User blog:SomeoneYouUsedToKnow/SYUTK's V5Finale - Anti-Climax - Impressions/Recap

This is a time to celebrate, my friends, enemies, frienemies and randoms I don't know, don't recognize and/or don't care about. This is a time to go out, drink, eat a good hamburger, kiss someone, enjoy life.

''This (last Saturday) Was The Day We've Been Waiting For. The day Volume 5 finally ends.''

It's been quite the disastrous period for RWBY, hasn't it? 2017-2018.

>Grimm Eclipse got no real support aside from the horrendous Dance outfits from Volume 2 (seriously, who designed those things, only Ruby and Pyrrha looked good, and Pyrrha only looked good because she used a type of dress that's hard to not look good on). Thus, we can effectively say Grimm Eclipse failed and has been abandoned.

Not surprising since gameplay was dull and repetitive, the voice acting was atrocious even compared to Vol.1, the game had horrible optimization (if any), and the JNPR DLC broke the game for many and was never fixed. The real question is whether it's events, and Merlot, are thus not canon anymore, if they ever were.

>BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle's on-release roster confirmed.....showing us that ArcSys fucked up with it, having 10 Blazblue characters, 4 P4 characters, 4 UNIEL characters......and only 2 RWBY characters, Ruby and Weiss, barely half of the team the show was named after. Monty must be crying in his grave right now, the poor man.

And that's before leaving aside how the remaining 20 characters are DLC. Including Blake, who in fact was announced in the same trailer where the above was revealed. The bastards even use From Shadows and gave her moves she used in the Black Trailer! Endure the temptation and just wait for the EXTEND version.

>RWBY The Session. The "Beach Episode" Light-novels that people either have not read ever, don't care about to begin with, or have read them and feel it is nothing like RWBY because it lacks the "western style" charm that made it different from usual real anime. Not to mention, Beach Episode. Just cheap fanservice.

>RWBY Chibi Season 2....ok, this one was not so bad. It was harmlessly funny....though the excessive overuse of JUNIOR DETECTIVES jokes that no one found funny to begin with, does hurt it's quality compared to Season 1.

>RWBY Volume 1-3: The Beginning. Basically the first 3 Volumes, released to Japan. It's just Volume 1-3, modified to become 1 Single 13-episodes-long Season....thing is, by "modified", I mean that multiple parts are cut, some lines are altered which can in itself change the intended meaning, and so on. Honestly, it's a far inferior experience than just watching the first 3 Volumes individually.

>World of Remnant. Not so much it's presence, but it's lack of presence. It was designed to explain things so that the writers didn't have to sacrifice screentime in the show to provide exposition. While how much info it provides varies and at times was almost-useless, it did it's job, allowing the main show to focus on it's plot.

Because of the lack of WoR this Volume, we got exactly what it was designed to avoid. Particularly dedicating an entire section 1/3 of Episode 3-5 (forgot which one) to explain Aura and Semblances, when said 1/3 could've been spent on something more interesting, like a Jaune-Oscar conversation.

>Volume 5 itself. No real need to explain things here.

Honestly, I think the best part of 2017-to-2018 so far has been the announcement of RWBY Combat Ready. I mean, the Kickstarter was totally absurd with it's goals vs the money required to reach them, even if it still worked because the FNDM is full of dumbasses happy to waste hundreds-to-thousands of $ for a few more cards in their Children's Tabletop Game.

But in spite of all that....well, it's just a Tabletop game. It might not be the one RWBY played back in Vol.2, but it's likely gonna be more exciting than Grimm Eclipse in any case.

In other news, this thing.

For newcomers to this thing, this is basically me, making an informal recap of what happened in the episode, while giving my thoughts about what happens. It also includes fancy color speak, the Language of Truth, of which 2 colors are particularly notable:

Red means truth, fact  in the eyes of the user, le me.

Blue means a guess, an hypothesis, a theory.

Since as far as I recalled, 14 was the finale, I thought "no more deadlines!", so I took my time with this one. A good thing too; better to steel myself for whatever disappointment happens here, after what last episode did to my psyche.

And of course, I pretty much started classes again....4th semester. Woohoo.

I'll get straight(er) to the point and give a list of what I wanted in this episode, as I first saw this episode and wrote this thing while at it, going in full-blind (aside from a comment saying it was disappointing).

>A fight between Adam and Blake. Sun and Ilia participating is optional, what I want is a resolutive fight between them. An actual fight and not just Adam getting punched like an idiot with a hit he had the skill and speed to avoid if not block.

>The heroes, even if not all of them, using teamwork against Hazel. Come on, a team attack like the one Ruby and Nora used against the Geist.

>Blake and RWY reuniting and actually talking and everything. Something as good as when Weiss and Yang reunited or when they reunited with Ruby. Not something as bad as in last ep, where Blake came, mentioned Yang's name, Yang reacted with a derpy .___. face, and then she left without saying shit or even reacting to anything she saw.

>'''Mercury and Emerald fighting. Actually fighting.''' Last ep did nothing but tease at best, and before that they didn't do much either, especially Mercury.

>No Yang vs Raven fight. Even without her Aura helping her, Raven has so much skill, and power in many ways, that she would crush Yang, especially since Yang is now 1-handed. Since Yang can't die because she's the Y in RWBY, this means she either beats Raven, which is bullshit, or their fight doesn't get too far, in which case it could potentially make one wonder "what was the point?".

Some would say that I'm being too idealistic with these hopes, but who knows. It's like 24 mins long, this episode can't possibly waste all that screentime.....right?

Speaking of 24mins......that is quite disheartening. Volume 3 had an average ep. length of 16-18 mins and it's finale was 28mins long. Volume 4 was between 14 and 16 with some 18-19mins long eps, and it's finale was 27mins long....

....This Volume had an average ep. length of 15-16 mins and it's finale is just 24mins long.

...............................Oh no.

In any case, off we go. First thing we get is:

KEEP WATCHING AFTER THE CREDITS FOR A LOOK AT NEW SHOWS FROM ROOSTER TEETH ANIMATION
Honestly, this caught me a bit off-guard. I was pretty much lobotomized into expecting the episode to begin with Triumph (or Triumph!) sounding from the 00:00 mark.

I heard from Chish about gen;LOCK and Nomads of Nowhere. The former, I'm hyped for. It looks interesting, looks cool, and at the very very least I have more hopes for Gray than I have for Miles and Kerry combined.

The latter.....never heard of it, it came out of nowhere, doesn't even sound interesting enough for me and the art shown when it's "introduced" reeks of X-Ray and Gav. I'll probably forget it even was a thing. Or in a worst case scenario, will never forget it if it turns out to have "the best 2D animation you'll ever see".

And shortly after this we got something more expected:

Triumph (or Triumph!)
..........You know, I have to wonder how the Wikia staff here felt after last ep's revelation about Jaune's Semblance. I mean, it sounds pretty funny when you look back upon it.

Volume 4: 

(A bird turns into Qrow)

>RWBY Wiki: ''Qrow can turn into a bird, guys. That's his Semblance, guys. It's confirmed, it's a known fact, it's no speculation, ok? His Semblance is turning into a bird.''

(2 eps later)

>Qrow: It's Bad Luck.

>RWBY Wiki: ......well, fuck.

Now, Volume 5:

(Jaune heals Weiss)

>RWBY Wiki: Let's be patient guys, we have no idea if that's his Semblance, we don't know for sure, we must wait and see.

(The very next ep)

>Nora: That's your Semblance, Jaune!

>RWBY Wiki: .......well, fuck.

Granted, everyone was wrong in it being Healing exactly. But still, it's pretty funny how Murphy's Law has a stick against the Wiki with this.

What will it be next? A girl who shows great control over the elements and weather, who the wiki says is not a Maiden and then turns out to be one?

FUNNY V5E13 PICS!!! :D
Yeah, before I get to write my feelings of the episode as I saw it, let me start with this.

I looked back upon my gallery of V5E13 pics and saw a good number of funny facial shots. Here they are:

PS: Can we use the Hazel, Adam and Yang pics for their charmugs? Of course, after cropping out Yang's neck to make it square.

They just seem very accurate of them.

And now the (more proper) Battle of Haven begins
(1)BatelOfHaven1)

2) A Pleasant Family Re-Reunion
Leo and Raven sound a bit like a match made in Haven, after this exchange of words. Both are afraid of Salem, both sided with her out of fear, both betrayed their friends/allies/acquaintances...

And now for the Relic of Knowledge
......Now, I know Yang then falls to her knees and cries, but, I really can't think of any decent jokes with that, so.....

3) Rewarded Like A Traitor Deserves
Ok, jokes aside, I have to say....Salem's reaction to everything Leo said is....pretty non-reactive.

It probably is because of the way Leo told things, though. What he said....

1>Cinder changed the plans

2>Huntsmen appeared. Qrow, some kids, one SEW AKA Ruby.

3>The White Fang was stopped.

4>They probably still are going to get the Relic.

The reality though......

1>Cinder is MIA. Meaning they're down a powerful asset, and Salem will have to wait to get the Relic of Choice

2>The White Fang was stopped, Adam no longer is popular and Sienna is long dead.

3>None of those Huntsmen died

4>The Heroes got the Relic of Knowledge

5>Haven is still standing....even if without a Headmaster now.

......All thanks to Cinder having a stick to wave against Ruby. Even when the original plans already allowed them to just walk in and get the Relic with no opposition.

If Salami didn't explode now, I want to see her reaction later when Hazel tells her.

Villianous Escape
....This scene is so short that it feels like padding. I can't really see the point in this scene beyond showing us that Emerald knocked herself out with her overuse of Blender and Adobe After Effects.

Cue Credits
Now, I found the credits song by accident before I finished the episode. This Time, AKA "From Shadows Pt. 2".

Now, the song itself I like it, I have no real problems with it in itself. What I do have a problem with is the latter title, "From Shadows II". The reason being, it doesn't feel enough like From Shadows.

>From Shadows begins with a melancholic, though rather fast, Piano. And then it transitions into much faster Electronica, with "synthetized bass and percussion" to quote this Wiki. After a robotic voice/the AK says "Intruder: Identify yourself", the song transitions again to another genre, into a fast Rock. And then it ends with another melancholic Piano, same as the first one.

>This Time also starts with a melancholic, fast piano, and in fact the first few notes are the exact same. But then it jumps into a fast Rock...a Rock whose style is somewhat different from From Shadows. And it remains with that style all the way to the end.

Both songs are a duet, and the lyrics both talk about the "Faunus's plight", From Shadows being about the discrimination while This Time is more of an extension of what Blake told the Menagerians a few episodes ago.

But aside from those things, it just doesn't feel enough like From Shadows in terms of style. It's lacking the multi-genre transition that made From Shadows special. In fact, This Time feels more like Like Morning Follows Night or Let's Just Live.

For comparison, there's Weiss's The Path to Isolation AKA "Mirror Mirror 0.5". Lyrics-wise most of Weiss's songs are about the same things and that one is no exception, but in terms of style it is not really different to Mirror Mirror, and in fact at times feels conspicuously similar to Mirror Mirror I.

I liked This Time. But I wouldn't call it "From Shadows", just like I wouldn't call It's My Turn "Mirror Mirror".

On a side note, I am astonished at a revelation I was given as I saw the titles of the songs in V5's OST: Triumph.

It's not called Triumph. It's not called Triumph! either. Noooo no.

...It's called The Triumph.

I was wrong for almost a year. It's inbelievable.

I also noticed Swann Song - Raven vs Cinder's battle theme - is actually called All Things Must Die. Quite the edgy name. Edgier than Die.

I mean, "die" alone can well come up like telling someone to die. "All things must die" just sounds like some suicidal cynical demigod having a cosmic tantrum or something. But that's fitting for When It Falls 2.0.

I also noticed a song called All That Matters.....when did it play, again? Did it even play in Vol.5?

...Oh, wait. It was that song that played at the RWBY Reunion, right?

Post-Credits
(TaiRavenReunion1 "Who's a cute little Sunflower? You are! Yes you are!" ; 2)2 "Now take this shower of love and care so you can grow all big and tall and...." ; 3)3 "....God, I'm pathetic" ; 4)4 "Wait, what was that?" ; 5)5 "A black feather...Raven?! ....Ah crap, did she see me..." ; 6)6 "Great. She'll never let me live this down....")

Oh mah gawd. It's happening. It's actually happening!

Oh, wait, episode over. Now I'll have to wait all the way until Volume 6 to get the Raven-Taiyang reunion I've wanted to see for so long.....wait.

What about her tribe? Last time they checked, Raven and Vernal left with Cinder and co. to Haven. And none of them came back.

So....what will happen to the Branwen Tribe? What will happen to Jackass Steve?

Conclusions
I won't say this was horrendous, because it wasn't. Ep13 was horrendous, but this one isn't.

So, what is this episode? INSULTING.

As a Finale, <font style="color:#DC143C">it's quite Anti-Climatic for everyone whose name is not Yang Xiao Long.

As a standalone episode, <font style="color:#DC143C">it's not the worst by a long shot, but it's far from the best, it's not even good writing-wise, and there is no action whatsoever to make up for it.

And as the end of the Battle of Haven, it's harder to say how good it is, even if it's clear it isn't good per se. Ep13 was horrendous, but it did give us <font style="color:#DC143C">the best fight in this entire Volume including Shorts, and one of the best fights in the show period.

Ep11 was mostly just boring, and Ep12 was also boring to watch but <font style="color:#DC143C">it gave us good twists and showed some things fans have wanted to see for a while, like people actually "infusing Raw Dust into their bodies".

This one, action-wise, <font style="color:#DC143C">is at the rock-bottom with Cinder. But narrative-wise, it's not so different from Ep12 in terms of "interesting things to see" - IMO: Leo's death, Fake Salem, and most importantly, the entire scene between Raven and Yang.

Though it didn't give us any good twists, unless you count Raven flocking to Tai at the end.

Let's start with the positives: Raven and Yang.

Unlike the others, <font style="color:#DC143C">Yang gets a proper, satisfactory climax not just to her V4-5 story, but to her own personal story that goes all the way back to the Yellow Trailer.

She questions and confronts her mother, not just on her actions but on her awfully-stupid logic, even using said logic against her at one or two points. Raven even breaks character and tears up, exclaims "I'm sorry"....and then goes back in character and flocks away.

<font style="color:#DC143C">This entire scene is god-damn BEAUTIFUL both to listen and to watch. There was a lot Yang could've said but never did, but even with just the things she said, the dialogue, the whole scene, was beautiful, and the Voice Acting while at it, is great and only amplifies the emotional impact even more.

I spent nearly the entire scene with a tight knot in my chest like when one is angry and wants to punch someone in the face. All the way till the end of the scene when Raven left. And that is how a scene should be, that's how a CLIMAX should be.

The only real flaw was at one point, when Yang says she doesn't know Raven. It's one of the most emotionally-charged lines in this entire episode and Barb does a great job at the delivery......

....But some idiot thought that using a horrendous, 20-secs-long distant shot that is so far away we can barely see her face, was a good idea here.

Imagine if instead, we got a shot of Yang's face, tearing up as she says that, showing the sadness her voice is stating. This scene would then have become one of the best scenes in this entire show. It probably still is in spite of that distant shot.

<font style="color:#DC143C">This is the best part of the episode, and narrative and writing-wise, the best part of the entire Battle of Haven. An excellent job here.

Now, the negatives.....nearly everything else.

First, Adam and Blake:

We get Adam telling Blake she's still afraid, too afraid to face him on her own. They exchange a few blows, then he runs away. That's it.

And that's an emotional disappointment in many, many ways.

First of all, <font style="color:#DC143C">Blake didn't do shit the entire Battle. She arrived, gave a speech she knew no one would listen to, then Sun and Ghira came in with the army of peasants.

Adam attacks her, she pwns him into the ground in a single hit that he should've been perfectly capable of blocking or evading, and then.....she just stares at him while her friends to all the hard work.

Sun, fights some mooks. Ilia too, we even saw a Menagerian lady fight a WF mook. But Blake doesn't do anything at all, so when Adam asks Sun if Blake just has her friends fight for her......<font style="color:#DC143C">I can't help but think he's absolutely correct, with this entire fight doubling as evidence.

And I seriously doubt that was the intended message there.

Now, I understand that at least part of the message was that Blake had moved on from Adam. <font style="color:#DC143C">She wasn't there for him but for Haven. But Adam is still a big part in her story, especially in the first 3 Volumes, he was even the reason Blake ran away to begin with.

So when, instead of fighting him, actually fighting him, he gets pwned in 1 hit with no grace or glory at all, and then he runs away after a single hit in the face? <font style="color:#DC143C">It just plain kills the emotional impact, and is just insulting after you watch the Black Trailer.

It's like a rollercoaster going up, and when it reaches the peak right before it goes downhill into full-speed, it stops, and then you're forced to leave. It kills the excitement and hype it built up. And that's what happens here.

It didn't need to be a long fight either. And the end result could still be the same. So this decision is nothing but insulting lazyness.

RWB vs MEH.

Blake came to Ruby and Weiss's rescue. Nora talks about Hazel's awesome Aura Regen. Ozpin says they have to push him to his limit if they want to beat him. Nora and Ren are tired and Jaune even asks if they're ok. Ruby begins the fight with Checkmate.

So we were told to expect a great fight, with risk of death for some characters, and with the Heroes finally managing to defeat Hazel with teamwork and effort. A satisfying, exciting conclusion to the Battle that will decide Haven's Fate.

............<font style="color:#DC143C">And when we go back to it, the fight is over and Emerald, Mercury and Hazel lost.

We were never shown shit of what happened, how they lost. We were never shown anything. <font style="color:#DC143C">They skipped a fight that had the potential to be great even if only in an emotional level, what with Blake coming to help her old friends.

Ep13 is actually better in this regard. Most of Emerald-Merc and Ruby-Yang's fight was skipped, but we got snippets of it here and there, even if they were like 3 seconds long. So we saw a bit of their fight and how it went, even if it was so little it's useless.

Here? <font style="color:#DC143C">We get the built up, skip everything else, and just jump to the conclusion and told to "use your imagination". Like if you were served gourmet food, and then taken from you before you make the first bite, so you're left with nothing but the empty plate and an empty stomach.

Making things worse is how they spent entire episodes making Hazel a juggernaut, and then entire minutes shilling him even more and making it sound like he'll be the Final Boss that makes Cinder pale in comparison. <font style="color:#DC143C">We've seen nothing but the Heroes getting their asses kicked.

And then somehow they win. Magically. <font style="color:#DC143C">No one died or was injured, RWB themselves don't even look tired afterwards. So, what the hell happened? How the hell did they accomplish such a flawless victory? We will never know.

...This is pretty much the worst part of this episode, which is bad because <font style="color:#DC143C">it's practically half the episode.

If there was no excuse to not show Adam and Blake have a decent fight, an actual fight, <font style="color:#DC143C">there's even less excuse for the CRWBY to not give us a fight AT ALL here.

This is supposed to be the Climax of the Volume, the Finale, the Resolution, in regards to the conflict that was built up since the previous Volume, between the Heroes and Villains. <font style="color:#DC143C">But we don't get any of that.

And that's the reason, this episode overall, it's just INSULTING.

It's no wonder people are abandoning this show. The action took a dive, yet the writing is just as bad, oftentimes far worse than it was before. And now, we don't even get a satisfactory end to the Volume proper, we just get the middle finger instead.

Volume 4 gave us a fight at least, and a good resolution to some of the characters involved in the Volume. Yang was moving forward to Ruby, Blake learned the Power of Friendship, Weiss left Atlas, Ren got his revenge, Cinder is back in the game.

<font style="color:#DC143C">Here, the only person who got a good resolution was Yang. And there were no fights at all.

We never asked for another fight on the same scale as Raven vs Cinder. <font style="color:#DC143C">We just asked for a fight for the Finale, especially when the episode itself built one up. And we got a slap in the face instead.

Now this leads to the question: Am I going to abandon this show? My answer is.....not yet.

On one hand, I wanna see where it goes next. But on the other hand, this Volume was atrocious. If anyone abandons this show, they have my full support. And in fact, that's what this show needs.

Miles is an awful writer here and Kerry's Director skills are questionable. But they ignore criticism on a similar scale to how childish fanfic writers do it.

But if enough people abandon this show (not just mock it and insult it. Actually leave the show), then hopefully they will realize that they're fucking up majorly. And unless they don't give a fuck about honoring Monty, that would push them into thinking things through, and rectifying themselves.

Because at the rate RWBY is going, <font style="color:#DC143C">it's going to die.

That said, I don't think I'll be doing these "impressions/recap" blogs for a long time. Not until the show becomes...decent. This Volume alone was scarring.

I may do the ocasional analytical blog though, like "overuse of X type of camera angles" or "number of fights compared to previous Volumes".