Review: RWBY “Necessary Sacrifice”

You have to choose a side.

Overview:

Ruby and Oscar spar, and Oscar voice his doubts about fighting to save the world. Meanwhile, Blake and Sun try to rile up the Islanders to fight but have their problems. Illia receives a grim assignment, something she’s not sure she can take.

Our Take:

A lot of tension building this episode.

Ruby admits that she’s not all cheer— that she was deeply affected by Penny and Pyrrha’s deaths. She’s not all happy as she seems, but is actually deeply scared and terrified of what could possibly happen. Despite this, she’s decided to fight because the alternative is far worse, now that they know what Salem can do. Her speech manages to inspire Oscar and is overall a good reinforcement that Ruby isn’t all enthusiasm, but has been deeply hurt as well. However, this comes far too late. If anything, this should have been addressed last season, but instead, all of Ruby’s potential trauma was hardly mentioned. It’s good to see that they’re making note of this, but it’s a nod that should have come way earlier.

The heart of the episode revolves around the politics of the White Fang, and how the Belladonnas will eventually clash with Adam. Blake and Sun find it hard to get people on the island to fight because they’re groups of people who have grown tired of fighting. They haven’t necessarily given up, but they want to be left alone and have nothing to do with the coming conflict. Unfortunately, that’s unrealistic, but it’s extremely hard to get peace when everything is at war.

Illia’s motivations have further explained this episode, and it shows that she isn’t entirely indoctrinated into the new White Fang’s radical ideology. She believes that death and violence can be used for the greater good, and is absolutely willing to pave the way for the Faunus’ liberation, but she still has personal conflicts. When Corsac and Fennec order her to assassinate the Belladonnas, she is clearly conflicted. Although they see her previous alignment with the Belladonnas as a tool, it could very easily backfire as well.

Adam seems very unhinged this time around. It’s unfortunate because we really haven’t seen enough of Adam overall. He has the qualities to be an impressive villain, but as of right now, he’s only known for his extremism and his obsession with Blake. Blake describes him this episode as having a lot of charisma but is so filled with spite that it overwhelms him. He’s clearly very efficient in the times he’s on screen, but he hasn’t been enough of a presence. Considering that this arc is all about tensions inside the White Fang, I’d like to see more Adam.