Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27255656-20170421195322/@comment-103.10.197.130-20170721180257

PisceanWaterbender wrote: 92.112.43.60 wrote: I'm done listening that Blake is the weakest fighter in RWBY team.

She has the weakest Semblance - that's what I can agree with. At this point Weiss is the one who has the biggest potential (seriously, her glifs turned out to be some kind of cheating thing, since we found out about summoning), Yang is the strongest tank in the team, Ruby... Ruby, probably, is great with her uncommon weapon.

Anyway, reading all these "Blake defeated Roman with the help of Weiss" - just what's wrong with you, people? As far as we know, Blake never used dust in that way before. That means that she is smart enough to find a proper way of using it in several minutes and that she's studing amazingly quickly. That's all. Dust haven't helped Weiss in the battles she lost.

I want to support Arkantos95 : Blake has a biggest win score in 1 on 1 fights. And as war as I see, she fights wisely. Same with Weiss, btw. Though Weiss reminds me a bit of some kind of a diligent student: she's bad with improvisation and uses only well-known fighting schemes. Though when these schemes fail, Weiss looses too. Ruby and Yang are really bad now, because they both have a tendency to rush at the enemy with yelling. Blake lacks both these flaws: she's skilled with her weapon in all it's forms, she has a biggest fighting expirence, she's smart, quick with studing and improvisation. What upsets me greatly, is that RT don't give her more 1 on 1 fights: Blake is ussually accomplished with someone else: Adam, Yang, Weiss, Sun. Even the Black Trailer - it was mostly concentrated on Adam that on her. That's why I don't mant Adam to be defeated by Blake&Yang or Blake&Sun: first of all, Adam is her demon, and she is the one to deal with him to overcome her fears. And, secondly, Blake shows her best with fightings 1 on 1 - though we hadn't too much of them.

Back to the orginal discussion, I think Blake can win Sun easily. I'm sure she could trick him with her Semblance (just like she did with Reeze) in some way. So, though their skills are about the same level, Blake is still smarter than Sun. I'd agree she's not necessarily the weakest fighter on Team RWBY, and I might even agree that her Semblance is the weakest of all of them. Overall, she's a balanced fighter more or less, given her reasonable strength, good speed, and weapon versatility. The only reason she looks weak is because someone she teamed up with is pulling all the stops. For example, Weiss during Battle of Beacon saving her ass by using what we refer to as Barrier Dust.

However; I'd like disagree with you on a couple things. For one thing, we have no evidence to suggest Blake hadn't used Dust with her Semblance before, and while it's not a part of her standard loadout, she seemed to use it in a very smart way that suggests at least some level of experience with it. Obviously neither us can prove our statements on that given we don't know when she first used Dust, but it's still worth mentioning. As for Weiss, the only reason she loses her battles so often is because of her approach to fighting. If she was less conservative with her Dust, she would have a much easier time in battles, since she has 6 different types that can be used to great effect if she were to use them more often. Combined with her idiocy, lack of improvisation and low stamina, it's no wonder she's knocked out so often. In the RWBY v. ABRN fight though, you saw exactly what she could do, by using both Gravity & Ice as a deadly combo of types. With Ruby, a weapon like hers is extremely inefficient because the only real damage that can be done is along the inside: the cutting edge, and if you get past her weapon and up close, she can't fend you off.

With the case with Adam, you saw exactly what happened with their momentary sword duel during their encounter between the episodes Battle of Beacon & Heroes and Monsters. She was terrified to see him, and willing to run away before he tried to kill a student just to bait her into fighting him. Then used that time to berate and attack her verbally and physically. Adam is a force that most can't deal with due to an overpowered Semblance and scary strong attacks, leading me to believe that she alone can't deal with him...there's too much baggage and danger there to be certain of a good outcome, and in Blake's case it would be worse because of their history. Plus, Yang now has to earn her own vengeance against him, which might be an issue for her as well given what happened there, so in that case it'd be better for that to be a 2v1 or a 3v1 since they cover each other's weaknesses.

Now, back on topic: I've already discussed what I think could happen given certain scenarios. Reese was an idiot to fall for the clone trap after Blake had used it several times against her during their fight, whereas Sun has seen Blake use her Semblance before on quite a few occasions, and would likely expect her to use it, with the same applying vice versa. Assuming Dust isn't a standard part of her loadout, which she could probably wipe the floor with the given assumption that Sun's Semblance isn't Dust-interactive, Blake's attacks would be less useful against Sun due to his weapon likely able to stonewall her attacks with the staff form and overall less power behind them than his gunchuks would aganst her. The other thing to note is Sun is a team leader. So while it might not look it, he has to have some level of strategic prowess given how most other teams have a leader with strategic capabilities, otherwise Professor Lionheart is just a complete fool.

We just don't have enough information on Sun's fighting capabilities compared to Blake to make an accurate judgement, which is why I called it a rough 5 to 5 if we were to go with the 10 battle approach, with Sun either getting taken out early by ninja neko, or outlasting her attacks and then overpowering her.  Well, that's the point. All this  "we-are-here-to-fight-for-you"  thing isn't smth I like in general in Blake's storyline. I mean, yes, she has a reeeeally huge problem with trust and that's why she doesn't feel ok to rely on someone else - on her friends in particular. But at the same time I feel that RT unwillingly cause Blake to turn into classic "damsel in distress": Blake rarely fights on her own - as you have mentioned, she's usually accomplished with someone and/or saved by someone. Like Weiss (though Blake saved her twice, that scene just showed that Weiss is capable of defeating that number of enemies, and Blake - is not).

 Speaking about Dust - well, I assume, as far as we have never seen Blake using dust in that way (combined with her Semblance) - she actually had not. We had 4 trailers to show us the current potential of team RWBY. The were not any Dust clones there. Hiding such kind of ability just has no any sense.

 Please, don't think that I tried to mark Weiss down, that obviously was not my intention. I like Weiss a lot, in fact. Though I can't help admitting that giving her glyphs an ability to summon was not the best idea. Level-up is a good thing, though, a certain balance should be kept.

 Talking about Adam: well, I can't actually call it "a fight". Adam hadn't unsheathed his sword during their short duel, and Blake couldn't restrain her fair and panic. She had to rush at Adam to save a student's life but she totally was not ready to face him at fight at that moment. And I just hope that once she will be ready.

 Making Yang&blake or Sun&Blake vs Adam also isn't the best thing to do because of storytelling. Previously Yang was complaining that she has nothing to drive her, that she just goes with the flow. Making Adam her rival will be a poor writing - unlike the situation with Raven, Yang vs Adam conflict has no any depth. I really want Yang to grow up a little, though, defeating a "boogieman" from her nightmares in real combat can't help it.



 Reese was just an example. Blake is fine with using her dust clones  even   during  some kind of high-speed-fights. Just like she did with Roman. She also is good with using various types of dust (and creating various types of clones) when the situation requires. I also didn’t mean that Sun is not smart - just poor choice of words (sorry for my bad English, btw). I just meant that from what I've seen, he isn't that kind of fighter, he's a little more... forthright, I guess. I mean, I see it's the same as Ruby vs Neo: when both fighters share the similar level, the one who is quicker and more ready-witted/shifty is to win.