Category: RWBY

Rooster Teeth’s RWBY is now on its third episode of its sixth season. With S6E2 freely available on Rooster Teeth’s website and S6E3 behind the paywall that is Rooster Teeth First, here are my thoughts on these two new episodes. Spoilers follow.

Indeed, while I previously tried to restrain from spoilers while an episode was behind the paywall, S6E2 — titled “Uncovered” — was spoiled for me as I was scrolling Twitter or Instagram. Granted, this was my fault, as I did not watch the episode immediately after it became available. What was spoiled for me was Jinn. When I first saw the image of her, I was convinced it couldn’t be real, that somebody had inserted some poorly drawn fan art into the new episode. As I’m new to the RWBY fandom, and as people are always shipping this character and that character, I wasn’t sure if creating new characters was common practice, and I rushed to then watch the episode to see what was really going on. I guess I assumed there was this new character named Jinn, but she couldn’t look like that. Rather, the art I had seen was somebody’s interpretation of what this new, off screen character could look like. I was wrong. How a series which I’ve praised for its character design could introduce the lovechild of the Great Fairy from Breath of the Wild and the Genie from Disney’s Aladdin to it, I fail to understand. What were they thinking?

Fortunately, the episode has some high points in the struggle that Oscar is going through trying to maintain control of his body. That point gets very little attention in the series, and its such a disturbing piece of Ozpin’s reincarnation that I was glad to finally see some time devoted to it. I was with Oscar as he raged against Ozpin’s possession of his body and tried to get some information out to Ruby. The episode could have been about that conflict and it would have worked. However, Jinn’s appearance upstages Oscar. Furthermore, the revelation of Cinder’s return could have waited, seeing as the scene with Little Miss Muffet is indicated as taking place nearly two weeks after the train wreck. Why they’re telling the story so out of order is baffling. Oh, and what about Maz Kanata, I mean, Maria Calavera? She was just introduced in the previous episode. Maybe something more on her before introducing Jinn? At any rate, the most intriguing character in “Uncovered” was Oscar, and I’d like to see more of that tension between him and Ozpin.

Currently behind a paywall, S6E3 is titled “The Lost Fable,” and it’s a horrendously long piece of boring exposition. I can understand the desire to want to tell some backstory about other characters, but this is a tale of Salem and Ozpin covering a period of what must be thousands and thousands of years and narrated by Jinn. Team RWBY, Oscar, and Qrow make appearances on occasion, but it’s usually just to see their facial reactions to some event, and, occasionally, to utter a word. And where is Maria Calavera? Did she not get sucked into this flashback? Rooster Teeth could have told this tale as a webcomic mini-series, for instance, with each issue concerned with one of the many time periods we jump across. Or, they could have labeled it a Salem character expose and released it independently of the main series. As it stands, it’s an expositionary tale out of place at the beginning of a new season where most of us, I’m betting, just want to see the reunited team RWBY fight.

I’m not exactly pleased with Volume 6 of RWBY so far. The episodes are getting longer, but the worthwhile moments are diminishing.

One week has passed since Rooster Teeth’s RWBY S6E1 became available to subscribers of Rooster Teeth First, and that means the episode — titled “Argus Limited” — is now freely available to view. The episode did everything it needed to do, and here are my thoughts.

As expected, Ruby showed herself to be quite the capable leader, and not just of her team. Up until the train entered the tunnel, Qrow was the character leading the crew through the episode. However, his aggression was not what was needed to persuade Dudley to shut off the cannons. At that moment, it is Ruby who takes charge and leads us through the remainder of the episode. Her coolheadedness is precisely what the gathered group needs.

Surprisingly, Jaune also has his moment alongside Ruby. Thinking back to Sun and Neptune taking their leave of Blake and Ilia back at the train station, the episode’s predominant theme is that of leadership with the individual team leaders from the days at Beacon stepping up. Team SSSN is to be reassembled and made combat ready, RWBY is clearly back and not rusty, and JNPR, though it has lost Pyrrha, has a mission to fulfill in seeing the passengers of the Argus Limited to safety.

While these character developments are great, it wouldn’t be RWBY without some amazing action. Though I doubt we’ll ever find a way back to the amazing choreography of Volumes 1 & 2, Volume 6’s first episode at least gives us a pretty amazing fight with team RWBY, after battling numerous Manticores, together taking down a Sphinx. Granted, Qrow helps, but it’s good to see a complete team fight again after so much time apart.

While every character is awesome, Weiss is still my favorite, and it’s Weiss who stares down that Sphinx Grimm and its freaking serpent tail. So, a little Weiss appreciation…

I have not yet watched RWBY S6E2 as I do not currently have a Rooster Teeth First subscription. Regardless of whether I purchase one or not, my plan is to not post anything about the current episode until at least a week after it has premiered. The season is off to a good start with episode 1, and let’s hope that continues.

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.