Season Review: RWBY Vol.4

We wrap up the fourth volume…Remnants and all.

After the slightly-flawed yet entertainingly emotional mess that was RWBY Volume 3, We the Audience wondered how everything would play out for Vol.4 in terms of character building and how this would lead towards Team RWBY to be reassembled again. But what we got instead was RoosterTeeth taking an experimental direction by having all the 4 main girls. For better or worse separated with much-needed breathing room to develop on their own.

So for the positives, let’s break down how each character and how they all played out starting with:

Ruby – In terms of character she really didn’t change much yet, in essence, she didn’t really need to, but evolving her relationships and exploring her thoughts on various issues, or even simply letting we the audience ingrain ourselves into her personal life on a deeper level could’ve made up for this. What I did take from her growth was Ruby learning the harsh realities of the real world, as well as learning to deal with the loss of close friends like Phyrra & Penny and yet she’s still holding on to her optimism and her drive to make the world a better place.

Weiss – I can’t believe I’m saying this but it did the impossible and made me like Weiss and she’s usually a bitch. lol

For instance, Weiss’ development throughout this season stems from her anger & frustration to being forced back into the upper-class world she now has an outside perspective which only makes her disgusted with her homeland after seeing everyone else within her kingdom behave like one-percenter dipshits who remain blissfully ignorant about the outside world. In the episode “Tipping Point” I started to root for her because she’s seeing the ugliness of the rich life in combination with her Dad’s Shitty parenting and her brother making himself the “favorite” to their dad’s eyes.

In the process, it also paints Ironwood as a sympathetic character who means well because he often makes difficult choices that consequently piss people off.

The fact he’s going to close the borders on Atlas during a possible apocalyptic event could have devastating consequences but it’s also the perfect reason why nobody is going to chase after Weiss given that she secretly hitch-hiked her way out of her kingdom thanks to her Butler Klein with her only motivation is to be with her Sister again not knowing that her former teammates will show up with different motivations.

Blake’s story was… slightly overshadowed by Sun. We did at least learn that she was sort-of a princess and that her father founded the White Fang before he respectfully stepped down which lead towards the very group he founded being corrupted into the paramilitary “Faunus Lives Matter” dipshits we know today.

Aside from her new motivation to reform the White Fang back to their former glory, her entire arc was mainly about learning to accept the fears she has for her friends, and what might happen to them because of people like Adam. That they are fully willing to make their OWN choices, and that they would get hurt all over again and to stop seeing herself as a burden.

Yang had some level of development towards overcoming the loss of such a significant part of herself, she got her groove back with a new robotic right arm while learning how to fight with her mind, instead of the simple brute strength she used to rely on in the first 3 volumes. And most of all, learning to put her shitty mother behind and move forward with the family she does have.

Many fans predict she’ll have a PTSD moment at some point, not just because RT want’s to copy Legend of Korra, but to put things in perspective, she’s now out in the world with the increased possibility of running into Adam and is on her way to Mistral. I also predict that Yang will unleash hell on Blake after the shit she pulled in Volume 3.

Jaune found ways to honor Phyrra by repurposing her old weapons and upgraded his sword by using the material for Armor & weapon upgrades however his anger towards Qrow for being indirectly responsible for the “Maiden” business that lead towards Phyrra’s death was understandable.

Ren & Nora arguably had the most growth and character development. We learned that they were both orphans in Vol.3 but while we don’t know what happened to Nora’s parents, We knew a great deal about Ren’s past. Ren’s Arc was the only time I felt something deep in this volume because Ren as a character has always been a mystery outside of being the quiet & laconic foil to Nora’s goofiness and it was cool to see where those two came from and so on. In the episode “Kuroyuri” we learn that he lost his parents & village at the hands of the Centaur-Grim Creature which I later found out is called a “Nuckelavee” and seeing Ren find closure through destroying that grotesque thing was one of the best and most cathartic moments in the volume.

Qrow also had a lot of interesting reveals in this volume. His Semblance powers apparently involve giving people bad luck which could possibly explain why he’s a functioning alcoholic and how he often turns this negative into a positive by using it in battle against his opponents. Also, his twin-sister Raven who is also Yang’s mother is a despicable cunt and I have no idea why she couldn’t straight up raise Yang in her clan of Bandits rather than leave her behind to mopey Taiyang.

And finally Oscar… Where do I even begin?
In the first episode we knew nothing about this simple farm boy and wondered what relevance he had towards the main plot but it’s strange that Ozpin can psychically speak to him yet it’s never explained why they both share a consciousness and whether or not he’ll be a fighter or if he’ll interact with other key players within RWBY’s universe.

Salem proves to be convincingly evil to the core as we see various examples of her abuse even her own loyal subordinates and often put Cinder in stressful situations with her “give into the darkside” speeches.

Her evil council Members Tyrian was unique not just as a psycho killer in RWBY’s world but also due to being the first Scorpion Faunus we the audience have seen so far,

We know very little about Dr. Watts other than he’s English and Hazel who has super strength and a yet to be explained history with Ozpin. Also, I notice how horrified Cinder’s has been acting lately, is she for once considering her options at whether or not she’s fighting for the wrong side? Why does Salem even put so much stock into training her knowing she could be a possible threat to her council unless she has a “fail-safe” of sorts?

With every positive, there’s a negative so here’s what went wrong with Vol.4

The Bad:

The writers have recently admitted that volume 4 has not been the best in terms of story structure and legitimately said this on their post-finale RTX stream. While Monty co-wrote Vol.3 before his passing, Vol.4 was the first volume that has been written entirely without Monty’s Oum being part of the team. It’s understandable but no surprise that the writing has been mixed for this season as a whole.

If anything good could potentially come out of this, we can only hope that the people of RT will acknowledge the feedback on the handling of Yang’s PTSD, plus if you think about it, Yang now has more opportunity for focus because they’re not splitting it four ways, which will hopefully mean they’ll address it with better context and perspective like Legend of Korra did.

The excessive “World of Remnant” segments Tried to touch upon how large the RWBY universe was in scale and history but it wasn’t handled well compared to the previous seasons. While these segments were essential to the show’s world-building, it kinda felt distracting when it came to cliffhangers, plus it didn’t help that they felt the need to release episodes during the holidays and new years eve. It also left lots of speculation to how old Ozpin could possibly be or how long he’s been doing this with other people over the centuries. We also did learn the creation of Humanity & Grimm this season but the mythology itself leaves more questions than answers. For instance, why did the two brothers who created Humanity & Grimm on Remnant leave afterward? It’s never explained. Hopefully, this means they’ll approach vol 5 with that in mind and it’ll be tighter in terms of structure & focus more on where vol 4 should have.

One of the huge things about Vol.4 that left a bad taste in my mouth was how they handled the aftermath regarding the deaths of Pyrrha, Penny and Roman. Their deaths are barely touched upon throughout the story, except two episodes where Pyrrha gets a small scene as a call-back/memorial. Penny’s death had an impact on Ruby before so why doesn’t Ruby bring it up? How come neither Cinder, Mercury or Emerald bring up Roman’s death? What is the point of having them die if their deaths don’t impact the people whom they mattered to? And on the subject, Where the fuck is Torchwick’s silent partner in crime Neopolitian?

Most of the male characters had moments where they felt a bit self-inserted, with the desire to protect the main four in some way, For instance, putting Sun in an unappreciative relationship with Blake with her constantly bitch-slapping him because obnoxiously low-brow Idiots who watch Akiba’s Trip, Inuyasha or Prison School think Female-on-Male abuse is comedy gold, which arguably reduces the male characters to being the worst kind of flawed where it counter-productively creates unneeded conflict.

And finally Why didn’t Team RNJR take the trains? Did they not know that various forms of transportation were optional or could they not afford it? It would’ve saved them 6 months of traveling on foot. Also, this has bothered me since Vol.3 but how can you properly explain to someone that the fairytales in the world you grew up with are real without people losing their shit? How is it that Atlas knows that Grimm are attracted to fearful & negative emotions but not everyone else in RWBY’s universe which possibly lead to the Fall of Beacon in the first place?

If I missed anything, Here’s a Video someone made of the overlooked flaws of Vol.4

Complete Season Overview.

RWBY Vol.4 proves that the while the season took a few missteps and turned the “World of Remnant” filler into an art-form. Thankfully it didn’t have to be full-on perfect to yield a perfect result. I’m also glad they didn’t take the cheap & lazy route like Joss Whedon or George R.R. Martin do in such a masturbatory way because nobody died in the finale this time and above all, nobody pulled a Deus Ex Machina like vol.3 did which was a huge relief.

Our four main protagonists with separate goals are all going to Mistral where Haven Academy is, and knowing that it just happens to be Salem’s next target, shit’s gonna get real from here on out!