User blog:LunaValkyrie/The Snow Angel and The Stray

So ... RWBY Episode 15 came out ...

And I must say ...

'Worth. The. Wait.'

Okay, so where to begin ...

Oh yeah, the Vytal Festival. I suspected that it would appear at either of the last two episodes of Volume 1. Mere seconds after the episode starts, we have Weiss describing the Festival in its splendor. Apparently, the Festival caters to the cultures of the world; granting them dances, parades, and the renowned tournament. And Ruby was right, we've never seen Weiss smile this much before. I assume that Weiss visited this Festival quite often as a child and anticipated it to no extent. Wonder why ... Actually, there's a good reason for that ... that we'll we get into later ... as soon ''as you continue to read ...

Anyway, more about the tournament. Since several Hunters-In-Training come to this tournament from all over the world of Vytal, Weiss does her best to study their tactics, movements, weapons, etc.

However, before Weiss does any analyzing, we have a cameo of Burnie and Joel to get to! And it's their detective personas! How awesome. Of course their performances are awesome; what'd you expect? However, there was one thing I noticed ...

The detective that Joel played looked so similar to Oobleck. I mean, he even has his glasses for crying out loud! What is he, Oobleck's detective brother? Does this mean we have a family that is completely voiced by Joel? ... I'm not complaining.

According to Detective Burnie, there was another Dust robbery at another Dust shop; which was the second one hit this week. Rather unfortunate. Team RWBY begins to debate whether or not the White Fang did it; which extremely irritates Weiss. Looks like someone holds some hatred for the White Fang. So much for a Festival that caters to all cultures ...

Of course, this causes and argument to form between Weiss and Blake about - you guessed it - the White Fang. Blake begins to defend the group; stating that they're merely misguided. On the other hand, Weiss claims the White Fang as a group full of nothing more than criminals. Along with that, Weiss claims that the Faunus only know how to cheat and steal. Yes, because Velvet posed as such a thief. She wasn't innocent in the slightest ... Good work Weiss! You're only further proving your great cultural standpoint ...However, the argument dies down ... for now ...

Then, Detective Burnie and Joel notice a stowaway that was aboard the ship. And not just any stowaway, a Monkey stowaway! Convenient considering the argument that was just going on. Anyways, this Faunus - named Sun Wukong - was voiced by none-other than Micheal Jones! For starters, his performance truly did fit the part ... and now I can't stop imagining Micheal as a monkey. It just fits too well ...

So going from what Weiss said earlier, this Faunus is most likely a stowaway from the Kingdom of Vahcul ... Vacule .. Vaccum? Probably Vacule ... (Weiss, why must you always confuse me with the introduction of the names of regions in Vytal?)

Anyways, Sun makes a rather simple escape from the detectives. As he escapes, he passes by the RWBY crew; giving Blake a wink as he passes her. Weiss - wanting to observe them - gives chase; with Ruby and Yang following. Blake took a few seconds to follow; as she was stunned by the wink Sun gave her.

However, as Weiss chases after Sun, she crashes into this ... odd person known as Penny. Now, how does one describe her? A robot? Nora's cousin? Both? Well, I think the former is rather accurate. As she speaks to Team RWBY, she acts rather different then any character we've seen thus far. She even repeated one of her line once. And when Weiss points it out, Penny is absolutely dumbfounded. I mean ... Penny is just ... well, we'll see her in the tournament apparently. Wonder what weapon she'll have.

Oh yeah, and Penny is officially Ruby's friend. And Penny acts as though she struck gold. She goes on to describe their friendship similar to how Weiss described being friends with Ruby back in Episode 3. Apparently both Weiss and Penny love painting their nails with their friends, try on new clothes, and talk about cute boys.

However, this interaction with Penny only leads to another argument with Blake and Weiss. The difference this argument and the last is that this one continued until night. That's right, Weiss and Blake spent practically the entire day arguing. I never knew that real-life interpretations of the Youtube comments section was possible in the RWBY world. They may as well have bad grammar too.

So, as we see Weiss and Blake arguing in the Team RWBY's dorm, Blake states that it's judgmental people like Cardin and Weiss that force the White Fang to go to such drastic measures. This causes Weiss to reveal why she hates the White Fang so much. I'll let Weiss' words do the talking.

"You want to know why I despise the White Fang? Why I don't particularly trust the Faunus? It's because they've been at war with my family for years. War; as in actual bloodshed. My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember. And ever since I was a child, I've watched family friends disappear. Board members; executed. An entire train car full of Dust; stolen. And every day, my father would come home furious. And that made for a very. Difficult. Childhood."

So this explains why Weiss is the loneliest of all. Having friends just ... disappear. Murdered. Executed. It must be horrible to have the ones you cherish and love die; one by one. Not to mention her furious father. Imagine how many time he screeched at her. And how did Weiss' mother even feel about this? Perhaps she acted as the opposite of anger and hatred of her husband; instead burying her head into a pillow; sobbing. It all makes sense.

Continuing with the episode, this causes Blake to snap. Which led her to say this:

"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!"

Blake instantly runs in fear of what she said to the Arc statue. She then takes the ribbon off to reveal ... cat ears! So she was a Faunus after all. I highly suspected this from day one that she was some animal hybrid. Just look back at the lyrics of From Shadows. ... And now everything adds up. We then hear Sun say: " I knew you'd look better without a bow." Blake then smiles at his appearance.

The episode ends of with Blake sipping what I presume is tea with Sun sitting beside her. She then goes onto say: "So ... you want to know more about me ..." YES. WE DO BLAKE. EXPLANATIONS. NOW. Too bad the episode ends. Time to grit our teeth for next week!

Anyways, this is my favorite episode. The Stray presents the viewers with a nice mixture of the randomness of Penny to the drama of Weiss and Blake. The arguments and claims the Blake and (sometimes) Weiss makes are very believable and they actually seem realistic; unlike the Youtube comments. The additional details describing Weiss' past are a nice touch. And the appearences of Detectice Burnie and Joel, along with Sun Wukong were very enjoyable. If you haven't watched it, what are you doing?! Go, watch it now!