Season Review: RwbY Volume 3

For my separate reviews on this whole season, click the names of each episode title.

1. Round One
2.  The New challengers
3. It’s Brawl in the Family.
4. Lessons Learned
5. Never Miss a Beat
6. Fall
7. Begining of the End
8. Destiny
9. PVP
10. Battle for Beacon
11. Heroes and Monsters
12. End of the Begining

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The “World of Remnant” Vol.3 Segments.

Volume 3, World of Remnant 1

Volume 3, World of Remnant 2

Volume 3, World of Remnant 3

Volume 3, World of Remnant 4
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Whatever else I may say in the review to follow one fact will remain immutable: RWBY Volume 3 is without exaggeration the most far-reaching in ambition, the most visionary, well developed, emotional and surprisingly, the darkest entry into the series. But was it perfect as a whole? Well… only in parts.

To gather my thoughts on the entire Season/Volume as a whole, I was relatively new to reviewing on a website in general which was a unique learning process for me and started to get better with each review I did. Sometimes I’d even revisit older reviews I made and update them if I missed a minor detail or a character name or just to add an image, gif or a visual joke. As a fan, I don’t just blindly like every aspect of the show and I pointed out the flaws because when you love something enough, you want it to improve where it’s needed. I’ve been a fan of RWBY ever since the “Red Trailer” first premiered years ago and at first thought it was a bad ass trailer to a video game only to find out they wouldn’t release a game until much later on in the form of “Grimm Eclipse” and in preparation for covering the entirety of season 3 before it premiered in October of 2015, I had to re-watch the first two seasons that I proudly own on DVD. (Strangely, Wal-Mart even sells them.)

After the unfortunate passing of series creator Monty Oum in February 2015, fans all over the internet (including myself) kept asking ourselves whether or not Rooster Teeth carrying on with the series with show’s creator no longer at the helm was a good idea and whether or not it would uphold to the high expectations of it’s devoted fans since it was left to two writers named Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross who supposedly “worked with Monty to layout the overall story” and even made a “Story Bible” which is said to span more seasons of change & development for the characters but how much was written by Monty and what even made the cut from his vision has yet to be revealed.

In terms of vocal performances for this season, the cast pretty much stepped their game up which included the introductions of new characters such as:

Winter Schnee, the older sister of Weiss whose strict but behind the curtain is a caring sister who simply wants the best for her younger sister,

The snarky yet brutally honest uncle of Ruby & Yang, Qrow Branwen who stole the show for me whenever he was onscreen as the bad ass drunkard who carries himself with a Jack Sparrow-like charm even when he’s verbally getting under people’s skin.

Neath Oum takes Monty’s place voicing Ren and does an excellent job by not only capturing the laconic nature of his character, but his voice was eerily similar to Monty which felt pretty consistent and seamless in a good way.

The music even had great moments thanks to the newer songs added along with newer & remixed renditions of classic songs from RWBy’s previous seasons which included a saxophone version of “I Burn” to a soothing piano rendition of “Mirror-Mirror” and the song “When it Falls” was arguably foreshadowing for events that fans all over Tumblr had to decipher to figure out meanings on what to expect in upcoming episodes.

The backgrounds & scenery were also added with a level of detail showing how much progress they made since season 2.

As for Character foreshadowing, while part of me knew the moment Penny was introduced as a robot, I kinda knew that really terrible things would happen to her at some point. Like the infuriating drivel of Joss Whedon’s writing, or an episode of that awful & talent-less show “Arrow” It feels almost like contrived emotional manipulation to simply start with Penny’s upbeat & fun attitude only to just put her in oblivious danger not 10 minutes later. Fans even predicted the shit that would go down in “PVP”.

A while back ago quite a few people were complaining that they weren’t showing enough of Ruby considering she’s the main character. This definitely cements her as the most important character for sure. Being the main character usually means that they will have the power to defeat the main antagonist, so therefore I highly doubt she is one of the four maidens, but instead holds a greater power. Its going to be a long wait to see how those powers develop now… quite the long wait…

While I am sad to see Pyrrha go, I feel that she had to be the one. Now hear me out. I’ve been thinking about it ever since watching the episode. In order for these characters to grow stronger as both people and as warriors, they needed something to happen that would affect them deeply enough for them to strive to become stronger. Pyrrha throughout the entirety of the series has always been perceived as the strongest of all the students, the invincible girl. Through her death, the characters can now see how far they will have to go and how much stronger they will have to become to ensure they don’t lose anyone else. Cause if the invincible girl couldn’t make it how can the rest hope to win. It just makes sense for a driving force for the characters and for the story but her Death also raises a number of questions which I hope they’ll delve into as the story goes on.

As for the possibility of her not being dead, Pyrrha is most definitely dead. You can see the moment when she dies before Cinder disintegrates her body. She slouches over as Cinder holds up her head, so she was already dead at that point. So yea, Pyrrha is dead, or is she? throughout the comments people are mentioning the moment when she unlocked Jaune’s Aura. Her definition of aura was that “Aura is the manifestation of one’s soul”. Pyrrha used her aura to unlock Jaune’s so it is entirely possible that a part of Pyrrha’s soul latched itself onto Jaune in doing so, living inside of Jaune this whole time. This could be somewhat reminiscent of a Horcrux from Harry Potter. While her Physical form is most definitely destroyed it could be possible to extract her soul and place it in a robot body much like penny’s.

While I am fully aware that Penny is a robot and can be rebuilt but theoretically wouldn’t be the same Penny as we know her. Unfortunately that penny is gone.

Ruby: So she isn’t a maiden, but an entirely different breed of supernatural warriors. So my guess is that on her journey to Haven she may discover more about her “Silver Eyes” powers, learning more about her mother and herself in the process. I think it would be pretty cool to have some kind of secret order of these “Silver Eyes” and have Ruby try to find and recruit these warriors for the fight ahead. It would be cool if Summer Rose was like the leader or something, all of this is just a thought that came into my head.

Weiss: She is back in Atlas with her father and possibly Winter(I mean she is part of the military so she might still be away all the time). She cant really do much in Atlas besides improve her skills and her summoning. As for story, this would be perfect to explore Weiss’s relationship to her father. Will she be reconcile with her father or will she prove to Winter that she can be independent of her father and his money? Only time will tell i guess.

Blake: I think its pretty clear that she isn’t running away. She is most likely hunting down the White Fang and Adam. This is a path that she believes only she can go down because of the guilt she feels towards her friends, especially Yang. In her eyes Adam is a threat that is her responsibility and hers alone. It is because that she didn’t take out Adam previously that one of her closest friends was seriously injured, and will affect her for the rest of her life. She is going down this path because she doesn’t want anyone else getting hurt because of her. Because of all this we may see a much colder and more distant Blake than we have ever seen, all to protect her friends even if it means going down a path of darkness.

Yang: Yang will undoubtedly be scarred from the events of this volume. She will struggle with the reality of her losing her arm and having to readjust to life without it. As Taiyang said she is too strong to let this keep her down (by the way nice job to Bernie Burns who voiced him.) She will most likely get a robotic prosthetic arm like Ironwood. But Yang will psychologically and Physically struggle with this new life and new form of fighting. But because of this she may grow as both a person and a warrior as she may have learned the extremely important lesson of think before you leap. We may see a Yang that may think and plan ahead more. She may be more cautious in combat and less prone to fighting. I’m not saying she’ll be a pacifist, that’s just not Yang, but she may consider the possibilities and consequences of fighting instead of straight up enjoying it. I personally think that one of Yang’s biggest struggles will be her forgiveness of Blake. From what i could tell she ultimately felt abandoned by her and she’s lost faith in her. Its even possible that she may blame Blake for the condition she;s in now and if that’s the case, when they reunite Yang may react……violently. Who knows, anythings possible.

Jaune, Nora, Ren: They will all have to deal with the trauma and reality of losing Pyrrha. They all deeply cared for Pyrrha as their friend and will want to keep on fighting for her sake. Pyrrha would want them to remain strong and remain united. More specifically Jaune. Jaune just lost the girl he loved( I assume as much but he never out right says it, all we know is that he deeply cared about Pyrrha). Pyrrha always had the utmost faith in Jaune’s strength and his hidden potential. Now its Jaune’s job to do everything he can to keep Pyrrha’s belief in him alive.

Roman: Probably Dead. He was eaten and then the grim exploded followed by the ship crashing. Though i wouldn’t mind seeing him alive pacific rim style that would be great.
Neo: Flew away like Mary Poppins. Shes alright. Maybe she’ll want revenge for Roman.

Cinder: Kind of hard to say honestly. She is a full fledged fall maiden now but it seems like its implied that the “Silver Eyes” warriors are more powerful than the maidens, so she could be dead or frozen like the dragon? None of this is yet to be revealed.

Ozpin: Not dead: It seems as though Salem’s Plot is to go directly against Ozpin and tear down everything hes built seeing that he and Salem are probably both incredibly powerful immortal beings. He probably disappeared to find Salem since he knows she is likely behind it. Those two have some kind of long and complicated history.

Salem: No information about her yet besides she has some kind of history with Ozpin. I feel just by her look she must be the source of the Grimm. Maybe she created them just to go against Ozpin. What if her and Ozpin had some kind of large scale battle a long time ago and because of the that the moon was shattered? I do have a theory about what her powers could be. Seeing that her and Ozpin have some kind of history, they could be two sides to the same coin in a way. What i mean is that while Ozpin can control and manipulate the flow of time around him( you can see the various afterimages he leaves behind in his battle with Cinder), i think it could be possible that Salem can control and manipulate the properties of space. Time and space are always interconnected to one another, one cant exist without the other. I look at where Salem is, and i assume its on Remnant because you see the moon in the distance, and i cant help but feel that the land and the properties of the place have been altered in a way that is fitting for Salem. I don’t know its all speculation.

PROS:

Ruby becoming a perceptive and competent leader in the face of danger despite fucking up here and there.

Weiss being less of a Bitch and at first was technically poor because her father cut-off her funds in an effort to keep her obedient which of course didn’t work thanks to Winter’s Wisdom of walking her own path only for those plot-points to be thrown out due to the Image of Atlas being severely tarnished by the hacked robots killing off civilians.

Blake becoming more emotional especially after her dark reunion with Adam.

Yang who is slowly getting clues about her Long Lost Mother yet still has yet to interact with her and even worse now a self-loathing PTSD victim who i’m hoping will rise above this new disability of hers.

The Introduction of newer characters & Teams from other Schools such as: SSSN, CFVY, ABRN, and FNKI , Weiss’s Sister Winter Schnee, Ruby & Yang’s Uncle Qrow who is the fun snarky bad ass we all wanted in their series.

Backstories of certain villains explained (Mercury & Emerald in particular.)

Updated art style.

Noticeably there’s a substantial difference in the art style as demonstrated by the 2D News Segment with Lisa Lavender in “Beginning of the end”.

Season 1 Episode 1.

Season 3 Episode 7.

Consistently good Fightscenes.

 

CONS:

From my long experience with this series, this season’s (and by extension, the entire show’s) unpardonable sin that I’ve noticed since the first two seasons aside from the animation starting out choppy in places is the continuity errors, plot & character inconsistencies, ignored plot-points that fans across tumblr, FB, Reddit & twitter had to point out and how things sometimes build-up to something big but don’t always lead anywhere for the purpose of keeping the viewer hooked but not always in a good way.

Here’s several examples:

There’s inconsistent moments where Ruby & Yang’s Dog Zwei would randomly appear & disappear without an explanation. At least in Season 2 the Dog stayed with them because their Father had to go somewhere but it’s not explained why the Dog was even at the Beacon Coliseum with Team RWBY to begin with.

Blake not getting a proper sub-plot until 10 Episodes in when the White Fang Invade the Coliseum in the Episode “Battle for Beacon”.

While it tried it’s damnedest to raise the stakes in terms of shock & suspense, the scene in “Heroes and Monsters” where Adam sadistically proclaims he will “Destroy everything Blake Loves” and then stabs Blake’s abdomen then proceeds to sever Yang’s arm afterwards feels like a scene that exists solely to upset viewers, as if to proclaim, “Betcha didn’t think we’d do that, huh?!” It feels crass and exploitative, which is somehow not something I’ve felt even in RWBY’s most insane moments when it wasn’t a bad ass fight scene.

My point here is that when I tell you that “Heroes and Monsters” features the first moment in the show that actually disturbed me, I hope you know it’s not because I’m a delicate flower who can’t handle a man being eaten by a giant Grimm bird. But what I saw in that particular episode, for all intents and purposes, “misery porn”—a violent, disturbing scene that exists for no other reason than to be violent and disturbing. Like something “The Walking Dead” or “Arrow” would conjure up and it felt like the writers were losing their reputation for being brutal, Next to Penny’s Death in PVP, that it wanted to re-assert the emotional weight & horribleness of Volume 3 in the most brazen & unapologetic ways possible.

The “Maidens” lore/plot-lie while at least explains how powerful & ruthless Cinder’s is, There was been nothing from the previous seasons or even this season to even set it up so why do they play it off like its suppose to be this grand reveal almost?? Dammit RWBY writers, I just wish you could elaborate on the plot a lot better. Like legitimately stop setting so many damn things up and then not finishing them and just adding even more things to make it complicated and then tell us that “oh don’t worry you’re gonna know what all of this means soon” It took 3 Motherfucking years and we still don’t know anything about Cinder’s past nor do we know the full entire backstory or on every single character because Miles & Kerry keep setting things up and then nothing ends up really happening to advance the plot! Give us something!

The Grimm disaster which the Beacon Students & Ironwood’s troopers averted in the season 2 finale was not mentioned in the News within their kingdom as if it was purposely covered-up which was only touched upon once in “Lessons Learned” but never brought up again for some reason or explained why something so vital was omitted to begin with.

These past couple of episodes were almost exactly what The Fans wanted but not the way they Imagined with random quotes I’ve read from Tumblr & Twitter like: “Stop trying to make RWBY a goofy kids show. You can still keep it light, but make it realistic. Make it dramatic.” And now They’ve expressed regret because either they did it in fan-response or this was carefully planned in Monty’s “Character Bible” that he wrote before he passed away, It’s like the writers are saying to them:”You wanted this and now we’re going to rub your nose in it!”

At first Adam in the Season 3 Episode 7 flashbacks was somewhat depicted as the closest to a sympathetic & complex villain as he never wanted to work with Cinder to begin with and had strong convictions as a self-proclaimed “Revolutionary” and we were left assume he only worked for Cinder because him and the lives of his “White Fang” followers were threatened, But After Episode 11, He comes off as a sadistic monster with an absolute “Hate-Boner” for Blake after the events of the “Black Trailer.”

After the dust settles from the end of Season 3’s brutal season finale,There was a sobering soul-crushing realization that some of the loose plot-threads that were previously established or touched upon once aren’t ever brought up again! For instance, Phyrra was built up to possibly have Maiden powers only to die? Pointless! Weiss’s Journey to break free from her father? Pointless! Blake disappearing without explanation and Yang wanting to know more about her long lost mother? Tossed aside so she can get her arm cut off and be a PTSD-addled Emo-Tard and Force unwarranted Drama for Internet shippers to bitch about!

In fairly comedic fashion, someone even made a funny video pointing out flaws I couldn’t even find. 😛

It’s also abundantly clear that Rooster Teeth has a sadistic sense of humor.

“Yang V-day Card”.

RWBY Volume 3 started out great but the major turning point was the episode “Fall” was where everything started to get dark from there. While Episode 7 was the first time they had a “Parental Advisory Warning“.

I’m not sure whether or not this dark direction is right for RWBY or if this was part of Monty’s vision for the series at all but I’m hoping good things will come out of it in later Seasons and don’t get dark to the point that it alienates fans. (Like Arrow Season 3 infamously did when they built a character’s death around an entire season, only to make it all pointless by Season 4.)

The “World of Remnant” Segments were all narrated by Ozpin and all of them were surprisingly informative and his version of “The Four Maidens” story was surprisingly detailed & heartfelt compared to the one from “Fall”.

Volume 3 was a great watch since it was my first experience reviewing a series but if you ‘re not into Dark Stories at least know what you ‘re in for before watching it.