User blog:BenRG/Volume 2 Trailer

Okay, the Volume 2 Trailer has been released! Check it out here!

There is so much packed into this less than three minutes that I think I'm going to explode. Certainly, it's going to be hard waiting for the première of v2e01 on 24th July! Let's just look at the things that jumped out at me

Action Sequences
It already looks like the action in volume 2 is going to surpass volume 1. As well as the already-known tournament fight betweek Pyrrha and Mercury, we're going to see Pyrrha against Cardin too!

Then there's the real headliner - Team RWBY and apparently Sun's Team in an epic urban battle against a huge battlemech. I'm not sure if it's a robot like the Spider Droid or if it is a true battlemech with a Faunus crew. Yes, you read that right, a Faunus crew. It looks like we're going to see a lot more of the White Fang this year, including Roman, Cinder and their associates unveiling the mech to a crowd of White Fang grunts (including, disturbingly, what look like that old revolutionary stand-by, child soldiers).

This one looks like it's going to be a Michael Bay-like high-action sequence with a running fight on the roads ending with RWBY fighting as a team against this monster machine!

The Mysterious Mr White
"Mr White" is what I'm temporarily calling the older man amongst Penny's Associates. He is definitely a man of great personal power; power enough that he addresses Ozpin as an equal. He appears to be a maker of machines of war, much like the Marvel Universe's Tony Stark. He also appears to be preparing for war, a war that Ozpin clearly fervently hopes his students will never have to fight.

The mystery of Mr White feeds into the mystery of Penny. Penny appears only in two scenes in the trailer. The first, bizarrely, has Ruby apparently kidnapping her. The second is an emotionless-looking Penny saving Ruby from being run over by a truck. The likelihood that she is some kind of robot built by Mr White's company (The Schnee Dust Company, perhaps?) to replace the all-too-human and unpredictable Hunters has gone up, in my opinion.

So, who is this man? As hinted above, I have a strong feeling that this is the oh-so-distant man who made Weiss the girl she is today. I think that this is her father.

Roman, Cinder, Mercury and Emerald
What really excites me about the villains is that it is very clear we're going to be seeing a lot from this core team of black hats. I've the feeling we're going to get lots of character development and a lot of insight into 'why'. There are several brilliant TorchFall moments that suggest Roman and Cinder have a great working relationship with plenty of flirting and banter that makes them seem more equals that was implied by the volume 1 epilogue.

We're also going to be getting at least one Elite Mook form White Fang, or so it seems. There is a very interesting-looking individual in variant White Fang Grunt Armour. We may be about to see a worthy foe for one or more of our heroes.

We're also going to be seeing a lot of Mercury and Emerald, it seems. We even can hope to accompany them on a mission in which they possibly bite off more than they can chew from a very, very feral-looking Faunus librarian.

Children No More
I'm leaving what I regard as the best part of all this to last and it really relates to the page top quote.

From the start of the volume, we see Ozpin in very much Dumbledore mode, desperately trying to keep his 'children' - his students - away from the fight. Perhaps he even believes the fight can be avoided. But Blake has been fighting since she was a child and, it appears, persuades her friends to her point of view.

Team JNPR is going to be conducting huge prank in Beacon Academy's dining hall, from the looks of things. However, it is also quite possible that the Academy is not going to be lasting out the season, at least not intact.

To a lesser extent, it looks like that Jaune is going ot have to be doing some growing too. We see him having to deal with a beautifully-clad Pyrrha at that shipper's wish come true - the Festival Ball. Will he take that lonely and, perhaps, hurting young woman's hand? Or will he pursue the friendly flirting we see him inflicting on poor Weiss a little earlier.

So that's the Arcos hints dealt with! It also looks like there are going to be some scraps thrown to White Rose shippers too, with Ruby having to confront and save a seriously injured Weiss as the fires of the oncoming storm finally reach Beacon.

The theme of the volume, it appears, is summed up in a dialogue between Glynda and Ozpin.

"They're supposed to be the defenders of civilisation!"

-- Glynda Goodwich

"They are also children; I suggest that we let them play that role for it is not one that they will have forever."

-- Professor Ozpin

Then, the trailer starts moving towards the climax so clearly hinted in the last verse of Time to Say Goodbye. We see our four heroines donning their battle gear and striding out of school to confront the darkness breaking over the lights of civilisation. No longer just children but those upon whose shoulders the future of Remnant now rests.

Welcome to a world of bloody evolution.