User blog:Jjripper/RWBY Volume 1 Episode 2 Critique

Greetings once again, world. This is my second entry into a series of reviews I'll be doing for RWBY Volume, if you have not seen my review of the first episode of Volume 1 and you're interested in my critiques I suggest you give the first part a read before continuing on. 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. P'lease let me know if there is anything that I've written that can be considered a deviation from the rules so it can be corrected.

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

RWBY VOLUME 1: Episode 2 Review
You may recall that I said that that the last episode included a scene that I thought peaked the quality of these earlier episodes, and that everything after gradually does down hill, and I stand by that in regard to the quality of everything except the character interaction, but I'll get to that later. RWBY Episode 2: "The Shining Beacon" opens up with a scene of the ship Ruby and Yang disembarked on --after Ozpin offered the former a position at his school-- landing, letting off the myriad shadow people who are apparently going to be attending Beacon Academy, too. Ruby and Yang admire the view for a moment before Ruby starts geeking out over the fact that her fellow classmates are carrying some really cool weapons that we can't see in a non diegetic chibi sequence. I get that this is supposed to show us that Ruby is Remnants equivalent to what a gun nut in our reality is like and that it's not a scene that warrants much of anything, but it's only the beginning of a trend that sticks with the series from here on out. The characters will often walk, sit, or in some cases, stand completely fucking still and just dump exposition in situations where the alternative -- letting us see what the fuck they're talking about -- is preferable. In a book this wouldn't be a problem, but RWBY's genre is a visual medium, when you don't take advantage of the fact that you have a camera you end up wasting the potential your show has.

I'm going to assume that a lot of this is a technical limitation, but from what I've read online and heard from the directors commentary, many of the things that have an adverse effect on RWBY's methods of storytelling were conscious decisions made by the team, like the background characters being textured entirely black and constantly having characters run out of frame more often than into it. So for all I know, these scenes where the characters say interesting things instead of showing us those interesting things may have been intentionally made the way they are. I don't like resorting to the "working on a budget" argument either, seeing as their youtube channel alone makes $2,807,289 dollars per year, which isn't counting the revenue of the site, merchandise, or their Let's Play channels and crowd funding. I know that not all of this goes towards their projects, but still, a multi-million dollar company shouldn't have to come up with excuses like "the shadow people were a genuine style choice" when they clearly weren't.

This is all speculation on my part, but I honestly think the problem here is that Monty and Co. were having a hard time transitioning from reusing the Halo assets to creating their own. RvB Season 10's CGI sequences were most likely done so well due to the fact that they were working with assets from Halo 3 and Reach. Setpieces like Beacon Academy's exterior in RWBY are made from scratch, which I'd imagine takes a fuck ton of time and effort and consequently results in scenes where the things actually in the environment are not fully taken advantage of by the cinematography crew or the animators alike. So we end up occasionally getting scenes where the characters interact with each other in the blandest of ways despite being in the most awe inspiring of environments, which is a real shame because I really enjoy the character interaction in this episode, for the most part.

The brief conversation Yang and Ruby have between each other when they arrive is pretty great. Barbara's acting is spotty, but she does a good enough job here conveying the type of character Yang is. She is shown to be confident and sociable, which makes her the perfect foil to Ruby's reclusive nature. The best moment is when she suggests that Ruby go make some friends that aren't inanimate objects, and Ruby's adorably naive response prompts her to immediately get the fuck out of dodge with a couple of her new "friends", who are all shadow people we will never see again... and are suspiciously shaped like males... oh god, was I right about that whole propositioning thing? Anyways, Ruby stumbles backwards and onto a trolley cart of suitcases filled with Dust, and a main character appears to flip her shit.

I know a lot of people hate how Weiss is introduced as a spoiled and mean bitch, but let's be honest here, Weiss probably gets the best arc in the Volume out of the rest of the cast because of this introduction. We're immediately shown that Weiss is serious about becoming a Huntress by her explosive (hah) reaction to Ruby's carelessness and we're given a little insight on her attitude towards people like Ruby. She treats people who she believes don't take the duty of being a Huntsman/Huntress seriously like they're beneath her, and tosses out petty insults like "Dolt" to accentuate the points she makes. The way she talks, looks, and behaves lets us know that Weiss is on a different level from Ruby in terms of status and that she isn't afraid to show it. We're also shown that she has a one track mind, seeing as instead of safely securing the Dust, she instead focuses on relentlessly scolding Ruby as she unconciously waves around the container of Dust she has in her hand which causes Ruby to sneeze. Instead of blaming herself, she blames Ruby once more, unwilling to shift the blame to anyone else. Some of it may run contrary to what we see in the "White" Trailer, but it still does a good job of characterizing her as the kind of character she's supposed to be. She's the stereotypical rich girl who obviously develops a personality beyond rempant bitchiness later on, and we learn this all from one quick scene.

Blake shows up and fills Ruby in on who Weiss is and why she is important. It turns out Weiss is actually the heiress of a business called "Schnee Dust Company", which basically confirms the suspicion of Weiss being rich and spoiled that everyone ever should have had by this point. Before Weiss can pat herself on the back for being famous and recognizable, Blake lets the audience know that SDC isn't actually all that great due to their "controversial labor forces" and "questionable business partners". I guess we're supposed to assume that there are people who have made allegations of something to the effect of racism and black market deals going on behind the scenes, but if that's the case, why is Weiss even allowed at such a prestigious academy like Beacon if her name brand company is so infamous? Ozpin is the headmaster here, and Ozpin seems like the kind of guy who'd consider the implications of allowing someone like Weiss -- who's family apparently has enough dirt on them to make their corpration infamous -- into his school. Could you imagine the kind of backlash Beacon would receive if it's revealed later that Weiss' dad did some majorly criminal shit with SDC when you consider the pedastal Weiss is placed on? Of course this could just be Blake being a bitch and subtly hinting toward her nature as ex White Fang, but Weiss' reaction makes the whole ordeal pretty suspect. Maybe Ozpin is too busy drinking that happy juice of his to give a flying fuck, I would be too if I lived a world where deer people exist. Wait, what the fuck is a Faunus again?

Blake herself doesn't really say anything beyond that, and after Weiss stomps away she just leaves Ruby behind to walk... back to the ship? I guess she forgot her spare bow, I don't fucking know. I wish Blake had the same kind of introduction Weiss had, where we get an entire scene dedicated to her characterization and how she interacts with people like Ruby. It could've help to make her seem a lot less generic in these preparatory episodes. Considering Weiss' almost outburst and retreat, you'd think that'd be the perfect moment for Blake's character to get fleshed out to a cursory degree at least, but we learn nothing about her besides the fact that she isn't a fan of SDC and Weiss' bullshit. The excuse that can be made here is that this is only part 1 of "The Shining Beacon", and that Blake gets characterized better in the next part, but the way in which they do it feels far more contrived than they way they could've done it in this scene. The pieces could've all fell into place there and then, but instead they're spread across seperate episodes. Anyways, Ruby lies on the ground, regretting the fact that she has a sister who wants her to actually be a person that associates with other people.

Jaune shows up again, and this time he isn't vomiting all over the fucking place, though it probably would've been a nice change of pace if he just spewed all over Ruby and walked away. The scene in which he shows up and held out his hand to Ruby almost felt painfully cliche, because I thought I knew what was going to be coming next. If this was any other animoo bullshit, Ruby would have looked up into Jaune's eyes and felt her anxieties wash away as his ocean blue eyes set on hers. She would have held his sights for but a moment before redenning under his scrutiny, and would avert her eyes and attempt to compose herself long enough to hear Jaune say the words "need a hand?" over the sound of her heart thumping as he reached down for her. At first, she'd hesitate, but then something within her would compel her to take his hand, interlocking her fingers with his own as he pulled her up and into his warm embrace.

Then they'd fuck by the end of the Volume.

But none of that happens, our expectations are -- thankfully -- subverted and Ruby cracks a joke at his expense as [[File:Episode2_00043.png|thumb|300px|"So, you push a button to close it?"

"No, I have to focus my mind on closing it. It gets really hard to do when I'm aroused."]]soon as she gets up. Jaune is pretty cool. He's the token goofy motherfucker of the cast, but you can see that there is actually a bit of depth to him beyond the comic relief just through the way he acts. His false bravado, the deadpan reaction he gives when Ruby explains the functionality of her big scary scythe gun, and his hopelessly awkward demeanor let us know that he isn't really hot shit in the way Ruby is. What sticks out, most of all, is the fact that he is so far the kindest person we've met and that he also gets along well with Ruby. His motivation for being here is relatable as well, he came to Beacon to make his family proud and wants to make friends along the way, and it's all pretty admirable. We don't explicitly learn that hes a garbage fighter until later, but there are plenty of hints there that help show us the kind of person Jaune is.

This is what I mean about how the character interaction is done so well in this episode. You learn enough about these characters through their actions, mannerisms, and the things they say, and there isn't a single moment where a fucking narrator attempts to explain anything away for you. I can even excuse the episodes lack of decent shot composition simply due to the great voice acting performances by Miles Luna, Lindsay Jones and Kara Eberie. They really put in their "A" game here, and I'm sure Arryn Zech, the voice actor for Blake, would've done just as well if she was given more dialogue. The writing of the episode was great and Beacon Academy is a nice backdrop, but the missed oppurtunities in regards to the cinematography really bother me about this episode, because it was so close to reaching the same level as the Ozpin interrogation scene from the first episode. I don't like complaining about the quality of the CGI itself considering what I talked about earlier, but it still felt really lackluster and stale in comparison to what the pilot had to show us in terms of visuals, even with low expectations I found myself a little bit dissapointed in that regard. The episode is still fine though, it's okay and has far less moments of atrociously retarded writing in it.

If you read all of my malarkey, I congratulate you once more for enduring my grammatical errors and attempts to be funny and thank you for lending me your time. I don't have a schedule for these, so I'll end up releasing them whenever it's convenient for me, but I'll try covering as much ground as I can in each one.

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

- jjripper