Review: RWBY “The Coming Storm”

The haunting is inside you already.

Overview:

The group rests in a nearby village, only to realize that everyone in the village has withered away.

Our Take:

I pointed it out when Salem’s backstory was revealed and my colleague David also mentioned it last week, but the group only sees one solution for Salem: to kill her. Weiss mentions at a point of stress that she doesn’t see any point in fighting because Salem can’t be killed. This brings us to a flaw of a lot of fantasy worlds, but especially RWBY, that the children have been taught that there’s only one way of solving problems- violence. To some extent, this is true, as someone who’s dead can only continue to hurt you through memories, a formed cult of personality, or as a ghost, but none of that is what RWBY is touching upon. It’s that they don’t see any other way, but by taking a step back, there definitely is a way to stop Salem- by reasoning with her, something that Ozpin never did, as the flashbacks show him being reactively passive. But the group can’t conceive any other way than violence, because that’s how they solved all their problems before: through flashy fights. This is a fantasy show where most people started watching because of the action sequences, but it comes to a point where the action sequences can’t solve every issue. It can’t solve it with Salem, and the group is reeling from that. Their go-to method has failed.

Yang also finds some comfort in a quiet moment with Blake, where she admits that she’s still traumatized from having her arm cut off by Adam. Blake offers her solidarity, where she admits that she knows Adam’s tactics of getting into people and making them feel vulnerable, but also puts forth a strong point. She’s not going to run away again. This impresses Yang, and she seems just on the verge of opening up when Blake says that she will protect Yang.

Except that’s not what Yang wants. Yang doesn’t need to be protected from the things that have previously hurt her, she wants to fight back against those things. What she actually needs it, people, that she can trust, people that she knows for absolutely certain will have her back. And she has those, but this episode shows that she needs something more: people that will treat her as an equal. She worried that her losing her arm would make her less of a warrior, and even though she herself isn’t- it just goes to show that people still see her as vulnerable, and as needing protection. Unfortunately, Blake’s offer of good faith ended up backfiring, because, for all her effort, she fundamentally misunderstood what Yang really needed. It wasn’t protection, it was trust.

Score
8.5/10