RWBY 33 – Volume 5, Episodes 8 and 9

[surgeworks]

32 – Volume 5, Episodes 4, 5, 6, and 7 | Table of Contents | 34 – Volume 5, Episodes 10 and 11
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I’m back. Last time the story slowed to a goddamn crawl as it bloated up with filler upon filler, and we were made to watch a half hour’s worth of people just sitting around and talking.

I imagine that will continue, to no one’s enjoyment.

 

 

V5E8, “Alone Together”

It’s early morning, and Ruby is relaxing outside. Yang and Weiss join her, the latter with coffee. Weiss threatens to pour the hot coffee on Ruby for the crime of noticing how nice she’s being, which is a tad severe to pass for playful banter.

Y: I can’t believe we’re in Mistral…

R: That’s what you can’t believe?

Y: Well, yeah! And all the other magic and stuff…

The Lovegood Fallacy: 9

They are going ridiculously hard to sell this “magic is just so stunning and unbelievable” nonsense.

Ruby mourns that Blake hasn’t rejoined them yet, and Yang, rather coldly, says “she made her choice”.

*sigh*

Ruby and Weiss notice this, and when asked, Yang somewhat sourly replies:

Y: Well, she could’ve been here if she’d just stuck around. It’s no big deal, though, it’ll be fine.

R: …Don’t you want her here?

Y: [bluntly] Why would I want her here?

So, yes, Yang is a tad bitter that she got her arm cut off trying to defend Blake and the latter just up and vanished. I’m not saying she’s wrong to feel that way, nor am I thinking it’s wrong for Rooster Teeth to spend time trying to sort out that angst on Yang’s part. But I’ll have more to say before we’re done here.

When some of her anger slips through and she’s told to calm down, Yang does the red-eyes thing when she snaps not to be told that. It’s funny how part of Yang’s character arc is supposed to be moving away from her anger and yet she’s done the red eyes thing more often in this volume than any other.

Yang, left hand again trembling, realizes she’s making something of an ass of herself and leaves. Ruby and Weiss exchange looks, and we cut to Blake in Menagerie.

It’s nighttime, and she’s on the Belladonnas’ porch, and Sun calls from inside to ask if she’s ready to go. She says she’ll be there soon, before discreetly removing a sticky note taped to the other side of the porch railing.



It’s a note from Ilia saying she’s unsure, that things have gone too far, and that she wants to talk to Blake—at a quiet spot, alone. We have occasionally berated Ruby, Weiss, and Yang for lack of braincells. Does Blake have enough in her head to realize that doing as the note says is a very stupid idea?

Sun comes to get her, saying they have to recruit in the “nocturnal section”. He notices something has her feeling wrong, and asks if she’s okay. Blake says she’ll meet him there, and that she needs to take care of something first.

Back at Mistral, Yang is alone in an upstairs room. Seriously, this house they acquired through undiscussed means is ridiculously big and nice. Yang is staring at a picture of Team RWBY—the same one Taiyang has framed at their house in Patch.



A knock comes at the door, and Yang tells Ruby she doesn’t want to talk, but it isn’t Ruby—it’s Weiss.

She takes a seat on the opposite twin bed, across from Yang. Yang then pisses me off.

Y: I know she's our teammate, but I'm not just going to change my mind. I'm sorry, I just... I don't think you know what it's like to be left.

Weiss Schnee doesn’t know what it’s like to be left?

Y: You have a giant family,

I’ve already pointed this out as a growing detail that is at odds with Weiss’ established theme of loneliness. But furthermore, Yang’s family is pretty big itself.

Y: recitals to perform at, dinners to attend.

Come again? What are those, then, lovely forms of therapy to deter onset of stress? I’m pretty sure those are obligations. What does that have to do with whether Weiss knows loneliness or not? Are you saying you envy her recitals and dinners as though these would’ve benefitted you?

Ill Logic: 66

Y: I didn't have any of that. My mom left me. Ruby's mom left too.

Ruby’s mom is also your mom as you described her ages ago. You called her “Super Mom”. You said she was awesome. And I am growing increasingly pissed off that this show is shoving that under the rug in favor of behaving as though the only mothers worth having issues over are birth mothers.

Fauxminism: 25

Ruby’s mom also didn’t choose to leave—she fucking died.

Y: Tai was always busy with school and Ruby couldn't even talk yet.

So where the hell was Qrow? Did he not have some role as a guardian? Yeah, he was always out on missions, but as far as a child Yang should understand, he’s just unemployed and not present.

Y: I had to pick up the pieces. I had to keep things together. Alone. …Weiss, if you have something to say, then say it.

Blake literally has nothing to do with any of that, though. And if this is all an accumulated stress spilling out over Blake being only the latest person to leave Yang, well then I’m afraid I’m going to have to admit to being unimpressed.

Yang, this is why your dad called you out on moping. You are moping. Because, barring the loss of your arm, you are acting like you have it way worse than you do.

First, Taiyang was not absent, he was employed. Yes, teachers work nine or ten hour days, often for low pay and lower appreciation, but a) that doesn’t mean Yang wouldn’t have seen him when he was home, uhh, literally every day, and b) Yang ostensibly attended the school Taiyang teaches at. She should not have been lacking attention from her father in any form. Even if she had to be half-raised by daycare and babysitters, at some point she would’ve been seeing Taiyang regularly and had sufficient access to a father’s love and guidance.

Hypocrisy: 22

Second, yes, Yang. We get it. Blake was just so callous to leave you alone with only your *checks notes* father, uncle, sister, and adorable dog for assistance with recovery. And Ruby didn’t just split out of nowhere, nor did Qrow—they were around the house for months, remember? Long enough for fall to turn into winter? Or are we adding that time frame to the Road to Nowhere count considering how many times it’s been ignored?

Yang, when it comes to your arm, you have a lot to complain about. When it comes to your abandonment issues, you should probably be quiet. You could not, time frames accounted for, have spent that long raising yourself. You’re not Matilda.

Hypocrisy: 23

Third? This part:

Y: Ruby couldn't even talk yet.

Couldn’t even what? Oh, we are retconning now! The last time Yang brought this matter up, Ruby was just “too young to really know what was going on”. That already flew in the face of Red Like Roses Part II’s loaded-ass lyrics, but now you’re telling me Ruby had to have been less than, what, a year old? Children start talking in complete words anywhere from ten to fifteen months old. And Yang is only two years older than Ruby! She would’ve been three years old, when prior indications were that she was around 7-9! Certainly with this version, she’d have been too young to escape the house with a wagon carrying her little sister in the woods unnoticed. No matter how allegedly bad a parent Taiyang is, I’m pretty sure he’s not dumb enough to leave literal toddlers home alone.

Which, of course, begs the question of what was happening with their likeliest babysitter—Qrow Branwen, the drunk uncle. But that’s for later.

Either no one at Rooster Teeth has ever raised a kid or no one thought about this plot.

Road to Nowhere: 11

(Lindsay Tuggey, Lindsay Jones as of 2014, had her first kid in May of the year this volume aired, so we know which one it is.)

The final nail in the coffin is Yang’s attitude as it applies to Blake. I agree that Blake owed Yang at least an explanation, but…that’s all. She had no obligation—yes, even with the loss of her arm—to stay by Yang’s bedside and, I dunno, give her support that her family members would be better equipped to provide anyway?

This isn’t hard, Yang. You know what happened—the last time you saw Blake, some dude had stabbed her in the gut and that same dude lopped your arm off. Connect the dots! Obviously some homicidal lunatic is after Blake! I wouldn’t want to be around family and friends either, particularly not vulnerable friends. Yang doesn’t know that Blake has her own family as well as Sun, and doesn’t know where Blake went—for all she knows, Blake is dead. For all that she knows, aforementioned homicidal lunatic caught up with Blake and chopped her head off, and she’s never going to see her again! Yang is being kind of a bitch here, wasting anger on someone she should be more worried about over what’s ultimately not a real conflict to be resolved.

Returning to this scene at last, Weiss takes all of this bitterness from Yang and tells her own story:

W: ...When I was ten, my dad finally admitted to my mom that the only reason he married her was for the family name. [sigh] It was actually on my birthday.

The piano notes of “Mirror Mirror” start up. Weiss continues.

W: He missed the big dinner. She got mad, he finally snapped… I think she already knew. Looking back, I think I knew, too. But, hearing him say it finally pushed her over the edge.

Clearly, having both parents physically in the house doesn’t necessarily mean the family is any happier for it.

Weiss walks over and joins Yang on her twin bed, sitting close. Freezerburn inches rapidly towards canon status.

W: First, it was separate lunches and dinners. Opposite balconies at my recitals. A glass of wine here, a glass of wine there… Then, it was no dinners. No recitals. A bottle of wine here, and, well, you get the idea.

What I get is that Qrowin shippers are facing some mega scrutiny right now.

Yang apologizes for her presumptions, and Weiss says that she’s right to say she doesn’t know loneliness in the same way she does—hers is different. There, but different. And she’s pretty sure Blake has hers, too. Yang protests this, saying Blake doesn’t have to be alone, and that she made a choice to leave. Weiss finally snaps Yang awake long enough to make her realize the obvious: sword in the gut, arm cut off, homicidal ex-boyfriend, and so on and so forth. Weiss says that, just as Blake was finally opening up and trying to form connections without her secrecy and barriers in the way, her worst fears came true.

Yang breaks down.

Y: No one blamed her for anything! If she had just talked to us, she would have known that! How could I be there for her if she doesn’t let me! [starting to sob] …What if I needed her there for me?

Weiss shares in her regret that Blake isn’t with them, and says that the only thing to be done about it now is be there for her when she finally does return. She heart-wrenchingly says that Ruby, Yang, and even Blake are more like family than her father and brother are. She’d do anything for them, she says. So she’ll be there for Blake when the time comes.

W: And, I know we’re not as close, but… I’m here for you, too.

Freezerburn! Freezerburn! Freezerburn!

A knock at the door, and Ruby pokes her head in. All is well, as she’s relieved to find. Before we cut to the next scene, let’s discuss.

First, I think out of all the long scenes of nothing but talking that we’ve had so far, this is about the only one that actually warranted being that long. The rest of the filler up until now has been dragging, much more padded out than it actually need to be. But that? That needed to happen. I’m very pleased with that. I think most viewers were.

But do you know what certain fans, certain shippers had to say in response to this?

“Aww, so sweet! I can’t wait until Yang and Blake have their big resolution and solve their issues, too!”

And this is similar to the “can’t wait for Nora’s backstory!” reactions, in that they just make me laugh. Guys, that was the big resolution to the Yang/Blake contention—I don’t say “conflict” because it wasn’t one—and that’s all it needed! Unlike the prior example, I can’t blame Rooster Teeth this time, it’s just fans. There was a lot of both-sides-ism happening when fans tended to discuss the problem with Yang’s anger at Blake, and whether Blake really deserved it or not. But I mean, you can scroll up and look at all those rebuttals I’ve laid out and see how much patience I had for that.

This is all that Yang really had to go through in order to get past the Blake damage she was carrying around, and all that those Blake issues were really worth. I also choose to believe that the choice of Weiss to carry out this development was a subtle attempt at nudging shippers towards the two of them, although if so, it was definitely very “Season 11 Supernatural” in that clearly it was not direct enough to sink Destiel fans Bumbleby fans and ultimately went out the window in favor of...well, you know.

The reason I bring up Bumbleby fans is because it tends to be those that actively want drama between Blake and Yang—and so side with Yang, who was oh-so-hurt, so that the matter can’t be called “resolved” too easily. That’s the dynamic at play here between the show and the fans. Rather than creating the ship from the drama, they wanted the drama to justify the ship.

Unfortunately, I think the BY shippers won out in the end, they definitely screamed and cried enough. Volume 5 is going to consider this matter pretty much wrapped up for all intents and purposes, but it’s going to reappear like a rash come Volume 6.

But for now, it’s done with, and we cut back to Blake and her search for her braincells, along a street at night, alone. She even finds an alleyway, to give potential attackers an extra advantage.

She calls out for Ilia, who moves forward out of the shadows, hands raised to show she’ s unarmed. Blake, who lowers Gambol Shroud.

B: Ilia… I know you’re scared, but you don’t have to be. My family and I, we can keep you safe.

I: [whispering, looking away] I’m sorry…

The predictable happens, and Blake is tackled to the ground by Yuma (the bat winged dude). For some reason, this is portrayed as weirdly debilitating, like, Blake seems to have been K.O.’d and is on the ground struggling to get air in her lungs. Blake has been dealt way worse blows than this, c’mon.



Your Fight Scene Sucks: 60

She’s separated from Gambol Shroud, and some spider faunus chick tangles her in webbing to bind her arms. Lanipator’s voice congratulates Ilia, and Yuma tosses her her lightning whip. Blake, voice distraught, asks what Ilia’s doing.

Ilia apologizes, an apology refused by Blake. Ilia says that her and her family are holding the faunus back, and Blake tearfully asks her how protecting innocent people makes them the problem. Ilia’s answer is filled with rage.

I: There’s no such thing as innocent. There’s no right thing to do, only what’s best for us. There’s the humans that hate the faunus, and there’s the humans who stand by, and let the hate happen! But you know what snuffs out hate?

Ilia points her rapier-whip at Blake’s throat.

I: Fear.

As she continues, she fails to keep fear out of her own voice.

I: I don’t like…hurting people. But I’ll tell ya this: it’s gotten us results.

Blake challenges this, asking Ilia to look where it’s gotten her. Ilia doesn’t need words to know what she’s referring to—her friend, attacked and bound, and herself complicit in an assassination game.



And she knows Blake’s right. But she says, pained, that everyone has to make sacrifices for the greater good, no matter how much it hurts. When Blake says Ilia must think killing her must fall under that, Ilia corrects her: only Blake’s parents are to be killed. Blake says she won’t let that happen, but grows terrified when Ilia says she’s being sent back to Adam. Desperate, she says that this isn’t Ilia.

And then, of course, Ilia says the line.

I: Yes. It. Is. But I guess back then, you were just too busy falling for Adam to notice. …I was always jealous of the way you looked at him. …I wanted you to look at me that way.

Ilia’s spots turn pink, and when this fades, and she shakes off her tears, her eyes are red, saying “we can’t always get what we want”.

Before we continue with this scene, we discuss. Let’s not pretend it won’t take a long time.

*deep, long-suffering sigh* Yes, Ilia is a lesbian. She just admitted to having had feelings for Blake, back when they were in the White Fang together. That just happened.

And so, Rooster Teeth plays their hand on the LGBT representation matter after an eternity of dithering. As I’m sure you can imagine, not everyone was happy with this. Accusations abounded of Rooster Teeth playing the “psycho lesbian” card.

Not that I really trust accurate perceptions of LGBT issues to TVTropes, especially as of late, but let’s just see what their “Psycho Lesbian” page has to say on this matter:

A lesbian woman who is described as mentally unstable, villainous or otherwise dangerous because she's a lesbian i.e. not a bisexual. She will often be described as covetous of other women and irrationally hateful towards the male gender, if only because they are taking away too many potential mates. Often a Child Hater too, unless All Lesbians Want Kids (uncommon for this character trope).

Very often motivated by an unrequited love for a straight woman that she wants to herself, which can result in assassinating the competition, sometimes even getting rid of her desired lover's kids. Such a character often doesn't check consent nor the feelings of the woman she's after, all that she wants is that woman to love and desire her back. The more benign versions might stop at stalking their beloved, but most examples are more a case of If I Can't Have You…. Extreme cases are downright predatory in their pursuits, but it's rare sub-type.

This trope carries uncomfortable subtext: go straight or go crazy. Or at least have the decency of being bisexual so the male audience can have something they can enjoy watching. For years, a cocktail of censorship and bigotry rendered all lesbian characters on screen exclusively "crazy" and villainous. The Hays Code-era requirements that "deviant" characters (and that included all gay characters of any gender) must not be made sympathetic or rewarded meant that such characters would almost inevitably be toast before the final credits rolled - and this convention has persisted long after the demise of the Code itself.

So yes, Ilia here edges dangerously close, what with her bitter admission of jealousy towards Adam, and her assassination mission. But per the explicit requirements, no, Ilia is not a Psycho Lesbian. Please don’t call her one.

Having said that, clearing the Psycho Lesbian bar does not make Ilia a good example of gay rep. I already went over this, didn’t I? The four bullet points back when Fenix Atar, aka Pilot Boi, bit the dust? Here, I’ll lay ‘em out again:
 

• They die/are dead. [🗸]
• They exist in the background [🗸]
• They are a villain [🗸]
• They exist to suffer and be miserable [?]

Don’t question me about these bullet points, I already talked about them the first time, two recaps of this show ago. I’ve gone ahead and put check marks over the ones we’ve got now.

Whether Ilia qualifies as an example of the fourth kind, with an excessive focus on her misery, I’ll leave up to my commenters. The third bullet point, however, is not one I’m budging on. Yes, I know Blake is on a mission to redeem Ilia and eventually succeeds. That doesn’t change the fact that right now, Ilia is playing a villain role. She legit just announced her intention to murder her crush’s parents and take her back to her murderously abusive ex. Even if Ilia doesn’t know what Adam is like regarding Blake, she’s already well beyond the line of how dark a character can be before they’re a villain.

And maybe I’d budge. Maybe I’d be more lenient. Maybe I’d take my foreknowledge into account, if this weren’t coming off the heels of everything leading up to it. Maybe, if prior efforts hadn’t amounted to the Plant Gays, Pilot Boi, and whatever the hell was happening with Scarlet, I’d be more forgiving of this.

But as it is, I’m not.

How To Piss Off Gay People: 11

Three more things. First, I would like to draw attention to Ilia’s last name. She is a color-changing chameleon faunus, and her last name is the Sioux word for “rainbow”.

Yes, Rooster Teeth literally named their gay character “rainbow”.

Remember my first talk about wokeaphobia, and how I talked about exceptions and contexts, and said that they’re a matter to be handled by gay people? And how straight people, particularly entertainment companies, get no leeway? Yeah, that’s in play here. If this were being written by gay people for gay audiences, I’d let that slide, maybe even smile. Hell, I’ve done worse with my own characters. But it’s not. Which makes it feel more like a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, so, have another point on me.

How To Piss Off Gay People: 12

Second, a rare instance of me siding with a rather jumpy and accusatory fanbase. See, the second Ilia was revealed to have been attracted to Blake, shipping drama started. Many a fan was accused of homophobia for being interested in whether Ilia was bisexual, and casting her that way. Rooster Teeth, when asked, did clarify that she was a lesbian, which cleared all this up.

As it happens, I’m kind of on those jumpy fans’ side, because there were people who were suddenly very into shipping Ilia with men. Not Sun, not that I saw, but Corsac or Fennec (?), or Yuma (???), or even dudes Ilia has never met and has nothing in common with, meaning Jaune (the fuck?).

(Don’t ever get too deep in the RWBY fanbase, guys. Jaune as a character attracts some pretty creepy dudes for fans, who are on some next-level shit.)

This instance of me siding with RWBY fans is immediately undone by the other thing shippers did when faced with the fact that Ilia is a lesbian, which was immediately start shipping her with Blake—primarily in the same circles that shipped Blake with Yang, often making them an OT3. Yes, mostly as a free coupon to get Blake away from Sun. Yes, people really are that petty. Cookie retracted.

(I mean, you can call Sun stalking Blake a bizarre incidence out of line with his character. Ilia trying to kill Blake’s parents is an intentional part of the bigger plot and her character isn't established enough to call it OOC.)

The final thing I want to say? In case I haven’t made this point clear, RWBY fans do not pass the braincell check. I’m not even talking about Bumbleby fans at this point, I’m talking about RWBY stans. The fans who were still up Rooster Teeth’s ass to a rather alarming degree, which unfortunately still comprised a lot of them at this point. Because this?

They said this was good. Hell, they said this was tactful. That it was well-written and respectful. In fact, you can still find fawning in that same respect on RWBY’s TVTropes pages.



What the hell are y’all smoking, ‘cause I want some. This is what ‘tactful’ looks like to you? Ilia just revealed her attraction to another woman while announcing her intentions to kill that woman’s parents!!! In fact, the way her dialogue comes out, I’d say it dances on that line we discussed earlier, because it makes it sound like Ilia’s gonna butcher Blake’s parents because Blake had the nerve to be attracted to Adam!

B: Ilia, please, this [killing my parents and delivering me to my abuser] isn’t you!

I: Yes, it [killing your parents and delivering you to your abuser] is! But I guess back then, you were too busy falling for Adam to notice!

If you’re still convinced this was good, please pull your head out.

But let’s finally return to the scene itself. Ilia orders Yuma to come with her and the other two faunus to take Blake away. But Blake cries out “now!” and looks towards the sky.



Why’d he get his bo staff out for that? You know what, doesn’t matter. Blake does, in fact, possess braincells and appears to have asked Sun to shadow her and stay out of sight.

Sun knocks down the spotted faunus, and Blake punches out the spider faunus, which…I didn’t see her get free of her bindings, but whatever, I guess.

Blake says she’s not okay and tells Sun to call the police, and hurry with her to her house. She gets on her scroll, but it goes unanswered—the Belladonna home is already being attacked. The guards are trying to defend against the White Fang’s forces, and Kali is being forced to take up arms herself.



She calls out to Ghira, who is in another room also dealing with assailants.



Fennec and Corsac have also arrived, and intend to kill Ghira themselves, wielding daggers charged with some kind of dust. In response, Ghira ditches his shirt, revealing a dad bod, and bares fangs and claws.



The episode ends.

Love to Be a Part of It Someday: 50 (+2)

We’ve filled ten whole pages of document with this one episode, whereas it took three to fill ten last time. Let’s see how far we get now.

V5E9 “A Perfect Storm”

The episode, as mentioned before, starts out at Raven’s camp. There is no mention whatsoever of anyone using any violence to get in, as Vernal states that they have finally earned attention from Salem’s crew. In response, Raven prepares a plan of some kind, and asks for her helmet, which she dons before addressing her visitors.

R: I don’t recall inviting so many guests into our home. Either I’m losing my memory, [addressing her followers] or you’ve all lost your spines!

Cinder tells Raven to go easy on her mooks, since they know maiden powers when they see them, she says, with her eye alight. In response, Raven orders her followers to start breaking down and packing up, as they’ll be moving camp soon.

Arthur, who is here for some reason, (smugly) says it’s too late to run and hide, and Raven asks for introductions. Mercury puffs up, smirking, and says they’re the guys Raven should be afraid of—suffice it to say Raven isn’t impressed, and none moreso when she gets the names of each member.

R: Two children you’ve tricked into following you, a disgraced Atlesian scientist, and a fall maiden with a name so appropriate she probably picked it herself.

Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge: 10

This is like watching teenage bullies try and flex in front of a gang lord, which isn't too far from the truth. It's kind of funny.

Cinder says Raven’s still alive because she has goodies Salem wants. With the usual threat of fiery death delivered so smoothly, she coaxes Raven into summoning Vernal, who by all appearances so far, would appear to be the spring maiden. Once she’s present, she’s asked to prove her power.



Vernal, with Raven’s nod, raises her arms and closes her eyes. At once, a powerful wind starts to blow, and thundering storm clouds materialize overhead. The other members of her faction are alarmed, but Cinder sees what she likes, and Vernal relents.

This is all going to look really stupid later, by the way.

Raven advises Cinder that Vernal’s got some pretty good chops as a maiden, and Cinder smugly scoffs. Arthur gets waaaay closer than is safe if you ask me, when explaining that Salem wants the relics, not the maidens themselves, and they’re willing to work together, and then leave her alone, if Raven is amenable.

Raven is surprised when Cinder mentions Lionheart has turned traitor, but still refuses to help Salem or Ozpin, hand on her sword. Cinder’s lot denies her “time to think this over”, as Haven will be attacked in two days, and demand her compliance.

Raven, backed into a corner, finally removes her mask. She has a condition for helping, one that even Cinder can’t balk at: her brother, dead.



Uhhhh. Okay.

Raven is a worse person than previously shown, got it. If the story ever manages to make it past Volume 9 and get Raven involved in the plot again, this is going to be one of the many things the writers totally forget writing, I know it.

Raven sets the stage: if Lionheart really is in Salem’s pocket, he can get Qrow into the building easily. Salem gets her relic, and Raven removes the thorn in her side Qrow will become should this all go down the way Cinder would otherwise have it.

Cinder is down, Arthur is not, and Emerald fears retribution from the students in Qrow’s shadow, particularly Ruby. That last name does nothing to deter Cinder, quite the opposite in fact. Against Arthur’s suggestion, Cinder agrees to the terms, provided their infiltration of Haven is timed with the White Fang’s assault so they can slip in and out in the chaos. Arthur tries to stop her, and gets burned for it. That’s what he gets for laying his hand on a woman made of fire and hate.



The episode is two-thirds over, and all we did was talk. This is still a problem, I see. But, at least now, we cut to the action.

Back at the Belladonna home in Menagerie, the White Fang are enacting their assault on Ghira and Kali. Fennec and Corsac appear to have their hands full with Ghira, and are wielding two of the most lazily-designed weapons I’ve ever seen. Like, at least Winter’s simple and sleek blades fit her character and were fun to watch in action.

LuLaRwe: 13



Ghira knocks down Fennec, and then pins Corsac to the wall with a discarded spear—but Ghira’s aura breaks when Corsac’s fireball hits him dead-on. This does not bode well for Blake’s pops. The brothers get back up, Corsac ditching his Robes of Evil. Fennec tries using a wind blast on Ghira, who is repelled, until Sun bursts in!



The brothers combine the fire and wind blasts into a big super whirlwind, which Sun deflects with lots of bo staff spinning. It...doesn't look good.

Sun tells Blake to hurry, and she, having entered from the second floor, loads her Gambol Shroud’s chamber.



She leaps down, baiting an attack by the Albain brothers that traps their blades in an ice clone before joining her father and boyfriend Sun. Lightning-in-my-Hand strikes again as the scene goes on for way too long without anyone pouncing on Corsac's and Fennec's vulnerable states. Ghira invites Sun to help him take down the Albains and insists Blake find her mother. I am rather of the opinion Sun should handle the Albains himself given that Ghira is defenseless right now, but whatever, as long as he gets to do things onscreen, I’m happy.

*laughter from nowhere*

*notices the laughter, sighs*

Blake runs off, Corsac melts his and his brother’s weapons free from the ice, and Sun and Ghira have lots of friendly haha-they’re-friends-now banter. The latter two charge, and we cut to Raven’s tent.

Vernal reports back the location of Cinder’s current digs, and Raven, head in her hands, thanks her. Neither one of them is dumb enough to think they’ll really be left alone once Salem has what she wants. So, in order to secure their fates, they need to take the relic for themselves while Salem’s and Ozpin’s forces squabble.

Vernal questions Raven’s daughter’s place in all this, and Raven alleges that it doesn’t matter. Raven leaves the tent, and Vernal spies her winging off as a bird. The sound of one of Raven’s portals reaches the viewer, and then feathery Raven is in Mistral, outside Qrow’s window.

Just then, Oscar makes his way up to Qrow’s room, claiming Ozpin needs to speak to him.

We cut back to the Belladonna house, with Blake frantically searching for her mother. She doesn’t find her, but she does find an empty, very large den with Ilia waiting for her. Both of them draw their weapons, and the episode ends.

Love to Be a Part of It Someday: 52 (+2)

We’re 13 pages in, so we’re cutting it close. I think I’ll stop it here and just take them as they come from here on out. We’re coming up on the end of the volume, so the talking will soon peter out.

Counts:

• Jaune: 31
• It Was Right There: 16
• Fauxminism: 25
• Hypocrisy: 23
• Reliable Leaders: 22 + 8
  • Prowling Wolf Fallacy: 8
• Threatening Enemies: 16
• Love to Be a Part of It Someday: 52
• Your Fight Scene Sucks: 60 + 20
  • Evisceration Evasion: 20
• Ill Logic: 66
• Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Veil: 23 + 22
  • Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge: 10
  • Band-Aid Brigade: 12
• RSVP: 43
• Road to Nowhere: 11
• Y.A.S. Queen: 9
• Rooster Tease: 16
• LuLaRwe: 13
  
• The Lovegood Fallacy: 9
• How to Piss Off Gay People: 12
• Invisembl: 3

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32 – Volume 5, Episodes 4, 5, 6, and 7 | Table of Contents | 34 – Volume 5, Episodes 10 and 11

Comments

[rc88]

Aren't faunus only supposed to have one animal trait, yet Ghira has both fangs and claws?

ETA: Also, easy way to make the bird thing a curse - go full Ladyhawke. Only one of them can be a human at once.