User blog:Project Predacon/Operation: Disappointment

Before I start this out again, these are my personal views on Volume 2's ending episode. No speculation, not other stuff. Just the episode, how I see it. Now, let me get started by saying that while I was disappointed with this episode, I didn't dislike it. I liked it, but it could've EASILY been better. Now, onto my review.

Plot
So, the plot obviously continued off from No Brakes, with the train crashing through the surface, and releasing a cavern full of Grimm. It looked bleak for RWBY, with sirens wailing in the background, citizens becoming a heavy target of the Grimm, and the entire city seemingly at risk. I LOVED how Rooster Teeth built up this episode. It seemed like a dark twist, one that would have lasting repercussions on our protagonists.

Now, fastforward to Breach, where we continue right off. So far, the darker tone has remained, the Grimm have surrounded RWBY, leaving them at their mercy, while JNPR is seemingly busy heading towards their mission. Oobleck's missing, and so is Zwei. Roman is nowhere to be found, the White Fang are seemingly gone. It seems like it's RWBY against a world of Grimm. They are the sole thing in the way of a city being destroyed, as foretold when people speak of Grimm incursions.

Now, suddenly, this dark tone is immediately, and ruthlessly slaughtered, as Team RWBY does exactly that to all the Grimm. Laying waste to them EN MASSE. No consequences whatsoever. No injuries, seemingly no true "destruction" and no real sense of peril, like we were treated to. JNPR arrives, after seeing a column of smoke, and hearing sirens, and they help RWBY, who both begin cutting down the rest of the Grimm, with Nora entering, by DEMOLISHING a King Taijitu with a simple headsmash with a hammer. Remember when Ren took a long time to take care of a Taijitu's dual sides? Well, that doesn't make me sit well with Nora destroying said creature in ONE HIT on the head. Ren had to blow both of the thing's heads off to finally kill it, but here, it's treated as expendable. The Grimm here, seem just like fodder. They don't seem FEAR worthy now.

Eventually, much to everyone's happiness, CFVY suddenly arrives, to help destroy the Grimm (Not fair for the Grimm, much?). They all show off their respective powers. Yatsuhashi being a silent badass, who obliterates all in his way, Fox being a rapid hitter who turns Ursae into pinatas, and Coco, who brings out a damn mini-gun/Gatling gun to the fray. This turns THREE Nevermore, who were essentially treated as a MASSIVE threat by eight Hunters/Tresses, into Swiss Cheese as they're all demolished with a simply spray of ammunition. No effort. As said before, these once powerful, fear creating creatures were made into expendable fodder akin to Halo's Grunts. That on its own really killed the mood for me, as it was essentially said that a Grimm incursion like this would equal something akin to the end of the damn world.

To add onto this, Ironwood's fleet comes in (REALLY? Still bringing this overkill?) and DESTROYS the remaining Grimm, with Atlesian Knight help. While subtly, Emerald, Mercury and Cinder help (YEP, HELP) to slay the remainders, and Oobleck, Zwei and Port (Where in Sam Hill did he come from? They acted like he was with Oobleck all along), alongside Glynda appear to help restore the place, with the rest of the Grimm falling, and the street, ONLY the street, being repaired instantly. No consequences. This city invasion was said to only have INJURIES. No deaths or anything, despite there being herds of Beowolves chasing civilians through the streets. This really wrecked the tension that they had going for the whole Volume, with the enemies plans. Infiltrating Beacon, learning people's weaknesses, fighting them. We got nothing from that. They never expanded on it for the final episode. When we learned that Torchwick was planning to lead Grimm to Vale in Episode 11, I can guess we all expected some climatic battle, with Ozpin even entering the fray at some point, as the fight seemed lost. I mean, did he even know Vale was under attack? For all this planning and build up, the payoff was really, really underwhelming. I don't know about any of you, but I was expecting something that threatened Vale as a whole. Not just a city block, which can be immediately repaired.

This leads me to a new point. If we KNOW Glynda can just come in, demolish everything, and fix it, where's the tension on Vale, or Beacon being destroyed? She can just fix it again! I can understand her fixing a food room, but her pushing a train and multiple cars back underground, before molding the pavement back together smoothly just seems literally "overpowered". She can literally fix anything. Maybe she has a "limit", but I doubt it with her current city fixing abilities.

Now, by this point, RWBY is now back at Beacon, talking about said events. Ruby touches on a few civilians being injured, but none of them speak of the repercussions this will have, or any future incursions. They don't speak of the fact that they have a GRIMM tunnel RIGHT BELOW the city. Literally. Dig under the pavement, and you get to it. (Now, the point that they never blocked these areas OFF from Mountain Glenn in the first place is just a stupid point in its own, but plot.) Back to the topic, RWBY literally brushes off this event like it's nothing, despite how "dangerous" and "horrible" it was raised up to be.

These points on their own really wrecked the darker tone they shot for earlier. I mean, opening the first episode with Tukson getting shot in the face was a BOLD statement on the rest of the series, which it seemed to hold really well, up until here.

On from this point, we see Roman getting captured, while Ozpin is told off by Councillors who put Ironwood in command of security, given his city isn't safe anymore. I feel that it's REALLY bad, when the most "Danger" I feel about an event like this, is after it happens, and everything's literally fine and done.

Now, in a weirder twist, Ironwood speaks with Roman in prison, about granting him "one more chance" to talk, to which Roman gives a snide remark, allowing Ironwood to just leave him, while stating that he has much more time to "talk". More mysteriously, he states to himself "You brought this upon yourself, Ozpin", which I feel was pretty foreshadowy, however, it most likely implies the obvious, about Ironwood's preaching to Ozpin about trusting him.

Shortly afterwards, Cinder is seen speaking with Mercury and Emerald about this, and much to my UTTER shock, they treat this day, as a VICTORY. They did NOTHING, accomplished NOTHING, and call it a victory. There's no psychological effect, as we've seen, and there's no physical effect, as everything damaged was fixed! Mercury states his mind on if the White Fang with listen to them anymore, as many were lost in the tunnels (Wow, first mention of death, and it wasn't even from the Grimm destruction). And suddenly Adam appears. Personally, this was a high point in the episode, as it subtly returned the "Darker" roots, as Adam isn't exactly on the best terms with Blake, and once this comes to her attention, it'll most likely be a deathmatch between the two.

The after credits scene, which everyone probably waited for, was quite a shocker, although, I still will call it a dream sequence, due to Yang's earlier comment on sleeping forever, and the visual style employed here to generate a weird "appearance" of everything. We see Raven, who tells Yang "We have much to talk about", before the screen finally fades. This was ALSO a pretty interesting area, as RT could take this in MANY new directions, other than the harshly pushed "Mother Scenario". We could have a "Nemesis Yang" type thing, or another sort of situation on hand. This leaves me wanting more, which, in a sense, is good, but also lacking, given this was the final episode for 9-10 months.

End Transmission
Overall, the episode wasn't horrible, I don't hate it at all, but it certainly disappointed me. The Grimm were easily eradicated, the villains seemed literally stupid here (Barring Roman, who became rather smartassy to Ironwood, much to my liking), and all the problems we faced were fixed within a few short minutes. No lasting consequences, no sense of "Oh no, Grimm are here". There's no tension anymore. Maybe Volume 3 will return back to the darker roots, given Adam's return, and Raven's appearance now, but until then, I maintain my opinion on this matter.

~Regards, Kelly.