EPISODE REACTION – In the span of four volumes, Rooster Teeth has turned RWBY from a upstart dream project to a full-fledged animated series that can properly compete with present titles in the animation industry. The promotional advertising for this volume has been vastly different and larger in coverage compared to the other seasons. Rooster Teeth has definitely done a good job making RWBY famous, for old and new viewers alike.
In light of the new episodes that have been released for the fifth volume, I will discuss key events which were interesting to me as I watched the first episode. If you do not take kindly to spoilers, avert your eyes!
RWBY’s fifth volume started off where we left off with Team RNJR as they arrive in the city of Mistral to seek the assistance of Haven Academy’s caretaker, Professor Leonardo Lionheart.
The series has started to take on a serious and heavy tone when it comes to its story as evident in the interactions taking place between Qrow, Team RNJR and Professor Lionheart. Serious things such as how the fall of Beacon affected every other nation in Remnant as the fear developing among the common people attracted the Grimm. This was so satisfying to me as we finally see some sort of connection with the events happening all over the world of Remnant and not boil it down to isolated events.
We also get some in-depth explanation regarding the different maidens and how each of them is assigned a relic vault which was kind of confusing for me. If I remember, the only vault shown to us at Beacon Academy was where they were housing the Spring Maiden as they used Phyrra to siphon her powers. We still have no idea what these relics are or if they are even objects in the first place.
This confusion gets even worse for me as I remember Salem discussing about how the relic is still within the ruins of Beacon Academy. As this discussion goes on, a question raises: what are these relics in the first place?
At first, I was beginning to speculate that these relics were in the form of people like Ozpin or they were on their person which, for this example, could be Ozpin’s cane or spectacles – heck, I don’t know!
Somewhere along that discussion between Team RNJR and Professor Lionheart, Qrow mentioned that the Spring Maiden was under the custody of her sister, Raven, and her tribe. I still do not understand what Raven’s deal is and why is she so against her brother, Qrow. Is this because Qrow’s decision, before the series, wherein he left the tribe and they all branded him a traitor or something similar?
As the discussion came to a close and Team RNJR leaving the professor’s office, a reveal was made with Watts appearing to be manipulating Professor Leonheart for Salem’s cause. But seriously, this reveal was already visible in an end credits somewhere in the fourth volume, so it is not too surprising for me to see this development.
Moving away from Mistral, in the episode we get to see Weiss in an airship of sorts as the pilot catches communication signals of a group of civilian airships under attack by Grimm. I think the thing to highlight her is Weiss’ character development. She went from apathetic to someone who actually wanted to help and care for the people who need her as demonstrated by how negatively she responded when the pilot motioned to ignore the distress signals coming from the attacked civilian airships.
From Mistral, we go to Menagerie where Blake plans to expose the corruption of the White Fang but being dissuaded by Ilia as she tells her that her “plan isn’t going to work” and that she “should leave Menagerie.” It only piques my interest into delving how much of a powder keg is Menagerie and who’s going to light the fuse – White Fang? Sienna Khan?
Well, it is gonna take more than persuasion and sweet friendly talk for Blake to stop her plans for Menagerie and exposing the White Fang for what they truly are. But is it the right course of action though?
From Menagerie, we go to Yang where she plans on catching up with her sister, Ruby, in Mistral. Her post-trauma is still evidently strong as her hands still shake from time to time, as demonstrated by when she tried to get drink from a local gas station shop. Despite all that, Yang still proves to be a strong individual as she puts down this arse of a guy who tries to hit on him.
After hearing from the shop owner, it seems that Raven’s tribe is near the vicinity which means we could get an interaction between Yang and her mother. Doubt anything good is going to come out of that.
As for the last scene, we go back to Qrow as he gets all drunk and gets to meet Oscar, the boy who serves as Ozpin’s reincarnation of sorts. I still don’t understand why Ozpin has been reincarnated in the boy. Perhaps there may be more to the professor than what he has shown in the previous volumes.
It’s a hilarious scene – Qrow getting drunk, introducing Oscar as Ozpin and yelling erratically “I found him” over and over again much to Ruby’s annoyance and everyone being confused as heck.
In short, this was a solid start for the fifth volume as it set up the goals and problems that were high in the priority list for the volume’s overall story. We still have existing and new questions both from the previous volumes and now – it’s all getting even more confusing as new episodes come by.
What do you think of the fifth volume’s first episode? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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One reply on “Episode Reaction: RWBY Vol. 5, Ep. 1”
[…] than that, I have given episode reactions for the first and second episode of RWBY‘s fifth volume. There was also a first impressions post of the […]
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