ep 9 is a lot to process uhm

Can we all agree that death in RWBY is meaningless? Roman's death only matters to Neo but because Neo is not a character, that impact ultimately falls flat. Pyrrha's death only impacted Jaune but in the most melodramatic way possible and no one else was allowed to feel anything so again, it fails flat. Vernal was a nobody that got no development. Clover and Hazel's death are shoved to the side. Watts and Vine are in the same boat as Vernal. Every death in shape and form is a failure.

yeah the death in this series has absolutely no impact or meaning anymore, at least not in the way that the writers probably intend it to have. no one cared about yang’s “death” fakeout because we knew they were never going to commit to killing a main because they did the same thing in v5 with weiss & it went absolutely fucking nowhere. even if you don’t believe that the main is going to die, you can still make that fakeout incredibly impactful but for both of these, they just felt incredibly lackluster & i’m not expecting the fallout of yang’s death to have any effect on the girls, just like weiss legit getting speared in front of them & dying for a hot moment didn’t.

roman + pyrrha’s deaths were incredibly impactful in the moment they happened, but all the impact from it was then wiped out with the treatment in the following volumes. it’s been talked about at length in how jaune’s character through the writing co - opts all of the grief surrounding pyrrha to the point no one else can get a word in; but i think what really undermined it was not only the return of penny, but the introduction of salem being punished for messing with the balance of life & death ... yet ruby got rewarded for it. which then can lead some viewers to think, okay if the rules can be this protaganist centred ... then why can’t we get pyrrha back?

which then feeds into clover. we heard ambrosius say that he couldn’t bring people back from the dead which was obviously a very clear full stop for clover’s fans who were theorizing that he might be able to. however we’ve also seen that ambrosius is more than willing to bend, & break, his own rules in order to give ruby what she wants. the writers legitimately admitted this in the commentary track to answer the confusion of the convoluted ass plan ruby came up with in the v8 finale. it was never a successful plan, ambrosius just ignored his own rules to give her what she wanted. so while it’s against his rules to bring people back from the dead ... who’s to say he won’t also ignore that rule to give ruby & by extension the other protags what they want? because crwby said they’d never bring pyrrha back? crwby have also said a lot of other things & gone back on their word so.

roman now essentially feeds into the issue for current era neo; she’s literally just there for fanservice. her role could’ve easily been filled or written so much better but instead we have to bring her back because she was the only one with a connection to the fan favourite roman. fans were devastated when roman died, he was one of the favourite villains if not the favourite & he was more of a show stealer than the main villain of the show, cinder, was. but now he’s gone & neo is only here for there to be a revenge storyline in his honour but ... why? we never get to go in depth into neo’s motivations for roman because we know literally nothing about their relationship in the show, all we know was their intense feelings & connection with each other. we never know why & you won’t  —  unless you buy the book roman holiday. which essentially just did a tapdance on roman’s corpse anyways but i digress. in the show we have no reason as to why neo is this devoted to him; her only song in the series reads like a love letter to his memory & speaks of her pain & rage but there’s never any justification as to why. roman’s death doesn’t have any impact through neo’s rage because the truth that she’s just there for the fanservice of it & not to actually expand her character or their relationship in any way is clear as day. it’s the writing on the wall & it makes me sad because i thought that roman’s death was very well done & it’s worrisome that crwby don’t even seem to realize why or how stupid it is that neo’s blaming the wrong person while working for roman’s actual killer by proxy.

as for the others like hazel, lionheart, vernal, watts, vine; they all suffer various shades of the issues laid out above. we didn’t know some before their deaths, others had extremely nonsensical deaths. there’s no one for us to really care about the impact their death had, like hazel or vernal. vine’s comes with an uncomfortable added dose of anti asian racism coded to it through unfortunate timing & circumstance which is just ... wonderful.

so yeah. the death in rwby is not very good & it sucks that i don’t really see it getting better by the time cinder eventually carks it either. c’est la vie.

RWBY V8 Episode 13 “Worthy” Reactions

There is so much going on in this episode and naturally because it’s the penultimate episode, so much conflict still in progress. I may miss or forget things and this will take me a while to get out because I have so much nervous energy it took me half an hour just to start typing. So keep that in mind as you read on

People were saying the plan went so smoothly but as I pointed out in my last reaction, local comms going down was and has thrown the evacuation into disarray, we can see it. So already we have Jaune and Nora splitting off from their team to spread the message, leaving less people to secure the gathering point in Vacuo

Second complication, a sandstorm that cuts off local comms and makes it impossible to know where Vacuo is. And a growing number of terrified refugees just out in the open with less than a handful of fighters to protect them. No way back to relative shelter or to even warn the rest either because true to his nature Ambrosius built exactly what they ask for.

Third complication, I wondered why Cinder seemed to be prepared for their plan. I thought Watts somehow also intercepted comms between Winter and Weiss but it seemed a stretch. Using the last question is going to bite her in the arse later, but I suppose she is in a damned anyway if she can’t give Neo Ruby before Salem respawns

And now we can also confirm she knows of Emerald’s “betrayal” but unless she leaves or gets knocked through the Vacuo portal, we may not get a confrontation this volume. Hard to say what she makes of this, she’s only shown to treat Emerald as someone she can use, much like how Cinder herself was and is being used.

Also Jinn definitely looked remorseful, but just like Ambrosius and the other spirits, she has rules to follow. BTW, I thought of a possible loophole for Jinn’s question limit. She can only be asked three questions every 100 years but I find it curious one question was already used. So my question is would it be possible to ask Jinn the same question twice. Technically it would not be a fourth question, but is that technicality enough to at least allow Jinn to repeat information for new ears.

Watts has access to the Command Centre. Jimmy’s need to control everything has once again backfired and given the enemy everything they could possibly want to do as much damage as they desire

All those people that Cinder blasted off the edge just to get RWBY’s attention, this has always been who she was, which is why there will not be any form of redemption for her. Even if she turns against Salem, it will be for her own selfish reasons and it is why she’ll never truly be able to escape from her fate

Our first RWBY vs Cinder fight (and probably not the last). Not many places worse for them to fight (if at all), with little ground (not a problem for a flying enemy), no cover, civilians in the line of literal fire (and glass). Got knocked off, game over. Speaking of which...

And Neo. Fucking Neo. And of course, protective big sister to the rescue. And she is the first to fall.

I did find it interesting that she seemed to vanish at a certain point on the way down. I interpret as proof, it’s not some endless void, there is something down there. And of course, there has to be a way back. We’re talking the Y of RWBY here, not to mention half the show’s most prominent LGBT+ couple. Contrary to what some individuals claim, RT do not do “Bury Your Gays” or “Queerbaiting”, at least not intentionally. As I said for Penny when she got hacked, Yang is going to be just fine, eventually. She’s not fine right now, obviously, but this isn’t the end for her. RWBY isn’t that type of show.

Ruby seems to be just surviving, no time to think or process what happen unless she wants to end up dead-dead by her sister’s supposed murderer. In this case, it is somewhat fortunate that Ruby’s coping mechanism is through actions, but when she stops it’s going to catch up with her

As for Blake, who got over repressing all her emotions several volumes ago, is not only the one to lose it the most but has gone absolutely feral. Still, she is not so far gone that she isn’t completely unaware that Penny and Weiss are unless in danger. Dilemma, exact vengeance on Neo, or lose another person you love?

While I’m on this point though, this is an excellent example of the destructive nature of the cycle of vengeance. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. In her pursuit of vengeance, Neo has naturally made herself the target of the same type of vengeance. Precisely why killing often not actually a final solution, it also has consequences as well.

I fear for Penny but I’m still confident she’ll survive this somehow. She is something new and unique, a whole new chapter of her life has just started and it would be anti-climatic and a huge waste for the show not to explore that. Besides, if Cinder has learned anything than she knows the relics must take priority over her power lust. All the power of Maidens won’t save her from Salem if she doesn’t return with both of them.

Weiss seems to be the one in most trouble right now, and in most danger of falling next. Still, I’m curious to see if her Nevermore summon will come into play again. A finale seems like the best time for it, and could potentially be a tide turner, perhaps more so than the Queen Lancer summon in Volume 5. She could use more wins.

Back to the Loser Ops. Hoping Marrow is okay. But of course, Harriet is still set on delivering that bomb. Much like her boss, she seems incapable of admitting she is wrong or has lost. I don’t think most people expected Vine to be the next one to concede that Jimmy was not the one to follow, but it makes sense. At that point, blowing up a city for man who has already lost is the furthest thing from logical. It’s just spite at that point, and just a way to make sure everyone loses.

So the bomb is back in play, thanks to Harriet. And while everyone is focused on her, no one will notice Watts pulling the strings from behind the curtain. But what is his target? He wouldn’t waste such a thing on mere civilians. It could simply be to occupy and/or eliminate several powerful combatants, given the villains are currently outnumbered. Still, he’s in his element and the last person we want to underestimate now. If this is truly the end of Atlas, this may probably be his last great act of villainy before he truly falls into irrelevancy and expendability

Lastly, Jimmy F@#$ing Ironwood. Forcefield prisons are such a bad idea. And of course, we can’t forget Chekhov’s gun-gun-gun. We had to see it in action and what it can do to a person. He recovered extraordinarily quickly, but then his body is more machine than man at this point. Also, as I predicted, shattering his aura did not snap him out of it. Atlas the city, the idea, is everything to him. He stopped seeing the people in it a while ago. He’ll kill them all if it will keep the city afloat.

I have complicated feelings about Jacques Schnee. I don’t need to tell anyone how much of a terrible person he is but I can’t ignore the truth that not everything he touched turned to shit. Weiss is perhaps my favourite character in the show, and she would not only not exist if it weren’t for Jacques, she wouldn’t be the person she is that I love now if Jacques was any different as a father. Same goes for Whitley and Winter. It’s a reminder that some good can come from even the shittiest of people acting in the shittiest of ways. He was also right about Ironwood all along, can’t forget that.

That all said, Jacques did not deserve to be murdered like that, whatever his crimes. The man had nothing left, no threat to anyone anymore. He should have lived for the rest of his pathetic existence knowing what he lost.

So now Winter is facing Ironwood again, this time she is alone and he is armed. Neither are in the best shape. I only see this ending with one or both of them dying.

One final note, Yang may be gone but... what if instead of the others also falling... those still standing take a leap of faith to jump after her and whoever else falls