User blog:SomeoneYouUsedToKnow/SYUTK's V4E2-Remembrance Impressions

Feels like an easier way to write down my ideas and impressions from the episode. I had seen it yesterday and wanted to post this the same day, but between being out from 11:00am to 6:00pm, and my internet slowing down (again), decided to wait until today.

May or may not do the same for following episodes.

Like in my V4OP Impressions blog, I shall use the Language of Truth: Red Truth and Blue Truth

Red means a fact, plain and simple in the eyes of the user.

Blue means an hypothesis, a guess or theory.

And with that, let's begin.

1. The Opening.
Here.

2. The Palace of Pure Perfection
First thing we see is Weiss, doing.....nothing but waste time walking around. With a :( on her face while at it, to show us how sad she is.

Now, I have mixed feelings about this scene. The background looks beautiful, stunning.....but also too 2D for me. It lacks depth, making it feel less like Weiss is walking inside a palace/mansion/etc, and more like she's walking in front of a wallpaper.

Volume 3 had a similar issue at times, though as far as I recall in those times there weren't characters walking around.

Then we meet Weiss's never-mentioned-before-at-all brother......Whitley....

Whitley.... Whitley. WHY?! Why not Wittchen? Weiss already took the "Schneeweißchen", her brother could've taken the "Schneewittchen".

(Note: Both mean Snow White in german, but the latter's the one Snow White's called. The former refers to the Snow White from "Snow-White and Rose-Red").

His movements feel.....too liquid for me. I like what I saw of him, but his movements seem pretty fluid. A bit too much. Makes quite an interesting contrast with Weiss that way however.

We finish this scene with a picture of the Schnee family as Weiss heads to talk to her Wit Vader who apparently wants to tell her something but is busy arguing with Rustedwood.

We see in this picture the close relatives of Weiss. Her sister Winter, her mother Something to whom Winter looks a lot like (IMO), Papa Jacques Schnee, and little Wheatley.

Now, notice the facial expressions. Winter looks....nervous. Or annoyed. Weiss isn't too different in that sense. Whitley looks......I can't really tell if he's smiling or not, though he doesn't look nervous/annoyed like his sisters do. Makes sense, he hadn't suffered as much by then. Mama Schnee looks....neutral. Emotionless. Depending on what kind of person she is, and what kind of husband Jacques is, it also makes sense.

And of course, Papa Schnee is right there, nonchalant and showing off his moustache. As you may notice, he has some black hair in the picture. It obviously whited out over the years, but it may give us an idea of how old he is currently compared to his daughters and Whitley. He's old, but not too old, since he had black hair when Winter and Weiss were little girls.

3. GO GO Power RNJRs!!
We begin with Ruby thinking of Pyrrha's ''"do you believe in Destiny?" ''last words and waking up abruptly from the nightmare. (YES! One more point for my Bingo Card)....although wait. Didn't Pyrrha say that a short while before Ruby even got there?

Then they proceed to walk down the Yellow Road. Apparently, they did have a map. Either that or they got it off-screen. (Consistency pls).

Ruby tries reading the map but it's clear she has no idea what she's doing. Thankfully, John Arc knew. It seems the next village was Shion, which apparently the Arcs visited from time to time.

But as the clouds and forest make clear, thinks quickly lose their brightful, cheery colors as they find out the whole village has been razed. They find a deathbound huntsman who looks barely better than Atlas's faceless soldiers equipment-wise. Ruby, Juane and Nora discuss how to get him to safety so he can recover, but R-stands-for-Realist points out the guy's already dead, the place isn't safe, everyone's dead Dave, and they should leave.

Now, this would have been an excellent oportunity to show how easily villages can get wrecked by the Grimm.......except they missed an important part: Corpses. There's no blood, there are no dead people anywhere, and apparently all Grimm already left. The only guy remaining is the huntsman.

And while they leave, Ren and Nora see a symbol on the ground.

Now, I'm no horse/deer expert, but it looks like a hoof for me. I've had ideas for Horse Grimm. A Nightmare, a Jersey Devil, a Bicorn......but given the size of that thing....it's a Trojan. A titanic horse.

4. Family Business
Then, we have Rustedwood having a discussion with Papa Schnee while Weiss listens.

First thing first is......Ironwood. What happpened to you? You look more drunk than Qrow with that ugly beard. I at first thought that ugly guy was Ironwood, but then I thought he wasn't because he felt so different....but nope, he's Ironwood after all.

If there's something I don't like about this part is that while we can see they are arguing about something, it's not clear what about. I cannot make a real image of what Rustedwood is talking about that Jacques finds so absurd.

Now, Papa Schnee has reasons to be mad. The AKs shooting down people at Vale while Grimm attacked hurt Atlas's reputation. As we learn in the same scene later, this led to an embargo; Atlas is not allowed to send Dust to any other kingdom until it's clear there will be no war. Which, as Jacques says, it's just freaking stupid.

What this means is 1) Without the Dust imported from Atlas, the other kingdoms's quantities of Dust, and derived products's production, drops massively, hurting them economically and defensively. And 2) Should a war happen Atlas has all it's Dust and the other kingdoms have far less. Which means, they won't be as prepared for war.

Esentially, Atlas is saying "Well, watcha gonna do bout it?"

This embargo costs the SDC millions, severely hurts sales, even more damage to his PR, he has the right to not trust Rustedwood too much. He even says the Council would never allow it. But of course, Rustedwood then points out he has 2 seats in the Council. Very American of him.

The discussion then ends when Weiss enters and the door closes, making noise. Rustedwood tells Weiss she would still be welcome in Atlas, and leaves. He does say "we'll be back in session before you know it". Atlas Academy likely has stopped functioning for the moment.

Now, since the SDC's rep, and Atlas's rep, has been hurt...The SDC shall hold a charity concert. Finally, I hope, we will see Weiss's singing ability that she hasn't used nor has been mentioned since The White Trailer.

Now, there's a key sentence in this part, that describes Weiss's relationship with her father PER-FEC-TLY: <font style="color:#FFFAFA">"Are you asking me if I'd like to sing, or telling me?"

After that, Weiss leaves the study and we meet her nicely-moustached butler Klein. He's....interesting. Not based on a single one of Snow White's dwarves, he instead seems based more on all. Or at least multiple ones. <font style="color:#FFD700">His personality and eye color <font style="color:#FF0000">changes big-time as he <font style="color:#0BBFFF">tries to cheer up Weiss.

I like the guy, but something about his...animation, his personality switches (be they real or faked), not to mention his eyes changing color more abruptly than Neo's, makes him feel....uncanny to me.

5.The First Wound Hurts Deeper...
We see Ruby having yet another nightmare (:D) and waking up, though this time more slowly. Less like she got startled and more like she's getting tired of them. (Or just tired in general, it was at midnight).

The nightmare in itself this time was just Pyrrha saying "Jaune!". Which is something I can believe Ruby would dream about. We see some Will-O'-the-Wisps around their camp. Those weird ghost lights.

Now, those have had multiple symbolism over the ages in different cultures. Most people see them as fairies or the spirits of dead people. Some believe they mark the location of treasure. I found an interesting one however: In Mexico, apparently, they are seen as Witches who transform into these ghost lights for one reason or another...

...We then hear Pyrrha calling Jaune after Ruby wakes up. <font style="color:#0BBFFF">Is it a ghost? Hallucination? Doppelganger Grimm? Nope. As Ruby finds out once she goes to investigate, it's just Jaune watching a recording of Pyrrha to practice.

Ruby hides behind a tree as she watches him raise his shield, hold his blade, with left foot forward and ready for combat. Following Scroll!Pyrrha's instructions just like when they practiced, Jaune swings, stabs and slashes with his sword, creating some breezes with each swing. <font style="color:#FF0000">You can tell his determination, the effort to improve... <font style="color:#0BBFFF">...and the tranquil fury and self-dissappointment.

Then, "they" take a break. Pyrrha mentions how proud she is of him, of his determination and effort....which is a better reason to fall in love with him than just "you didn't treat me as special". She tries to confess(?), but chooses not to, instead remaining in the Frendzone. And good of her to do so; <font style="color:#FF0000">confessing through a practice recording would be awkward.

The video rewinds and Jaune continues, while Ruby leaves with saddened eyes. Now, this is when I feel Jaune really should be the leader of the team, even if they're still helping Ruby.

I just feels like he deserves it more, for the moment. Unlike Ruby, he's no prodigy, and not special in the slightest. He utterly sucks. But he's been as hurt as, if not more than Ruby, and actually puts constant effort to improve, if only to not repeat that "mistake": Be utterly useless to the point he couldn't do anything to save/stop Pyrrha (and kinda letting Cinder become a Maiden). And, he's the one with the strategy and planning.

Ruby....besides a Semblance that defied what was known of how Semblances "evolved", she doesn't feel like she has improved or changed too much. Maybe be less annoyingly cheery, but not too much. Though granted, this is just the 2nd episode.

Of course, Team <font style="color:#FFD700">J <font style="color:#FF69B4">N <font style="color:#FF0000">R <font style="color:#00CD00">R still sounds dumb, so he likely won't be the leader.

Conclusion
And so the episode ends. Interesting how there was no action at all in this episode. No fights, no pop rock music, just drama with some laughs. Feels......mature.

Now, if we look at the implied formula, Ep3 should focus on <font style="color:#838B8B">Tunaslayer and Power RNJRs and Ep4 should focus on <font style="color:#FFD700">Burnout and Power RNJRs. Though part of me says it will be a share focus between Tunaslayer and Burnout mostly.