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Alternate Title: I Don’t Care!
I hate this. Nothing about this is enjoyable. Fuck.
48 – Volume 8, Episodes 1 and 2 | Table of Contents | 50 – Volume 8, Episodes 6, 7, and 8
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Alternate Title: Oh, Sorry, Were You Busy MURDERING PEOPLE?
Why do I feel like I’m heading down a dark tunnel? Let’s get into it.
Volume 7 Final Thoughts | Table of Contents | Volume 8, Episodes 3, 4, and 5
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Alright, well. Let’s just do this.
RWBY Volume 8
Written by Miles Luna, Kerry Shawcross, Eddy Rivas, and Kiersi Burkhart
Directed by Kerry Shawcross, Connor Pickens, Dustin Matthews, and Paula Decanini
Produced under Rooster Teeth
Alternate Title: The One Where Miles and Kerry Escaped the Basement
RWBY, Volume 8.
The first three volumes of RWBY had an inspiring rise stylistically but couldn’t be claimed as a good story, and came with much frustration around certain events. The fourth volume was a downward slope, the fifth a crashing at the bottom, and the sixth a pile of burning wreckage. Surely, we were far past any chance for improvement.
And then came Volume 7. A stunningly, excellently-written season whose only real flaws were not being the prettiest, until the very end. Despite myself, I liked Volume 7 a lot, because there was no doubt of skyrocketing levels of quality. But all the same, the note it ended on did…seem a bit unfavorable. It did end with me enraged and disappointed, nonetheless.
Volume Four was the recovery season. Volume Five was the garbage season. Volume Six was the damage control season, and Volume Seven was the season that almost made it. But if there is a theme to be had for this volume, is is derailment—no one leaves this volume totally happy with the plot or characters. You thought Volume Five was a trainwreck? Wait until you see this one.
Hear me when I say that Volume 8 is almost a step-by-step guide of what not to do with your series, especially after its only truly great entry. Volume 8 is something worse than bad—it’s spiteful. It’s what happens when authors go out of their way to stomp on their own series, and a lot that fans happen to like about it. Let’s get into it.
Here are the counts:
47 – Volume 7 Finale | Table of Contents | Volume 8
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…
…I have some bad news, guys. Volume 7 of RWBY is, for the most part, good.
46 – Volume 7, Episodes 11 and 12 | Table of Contents | Volume 7 Final Thoughts
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Alternate Title: The Train Crash Continues
*muffled, behind a veil* The text is staying blue because I’m that pissed off. You just couldn’t fucking let it be, could you? You had to kill him off. I wasn’t even that into him as a character, but by god, you’d better believe I am ready to unleash unholy fury now.
We are still on the twelfth episode of Volume 7, “With Friends Like These”. Qrow has to choose between chasing Tyrian or being with Clover in his dying moments.
45 – Volume 7, Episodes 7, 8, 9, and 10 | Table of Contents | 47 – Volume 7 Finale
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Alternate Title: It All Comes Crashing Down
Well, here it is. The part where everything we’ve built is broken down and swept under the rug.
I've been saying this throughout, but this season, it’s been…well, good. Not just ‘less bad than other volumes’, but actually good. Yeah, everything’s ugly, but writing-wise, everything…works. There hasn’t been any filler, the pacing is pretty good, there aren’t any severe missed points… When I was first watching this, I was thinking that Volume 7 needs to get bad, quickly, or it’s gonna make the story of RWBY that much more tragic.
Well, it did get bad quickly, and it did get tragic.
44 – Volume 7, Episodes 4, 5, and 6 | Table of Contents | 46 – Volume 7, Episodes 11 and 12
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Alternate Title: It's Still Good!
Well, uh. Huh.
There’s no easy way to say this, guys. Rooster Teeth decided the plot of Volume 7 of RWBY was going to be a recreation (with some dramatic and fantasy elements added) of certain real-world political events with massive consequences for the citizens of certain countries.
I’m…still baffled that they chose this route.
43 – Volume 7, Episodes 1, 2, and 3 | Table of Contents | 45 – Episodes 7, 8, 9, and 10
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Alt Title: Gay Bait and American Elections
We had a suspiciously good start last post, barring how goddamn awful everything looked. We also introduced a five-person team of new allies, who I can tell look like they walked directly out of Gen:Lock even though I’ve never watched Gen:Lock. Tyrian killed a socialist.
Volume 6 Final Thoughts | Table of Contents | 44 – Volume 7, Episodes 4, 5, and 6
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Well. Uh.
Nowhere to start but at the beginning, I guess.
RWBY Volume 7
Written by Miles Luna, Kerry Shawcross, Eddy Rivas, and Kiersi Burkhart
Directed by Kerry Shawcross, Connor Pickens, Dustin Matthews, and Paula Decanini
Produced under Rooster Teeth
Alternate Title: The One Where Miles and Kerry Were Locked In A Basement
Welcome to Volume 7 of RWBY.
Volume 6 Finale | Table of Contents | Volume 7
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RWBY Volume 6 is pretty much the only kind of season of RWBY that could’ve followed Volume 5: completely unexpected, jaw-dropping yet underwhelming, and totally incapable of fixing anything.
Let’s start where we usually start, which is story…
41 – Volume 6, Episodes 8, 9, 10, and 11 | Table of Contents | Volume 6 Final Thoughts
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Alt Title: Holy Fuck
I… There’s no easy way to start this off. It’s the third time I’ve had to cut a post in the middle of an episode, and for that I apologize. I didn’t think they’d pack in ten minutes of giant mecha fight before that big reveal. Um, all the warnings from the prior episode apply.
*sweeping hair back* I just… How to even process this?
40 – Volume 6, Episodes 5, 6, and 7 | Table of Contents | 42 – Volume 6 Finale
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We just finished one of the most well-done subplots RWBY has ever had, and now it is time to descend back into hell. Eye-related gore and abuse pop up in this one.
39 – Volume 6, Episodes 3 and 4 | Table of Contents | 40 – Volume 6, Episodes 8, 9, and 11
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Last time, MKG made it clear that annoying someone stronger than you makes it your fault if they kill off your entire species, and made Ozpin into a rapist. This one's got eye-related violence and gore in it.
The good news is that we are entering the short stretch of Volume 6 Episodes that some people actually tend to consider good.
38 – Volume 6, Episodes 2 and 3 | Table of Contents | 40 – Volume 6, Episodes 5, 6 and 7
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Alternate Title: That one. The one I warned you about.
Please be warned that this episode involves a rape, an in-depth discussion of that rape, and a bunch of other completely unpleasant shit including child abuse, child death, suicide attempts...it's real bad.
37 – V3 Leak & V6 Short / V6E1 | Table of Contents | 39 – Volume 6, Episodes 3 and 4
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If you haven't been keeping up with the spork so far, now might be a very good time to start reading. We have some Moments(TM) rapidly approaching.
Volume 5 Retrospective | Table of Contents | Volume 6, Episodes 2 and 3
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Alright. So, Before we move ahead with this, we have to address the leak.
Yes, the leak of the footage that was intended to be part of Volume Three, when Adam menaces and fights with Yang. The one Shane talked about.
RWBY Volume 6
Written by Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross,
Directed by Kerry Shawcross and Connor Pickens
Produced under Rooster Teeth
Alternate Title: The One They Couldn’t Save
RWBY, Volume 6.
Where was Rooster Teeth going to go? A volume seemingly conceived as a giant band-aid for prior plot points became, itself, a wound to be bandaged. RWBY, whose fanbase had already cooled as Volume Four received mixed reactions, was now the joke of the internet due to how badly Volume Five had completely screwed it all up. What do they do?
Well, the most futile fucking thing they could, really, but they at least knew where the biggest damage had been done: Adam, hence the short that will start us off.
Volume Six was…umm… Well, it’s bad. It’s definitely not the sharp upswing in quality needed after Volume Five, but nonetheless, we’ll see that some stabs at improvement were made, and then subsequently dragged down with yet more bullshit. But it’s worth going through just for an interesting look at what was going on at Rooster Teeth at the time.
Here’s the counts as they are so far:
