After the non-stop chaos and action of the previous two seasons in Atlas, it’s not a surprise that RWBY‘s current final season slows things down to let our main characters breathe a bit. It’s also objectively one of the wackiest seasons at the same time, what with the Alice in Wonderland theming. Does it all land perfectly, or do the zany antics get a bit out-of-hand?
Let’s start getting a little bit weird!
Episode One – A Place of Particular Concern
Falling through a seemingly endless void, Ruby briefly brawls with Neo before separating and waking up on a mysterious beach. After wandering through a jungle in a strange new world, Ruby encounters a talking mouse named Little, and she eventually reunites with her friends. Ruby falls into panic-induced unconsciousness after hearing about Penny’s death and the fall of Atlas from Weiss, and then Team RWBY realizes that they’ve somehow ended up in a fairytale.
I’m going to say this upfront, but Volume Nine is one that gets better on a rewatch. The first time through, a lot of the Alice in Wonderland weirdness can be a bit distracting, and it results in a season that can feel meandering and slow. When you revisit it, its brightest spots shine even more, and you can appreciate how it’s really all one big story about Ruby herself. Some of those seeds are evident here, like the primary focus on Ruby in this premiere (the first scene is even from her POV). And I can’t deny that I get goosebumps every single time I watch the scene where Weiss tries to talk about Atlas, and Ruby passes out (pictured below). This season won’t hold back when exploring Ruby’s trauma, and it’s all the better for it.
Rating: 8.5
Episode Two – Altercation at the Auspicious Auction
Blake surmises that they are in the Ever After, a world from a famous fairytale told to most Remnant children (and heavily referencing the real-world Alice in Wonderland story). Blake suggests following the path that the fairytale’s heroine, Alyx, did. Their path takes them to an auction run by a raccoon, and then they encounter the soldiers who serve the Red Prince. Team RWBY decides to follow the soldiers to meet the Red Prince, hoping to discover more answers along the way.
In the previous episode’s review, I talked about how the season can be a bit of a miss during a first watch, and that is especially evident in this first few episodes. On a macro-scale, most of this episode involves a silly auction, and it’s not all that interesting. Because of that, it doesn’t rate extremely high for me. However, it’s strong points do become more apparent a second time through. I really like the subtle hints that Ruby’s emotions are affecting the weather, I like how she keeps zoning out and losing track of what her friends are saying, and I love the sad little moment when the auction racoon tells Ruby that the price for the item she wants is “enough hope to fill a jar“, and she realizes she doesn’t have enough left in her. Also, Weiss is hilarious in this season.
Rating: 8
Episode Three – Rude, Red, and Royal
The Red Prince turns out to be a selfish and entitled brat who challenges Team RWBY to a game of chess that is wildly unbalanced against Ruby and her friends. Blake, Yang, and Weiss end up shrunken, and they join the match as pieces. Using their combat skills, they defeat the Red Prince’s pawns and win the challenge. When the Prince has a temper tantrum and threatens to bring harm to Ruby and her friends, a mysterious cat known as the Curious Cat comes to their rescue, helping them flee the Prince’s castle. Elsewhere, Neo’s semblance evolves, allowing her to create more powerful illusions than ever.
Is it fun watching three of our central heroines shrink down, join a chess game, and have a big action scene battle set to a bombastic soundtrack? Yeah, obviously it’s a fun scene. The trouble is that it’s also just about all this episode is centered around, and it’s not quite compelling enough to keep me as thoroughly engaged as I would like. It also doesn’t have too many of those excellent, subtle, emotional Ruby-focused beats that the first two episodes had. Ironically, it ends up making for an episode that is stronger on a first watch than some other episodes in this season, but a bit weaker on a rewatch.
Rating: 8.5
Episode Four – A Cat Most Curious
Team RWBY indulge the Curious Cat’s curiosity, telling him more about the world of Remnant and its people. In exchange, the Cat tells them that the only way to leave the Ever After is to visit the massive Tree in the center of the world, which seems to hold some sort of magical power. The Cat promises to take them there, and the first step on the journey is the Herbalist, who helps Ruby and her friends confront their past selves. Weiss, Blake, and Yang demonstrate their personal growth and self-actualization, but Ruby is crushed by the weight of her trauma and almost gives in to hopelessness before the Cat intervenes.
Once the Cat enters the story, things begin to pick up a bit, which is good. It’s still a little meandering for this first half of the season, but at least it becomes a little more concrete in terms of Team RWBY’s goal/destination. I also really love the pitstop at the Herbalist’s hut, which is the focus of this episode’s second-half (the first-half is primarily exposition mixed with some admittedly funny comedy bits). The scene of Weiss, Blake, and Yang confronting their past selves is awesome, very well written, and a goosebumps-inducing moment of empowerment for those three and how far they’ve come as characters (it’s also just neat seeing their old designs in the new animation style). And then Ruby having the opposite interaction with her old self is quite emotional, and it really puts into perspective just how vulnerable and unsteady she’s become since the show’s beginning.
Rating: 9
Episode Five – The Parfait Predicament
The next step on the journey is a wonderous nighttime market filled with oddities and goodies, including the ingredients for a potion that will grow Blake, Yang, and Weiss back to their normal size. At the market, Ruby has a strange encounter with a Blacksmith who seems to know much more than she lets on, subtly testing Ruby with various questions about Ruby’s desires and goals. The market is then attacked by monsters called Jabberwalkers, who are revealed to be servants of Neo. Ruby’s friends grow back to normal and fend off the threat, and a new character from the fairytale, the Rusted Knight, is shockingly revealed to be a much-older Jaune.
This episode has two moments I really like sandwiched between a lot of stuff that is just ‘okay‘, but at the very least I can say that it is only up from here for the rest of the season! Ruby encountering the Blacksmith at the market is just the right amount of creepy (I love how slowly all the other sounds and lights fade away, except for the clanging of a hammer on an anvil) but also awe-inspiring, thanks to the Blacksmith’s awesome design, great voice, and mysterious aura. The fight scene against the Jabberwalker isn’t too special (this whole volume has somewhat middling fights), but the appearance of Jaune is an excellent final bit that leads right into this season’s much-stronger second-half.
Rating: 8
Episode Six – Confessions Within Cumulonimbus Clouds
Team RWBY reunites with Jaune, who recounts that he accidentally turned back time when he first landed in the Ever After, and he has thus been trapped for much longer than they have. He talks about meeting the same Alyx from the fairytale, and also her brother Lewis, and Jaune blames the Cat for past actions. The Cat abandons them, wandering off. Ruby, Weiss, and Jaune wander through a maze-like area to try and figure out their next move, while Blake and Yang put their emotions on the table and finally outwardly confess their love for each other.
Probably the single-most famous episode of RWBY, which is impressive given its relative-newness. Putting that off for a moment, I really love the way that this season subtly pulls character work out of little details without having to stop and spell everything it, like the way Weiss’ expression darkness when she thinks of the destruction of Atlas, or how Jaune’s younger-self briefly flashes on the screen as an embodiment of his fragile emotional state. Ruby being afraid of her own weapon at the end of the episode is a great way to show how terrified she is of continuing to fight as a huntress.
And yes, obviously, the Blake and Yang stuff is pretty great too. It took a long while to get to this point, and the scenario that builds up to it is as subtle as a brick to the face (which is even pointed out in the show itself), but the two of them finally admitting they love each other is definitely a sweet moment…that leads to a great comedy beat of Weiss and Ruby being shocked/flustered at seeing the other two kiss.
Rating: 8.5
Episode Seven – The Perils of Paper Houses
Jaune takes Team RWBY to a village full of little paper people, and he explains that he spends every single day protecting them from disaster. Later, one of the paper people talks to Team RWBY directly, and explains that they truly want to “ascend” to their next purpose in life, but they are too nice to tell Jaune to stop “helping” them. Neo returns with the Jabberwalkers to launch another attack, and though she’s driven off, the paper people are swept away and dissolved when a dam breaks. Ruby’s gradually-building contempt and trauma finally burst forth, and she explodes at her teammates in anger, before tearfully running away.
I almost don’t even want to talk about the first 90% of this episode, but for the sake of thoroughness, I will. Jaune and his interactions with the paper people is really solidly written stuff, appearing comedic at first before becoming more tragic once you realize that Jaune is using these little guys as a way to try and block off the sadness and guilt he feels over not being able to save Penny (and Pyrrha, all those volumes ago). It’s another example of a scenario in this season getting better on a rewatch, because you catch more of the nuance that this season is trying to convey in between the Alice in Wonderland homages.
That being said, the highlight of this episode is definitely Ruby’s crashout, where she angrily berates all of her friends, says some pretty nasty stuff, argues with Jaune, and finally runs off in tears. You can only push a ‘peppy and optimistic‘ character too far before they inevitably crash, and it’s a suitably sad and wonderfully acted moment.
Rating: 9.5
Episode Eight – Tea Amidst Terrible Trouble
Weiss, Blake, and Yang contemplate why Ruby ran away, recognizing that they placed too much burden on her shoulders, and that they made it seem like she had to be perfect and couldn’t talk about her troubles. Ruby, meanwhile, ends up at a mansion in the forest, with her mouse buddy Little tagging along. Neo launches an ambush, using illusions of Roman Torchwick and other deceased former allies to taunt Ruby and break down her spirit. When even the Cat turns on Ruby too, and Little is killed by Neo, Ruby allows herself to fall into an abyss of despair and be taken to the Tree, much to the horror of her friends. The Cat then possesses Neo, setting the stage for a final battle.
This episode actually as a content warning at the start, and that isn’t there for fun. This is one of the most aggressively dark episodes of any show I’ve ever watched, to the point where even I of all people (someone who infamously loves darker themes and story elements) has to wonder if it went a bit too far. Ultimately, I think it pushed right up to that line, and I have to give the show props for being willing to go to those lengths to really break down its main heroine rather relentlessly…since it inevitably just pushes Ruby to even greater heights, like all heroes should strive for.
But the ‘greater heights‘ comes in the next two episodes, so in this episode we are treated to watching one of the happiest and most positive characters in any anime (or anime-adjacent show) just get completely and utterly tormented by Neo and the cruel hat-wearing girl’s illusions. I think a part of my soul left my body when Neo actually killed Little, and then I was just watching gobsmacked when Ruby gave up all hope and drank the tea…to say nothing of the nightmare-fuel of the Cat possessing Neo. This episode is a trip!
Rating: 10
Episode Nine – A Tale Involving a Tree
Jaune meets with the paper people in a new form, now with bodies like gemstones, and he realizes that his own fears were holding them, and himself, back. The newfound resolve he and the others have finally allows them to find the Tree, where they run into the cocooned body of Ruby, and also Neo-Cat. Neo-Cat reveals that he killed Alyx, and it was actually her brother who escaped back to Remnant and wrote the original fairytale. Neo-Cat begins fighting Jaune, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. Ruby, meanwhile, meets the Blacksmith in a dream-like state, and has to confront the problem of who she wants to be.
This is the shortest episode of the season, and I suppose it makes sense. The previous episode was crazy, the next episode is the finale, so this is the one that exists to help set the stage for the end of everything. It’s mostly a transition, partially focused on Jaune and the remaining Team RWBY members making it to the tree and battling Neo-Cat (and a nice moment of growth for Jaune), and then Ruby wandering around in a dream-like place and talking to the Blacksmith. Neither half is anything amazing, but they both work solidly enough. It still can’t full shake the feeling of just being a prologue to the next episode, though.
Rating: 8.5
Episode Ten – Of Solitude and Self
The Blacksmith shows Ruby a flashback of the night her mother left on a mission and never came back, and Ruby realizes her mom lied about her whereabouts and kept secrets about the goal of the mission. Ruby’s perfect vision of her mother cracks a bit, but in a way that finally allows Ruby to realize that she herself doesn’t need to be perfect, she just needs to try. Ruby emerges from her cocoon, reenergized, and Team RWBY defeats Neo-Cat, pushing the Cat out of Neo’s body. Neo then kills the Cat and enters her own cocoon. Team RWBY and Jaune then hear more about the history of Remnant from the Blacksmith, including that the god Brothers were from the Ever After. Finally, the Blacksmith teleports everyone to the desert kingdom of Vacuo to reunite with their family and friends.
I wish I could rate this finale higher. The first-half definitely delivers on every promise a viewer could want. The flashback with Summer (and a surprise appearance from Raven) presents a lot of tantalizing information that both causes new questions to arise, but also finally gives Ruby the character-development push she’s been searching for. Ruby’s masterful beatdown of the Cat is phenomenal, and definitely this season’s action highlight (and a contender for one of the most flashy fights in the series). Neo getting her body back, finishing off the Cat, and then recognizing that she needs to undergo her own introspective character development is a turn I wasn’t expecting for her, but it’s a welcome one.
Sadly, the episode then makes the same mistake as the finale to Volume Three, which is that an action-packed first-half is followed by a lengthy second-half almost entirely devoted to exposition. A slow second-half isn’t strange for a show’s season finale, but piling in a loredump? Why? I have to be completely honest, I don’t care that the God Brothers came from the Ever After. I don’t find it interesting in the slightest. Maybe I would’ve enjoyed it if we had learned this in some other episode, or in some other season, and in a scene that is a fraction of the length!
Whatever, at least the final moment of Team RWBY and Jaune making it to Vacuo is super cool, with some great musical motif callbacks.
Rating: 8.5
SEASON CONCLUSION
I mostly summarized my opinions of this season right at the start of this article, where I mentioned how it’s a season that gets better on a rewatch, but can be a bit rough on your first trip through it. It’s the sort of season that I would probably rate as an 7-8 if it was your first time watching it, and a 9 or so for a rewatch. So I’m fusing those two ends of the spectrum into this volume’s ultimate final rating, which I think is the most fair thing to do.
It’s a season with a lot of low points (the distractingly weird Alice in Wonderland moments and homages, iffy action beats, a lackluster finale), but also a lot of high points (Neo and the Cat as antagonists, some of the show’s best and most nuanced character writing moments, and an absolutely stellar journey for Ruby herself). I could agree with someone who hates this season, and I could agree with someone who unequivocally loves it. It’s just that sort of season!
Rating: 8.5
And that’s actually it, friends! Our RWBY retrospective journey is at an end. Volume Ten is in active development right now, but until it releases, we’ll have to put a pin in this article series!
The Contrarian Corner 