Hiatus warning and RWBY's Four Maidens

First of all, I'm officially going on hiatus until next year. I'm hoping to build a backlog of posts during the rest of December. However, that didn't stop me from rambling about the "Four Maidens" part of new episode of RWBY, so here's a rather rough post to tide you over, until I return to active blogging in 2016 with more RWBY and Steven Universe, plus Pokemon, Once Upon a Time, and more.

First, the colors of the original maidens. Winter Maiden is a mix of the white and blue of Atlas and Mistral silhouettes in World of Remnant. Spring Maiden is the same color as Vale silhouettes in World of Remnant, and Summer Maiden to Vacuo silhouettes in World of Remnant. Fall Maiden’s color is magenta. Could that be related to the now defunct Mantle, or maybe Menagerie? Not much has been said about it since Oobleck’s history lesson. Is Menagerie still a thing?

There are already characters named after the seasons (beside's Cinder), Summer Rose and Winter Schnee. The color of the Winter Maiden is also close to the color Weiss is assigned in World of Remnant. Her sister Winter (represented with White in World of Remnant) was one of the students encouraged to become an Atlas Specialist, that would lead to her becoming a right hand woman for Ironwood. Winter stated that she came for a classified mission for an undetermined amount of time, then she tells Weiss that she was just guarding a shipment and her distinct ship leaves. Continuing with this theory, Ironwood may have a plan in the wings for Winter to be kept around to counter Cinder's enhanced abilities.

Then we have Summer Rose. Common interpretation of "Red like Roses Part II" is Ruby talking about Summer’s death, and Summer apologizing for dying. The implication being that Summer’s last thoughts included Ruby, meaning that, if Summer was the Summer Maiden, Summer’s power would pass on to Ruby. Then there’s the lyric “baby please don’t do what I did//I don’t want you to waste your life in vain," which is interpreted as Summer's request that Ruby doesn't become a Huntress. Qrow, who definitely knows about the Four Maidens, was the one who taught her to fight, perhaps so she could defend herself better if Cinder figured out who she was? Ozpin was also surprised that Ruby was able to fight like that, which means he might not have been aware that Qrow taught Ruby. Ozpin was willing to jump her ahead a few years to place her in Beacon, under the watchful eye of himself and Professor Goodwitch, when he knew she was a good fighter who wasn’t keeping a low profile (”You’re robbing me? I’ll heroically ride your unconscious body out this window!”) during a time when danger was approaching, and he had Qrow out trying to get information on Cinder around the same time, which would leave this hypothetical Summer Maiden without a guard from the "brotherhood."

Next, Qrow says, “Putting aura into things.” I took this as him knowing about Penny, or at least a possible attempt to move Autumn’s aura to an android like Penny. If he did know about Penny, then decapitating those robots in front of her was a real dick move.

Next, they chose Pyrrha, a celebrity, to be the Fall Maiden. Pulling Pyrrha into hiding would arouse suspicion, so that means that the Maidens are hidden in plain sight (which would make sense if I’m right about Winter, Summer, and Ruby), or perhaps they’ll be revealed to the public right before the war to rally the people.

Finally, the story of the man with two souls battling for control. Pyrrha will take on a second aura, an extension of someone’s soul, making her a person with two souls (kinda): her own and the soul of a stranger who may have been in a coma since being attacked by Cinder. JKR is a master of subtle foreshadowing, and a lot of Rooster Teeth’s fanbase is probably in the age group that grew up with Harry Potter. Miles and Kerry do reference Harry Potter books in one interview. I disagree with the substance of the statement, but that means that they may be planning on taking story telling ideas from her, such as subtly introducing things early on (for example, introducing Sirius Black through the motorcycle Hagrid uses to deliver Harry to Privet Drive). This also means that Cinder is a person with two souls, but she seems to be in control. Cinder is willing to dominate and manipulate, but Pyrrha couldn't get herself to ask her friend to go to a dance with her.

RWBY: Doubles Round

I know I said Delta Episode on Wednesday, but this week’s RWBY episode is giving me a lot of material. Plus, I feel like instead of just the Delta Episode, I should take a shot at a series of reviews of Pokémon post game and legendary discussion. I love Pokémon.

First of all, looks like there are two errors in my previous posts. I guessed that Qrow’s semblance was teleportation like Raven’s. It looks like Qrow’s semblance is similar to Yang’s, which means that Yang could’ve inherited it from Raven. Second, I missed that Nora lightning around a charged Nora is pink, it could be her aura altering the color or Neptune and Nolan may have blue auras that affect their lightning attacks.

Anyways, Cinder has now revealed almost all of the named characters who are fighting in doubles. They are:

Weiss and Yang for RWBY
Sun and Neptune for SSSN
Emerald and Mercury for Cinder
Coco and Yatsuhashi for CFVY
Russel and Lark for CRDL
Penny and another girl

The only unknown is who represents Team JNPR. Although, Pyrrha is the most experienced tournament fighter, so she’ll probably be one of them. Granted, there’s a chance that she won’t to keep her from being put on a higher pedestal for her various tournament wins, but I find it unlikely. I’m interested in seeing Ren, since he’s the one who has worked with Pyrrha the least out of Team JNPR, and all the other teams where we know the team spelling are using the member with the last letter (Yang, Neptune, Yatushashi, and Lark).

Weiss and Yang have had some off screen bonding (searching for Blake, setting up the dance). Weiss and Yang’s previous combos mostly focused on turning terrain to the team’s advantage, and the Amity coliseum’s battlefield is very conductive to Dust attacks. I feel sorry for anyone fighting them on the icy or volcanic fields, since that’d play to their elemental advantage. Strategy wise, the duo would probably work with Yang drawing fire while Weiss sets up Dust attacks and keeps enemies from doing too much damage at once. Yang with her semblance and Weiss’s haste spell would be dangerous.

It looks like with Team SSSN is going by rule of main characters. Sun and Neptune are a decent combo, although the robot fight and the battle against Team NDGO wasn’t good for showing team combos for Team SSSN, because of Sage’s early defeat and Neptune’s fear of water.

Team CFVY seems to have gone to doubles with the plan of eliminating people with sheer force. Yatsuhashi can break the ground with a sword smash and is willing to act as a human shield for Velvet, so he has strength and his aura can provide a strong defense. Also, his sword is interesting. A lot of the weapons shown are variations of silver, gray, white, and black, plus when he draws it, there is a high-pitched sound, which also accompanies Dust attacks, so maybe the blade is infused with a kind of earth Dust. Coco can do good damage with the handbag, but her real strength is shredding Grimm with the gun. I hope as a DVD extra we see their team match, because I want to see how Velvet works in an arena that can be Dust heavy.

Russel and Lark were not what I was expecting for Team CRDL. One of them with Cardin or Dove seemed the most likely. Lark and Russel were the first to flee the big Ursa and the first for Pyrrha to knock out. There weapon builds also don’t seem that great. Russel has a low reach, and since he doesn’t use Dust against Pyrrha, the only ranged attack he has used will leave him short a dagger. He does rush Pyrrha, so maybe he could retrieve the dagger fast, but then why not charge while equipped with both daggers? Lark has a perfectly functioning pole-axe (wiki calls it a halberd, but it doesn’t have spear point, just the axe part), but it looks like if there’s a gun feature, the muzzle is by the axe end. The same is true for Crescent Rose, but the scythe can dig into the ground and the weapon would still be at a height for Ruby to fire while standing, while that isn’t the case with Lark’s weapon. Someone would have to be laying down or squatting to fire. Also something I feel like noting, with Lark’s fair ground cameo, the images of Russel and Lark for doubles, and Dove’s stadium appearance, Cardin is the only member of Team CRDL to not appear, in spite of getting the most speaking lines of the group. Their teamwork is really terrible, so maybe there’s been a falling out between Cardin and the rest?

I went over all three of the Volume 3 episodes, and this is the first appearance for Penny’s partner. She is probably a Haven Academy student who Ironwood asked to put Penny on her team (either because they were short a member or in place of a member). Penny was excited about Ruby calling her “friend” back in Volume 1, so I don’t think that Penny had a team until shortly before the Vytal festival, or if she does, she doesn’t get along with them.

Well, CFVY is going down. I’m sure that Emerald and Mercury are going to have to put in a good deal of work, since both seem to rely more on speed than strength. I think Mercury is the only male character shown to propel himself with gunshots like Ruby, Blake, Yang, and Nora do. Russel and Lark will probably also be knocked out. While Cinder is playing with the tournament brackets, Russel and Lark are shown matched with Penny and her partner, then Sun and Neptune. Maybe they’ll be taken down by one of those two pairs, and the rest of the teams will take on new teams.

Spoke Too Soon

I don't think I'm ready to do a series, and I forgot to take into account glyphs when used with Dust, so I'm putting my Dust theories off until there's more information.

Sunday, I should be up with a discussion of the Delta Episode in ORAS and my thoughts on legendary hunting.

After seeing "Never Miss a Beat," I'm more stymied. I could have sworn wind Dust would be green, but Weiss creates a tornado with white Dust.

RWBY: Dust 1, the basics

Okay, rewatching “New Challengers” did reveal that I did get something I wanted. More Dust use. Dew’s Spear, like Cardin’s Mace, is a weapon with a Dust gem mounted on it. Dew uses wind Dust, which gives her the ability to create small twisters. Octavia’s blade seems to have Dust forged as part of the blade, which gives her the ability to augment slashing attacks with flames. There also may be something with Gwen’s knives, seeing as they had some small, colorful explosions when dropped.

On this note, the people who read my RWBY posts are probably getting tired of me babbling, “I want more Dust. Velvet, Russel, more Dust,” so, I’m going to do some theorizing of my own. This will be a series because I'd like to hit this topic from a lot of different areas. Also, I'm trying to do shorter posts, so I have an easier time updating.

Basic Properties
The RWBY Wiki lists the colors red, blue, green, yellow, cyan, white, purple, bright orange, and dark orange as confirmed colors. Confirmed elements include lava, fire, ice, wind, stone, lightning, gravity, steam, water, and energy.

The main place that Dust is seen is when Weiss uses Myrtenastar. She has yellow, red, cyan, blue, white, and purple Dust loaded in the weapon. Weiss is shown using ice (accompanied with cyan), fire (red), and a yellow speed buff (maybe it’s energy). When Weiss gives Blake some dust vials to use with Gambol Shroud, they’re the same colors that Weiss uses. Stone is used, as well as a shadowy haze, when Blake fights Torchwick. The haze is probably purple. This would leave stone to be white or blue. I think blue would make sense as water since ice dust is a shade of blue, and ice is the solid form of water.

Dew demonstrates that wind is green. Cinder’s attacks have an orange glow, but Weiss, Cardin, and Octavia’s weapons, as well as the red glow around Yang when she initially activates her aura, have established fire Dust as red, so unless it’s an aura related color change, Cinder is using a type of orange Dust instead of the red fire Dust. This may mean that she uses lava as her main Dust type instead of fire. There’s more known elements (after RTExtraLife) than known colors. The lighting attacks that Nolan and Neptune use are shown to be blue in color, so lighting might be a different shade of blue.

Decreasing Update Schedule

Hey I've been having trouble with stress lately, and I haven't been able to write much at all. Usually the blog posts are written the day of, which I'm not overly fond of. Anyways, updates will now be Sunday only and probably shorter.

RWBY: When it Falls lyrics and animation analysis

I'm just going to post this for the record: I'm not a subscriber, so I haven't seen episode 2 yet.

This post probably should've been down earlier, before discussing the first episode. I wasn't sure how to do this, since the RWBY soundtrack has a lot of recurring motifs and imagery in the lyrics. I could probably get a few blog posts out of comparing some commonly used ideas and comparing two or three song lyrics.

The opening theme starts with piano music and a shot of beautiful blue trees. A single rose petal falls onto a rose. Then the metal parts (I am not a music expert) of the song start up as a stampede of Grimm, most of which seem to be Ursa rush by. The trampling Grimm take the flower off. Last volume ended with a massive Grimm attack, so I feel like a literal Grimm attack is unlikely this volume. The Grimm are probably symbolic in this song.

The rose is associated with three characters: Ruby, Adam, and Summer. The first lyric of the song “Maybe red’s like roses” brings the songs from the Volume 1 trailers to mind. The title and part of the first line of the first song are “Red Like Roses.” The reference to Ruby’s song continues with the mention of blood. Ruby’s second song, “Red Like Roses Part II,” features the lyric “it’s [Summer Rose’s] blood that’s red like roses.” This volume probably won’t end well for Ruby and/or Adam.

The song continues to show Team RWBY, Team SSSN, Team JNPR, and Cinder’s group in Amity Coliseum, which means those four groups are likely to be major players in this volume, and maybe the semi-finalists in the tournament. Last volume’s opening featured a quick display of groups of characters similar to this, but a lot less appear this time. Penny, Professor Port, Dr. Oobleck, Team CFVY, Team CRDL, and Team ABRN do not appear in this opening. We know RWBY beats ABRN, and they probably fade into the background. CFVY and CRDL will probably stay in the background too this season, with a possibility of them and all the other defeated teams helping in a final battle. Penny might have some battle moments during the singles rounds of the tournament, since her introduction was tied to the tournament.

The song screams “Their Dying Eyes” as the animation zooms in on Cinder’s eye then switches to the eye of a Grimm. The Grimm are revealed to be charging at Beacon Academy. “And now they know the cost of trusting you’s obliteration” is sung as the view switches to the main tower of Beacon which is being climbed by Grimm. Last volume, Ironwood had trouble trusting Ozpin, and that may have had something to do with Ironwood being placed in charge of Vytal Festival security. There may be more Ironwood vs. Ozpin moves.

“Mirrors will shatter” is sung as an image of Ozpin and Glynda separated from the Grimm by a mirror. Mirrors have had some interesting use in past RWBY songs. Weiss’s theme, “Mirror, Mirror” is sung in a way that suggests that she’s talking with the mirror as if it’s a protector and a confidant. I think Weiss may lose something when Beacon falls.

“Crushed by the weight of the world” is sung as the video shows a hostile and combat-ready General Ironwood with the force of the Atlas military behind him. Atlas is named for a figure in Greek mythology who bore the weight of the world as punishment for fighting the Greek gods. I don’t think Ironwood or Atlas will be crushed though. Mistral seems to be more in danger. Characters who are known to be from Mistral (Pyrrha, Neptune) are linked to Greek mythology, and Mistral provides the pillars used in Amity Coliseum.

“Pillars collapse in shame” is accompanied by an animation of Blake seeing Adam in front of a group of White Fang fighters. Adam seems hesitant. In “From Shadows,” shame is one of the things that Blake/Adam/the White Fang want to rise above. The White Fang will probably get a hollow victory at some point this volume, where they destroy something that’s oppressing them, but at great cost. Perhaps an all out war against the White Fang will be part of future volumes, or of course the White Fang could lose a lot of followers to death, or possibly a different cause. Blake is not fighting in the tournament, and the White Fang was on her mind a lot last season, and Dr. Oobleck asked how being a huntress will help her make a difference. The combination means that Blake may be trying to think of another approach for dealing with Faunus rights and the White Fang. Blake may reveal herself as a Faunus this volume and try to rally the White Fang against Cinder.

The animation shows Team RWBY and Team JNPR fighting along side Atlas soldiers against Grimm with Beacon in the background. Becaon is in one piece but looks empty. Ironwood took command of Vytal security after the Vale council doubted Ozpin’s skill. Perhaps, if something were to happen to Ozpin, Ironwood would take command of Beacon students.

Now back to the lyrics. There are some theories that Summer Rose may still be alive. All that’s said is that “she never came back,” so her being alive hasn’t been denied by the Rooster Teeth crew. Summer could stop “resting” since “there’ll be no rest.”

“There’ll be no love” is more ominous when paired with the animation. Volume 2 gives Pyrrha and Nora songs, and they’re all love songs. When Team RWBY and Team JNPR are falling together, Pyrrha is the first to fall, and Nora falls so fast that it’s hard to see. There has been a lot of foreshadowing that Pyrrha will face some misfortune since she’s on Cinder’s list. Nora reveals some vulnerability in “Round One,” and at the very least, Nora will lose a friend, one of her greatest fears.

Team RWBY fighting against the leaders of Cinder’s group accompanies “There will be no hero in the end who will rise above.” Adam naturally takes Roman’s place as Blake’s opponent. The fights are too quick to show a winner or anyone having an advantage, so perhaps Team RWBY will face defeat.

The images of the families is shown when “and when it ends” is sung. Winter and Qrow face off while “victory for hate incarnate,” which suggests that the conflict between Ozpin’s group and Ironwood’s will contribute to whatever falls. Weiss seems concerned when Winter goes to face off against Qrow, while Yang and Ruby aren’t. Weiss is worried about either her sister’s well-being or her relation with her teammates, or both.

“Victory” has appeared in all of the openings so far. “Victory is in a simple soul” from “This Will Be the Day” is optimistic, and there’s a tiny bit of that optimism at the end. Yang, Weiss, and Blake all have their heads down in the final shot of Team Ruby on the ground. Ruby’s eyes are open, and she’s looking up, possibly for hope. “Time to Say Goodbye” is more ominous with “or are we weapons?//Pointed at the enemy//so someone else can claim the victory.” With the semblance steal theory that I’ve been running with, it seems likely that the semblances, a part of the heroes, could contribute to another villain victory.

The imagery of light and darkness has reoccurred a lot in the songs. In the yin and yang, light is one of the things that are associated with the yang element. One of Pyrrha’s songs from Volume 2 is titled with “Shine.” There have been concerns about Yang being killed, because kill the mentor. Yang is showing signs of being suspicious of Emerald and Mercury and may try to confront them about information. Also, Yang’s semblance is pretty spectacular, so she could be on Cinder’s list. Granted, the semblances we’ve seen—Team RWBY’s, Pyrrha’s, and Sun’s—all seem pretty great and would be more deadly when used by a skilled Dust user. Cinder leaving clones made of fire or lava to destroy her enemies with Blake or Sun’s semblance or using Ruby’s speed/rose motif to leave a trail of lava in her wake would be dangerous.

“Misery and pain for all” is sung when the photo is in the screen. The group in the photo has already faced some misery with Raven’s departure and Summer’s disappearance. These incidents are shown to have had a serious effect on Tai Yang, even to this day based on Ruby’s talk with Summer’s memorial. The group may reunite this season, only for one to die because mentors are often killed off for the main characters to transition to adulthood. Also, after the zoom in on Qrow’s sword, it shows the black and red energy that Raven seems to use to teleport. I think this means that the teleport/black and red energy is a Branwen family skill, which means that Yang’s semblance is probably similar to Tai Yang’s, and Ruby’s is similar to Summer’s.

Steven Universe: The Gem War on Earth

What we know:

• Rose Quartz rebelled against the Gem Homeworld because she saw the beauty of it and didn't want the Homeworld to destroy it.
• Pearl chose to follow Rose into battle.
• Amethyst was recruited at the abandoned kindergarten, and some things about her, such as size, were not up to the standards of a usual amethyst.
• Rose, Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst are the only surviving members of Rose’s army, to Jasper’s surprise.
• The remaining Gems (both Crystal and Homeworld) on Earth were corrupted and turned into monsters that Rose couldn’t heal.
• When the war was lost, the Homeworld left the cluster behind to destroy Earth millennia later. 
• Lapis Lazuli’s gem was cracked and stuck in a mirror.

Motivations:

I think that the war on Earth coincided with another event in Gem history, which would be the decision to use fusions solely as weapons. Why would an experiment on forced fusion be left to cook in the core of the Earth if fusion experiments weren’t another major Homeworld project?

This could shed some light on Garnet’s motivations. Peridot expresses discomfort with Garnet remaining fused outside of battle. In addition, when Garnet first deals with the Gem Shards, Ruby and Sapphire almost split, one of them wandering if it was their fault. I think that around the same time as Rose’s rebellion, Ruby and Sapphire chose to remain as Garnet as their default state. This brought Garnet under the scrutiny and persecution of the Homeworld Gems, which lead to her leaving to join Rose’s rebellion. Garnet is particularly hostile towards Homeworld Gems compared to the other Crystal Gems. Lapis is afraid of Garnet, although this could be because Garnet’s a full time fusion. The Centipeetle Gem is terrified of Garnet’s gauntlets, and Garnet is hostile to it in turn. I think that Centipeetle started as an anti-fusion Homeworld Gem.

If Jasper was on Earth during the Gem War, she fought because she opposed fusion. I think Jasper’s hatred of fusions is partially because fusion can make non-warrior Gems into warriors who might be able to defeat her. I’m not ready to say her motivations are pure loyalty, because “Jailbreak” shows that she is willing to act on her own agenda instead of Yellow Diamond’s. Why couldn’t they swing by the Cluster and check on it before heading back with Steven? Jasper made Steven's capture priority. In conclusion, Jasper fought for her beliefs about fusion and for the sake of fighting.

Lapis Lazuli was probably drawn to Earth because she is a hydro-kinetic gem, and Earth is mostly water. Before the war, there may have been attempts to put hydraulic energy to use for gem or weapon production. The potential failed project that I mentioned could be part of the reason that Lapis didn’t believe that Earth had potential. Regardless, Lapis didn’t want to stay on Earth, and the only way to go back to Homeworld would be to fight for the Homeworld. While Rose does operate on a morally gray scale, I don’t think that keeping Lapis imprisoned and injured in a mirror is something she’d allow. I don’t think this was done by any of the named characters. Lapis either was injured and captured by a Gem fighting for Rose then presented to Rose as a mirror, or Lapis was found injured by a Homeworld Gem and “recycled” as an object to spy on Rose with the false promise of rescuing Lapis later. The latter would explain why Lapis did at some point give information to the Crystal Gems, although the former would explain her hostility towards the Crystal Gems.

An Overcooked Amethyst:

The obvious side effect of Amethyst being overcooked is that she’s smaller than the standard quartz-type gem. Pearl calls her the one good thing that came from the Gem Kindergarten. I think that implies that Pearl (and probably Rose) felt that there was something “wrong” with the other quartzes made on Earth. Perhaps the Homeworld found a way to create quartz Gems that were naturally inclined to fight. Jasper is obsessed with strength and battle. Rose is motivated by her compassion, can create plant armies and heal, and is a skilled strategist making her a type of warrior-leader. Amethyst is light-hearted and goofy but plagued by a lot of self-consciousness that she tries to cover up with a laid back attitude. She’s also loyal but can chafe under too much authority, as shown in “Tiger Millionaire.” She's a capable fighter but can be reckless. These traits combined with her small size made her undesirable to the Homeworld Gems, and if they knew of her, she was probably abandoned.

Since she doesn’t know the role of quartz gems in society, she must have hatched much later than the other quartz gems, and that if any other gems hatched at the same time as her they were small kinds not meant for combat. Rose, as a fellow quartz, could have shared their ancestry but chose not to, probably because she either didn't want to keep the Homeworld hierarchy or was disgusted with the other quartz type gems made in the Gem Kindergarten.

Rose’s Army in the End:

Jasper is surprised that there are only three survivors of Rose’s army. The amount of hostile gems on a planet is valuable information that would have to be as accurate as possible, especially if they were sneaking noncombat gems on to check on the cluster. I say one or more because the Crystal Gems may not have known about Peridot if Steven hadn’t accidentally stuck his head out of the warp beam. The amount of enemies that could be faced would be passed on to Jasper, the warrior in charge of subduing the Crystal Gems. However, the small number surprises Jasper. This makes it seem like the Crystal Gems lost Gems between the first war and Steven's arrival.

My theory is that there were more who survived the Gem war at first, but they eventually became the corrupted monsters that Rose and the others fought to protect Earth from. Another possibility is that they could have artificially enlarged Rose’s army using Pearl’s battle holograms, but I find that one less likely. Surely the Homeworld Gems would be able to tell the difference. Also, I'm not sure if only her Pearl holograms were able to attack.

RWBY: First Round

I'm trying an episode recap this time.

The episode has a beautiful beginning, with Ruby talking to her mother’s grave and giving her mother a catch up. It’s really sweet. I like Ruby’s little joke about keeping Yang in line, and I think Ruby got her sense of humor from her mother. The photo in the opening theme implied that Summer might not have been the best with social interaction, and maybe she’d miss the joke after it was explained like Ruby. Overall, the animation is great. I love the reflection of sunlight on Ruby’s eyes. It’s so beautiful. The one problem is that Tian Yang looks to have been drawn in a completely different style. The shading style looked a lot different and he didn’t move.

Next we go to the fight. The beginning was a bit off. I prefer knowing what’s going on at the start of a fight. Ruby and Weiss got some cool battle poses, but who were they fighting? I mean yeah, Bolin and Nadir since Blake is in one on one against Reese while Yang and Arslan are throwing down, but what are Ruby and Weiss doing? I guess Weiss was launching a glyph from far away, but Ruby seriously looks like she was just striking cool poses. I had the same issue with Pyrrha’s fight with Team CRDL. There are flashes of her fighting Cardin, Dove, and Lark, but Russel takes his time getting to the fight, so does he just spend some time practicing back handsprings while the others fought?

Professor Port and Dr. Oobleck deliver banter and exposition. The tournament setup is good, and it sounds like all students get to the team round. It’s a good style for huntsmen and huntresses in training, since it requires teams to think about who will best represent them and will likely give a lot of them a chance to observe other fighting styles. It also means that Penny will have a lot of time to test herself in fights. The large amount of ships taking people to and from the fair ground suggests that the Dust shortage in Vale, I think, so I swear to God, Velvet and Russel if you get fight scenes you better do more than kick people. I want to see more Dust usage. Weiss and Cinder have each picked a favorite element to destroy people with, so I need more Dust users in the show to satisfy my Dust need. I have no faith in Cardin providing a lot of cool Dust usage, because in Volume 1, he had Jaune do his Dust homework. Seriously, Weiss just made a giant ice fist out of Dust. That had to have taken some intense Dust manipulation. How does she do that? The stadium will give a good opportunity since Bolin was able to snag some lava Dust for Reese to use.

Anyways, once the doctor and professor are finished, the fight scene gets good. Blake and Reese are going toe to toe, as are Yang and Arslan. They’re good match ups. Yang and Arslan are tough brawlers, while Blake and Reese’s weapons have a good amount of surprises. Someone also said it was very Spiderman-esque. Team RWBY has great teamwork between Ruby and Weiss, and it gets even better with the ending move, a team up to prepare the ultimate punch. It was deliciously over the top.

I liked what little I saw of Team ABRN. Arslan’s use of the wire is really cool, and kind of like Blake’s ribbon. Hopefully more characters will put this strategy to use later since large Grimm or really strong fighters can send a lot of them flying. I think Reese’s hoverboard uses wind Dust as a default Dust type, but obviously it can take other crystals, such as the lava one to use in addition to the wind. ABRN seems to have a better balance of individual combat styles than a lot of the Beacon teams. Arslan, Bolin, and Reese are primarily fast melee, while Nadir is primarily ranged. It’s not that balanced, but of the sixteen shown Beacon students, Coco is the only one who isn’t a melee fighter or a melee fighter that can fall back onto ranged attacks. How does Beacon not have teams that are poorly balanced? I suppose it fits Ozpin’s style to stick kids together and say, “alright, it’s your job to find the strategies for this to work.”

We find out that Cinder and her group destroyed another team. Neo in disguise is the fourth member. It’s a cute disguise. Cinder also has skill in hand-to-hand combat, in addition to archery, dual wielding swords, and lava Dust. It’s going to take a lot to stop her. On top of that, the tournament celebrating peace just played perfectly into her hand. Also, I think Cinder has some Dust infused in her body, since she popped a popcorn kernel with her bare hand.

I adored the little bit with Team JNPR and RWBY at the noodle shop. It was great to see their views on their future missions. Ruby is excited, while Blake and Pyrrha are more realistic. It’s expected, but it’s fun to see. Since it seems likely that Weiss’s father cancelled her card, there is going to be some quality Schnee family drama for Weiss to deal with. What I really loved was Ren getting a chance to goof off a bit (“Nora, that’s disgusting, but if you feel the urge…”) as well as Nora taking a break from being her usual bubbly self to reveal some insecurities. Nora and Ren, precious warrior orphans. Also a more self-aware Jaune was nice to see. I have my fingers crossed for Pyrrha and Ren being doubles partners because there haven’t been a lot of combos between them. Also, Ren seems like he’d be better than Nora at countering fighters that Pyrrha may have trouble with.

RWBY: Cinder's Plot

With less than a week until RWBY Volume 3’s first episode, I’m going to try to figure out our current main villain’s possible endgames.

War
This has been built up as the worst thing that could happen to Remnant, specifically one that pits the kingdoms against each other, and that the Vytal Festival is the ultimate symbol of peace, so destroying the Vytal Festival would very likely ruin the peace.

I’m not sure of a why yet. I know Cinder wants to take power from others, and a war between the kingdoms would leave them vulnerable to attacks from Grimm. The Grimm from Mountain Glenn didn’t seem to bother Cinder’s group, so they, especially with the White Fang, could still work while the rest of humanity is under siege. One possibility is that all of her other plans would greatly weaken her enemies, so why not go all in and star a war.

Dust

“It’s not about overpowering the enemy. It’s about taking what power they have.”- Cinder Fall, “Extracurricular”

Creating an artificial dust shortage would align with Cinder’s statement. Dust is used in weapons and is the source of power for pretty much everything. In addition, Cinder is doing something that would get Adam to convince the White Fang to continue the alliance with her, in spite of her plan resulting in a lot of dead White Fang members. I think Cinder was also using the Dust robberies to focus attention on protecting Dust shipments and away from the mines. Taking control of the mines using White Fang members/sympathizers among the workers would severely cripple, if not destroy, the kingdoms’ source of Dust. If Cinder has a lot of dust, then she’ll have a massive power source for her main fighting style, and her ability to give her followers Dust-based weapon upgrades would only be limited by their discipline and skill with Dust.

Base of the Coliseum
Amity Coliseum is four parts. The part contributed by Vale is a massive crystal that serves as a power source and/or a source of the dust used in the tournament battles. With the theory of Cinders taking Dust to deprive the kingdoms of it, taking this massive crystal would be necessary, since with the war, what would stop one kingdom from splitting the Vale crystal to make up for its Dust shortage?

Why Pose as Huntsmen and Huntresses in Training?
“The Vytal Festival Tournament” reveals that academies were started as a part of the peace treaty. Cinder and her group are going to pretend to be the hope of the kingdoms to create the most symbolic destruction of peace.

Why Haven and Mistral?
Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald have infiltrated Haven Academy. Haven is the only other school to have students officially introduced (SSSN and now ABRN), but there isn’t much known about Mistral. They have trade routes and the Regional Mistral Tournament, which Pyrrha won four times, so it’s likely that Sanctum Academy is there too. Mistral provides the arches for the Amity Coliseum. There’s not strong reason for why they’d choose Haven, or why not.

There’s a chance that we might learn more about Mistral. The opening is promising that Team SSSN will still be somewhat prominent, so maybe they’ll learn something about Haven. Perhaps Haven was the first school established from scratch while the rest were built on pre-existing infrastructure.

Another possibility is that this is simple convenience. Neptune and Pyrrha are from Haven and based on Greek and Roman mythology, so Mercury may also be from Mistral. It’s not clear what his age is, so it’s possible that he was a student at Haven when Cinder recruited him. I don’t have anything to back up guesses about Emerald’s place of origin, but Sun proves that Haven does get transfers from other kingdoms, so she could be an actual student of Haven too. Cinder may have gotten in and joined the team with a forged transcript. It’s not the first time in the series.

Semblances
Taking semblances of talented students such as Pyrrha would make it even harder for huntsmen and huntresses to defend the kingdoms and civilians, so that dovetails with destroying the kingdoms nicely. Also, it’s not clear what the criteria for putting students on the list are. Pyrrha’s semblance is powerful, but she keeps it hidden and uses it to shift things to her advantage. Of the current characters, Cinder, Glynda, Velvet, and Weiss are the only ones who could hold their own against Pyrrha’s semblance because their fighting style relies more on dust and semblance than metal weapons, plus most have more combat experience. Revealing that some huntsmen and huntresses use semblances to shift things to their advantage without their opponents knowing.

It might not be coincidence that Pyrrha’s first opponents in that episode were ones who are completely screwed against her semblance. Cardin, Dove, and Lark are covered in metal armor that could also be manipulated, and Pyrrha could easily swat Russel away, so she could probably take him down with pure strength unless he reveals some really impressive skills with Dust.

With friendly competition a part of encouraging greatness in training huntsmen and huntresses, it might be hard to do that if some huntsmen and huntresses may have skills that other huntsmen can’t detect and can’t defend against. Some huntsmen and huntresses could be discouraged. Others may feel that people who fight like Pyrrha don’t fight fair, such as Cardin. This could sow some type of dissent. Cardin would try to get his team to ambush Pyrrha some way because she’s too powerful of an opponent for them. It may also sow discontent between kingdoms if they suspect the other who have students who hide their true strength.

I'm trying to do a regular update schedule of Wednesdays and Sundays. If I build up a bigger backlog of posts, I'll start updating more often. Although there may be an additional one this week, because I'd like to do an analysis of the lyrics of the Volume 3 opening in regards to references to past songs.

Steven Universe: Homeworld Hierarchy

There’s a slight change of pace. I’ve still got plenty of ideas for RWBY posts. I just wanted to do something because I really loved the episode “Too Far,” which has fantastic character development, even by the high standards of Steven Universe, and some intriguing bits of world building.

I should preface this with the fact that geology is one of my areas of geekdom, especially when it comes to gemstones, so I may be using more science than other Steven Universe theories. Future posts are especially in danger of this. On the capitalization, I capitalize gems when referring to a specific character, but not when referring to that group of gem. The word gem is capitalized when referring to the race in Steven Universe, but not real world gems.

My basic premise is that Homeworld runs on a caste society, and that system is based real world mineralogy. The caste system contributes to the hatred of fusions. There may have been a way to get an honorary position into a higher caste, but that was likely abolished after Rose Quartz rebelled.

Popular fanon believes that Renaldo is somewhat on point with his Diamond Authority conspiracy, and the rulers of Homeworld are the diamonds. Before the war for Earth, there were images four diamonds in Gem art: white, blue, yellow, and pink. The Homeworld ship used by Peridot shows only three diamonds: white, blue, and yellow. A gem called Yellow Diamond is Peridot’s commanding officer. Yellow Diamond, if she isn’t the lead diamond, is in charge of the section of space that Earth is in, since a yellow figure is shown in a mural of the Gem’s war on Earth, most likely as the leader of the Homeworld forces.

Popular theory states that Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond. This could explain why there was no attempt to find a new Pink Diamond. Rose has some abilities that don’t seem standard for a warrior. Her summoned weapon is a shield; she has healing tears, and she can make warriors from plant life. Amethyst and Jasper have not displayed these abilities (although this could be because Amethyst is overcooked and relatively young, while Jasper is very focused on physical strength), so Rose Quartz might be far stronger than the average quartz, possibly other rose quartz, because she can function as a healer and commander of her own non-Gem army. This could’ve earned her promotion to the status of Pink Diamond.

Next is the quartz warrior class. Although Peridot had been working on Earth for a while, and Lapis had been forced to stay on Earth for even longer, command was given to Jasper who might not have been to Earth since the war with the Crystal Gems, if ever. The theory I proposed in the above paragraph could’ve given Rose fame throughout Gem society as the most powerful quartz, so Jasper wouldn’t necessarily have fought on Earth to hear about Rose’s prowess. To me, this is a sign that warriors are a higher class. Of course, Jasper also probably has more battle experience than Lapis and Peridot, so that could’ve been a deciding factor too.

Homeworld seems to be an intergalactic imperialist power, so for the conquering they do, they’d need a lot of warriors, and those warriors would be well respected, as shown when Peridot was ecstatic that Amethyst thought that she was funny and was much more upset about hurting Amethyst’s feelings than the other Crystal Gems combined.

Interestingly, the sardonyx gem is a type of quartz. This means that fusion can give Gems a chance to change social groups, which could be a factor in why Homeworld doesn’t like fulltime fusions, because they have the potential to make a pearl on par with a quartz without the approval of the Diamond Authority.

Next is heading into a lot less substantial territory. Scientists like Peridot are probably another class. Another class I propose is an elemental ability class composed of Gems such as Ruby, Sapphire, and Lapis Lazuli. This is a less stable theory. Ruby and sapphire are variations of the gem corundum and lapis lazuli is a variation of lazurite, so this doesn’t have the same cohesiveness as the quartz warrior class. Plus, while Lapis’s skills are based on manipulating water, Sapphire and Ruby have skills besides that, such as Sapphire’s super speed and future sight or Ruby’s strength and weapon summon.

I think the proposed elemental class Gems would be above the scientist Gems. The elementals have a stronger source of power than the scientists, and Peridot’s comment in “Back to the Barn” about a peridot having a pearl suggests that the science class is lower, so possibly one or more classes below quartzes. Granted, based on the kindergarten, it seems likely that warriors are mass produced at times, so it could be a very large class, and since I’m making them second highest, they may just take up the majority of pearls.

Pearls and other Gems that contain a mix of organic material and minerals (petrified wood, for example) work as personal servants. This may also contain materials like glass and obsidian, that aren’t minerals per say but are sometimes considered gemstones. Alternatively, they could be a lower class.

Most likely because of the severe discrimination against Garnet and Pearl, the Crystal Gems do not practice this. There is still a clear hierarchy based on experience, which implies that Garnet (or maybe Ruby and Sapphire individually) is either older or fought in the war longer than Pearl.

Other Steven Universe analysis that I’m interested:

• Potential fusion analysis
• Character analysis
• Real life gem properties and Steven Universe
• The Crystal Gems during the War
• Gem mass
• Guesses about how weapon summons are determined (emphasis on guesses)

RWBY Retrospective

Edit: Error about Neptune's home kingdom. Fixed 10/17

First, I’d like to say that I enjoy RWBY. It’s a great show, with great art and a lot of potential that unfortunately hasn’t been realized. I aim to get some followers for this blog by shamelessly riding the RWBY hype train. I’ll be starting with a retrospective of the trailers, music, and Volumes 1 and 2. I’m not going to cover “Vytal Festival Tournament” in this post because that is Volume 3.

The Trailers:
I didn’t watch them in order. I saw Yellow on Tumblr, and it is the best of the trailers, in my opinion since it balanced fight scenes and the intrigue surrounding the characters and world. I didn’t watch the trailers until I got around to watching the episodes, which was sometime after the “Emerald Forest,” maybe “Players and Pieces” episodes were released. The trailers sort of slow burn to a better-developed story in my opinion. Red is almost pure fight scene, while White uses music to reveal bits of information about the depths of the characters. Black and Yellow show characters and intrigue, and in Yellow, Yang is having so much fun with it. Also, I’m a sucker for cool character designs, and the Malachite sisters definitely have that.

Volume 1: story
The first volume is okay. The best part is the initiation episodes, which balance out character interaction and fight scenes nicely. They steadily introduced the main 8 students and their relationships with each other and built distinct personalities for each of them. My favorites are Yang, Nora, and Ruby. They have fun killing monsters to save humanity. The fights with the Nevermore and Deathstalker had great collaborations that confirmed that these kids were fun and definitely going to be great Huntsmen and Huntresses.

Then came the “Badge and the Burden” which dug up the slightly resolved issue of Weiss’s relation with Ruby and made it a big issue. It was disappointing to see Weiss return to being impatient with Ruby a day after saying that she’d give Ruby a chance. Professor Port and Professor Ozpin sort out Weiss’s sense of entitlement and Ruby’s self doubt, respectively, and somehow Port’s words have more effect on Weiss than her own decisions the day before

Next came the Jaune episodes. Yay. Half of this arc exists because the characters just won’t do anything. Ruby becomes a huntress because she loves helping others, and Blake wants to find a way to help Faunus outside of the White Fang, but both just watch Velvet get picked on by Team CRDL. The closest anyone comes to doing something about the fact that Cardin is a bully is rubbing the fact that he was wrong in class in his face and comments about breaking his legs. Yes, Jaune’s macho posturing meant that he wouldn’t ask his team for help with CRDL, but Nora and Ren suspect that something is up with Jaune, and Pyrrha knows Jaune shouted that he broke the law on top of the roof of the dorms, but no one asks him anything. It just leads to Jaune feeling bad and getting a talk with Ruby, who also doesn’t feel like helping people during this arc. The resolution of the arc bothers me. Jaune is isolated from the group by macho posturing and blackmail from Cardin, so the best way to solve the problem is for Pyrrha to use her semblance to manipulate Jaune’s body, so that he gets a kill. How does Jaune not stumble when his arms suddenly change position? Is Pyrrha really so desperate for the one person who didn’t put her on a pedestal at first to be happy that she wants to give him a false self esteem boost? Why is there a band of two-dimensional characters that the writers don’t seem to take seriously in the cast and at the main school on top of that? How did Team CRDL survive initiation in the Emerald Forest or their previous huntsmen schools? Cardin is too lazy to do homework, even when it’s relevant to his weapon, therefore fighting style, therefore reason for being at Beacon, and since Grimm are drawn to negative emotion, one of the first lessons at Huntsmen Academies should be “control your fear.”

“Stray” and “Black and White” are solid episodes. The Faunus prejudice shown by Team CRDL last arc leads into Blake’s backstory and what the most of the audience figured out. That Blake is a Faunus. How does most of the school think it’s not suspicious that Blake’s bow twitches on its own volition? I’m disappointed that Weiss is once again the antagonist in team dynamics. Her motivation makes sense, since the Black Trailer showed Blake and Adam attacking a Schnee Company train, but are the others only allowed to get mad at each other when they have sympathetic reasons like being a victim of racism? Fight scenes are solid, and there is some great team bonding at the end, although it doesn’t feel like a finale the same way that the end of Volume 2 did. I think it’s because most of Ruby was left after the fight, and Sun and Penny did a lot of the fighting, so a lot of the fight focus was on “check out these badasses.” On that topic, I’m not entirely sure if introducing Penny at this point was necessary since her status as a robot isn’t revealed until next Volume, and that could have been an interesting dynamic to add to the human and Faunus conflict. On the other hand, Rooster Teeth didn’t anticipate Velvet’s rise to popularity when writing this volume, and I think Penny is going to play a major role in next volume.

Music:
When is the day we waited for? Seriously, I love the theme songs and the animation that goes with them, but a consistent issue I have with them, and the soundtracks as a whole, is that the lyrics build up to more than the series shows. I probably wouldn’t be as invested in Weiss if it weren’t for the song “Mirror, Mirror,” because the show never tries to show the loneliness that was the focus of the song. Maybe showing her having moments of doubt or regret when she’s away from the team after an argument would help.

Anyways, the opening theme is a great song that will get you pumped up for the main characters doing a ton of triumphant stuff, but they’re just starting out. Even after Volume 2, there’s still hope and peace. The dreams are introduced, but the heroes have no plans for accomplishing them outside of become huntresses. They haven’t found the door to the main villains.

Volume 2’s opening is very much the same. RWBY doesn’t have a reason to question their path until Oobleck questions WBY, but there’s no time for WBY to think of potentially negative consequences of their choices because they’ve got to get to work on saving Ruby and stopping Torchwick. The opening theme animation is even worse as far as hyping events that don’t happen in the volume. Promising RWBY showing down with Cinder’s group and the teens all coming together to protect Vale, and only parts of the big promises are shown, such as RWBY, JNPR, and CFVY defending Vale and Blake having a showdown with Roman. I’m going into the next theme song with caution.

Volume 2: Story
Volume 2 suffers greatly from a bloated cast. It doubles the amount of characters who are deemed important enough to make the theme song, but a lot of them don’t get anything. RWBY have some great adventures and bonding, and Sun and Neptune get screen time as RWBY’s delightful sidekicks/potential love interests. However, Pyrrha still seems to have little presence outside of Jaune’s character arc. Nora and Ren are still fairly minor. Team CRDL’s contribution to the volume is getting their ass kicked by Pyrrha (and themselves because Cardin is some kind of achievement hunter when it comes to sucking). While Sun and Neptune are promoted to secondary characters, Sage and Scarlet might as well not exist. It’s revealed that Penny is a robot (just like the fans guessed), and then she gets a cameo at the dance before disappearing from the volume. CFVY appear as total badasses, but Velvet, the fan favorite voiced by a fan and designed in a fan contest, isn’t given much time to shine. WHAT IS IN THE TRUNK??? I want to see her do something besides some nice jump kicks next volume. She has at least one year of school at Beacon under her belt. She has to have more than a trunk and kicks up her sleeve. The adults fare better in terms of development. Complex relationships between Ozpin, Ironwood, and Glynda are nicely established.

This volume was great for Team RWBY’s development overall, but not so much for Ruby herself. She doesn’t get a chance to really grow this arc either and remains the slightly goofy young idealist we met in the first episode. I guess Ruby doesn’t have to say goodbye to the innocence of youth. The Volume 1 song “Red Like Roses Part II” suggests that Ruby was shaken up by her mother’s death, and that her parents may not have approved of her and Yang becoming Huntresses. There’s build up to a big arc for Weiss with Weiss questioning how she’ll achieve her goals for Schnee Dust Company and her sister Winter’s arrival. However, her interest in Neptune is too sudden. Last volume she was still prickly around people unless there was an immediate benefit to befriending them (such as Pyrrha). Neptune is from Mistral Atlas (I believe Weiss is too since that’s Schnee Dust Company headquarters), values studying, and dresses nicely. The only reason to assume that he isn’t after her family money, which is implied to be the reason Weiss is cold to potential suitor, is because he flirts with most girls equally. Blake was great in this season as her relationship with Sun and her teammates grow, and she also questions her methods and learns from Yang. I’m glad that Yang is getting some development, and hopefully next volume her backstory will help her develop instead of just Blake. Raven’s appearance should help with that, although her appearance feels a bit like a deus ex mother.

Then there’s Jaune. Last volume, Jaune stands up to Cardin after a talk with Ruby about leadership and Cardin tries to make Jaune hurt Pyrrha. I thought this would lead to him being a more confident and conscientious leader. Nope. He’s a better fighter thanks to practice with Pyrrha but that’s it. He babbles about his love life to Pyrrha (who is blatantly interested in him) and an uncomfortable Ren (who really wanted to have more than a towel on during their talk). He seems to have no interest in Nora’s opinion on romance and tries to shut her out when she tries to clarify things for an uncomfortable Ren. He still hits on Weiss, even though by now it’s obvious that she is not interested. The only reason there is a stop seems to be that he realized that Pyrrha liked him, and he decided to go out with her. When his team comes to the battle in “Breach” Pyrrha leads the attack while Jaune just groans in discontent.

The villains fare somewhat better. Junior and the Malachite sisters make a brief reappearance, and Adam reappears at the end. Roman has a lot of great moments interacting with the other villains and a captured Ruby. Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, and Neo all have interesting personalities and make great villains. However, the motivations are questionable. We don’t see anyone being affected by the Dust robberies that Roman is doing. Maybe it’s the reason that Weiss, Cinder, and Blake are the only people who use Dust, and Cardin, once, but he doesn’t count to me because I enjoy hating him. I feel like the reason that Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury are undercover as students is purely left to fan speculation, although fans didn’t seem to come up with ideas for why being students instead of spectators would help them until the World of Remnant from Volume 3. They’re going to destroy the city with Grimm, robots, and a Dust shortage, as well as steal semblances (are they going to start ripping out souls?) and make the CCT have a screensaver of a queen chess piece because “sow the death and reap the seed?”

Volume 2: World of Remnant
I love Remnant and would like to see it explored more, but these were largely unsatisfactory this Volume. “Kingdoms” is the only one that I felt contributed information to the series that the audience needs. The only characters that would talk kingdom politics would have to explain the council, which they should already know about. Still, there are a few nitpicks. Kings, not councils, run kingdoms, so why are they called kingdoms? Also, the way the map is colored to represent the kingdoms makes it seem like the only way for communities outside the kingdoms to exist is for them to be on continents that don’t have kingdoms on them.

“Dust” is informative too, but I’m a little biased against it because it didn’t fully answer my own Dust based questions. What do all the colors mean? Also, if Dust is used in everything, what kind of Dust is in Nora’s explosives, or does her aura just dye it pink? “Aura” is DVD exclusive but can be found on Youtube. It’s okay in the same way that “Dust” is. It gives some new information but doesn’t answer my burning questions.

“Grimm” is a weak entry. Oobleck explains a lot of the details about Grimm that are mentioned in the video in the next episode.