CadenGallic

I swear this gets harder to write every time.

And with an intro like that, you probably think i'm going to rip into season 4... and I am, but, this time I have some nicer things to say.

Since volume 3 ended, i've kind of been expanding my scope in terms of RWBY. Connecting with more folks who watch it. I'd say I got a sort of sweet and sour end with that, one group who are more your usual fans who just enjoy the show and the other who can be very brutally critical, perhaps even more so than I can be. It's these perspectives that have helped me judge Volume 4 properly and not just bitch about it. So, here we go.

Overall, volume 4 seems to be pulling its head out of the dark slough that volume 3 certainly became. One of my big fears for RWBY was it would go overly dark and nihilistic and thankfully, that hasn't happened. I'd say volume 4 is a good cool down from 3 and the series' direction is improving. Slightly. There are still some pretty glaring issues, as has become commonplace with RWBY, but lets take things a step at a time.

First, i'm glad we're out of the school environment. Getting to see more of Remnant was nice and it generally opened up the world a bit more. Getting some more lore on the world and some characters is nice. Even the WoR's have been a little bit better... a little bit. Some of them still state the bleeding obvious, like how smaller outlying settlements should make themselves in a way so they won't get immediately fucked over, but we still generally got more, so i'm fine with that. 

That being said, there are some parts of the lore that have been added that I really can't stomach. The whole 'Brothers Grimm' and the four macguffins? Come on, are we really doing this? The most base and simple lore possible, dark and light being literal beings and this essentially being true, seeing as the four relics exist. Even for RWBY, lore like this is basic, simple and just kind of boring. There's something so remarkably not special about it that it just made me feel sour. Also we get our literal answer to why Grimm exist. Why? Because the god of darkness is a dick who made them before humanity, and when he and the god of light made humans afterward, they just decided to leave them there I guess. Whoopdeedoo. 

There's also some lore about Faunus that i'm a little off about. For instance, how Faunus genes seem to be the dominant genes in terms of sexual reproduction, a human and a Faunus will produce a Faunus. That's kind of funny that Faunus are the ones being discriminated against, considering they are literally better than people with heightened senses, animalistic powers and night vision and such. I feel like it would've been more interesting if the Faunus discrimination came from them being literally superior to humans, there could've been something really interesting about that. But, we got what we're given I suppose. 

So as for the characters themselves, again it's all over the place. Team RNJR's journey essentially boils down to some development for Nora and Ren, which was MUCH needed and i'm glad we finally got that. More character development for Jaune, though brief, is still kind of an issue for me. Jaune is still taking up a LOT of the spotlight in RWBY and it's getting on my nerves. He's still the same useless moron he always was, his 'tactical knowledge' boils down to not using lightning on a rock and running in circles. You could at least TRY to have him speak like it's an actual strategy. And Ruby? Utterly nothing. She's still the same naive girl from episode 1 and it's bugging me hard. I feel like she isn't getting the attention and development she deserves in a show literally named after her. I can only hope next season we get something more for her because honestly, she's been static for 4 seasons and it's making me wonder if we should just name Jaune the protagonist at this point. 

For the other character's development? I'm a little torn in places. Both Weiss and Blake have some genuinely good moments. One scene in particular I enjoyed was Blake having a talk with her father Ghira. It was a nice genuine moment and I feel like it's part of what finally pushed Blake out of the 'loner' rubbish she's been buried in since Season 1. Honestly I think this should've happened sooner, but at least it's happened now. Weiss similarly has some nice scenes, the scene of her at the party was alright and it's nice to see her standing up for herself some more... that being said, Weiss' development is pretty cliche'd. Her dad's a douchebag, her brother's a douchebag, who would've guessed? It's honestly just kind of predictable and boring. Honestly I think it could've worked better if we knew a little more about her father and maybe give some reason to why he's such a douche, but no, we're probably never going to get that. So i'll just keep my little Lex Luthor delusion in the meantime. 

Out of all of the members of RWBY, I think Yang has had the best development this season. I can't really call any of the scenes that start to push her character out of her funk were bad, the scene with Tai, Port and Oobleck is a particular favourite of mine. And i'm glad we didn't spend too much time on moping, which was my biggest fear about Yang's character arc this season. It's not particularly original, I think we all kind of saw this coming, but at least it was mildly entertaining. With any luck, we'll have fun Yang back next season. 

As for the rest of the cast, Qrow definitely stole the show this season. He's been very prominent and, I don't have too much issue since he's generally an enjoyable character. Taiyang also got a few nice moments with Yang, I wouldn't exactly call it acting like a real dad, but it was alright. Ghira and Kali Belladonna are also very enjoyable characters and whilst nothing special, were nice to watch. And shoutout to the Mistral Waitress, easily best girl of Volume 4.

As for the others... most of them don't really land a hit. As I said, Jacques is just an asshole not worth spending time on, same with Whitley. Raven has quickly jumped up my list of 'people who need to get dead' for her social darwinism BS at wiping out an entire village because 'The strong survive.' Correct me if i'm wrong but, isn't using Grimm to destroy entire towns for your own game literally what Salem is doing right now? And Raven's not just a straight up villain? Speaking of, our entire villain cast at this point is pretty bland and forgettable. Tyrian (Lannister) just comes across as trying WAY too hard to be crazy, though he does have a few subtle lines, it honestly doesn't appeal to me. We know nothing about Watts at this point so I can't really make a judgement of him. Hazel is... kind of interesting? Again, nothing going for me. And Salem is decent so far, not special or memorable, but considering Cinder's policies of bitch slapping people into submission, it was nice to see a somewhat more gentle hand guiding her. And speaking of Cinder, i'll admit it was satisfying to see she took a real blow from Ruby over her silver eyes. It would be interesting to see Cinder develop now she's gotten so horribly scarred... but it's honestly worrying me they'll try and redeem her somehow. And honestly, I don't think RWBY can write that well. It'll be pretty trite if it does happen. Cinder is not feeling bad for her actions, she's feeling bad because her actions led to her being punished for it, that's all, it's not like she cares about anything she's done. Frankly, i'm still looking forward to the episode where she finally gets axed. No-one else is honestly worth mentioning, our villain cast right now is pretty boring and it makes me miss Roman and Neo. 

But speaking of villains, the Grimm have gotten a few new types. It's been sort of hit and miss on some of them. The Beringel from the trailer was pretty alright, nothing special. The Seer is an interesting concept and it's kind of making some interesting hints to the link between the Grimm and Salem. And the Geist probably takes the award for my favourite Grimm so far. It was a new dynamic for Grimm, a new idea with different powers that isn't just physical blows ala 90% of the Grimm so far and it made for a good opening. Now on the other hand... the sea dragon. RT, you could've done SO much better with a sea monster and you went with another boring ass dragon. Great job. And yes, I know the implications of it with Sun Wukong fighting dragons, whatever, I don't care. Focus less on your references and make something more interesting to fight than another dumbass dragon. We have seen dumbass dragons in almost everything. 

So that brings me to the Nukealeeve. My own feelings on this Grimm aside, the buildup to it was superb, easily one of the best parts of Season 4. RT clearly understood the horror rule of 'the monster is scarier the less you see of it' and it really built up the Nukealeeve well... sadly, the payoff was not quite as satisfying. The design just looks kind of goofy and it's abilities just make it look silly and harder to take seriously, even with it's face that looks like a jack-o-lantern. I will say, it's death was very satisfying and a good close to Ren and Nora's arc this season, so at least it served that much.

There's one last big issue I had with this season. Again, it's pretty damn short. For a series where the episodes tend not to reach even a basic anime's episode length, and we only get 12 episodes this season, it felt like almost NOTHING happened. Comparatively, each character did very little. Yang stayed at home, hung out with teachers, trained with her dad and then left, end of story. Weiss went home, sang, got locked in her room and escaped, end. Etcetera. These things just kind of need more time dedicated to them to make them more worthwhile or at least have more happen this season. It kind of has the same problem as volume 1 really. And I know, animation's not easy to make, nor is it cheap, but if you really want to make RWBY something that's more than average, it kinda deserves the time.

So to summarise, I still generally think volume 4 is a step in the right direction. I feel like we're back on track and we can go up from here... I hope, anyway. We still have some pretty huge cracks to fill and the lore is keeping itself intentionally vague and that's annoying, but i'm quietly hoping we'll continue to get better from here...

Oh and, Pyrrha didn't get resurrected, so that's like a +10 for this season as well. 

I'll be sticking with it for volume 5, so until then, roll on RWBY Chibi.

Oh and, as a quick footnote, for anyone out there who thinks Jaune doesn't get too much screentime, I present something for you to look over in your own time.
mostlymilkwood.tumblr.com/post…
Case and point.

So if I owe anybody writing and i've been given points to do so, i've had a bit of a loss of my notes thanks to a system crash on my PC, if you commissioned me to write a piece, please note me with the details and remind me and i'll get back on it immediately. Again, apologies for this. 

Anyone playing it? If so, I want to add you, pronto. Leave me your BattleTag and i'll add you. 

When something ends, sometimes the best thing someone can do is to look at why it ended and think of what happened along the way. That's what i've had to do today... and it has made me realize something. 

Sometimes, it's best to enjoy what is set in stone than that which can change as quickly as the weather. 

I'm not going to go into detail because this isn't a call out journal or anything, but it did involve a person. My time knowing them was pretty short and I took them over some people i'd known for far longer and liked better. Most of what kept them beside me was their abilities in certain realms and things i'd somehow stumbled into. 

I got burned and, really, it's my own fault. But now that it's over, I honestly feel alright. It's just been interesting to have a glimpse back over what you've done and realize just what a bad decision it was to begin with. 

So that goes for the rest of you too. Sometimes it's not worth putting up with someone just because they have good abilities but an irritating personality. 

Sorry for the random outburst like this, just wanted to get something out to get it off my chest. I'll have some written stuff coming out soon and I want to try to start putting out more things now that my Uni course is more or less complete. Hopefully will be graduated in the summer so fingers crossed for that. 

In the meantime, stay tuned my friends. More is on its way. 

All the recent kerfuffle over the Tracer pose has really put me in the mood for some Tracer booty...