User blog:SomeoneYouUsedToKnow/SYUTK's V5E5 - χeep μoving φorward - Impressions/Recap

Well, this time there was a delay. The reason is simple: I was busy all Saturday doing an essay about “Los Valores Indigenas”, and by the time I was finished it was already midnight, so I watched it on Sunday. And I stopped at exactly the 7:23 since it was so boring I fell asleep.

So, I tried to finish the episode on Monday, but the stupid statistics professor forced us to make an essay about like 9 different kinds of probability distributions, for literally the next day IOW for Tuesday.

11 pages long counting cover and references, it took me from 6pm to 2am. And the result: The prof. didn’t even come, so it was all for nothing. I hate it when they do that.

And then, I tried to finish the ep on Tuesday, even if it meant this would be posted on Wednesday. But my internet decided to be an asshole and not even connect, acting as if there were no routers or anything connected, meaning I spent most of the day without internet until I fixed the issue.

But I managed to do it anyway, all I had to do today was upload the pics.

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. 2 are particularly notable:

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

Blue means a guess, an hypothesis, a theory.

Now, this specific time, there were multiple issues, as stated above. So can’t really say this was finished prior to Tuesday.

Hopefully it won’t happen again, though knowing my statistics prof., pretty sure it will. I hate the way he does things, he doesn’t even have any presence, one doesn’t even feel he’s there. The only reason I even try to deal with it is because it’s his literally-very-1st-time teaching anything.

In any case, off we go:

And this episode begins with...
Triumph (or is it Triumph! ?)

Now the ep is like 17mins long. That's an improvement from yesterweek....still terrible compared to the lenghts of Ep1 and 2 but I've already complained about that, so I'll talk about something more interesting:

Evolving Credits.

RWBY has obviously had Opening videos that play practically every episode, with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions. But the Opening used in each season has always been the exact same throughout that season. It never changes.

So I've been wondering if RWBY will ever have Evolving Credits. Basically, that the Opening changes, it's altered, throughout the season. How it's altered varies heavily. For example, sometimes more characters are added at certain points. Or if X character was doing Y thing at one scene, it's changed to X character doing something else.

Or in more rare cases, the entire Opening video is changed, though the theme song itself may not be replaced.

There are ways RWBY can do it. Like, in one scene Ozpin looks like some heroic Big Good, but then he's revealed to not be so goody-two-shoes and that scene is replaced for a different version that has duller, grey-er colors, making Ozpin look less heroic.

I get that it would be more expensive, but at this point "we are poor" is not the case with RT and that excuse falls flat. That worked when they were a bunch of guys sitting on a couch. Not now that they can afford to make tons of new merchandise from shirts to cups and more, every month, along with multiple series simultaneously.

Even if they're still nothing compared to EA or Nintendo or Microsoft, it does not justify acting like they're hobos who can barely survive.

Speaking of Evolving Credits, will RWBY ever have proper credits? A proper ending sequence, with a proper song playing over it. Vol.1 only had silhouettes, and didn't use songs in every episode's ending. Vol.2 and 3 used fanart. And in Vol.4 and so far in Vol.5, they used Concept Art.

And in at least V4, V5 and some eps of V1, V2 and V3, instead of "a song", they just used background music that at times is just plain forgettable.

RWBY is based on anime. Using a proper ending like a proper anime wouldn't hurt, especially if it has a catchy song, is interesting or at least fun to watch for one reason or another, or simply both. Who knows, it might even become popular enough to get tons of fan-made parodies involving other works.

1) OH MY GOD, BIRDS IN RWBY
This might be the first time we've seen a bird in RWBY that's not a poorly-researched Crow (Crows don't have red eyes... ) or a Grimm!

It's a minor thing, but hey. We've seen like only 2 species so far (dog and crow), leaving aside humans, faunus and Grimm. Any new animal we see clearly, it's a good thing.

Now, the real stuff
I'm gonna take a moment here to point out...those fruits beside Sun look uncannily real. They don't look like they were made in the same style as everything else, they don't even look like the food we saw in V2E1. They look more like real food photoshopped into the scene.

Have you seen those pics of Mario in his cartoony style, in "Unreal 4 engine, Super-realistic" games like Crysis, while still keeping his cartoony style? Well, this is like that, but in reverse.

3) Adam Did Nothing Wrong, Part 3: Our Lord's Word Is Absolute
And we finish this episode with a Big Bang: A Faunus whose trait is a pair of torso-sized wings on his back. And note how Yuma there is wearing a shirt below them, as if the wings were intangible and passed through these form-fitting outfits.

Now, excuse me while I dedicate the following link to everyone in this wiki who insisted that Faunus with Wings were impossible as if it was empirical fact.



There. The ep is now done.

Conclusions
Let's start with Black Sun.

Blake, you fail at giving Speeches. Arryn, I felt she didn't put much love into that little speech...but I also don't know if that was on purpose.

Honestly, the results of the episode in regards to Blake's Arc, is like this: Blake and Sun failed to convince anyone to go to Mistral to defend another nation for no discernible reward beyond "feels good". The WF wants to capture Blake and kill Kali and Mufasa. Blake and Sun don't seem to be making any real progress, and at best, all they've achieved is make the people convinced to side with no one instead of with them.

It's not hard to add 1 and 1 and get an approximated 2 right now:

1) Blake is captured, taken to Mistral, that's how she reunites with RWYNJR. Then she ends up almost-catatonic as she's given 2 seasons's worth of plot twists and explanations.

Remember what I said about all the questions Yang and Weiss had for each other? Multiply that exponentially. Poor Blake and even Poorer Sun, whose brain could barely comprehend Blake's arc by itself. Relics, Maidens, Salem, Oscar and Ozpin, Silver Eyes, and that's just the most relevant stuff.

2) Ghira and Kali either die for real, or their deaths are faked with help from Ilia.

3) If these 2 die, Ilia most likely wouldn't be the murderer, though definitely the assistant in it. If SHE does kill them though, it has potential. Blake could see it as Ilia crossing the line, and become unable to forgive her, or if she does, employ "Forgive But Don't Forget".

I hope something is added to shake my expectations.

NOW, the important stuff: Space Monkey.

Now, some people on the Wiki's Discord said that Sun's umbrella didn't have stars and galaxies, but flowers, just flowers. Now, I could see how the violet-with-yellow-center figures could be flowers, probably supposed to be like Belladonnas (even though the shape is completely wrong), but the other figure, is completely yellow, and it looks as a result more like a 5-point star with rounded edges than a simple flower.

Of course, there are flowers whose center is the same color as the petals, and that purely-yellow figure could've been of one such flower (though I don't remember any Belladonna plants having such a flower). But it also looks like a roundy star to me, between being of the stereotypical color and the similar shape. And in any case, I still promove the idea that the Umbrella said "Space Monkey" for 3 reasons:

1) The main "opposer" to my points insisted that the umbrella had red in it. When it very, very, very clearly does not, it's purple with yellow stars/flowers, some of which are over a violet figure. Which hurts their credibility.

2) Their main argument was that "it looks nothing like a star, you idiot". Nevermind how I was, quite obviously (and I repeated it more than thrice) talking about cartoon stars, specifically the "Pentagram Star" kind that are often drawn purely yellow. Not, you know, REAL stars like the Sun, with the pseudo-spherical shape that looks nothing like a pentagram.

3) Violets are flowers, including "yellow Violets" and "purple Violets" (no, that's not redundant; violet is similar but lighter, maybe bluer than purple) even before getting into all the cultivars. So even if one insists like fact that they were flowers, Space Monkey is still a thing.

I liked Ruby's scene with Oscar. It promoves Rose Garden, which is bad, very bad, but it's also the first time in a long time, maybe forever, that:

1) Ruby's ideals and character are questioned.

2) Ruby actually showed that X event (in this case, Penny and Pyrrha's deaths) left an impact and shaped her character in some manner. Even if by that, I mean that she's exactly the same character with the exact same personality and attitude, just a different reason for it (Instead of Purity and Innocence, now it's "Keep Moving Forward").

3) Ruby actually expresses her thoughts about things, which, as noted by Chishio in her blog months ago, was present in Volume 1, and got gradually reduced until Ruby became a Plot Device with Legs.

Now, is Ruby a greatly-developed character? Hell no. She pales compared to Blake, Weiss, Yang, even to Cinder and Jaune at times, people whose attitudes and characters have changed, at least temporarily, due to their experiences.

But she's developed now, and it's better to have a 1 than have a 0.

Now, regarding the mini-scene afterwards between Ozpin and Oscar: My problem with it is that, the way it's worded, it feels like this:

Oscar: Ruby is perfect!

Ozpin: No, she isn't, she has her quirks and flaws, I swear. But they don't matter, because she's like a beacon of light in a dark cave.

Oscar: She must be suffering the most of all of us.

Ozpin: Of course she does. Isn't it perfectly absolutely obvious?

Basically, it sounds like the writers trying to convince us that Ruby is not a Mary Sue, that Ruby has flaws, and then ask us to pity her by painting her as the biggest woobie without really showing it to us.

The problem is, that regarding flaws, those only count if they matter. A character can be flawed, but when the flaws are not presented as such in the work, or never actually matter, then it's as good as when a character is not flawed at all.

For example, Qrow is an alcoholic, an asshole, one could say ocasionally cynical, and sucks up to Ozpin without question. The former 3 aren't treated like actual flaws but more like stuff that makes him look cooler, while the last trait is treated more like a Virtue instead. As a result, it's like his flaws were not flaws at all.

For a more positive example, of flaws that matter, there's the common-in-cartoons idea of a greedy character going straight for the treasure due to their greed, and activates the traps as a result, causing trouble for the whole group.

Now, what traits does Ruby have? She's optimistic, energetic, friendly, idealistic, wanted to help people, socially awkward, prefers weapons over people, she's a weapon fanatic, she can make good plans on the spot, she treats everyone with a smile except the villains, she loves her uncle, can be inmature. Now:

1>Her optimism, friendliness and idealism has never caused her to get into trouble, has never been exploited by the villains, and if anything are just Virtues, are Positives.

2>Her social awkwardness completely disappeared after she was thrown into a forest full of monsters by Ozpin. By the time Blake's arc rolls in Volume 1, Ruby shows 0 signs of social awkwardness, and if anything, Jaune, Neptune, and even Weiss comparatively, were more socially-awkward in Vol.2 and 3 than Ruby was.

One could say she's like that because she's interacting with her circle of friends. But since we never actually see her ever talking to anyone outside her circle of friends aside from the teachers, her social awkwardness becomes pretty much Informed.

3>Her weapon fanatism. It was a thing at the beginning of Volume 1, with her admiring all the weapons when she entered Beacon's grounds instead of the people (which, to be fair, were kinda devoid of character), cuddling Crescent Rose.

However, ever since V1E2, <font style="color:#DC143C">she's never shown that same love for weapons. Not even in Volume 3, with the Tournament, with people from all places and with unique weapons, like a Trumpet gun, or a WindBoard-Revolvers. The last time we saw any of this was with a throwaway line when Jaune revealed he could use his Shieth to make a "Heavier-Sword" mode for his sword.

4>The only time she's ever shown any planning skills, was in Volume 1 against the Nevermore. Ever after that, she either never plans anything - unless you count telling her teammates to work together via ship-names against the Paladin - or the plans are done by someone else entirely.

The closest thing I can recall to any sort of planning skills or tactical skill that Ruby has shown after V1E8, were using the locker for transportation during the FoB, and using a modified version of her plan agains the Nevermore to go up the CCT.

5>Both her fair treatment of every one of her friends, and her love for her uncle, are positive things that have never caused her, or anyone, harm, one way or another. The closest thing we have is Jaune accusing Qrow of using Ruby as bait.

6>Her inmaturity is, for starters, justified due to being 15 (later 16), while everyone is entering the Young Adult category at least. Aside from that, it's only ever been played for laughs, never really taken seriously. Except 1 time, also in Volume 1, where Ruby was made an infantile dumbass during Port's class for the sake of the episode. And the result is:

-Ozpin says that even though he's made tons of mistakes all his lives, making Ruby the leader was not one of them.

-Weiss questions why Ruby was made Team Leader despite her inmaturity both physically and mentally, at least at the time, and Port's response is basically that Weiss is an entitled brat who has always been given whatever she wanted (which is an horrendously FALSE assumption on her life) and told to "DEAL WITH IT".

So, the one time her inmaturity had consequences, <font style="color:#DC143C">they said it was a non-issue, and the one who treated it like an issue was treated like an entitled moron in the wrong despite having valid reasons to question Ozpin's decision.

With points 1 and 5, they are positive traits never treated negatively or used negatively. With point 2 and 3, her flaws and even her most-iconic quirk disappear after Volume 1 is even 1/4 done. With Point 4, it is neither positive nor negative. And with Point 6, it's just played for laughs, and the one time it is not, I've already stated how it was treated.

Overall, <font style="color:#DC143C">we cannot really say that Ruby is a flawed or even quirky character nowadays. She stopped being so after Volume 1.

And then comes the part about Oscar and Ozpin saying she must be suffering quite a lot. Even with this episode's "reveals", that is FALSE.

Ruby said she's hurt by PP's deaths, and she shows this, but she also basically explains that she "deals with it". She's seen 3 people die, 2 of hers her friends, and her sister was dismembered, became depressed, and was traumatized, while her friends scattered. Yet beyond the very, very ocasional grief moment, of which I can only remember 2 including this episode, she doesn't show much "suffering" over it, and instead she says she moves forward.

"Suffers the most" is not just proportional to how much shit a character has endured. <font style="color:#DC143C">But how much it affects them. Ruby has seen quite the amount of shit, and only now does she show it for real. Weiss lost the route to her life-goal and was captured by bandits (comparatively smaller than what Ruby has suffered) yet threw herself in tears to Yang as soon as she could.

Yang herself showed clear depression, PTSD, and an actual nightmare in V4, and even now her Fist Hand twitches in response to cups of water, due to Adam chopping off her arm. For comparison, Ruby only showed bad dreams with no images, and an outburst that was stolen by Jaune, and that's it, before this Episode, over the deaths of 2 friends right in her face.

So overall: Ruby is said to be flawed, <font style="color:#DC143C">but she isn't. Ruby is said to suffer quite a lot, <font style="color:#DC143C">but she doesn't. So that part of the 2nd 1/3 of the episode feels more like the writers trying to convince us with words, instead of showing us any of what they speak of.

Regarding the Albains, I like how they have more depth than I thought. I thought they were nothing but religious "Adam Did Nothing Wrong" guys, but now it turns out that they force themselves to repeat that sentence 40 times per hour in order to endure their doubts.

Regarding Ilia, there's potential there...but in the very-foreseeable future, all that potential is stuff people figured out as far back as the Character Shorts. It's just that obvious. I do like, however, that she didn't scream like a fanatic this time, and even more that her "moment" in V5E3 had at-least-informed consequences, even if small.

Regarding Yuma......okay, look. <font style="color:#DC143C">This guy is edge. This guy has enough edge to give Adam a run for his money. He's got so much edge, even his hair and beard are edgy. He's got Bat wings too to make him look edgier.

He even introduces himself with cheap melodramatic edgy poetry about how he sunk the messenger's ship and had him drown.

Now, the elephant in the room......fishes and wings.

With the former, I mean "The Mermaid Faunus". Or, a Faunus with a "fish tail instead of legs". Now, I tried arguing against the idea of a freaking Fishtail instead of legs as a Faunus trait in the Wiki's Discord...

...But the result was being blasted by people who reminded me why the RWBY Wiki is despised by pretty much every other side of the FNDM, what with ignoring every little thing I said (and Lucas literally telling people to ignore me), belittling me for trying to look at the picture from a different angle instead of mindlessly agreeing, and even being called insane/delusional at one point (Thanks Grey).

That aside, this is why I fought against the idea:

1) The bodies of the women swimming in the water were shadowed under it. It's nothing but silhouettes, and it's impossible to get a clear picture of anything underwater.

2) The women were wearing dresses. The models themselves, included dresses that cover the legs. Which would carry over in a silhouette form underwater.

Actually, they might've been utilized like that to hide the fact that they were dresses and not just swimsuits, probably to save time by not having to make another model for what is literally background characters that last like 10 seconds tops on-screen. Boom, Doylistic solution to why they swim with dresses on in Menagerie.

Now, with the woman on the right, she has fins on her arms, like blades. We saw that same trait in V5E3, and the one who had it also had legs, so we know that one must have legs too because it's only 1 trait. The left one is the question.

At first,I argued that due to the women wearing dresses that looked silhouetted underwater, there was no such "fishtail", it was a dress that ended up looking like that underwater, where due to the artistic choice one could not distinguish it's color or features, just the figure.

Of course, the other side simply kept repeating "it's a fishtail", without actually providing a real argument beyond "it looks like a fishtail", which is in complete ignorance of my point. Then a Bright mind decided to simply post a pair of pictures that were far stronger evidence. No, I did not save those pictures on my PC, and I'm pretty sure they got buried by now on the Spoiler channel.

-1st pic showed the woman's skin turning scaly-green from the waist below.

-2nd pic showed what looked like the end of a "fishtail", VAGUELY (since it was also silhouetted to the fullest), underwater, though nothing like human feet.

Afterwards, I analyzed it for a while and figured that, even then, it might not be a Fishtail specifically. I argued that even then, it could be like this:

1) The woman's Faunus trait is Frog-like legs (which includes the webbed feet) or Fish-like feet like with most Zora in the Legend of Zelda games. With frog-like legs, I meant the webbed feet the most. The webbing of frog's feet can vary heavily, based on how much time they spend underwater. African Dwarf Frogs have fully-webbed feet that even look like fans.

2) The woman is still wearing a dress. And her underwater body is still silhouetted.

Result: The only part of the woman's legs not covered by the dress is the feet, let's assume frog-like feet. Underwater, both are silhouetted, and if you've ever lived life, you should know how shadows look when you put one with another: The 2 shadows turn into 1 figure, they combine, at least to the eye.

So the result ends up looking like a single figure, consisting of a vaguely-cylindrical shape that goes from the waist to the feet, that seemingly ends in a vaguely fan-like tail fin-like shape. It's an optical illusion.

Now, did any of the people involved even put some thought into that possibility? Nope. They just continued saying "it's a fishtail, you fucking moron". If anything, sharing the idea just made them start treating me worse.

Now, the winged guy, Yuma Yuma iei (Dragostea Din Tei)

In his case, it's perfectly obvious he has wings. It is undeniable that Faunus can have big Wings on their back. There's even canon proof that you don't even need to play around with the clothes.

Since, you know, putting on a T-shirt would be horrendously difficult for someone with a huge pair of wings on their back. Yet he managed to put in a pretty tight-looking uniform with no discernible aperture for the wings, and he doesn't even flinch (then again, EDGE).

With people like Sun and the Albains, they could just make holes in their clothes and call it a day. Yuma doesn't even do that.

So....all those times you lambasted someone for making a winged Faunus without giving an explanation for how they manage to get dressed despite the wings?

Apologize.

....Of course, the fact that Yuma can have wings like that with no problem, also means that a Faunus could have a big damn fishtail too, with no problem. They could probably have whale-sized flippers too. And a gigantic elephant nose that goes all the way to their toes.

..............That said, in hindsight, if a Faunus had a fishtail as a trait, it doesn't need to replace their legs. One could, say, have a long fishy tail sprouting out of their ass, like Elma from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid.

FUNNY V5E5 PICS! :D
...Well, this time I didn't get many. There weren't as many pics as past blogs (171 this time). I did get some decent ones, at least: