04 - Volume 1, Episodes 9-14 | Table of Contents | Volume 1 Final Thoughts
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(Hey! This recap is image-heavy--and by that I mean, a LOT more image-heavy than usual.)
So. You have to deal with incredible, uncomfortable amounts of racism, BUT in exchange, you get to see the undefeated champion of fight scenes...
*knocking on the screen* Hey, you there. If you’ve been online at all in recent weeks, you know what our current social and political climate is like—so you know that when it comes to racial issues in this spork, I’m probably going to have to use some tact and discretion, moreso than I would on any other day. I ask that you make an effort in the same vein. Think carefully before you shoot your mouth off about real-world issues in the comments, and if you have doubts about how your comment will be received by peers...better not to bother.
We are now on the final two episodes of Volume 1.
Teams have been established, we have several terms filling up our little glossary, and we’ve had minor amounts of character development. Our overall meandering adventure has taken us through the awkward and mediocre and punctuated it with occasional pants-wetting badassery. Having spent most of Volume 1 meeting our setting and characters, and then getting a couple of focus episodes, it might surprise you to learn that our first true arc starts here—directly before an eight-month hiatus.
No sense going at a slow pace. Let’s take off.
We open up on a descending view of the city of Vale, whose streets have been decked in balloons of yellow, red, and green. We see Team RWBY strolling through, just in time to see a “Welcome to Vale” banner being raised. Weiss promptly explains that the Vytal Festival is near, which has her unusually happy. A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world—dances, parades, and a tournament, which is the important part—all due in an untold amount of time. Yang would like to know why this means they’re at the docks, and it turns out students are arriving today. Weiss loftily explains that she wants to welcome them properly, but Blake snipes that she’s really just trying to get an early look at the competition.
Ruby’s attention is drawn to a crime scene nearby, with police having tapes off a busted-up dust shop, and here’s the first hints of that over-arching plot I mentioned. The police mention that this is the second dust shop hit this week, and that again, all the money has been left, but all the dust taken, which apparently makes no sense.
*clasps hands* You have described dust as a natural energy source that can create anything from lightning to combustion to freezing. It is also, spoiler alert, used in powder form as ammunition—that is to say, all the weapons in this series are powered by it. I know that this is meant to be a hint that someone has bigger aims than simple robbery, but to say that it doesn’t make any sense is like saying that someone breaking into a gun store and stealing all the guns, but leaving the cash, makes no sense. It’s pretty clear what the intent with the stolen items is.
Also—
Those officers’ hairstyles are going to become baffling in just a second. Pretty sure the one on the left is a recycled Junior head, and as for the one on the right…
The police toss around the idea of the White Fang—remember them? Weiss does, calling them “an awful bunch of degenerates”. Blake takes issue with this.
W: I simply don’t care for the criminally insane.
B: The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They’re a collection of misguided faunus.
W: ‘Misguided’? They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet!
B: So then they’re very misguided. Either way, it doesn’t explain why they would rob a dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale.
Ruby remarks that Blake has a point, and besides, the police never caught Torchwick from the first episode, whose visible M.O. so far matches the crime scene’s. Weiss, brushing this off, says it doesn’t change the fact that the White Fang are “a bunch of scum”. According to her, all faunus know how to do is lie, cheat, and steal.
Yang pipes up with, ever direct, “that’s not necessarily true…”
BAM! New character! Yes, I know, racism intrigue, but shhh, put it on hold, we’ll get to it in just a few minutes.
A voice from offscreen yells “Hey, stop that faunus!” and the RWBY gang turn and run to watch a seeming street kid running on a boat pulling into the docks, pursued by two teens. He’s got a very…distinct appearance.
Hopping up onto the ledge, he thanks them for the ride, then leaps onto the pier and starts making his way down the street, pursued by the pair of police from earlier. They happen upon him hanging from a street lamp by his tail, eating a banana upside down, casually smart-assing his accusers and freely admitting to stowing away on their ship. He casually dodges a rock thrown at him. Remember that photo of the police from earlier? Yeah, about that…
Yeah, see, I’m dying to know who it was that thought audiences wouldn’t notice that a nameless NPC has the exact same face and hair as the newly-introduced character, while in the same scene as that character and speaking right to him. And beyond that, I’d like to know why we plopped that head onto that body to begin with—I’ve heard that most of the character’s polygons are in his hair and can cause quite some problems when duplicating more than one into a scene.
This isn’t helping your case regarding the whole ‘shamelessly ‘borrowing’ models and hoping people won’t notice’ thing, Rooster Teeth. That’s both baffling and lazy.
But, putting that to the side, our handsome, tanned, blond, ab-laden monkey faunus who is currently busy exuding casual coolness simply answers the Junior officer’s demand to get down by throwing the banana peel in his face, laughing, and leaving. He’s quite the acrobat, making another leap of a dozen feat with a flip and a rolling somersault to land.
His continued evasion of the authorities takes him up onto the street, where he has the fortune to pass by Team RWBY, and—
Yeah Blake, I feel you.
That was our titular Stray, and his name is Sun Wukong. For those of you not in the know, Sun Wukong is a character from ancient Chinese literature, and is also known as Son Goku—aka, the inspiration behind that Goku, yes.
This character is going to come up a lot in this recap. I’m going to talk about him plenty—not usually at length, but often times in bits as they come along. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nikepencraft, if you’re still out there, I know it took me ages to get to this, but this character is important to the “racism subplot” and particularly its rewrite that you asked me for. I haven’t forgotten!
Y: Well Weiss, you wanted to see the competition, and theeere it goes.
Following this train of thought, Weiss summons the group to follow him, and Yang and Ruby answer this call, though Blake is understandably still a little dazed by that flashbang wink she took a second ago.
Before they can get very far, they round a sharp corner and Weiss runs right into someone new, crashing to the ground. She looks up in time to see Sun lose the police by just leaping right up onto a rooftop.
Yang brings Weiss’ attention to where it should be, which is the person she just bowled the fuck over.
The girls say hello and ask if she’s okay. This girl, still on the ground, gives a very...saccharine salutation, with similarly stilted and exaggerated responses after, only standing up when invited to, after seeming to think about it for a moment.
P: My name is Penny! It’s a pleasure to meet you!
RWBY are very weirded out by this girl. They introduce themselves in turn, Yang getting an elbow from Blake when she bluntly asks if she hit her head. Penny continues to act very mechanical, and this puts the girls off enough that Weiss curtly apologizes and Ruby waves her off with “Take care, friend”.
Yang remarks that the girl was weird, and Weiss is still single-mindedly focused on “that faunus riff-raff”. (Shhh, we’re still getting to it. Patience). RWBY don’t make it very far before Penny has popped up again, comically confusing Weiss. The look on her face is less of bizarre cheerfulness and now more...unbalanced? She strolls right up to Ruby and gets in her face, with this question:
P: You called me your ‘friend’. Am I really your friend?
Ruby, about to fall over backwards, does not take the hints from her unnerved teammates behind her, and says “Y-Yeah, sure...why not?”
In the midst of disbelieving exasperation on the part of WBY, Penny is thrilled.
P: Sen–sational! We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!
R: [Bewildered, mumbling to Weiss] Was this what it was like when you met me?
W: No—she seems far more coordinated.
Damn, Weiss, chill out. You’re gonna start another forest fire. Yang asks what Penny’s here for, and Penny boldly responds that she’s here to fight in the tournament, declaring herself “combat-ready!”. Weiss raises a vocal eyebrow at this, given her presentation so far, but Blake reminds her that, with her crinoline-filled skirt and silky snow sleeves, she’s hardly in a position to judge. Weiss, after a low-five wisecrack with Ruby about it being a “combat skirt”, changes tack very quickly and takes Penny by the shoulders, asking, since she’s here for the tournament, if that means she knows that “monkey-tailed rapscallion”. Yes, that matter is finally back in play. Penny is not in the know, and Weiss presents a poorly-drawn picture of “the filthy faunus from the boat!”.
Blake has finally had enough, as have I, and she demands to know why Weiss has to continue referring to Sun, along with faunus broadly, as things like “rapscallion” and “degenerate” instead of, you know, a person.
Things get even more wildly uncomfortable when Weiss sarcastically responds if she should stop calling trash cans ‘trash cans’, or lamp posts by ‘lamp posts’. Uhh, sis…
Blake is getting angrier, but Weiss just responds that Sun clearly broke the law, and that given time, he’ll probably join up with those other faunus in the White Fang. Things descend into a heated argument as Yang and Ruby look on, and now it is time to pop the cap on this baby before we really get going.
Let’s just slap this thing right here and discuss it, shall we?
Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters
The page itself goes into wonderfully succinct detail, but the point to be made here is that it’s quite common in fiction to explore the grey area of ‘what violence is morally upright, and what violence can’t be excused’. The trope name itself makes that point quite clearly. And the point I would like to make is that it’s totally possible to explore that grey area while sticking firmly to the in-story fictional situation, without drawing comparisons to or crafting allegories for real-life situations, and RWBY…didn’t.
Let’s not beat around the bush—the faunus civil rights movement being portrayed here is very plainly an allegory for the racial equality movement in America, with particular application to black Americans. We have already left the safe zone—Rooster Teeth have these faunus (people with animal characteristics, which is...whew, really bad on its own…) as stand-ins for Americans of color and their struggles, by the words of their own mouths.
Rooster Teeth are also very noticeably composed mostly of white Americans.
You can probably guess where this is going.
Plots like this often take the road of ‘oppression is bad, but extremism is also bad’, which may have been taken as fairly poignant in 2013, but by now is aging terribly because of just how tone-deaf it’s been revealed to be, especially in the hands of white, straight, often middle-class Americans who frankly think they have a far cleaner and un-tainted view of racial divisions than they actually do.
I’m very disappointed to be able to say that, back when this first came out seven years ago, I was simply nodding along. It was the way things were at the time--social justice had not burgeoned yet, and we were miles away from the reckoning that would envelop America in the wake of George Floyd.
The difference is, I grew out of that. Time and growth has given me enough perspective to be able to see what a terrible idea this was. Rooster Teeth, and particularly writers Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross, did not grow out of this. They, and a large portion of Rooster Teeth as well as its working environment as a whole, were and are racists, and this approach in Volume 1, while lacking in a lot of ways, is going to look downright saintly when we get to later volumes.
It surprises many a white American to learn that Martin Luther King Jr., paragon of nonviolent protest, refused to condemn violent protestors. It takes a very nuanced perspective to write oppression allegories, and in the current day and age, only unwise fools try and write "Freedom by Violence = Extremism and Terrorism" plots.
Our lovely crew up at Rooster Teeth do not have the proper perspective, and it shows.
Please refrain from calling the crew, particularly any individual members of it, any heated names or labels...for now. This is a matter of very visible ignorance rather than malice, and it’s now ready to begin tainting the plot of this show. Furthermore, please refrain from bringing up any real-life groups. You know the ones.
This is our racism subplot, guys—the White Fang. And they are already fumbling it bad.
The first fumble came a little while ago.
W: I simply don’t care for the criminally insane.
B: The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They’re a collection of misguided faunus.
W: ‘Misguided’? They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet!
B: So then they’re very misguided. Either way, it doesn’t explain why they would rob a dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale.
Although we can guess by context what the White Fang get up to (so far: thievery), it’s a far-off hit from Weiss’ branding of them as genocidal. That could possibly be a point to nod along with as we’re shown that Weiss has wildly mischaracterized the White Fang, except that Blake with her very next line all but admits this to be true. Think about the sorts of people that go on tirades about civil rights protestors desiring “white genocide”. Are they the sorts of people you’d characterize as a player on the moral greyscale who “sort of have a point, but also not really”? Does the in-story advocate for civil rights in question actually giving ground to that disgusting idea make this little tidbit taste a lot more sour? It does for me.
RSVP: 2
The next fumble came just a minute ago.
W: Oh, I’m sorry—would you like me to stop referring to the trash can as a ‘trash can’, or this lamp post as a ‘lamp post’?
B: Stop it!
W: Stop what? He clearly broke the law. Given time, he’ll probably join up with those other faunus in the White Fang!
Weiss’ comments here are disturbingly realistic in accordance to real-life ‘racists who don’t think they’re racist’, and I know because I’ve heard these same stances in my house. The idea that they’re just ‘telling it like it is’ and ‘not sugar-coating it’, plus the idea that, because the law was broken, the person himself is morally corrupted and no extra context is needed, and then the lamentation about how it’s only a matter of time before he joins a gang or a terrorist group…
RSVP: 3
But why the point? Ugly as it is, if it’s to the benefit of characterizing Weiss as a racist so her racism can be unlearned later, what’s the problem? Shouldn’t it be given points for accuracy?
You’ll see.
The next fumble is a very...questionable scene that is now upon us, so let’s get back into it. Remember the Jaune-and-Pyrrha-on-the-rooftop scene? Same deal as before—let’s take it in, then take it apart at the end. Scene: it’s late, we’re in the RWBY dorm, and Ruby and Yang are still watching Blake and Weiss have their argument:
W: You realize you’re defending an organization that hates humanity, don’t you? The faunus of the White Fang are pure evil!
B: There’s no such thing as pure evil! Why do you think they hate humanity so much? Because of people like Cardin, because of people like you, that force the White Fang to take such drastic measures.
W: [affronted] People like me?!
B: You’re discriminatory!
W: I’m a victim!
[There is a pause; the music has taken a somber turn, and when Blake doesn’t respond, Weiss continues in a quiet, cold voice]
W: You want to know why I despise the White Fang? Why I don’t particularly trust the faunus? [she moves over to the open window and stares out of it] It’s because they’ve been at war with my family for years. War, as in actual bloodshed. My grandfather’s company has had a target painted on its back for as long as I can remember, and ever since I was a child, I’ve watched family friends disappear, board members executed, an entire train car full of dust stolen. And every day, my father would come home furious, and that made for a very… [Weiss’ hand curls into a fist and beats the bookshelf beneath it] …difficult childhood.
R: [walking in from offscreen, putting a hand on Weiss’ shoulder] Weiss…
W: [brushing her off] No! [returning to look Blake in the eye, hands behind her back] You want to know why I despise the White Fang? It’s because they’re a bunch of liars! Thieves! And murderers!
B: Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!!!
There is a silence as Blake realizes she just made a very grave slip-up, and she flees the room. Ruby calls after her, and Weiss reacts with stunned realization and grim, hardening features.
Blake runs out into the Beacon courtyard, running until she stops, out of breath, in front of a statue. Much like one from a certain Ministry, it appears to be triumphant and unified at first glance, but what it says to the characters looking on is a bit different. Blake’s attention is drawn first to the sword-wielding, heroic humans above, then to the beastly Grimm wolf below:
Slowly, looking heartbroken, Blake lifts her hands up to her head, removing her black bow and revealing a pair of feline ears. She wipes a tear from her cheek, but then looks behind her as a voice says…
S: I knew you would look better without the bow.
*clap* Alright, well…that’s not the end of the episode, though it’s close enough that I’m tempted to transcribe it anyway, but I don’t think I can hold this in any longer. We need to address that tirade by Weiss.
First thing’s first—congratulations, Rooster Teeth! You almost—almost—managed a sympathetic bigot angle in which Weiss’ blatant racism, when given context, isn’t excusable, but is at least understandable. Her story is rather sob-worthy. Weiss is 17, and the only frame of reference she’s grown up with for the White Fang, and by extension all faunus, is them fucking murdering her friends and family. That would fuck any child up, and as insular as Weiss’ home life has been implied to be up to this point, it makes sense that even without that relatively drastic excuse, she’d grow up to hate faunus due to inheriting the prejudices of her environment. The moral quandary of what happens when the violence goes too far, when people who had family and loved ones get caught in the crossfire…it’s almost there. There’s just one teensy, tiny, miniscule little problem with this:
YOU DIDN'T FUCKING SHOW IT, YOU NUMBSKULLS!!!
Show, Don’t Tell, motherfuckers! Oldest rule in the book, there was no excuse for this! You cannot just have Weiss tell us that the White Fang are out here kidnapping her family friends and executing board members!
Think about how hard this could have hit if they had actually gone the whole hog with this. Picture Weiss, seven years old, asking her distant father what happened to Uncle Schnee, only to be told that he ‘went away’ and watch all pictures of him be removed from the house. Picture Weiss, nine years old, peeking in on her mother, unseen from the staircase to the living room, watching her cry her eyes out over a news broadcast on the television with the headline “Schnee Loses Another Cousin”. Picture Weiss, eleven years old, hiding under her bed and crying while she hears screaming and sees red and blue lights bouncing off her bedroom walls from the yard outside.
Framed like that, Weiss’ virulent distrust of the White Fang would make perfect sense, even if she’s still in the wrong for it.
But you didn’t give it to us. Left with only what we’ve seen of the White Fang so far and a depiction of a non-RWBY faunus who is currently sniping the “lovable rogue” role, what are we supposed to do? Take Weiss’ depiction of them at face value?
Degenerates. Criminally insane. Scum. Riff-raff. Rapscallion. Filthy. Liars, thieves, and murderers. Pure evil. Every single one of those is getting a point, and you know why? Because given the chance to frame it properly, you fucking blew it!!!
RSVP: 13
In fact, it’s worse than that. They didn’t just blow it—they forgot about it.
That’s the nail in the coffin, guys. Even if I thought it was a serious detriment to not show Weiss experiencing all of those things she brought up, I could at least get past it if it were talked about longer than it took to leave Blake looking like the fool and have the final word that matters in the argument. But this never comes up again—never, not once. All of the things Weiss mentioned that would realistically traumatize the shit out of a child, all of the effects of growing up in the very center of an unfolding race war...never brought up again. It’s already vanished.
RSVP: 14
That is what throws the wrench in and makes me doubt the intent behind that little bit of character revelation—because it wasn’t committed to.
Furthermore, I wanna point out a couple of other things that, in the face of that mess, might pass some readers by:
- Note the order of events that Weiss describes. First, kidnappings. Second, executions. Finally…a traincar full of dust stolen. This is obviously mentioned last because it’s the train theft Blake participated in, and is thus going to be a “!” moment for viewers, but unfortunately it doesn’t fit the listing format. The way Weiss is telling it, it sounds like the thinks a shipment of dust being stolen is on the same level as kidnapping and homicide, or somehow worse.
- Note that Blake was not given the chance to rebut Weiss’ dramatic, somber, oh-so-victimized revelations. Due to the slip-up placed at the prime dramatic moment, the viewer does not get to hear what sort of crimes may have been inflicted on the White Fang to measure up to such traumatic violence. Do faunus get killed in hate crimes? Do faunus answer to a brutally inefficient and bigoted police system? Have faunus suffered directly under Schnee in such a brutalistic fashion as to warrant this retaliation? Those questions aren’t asked, and as such the general impression is...no. And the underlying impression is that the writers don’t think those questions needed to be asked because they don’t think those things happen in real life. Can anyone spell “uncomfortable”? Another two points, then.
RSVP: 16
Unfortunately, we still have a ways to go.
By the next morning, Blake has still not returned to the dorm, as evidenced by the somber look Ruby gives her empty bunk. RWY are forced to go looking for her.
As they are strolling down the street, Ruby mourns that she’s been gone all weekend. Weiss is obstinately unconcerned, saying she can handle herself. Yang expresses reproach, saying Blake is their team member, but Weiss balks. Is she, really, she says? Despite Yang’s reprimands, she says that Blake is a member of the White Fang who was hiding underneath their noses, with the air that she should be left to her devices. Ruby just hopes she’s okay.
But, it looks like Blake is in good hands for now. Her own are grasping a cup of tea, and she’s sitting at the open-air dine-in of a cafe. Across from her, this fellow is looking rather mild:
B: So…you wanna know more about me.
A soft piano melody plays over a closing card bearing silhouettes of Penny and Sun.
Holy shit, we’re nine pages in and then some! At this rate, I might have to split these two episodes into their own post each.
We open up on the same small little cafe we closed out on. Sun is quite thrilled that Blake has something substantial to say:
S: Finally, she speaks! Nearly two days and you’ve given me nothing but small talk and weird looks!
[Blake squints at him]
S: [unperturbed] Yeah, like that.
Letting that irk pass, Blake asks if Sun is familiar with the White Fang. Sun responds affirmatively, saying most faunus have heard of them, and identifying them as “stupid, holier-than-thou creeps who use force to get whatever they want”.
Save it. We’ll have words on that in particular, at the Volume Overview/Final Thoughts of this recap.
So Sun has a low opinion of the White Fang, which is evidently not what Blake was hoping for, but she continues nonetheless: she used to be a member. Sun coughs up his tea and expresses his shock, and Blake further clarifies she was a member for most of her life, and that one could call her ‘born into it’. 2D art deco depictions overlay her story as follows:
B: Back then, things were different. In the ashes of war, the White Fang was meant to be a symbol of peace and unity between humans and the faunus. Of course, despite being promised equality, the faunus were subjected to discrimination and hate. Humanity still thought of us as lesser beings. And so, the White Fang rose up as the voice of our people. And I was there. [Image of a young Blake holding a picket sign] I was at the front of every rally, I took part in every boycott. And I actually thought we were making a difference. But I was just a youthful optimist. Then, five years ago, our leader stepped down, and a new one took his place. [Image of a white flag being taken down and a red, claw-marked flag rising in its place] A new leader, with a new way of thinking. Suddenly our peaceful protests were being replaced with organized attacks. We were setting fire to shops that refused to serve us…hijacking cargo from companies that used faunus labor…and the worst part was, it was working. We were being treated like equals…but not out of respect. Out of fear.
The art deco fades to show us Sun, looking distressed. Blake sets her tea down, her reflection in it looking back up at her. She says that she left, deciding she no longer wanted to use her skills to aid in their violence, instead pursuing the path of the huntress.
B: So here I am. A criminal hiding in plain view. All with the help of a little black bow.
S: ...So. Have you told your friends any of this?
Before we move on, I again have things to say regarding this little depth into character.
First, see that my characterization of this plot being proven again: after a war centered on human rights, the abused people technically get said rights under law, but this doesn’t much change how they’re treated by their oppressors, and they still face discrimination and dehumanization. Anyone who hears that is going to immediately think of Jim Crow following the American Civil War. Both the real-life case and the fictional parallel make the case that just because you fight an exhaustive battle and get the official victory, all the hate doesn’t just vanish.
Second, note that this is…rather untypically correct for the tract I was framing it as before. I said earlier that plots with all the hallmarks matching this one tend to boil down to a tone-deaf “oppression is bad, but extremism helps nothing” message, often with a fairly flat depiction of any violence at all as extremism. However, here we see that according to Blake—the character who is a part of the oppressed group—that violence is acknowledged to work. Ugly it may be, but the point is made that even though no one really wants it to come to that, lashing out and busting the peaceful setting open and strewing the pieces everywhere does get results. It wakes people up. The only reason Blake left was that the violence was too much for her, not that it was inexcusable on principle. I could have my words about that suspect bit at the end of “not out of respect, out of fear”, but for now I’ll hold off with the concession that this is unexpectedly wise for a race conflict tract in the hands of white writers and animators.
(That’s not going to last, though.)
Also, keep this in the back of your mind. Remember that bit about Ozpin last post, about how it might seem like they were setting something up, but they weren’t? This is a similar case. Just because something comes of this later doesn’t mean it was actually in the cards at the time.
Also, I like Sun. He’s hot, he’s patient, he listens, he’s helpful. I like him. I just wanna get that out of the way before we move on to the next scene, which is…
…RWY still looking for Blake. Well, Ruby and Yang are, but Weiss isn’t helping. When this is brought up, she stubbornly suggests contacting the police. That is another one of those lines that, in 2013, was tone-deaf, and right now just looks awful. Ruby does not take to this suggestion, and she and Yang insist on hearing Blake out.
The three girls are surprised to find themselves in the sudden company of one Penny, making herself known with a compliment on Weiss’ hair. When she asks the alarmed girls what they’re up to, they say they’re looking for Blake, and Penny immediately identifies her as “the faunus girl”.
That…is fucking scary, is what that is, but since what Rooster Teeth were thinking was almost certainly not what I’m thinking, we’ll play it off as a Luna Lovegood-like sense of intuition, which...I think was the intention. Silence reigns as RWY take in Penny’s uncanny discernment.
On hearing that Blake has been missing for two days, Penny dramatically insists on helping in her ever-cheerful demeanor, quite pointedly referring to Ruby as “friend” again. Ruby would like to deter her, but upon looking to Weiss and Yang for backup, she finds they’ve already split. Damn, girls, little rude.
We cut to Sun and Blake meandering down a quiet street. Sun’s abs look fantastic. He asks (and I should mention that his voice is surprisingly well-done considering this was Michael Jones’ first voice role, I’m pretty sure) what the ‘plan’ is now. Blake is deliberating; she still doesn’t believe the White Fang are behind the recent string of robberies, as they’ve never needed such a huge stock of dust before now, but she has no way to prove it.
You need to see the resulting goofball-ery for yourself:
S: What if they did? I mean, the only way to prove that they didn’t do it, is to go to the place where they would most likely go to if they were to do it, and not find them there, right?
I love him.
Blake, unfortunately, has no such leads, but Sun does: while he was stowing away, he heard tell of a huge shipment of dust being offloaded soon—a big Schnee Company freighter. So, hey, if he’s sure, that’s where they’ll head.
We cut back to Weiss and Yang, still searching for Blake absent a ditched leader-slash-little-sister. Having exited a shop with no new info, Yang is starting to lose hope. She glumly asks if Weiss really doesn’t care if they find her, but Weiss says she does. She’s just afraid of what Blake will say once they do.
W: The innocent never run, Yang.
…….
RSVP: 17
Cut to Ruby and Penny. Penny has questions. Why would she be mad at Blake if they’re friends? If it’s Weiss who’s mad, is she Blake’s friend? Ruby isn’t sure. Blake, she explains, might not be who they thought she was.
P: [gasp] Is she a man?
That ice under your feet is getting thinner by the day, RT. That’s almost a non-sequitur in how little sense it makes from point A to point B. That’s not a logic leap believable in a normal person or a bizarre mechanical teenager. But sure, Blake being a man is just fucking hilarious.
Ruby sighs and explains that Blake didn’t exactly talk to them a lot before running off. Penny says that she doesn’t have a lot of friends, but that if she did, she’d want them to talk to her about things. Ruby dejectedly agrees.
We pan upward as we fade to night time. Blake is atop some shipment containers, scoping out the docks. Sun pops up with some stolen apples, asking if he missed anything (he didn’t) and offering her some. She asks if he always breaks the law without a second thought, and glares at him when he brings up her being in a “cult”.
Hey, stop that. Not him. You, Rooster Teeth.
Their banter is interrupted by a fierce wind. An airship has found its way to this place, and uses skylights to check for interlopers before landing. Once it’s parked, who should come out but some masked White Fang minions? Much to Blake’s disappointment. But they’re not the only ones there—Roman Torchwick is on the scene.
RT: Hey, what’s the hold-up? We’re not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don’t you animals try to pick up the pace?
Mmn, the sour flavor of yet more racism.
Blake is perturbed by this. She says the White Fang would never work with a human, least of all one like this goon. She draws her katana and is on the move, alarming Sun. Before he can stop her, she’s off down to the docks, hiding behind a freight crate before she sees her moment, zipping up behind Torchwick and getting her blade up against his throat. Weapons are pointed at her, but her captive is unconcerned.
Removing her bow, she calls out to the members of the White Fang, asking why they’re aiding someone like this. The minions noticeably falter and lower their weapons somewhat. Torchwick asks if Blake isn’t a bit out of the loop—he and the White Fang are “in on a joint business venture”. Blake demands to know what it is, putting the barbed blade of Gambol Shroud right up against his neck, and threatening to end his little operation. As two more airships pull in, Torchwick notes ‘little’ to be quite the misnomer. Taking advantage of Blake’s distraction, he fires his cane-gun at the ground, knocking her back.
…
……Um. Does anyone want to tell me how that works?
It’s one thing for a firework detonation pointed straight into the ground at a slight angle to explode in such a directional fashion as to only hit the person standing behind the detonator…but even generously assuming so, how did this not result in injury? Blake’s katana was right against his neck—jolting her backward with a sudden violent force seems like a decision liable to result in his head being sliced off.
Sorry. I gotta do it.
Ill Logic: 7
Your Fight Scene Sucks: 4
Ruby hears the explosion some miles away and sees a column of smoke rising into the sky, soberly realizing what they mean.
Contrary to the point above, the rest of the fight scene does not suck, and in fact I rank it right up there as one of RWBY’s best, if not the best.
Blake is disoriented, and picks herself up just in time to dodge a salvo of fireworks released from Torchwick’s cane. Torchwick is prepared to pursue as she flees, but a banana peel lands on his bowler hat, distracting him. Enter Sun Wukong: he leaps down from the crate below and lands feet-first right on Torchwick’s face in a display that, were this not a show featuring animesque durability, would’ve cracked his skull open. Sticking the landing gracefully as ever, he demands Torchwick leave Blake alone.
Torchwick immediately has him surrounded by blade-wielding WF mooks, evidently not taking him for much. Sun proves this to be a mistake, busting out some martial arts that are nothing short of amazing, hitting with fists, feet, and tail before whipping out a goddamn unfolding bo staff. And then he starts beating unholy amounts of ass with beautiful metallic whips and thunks and cracks:
Blake can be seen peeking from around a crate at the on-goings. This is what she sees:
You ever double leg drop a dude into the dirt, then double backflip onto his head, then backflip off of his head so hard you turn the downward motion into forward motion and send him careening through the air straight at the bowler-clad bitch boy who tried to mess with your lady friend?
Or, how bout this, you ever just say no to a firework detonation?
Blake sees her moment though and gets involved, leaping over Sun and shouting “He’s mine!” She leaps and whirls, circling him and swiping from several angles, but she gets blindsided—Roman can fight back, and is actually pretty handy with that cane. He stands in one spot, twirling and blocking her blade, pouncing on every advantage he finds until he’s beating her into the ground.
Sun promptly takes over and Holy Fucking White-Beard Grandpa God Above--!!!
Your eyes do not fucking deceive you, that actually happened. Sun just leapt in and broke his bo staff into not two, but four sawed-off shotguns that are chained together in pairs to double as nunchucks (GUNCHUCKS!!! SUNCHUCKS!!!) and just went ape shit, pun absolutely fucking intended, on Torchwick, firing and reloading and swinging all at the same time, and actually making headway and advancing on Torchwick—you can see his legs moving forward while the bowler bitch is moving back—and then finishing it all off by throwing one pair of nunchaku in the air while he goes for the last hit and then catching it without looking just to remind you that his dick is bigger than your whole arm and you are but a tiny insect in the face of his unceasing badassery.
Monty Oum, man after my own heart!
Excuse me, but I need a moment. My pants have exploded, and I also might be pregnant. I’ll be right back.
Welp, as it turns out, every last pair of pants I own has in fact exploded after that, so it looks like the rest of this recap is going to be me freeballin’ it. It’s cold, though, so I brought a blanket.
It doesn’t end there, though! Once Blake, back in the fight, follows up Sun’s orgasmic shotgun-bo-staff-nunchuck fest with a swipe that sends Torchwick sprawling, he decides to maybe get creative before this really turns against him:
He aims his gun-cane up at a suspension cable, with the firework snapping it and sending the enormous crate hurtling downward. Blake leaps backwards, but Sun leaps forward, sprawling himself right into the barrel of a freshly-recovered Torchwick. The bastard has just enough time to get in a smug look before help finally arrives on the scene: Ruby Rose, swinging her scythe and looking pissed that this chump is back in her hair. Oh, and Penny.
Roman snarks that it’s probably past ‘Red’s’ bedtime, and when Penny hesitantly asks if these people are her friends, Ruby turns her head over her shoulder to advise her to get back. Roman springs on this moment, aiming his cane straight at her and firing, sending Ruby sprawling.
And after that, well, Penny decides it’s time to cash in on this badassery fest of beating the shit out of Roman Torchwick and really tops it off:
Penny’s back backpack opens up and out pops an unfolding metal instrument which splits into eight arm-length knives. With a smile on her face, utterly beautiful shing-and-whirl blade sounds, and a disturbing amount of proficiency, little Penny crash-lands on the docks and begins carving up every White Fang mook in sight:
Penny’s not done yet. Determined to unload a full brand-new-character’s worth of badass to compete with Sun, she blocks a hail of aircraft gunfire, then pulls herself back into position with near-invisible strings on two knives being used as anchors. She then folds eight more knives into gun-like configurations, before generating an enormous laser blast that fucking carves the two airships to pieces!!!
She just doesn’t quit! One last airship is trying to escape with some cargo. Penny responds by hooking several more knives into its hull, activating those strings, and then using herself as an anchor, strengthening their hold until she can yank the entire fucking thing down!!!
Roman takes his last airship and blitzes it hefore Penny can wreck that one, too. So he’s gone—but he didn’t get any dust, and I’ve been absolutely blasted with badassery for five straight minutes.
*panting*
Just…just give me a minute.
Dear God...don’t put a guy through all of that at once, man...
I...what were we doing? What was going on again?
Uh… *shuffles notes* *adjusts glasses* Er, something about racism? I think Blake went missing?
We cut to later in the day, when it’s light out. Police are on the scene to investigate, and Ruby, Blake, Sun, and Penny are sitting on crates silently. Yang and Wiess finally catch up with them. Ruby leaps up and has her motor-mouth going in defense of Blake, trying to avoid a sure confrontation, but Weiss walks right past her and up to Blake herself.
Ohhh, boy! This is a fun moment. You know that big count system I laid out at the beginning of this spork? I bet you thought it was a tad weird that some of them still have zeroes on them by now. And I admit, in certain cases I was thinking more about future volumes than this one. But on at least one of them, I can promise we will not be leaving empty-handed!
I bet you guys are wondering what the resolution will be to this big matter between Blake and Weiss. A lot’s happened in the last ten minutes for them, never mind the last two days. Will Weiss have to confront her own racism or apologize in any way? Will Blake experience some angst as she realizes that, bigot she might be, Weiss does have reasons to detest the White Fang, if not every faunus? Will these two have a real conversation where we can look forward to Blake’s past and Weiss’ past clashing until the two figure out how to co-exist?
*flourish*
B: Weiss, I want you to know that I’m no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with—
W: Stop. Do you have any idea how long we’ve been searching for you? …Twelve hours. That means I’ve had twelve hours to think about this. And, in that twelve hours, I’ve decided…
[Everyone looks on uneasily]
W: …I don’t care.
B: …You don’t care?
W: You said you’re not one of them anymore, right?
B: No, I haven’t been since I—
W: Apupupupup—I don’t want to hear it. All I want to know, is if the next time something this big comes up…you’ll come to your teammates. And not some…
[Everyone looks at Sun]
W: …Someone else.
B: [wipes a tear; everyone smiles] Of course.
*sounds of air being let out of a balloon slowly.*
Well. Fuck you. I think we all know what I have to say about that?
RSVP: 18
That’s for Sun. Fuck off, Weiss. Why should she go to team members who don’t even like her and were debating turning her in to the police over a fellow faunus who can understand her problems and, more importantly, took the time to listen to them? Fuck you, you entitled flaming judgemental bigot.
But that’s not even the important part. The important part is this:
Road to Nowhere: 1
That entire matter we just spent twenty-odd minutes building up, which took more than two days in-story to even reach its climax and, by expectation, resolve? Poof. Nope. No resolution for you.
Rooster Teeth, I hate to break this to you, but people don’t just get over racism. Do you remember my detour a couple posts ago about how I hate it when characters just get over personal problems they realistically should talk about because “there’s more important things”? Yeah, there’s nothing to hide behind now—that’s exactly what you did here.
Weiss’ Tragic BackstoryTM? Blake’s angst over the destructive methods chosen by her kind? They don’t matter. That’s not me talking—they had her straight-up say it. She doesn’t care. No one does!
Twelve hours to think (offscreen) about it, and bam, all that “the innocent never run” is gone. Doesn’t matter. Not even an attempt at a realistic or at least reasonable confrontation.
Actually, I should note something. It’s not just that they slapped the “resolved” button on this matter even though they 100% have done nothing of the sort—they did worse than that. Blake is the one making amends to Weiss. She is the one trying to make her team mate understand, and goes so far as to swear up and down she’s not with them anymore, even though we know “them” actually means a lot to Blake. Weiss does not even blink in the direction of an apology or any sort of acknowledgement that she was indeed a flaming racist, Tragic BackstoryTM or otherwise.
How dare you, Rooster Teeth? How dare you expect anyone to swallow this?
And that’s not even considering poor Sun, who was the one she was making all the shitty remarks about despite not even knowing him! He’s not even present in this scene. He doesn’t get to make his feelings on being the target of racism known.
Well, I take part of that back. He is in the scene…so that he can awkwardly chuckle when Weiss points a finger at him and says “I’m still not quite sure how I feel about you!”
Wanna know a secret guys? Later on down the line, Weiss is going to be the most tolerable and vaguely interesting of the main cast. Take that in for a second.
And when you’re done with that, take a look at this: someone’s missing from this heartfelt, touching reunion. Penny has quietly slipped away and into a car.
A voice from the driver’s seat says that Penny “should know better than to go running around in a strange city”. I know sir, she says solemnly. He simply tells her, as the car drives off, that her time will come.
One more thing I need to show you guys, and I pray you will remember it:
Yes, after finishing a spy session on Ruby (that’s getting creepy, old man, stop that), Ozpin receives a message from Qrow, her uncle, reading “Queen has pawns”.
I’m serious, remember that for later. It’ll be important...and enraging.
After that, the credits roll, with the soft and tender piano and guitar of “Wings” bidding goodbye to Volume One. But wait! One last thing needs our attention! There’s a post-credits scene.
Roman walks into a warehouse, a case in hand, and jumps when his name is called by a woman offscreen. It turns out to be Cinder Fall, the woman with fire powers from the pilot episode, and two shadowed associates at either side of her. She says she expected more from him, and he complains about his partners in the form of the White Fang. Cinder not-so-subtly threatens him to keep quiet and keep a good work ethic, or else.
And finally, we can put this shit show to bed.
This is 19-going-on-20 pages in this Office Doc. I think this is the longest recap post I’ve ever made, and damn do I feel drained. And this isn’t over—I have my Final Thoughts to do for this volume, where I discuss plot, characters, and all the rest of that jazz.
But for right now, I feel like I’ve been run over by a train. I’ll see you guys some time later.
Counts:
- Fauxminism: 4
- It Was Right There: 1
- Hypocrisy: 1
- Ice Cream Queens: 0
- Reliable Leaders: 3
- Prowling Wolf Fallacy: 0
- Threatening Enemies: 1
- Love to Be a Part of It Someday: 0
- Your Fight Scene Sucks: 4 + 2
- Evisceration Evasion: 2
- Ill Logic: 7
- Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Veil: 3
- Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge: 0
- Band-Aid Brigade: 0
- RSVP: 18
- Road to Nowhere: 1
no subject
Date: 2020-07-10 07:32 pm (UTC)From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2020-07-13 10:45 am (UTC)From:Oh yeah. Apologies, but that moment has yet to stop being funny for me. Still, the bit about clothing does bring to mind the fighters in this show who wear prominent heels... *Sideshow Bob-esque growl*
Agreed. Sun attacking Roman with shotgun-nunchauks, and Roman absolutely tanking it all, is fucking glorious.
Maybe it's because it's been years since I last watched through the early seasons, but I can't say the whole "White Fang Arc" left much of an impression on me, or that I particularly care for it. It just feels/felt so inconsequential to the show as a whole, what with the other plotlines, and the characterization of Adam later down the line. And now it turns out that it too was more badly handled than I remember.
Oh, hell.