rwbyOS X: Even the Thread Gets a Costume Change!

[Kantaki]

Spoiler: V7E5

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What did we do to receive such punishment?

Spoiler: V7E5

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Don't blame me. I was good.
Well, good-ish.
By necromancer standards.
That guy in the red coat totally deserved that zombie-horde, alright?

Err, I mean…
At least we got to watch Nora beat her up?

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: I don't know what episode this is from sorry.

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I have no real desire to watch RWBY but Penny being adorable might just claw me into it because I just saw a gif of her getting super excited to fist bump Ruby and lining it all up and **** and hitting her hard enough to cause Ruby's hand to go red and like, on the one hand that's a dumb anime trope that doesn't fit with the series or anything about Aura but also it's really funny and cute and I appreciate this lesbian and her weird girlfriend.

Her face looks hella weird though it's uncomfortable.

[Ramza00]

New Episode out.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Ugh..I haven't been able to watch the current volume much at all since the...third chapter, I gotta catch up..

EDIT: Spoiler free, but how has it been so far?

[Rawhide]

EDIT: Spoiler free, but how has it been so far?

I am SPOILER SPOILER the current season. It is really SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER, especially the SPOILER bits. I'm enjoying it.

[Ramza00]

Ugh..I haven't been able to watch the current volume much at all since the...third chapter, I gotta catch up..

EDIT: Spoiler free, but how has it been so far?

If LaZodiac was watching she would be happy there are more of Character X moments and less of Character Y moments for Character Y stole joy for LaZodiac and Character X brought joy. Thus LaZodiac would be happy for on that surface level this is an improvement.

But besides that, it is the same RWBY that has been around for years just with new character for they are in a new location. Yet we still see old characters from WTCH and so on. Not better or worse than old RWBY, just a "a new level" with the same "gameplay" by which I mean, a new locale with new characters, but everything is so familiar that sometimes RWBY even goes meta to break the familiarity loop.

Oh yeah there is a Dog Faunus, that is another improvement for dogs improve everything, so if I can't have my Zwei I will take another good boy.

[Mechalich]

EDIT: Spoiler free, but how has it been so far?

The current season continues the trend for RWBY to go slower and slower as time passes that seems to infect all shounen shows (this is partly an affect of the expanded cast, since this season has more characters in one place than pretty much ever before). This volume is, however, much more politically driven, and to a degree mature about its politics, than previous volumes.

Spoiler: vol7 generally

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Unfortunately, the nature of this volume's principle villain means it turns on issues of system security, that RWBY is woefully unequipped to handle. If you've ever been annoyed by poor portrayals of 'hacking' in a fictional series before, this is sure to annoy.

[Rawhide]

Spoiler: vol7 generally

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{snip}

If you're talking about the current season as a whole, please somehow note the most recent episode you've seen.

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I just blew through all of Rwby up to Vol7 Ep3 in under a week! I started on the Japanese dub of 1-3 as an exercise in advancing my Japanese learning, but continued in English after that.

Seems like not a huge amount really happened in Ep3. Looking forward to 4!

I just discovered this. If you watched RWBY: Volume 1–3: The Beginning, you've actually missed some scenes and even entire episodes. (There were Japanese home releases that included everything, so if you watched those instead you have seen everything.)

The series serves as a "digest" version of the Beacon Arc. Some scenes are cut to fit a traditional television episode run time. The episodes "The Badge and The Burden", "The Badge and The Burden, Pt.2", "Jaunedice", "Jaunedice, Pt.2", "Forever Fall" and "Forever Fall, Pt.2" were left out completely.

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Christmas break.

[Calemyr]

Ugh..I haven't been able to watch the current volume much at all since the...third chapter, I gotta catch up..

EDIT: Spoiler free, but how has it been so far?

Spoiler Free reaction? It's RWBY, but moreso - for good and ill.

The best bit is that the volume has really doubled and tripled down on character interactions. People talk to each other in this volume, with alarming regularity and surprisingly decent writing quality, and it's quite refreshing.

The action is limited so far, but is generally of decent quality. We don't have any Oum-level choreography, but the V6 finale was an unexpected treat on that regard (half of it, anyway). What we get is nice and polished and better animated than we've seen before, but lacks the audacity that made the first three volumes worth watching.

The plot is denser and darker than usual, with a number of factions being at odds without the classic excuse of "just being evil" (though evil factions still exist, naturally). The show handles this tone with a level of maturity I honestly didn't expect given its track record. It isn't afraid of having moments of silliness, but it's surprisingly good at keeping the goofiness contained and stopping it from spilling into moments that should be serious.

The cast bloats a fair bit with the addition of a number of Atlas factions, which simultaneously gives the RWBY crew the chance to strut their stuff with their inventive character designs as well as split the already insufficient spotlight even further.

The one thing I'm less pleased with, and I completely understand this is a matter of personal preference, is the increased focus on shipping. It was always a thing, I know, dating back to the love triangle between Pyrrha, Jaune, and Weiss back when we counted a ten minute episode as a red-letter day, but it has continued to grow and consume everything in its path. To put this as bluntly as I can: I signed on to watch cute girls kick serious ass in epic fashion while the laws of physics weep impotently in a corner, not endure a teen drama about who who likes who and how far love's many and sundry expressions have advanced. I could accept it as a compromise of "why not both?" if the shipping seemed in service to the plot, but it mostly serves as a distraction from it.
(I almost went with "Sailor Moon crossed with Dark Souls rather than Dawson's Creek", but thought the better of it.)
All told Volume 7 is surprisingly solid, mature, and well done - especially when compared to the rest of this wildly inconsistent series. So far, anyways - Volume 6 was doing quite well in its first half as well, but started to drop the ball in the second. I'd put it on the level of Volume 3, which is probably the highest tier of the series by my reckoning.

[Reddish Mage]

I have to agree the shipping in Volume 7 does not serve the plot...yet. How often, however, do romantic subplots end up getting intertwined and proving crucial to the resolution of the main plot?

Isn't the whole series about some sort of lover's quarrel? I mean come on, the two sides are lead by former lovers that literally go through life, death, resurrection, and immortality for each other (not necessarily in that order). They finally end up getting back together only to break up over some sort of argument over philosophy and...politics. Then they go to war a they try to impose their respective vision on humanity.

Girl meets boy, boy dies, girl seeks to resurrect boy, girl gets immortality instead, boy returns, boy and girl have kids, boy and girl breakup over politics, boy and girl spend the rest of the time at war while dominating human history #ExplainRWBY'sHistoryBadly

[Ramza00]

I have to agree the shipping in Volume 7 does not serve the plot...yet. How often, however, do romantic subplots end up getting intertwined and proving crucial to the resolution of the main plot?

Isn't the whole series about some sort of lover's quarrel? I mean come on, the two sides are lead by former lovers that literally go through life, death, resurrection, and immortality for each other (not necessarily in that order). They finally end up getting back together only to break up over some sort of argument over philosophy and...politics. Then they go to war a they try to impose their respective vision on humanity.

Girl meets boy, boy dies, girl seeks to resurrect boy, girl gets immortality instead, boy returns, boy and girl have kids, boy and girl breakup over politics, boy and girl spend the rest of the time at war while dominating human history #ExplainRWBY'sHistoryBadly

No you explained RWBY quite well. Hero's Journey stories are often nonsense at first glance where things do not make sense at first look, only via multiple point of view shifts at specific nexuses does everything make sense, everything only makes sense with the proper context. That is the whole point of a Hero's Journey to understand an individual is a seed who will one day change via transformation into other stages of plant-hood (the seed becomes the growth, the growth becomes the tree, the tree bears the flower, the flower creates the change that will cause the other part of the tree to make new seeds. Cyclic growth to compliment linear growth, to understand the world sometimes we ourselves must change.)

Well the world is much the same way. The world is absurd on the face of it, and we must either learn to accept it, change it, and if we can not accept or change it, then there is one more philosophical option per Albert Camus.

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Hero's Journeys are an interplay of telling a sequential linear story but also telling a story with deconstruction and reconstruction as two of its core themes. You tell both of these stories simultaneously linear and non-linear. Now not everything is a Hero's Journey and literature, cinema, tv, etc is worse when everything tries to be a Hero's Journey story. But when your story incorporates world wide travel out of your frame of reference of the protagonist, or your story incorporates lots of time shifting for the same protagonist over a long period such as decades it will often start incorporate Hero's Journey elements. The alternative is some form of projection story such as the colonialism story where person from out of town thinks the rest of the world is strange for it is not like their location they are familiar with and thus it is the duty of the rest of the world to change to suit the whims of such a person. I find these stories icky where the world must change through domination of ones will but some people love them. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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So yeah shipping is at the core of RWBY and is the cause of the drama that allows our 4 girls to do monster fights where they tell physics to go cry in the corner. Many stories are like this with the shipping being the source of the strife yet simultaneously a temporary harmony.

Oh yeah you can tell a Hero's Journey story in a way that is unsatisfactory, in fact most hero's journey stories are just bad. The interplay of the linear and the non-linear stories simultaneously is often too much for many writers to tell in a way that the reader feels satisfied with the result. Even the "greats" get it wrong a lot of times. For example most everyone loves Lord of the Rings, but how many people love the Silmarillion, how many people got how to reach "the land of the west" you no longer can sail to the west in the straight line, even though you used to be able to do so, instead you must part the veil of reality and only the true mystics can thus find the "land of the west" anymore after Numeror sank into the sea. Aka this is an illusion to the grail castle archetype no longer being part of this world, yet sometimes people can find the grail, find the otherworld and ask them for aid, or to leave our reality and enter the otherworld.

My God so many Hero's Journey stories are so bad, so why should we be surprised RWBY is much the same way. We have to love to RWBY for the simple things, the things about 4 Girls being the [censored] out of monsters and telling physics to go cry in a corner.

RWBY is often bad when it tries to do this even though I do love the opening narration.

Narrator: So you may prepare your guardians, build your monuments to a so-called "free world", but take heed... there will be no victory in strength.

Roman and his henchmen enter the shop, the camera lowering to a young girl wearing a hooded red cloak in the corner of the shop, reading a weapons magazine.

Ozpin (voice over): But perhaps victory is in the simpler things that you've long forgotten. Things that require a smaller, more honest soul.

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: Spoilers for upcoming Volume 7 stuff, accessible from twitter

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Looks like trans Nora is dead, because this just happened.

So, question for all y'all. Who is this character?

[Fyraltari]

Spoiler: Spoilers for upcoming Volume 7 stuff, accessible from twitter

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Looks like trans Nora is dead, because this just happened.

So, question for all y'all. Who is this character?

Spoiler: Err, Volume 7 up to chapter 6 I guess? I'm not sure what I am even spoilering but, eh.

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She*'s a Huntress, or at least some kind of fighter, acting as a bodyguard to one of Ironwood's political opponent, the one who genuinely wants to help the poor people of Mantle but has to be kept in the dark about Salem for now so that Ruby can feel guilty for keeping secrets. May hasn't had much to do for now besides antagonizing one of Ironwood's Hunters, something thzat given what happened in EP 6 is definetely going to escalate.

Her gender identity hasn't been mentionned on the show for now but she's onmy had, what, two scenes?

*I think

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler

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She*'s a Huntress, or at least some kind of fighter, acting as a bodyguard to one of Ironwood's political opponent, the one who genuinely wants to help the poor people of Mantle but has to be kept in the dark about Salem for now so that Ruby can feel guilty for keeping secrets. May hasn't had much to do for now besides antagonizing one of Ironwood's Hunters, something thzat given what happened in EP 6 is definetely going to escalate.

Her gender identity hasn't been mentionned on the show for now but she's onmy had, what, two scenes?

*I think

Spoiler: General Volume 7 Stuff

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They use female pronouns in the tweet so she's a girl.

Who is Henry Marigold? Is that like, the ****ing steampunk loser on Salem's side? I forget.

Point is cool she's a nothing character. Nice.

[Fyraltari]

Spoiler: General Volume 7 Stuff

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They use female pronouns in the tweet so she's a girl.

Who is Henry Marigold? Is that like, the ****ing steampunk loser on Salem's side? I forget.

Point is cool she's a nothing character. Nice.

Spoiler: Err, Volume 7 up to chapter 6 I guess? I'm not sure what I am even spoilering but, eh

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Apparently, he (Henry) is a nothing character.

Well she's a new character, there's been quite a few this season so none of them are very developped right now.

[Ramza00]

Speculation for LaZodiac about said characters based off minor spoilers and fairy tales.

Spoiler: Who is May? Volume 7 Episode 5 plus future speculation

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So we are talking about May Marigold.

We already met her cousin Henry Marigold during Volume 4. I do not remember his name but I remember his face. He is actually the one who set Weiss’s plot moving forward, the inciting incident that lead to Weiss point of attack plot wise.

Henry Marigold was the jerk hitting on Weiss at the party. I do not remember the details but Henry said something about Beacon or the Faunus this caused Weiss to get angry, which led to her confrontation with her father followed by Weiss sneaking out plus probably disinheriting herself.

——

May Marigold has no real significant speaking lines so far but she is part of the Robin Hood gang under the politician Robyn Hill. May almost robbed the truck which Ruby, Penny, Qrow, and new guy was in but does not for supposedly Ironwood’s project will help the world even though May believes this dust belongs to the betterment of Mantle the slums underneath flying city Atlas.

So I would not be surprised if May Marigold is supposed to be Lady Marián from the Robin Hood myths since Marián is associated with May Day. In Robin Hood myths that I barely remember in later stories she is a noblewoman who still fancies Robin despite her class and Robin being at war with the rich. In earlier stories Marián is a shepherdess.

Maybe I am wrong in my speculation but I hope I am right for it would be great to have a Trans Woman in a relationship to the new woman Robyn Hill character who is getting a lot of screen time in Vol 7.

[Rawhide]

Spoiler: Spoilers for upcoming Volume 7 stuff, accessible from twitter

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{snip}

This is the first time I've seen a post in here that doesn't quite fit the required format of listing the volume and episode number.

If you're talking about future episodes (and don't know which episode in particular), please make it clear that you're talking about an unknown future (unbroadcast) episode and list the date of when the information was posted (preferably in international date format or with named months).

Spoiler: Who is May?

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{snip}

Likewise here.

Spoiler

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{snip}

Spoiler

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{snip}

These spoiler boxes didn't have a name at all.

[LaZodiac]

This is the first time I've seen a post in here that doesn't quite fit the required format of listing the volume and episode number.

If you're talking about future episodes (and don't know which episode in particular), please make it clear that you're talking about an unknown future (unbroadcast) episode and list the date of when the information was posted (preferably in international date format or with named months).

I legitimately know none of the information you've requested. I didn't know if this character did or did not get revealed in an episode yet. It turns out the character in question has been in previous episodes already released, and this is from the twitter of a voice actor regarding that character and no actual plot points.

That said I'll keep that in mind in the future.

[Rawhide]

I legitimately know none of the information you've requested. I didn't know if this character did or did not get revealed in an episode yet. It turns out the character in question has been in previous episodes already released, and this is from the twitter of a voice actor regarding that character and no actual plot points.

That said I'll keep that in mind in the future.

It is an unusual situation, I didn't think I'd see the day when we would have one that didn't quite fit.

The date posted should be on the tweet (if you see or find the original tweet, because the screenshot you posted had relative time), or you can pull the date it was reposted on Tumblr if you don't know/can't find that. Failing the ability to find any of this information, you could then put the date you found the information yourself as a last resort ("Found by me at: blah time").

Basically, if you don't know the episode number, please look for some identifying mark so that people can make an informed choice (especially a week or more later).

[LaZodiac]

It is an unusual situation, I didn't think I'd see the day when we would have one that didn't quite fit.

The date posted should be on the tweet (if you see or find the original tweet, because the screenshot you posted had relative time), or you can pull the date it was reposted on Tumblr if you don't know/can't find that. Failing the ability to find any of this information, you could then put the date you found the information yourself as a last resort ("Found by me at: blah time").

Basically, if you don't know the episode number, please look for some identifying mark so that people can make an informed choice (especially a week or more later).

I'll keep that in mind in the future, if I end up finding more stuff worth sharing.

[Kantaki]

Spoiler: S7C7

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You know, I kinda expected some dark secret behind Penny, but more of the "was a real girl" variety, not her father literally tearing his soul apart to animate her.
No wonder he got the uncurable cough of death.
And he does that again and again?
Now that I call a loving parent.

Also, Ironwood should be careful that doesn't make things worse to make them better.
I mean yeah, he has a point*, but Blake and Yang definitely made the right call telling Robyn.

Speaking off, her semblance implies trust issues.

*And PTSD from the Battle of Beacon, judging by those flashbacks.

[Ramza00]

So I am two episodes behind with RWBY and there is a new one coming out in a few days.

Is anyone up to date?

[Silverraptor]

So I am two episodes behind with RWBY and there is a new one coming out in a few days.

Is anyone up to date?

Up to date for a free watcher. (I'm cheap.)

[Rater202]

I'll be honest I'm probably never gonna catch up.

[Rawhide]

I am…

[Ramza00]

New episode of RWBY and it is still bad, but is it getting better?

[Ramza00]

New Episode (Episode 11 for Subscribers) things happen, new music, etc. I want this season to be over so everyone can be on the same page and we can talk about it 🎲

[Ramza00]

New Episode, and 3 characters have had their best moments in a single episode (episode 12 for subscribers.) The series is getting good right now but I sense the end of the season coming soon. [*googles*] Yeah a total of 13 episodes. Soon we can talk about the series without spoiler blocks and everyone can get caught up.

[KatsOfLoathing]

Now that the season's over and the forums are back up, I figured I'd give my two cents.

Spoiler: All of S7 up and including the finale (S7E13)

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Overall, this was a good season, definitely comparable to season 6 in quality and leaps and bounds above 4 or 5.

The action is a little sparing, mostly clustered around the beginning and end of the season (and my patience is starting to run a little thin for generic Grimm filler battles), but still high-quality overall. RWBY vs the AceOps was a season highlight for me (Weiss wins a fight by herself for once! She's come so far), Cinder vs. Penny and Winter in the finale was a lot of fun too. The series continues to be inconsistent with how durable a person's Aura is supposed to be, and whether breaking it knocks them out or leaves them vulnerable to be knocked out, but we can't have everything.

Dialogue and character, on the other hand, were surprisingly pretty good, especially among the supporting cast. Ren, Nora, and Oscar get a lot of focus this season (though Jaune is kinda sidelined as a consequence), which was a plus for me after S6 neglected all three of them. Robin was a believable new addition that could function as antagonist or ally depending on the day, though her voice actress got a little histrionic for me at times. Ironwood's descent into villainy was frustrating to me, but in a good way, because it felt entirely organic for what we've known of him so far. And getting more Penny is always a good thing.

I have to admit I'm lukewarm on the ending, though, given how much of a cliffhanger it is. I know the RWBY crew is dedicated to thirteen episodes per season, but I feel that we definitely could've benefited from a few more episodes to bring Salems' invasion of Solitas to a more solid conclusion. Is the next season going to be entirely focused on the battle for Atlas? Or is something else going to happen? It feels a little untethered for me.

Overall, S6/7 have slowly but surely rebuilt my faith for RWBY after 4/5 tore it down. I'm looking forward to see what's next.

[LaZodiac]

I think my favorite part of not watching RWBY is comparing reviews of it from people who don't like and are watching it vs people who do like and are watching it, because it really just seems like a completely utterly different show.