The Fury's Book Club 2-- Reading RWBY: After The Fall

[The Fury]

No worries. Do whatcha need!
(I probably should have mentioned that I decided to start following after the first few posts, but I've... genuinely had nothing to add. I like the commentary, but I really know nothing about the universe. XD )

Oh. Well, I'm glad that you've been here. I guess I could have clarified a few things, sorry about that. I guess that's one of the dangers of covering a derivative work while actually knowing about the source material.

[DataNinja]

Oh. Well, I'm glad that you've been here. I guess I could have clarified a few things, sorry about that. I guess that's one of the dangers of covering a derivative work while actually knowing about the source material.

Nah, all good. I've gathered enough about it to have a decent idea of what's going on. That and small osmosis. I just like seeing the thought process of other people going through books. Because it always seems more interesting than my reading books at all. XD

[The Fury]

OK, we're back. I'm not at 100% yet, but I think I'm functional enough to be snarky on the internet. So here goes, Chapter the Tenth...

Spoiler: Chapter Ten

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We open with Fox in a sandstorm. Now you might think that this is a dangerous position for a blind guy to be in, but don't worry. Fox's phone has a personal assistance app! Since it's been a while, if you're wondering what Fox is doing out in the middle of a sandstorm alone, he's looking for Edward. Anyway, how about that personal assistant app? Activating certain features need to be done by touchscreen... I'm no expert in app design, but that seems like using it would be a bit of a crapshoot for the blind it's meant to help.

Now, getting lost in a sandstorm, trying to rescue an old guy, with a crummy personal assistant app to guide you out seems like a dire situation, but Fox trips over Edward huddled on the ground, partially buried in sand. OK! Things are finally shaping up! Now it's time to get somewhere safe. Except Edward wants to fight. From what Edward is saying, he likely doesn't know who Fox is, possibly confusing him with Bertilak. Luckily Fox's personal assistant has a battle mode!

Now we get to see Edward's weapon in action, it's a buckler-type shield with a sharp outer edge which can detach and be used like a chakram. It's also a gun, because of course it's also a gun. This is RWBY after all. Thankfully after trading a few hits, Edward comes to his senses and they start discussing how to get to shelter, thankfully Edward can actually help with this and the take refuge near a rock shaped like a rubber ducky, like one that Gus used to have. Gus used to have a rubber ducky, not a rock shaped like one just to be clear.

Speaking of Gus, Edward wants to know if he's OK, and also how did he get out here. Fox just assumes that Edward had wandered off again. I guess Fox doesn't know about Bertilak, though to be fair Edward doesn't seem to either. All Edward can say is that the explanation of him wandering off into the desert "doesn't seem right." More importantly, it's not Edward that's responsible for the mood bombs after all, it is in fact Gus. Edward was the one with his Semblance that nullifies people's powers, but it's been getting weaker as he's been getting older and going a little peculiar. Edward evidently thought that it was a better idea to paint a target on his back than on Gus's.

Now it's time to rejoin the group, Edward asks Fox wouldn't they get lost in the sandstorm. Fox replies, "I never get lost."

OK... It seemed like you were stumbling around the desert and only found Edward by sheer luck, but I guess I'll let you have this one. However we're interrupted by someone large dropping onto Fox from above and beating him in the sides of his head with ham-sized fists. That's all the description we get, but I think it's probably Bertilak. We'll have to wait to have that confirmed, because that's the end of the chapter.
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The mystery surrounding the mood bombs and how they relate to the Caspians is at the center of the plot. That is, if you ignore the constant flashbacks. It's an interesting premise, but it fumbles the execution badly. Mysteries can be fun if you're being given breadcrumbs to follow and come up with your own ideas of what's happening. This doesn't do that. It just gives an answer and then changes the answer later. While it's true that the official story of Edward being responsible for the mood bombs would be suspect to a savvy reader, we're not given enough information to draw our own conclusions. We're just along for the ride.

Stay tuned for Chapter Eleven, it's another full chapter flashback. Good gravy.

[The Fury]

Call it making up for lost time I guess, but I have time to do Chapter Eleven. Let's dig into some flashback goodness.

Spoiler: Chapter Eleven

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Our chapter opens with Fox declaring via telepathy, "Well, I'm lost." Ha! So, you get lost sometimes after all!

So, this flashback is during CVFY's mission to Lower Cairn. The extra credit mission that was supposed to be a cakewalk. As it turns out, it's not a cakewalk at all. As it turns out, Lower Cairn is just gone. We think. Fox is lost after all, maybe they're in the wrong spot. Joking aside, seeing an entire village reduced to fragments and rubble has got to be eerie. I'm not sure that this in on purpose, but the village being named "Lower Cairn" and a cairn being a pile of rocks that marks a grave site... I'll admit is pretty spooky and a little on the nose.

Speaking of, shouldn't there be people here? I mean, ostensibly Team CVFY is here to rescue survivors, but there doesn't seem to be any. Not really any non-surviving dead folks either. Spooky. They're able to pick up on some trail that leads into the mountains though. After the trail runs out out, Fox insists on continuing to look using his telepathy Semblance. After not meeting much success, Coco declares that Fox oversold his ability. Because Coco is terrible. Fox thinks that he's unable to find survivors with his telepathy because, one, they're probably underground and he can't telepathy through a mountain, and two... maybe there just aren't enough survivors to find. Not only that, but the longer it takes to find them, the fewer survivors there will be. At this point, it's relevant to note that they've been at this for ten days, occasionally fighting the odd Grimm. Fox thinks that it might be time to call it. However Coco insists that they press on. Now, I've been giving Coco a hard time for a while now, but here she seems heroically determined to save someone. I'm going to put a pin in this for now.

Team CVFY is a bit on edge since they've barely had time to rest during the ten days of searching. Yatsuhashi even squashes a little Grimm with his sword hard enough to crater the ground it was standing on. Velvet even gets hit the face with some of the resulting debris, more upset that Yatsu took her kill than seriously hurt. Maybe. Uh... we'll come back to that.

Coco meanwhile takes this opportunity to chew out her team mates. Because Coco is terrible. Evidently it's an egregious lack of tactical awareness to let a small, relatively harmless Grimm get the drop on them and a serious lack of restraint on Yatsu's part to crater the ground like that. No point in showing off. Except in situations where you should show off... whenever those are... I dunno. It's pretty clear that Coco is being unfair, and the reactions from Coco, Fox, and Yatsu suggest that the text actually agrees with me. Coco is content to boss her team mates around but is failing to show trust or respect towards them, naturally said team mates are a bit upset about this. Coco berating her team will have to wait though as Fox is able to sense something, and Velvet can hear faint voices calling for help.

The noise leads them to a crevice about a foot and a half across in the side of the mountain. From here, they're able to learn that there's a family of six people in there. Six out of the two-hundred that lived in Lower Cairn. Velvet takes out her camera and is about to head into the crevice to lead them out. Coco stops her, pointing out that she's injured. Velvet feels a passing dizziness and nausea, but it should be noted that this is the only time she feels any effect from getting hit in the face with debris. See? I told you we'd get back to that! Even so, Coco insists that she should be the one to go into the crevice since she's small enough to fit. OK... let's have a look at why Coco should go in instead of Velvet.

Coco will need to use her phone scroll as a light source. She uses a minigun as her primary weapon, which is awful for use in tight spaces. Speaking of tight spaces, Coco is claustrophobic. (Woo! I told you that would pay off! I'm on fire!)

Velvet meanwhile is a Faunus so she can see in the dark much better. Velvet's camera also creates hard light constructs of pretty much whatever the hell weapon she wants. Velvet also has never been stated nor implied to have claustrophobia, so she'd probably be fine in there.

Now, it might seem like Coco should just swallow her pride, trust Velvet that she'll rescue that family of six, but you'd be wrong. Why? Coco gets a zinger that implies that Velvet is fat. Because Coco is terrible. In fairness to Coco, she does point out that Fox and Velvet have better hearing that can be used to guide them out. OK... I'm not sure why both Velvet and Fox are both needed for that, but being a leader is about making those hard decisions. Anyway, into the crevice.

Coco starts off by peering into the crevice and getting spooked by how dark it is. We're off to a great start. She takes off her shades and puts them on Velvet. Now Velvet looks cool. Coco mentally recounts how she ended up being terrified of dark, tight spaces, like the one she's in right now, since she was a little kid. Evidently she got stuck in a cupboard during a game of hide and seek and wasn't found, not even after she started calling for help. Which, yeah, it's an awful experience that must be terrible to relive. That said, all I can think of is that Coco really should have let Velvet do this.

Coco notes that the passage is too narrow and too unstable to lead the family through, and speaking of, she finds them. We learn the names of all six, but for the sake of simplicity I'll just call them the Gray family. Now it's time to find another way out. Coco kicks herself for using the light on her scroll too much, since the battery is already showing signs of being depleted. Great. Oh, pretty soon the battery just up and dies. Coco is internally screaming at this point but as a leader, she needed to make the hard call to come down here herself. Fox has found another way in, so he's leading the rest of the group her way which is lucky. All Coco needs to do is not panic and hopefully she won't need to fight any Grimm on her way out. Guess how well that goes.

Through Fox's telepathy, Coco says that she can see her team's light. A soft orange glow. Fox replies that they don't have a light. Yatsu is following Velvet and Fox... well, he's blind. Why would he need a light? Coco then spots a pair of tiny red slits under the orange glow. Yep. It's a Grimm. Specifically a Deathstalker, one of them scorpion boys from Volume One of the show. Notably they seem to be pretty tough customers. Coco unfolds her Gatling gun and fires blindly, which does more harm than good, seeing as it nearly brings the cave down on them. It's only one of the Gray family screaming at Coco to stop to get her to back down.

Fortunately the rest of Team CVFY shows up and is able to distract the Deathstalker long enough for the Gray family and Coco to run past it. This scorpie's exoskeleton is way too tough for any of them to actually cut through. One of the family got a stinger straight through the leg. Coco decides that collapsing the tunnel on top of the Deathstalker is a pretty neat idea, so she does it and the group makes their escape.

Once outside of the cave, it's nighttime and they're surrounded by Ursai. Those are those bear-Grimm guys. Velvet is now using hard light constructs of a pair of daggers. Coco takes a moment to criticize Velvet's choice of weapon, because Coco is terrible. Despite Coco's opinion on Velvet's ability to size up her opponents, Velvet actually does pretty well. In fact, this is about as good as the mission has ever gone. That is until a Goliath shows up. A Goliath is a big ol' elephant Grimm. The Gray family runs back into the cave entrance to get away, and the Goliath collapses it behind them, presumably crushing them to death. If nothing else, Fox can't sense them any more. It's around this time that the Bullhead airship comes back to pick them up, firing artillery at the Grimm to keep them back. Coco isn't having it, she never retreats. In the end Yatsuhashi needs to carry her off. All in all, the mission was a failure.

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It's unfortunate that I seem to have more to say about Coco than the other characters, but here we are. Coco needing to save at least someone from Lower Cairn seems kind of heroic on the surface of it, but a closer look at what Coco is like here and in other chapters suggests something less so. She does need rescue someone from Lower Cairn in the sense that it needs to be her to do it. She presses her team onward despite the fact that they needed rest, is quick to criticize, slow to trust and generally treats them more like underlings than partners.

Now, I don't think it's necessarily true that a bad leader can't be an interesting character. Coco doesn't seem like she's been taken in a more interesting direction based on her failures though. Present day Coco isn't noticeably different from her past self. She still comes off as condescending hotshot with a lot to prove.

Next time, we'll have some Chapter Twelve. How do you like your Chapter Twelve cooked?

[LaZodiac]

These two chapters are when the sheer... reality of how little this book was going to do struck me.

Spoiler: Chapter 10

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Fox being a blind character and having to navigate the world through a mixture of his assistance aps and his abilities are kind of neat. The problem is that it basically just means he can see- unless the plot decides he cannot. There are times in chapter ten where it acts different from previous chapters, or even within the same chapter. It's described as being a variety of different modes, and being super high tech, but ultimately it's just a plot device in a very literal sense. It functions exactly how the scene needs it to at the time. And like Fury said, having a fully touch screen interface for this is ABSURD, especially since from what we've seen of scrools, tehy're basically just a single sheet of plastic/glass. There's not gonna be any haptic feedback or indicators for the blind individual, so they're... basically flying blind.

Also of ALL the people they could send out into the DESERT... it is the blind man. YEah sure he lived here, but SAND IS BIG! There is a point where "I'm from the area it is okay" stops to matter. Like **** I'm from a desert and I wouldn't trust ME to tell you jack **** about surviving out there, beyond like the ultimate basics.

Like Fury said, the twist that aaaactually the semblances were reversed is... such a non twist. We're given literally no indication or hint that this is the case, or that the lie they told us is the case, and genuinely THE DIFFERENCE IS IRRELEVANT, so the only reason it DOES exist is so we can contrive a way to split the party along the lines that it did. The difference is so inconsequential that I bet if we hadn't brought it up, but still wrote these reviews as if we did, that no one who is reading would notice.

Spoiler: Chapter 11

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And as for chapter 11... Coco knowingly went into a pitch black tight cave while having a fear of tight spaces and the dark. They could have used this as a very cool and humanizing character moment where she realizes she cannot actually beat her fear and has made a massive mistake that leads to people getting hurt, then killed rather brutally, and lead to her changing how she is.

But she didn't change. She is in fact the exact same. Her mistakes she makes here that kill six, she makes throughout the book, and never at any point does it come back at her. It is, like her being a lesbian, just paying lip service to characterization. Coco is all over this book, she gets the most perspective shots, but she's also the dullest and unrealized of the characters- and what characterization is there is actually just annoying, and has no pay offs. Coco why are you oogling women who are taking off their heavier clothing to make shelter this is UNPROFESSIONAL and you are going to get people KILLED!!

As a final bit of hilarity to me, and a teaser for next episode; this disaster mission where they spent ten days starving in the mountains trying to find survivors, only to lead to killing six innocents... in the show, the ONLY bit of pathos we get from their return is Velvet confiding that there was "a lot of Grimm" and they "just kept coming". When Velvet is the one who is the most effective fighter during this, and how... while yes, there are a lot of Grimm, I feel like she should be more concerned about the family of six, most of which were children. Especially since the rest of her team is completely smiles and nods mode. Even if the book claims they're putting on a brave face.

[DataNinja]

The difference is so inconsequential that I bet if we hadn't brought it up, but still wrote these reviews as if we did, that no one who is reading would notice.

I wouldn't have noticed. I can barely remember who's who when they're mentioned.

[The Fury]

I wouldn't have noticed. I can barely remember who's who when they're mentioned.

I actually have this problem too sometimes. The granddad that's starting to feel the effects of dementia? That's Edward. His grandson is Gus. Occasionally I get the names mixed up though and I have to think for a minute.

[The Fury]

Today we'll be having a look at Chapter Twelve. It's in the present. Which is cool, because it's not even my birthday.

Spoiler: Chapter Twelve

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Our chapter opens with the wagons full of evacuees racing through the desert as Slate remarks that they're low on fuel. So, I guess that answers the question that Zodi had earlier-- Are these Radio Flyer, Calvin and Hobbes wagons or are they Oregon Trail wagons? Neither, I guess. Probably more like station wagons. So Slate's current plan is to lash them together to make a shelter since they're not going to be able to outrun the sandstorm. Which... as plans Slate has proposed so far, it's not her worst. It's still going to end with at least a few of their vehicles buried in sand and out of fuel, leaving some of their number stranded in the desert. Well, ya win some, ya lose some. Thankfully Velvet has a better idea, what about climbing to a highter altitude and wait out the storm above it? Coco dismisses this as silly, because they have no aircraft. Velvet says that they could climb a plateau the she sees. Slate dismisses this since there's no plateaus in this part of the desert, though in her defense visibility sucks thanks to the approaching sandstorm. Yatsuhashi has a little more faith in Velvet's ability to... see things and ducks out the window to have a look. Yep. There's a plateau alright. Only it seems to be moving.

At this point, Slate is actually interested, so she pulls out her binoculars from a compartment that also contains a pistol. What? Slate couldn't get binoculars that have a pistol built in? Lame. Anyway Slate takes a look with her binoculars and says, "That's no moon! It's a space station!" Whoops. I mean... "That's no plateau! That's a turtle!" Oh good, I like turtles. Now the book is very clear that Slate does not in fact mean "tortoise," though that would make sense. This big ol' plateau turtle is not in fact walking on the sand, it's swimming in it. Because as we all know, sand is basically dry water. Which is why drinking sand is totally safe, just not at the beach.

Anyway, this is our group's new plan. Ride the turtle to safety and wait out the storm. So our merry convoy changes course to intercept. They're committed to this plan now since they're now completely out of fuel. Not that it matters since the vehicles are rapidly getting buried in sand. Velvet volunteers to Shadow of the Colossus her way up, expecting Coco to shut the idea down. Coco doesn't this time and agrees to send her up. Yatsu boosts Velvet up high enough to get purchase on the turtle's side. He does this by getting Velvet to crouch onto his greatsword and yeeting her at the turtle. Because this book is crazy. Velvet climbs up, and makes it above the the storm. Yay. There's some junk up here though. Specifically an old campsite with some skeletons in it. Thankfully our skeleton pals were super considerate and hammered some pitons into the turtle's shell when they were alive, so Velvet has something to secure ropes to. Now everyone can climb up!

Velvet takes a moment to survey the horizon, which looks kind of nice. There's makeshift settlements in the wild country and our turtle buddy seems like she's on her way towards an oasis of some kind. Shade Academy is even visible in the distance. Velvet gets a call on her scroll from Coco. Evidently they're close enough to Shade's CCT tower to get a signal! Cool! No more sketch phone service! Things seem to be going well finally. Unfortunately, in fiction this is usually a sign that things are about to go pear-shaped. Specifically it's a pear-shaped mood bomb. (disclaimer-- I don't think mood bombs have a shape. Pear or otherwise.) The important thing here is that people are getting moody and Grimm are on their way. In this case it's a Blindworm, which have been mentioned earlier as one of the things that someone might encounter in the desert. As it turns out Blindworms are Grimm, not just a random dangerous desert monster like the crabs. It's a huge spiky black wormy boy, which seems like it's about the same size as one of the worms from Dune, probably the inspiration. Though unlike the Dune worms, and what you might guess based on their name, Blindworms are not blind and have a single glowing eye. Hopefully you find that amusing, because it's something the characters ponder.

Coco thinks that it might be a good idea to draw the worm away from the turtle. Velvet disagrees. Everyone would be safer on the turtle because... yeah. Folks were getting buried in sand on the ground. Staying there seems like a terrible idea. Velvet is all set for Coco to shoot down her idea, because Coco is terrible. Though surprisingly... Coco actually goes along with it. Time to fight a giant worm on the back of a turtle! Bring your weapon of choice and walk without rhythm.
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Thematically, I think this chapter is supposed to be indicative of Coco's personal growth. The juxtaposition of the events of Lower Cairn where Coco deliberately put herself in a situation that a better equipped person wanted to handle, and the events of climbing up the turtle and formulating a strategy seem to suggest this. As does the fact that no one from Lower Cairn was saved and Slate advocating a plan that not everyone would survive and Coco's suggested strategy which would have ended with at least some people buried in the sand.

It's... OK. One of the weirder parts of this book is that making a difficult call and going along with a plan where it's a given that not everyone is going to make it is pretty much the order of the day. In a story that gave its darker moments enough gravitas to actually land, this would be fine. As it is, After the Fall makes it a point to keep the overall tone fairly light, sometimes it feels like the story doesn't take its own darker elements seriously. Which unfortunately makes character beats associated with darker moments of the plot fall flat.

Next time is Chapter Thirteen, which leaves us with five chapters and an epilogue left. After we're done I'll be doing a read through of Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis. So anyone wanting to follow along, now would be a great time to get your copy.

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: Chapter 12

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The thing that struck me the most about this chapter is that the way this turtle is described, it's like a ****ing mountain. It is GIGANTIC. It is tall enough to scrape clouds.

They get an entire village on top of it within like maybe half an hour. Because they just... fling Velvet up, really high.

If this happened in the show this would be one of those moments where I point out that there is no real sense of power scale in this series because our heroes can easily fling himselfs up mountains without any issue, so why should any enemy be a problem at all? It's something that just, truly erks me in a way that I have a hard time letting go of.

Like Fury said, this is... supposed to be the big pay off for Coco being a bad leader. She decides to do the smart decision instead of the dumb decision, thus showing how she has become a better leader... completely ignoring that the bad decision was not the problem, it was the side effect of the real problem; Coco is an absolute bitch headed idiot. And unsurprisingly, given all that has happened leading up to this, she kinda hasn't fixed that problem.

I'll admit, the blindworm joke almost could have worked. It's just... not executed well. Also I'll be honest the way they described it, I felt it was way more thin and spindly then everyone's favorite seasoning provider.

[The Fury]

I got to admit, I wish that I was able to do more than one chapter per week. In any case, here we are. It's Chapter Thirteen time!

Spoiler: Chapter Thirteen

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When we last left Fox, someone got the drop on him. Literally. Haah. Get it? Because someone big dropped on him from above. Last time I guessed that it was Bertilak, AKA the one unaccounted for big guy. Fortunately for Fox, Bertilak wants to finish him off "fair and square," so Fox is able to get to his feet and gets his combat assist app to tell him what's up.

Evidently Bertilak is "Six feet seven inches tall," and "two hundred and twenty-five pounds." Which, I agree is pretty big. He's also "very fit" and toting a ball-mace. Correction, spiked ball mace. Correction, spiked ball mace with a chain. Correction, it's also a gun.

Now, as I've mentioned previously, Fox's assistance app kind of sucks. It includes a user interface that appears to be designed for people that can see. Fox seems mostly only able to get it to work by mashing the touchscreen until it goes. Evidently the proximity alert is also sensitive enough that sandstorms can mess with it. Thankfully, it's easy enough to fix. Just go into the preferences menu and select "tools" and...(NOOOO!)

Actually Fox decides to fall back on a Vacuan proverb, "listen to the desert." Literally. Haah. Because he takes out his earbuds and listens to the sand from the storm hitting surfaces all around him, like the sound of raindrops hitting a window. Which makes sense. The main takeaways of from this book appear to be "sand is dry water" and "Coco is terrible." Jokes aside, Fox is a lot less blind than he would otherwise be. Normally he'd use his Semblance to figure out stuff like where Bertilak is, but Edward is blocking it. On the plus side, Bertilak's is being blocked too so he can't... what can Bertilak do again?

Fox starts asking Bertilak some questions, like "What are you planning?" or "Why kidnap a defenseless old man?" Bertilak laughs this off, thinking that Fox is trying to keep him talking so he can track where Bertilak is. Fortunately for Fox, Bertilak is an idiot and runs his mouth anyway. Not only that, we actually do get to find out what Bertilak is up to. His boss is interested in people with powerful Semblances. Someone that can do a mood bomb and attract hordes of Grimm is a real get. I guess. What does this guy want with powerful Semblances? My guess is that's a question above Bertilak's pay grade.

So these two fight for a bit, eventually Fox picks up, "got to save Gus, got to save Gus..." and figures out that it's Edward's thoughts he's picking up on. Which means that his Semblance is working again. Neat. From telepathically speaking with Edward, Fox learns that the sandstorm is so bad that Edward can't see more than a few feet in front of him, meaning that Bertilak can't either. Fox also learns that the range of Bertilak's chain-mace is about seven feet, the gun part can only be fired once before it needs reloading, and he's low on ammo. Also we get to see Bertilak's Semblance. What's his special power that only he can do? He can... make it uncomfortably hot. While that sounds kind of lame compared to other Semblances we've seen, he can apparently make it hot enough that Fox passing out from the heat is a serious concern.

Fox shares his opinion of Bertilak, that he's a shameful excuse for a Huntsman. Bertilak retorts that it's an easy thing for Fox to say. Fox has had lofty ideas about being a Huntsman as "a calling and a privilege." Bertilak goes on that they're just words, and for all the touted ideals of the professors and the headmasters at the Hunters Academies, they're some of the worst of all. Evidently Bertilak barely graduated because he was tired of being a tool. As Fox says though, Bertilak is still a tool. Zing!

That gets under Bertilak's skin a bit and Fox takes some heavy hits, until... Edward intervenes and starts fighting Bertilak too. Now, an old man that's losing his marbles might not be the ideal rescuer. I don't have much of a point beyond that. Fox is still a bit woozy and flashes back to a rainstorm during his childhood. What? Did you think we were done with flashbacks? I didn't, but I secretly hoped... Rainstorms are a rare event in Vacuo and they allow people a chance to make mud bricks for building. Fox wanted to help, see, but he's blind and his parents think he'd get in the way so they shooed him off to play on his own. Fox was incensed and decided that he'd make his own bricks and his own house. Then they'll be sorry! Not surprisingly, the bricks and the house made by a blind kid with no real training kind of sucked. That's when went wrong, there was a tremor strong enough to knock over Fox's terrible house and swallow up half the settlement in a massive sinkhole. Including Fox's parents. In case you were wondering about Fox's parents I guess.

Fox comes to hearing the sound of metal banging on metal. Edward's still got apparently! This allows Fox to get behind Bertilak and choke him out. Bertilak gets free though, they fight for a while, and they cut the chain on Bertilak's mace. Fox later takes down Bertilak with a roundhouse kick to the head.

So, how's Edward doing? His buckler's all smashed up, and he might have a broken wrist but he's feeling better than ever! In fact, his dementia? Totally fine now. Better than fine even. He's even starting to remember things that he's forgotten about. As we all know, fighting is the best way to maintain mental acuity as we age. This is why I run a seniors only fight club. It's just one of my ways of helping the community.

For now though, it's time to figure out a plan so they pick up Bertilak's scroll. Or rather, Edward does since he can actually see what's on the screen. Thankfully Bertilak didn't have a password. After all, Bertilak is kind of dumb and Carmine is the brains of the operation. They find out that Bertilak was in contact with Carmine and that she's up to date on what's up with Edward and Gus, so she's going for Gus now. So now it's time for Edward and Fox to regroup with the evacuees, dragging Bertilak's sorry unconscious butt through the desert. Our chapter closes with Edward quipping that he's heavy.
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This chapter shows us that Bertilak might have a little bit more to him. Unfortunately his bluster about professors and headmasters being bad, while not necessarily wrong, doesn't hold up to basic scrutiny. The conclusion he seems to draw is that the people that teach Hunters to hold to high ideals are bad people, so trying to be noble and actually help people is stupid. Not to compare After the Fall to the broader franchise too much, but there have been moments where villains or supporting characters have offered critiques of our heroes and their ideals. Some of them even made good points. This is not one of them.

Like many of the flashbacks in this book, I have to wonder why the one about Fox's childhood in this chapter was included. I honestly don't know what the point was. That life in the Vacuan desert is hard? Yeah, I got that from the rest of the book. To tell us what happened to Fox's parents? They weren't ever brought up in previous chapters, so there's little reason for the reader to wonder about their fate. I think my best guess is that Fox was more affected by the loss than he let on, even now. Because living in a world with things like Grimm, and coming from a place like Vacuo Fox doesn't allow himself to feel. Even that kind of falls apart since it doesn't seem like the book is interested in exploring that angle.

Then there's Edward... As Zodi has mentioned a few times, Edward isn't the most conscientious portrayal of someone with dementia. This is where I would call it genuinely bad. While, yes it is true that keeping your mind active does help treat dementia and keep it from getting worse, someone getting cured after going toe to toe with some random thug? Even in a setting where people regularly fight semi-ethereal monsters with unique powers and medieval weapons with guns built into them, that's ridiculous. Never minding that the old trope of having someone cast off their disability because... they willpowered through it or something, is generally a pretty insensitive.

Unfortunately, I've been found out. And as punishment for my many crimes against humanity, Chapter Fourteen will be a full-chapter flashback.

[LaZodiac]

My own thoughts on Chapter 13

Spoiler: Chapter 13

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So here is a thought. If Bert is six foot seven, 225 pounds, and apparently jacked as hell... he's probably extremely malnourished or starving. I know, I know, reality and RWBY is like mixing oil and nitrogen. But seriously, if you're THAT tall, you're gonna be at least 250 bare minimum. You need meat on your bones! And muscle weighs more than fat!

Bert: The Headmasters of the Academy's are ****ing garbage!
- Ozpin is a horrible wizard brain parasite
- Courage the Cowardly Lion is, as the name suggests, a craven buffoon
- Ironwood is a jackbooted fascist
- Vacuo's head master is friends with the above three and decided a school based purely on meritocracy and "fend for yourself" was a good way to teach students who typically work in group and have to minimize negative emotion to stay safe from Grim.

I suppose it is true what they say. A stopped clock is right at least twice a day. Like Fury said though, the rest of his words are meaningless and generic "we're an older villain who comes from the same group as our young heroes so we represent the bad thing they could be" dialogue that barely serves as characterization.

Edward seemingly curing his dementia by getting in a tussle with Ed is... okay, look. In a book where Edward was an actual character, and they had the capability of treating this topic with respect, they might be able to pull this off in a way that works. Being RWBY, it truly just does not. What should be a triumphant, even if temporary, return to form for the old hunter, showcasing him to be the only adult worth trusting in this entire universe, is instead just a general and boring "it is okay I am better now" without any of the gravitas or impact it should have.

It comes off as insulting at worst, and obnoxiously self-congratulatory at best. After all, clearly the BEST way to include a disabled character is to have the story be about how their disability makes them a useless load whose only value exists when they are able to assist, and then cure it easily so that the problem their disability caused is now irrelevant so our heroes don't have to do any heavy thinking.

The most ****ed up thing is that it is clear what they wanted to be the theme here. We are not the sum of our memories, we are more than that. Yatsu's flashback deals with stuff like that, and Edward's dementia making him fade in and out of being able to save the day is a big struggle, so there's clearly a flailing attempt at doing some sort of theme, or message, or something! They just... forgot about it. It's like with the theme of Coco being a bad leader and learning how to be a better one; there is theoretically some framework here for this in the story, but they don't bother actually building on it. They just leave the skeleton there and assume you understand the unstated thing.

Much like Fury, I want to point out the sheer audacity of including a Fox backstory flashback here, of all places. It feels like a mandated "we need to find a place to put this for character stuff later in the series when the real writers come in" situation. Where you allude to A Thing so that it is out in the air enough to become known, so when in the future it is brought up no one questions it. It doesn't even have any relevance, like Yatsu's flashback. But Fox's has no relevance at all. Maybe to the "hear the sand" nonsense, but not really. And, much as Fury also brings up... if there is a theme here, about how the sand makes you dry and withdrawn, like Carmine and Bertilak... they don't touch on it at all.

finally, and I say this with all the love and justice of my heart; last chapter, this one, and I think every chapter from this point on if I recall, are actually decently paced. They end at good ending points, ignoring the fact that the book is bad. But I really, truly, must make this clear.

When I saw that next chapter would be another full flashback to the RWBY times, I ****ing screamed. There is so little room in this book for ANYTHING, let alone wasting time on THIS.

[The Fury]

So... Full chapter flashback huh? Yeah, me too. Let's talk about it.

Spoiler: Chapter Fourteen

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As you might recall, Team CVFY just got out of Lower Cairn after failing to rescue anyone. Their Bullhead, again that's one of those transport aircraft you see in the series, lands at Beacon's docks. They were hoping that they could just get back unseen due to the shame of how badly the mission went. No such luck. Nearly everyone is at the docks. The first year students are heading out for their first official missions and the Vytal Festival will be starting up soon. Yay. (This is concurrent with events of RWBY Volume 2 for those keeping track at home.)

Coco thinks that it's time to put on a brave face, so they do. Team CVFY walks with their heads held high, but also make an effort to look detached and aloof. Just so it's clear that they don't want to talk to anyone and can keep up their rock star appearance. Team RWBY is there too. Evidently, the two teams see a lot of each other in... each other. That is that there's usually a hotshot team in every cohort in Beacon. For CVFY's it's CVFY, in RWBY's it's RWBY. This actually comes to a surprise, Coco, would have thought that it would've been Pyrrha's team. But... I guess it makes sense, most of the characters in Team JNPR are played as jokes at this point. Everyone in CVFY actually notes that JNPR is doing very well, considering.

Coco is still cranky about being pulled away from an unwinnable fight by Yatsuhashi and was apparently all doom and gloom on the trip back. So Yatsu is glad that RWBY goes up to Velvet so she'll have someone else to talk to. Velvet though... she's still processing what happened in Lower Cairn while simultaneously trying to forget about it. So... when you're feeling emotionally distressed and someone asks if you're OK what do you do? Why, what anyone would! Say that you're OK! Velvet adds that there was "just so many of them." This is a recap from her seconds-long appearance in Volume 2 of the show until she leaves, wanting to go to a garden where she likes to go think. Professor Goodwitch stops her though. Apparently Ozpin wants to see her in his office right away. So she's lead off, close to tears.

But wait! There's more! Sun Wukong, that monkey-tailed Faunus, and Neptune the blue-haired guy with goggles, make an appearance to catch up with Velvet. These two are on a team too. Team SSSN, which the book helpfully tells us is pronounced "Sun." It's worth noting that these two don't know Velvet very well and they're from Vacuo. Sun is apparently nice to Velvet, so that's good. And it's always nice to have another Faunus around. So since these guys are from Vacuo will be seeing them again? You bet. Who are the other two members of their team? That's not important. Don't worry about it.

So Velvet makes it to Ozpin's office. Ozpin wants to know everything. He's questioning everyone in Team CVFY individually so he gets a more complete picture of what happened. OK, I guess. Apparently Velvet's getting called in first because of her "uncanny observational skills and attention to detail." So Velvet goes into recapping the Lower Cairn mission.

The rest of Team CVFY is at a pop-up restaurant in town for the Vytal Festival. It serves Curry and it's called "Curry Up." You know... if I were them I'd eat there too. Punny restaurants just make sense to my tiny brain. Coco is despondent though and mostly just poking at her curry. Needing a rescue from Professor Port was a blow to the team's pride in general and Coco in particular, since Coco is a hotshot with a lot to prove. Coco for her part seems to acknowledge that she made mistakes due to her pride. Which would be all well and good if... well, from what we've seen, Coco isn't that different since "learning" that lesson. She's still a prideful hotshot with a lot to prove that places too much importance on herself and her leadership role.

Around this time, the team finally notices that Velvet isn't with them. I can see why Velvet is the one with the "uncanny observational skills" in this team. Yatsuhashi is at least aware that Velvet is taking this failed mission particularly hard. There's the letting her team down side of it, and there's the being asked to hide her Semblance from rivals. Velvet isn't the sort that hides parts of herself, as made clear by the fact that she doesn't hide her rabbit ears in the same way that Blake hides her cat-traits in order to pass as human. Even though I'm sure Velvet would look adorable in a top hat. And hiding your Semblance from rivals does seem a little weird to me. I don't hide my Semblance. My Semblance is mild sarcasm. Coco doesn't pick up on any of this by the way, because Coco is terrible.

Anyway, luckily for our protagonists, JNPR happens to walk by and they're able to tell team CVFY where Velvet went and they go barging into Ozpin's office to take responsibility for their part in the Lower Cairn debacle. Goodwitch and Ozpin want to know what the what. Goodwitch even levitates Yatsuhashi with her Semblance. To their surprise, Velvet is not in trouble, just having a conversation. Coco says that she takes responsibility for what happened in Lower Cairn because she's the l e a d e r . Fox thankfully corrects her and says that they all take responsibility, which Ozpin agrees is fair enough, and can Goodwitch please put Yatsu down? She does. Forcefully dropping him to the floor.

Ozpin goes into a speech about trusting one another and taking responsibility rather than assigning blame. Which I won't recap since it's pretty long and this post is already too wordy. But to sum up, listen to each other, trust one another and thing will work "like clockwork." Ozpin's office is in a giant clock by the way. There's a bunch of turning gears everywhere. That's a little thematic dealie there for you.

Our protagonists are dismissed and ride the elevator back down. They have a conversation where they own up to their individual perceived failures and our chapter ends with a group hug. Aw.
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With every flashback chapter I risk repeating myself, but there's just not a lot to say about them. It's a little like discussing the book's humor, there's really only one thing I can say, and I've said it many times.

What I will give this chapter though is that Sun and Neptune are introduced here. I might not like these characters, neither in the show or here, but bringing them up as people that were visiting Beacon during the Vytal Festival and that they were from Vacuo at least explains their presence later on.

And there's the bit with Velvet being asked to hide her Semblance and how it actually wears on her. I actually kind of like this. It actually makes sense with what we know about her character, because like I said above Velvet doesn't try to hide the fact she's Faunus. So the idea that she would prefer to be forward about what makes her unique feels consistent with that. The book actually doesn't directly say that Velvet choosing to not to try passing as human is an extension of that standard, but allows the reader to make that inference on their own. Which is uncharacteristically subtle for this book, and I'm kind of into it.

Next time it's Chapter Fifteen. Turtle time.

[LaZodiac]

Honestly I'm in so much the same boat as "boy these flashback chapters sure are a load of hot nothing" that I don't even really have much to spoiler tag about this one. This flashback, at the very least, ATTEMPTS to provide characterization that matters for our four main leads... with the caveat that by this point in the book we can see how they've done little, if anything, to address their perceived faults.

Also, as for the "we're all to blame for what happened" scenario...

Spoiler: Chapter 14

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no. No you're not all to blame, and I'm pretty sure I brought this up last time but I'm gonna say it again;

1: Fox is blind and his abilities don't account for height differentials, it is not his fault he couldn't find the family
2: Yatsuhashi to swinging his sword too hard is, at worst, a sign of how he needs to control himself. But blaming him for any of what happens because he "caused a slight cave in" is blaming him for stuff he could have never known was an issue.
3: Velvet... didn't do ANYTHING wrong actually what the ****??
4: Coco, knowingly claustrophobic, with a weapon ill suited for close spaces and caves, with normal human vision instead of faunus dark vision, went into a cramped, dark, cave with no real assistance.

One of y'all did something that causes all these people to die. Not all of you, one of you. It's not hard to tell who.

Also as an aside- **** Sun Wukong, screw off Neptune, and trying to make that five second introduction of Velvet have more meaning but not being able to change it due to it being a canon event in the show is a nice effort but just not worth the wasted time spent on it.