Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24032889-20180213075134

I wanted to ask a question to you that is often asked to CRWBY and VAs at panels, but with a twist.

What is your favorite moment in the first five volumes of RWBY?

When I say moment, I do not mean episode. I do not mean scene. I mean a moment- span of time that may have lasted from one to fifteen or so seconds. This could be a line of dialogue, something quiet or a specific action shot.

So while you might have liked the scene where the students fought the Nevermore in the Emerald Forest or the Nevermore in Amity Colosseum, I'm not looking for the whole fight as much as I'm looking for the moment Ruby decapitated the first one or told the second one to "Leave her alone!"

A moment that's resonated a heck of a lot with me recently is when Blake emerged from the housefire and looked at her friends. The careful construction of it is really impactful. There was a bit of dialogue and music before it, but the scene becomes silent.

This is a key moment of the Menagerie arc. Besides Ilia's redemption or Blake's effort to help Ilia, this speaks for the undertones of the conditions of life on the continent.

Blake had her conversation with Sun at the boardwalk earlier and said "Menagerie is filled with people that just want to be left alone" from the rest of the world and its social issues. They don't want to talk about it.

But somebody has to.

When Blake looks at Sun, he can't give a fake reassuring smile even though he is the lighthearted character foil to Blake and he always does. Even he is deeply affected by what Faunus were just brought to and what that makes them. When Blake looks at Ilia, Ilia can't look at the face of the person she knows she has done so much wrong to. "How can I undo so many years of hate?"

Nobody can face her, and nobody has wanted to face the problems Adam has caused. So even though she was timid when she was going to give a speech after her father in Episode 3, she stood there, she faced everyone and she said "I know the situation is bigger than any of us and bigger than any of us can explain, but we have to answer this call if we are ever going to reclaim who we are as a people."

Blake faced what could have been serious trauma in that fight, but instead of hiding in the shame that was all over Sun and Ilia's faces, she stood tall and said "We are better than this." It is a definite marker of her character growth during her time in Menagerie.

In a season where there are very valid criticisms of "Show, don't tell," everything about this moment (and the Menagerie arc in general for the most part) was beyond anything telling could have ever done.

So what is your favorite moment? 