Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-4141313-20190112144055/@comment-4010415-20190120181744

SomeoneYouUsedToKnow wrote: 1) So, just what is the thing that Ruby wraps up in when she flies around with her Semblance? It's not roses, it looks nothing like petals unlike Vol.4 or even V6E1. But it's not her hood either, we see the "cover" disappear in slow-mo and her hood has nothing to do with it.

What, does she just create some weird spiral egg when she uses her Semblance?

2) Finally, Weiss uses Earth Dust, and on top of that simultaneously uses Ice too. Though it kind of feels excessive, the ice alone didn't even crack from the hit.

3) Finally, after like 3 years, we know what Cyan Dust is. Hardlight. Because just telling us that tiny little word in all this time was too hard. Though now I have to wonder how they can use Hardlight to move a train.

6) I liked the Mech fight, honestly, but only up to the near-end when Nora's shooting grenades at it after Ren gets on top.

At that point we get Cordovin about to slap Nora with a huge, slow, outstanding metal hand that is right in Nora's vision all that time. And yet, she just stands there like a deer in the headlights. She makes no effort to brace for impact or avoid it entirely.

I would've liked to see, say, Nora trying to bounce it back with a hammerblow (emphasis on trying), or doing a grenade-jump to evade it. Instead, we get Jaune trying to be a White Knight, causing both of them to be knocked out.

The only thing I liked from that scene was that Jaune's Semblance was utterly useless, so it proves it's not a "nobody can die" card. At least, if he uses it to protect someone and not just heal them.

7) Then after that we get Ruby using her Semblance to land on the cliff and failing. Which would be fine, except that then there's two moments of stupidity:

1>But what about Weiss? Use some Wind Dust to push her up, or Earth Dust so gets some floor to stand on and jump away, or summon the Knight or Queen Lancer? She has no excuse.

2>Ruby herself is just as stupid. She can use her Semblance to fly away, she literally started the fight jumping like 25 meters into the air with it and used it to fly around multiple times.

She could have just used it again to get on the cliff, or at least to avoid the incoming blast. But noo, just get scared so the cool old lady can save you by taunting her, which makes the airship crash instead.

8.2) Ripped off moves. Again. This time from Cross Tag Battle/Under-Night InBirth. Technically just 1 and half though.

1>Between 13:01 and 13:03, when Adam stops, sheathes the sword, does a slice, then sheathes it again and slices, then does it one more time. That, is quite the shameless rip off of Yuzuriha's Second Type: Bloom (in BBTAG, her 236A). Both how it looks (yes, even the size) and even what it does (last hit has quite the pushback on block).

2>Around the 13:06 mark, Yang's rising uppercut followed by the aerial kick. That's basically her Rising Fire skill in BBTAG (214A>A), just with the hand used switched, though Burst of Embers (a flaming tackle) is replaced by 3 hits that don't really resemble any of her moves from the game.

8.3) Adam's Shadow Clones. His Semblance is stated to be like Yang's, so it shouldn't make clones. He's like Yang, not Sun. He does get darker when he charges it, like the clones, but they come out even when he doesn't charge it, so they aren't mere afterimages. So, what's up with them?

8.5) Yang blocking the Moonslice, which if it wasn't right at the end would've killed my enjoyment outright. Back in Vol.3, Adam threw a half-charged Moonslice with far less "energy", and he didn't just knock her out but even cut off her hand.

Now, Adam throws a fully-charged Moonslice with far more energy than last time, and yet Yang is just pushed back, the most damage she got being a mark on her prosthetic. Sure, she blocked, but arms are arms and just putting your arms in a blocking position won't turn them into steel.

It just shatters all my suspension of disbelief. I was enjoying the fight up to that point, even with all I've mentioned here. But then they just have Yang block a hit stronger than the one she got last time she "fought" Adam with no damage or even flinching. Like, they were trying to make her look strong, but went too far.

9) Mmm, after seeing Blake hold Yang's hand like that at the end, I can't help but wonder, are they trying too hard to promote Bumblebee? The way they hold hands doesn't feel very "Friend-to-Friend". 1. I know, right? It's weird. I guess some kind of Aura cover? I dunno.

2. Weiss didn't use ice Dust. The ice was from Cordovin's cannon. Cordo was trying to use a blast of ice Dust on everyone, so Weiss blocked her ice with rocks.

3. I literally paused the episode just to celebrate that they finally told us what it does. It seems the captions spell it Hard-Light, rather than Hardlight or Hard Light. Why the hyphen, I dunno. I also wonder why the Mistral trains had cyan Dust in the pipes.

6. Indeed, they really should've had Nora do something. And yeah, all Jaune could do was strengthen his and Nora's Auras just enough to save them from serious injury, but it still broke their Auras.

7. 1>If Weiss is low on Aura, they sure didn't show it. Qrow looked like he was hurting, but how bad off can he really be?

2>I would say "Maybe Ruby needs a proper foothold to start up her Semblance", but we saw her do it in mid-air when she jumped back to the colosseum to get a rocket locker in Volume 3. Though, if you think about it, back in Volume 1, she didn't use her Semblance while she was running pathetically away from the giant Nevermore, so maybe she has trouble using it when she's scared.

She did mention something about a connection between emotions and Semblance earlier this volume.

Also, her falling just short of the cliff and stopping using it when she dropped off the mech and was caught by Weiss both seem to show that she can't use her Semblance for an unlimited amount of time, so there's a limitation to it.

8.2 Here's the thing, though: Some of the animations in Yang vs Adam were actually made all the way back in Volume 3, possibly by Monty. Parts of the original Yang vs Adam Volume 3 fight were leaked way back when, and the animations were almost exactly the same, including the part where Adam slashes and sheathes his sword at Yang three times and pushes her back (though, in the Volume 3 version, he leaves a giant slash mark in the wall behind her), as well as both parts with the dark clones.

Recall how Shane claimed that Monty had made a full-on fight scene between Yang and Adam that got cut.

8.3 My theory is that, while his Semblance is similar to Yang's, it's not super the same.

Yang's Semblance takes damage, converts it into energy, and then uses that energy to enhance her strength.

Adam's Semblance seems to use the energy to make energy-based attacks, considering the multiple long-range attacks that he did with it in both this episode and last episode.

The Schnees can make Aura constructs of their fallen enemies, so it's not too far-fetched, in my opinion, that Adam could make pure damage energy constructs of himself if he's absorbed enough damage through his sword.

It has seemed, to me, since Volume 3 that, the more damage that Adam absorbs, the stronger of an attack that he can do. In Volume 3, he merely blocked some bullets, and when he used his Semblance, all it did was cut off Yang's arm. In the Black Trailer, he blocked a giant cannon beam, and when he used his Semblance, it straightup disintegrated the big robot that he and Blake couldn't even leave a scratch on otherwise.

So he's able to do stronger, more impressive things when he absorbs more damage.

8.5 She only blocked with the prosthetic arm, which is, well, steel, possibly even more durable than steel, considering Ironwood apparently had his scientists make the best prosthesis they could for her.

Also, calling back to what I said about some of the animations for Yang vs Adam actually being from Monty's cut Volume 3 fight scene, I'd imagine that this moment was probably meant to be a callback to how Yang was originally going to lose her arm.

9. It feels suuuper Bumbleby.