Review: RWBY “Rest and Resolutions”

Tell the whole truth.

Overview:

The gang reunites with Yang and Weiss, and they all trade stories of their adventures. Afterward, they have a serious talk with Qrow and Ozpin about Ozpin’s nature and the truth that Raven revealed.

Our Take:

A lot of the shock in the episode focuses on the fact that magic exists, but that seems a little farfetched. A majority of the show focuses on characters with supernatural powers after all, and one would be inclined to call that a kind of magic. While it’s true that there are particular things that mimic magic, such as Semblances and dust, they aren’t explicitly magic.

The problem is that we don’t really know what magic is in the RWBY universe. It’s been stated that magic isn’t something that’s used traditionally, and is not in the way that we the audience knows, the show has failed to explain what magic really is. Quite simply, there isn’t enough information that the show gives to us. When one of the big surprises of the episode is that magic exists and Ozpin is capable of it, we should have at the very least been given more information on magic beforehand. A surprise based on worldbuilding that was never really explained isn’t fair to the audience. It is an interesting tidbit that Ozpin is actually the old man from Story of Seasons, who granted the Maidens their power.

The strong point of the episode was instead the cast being reunited, and having fun. Nora and Yang have an arm-wrestling contest, they all laugh over noodles. Even with a great threat on the horizon, friends still need time to reconnect and hang out with each other.

It ends on a cliffhanger, and I really hope that next episode will focus on a confrontation between the two Maidens. Aside from Raven and Vernal, the rest of Raven’s tribe don’t seem to be very impressive, especially compared to Cinder’s group. Whether the tribe can stand up to them remains yet to be seen. This season has the tendency to switch plotlines as soon as something exciting happens, so hopefully, we will get to see that next time around.