Review: RwBy “Lessons Learned”

Overview(Spoilers Below):

It was an interesting reveal on how semblances can become more powerful if trained properly. and only leaves us wondering if or how the other characters’ semblances will evolve, I just hope that when characters progressively upgrade themselves in terms of fighting prowess they don’t fall into the same rut as other long term shows/anime where they just kept adding power levels and abilities until it starts to strain your suspension of disbelief. For example Dragonball, Bleach, or One Piece. While these shows are great in different ways, they may have taken things a little too far in terms of 1-upping a character to be more powerful or even “god-like”.

I loved Qrow’s speech to the girls, and Winter and Weiss’s sisterly interactions. Winter showed that she is less the cold bitch she was introduced as, and more of a rough-around-the-edges, tough-love big sister. I am a big fan of how they are growing Weiss this season and leaves me and the audience wondering how will she survive without her dad’s riches?

It’s very clear that Emerald and Mercury are on a whole other level in terms of combat. What I couldn’t get over, though, was how Coco and Yatsuhashi didn’t seem to be doing much to defend themselves. For instance, around 3:40, they are both standing perfectly still, watching Mercury build up his little fireball onslaught, and for a solid five seconds they do nothing to attempt to dodge or stop the attack. This might just be because they aren’t equipped to react quickly, since their fighting styles are more slow and powerful. I feel like they would have been better off had they chosen Fox or Velvet instead of Yatsuhashi, to give them a heavy hitter and a quick guy to watch their back. Bad move on their part.

But I get it, they hacked the system and set them up against them because they had a plan for them. It just seems like more of cheat then it could of been. And for as good and Huntsmen as they were portrayed, they went down too easily. Or Yatsuhashi really is a muscle head and clearly not fast. He got a hold of Mercury  and he threw him across the map. But he doesn’t run back to his partner, who wouldn’t try to get back to their partner at all costs. It just seems too much like forcibly writing Mercury and Emerald to win.

Team STRQ has gotta be some sort of Game of Thrones reference (and I’m not even a GoT fan.)

And of course, amazing soundtrack, hardcore fight, subtle Yang developments, and the heart-tugging moment when Qrow tells Ruby and Weiss to “never stop moving forward.” RIP Monty Oum. The RWBY team is doing your creation plenty of good!

If there’s three complaints I have about this episode so far it’s this:

1. As much as I enjoyed this episode I mainly take issue with the fight but not the outcome of it. Them losing makes sense as a plot point however the fashion in which they lost was so utterly one sided I find it hard to believe that team CFVY has any real skill whatsoever. Emerald and Mercury were made to look like monsters and in the process made Coco and Yatsuhashi look like garbage fighters. There was only one hit landed by team CFVY and that was Yatsuhashi throwing Mercury. It will take a lot of evidence to prove that team CFVY is good again it doesn’t matter if you call it an upset a one sided fight is never good for characters.

2. Rooster Teeth’s tone for this season so far is a bit inconsistent.

When you’re setting a certain tone when you go two years without any cursing of any kind in the show. It feels a little more family-friendly, and you know that it’s serious business when Qrow accuses Ironwood of “not giving a damn” in Episode 3.

And then Coco just starts casually saying “damn” as well. It’s not that I’m offended by the swearing – if that was a problem, I wouldn’t be watching stuff like this at all (Or playing games like Duke Nukem & No More Heroes for that matter.  😛 )  But it’s destroyed both the family-friendly tone of the show overall, and the serious tone from Qrow giving Ironwood hell.

And finally 3. Apart from one random scene when Blake is in the audience warning Coco & Yatsu to”Watch out!” where was Blake in this whole episode?

Hopefully we’ll see more of her and more details to be further fleshed out in the next episode. 🙂