Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-11362637-20150116232355/@comment-25555436-20150117010229

Volume 2 was a great improvement in pretty much every area. Writing, pacing, animation, special effects, lenght of episodes, and others.

The volume started nicely, and interesting. Then came yet another Jaune arc, this time 3 episodes long, which was fortunately slightly balanced by other sub-plots happening around the same time as that arc. And finished with a dance that was either fitting and fun, or out of place and just plain stupid. It was a bit of both for me, something stupid but enjoyable.

Then came episode 8. This is where I started to get somewhat dissapointed. First, someone had the bright idea of introducing Zwei, a completely unnecesary character that didn't even need to exist, and was there only to break the laws of physics and logic the show had been following to a point so far. A fucking stupid, completely unnecesary dog.

His introduction scene could have been completely removed, instead putting a scene where RWBY discussed what they knew of the bad guys and their plan, based on the info they got. But nooooo.

Then came Mountain Glenn. The Grimm finally appeared again. I've heard Miles say that this Volume would show why they are considered threats, yet what do we get? A horde of wimps that get crushed in one single hit. In fact, they didn't even got close to any of the protagonists. A pathetic fail. The animation in the initial fight in that episode was also rather lackluster, and very lazy. Also, Zwei was spinning his tail the whole fight, as if to hammer the fact that it was completely unnecesary plot-wise.

Then came Oobleck's interesting speak to Weiss, Blake and Yang about why they wanted to be Huntresses. Result was, the 3 of them now seem a lot more interesting, and this could be the catalyst of some good character development later. But there was a problem: He didn't ask Ruby that question.

You could say it was because she's so innocent and idealistic she doesn't really need a reason. But even though it's justified, it's bad. All it did was make Ruby, one of the main protagonists, seem like one of the most dull, plain, and less interesting characters in the show.

Then came No Brakes. I was honestly impressed. The animation was good in that episode, we got to see Oobleck fight, we saw a mysterious swordswoman appear which may or may not be related to Yang, and the episode overall would have worked as a very good Volume finale. The only thing that bothered me was that they didn't show how Weiss lost her fight. The episode also builded up nicely towards a tense and dramatic finale.

Then came Breach, and the dissapointment returned, with an army this time. The Grimm finally attack a city directly. Great! This will be the day I was waiting for! ...Not. For somehow, even in huge numbers, they are incapable of destroying anything nor killing anyone. Hell, they didn't even hit anyone. And anything they actually did, was OFF-SCREEN. As such, the fact that they are a threat, it's nothing but an informed trait right now, because while they may have done something, we, the audience, never saw it. And even then any damage they caused was insta-fixed by Glynda, so it may as well have never happened.

Despite the buildup of the previous episode, and how Team RWBY should have been tired by then, they kicked every single Grimm's ass with no problem at all. They didn't even need reinforcements, their fight proved they could have handled them all by themselves. And then, comes CFVY.

CFVY appeared before for about 10 seconds without saying anything or even looking at the camera. But Tumblr, being the...special kind of people they are, loved them instantly for no reason really. Pretty much that's the reason they got an introduction in this episode. How? By stealing the spotlight from Team RWBY, who had shown 0 dificulty so far in that fight. And by the way, this is the 2nd time Team RWBY get's the spotlight stolen from them by secondary characters barely introduced earlier during the finale.

And then came Atlas Military, which was even less necessary than CFVY in that fight, given their performance (which is, completely trashing the Grimm). Despite this, Penny was nowhere to be found. She simply dissapeared from the plot after episode 4. No reasons were given for that.

The animation in that episode was very lackluster compared to No Brakes', and everything felt like they grabbed all the vegetables they had, and tried to make salad without control or direction. Also, the after-credits scene where Raven takes off her mask shouldn't have been done IN EXACTLY THE NEXT EPISODE SHE WAS INTRODUCED. It was a very stupid move, ruined the feeling of mistery on a good part. Not all, but a good part.

TL;DR: Vol.2 started good, then got more-or-less good, then fell, then got good again, then fell even harder. But compared to Vol.1, it's a big step in the right direction for the most part.