Review: RWBY “Of Solitude And Self”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Upon touching her mother’s weapon, Ruby sees a flashback of the night Summer left for the mission she wouldn’t come back from, where she finds out that Raven went with her and that Summer lied about it being a typical mission. Ruby is confused by this, but the Blacksmith instead tries guiding her towards accepting herself, which she eventually does and rejoins the battle. Back in said battle, Jaune realizes that burning the tree’s leaves has the same effect as the Herbalist’s tea, which help to coax Neo awake to drive the cat out. Once Ruby arrives, she joins with the others to beat the cat. Neo finishes it off, but decides to enter the tree in order to find herself. Before Team RWBY leave, they’re seen off by Little’s reincarnation, who looks more human and names themselves Somewhat. Jaune tasks them with taking care of Juniper.

The five enter the doorway and are greeted by the Blacksmith, who explains the nature of the Ever After and answers some more questions. They explain that the gods of Light and Darkness were actually created by the tree and ended up creating much of the citizens themselves before the tree made them a doorway, eventually leaving the realm to create what would become Remnant. They also confirm that Lewis was the only one to return home and that while Alyx died, she left a part of herself behind in the Ever After in order to try and fix what she had broken, which allows Jaune to regain his former youth and Banana Hair. Lastly, the Blacksmith tells the five that they will be sent not WHERE they are needed, but WHEN. When they exit through the portal, they arrive in Vacuo, which is currently surrounded by Atlas ships.

OUR TAKE

I’ll touch on the volume as a whole in the season review soon, so for now I’ll just focus on this as a finale and an episode on its own. To that end, I can honestly say that this is not only my favorite RWBY season finale, but very likely the best finale the series has had by a wide margin. For one, the team is not just fighting a mindless hoard or giant monster OR a person with needlessly dumbed down or oversimplified values just to have the main characters be right. The Curious Cat is by no means a good person, but we fully understand their motivations and feelings, as well as why they think their course of action makes the most sense. That already puts it above just about every single season finale in the show, but what puts it over Volume 3’s ending, at least for me, is that it actually has something to say. The tree’s methods of reincarnation is something we’ve observed now for many characters, some of which have received minor changes while others have become totally new beings, but while that worked for them, Ruby is learning to just accept herself. This doesn’t mean Ruby is a flawless, blameless, perfect person, but that she is who she needs to be. To feel doubts about one’s self is normal, but we can’t fix our problems by trying to be someone else.

The other major revelations are more world based. The Summer flashback fleshes out a bit more of the brief glimpse we got last week, but a lot of this is either stuff we already knew about her disappearance or things the fanbase had already guessed. What WAS totally new was the addition of Raven apparently joining Summer on the mission to at least some extent, which at the very least gave Burnie Burns and Anna Hullum a couple more lines in the show, but also shows that there may be more going on that could be explained later. I would say this is another example of being better late than never about stuff that would’ve really benefited from being mentioned a few seasons prior, especially since there’s a real chance this might end up being all we get, but at least it’s something. As for the stuff about the Brothers, that also was a bit of a curveball. Many speculated that the Ever After was a world that they had made prior to coming to Remnant, which turned out to PARTIALLY be true, in that they had a hand in designing it, but it seems this place was their source. How any of this may play into potential future seasons is anyone’s guess, but that’s not my concern at the moment.

But yeah, another RWBY Volume in the books, with everyone (aside from Weiss) getting their much needed character growth and now returning to Remnant with a little extra trauma but also a lot of wisdom. Again, I very much would say that this is the show’s best go at a finale, which is especially surprising given how much seems to have been cut for time, but it’s win nonetheless. This isn’t just a good finale for RWBY, it’s just a good finale period. Now it’s once again time to go through the season to try and review it as a whole, followed by the two Justice League crossover movies and then…who knows? All we do need to know, is to trust ourselves to get through whatever comes our way. See you on the other side, huntsmen and huntresses.