User blog:AK151/Thoughts on Chapter 4

Normally I don't do this, but this episode has me hyped beyond belief, so I'm going to talk about it.

Penny

First off, Penny's a robot with an aura, which is very interesting. Does that mean she also has a semblance? Possibly. Her father seems like a decent guy; it's interesting that Penny was... co-designed (or something along those terms). Perhaps Penny's father wanted an actual daughter that he could care for, but Ironwood just saw a weapon? I think it's clear that Ironwood wants to keep Penny a secret (soldiers "keeping her safe"), which means that coming to the Vytal festival was definitely Penny's father's (ugh, NAME) idea. Perhaps it was a compromise between the two, with Ironwood letting Penny go up to Vale but not letting her get involved with anyone or anything? I don't know. That still leaves the question as to why Penny would compete in the festival at all. I guess we'll find out.

Also, people all think that Ironwood's got something cooked up, and that he's allied with Cinder in some way. I'm not going to make any predictions, but it could be possible. I still think he's just being insanely cautious. However, I saw something about how Ironwood provided the Paladins to maybe root out the White Fang, and if that is possibly the case, then he could have sold them prototypes or slightly defective models (considering the one RWBY fought basically fell apart like paper mache). Again, we'll just have to wait and see.

Neo (politan?)

Everyone's new favorite psychopath character. I swear, this girl unnerves me quite a bit, at least at the end with that creepy smile, the heterochromatic eyes, and that little bow. Also, her weapon seems to be Roman's cane with an umbrella attachment. I think when she's in combat or using her semblance her eyes turn heterochromatic, but she normally has brown eyes. People are chalking that up to animation error when we see her at the White Fang rally with homochromia, but we see several shots of her, a few of which are fairly close-up, and all of them show her with brown eyes. Maybe it is an animating error, or maybe it's an interesting little detail.

I was slightly surprised that her name was actually Neo (but at the same time, we did have Monty's Neapolitan spam after people noticed her). I think she's Roman's protege, and possibly a mute (probably not, but she hasn't spoken a word yet, and it actually gives her a bit more of an unnerving atmosphere).

The Highway Fight

I didn't expect this to come so quickly, but I suppose it makes sense, given the longer episodes now. This fight was pretty impressive. We got to see Neptune's weapon (I didn't see it was a trident until my second or third viewing. I thought it was an electrified glaive at first) and Sun's semblance (which seems pretty useless unless he charges in with his clones) before the two are taken out so we can get our Team RWBY focus. I also thought Sun freaking out about the giant mech chasing them was pretty funny, especially when contrasted with Blake's comparatively calm call for backup ("Everyone, if you can hear me we need back-" "HEEEELP!").

Team RWBY

They work phenomenally well together now. I love how every strategy is a call-out to a ship name. I also like how each move they make actually does something (Freezerburn decreases accuracy, Checkmate gets rid of the laser targetting and depletes the missile pods, Ice Flower slows the Paladin down, and Bumblebee roflstomps everything). As Weiss is my favorite character, it's good to see that she's invaluable to the team with her glyphs. That being said, we finally get a reveal on Yang's semblance: she can absorb energy and send it right back. That's slightly terrifying, and it makes her insanely powerful. When it comes down to the villain one-on-ones, she might be the only one with a really good chance against her opponent. And either she stores a lot of energy from being swung around by Gambol Shroud, or the Paladin's made of tin-foil, because it basically completely falls apart after Yang hits it.

Other Interesting Things

I like Neptune's hopeless flirt character. He's like Jaune except he goes after everybody, is a lot more suave, and can fight. That being said, I love how the Malachite twins almost completely ignore him at Junior's nightclub. Also, almost all of his lines are funny ("Yeah, so could you define 'friend' for me?"), and he asks some pretty stupid questions, which is also amusing.

Speaking of Neptune, on the highway, when Yang first tells him to slow the mech down, he reaches for his weapon, but then the scene cuts to Torchwick, who notices the two and sends cars flying. When it cuts back to the pair, Yang hasn't started dodging yet but Neptune hasn't gotten his weapon out. In fact, it looks like he put his arm down. I guess that's a bit of an animating error right there. Not much, but it did bother me a bit.

With regards to animation, I swear that the animation of Blake crashing through the window is identical to the animation for Carolina in Red vs. Blue Season 9 Episode 17 when her Warthog crashes. I'm not against re-using animation, but it was an interesting little detail that I thought was cool.

We also get some info on the Grimm masks that all the White Fang wear. It's interesting, and finally puts to rest the theories that Adam is part Grimm (I know those are old theories, but I'm sure they're still out there). It's interesting to note that both Bane (I know that's not his name, but I will continue to refer to him as such) and Adam wear different masks when compared to the standard one. Perhaps they serve as a symbol of authority?



I said it twice and I'll say it again: that Paladin came down really easily. I'm not even talking about Yang's uber-punch now, I'm talking about everything else. Weiss brings down its laser targetting easily, Blake and Ruby detach its ranged weapon just as easily, and Yang's final blow sends the thing flying (unsurprising), but then it just falls apart. People are theorizing that Ironwood provided the mechs, but if he's trying to root out the White Fang, then maybe he gave them defective models or prototypes?

That Song

I wanted to save this for the end. This new song has me hyped beyond belief, and I don't really know why. It's dark, just like the other songs, but it's also very interesting. It starts out saying that basically everything was good, everyone was happy, but then it goes on to say that "every smile is not the same, not every heart is filled with love". Then it goes on for a bit, then it gets to what I assume is the chorus, and things suddenly get REALLY dark. It's almost like it hints at something massive that's going to come and wreck everything. We get talk of bloody skies, blacked out moons, war for everyone, graves filling up, and then the final line:

"Farewell to your taste of peace, 'cause now it's time to die."

Since it comes on when Yang goes berserker-mode, most people assume it's another theme for her (if we're following that pattern, I look forward to Weiss' second theme, as well as Blake's), but it could very well describe the foreboding mentality of another character. Yes, I'm quite possibly referring to Cinder. But that's speculation for another time. All I know is that the song describes a happy and peaceful life that got wrecked by someone who quite possibly enjoys destruction ("every smile is not the same"), which caused a massive mentality shift and a lot more hostility, ending with foreboding and a really dark chorus.

I also know that I've watched the ending fight so many times I've lost count just so I can listen to that song. It might be up there with Red Like Roses Part II and Mirror Mirror (and Time to Say Goodbye) as my favorite RWBY songs. It's just really powerful. Jeff, you and Casey are three-for-three for Volume 2's singles (I like the credit theme of Volume 3 more than Wings, which I like quite a bit). Keep it up.