User blog:Zolnir/RWBY Episode 2 Lengthy Review

RWBY Episode 2 Review
''Note: There will be spoilers everywhere, so avoid reading this if you’re trying to avoid any. ''



I am incredibly disappointed with this episode.

Before we state the obvious flaws, let me summarize a bit on what happens in RWBY, Episode 2. First, Ruby and Yang briefly admires Beacon Academy before they started talking about Ruby’s friendless problem. Yang later dumps Ruby unceremoniously and went away with her new friends, and Ruby confused by the sudden change of environment stumbles into Weiss’ luggage and triggered what must’ve been the most bitch-bitch bitch talk she ever encountered in her entire life. As those who watched the pilot episode from before, there literally is no other way to describe it. Blake later comes up to help resolve the argument by subtly reminding Weiss that she is heiress of the Schnee Corporation and that she has a reputation to take care of. The duo later went on their ways and left Ruby alone until Jaun walked into her, helped her up, and as they started conversing they began to warm up to each other, even though the atmosphere was still pretty awkward.



So let’s begin with the obvious flaws following a chronological order. When Ruby and Yang were admiring Beacon Academy’s entrance the view was actually not really impressive. This was mainly due to the camera angles, and they should’ve shown the Academy from a higher and wider point of view. Moreover, throughout the episode the camera was almost strictly focused onto the characters themselves with an almost transparent attempt to avoid showing too much of the environment, which at this point I must assume was incomplete or too buggy to be shown. Either that, or the directing was just plain amateurish.



Second would be Ruby and Yang’s comic appearance (or rather disappearances for a certain blonde). I admit that the concept had looked pretty cool on paper (I checked out the image where Ruby went chibi mode with eyes sparkling and it was really cute), but during the actual implementation it simply fell… short. The reason for that was that they chose to implement her chibi appearance using 2D image instead of 3D (I had thought it was 3D at first until I watched the episode). The formula had worked fabulous when they used it for the news reporting, and I had thought that they meant it to stay that way, that is to keep the 2D stuff strictly on paper, TV, screens, or anywhere virtual but the reality of the world itself. But a 2D Ruby? The image was jarring as hell, even though it was just a chibi-fied appearance.



Speaking of jarring, Yang’s departure was one the most terribly directed scene in the short 6 minutes episode. It showed a series of still images where Yang was carried away by a wave of shadowy figures (On Episode 1 they had looked fine and even stylish in a way, but here it was downright eerie) as she waved her goodbye. Or maybe she didn’t, since it was a series of still images and I can’t exactly tell, and this was the sole problem why the short scene had looked downright horrid. I can’t for life understand why Monty Oum had chosen to use still images in a CG video – or actually I can, and at this point I seriously have very little sympathy for the Rooster Teeth management. I think Monty Oum simply couldn’t make it in time to properly apply motion to the scene and had to resort to this low quality, anime-style method (it’s hilarious on 2D but plainly does not fucking work on CG videos, period). And this was what I’d like to believe, because the alternative would be someone in Rooster Teeth had pitched in the really stupid idea, and god forbid it may even be our man himself who had decided to give it a try. Long story short, ugh.



And then came Weiss versus Ruby. Or more like Weiss stomps Ruby, because the latter side only started fighting back at the end before Blake intervened. Is there anyone who still has that ‘ice queen Weiss’ image stuck in your mind? Fear no more! This short 2 minutes of unnatural, bitchy and absolutely facepalming Weiss Schnee thrash talk would absolutely wipe whatever beautiful delusions you still had for the girl! In fact, she will bitch you to death especially during your worst nightmares! Isn’t that wonderful?



Yes, I admit that I had some false hopes that things wouldn’t turn out as bad as it sounded from the RTX people, and boy was I as wrong as mistaking the North pole for the South. To put it bluntly, she was worse than my mother, and that was like what, are you fucking serious? Rejecting an apology once was fine. Rejecting it twice was still fine, since she got exploded into soot even though it was completely her own fault. But to continuously drone on an endless torrent of insults and even making hurting personal remarks (‘Aren’t you a bit young to be in Beacon? This is a prestigious Academy blah blah blah) to a complete stranger, made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Weiss managed to make herself look and sound like one of those downtown thugs bullying on innocent kids before robbing them blind. Weiss should’ve just swapped character design with Yang outright, because then the image wouldn’t have been so god awful jarring. I was wrong, people, this was even worse than Yang whisking herself away in a series of frozen, horrifying photographs.



That some of you actually consented that this was the proper appearance of a heiress to what seemed to be a world class energy corporation, where appearances is everything, was honestly hilarious. I’m not denying that there aren’t people like… this in this world. That’s just part of being young and growing up. What I do seriously question was that Weiss was in fact seventeen years old and not at all far away from qualifying as an adult. Again, I really do not understand why Monty Oum (or Rooster Teeth) labeled their characters at an almost mature age but have their mentality dialed back at puberty/adolescence age. I seriously would not have that much qualms if Weiss was only fifteen years old. Was it a balancing issue? Was it because Blake and Yang’s mannerism reflected their age and Ruby was mature beyond her age, so they decided to throw in a character who acted like a kid in tantrum even though she’s seventeen?

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<p class="MsoNormal">I know I’ve mentioned this before, but her background only made it far harder to believe. You would be delusional to think that as long as you’re rich you could act like a dick any time at any place. A private academy then sure because nobody gives a fuck, but a public, most prestigious Academy in the world where all the eyes were watching (especially someone like Weiss)? Maybe I’m expecting too much realism and originality from an anime, but heck, I’m not even an anime fan and I’ve had enough of stereotypical ojou-sama characters.

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<p class="MsoNormal">Now to the topic of voice acting. To put it bluntly, Weiss sounded unnatural and forced. However, considering how incredibly fast Ruby’s voice actor improved (her Episode 1 debut was absolutely brilliant), and considering that this is Weiss’ voice actor first time I have hopes that future episodes would sound much better. While Blake had sounded fantastic in her trailer (she was the best out of all trailers), her voice too seemed a little forced, but as I’ve said, given time, given time.

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<p class="MsoNormal">Now, not all of the episode (thank God again) was completely bad. In contrast to the awful first 3 minutes or so, the conversation between Ruby and Jaun went pretty well. In fact it’s almost weird how good it was considering that the first few minutes were bogged down by various problems. Two socially troubled kids trying to strike up a conversation, with Ruby suddenly talking about weapons (and realizing that she had chosen exactly the wrong topic) and Jaun being incredibly insecure, but trying really, really hard to live up to his conversation partner’s non-existent ‘level’. It was an awkward conversation between two awkward kids, and the scene and atmosphere hit the mark perfectly.

<p class="MsoNormal">Also, notice that Jaun actually has a ‘protagonist’ aura. If the focus here wasn’t on Team RWBY he had the potential to steal the show. But of course, for now, we won’t get to see Jaun in anything but embarrassing action.

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<p class="MsoNormal">With that I conclude my review on a disappointing but somewhat hopeful note, while noting strong suspicion that Rooster Teeth was the main reason behind the subpar quality of work and unreasonable schedule. We would’ve been fine waiting a month for even just ten to fifteen minutes of quality and respectable content.