Armed and Ready RWB Yang Xiao Long

Weiss is so precious. I love her. 

And though I miss the little girl, You’ve made me awful proud. Funny how our lives change, ‘Cause you’re my hero now.

That’s my baby girl standing right there;)

Armed and Ready by Casey Lee Williams

RWBY Volume 4 Finale Song

Of Arcs & Ends (Volume 4)

This entire volume seemed like an awkward mix-up of catch-up (as in, telling us what the world was actually like when we should have already known the basics) and long standing dialogue scenes. For a show ostensibly driven by action, these characters did so little actual moving (in terms of accomplishing plot-relevant tasks). Also, a bunch of new characters we didn’t need. I can only think of four – out of about a dozen – that needed to exist. The rest could have easily been taken up by people we already have models and histories for.

For Yang, it makes sense for her to be in recovery. I expected her to be the last to come into the fray anyway, but her plot with Raven has been tossed forward yet another season after being abandoned for two volumes. Yes, Raven showed up and spoke with Qrow, but the audience knows the real conflict is between her and Yang, so there’s zero payoff in that sense. Are we even going to see it in Volume 5 if she goes after Ruby instead?

For Blake, it’s honestly hard to say since her entire character has been forced into a 360 by the presence of her parents. It’s basically a reboot, and not one that makes a lot of sense compared to everything we saw previously. She didn’t also actually do anything besides going back to Menagerie. The fight with Ilia didn’t go anywhere, as proven by the finale. We didn’t even see Adam gearing up to threaten her again, despite the opening sequence that’s been playing for episode after episode.

For Ruby, what has she done except walked forward towards Mistral? Yeah, there were some fights, but we didn’t see her make any singular leaps of accomplishment that frame a hero (much less a main character). Jaune’s grief constantly overshadowed hers, and he was playing the leader onscreen, with no acknowledgement of either 1) Ruby’s lone wolf tendencies or 2) the fact that she was also a team leader. She finally got to cry at the end of the finale, but there’s no proof of any fundamental change about her. The exact same results could have happened if she took a leisurely flight and Qrow got a terrible hangover instead.

(Yes, the fights moved Ren and Nora’s characterization forward, but if Ruby is actually a main character, their stories should always be subordinate to hers. That’s just how it works.)

Weiss had the only fully realized character arc in Volume 4, despite it being clunky in some places (mostly the incredibly obvious absence of her mother and also Whitley being one step above a cardboard cutout). She had conflicts and barriers that were overcome after a struggle, and despite the loss of her inheritance, she moves forward into the end determined to meet her team again. She has an enhanced ability – the Knight summon – and is ‘returned’ to the state she was when first going to Beacon, being alone with her sword and her suitcase. The same thing happened in Volume 3 with her mini-arc involving Winter. RT clearly knows where Weiss’ character is going, but I can’t say that’s true for the rest of the team.

I love how Weiss snuck out of her house in loud high heels like girl get some sneakers or something

Damn

rwby + smiles