Burning the Candle
"Yang, if you're going to tell me to stop, you may as well save your breath."
"We're going to find the answers we're looking for, Blake. But if we destroy ourselves in the process, what good are we?"
— Yang Xiao Long
While Team RWBY prepare for the school ball, Ruby worries about Blake's state of health. Yang, however, has a plan for dealing with Blake that she is certain will succeed.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Big Damn Heroes: In Yang's backstory, she and Ruby were nearly killed by Grimm, until their uncle showed up and saved them.
- Call-Back: When Sun shows up for the dance, wearing a tie, Blake greets him in a manner reminiscent of how he greeted her at the end of The Stray.
- Fatal Flaw: Stubbornness. Yang outright says that her stubbornness nearly got her and Ruby killed the night she went to search for her mother.
- Heroic RRoD: Blake is not looking good and can barely focus or keep her eyes open after many sleepless night worrying about the White Fang and Torchwick.
- Hypocrite: Pyrrha tells Jaune to just be honest with Weiss and tell her how he feels about her to win her over. As soon as he leaves, Nora simply tells her, "Practice what you preach, Pyrrha"—except Nora's Image Song reveals Nora has the exact same problem with Ren.
- Invisible Subtle Difference: Weiss asks Ruby to help her choose between two types of tablecloths for the dance. They both look white and Ruby can't tell them apart, annoying Weiss.
- Missing Mom: Yang reveals that her mother left a little after Yang was born, and even to this day Yang has been searching for her, but she claims that she'll never let that search take over her life.
- Modesty Towel: Ren is stepping out of the shower in a towel when Jaune grabs him and drags him into their dorm room. Jaune says he needed someone to confide to, and drones on about his failed love life, while Ren awkwardly sits there and tries to grab his clothes.
Yang: You guys are just in time!
Mercury: Wouldn't miss it for the world.
Mercury: Wouldn't miss it for the world.
