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A Breakdown of Episode 2

Welcome back everyone to the second part of RWBY Tuesday. I’ve decided to revamp this blog series by trying out something different. Instead of trying to explain the mentioned episode myself in broad detail, I’ll just write a brief recap of the episode and let the YouTube embed video do the talking. After that I’ll just break down the positives and negatives of the episode in question and end with personal thoughts about the episode. I figure this’ll give more blog space to actually talk about the RWBY episode than rehashing what I’m sure most would’ve known if one has watched the video earlier. If you haven’t hopefully the recap will entice you enough to give the show a try.  Here’s the video embed of RWBY Episode 2: The Shining Beacon.

After a shortened kick ass intro, Ruby and Yang finally arrive at Beacon where the unknown blond (vomit) boy from episode 1 debarks to find the nearest trash can and Ruby begins to fawn over all the new weapons that the other students have. After Yang ditches Ruby for her friends at Beacon, Ruby has her first encounter with Weiss and Blake. Their encounter doesn’t go so well and despite Ruby’s best efforts to make an impression (along with making up for her first “explosive” impression to Weiss) both girls leave without saying so much as a kind word of goodbye.  But at her low point in social interactions, Ruby is helped up (literally) by “vomit boy” from episode 1. From there the two try their best to introduce themselves, show off their respective weapons and eventually get themselves lost in Beacon. Roll credits.

High Points

More sister interactions with Yang and Ruby

We get to learn more about the two and see how they react in different situations. Yang shows to be more social whereas Ruby is a bit of a ditz when it comes to making new friends, preferring to meet new weapons than people since they are “better”. Seeing Yang ditch Ruby seems typical of what most big sisters would do to their siblings despite their best intentions. Not cutting the sibling bonding strings gently here

 

Meeting “Vomit Boy”

Obviously we were going to find out who “vomit boy” was since he was shown in episode 1. In this episode we at least see he has good intentions by trying to help Ruby out when her first attempts in making friends don’t go very well. He even goes further by trying to be suave by saying this name, Jaune Arc, “is short, sweet, rolls off the tongue and the ladies love it”. Ruby of course doesn’t buy it. In the little time they have they end up getting to know a bit more about each other thru their respective weapons. We learn that Ruby’s weapon has a built in sniper rifle, one she is able to fire off with accuracy WITHOUT the use of the scope as seen in her “Red” trailer and episode 1. (I don’t want to face her in a Halo match)

Jaune’s weapons is not as fancy as Ruby’s but we learn that instead it’s a family heirloom passed down by his family and was used to fight during “the war”. Jaune is actually amazed that Ruby built her weapon herself, like all the other students in her old school. We also learn that Jaune is not quite adapt with his weapon’s sheath/shield function given how he was unable to keep it in one form or another, though that could be chalked up to being flustered by Ruby’s presence like awkward teens can be when they first meet. It’s an interesting way for the viewer to get to know Ruby and Juane in this way thru their respective weapons than thru basic personal dialogue.

Low Points

Anime clichés

For those who either enjoyed episode 1 or were unsure of the series after episode 1, episode 2 sadly doesn’t do much to help the series as a whole if one isn’t a big fan of anime. Though there was enough character interaction in this episode, most of it fell into the category of the standard anime cliché that I had hoped this series might try to avoid. Though I’m sure RWBY was anime-inspired it would’ve been nice if they tried to deviate from the norms when it comes to the clichés seen.

First off they were able to “chibi-fy” Ruby during the scene when she was going gaga over the different weapons carried by other silhouetted students. I wasn’t even sure they could pull that off given how there was a chance to put stars in Ruby’s eyes during her “autograph” asking scene in episode 1. Even though the transmission from chibi Ruby to normal Ruby was done well I wish it didn’t have to happen at all. Her dialogue about how seeing new weapons was like meeting new people “only better” to me was way cuter than any “chibi” moment.

I’m still undecided on what to think about Yang ditching Ruby with her silhouette friends. I wondered if the series would keep the relevant characters from interacting with silhouette characters, like how it was done on the ship in episode 1. After seeing episode 2 it seems not to be the case which makes things rather confusing. You’d think Yang’s friends would be important enough to actually create some character builds than make them blank slates since they are the reason why she’s ditching Ruby. And of course the way Yang ditches Ruby, from the jump cut run scene to Ruby spinning with swirly eyes, just gives out an anime vibe that some non-anime lovers may not enjoy seeing.

 

Ruby’s first encounter with Weiss and Blake

This one is more of a personal disappointment for me. When I first saw Weiss in the “White” trailer I feared two types of character personas for her. The one where she was a “delicate and shy” character during her singing scenes and the “cold ice princess” character that would make her abrasive to other characters. Sadly it seems Weiss is going with the “cold ice princess” persona with her character interactions with Ruby. I had hoped that they would try something different with Weiss that wouldn’t fall into those two categories mentioned above, though if you asked me I wouldn’t know exactly which character traits I’d suggest differently.

Blake’s persona also falls into character clichés I figured she’d go into given her “darker” theme. Though we saw her fighting alongside “Adam” in her “Black” Trailer, I kept getting the feeling she was going to be portrayed as the “loner” type character given the few lines she’d spoken in said trailer on not being “so dramatic” and how lonesome she sounded when she said goodbye to Adam at the end, as if she was destined to tragically be alone forever.  Though she did help Ruby out with her meeting with Weiss, it seemed mostly for the use to give us more info about the “ice princess” that it was for Blake to give Weiss one good verbal jab to bring her down a notch. And in usual loner manner, Blake leaves Ruby without saying a single world. I guess it was better she did that than trying to vanish like an anime ninja, be it with a big poof sound or subtle winds.

 

Awkward teenage encounter

You’d think that going to school for many years before entering Beacon that Ruby and Juane would’ve worked on their cool when it comes to meeting new people. It’s a painful transmission to see Ruby in the last episode face off against Torchwick’s goons like a boss only to be so socially awkward toward Jaune.  Jaune is no better with his way with words, talking about his mom and having a hard time just keeping ahold of his weapon. It almost came to a point where it was almost painful to watch. I can see why they used the focus on their respective weapons to be the Segway in having the viewer get to know Ruby and Jaune better. It almost puts the fears aside of the dreaded anime cliché of where the first boy an anime female character likes pretty much ends up dead by the end of the series.

 Almost.  

For me Episode 2 doesn’t hold up well when singled out as a single episode. It does what it can to help give us more characterization of the lead characters without most of the “flash” we’ve come to expect from the “color” trailers and fight scene from episode 1. It’s too bad that most of the characterization is done in the anime-style that might not win over many fans and could be seen by some seasoned anime viewers as being too cliché’. Yet the episode gets the job done and is decently paced for the runtime it’s offered. That being said though if one watches episode 3 right after episode 2, the events and actions do begin to fit the narrative better, helping to spread out the low points where they are not as noticeable when compared to what happens in episode 3. In truth episode 2 and 3 should’ve been a full episode instead of being cut into a two parts, if only to fill in the blanks to show that perhaps the series won’t be all anime clichés and typical character themes.

If you haven’t seen episode 3 you might want to give it a try or rewatch episode 2 with 3 together if you didn’t fully enjoy what episode 2 had to offer by itself. Episode 2 alone didn’t do much to help RWBY along but I’m getting the feeling that this’ll help bolster the claim that perhaps RWBY would be best watched in it’s entirely than in episodic pieces.

Till next week we’ll breakdown episode 3 that helps salvage what episode 2 offered.

Episode 3

Any thoughts about episode 2? Agree? Disagree? Undecided? Let me know in the comments!

Ta-ta

“N”