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A Breakdown of Episode 5

Welcome back everyone for another breakdown of last week’s episode of RWBY. So far it seems that RWBY is becoming a bit hit for the crew at Rooster Teeth. Though possibly unrelated news their YouTube channel recently just hit 1 million subscribers. I would not be too surprised if RWBY was the reason for this increase. I’m just grateful that Rooster Teeth Productions is allowing YouTube embeds to allow people like me to post episodes in blogs like this. Though I hope this is something that won’t get me into trouble in the future.

Word thru twitter had come out that a “fan” created an unofficial RWBY twitter account in trying to promote the series. Monty Oum himself on twitter had to raise the call to warn people that this person did not represent Rooster Teeth. I guess things got serious when the twitter user began to offer giveaways of RWBY merchandise that wasn’t sanctioned by Rooster Teeth themselves. Whether this was official or knockoff merchandise or even if the twitter account mentioned “fan made” twitter feed is unclear to me for the situation was starting to get dicey. Eventually things got taken care of but not before opinions were raised on what constituted a “fan” from a “leech” along with where the line was drawn when it came to fan participation and protecting one’s creative works. Either way it’s moments like these that make me glad I’m just some unknown blogger on the internet that will probably not catch much attention.

 My blogs were never intended to give the impression that it was an official representation of Rooster Teeth Productions. I merely do this not only to share my opinions on each episode, but to also help share the series as well thru video links, embeds and personal comments on what I thought of each episode. I’m just a fan of the works from Rooster Teeth who’s enjoying in a newly created series from a man whose works I’ve been interested in from Haloid to Dead Fantasy. I hope my blogs don’t give that kind of impression of being a “leech” than a “fan”.  I do this for fun, and I hope those that read it are able to enjoy it, as well as RWBY, as much as I do.

Now with that said here is this weeks embed of RWBY episode 5: The First Step, pt.2

When we last left Ruby, she along with her group were being launched into a forest as their first test at Beacon along tasked in choosing their partner for the duration of the education. Ruby and company finally make their respective landings after being launched though Jaune received help from Pyrrah in “sticking” his landing. Ruby begins a mad dash to find Yang as she runs thru a mental list of people she could possibly be partnered with. In mid-though she stops short only to run into Weiss thus deciding who Ruby would be teamed with. Weiss is not too happy with this and storms off to Ruby’s dismay. Weiss’s luck doesn’t get any better when she immediately finds Jaune who happens to be pinned to the trunk of a tree, several feet off the ground. Choosing the “lesser of two evils” Weiss goes back to Ruby to her delight. Jaune debates how he’s going to get down when Pyrrah approaches asking if there was still room for “his team”. Though Jaune doesn’t act too pleased but he quickly warms to the idea of Pyrrah joining him. Weiss and Ruby get off to a rough start (again) when Weiss raises concern that she doesn’t want Ruby to slow her down. To that mention Ruby displays a level of quickness that even takes Weiss by surprise. Ruby does her best to put Weiss at ease about their partnership and once again tries to win her over in being her friend. Ruby then leaves Weiss alone by herself for parts unknown much to the annoyance of Weiss. Before Weiss could catch up to Ruby, she beings to hear a rustling in the forests underbrush. Red eyes are seen surrounding Weiss just as a monster appears from behind a bush and moves in to attack Weiss. Roll credits with Yang backdrop.

High Points

 

Student’s landing strategy

It was a cute treat to see how each important student in the story was able to land in the emerald forest. Ruby’s was cute with her cry of “birdly no!” after she accidently took out a bird in mid-flight. Lie with his no-nonsense use of his “blade guns” to simply corkscrew his way down the side of a tree as if it were a makeshift spiral staircase. Yang going all “Top Gun” on her landing approach complete with aviator sunglasses (that she put on moments before launch in the last episode), impromptu barrel rolls and “afterburner” blasts from her shotgun gauntlets. All hat was missing was “Danger Zone” playing as she made her “nailed it” landing. Though Weiss’s landing was a bit tame Pyrrah shows her awesomeness by simply crashing thru trees with her shield so she could find a tree branch as a perch, uses her rifle to find poor Jaune’s location, then transforms her rifle into a rocket spear, aims with her thumb and lets the spear fly with such certainty that it would save Jaune from falling to his death. Complete with Jaune’s words of “thank you” followed by her reply of “I’m sorry” for once again having to spear him.

I sense a catch phrase coming along…

 

Teammates Assemble!

We finally get to see the teams begin to assemble in this episode. As much as I wanted to guess to see who Ruby would be teamed with since there were three obvious choices, I have to admit I wasn’t quite sure who she’s be with exactly. I did want to say Weiss but I didn’t know for sure personally since we didn’t see Blake in the last episode. Though no surprises happened in who Ruby would be attached too at least they played it up till the very moment of Ruby’s partner reveal. Even seeing Jaune and Pyrrah’s team up was nicely well done with how she helped him “stick” his landing.

 

Ruby stole the episode

I couldn’t help but think of a lost kitten as Ruby yelled out Yang’s name as she ran thru the forest to find her. Her cat like demeanor was all but confirmed during her encounter with Weiss as she did her “nyah, nyah” hands as she proved she wouldn’t slow down Weiss. Her though process (that had elements of “Rooster Teeth’s animated adventures” style of animation) fit her perfectly as she weighed her options on who she could partner herself with, complete with segway to showing the viewer who her partner was to be. And even when she became depressed with head held down upon Weiss’s rejection, she was able to bounce back with a chipper “You came back!” exclamation upon Weiss making her final choice. Even Ruby’s determination to win Weiss over as a friend shows how Ruby doesn’t give up no matter what Weiss decided between them. All of this of course is a given since we all know Ruby and Weiss will be on the same team with the series’ title, but by doing this helps set up the future partnership hurtles of what will become of Team RWBY.

 

Weiss’s choice

More was shown of Weiss’s character when she was faced to either team up with “Crater Face” or “Tall, blonde and scrawny”. She didn’t even have to say anything or make a gesture when she saw who her first and second choices were for partners. Upon setting eyes on Ruby she simply turned and walked away, only to walk into view of a speared Jaune complete with anemic hand wave of hello. Upon seeing her second choice she immediately does what she did upon seeing Ruby expect it was to choose the lesser of the two evils by dragging Ruby her by her red hood. Classic.

 

Changing environments

I really liked how the forest started to turn dark as Weiss was being surrounded by the monsters. It added to the danger level along with giving the viewers a sense of foreboding. It reminded me of a time when I was lost in a forest when I was young. I could’ve sworn the area I was lost in was getting darker and darker despite the fact that it was still daylight. Every sound I heard was my imagination running wild in thinking there was some bloodthirsty creature in the bushes that was just waiting to rip me to shreds. Too bad for Weiss since might come true for her with the appearance of red eyes surrounding her along with the beast that appeared before her.

Low Points

 

Cliffhanger!

I’m not a big fan of cliffhangers, unless they are done well. The ending for this episode didn’t do it for me when it came to its cliffhanger. Normally cliffhangers are used to help set doubt on what’s going to happen next for the character caught in the moment. Sadly there really isn’t any doubt given that it involves Weiss. We know she’ll be a regular in the show so I doubt she’ll come to harm or be killed. It just sets up the scene where I’m sure she’ll either be rescued or assisted by Ruby. I’m sure this artificial cliffhanger was made just to help space out the episodes but the least they could’ve done was had a zoom in of the monster rushing Weiss with her taking a combat stance in preparation for her first Beacon school monster fight.

Though the episode seemed very short a lot ended up happening with the characters involved. Alliances were formed, danger is in the air and yet some questions have yet to be answered. I couldn’t ask for more in an episode that finally sets the stage for Team RWBY to take form.

Question, question, question.

What’s the deal with Pyrrah? Why is she so interested and intent on being with Jaune? As much as I’d like to assume she’s just interested in him for interest sake, I can’t help but feel paranoid that she might have some hidden agenda toward him. Perhaps she was hired by Jaune’s father to watch over Jaune given his lack of combat abilities.

Where is Blake? I thought we’d see her by now.

At least the good thing about this episode is that if you are now just watching it, you can click the link for Episode 6 here to see the conclusion. Or if you need to catch up you can always check out Rooster Teeth’s website or Crunchyroll for a complete episode listing. Here’s looking forward to episode 6 where I see we’ll be entering into “The Force” territory in latent powers of the main characters.

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

Ta-ta

“N”