End of the Beginning
Written by Miles Luna, Monty Oum & Kerry Shawcross
Directed by Kerry Shawcross, Gray G. Haddock & Miles Luna
Directed by Kerry Shawcross, Gray G. Haddock & Miles Luna
"How does it feel, knowing that all of your time and effort has been for nothing? That your guardians have failed you? That everything you've built will be torn down before your very eyes?"
— The Narrator / Salem
While Oobleck and Port oversee the evacuation, Ruby and Weiss hunt for the missing Jaune and Pyrrha.
At Beacon Tower, Cinder appears to defeat Ozpin so Pyrrha fights her alone to try and save the tower. Ruby's arrival just in time to see the end of the fight triggers a mysterious power she didn't know she had.
The episode ends with Ruby deciding to travel to Haven in search of answers.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Armor-Piercing Attack: One of Cinder's arrows appears to be shattered when it hits the edge of Pyrrha's thrown shield, but it reforms immediately behind the shield and continues flying forward with enough momentum to pierce Pyrrha's greave and calf.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Pyrrha's final and only question to Cinder, "Do you believe in destiny?" Whatever the reason, it's enough to wipe the smirk off Cinder's face, and she can only answer with a weirdly morose "yes".
- The Bad Guy Wins: While more of a You Can't Thwart Stage One, the volume ends with a major victory for the villains. Cinder Fall (who works for Salem) kills Pyrrha by shooting her through the heart, Beacon is in ruins and crawling with Grimm, the Four Kingdoms are wary of each other, and Team RWBY is completely separated, with Weiss being taken back to her home by her father, Blake on the run, and Yang stuck in bed having lost not only an arm but her fighting will, too. Although Salem says that her grand scheme is just beginning, in this instance, the villains pulled off their plans with great success and came out on top, for now at least.
- Big "WHAT?!": When the power of the silver eyes explodes out of Ruby's body, Cinder shouts this in disbelief. It's the first time Cinder's smug, self-controlled demeanor ever breaks as she reacts to something she didn't even know was possible.
- Blade Spam: During the fight between Ozpin and Cinder, Ozpin moves supernaturally fast when attacking Cinder. He hits her with the tip of his cane so many times and at such speed that Cinder can't react at all. It ends up looking like he's juggling her on the end of his cane until he finishes the move with a solid punch of his free hand that sends her flying through the air.
- Bookends:
- Pyrrha's first and last appearance in the Volume had Ruby shouting her name, one in happiness, the other in despair.
- This volume starts and ends with Ruby visiting Summer's grave.
- Salem's speech at the end of this episode acts as a bookend to her debate with Ozpin at the very beginning of Volume 1.
- Breaking the Fellowship: When Ruby comes around from her confrontation with Cinder on top of Beacon Tower, she learns that Team RWBY has been scattered. Yang is bed-ridden with despair and struggling to cope with the trauma of her injuries, Weiss has been dragged back to Atlas by her father, and Blake has simply vanished without a trace. Ruby teams up with the surviving members of Team JNPR to begin their journey to Haven Academy in the hope of finding answers to what's happened at Beacon.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: Taiyang Xiao Long is the one who taught Yang how to use her brutal bare-knuckle fighting style, is built like a brick house, has a tattoo on one arm and a scarf tied around the other, and is covered in burn scars. He's also an incredibly worried and concerned father who brings his daughters breakfast in bed. As if to push this point in, the tattoo in question is a spiked heart.
- Call-Back:
- The show introduces the ability of the lockers to be programmed to travel to new locations by having Cardin stuff Jaune into one and send him flying. That time was an act of bullying that was played for comedy. Pyrrha throws Jaune into a locker and programmes it to fly away from the location before she runs off to fight Cinder. This time, the scene is played for drama as it's clear she believes she's going into a fight she can't win and that she's sending Jaune away to protect his life.
- The first time Team RWBY works together in Volume 1 to kill a Giant Nevermore, Weiss creates a series of glyphs up the side of a cliff so that Ruby can run up them. To get Ruby to the top of Beacon Tower in time to save Pyrrha, Weiss creates another line of glyphs up the side of the tower for Ruby to run up as fast as possible.
- When Ruby regains consciousness from her confrontation with Cinder, she's at home in bed. When Qrow starts to explain to her what happened on the tower, he asks her if she remembers the very first thing Ozpin ever said to her, which was "You have silver eyes". He then explains to her exactly what Ozpin told him about the secret magical power that is possessed by people who have silver eyes.
- The first scene of the Volume shows Ruby at Summer's grave during Fall with Taiyang and Zwei waiting before dropping her off at Beacon. The finale shows Ruby once again at Summer's grave during winter with Jaune, Ren and Nora waiting for her to begin their journey. Additionally, since it's winter, it's also a parallel to the Red Trailer, implying that it's been a year since the events of the series began.
- After Yang is disqualified from the tournament for attacking Mercury, Qrow says to her "Sometimes, bad things just happen." In this episode, Yang bitterly tells Ruby "Sometimes, bad things just happen" to dismiss Ruby's attempt to find a reason for why Blake runs away from Vale.
- The pilot episode of the show opens with a narration by a mysterious woman that ends with Ozpin refuting her darkness with faith in a small, honest soul. This episode ends with Salem's rebuttal to Ozpin's faith in that small soul.
- Cliffhanger:
- Cinder suddenly leaves the fight with Ozpin, but what happens to him is unknown. Qrow tells Ruby that Ozpin is missing, but doesn't claim Ozpin is dead, and that he's going to have to act in Ozpin's stead as a result. He accordingly starts carrying Ozpin's cane.
- Salem, a new character dripping with evil, is shown reflecting on events and has a connection to Ozpin. Even worse, she is the strange voice heard in the series premiere and original World of Remnant videos.
- Cross-Referenced Titles: The earlier episode "Beginning of the End" is when the villains make their move against Beacon Academy, and this episode is the end of that battle. Salem sums up the conclusion of the battle by saying "This is the beginning of the end, Ozpin, and I can't wait to watch you burn".
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Pyrrha is shot through the heart with a burning arrow that begins to smoke as she struggles for breath. She dies in the kneeling position she was shot in. As Cinder gently touches her head, Pyrrha's body burns away to ashes. It's ambiguous as to whether it's Cinder's touch or the arrow that's responsible for the burning of Pyrrha's body.
- Dark Reprise: The power that explodes from Ruby's eyes at the sight of Pyrrha dying right in front of her is set to a somber, distorted version of This Will Be The Day. This is normally an up-beat, aggressive song about someone being much more powerful and badass than they're regarded as being by other people. The scene in which the melancholic version plays is the exact opposite: a situation in which Ruby was utterly powerless to save her friend's life.
- Didn't See That Coming: For the first time in the series, Cinder is completely blindsided and panics when Ruby uses the power of her silver eyes. Also literally, since it did not appear that she even knew Ruby was there until she screamed while using said power.
- Extra-Long Episode: The Volume 3 episodes are usually approximately fifteen minutes long, give or take. However, this finale episode is almost double the length at just under thirty minutes long.
- Good Parents: Taiyang stays by his daughters' bedsides until they're well, brings them meals in bed even months after, and promptly panics when Ruby leaves on a dangerous journey having left behind only a note.
- Heroic BSoD: Yang is targeted by the villains from the outset as part of their plan to destroy Beacon and ruin Ozpin's reputation. Her easily-provoked, predictable fighting style is used by them to frame her for an apparently ruthless attack on a defenceless opponent who has already conceded defeat (Mercury). This disqualifies Team RWBY from the tournament and results in Yang being confined to her dorm room. Then, during the fight to save the school, Yang finds her team-mate (Blake) being stabbed through the stomach by one of the villains (Adam). Enraged, she rushes in to save Blake only to have her arm completely severed by a single strike of Adam's sword. Once the battle is over, Weiss gets dragged home to Atlas, and Blake vanishes without telling anyone where she's going or why, leaving Yang's team in pieces. Yang is so traumatised by everything that's happened that she can't even bring herself to get out of bed or to respond when Ruby tries to tell her that she loves her.
- Hope Spot: To save Pyrrha, Ruby and Weiss plan to use the same awesome manoeuvre they used in Volume 1 to kill the Giant Nevermore in such an impressive manner that it left other students speechless. Weiss creates a series of glyphs up the side of Beacon Tower, allowing Ruby to defy gravity and charge up the side of the tower with super-speed. She arrives at the top of the tower just in time... to see Cinder kill Pyrrha right before her eyes.
- Irony: Beacon Academy used to be a place of learning and bond-forging for aspiring Huntsmen, a beacon against the tides of darkness. Now the school's clock tower houses the petrified Wyvern, which is acting as a literal beacon to draw in hordes of Lesser Grimm.
- Lady of Black Magic: After obtaining the full power of the Fall Maiden, Cinder can float in the air, conjure fire in her hands, and disintegrate and reintegrate her own arrows so that they can unnaturally bend around solid objects that get in the way of the flight path.
- Last Episode, New Character: The episode ends with the introduction of the true villain behind everything: Salem, who apparently has some serious beef with Professor Ozpin.
- Last Kiss: Pyrrha and Jaune finally kiss, right before she shoves Jaune into a locker and sends him on his way. She then runs off to fight Cinder, and dies in the process. The last thing Jaune ever sees is a depressed Pyrrha staring at him through the slats of the locker, sadly saying "I'm sorry".
- Mordor: The setting where Salem makes her speech is a blasted wasteland blanketed in red fog, littered with glowing purple crystal formations. It also gives a clear view of the broken moon in a night sky that has no stars.
- No Body Left Behind: Cinder kills Pyrrha with a burning arrow to the heart, and then touches her gently on the head. Pyrrha's body burns to ashes that drift away on the breeze, but it's ambiguous as to whether it was the arrow or Cinder's touch that destroyed Pyrrha's body. The only thing left behind is Pyrrha's circlet.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Ruby, Ren, and Nora refuse to evacuate from Beacon without Jaune and Pyrrha. Weiss, in turn, refuses to leave without Ruby. To make sure the injured Ren and Nora are evaculated, Sun promises to stay with them, Blake and Yang, while Ruby and Weiss race off to find Pyrrha.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The status quo of the show is forever changed by the end of this episode: Beacon has fallen, Penny and Pyrrha are dead, Ozpin is missing, communications across the entire world have been severely damaged, Team RWBY has broken up, and Ruby has joined the remains of Team JNPR to go on a quest to Haven Academy to try and find out what on earth is going on.
- The Reveal: A few.
- Cinder speaks to the Wyvern and seems to have command over it (or at least be able to communicate with it), confirming that she fully expected the wyvern to show up even though it initially appeared to just be accidentally awakened by the battle.
- The significance of Ruby's silver eyes is revealed when an unknown silver light bursts forth from her eyes in response to Cinder killing Pyrrha.
- The Female Narrator is finally revealed... and her physical appearance is unusual. She's the villain behind Cinder, has a personal history with Ozpin and is determined to destroy the world just to spite him.
- Qrow possesses the ability to transform into a crow.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: Pyrrha silences Jaune's protests about her going into Beacon to fight Cinder alone by kissing him. It also puts him off-guard enough for her to push him into a locker and programm it to fly away, ensuring he can't stop her and cannot get himself killed trying.
- Suicide Mission: When it appears that Cinder has killed Ozpin, Pyrrha makes a decision to go back and try to stop her. Her decision is made with such sadness, and such determination to make sure Jaune cannot get caught up in the fight, that it's very clear that she knows she's heading into a battle she cannot win.
- Trash the Set: At the end of this episode, Beacon Academy gets seriously damaged by the creatures of Grimm. The main characters are scattered throughout the world, with Ruby going with what's left of team JNPR on a trip to Haven.
- Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Ruby learns from Qrow that her silver eyes mean that she was born with a magical ability to slay the Grimm. Although she inherited this power from her mother, she had no idea she possessed such ability; it only manifests when she fails to save Pyrrha and is forced to witness her friend be murdered right in front of her eyes.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Qrow is capable of transforming into a crow when he makes the choice to do so. It doesn't appear to matter if he's wearing clothing or carrying equipment and weapons on his person. Everything is implied to transform with him.
- Wrecked Weapon: During the fight between Cinder and Pyrrha, Cinder manages to snap her javelin into three pieces.
- You Can't Go Home Again: By the end of this episode, Beacon Academy has been destroyed, the teachers and students are evacuated, the headmaster is killed, and a magically-frozen Grimm Dragon passively attracts more Grimm to the academy's ruins.
