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I'm not sure I'd associate that with Gothic literature as much as with the Cosmic Horror genre, though I suppose Cosmic Horror is probably descended from Gothic Horror. Which is one reason I'm kind of expecting the series to either end up Going Cosmic or have a Cosmic Horror Reveal. Note that I'm not a literature major or anything, so my grasp on this is largely intuitive rather than academic.
Yang actually owns a vehicle.
Ruby does not.
Also, LSBK: It's Blake. The same Blake who was refusing to listen to her friends and get some sleep when she was fretting over the White Fang and the same one who didn't immediately believe Yang the way Ruby and Weiss did after the illusion.
AAAAUUUUGGGHHHH!!!!
Just noting that Blake tends to be not-trusting, afraid, or outright stubborn. She was probably fearing how her parents would react to her showing up
Curse having to be away for a long time!
edited 5th Feb '17 8:31:40 PM by powerpuffbats
AAAAUUUUGGGHHHH!!!!
Scared definitely is what I'm thinking.
She also didn't have anyone else because she didn't want her friends to get hurt.
Mind you, I'm positive that none of her friends would have gotten hurt as Adam would have had to deal with 3 other hunters-in-training plus Qrow, Taiyang, and the Atlas military.
I don't really think I'm arguing anything here.
edited 5th Feb '17 8:42:31 PM by powerpuffbats
AAAAUUUUGGGHHHH!!!!@Captain I'm more academic, so I can give quick bit there. I've a huge obsession with studying story craft and everything to do with it.
Anyway, RWBY basically blends Gothic and Fantasy genres. To give the broad appeal for Gothic, it focuses on a secret that lies buried and must be unearthed or a puzzle that needs to be solved. Setting is often crucial to it.
Bloodborne and Dark Souls follow that trend and RWBY has it in play, both with the setting and myth arc with Salem and so on. That's it simplified to a laconic form.
Improving as an author, one video at a time.Has Hazel met with them yet? Keeping track of time is harder here.
Improving as an author, one video at a time.So here
is the RTX Sydney RWBY panel. Not a huge amount of new information but they did mention a few interesting things. From memory they mentioned that team WTCH (and they used that name at the panel) had been created before volume 1 premiered, although they've changed in slight ways in the meantime until they finally solidified as they were making Volume 4. Also they acknowledged that they were intentionally designed to initially be clichéd ("the smart guy, the quiet guy, the crazy guy and the one-eyed bitch.") but over time the audience would learn that there was more to them. Then immediately followed that up with "like the crazy guy is more crazy".
At a gas station.
(I wondered that myself. Perhaps it's dust fuelled?)
Improving as an author, one video at a time.Probably, Dust is said to be an energy source and they don't have normal, non-Dust ammunition and the like.
On the new villains being cliche, every character is a cliche in one way or the other. New archetypes aren't invented everyday, and when they are, they become standard pretty quickly. It's always about execution. It's why I don't find being cliche a negative, at least at this stage.
So, finale was more or less what I expected. Meh.
- The boss fight was alright. I'm not really feeling Jaune's new sword mode. It just doesn't seem to actually give him any new options in combat, and means he can't use his shield, which comes off as more of a downgrade than anything.
- The thing with Ren's knife would have been a lot more effective if we'd ever actually seen that knife before the flashback/backstory segment.
- When Jaune was getting Crow out out of the line of fire, Crow was saying something to him but stopped. Wonder what the deal with that was.
- Oh hey, Ruby actually writing a letter to her family. And in such a way that it implies she's been doing so the whole time. Would have been nice if they'd actually *said* that at any point. Hell, if they'd led with it, it would have made for nice Bookends.
- Speaking off, timeline confusion like whoa. Did Yang get Ruby's letter before she left, or is Ruby writing to someone who isn't there anymore? It seems like Blake's only been in Menagerie for a week or so, but Yang travelled to Anima on the same ship that Blake used to get the Menagerie, then travelled across the continent (on her motorcycle — where's she getting the gas for that?), while Weiss is flying and Blake hasn't even left yet. When all of this stuff is actually happening is very confusing.
- I read that scene as Yang going to Mistral. Mistral was to her right, and she's very definitely heading to her right when she leaves. It's possible that that's a fake out and it'll turn out differently and claim that her direction was ambiguous, but if they do that I'm preemptively calling bullshit.
- Not sure how I feel about Lionheart being a traitor. There was some discussion in season 3 about there being a leak, but it sort of got dropped with Cinder hacking the CCT anyway. I doubt that Ozpin or Crow know about it, given that Oz told Oscar to go see her. (i'm pretty sure Watts referred to her with female pronouns, but I could have misheard. The sound mixing for RWBY was never great; I turn the captions on while I'm watching on Youtube a lot.) Assuming she fits the "cowardly lion" theme, I'm assuming that they're threatening her into cooperation rather than her going along willingly, and part of season five will be getting her to find the nerve to resist.
- I wonder how Blake is going to go about reforming the White Fang. Showing up and starting a competing movement with the same name but different attitudes and policies? Actually, literally attacking the radical White Fang and taking over?
- I agree with what a few people have said earlier — Oscar would have been better done if he hadn't been introduced at all until the stinger here.
Ozpin referred to the man running Haven, and Ironwood said he "doesn't trust Leo to stop it [attack on Mistral]" or whatever. Haven's headmaster is a guy.
And I image that Ruby's letters weren't mentioned earlier because then you're left wondering why Tai and Yang haven't heard for her and it sort of gives away the "twist" at the end, though something like that is already fairly easy to see coming.
edited 6th Feb '17 7:07:23 AM by LSBK
@LSBK Archetypes and cliches are two different thing. They're closely related, but cliches are bad because they're just stereotypical imitations. An archetype unearths a universal human experience. A stereotype confines itself to a narrow experience and dresses itself in stale, nonspecific generalities.
The technique of using a familiar tag is a valid one, though how you execute it is important. Watts in particular wasn't complained about because he came off as a human, not an artifice. Tyrian meanwhile was too over the top, too forced. There are always patterns, but the patterns are deeper than your comment implies and important for creators to know the difference.
edited 6th Feb '17 8:29:06 AM by Prime_of_Perfection
Improving as an author, one video at a time.Archetypes might not be cliches, but people often reduce them to them, or act as if characters appearing a bit cliched from their first appearance actually tells you how they're going to evolve.
That's why I specifically noted I don't have a problem with it in early stages. Sometimes a few moments can tell you all you need to know about a character but it usually isn't like that.
Tyrian, specifically, is the kind of character most people seem to find incredibly amusing or incredibly annoying right of the bat. I wouldn't count on going deeper into his lunacy, but I wouldn't completely rule it out, either.
In fairness, Tyrian did demonstrate far more eloquence when he actually attacked RNJR, which did make him a bit more endearing to me. He came across more as an insane fellow who worships Salem than just a laughing lunatic that he appeared to be from his first appearance.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/lb_i.php?lb_id=13239183440B34964700 Alfric's Fire Emblem Liveblog Encyclopedia!We know Taiyang and Yang hadn't heard from Ruby at all. I think the implication is supposed to be that Lionheart was intercepting all of her mail, though that comes with its own problems. Either that ,or, like Ruby said, snail mail just isn't reliable especially given the situation so none of them arrived.
edited 6th Feb '17 11:58:56 AM by LSBK

Y'know, I'm fairly satisfied with the volume. I think I'd have been a bit more amenable if it had been clearer from the beginning that this was fully a transitional/recovery arc volume, but I'm okay with it. We got a little arc for Ren and Nora, and Jaune and Ruby got their fair share of development without it being too hamhanded (Jaune especially has grown a lot). It feels like it meandered at times, but the stage is set for all four of team RWBY to be more or less done with getting up and dusting themselves off, and getting on with the plot.
Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.I really want the soundtrack. "Armed and Ready" is fantastic, just below Divide in ending song quality. It hints at some interesting things about Yang's character, I do hope they take the opportunity to develop her (in a darker direction or not) beyond just being "Yang, but more so". I wonder if the line "There's nothing I won't do for her" is a tease for Bumblebee? Previous songs (Gold, Wings) indicate that kind of statement from Yang is usually meant for Ruby, but the surrounding lines put it in the context of the battle of Beacon and Adam dearming Yang, but who knows.
Weiss and Blake didn't do or develop too much, but enough that we can really move forward next volume without it seeming rushed or forced.
I love Jaune's sword form. It's also a sword! Slash axe!
Not just the good guys got their recovery arcs. Looks like Cinder is gonna feature heavily next time around.
I was wrong on my long-held theory of Taiyang being the Cowardly Lion, but with Qrow being the Scarecrow, that and Summer as Dorothy were only minor stretches. (Raven is Toto, because she's a bitch.)
I had no problems with Oscar and his arc. Seems a fairly interesting development.
One minor nitpick: it took RNJR months to trek across to Mistral, and Yang is gonna do it in no time at all on her bike? One wonders if they couldn't have gotten like any sort of transportation over crossing a continent on foot. Eh, too late for that.
Sun. I like Sun.