancement other than the new gear, more of an introduction than anything but I feel like it was done kinda subpar.

If they took out the villain bit and made it a character trailer, they could've simply used that extra time in order to give a better idea of what was going on with team RNJR. They could've been leaving the blacksmith at the start of the episode, keeping it a secret what exactly was going on. Jaune could complain about hunting down the Geist whilst he's unarmed, Ruby points out that he's more or less the strategist anyways and so he'll be fine, then they leave the town. Ruby says she'll go on ahead to scout it out, since she has her speed anyways she should be able to get back to them more quickly. She heads off, the rest of the team keeps moving, and then we see things from where they started with team RNJR in this episode as it is. The bit with Weiss could be expanded with the remaining time, but I'll elaborate on that in my thoughts on the second chapter.

We start off with Weiss walking through their mansion. It's better setting than the first chapter at least. But then we have the interaction with her brother which just seems... off, to me. She seems to be acting quite a bit differently than normal, even in her movements(which I know is due to a change in animation, but still). You'd think being back in this setting she'd be acting more "refined", but she seems even less so. Given the timeskip, this just seems odd to me. The interaction ends with the painting, and us knowing that her father is speaking with someone, but we're not told exactly who it is. This, I think, is where chapter one should've ended. It'd be a slight cliffhanger which would cause us to guess who it is.

We then see Ruby waking up to these dreams, or nightmares, involving Pyrrha and her raging on Cinder, which seems like decent foreshadowing that does leave me wondering what exactly this is. Is it simply nightmares about a friend she failed to save? Is it her having some sort of special connection to Pyrrha that is causing Pyrrha to somehow call out to her, and perhaps, Pyrrha isn't really gone forever? Hopefully, it's something interesting like that. As it's been set up thus far, it could actually just be nightmares, and hearing Pyrrha's voice in the distance could be part of what's causing them.

We then get the village part which is pretty well done. Ren seems distracted, he also sees that sign on the ground and seems to recognize it, perhaps Nora as well. Back in the finale for volume two we had a part where Jaune chose to change their mission, they'd go to Vale in order to help Ruby since something bad was happening in Vale. When this happened, he told Ren "we'll make it out to that village another time". Perhaps I'm wrong, but I always thought it was odd that he singled Ren out to make this point. I now think it's because Ren(and Nora, since they grew up together) grew up in a village himself. He seems to have a connection to these things, and recognizing what I'd presume is a brand left behind by these bandits that attacked this village? That seems to point towards something deeper. Either way, hopefully it means we're finally going to get some real backstory for those two.

Weiss then walks on in Ironwood and her father arguing about an embargo on dust. I have a feeling that this will really just be an instance where her father turns out to be a stereotypical self-centered businessman where he cares about his business more than anything. Relations with other nations who don't have the full context to watching our military attack/kill civilians in Vale? Why should that be a key issue!? Weiss' then scolded for her lack of manners(which didn't happen in the last 6 months I guess?) before her father whines about his woes and basically tells her to do something just to help business, treating her like a pawn. I'd think this was decent, but if this is what her part of this volume focuses on then I fear it's going to be quite boring. Just listen to "Mirror Mirror Part II" and "It's My Turn" from the third volume's soundtrack, and you'll basically sum up what her entire character arc will be this volume. The butler Clyde is somewhat interesting though. His multi-personality thing could be interesting for interactions with him.

Then we watch Ruby as she wakes up again. Then she finds Jaune practicing to a video of Pyrrha. I don't need to say much about these scene. It's well done, it hits ya in the feels, and it might explain why Ruby has her dreams about Pyrrha(though I hope it's not the cause). We see waves coming off of Jaune's swings though, which shows he's made quite a bit of progress I'd think. Even if his fighting style itself may not have, or been shown to have improve at the very least, we're seeing a good deal of force behind it.

I felt like this episode was very slow by comparison to normal. It works decently for the story aspects of it, but I can't help but feel it's somewhat empty. RNJR is supposed to be on this journey to Haven which should be kinda interesting. But~ thus far, it's been shown very little. It's just been a small quest in a village, and now a ruined village, with some waking up in the middle of the night. Hopefully, it gets better.

I'm a tad concerned for this season. The first episode was fine but it wasn't a grab-my-attention sort of gripping first episode like I would have expected. It's not that it was bad, it just felt like it had the pacing and intensity level of a mid-season episode, not a first episode. Or maybe I was just over-hyped a bit?

And then the second episode. It's still good. It still tugs at the heartstrings, what with Jaune practicing to Pyrrha's video. (Although I don't think that's a strong enough explanation for Ruby's dreams. Ruby even heard "do you believe in destiny?" in one of the dreams, which was not on the video. And I don't want to re-watch Pyrrha's death scene, but I am fairly sure that Ruby hadn't yet made it to the top of the tower when Pyrrha said that to Cinder, meaning that she wouldn't have heard it, meaning that it can't be a memory.) But this episode it didn't really seem to move the plot forward.

I mean, what happened this episode? RNJR took a nap, walked a bit, and found a massacred village. The ONE notable thing about that village was that Ren and Nora seemed to recognize the symbol on the ground. Perhaps their village was similarly attacked when they were children? Perhaps that symbol showed up then, too? Jaune has been practicing and improving. Good, but I was already expecting that Jaune was practicing and improving. Weiss has a brother who is awkward with her. He better be important later, then. Weiss's dad cares more about money than safety. Ironwood still exists. Good to know. Weiss's dad is going to force her to sing at a party. Okay. As much as it was nice to see all that and set a scene for how Weiss grew up, it could have been done quicker. The seasons are short. The episodes are short. Every minute has to matter.

So in terms of moving the plot forward, we got a slight hint at what could possibly be Ren and Nora's past... or it could be nothing. We saw that Weiss's dad is a butt wart, but we knew that already. We saw that everyone is still sore over losing Pyrrha, but we knew that already too. We saw that Jaune is improving, but we knew that he darn well better have be improving. The seasons are too short for filler-type episodes.

ANYWAYS. And since these seasons are only what, 12 episodes(?) long, and each episode is what, only 15(?) minutes long, every episode that goes by that we DON'T see Yang and Blake makes it less likely that we'll get a team reconciliation this season. I like RNJR, and I do hope Jaune, Ren, and Nora continue to develop and be strong characters in the story, but I was kinda hoping that since the time jump was already 6-8 months since the fall of Beacon and breakup of team RWBY that we'd be closer to getting RWBY back together. It's looking like nope -- or else it's looking like it'll be rushed. And it's looking like Blake and Yang better get some screen time soon, if we are expected to keep considering them main characters.

And with how few episodes per season there are, and with how short each episode is, every single moment must count for the story. So that farmer is important, one way or another. He/she has to be. They can't waste that much time on characters that don't mean anything. Just like Weiss's brother. Either be important later, or get out of the episodes! Shoo!

And as long as I'm being pessimistic, there are now a LOT of villains at play. Salem, Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, three new ones, Neo is quite possibly still alive, Adam is still on the baddie list, and now the mention of Sienna Khan as well. That's ten baddies. That's too many baddies. That's biting off more than RNJR can chew. That makes me concerned that we're going to be beating our heads against this group of baddies for the next 17 seasons. Noooo!

I'd personally like to Jaune's development take a backseat for a good while, considering he's gotten more character development than the rest of the cast combined so far across three entire seasons.

That, or rename the show Jaune, so I can know it's fine to stop watching.

I can't really say that I feel he's gotten more development than the others.

Ruby has worked on her social skills and being a leader, to the point she's actively outgoing and she's figuring out the plans of the main antagonists to some degree(like figuring out Emerald's semblance/what they were doing) well before the others are, as well as coming up with team attacks/formations for battle.

Weiss had her issues with accepting help from others, as well as her prejudice towards Faunus, and primarily the white fang. The big part of her character development however has had buildup to the current story for her, which started last volume with her father cutting off her money and Winter's arrival. So I'd say her stuff is about to happen.

Blake has had quite a bit of development in a way. She's had to be honest about being a Faunus, as well as accept her past and try to overcome it. She's also had to deal with her issues of running away from her problems(though this persists), as well as her inability to trust her friends. There was also the time she's had to deal with her inability to relax when it comes to pursuing the foes they face, and was driving herself to the point of exhaustion. Honestly, I think Blake gets more than anyone else.

Yang has had no real issues to overcome and has had the least development as a result, the closest she came to a real problem wasn't even a problem she really caused, but rather one which was manufactured. The one instance of real character development she's had, is the one she shares with Weiss and Blake, which was the time they all spent figuring out why they wanted to be Huntresses in the first place and what really drives them.

Jaune had his problems with not feeling worthy, but he's worked on that. He also had his issues with standing up for himself, which he also worked through. It gets some time devoted to it, sure, but part of that is simply because he's obviously the least powerful character. I wouldn't say that's really development though. He's only ever had like 2 episodes per volume that really take time to focus on him(Jaundice, the stuff leading to the dance, and the stuff with Pyrrha prior to the end of the beginning).

Pyrrha had her issues in the sense that she didn't know how to tell Jaune how she felt, nor how to go about the whole maiden issue. Depending on how things turn out, her character development may've been the least important, but there was still something at least and she did deal with these issues to a degree.

Ren and Nora haven't had much thus far, but it seems to be coming this volume.

But, that's just my take on things.

As much as you want to complain about Jaune's character development, I don't think the end of season 3 would of been anywhere near as impactful without that development of Jaune as a character.

I feel like Pyrria's death was so impactful, because of the development and interactions she had with Jaune, and visa versa. Removing the Jaune sub plots and character development would take away from Pyria as a character. For as Badass as Pyria was, she had her weakness, and Jaune brought that weakness to light. Which made her death so bitter and sad.

I don't think that Pyrrha would of been as much as a likeable character without Jaune's story, as it shows her as vunerable, unlike how everyone else perceived her. Strong and "The Invincible girl"...

We learn a lot about other characters through Jaune, as well as lots about basic lore, such as semblance, Aura etc. and that is why he is important, and he's going to be much more so this season.
We'll maybe even get to see his Semblance....

Who do you guys think is going to crash the Schnee party and get Weiss back into the game?

Cinder seems a bit unfit for a fight, so I doubt it will be her, which also rules out Mercury and Emerald. (Unless they stop traveling as a group.)

No sign of Neo, and she'd probably be after Ruby instead of any Schnee, given that she might think Ruby defeated Roman. So probably not her.

The three new baddies might take it as time to show off.

But I think if anyone, it will be the White Fang. We already know they have problems with the Schnees, and it would be a good opportunity to introduce the audience to Sienna Khan.

What do you think? Schnee family and their party vs. Adam, Sienna, and their cult? I hope that little brother of Weiss's can fight, then!