User blog comment:SomeoneYouUsedToKnow/SYUTK's V5E12 - OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN - Impressions/Recap/@comment-34633327-20180110233849

Pretty accurate summation. Though if I may make note of things things (Incomming Rant):

1) In regards to why the Villains tend to always do the interesting stuff, and why the heroes tend to be idiots, I blame two factors: The lack of experience on the part of the Heroes, and the faulty teaching of the Academies.

The Heroes are (almost) all newbies, and I am not joking in that they don't even have a year of Academy teachings under their belt. They haven't experienced real fights. Yes they have fought the WF, Grimm and Roman, but the WF aren't exactly the most competant fighters, Yuma is proof enough of that, taken out by a tray of all things, the Grimm don't really have much in the brains department, and Roman I've noted before has never truly lost to the heroes (He ran off when Penny started tearing up the docks, ran off from Ruby, RWBY beat his Paladin, not himself, He had Ruby at his mercy before the Griffon swallowed him, and since he needed to be captured after the Breach as part of Cinder's plan, its possible he threw his fight with Blake.)

In contrast, every time they faced a real enemy, one with real fighting prowess due to other methods of training, they have lost. Yang only beat Mercury because he threw the fight, Cinder only lost to Ruby because of bullshit SEW powers, Adam trashed Blake and One Hit KO'd Yang, and Tyrian handed RNJR their asses. Why? Because in addition to not having the proper training, their teaching '''fucking sucks. '''

Looking back at older fights, Beacon prioritized either fighting Grimm en masse, or one on one fights. The only times fights had more than one against one, there was a noticeable lack of teamwork. Yes, CRDL vs Pyrrha had none cause Cardin sucks as a leader and his team sucks ass, but there was little teamwork in the Vytal Festival. I could only find three times there was team work in RWBY vs. ABRN: Bolin tossing Reese a Dust Crystal which she used to free Nadir, Weiss helping Ruby out with Bolin, and everyone on RWBY setting Yang up to strike them at once.

It's even worse with SSSN vs. NDGO, JNPR vs. BRNZ, WY vs. FN, and CY vs. ME. Most of SSSN v. NDGO was one on one fights, with the only group effort being Neptune's zapping the girls at the end. May Zedong gave covering fire for BRNZ, but they rest of them fought 1 v. 1, and stupidly let JNPR talk as they fought, letting Nora finish them. WY and FN fought 1 v. 1 up until Weiss got knocked out, at which point Yang took them on one at a time. And Mercury fought Coco and Yatsu on his own for the most part, and they more often got in each others way during the fight. Conversely, the villains actually work together because they have experienced real combat. Even during the Festival, they found ways to aid each other without drawing too much attention. Why fight someone 1 on 1 afterall when you can fight them 2 on 1.

Plus, rather odd the festival reduces the number of members as the rounds go further, culminating on 1 v. 1. How often are huntsmen expected to fight 1 v. 1? Wouldn't it make more sense to have them remain 4 v. 4 so that the fights could feel more realistic? Except the Festival seems to prioritize tournament combat rather than, ya know, actually training the students in the process? The biggest offender was BRNZ v. JNPR. If they had treated this like a real fight, JNPR should be dead to rights tournament wise. But nope, BRNZ just stood there. JNPR is lucky it was a tourney fight and not real, or they'd be dead. No, the tournament treated it like it was a sport, not training for a job.

And that in lies another problem with the teaching, they don't treat this like a job. Most of their time at Beacon was spent with either Port and Oobleck lecturing classes, or one on one training. Yes, one on one training and learning history is good and all, but not when it superceeds real training. Port having a boarbatusk ready is a good idea on how to teach students about Grimm, as hands on experience is sometimes better than just taking notes.

And then there are the events that served no purpose, like getting the tree sap, or having a damn dance. This isn't a highschool with guns, this is supposed to be an academy meant to train the next generation of guardians willing to put their lives on the line. A literal job that means life and death, and yet its treated more like a highschool training people for sporting events. Fighting just until the aura hits the red, when huntsman in the real world can still fight even if their aura breaks, they just risk their lives in the process. Fighting fairly, when a real fight will not be fair, with people taking every opening they can get.

The reason why the villains are better is because they have more experience, and didn't learn from the schools. Emerald had to fight to survive on the streets, and use trickery and subtrefuge to take advantage of others just to get something to eat. Mercury was an assassin in training thanks to his jackass dad, and his proffession meant he had to know how to kill his opponents. Adam, being a Faunus and leading member of the White Fang with a massive hatred of humans, is more than likely self taught on some level. They fight the way you wish for because they know a fight can be their deaths. The Heroes on the other hand, most of them still don't know this. The only ones who did for the longest time were Blake, Ren, and Nora, since they had fought in the real world. And even during this situation, the others still don't get it as much. Weiss focusing on her summoning (It's also a psychological crutch, but thats beside the point), Ruby trying to talk Emerald down, Jaune letting his emotions dominate him (Yes, he accepted his potential death if it helped the others, he still charged in rage beforehand). Even Yang, who has already lost an arm and you'd expect would be more wary of turning her back, doesn't bother to stop herself from getting off track. Because the schools didn't train them to be warriors. They trained them to be kids with weapons. Ozpin even said as much at the start of Volume 2, that they were kids, they just wouldn't have the role forever. Unfortunately, some of them have yet to fully shift out of this role.

TL;DR: The kids suck because their damn newbies, and because the schools that taught them sucked at properly teaching them.

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2) In regards to Gretchen Rainart, I don't believe a word of what Ozpin says. Ozpin was eerily nonchalant in telling Oscar this (Didn't hear a hint of remorse in his voice whatsoever), and was very adamant that Hazel couldn't be reasoned with. Yet when Hazel was told by Oscar that she choose to be a huntress, he look taken aback for a second. Whether this was Hazel, on some level, seeing Oscar is right, or confusion over what Ozpin told Oscar, I don't know. But note that none of the information we got on Gretchen came from Hazel aside from her "being a child". Everything else came from Ozpin. And seeing as Ozpin is a fan of "Rational Falsehoods", "Half-Truths" Playing The Pronoun Game (Ding!), and a bit of a manipulator, I can't trust what he said about Gretchen.

If Hazel confirms the story, then yes, the motivation is heavily disproportionate. But even then, we don't know how much of a hand Salem has in warping his mind/opinions on Ozpin. She could have easily twisted the story to make it seem as if Ozpin was this big evil that was more dangerous that even she is, or he could be so broken he doesn't care about the rest of humanity anymore, he's drowning in sorrow and his desire for revenge.

But if Hazel says one thing that contradicts what Ozpin said, then I can only assume Ozpin told a story to Oscar in hopes of making Hazel come off as too unhinged so that Oscar would give him control. Ever since Volume 3, Ozpin has been looking awfully shady to me, and while I won't deny that yes, he is ultimately the Big Good in this fight and Salem is the Big Bad, I can't help but find something about him suspicious. He always seems to be hiding something. Plus, him hijacking Oscar was a dick move. I am aware it was necessary to get them out of this shit with Hazel, but Ozpin has always been shown to be a firm believer in choice (Or at least, the illusion of choice). Yet here, when Oscar makes his choice, Ozpin ignores that choice and hijacks him. It comes across as him only following the moral if it works out for him. And if he did tell Oscar that he has to learn to fight on his own, wouldn't it be better to let him fight Hazel? Qrow was already defending him, and if Oscar lost to Hazel or just barely won, it could be a lesson to Oscar that he needs to get stronger.