Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-3083912-20140808154925/@comment-5148416-20140808222442

Ruby didn't catch Weiss. Weiss slammed directly into the column at just above head height, effectively transferring the majority of her momentum into the column (If she had hit it off-center, she'd have continued moving at an altered angle) meaning she began to fall almost straight downwards. There was no need to catch her except to move her from under the collapsing stone, a fall of around 6ft would hurt - a lot - but you could survive it fine, especially if you were to land relatively flat as she appeared as if she were going to (This is ignoring the fact that in the RWBY universe, there seems to be almost no harm from falling large distances, as Yang is up in the air for around a third of the episode, before slamming through a wooden table and landing on the concrete floor below, before simply brushing herself off). If Ruby just caught Weiss without travelling in any direction whatsoever, they'd both be buried under the rubble of the column. Aulthough, from what I recall, Ruby doesn't run towards her, she dives. (I understand this may all be wrong, I haven't watch the episode since it was first released to RT members, and even then it was 00:30.)

There is also the question of "why would you grab hold of someone just to let go and drop them onto the floor? And if she just lets go of her straight away, why would the animators bother showing the strain or Ruby's face in the closeup?"