The Stray
Two girls with Dark and Troubled Pasts come to an impasse.
Blake: The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're a collection of misguided Faunus.
Weiss: Misguided? They want to wipe Humanity off the face of the planet!
Weiss: Misguided? They want to wipe Humanity off the face of the planet!
Team RWBY's cohesion collapses when an argument about the White Fang becomes personal for both Weiss and Blake.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Continuity Nod: Weiss mentions a train of her family's Dust shipments had been stolen by the White Fang. The Black trailer involved Blake and Adam pulling a heist on a train with cargo that had the Schnee logo.
- Freudian Slip: Blake, while Weiss is calling out the White Fang for being terrorists, accidentally does this.Blake: Well, maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!
- Jerkass Has a Point: Weiss spends the entire episode arguing with Blake because of how much she hates the White Fang. While Weiss is clearly bigoted towards the Faunus in general, as shown with her reaction to Sun's petty crimes and mischief-making, her hatred of the White Fang is not unjustified, since they are a terrorist group trying to Kill All Humans and her family has personally suffered at their hands.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The episode ends with Blake finally deciding to tell her story to Sun while having tea with him. The final shot is from Sun's POV, so Blake essentially looks directly at the audience as she says, "So, you want to know more about me."
- Minidress of Power: Weiss (and Ruby) justify their clothing choices to Blake by claiming they're "combat skirts".
- Motive Rant: Weiss goes into a quiet yet heartbreaking one explaining her Fantastic Racism towards the White Fang and Faunus."You want to know why I despise the White Fang, why I don't particularly trust the Faunus? It's because they've been at war with my family for years. War, as in actual bloodshed. My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember, and ever since I was a child, I've watched family friends disappear, board members, executed, an entire train cart full of Dust, stolen. And every day, my father would come home furious, and that made for a very difficult childhood."
- Oh, Crap!: Blake, after she realizes that in her anger, she accidentally spilled her secret that she was a former member of the White Fang. She panics so much that she bolts out of the room.
- The Reveal: Not only is Blake a Faunus, but she's a former member of the White Fang.
- Slow-Motion Pass-By: When Sun runs by Blake, it goes slow-mo as he winks at her.
- Tragic Bigot: Weiss may have a very bad view on Faunus, but that's because she and her family have had a bloody feud with them all her life.Weiss: My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember.
"So, you want to know more about me..."
