Rwby

[Mach56gs]

Originally Posted by bakato

I don't think a JaunexRuby is off the table. When she first arrived at Beacon, Jaune was the one who toured with her.

Lets not consider this, please. Now is really not the time xD

[Eragon]

Jaune is gonna burn on the Pyre. There ain't no romance plot for him now.

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by quigonkenny

If you're looking for comedy, try KonoSuba. Not the best animation ever, but there's not a funnier show out right now. And if you dig a little deeper, its parody of your typical "sent to an RPG world" story is full of little strokes of brilliance. First four episodes are up for free on CR (five if you have an account) with new episodes every Wednesday.

I looked at that, but I was turned off by the Crunchyroll series summary which indicates that the series *starts* with

Spoiler:

the main character dying.

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

There's also the feeling of having been robbed of the father role. He did shut down when Summer died, and most of Ruby's life was with Qrow. That's why Taiyang tried to be as warm to Ruby, bringing her strawberries and cookies when she woke up. He's trying to make up for the time he spent grieving over Summer's death.

I must've missed the part where "most of Ruby's life was with Qrow." Obviously, Ruby learned a lot from Qrow and takes after him in many ways, but I don't remember it being that Ruby spent substantially more time with Qrow than Taiyang.

Originally Posted by QSTraderDG86

On Taiyang: so far, he's come off as little more than pitiful. Supreme Sun Dragon? Pfft. Cut me a break. Get back to me when he lives up to his hype. So far, the show's painted him as little more than a loser. His first woman walks out on him, his second one bites it, then he fails as a father as evidenced by his reckless first daughter, while his second one got raised much better by someone who doesn't even have any biological connection with her. Nice. Someone call me back when he actually does something befitting of the expectations that Supreme Sun Dragon brings about.

Uh, I think the kind of losses he's suffered would put anyone out of commission.

Originally Posted by bakato

I don't think a JaunexRuby is off the table. When she first arrived at Beacon, Jaune was the one who toured with her.

I think the events of the last episode make it fairly clear that that is now the odds-on pairing of all possibly pairings in the series.

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by Wandering Soul

Ruby seems to be based on little Red riding hood though. It was Snow White's mother who was forced to dance with burning shoes.

I believe Ruby is also based off of Ruby Red, from Snow White and Ruby Red. Even so, analogy still holds for Weiss.

Originally Posted by JagdPanther

I looked at that, but I was turned off by the Crunchyroll series summary which indicates that the series *starts* with

Spoiler:

the main character dying.

He gets better...

That's not so much a spoiler as part of the premise (and as much a target of humor as everything else in the story). Death has been a method of traveling to tropetastic alternate fantasy worlds since at least Narnia. Trust me. KonoSuba is about as lighthearted as it gets.

[DMurphy]

Originally Posted by JagdPanther

I must've missed the part where "most of Ruby's life was with Qrow." Obviously, Ruby learned a lot from Qrow and takes after him in many ways, but I don't remember it being that Ruby spent substantially more time with Qrow than Taiyang.

I imagine he's thinking of Ruby training with Qrow, but the thing is, Qrow's a teacher at Signal Academy. So's Taiyang. It's not as if Ruby was going off on a great pilgrimage with Qrow, she was presumably training with him either at the school that Taiyang also works at or at home.

Actually, do we really need a 'reason' why Taiyang would be miffed at that point? His daughter's just woken up from a coma and his best friend is shooing him out of the room. There really doesn't need to be any pre-existing animosity or backstory for that to annoy him.

[Marcus H.]

I don't think Taiyang did anything when he was in shutdown mode, so even his presence in Signal should be minimal, if there is, compared to Qrow.

[quigonkenny]

Take one look at Ruby. Ask yourself which male role model in her life has been the more influential. Does it make more sense why Taiyang might be a bit miffed at Qrow now?

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by quigonkenny

He gets better...

That's not so much a spoiler as part of the premise (and as much a target of humor as everything else in the story). Death has been a method of traveling to tropetastic alternate fantasy worlds since at least Narnia. Trust me. KonoSuba is about as lighthearted as it gets.

Ah. I'll look into it, then.

Originally Posted by DMurphy

I imagine he's thinking of Ruby training with Qrow, but the thing is, Qrow's a teacher at Signal Academy. So's Taiyang. It's not as if Ruby was going off on a great pilgrimage with Qrow, she was presumably training with him either at the school that Taiyang also works at or at home.

Actually, do we really need a 'reason' why Taiyang would be miffed at that point? His daughter's just woken up from a coma and his best friend is shooing him out of the room. There really doesn't need to be any pre-existing animosity or backstory for that to annoy him.

Agreed. I would think since she, you know, *lives with* Taiyang that she spent quite a whole lot of time with her dad. Whether Qrow was a bigger influence on who she is now doesn't really mean Taiyang wasn't there for Ruby. Obviously, Taiyang loves Ruby immensely. It just appears to be a case where Ruby takes more after an uncle figure whereas Yang takes more after her dad. And Ruby also, apparently, takes after Summer even though Summer (allegedly... I'm starting to use that word now with Summer) died when Ruby was very young.

It's even said that Taiyang is "overly" protective of Yang and Ruby, so he might be worried that Qrow is influencing Ruby to lead a more dangerous life.

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

I don't think Taiyang did anything when he was in shutdown mode, so even his presence in Signal should be minimal, if there is, compared to Qrow.

I didn't take Yang's words that way. I think he may have grieved immensely and maybe drew himself into a shell, but there's nothing to suggest he wasn't actively involved in his daughters' lives or not teaching much at Signal. I think it's actually stated to the opposite.

It just so happens that Qrow was more of an influence on Ruby's combat style and weapon. Yeah, there's the idea that Weiss brings up of Qrow's (apparent) impulsiveness influencing Ruby, as well, but that's not all of Ruby's personality.

[MeoTwister5]

We honestly do not know enough about Taiyang as a person to say how much his daughters take from him.

[Mach56gs]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

We honestly do not know enough about Taiyang as a person to say how much his daughters take from him.

Don't forget the dialogue and the credits!


Penny: Thinking of someone?
Pyrrha: Yes~
Penny: is he gonna be here?
Pyrrha: Yes, someday.

Credit to Ookaminoki!


I love that picture. Its actually bittersweet, unlike most of the art which is just plain tragic. At least in this one, they are in one anothers thoughts, and will meet again, someday...

[Elestia]

I decided to binge watch the third season of RWBY. I have been putting it off ever since Monty passed away.

Overall impressions? Nothing really wow'ed me. It was okay, but adjusting the fight choreography was hard. The magic is gone without Monty.. The show was never strong in the story telling department, but the fights were always the highlights of the show. Too many characters I didn't care about. Everything leading up the finale was predictable and you could see some developments coming a mile away. Well... except Adam's insatiable obsession over Blake. That I did not see coming. In a bad way.

Honestly, the disappointment will always gnaw at me.

[MeoTwister5]

Almost 4 days since I first saw it and I still can't get over the finale. That's how much it affected me.

Spoiler for Should have been her ideal funeral:

Credit toMO arts

[Mach56gs]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

Almost 4 days since I first saw it and I still can't get over the finale. That's how much it affected me.

Spoiler for Should have been her ideal funeral:

Credit toMO arts

I feel your pain, my friend.

Spoiler for Whhyyyyyy:

By perfectly-pyrrha

[MeoTwister5]

Probably the best analysis of Pyrrha's choice to fight Cinder. Was sent to be by friend from a poster in reddit named Shockz0rz.

"Do you believe in destiny?"

We first heard this line from Pyrrha way back in V3C8--"Destiny", appropriately enough--when she was voicing her worries to Jaune about getting into the Maiden-O-Matic pod and having Amber's soul zapped into hers. We find out immediately thereafter that Pyrrha has kind of a strange definition of "destiny": She doesn't believe in any sort of predestined fate; rather, she believes your destiny is something you make for yourself, something you work towards your entire life. (I've had one person tell me that this is closer to the classical meaning of "destiny", as opposed to the modern meaning, where it's pretty much a synonym of "fate". Dunno if that's true, but it wouldn't surprise me.)

And Pyrrha believes her destiny is to protect Remnant. Not any specific person or group; no, Pyrrha thinks big. She wants to protect the world. Initially she thought she'd do that by becoming a huntress; later, despite her misgivings, she thought she'd accomplish it by becoming the Fall Maiden.

Cut to V3C12. Everything's gone to shit. Beacon is being overrun by Grimm, Cinder's put an arrow through Amber's heart and claimed the full power of the Fall Maiden, and Ozpin's just told Pyrrha and Jaune to GTFO before Cinder kills them both. And as the two of them run outside, they hear something that sounds distinctly like a homicidal Fall Maiden flying up an elevator shaft. Unpursued.

And right at that moment, something clicks in Pyrrha's mind. This is it, she realizes. This is what I have to do.

There's no rational reasoning behind it, no particular logic that tells her she will succeed where Ozpin failed. Just...faith. Faith that her destiny, her life goal of protecting Remnant, lies at the top of that tower.

Jaune doesn't get it, of course. That kind of faith rarely makes sense from an outside perspective. She can't explain it; all she can do is break both their hearts with a first--and last--kiss. Then she shoves him into the rocket locker and sends him away for help, and Magnetos her way up to the top of the tower.

The fight that follows, of course, is quite possibly the greatest of the entire show so far. We see Pyrrha, impossibly, hold her own against a fully empowered Fall Maiden. And for just a moment, we believe, and see her believe, that she might win, or at least last long enough for help to arrive--especially when we see that Ruby and Weiss are on their way.

Then comes the arrow to the heel. We all know Pyrrha's based on Achilles; we know she's screwed now. Cinder walks over and starts gloating, but when Pyrrha looks up at her--

She hasn't given up. There's no despair, nor even the slightest hint of uncertainty in her face. She looks Cinder straight in the eye, defiant to the last, and asks her, "Do you believe in destiny?"

She knows she's lost. She knows she's probably about to die. Yet that same unshakable faith remains: she doesn't know how, or why, but she knows that even if she dies here, she will not have died for nothing. Somehow, she will die fulfilling her destiny. Somehow, in death, she will save Remnant.

I don't watch Red vs. Blue--something I intend to remedy as soon as I finish writing this--but a monologue from that show has been brought to my attention for the parallels it has with Pyrrha's situation here.

There are so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day, and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after. But the hero...never gets to see that ending. They'll never know if their sacrifice actually made a difference. They'll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, they just have to have faith.

Ain't that a bitch.

I don't know the context for that monologue--something about an AI sacrificing itself, I think?--but Pyrrha's situation and last words are a parallel and a counterpoint to this speech at the same time. Pyrrha not only has no way of knowing if her sacrifice will actually make a difference, she doesn't even know how it would. And yet the sentiments expressed in that speech probably never even cross her mind, because she had that faith. Even lying there, defeated and broken, she still believes with all her heart that this is the destiny she's been working towards her whole life.

"Yes."

Cinder's one-word reply is almost as meaningful despite its brevity. I wish I could start this off by pointing out that it looks like she's starting to cry as she says this, but sadly it's been pointed out to me that the "tears" are just reflections in her eyes, visible in many other close-ups. ANYWAY! Recall that Pyrrha's definition of "destiny" is pretty weird, almost the opposite of what it's usually taken to mean nowadays. The odds are pretty low that Cinder shares the same definition.

In other words, what Cinder is saying here is the opposite of what Pyrrha meant. She's saying that her victory here at the tower was fate. That everything that happened here--Yang's framing, Pyrrha's accidental killing of Penny, the White Fang/Grimm attack, Cinder's claiming of the Fall Maiden's powers, the fall of Beacon--all of it was predestined, inevitable, unstoppable, and by extension so is her master's eventual victory over all of Remnant.

In agreeing with Pyrrha, then, she's denying Pyrrha's unshakable faith. She's saying that everything Pyrrha has done to try and stop her has been pointless, that her suicidal blaze of glory has accomplished nothing. And immediately thereafter, she tries to prove the point by ending Pyrrha's life then and there.

If only she'd listened to a quote from her creator.

I believe that the human spirit is indomitable. If you endeavor to achieve, it will happen given enough resolve. It may not be immediate, and often your greater dreams is something you will not achieve within your own lifetime. The effort you put forth to anything transcends yourself, for there is no futility even in death. -- Monty Oum, 2012

I'm sure you all will agree that the prescience of this quote is...a little unnerving, to say the least. But regardless of its relevance to Monty's own life and work, it's the theme that lies at the very core of this scene.

Pyrrha, broken but defiant to the last, is dealt a mortal blow, then reduced to ashes upon the wind. And for a moment it looks as if Cinder was right, as if Pyrrha's faith in her destiny was misplaced, that she has died for nothing.

But there to witness her death is little silver-eyed Ruby Rose, who unknowingly held within herself a power that Cinder, so confident in the inevitability of her victory, never could have expected or accounted for.

If Pyrrha had never climbed that tower, perhaps Ruby would have unlocked her powers eventually. But it would have likely taken far longer--time that Salem and Cinder would use to capitalize upon their victory, perhaps even move upon the other kingdoms. But Pyrrha's sacrifice, at that moment, directly resulted in the Grimm dragon being removed from play, and in Ruby discovering that she is far more powerful than she could have ever imagined. And I suspect that Cinder did not get away unscathed, either.

Pyrrha never got the chance to see her faith rewarded, to see that her death there paved the way to victory. But she didn't need to see. She already knew.

[Mach56gs]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

Probably the best analysis of Pyrrha's choice to fight Cinder. Was sent to be by friend from a poster in reddit named Shockz0rz.

That review is spot on. So true, so sad, so touching.

There is much more to Pyrrha's story, namely how everyone remembers her.

[bakato]

I was thinking the same thing about Red vs Blue there.

[tuckersister]

If Ruby wore a red hood cloak and Summer wore a white one, do you there will be someone in Summer's family the wears a black one. It would be nice with red embroiled black Gothic dress. Anyway it is just a theory. Vol 4 will probably surround Ruby find answers to her heritage and who the real enemies are. Meanwhile, the rest of team RWBY needs to find a way to pick themselves up. I also hope we will see Raven more. I really hope the warriors with silver eyes are witches or mages.

[Heir of the Void]

Well, I hope the warriors with silver eyes are a drug-induced hallucination or, failing that, implemented well.

[Somnus]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

Probably the best analysis of Pyrrha's choice to fight Cinder. Was sent to be by friend from a poster in reddit named Shockz0rz.

This caused me to look up the RvB scene. Was not disappointed. Kudos.

[MeoTwister5]

These things are starting to pop up.

Credits to the AMV makers for prolonging everyone's suffering.