User blog:Darkcloud1111/Good Idea, Bad Idea~Volume 2



With Volume 2 at a close, and almost everything about the last episode being said, I feel it would be better for me to look at the entire volume. Overall I feel that this volume was better than Volume 1, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have problems. So after rewatching the volume a few times, time to see what I feel was good or bad.

Good Idea
I enjoyed how the villains are given much more precedence in this volume. Back in Volume 1, the only times the bad guys make any kind of impact is during the first and last episodes, while here we get to see what they are doing every few episodes leading up to the finale. I feel this is very important because becoming invested in the villains separates someone like Emerald from a henchman. Sure we still don't know what they are planning, but at least a part of the puzzle is now in place.

We also are introduced to a lot of new characters which most of us seem to have latched on to. Neo is the most obvious example, as she is pretty funny in her own way. Roman during his moments really shined; he managed to get a bunch of people that hate humans to like him in a matter of minutes. He is incredibly overconfident and never seems to feel like he has a shot of failing, even when he fails. Sure he tends to blame his failures on others, but that is just who he is. Emerald and Mercury have their own charm to them, but we didn't get to see too much of them.

Bad Idea
The biggest issue I had was actually with Cinder. Sure in the first Volume she gets into a fight with Glynda before running off, but seems to shine when she is in the background. For example whenever she is plotting something or organizing others to perform parts of her plan, she seems like a Chess Master organizing all her pieces in order to swiftly destroy her enemy and capture the king. This can be seen when she confronts Roman, Emerald, and Mercury or when having Emerald and Mercury gain information on the students.

It is however when Cinder is not doing any of these things that she bothers me. Outside of planning, Cinder appears twice; once when planting something into the CCT and again in the final episode. Both times she seems to be caring around the idiot ball, performing actions that would give her away if not for the plot protecting her. For example when going to the CCT, her route there goes right past the dance and Ruby only sees her because of this; what is even worse is that she jumps over to the other side of the roof later so she could have avoided being seen. Yet she walks up to the CCT on foot when she gets there and takes out all the guards, so why was she being sneaky? Plus she manages to escape the room when Ironwood shows up, so there could have been another way into the room that didn't involve taking out the guards. She then runs to the dance, but there weren't a lot of people there and the guards chasing her lead there. The only way Cinder wouldn't be caught would be if the guards ran to the dance room, but didn't bother asking anyone if someone had just gotten here, checking any cameras, or watching as the students left to narrow it down (how many students have hair like Cinder's?).

Another time is when she has on the exact same dress she had on when fighting Glynda and we know that with Ruby's information, Glynda remembers Cinder (even if she doesn't see her face, the dress is in clear view during the fight). We know that Cinder either makes her own Dust-clothes or has someone do it, plus she seems to transform her catsuit into a dress, so why wear that outfit when she probably know that Glynda will be there (Ruby was there too).

Good Idea
I like that we learn a lot about the characters and their motivations in this volume. Last volume the only ones we really learn about were Blake and strangely enough, Jaune (we learn a little about Weiss, but not much). In this volume almost every character has something new to add; Pyrrha finally breaks out of her shell and explains how despite her fighting skills, she isn't completely without her faults and seeing Jaune ignore her actually is very painful to watch. Yang explains to Blake how she is trying to find her mother, as well as giving a some back story about her and Ruby's childhood. Even Neptune at one point reveals that much like Pyrrha, he has his own amount of social problems when it comes to love interests. Also Jaune hopefully isn't as blind to the feelings of others in the future. Plus Dr. Oobleck questioning why they wanted to become Hunters was very important.

Also pretty much everything about Mountain Glenn I find to be interesting. Despite the city itself not being that important, the implications that come with Mountain Glenn and what it means for the Grimm is very interesting. Despite us only seeing the city for most of the first volume, Mountain Glenn shows that the city may be the only place not infested by Grimm (outside of the other three kingdoms). It shows that the Grimm are very dangerous monsters and the world outside is not a happy place. It is like a zombie movie, with small patches of human resistance against the entire populations of the world, except the zombies are somewhat intelligent creatures of destruction that only get stronger as time passes.

Bad Idea
Remember when I said that almost every character has something to add, well other characters are once again pushed to the side. Nora and Ren for example are reserved mostly for fight scenes and do very little outside of that. The biggest moments outside of fights is Nora telling Pyrrha to admit her feelings and some hints about Ren's home village at the end. The talk Ren and Jaune had was funny, but it was hijacked by Pyrrha. We also don't really get too much from Weiss or Ruby either.

Instead we get to explore characters which for the most part, we learned about last volume. We delve even more into Blake's past and her connections with the White Fang. The Jaune-Pyrrha-Weiss-(Neptune) felt like it dragged on a bit, which wasn't so bad, but it felt like it didn't have a clear resolution. Jaune probably still likes Weiss and his feels to Pyrrha are kind of unclear, while Weiss never really mentioned what her relationship with Neptune is after the dance. Sure we know they all like each other, but the outcome of this love triangle...square?...are left out of the rest of the volume.

Not to mention Emerald and Mercury's biggest appearance is during the first episode. After that we have the one scene with Mercury and Pyrrha and then they don't appear again until the last episode. Emerald who I really wanted to learn about is mostly absent or mute during most of the volume (which is funny, as the mute Neo has said less and yet has a stronger presence in this volume).

As far as the Grimm go, they are once again curse by the build-up. Despite everyone talking about how strong the Grimm are, how they destroy cities, how the older Grimm are smart and powerful, how there were so many of them, they are mowed down time after time. When RWBY first get to Mountain Glenn, they just beat the snot out of them over and over again. Then after the White Fang opens the door and out heroes are surrounded...the entire army of Grimm are quickly destroyed and everyone is happy.

Closing Notes
Overall a good volume I think. Obviously the end wasn't as good as we would have liked, but I also understand that things needed to be pushed back as more things were added (like team CFVY for example). Solid 8/10 if I had to give it a ranking.