Comic Review: RWBY #8 Blake: Part Two “The One That Got Away”

 

Upon entering the Faunus Sanctuary Island of Menagerie on a boat with her Monkey-friend Sun Wukong, And after shockingly being welcomed with open arms by her loving parents despite her past behavior & bad decisions, Blake seeks guidance from her mother Kali during a fishing trip. However, Blake is faced with the emotional pain & anxiety of the fucked up aftermath of Vol.3 and begins to contemplate some tough questions…

Courtesy: DC Comics

Our Take

It’s obvious that Blake is wracked with guilt over her past regrets & bad decisions because as the title implies, “the one that got away” not only refers to a giant fish that her family frequently failed at capturing but also Blake’s personal regrets and reflects upon who she was before this white fang business happened as she was just a sheltered child and later revealed to be a “Princess” of sorts within Menagerie’s kingdom and won’t forgive herself while wondering about the path she never took had she not joined the White Fang during Adam’s reign.

Blake’s character-Arc throughout Vol.4 and later 5 was spent on her coming to terms with her past actions and learning to face her problems head-on. But regardless, Kali assures Blake that despite the guilt she carries about her past, her parents never stopped loving her and their only regret was not seeing the corruption within the White Fang a lot sooner when Adam started calling the shots, or the fact that nobody but Blake’s father Ghira bothered to remind Adam that changing the world through brutal violence wasn’t the way to go…

As usual, The comic team involved with this ongoing series writer Marguerite Bennette, colorist Arif Prianto and artist Meghan Hetrick still manage to take older storylines in newer directions as this particular plot was never within the Vol.4 episodes and feels like a bonding-time story between mother & daughter where we can see Kali actually make an effort to help her daughter feel welcome and open up when she needs it.

While the ending I kinda saw coming a mile away, Blake at least have gotten some level of closure with her parents that we didn’t see during her character-arc in Volumes 4 & 5 which were the last known seasons we see Blake’s parents in the first place, and although this isn’t the end of Blake’s journey, It was a fun little detour, as her path to better herself is far from over.