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A Breakdown of Episode 9

Hello once again for another RWBY Tuesday breakdown. Last week we had the pleasure in seeing the mid-season episode that had favorable reviews. It ranked #4 on crunchyroll’s website and garnered a good amount of attention over twitter. The only downside to all of this would be the fact that people’s expectations are running high on where the series will go from here. Though I myself did enjoy the mid-season episode it really didn’t think it reached the series full potential. So let’s see how the series will build off from episode 8 with the YouTube video embed of RWBY Episode 9: The Badge and the Burden

We start the episode off as a new day begins at Beacon Academy. Weiss is waking up for the morning only for her to get a rude awakening from Ruby who blows a whistle in her face. Before Weiss can recover we see that Ruby, Yang and Blake are up and dressed in their new school uniforms. Ruby has begun to take charge of Team RWBY as their leader by ordering that they should all begin to unpack and get their shared dorm room situated. From there we get to see a “redecorate montage” scene as all the girls unpack and personalize their spaces. When the girls complete their task they find out that they have so much stuff that there is no room for their beds. Ruby then suggests that they make bunk beds out of them. Weiss isn’t too keen on the idea but is voted down by Yang and Blake. After that tasks is done Ruby begins to organize the next order of business for Team RWBY: Classes. She mentions that they do share a few classes together with their first class being at 9:00. It’s at that moment when Weiss explains that it’s now 8:55 and proceeds to run out of their dorm room. Ruby quickly agrees and the rest of Team RWBY follows Wiess’s lead. Team JuNiPeR whose dorm is located the opposite side of Team RWBY’s, peek their head’s out the door to watch Team RWBY leave which leads to them collapsing on each other in the hallway. Jaune also tells his Team they too will be late and join Team RWBY as they make a mad dash to class. Ozpin and Goodwitch are seen observing them running with Goodwitch looking at her watch and Ozpin taking a sip from his mug.

The next scene is your basic college classroom setting as a portly professor of the class begins his introduction to his class and gives a brief history about the creatures of Grim, the three kingdoms of the world along with the goal of his class in creating huntsmen. After he’s done with this he then goes into telling a story about himself. As he’s doing this, and boring the class to no end, Ruby takes the moment to poke fun at the professor by drawing a silly picture of him and shows it to the rest of her Team. Yang and Blake get a good giggle out of it only for the professor to put them back in line. As the professor continues his tale, Ruby finds more ways to keep herself entertained while Weiss grows ever angrier toward Ruby as her classroom antics persist. When the professor finishes his story and asks the class if anyone here fits the mold of a fearless hunter that he describes, Weiss immediately raises her hand and proclaims that she does. The professor seeming impressed then invites her to come up to the front of the class so that she can face off with a Grim creature that is locked up in a cage brought forth off camera to prove herself. Roll credits with Ozpin and Goodwitch backdrop.

High Points

 

The Girls and their stuff

It could’ve been worse; Blake could be reading “Fifty Shades of Grey”. Though it would be easy to chalk up the room organizing montage scene as simple padding, we get to learn a little more about the girls of Team RWBY. We get to see a little more in what Blake likes to read, what artistic interests Weiss has, what Yang holds in interest and Ruby’s way of redecorating. It even shows how their able to work as a team (with Ruby’s lead) in trying to organize their dorm room. They even show signs of reason and democracy in what they could do together. Though they might need work on their timing. Being late for class is never fun.

 

The “Portly” Professor

We are introduced to a new character this episode. Though I didn’t catch his full name (the most I got was “Peter Port”) but he was a refreshing type of character to see here. I guess he reminds me of an old professor I had when I was in college. Right down to the long winded speeches and personal stories. Though I can’t peg him exactly if he’s to be a serious or silly character in this series, I did like it when his words were reduced to “blah, blah, blahs”, indicating how he’s character might not be meant to be taken seriously. Though at the same time it seems he has a handle on what he’s doing since he brought in a Grimm creature to fight in class. Whether he just likes the sound of his own voice, or he indeed carries with him calm wisdom remains to be seen.

 

Ruby being Ruby

I’m sure some might find Ruby’s actions going overboard. Being overly commanding as team leader as well as being overly silly during class. But at the same time it just shows that Ruby as a lot to learn when it comes to her new status as a team leader. In this episode it shows that she’s willing and able to take on that role but at the same time it also shows that she’s still just a kid when it comes to the simple things, like trying to find ways to keep herself entertained during a boring lecture. Even if it does make her oblivious to Weiss’s anger toward her.

 

Better cliffhanger

Now that’s how you make a cliffhanger. Though we know Weiss is in the series, we don’t know exactly if she will indeed face off with a major danger. Would the professor actually allow a life fight with a Grimm creature in class? Will Weiss actually succeed or will she get help from her team? Could she even be hurt badly in this fight? It leaves you wondering what will happen next without making it too oblivious.

Low Points

 

Animation oddities.

Other viewers have noticed this before in past episodes but for me it seems more noticeable. The animation this time around looked a bit jerky. It seemed most noticeable to me during the dorm room scene. I’m not sure if it’s because of their new outfits or if indeed the girls of RWBY do look rather angular when portrayed in different outfits. The quick movements helped to hide the jerkiness but it seemed more profound when the girls were running out of their dorm room. Hopefully this is just temporary given all the work that was put into the last episode. I can understand if some shortcuts are taken in the animation to save time, or if the tools are there to make animating easier (The Team group run is a great example). Given what we’ve seen before in past episodes hopefully this is something that won’t be as noticeable in the future.

Weiss

I hope things don’t go back to how they were between Ruby and Weiss. I had hoped they’d taken care of their petty issues and learn to work together in the future. But it seems that Ruby’s actions may just revert things back to the way things were. Just seeing Weiss’s angry face was scary enough as it was. I should’ve taken notice of last episode when Weiss had a surprised look on her face when Ruby was chosen as team leader. I just hope Weiss really didn’t have intentions on being leader. Just from the viewer’s perspective it should be fairly obvious who the team leader of Team RWBY was to be. The team’s name is RWBY. One of the characters in the team is named RUBY. Kind of a no brainer so here’s hoping that Weiss isn’t as brain dead and stubborn like she was when we first met her. It would be a shame if her character reverted back to what she was originally.

It looks like this episode is yet another two parter, yet oddly it doesn’t have much of the hang ups as a two part episode like before. For me it added enough character to Team RWBY to make the episode worthwhile. It introduced a new character and showed that despite Team RWBY being in name only that perhaps more teambuilding classes will be needed for them in the future. Despite the possible low points this episode shows promise being a two parter. Plus it leaves some interesting tidbits.

 

Those guys in the poster look so familiar…

 Like any best part when it comes to seeing a two parter episode right now, your able to see what happens next thanks to the newest video posting of episode 10 from last Thursday. Like before if you need to catch up you can always check out Rooster Teeth’s website or Crunchyroll for a complete episode listing. Till next time we’ll see if Ruby and Weiss once again tread old character ground.

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

Ta-ta

“N”