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14 – Volume 3, Episode 1, “Round One” | Table of Contents | 16 – Volume 3, Episode 3, “It’s Brawl in the Family”
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Not much happened in the opening episode of Volume 3 that required a lot of talking. Most of it was a fight scene which had its ups and downs and the characters talking to each other in the fairegrounds. The episode ended, however, on the approaching match between JNPR and Team BRNZ of Vacuo. Let’s check up on them now.

V3E2, "New Challengers"

After our dire and chaotic intro, we pan across JNPR, all wielding their weapons and armed on the central platform of Amity Colosseum’s arena, which if you’ll remember from last post was split into ‘rocky, storm-washed mountainside’ and ‘thick forest’.

The bell rings, and JNPR charge, and there is immediately something notable about BRNZ—while three members charge forward to meet the protagonists, one instead runs off into the woods behind her, carrying a sniper rifle. Pyrrha clashes with a guy wielding claws on his dusters, and notes said sniper using the axe blade on the base of her gun to swing herself into a tree to get in position.

Nora chooses to swing her hammer at a guy with a baton, with Ren ready to back her up, only to skid to a stop when a powerful shot flies past him and shatters a boulder. Jaune, who is holding back a barrage of strikes from a guy with buzzsaw blades on his wrists, notices this, too. He quickly orders a retreat when he realizes holding off the other three will leave them vulnerable to the sniper girl’s shots.

The team take cover behind some crags, but they don’t have long before BRN catch up to them. Pyrrha asks what they should do, and Jaune orders them to fan out and try to keep moving, which is a smart move (and also kind of their only one available).

Z adjusts her position and watches the unfolding fights down below, where Ren is now up against the dude with the baton. He (N) nods over his shoulder, and Z focuses her fire on Ren, forcing him to dodge her shots. This leaves him open to N, who swipes him across the face with the baton, stumbling him. Ren tries to kick him, but misses, and N smacks his leg with the baton, opening him up to N’s coup de grace: there’s a taser on the end of his baton and he jabs it right into Ren’s chest, zapping him and knocking him back on his ass.

This predictably sends Nora into kill mode, who comes for N with her hammer and misses, getting the taser to the stomach. This doesn’t down her, however, and in fact, she looks up at N with a vicious grin.

In the background, Professor Port (who is commentating with Oobleck) alerts the audience that Nora’s semblance is the ability to absorb electricity and use it to power up her attacks, kind of like a variation on Yang’s own power. N hears this and realizes he’s in trouble, right in time for Nora to slam her hammer right into his groin and send him flying right across the field and through a large boulder.

Just in time, Jaune hears thunder and looks behind him, noticing a stormcloud rapidly growing atop the mountain. He orders Nora to get up there and do her thing while Ren keeps the sniper’s attention off of her. Ren is just thrilled about this.

Nora begins scaling the mountain in large leaps, while Pyrrha and Jaune occupy B and R, the latter of whom flings his buzzsaw blades at Jaune, resulting in a comical moment where Jaune gets bopped in the jaw by his own shield. After re-orienting himself, he goes for R while Pyrrha takes on B.

In the audience, RWBY cheer JNPR on, and Weiss notes Jaune’s visible improvement. Yang agrees, but is more interested in the performance Pyrrha is giving:

She’s basically holding off B and R on her own. Meanwhile, Ren is blitzing it forward, dodging Z’s shots and sliding underneath the whirlwind of Pyrrha’s skirmish and engaging N again. This time he manages to avoid a shock and gets N in a headlock, his gunblades locked back against N’s baton. Z, who obviously doesn’t want to risk friendly firing on her teammate, decides to change targets—she trains her rifle on Nora, who is still trying to get up the mountainside.

Ren calls out to Nora, and Jaune calls out to Pyrrha. She gets around B and R and leaps atop Jaune’s shield, which he’s holding over his head. He lifts, she jumps, and she gets enough air to place herself (and her shield) directly inbetween Nora and the bullet with her name on it. This sends Pyrrha flying backward, but gives Nora enough time to get directly beneath the burgeoning storm and absorb a lightning strike:

She then responds by opening the barrel of her grenade launcher and sending all of her canisters firing out at once, across the arena and to the place where Z is hiding out.

This puts an end to Z’s activities, since aside from having most of her cover destroyed, she can’t see through the smoke to get shots off. She and BRN seem to realize right on time that their seemingly airtight tactic has been repulsed, and Nora comes crashing down from the sky like thunder with hammer out, sending the latter three back in a mighty shockwave and right over to Z, opening them up for what Jaune thinks is a perfect opportunity for another finishing move:

J: Ren, Nora! Flower Power!

In case you thought I was off-course in suggesting these are the spiritual successors to Volume 2’s really amazing double attacks.

Jaune’s call for Flower Power has the air let out of it though when Ren and Nora don’t know what he’s talking about. They bicker for just long enough for the comical scene of BRNZ watching them do so in confusion to become a bit less comical and a bit more “why aren’t they making a move?”, to the point where BRNZ and the audience alike are demanding their focus come back to the fight. In the end, his frustration with his team not exhibiting the amazing battle chemistry he thought they would have leads to him simply sighing and suggesting Nora just finish the opposing team off with her hammer.

See? RWBY and Yang in particular could’ve just done that last episode. They literally just pointed this out.

And so ends the match to cheers for the winning team, and JNPR are secured for the doubles round along with RWBY. Honestly, this match was probably better to watch than the first one; we get to see tactics and counter-tactics applied correctly in the heat of the moment, and we get to see them with amazing fight choreography, too. The highlight is obviously Pyrrha taking the bullet for Nora and Nora absorbing a lightning strike.

However, not everyone was impressed by that fight. We cut to a place in Vale called the “Crow Bar”, and if you can’t guess who that is drinking at the barstool, I’m not going to tell you.

The bartender compliments JNPR’s performance, which is being broadcasted over the television screen, and mystery man (voiced by Vic Mignona, which makes sense) gives a disdainful ‘eh’ in response.

We cut next to Port and Oobleck’s commentary in the box, stating that another team from Vacuo are up to try and redeem BRNZ’ failure—Team NDGO, an all-girl team from Shade Academy. Port describes their opponents as some of the “toughest, testosterone-filled teammates we’ve seen so far!” Their opposition, then, is all-male team SSSN, representing Mistral.

Port reminds the viewers that Sun’s homeland is Vacuo, even if he’s representing his combat school, after a playful cut to the audience in which female fans (and one male one) are holding up posters of SSSN with hearts drawn on them—with the one of Sun being not of his face, but his six-pack. Hehe.

Weiss calls out a good luck wish to Neptune, who doesn’t seem to hear and instead flirts with NDGO. Weiss, agitated, instead starts rooting for NDGO, and yes, the fandom did support them “break[ing] his stupid face” with a bit more gusto than necessary for this.

As the match set-up begins to play out, Neptune continues his flirting with NDGO, which doesn’t go over well even with Sun’s attempts to make him shut up. The first half of the arena is chosen, causing a set of canyon crags half-buried in sand to rise up, and a bright sun to be generated over that side of the field. NDGO are obviously reminded of their home country and cite this as an advantage. Scarlet (voiced by Gavin Free) is worried about sand getting in his shoes, and Neptune advises him to “be cool, man”, right before the opposing field setup lands on ‘ocean’.

That loud grinding noise you just heard? That was my teeth. Neptune goes very wooden and Blake, in the audience, confirms that Neptune—Neptune—is afraid of the water.

Ha. Ha. Ha. Do you get it guys? It’s funny, ‘cause his name is Neptune, but he’s scared of a little water!

I’m not laughing. Do I fucking look like I’m laughing? I’m not. That’s all the upcoming scene is here for, to get some cheap komedy in. Laugh, everyone! It’s funny!

But while this fight’s purpose is laughter at Neptune’s expense, it is not the only thing accomplished by this scene, so let’s hurry it through to the end so I can explain it.

The bell rings, and Neptune blitzes it to the sandy side of the arena so quickly that he leaves both teams in shock. Sage, voiced by Josh Ornelas, asks what the hell he’s doing, and Neptune gives a quick excuse before the rest of the fighters start doing their thing. We see Octavia (the red-headed chick) slide across the sand easily while taking a hit-and-run swipe at Scarlet, and then we pan over to Sage, who is approaching Dew Gayl (the blond girl in green) with his large sword.

The skirmish is cut short when Dew starts manipulating the sand, however. There’s evidently some wind dust in the gem set into her spear, which she waves across the ground in front of her, producing small dust devils which head straight for Sage. Sage, of course, dodges.

No, wait, he actually stands there like an idiot and lets them consume him, lifting him up into the air and straight out of the arena, whereupon he throws his hands up in frustration.

Your Fight Scene Sucks: 26

Love to Be a Part of It Someday: 19

No, I wasn’t kidding. We’ve already seen our first ring-out, before a new, promising individual got to show us anything at all, much less anything remotely cool. I'm not gonna be shy about awarding that a point, because that wasn't just Evisceration Evasion, that was Entire Goddamn Skirmish Evasion. He stands there for a full twelve seconds doing nothing. *spitting out worn-down teeth*

This is followed by Octavia engaging Scarlet and Sun. She sends a wave of fire from her sword across the ground, kicking sand up into the air. This catches Scarlet, but Sun turns tail (heh) and flees before she can take advantage of it. He calls out to Neptune, who takes aim to cover Scarlet. Octavia notices this, and tries to blind him, too, but he pulls up his goggles and takes his shot anyway. She successfully blocks his gun’s blast, only to get blindsided by Sun re-engaging from the air.

Sun regains a small, yet totally insufficient amount of his team’s dignity back when he leaps high and long, crunching his sneaker straight into Octavia’s face. She recovers, and the two engage, and Sun unfolds his bo staff and hands her the absolute fastest knock-out ever delivered on this show, eliminating her in ten seconds flat, five of which is just him closing the distance.

One small problem. Take another close look at that gif again.

See how, once Sun gets into action, we just see the edge of Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang hitting Octavia, cut together three times? Along with, yes, plenty more vanishing weapons and spinning discs?

Now hold up, before you cut in, let me stop you—while the vanishing weaponry may be a new, unpleasant addition to Ruby’s scythe, we’ve seen it before with Sun.

Oh god, oh fuck, this was so hot of him.

In fact, it was all over the place in the Sun vs. Torchwick skirmish, which just made my pants tighter just thinking of it. And yes, in that case, it was kind of necessary with exactly how much spinning and whirling and twirling was happening in an extended, very fast-paced scene. So that’s not what I’m irritated with here—I’m talking exclusively about the cut-together close-ups of the tip of the staff hitting Octavia. Most people probably wouldn't notice this, but I do.

This is the highlight of this fight, which has already ducked away from showcasing a good skirmish with Dew taking out Sage. In light of that, with how short the scene is, I'm not going easy on yet more corner-cuts (not in the least because I know how far they eventually take this kind of cheat code).

I’m giving you a point, Rooster Teeth. I liked what I saw, but I was still hoping for better.

Your Fight Scene Sucks: 27

…But let’s see it again, just because.

God, that rejuvenates me.

Well, Octavia is out now. Sun observes the rest of the combatants, in which we can sneak a glance at Neptune dealing with Darcy Gwen (dark-haired chick with the large armored dress) even despite the team leader, Nebula Violette, trying to stick crossbow bolts into him. Scarlet is engaging Dew, which goes badly when she sweeps him up in another dust devil.

While it looks like he’ll go the same way as Sage and get flung out of the arena, he manages to right himself mid-air and goes sailing over to the wrecked pirate ship adorning the ocean side of the arena. Nebula and Octavia notice this and give chase.

Nebula and Darcy send knives and bolts up into the hull of the shipwreck to give Nebula a leg up, and she joins Scarlet on the mast of the ship, folding her crossbow into a sword. She engages him in a sword duel, in which despite both putting up a good fight, he gets the drop on her and knocks her down into the sand, not achieving a ring-out but safe for the moment.

Sun has been left to deal with the attentions of Dew Gayl, who is apparently a bit of a problem, and Darcy turns her attention to him as well. Scarlet decides to intervene. He takes aim at her with his pistol, shooting not a bullet, but a grappling hook, which catches around her heel. He uses the grappling cord like a pulley and leaps down, lifting her into the air over the beam he jumped down from. This almost lands him into hot water when Darcy’s armored skirt full of knives empties out once she’s upside down—right over his head. Fortunately, he dodges the knives perfectly.

We cut to Dew harassing Sun, who notices coconuts in a treetop above him and thinks this is a good opportunity. He shakes a couple down and launches them at Dew, only for her to deflect them right back, now on fire. He dodges, but the coconuts hit Scarlet instead—one in the head, and one in the groin. Aww, poor dude—wait. Hang on.

Oh, so it knocks a straight 60 points off of Scarlet’s 100-point-total Aura when he’s otherwise dealt fine throughout. Okay. So he’s out now.

Well, that’s not quite Sleepy-Sheep-landing-on-Zelda’s-head level of bullshit, but it’s in the same rough region. So, Sun just got his own team member eliminated. There goes that bit of dignity he regained by whooping Octavia.

Sun and Neptune are now in it alone, and Sun is dodging ice-infused dust devils from Dew while calling for assistance from Neptune. Problem is, Sun’s still on the ocean side, and Neptune doesn’t want to go over there.

*intense sigh, holding back utter fury*

While Sun is trying to drag help out of an unwilling Neptune, we can see Nebula shooting Octavia down from her unfortunate position, and Dew is still trying to stab Sun. Neptune does land an admittedly impressive shot when he blasts Dew right out from over Sun’s head an instant before she lands a strike, but Sun is clearly losing his patience with this ha-ha-ha-fraid-of-water bullshit, as am I.

Once Nebula and Darcy rejoin Dew in the water, Sun gestures and calls on Neptune, who relents and advises Sun to get moving. Once he does, Neptune tiptoes to the water’s edge and dips his electrified trident into it, shocking all three of the opposition to the point they’re all eliminated.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Oh, by the way—this is the verification that Neptune’s trident does in fact come with an electric shock feature, which I referred to way back in the Paladin Mech fight. Which still pisses me off, by the way, given he could’ve done this there and just didn’t. But I already gave it the point.

Sun and Neptune chest-bump for their victory and begin dancing in joy. Back in the Crow Bar, the bartender again compliments the ‘match’, which Mystery Man corrects to ‘mess’. I have to agree.

I was hoping for a grand fight that would finally tell me SSSN aren’t here to play, but this is a disappointment beyond measure. Team RWBY and Team JNPR crushed their opposition handily, even with setbacks, but SSSN lose two members and give an embarrassing showing? Mind, I don’t think they should’ve dominated NDGO—in fact, it probably would’ve been a bit dickish of Rooster Teeth if they had. See, NDGO are fan-created characters. As thanks for fans backing an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, these submitted characters were included in the volume (hence why I chose to use their full names), and I think their creators also might’ve voiced them. Having SSSN smack them around handily would’ve been quite dejecting for a fan to see, but I don’ t necessarily think that means SSSN should’ve given the poor showing they did.

You know, back in the day, this hurt quite a bit. I was still a little sore from Volume 2 obviously discarding Sun and Neptune to the point of baffling storyboarding setups, but I thought Volume 3 was going to be their day, the year we finally saw the full team and what they were capable of. As you can see, I was wrong.

Sage’s attempt to be relevant is essentially given the middle finger and he is swept out of the fight early on and not referred to again; Scarlet performs well but is undercut by Sun somehow ringing him out with a couple of coconuts. Sun performs decently, and Neptune actually eliminates three opponents at once and assists in the elimination of the fourth. Neptune’s absurd phobia of water, meanwhile—which is itself the sort of fear you’d kind of think you’d have to get over to have a solid career as a Huntsman—is the most concerning, as we’re obviously meant to laugh at it. It is the biggest factor, among many in this fight, sealing the deal on SSSN and confirming that they aren’t here to be cool or useful or to contribute, they’re here to be laughed at.

See these gifs?

I was excited for these guys! And this is the only screentime of significance they’ll have all volume, and for half of them, ever again. That one line apiece Scarlet and Sage had? They never speak again. And again, it’s very confusing. One continues to wonder why they’re here when they don’t contribute, and how much ‘comic relief’ they can provide for us...and how much I can take.

Love to Be a Part of It Someday: 20

*frustrated to Hell and back*

Getting back to Mystery Man and the bartender, the latter questions Mystery Man’s visible disgust with the seemingly-impressive fights. What fight is he here to see, he asks? As an airship decorated with long flags on its wings passes by in the background, Mystery Man says ‘that one’ and leaves, obviously quite tipsy.

Back at the arena, Sun and Neptune are still celebrating.

Sun notices Blake in the crowd, and flashes a smile and two finger-guns at her. She blushes, which would get me awww’ing if I didn’t know this is their only interaction this entire volume. Excuse me for a second.

*leaves to go grow a new set of teeth or two*

And I’m back. That’s the end of the matches for the day, as Oobleck says over the mic, and people begin filing out of the Colosseum. We watch the airship from before pass by, and Weiss stops short to look at it in recognition.

W: She’s here.

Who’s ‘she’? We’ll find out next post, because it’s kind of a heavy one and I think I’ll separate these two episodes instead of smashing them into one huge one this time.

We cut to black and the episode is over.

Counts:

Jaune: 16
It Was Right There: 3
Fauxminism: 6
Hypocrisy: 8
Ice Cream Queens: 0
Reliable Leaders: 9 + 1
- Prowling Wolf Fallacy: 1
Threatening Enemies: 4
Love to Be a Part of It Someday: 20
Your Fight Scene Sucks: 27 + 13
- Evisceration Evasion: 13
Ill Logic: 29
Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Veil: 11 + 2
- Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge: 1
- Band-Aid Brigade: 1
RSVP: 25
Road to Nowhere: 7
Y.A.S. Queen: 3
Rooster Tease: 5