Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-4141313-20190112144055/@comment-25936766-20190120162855

Finally watched the episode. Was feeling rather unmotivated for some reason.

1) So, just what is the thing that Ruby wraps up in when she flies around with her Semblance? It's not roses, it looks nothing like petals unlike Vol.4 or even V6E1. But it's not her hood either, we see the "cover" disappear in slow-mo and her hood has nothing to do with it.

What, does she just create some weird spiral egg when she uses her Semblance?

2) Finally, Weiss uses Earth Dust, and on top of that simultaneously uses Ice too. Though it kind of feels excessive, the ice alone didn't even crack from the hit.

3) Finally, after like 3 years, we know what Cyan Dust is. Hardlight. Because just telling us that tiny little word in all this time was too hard. Though now I have to wonder how they can use Hardlight to move a train.

4) I wonder how Ruby would've reacted if that bullet she shot at the start had overpenetrated and hit Cordovin in the head instead of just cracking the windshield.

5) So, Weiss gets hit time after time by Miley Cyrus and takes an eternity to summon even half the Knight, and 2-3 weeks later she's about to be blasted by a petrifying laser beam and yet she gives no fucks and just summons the Queen Lancer instantly?

My suspension of disbelief was hit a fair bit there. When did she learn to summon big things so fast? We didn't even see her preparing for it, she even took her rapier out of the ice.

6) I liked the Mech fight, honestly, but only up to the near-end when Nora's shooting grenades at it after Ren gets on top.

At that point we get Cordovin about to slap Nora with a huge, slow, outstanding metal hand that is right in Nora's vision all that time. And yet, she just stands there like a deer in the headlights. She makes no effort to brace for impact or avoid it entirely.

I would've liked to see, say, Nora trying to bounce it back with a hammerblow (emphasis on trying), or doing a grenade-jump to evade it. Instead, we get Jaune trying to be a White Knight, causing both of them to be knocked out.

The only thing I liked from that scene was that Jaune's Semblance was utterly useless, so it proves it's not a "nobody can die" card. At least, if he uses it to protect someone and not just heal them.

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7) Then after that we get Ruby using her Semblance to land on the cliff and failing. Which would be fine, except that then there's two moments of stupidity:

1>Nobody does anything, they just stare in horror while Cordovin charges her Mega Buster. Now, Ren couldn't do anything to help Ruby and while Qrow could get to her, getting her up is another question, so I forgive them.

But what about Weiss? Use some Wind Dust to push her up, or Earth Dust so gets some floor to stand on and jump away, or summon the Knight or Queen Lancer? She has no excuse.

2>Ruby herself is just as stupid. She can use her Semblance to fly away, she literally started the fight jumping like 25 meters into the air with it and used it to fly around multiple times.

She could have just used it again to get on the cliff, or at least to avoid the incoming blast. But noo, just get scared so the cool old lady can save you by taunting her, which makes the airship crash instead.

Which makes the whole mission pointless at this point since now they pissed off Atlas and didn't even get a transport while at it. Great job White Rose, you useless lesbians.

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8) I liked Blake's half of the Adam fight. It's got the "pause then go fast then pause and repeat" issue from last ep but it quickly moves away from that and gets more fluid. Seeing Blake try to be Spiderman is fun to watch too.

Yang's half of the fight though, I don't like it much. I mean, it looks good, and I like how she even sacrifices her bike (Bumblebee died for Bumblebee), but it has multiple things that irk me.

8.1) For starters, Adam's face. The SDC scar on his eye is interesting, but aside from that, it looks kind of....low in resolution or textures. It just looks low quality compared to everything else in the area, including the rest of his face.

Also for some strange reason his face looks funnier now that he's unmasked. His hair between the horns just feels...bigger and sillier now too. Don't ask me why, I don't get it either, it just does.

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8.2) Ripped off moves. Again. This time from Cross Tag Battle/Under-Night InBirth. Technically just 1 and half though.

1>Between 13:01 and 13:03, when Adam stops, sheathes the sword, does a slice, then sheathes it again and slices, then does it one more time. That, is quite the shameless rip off of Yuzuriha's Second Type: Bloom (in BBTAG, her 236A). Both how it looks (yes, even the size) and even what it does (last hit has quite the pushback on block).

2>Around the 13:06 mark, Yang's rising uppercut followed by the aerial kick. That's basically her Rising Fire skill in BBTAG (214A>A), just with the hand used switched, though Burst of Embers (a flaming tackle) is replaced by 3 hits that don't really resemble any of her moves from the game.

Now, this one isn't as bad as with the Ghira vs Corsac/All-Might vs Nomu case though, since those moves are not really any big moves that only are great because of the context or anything, they're just moves used like any other.

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8.3) Adam's Shadow Clones. His Semblance is stated to be like Yang's, so it shouldn't make clones. He's like Yang, not Sun. He does get darker when he charges it, like the clones, but they come out even when he doesn't charge it, so they aren't mere afterimages. So, what's up with them?

8.4) Adam's Moonslices look cool, but those....Moonspikes? he does during the fight....don't. They don't look threatening or awesome, and I can't even tell if they're meant to be like flames or shadows or spikes. They just look rather boring if you're looking directly at them.

8.5) Yang blocking the Moonslice, which if it wasn't right at the end would've killed my enjoyment outright. Back in Vol.3, Adam threw a half-charged Moonslice with far less "energy", and he didn't just knock her out but even cut off her hand.

Now, Adam throws a fully-charged Moonslice with far more energy than last time, and yet Yang is just pushed back, the most damage she got being a mark on her prosthetic. Sure, she blocked, but arms are arms and just putting your arms in a blocking position won't turn them into steel.

It just shatters all my suspension of disbelief. I was enjoying the fight up to that point, even with all I've mentioned here. But then they just have Yang block a hit stronger than the one she got last time she "fought" Adam with no damage or even flinching. Like, they were trying to make her look strong, but went too far.

9) Mmm, after seeing Blake hold Yang's hand like that at the end, I can't help but wonder, are they trying too hard to promote Bumblebee? The way they hold hands doesn't feel very "Friend-to-Friend".