RWBY Episode in review - Dance Dance Infiltration

[LawAndChaos]

Another episode come and gone.

A bad pun for a title.

Another instance of the villain's vague plans and how none of them are actually DOING anything.

Firstly, the animation gets bad. Not bad in a lot of places, but really bad in particular when Cinder is making her rooftop jumps. Like oh god, she looks like she's not even jumping across the roof. She looks more like she's moving IN FRONT of it. I don't remember Cinder being able to float.

Now, first thing's first. The dance sequence. Jaune's naked arms are horribly blocky. Like, they look scary, even. In addition, and this is kind of a question some people kind of push aside for the sake of the sequence: How the hell did they memorize a choreographed dance sequence without Pyrra knowing Jaune could dance? I'm not sure if I could say this fairly, but it's borderline filler. Filler in a show whose episodes are not even in the 15 minute mark. I don't know why they wanted to have this kind of sequence, but I honestly feel like there could've been something more important to focus on.

Anyways, I felt like adressing that, since it's pretty much the quote-unquote "highlight" of the episode. Now, the discussion between Jaune and Neptune. Honestly I feel like Jaune is being a massive hypocrite here. At the same time he's talking to Neptune like he knows the guy, most likely on the basis of the fact that he turned down Weiss. What a dick.

Character development is important. However it's pointless to do it on characters we've barely established. Neptune hasn't had very much characterization beyond the few times we've seen him.

Now, we've had Neptune for all of, what, a few episodes. Not once does he really strike me as a 'cool ladies man' guy who randomly hits on women. I think he does it once to Weiss by calling her Snow Angel, and maybe once again to the sisters and all he said there was 'hey.' Compared to how Jaune acted towards Weiss and Pyrra during their first real conversation, Neptune's been relatively tame. Jaune is a massive hypocrite.

Now, Pyrra's explanation for things is about what I expected. Basically the whole "I'm so amazing no one wants to approach me" deal. Pretty standard honestly.

I will admit, it is surprisingly mature of Jaune to actually dress in a...well, dress, to cheer Pyrra up. Whether making him look ugly as hell in it was the intention or not, well, he looks heinous in it. As in, blocky arms heinous rather than intentionally heinous. Either way it was a nice gesture from Jaune. All the same we get Neptune talking good about Jaune, which is likely a set up for Weiss 'warming up' to Jaune on the basis of "he thinks highly of me and did something nice for me despite my being a total ass to him. How nice!" And while the creators have said they aren't really planning to have romance, it can be noted they said the same thing about people dying, which changed quickly by season 2 (or maybe they meant no one important would die. Hm.).

Now we get into the plot progression. Like, ACTUAL plot progression. We have Cinder infiltrating...somewhere, looking for...something. What does she get out of it? Something we're not shown from one of the guards in the elevator, to access gibberish. And of course, we get the 'offscreen elevator fight.' While I do admit it's cool we're FINALLY getting to see what the villains are capable of (kinda), it's kind of aggrivating that the fight is very brief and isn't really that interesting to watch. I can understand Cinder trying to avoid making a big show of things for stealth, but then, why go personally? Why not send Emerald or Mercury - No, why not send EMERALD!? SHE'S A THIEF! APPARENTLY THE BEST ONE AROUND TOO. Did Cinder just want to have a personal touch on it or something?

In any case, we once again get no real clues about the villain's plan (which isn't always bad), but see them do barely anything still (which IS bad).

You want to make a villain threatening?

Make Cinder move in and curbstomb the entire guard. Make her find some really nasty data or the like, maybe related to the military's machines. Make it so that she's unstoppable against low-level mooks rather than having to actually exert herself. Like, she's strong enough that some mere guards require no effort.

I honestly get the vibe more and more that there is going to be a more major villain running the three of them and that they're not actually the main villains here.

I love how Ruby moved in hoping to actually fight in high heels. I also love how she managed to make it to the same floor Cinder was on. I could understand if the building is only a couple stories up, but then what's the point of an elevator. But that's just me nitpicking.

All in all, another day in the life of RWBY. Eh fights the plot and doesn't afraid of meh.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

snip

Well, my review [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.860443-RWBY-review-Dance-Dance-Infultration-spoilers] is up and I am actually not that angry compared to the last review.

The review itself does ramble but I think it gets the point across.

 

[LawAndChaos]

snip

Well, my review [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.860443-RWBY-review-Dance-Dance-Infultration-spoilers] is up and I am actually not that angry compared to the last review.

The review itself does ramble but I think it gets the point across.

Seems like the episode's just kind of 'eh,' rather than 'ECH.'

It does have terrible animation and models in places (Cinder/Jaune) but outside of that it eases off some things that were grating in the episode previous (Jaune's still an insufferable dick).

I agree with most of what you're saying, really.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Yeah I definitely agreed the part with Cinder on the rooftop looked so awkward animation wise and Jaune having muscular arms (I guess he did at least trained for the part of wanting to entered Beacon).

Also I guess the reason why Prryha liked Jaune make sense (it kind of remind me of Hey Arnold with Helga secretly liking Arnold) althought it make me wonder if she could of end up liking another guy who doesn't recongise her before. As for Neptune secret, I find that dorky but funny!

As for the sync dancing, that's your standard cliche/ troupe.

Oh Cinder fighting ability is impressive althought her weapon is unimaginative but none the less it get the job done.

Honestly the whole episode pretty much remind me of Soul Eater when they had their part and the villain make the first move.

Lastly are the two guards guarding Penny is a reference to RvB (one red guard and the other blue)?

 

[Halon Chocolate]

Unlurking myself to tell you and Izanagi009 to keep up the good work with these reviews! Its really refreshing to read something akin to objectivity regarding this web series.

My disappointment in this show stems largely from a personal observation that this show just doesn't know exactly what it wants to be. This stems, from a large part, that RWBY tries really hard to emulate anime without fully understanding why certain anime shows tend to gravitate towards using their tropes in the first place. After the first season ended, I read on how the producer gave his writing team "homework" by making them watch shows like Soul Eater. Yeah, it shows.

Now, theres not a lot you can work with for 15 minutes a slot, and that is completely understandable. But this also means that pacing is an incredibly important factor to juggle, and even more reason to not cram as much stuff into the already-full pot simply for the sake of "oh, because that anime did it and I liked it." Okay, we get it. You watched Soul Eater and Naruto.

A personal ire for me is that theres also, for the lack of a better term, no "uumph" with any events that occur on this show. The most notable example was the most recent fight with Torchwick and his stolen mecha. As a former first responder, I was cringing at that highway scene with all those cars thrown about like toys. Presumably, if each car was manned by at least a single individual, the loss of life could have been catastrophic. At the very least, it cements Torchwick as a cold, cruel villain that disregards human/fauna/idunno life for his agenda and should be addressed in the world they're trying so hard to instill to us as a living, breathing hub of life. Instead, its all waved under the rug, a simple passing mention by Ruby or someone else on her team, by the way also guilty of enabling this disaster. Was there a timeskip involved somewhere? None of these long-term consequences are reinforced, not even as background acknowledgments like a newscast or announcements from any sort of public servants, and we're traded one villain for another. This just imprints on to me that the entire world exists as a sandbox for the RWBY cast to play around in, despite being constantly told that Beacon is but one small hub in this so-called expansive network of social structures. It just doesn't give off that impression to me. Despite the world opening up a bit more in this season, it feels just as lifeless as it was in the first one.

Again, chalk that up to writing and pacing, squandered to give us more "slice-of-life". Combat should not be something to be taken lightly, and if you're gonna treat your world and people like toy props and banging action figures together, don't expect me to take anything seriously when something heavy does drop.

Now, the general opinion, from what I've seen on the Escapist forums and /co/, is that the show is not good but has the capability to be really good. People really do want to see this show hit its full potential, myself included, but RWBY is currently gimping itself trying too hard to emulate anime by adopting their silly tropes and cliches for the sake of trying to be an anime, instead of using them to tell a story.

Thats fine too, its their story to tell after all. But, at this point, I'm not even watching it for the plot anymore. I'm invested in it simply to take note of what not to do for my own writing projects.

Keep up the good work, you two. Don't be afraid to take and accept criticisms whenever able, but stand your ground when you feel strongly on it.

 

[DirectorK]

At this point I'm pretty much convinced that UNLESS we see some significant changes to the writing and direction, we'll just never see RWBY go anywhere beyond the classroom setting. And even if it does it won't be happening anytime soon. It will be just one high school drama story mixed with awesome action scenes after another. "We'll pick up the plot soon!" Never really getting around to it.

You know what, Rooster Teeth? Cancel the series and have Monty, Miles, and Kerry step aside. If they cause trouble, fire them. Then hold a story competition for the fans and see who can come up with the most interesting, intriguing, and creative story regarding RWBY kind of like what Monty did with Velvet Scarlatina's outfit(Who we STILL haven't seen yet and the season is already half finished). Hold that competition for like a month and took a very close look at the stories you receive. Then once you find one that embraces all three of those qualities present it to Monty Oum himself and see what he thinks of it. Not Miles and/or Kerry, just Monty. And if he really likes it and wants to use it, then hire that person with the option to bring in another writer that he or she knows and can work with.

Hell, you might get some cool ideas out of it if you extend that competition to three months. Shit, there are people out there that would KILL for an opportunity to work for Rooster Teeth! A few would probably even do it for FREE! And don't worry about getting sued just have them sign something. We are some of the most passionate fans EVER in the Rooster Teeth community.

 

[LawAndChaos]

DK, I hate to say it but what you're suggesting is too optimistic.

There's no way that they'd start over now. They've been picked up by WBJapan, meaning they're going to be playing with the big boys. The only possibilities I can think of is that A)they're going to crash and burn on that front or B)It's going to go the SAO route and become popular despite not being very good.

Either way they can't do a massive restart on the story now. Especially since that would be them admitting they fucked up, which they won't do. Even with the plot "picking up" there's no investment. Allow me to present:

~THE RWBY QUALITY THEATER~

*Devil's Advocate* : They're gonna save the world!

*Me* : I don't care about the world. We know jack shit about it, why should I care?

*D.A.* : Look at all this action! Don't you like it?

*Me* : Eh, it's okay, but it's mostly just flash, without any impact.

*D.A.* : Aren't these characters great?

*Me* : Lesse, Ruby is ok but bland. Weiss is an unrepentant ***** and a racist. Blake is boring and Yang is a passive presence. Jaune is a shitbird favored by the writer, we barely see Nora or Ren, Pyrra's ok, Penny's ok, Sun is ok, and we barely know Neptune. The villains are uninteresting and up to this point largely ineffectual.

I guess 4 out of everyone is a passing grade, huh?

Now, Halon, welcome to the discussion, good sir. Enjoy your stay. On that note:

A show doesn't always need to know what it needs to be. Well, ok it DOES, but it doesn't need to keep consistent tone. Consider a series like One Piece for instance. It's a show that has funny moments, awesome moments, serious and dramatic and even really really sad (really sad. I did mention that right?) moments. To change the tone of a scene is relatively simple. You can either ease people from one tone to another, or for dramatic effect use the "wham" to immediately shift the tone in a sudden, jarring moment to really give people the "oh shit" moments that some media use to great effect.

I do agree with your notion on 'oomph.' There are seemingly no long term consequences for a lot of things, the cars scene being most egregious, considering they didn't even think of potential casualties when our protags lured him onto the highway. I do like your impression of the RWBY world being just a sandbox. This comes back to a problem I've had with the series since Volume 1. Miles and Kerry didn't want to make the effort to use exposition or showing off the world to give people the image of an expansive world. So they focused on a character-driven narrative, which fell on its face because of poor pacing, poor characterization and confused dialogue. I remember saying at one point that world-building and character development/driving the plot is a careful game of balance. Establishing how everything works keeps viewers from being confused, and seeing a world (like AoT's beautiful nature-filled one) can give the image of a place worth fighting for, which can give people additional investment in the stakes beyond the characters themselves. Of course, so long as your characters are strong, the world doesn't need as much focus, since the investment usually belongs to the characters more than the world. Just showing how certain things work in your story and the status of the world is enough. Minimize confusion, maximize understanding, increase interest and investment.

It is their story to tell, though, I will admit. Shame they're not very good at telling it.

When I listen to how things are written, it makes me want to rewrite parts of the script myself where things are at their weakest.

In fact, I'll try it now.

Spoiler: Weiss: less racism, more drama

{Team RWBY's room - Blake vs. Weiss}
Weiss: Those kinds of people are the same! They cause trouble, break the law. Then they get caught. Punished. From there, they become even more bitter, join the White Fang, all for payback. That's all that motivates those criminals: revenge!

Blake: It's not that simple. You can't tell who---

Weiss: Of course I can! I've seen their type!

Blake: You mean Faunus?

Weiss: I mean troublemakers!

Blake: So Faunus are troublemakers then? So what, they should just stay in line, work in YOUR quarries, like...like slaves?

Weiss: OF COURSE NOT!

(pause)

Weiss: I...I hate what my father's been doing, what he's done. I don't agree with any of it. People are people. No matter what my father said to me, the way the Faunus are treated...I couldn't agree with something like that. But it's not that easy. My father, his associates, his investors...they're all making money. Even if it's off the backs of innocent people, they won't try to change anything so long as things work for them.

Blake: Then YOU change it!!

Weiss: I told you, it's not that simple!!

Blake: And why not!?

Weiss: Because I already tried! They won't listen. White Fang associates warring with our family, attacking our trains, killing our friends...our...family. I remember when my father came home one evening. He was furious. He looked at me like it was my fault. Like...'look at what your little Faunus friends did now,' just because I didn't see them as just tools to be used. Just because I didn't blindly agree with the way they did things. And then, things got worse. Father doesn't even acknowledge me anymore...ever since mother...

Ruby: Weiss...

Weiss: My father hates me. My sister won't talk to me. I walk in the streets and see Faunus looking at me like I'm garbage. The White Fang is constantly threatening my family, my friends. Every day we would lose people. Faunus, human, it didn't matter. So long as you weren't on their side, you were an enemy.
They came after me, and I don't even know if the next person I meet is going to be the one to take my life. I've survived, but despite that, just living has become terrifying for me. Do you think you have even an inkling of what that's like? Do you know what it's like for the world to wish you never existed!?

Blake: ...*removes ribbon*...actually, I do.

*proceed to apply group hugs and small dash of Checkmate shipping if it adds to the flavor of the dish*

The notion being Weiss being a bit self-centered with the pity train, but at the same time not entirely un-sympathetic.

...hm, that was kind of fun. Oh, wait, can I actually have something like that here? I mean, it's not really a part of my criticisms...and it's kind of hokey...eh.