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So here we are; the final two episodes to the first Volume of RWBY. These were the last episodes that left me extremely disappointed with this series as a whole. These were the last episodes that made me abandon this whole RWBY Tuesday blog series. I was so let down in how Volume 1 ended that I didn’t have much of a kind word to say in how I left with the end of RWBY. I guess you could say I was expecting too much from this series. If anything I was left with more questions than answers when it came to RWBY and the world of Remnant as a whole. Sure there were some good moments but with these final two episodes I was left with mostly negative things, extremely negative things, to say about not just these episodes but with RWBY in general. It took me till the beginning of Volume 2 to reconsider revisiting the blogs write-ups I’d done let alone considering giving “RWBY Tuesday” another go. But after several re-writes of my original blogs, I’ve been able to condense them into one, slightly longer blog posting. So let’s get this over with a RWBY episode 15 & 16 entitled The Stray/Black and White.

Episode 15 begins with Team RWBY making their way into town. Weiss is all excited about the preparations for the upcoming festival that’ll consist of parties, dances and fighting tournaments. The others are wondering why they are spending their weekend by the docks. Weiss tries to say it’s merely to greet students from the other kingdoms as they arrive but Blake suggests she just wants to size up the competition. Ruby then notices the area Dust shop down the street made off limits by police tape. As the team approaches and asks the detective there what happened, the unnamed detective informs the girls it was another Dust robbery possibly by the White Fang. This comment gets Weiss talking about how horrible the faunus are for performing such a crime to which gets Blake all defensive. Just then a commotion is heard from one of the ships at port as we see a monkey faunus jumping off one of the ships. As it turns out he was a stowaway on the ship. The detective’s try to apprehend him but monkey boy (yes that’s what I’m calling him) makes a run for it. As he’s running by team RWBY, monkey boy slips Blake a wink as he runs into the city with the detectives on his trail. Team RWBY gives chase only to lose them when Weiss accidently runs into a mysterious girl who acts rather weird. The girl seems rather unusual with her delayed reaction of getting off the ground and not exactly comprehending her words or the words exchanged by the team. Yang jokes that perhaps she hit her head but in the end the team leave her to her own devices with Ruby’s parting comment in calling her “friend.”

As the girls discuss how odd the girl is as she ends up getting the drop on them from the direction they were walking toward (when originally they were walking away from her). Yang tries to utter an apology for calling her strange as Weiss tries to figure out how she got ahead of them so quickly. The odd girl, introduced as Penny, then approaches Ruby in awe over her in calling her a “friend”. Penny asks Ruby if they are truly friends. Ruby looks to the advice of her teammates only to see them try to suggest to her to say no. Instead Ruby confirms that they are friends which put’s Penny in a fight of joy to the point where she says the exact same thing that Weiss said to Ruby when they were first introduced in episode 2. Yang then asks Penny what brings her to Vale which turns out that Penny is wanting to take part in the this year’s tournament, insisting that she’s combat ready. Weiss is dubious of this from what she’s seen though Blake puts those visual mistakes into perspective over the fact that Weiss is one to wear a dress into combat. This then prompts Weiss to begin interrogating Penny if she is with the monkey boy they were chasing earlier. Penny of course knows nothing about him but this causes Blake to continue the argument with Weiss that started earlier on the docks. This argument actually lasts all day and into the night with neither girl giving ground. Weiss continues to see all in the White Fang as criminals whereas Blake argues how some of them are just misguided. It’s here that we learn that Weiss has a bigger bone to pick with the White Fang given how they made their fight personal with her family given their dealings with the Faunus and the Dust company they run, all of this making her childhood very difficult. Ruby tries to comfort Weiss but Weiss continues by calling the White Fang nothing more than killers. This response then prompts Blake to say “well maybe we just got tired of being pushed around.” Upon realizing what she just said, Blake bolts from the room as both Weiss and Yang are left speechless over her statement with Ruby calling for Blake to come back.

In the next scene Blake is seen running in the night till she arrives at the statue of two hunters on the Beacon grounds. As she looks upon the statue as she unties her bow to reveal that she has cat ears. A voice is then heard saying that she looked better without the bow.

The next scene shows Ruby waking from her sleep only to look over and see that Blake’s bed is undisturbed. Ruby, Weiss and Yang then begin looking for her saying that they haven’t seen her in two days. Though Ruby and Yang are concerned for her, Weiss doesn’t seem to be that worried as they question whether or not she’s actually a member of the team given her big revelation two nights ago. Ruby worries if Blake is okay.

The final scene shows Blake sharing a cup of tea with monkey boy somewhere with her final statement being “So, you want to know more about me…” End of episode 15.

Episode 16 continues where Episode 15 left off as Blake explains to monkey boy how she grew up in the White Fang and saw how they change from being activists for Faunus equal rights to militants. She tells monkey boy that she then left the White Fang and decided to use her fighting abilities to instead become a huntress. Monkey boy asks if she’d told her team mates about this. The next scene has Ruby, Weiss and Yang searching for Blake though Blake still is remaining uncertain in how she feels about her. Yang suggests they hold off on judgment till they hear what Blake has to say just as Penny mysteriously sneaks up on the girls again, surprising all of them. She asks them what they are doing with Yang responding that they are looking for Blake. Penny then asks do they mean the “faunus girl?” This surprises Ruby with her asking how Penny knew. Penny responds by pointing out her “cat ears” with Yang then unconvincingly suggesting to Penny it was just a bow. Penny then offers to help Ruby find her missing teammate. Ruby tries to tell Penny its okay but both Weiss and Yang abandon her to Penny.

The next scene has monkey boy and Blake deciding what to do next about the White Fang and all of these Dust robberies. Monkey boy then suggests that he and Blake try to find the White Fang to see if they are indeed involved in the Dust robberies. Blake says she wouldn’t know where to look but monkey boy says he overhead where a big shipment of Dust was supposed to be stored from the ship he stowed away on. He suggests they stake out that dock and wait to see if the White Fang show up. Weiss and Yang still continue their search as Yang beings to realize that Weiss may not care what had become of Blake. Weiss tells Yang not to be silly and that she’s just worried what Blake will say to explain herself. Penny and Ruby are having their own conversation about their team’s dynamics with Penny suggesting that since she doesn’t have a lot of friends, she’d want what few friends she had to talk to her about it.

The next scene has Blake and monkey boy watching over the Dust shipment with nothing happening thus far. By the time evening comes an airship arrives and begins to offload White Fang troops. Blake is disappointed but not too surprised that in fact the White Fang are involved. But what really shocks her is that Roman Torchwick is among them and ordering them about. This causes Blake to take action and subdue Roman as she takes off her bow and demands to know why the White Fang are working with this human scum. Roman then tells Blake that they are in a big business venture together as more airships with White Fang troops arrive. This then begins a fight scene between Blake and Roman, then monkey boy with the White Fang troops and Roman with Blake coming in to knock him back. Roman gets the drop on them by dropping a cargo crate between them causing monkey boy to have him at point blank range with this cane weapon.

Before Roman can finish monkey boy off, Ruby interrupts the fight. Penny distracts Ruby in asking if anyone here is her friend which gives Roman a chance to fire off a shot that knocks Ruby down. This angers Penny which causes her to enter into the fight saying that she is “combat ready”, revealing that she is not only a capable fighter but also a battle android. She easily finishes off the remaining White Fang troops as well as the airships that fire on her, amazing Ruby in the process. Upon seeing he is outmatched Roman retreats with the remaining airships.

The next scene has the police on the scene with Ruby, Penny, Black and monkey boy being held for questioning. Weiss and Blake arrive which prompts Blake in trying to explain herself to her. Weiss decides she doesn’t care what Blake did in the past and all that matters is the here and now. That what she’s done before is no concern of hers so long as the next time she has a problem she should come to her teammates and not random strangers. Blake agrees as Weiss let’s monkey boy know she doesn’t quite know what to think of him yet. Ruby then notices that Penny went missing as Penny looks upon the team from inside a car. A strange voice tells her she shouldn’t wander off like that to which she apologizes for as the car drives off. The final scene of the series shows Ozpin receiving a video message from “Qrow” which states “Queen has pawns.” Roll credits with after credit scene of Roman being approached by the mysterious woman he was working with in the first episode who has the ability to wield fire.

Damn, and I thought I cut that down!

High points

Easter Eggs!

Though I’m sure there have been easter eggs before in this series, it was nice to see the cameo of Burnie Burns and Joel Heyman’s detective personas from Rooster Teeth Shorts.

Viewer acknowledgement?

I’m not sure if this was done on purpose or was written in the script long ago, but it was cute that they added the scene where Penny mistook Blake’s bow for cat ears. Everyone did since the series began and people have been wondering how exactly Blake was the embodiment of the “Beauty and the Beast” comparisons she was getting since her name was announced.

Penny is an oddball

It’s interesting that they’d introduce a new character right near the end of the volume. But at the same time they made the most of the time she had to show Penny’s quirkiness of character. From her odd smile while being on the floor to the wondering of Blake’s secret if she was in fact a man. Plus it didn’t hurt that she was just as much as a badass as the rest of the group when it came to combat.

Blake’s origins.

We finally get to learn more about who Blake is and where she came from. She’d always been a bit of a secret since the show started so it’s good that we finally got to learn more of what motivates her as a character.

White Fang Origins

From the start, the whole concept of the Faunus and the White Fang was lacking when it came to knowledge of who they were and what they stood for. Aside from what we heard at the beginning of the White Fang from the news story to seeing Velvet’s harassment later on, we knew little to nothing about the Faunus and their organization. Finally some info.

Team RWBY dynamics.

We got to see how the team is able to cope, mend and come together as a team during this episode. It was refreshing to see the series focus on the main characters than the secondary characters like Jaune and team Phantasy Star. Seeing how they had their differences and being able to overcome them helped to make team RWBY less like cliché anime character’s into actual people.  

Low Points

Monkey boy?

Talk about lazy. Might as well add a few more Final Fantasy IX characters into the mix, even the bo staff was totally unoriginal despite the small saving grace of having the bo staff turn into nunchucks then later into firearms.

Blake is a catgirl

Again another lazy attempt to make Blake different, again we kinda knew she was going to be something of a “beast” but I had hoped it would be thru her combat style than her actual character. And why did they have to choose her to be a “cat”? the most obvious choice you’d have a girl mostly clad in black to be. If Monkey boy was too lazy in creation, then Blake’s big reveal in being a cat faunus is too anime cliché. Yet another anime like cat girl, that hasn’t been done before!

Blake trusting monkey boy so soon.

So after she left her team and spent two whole days alone with a random monkey boy stranger she just met off the docks, LITERALLY. I never lived near a seaport but even I know you don’t trust any old person off the boat regardless of who they might be or how many winks the shoot your way.

Fight scene was way too short and unsatisfying.

Given what we saw during the series premiere and the mid season finale, I was expecting so much more for a fight scene. But instead we just get Blake, monkey boy and Penny fighting it out. That’s it! Not even Ruby is able to get into the fray. It was short, brief and though Penny brought the wow factor it was short lived.

Left more questions than answers

I was expecting more to be explained about the world of Remnant and a little more about the characters involved. Instead we just get what we got with the hope for more in future installments. I just wish we’d get more info about the world than just being spoon fed it when we are lucky. They FINALLY got around to explaining Weiss’s dislike for the White Fang and Blake issues of being a former White Fang. But instead of going into further detail, we are left with just them deciding to be more open in the future. No explanations or reasons behind their motives toward each other. Nothing! Talk about a disappointment.

Cinder was supposed to be the big character voice reveal at the end credits?

I’m sure it’s a big deal to some knowing that the voice for Cinder is being done by cosplayer Jessica Nigri, but it didn’t explain the two other people behind her. People that were teased at in the opening credits of the series! Sure it was helpful to know that Roman takes orders from Cinder but what else is there. Is this supposed to be enough to entice me to see what Volume 2 will be about? Weak.  

Final verdict.

Honestly this picture says it all. I’d rather write about it but I need to cut this blog down plus most of what I wrote wasn’t that kind. ILet’s just say I was not impressed and expect better things with Volume 2. Volume 1 started out strong and had a lot going for it, but sadly it fell short thanks to the lackluster world development and overuse of anime cliches. Monty Oum's combat animation was done well during some points but some animation needs more work so it can look less jerky. But we’ll see if that frown can be turned upside down next week when I finally get into episode 1 of RWBY Volume 2. Check it out here to see if you might like it.

Ta-ta “

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