Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-25396609-20191102162031/@comment-35434444-20191103112138

The FF7 vibes continue as Winter's stuffy new outfit is a rip off of the SOLDIER 1st class uniform. (I guess it's only appropriate for the seventh volume.)

Penny being back cheapens volume three as some have pointed out, but I'm fine with that because it never made any sense to begin with, although I think it would have been better if they had given her revival some consequences by removing her memories, effectively making this new Penny a different person.

Thwy also made her legs huge and cylindrical like Megaman X and gave her longer hair like Zero, although I think the main point of this is to make her look more grown up like the rest of the cast.

Not much to say past that. The fighting was florid but had little tension, which has always been my problem with it, but I don't have any criticisms past that.

Exposition was much better handled with the characters learning about what's become of Atlas organically through dialogue and setting details instead of just reading off a blank description of it to the audience like they did with Argus. (How did they even know half the crap they said.)

Overall it's probably the most competent opening to a volume we've ever had and for that reason one of the least remarkable.

They show up in Mantle. Things are bad. They learn some stuff. The plot arrests them.

Textbook stuff.

The biggest praise I can give for this episode is that the writing staff seems to be getting the hang of making dialogue sound   more natural and progress in a way that's relevant to the scene and not some preconceived notion that everyone should have something to say even if it means breaking up something that would make more sense if it was delivered in one go.

I don't know if this is down to M&K or the new writer they've taken on board, but it's much less awkward now. Now they just need to put in a little more personality.

Yang hasn't felt like Yang in four goddamn episodes because she never cracks jokes anymore. She should be the one looking on the bright side but instead she's gloom and doom like everyone else. So too, Jaune hasn't been Jaune in a long time either because the script seems determined to make us take him seriously instead of letting him be a loveable goofball outside those small exchanges with his sister in Argus.

Weiss isn't a bitch or a schemer (in a wholesome non-racist way that's helpful to the party like when she levitated that dude into a   dumpster.) Ren doesn't maintain a noble silence. Nora asked, "Why is it always something?" at the start of volume six as though she wasn't supposed to be the fourth wall breaking comic relief without a hint of sarcasm. Only Qrow seems completely in character outside of being not one tenth as strong as he was in volume three.

I could go on, but in its determination to improve, RWBY has lost a lot of its flair and it needs that now more than ever if it's going to win its audience back.