With the previous season marking the end of the first big story arc in RWBY, and this volume kicking off the next arc, it had some pretty big shoes to fill. Did it manage to do so?
Uh, well, let’s get into it and find out!
Episode One – The Next Step
Cinder, greatly injured from Ruby’s attack in the previous season, slowly recovers back at Salem’s fortress. Salem, meanwhile, dispatches more of her lackeys, such as the psychotic Tyrian, the studious Watts, and the solemn Hazel. Elsewhere, Ruby continues to travel with Jaune, Ren, and Nora, the group of four heading to Haven Academy to try and prevent a second disaster, like the first at Beacon Academy. Jaune gets new equipment upgrades, using old pieces of Pyrrha’s armor.
This season’s premiere is a tale of two episodes. One episode is super cool, and focuses on introducing some new villains, highlighting our creepy Grimm queen Salem, and giving a bit more development for Emerald and post-injury Cinder. It’s a pretty lengthy scene that does a good job showcasing the new baddies. And then we have one of the worst fight scenes in the entire show for Ruby and friends, alongside some generally not-very-interesting shenanigans. It’s a mixed bag that is carried hard by the villains.
Rating: 8
Episode Two – Remembrance
Weiss’ domineering father forces her to perform at a charity event, and expresses her lack of empathy towards the lives lost at Beacon. Ruby and her teammates stumble across a destroyed village, and learn that it was ransacked by bandits and then terrorized by Grimm. Later, Jaune trains with an old recorded video of Pyrrha, her loss still a deep wound in his (and Ruby’s) heart.
So, let’s address the elephant in the room that plagues this entire season. It’s slow. It’s exceptionally slow, and what makes that especially unbearable is that there isn’t a grand plot either. A show like Game of Thrones can afford to be slow, because it’s a purposeful and methodical intricacy. This season just drags a bit, with stakes that don’t end up adding up. That being said, Weiss content is always good, and the scene with Jaune at the end is genuinely emotional. So it gets that rating that it gets.
Rating: 7
Episode Three – Of Runaways and Stowaways
Blake, running from her grief and trauma, boards a ship to take her back to her home, the island nation of Menagerie (homeland of the Faunus). It is revealed that Sun went after her, not wanting her to be alone and withdrawn. Blake is annoyed at first, but when the two team-up to take down a big sea serpent Grimm, she warms to his presence. Across the ocean, Yang is stuck in depression, and doesn’t try out a new cybernetic arm that Ironwood sent to her. Yang is still plagued by nightmares of Adam.
I adore Blake, and I generally enjoy her subplot that continues for the rest of this season and the next as well. But it gets off to a rough start. Blake’s standoffish attitude comes across kinda like being a jerk here, and the fight scene against the sea serpent is another janky one that isn’t really good. However, Yang’s scenes pull up this episode’s score a bit, because she’s got an extremely grounded and compelling arc in this season (overcoming trauma/PTSD).
Rating: 7.5
Episode Four – Family
A young farmboy, Oscar, suddenly hears the voice of Ozpin within his head. Ozpin tries to explain things to Oscar, but Oscar is hesitant to listen. Yang and her father butt heads, but his tough love is exactly what she needs to hear. Alongside some encouragement from her former teachers at Beacon, Yang tries on her new arm and promises to start training her strength again. At a bar, Qrow (who has been following Ruby to keep an eye on her) meets with his sister, Raven (Yang’s mom). Raven reiterates her stance of not getting involved in the global conflict, seeming to not care about what happens to anyone but herself and her tribe.
Fitting with the slow nature of this season, the intrigue around Oscar finally starts to pay off here, though it’s still a bit slow for my liking. As with last episode, everything with Yang and her father is great in this episode, and the two former teachers from Beacon are genuinely great in their scenes here too. And then the star of the show is Qrow’s conversation confrontation with Raven, which is layered in not only some superb character work, but a lot of cool moments of foreshadowing too.
Rating: 8.5
Episode Five – Menagerie
Blake and Sun arrive in Menagerie, and Blake reunites with her mother and father after years of being apart. Sun makes an awkward first impression with Blake’s father, though her mother takes a shine to him. Blake finds out that her father is in-talks with the White Fang, and she realizes that the White Fang is attempting to distance themselves from Adam and his violence, though Blake and Sun still believe the organization is corrupt.
This is a pretty average, standard episode, but maybe I’m a bit more partial to it because of my general enjoyment of Blake as a character. Meeting her parents is fun, leading to some of the season’s funniest moments, and it just feels good to get to know more about Blake’s backstory and hometown. The White Fang intrigue is decent too, even if it is telegraphed from a million miles away.
Rating: 8
Episode Six – Tipping Point
Weiss performs at the event, though she sings a song with lyrics veiled in insult towards her father. At a post-show dinner, she loudly rebukes a shallow man who attempts to flirt with her but demonstrates callous disregard towards those who died at Beacon. When another woman insults Beacon, Weiss snaps, and accidentally summons a boar beast. Ironwood stops the beast to prevent further incident, but also gives her support for Weiss over her father. Ruby and friends are then ambushed by Tyrian, who claims he is there to capture Ruby for a mysterious reason. He handedly beats them all, but Qrow arrives to save the day.
A focus on Weiss will almost always elevate my score for an episode, but I do sincerely believe this is one of the strongest episodes in the season. Weiss’ performance at the event is great, but her (very justified) outburst at the dinner afterwards is even better. Ironwood puts in another solid appearance too, continuing to show that he’s one of the best supporting cast members in the show. And then Tyrian, while a bit of a cliched ‘crazy guy‘ archetype villain, is still a treat to watch, and his brief fight with Ruby and friends is tense.
Rating: 9
Episode Seven – Punished
Ozpin tells Oscar that his soul is now bound to Oscar’s, linking the two of them. Begrudgingly, Oscar leaves his home behind to set out for Haven Academy. In Atlas, Weiss is reprimanded and hit by her father, who grounds her and disowns her of the title of heiress. Elsewhere, Qrow and Tyrian battle, the two combatants equally-measured. Ruby, not wanting to sit back, joins the fray, causing a distraction that leads to Tyrian losing his tail (he’s a Faunus), but also Qrow getting stabbed and poisoned.
I’ve been dogging on this season for a bit now about how the fights aren’t very good, and that’s still a broadly applicable criticism of this season. That being said, the animating team really pulled it together for this clash, as the fight between Qrow and Tyrian is pretty stellar in terms of visual spectacle and choreography. It’s a real treat. The dramatic conversation between Weiss and her father is good too, albeit a bit depressing.
Also, the very odd choice to have RWBY‘s one and only swear word in this episode feels strange, and like a foolish attempt to seem ‘edgy‘. I’m glad that didn’t push things further as the show went on.
Rating: 9
Episode Eight – A Much Needed Talk
Qrow loredumps about the creation of the world of Remnant, and a story about two brothers (a god of Light and a god of Darkness) who formed everything. He mentions that four powerful relics exist, and it is those relics that Salem is primarily chasing after her. Qrow then begins to succumb to his illness. In Menagerie, Blake mends her relationship with her father after confessing to the guilt she feels in having abandoned them earlier. Blake and Sun then notice someone spying on them, and they give chase.
Just like the premiere episode of this season, this episode is split into two distinct halves. In one half we have a somewhat clunky exposition loredump that, while not entirely uninteresting, almost assuredly could’ve been conveyed in a more natural and engaging way. But then on the other hand we have an insanely sweet and character-rich scene between Blake and her father, alongside an end-of-episode cliffhanger to tease us wonderfully into the next episode.
Rating: 8.5
Episode Nine – Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back
The spy turns out to be an old friend of Blake, a young woman named Ilia. Ilia warns Blake to stay away, then grievously wounds Sun and escapes. Weiss practices her summoning, and prepares to mount an escape from her own home. Yang trains with her father, and he cautions her to be more measured and smart about using her abilities. Ruby and Jaune split from Ren and Nora when the path diverges, and a massive footprint implies a huge Grimm is lurking nearby.
While we won’t go into the details of this plot line until the next season, this introduction of Ilia is a really great scene with impactful dramatic stakes and some nice mystery-building. Yang’s training scenes with her dad are also really solid, and despite how few episodes he is in across the show’s entirety, he’s a really cool dude that I always appreciate seeing. It’s not the most jaw-dropping episode of the season, but there’s a decent time to be had here.
Rating: 8
Episode Ten – Kuroyuri
Oscar, with Ozpin’s guidance, finds and boards a train, and manages to make it through a chance encounter with Hazel. A lengthy flashback shows Ren’s childhood in the village of Kuroyuri, including how he found and befriended Nora, who was a homeless orphan. One night, a terrifying Grimm known as a Nuckelavee attacked Kuroyuri, destroying the entire village and killing both of Ren’s parents. Ren and Nora barely survived while using Ren’s ability to mask their presence and hide, and they’ve been inseparable ever since.
I’m not about to say that Ren and Nora’s backstory is bad. It’s not the most original thing in the world, but it doesn’t suck. I especially like how their unique bond and closeness is forged, as it’s pretty cute and wholesome. I am just not entirely sure that we needed to spend almost the entire episode on the backstory. Admittedly, a part of the reason I dislike the backstory is because it establishes the gross Nuckelavee Grimm as a significant threat…and yet the next two episodes will render that ‘threat‘ a bit moot.
Rating: 7.5
Episode Eleven – Taking Control
Yang bids farewell to her father, and then sets out after Ruby, and by extension, Raven. Weiss escapes Atlas in a cargo airship. Blake angrily confronts Sun, explaining that the reason she ran away is because she doesn’t want those closest to her to get hurt. Sun counters that that isn’t her decision to make, and reiterates that he and her other friends are okay with getting hurt because they care about her and want to help her. Ren and Nora intercept Ruby and Jaune right as the Nuckelavee (the same one from the flashback) arrives to attack them.
You might be seeing a pattern here of this season having a lot of episodes that are decent/average/good, but not much more than that. This episode continues that trend, as we spin our wheels to push these characters into the places they need to be in for the finale next episode, and also for next season. It’s not special, but not bad at all. Blake and Sun’s scene is a big highlight, and I really love their conversation and Sun’s conviction to be around Blake and support her and fight for her, even at his own risk.
Rating: 8
Episode Twelve – No Safe Haven
While trying to keep Qrow safe, Ruby and friends battle against the Nuckelavee, to middling success. Ren flies into a fury, but is calmed down by Nora. Eventually, the group forms a strategy and defeats the beast, Ren managing to avenge his parents. They are then picked up by a patrol ship and taken to a hotel near Haven Academy to rest. Qrow receives medical treatment, and Ruby writes a letter for her father. Ruby soon plans to meet with the headmaster of Haven, while having no idea that he’s already a pawn of Salem’s. In a post-credits scene, Oscar arrives and meets with Qrow.
I suppose it’s only fitting that a middling season caps off the adventure with a middling finale. Not that I wanted an episode of this quality for the finale, it’s just also not particularly surprising.
Most of my misgivings with this episode have to do with the big baddie, which is the Nuckelavee Grimm from Ren’s backstory. It’s design is fantastic, from the creepy skeleton-horse aesthetic to the haunting sound design in its roars and bone-snapping. And yet, the fight against it cycles between being oddly goofy (it has these silly stretchy arms) and not animated particularly well. It’s all a bit stilted, and the kinetic energy just doesn’t hit. Worse than anything, it goes down far too easily, making me wonder how this thing was ever threatening enough to kill Ren’s parents and destroy his village.
Rating: 7.5
SEASON CONCLUSION
Upon it’s release, this season was pretty derided online, and it represented a bit of a turning point in online discourse about RWBY, where people split into the camp of diehard fans, and the camp of diehard haters. The season was mocked for being glacially-paced, having lackluster fighting scenes, and a plot that feels a bit aimless.
While I generally consider myself a pretty optimistic person willing to see the good in the entertainment I consume, these criticisms aren’t wrong. The season isn’t super good, and it mostly pulls through on the strength of a few great character-building scenes, some intrigue with the villains, a few funny moments, and that excellent mid-season showdown. Thankfully, it’s only up from here!
Rating: 8
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 