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A Breakdown of Episode 12

And once again we’re back for another episodic blog breakdown of the web series RWBY. I must apologize if this or future blogs to this series are a bit lacking or see a dip in writing quality, I mean more than usual that is. So far I’ve been able to keep up with my Octoberween blogs but it is trying. So far I’m keeping with my schedule but I’m not sure if I can keep it up till the end of the month. So please forgive me if I don’t get my words across properly in future RWBY Tuesday blogs or if I don’t respond to comments as timely as I use to. As your probably guessing I’m trying to stall for time in deciding on how to write up the breakdown of episode 12. I’m not looking forward to it given that this episode wasn’t one of my favorites. So without delay let’s get into youtube video embed of RWBY Episode 12: Jaunedice part 2.

We start off with this episode once again in another classroom where we find Jaune napping during class. The Professor doesn’t seem to notice as he’s darting all over the room with unusual quickness as he’s teaching the subject of the day: Faunus History. We learn from this hyperactive, coffee slurping professor about how the Faunus were originally to be herded into specific living areas in the world, only for them to rebel and start a rebellion against the humans. Everyone in class seems to follow along except for Jaune and Cardin as the professor speaks of how despite it being considered history, these events are fairly recent. The Professor then asks if anyone in the class ever suffered due to their faunus heritage. Among the students to raise their hand we see the bunny eared girl from last episode. The Professor notes how a dreadful thing that is along with the suffering that recently befell “White Fang”.

Class continues when the Professor asks a question on what was the deciding factor during the rebellion against the Faunus. Weiss answers the question correctly only for the professor to ask yet another question of the class on what advantage did the faunus have against a specific general’s forces. Cardin wakes Jaune up with a paper football which prompts the professor to assume that Jaune is finally ready to participate in class and asks him for the answer to his question. Jaune tries his best to buy time in answering as Pyrrah does her best to help him with hand gestures. He gets the gestures wrong and makes a fool of himself. The professor is not amused and asks Cardin for his thoughts. It’s then that we learn that Cardin doesn’t hold the faunus in high regard. Pyrrah takes offense to that and uses the moment to tell Cardin off as well as answer the question properly. Blake joins in on telling off Cardin which causes him to get upset. The professor has to tell Cardin to sit down while Jaunce laughs about the whole exchange. This causes the Professor to tell both Cardin and Jaune to stay after class.

After class is dismissed Pyrrah tells the rest of Team JuNiPR that she’ll wait for Jaune. We see the professor telling off both Cardin and Jaune about how he’s not impressed with their performance in his class and that he expects them to do better. As for punishment he orders them to write up an essay for tomorrow. He then dismisses them and runs out of the classroom without delay. After being pushed to the ground by Cardin, and being helped back up by Pyrrah (with a comment that she will break Cardin’s legs), Jaune is taken to a roof area of the school by Pyrrah.

After a misunderstanding on Pyrrah’s intentions on bringing Jaune to the rooftop, Pyrrah confesses that she’s seen how he’s been struggling in class and as a fighter and offers to help him train on this very rooftop. From there Pyrrah’s good intentions fall apart and we see the two get into an argument over his situation and learn that Jaune wasn’t really accepted into Beacon. We also learn of what Jaune did to get into Beacon and his frustrations about his situation. Pyrrah then leaves Juane at his request when her attempts to comfort him are rebuffed.

Juane then figures he’s alone only to find out that Cardin was listening in and now knows Jaune’s secret. Jaune asks Cardin not to say anything to which Cardin assures him he won’t say a word given that their now best friends, so long as Jaune does his bidding. We end the episode with Cardin blackmailing Jaune into doing his homework for him under the veiled threat of what would happen if he didn’t. Roll credits with the professor whose name is Oobleck.

High Points

 

Another professor

I guess this answers my question if we were to see any “legacy” voice actors from Rooster Teeth’s other webseries be used in RWBY. Joel  Heyman (the voice behind RvB’s Micheal J. Caboose) voices the quick character by the name of Oobleck and I have to say I was rather impressed. I hardly knew it was him until I saw the end credits. He did a fine job making Oobleck into a unique character with his voice work. Coupled with this unusual quickness and love of coffee, it shows that the professors at Beacon are more than just professors.  First Goodwitch, then Port and now Oobleck, these people are becoming just as interesting as the main cast themselves.

 

White Fang and Faunus finally answered.

I had wondered what the deal was with “White Fang” back in episode one, along with the faunus themselves back from last episode, so it’s good to finally gleam a little more into the civilization of the world that RWBY takes place in. Sounds like not all is well between the two races and that despite most of the history being behind them, there are still some social issues still being addressed. It’s cool to learn that most faunus can see in the dark.

 

Pyrrah’s intentions

When Pyrrah and Jaune were going to that roof landing, I was afraid that Jaune would try to hit on Pyrrah or worse re-enact that one scene from Final Fantasy VIII (you know which one I’m referring to). But instead we get to see how far Pyrrah is willing to go to help out her team’s leader. She’s not going for a Weiss guilt trip on how she should’ve been leader given her qualifications but instead wants to genuinely be there for Jaune during his hard times. It makes me appreciate Pyrrah’s character.

Low points

 

Jaune being a whiny bitch

I was afraid this was going to happen. Jaune has gone fully into “Tidus” mode from Final Fantasy X here. Instead of it being about daddy issues it goes into the “I wanna be the hero” kind of whining. I get that he wants to be more than just the funny fallguy or the dude that needs to be helped. But this could’ve been handled better than with this wussy, whiney, emo, crybaby, temper tantrum, push people away attitude that gets really annoying real fast. It’s made even worse when he can’t seem to get the message that Pyrrah is willing to do almost ANYTHING to help him thru it all. People can only wish to find someone so soon in life who’d be willing to literally bend over backwards to help be a better person. I know it was needed to help bring out the big reveal of Jaune’s treachery but he could’ve done this without going into whiny bitch character territory.

 

Lame entrapment plot

This scene had me shaking my head in shame. What are the odds that the very place Pyrrah was taking Jaune would also be the roof of the dorm room where Cardin would be staying? And what are the odds that Cardin would be sitting out by his dorm room window at the exact same moment that Pyrrah and Jaune have their chat? That’s too big of a stretch for me that the bully of one of the main characters would be ready in the wings to pounce on his victim just so we could have an artificial moral conflict moment with one of the main characters. All that was missing was Cardin twirling his evil mustache saying “I got you now boy.” No, just no! This is something I expect out of some cheesy afterschool special, not something created by the same company that brought us Red vs Blue.

Honestly I could go on about how bad this episode felt but I just don’t have it in me to fully trash this episode like I prefer to. It’s been something that’s bothered me all this week of breakdown. It was nice getting some more info on the Faunus and seeing a new professor in action. But the Pyrrah/Jaune chat just ruins the episode for me. It’s a horrible way to end this two parter episode about Jaune himself. Atleast it answers the question on why he’s not on the same page as the rest of the cast of characters when it comes to combat. But it ruins all of what he pulled off back in episode 8 when he actually looked like he could be an effective team leader. This could’ve been handled a lot better.

Hopefully this is taken care of right quick with episode 13. If you haven’t seen it yet you can check it on Rooster Teeth’s website or on Crunchyroll. Till next time I better see Jaune cowboy up soon or else I may learn to hate this guy.

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

Ta-ta

“N”