The RWBY RPRT: "Fall"

My Face after this episode...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with The RWBY RPRT...after a month of not doing it. Sorry guys, a combination of school and lack of motivation to write has kept me mostly inactive on my Blog. I do plan on getting a giant catch up recap of episodes 3-5 done, but for now let's worry about Today's episode.

Episode 6 is titled: "Fall", although I am considering starting a petition to rename it "The Episode where the dots start to connect". It starts with Pyrrha in the office of Ozpin and they're having small talk about the finals of the tournament while Qrow is in the background being a smart mouth as he tends to do. It doesn't take long before Pyrrha is asking just why Ozpin called her to his office and when the question's asking the two share a brief conversation about Fairy Tales. To those who don't know, a good chunk of RWBY's inspiration stems from Fairy Tales in themselves (Ruby is an allusion to Little Red Riding Hood, Weiss is an allusion to Snow White, and on and on) which, now that it's here, I think it's very interesting that they're now using direct mentions of Fairy Tales for their story. One in particular brought up is the story of the seasons.

This fairy tale was one of four maidens (Summer, Winter, Fall, and Spring) who visit this old guy and gets him out of his house. It's a lot more detailed than that, but that's what it boils down to. The old man was so grateful for these maidens' help and kindness that he gives them powers so that they can help people around the world.

It's then Ozpin drops the bombshell on Pyrrha that the fairy tale was in fact true, that there were, and still are to this day, four maidens who are capable of incredible power and this is all capable without the use of Dust or a Semblance. When Pyrrha asks the obvious question as to why she's being told about this, another Bombshell is dropped on her when she's told that she's next in line for the Fall Maiden's power. And it's on that note Glynda and Ironwood enter the room from the elevator and tell the confused Pyrrha that they're still the same people she knew from when she joined Beacon (Except she didn't know Qrow or Ironwood when she joined Beacon) but they also have another job: They're the protectors of the world...so they're like every Huntsman and Huntress? Yeah, I'm nitpicking here but little lines of dialogue get to me like that sometimes. The first episode of Volume 2, Glynda's chastising the main characters saying something along the lines of they're going to be the protectors of the world, so in my mind I couldn't help but think that 'Couldn't the writers come up with a name for this secret society to differentiate it from the ordinary Huntsman and Huntresses? I'm thinking too much about two lines of dialogue I know so let's go to the next scene.

I don't know why, But I really like this image of a nervous Pyrrha in the elevator with all the teachers.

One elevator ride underground later, Glynda gives more exposition about the Four Maidens: that they've been around for thousands of years and upon death their power leaves their bodies and looks for new hosts; and when they die, their power is transferred to the last female they think about, and if they're thinking about a male or an elderly woman, the power goes to someone random...yeah the power of The Seasons is real finicky like that apparently. I'm sorry, but while Glynda was explaining the Maidens to Pyrrha, I was distracted by the way they walked. Look at those two closely, the way they're walking reminds me of South Park for some reason.

Naturally, Pyrrha asks why the teachers would tell her now instead of when she graduated to which Qrow says that they're running out of time: Grimm were getting stronger and prevalent, tensions were running high, war seems to be on the verge of happening; and once again, the problem of the Grimm not being seen as a threat to me kind of rears its head. Granted, the end of Vol. 2 does a better job of showing that Grimm were getting and it can be argued that they're shown to be prevalent, but I've yet to see them be a danger, if the end of Volume 2 was any indication, all you need to do is have a big enough group of Huntsmen and the Grimm go down like flies.

After their brief walk down Exposition Road, the group of four reach their destination. To the chamber/tube that holds The Previous Maiden of Fall: Amber.

Much to her surprise, Pyrrha sees that Amber is still alive. Ironwood is using Atlas Technology to keep the girl alive, and now comes the dilemma the group of teachers is currently in. Ember had been attacked and placed in a death-like state and her attacker took off with half of her power, something that's never been done before; and when she died that other half of power would be transferred to said attacker. Knowing the danger, Pyrrha volunteers to be The Fall Maiden, but there is a price. Because of Amber's state, the process of transferring the other half of her power would be different from what is tradition. The reason being is that Ironwood, who's been using Science to experiment with Aura and how it works, will be forcibly removing Ember's Aura (And her very soul) from her body and transferring it into Pyrrha. The very process may change Pyrrha and she'll never be the same person again (Think of it like Piccolo and Kami Fusing in DBZ).

Here's why I loved this revelation with Amber, and it may just be speculation on my part; but this whole first half of this episode was where things kind of started falling into place for me, and for the first time in RWBY, I felt that I was given a reason to care about Cinder Fall as a villain and why she should be seen as a threat. What does Cinder have to do with this? Well, let me see if I can break it down.

As we find out in this episode, Amber is underground in Beacon because her assailant put her in that condition and ran off with half of her power. I believe that Cinder was the one that put Amber in that state and took off with only half of her power before something happened that separated her from Emerald. So fast forward In Volume 2, Cinder disguises herself as a student to participate in The Vytal Festival Tournament held in Vale, because she knew that was her best bet of locating Amber and taking the other half of her power she failed to take before. When Cinder had her "List" back in Volume 2, she was scouting out potential suitors to inherit the power of one of the maidens, Pyrrha being a strong candidate. There may be two potential holes in this speculation of mine, but I'm willing to let the show further expand on the maidens and their power before I call foul.

But with this information, I'm going to put my Tin Foil hat on and throw out two theories I have. Both involve that giant swirling red-black ball of death above the four titular characters seen in the image above. That ball is seen in I believe all three openings of RWBY (at least 1 & 3) & I do think it plays a part with the Maidens. The first and obvious one to me is that Cinder herself is one of The Maidens of the Seasons (My guess being Summer) and when she inherited the power, she heard the story of the maidens and how their power is beyond anything of Dust and Semblance; so Cinder wants to take the power of the other three maidens and make it her own so she could become a God in the RWBY world and create chaos around the world. The ball you see up above is the result of someone as wicked as Cinder having the power of all of the Maidens and causing a chain reaction of negative energy that attracts the Grimm to which she beckons them to her control; and the reason she's collecting so much dust is when she finally reaches that level of Godhood. she plans on erasing every trace of Dust so that she can go unopposed.

The second one is a lot more radical, and is why I normally don't do theories because mine are so dumb, and that is that Cinder herself is the Good Guy and she's trying to stop the Maidens from assembling together. The reason I thought of this theory was the idea that the tale of the Four Maidens was something that was previously common knowledge but soon become lost to the common folk for the protection of the Maidens and/or potential inheritors from those that want their power. My thought process with this is: "What if the Tale was in fact a lie fabricated by the Maidens themselves to keep their true motives a secret? That when they're together, their power causes great destruction (resulting in the death ball) to landscapes in RWBY?" This would explain what happened to the moon in the RWBY-verse, which for those who've never seen the moon in RWBY, here you go:

Not only that, it also would explain what happened to the Kingdom of Mantle in The Great War. Now some of you may be thinking: "But Shaman, if the Maidens were responsible for Mantle, wouldn't anyone participating in the Great War remember it?" Honestly, the way I see it: because the Maidens' power is legit magic, who's to say that they used their powers to change the minds of the participants of The Great War so their memory of what happened to Mantle are different from what actually occurred. Cinder is the only one that knows the TRUE Motive/purpose of the Maidens and so she's doing everything in her power to keep The Maidens from uniting, even if it meant stealing some of their powers for herself; and the dust she's been collecting is the fail safe plan in case her Plan A fails since Dust is the only thing that hurts the Maidens.

Again, these theories of mine are very dumb and after them I don't know If I'll ever do another Theory topic again. But that's how I feel. And for the first time ever, I am VERY excited for what Cinder's next move as a villain is.

The other half of the episode is the beginning of The Finals of The Vytal Festival Tournament between Yang and Mercury: a match up that many fans have been eager to see as it's been teased in Openings 2 and 3 and it's a match between a girl that has shotgun gauntlets versus a dude with Shotgun shoes. Ruby wishes her sister luck by telling her to Break a Leg (which considering the end of the episode is pretty F**ked up in irony). The fight is cool, there are a lot of back and forths in it, I'm sorry folks. But there have been a lot of fight scenes this volume, and whenever I finish my Catch-up RPRT, you'll most likely see me type the same thing like "Look how cool that fight is" so I'll talk about the most important part which is the end of the fight. Yang uses her Semblance to Super Saiyan it up and finish off Mercury. The match is over and she won. When she walks away, Mercury tries to get in a cheapshot but Yang ends up breaking his leg. Everyone is appalled by Yang's action, some even booing. Confused, Yang looks up at the giant screen where everyone can see the matches transpire and from the way it looks to the audience, she won the match, took a few steps away from Mercury, and immediately broke his leg after the match was over. This in turn gets some Guards to surround her and telling her not to move a muscle, and the episode ends with Yang and her team distraught over what had happened.

If I were a betting man, I'd make a safe bet and say this is the cause of Neo (Cinder's other teammate that's in the disguise you see up above). Neo has the ability to create Illusions (Thanks RWBY Wiki!) So she most likely used an illusion to mess with Yang's mind and create the scenario where she thought Mercury was going to attack her.

In summation, "Fall" is a great episode. It's one that definitely dumps a lot of information on the audience, but it's also one where I feel that the story in Volume 3 is finally starting to go somewhere. Combine that with the most effective Cliffhanger the show's done since "No Brakes" and you have me very intrigued for what the second half of the Volume brings. "Fall" is also the last episode of RWBY for the year, so it'll be a little while before we see the show continue, but rest assured that when the show comes back, the Shaman of Animation will be there to Report it... and hopefully I won't be several weeks behind on episodes like I currently am.

Speaking of not being behind on RWBY Episodes and Recaps, Check out the folks at SuperKamiAnime on YouTube who also have RWBY Reviews titled "The RWBY RPRT" and unlike me, have all the episodes and the world of Remnant segment on Huntsman and Huntresses. So give those folks a looksie.   

Til next time folks, I'm The Shaman of Animation and I have Three Episodes of RWBY to catch up on and my own special December Themes reviews...the next sixteen days are going to be SO MUCH FUN!! 

Take Care...