You'll need a series of epic training montages to get: Stronger, Faster, Overall BETTER!!
Then you'll need a few episodes to focus on mastering these "new" powers.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.Probably prepared Grimm meat could be Power-Up Food, maybe.
Toriko, my favorite Shonen manga to date, is on my brain a lot.
I can expand on the first point, if you'd like. Not only are the villains better combatants than the protagonists, they're also better combatants than the best fighters we're aware of. They were able to take down the Fall maiden (who is basically a demigoddess) in a straight fight. Cinder soloed Ozpin after getting the rest of Fall's power. We haven't seen anyone beat any of them, ever. (Minor exceptions: entirety of Team RWBY vs Roman, who isn't really part of Cinder's inner circle, and Crow forces them to retreat after half-draining Fall, which didn't save Fall or significantly affect Cinder's plans.) They were able to hack the Vital Festival's randomization routine to ensure the fights they wanted. They were able to pull off a Do Not Adjust Your Set. They're able to hack military hardware and reprogram them remotely to turn them against the kingdom (including the piloted mecha, somehow). They're able to infiltrate basically anywhere they want at all, do whatever they want there, and get away scott free.
Oh, and the "but the protagonists are just kids!" excuse doesn't hold much water when the antagonists aren't significantly older than them, either. Cinder obviously had something special going on, but Emerald was a petty thief and Mercury was trained by his assassin father. Expecting prodigies from one of the premier combat training academies on the planet to be able to keep up with them isn't entirely unreasonable the way it would to, say, except them to be able to defeat someone who's both unusually talented and has the benefit of years of experience (like Crow or Ozpin, for example).
The thing about the opening is actually sort of funny. I thought season two's OP was silly because it was so much darker than the actual content of the show. I thought season three's was the same thing... until suddenly it wasn't.
...and Yellow Hair getting a robotic arm after getting over her Heroic BSoD.
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Besides those 2 instances of circumstance, they haven't fought anyone but the children.
edited 12th Apr '16 12:51:49 PM by randomness4
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.
Monty did say at some point we would be following the kid characters as adults later on.
I don't really think you can legitimately suggest that they're only powerful in comparison to the students. It's possible that someone like Ozpin or Crow would be able to handle Emerald or Mercury by themselves. But those two (along with Ironwood and Winternote ) are essentially the strongest people in the world. Against a rank-and-file Huntsman like Overly Caffeinated Professor Doctor and Distinguished English Gentleman (I forget their actual names, sorry) I'd bet on the antagonists over them.
Oh! In my big list of ways that the antagonists are Better Than Everyone, I forgot to mention the fact that they know about the Maidens in the first place. You know, the secret that the Huntsmen's inner circle have been keeping for hundreds, if not thousands of years?
edited 12th Apr '16 1:15:35 PM by NativeJovian
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.![]()
Ruby's 15 and all of the other first years are 17.
Also, RWBY hasn't gotten anywhere near grimdark. This is just a classic example of You Can't Thwart Stage One. You've had your time establishing the world and the heroes and now one of the major bosses shows up and destroys your home town. These are really basic storytelling tropes, especially in the world of video games (and RWBY is rather game-y aside from being very anime). My major problem with RWBY is that it took too long to get this point. We just finished the Prologue when we should at least be halfway through Chapter 1.
edited 12th Apr '16 1:17:35 PM by Zelenal
Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!I was wondering if anyone would try the "it's not actually grimdark" argument. Honestly, you can play word games with what does or does not constitute the exact definition of "grimdark" all day long if you want. The point is that RWBY got hit with Cerebus Syndrome hard, and the transition was both late in coming and poorly executed.
edited 12th Apr '16 1:27:08 PM by NativeJovian
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.Cinder intimidated Adam after blindsiding and torching his camp putting him in a position where even if he wanted to oppose her it wouldn't matter and them know about the maidens is most likely due to Salem, which is a whole different problem.
edited 12th Apr '16 1:33:57 PM by Cross
Hey there Jovian. Glad you enjoyed the show, so to speak. If it helps, we had word of God at least that the darker tone was the idea from the beginning, although people were still blindsided.
Personally, I think this season was the Darkest Hour. Not that it'll be all sunshine and rainbows from here on out, but I do not believe that the villains will keep on having nothing but successes. I think the reason it look so overwhelming was because, from an in-story standpoint, it was a deliberate Villains Act, Heroes React deal. That is, the villains had a plan, which they executed without the good guys being aware of it most of the time — they didn't win almost all their engagements because they were just that awesome, but because they had the preparation, footing and foresight to have the fights on their terms. They sent a trained assassin to fight a rookie Huntress. They set the higher-up good guys up against each other. They had backup, firepower and unknown abilities on their side, and they played it in full. From a Watsonian perspective, it's no wonder they won.
But, like I said before, I believe the momentum is now mostly over. If your beef is from a Doylist perspective there's not I can say, and I can't speak to how the series' tone shift looks if you view it in one sitting with no outside info, but at least for (most of) us, it was well-paced and well-executed. Here's hoping stuff gets better.
'But those two (along with Ironwood and Winternote ) are essentially the strongest people in the world'
Strongest introduced so far(which can easily change given that we finally getting in look at the outside world now).We actually haven't seen many actual hunters in combat.(Aslo your forgetting Goodwitch).
edited 12th Apr '16 1:48:19 PM by DeanCole
The fact that the tone shift comes at the same time just compounds the issue. If everything had happened the same, only without the personal consequences to the characters (as had been the rule in the series up to that point), then I would have been mildly annoyed at season three for the overwhelmingly powerful villains and looking forward to seeing the protagonists fight back in season four. As it is, like I said earlier, if RWBY keeps heading in this direction, I'm just not going to keep watching.
Oh wait, now Penny's dead, Pyrrha's dead, Yang lost an arm (and with it her combat ability and The Team Spirit), Ozpin is missing-presumed-dead, and you thought this was a fun, lighthearted series? Fuck you, we're dark and edgy now.
edited 12th Apr '16 2:28:54 PM by NativeJovian
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.Welcome to the team!
Personally, i can agree on certain aspects of your arguments (Like Emerald's bullshit powers and Cinder's almost flawless planning). However, i did enjoyed a few fights the villains were in (Personal Favourite would be Mercury)
That said, remember that they didn't fight the big guys one-on-one, with the exception of Ozpin. Which brings up the glaring problem that we don't know what the fuck happened in his fight with Cinder. Was he defeated? Did he bail out? Was he captured? Fuck you, wait for another 10 volumes. If they bothered to explain what happened with Ozpin, i wouldn't be that underwhelmed about Pyrrha's death
Uni catIllusions only work on those who can see them sweetheart.
edited 12th Apr '16 2:33:49 PM by BlackSunNocturne
'That could have worked, if the story had been plotted around the idea of mysterious villains operating in the shadows, with the heroes and the audience being aware of their existence and little else. Unfortunately, we see just as much of the villains in RWBY as we see of the heroes.'
No we haven't.V1 focuses almost entirely on the hero's.V2 we only get a small showing of the plan in the second half of the volume.V3 was the most we got on the villans and that was after the plans was in its final stage.
edited 12th Apr '16 2:33:34 PM by DeanCole
The way I see it Jovian
Whats more effective
The bomb going off suddenly without warning -You and the characters find out at the same time-
You knows there is a bomb that is going to go off infact you know exactly where the bomb is but the characters don't.
Season 2 was all about the villains setting up for something... The Train bomb was a part of that plan but Roman decided to go through with it before hand since he'd been discovered. Season 3 is the pay off for that set up. and for once its not the older hereos already had the perfect counter set up and all that work goes down the drain.
Yes the villains are by definition at the moment better then our main heroes
I doubt Cinder Solo'd Ozpin since she struggled with Phyrra -In fact from what we saw Ozpin was kicking Cinder's ass' and Cinder and Co purposefully avoid fighting people like Qrow, Glynda and such.
Since as Amber showed a Maiden is tough but they aren't wanked out godmode to the point you need another maiden to counter one.
Now I agree that Maybe they should have given them more minor victories to slightly offset the whole Villians wins thing.. IE Ruby should have defeated Roman before he gets eaten... not seemingly needed Roman to get eaten. Cause it makes all of Ruby's declarations come off as empty... since ya know... the whole failed to save two people in the same day.
Emerald has a very obvious weakness... AOE the hell out of your surroundings
edited 12th Apr '16 2:41:26 PM by FrozenWolf2
Praise be to the absolute Queen

Would'nt surprise me if past the uncharted parts of remnant, there will be an arc where our heroes journey past those parts into parts unknown, like the Gourmet World saga of Toriko and there are Grimm there that could possibly one shot the likes of Ozpin and Salem without even blinking.
Watch Symphogear