RWBY General Discussion

Character development isn't substance?

My head cannon is that she had to travel just to get a ship that as going to Menagerie.

I'm thinking that ships to Anima will be more frequent than ships to Menagerie, especially as Sanas and Anima get quite close to each other, meaning RNJR might be travelling west to east across the top of third of the continent to get to Mistral while Blake is still on board the ship - given how far south she has to travel to reach Menagerie.

I don't mind the Time Skip, for the same reasons Shaoken mentioned.

It does, however, give us a big question over Ozpin's situation since it's taken months for Oscar to hear his voice. In Oscar's very first scene, he wakes up in shock. The speculation at the time was that he's somehow dreaming of Salem's meeting (because her meeting segues straight into Oscar waking with a start). Looking back on that scene, I'm thinking that's the moment Ozpin and Oscar merged souls and Auras, and he woke with a strong sense of... something.

It's that, or Ozpin found Oscar months ago, but it took months for the souls and Auras to merge enough for Ozpin to begin communicating with Oscar - which would make that scene the first 'contact' (in the form of strange dreams).

Still, that's not a problem, it's just a question about the plot.

I've also got no problem with the pacing in Volume 4. It helps bed down the urgency surrounding Oscar's situation that the protagonists are seemingly so lost without Ozpin around to advise them. Oscar also gives us a small route into Ozpin's thoughts given that Ozpin was a closed character for the first three volumes.

The Time Skip also creates a sense of patience about the villains. Salem plays a long game, she strikes from the shadows and is gone again before her victims can rally their senses - and when they do, there's no trail for them to follow. She then patiently puts together the next move, ready to strike when every thing's set. We're following Salem's timetable for now.

I also don't see how Yang is 'fine'. I'm fully expecting the PTSD to crop up again. She's dealt with the subject of putting a piece of metal on her body where an arm used to be. That's only half the battle - the easier half.

edited 26th Jan '17 2:02:29 PM by Wyldchyld

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.

Besides it taking awhile to find a boat and get to Menagerie, Blake's stuff can also be justified by her not deciding to go home and sort things out right away.

She was not in a good place when last we left her, I can see her wandering around aimlessly, just trying to hide, before going "Okay, I have to deal with this stuff...after I deal with my family stuff".

And on Oscar/Ozpin, I think it works better if Ozpin had no control over who he went into. The process happens to a "special" person for reasons we have yet to find out, and it takes time. At least, that's how I'm looking at it.

edited 26th Jan '17 2:41:11 PM by LSBK

With Yang I don't think she is over her PTSD yet. She's getting better but I think if something bad happens soon she'll freeze up with flashbacks.

Yep. That's what I'm expecting, too.

Yes, me, too. Given what Ozpin has said to Oscar, it's very strongly implied that Ozpin isn't in control of this. Even if he did choose to kick off some kind of Thanatos Gambit (and therefore knew he would go into someone), it wasn't a choice he wanted to make, he didn't get to choose who that person would be, and he is not happy with the situation having come to this. That's my impression, anyway. I think he's in I Did What I Had to Do mode where the confrontation with Cinder is concerned, and everything that happens as a consequence (ie, Oscar) is something he's being forced to just ride out and see where it goes.

Still think Qrow knows at least a tiny bit about this - even if he doesn't know about the body-hopping, he knows enough to not be assuming Ozpin's dead and to be carrying around Ozpin's cane.

edited 26th Jan '17 6:15:43 PM by Wyldchyld

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.

Or at least he was told to make sure to take Ozpin's cane with him if he ever were to go missing or die; that he's apparently able to cheat death through some sort of Body Surf (I really wonder if they're going to go where I think they are with that) seems to be a very closely guarded secret, something that very few other than Ozpin and Salem know about.

Something else that occurs to me about Ozpin; a lot of people think he was the king of vale, but I'm not sure that was the case; the King apparently put his most trusted associates in charge of the academy, and if his mythological theme just so happened to be King Arthur, perhaps Ozpin's previous incarnation was his Merlin?

edited 26th Jan '17 7:04:29 PM by CaptainCapsase

Just caught last week's episode and the WoR before that.

Is it just me or is the writing quality of the show drastically improving?

Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!

I can't see how a flashback would drastically improve the show's writing.

It's not the flashback- there have been plenty of those in this show before, it's, well, the actual writing. Not the tools used but how the tools are used, how the scenes are executed. The sequence of events, the dialogue, the expression of emotions. I'm not saying the show show suddenly became amazing or anything, just that the quality of this episode seemed higher than most of the others.

Of course, I'm currently rather sick and spent the last two weeks or so exposing myself to some truly horrid writing so who knows.

Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!

Well that... that kind of undercuts just about everything you've just said but... I guess?

We're actually seeing JNPR's background, their opinions on things instead of them just being a quirky B-team. We've got slower build-ups that actually seem to be leading to some sort of pay-off this season rather than the next - remember how we knew Torchwick was plotting something in the first Volume and we didn't know what for another 3-4 episodes, and we still didn't really know anything about him until the next season? In Vol 4's premiere we met Oscar, and now we know he has a connection Ozpin and he's going on a journey of his own. It's still vague, but he has some kind of part to play.

We're meeting characters like Tyrian and Earth guy whose name I never remember who actually go out on quests and show up later on - characters are actually moving around and doing things in this world now, instead of playing games or sitting in their fortress of doom (with the exception of Salem).

I guess you could say it's improved. Like any show I think the fourth season's a "plateau" of sorts. All of the exposition and worldbuilding from the first two seasons had caused a startling change in the third (that's usually about where a show has to reinvent itself somehow or risk losing its audience through stagnation, excluding some cartoons and maybe The Office) and is now exploring the ripples from that big event in the fourth season. Ultimately, the show's moved from it's Early-Installment Weirdness and is actually trying to tell a story now - debatable as that may be.

And there's just more lore to absorb really - that always makes a setting more attractive. It's not just the Magitech Fantasy world where there could be Grimm Werewolves, Final Fantasy airships, and Semblances that could potentially be anything. This setting actually has rules now. No one's going on about how the moon might actually be related to Ozpin's Semblance because frankly for all we knew back in Volume 1 it could have been.

For me though the takeaway from this Breather Season is the Scenery Porn. Seriously, look at Blake and Nora's facial expressions. Those alone make the show more vibrant and interesting.

We don't have any of those awkward moments like when Cardin gets attacked by the Ursa and tries to defend himself, but he freezes up and gets his mace knocked out of his hand, or that giant Nevermore feather falling slowly to the ground to foreshadow the giant Nevermore Ruby and Weiss would end up riding. Or that time when Ruby showed her weapon to Jaune and camera zoomed out to show that they were completely alone on campus - on orientation day.

edited 27th Jan '17 7:13:35 AM by Soble

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

Why is that 2nd thing an awkward moment?

edited 27th Jan '17 6:57:19 AM by randomness4

YO. Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie.

Oh wait, you meant the Nevermore feather. Hold on.

Yeah, this.

Several seconds for a giant feather to consume the camera. The way it lands looks weird, like it's not actually resting on the tree. Of course after a few rewatches it finally clicked for me that this was supposed to be a giant feather, but you don't realize Ruby and Weiss actually jumped on a giant Nevermore until the next episode - so that bit of foreshadowing always felt awkward to me. And they apparently disturbed it's nest the moment Ruby sliced the tree, so why were they completely unaware of a giant, shrieking, human-killing bird for at least those several seconds? Why didn't we hear the bird take off?

Now when we see/hear Grimm we definitely see them. Their presence almost always disturbs their surroundings.

Oh, that's another thing that makes this season better. No more scenes of the Grimm being goofy and ineffectual like when the two Ursa side-eyed each other after cutting Yang's hair, or Coco kicking one of them in the jewels after spouting off a Kill Bill quote. They're pure killing machines now. Qrow and Tyrian are the only two who've appeared undaunted by the appearance of a Grimm this season - though come to think of it, it's a little convenient that none of the Grimm attacked when Tyrian ambushed RWBY.

edited 27th Jan '17 7:11:11 AM by Soble

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

These black creatures shouldn't have gonads?

All of them should be effectual?

Takes effort to defeat any of them?

That's not quite a thing just yet, but the threat is real.

YO. Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie.

Yeah, I'm just glad that the Grimm are actually being shown to be a threat rather than everyone just telling us endlessly that they are while our heroes just curb stomp them every time they show up.

Honestly, you could probably condense the first two Volumes into one and have this be Volume 3.

edited 27th Jan '17 7:21:08 AM by Zelenal

Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!

That's the point of introducing big badder black creatures...

While the Grimm from season books 1 and 2 are just novice obstacles: less aware kinds of Grimm that avoid tackling populated areas out of fear of dying or whatever.

Effectiveness in hoards and all that nonsense.

YO. Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie.

Well, that's probably because the people we focus on are highly trained warriors, with advanced weaponry, and superpowers where as the vast majority of this world's population aren't any of those things.

That might have something to do with it.

edited 27th Jan '17 8:03:58 AM by LSBK

I still think the idea of a breather season is nonsense. A scene or an episode where they slow things down and let the audience catch their breath is fine. An entire season of that is just poor pacing.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

I agree. A breather season just sounds like rationalization to me. There should never be such a thing. RWBY just has poor pacing thanks to Four Lines, All Waiting.

Improving as an author, one video at a time.

It's more like 6 lines honestly.

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?

6 now anyway, but it sounds about right to call it that.

edited 27th Jan '17 9:32:41 AM by VeryMelon

Yeah. A show needs to keep moving and have stuff happen. Just having everything come to a complete halt for an entire season and basically telling the audience to chill for a literal year is ridiculous.

Eh, if nothing was actually happening I would buy that, but focusing on more internal character relations and feelings why dropping hints of the greater plot and its development fairly frequently isn't nothing.

Edit: It might not be what you want or prefer but it's not "nothing happening", either.

edited 27th Jan '17 12:25:18 PM by LSBK

yeah, is not like nothing is happing, jus the show is taking their sweet time to move to their destination, is bound to happen.

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"

It sounds really silly, this idea that the fanbase is made out of glasshouses that can't handle their foundations being rocked. Is there anyone out there that needs a "Breather Season" to get over Season 3?

edited 27th Jan '17 12:25:32 PM by VeryMelon

no really, but this season focus more on the healing after the clusterfuck of season 3 so I can get why focus more in devolping the chararter, as flawed it made result.

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"