54 – Volume 9, Episode 1 | Table of Contents | 56 – Volume 9, Episode 3
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This recap is fresh, and may change inbetween its initial posting on my journal and its eventual posting on the comm. Do not read this if you aren’t caught up on RWBY up to Volume 8.
I shamelessly pirated this, so the links I give may go dead if the videos are taken down. Just let me know if they fail to work.
Volume 8 Final Thoughts | Table of Contents | 55 – Episode 2
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This recap is fresh, and may change inbetween its initial posting on my journal and its eventual posting on the comm. Do not read this if you aren’t caught up on RWBY up to Volume 8.
I shamelessly pirated this, so the links I give may go dead if the videos are taken down. Just let me know if they fail to work.
V9E1, "A Place of Particular Concern"
We open on a blank screen with that female voice from the trailers.
RWBY Volume 5
Written by Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross,
Directed by Miles Luna, Kerry Shawcross, and Gray G. Haddock
Produced under Rooster Teeth
Alternate Title: The One Where They Stopped Caring
RWBY, Volume 5.
It’s funny how people seem to remember Volume 4 as something of a memetically bad one, when all signs point to Volume 5 being RWBY’s second chance. It was a time when there was still enough investment in the show to perhaps save things, and it was still a household name. Volume 4 had not had any truly bombastic moments the way Volume 3 had, and a decent amount of effort had gone into proving that the quality of the show wouldn’t suffer without Monty (which a lot of people fell for). There was still a lot of good will resting with this show.
But alas, this is the Volume that destroyed this show. Make no mistake, although this isn’t the worst volume of RWBY—which alone is a fact that should raise some eyebrows—it is unmistakably what hit this show’s knees with sledgehammers. This volume was so infamously, unforgivably bad that it damaged RWBY’s brand beyond repair and would start the fandom exodus that the show never truly healed from.
We are now going to see how that happened, starting with not one, but three character shorts meant to build hype.
Here are the counts as we last left them:
29 – Volume 4 Finale | Table of Contents | Volume 5
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RWBY, Volume Four.
28 – Volume 4, Episodes 8, 9, and 10 | Table of Contents | Volume 4 Final Thoughts
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Last time, we left off on some very unpleasant notes. Sun was the latest love interest to get smacked up, Qrow has slipped further into scorpionism, and the backstory episode concluded with what seems to be a very vicious Grimm heading for Jaune and Ruby.
Let’s get back into it.
27 – Volume 4, Episodes 5, 6, and 7 | Table of Contents | Volume 4 Finale
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Abuse and stalking comes up in this post. You have been warned.
26 – Volume 4, Episodes 3 and 4 | Table of Contents | 28 – Volume 4, Episodes 8, 9, and 10
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This post contains depictions of abuse. You’ve been warned.
Volume 4, Episodes 1 and 2 | Table of Contents | 27 – Volume 4, Episodes 5, 6, and 7
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This post contains discussions of stalking and abuse. You have been warned.
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.
Volume 3 Final Thoughts | Table of Contents | 25 – Volume 4, Episodes 1 and 2
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So, I did something I maybe shouldn’t have before starting this recap. I took another look at the end-of-season fight scenes for Volumes 1, 2, and 3. I almost cried, man. How did we fall so far? How did we have something so balls-to-the-wall spectacular, so seamlessly brilliant, only to end up like this?
But onward we march. RWBY will be on Volume 20 if I keep stalling any longer.
The first piece of media released for Volume 4 is the Ruby-centric Volume 4 short, the first of its kind since the four prologue trailers released in 2012 and 2013. Let’s see what it’s all about.
RWBY (Volume 4)
Written by Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross
Produced under Rooster Teeth
Alternate Title: The One Where Things Look Half Decent
RWBY, Volume 4.
With some sparse exceptions from the dwindling pile of Monty’s finished and ready-for-release work, this is the first volume done completely without his input. It represents a lot—primarily, for ex-RWBY fans, it marks the latter “half” of RWBY, something markedly different from its predecessors in both feeling and direction.
Make no mistake, it’s definitely not without its writing flaws, and a lot of them major. I wouldn’t cast it as a particularly good entry into RWBY’s history. It’s just that it tends to be forgotten a bit when sandwiched inbetween the explosive Volume Three and the phenomenally bad Volume Five.
Since this one hadn’t been worked on by Monty, it was thus deemed safe to criticize, and thus it is in 2016 and 2017 that the true community criticism of RWBY blossomed.
That’s all I can really say about it, since I wasn’t here for it—like I said in my Volume 3 Final Thoughts, I had quit RWBY by the time Volume 4 started, aired, and finished. I only took the plunge back in shortly before Volume 5 started airing, so I can’t give you my usual overview of the volume’s reputation as I have so far. As such, “hiatus overview” will be absent from this section’s final thoughts.
What is interesting is that this volume has double the amount of World of Remnant episodes as we last saw--eight in total. I’ve decided to cover those first, along with the short. Because yes, there is a short preceding Volume 4 to build hype for the first post-Monty season in the wake of all the drama the story had gone through up until that point. It focuses on Ruby, and character shorts would be used again thereafter for Volumes 5 and 6.
23 – Volume 3 Finale | Table of Contents | Shane’s Letter
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*pacing back and forth*
*stops for a moment, facing the computer, then continues pacing*
Volume Three. It’s… It’s a lot, no matter what angle you try to take it on from.
Table of Contents | 02 – The Twilight
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So here’s the deal: I first wrote this recap waaaaay back in 2018, when I was still hoping to be a sporker. It was the only thing I had on hand that I was immediately equipped to deal with besides Persona 3. But back then, I didn’t have a capture card. Now, I do.
So I’ll be recording video of my playthrough here. But, I don’t have a YouTube account (or at least not one I’d publish sporking material under), so instead I can just upload them here as the occasional gif, if you guys want. Whoever's reading this can let me know.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
directed by Shigeru Miyamoto, produced by Eiji Aonuma, published by Nintendo
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is the thirteenth main game in the much-beloved Legend of Zelda series. It follows series mainstays Link and Zelda along with debut character Midna in their efforts to stop the spread of the Twilight, a shadowy alternate dimension where fearsome beasts lurk, and to put a stop to Zant, the corrupt leader at the helm of the assault. It was released in 2006 to critical acclaim and astounding reviews, particularly uplifting for Nintendo after the less-than-liked Majora’s Mask and Wind Waker entries.
This game also happens to be an example of personal vindication for me; much like Persona 3, this game was released in 2006, around the turn of generations for video gaming when gaming was becoming more accessible and less of a specific market, and creating them was becoming more of a professional endeavor. Games were becoming more cinematic and drawing on elements from other media more, sometimes to their strength and sometimes to their detriment. This would go on to become an example of a game where popular perception actually matches mine down to a tee, with the critical acclaim steadily petering out and inverting as the gaming world continued to look past their nostalgia and realize more of its flaws.
I will be drawing on three previous titles to make my points: Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and Wind Waker. Not only do those happen to be the Zelda games I own and regularly play, but they along with Twilight Princess make up what I refer to as the “Big Four” of Zelda—the most commercialized, advertised, and spoken-of Zelda games in modern memory; a “Big Five” and “Big Six” wouldn’t happen until the introductions of Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild, respectively. And as one of the Zelda titles to have a strong marketing and go down in the series’ history as one of its turning points, I’ll be taking it to task whenever it leans on its predecessors too much—and you’re welcome to join me where you might find it leaning on Zelda games I haven’t played, too.
I want to say it now, and I want it firmly remembered, that this recap is not meant to shit on this game, nor is it meant to shame anyone who enjoys or calls it their favorite Zelda game. I know more than a few sporkers hold this game dear to their heart, and believe it or not, I actually like it. And to be honest, after Persona 3 and with RWBY still ongoing, I just need a palette-cleanser that I can openly enjoy even while criticizing it. I view this spork more as the click of a gun’s safety before the firing of the bullet, in that I’d like to spork a Zelda game that bugs me before I go on ahead to sporking a Zelda game that breaks me.
Don’t get confused—Skyward Sword is not the spiritual sequel to Twilight Princess’s problems. It did not inherit the counts we’re going to use (most of them, anyway…). Twilight Princess is indicative of problems Nintendo as a whole sank into from around this point onward, and has not crawled out of since. Skyward Sword is…just crap. Indescribably so, at least right now. But as it is, things aren’t exactly peachy right here in 2006, either. So let’s go and look at the problems that plagued The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
Final Thoughts: (Story & Characters) | Table of Contents
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The very, definitively, absolutely final word on Persona 3. You can skip to the end if you want some info on my upcoming projects, too.
31 – The Answer 2 | Table of Contents | Final Thoughts: (Gameplay & Details)
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Welcome to the Final Thoughts of Persona 3 Portable--right on time for the internet to go abuzz with rumors of yet another fucking remake of this stupid-ass game. What would this one be, the third one? Will it ever truly die and be allowed to rest?
Well, before we get into that, we do actually have one more thing we need to do...
22 – Volume 3, Episodes 11, “Heroes and Monsters” | Table of Contents | Volume 3 Final Thoughts
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This chapter contains violence. Like, significantly brutal violence, including death, dismemberment, etc. You’ve been warned.
It is also almost a half-hour long. If I remember correctly, animation work on this episode was finished a matter of hours—maybe less—before it was due to be uploaded and aired.
We last left off on an absolutely fucked note. Adam turned out to be a domestic abuser and stalker, and stabbed Blake in the gut and chopped Yang’s fucking arm off. Cinder killed Amber before the power transfer could be completed and now has the full power of the Fall Maiden.
But that last part’s not so bad. After all, she’s going up against the wizard who gave the original power to its wielders, Ozpin! Surely he’ll defeat her!
