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24 - Volume 4 Short & World of Remnant | Table of Contents | 26 – Volume 4, Episodes 3 and 4
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We open up not on Ruby, wherever she might be, but in a strange location, the same one we ended Volume Three on. The terrain is rocky and inhospitable, and the lighting is a deep red color. We zoom out from a pool of red, actually a thick, black fluid reflecting the sky, which sloughs off a shape rising out of it—a Grimm wolf. It’s rather disgusting. More can be seen climbing out of similar pools of darkness.

[01]

[02]

We cut to the inside of a building, where a very disturbed Emerald and Mercury can be seen watching this happen through a window.

There is a snap of fingers, and we are shown the inside of a chapel-like building with walls mostly consisting of glass window panes. The only features of the room besides are purple crystals growing out of the floor and a single table at which four people sit. One of them is a mustachioed man in a suit and long coat, holding a phone. Another is a scarred, white-clad man with a long braid and an unsettling smile, crouched atop his chair. Another looks something akin to a woodsman, a broad, built man with arms crossed, who almost seems to be asleep. And the last is Cinder, hair cut short, an eyepatch over her left eye failing to hide significant scarring that now blemishes her previously beautiful face.

So, besides Cinder—this is Snotty Scientist, Giggling Lunatic, and Silent Bruiser Type, Salem’s cast of underlings who bear a Single Personality Trait each. I will not be appreciating them, even if Hazel inspires a certain response in my dumb gay ass.

[03]

The mustached dude, Watts, snidely bids Cinder to keep her “posse” under thumb as Mercury and Emerald uncomfortably make their way to the table. Mercury looks ready to get in his face, but Emerald stops him. Cinder, looking pained, does not respond.

W: You hear that? Silence. I have half a mind to thank the little girl who bested you.

This is Arthur Watts, who is likely responsible for the hack virus that was so devastating in Volume 3. Nonetheless, his attitude rings up a tad over-smug considering the amount of legwork Cinder has been doing.

T: If I were you, I’d hunt her down, find her, and… well, she took your eye, didn’t she? [mad giggling]

Uh-huh. That’s Tyrian, who does not ring up so much as “intimidatingly ax crazy” as he does “childishly unhinged” The new host of characters’ first impressions are as unimpressive as they were back when I first watched this. Subtlety, Rooster Teeth. Subtlety, subtlety, subtlety.

[04]

So you can see how overblown this is. Aren’t people like this usually employed as grunts and not big conspirator pieces?

Cinder does try to speak, probably to tell the dude in white to put a sock or five in it, but it seems her vocal cords are damaged, or something akin to that, since she strains in her attempt. Emerald leans close, and Cinder hisses out something in her ear. Watts is just calling her pathetic when a door nearby opens.

[05]

Everyone stands at attention as Salem enters the room, not so much walking as gliding, and trailing an ominous black mist behind her. A piano rendition of “Divide” plays softly as she approaches and takes her seat.

S: Watts…

W: [Looking fearful]

S: You find such malignance necessary?

That phrasing is…you know what, nevermind. Point is, can it, Watts. She motions for everyone to sit down and Watts apologizes, qualifying as he does that he’s not particularly keen on failure. Salem affectionately, and accurately, points out that Cinder is now the Fall Maiden, laid waste to the CCT in Beacon, and killed Ozpin.

When asked how this should constitute failure, Watts weakly refers to Ruby, “the girl with the silver eyes”. Hazel finally speaks, in an absurdly baritone voice, saying they’ve dealt with the silver-eyed folks before, albeit wondering how a “novice” got the better of Cinder.

Watts says it should’ve been easy even without the maiden’s power. In what is obviously the most hasty, slap-dash bit of plot patching I’ve seen yet from this show, Salem clarifies that it’s the opposite: having the maiden’s power made Cinder more vulnerable to the silver eyes.

Band-Aid Brigade: 2

Maiden’s powers: magic, do element things

Silver eyes: magic, destroys Grimm

As described by Salem: destroys Grimm and maiden magic things.

Tell me I’m not the only one who sees absolutely zero goddamn connection between these things or reasons why this should be the way it is. And I know for a fact that this isn't even going to stick--the reaction to the silver eyes will be purely about Grimm later.

As a result, Salem says, Cinder will stay closeby while recuperating. Watts will go in her stead and meet with an informant in Mistral. Tyrian, she orders to continue a hunt for the spring maiden—which has Tyrian giggling murderously, of course. Hazel, she says, will be meeting with the leader of the White Fang, one arranged by Adam Taurus. She notes that Adam continues to show loyalty, and she wants Sienna Khan, the actual person in charge, to feel the same. All members of the party agree but for Cinder, who murmurs something in Emerald’s ear to get across: what about Ruby Rose?

Watts scoffs, finally inviting Cinder’s open show of anger, and Salem agrees that Ruby should be dealt with and orders Tyrian to prioritize her over the spring maiden. Tyrian actually claps his dirty little hands while giggling this time, getting visibly disappointed when Salem says she wants Ruby brought to her, implicitly alive.

Because of Cinder’s efforts, Salem says, Beacon has fallen—and she has her sights on Haven next. Everyone gets up to go on their respective missions, with Tyrian leering at Cinder and reminding her “eye for an eye”.

[06]

Laughing like a hyena on acid as he does. Most immediately annoying character award goes to…

If the purpose of this scene was to show how there are scarier and more imposing villains out there than Cinder, it failed miserably, because Watts and especially Tyrian don’t come off as intimidating at all, just annoying, all while Salem basically affirms that yes, Cinder is still the villains’ MVP. Watts and Tyrian in fact remind me of Ganondorf and Zant from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, actually—in that Watts being higher on the villain chain than Cinder doesn’t give me any emotional impact given we’ve only seen Cinder moving the plot up until now, and Tyrian is hardly able to chill me with his crazy antics since at the end of the day, the only handiwork we’ve seen is still Cinder’s.

Neither Rooster Teeth nor Nintendo in that latter instance understood what’s chilling about a wildly unhinged character, that being a fear it should instill for their prospective victims. Villains like that require buildup to their own madness and calm points to make the erratic behavior, well, erratic and unpredictable. As it is, Zant was just a hard swerve to get him out of the way and make way for Ganondorf, and Tyrian is just a nuisance.

Y.A.S. Queen: 7

We cut to some freckled kid in overalls waking up in the dark. Said kid wanders around a dark, musty farmhouse, throwing open the doors to see the rising sun and getting to work for the day.

[07]

A montage of his efforts to maintain the farmland goes by, with nary a hint of a parent or guardian, ending with him looking off into the blue sky.

Then, we’re among the forest, with Jaune, Ren, and Nora. Nora is having a conversation with Ren about what team name they should have. Ren, voiced by Neath Oum, balks at “Junior” or “JNRR”, because it isn’t a color. This fandom debate was solved when Miles posted that “RNJR” for “ranger” (apparently as in “ranger green” which is a…stretch.) was their team name. Personally I still think RRNJ (“orange”) would’ve worked fine.

Jaune gets their attention, saying they need to focus. There’s a rumble from far off. Cue fight scene.

Bursting out of the treetops high above, Ruby aims her rifle and fires on something emerging from the forest: a massive monster made of rock with what looks like a Grimm mask attached to it. It and she both go falling down the cliff that neither one took notice of, and they land in a clearing, ready to brawl.

[08]

This is a “Geist” Grimm morph, a ghostly Grimm with the power to possess objects as bodies and body parts. I want you all to pay attention to this fight and this creature because I’ll be talking about it later on.

At Jaune’s orders, the three of them get to work helping Ruby. Jaune starts to circle the creature at the edge of the woods, Ren leaps into a tree, while Nora uses her grenade launcher to push herself high into the sky—not by firing the usual, but apparently by setting off some sort of gas canister in the barrel—and joins Ren, who says they need to get the Geist’s attention off of Ruby, who is still doing a lot of leg work in speeding through the air and trying to launch rounds into the creature.

[09]

Nora fires some grenade rounds that...curve through the air rather oddly, and detonate against the Geist’s back. Ren leaps about through the trees, firing machine pistol rounds which of course do fuckshit nothing, and even leaps high to bring Stormflower’s blades down on the thing’s rocky head, which he astutely notes also does fuckshit nothing.

[10]

Ruby dramatically yells “How about THIS?!” and loads a special rifle round before firing it at the creature’s arm. It turns out to be an electric round, which means Ruby is exhibiting some grade-A stupidity because rocks don’t fucking conduct electricity. It swings the arm she just zapped down into the ground, creating a shockwave that knocks everyone back.

[11]

Ruby, Ren, and Nora catch themselves fine, but Jaune bounces straight into a boulder that meets his sensitive parts head on, comically putting him out of commission for a bit as his nuts recuperate. While down, he mockingly says:

J: “ ‘You’ll be fine without a weapon, you’re the strategist…’ ”

…No. No, he is not ‘the strategist’.

I’ve brought this up before and will bring it up again: Jaune doesn’t have a good grasp of strategy and shouldn’t be in such a position either way because he has less combat experience than everyone else. Battlefield tactics, making a plan, adjusting to combat changes—these are things Ruby should be in charge of because she’s a natural on the field and has a fluid grasp of active combat, and indeed, strategy is a skill she’s demonstrated before.

Ill Logic: 49

But that’s now Jaune’s role, likely because Miles Luna finds value in that role, but doesn’t find as much in the role of the Heart—one Jaune should be filling but which Ruby will be shunted into instead. This is a twofold mistake, because a) a character cannot be smarter than their writer and b) it will continue to result in a complete waste of Ruby’s powers and weapon skills.

The other thing worth mentioning here is that yes, Jaune is without Crocea Mors, his sword and shield. We’re going to remark on that viciously in just a bit.

Nora, again more dramatically than necessary, yells “THAT’S IT!” and charges forward at a…mild jog. After being animated running forward for a few more seconds than necessary, she unfolds Magnhild into its hammer form, leaps high and meets the Geist’s rocky fist, smashing it with a single blow.

[12]

Your Fight Scene Sucks: 45

…Come again? She could do that the whole time? Why hasn’t she just been dismantling this thing on her own, then? Come on, guys, this is the Coco and Velvet problem all over again. You can’t have the weapons only be effective when dramatically appropriate.

The shattering of the rock arm sends large stones flying, and Ruby deflects one with her scythe, while Jaune dodges several only to get walloped by one in the end, and trust me, he more than deserves it.

The now one-armed Geist shudders, and a red sigil spins against the place where the rock arm had been attacked earlier. A huge ghostly black arm bursts from the sigil and implants itself in a nearby broken tree, ripping it out of the ground and making use of it as the new arm. Ruby makes use of her one brain cell and thinks of trying a fire blast this time, as the creature’s arm is now flammable. This works in theory, but since the tree doesn’t just burn to ashes instantly, the only immediate effect is giving it an arm that is on fire.

[13]

A flying set of blades then comes whirling out of the woods and strikes the Geist dead across the face, cutting its mask. This stuns the creature and sends it flat on its back, and Ren catches his boomerang-ified blades, while Jaune takes a moment to flex his new strategist role. It must be seen and heard to be believed.

J: Okay, how do we do this?

R: His body is too thick to break through.

J: It doesn’t care about its body…

N: Plus, it can keep grabbing new limbs!

J: But it’s protecting its face…

R: We can’t break it!

J: Uhh… If we knocked all of its limbs off at once, then went for the… [Jaune turns to the others as the Geist recovers] Guys, I’ve got it! We hit it harder.

You guys’ deductive skills are fucking jaw-dropping as usual, Christ almighty. Ren is relatable when he asks “Is that it?” and Jaune reveals that destroying the limbs should open up a shot at the face, thus allowing them to kill it. So yes, he got the “face = weak point” bit.

But that’s not the point. The point is that this is not goddamn rocket science, Jesus. How many braincells does it take to immediately realize “Wow, this creature’s entire body is made of thick, durable stone, and the only part of it that isn’t is the mask sticking out of its head which is otherwise completely vulnerable” ???

For how many video games both Rooster Teeth and their character Ruby play, you’d think they could do better than this. You want an example of this done right, take the Stone Talus creature from the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Its limbs react to explosives, but it will just regenerate them, and the only way to actually damage the creature is by hitting a vulnerable ore deposit on its back. Hitting that will stun it, yes, but it has a ton of health, and here’s the thing: mining tools actually do more damage to it than swords and spears do, so you’d be incentivized to bring, say, Nora’s hammer over Ruby’s scythe.

And if you want an example of this done excellently, take Thardus from Metroid Prime, released in—get this—2002. Thardus is just a giant pile of rocks possessed and animated by a sentient, hostile mutagen. Said mutagen takes the form of ore whose radioactive qualities can be seen in thermal vision underneath the outer stone layer, so in order to damage it, you turn on the thermal visor and target the rock that’s currently controlling the beast. Smashing open the ore-possessed rock will overload the visor and force you to go back to typical combat to continue damaging it, which it will counteract by summoning a snowstorm and making it difficult to see. Once a mutagen core has been busted open and destroyed, another one in a different rock making up the creature activates, presumably to keep it animated and moving.

It’s a long process, and by comparison, all RNJR have to deal with is connecting enough dots to think “hit it in the face, got it”. This shouldn’t be a big deal and doesn’t make me gasp at Jaune’s strategizing skillz. At least add an extra step or two, like damaging the arms when they come out of the beast to possess new material.

And yet, this is still a better “boss fight” than what comes later.

Jaune busts out some orders, telling Ren to flank it from the left and Ruby from the right, and asks Nora if she’s ready to try out the new upgrade. She is, and this requires apparently only pressing a trigger on her hammer to start electrifying it and herself, powering her Semblance.

[14]

Jaune starts running from the creature’s attacks again, and everyone starts going off on the Geist with their weapons, none of which is effective. Ruby is a particularly egregious case of just being held back, because with the way she’s freely spamming her Semblance to fly through the air unaided and with strong precision, she should easily be able to get around the Geist’s arms and just shoot it in the face, but no, gotta have our big moment where we all combine our powers to take out the monster…

It’s amazing how they know they need to hit the thing’s face and just…won’t.

Your Fight Scene Sucks: 46

Jaune commands Ruby “Use everything you’ve got!” and this is supposed to make us think he’s a good leader and a worthy strategist because look, he gives orders in a combat situation, yeah… Ruby speeds forward with her Semblance, grabbing Nora on the way, and they smack into the creature’s arms as they lift to protect its face, shattering it completely.

[15]

All that’s left is the head, which the Geist flies out of before fleeing the scene. Ruby fires a single round which strikes the creature in the face, killing it.

Quick note: a Geist is the backstory given for Weiss’ trailer—in that what was previously seen as a mysteriously autonomous set of gigantic armor was actually possessed and animated by a Geist. Which…means that Jacques was so determined that his daughter shouldn’t go to Beacon that he set a homicidal being of personified darkness on his daughter, knowing it would try to kill her and couldn’t be reasoned with.

Christ.

Jaune congratulates them as Team Junior, before admitting that Ren is right and that name kinda sucks. And now that the fight is over, let’s take a look at the new outfits.

[16]

And then let’s stop looking because all of these people besides Ruby herself look only mildly different so it’s nothing to be offended about. What we’ll be offended about is coming in a minute or two.

In a nearby town, a man with a rather Asian bent to his design thanks Ruby for her and her friends’ help with the Grimm, and he mentions that relocating would have been their only hope had they not received assistance—but that Anima is a large continent, and they probably wouldn’t have survived the long trek to Mistral. The man says he wishes they could pay the team more, and Ren says their “previous arrangement” will work just fine. The team bows and leaves.

Said arrangement? Let’s go see. Jaune’s been having his armor and weapons upgraded, you see.

He receives his new armor, ditching the old as he makes mention of this being a sign of progress—right in time for Ruby to die laughing at the bunny on his hoodie. It’s Pumpkin Pete, the cereal mascot mentioned in Volume One. He confirms it was a box top prize.

[17]

Seriously, calm down. It’s not that funny. She falls over, continuing to guffaw, and then the blacksmith comes back with Jaune’s weapon.

[18]

*stunned*

???: That was some fine metal you brought me. Accents the white nicely.

He… He…

???: Where’d you get it from?

He melted… He melted down…

J: [with a somber smile] …From a friend.

HE. MELTED. HER. DOWN.

[shock.png]

[eye twitch.gif]

[screaming woman.gif]

JAUNE ARC HAD PYRRHA NIKOS’ SHIELD AND CIRCLET MELTED DOWN AND ADDED TO HIS SWORD, SHIELD, AND ARMOR.

JAUNE ARC TOOK THE REMAINS OF HIS FALLEN LOVE INTEREST, MELTED THEM DOWN, AND HAD THEM ADDED INTO HIS OWN GEAR.

PYRRHA NIKOS, THE GIRL WHO LOVED HIM AND DIED FIGHTING EVIL, HAS LITERALLY BEEN REDUCED TO JAUNE ARC’S ACCESSORY.

[Guts beating up Griffith.gif]

Even without having been here for it, I can tell you of the shitstorm of ire this caused in the fandom, because they’re still pissed about it today.

MKG were obviously going for something cool here, like “look! Pyrrha lives on! She fights by Jaune’s side now even if she’s gone!” and featuring that through a weapon upgrade that on a surface level says she’s still helping him survive in a cool way. The problem is that they just fucking dropped that on here with absolutely zero goddamn idea that their big reason for liking this idea was not something everyone shared and would not be respected without a lot of surrounding material for the purposes of clarity and in-universe respect.

One way you could’ve saved this, for example, would’ve been to mention this as an honorable tradition—taking the remaining gear of a fallen warrior and friend and adding it to your own could be a respected rite.

It Was Right There: 9

But you have to establish that first.

And even if they had, it wouldn’t have put a stopper in the other major problem, which the scandalized RWBY fandom voiced at a very loud volume: where the fuck are Pyrrha’s next of kin in all this?!

We know Pyrrha had at least one living parent, her mother, or at least that she had one at some time and we’ll find out later that nope, she’s not dead, so there goes that assumption. Thus, yes, Pyrrha has living family—who have gone totally unmentioned in this scene, when all respect for human life and death, according to damn near any culture in the world at this time, demands that a slain member of society have their things returned to their family upon death.

It’s not just that Pyrrha’s shield and circlet should have been returned to her mother, it’s that if they were going to end up as components of Jaune’s gear, we should’ve at least got confirmation that this was Pyrrha’s mother’s wish and he has her permission to do so. Completely failing to mention that makes Jaune—who was already the most unpopular and disliked character in the show—look phenomenally bad, like actually being a terrible person.

And that’s what happens when you don’t think. It wasn’t a difficult thing to add! Just add a small scene of Pyrrha’s parents gifting Jaune the circlet and shield!

It Was Right There: 10

The fact that there is nary a mention of other options as to what to do with Pyrrha’s last remaining physical attributes means that, as far as anyone writing the story was concerned, why shouldn’t they go to Jaune? *fuming* After all, what else exactly would she want? She’s a woman and dead, her man is all that matters now.

And this will be getting some major Band-Aid Brigade points later, because the fandom’s fury over this was definitely loud enough to get attention. For now, though, we’re going to award Jaune some points.

Let’s see, what are the noteworthy facets of this? She’s an accessory, her family didn’t get her remains, the blacksmith actually calling what was left of Pyrrha a “nice accent” to Jaune’s gear…

Fauxminism: 16

Jaune: 20

You know what? No. That is worth so much more than three measly little points. This goes above and beyond Jaune’s cheating his way into Beacon, harassing Weiss and Neptune, and stealing plot time from other characters. Fuck this whole development, it’s getting ten points.

Fauxminism: 23

Jaune: 27

Jaune leaves the smith’s shop, literally wearing his dead ex-girlfriend. Lots of lovely closeups.

[19]

That fucking blacksmith actually says “He cleans up alright!”

When asked if they won’t stay in town a little longer, team RNJR say that they’ve got to get going, they’re off to Haven Academy. Their next stop is Shion Village. They bid the blacksmith goodbye and are on their way.

All necessities are accounted for as they go on their way, except no one has a map. Nice going. Pan out, scene end!

Not quite episode end, though. We see a blue sky filled with passing airships, and are shown Weiss Schnee in her room at her family’s manor, gazing out the window solemnly. A knock comes at her door, and she invites in the very short butler, who says that her father wants to speak to her. She thanks him, looking worn down, and calling him “Klein” as she does. Klein is not only a reference to the seven dwarves from the Snow White story, he is named after Klein Blue, named after its developer Yves Klein.

None of that is as important as this shot.

[20]

Because sweet Jesus, what the fuck is Weiss wearing?

In Weiss’ original outfit, her top didn’t have sleeves, and she wore a bolero. There was some neck and collar exposed, yes, but it wasn’t a big deal. Here, though, we have yet another character whose new outfit comes with two top pieces that conveniently form yet another window over the chest. It’s not necessarily worse for how much it exposes, but it is definitely worse for exactly where the eye is being drawn to.

LuLaRwe: 5

The skirt is…well, Weiss’ skirt was always mid-thigh level, so you can’t really complain about that. In fact, it’s now hugging her enough that she’s not inviting upskirt shots.

What I can complain about is that this is just…ugly.

Both of Weiss’ prior outfits were white. The original was bluish-white like ice and accented with red and black in small amounts, and the V2 Snowpea outfit was stark white with black accents and, as a reminder, looked fucking fantastic.

This one is gray. Bluish gray that doesn’t mix well with the brightness of her skin or hair and doesn’t contrast it sharply enough to be striking. What’s worse, the shape of the outfit is off-putting, too.

Weiss’ original outfit was not spectacular, because its sleeves always surrounded Weiss’ wrists at an even distance, and her clean-cut skirt always fanned out at the same length, limits of the animation material that made her outfit look stiff. This one, though, hugs her a little too much and together with the crinoline stuffing it makes it look like it’s made of paper—like it’s woven from Kleenex and would tear along the first sharp corner it came into contact with.

LuLaRwe: 6

Snowpea remains the superior costume and this one needs to go right in the trash.

Now the episode ends, with cut to black. Time to see the opening intro for this volume.

The theme tune is “Let’s Just Live”, a song about picking one’s self up from tragedy and moving forward one step at a time. It’s not my favorite track, but compared to When It Falls, it’s quite enjoyable.

The black screen zooms out to show some kind of silvery orb, which Grimm claws surround before a Beowolf swallows it, but streaks of color in the signature red, white, black, and yellow escape the Grimm’s jaws and swirl around in the void. With a flash of light, we cut to Beacon Academy’s CCT, Grimm dragon statue and all, which blows its top as the streaks of color escape into the open air. They flow outward, and with the cut to a map next scene, we see them spread across the planet, representing RWBY’s having gone their separate ways.

The first scene proper shows Ruby wandering a forest with her hood up, and then looking back to find Jaune, Ren, and Nora ready to join her. There’s a crow flying past which leads to a shot of Qrow, holding his scythe, and a flash of white later, we see Weiss in her manor, looking back to find Klein, her butler, and some white-haired boy. A white haired man with a mustache and Ironwood occupy another room in the manor, looking frustrated. Another cut later, Weiss is attempting to use her Semblance, growing visibly frustrated until it breaks.

We cut to Blake, on the deck of a boat, staring out over the water, and she is—gasp!—hugged from behind by Sun Wukong! They are joined by a large, bearded man wearing a fur coat, smiling warmly. A woman resembling an older Blake elbows Sun out of the way to join the hug, and Blake looks out over the sea with a concerned expression. The next scene shows Yang in the front yard of her home, sparring with her father Taiyang, but a spinning shot replaces Taiyang with another Yang, who still has both arms. Yang then falls backward into a fiery void, lit by the glow from Adam’s mask. This scene is overlaid by two faunus individuals in weird robes popping up.

The next scene shows Hazel, then Cinder, then Tyrian, then Watts, then Salem at the dark, rocky location from this episode, expressions on their faces indicating combat on the rise as Grimm swarm the screen. We cut to a shot of Ruby fighting Tyrian, which changes to show Blake fighting Adam, looking frightened, and then a shot of Weiss practicing her fencing and her Semblance. Then we see team RNJR fighting Grimm in the forest again, which via a crow passing the screen cuts to a shot of team RWBY standing in an icy landscape, looking on a set of mountains, heads raised towards the sky where “RWBY” fades into place. The screen fades to black, over which “Series created by Monty Oum” fades in.

But, we’re only eleven pages in… Should we do another one? Fuck it, let’s see what’s up.

V4E2, “Remembrance”

We open on Weiss, soberly walking through the halls of the Schnee mansion, passing intricately carved statues of an armored knight and a King Taijitu. A portrait of the boy from the intro scene can be seen mounted on a wall, but none of Weiss or Winter. Speaking of which…

Wh: Good afternoon, sister. A pleasure to see you out of your room for a change.

[21]

This is Whitley Schnee, Weiss’ younger brother, and at this point I’m just asking what the hell Rooster Teeth are doing. Wasn’t Weiss’ entire character built on solitude and loneliness? She not only isn’t an only child anymore, but she is a big sister. Her family is growing like kudzu.

Weiss walks around him, saying hello and commenting that he’s in a cheery mood today. Whitley just said that Klein made crepes.

The conversation continues, leaving us with the impression that Whitley and Weiss don’t get along, via Weiss’ stony attitude towards him and Whitley’s slightly-too-smug tone of voice.

W: What do you want?

Wh: I heard father shouting with someone in his study earlier.

W: …Mother?

Wh: No, she’s already drinking in the garden. I think it was a man.

[Weiss looks surprised]

Wh: …I just wanted to warn you. I heard he had asked to speak with you.

W: [looking away, unsure] …I’ll be fine.

Wh: I’m sure you will. You’re strong, like Winter.

W: [sensing something off] …You never liked Winter…

Wh: True. But you can’t deny her resolve.

W: You…seem different.

Wh: And you’ve been gone. I’ll have you know, I didn’t stop growing while you were away at Beacon.

Wasn’t she only gone for like a year, tops? She didn’t get as far as graduating her first year of study, we know that much.

Wh: [turns and starts walking away] Anyway, good luck with father.

The whole scene is shot in total silence, no accompanying music, such that you can hear the pressure of the air and underscoring the uncomfortable atmosphere.

Weiss quietly says “Thank you” and walks away, leaving us to stare at a framed portrait on the wall that finally bears all the family members—Jacques, Weiss, Winter, Whitley, and what must be Weiss’ mother—who was not-so-subtly implied to be a raging alcoholic in this scene, just in case you needed any more reasons to side-eye Qrow/Winter shippers.

[22]

The scene fades to an odd sort of black void with the sides of the screen suffering distortions, and Pyrrha’s warped and layered voice can be heard asking “Do you believe in destiny?”, as well as Cinder’s answer of “Yes”, and bafflingly, Pyrrha’s voice saying “Jaune…” which doesn’t make a lot of sense as with the next cut, we see that this is a nightmare Ruby is having, which she wakes up from.

It’s early in the morning, and RNJR are in sleeping bags on the forest floor. We cut to later in the daytime, with the four of them walking down a dirt path through forested farmland, Ruby gazing at a map as they go, not that it seems to be helping. Jaune cites the next town on their journey as Shion, a place his family used to visit all the time. Ruby brings up his seven sisters, and Nora mentions that this explains a lot, a remark that was unnecessary and not funny.

Jaune joins Ruby in looking at the map, and the unfunny jokes about Jaune’s masculinity continue, as he apparently insisted on getting his own tent when going camping as a kid, so his sisters would stop braiding his hair.

J: Yeah, they just kept doing pigtails, but … I’m more of a ‘warrior’s wolftail’ kind of guy.

Ah, I see. We’re referencing far better shows than this one now.

The sky has gotten rather ominously dark since they started talking, and Nora draws their attention to the scene in front of them. Shion, as it should happen, is totally in ruins.

[23]

Looking for survivors, they find but one: a wounded Huntsman with a small bit of life left in him. When asked who wrought such destruction, he answers that it was bandits. A large tribe came by and raided the town, and the panic brought with it a wave of Grimm after the attack. RNJR discuss how best to get him to medical help, but it’s too late: he’s gone.

There’s no time to bury him. It isn’t safe here, Ren says, which would likely be the case even if a pretty nasty storm weren’t rolling in. Ren as a whole is rather despondent.

Jaune puts a hand to his head. Ruby says that it’ll be okay, and Jaune says he’s just “tired of losing everything” which confused me for a sec since he literally didn’t know this man until I remembered that this is supposed to be the town he used to vacation in as a child.

Having made to leave, Ren stops short, seeing something apparently rather agitating:

[24]

The hoof print of what has to be a very large Grimm morph.

We cut to Weiss’ current dilemma. She’s hovering outside the door of Jacques’ office, listening to him argue on the phone with someone.

J: I’m not talking about the good of my company, I’m talking about the good of Atlas! Our entire kingdom!

I: That is a load of garbage and you know it.

Ironwood is still having to deal with bad leaders trying to play games on his time, I see. Weiss pokes her head in to get a look at her father throwing a tantrum at the general, who asks to be heard.

J: You are a trusted friend and ally to this family, James, but what you are suggesting is absurd!

Better wages? Union voices? I don’t know, but whatever it is, Jacques says the Council will never agree to it. This apparently isn’t much of a threat, as Ironwood says he holds two seats on the Council. Jacques says the “dust embargo” has already cost him millions—hey, whaddya know, I was right, he is throwing a tantrum about lost profits!

Weiss accidentally lets the door close loudly enough to be heard, and the conversation halts. Ironwood promptly apologizes, saying he should’ve been gone by now, and with bitter words between him and Jacques, takes his leave. Before he does, he reminds Weiss that Atlas Academy will always have a place for her and will be back in session before too long.

Jacques reprimands Weiss for her lack of manners, and she apologizes. Jacques then complains that there are “still” people who blame Atlas for what happened to Beacon. While I, too, find this to be unfair, I have the benefit of knowing what Cinder did, while the public doesn’t. But on the bright side, the footage Mercury would’ve shot might’ve had maybe ten minutes to spread across the internet before the CCTs went down, so that reputation damage might smooth out in time.

Weiss says roughly the same thing I did, saying those sorts of people weren’t there when Beacon fell. Jacques then complains about Ironwood’s influence with the Council, and Weiss mentions that she trusts him. Jacques then spells out that Ironwood’s forbidden dust exports to other kingdoms, whining about how unreasonable it is that Ironwood wants things locked up until they’re certain no one is going to declare war, as he puts it. There’s also the other reason that occurs to me: this is a logical choice to prevent further predation by enemy forces who, if Torchwick was any indication, tend to need some ammunition to get things going their way, but naturally Jacques doesn’t think of this, concerned as he is with his profit margins.

J: How anyone could find that to be sound logic is beyond me.

Weiss bears the distinct look of someone who has to suffer the complaints of a self-centered and short-sighted parent, and doesn’t answer, prompting Jacques to explain, as though the very thought disgusts him, that the Schnee Dust Company will be holding a charity concert in the coming weeks. He says they need to show the people of Remnant that Schnee is on their side and that everyone is suffering the fall of Beacon, with it evident in his voice that he finds this to be trivial and a waste of his time.

Weiss has a smile on her face at this news nonetheless, until Jacques says she’ll be required to perform—that is, sing—at the event.

W: …Excuse me?

J: Many forget that you were there, my own daughter, a Schnee, on the grounds defending another kingdom. We need to remind them, and we need to show them that the Schnee family is just as strong as ever.

Weiss cuts to the chase: he’s not really giving her the choice, is he? And he simply reiterates that he thinks it would make a lot of people happy. She dejectedly says she’ll start practicing.

On leaving Jacques’ office, Weiss finds Klein at the ready with hot coffee, and a snarky crack at Jacques’ self-importance that makes a scandalized Weiss smile.

As of the next scene cut, we are hearing another nightmare of Ruby’s. Pyrrha is still calling Jaune’s name in Ruby’s dreams, until she wakes up—and finds the man himself absent. The reason she keeps hearing that, as it happens, is because the voice is really there, saying Jaune’s name. Ruby looks around, bewildered, and gets up, following the sound of Pyrrha’s voice.

She finds Jaune a short distance away, practicing his swordplay. The voice of the dead turns out to be coming from a recording, being played on Jaune’s scroll—combat tutoring recorded by Pyrrha for his benefit, when she was training him in secret. Jaune’s slashes, punctuated with aching cries, leave gashes in the nearby grass via the displaced air. As the recorded lesson comes to a close, Jaune gasps, his breath catching, not due to exhaustion but obviously due to holding back tears.

Pyrrha’s next words take root:

P: I know it’s frustrating. And it can feel like so much effort to progress such a small amount. But I want you to know I’m proud of you. I’ve never met someone so determined to better themselves. You’ve grown so much since we started training. And I know this is just the beginning. Jaune, I… I… I want you to know that I’m so happy to be a part of your life. I’ll always be with you.

The meaning of that hesitation from Pyrrha is not lost on Jaune, who starts the recording again, desperate less to train than to hear her voice. Ruby quietly leaves him to his suffering.

The episode ends.

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