User blog comment:The Sastgamer/Red like Roses bring you to this Review (TRN RWBY Review)/@comment-9464517-20150215003943/@comment-9464517-20150215192013

I really didn't want to do this. I hate debating shit like this, and I promised myself that I wouldn't trash Monty's series so soon after his death, but whatever. He welcomed criticism, and I hope you will too.

Firstly, let's talk about your points. Your argument regarding Jaune and Pyrrha's arc is completely correct, but unless you'd forgotten, a quarter of Volume 2's run-time is dedicated to preparing and enjoying a goddamn DANCE (in between the whole "terrorist" spiel) which features Jaune and Pyrrha as its main stars! Anyway, your points are mostly valid, but keep in mind that I'm not trying to defend Volume 1. Still, though it was flawed as hell, it wasn't really trying to tell a story in the same way this volume was (as you pointed out), so its writing flaws were less important.

With regards to dumb decisions in Volume 2, how about the event that forms the backbone of this volume - Team RWBY trying to take on the White Fang alone? These four adolescents plan to take on a self-appointed mission to eradicate the threat of a terrorist organisation, alone. I have no idea where this came from. This is about the point where the story starts going downhill.

Firstly, Blake’s feelings inadvertently create weird inconsistencies with her character. We are shown that her eye-opening conversation with Professor Ozpin happened weeks before the beginning of the volume, but she’s still bothered about it in "Welcome To Beacon", so clearly it had a profound impact on her. Of course, this completely overlooks the fact that the previous day before her confession to her team-mates, she was more than happy to get involved in a pointless campy food fight and smack Pyrrha with breadsticks as if nothing’s wrong, yet there’s no obvious reason for the sudden shift in mind-set.

Secondly, it’s a really stupid decision. The White Fang may be an organisation largely consisting of mooks, but that doesn’t mean that four schoolgirls can hope to face them alone. Why didn’t they just inform the teachers of their suspicions regarding the organisation? Or the police? Why did they see it necessary to take a dumbass attitude of “let’s work together and save the world” instead of “let’s inform a figure of authority of our fears and see how we can help out”? Weiss even points out that they aren’t ready for something like this, only to be shot down by Blake and completely change her mind, declaring the prospect “fun”, like, 30 seconds later. The argument could of course be made that Team RWBY are still just kids, a sentiment echoed by Ozpin earlier on and further hammered in with the lyrics of "Time To Say Goodbye". Perhaps they’re just proud of their achievements in monster-hunting thus far and see the threat as an opportunity to take on big shots and save lives.

Of course, that whole concept is an example of terrible writing, since 1 – that argument would only be effective if Team RWBY were shown to suffer repercussions for their rash actions, demonstrating that the world isn’t as straightforward a place as they believe, which they don’t; and 2 – they aren’t really kids at all. Three of them are reasonably intelligent (or so we’re told) 17-year-olds, and Ruby is 15. They’re practically adults. I mean, were the writers ever teenagers? Nobody at that developmental stage is going to plausibly make a decision like this that seven-year-olds would label as a bit ridiculous. These guys are surrounded by hunters and huntresses far more skilled than they are, and yet they choose to take on the White Fang alone? What the fuck?

And then, in waltz Cinder, Emerald and Mercury, who are posing as transfer students at the school. They claim to be visiting from Haven, presumably in Vale for the tournament. This really makes me question how much of a prestigious school Beacon is actually supposed to be. Letting Jaune Arc take a place in the school was one thing. He’s just a mediocre fighter, but these people are actually dangerous. They steal dust. The White Fang are their business partners (aka cheap labour). They kill people. Did nobody on the administration board at this respected, top-tier, highly selective academy think, “Hmm, these people say they’re transfer students, but I think I’ll run a background check on them just to be on the safe side”? That’s all it would have taken for the villains’ plan here to fall apart, and the same goes for Jaune, actually. Even the most basic of communications between the different schools would have revealed their fabrications. What’s more, what exactly do Emerald and Mercury plan to do if the Vale Police Department show up with DNA evidence from Tukson’s store that demonstrates that they were there on the day the poor guy had his head blown off by what they believe to be some form of boot accessory? It just doesn't make sense.

Then, when Team RWBY do go on a stake-out and gather information, they manage to amass it surprisingly easily. If it could all be gathered like that, how is it that they are literally the only people to do so? Why isn't there a full-scale investigation into the dust shop robberies (that goes beyond two police officers standing in front of a shop with "DO NOT CROSS" tape in front)? And, for that matter, why is nobody making enquiries about the gigantic mech suit that was unveiled by Ironwood as the next step forward in military technology, and then was seen chasing teenagers down a busy highway that night, killing dozens of innocent people along the way? Why aren't the police at the White Fang hideout, dusting for fingerprints and making arrests of suspected White Fang members? Did Team RWBY themselves suffer no repercussions as a result of them being away from the school at night and taking a vigilante approach to a deadly terrorist organisation?

More ridiculous decisions come courtesy of Yang and Blake in "Burning The Candle". Yang tells Blake that she should slow down her (irrational but vitally important) attack on the White Fang, since Yang has done that with her search for her mother. Though Blake's declaration that she's "the only one who can do this" made me facepalm, she's still totally right about this. In no way is a journey to find a woman who could quite possibly be dead that could last a lifetime comparable to a struggle to prevent an imminent massive terrorist attack on your homeland that could leave hundreds or even thousands dead. Granted, Yang's personal quest is important as well, but for very different reasons, and in their current situation, such an analogy holds no water.

One thing I've really struggled with in that scene is how Yang states that Blake would lose to Roman if he turned up in the room they were in. That got me thinking about how quickly Roman was dispatched by her when she fought him with Weiss' dust attachments. And then I realised something else - at no point in this volume does it feel like the good guys are under any real form of threat. The only times in the volume I can think of that even approach "threat" were when Yang loses to Neo, Weiss to the White Fang Lieutenant (and even that was one-sided as hell up until the last ten seconds) and at the end of "No Brakes", when the city is overrun by Grimm (and look how that turned out). Every other battle in the volume easily ends with them on top. They fight hordes of Grimm in "Search and Destroy"? Easy victory. They fight White Fang goons in "No Brakes"? Easy victory. Pyrrha fights Team CRDL in a friendly tournament match? Oh please. Team RWBY VS Roman (in a GIANT FUCKING MECH SUIT)? Only Yang was seriously hit, and that worked to her advantage. The finale? The less said about that the better. There weren't all that many proper fight scenes in this volume (the ones listed above are pretty much all there was), and the ones there were really did feel like a let-down because of how one-sided they were. But that's more of a flaw of presentation than anything, so I won't dwell on it too much.

Finally, there's two more things I want to talk about. They're minor and pretty insignificant, but I feel they merit a mention: the colour naming rule, and the reintroduction of Velvet as a character.

In this volume, it was established that even in the universe itself, it's common knowledge that everyone's named after a colour. This makes the creators' claims that "the languages we know don't exist in Remnant" a hell of a lot shakier. Did words like "Jaune" and "Weiss" already exist as conventional colours in the English language here? How were they created independently of the thousands of years of ever-changing dialects that eventually formed these words?

Lastly, there's Velvet. Last volume, we saw her being picked on mercilessly by Team CRDL. Why? Why couldn't she defend herself? Or if not her, why not call on one of her other buddies in super-badass Team Hot Beverage to beat the shit out of them instead? And why were Team CRDL picking on her in the first place if they knew about how powerful her team was (and given the students' mass reactions to their return after a gruelling mission in "Field Trip", I'm going to presume that they did)?Why was a student, whom we're now being told is in a senior year, attending the same class as first-year students? We all know the story of the creation of Team CFVY due to Velvet's popularity, but there's a clear distinction between "fan participation in the series" and "fucking up continuity to please the fans", and this crosses it.

There's a couple of things here and there I could still talk about, but I think I've made my points pretty clear here. If you really want to continue this debate I won't stop you, but I've worn myself out after typing this, so I may not respond too quickly.

TL;DR - RWBY Volume 2 has more holes than Swiss Cheese.