Start of Volume 7Volume: 7, Chapter: 1The Greatest Kingdom Previous thread:>>147064865
God she's beautiful
I have ALOT I wanna say. So be warned: long post incoming.1/3: Vic mignognaBefore I get into the episode itself, I wanna talk about something I completely forgot about until I heard Qrows voice. Between volume 6 and 7, Qrows voice actor, Vic Mignogna, was accused of multiple cases of sexual assault, pedophilia and multiple other crimes. Because of this he was banned from many cons, and fired from many roles, including Qrow. I Don't even keep up with the bts. But even I knew about this.Any accusation that actually provided evidence was disproven. And the rest lack evidence. Many of the accusers have been exposed as liars. And even some of the girls who have been proclaimed as his "victims" have come out in his defense. Saying the pics used (picrel) were being used out of context.All I gotta say is FUCK rooster teeth, and FUCK the RWBY fandom. Fuck rooster teeth for firing Vic. Fuck the RWBY fandom for trying to gaslight and shame everyone from noticing and critiquing this obvious change. I remember when this episode came out, if you in anyway complained about the new voice, people treated you like a misogynistic right-wing chud. Granted, I am a misogynistic right-wing chud, but I wasn't at the time, so fuck you.> "The new voice is better. The old one was too Gravelly. Anyone who disagrees is problematic"As for the new voice, I won't come to a conclusion after only one episode. But I will say, not a good first impression. Alot of people say it's better because Vic was "too Gravelly", but I think think the new guy (Jason Liebrecht) sounds to raspy. And for a grown man, i'll take gravelly over raspy. But i'll give him more of a chance.
2/3While I'm giving a giant fuck you to the RWBY fandom. FUCK the RWBY fandom for spoiling the Penny reveal. I recognize that after a while spoilers are inevitable (hence why I made Penny the thumbnail). I remember the day this episode came out. I woke up, went on YouTube, and the first thing I saw on my homepage was a video with Penny in the thumbnail with the title "PENNY'S BACK." When I went in the comments to complain, people said "why are you on social media if you don't want spoilers". Mind you, this wasn't a few years after the episode came out, nor a few months, nor a few weeks, or even days. This was literally TWO HOURS after it came out. GOD FORBID I DON'T WATCH THE EPISODE WITHIN TWO HOURS OF IT'S RELEASE. Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.
>>147075931>>1470759493/3Okay, that's it for meta stuff, I swear. On the episode it's, first, Mantle looks great. Reminds me of new york, but the colors look WAY better. It's like cyberpunk, but a little toned down, which I like. I also like that we're seeing the consequences martial law is having on the people. Glad to see some faunus racism, even if it's painfully on the nose.And finally, Penny. I can buy that she came back, seeing that she's a robot and all. Pyrrha was the only volume 3 death I expected to say permanently. But I get why some people think it's cheap. I liked Penny, so I'm glad to see her back. But I felt like her reveal is a little... underwhelming. Like it should have been this BIG emotional moment. A character is back from the dead. But instead it just feels like, "Ah cool, Penny's back." Why isn't Ruby breaking into tears? Why isn't this a bigger deal? Why does it feel so casual?Mixed feelings really.P.s Penny's new design is super cute.
>>147075902done so fucking dirty its unreal.im glad rooster teeth is dead.
>>147076130Are you talking about Penny or Vic?
>"Failure to cooperate with Atlas military personnel is a punishable offense.">>147075931I noticed the voice actor change, but didn't know about the allegations and stuff until I saw it on the RWBY Wiki (I like to check out the trivia section after each episode). I can see the tension it could create in the fandom though, especially in 2019. By this time in the show, not only had I moved on, but pretty much all the bloggers I followed who were RWBY related moved on as well. So this discourse completely missed me, although at the time I did see the animation crunch discourse which happened around here as well (Grad Haddock, who oversaw a lot of RT animation, isn't even listed in the credits now (probably for the best that he was forced to step down though)). Anyway, on the episode itself, I'd say it was solid, if not as great out the gate as volume 6's first episode. I kind of like the idea of Atlas becoming a sort of militaristic state after Ironwood becomes increasingly paranoid. There's even a sense of "Big Brother is watching you" in Mantle, with Ironwood and Winter's voices thundering out to the citizens through their huge screens. There are even drones flying around the streets constantly monitoring everything. I know that some have complained about Ironwood's upcoming arc, but other than that I honestly know nothing about it so I'm curious to see how it will play out and what my own reaction will be. (1/2)
>>147076746(2/2) And finally, Penny is back! I think in some ways, it could be argued that Penny's death in volume 3 was the show's "original sin". Her death was basically just a tool for Cinder's (extremely vague and nonsense) plan. It was to signal that the show was going to get "darker" and more serious. And while her death could have been used for some development or motivation for Ruby, it never really played out that way. Since her death, Penny's name has been mentioned in the show probably 3 times in total. The closest Ruby seems to grapple with her death is when she monologued at Oscar in that scene in volume 5. But you never really get the sense that Penny's death shaped or changed Ruby in any meaningful way. So in that sense, bringing her back could be seen as a "do-over", an attempt at correcting what was probably a mistake. I'm on board with it. I like Penny, and it never really made sense that a robot could be dead anyway. Looking forward to the volume, although remaining somewhat skeptical considering how volume 6 ended. >"It is such a pleasure to see you all again!"
>>147075902SAL-YOU-TATIONS!
>>147076758>And while her death could have been used for some development or motivation for Ruby, it never really played out that way.I think skip of 6-8 months for volume 4 was a mistake. We should have seen the more immediate effect on the characters. It feels like all of Ruby's development has been reserved to nothing more than motivational speeches.
>Recalling an actual conversation I had some weeks ago.My cousin: So RWBY's main villainess's power is being inmortal, and that's it?Me: Yes, and somehow she was supposed to be a threat that lasts over ten seasons.My cousin: Why don't just throw her into space and call it a day?Me: They technically could do that via 4 deus ex machinas they have, or seal her inside one of the vaults she cannot open.Cousin: Could someone like Jojo's Vanilla Ice defeat her?Me: I suppose. And also The Hand. She's barely mid-tier by Jojo standards. Honestly, I could write a way to defeat her and wrap up the entire show with a 20-40k special chapter.
>>147077347Volume 4 was bad for a whole host of reasons, and I don't know that taking out the time skip would have changed things very much to be honest. Wrt Ruby, she just needs more agency, which she got in volume 6, but by then so much time had passed since Penny's death that it didn't really have an impact on the story anymore.
>>147075931I would say Fuck Funimation first and foremost since they started the whole "Kick Vic" movement in the first place.
>>147076322penny AKA best girl by far.
>>147077804Ya fuck them too.
>>147077347>>147077735The problem with Ruby's character arc being so half-baked isn't lack of agency. It's lack of cues to the audience that she has not been okay this entire time. Ruby doubling down on what Ozpin said to her in volume 1 with the heroic speeches and trying to be the ideal huntress were meant to be the obvious signs, but without the context of solitary scenes where Ruby is reflecting on what happened, it just rings hollow.
>>147078546> It's lack of cues to the audience that she has not been okay this entire time. Ruby doubling down on what Ozpin said to her in volume 1 with the heroic speeches and trying to be the ideal huntress were meant to be the obvious signs, but without the context of solitary scenes where Ruby is reflecting on what happened, it just rings hollow.This is all true, but I would argue it is downstream of her lack of agency. She doesn't really do much in volume 4, so there's not much for the audience to reflect on. Even having her do nothing would be something - showing her struggle with being a hero and fighting Grimm after the death of her friends. But we don't even get that, because most of the scenes she's in is mostly just her playing a background character (at the time of our volume 4 rewatch I suggested that this could be purposeful, that she was purposefully putting aside her own emotions/trauma to support others, but even that idea wasn't really fleshed out at all).
