Category: Musings

Rooster Teeth’s RWBY returned to the Internet this past Saturday for its sixth season. Though the season’s first episode is currently behind a paywall courtesy of Rooster Teeth First, the season’s intro is readily available on YouTube. What the intro reveals are some pretty strong hints as to the whereabouts of Cinder, Roman, and Neopolitan.

The return of Cinder Fall, the Fall Maiden, shouldn’t really come as a surprise. At the end of Volume 5, she was defeated, frozen, and falling into darkness … but we never heard a thud or a shatter. As Raven broke through a similar freezing, presumably so too could Cinder, especially with her command of fire. Additionally, no indication was given that the Fall Maiden’s powers had been passed on, something that occurs upon their death. And so there she is on the sixth season’s poster, her back turned, the claw of her Grimm limb apparent.

In the intro for season 6, we observe a cloaked figure walking through a village as rain falls. While this could seemingly be anyone, there is a telltale sign which reveals this to be Cinder: her left hand. While the figure’s right hand is bare, its left is covered, seemingly bandaged. There is only one person we have encountered on Remnant that would have need of concealing her left hand, and that is Cinder Fall. Furthermore, as just two weeks before the start of this season’s events she had fought the Spring Maiden, it’s conceivable Cinder’s Grimm limb is indeed injured and in need of bandaging. Its properties could have saved her in her fall and, consequently, been strained.

What happens next has had a lot of us talking, and I originally thought it indicated that the cloaked figure was Neopolitan. No doubt about it: that is Roman Torchwick’s hat which blows by.

Roman was last seen in RWBY‘s third season being devoured by a Griffon Grimm. One might assume he’s dead. However, that Griffon shortly thereafter got head stomped by Ruby Rose into the Atlesian Airship on which Ruby and Roman were fighting. And then there was an explosion. So, as in the case with Cinder, a corpse was never actually shown, and it’s conceivably Roman freed himself from the belly of the beast. Either that or the Griffon coughed up his hat and it’s just been blowing on the wind for a few seasons.

One more thing to notice, though, from the pic above is the color palette. The pink, brown, beige, and white clearly reference Neopolitan’s colors. That nod is far more significant.

Neo exited the series by simply blowing away on her umbrella thanks to the quick thinking of Ruby at the end of season 3, so there was always the possibility she would drop back into the series alive and well. I’m betting the colors, umbrellas, and Roman’s blowing hat are meant to signal Neo’s imminent return.

While I originally thought the cloaked figure was Neo, I no longer find that plausible, as when the cloaked figure fights an unseen assailant in the tavern sequence, we get a good look at that left hand. Yeah, it’s clawed. The cloaked figure is Cinder, and a quick comparison to the claw on the poster should make that clear.

What’s also to be found in the tavern sequence is a brief bunch of hair flying up from under her hood as the figure fights.

It’s dark and short and matches Cinder’s style from the previous season.

Additionally, during her fight with the Spring Maiden at the end of season 5, Cinder makes a hard landing and her hair flips up in a similar fashion.

Without a doubt, the cloaked figure in the intro to RWBY‘s sixth season is Cinder, and Neo is the most likely candidate to return when it comes to the Roman and Neo pairing. While Torchwick may indeed return, I’m going to bet he bought it at the end of Volume 3. I never expected Cinder not to return for Volume 6, and I’m excited for Neo’s return.

The intro to the sixth season of RWBY is now on YouTube coinciding with the episode’s release for subscribers of Rooster Teeth First. Thankfully, it ends with props to Monty Oum. I so wish they would have shown this intro at the Fathom Events theatrical screening this past Thursday. My understanding is Rooster Teeth will not be posting this season’s episodes on YouTube, but in one week, the episode will be free for all to view on Rooster Teeth’s website.

https://youtu.be/SPc7OLVc_Yk

Last night, Fathom Events held the season premiere of the first episode of the sixth season of Rooster Teeth’s RWBY. While the episode itself was pretty sweet, the hour and a half presentation of the brief episode was pretty lame. What follows is a critique of the event and not a review of the episode. Consequently, it is spoiler-free.

The Fathom Events screening of The Transformers: The Movie is what got me paying attention to what they had to offer. In its case, the showtime was preceded with slides of Transformers trivia. Before the movie, an extended preview of Bumblebee was presented, and, after the movie, and interview with musician Stan Bush played. Overall, it was a pleasingly experience with a free poster handed out upon existing the theater a bonus.

However, the Fathom Events screening of RWBY S6E1 was pathetic in comparison. Nothing preceded the showtime but a blank screen. Once the lights dimmed at 7:00 pm Eastern for our screening, we got a couple Fathom Events trailers, a short message from RWBY director Kerry Shawcross, and a couple trailers for Rooster Teeth Animation productions. Next, the end of the fifth season of RWBY played out beginning at the moment Jaune shouts “Weiss!” Now, seeing this ending of the previous season on the big screen was pretty cool since it has a lot of amazing moments. But this is where the problems began.

Firstly, showing the epic ending to the previous season managed to diminish anything that followed it. Nothing, and I mean nothing, could top seeing Weiss having summoned that big ass bee on the big screen.

Secondly, if you’re going to show the last 50 minutes of the previous season, why not just screen the whole damn thing? Why not make the event the entirety of season 5 as a movie with just the 1st episode of season 6 as the bonus content after the end credits? Or, put the episode as the bonus content before the entirety of season 5?

Thirdly, wouldn’t a recap of seasons 1-5 have been better? That was what I was expecting: a narrated guide through ALL that has come before. Take us through the major plot points of team RWBY before throwing us on that train speeding to Atlas at the opening of season 6.

Fourthly, the Adam character short was pretty cool. It was a little too cool. Like the end of season 5, it stole away whatever hype was left for S6E1.

Fifthly, I do not care that the animators got better at animating trees and whatnot. Rooster Teeth has some serious insecurity about their animation, and the mini-documentary about their improved workflow using Maya was just unneeded. While I’m glad some animators got some props, put it on the Blu-ray or the Internet, and for the love of all good things, stop apologizing for the animation in previous seasons. Season 2 is my favorite season. The animation in season 2 is fine. In fact, it’s better, because the fight choreography was better. Season 2 is better because season 2 was animated with, probably, love and not some factory-minded workflow.

Sixthly, if you’re going to do a mini-doc, why not do it on what most people probably actually care about: the characters and the storytelling. I would have liked to have heard something, anything, from the voice actors. I would have liked some insight into the themes of season 6. While it was great to hear from Kerry Shawcross, I find it hard to believe Miles Luna and Barbara Dunkelman couldn’t be found to say something, anything.

Seventhly, why put the episode at the end of all this? By the time we got to it, I was ready to leave. We were there to see the episode. If Rooster Teeth and Fathom Events really wanted people to pay attention during that animation mini-doc, why not put it after the actual animation so we had some frame of reference? Show us your amazing character lighting, wow us with the end result of your streamlined workflow, and then talk about it.

Eightly, and this makes me mad, why was there no mention of Monty Oum? I was expecting the future opening credits/theme song to play after episode 1 as it’s been done in the past. That would have at least given us a large “Created by Monty Oum” title. But this was absent, and nobody could have made mention of Monty in the mini-doc?

So, yes, the episode was pretty sweet and the Adam character short was pretty cool, but the overall presentation was a failure on the part of Rooster Teeth and Fathom Events. I’m not going to attend another Fathom Events screening after this. I paid too much money for too little content, and it reveals that these Fathom Events showings are inconsistent in quality. I’ve also lost some respect for Rooster Teeth in how they handled this package I must assume they put together, and that’s what’s stopping me from shelling out any money for Rooster Teeth First right now. That may change when I finally catch S6E1 on YouTube and see that “Created by Monty Oum” title. I cannot believe they would be so callous to leave that off in the future when the season premieres on its proper home.

Recently, I finished watching Volume 3 of Rooster Teeth’s RWBY, resumed and finished Volume 5, and then caught the trailer for Volume 6 when it premiered this Tuesday, October 16th. I am definitely looking forward to this new season, and what follows are my thoughts on Volumes 3 & 5.

Unfortunately, I watched most of Volume 3 while I was simultaneously afflicted by a cold and allergies. Neither were that bad, but I worry they somehow diminished my appreciation of Volume 3. After the season got off to a good start with the Vytal Festival fights, I found myself bored by the continuing focus on the tournament. So when we got a flashback to Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury fighting the Fall Maiden Amber, I perked up after nearly an hour of uninteresting content. I like Amber’s design. I like her fighting style. With Amber, we get to see some use of magic in the world of Remnant, and the stream of fire she shoots from her staff at the attacking Mercury is just too cool.

What I learned from that fight is it’s the uneven team fights I like the most. That is: when it’s one against multiple attackers as in the Amber fight or the Ruby fight at the start of Volume 1, or when it’s a team against an impossible opponent, like the soon-to-be RWBY against the Nevermore in Volume 1, RNJR against the Nuckelavee in Volume 4, and, most especially, RWBY against the mech Torchwick pilots in Volume 2. It was CEM against Amber that got me to realize that.

Having watched the seasons out of order, I basically ruined the ending of Volume 3 for myself. I already knew who died and the consequences of the battle. However, I did not know how certain characters died, and their deaths still affected me. I was impressed by the inquisitive, unrelenting Ruby as the Battle for Beacon played out, and I was not expecting what we got when she confronted Cinder. I was expecting a prolonged fight and the graphic loss of an eye, just as I was expecting a lengthy fight between Adam and Yang where the latter loses her arm. There is nothing wrong with how things played out, just they didn’t play out as I expected.

On the other hand, Volume 5 played out how I expected, but I don’t think its predictability a bad thing. I’ll take it that by the end of Volume 5, I was getting better at reading and understanding the structure of the series, of anticipating the decisions the writers would have to make. The conclusion of Volumes 3 & 5 are similar with lots of 1v1 and 1v2 miscellaneous combat, and for the most part it works, but, as above, it’s not something I’m particularly interested in. The Raven and Cinder fight is the one that stood out because it was different on account of their use of maiden magic. The highlight, though, for me was Weiss. Weiss falling to Cinder’s spear, Weiss being the catalyst for the unlocking of Jaune’s Semblance, Weiss being annoyed that her injury has her unable to join in as the others fight, and Weiss summoning that big ass bee.

Just when I thought Weiss couldn’t get any cooler, she goes and summons a Queen Lancer. Her look is priceless when said Queen Lancer gets destroyed. She is greatly disgusted.

Ruby is the other standout character from Volume 5 where she firmly establishes herself as a leader capable of giving commands in charged moments, like when she orders Yang to pursue Cinder et al. during Blake’s reappearance. Yang does not hesitate to follow that order. While Ruby is the character that has arguably changed least over the series, here at Haven Academy we witness a major moment in her development with her declaration to Yang that she’s not okay, that she’s angry. With Penny’s death in Volume 3, Ruby fell to her knees and cried as Mercury walked away with a smile. Here in Volume 5, she rushes to the aid of Yang and stares down Emerald and Mercury, headbutting the latter as they engage in combat, further telling Mercury she’s going to do whatever it takes to shut him up.

This arc of strength and action we will no doubt soon see in Volume 6, as in the trailer when Yang asks Ruby what the plan is, Ruby responds: “Don’t let anyone else die.”

RWBY‘s sixth season is coming this Saturday on Rooster Teeth’s website to those subscribed to its First package. However, Fathom Events actually has the premiere with an hour and a half event on the big screen tomorrow, October 25th. I’m attending, but I promise to reveal no spoilers on the Internet until S6E1 is available for all.