Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-94.8.221.186-20180402122306/@comment-47.208.133.145-20180407000151

There were plenty of parts of vol 3 that had me wondering if I missed something earlier, plus a lot of stuff from vol 2 that just got dropped and barely mentioned or shown again in vol 3, creating a disconnect for me (like with Yang meeting her mom in Vol 2 that seemed dropped completely save for one brief exchange with Qrow), like that which happened in vol 2 was not considered as canon anymore, and that's not counting the stuff that got sidestepped (I really wanted to see Winter meet Blake). I was pleased with how they at least built upon the Ruby/Penny dynamic, though realized later why they kept that one going, and gave the the feeling that the characters were puppets for the plot rather than helping to shape the plot (which gives me a feeling of not knowing the characters as the details of their history, personality, and development becomes near meaningless, which makes it harder for me to care, and thus the fight scenes mean a lot less to me).

Though later volumes did help alleviate some problems I had with vol 3 in some cases by revealing what they were thinking when they did something that made no sense to me based on my understanding of that character, but such insights weren't apparent when I got my first impression of Vol 3, and that's one of the reasons I appreciate volumes 4 and 5 as they did "damage control" for volume 3 somewhat.

I'd have to watch Vol 3 again to give an exhaustive list, but offhand I can give one particularly jarring example for me that left me wondering what I'd missed or just seemed completely out of place. First it seemed odd that Ruby would intsantly go to talk to Emerald just for being in the audience, and the Mercury walking out was a pointless risk and going against Cinder's orders as well as begging the question of how he got there. Mercury then makes his comment of polarity vs metal, which is a reference to Penny being an android. While I can see how he knew that, how did he know that Ruby knew that? Especially considering what a ditz he must consider Ruby to be?

Furthermore, once Ruby realized Penny was in trouble (and that there was a plot against Penny in addition to being able to possibly clear Yang if she showed Mercury in one piece--and Pyrrha should've known about Mercury's metal legs, btw, but she apparently didn't think to speak up), her objective should've changed. Ruby doesn't have the overweaning pride of a Schnee, nor the fighting spirit of Yang, and her focus is on defending the innocent rather than punishing the guilty. Therfore, fighting Mercury when there was a door right behind her should not have been her reaction (though she did try to speed past him, but I'm not sure why since there was a door behind her, and she shouldn't care about talking to Emerald immediately by then). It just left me with a WTF is going on feeling. The reason I remember this so well is because I watched it repatedly at the time (and scenes leading up to it) as I tried to figure out what I'd missed.

It gets aggravated even further as Ruby doesn't seem to tell Yang about it, which should be a very big deal (though on this last note I can reasonably assume it happened off screen, though it would've still been nice to see, even if Yang was too despondent to care at the time).