User blog:AK151/So... Episode 9 (and some blind speculation)

Right, first off, I'm going to say that Episode 9 was a decently strong follow-up to the absolutely amazing Episode 8 (I might talk about it a bit, but plenty of others have voiced their thoughts). I won't talk about the majority of the episode, as I'll be taking a look at things that I specifically liked/disliked. Let's get started.



First: dorms. I loved the entire scene, for the most part. It was good fun seeing Yang, Ruby, and surprisingly, Blake, redecorating the room; we got to have a look at some of their belongings (like a very interesting AH poster...). We see some of Blake's more... questionable reading material, some curtain slaughtering courtesy of Crescent Rose, and once everything's said and done, the group ends up with a... somewhat decent room layout.



Now, the observant of you will note two things: "for the most part", and my lack of mentioning Weiss. I'll get to Weiss later, and here's what the "for the most part is": mainly, Blake. I was very surprised to see her so eagerly engaging with Ruby and Weiss, and for some reason that took me out of it. Blake was built up as a mellow, introverted character. Not the kind of person who goes into decorating a dorm shouting "BONZAI!". That may be just me, but when I heard eager Blake, I was a little taken out of the episode. That being said, we get a somewhat more mellow Blake following, so everything's good.

Following a little issue involving the fact that both RWBY and JNPR end up with five minutes left to get to their first classes, we get to see the first lesson, which starts rather boringly with a lecture which turns into a possibly epic tale of a pompous and egoistic monster slayer tooting his own horn (which rather irritated me, but in a way that made me not dislike the episode). During this, Ruby gets distracted and does almost every single activity one can do when confined to a chair short of paying attention, which ends up getting on Weiss' nerves; the latter ends up volunteering herself for a combat exercise.

Before I continue, I'm going to talk about Weiss, because episode 8 made her my favorite character (no one watching that episode did not smile and cheer inside when that white blur rushed past Yang in the blink of an eye). This episode basically took my favoritism and made it skyrocket. In many ways, I find Weiss extremely relatable. I'm mainly referring to her anger with Ruby when the supposed team "leader" ends up being one of the worst students we've seen so far. I especially like that aside from many of her outbursts in previous episodes, this one with Ruby was justified. I also like how she doesn't immediately complain about being team leader, which is a nice touch.



Now, let's talk about Ruby. My oh my, can she pull a 180. The last episode cemented her as a complete and total badass by the end. This episode made her, in my eyes, one of the most dislikeable characters so far (one of the reasons I liked Weiss: she wouldn't stand for it). Before everyone reading this gets angry, hear me out. Ruby got accepted into the most prestigious combat school TWO YEARS ahead of her time. One would think she would be doing her best to set an example and make a good impression (like she tried and failed to do in Emerald Forest). With an honor like getting accepted into Beacon, one would expect her to be at least a DECENT student and pay attention, no matter how dull or stupid the subject. Add to that the fact that at fifteen years old, she's TEAM LEADER. A leader sets an example. Ruby did the opposite. After dragging a Nevermore fifty times her size up a mountain and brutally decapitating it, you'd bet every penny people would look up to this combat prodigy. And she ends up being a downright TERRIBLE student. Words can't express properly how irrate her antics made me. And possibly the worst part was Blake and Yang laughing with her (Blake's out of frame, so I'm actually not sure if she was laughing, but if she was, shame on her, especially after being built up as a very mature, detached, and grounded character). Another reason I liked Weiss throughout the episode.

Now for miscellaneous observations (discounting most of the dorm room stuff), mainly the random unblackened character in the back of the class room. When I first saw a hint of color not close to RWBY, I actually paused the episode and rewinded it to see if I could identify who it was: it would seem we have a new, possibly awkwardly humorous character. Aside from that, Beacon has some decent uniforms, we get official names for some creatues (including the snakes), and we see Ozpin and Glynda together once again. Oh, and we see a small glimpse of team JNPR (all sharing one dorm, interestingly enough. Maybe we'll see an episode focusing on how that works). And that's about it, I think.



Now for speculations and hopes: I've addressed this before in episode 5 when they unveiled the Beowolves, but I really want Weiss to fight well. Whatever she's up against, I really want her to be able to take it down with no trouble. Some people are saying she'll end up failing due to her rigid training and by-the-book combat style, but I think those people are forgetting her fight with the thrice-her-size golem that punched her in the face and was subsequently curb-stomped with colors. Since she has her scar, I assume the fight takes place before the events of the show, so I want her to do really well. Maybe that's because she's my favorite, but I digress.

Aside from that, the lyrics of Red Like Roses Part II (episode 8's combat theme) were just released, along with a short (3 minute) version of the song (full version should come sometime around October, I'm told somewhat unreliably), and I just want to make a few comments. The main theme of the song is the vocalists inability to cope with the loss of a significant figure in their life. This is interesting, because it's been speculated that Ruby was adopted after her parents died. This is completely wild speculation, but I think there's a meaning to having that song there while Ruby is totally owning it.

Hear me out: we haven't heard anything about Ruby's parents (aside from "You sound like DAD!", which may be a reference to Yang's father), and so it's fair game to assume they were a strong influence in her life. If so, then this song would fit perfectly for Ruby, and at that point, the only question is why include it in the fight with the Nevermore. Sure, the tune is badass, but they could have just had an instrumental instead of the lyrical song; I suspect it was put there intentionally.

Ruby wants to help people; this is established early on. One line in the song sticks out to me: "I'm the one you left to win this fight." Very fitting considering what happens following the completion of that line, but I think there's more; we don't see it, but Ruby may have been channeling some form of anger or other emotion to make herself stronger. Why would this be a possibility? Maybe because she (albeit with quite a bit of help from Weiss) dragged a giant bird fifty times her size up a cliffside with a scythe before proceding to cleanly and brutally decapitate said bird effortlessly (she doesn't look fatigued at all). Perhaps she was channeling something: maybe anger or grief at something that happened in her past? Or maybe just a very strong will to protect others and keep them out of danger (again, "I'm the one you left to win this fight."). I thing she considers it her resonsibility to protect others, and she will do anything to achieve that goal.

So yeah, I think that's about it. I have no idea what to expect from the next episode; I can only hope that Weiss goes badass ice queen and obliterates whatever she's up against (seeing how things are going with her, I'm not sure what's going to happen in the fight to come, honestly). If you've sat and read all of this, congratulations. You have a lot more patience than I would have.

Thanks for reading, and good day!

P.S. If the format is painfully abysmal, forgive me; this is my third (or maybe second) blog post, and the first one with pictures. I'm still learning.