I'm not sure how to react to that. Astonishment will have to do for now.
This final episode did not exactly end the series on an happy and upbeat note in much the same way that sticking ones hand in boiling fry oil will not exactly result in relief from sunburn. However it did provide the audience with surprises and emotional gravity in copious amounts.
The ending of this leaves several issues unresolved and lays the groundwork for either another season (or perhaps a sequel series).
Holy crap.
Ozpin engages Cinder and sends Pyrrha and Jaune to get help...but his fight is a short one and Cinder makes for the tower. Pyrrha kisses Jaune good-bye and after making sure he cannot follow her into the fight runs off to buy time for the others to gather and stop Cinder.
Pyrrha, who has been an awesome character and , in many ways, a Mary Sue done right, puts up a tremendous fight against Cinder, but the villainess is, by now, something of an eldritch horror. Pyrrha does everything right and genuinely annoys Cinder, but it was to no avail, An arrow she actually disintegrated in flight reforms and imbeds itself in her heel, and, thus paralyzed, the proud heroine suffers the ignominy of being on her knees when the death blow is delivered and is reduced to whimpers as Cinder consumed her soul and her powers.
The screen cap can't do the scene justice...THAT was hard to watch. The quivering and the gasping, and the visage of this awesome person paralyzed in a position of utter supplication was the stuff of nightmares and made for one of the more disturbing death scenes in recent years.
Meanwhile, Jaune (who Pyrrha had kissed, stuffed in a locker and propelled to the other side of town) suffers the cumulation of his worst nightmares. He could do NOTHING except beg Ruby and Weiss to try and save Pyrrha...he has to confront the fact that he is AGAIN the fifth wheel, the failure, the man who cannot rise to the occasion. That he has punched far above his weight and exceeded all expectations can be of no consolation to him as his inability to offer so much as a distraction has resulted in the woman he loved, the only person who ever showed him a kindness not founded in pity, dyeing the most horrible death imaginable. The only mercy shown him is that he did not witness her death.
That wretched visage is reserved for Ruby, who unlike Jaune is able to arrive just in time to be too late. She goes a little nuts and.....
The last 20 minutes are a brief montage of the characters dealing with the ramifications of the battle. It seems that Ruby has a rather spectacular hidden power that is activated by watching awesome characters die. It also results in her being in a coma for some days, and it does not actually thwart the villains plan so much as alter it slightly. The tremendous Lovecraftian abomination that was oozing out monsters was put to sleep by Ruby's manifestation of her powers, however, while not adding to the local monster population it , in its slumber serves as a beacon drawing in all the creatures of darkness to the university section of the city, which has been largely abandoned except for the various monster hunters trying to retake it. The global internet and communications array is down and the planet's various kingdoms and smaller outposts of humanity are now isolated.
Blake is missing, Weiss has been recalled to her nation by her father and Yang, now missing her right arm, is sinking deep into a bitter depression. Before leaving, Ruby's uncle Qrow confides in her two pieces of information. Ruby's late mother had a similar power and while it is known, it is so rare that is literally the stuff of legends.Also, with Ozpin gone (presumably eaten by Cinder) Qrow is taking over his organization and heading off to the Kingdom of Haven to carry on the fight in the shadows.
Fall turns to winter and Ruby quietly slips away to trek off to Haven, in the hopes that she can help to avenge her friends and save the world from the encroaching darkness.
She is joined by three highly motivated companions...
So, whether it's titled RWBY, JNRR, AVRR, RAVL, RRAV, NJRL, LAVR, RALV, RLAV ,NARR, VAR,L NRAR, JNR,L ARVR, VARR, NRLJ, NRJL, ARLN, ARLV, JRRV or perhaps LRVA there is a good chance that we'll be seeing more of this story, which is good as the many worrisome implications of that stinger really need to be elaborated upon.
On the other hand the prospect of seeing Jaune burned at the stake is a bit off-putting.
If, as seems likely, that comes to pass, then rest assured, we're going to give it a try.
1
I think Rooster Teeth made it clear that the intentions are for at least one more series, and I suspect they actually have plans for this storyline to go on for two or more additional series. The plot in the third series seemed a bit sloppier, but there's really only one major problem I'm having...I don't understand the four sisters/seasons thing at all. They built it up like they were literal forces of nature in human form, but then
the previous Fall went down pretty easy...and after Cinder
had absorbed the power it took a distraction for her to get away from Pyrrha...and yet if she's able to just crush/break a weapon, why did she need a distraction? Which get's me to one other problem I'm having with the story: to quote Dragonball Z Abridged's Vegeta, "Power Levels are BS."
Posted by: Ben at Sun Feb 14 21:31:43 2016 (DRaH+)
2
"after Cinder ]had absorbed the power it took a distraction for her to get away from Pyrrha...and yet if she's able to just crush/break a weapon, why did she need a distraction?"
Pyrrha is extremely skilled and she's fighting in a room full of giant ferro-magnetic clock gears and such. She is a female magneto and so has astounding leverage and even...tourqe at her disposal. This is Pyrrha's turf, and Pyrrha is a prodigy anyway. Cinder is competent, but she is relying on raw power and clearly underestimated Pyrrha's subtlety and ability to get inside her 6. Pyrrha was fighting very smart (aside from the larger error that involved engaging an Eldritch horror alone). As it turns out the raw power WAS enough. Pyrrha successfully deflected that arrow...destroyed it outright to boot...but it just didn't matter.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Feb 14 21:48:39 2016 (AaBUm)
3An arrow she actually disintegrated in flight reforms
It looked more to me that the arrow flowed around the thrown shield, more than being destroyed in flight... an intentional, as opposed to reactionary, act.
I expect that we'll see Pyrrha again. One doesn't throw away a character like that.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Feb 14 23:32:34 2016 (KiM/Y)
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Feb 14 00:15:23 2016 (KiM/Y)
4
And from what I've seen, those on the Left are treating this with their typical level of grace and respect.
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Feb 14 06:17:40 2016 (5Ktpu)
5
While I don't disagree with the belief that "the next president should decide", on my part I admit it's pretty much for completely partisan reasons.
Would we feel the same way if it was a Republican president in office in his final year? And what is the "cutoff date" for such beliefs? If he had passed away in October 2015, what then?
Does "the next president should decide" have any legal legs to stand on?
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Feb 14 07:59:44 2016 (KiM/Y)
6
'duck, based on everything I've read, and not being any kind of legal scholar, such a concept is usually described in terms of "tradition". To me, it's perfectly fine to keep it in the realm of politics...if you don't want the current President to pick the next justice, then you're free to try to stop the confirmation. Which goes for any political side. I think we get the language we've seen because polling and focus groups tend to claim to dislike "politics" in governing. Which is one of the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of, as "politics" in governing is the thing that keeps the government from running straight over you no matter what.
Posted by: Ben at Sun Feb 14 08:37:16 2016 (S4UJw)
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Feb 14 22:49:20 2016 (AaBUm)
9
Hey, I sleep with a pillow over my head. Proves nothing, unless you are found dead with itsy-bitsy broken veins in your eyeballs and other signs of suffocation.
Does suggest that the party may have been getting a little noisy.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sun Feb 21 13:44:05 2016 (ZJVQ5)
From Episode 18 of GATE, a series where Leilei has, until recently, mainly to her laconic mannerisms, been something of a background character. A competent apprentice mage with a knack for languages, she has been absolutely vital to the progression of the story, having acted as interpreter, had enough on the ball to inquire about the dragon scales and add her knowledge and the authority that comes with her status to the group's tookit. Leili finally got to shine in a big way last episode when she turned the tide in the fight against the dragon. .
Now, despite her very young age, she's going to a city of mages where she is going to attempt to give what amounts to a dissertation in front of a group of elders and gain the title of Master Mage. (Some time ago, she got her hands on a middle school chemistry book and learned the basics of covalent bonds...her demonstration should be entertaining).
Meanwhile, Itami, got sacked and relieved of his command (for abandoning his post to kill the dragon...despite the wink and the nod he received prior) . He was also presented with multiple medals, awards as well as titles of nobility (and a slave girl!?) from the locals. Itami is told to just "go out and explore". He is to keep reconnoitering the new world paying special attention to its resources. Thus he decides to accompany Leili on her journey since she's really useful to have around a city of mages sounds potentially facinating and rich in a resource that warrants some study. Rory is along because, I gather, she wants to desecrate a local shrine and the jeep beats walking, Yao insists on coming because she's the aforementioned slave girl (WTF!?). Tuka tags along for...reasons. Leili brings a letter of recommendation from her teacher which is sufficiently glowing to get her an audience.
The result of this is that the group is nowhere NEAR the Imperial capital when Princes Penã throws a diplomatic soiree involving the Emperor and a bunch of minor characters that successfully kicks off the peace talks. With our heroes, the chaos magnets, on the other side of the Empire, and the Japanese ambassador and Penã overseeing the event, odds seem pretty good that nothing can go wron...
Almost nothing can go wrong when two very different societies meet and one has no concept of a statute of limitations and considers giving a necklace to a 12 year old girl a contractual promise to marry.
On a less problematic note, , the emperor is assassinated via poison during the ceremony.
2
I have no doubt Rory wishes to desecrate a shrine, especially considering her recent encounter with the apostle of Hardy and her constant machinizations...but I would bet the main reason she tagged along is standing next to her.
Posted by: Ben at Sat Feb 13 13:24:19 2016 (RRfF8)
3
Hey, one of the hallmarks of superior time management is the ability to combine business trips and vacations!
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Sat Feb 13 14:17:43 2016 (v29Tn)
4
OK that second paragraph now reads much more coherently as three.
@ Steven: What did I get wro....Ah HA. A particularly cunning spoiler tag trap. Masterfully done sir. Touche'.
@ Ben: Yes, because she has made arrangements to eat his soul and the more great deeds he does before he dies, the better he will taste, so he's kind of like Sous-vide or (Itami dearly hopes) a wine that she wants to have aged.
@AvatarX: Yes! Yes it is.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Feb 13 17:56:58 2016 (AaBUm)
5
She wants to eat more than his soul. Wink wink nudge nudge knowwhatImean?
sorry, that should have been below me. And yet I wrote this before I clicked "post".
Posted by: Ben at Sat Feb 13 19:39:05 2016 (S4UJw)
Puddles are an under appreciated menace in our modern world. They can contain all manner of perils such as typhoid, cholera, water moccasins, brain eating amoebas, mosquitoes, industrial pollutants, snapping turtles, leeches, trench foot, ducks, Guinea Worms...portals.
Portals in puddles portend a parade of peril to people predisposed to perplexity
You have found the intersection of cuteness and existential dread.
Even by the standards of this show this is an unexpectedly odd story, but actually works beautifully and has a surprising amount of character development in it. This series definitely warrants further attention.
Just in Case
...that you, gentle reader, have (for some reason) any interest in happenings that do not involve the presidential primary, here are a couple of things that seem to be getting short shrift.
That DPRK satellite has stopped tumbling and is seems to have stabilized its orbit. Amateur radio operators should be able to pick up the songs it's allegedly transmitting using information here (via). If it's working, it should sound just like this....but different. In other news from The Hermit Kingdom, it looks like they are going to pop another nuke soon, and another rocket may be being readied along their west coast. One interesting idea about why the sudden surge of tests is happening can be read here. In short, the idea is that these are to shore up domestic confidence in the countries military capabilities so that a major set of reforms and liberalization can be enacted during the upcoming Communist Party Congress. This sounds...optimistic, but they did just execute the head of the North Korean Military, so maybe their nukes are a sign of really militant dovishness rather than a nuclear armed, crazy nation being crazy. In this context the recent recommissioning of a plutonium enrichment center is a particularly cunning way to ensure that when they do spring peace on us, it will be a surprise.
While there are many foreign policy decisions that the current administration deserves...credit...for, he intervention in Libya looks to be one of the most....consequential. Not only is the no-man's land once known as Libya torn asunder by a civil war, but it also has become the home to a "province" of ISIS.
Let's start with goods carried by train in the U.S. Since the middle of last March, carloads of agricultural products, chemicals, coal, metals, autos and other goods have declined every week:
Someone at Vox, having talked to experts and run the numbers has decided that the chances of a war with Russia are only 11% which probably represent the most optimistic numbers in this entire post so we'll ignore that it's Vox and leave on an upbeat note.
Whether the penultimate episode of RWBY is actually good will be determined next week. However, this was certainly a riveting continuation of last week's episode that thrilled the fans in completely unexpected ways.
Given the highly consequential nature of the last few episodes for the characters as well as their world, it is not entirely clear that there will be a season four...
if for no other reason than they may have to change the name to take into account missing letters.
We are waiting with baited breath for next week.
Please avail yourself of the spoiler tags in the comments.
1
I haven't made up my mind, yet. As you say, a lot hinges on what they do in the final episode. On one hand, I give Rooster Teeth credit for pushing the envelope; while motivations are still unclear, these aren't fairy tale villains. But I'm getting a bit tired of all the decimation and bifurcation...this long spiral down is making me think that the eventual recovery and response is going to be harder to believe. It's believable when Rocky comes back after nearly getting knocked out. The Black Knight beating King Arthur after losing the first few rounds stretches incredulity.
Yes, quite often, but at normal speed. She even used it in the "Black" trailer but when she does it, it's subtle and very quick. She described the ability in detail during the campfire episode and we got a better look at it in the train episode because she had the benefit of a magical power-up from Weiss. Now, in this episode, it does look quite different, and it took me a minute to realize what I was looking at too, but that's because it's the first time we have seen her "
chaff self" portrayed in slow motion and and thus got an idea of how elaborate the illusion is . The only new thing revealed about her power here was that she can apply it to someone she's holding, but that's a logical extrapolation, since the illusion necessarily includes her kit as well.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Feb 8 05:56:39 2016 (AaBUm)
They still call this mountain by that name, even though the huge 1914 eruption rendered it a peninsula. Eruptions on Sakurajima are not unusual. However, given its location, every time this mountain burps it is a cause for some concern.
Even The Most Stoic
...are permitted a moment of well deserved satisfaction when they are achieving a moment of trancendental magnificence...
From episode 17 of GATE, where we are reminded that Leili's name can be found in the dictionary next to 'Win', 'Bodacious', and 'Arete'.
That was a thoroughly satisfying battle.
After the defeat of the Fire Dragon, which could not have happened without Leili's moment of awseome, our heroes decamp to rendezvous with Rory, only to find her broken, bloodied and her scythe shattered. A quick assessment of the situation followed by polite inquiries reveal 3 things to our protagonists:
1: This is Giselle, she is the Avatar of Hardy, the god of the underworld much like Emloy, god of war has Rory. Note her pets. She woke up the fire dragon 50 years early so she could train two of its young to help her defeat Rory, because of something to do with the politics of this worlds pernicious pantheon.
2: It turns out that when Rory bit Itami two episodes ago, she gave him 3d6 damage reduction with the effect that the damage is transferred to her.
3: All those close calls and minor scrapes Itami got during the fight with the dragon...weren't. He was getting hit just as hard as all the people around him who died. Rory was absorbing all this colossal dragon inflicted damage at exactly the moment Giselle and her pets sucker punched her.
Although it was a team effort, given Giselles fondness for the dragon, none of the girls seem to think it wise to take credit for its slaying.
He did it.
Given that their mage and their demigod are currently unable to walk, all their ammunition is gone and they are faced with a very ornery demigod who has two baby dragons at her command it is decided that the most productive course of action is to
RUN AWAY!!!
Fortunately there are few problems not of the heart that can't be solved with 155mm artillery and Sidewinder missiles.
I did like the fact that the cavalry, in the form of air support and an artillery battery arrive too late for the main fight, but still are absolutely necessary to save our heroes hides.
With that pesky dragon out of the way, I'm curious as to how the story is going to portray the 'United Fruit' school of economic development...but that does not look like it's going to be addressed next week...which looks like its starting a completely new arc.
1
I haven't seen this yet but I know about this battle from the manga. Itami
ultimately is responsible for the death of the first dragon. Leilei's attack would have killed it eventually if that had been all, because she shredded its wings, and it would have starved or died from lack of water. But it also served as electrodes to conduct Tuka's lightning into the dragon's body, bypassing the insulating scales. All of which caused it much pain. But the lightning also set off the pile of C4 that the dragon was laying on top of, which eviscerated it and was the immediate cause of death. So when they're giving Itami credit for killing the dragon, they aren't really lying. It was a team effort, but he contributed a lot more than anyone else.
Why Japan Still Has Payphones
When our protagonist got the call from Ruru (Lulu?) I immediately asked myself how the hell the 12 inch tall genie got a cellphone, and if it's magical how does she connect to...oh...
I've heard of a hair-shirt, but a hair-wallet is new to me.
From the latest episode of MC Phantom World, which is another in a string of character background stories, but this one felt much less like a discrete, stand alone tale as it not only references previous episodes, but manages to intersect with what appears to be the larger plot.
A ferocious but poorly drawn dragon is menacing middle school chicken-coops and rabbit hutches and our heroes are...unaware of the situation actually since no one would trust them with this assignment. However, due to a series unrelated misunderstandings they manage to thoroughly screw things up anyway and end up trying to come to the rescue of the young lady assigned to their school's lepus lounge and save the bunnies...
Things do not go as anticipated
I must say, I did NOT see this coming...
The little girl's teddy bear is a kaiju and saves their collective ass.
It may not actually be, strictly speaking, "nice" either.
Interestingly, while I mentioned this was a character episode, it is NOT about the little girl, rather it focuses on the background of Minase, the aloof red-head who through no fault of her own gets in over her head. Despite the ignominy of having their bacon saved by a Teddy bear, Mai and Haruhiko actually do ultimately save the day with a solid, unambiguous win...which is refreshing.
I'm convinced that the club advisor is manipulating the protagonists, whether for good or ill remains to be seen.
The story seems to be back on track and resuming its quirky and occasionally thoughtful direction. If we can avoid a Maudlin episode about the loli I think we'll be fine.
Yet More Thoughts on That Non-Gargantuan Nork NukeBusiness Insider is reporting that the claim by the North Koreans that they conducted an H-Bomb test may indeed be something more than a crate of commie kimchee. For one thing, recent analysis of the seismological data indicates that the detonation was actually much deeper than was initially supposed (more than twice the depth of the previous tests). There seem to be other indicators as well, that this was a test related to specific components used in an H-bomb, though officials are a tad coy about specifics, about how they have come to this conclusion or what components they might be. One interesting fact is that air samples aren't detecting any radioactives, which could mean that the DPRK is getting better at preventing any venting. (I suppose it is also possible that they popped of between 7 and 10 thousand tons of TNT; that's not without precedence but there doesn't seem to be any reason to do that as they clearly do have atomic weapons). There is more on this test here and here. American tests that tested H-bomb components prior to the first official H-bomb (Ivy-Mike) included Greenhouse-George. That test (and not Ivy-Mike) was was actually the first thermonuclear burn, though its fusion yield was far less that its fission yield. It was a proof of concept test and could well be what is being implied for the North Korean test. Something along those lines would make North Korean claims about the test substantively true.
Note that the Buisness insider piece also has this to say....
As Alex Wellerstein, a nuclear historian at the Steven Institute of Technology and creator of Nuke Map, told Business Insider on January 6, a country that's mastered thermonuclear-weapons design suddenly has a number of possible options open to it.
For instance, a country with a thermonuclear capability could build "a very thin-cased bomb of low yield [in this case 1 to 10 kilotons, or 1,000 to 10,000 tons of TNT] that would emit a lot of radiation relative to its blast power."
In another area of weapons technology, the North Koreans have an indisputably operational unconventional weapons system, though in this case a minimal amount of R&D was required since the technology involved is quite mature, or, shall we say, quite ripe.
While the threat of these other weapons is somewhat limited, any country that bombards its neighbors with profanity-filled, exploding poop-balloons is bat-scat bonkers enough that its nuclear arsenal, however modest, should warrant considerable concern.
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