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So, this past week, RWBY Volume 5 Chapter 4, "Lighting the Fire", was released to the masses which means we can finally talk about it, and there are definitely some things in this episode worth talking about, so let's take a look at it.
Critique
Scene 1: Bandit Ambush
What I Liked: In this scene there's a lot to love about Yang. Firstly, I'm glad her coat can be disassembled. To be honest, Yang, and especially Blake, are two people who can't pull off long coat looks. The long coat requires a character be a bad ass, and neither of them are. Well, Yang is closer to being a bad ass since losing her arm, but I still wouldn't have put her in a duster mock up, so I'm glad it can be taken apart. Not to mention, for a character that uses fisticuffs, it's pretty practical for her so that way her enemies can't grab onto it and use it against her. Another thing I'm glad to see is that Yang has an embedded gun in her arm. I didn't think she had one so I thought her fighting style was going to drastically change because of it. Unfortunately, she no longer has another piece of Ember Celica on her arm which is disappointing, but it's good to know she's got a gun in her arm. Also, it's great to see that Yang's fighting style has changed. She doesn't take on her enemies directly all the time. With the one guy who lost his tooth, she flies right at him, does a flip, and then punches him. So it's nice to see that she did learn something from training with her father.
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| Not sure this move was necessary, but it's good to see Yang is learning. |
What Could've Been Better: As awesome as it was to see Yang kick a lot of butt, what should have happened is that after she found out which direction the bandit camp was in, she should have just started beating the crap out of the bandits rather than just standing there. We all knew what was going happen, so why did she just stand there? But most of my issues with this scene mostly come from the bandits themselves--they are not smart. For one thing, some of them had guns so why did they get close to Yang and then get closer to her before firing? They should have just gunned her down from a distance. Also, I'm surprised the one bandit believed Yang when she told him that she was Raven's daughter. That seems like something he shouldn't have believed. I also take issue with the fact that his gun misfired or jammed or something. He's using a revolver--they don't jam and if they do misfire, you just fire the next shot. Revolvers are too simple to malfunction like that. And lastly, why did we have a Western-style standoff on an Asian continent? The CRWBY is really playing up this cowboy angle with Yang this time around. She went from a party girl to a cowgirl, and all it took was getting her arm cut off which is surprising because it should've taken more.
Questions/Insights: There are no insights here other than the fact that lackeys and gang thugs really don't know how to fight in a group. I mean, what do they do when they go out on raids? Pick their noses? Because it's obvious they don't know how to fight.
Scene 2: Training
What I Liked: So in this scene we see Ruby and Oscar training, and there were quite a few things I liked about it. For one, Ruby is taking training without her scythe seriously. And when she wins, she has a stereotypical, cute anime girl victory pose.
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| Toes turned in, butt out, hands held out to the side: that's totally an anime girl pose. |
But what I really enjoyed in this scene was all the talk about aura and Semblance. We found out what Ren's Semblance actually is and how he, Nora, and Ruby got theirs. Who would've guessed Nora's got hers by being struck by lightning. It was also good to hear that Jaune has been working on finding his Semblance. See, back in Vol. 2 when he was working on it with Pyrrha, I just assumed he was being lazy since he hadn't uncovered it yet, but it turns out he's actually trying really hard. It would've been nice if we could've seen more of his training with Pyrrha to see what they were actually working on. And I couldn't help but love the 80's inspired smooth beat that played while they were talking. It reminded me of some of the music I've heard in Project A-ko. I recommend looking it up if you've never seen it.
What Could've Been Better: As good as this scene was, there were some problems with it. For one thing, the fist fight Ruby and Oscar were having was slow, clunky, and awkward. I felt like Jaune commenting on how fast Oscar was picking it up was purposely written to convince the audience that Oscar was picking it up rather than showing it to us which is what should've been done. And it didn't help matters when Ozpin joined the fray, and I really hate seeing that upward-reverse headbutt that seems to be in a lot of anime. That is not a legit fighting move. You do that in a street fight, and you will get your ass owned. I also think that Ruby should've been aware of her openings even if her hand-to-hand combat isn't that good. I mean, she's been training for a long time; she should already know that and be on guard for it. I was also disappointed to see that Ruby wasn't training her silver eyes.
Questions/Insights: The only possible insight we got from this scene is that it is very likely Jaune will finally get his Semblance this volume, and it's possible Oscar will get his, too.
Scene 3: Reunion
What I Liked: Alright, so finally we get to the moment we've all been waiting for: a reunion. Although, it's not exactly under the circumstances we would've hoped for as it was only Weiss and Yang, and it took place in a bandit camp. But besides that, we finally found out how Raven's portals work, we found out that Weiss didn't know Raven is Yang's mother which led to some kidnapping jokes, and we got confirmation that Ruby is the girl mentioned in "Armed and Ready" when it talks about how "nothing will keep me from her side." Two other small things I liked about this scene was the concern over the Grimm showing up which showed just how far out in the boonies they are, and I liked the flames on the torches. They look a lot better than those flames that were in the vault and that almost made the computers at RT crash because it took so long to render them. That's a true story that you all can hear if you watch the director's commentary of Volume 3. And, next time we see Raven and Freezerburn, we are guaranteed more reveals and exposition. Huzzah!
What Could've Been Better: Unfortunately, there were a lot of things that I didn't like about this scene, and none of them are exactly small. For starters, thanks to a lightning bolt, it is confirmed that Vernal is our Spring Maiden. (My hope didn't last long.) But what really got my goat was how bad the line delivery was in this scene. They were probably going for "tense" between Yang and Raven, but it came out like a bad play instead. I didn't believe Raven's delivery of her lines--it felt like Anna Hullum trying to play Raven rather than Raven having an argument with her daughter. And then Yang's "family" line was really unbelievable. I don't think Yang or even Barbara believed that line, that is to say, both the character and the VA thought it was a long shot that Raven would agree to do a favor for Yang just because they're mother and daughter.
I also wasn't happy with the fact that Raven didn't seem to care that her daughter was looking for her and I thought Weiss should've been more relieved to see Yang. I mean, she was relieved, but I wanted to see more desperation and relief in her face, body language, and tone of voice when she said "Yang?!" She was more surprised than anything, which I can believe, but I don't believe her surprise would've usurped her relief. And finally, we come to the hug Weiss and Yang shared. I'm just gonna say it: it was gay. I mean, I expected there to be hugs when a reunion happened, but the way Weiss threw herself at Yang and the fact that Yang tried to be cool about it and like "Whatever," well, Yang acted like a cool boyfriend who hadn't seen his emotionally vulnerable girlfriend in a while. And then the hug went on for an uncomfortably long time. As it went on I thought to myself, "Oh no. The shippers are going to have a field day." Just imagine what's going to happen when Weiss and Ruby reunite.
Questions/Insights: There are two obvious questions that jump into my head in this scene: 1. Why didn't Weiss just bust out the non-subtle way to begin with, and 2. Did Raven really expect Yang to just be taken prisoner without a fight? Raven and her bandits really are not smart. I wouldn't be surprised if the reason why Raven doesn't trust Ozpin is dumb, too. However, we were given one important insight in this scene. Do you all remember last volume when Raven met Qrow in that tavern and Qrow mentioned Raven doing a number on that one village they raided? Qrow mentioned they had something big on their side and it wasn't the Grimm. That is the point when Qrow knew Raven had Vernal. That's what he was referring too which is interesting because that suggests Maidens leave some sort of tell-tale sign they've been somewhere or that they've destroyed something. Perhaps that's how Cinder managed to track Amber.
Review:
Overall I liked this episode. I mean, I don't like Raven and her bandits are pretty stupid, but everything else was top. Seeing Yang's combat style evolve, the tease about Jaune's Semblance, the fact that we're one step closer to a full team reunion, and there's the promise of more revelations on the horizon, I'm excited for Chapter 5. But I wonder if we'll get a World of Remnant episode instead. I'm still expecting it to happen. Although this volume is moving pretty fast so maybe we won't have any world building for a while and we can just focus on the show's storyline which would be fantastic.
Keep writing, my friends.
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