Certainly not because he's a person of yellow-orange color and a name that relates to the "sun." I'm sure there were other reasons.
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!Ren sounded so uninterested...
Name?
Just watched the finale.
... I have no strong feelings about it. Which is true for the entirety of S4, actually. The Nuckelavee fight was a bit cool at least. Jaune's sword officially has the best transformation in the series.
Writing is still shabby, though. Yang overcoming her trauma, everything Weiss, Oscar answering to the call, Salem screentime, etc. I get what the writers were going for, but they just didn't sell them. You could condense everything into four or five twenty-minute episodes with some trimming and rearrangement. Or polished the writing but that goes without saying. Ah, well.
I actually like the fight, if anything because for a moment the nuck feel threating, unlike before with monty which it was just "and look is AWSOME, AND THIS AND NOW THIS!" so far this season actually make the grimm threating and blake awsome, which is a good thing in my book.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
They are more coordinated and play to their strengths a lot better now then they did back in season 1.
Considering wounded huntsman survived an encounter with it this grim is death for normal citizen and people with some combat experience, but something a trained huntsman is expected to handle.
This is probably why qrow was poisoned since he probably could have taken it by himself.
"Shall I use you, or make you mine... I'm not so sure what I'll do." - DorthyThe complaints about the Grimm threat level always just come off as unfounded to me.
We don't know follow the kind of people for whom the normal Grimm should normally poise a threat too. You average Grimm could most certainly kill your average person but we don't follow your average person. Even without that, the Grimm's biggest thing as has always been their share ''numbers". They overrun towns, and their greatest threats to trained Hunstmen is the fact that they just keep on coming, sometimes so closely that they can't find safe refuge.
That being said, the Nuckelavee aura broke Ren and Nora, that's more than either the Nevermore or Deathstalker accomplished. And also, they've gotten better. It's ridiculous to assume that during their time at the academy, and especially now that they've been in the real world, that they wouldn't.
All of this is either something that's been outright said, or something that should be implicitly understood because it's obvious.
As for Qrow taking the thing out by himself, yeah, I could see it, but I don't think it would have been as easy as people imply when they say that.
edited 13th Feb '17 9:33:56 AM by LSBK
@Fillerdude You. You get me. You did a far more condescend version of what I argued from near to after the finale.
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Which IMO was a mistake, it was hyped way too much for it to be as weak as it ended up being. It came across as only surviving because everyone was too weak and incompetent to survive. None of the villages have appeared to have any of the actual defenses the world of remnant makes it sound like they should have. A few of the cannons like the ship had should've made quick work of it. Even if they were too expensive for villages like Shion or Kuroyuri to build or afford Oniyuri being founded by Mistral's rich should've been able to afford some.
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And then an Aura-less Ren was able to hack it to pieces with a small knife. If Ren hadn't been going all Leeroy Jenkins near the beginning I doubt it would've managed to break either of their aura.
edited 13th Feb '17 9:45:13 AM by doineedaname
More like you're ignoring what was actual shown and projecting your vision of things without paying careful enough attention to actual context.
Assuming every village everywhere had cannons, you honestly think it would just stand there and get shot? Or that the hordes of Grimm that usually come wouldn't destroy the cannons eventually? You're making this sound much easier than it actually is.
And Ren wasn't "auraless" his aura defenses were down, different things. Also, he could only do that after they pinned and smashed it's other head in.
edited 13th Feb '17 9:48:19 AM by LSBK
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If one takes into account the statement about needing a huntsman it would at the very least mean that Ren's father belived that a trained huntsman would be capable of killing the Nuckelavee.
The fact that the Nuckelavee lived for this long showed that it is smart enough to pick it's target. It goes with what has been established about grimm that live long enough. The Nuckelavee only failed because it bit off more than it could chew. It targeted team RNJR when they were split up and had to worry about Qrow. That was on paper the most opportune moment to go after them.
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Yeah I imagine it would be a tough fight.
The Nuckelavee is a step above the average grim at least since I don't think the average Atlas Soldier / Robot could handle it without having a number advantage.
edited 13th Feb '17 9:52:07 AM by Darthwyn
"Shall I use you, or make you mine... I'm not so sure what I'll do." - DorthyIt has been stated that nobody really wandered near Kuroyuri recently, and there wasn't any real reason to. Any skypatrols would likely just ignore it and Nuck would know better than to engage an armed airship (assuming he could in the first place).
The most it had to deal with was likely some bandits or a lone wanderer at best. Even then, assuming RNJR are a cut above an ordinary student Huntsman, it managed to break two Auras and required strict teamwork to fell down.
I like the Nuckelavee for the fact that it was the evil bastard amalgamation of horseman, a Mudsdale, and a Khezu, with the added benifit of being a pincushion. Kinda wished it drew a sword from its back or when it had Ren and Nora in its clutches it sprouted another arm or something.
Then again, the Geist, the sea dragon, and Tyrian kinda filled the quota of "Surprise, motherfucker!"
Back to the Nuckelavee, judging by its stretching capabilities, its tendency to move slow and menacing, its lack of white Grimm® armor plating, the fact that its humanoid back is stabbed full of weapons, and its creepy ass roar, it's a creature of intimidation. It enters the battlefield and causes your morale to plummet, but goes down if determined enough people decide to kill it. As such, it's a Paper Tiger and should have the support of other Grimm. But this one operated alone destroying villages in the countryside, and thus got killed when tried to go after what it thought would be an easy target.
I fully anticipate there to be an elite Nuckelavee with body armor, dual wielding claymores or halberds and leading a cavalry charge of other Nuckelavees.
I also want a Grimm that fakes dying. Though, considering these things tend to rapidly evaporate after death... might be kind of a dead giveaway if the supposed Grimm corpse isn't turning to black smoke.
I never really agree with the "you could've made this season shorter!" mindset. If you enjoy the emotional beats/character moments then none of the time spent away from the plot is wasted. If you don't, well, then I guess it was.
The only time I felt a season could've/needed to be shorter is when they wasted time on Jaunedice, but that was Early-Installment Weirdness and the episodes were 5-8 minutes a piece, so the season wasn't "too long." Now though they're cramming more lore into each episode so it feels more bloated - lord knows I was complaining about how long it took RNJR to get to Mistral while everyone was factoring in "Walk time/Grimm-fighting time/sidequest-time."
Weiss left her family, Blake wants to make the White Fang great again, Yang healed up nicely. Ruby's story didn't advance much but that's par the course. For a season of 10-20 minute episodes I was fine with the pacing.
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!
I'm not asking for a bullet list of plot points, my friend. I'm asking for straight up better writing. You can keep all those character moments, or at least deliver the same impact in less than half the time it took to run the entire season. Which paves the way for more plot and character building, and that can't be a bad thing, surely?
I'd write a breakdown for several ways to improve the script, but typing is iffy on mobile. In the meantime I'll collate my thoughts and maybe explore one plot thread at a time.
I still find talking as if character moments are separate from the plot as weird. The plot only matters because of the characters.
I also find just talk of "make this shorter" annoying. If you have serious indepth thoughts on it, that's different, but usually when that's brought up (and not just here) people say that as if it is in itself and improvement without thought to what you'd put in its place, or cutting would effect other scenes, or, well, thought to anything else.
edited 13th Feb '17 4:27:40 PM by LSBK
Plot isn't character. Story relies on character. Using the two interchangeable is the first problem there. Characters aren't the plot. Plot is the events themselves that force the protagonist to deal with their shit as they pursue their goals. The plot side deals way more with structure and so on.
Character and plot together is what create the story. When done right, a character's issues combined with the tone one is going for determine what the plot should be. And that formula together equals the basic foundation.
But yeah. Plot is not character.
I have gone into details why some things can be shorter or I feel don't work. Like when I mentioned cutting Oscar for the stinger. The stinger can convey everything we learned from just watching him in that smaller moment. It fits more with the gothic side of the series with genre problem and showing us his build up doesn't work as well. I'll type up a whole thing on it soon yet again with where the shoddy stuff is and why, like when I pointed on the top weakness for Rin's subplot is the lack of an act 2 or why people feel nothing happened because it's a matter of how you balance plot and character as opposed to seeing them as one and the same.
edited 13th Feb '17 4:55:16 PM by Prime_of_Perfection
Improving as an author, one video at a time.except there exists an entire genre focusing entirely on characters, which is what this volume did.
edited 13th Feb '17 4:54:28 PM by EpicBleye
"There's not a girl alive who wouldn't be happy being called cute." ~Tamamo-no-MaeIf you don't care about the characters involved the plot really doesn't matter. I'm sure we've all heard about, if not have personal examples of, how characters have made an otherwise less than steller, or even terrible plot bearable. But I'd wager much fewer people are willing to forgive what would otherwise be an interesting plot if they can't get invested in the characters at all.
And I'm not saying somethings this volume wouldn't have been better shorter; I'm saying I can't take the blanket statement "just make this shorter" seriously if it's obvious no greater thought is being put into it.
That and the storytelling here doesn't seem at all unusual to me for the point that the story is at. A slower, more character focused season that nevertheless still drops hints of later plot developments and setup seems pretty standard. Though, you might just not like the standard. Which is fair.
edited 13th Feb '17 5:05:31 PM by LSBK
Slice of life as a structure is known as an anti novel for a reason. By its very nature it rejects traditional formats. Of course, arguing from that side brings about issues of Genre Shift and where that can bother people, as well as the fact that slice of life is character oriented more than driven.
But yes, this falls into the factor that fiction runs on principles and certain things are risky for a reason. When breaking from these, it becomes a matter of knowing the craft of fiction much deeper to execute it properly. It's doable, but it's not the norm for a reason and how and why one goes about something is more important than just the idea it exists.
Improving as an author, one video at a time.

So on multiple viewings the final fight is still cool but it doesn't hold up as well.
There was mention of the headmaster (mistress?) of Shade Academy being Dorothy, I'll add that maybe she should be a dog Faunus just to fit better.
Can someone answer my why so many people were going with Taiyang being the Cowardly Lion? Was it because he's seemingly the only one from Team STRQ who's apparently not involved in the big conspiracy in some way?