User blog:Jjripper/RWBY Volume 1 Episode 1 Critique

Greetings, world. This is my first blog for any Wiki ever, so please do let me know if there is anything that I've written that could be considered a deviation from the rules so it can be corrected.

I've wanted to analyze and critique RWBY as a series since the release of Volume 1's final episode "Black and White", but I always ended up getting distracted by something else being brought to my attention or just being too lazy to get around to it. Another issue I had was that I didn't know where I could even post a detailed analysis on RWBY in the first place. Eventually I found this awesome wiki and decided that I'd finally get started here.

As a disclaimer, I'd like to make it perfectly clear that I do not intend to review any of the episodes of RWBY Volume 1 objectively and without personal bias. In my honest opinion, reviews like that are disingenuous and pointless, and I will not attempt to simulate that style of critique. If you're looking for a fair and objective review of the series then I recommend searching elsewhere, my thoughts are my own and I speak strictly on my own behalf. I will be reviewing it in the order the scenes are shown in, but people I'm writing this for are the people who have already seen the series. If you have not seen RWBY, I recommend you watch the series before reading my review, because I'm going to cover everything.

With introductions out of the way, let's get this show on the road.

RWBY VOLUME 1: Epsiode 1 Review
The episode begins with a brief narration of the history of humanity on Remnant, the world where the story is said to take place. Our narrator, voiced by Jen Taylor (who you may recognize as the voice of Cortana from the Halo franchise), explains to us that the inhabitants of Remnant tell tales of heroes and villains but don't remember that they are "byproducts of a forgotten past". Considering the fact that Jen Taylor here is telling us about a forgotten past, I think it's safe to assume that she is a reliable narrator, meaning that what she tells us is true and relevant to the setting of the show, despite being forgotten. As is common with intro narrations, a lot of what is said is entirely superfluous. It's an attempt to make the viewer aware of the origins of Man, Dust, and the Grimm, but the language used makes everything seem vague and grand when in reality its actually a pretty simple premise.

Let me sum it up for you. In a nutshell, the narrator explains to us that man was born into an "unforgiving world" filled with Grimm, which set their sights on man and "all of his creations" for some unfathomable reason. Eventually man "lit their way through the darkness" using an energy propellant called Dust and continued to develop as a species. From the art shown, we can infer that four kingdoms were eventually built. We're not told why the Grimm set their sights on man or what the narrator means by man being "born from dust". That's it, that's all that scene had to say. Whoop de shit.

Why did they dedicate 1 minute and 20 seconds of the runtime to this vague nonsense? That time could've been spent establishing elements of the show in advance instead of having those elements hastily introduced later on through exposition dumps that get accompanied by mind numbing action scenes, like Semblance and Aura. Hell, the narrator tells us right off the bat that the origin of life on Remnant has been forgotten by man, so why tell us about it now when it's ultimately pointless to the time period the story is set in? The origin of man isn't brought up again throughout the series, despite the huge emphasis it's given in this beginning narration, so I can only assume that this was an attempt to world build the setting for us, but if that is the case then the scene fails even harder in that regard because all it tells us is that humanity fought off some monsters using Dust and built civilizations. It doesn't tell us the most important details of the show, like what a huntsman's role in the world is or what a fucking faunus is.

Anyways, after that the show begins proper with an introduction to a primary villain of the series, Roman Torchwick, my favorite character. Instead of having Jen Taylor tell us that Roman is a villain because he has darkness in his heart or something ridiculous like that, we're shown that Roman is a villain simply through his actions and the reactions of the people around him. He steps out of the shadows with an air of confidence and security, is accompanied by a group of menacing mobsters, and his mere presence causes a bunch of the bystanders to cower in fear. His dismissive and condescending attitude with the shop owner is something else to take note of, since it shows us that he clearly doesn't value the lives of people who are in the way of what he wants, and this makes it clear to us that he is a threat worth taking seriously. This scene makes the last one look like utter garbage simply because it conveys how much of a threat Roman is by actually showing Roman doing his thing. There are no attempts to vaguely explain what Roman's motivations are or why people would fear him, since we get to see it all for ourselves.

Instead of commenting on Roman's infinite amount of swagger, Jen Taylor tells us that there will be no victory against the darkness through strength, but doesn't bother to explain what she means by that. Then Shannon McCormick hops on the narration bandwagon and tells us that victory can be attained in "the simpler things that are long forgotten" and those things require a smaller, more honest soul. As he says this, the camera pans down and onto Ruby, the eponymous (does that still apply since it's worded as "RWBY"?) protagonist of the story, to let us know that she is, in fact, the main character. The narration is still vague and clunky, but the cinematography itself does do a good job showing that Ruby is going to be the main gal of the plot.

So as Roman and Co. clean shop, one of the mooks approaches our hero and has to explicitly tell her that hes robbing her because of how shit tier and unthreatening he is, and she responds by launching him across the store. Roman nonchalantly reacts to this sudden turn of events by sending another shit tier mook to go fight her, perhaps under the assumption that the last guy was just caught off guard or something. Ruby kicks the goon out the window and unsheaths her sniper-scythe (Scyther Scythfle?) before striking a cool pose, proving that Roman is, according to Einstein, fucking insane. Or dumb, he might just be really dumb.

I'd ask why he thought that was going to work a second time, but I'm too busy watching Ruby defeat his entire squad singlehandedly. This fight scene is pretty awesome, it displays Ruby's fighting style to us in a way that shows not just the effectiveness of the weapon, but the skill of the wielder as well. She essentially uses the momentum of each shot she fires out of her scythe to help her direct her attacks. This makes the stupid concept of fighting with a big, impractical scythe much less stupid and much more effective. She even balances on it to deliver a couple kicks to the enemies she sends airborne, showing that she has skills that go beyond swinging big farming tools around. It all looks cool and helps show that Ruby is a force to be reckoned with, at least when she's pitted up against the mooks.

Roman Torchwick is another story entirely... apparently. The guy telegraphs his attack by talking about the fact that hes gonna escape as he aims his derpy cane gun at her face, and I guess she didn't think that dashing up to the moron like she did in the fight with the mobsters would work, so she just stands there and lets him to try to shoot her in the face until the very last second. Surprise, surprise, he fucking escapes. How do you get bamboozled by someone who basically tells you what his intentions are before he even begins to act? At first I assumd that she probably just wasn't expecting the whole cane gun thing, because I didn't expect it either, but there is five whole seconds between the time he aims it at her and when he fires. Her Semblance is super speed, why didn't she charge him as soon as his arm started moving? The guy is clearly a rude dude, so why did she even hesitate?

For the plot to unfold, of course. Roman escapes by climbing a nearby ladder to the top of a building, and Ruby follows him, but by the time she reaches the top a big helicopter... VTOL thing appears, and Ruby allows Roman to escape AGAIN by just standing there and watching him chuck a fucking dust crystal at her. He fires again, this time aiming for the crystal, and causes a very pretty red cloud effect to appear and also exploding Ruby.

Not really though, Glynda shows up in the nick of time and shields Ruby from the blast with... magic?

Fucking what?

See it's explained away as Dust later on, but when you consider this scene in the context of what we've seen thus far, it becomes pretty hard to believe that it's anything but magic. We're shown that dust crystals come in a variety of colors, but not a single one of the crystals in the dust shop were purple, so what the fuck are we supposed to assume her barrier was? Then she starts shooting more purple projectiles, and then conjures an ice storm. If we're supposed to assume that Dust is this universes alternative to magic, why does everything Glynda does look like it's being being done magically? Isn't the point of having Dust in the first place so the series is exempt of mystical mumbo jumbo that makes or breaks other stories like it? If so, why the fuck is Dust just magic in crystal form? This is why explaining stuff that's actually relevant to what's in the plot now is a much better idea than spending 1 minute and 20 seconds hyping up the origins of man that everyone in the story has forgotten and have yet to make any attempts to remember.

So Cinder holds off Glynda and Ruby while Roman realizes that he doesn't have his tiltrotor license. When Cinder uses any of her fire based attacks, the orange etchings on her clothing light up as if being activated, which is our first and fairly obvious clue that she is actually using Dust and isn't pulling her abilities out of her fiery pit. It's also just a nice detail over all, Cinder's design is great despite how little of it gets showcased in this episode. The bad guys eventually escape, and then Glynda takes Ruby back to a random dimly lit room to reprimand her before Ozpin comes in and stops Glynda from abusing a child.

Ozpin shows up with a fresh batch of cookies and a mug of peyote juice, interrogating Ruby for answers in the most generous way possible and sounding suspiciously like that disembodied voice we heard earlier. He asks her where she learned the smooth moves she pulled during the battle with the mooks while Glynda stands directly behind him, holding up a fucking Ipad playing footage from that very same fight. Instead of questioning how they managed to even get that footage in the first place or why the camera angles look the way they do, she tells them that she learned it all at Signal Academy from good ol' Uncle Qrow. This fascinates Ozpin so much that it causes him to suddenly remember that he skipped the pleasantries, and he introduces himself to her before offering her an invitation to enroll at Beacon Academy. The scene is pretty well done, save for the Ipad thing, but this is where I'd say the quality reaches its peak for these early episodes. The rest just gradually goes down hill from here on out.

The next scene begins with Yang Xiao Long congratulating Ruby for a job well done. I honestly don't know whats to praiseworthy about getting shot at and failing to catch the crook. Hey, at least that Dust shop guy didn't go out of out of business-

Oh wait, he totally did though.

So yeah, Yang is established to be Ruby's sister, but you'd probably have known this even before seeing this scene if you watched the "Yellow" trailer. It's good that their relationship is clarified from the beginning, nonetheless. What isn't good is Yang's voice acting. Barbara is a pretty cool guy who doesn't afraid of anything, but her delivery of Yang's lines here is utterly flat, at best. I do like the fact that she uses the idiom "the bee's knees", though. Yang is a classy gal of refined taste, despite what her appearace may have you believe. Seriously though, why is she barely dressed? I didn't think that getting propositioned was supposed to be a priority in Beacon Academy, but what do I know, nobodies told me what a Huntsman does yet.

Then the TV on the airship thing tells us about how there is a civil rights movement going on for Faunus, and then you're probably asking what a Faunus is by this point on your first viewing. I don't know what that is either, because Jen Taylor would rather talk in riddles than explain what that the shit a Faunus is supposed to be, but if you look at the picture that's shown I think it's safe say that they're just a rowdy crowd of furry cosplayers protesting to legalize interspecies marriage. Nothing to worry about, right?

So then Glynda shows up as a hologram and continues hyping up Beacon Academy, explaining that it is the duty of the huntsman and huntresses to maintain stability in this incredible time of peace. What peace, though? Just a second ago we were told that a radical organzation of Faunus (whatever those are) disrupted the civil rights protest via non-peaceful methods. Is Glynda a bullshitter or just really dumb, like Roman? So this scene does a good job actually explaining a fucking thing, which is the role huntsmen/huntresses play in this world. They're there to uphold peace and to fight monsters and shit, which basically just means that they're essentially super heroes, which I'm totally okay with.

So then Glynda's hologram dissapears, Yang and Ruby check out the view and get a good look at Beacon, and then Jaune throws up a little bit on Yang's shoe. The epsiode finally concludes with a uncondensed version of what is to become Volume 1's intro. The song is "This Will Be The Day" by Jeff Williams, with vocals courtesy of Casey Lee Williams. It's really fucking good, just like the rest of the soundtrack, but unfortunately that stupid "victory is in a simple soul" line from the narration worms it's way into the lyrics.

All in all, the episode was... okay. It certainly wasn't terrible, at least. It had a few issues, but none of them were major enough to warrant anything equivalent to a face palm. There were some really dumb moments, like the Glynda showing the Ipad footage, the fact that Ozpin claims that Ruby wields "one of the most dangerous weapons ever made" despite her making the fucking scythe herself, and especially the absurdly unecessary intro narration, but nothing too bad.

If you read all of my malarkey, I congratulate you for enduring my grammatical errors and attempts to be funny, and thank you for lending me your time. There will be more to come, hopefully. If you have any thoughts on the series, my critique, or my writing style, please share them with me, feedback is always appreciated.

Thus kindly I scatter, thy leaves o'er the bed, where thy mates of the garden lie scentless and dead.

- jjripper