RWBY at its Worst: A Review of Volume 5

[@Blizzic]

Some notes that didn’t make it into the script: - Blake’s character short is the only memorable one. The other two were technically impressive, but regarding the story, I always forget they exist. Not necessarily a flaw, since they are just trailers, but worth noting. - The soundtrack this volume was just as good as usual, but it’s actual implementation and effect within the show felt neutered. - Why didn’t the Belladonnas just contact the Haven law enforcement before the invasion happened if they had the exact date? I know they said Ghira’s messenger got assassinated, but do they really need to assemble an entire army if they know the exact time of attack? Plot holes don’t matter but that sure is a big one. - That feeling of strangling darkness from volume 3 that volume 4 so effectively kept alive completely disappeared along with the stakes. - Are they seriously already going to Atlas? To be honest, I hope not. They haven’t spent enough time here to already be moving on to something completely different. And they could have easily chopped this volume in half. - The quality of the fight animation and choreography may have declined after Monty’s passing, but at least fights between other characters still felt big, important, grand, and spectacular (as in, like a spectacle) up until now, but in this volume, fighting is reduced to just...a thing that happens. It isn’t special anymore. - Kinda undermines the whole “discrimination” thing if Lionheart being a faunus is treated like normalcy. Remember, headmasters in RWBY are like governors. They work with the council to run the country. How is it not a big deal that a faunus is the headmaster in a country where “no faunus” signs get hung outside restaurants?

[@saintangel2061]

And also ruining a good villain as he throws a tantrum with only eight soldiers against an army size of the island and gets taken down a dragon ball budokai move because plot???? Idk feel like dropping the series at this point.

[@soarel325]

it wasn’t even after losing Monty, V3 still had a ton of great fights. It’s when the writers decided that they wanted “cinematic“ over what made the show so memorable to begin with

[@arnowisp6244]

First reviewer to even mention the theme of this volume being choice. That would have helped the team so much in making the volume because it seems like that choice theme was an accident.

[@soarel325]

I don't really think the choice theme works for one main reason. Hunters don't have a choice. They're manipulated into being used as tools in a war they don't even know exists. Informed consent is important and Ozpin's little illuminati system completely ignores the "informed" part.

[@93ImagineBreaker]

it was so painful seeing villains and heroes nerfed and how did blake and sun move small army in less time it took her to go to menegerie yes gap between vale an men. might have been bigger but still

[@lightdragoon88]

Still one of my biggest hate for this volume is that Grimm are non-existited in this volume. Aside from Weiss fight with the Lancer the whole volume treat it as they never exists as it just people fighting people.

[@theotherbk1819]

Oh yeah.....this volume.... actually.....DID..........make me forget about.......the Grimm.

[@tayla3095]

Yea but it was full of character redemption and development. Kinda redeems that volume of you like that stuff.

[@bryana.escaleralopez]

Grimm don’t exist in Game of thrones, which is the show they copied to make this volume

[@dc7981]

Oscar is legit just a flesh suit for Ozpin at this point. He isn't his own character

[@thatoneblackdude3333]

Living Jojo Reference yea it's sad

[@soarel325]

He has his own character, but the writers are shit at writing him as anything more than a flesh-suit.

[@dc7981]

Soarel He certainty has the potential to be a great character if he ever calls out ozpin. But since this is M and K writing he will probably be left as just a vessel to keep ozpin around for the plot. It like they have no idea whether to make Oz shady AF or a good guy and dont have the balls to do the first option because that would hurt ozpin fans feelings

[@soarel325]

it’s more they’ve invested so much time into showing how he and his system are horrible, but have made the main protagonists so stupid that they can’t question a single thing about the hunter system or the cabal. Jaune did but then they immediately dropped that.

[@dc7981]

Soarel If anyone should be calling out Oz its Jaune , not fucking Yang. I mean you'd think gaining the ability to fly as a bird would be pretty rad but they treat it like Qrow and raven were cursed. Its clear that Oz was intended to be some sort of antagonist at some point but their backpedaling so hard on this now it hurts

[@ThornReaper]

I was so confused by the Raven murdered the previous spring maiden idea. Wouldn't it have been simpler and made more sense for Raven to have received the maiden powers when she was younger? It would have answered Yang's question: Why did you leave? Raven: Because I couldn't stand the /thought/ of you being my last thought, and bearing this burden. (And then she could've expanded on the maidens purpose, throwing more shade on Ozpin potentially.) Wouldn't that have been more poignant and beautful? Maybe, maybe not, but it seems more simple than the convoluted tale we got infodumped in the lastish episode. It's one of the biggest points in v5 that simply did not make sense to me.

[@bryana.escaleralopez]

This is a better idea but they are most lilely planning on her mother dying to pass the maiden powers to someone else, most likely, Yang so they got to picture her as an unloving mother

[@millennialmike575]

Is it still a passion project? As big as its gotten? As much merchandise as it has? Being in BlazBlue? Having its own mangas and light novel? RT has been making more and more shows, the staff is growing so large it was even mentioned that they have to have name badges because they aren't always sure if someone there is not a stranger. I really feel that time and money are both resources that are self-restricted.

[@godminnette2]

"Obviously the point of this show isn't to have cool fight scenes." That was LITERALLY why RWBY was created. So that Monty could create cool fight scenes and have some excuses to tie it together to some sort of plot. It was Miles and Kerry who wanted a larger plot and he begrudgingly agreed.

[@soarel325]

YEP! Monty's plot was character-driven too, not macguffin collecting crap.

[@manumainio]

I would've loved if rwby was just a show of awesome and creative fight scenes driven by great characters. They just have too much shit going on so everything feels empty and meaningless.

[@MaestroAlvis]

Yeah. I was in the OC community a bit back when RWBY started and my philosophy on how to make a good character always clashed with other people's. I'd say make their weapon + gear first and then make a character to carry that weapon. I made one weapon and started calling it Dio and figured "welp might as well make the guy carrying Latin American". Who knows where he actually came from. It was fun, natural, and Dio went on to liquify many creatures of Grimm.

[@FoxtrotGolfLima]

It would be really artistic if RT can put together a fight in which two characters fight to the death, barely able to hold onto their weapons because of how much emotion they’re going through.

[@lordsurvivor5663]

And it's been a nose dive since the writers took over. This plot really doesn't work cause the kind of plot the show wants requires our heroes to be invested in stopping the big bad and the only two who are invested in stopping Salem are Ozpin and Qrow, everyone else is kinda just taking their words at face value and doing what their told without question or if they have questions they immediately change their mind after the scene ends. It's okay for Jaune and even Ruby to hate Ozpin, he literally got one of each of their loved ones killed over a chance one of his plans might work. Both dieing for nothing in the end despite all their power and skill. He wasted two of his best warriors, robbed a little girl of her mother and a training huntsman of his maybe girlfriend. Sure he's their best chance at stopping Salem with what he knows but it doesn't mean they all should blindly follow him.

[@Shack11]

7:45 This is what annoyed me the most about Yang's arc: it felt like she just read the script and thus became effectively omniscient for the rest of the plot. She walks into V5 knowing everything about Raven, having gotten over her completely, knowing her tribe, her location, her Semblance, her personality, her plans, her ideology, her failings, her motivations and apparently that she wouldn't even just say "no" to her demanding she be taken to Ruby. It's also what agitated me about Raven: they were doing so well on making her seem deeper and flawed... until Yang walked in and not only was able to completely deconstruct her in the span of a single conversation, but, it turned out Raven just had no damn clue what she was doing there, anyway. She didn't want revenge on Qrow(I guess?), she didn't want the Relic for power, she didn't want it for deterrence(because she didn't think of that according to Yang), and she didn't want to work with Salem and just hand the Relic over so she could scram. So what did she want? Why was she there? So much for it being the only way we can stand a chance against Salem. They trashed Raven's entire character just so she could take an L. Much like how they trashed every single villain's character and threat level just so they could take an L.

[@silviogrijalva8801]

I just want good fight scenes

[@TheRpou]

Silvio Grijalva Me too, I just want good fight scene with stakes from the villains movitation. But we do not get that. Just standing and exposition.

[@soarel325]

That’s what the show is supposed to be about. If only the idiot writers understood that

[@thequeenjess]

Soarel Apparently the fandom dont understand that too. Everytime I hear someone say RWBY isnt about fights I want to bang my head against the table. Its the reason RWBY was created and why it was loved. Not for the convoluted mess of a story. To see cool weapons do cool things in cool fights with cool characters. The Rule of Cool

[@soarel325]

YES YES YES YES YESSS!!

[@TheRpou]

TheQueenJess Lol. You made me laugh😂😂😂. That is like MCU movies fight scenes do not matter. I have seen better conflict and fights in short story and flash fiction authors. Good comment.

[@brandonontama2415]

Yang PTSD was handled poorly she got over it way too quickly you can't get over PTSD like that. Ren backstory really didn't tell me anything about his character. Regardless cool video.

[@Radiolonestar]

Whats even more disappointing about the whole yang PTSD thing. is that Adam and the white fang (the source of her trauma in the first place) where right there at heaven and there was absolutely no scenes or moments with that, not even a reaction from yang seeing him.

[@MsWaltes]

red hawk To be fair she was busy having a rematch with Mercury and the writers needed Blake to stop Adam so they could finish her arc!

[@asherking159]

She hasn't gotten over it yet tho

[@bazbaz8940]

I don't think she's over it at all. I think she found a way to temporarily shift her motivations. I mean, she hasn't seen Adam yet (even though in Vol6 theme she clearly isn't over it) and she and Blake havent had "the talk" yet. Those are the times when it will really come out.

[@ocaraloho4652]

Even kawaki's PTSD is better

[@All_Powerful_God_Enel]

The best thing about RWBY were those first trailers.

[@OrangeMesa]

All Powerful God Enel Hands down, undisputed, unanimous, winner-take-all, of course, best of the best, for sure, 100% domination and annihilation, Yes.

[@Mysterdion]

Ooh fighting just cause. *snore*

[@librathebeautifulwarmonk1283]

@@Mysterdion None of the fights in the trailers were just because though

[@ataraxia2894]

Aaron Colon as if there were any stakes in these fights. They couldn’t even make me care so even if it were true that there were stakes, I couldn’t give a crap. I’d rather they all died and some more interesting characters save the world instead.

[@Comic.215]

All Powerful God Enel *cough volumes 1-3 *cough

[@lexmats8527]

Fact: The original fans of Monty Oums RWBY were in it for the flashy fight scenes. Everyone knew that the writing sucked balls (pyrrha falls in love with jaune at first sight because REASONS), and no one gave a shit about it as long as Monty's signature well choreographed fights were in it. After Monty's untimely demise (god bless his soul), RWBY instantly went down the shiter. Too much talking, too little fighting and the fights themselves were badly choreographed! And the kicker of it all was that the writing was still as shit as ever! RWBY's only saving grace was the action. By removing that, RoosterTeeth effectively alienated the original fans that made RWBY the phenomenon that it was PS: I used to be a RWBY fan and I am pained to see how much shit it has become

[@shawnjavery]

Eh, it was a big reason, but hardly the only. There was a lot of style at the start with the trailers, and the premise of the world was good enough to make for an enjoyable series. The cringy writing that became apparent for me later on was also a lot more manageable, as the show wasn't trying to make massive plot revelations that just came off as melodramatic. I think RWBY would always have struggled with a transition to a more serious plot, even if the fight scenes had monty.

[@ViralForceMarketing]

agreed when we saw red and the other traliers anyone that seen his DF work knew it was just going to be a fantastic fight show and thats what i got..its just trying to be game of thrones now....poorly

[@diegokaqui60]

Lex Mats i dont get it pal....i just entered the series like a month ago. I think it s pretty cool. I watched from volume one to five and i haven t really saw a drop on quality in any way. Like....what s the issue everyone has with it(also i haven t seen the chibi yet, i learnt from chibi naruto to not do it until the end). The plot isn t something amazing but it is enough to glue the characters and story together. Hell i actually care when this people fail or get assfucked by cinder. I mean....what s the problem with the writing?.....it s just good enough to make you care and the fights are still leagues above anything other than anime. If im cheering up for a villian death hoping for her to not come back and actually rooting for a mom daughter relationship....i can t complain. It s basically devil my cry with the story quality of Early naruto with some problems. I just don t get the issue here. What s the problem everyone has(apart from ruby getting outstage). I dont get it.

[@93ImagineBreaker]

you dont see the flaws but many others do

[@diegokaqui60]

93ImagineBreaker...care to explain...seriously am i on crazy pills. This is too straight forward and simple. Why is there a problem?

[@maxentirunos]

The biggest problem beyond all that is that Miles isn't able to take criticism to make his story better. If someone were to send your video to him and Kerry, even with you taking a whole minute explaining you love the show, he would get some excuses and strawman into showing what a RWBY hater you are. This guy (Luna) is so full of himself he think he is the George RR Martin of animation when he still after all these years don't get the basic principe of 'show don't tell'. Hell, I remember when him (or Kerry, i don't remember) asked about ten points about how V5 was the best volume ever and one guy decide to give him a 15 points list of terrible things in it. It was one of the most objective thing i came to see, only based on plotpoint and writing problems without any 'like or hate' point and he still found way to ignore it by saying: 'The problem with RWBY criticism is that they can't do it without insulting the writers (me) so it don't give good light to theirs points' When what was said was 'I didn't even read your criticisms because else i would have seen the lack of insult or rude comment and I'm above all of that.'

[@soarel325]

Exactly

[@ajiththomas2465]

Dude, Miles only made his retweet of the guy from Twitter after said guy from Twitter went all caps lock and basically screamed like an angry 12 year old in Call of Duty.

[@maxentirunos]

Like i freaking said, cherry-picking from Miles to ignore every single point the guy made before. Every one have a breaking point before becoming rude because they aren't heard. Miles apply the women debate technique by Bill Burr. But it's like just one exemple, there is so many vids, commentaries, reddit, twits about the problems on this volume and the one before and the response by the team was 'it's just a show' and Miles 'I don't have a good memory' (but won't do the effort of watching again what I did before), showing to what point they didn't care the slightest about it and will continue to do minimum effort as long as it bring money. Well, from my point of view, I think they want to let RWBY die because it's a personal insult to Miles that the most money worthy show of RT, even three years after the death of the original creator, isn't from him. This is why he try to bring new shows each year to bury it, from Camp Camp to now Nomad of Nowhere and this Gen:Lock after.

[@MrRemicas]

I think tje RNJR section would have been better had Ozpin just not been there. They could have had a bit of a mistery plot between not knowing if they can trust Lionheart (or Qrow for that matter), and the disappearance of Mistral's Huntsmen. And the bit about Oscar's choice if "becoming a Huntsman and save the world"? That's already Ruby's schtick and she needed to come more on her own this volume. Heck, we dpn't even know if the guy wanted to become a Huntsman.

[@whiskeyii]

Thaaaaank you for what you said about Yang's arc. I struggled to articulate why her crying scene when she finally gets the relic rang so hollow for me, and you just nailed it. I think the intention was to show that Yang was putting up a brave front about moving on from Raven while still actually wanting a relationship with her mother, but the execution just did not work at all for me--and I think a similar thing was intended for Blake--prioritizing the White Fang over her personal feelings was maybe meant to show her growth and independence from Adam--but it also fell flat for the same reasons.

[@luisd.gonzalez1215]

the weiss vs hornet fight was not a fight. It was a CUTSCENE 130% Agree. I feel baffled when I see comments saying that the best fight in the volume was this one. Edit: I was also hoping for a full rage fueled brawl between cinder, ruby and jaune as soon as their eyes crossed. But no. We got a smug and chill cinder, an incompetent ruby and wet noodle jaune. And weiss repeteadly trying to summon something just to be interrupted reminds me of a kid trying to pull a long casting crappy spell in a pvp game just to look cool

[@hagahong3327]

11:43 "The show just keeps going til the end so it can climax and be done." Sounds like sexual apathy to me.

[@WildArtistsl]

a sexual apathy XD i hear Brunswick QuAckINg

[@JetBlack2024]

Blake arc ended really bad. She's an ass for no reason at first. she only cared for herself. she defeats Adam like he was nothing. she said she wasn't there for him. I'm like the who arc was about stopping him. It was the worst ending of all in my opinion. ila was ok. but I don't think a side character should matter more than Ruby. oh yeah Ruby should be the main character but guess not. forget her and all that comes with her.

[@gudajalter1888]

BlackMask Gamer Thats why I like Ruby more in Rwby Chibi, because there she actually has a personality.

[@bearandthebull2372]

BlackMask Gamer what,you didnt like adams "oh no i fell,better flee" scene?

[@slider903]

Here is what needs to happen. 1. Drop the cinematic style of fights and go back to what it was. Let the animators run free it's what Monty would have wanted. 2. Push the release date back into next year. The script for v5 wasn't even done when ch 1 aired. 3. Get more writers and create a bible for the show to prevent retcons. Miles and Kerry are not good enough. 4. Miles needs to swallow his own ego and accept critiques whether they come off as rude or not. If he is willing to insult critics he has no right to tune them out. 5. Scrap Gen lock and give no attention to it. It is a waste of time and money. 6. Take longer to make each chapter. We aren't even getting a finished product because they keep making directions. 7. Fans need to come out in force in the next video that drops. It's on us people.

[@Yankeesfan4ever100]

"Extremely compelling relationship between Blake and Ilia." Compelling? You mean the out-of-nowhere "I'm gay for you" moment which just came across as "How dare you be in a heterosexual relationship with Adam when I wanted you...even though I never clarified anything like that before and after you left our island!" 10/10, would cry again, #Oscarworthy, #rightindafeels

[@97spartan]

I know your comment is quite old now but I want to say I agree with you so much. Btw have you ever watched FatmanFalling’s rwby videos about the creators commentary, in it Miles explains that Weiss’ pilot was originally supposed to be the first gay character with spoken lines (originally the pilot was supposed to make a comment about wanting to have a drink with his man when he gets home) but because one of the Rwby crew thought it’d be bad to have the first gay speaking character be unsympathetic and then die. So instead we got Ilia the incel

[@lightdragoon88]

Surprise to see someone liking Blake right now. But I can see why you think her story is the 'best' one in this volume: it was the only one that was character driven while everyone else literally sat around waiting for the plot to call them in at episode 11.

[@soarel325]

Yep. Blake is the only character who's not waiting for the glorified key to open up the door to the macguffin. But now she's on the same railroad as everyone else.

[@lightdragoon88]

Soarel I think you meant Blake.

[@soarel325]

Wow, that was a dumb mistake. Let me fix that

[@vicente8107]

Lightdragoon88 Hey, I like Blake.

[@lightdragoon88]

Vicente 810 And that is fine. But you have to admit her popularly dip quite a bit from these last 2 volumes. Hopefully she lands on her feet and gets back into the popularly race. ..........ah crap was that racist?

[@tired247]

I absolutely was OBSESSED with rwby. But I agree volume 4 and 5 are just not the same idk what it is. There is NO development in Ruby whatsoever. She's always optimistic even though her sister's arm was chopped off,Pyrrha was killed, and people are out to LITERALLY KILL HER. AND SHE'S NOT TRAUMATIZED ONE BIT? It just doesn't make any sense to me. It also bugs me how she has NEVER mentioned her silver eyes this entire volume! Edit:I just hope they improve on all of this in season 6. Let's just hope!

[@diegokaqui60]

yeah i get the ruby argument,everyone else literally mada me more invested in the story. But apart from that the story jas been pretty good. i don t get it.

[@matt_918]

I would argue that fight scenes are one of the biggest parts of rwby. When I first heard Monty Oum was starting his own series and saw the red trailer. I got hyped up not because of the story (which was mostly unknown at this point) but for the promise of beautifully choreographed over the top fight scenes! Which were delivered despite having many mistakes with animation and mediocre voice acting (due to low budget). But that was fine because I enjoyed watching it because it was entertaining and littered with fight scenes that were fun to watch. And when Monty passed away I was extremely worried rwby would lose that flair or style that Monty brought with him but rooster teeth proved me wrong and blew it out of the park with volume 3. It was a perfect balance (IMO) between an intriguing story and technical fight scenes. Volume 4 was okay and more story driven but the Qrow vs Tyrian fight made up for that and I assumed they were setting up for something bigger. But volume 5? I would almost go as far as to say it was a waste of my time. There were no amazing fight scenes in this volume and one okay one ( the maiden fight) but you can't go wrong with 2 magic fuelled badasses going at it. The animation for the characters was awkward and stiff. It almost looked like they were fighting in slow motion (I personally like fast paced fight scenes). They mostly stood around doing nothing, even in combat! And the cuts that littered volume 5 were janky and made the episodes hard to follow. Though I liked the direction of the story overall it was horribly executed and left no room for any action. I remember while watching volume 5 thinking "where the hell was the action?" after every single episode and when it was revealed that the finally to this volume was going to be a all out battle royal! I got excited assuming all of the budget went into this amazing battle that was about to take place( like in volume 3) but I was mistaken. It sucked, they shouldn't have even put it in if they weren't going to do it right. Volume 5 didn't feel like it was actually rwby and more like those tales of remnant fillers with better animation. So to sum up my tangent I feel like combat and style points are the things that made rwby special and volume 5 had none of it.

[@matt_918]

Good video BTW!

[@soarel325]

Fight choreography is and has always been the main selling point and V4+ is a disaster! We need more V4 prologues, Qrow/Tyrians, and Cinder/Ravens and less...literally any other V4+ fight

[@-xxphantomsnipsxx-9106]

I agree, My first experience with Rwby was also watching the red, white, black, and yellow trailers and I just remember baring witness to the fights in those trailers and just feeling so pumped watching them. The Red trailer being my favorite of them all, and I just remember being blown away with the fight choreography and the speed or quickness of it all. Sadly after volume 3 that all changed, I watched the trailer/preview for volume 4 and i remembering it just blowing me away as well, with the new graphics, ruby's new clothes and abilities, and the new grim. But then it came and I started watching it as soon as it came out, it was obviously quite different, and was pretty discouraging kinda for me...but I kept on watching, then after a bit in I started to realize the quirkiness/spunk of the show was kind of gone in a way, ruby and the team felt bland and there wasn't very much spark or comedy in their conversations anymore in a way. I did read somewhere during the time that volume 4 was going to be more plot driven and stuff, though thing is i don't see why they had to limit it to only that. Sure story is an important thing, but a balance would be been better, it could then have like better more compelling story, awesome choreographed fight scenes, fleshed charcters....thing is i will be honest the fights and action brought me into Rwby and when Rwby was just starting out the fight scenes were made to show just how crazy choreographed and awesome it could/would be in the show (like the trailers and series) and when you go through about 3 volumes being shown all these awesome, crazy fights you kind grow the impression "Oh Rwby is that show with crazy awesome fights" and when that's kind of taken away and now the focus and just story and fights are sprinkled in some places, it gets boring. I stopped watching rwby in the middle of volume 4 because I couldn't bare just like almost nothing happening. Most episodes tended to be filled with just talking and talking, and I just couldn't keep watching it. Though there were a couple fights I did see, but they werent enough to keep me watching since I knew after the fight there would be hell of a lot of talking and doing nothing before the next one.

[@commentcommenter4198]

Great video with great constructive criticism.

[@jthequeen7421]

I personally like rwby but after season three it forgot to peddle the bicycle up the hill instead of down

[@sararomerocovers7096]

Jthe Queen I personally liked volume 4 and 7, but I didn’t like 5 and 6 they have it’s moments but they are not that great :/

[@matcauthon9669]

Being someone who is the son of a combat vet you don't just conquer PTSD it stays with you and the only way to truly get rid of it is to minimize the episodes to the best of your abilities not just go "I'm not afraid of Adam anymore."

[@Haz3dNightfall]

Volume 6 will determine whether or not Rwby will great again or will crash and burn.

[@diegokaqui60]

i dont get it pal....i just entered the series like a month ago. I think it s pretty cool. I watched from volume one to five and i haven t really saw a drop on quality in any way. Like....what s the issue everyone has with it(also i haven t seen the chibi yet, i learnt from chibi naruto to not do it until the end). The plot isn t something amazing but it is enough to glue the characters and story together. Hell i actually care when this people fail or get assfucked by cinder. I mean....what s the problem with the writing?.....it s just good enough to make you care and the fights are still leagues above anything other than anime.

[@liofotia]

Watching everything at once makes it seem like there is no drop in quality I felt the same way but going back and watching every volume about a week or month apart really showed how bad the show has gotten. Plus, while entering Volume 4 for the first time I didn't really feel an energy that I did while watching the fight scenes in the trailer up to Volume 3. Really shows you how much of a roll downhill RWBY has taken.

[@superdawge808]

@Diego Kaqui yo this dude copy and pastes his response on every comment that criticizes rwby lol

[@bryana.escaleralopez]

Oh boy😭

[@TerastalJade]

Finally, someone talking about why they don't like Volume 5 without just saying "fight scenes are all that matter" or "rwby is now terrible and unredeemable." Almost every point made in this video is the same way I feel about V5, especially that last part. As long as they still care about RWBY, there's still plenty of potential left in it.

[@eoin2999]

Good to have you back my dude and a spectacular comeback as expected. Really well thought out and I especially loved the solution you proposed at the end 5 minutes of the video focusing on only a few characters and somehow finding an overall thematic to the Volume that actually works. Every volume of RWBY is essentially squeezing a full story arc into at most 3 hours and they needed to learn that it's okay not to focus on some characters to give others the time they deserve.

[@fernandobonsanti3240]

Just woke up and there's this gift from heavens... It's a nice day

[@LTDLetsPlays]

are we sure this is RWBY at its worst? because it can go even DEEEPPEERRRR into the hole XD raven's motivations and her plan was stupid to its core though

[@soarel325]

Can’t wait for the next season where we get a “fight” composed entirely of characters T-posing and the characters literally sit around in a blank white space doing nothing until an alarm goes off saying “Time to get the macguffin!” Bird moron is and will always be a bird moron. Someone really ought to tell OP that song doesn’t belong to her.

[@LTDLetsPlays]

Soarel yes that is the best possible season

[@maxentirunos]

To be fair, the 'giving the mcguffin to vilains so you don't have to be afraid about having the maiden power' would have some meaning... but it was so badly written that it confused everyone

[@soarel325]

maxentirunos She didn’t give them the macguffin, she was planning on betraying them and taking it herself

[@Talyrion]

And then she acts shocked when someone points out "huh, you know that means they'll be after you, right?". Also, her motivation for distrusting Ozpin is... because he gave her bird powers. That's it. Apparently, this is inexcusable. Are we sure she's supposed to be smart?

[@marcusbayley5126]

There is no passion anymore, they don't give a shit and next volume will be even worse

[@firdawsjetbohpal2823]

And unexpectedly you were right. Volume 6 was... kinda good but at least better than the fifth.

[@bryana.escaleralopez]

Oh boy, let me tell you about vol8

[@marcusbayley5126]

I can’t believe I wrote that. I guess I was just a dumb fanboy back then. There was never any passion the whole show is shit.

[@93ImagineBreaker]

Videos like this are inevitable, rwby suffers from lack of planning and without monty and previous flaws it came tumbling down.

[@Furebel]

When they impaled Weiss, I was literaly shocked. It was hell of a surprise for me, that they really did this, as I never expected them to go so cheap with plot twists...

[@bryana.escaleralopez]

LMAO. Like they really thought we would have fell for a titled character to die

[@kitkatpapple2768]

You know what sucks? I really like Oscar. I do. I held out hope for him and I had hoped that they would focus on him and his struggles with becoming a huntsman and becoming the new successor to Ozpin because it could have been so good. Considering the wonderful development Ren and Nora got in Volume 4, it's a shame that he didn't get the same treatment. Oh and Cinder gets screwed over too. Like she gets so much build up and then Miles and Kerry were just like, "Lol sike we're just gonna go back to being boring and static because fuck having meaningful character moments that change them for the better to make them more dynamic." Come on Miles, you can do better. The entire crew working on this damn show can do better. Let's just hope volume 6 fixes this mess and tries to do some meaningful character arcs and actually succeed.

[@thescotsman2071]

Good to see you again blizzic welcome back can't wait for the next video

[@godminnette2]

"Impossible to see coming" ...no it was not. I saw it coming.

[@janschievink1586]

Blizzic You say you are not going to give up on the show I probably felt the same before hearing you put words to all of these problems I think I'm mostly being strung along by emotional investment in fictional people at this point.

[@jamescampbell6728]

This is perfect. You outlined so many of the issues so well. Awesome job, keep up the good work. Let's hope RWBY starts to get back on track in the future.

[@DexDex000]

Blake’s character is still incredibly frustrating to me

[@wanderinghuntress8645]

Pandora Frost how so?

[@atypicalinternetdweller4997]

0:43 Does anyone know the theme playing in the background here? I've been looking for it for sometime now.

[@Blizzic]

It's Volume 3 soundtrack, plays right when Amber gets shot in episode 11. Fans have titled it "Such Arrogance."

[@BladeOfSteel-Sword_Saint]

"This Volume was about choice- even though they were retrieving the Relic of Knowledge." I laughed when I heard that.

[@SaberknightX]

Nice for being so astute bra! All that nuance in this volume completely flew over my head, but there is some good and thanks for pointing it out clearly. This is why I watch videos like yours, because I like seeing fan's opinions. What you all take away from a work, or art is nice to hear

[@bens3963]

Great video! I'm glad you're back, you seem better than ever.

[@savannainwonderland1]

Great video! I was very disappointed in volume 5 as well. The biggest complaint for me was how my two favorite characters, Ren and Nora got so much development in volume four, only to be shoved in the background as comedic effect in volume five. I understand that they aren’t the titular characters, but to put so much detail into their past as well as their growth in their relationship and individual growth just to put them in the background is a waste of such good development. Volume four was my favorite volume and this volume was a let down, besides Blake’s part.

[@dc7981]

Vannie Valentine this^

[@KevSB07]

Great review, you captured a lot of what I was thinking, and it was entertaining as well. I almost jumped out of my chair when you mentioned the Mercury vs Yang fights because I felt like no one else noticed it was reused from the intro. I do have some disagreements, minor cumulatively, but I do enjoy seeing opposing viewpoints from a sane and knowledgeable person. (Which is why I won't be reading other comments on this video.) I am also glad that you reinforced that you actually like the show, which is missing from a lot of reviewers. The one thing I think isn't a flaw with this volume, but just overall with the show, that no one that I've seen has talked about, is CRWBY's inability to coherently convey details about how the world of remnant functions in such a way that the audience agrees on it. Seriously, I don't like reading comments because it infuriates me how many people have no clue how aura works, or how semblances work, and I think that is a combination of ignorance on the viewers' part, and laziness on the creators' part.

[@5thar]

Genuinely the best and fairest review I've seen of volume 5, and some nice little bits on the earlier series. And I've watched way to many reviews being 2 years late to the party 😅( I dropped RWBY after S4 and only picked it back up this year lol, wish me luck going into s7 😂 )

[@TheAngryAsianAnimations]

The bummer is they could have easily solved Cinder's personality issue while keeping that cliche evil Cinder. I mean, let's just take that scene when she and Watts talks to Raven. She steps forwards and begins talking, resuming that cliche villain act. Then Watts walks in front of her and pushes her back. Immediately, her cold demeanor melts and is replaced with anger and frustration, maybe make an uncontrolled outburst about her being in charge and the one with all the power. Watts smirks in her face, Emerald and Mercury give her surprised stares. Cinder clears her throat and resumes her posture. Boom. Shows that the cliche villain routine is jsut an act simply because she wants to be the one in charge and with power. Hence why she acted differently in V4 when she was all broken. And her cohorts know this and are unafraid of challenging her status simply because she would break down into fits.

[@Zentari2238]

No idea where the 'not watching it for the fights' comment came from. Watching cool guys/girls beating each other up while doing cool IS the reason RWBY got so popular in the beginning. Unfortunately, it started going downhill when it went ahead and started leaving 'rule of cool' behind for her more approachable sister, realism. It's kinda hard to do so when your foundation is based on said rule. Take Jaune for example: He's someone who wanted to get into Beacon and thus faked his transcripts without knowing what Aura is. Absurdly unlikely but it was used as an exposition dump for the whole Aura. Let's insert realism into that, shall we? Not knowing ANYTHING about Aura sets him up as an absolute dumbass, that somehow managed to either forge his transcripts or had the type of connections that allowed him to procure them. See the problem? And the more you think about it, the less sense the show makes. The maidens are needed to access some artifacts which...do something? Which are also likely the key to Salem winning? Cool. Why hasn't Ozpin won then? The maidens are connected to him and he knows where the artifacts are. Does Salem have an artifact under her complete control and thus blocking whatever functionality they possess as a set? All in all, what really killed RWBY was that the plot started overshadowing the action instead of being supplementary. Also, sorry but... Black and 'likeable character' do not go in the same sentence. She is likeable by comparison which, given how her arc wasn't a complete mess, makes a certain amount of sense. That doesn't make her actually likeable though.

[@alexmartin249]

Your criticism was amazing. It was true and constructive. Thank you for making this video.

[@Blizzic]

Well, thank you for watching! Look at that, symbiotic relationship!

[@jacobstebbe9718]

Good luck with testing season dude, and great vid

[@mrramble4159]

Really great video! I've been a fan of RWBY since the beginning, and I feel you are the one that offered the best take on RWBY's situation without sounding like you are "out to get" the series, so to speak. But unlike most long time fans, I didn't knew about Mounty Oum and came to RWBY for its plot. I was about to drop the series until Volume 3. For me, the shocker wasn't that it became dark, it was that I started to care about RWBY's cast of characters at all. Despite the incredible choreography and eye candy in the fight scenes, I was getting bored with RWBY, felt like I have seen it all that it could give. Actually, I think that Volume 5 is very similar with Volume 1 in the sense that it has no stakes and not much changes despite everything. The problem now is that we have neither a good plot, nor good fights, and that is why there has been so much backlash. Your video actually inspired me to write what I think what is wrong the series on my blog, so if you forgive shamelessness, here is a link to my post: ishallramble.wordpress.com/2018/10/15/rwby-is-the-status-quo-incarnated/ On a side note, what pains me about Blake is that she seems to never fully face the consequences of her actions. Sure, she grew despite that, but I cannot believe that after she left the team, the way she acted for most of Volume 4 and leaving her parents, that she never gets flak from anyone, Specially Yang. I genuinely expected Yang to not accept Blake on the Team. It would have been something to look for in Volume 6, instead of the nothing we have now.

[@pranavkarmarkar]

When you mentioned Yang's character arc, I literally shouted "YANG HAD A CHARACTER ARC?!" 😂😂

[@wisha4884]

Thank you for your very insightful video. Basically wraps up my thoughts on the series. I love RWBY and hope it can get back up after this hurdle. I hope rooster teeth also realizes the flaws and works to make things better, and change things that need to be changed. :) hope we can talk about the fun RWBY aspects again. Also gunchucks saved my soul. >.>

[@TanayVaidya]

I agree with some of your complaints. Particularly how the actions scenes seemingly STOP DEAD so that people can chat and relax. YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE IN DANGER. STOP TALKING. Killed the tension for me. And your criticism of that scene with Raven, Weiss and Yang in tent was also on point. Gotta disagree with most everything else, though. I needed the "CANWEPLEASESITDOWNANDANSWERSOMEQUESTIONS", slower paced feel of most of the Volume. I would've been mad if nothing happened towards the end, but it did. Cinder probably didn't attack Ruby coz she was already knocked out, and she probably noticed that Weiss' aura was down considering she SCREAMED when that happened. I'm also willing to bet she wanted to get the fall maiden powers before she came back up and just murdered everybody. Also, while one aspect of Jaune's semblance might be aura enhancement, I don't think that's the extent of it. I'll put this Volume a tiny bit below Volume 4. That one was tighter and more focused and this one didn't necessarily maximise on its extra episodes. The moments that you thought weren't substantial enough to be proper character arcs, however, did work for me. The reveal of Hazel's hatred of Ozpin included. For me, the suspense of his motivation, combined with his fighting style made for a really solid moment. I'm also not convinced that Blake fully meant it when she said she wasn't there for Adam. She TOTALLY was, but I saw it as her manipulating him into lashing out.

[@soarel325]

The talking during the fights is the main overwhelming problem with them since V4, and the writers still don’t realize that it’s a problem. The same is true of how limp and weak the action feels. Remember when these characters could move fast and hit hard?

[@TanayVaidya]

Soarel Right? They still do have the fighting styles of certain characters down pat. The gun-chuks were great, Yang's slower, more methodical, almost heavy beatdown of those thugs looked cool, and clearly the character with the best fights all Volume was Oscar. Just the sound of his cane stabbing against people is super satisfying. On the flipside, Qrow seems to have suffered the most in terms of coolness. His choreography just seems lumbering.

[@samuelrudy1776]

My biggest disappointment was Jaune the reveal of his semblance was bs his semblance is Bs I hope it is not just oh he can heal (amplify your Aura) hopefully it’s something bigger and better than that like Aura manipulation in the sense he can drain your Aura give Some of his Aura and do some other cool tricks like he may incorporate some of your Auras strengths into his will keep those strengths with him for life however not quite as strong as the originators Aura because this would also explain how he healed Weiss it would also explain why he has so much Aura it would also introduce some nice conflict coming from the use of his semblance as it would be able to drain away someone’s soul and that would conflict with Jaunes personality although knowing Roosterteeth this will never come to fruition but its nice to think about.

[@samuelrudy1776]

Hiep Le ok I will concede that his semblance is not healing but a lot of the points I made still stand

[@samuelrudy1776]

Okay the ability I talked about is him being able to absorb some of the persons aura and gain something out of it like improving some of his skills as well as maybe learning something about the opponent leading to a more peaceful resolution later in the comment this would lead to his semblance being in contradiction to his personality also it has been established that semblance’s can be somewhat hereditary as seen by Weiss and winter having very similar semblance’s and so his semblance could be something like his great great grandfather another thing I would like to bring up would be that this change would not work on grim as they have no Aura so his semblance only comes in handy when dealing with humans, androids, and faunas.

[@samuelrudy1776]

Hiep Le I never said he was able to steal other people’s semblance’s just absorb some of there Auras gaining a small portion of there ability as for the hereditary part of it consider this his great great grandfather might have never told his kids as he wished for them too live a simple life on a farm as well you have to take into account that it has been four generations since his great great grandfather so has been about a century since then another possibility is that his great great grandfather might have died in the war not being able to pass on the techniques to his children or Juanes branch of the family may have been considered to not be able to use there Aura as it took Pyrah unlocking it for him even use the basics of it

[@93ImagineBreaker]

can he even do that? Best we seen is simply buffing up aura

[@samuelrudy1776]

Hiep Le i just want something for Juane to go right because his character has just had shattered dream after shattered dream he can’t have a cool semblance to make all his suffering some what worth it.

[@mamertvonnsantelices1328]

Things are going too fast. Volume 6 is probably the last volume where they'll finally kill off Salemn. Then after that they'll introduce the new villain whose main goal is to get the infinity mcguffin. All this will repeat as tgey milk every last drop of monty's worked. EDIT: some typos got fix

[@slevinchannel7589]

11:32: The Halfe of the Episode where they were all sitting on the Table and talking and laughing was amazing in so many ways. The Expressions, the meaning, it was extremly good, i watched it 3 times. This Season had a lot of amazing stuff but this non-fighting scene was genuinly better than some Movies or even a few Franchises i can think of.

[@soarel325]

I mostly agree but have some additions and corrections Oscar randomly white-knighting Ozpin is even worse than it seems, they have this character with so much potential as someone who fights against the man in his head trying to turn him into his next host, but nope, another character’s potential down the drain. Also, about revealing Hazel’s backstory beforehand...come to think about it, so many problems with the writing could be solved just by having the characters actually ask questions about things. Do none of these people actually wonder why Salem hates Ozpin so much and wants him overthrown? Have they ever bothered to ask what exactly started this damn feud? Everyone on Team Oz is a blind sheep in this show. Wrong theme for Raven. That song belongs to Cinder and always will, it even played in Cinder’s scenes in V5. Re-assigning it to her makes even less sense given what Raven is really like underneath her exterior. Draco Lord Nick did a whole video about who the song really belongs to, so go look that up. The song was literally written before Ravens character traits were according to one of the RWBY Rewind interviews. Vernal actually had some recognizable character traits when she first showed up, but those were all thrown away the very next episode. Again, wasted character. The only thing she ended up amounting to was an asspull used to finish off a fight that could’ve ended in so many different ways that’d actually make Raven look smart or strong. Yang’s arc is even worse on top of the problems you lost off. the advice she got from Tai wasn’t even good advice. Go read this: ‭www.reddit.com/r/RWBY/comments/7x3w4s/crwby_ama_w_miles_luna_kerry_shawcross_and_paula/du59zll ‭The point of the show actually is to have cool fights. That’s the entire reason Monty made it. It’s the main selling point of the show. Aura and transforming weapons only exist for the sake of cool fights. ‬ ‭That “cutscene” comment is indeed genius. Most fights in the last two seasons have been basically just cutscenes of characters standing around and talking occasionally interrupted by limp slapping and slow walking.‬ ‭V1-2 weren’t dry or not exciting, they are just small scale and focused on setup. I was intrigued and excited watching them and still have that feeling going back to rewatch them.‬ ‭V4 Cinder is just boring and out of character. While they should’ve handled her much better in V5, having her act in character instead of out of character is better writing than having her stay out of character. I got the impression they were trying to turn her into just one dimensional “I hate Ruby” and nothing more, instead of the more interesting character we had before. I’m glad they dropped that dumb subplot. The issue isn’t that they didn’t follow up on this plot, the issue was that this plan existed in the first place. She shouldn’t have had tunnel vision like that to begin with. ‬ The fake out death was such ridiculous bullshit that I don’t even know where to start besides the stuff you already covered. It’s made even worse by another obvious fakeout death two episodes later. Also, only the second most predictable thing. The most predictable thing is the terrible macguffin plot! The reason for all the characters sitting around doing nothing until the final few episodes is exactly because of that plot. Since the whole plot just revolves around getting a glorified key in the form of a maiden in order to unlock a macguffin, no actual careful planning has to come from either side of the conflict in the show, unlike the show before the macguffins were made up abruptly in V4. without the damn things the show could be so much better than the dumpster fire it’s been for two seasons. They really should’ve taking a cue from that gunchuck scene and stopped storyboarding the fights, to let the animators handle them, like they did with Kim’s work on that scene, for the rest of the season. Maybe we would’ve gotten a whole season full of choreography with that kind of scale. But nope, the two stooges in charge of this mess think that characters standing around and talking is more “cinematic”. I would not say any passion or effort was put into to this season at all. The railroaded macguffin collecting story, the half assed excuses for fights (the show’s main selling point, mind you), the constant retcons, all of it points towards writers who do not care about the show or fundamentally understand what made it so great to begin with. There’s no real chance for it to improve. The writers have repeatedly laughed off criticism of their incompetence and shown no signs of improvement after the better but still awful V4, where they gave the same exact response claiming they would do better next time. Look where that got us.

[@archonofplagues1329]

Soarel: I'm trying to open the link, but all I am getting is a "page not found" message

[@soarel325]

Oops. I left a slash at the end. Link should work now

[@soarel325]

The apologists seem to conflate “throwing away what your show was about“ with “moving forward“.

[@soarel325]

I like the star wars sequel films so I don't really know what to say here

[@enriconobili6922]

Soarel because obviusly guys talking how proud they were of their animations on Twitter is just delusional people who never got in an animation School, right? Seriusly, think what you got, you' re so full of hate for the show, that i really wonder why you Watch the show in the first place

[@deadpolymers3416]

Season 5 was very poorly done on a direction level. Season 1-3 did a good job keeping the story in each episode focused on the main story line, and character development was all done within that main story line. Season 4 expanded a bit, focusing on 2 story lines, but still managed to keep the story tight on those 2 main groups. In Season 5 they expanded the story even further, and really began to over reach what they were able to do in the time they had to do it. I feel like Season 5 should have either been 2+ seasons worth of story, or a lot of the side stories should have been cut. The first 4 seasons only cover very short periods of time each for small groups of people, and Season 5 covers a much longer period for a much larger group. They just over reached. Go back to telling smaller stories, and taking more time to tell them.

[@xirensixseo]

"WHICH DO YOU WANT TO GET BURNT FIRST YOUR EYE OR YOUR TONGUE" Omfg lol

[@123zc]

This was a very well put together video, thank you.

[@yun-yun2541]

THANK YOU!!! I LOVE YOU!! SUBSCRIBED!!! Loved the video, I relate a lot

[@saturnine41]

I widely agree with the video, the disjointed storytelling falls flat and though I get the intent it was very botched in execution and made this volume come off veeeery slow. Most disappointing for me will always be towards the finale where they have all the heroes and villains facing off that turned into a cluttered and choppy mess with too many cutaways from the action, too much talking, and too much going on to focus on anything for more than 5-10 seconds at a time. Which is a shame since Yang vs Mercury was a rematch a lot of people were looking forward to and hardly got any focus. Though I liked the twist of Raven being the maiden and the fight between herself and Cinder was cool as a fight, it still felt out of place for me. The whole idea of Cinder deviating from the plan was to get the chance to kill Ruby, Cinder vs. Raven was awesome, but Cinder vs Ruby could've been epic. I get the idea that she was trying to kill two birds with one stone, setting it up so she could get the relic, maiden powers, and kill Ruby in one trip, but once they're finally face to face she barely has a word to say to Ruby and goes on ahead to get the relic. You may as well have just stuck to the plan if you weren't going to try and ax Ruby first.

[@soarel325]

Cinder didn’t deviate from the plan. Raven forced her to as a condition.

[@saturnine41]

Cinder readily agreed without protest only because she knew it'd give her an opportunity to kill Ruby, otherwise the team believed they could force Raven into compliance if necessary. Arthur tried to remind Cinder of the initial plan, but after seeing she was dead set on it he remarked he wasn't going to take the fall (no pun intended) if things didn't work out.

[@soarel325]

Except she completely ignored Ruby during the entire fight. That grudge had nothing to do with anything that occurred at Haven.

[@saturnine41]

Except it did, because the plan prior to negotiating with Raven was to go in undetected, get the relic, and get out undetected. With Qrow and company involved that isn't so easy anymore. Arthur was aware of that and stated he didn't want any part of the blame if things went down the crapper because of Cinder's grudge. And as a whole they were confident they could force Raven into compliance without needing to bargain at all. Ruby was the reason Cinder gladly agreed without any additional argument or threat. Cinder hardly acknowledging Ruby besides telling her subordinates to leave her alive while she got the relic is what I was getting at in my first post as to what was a strange writing choice to me.

[@soarel325]

Nothing that went wrong with the plan involved Ruby. All of it lies squarely on Raven. Watts assumed it had to do with Ruby, but it didn't.

[@Biochemitra]

I mostly agree with this assessment, though I do feel the need to defend the way Adam ended up being such a tool. Because Adam *is* a tool. Adam is just an unpleasant, petulant, hate-filled stain on Blake's past, and there's something I find satisfying about her overpowering fear of him turning out to be unjustified. *Far* too many villains in this series feel untouchable, so a bit of real victory goes a long way. The White Fang is just a vacuum of hatred and raw emotion, and for all the damage it did, it ultimately strangled itself. They never represented Menagerie, or the Faunus. They're the equivalent of a group of internet trolls, lashing out to hurt people, but unable to sustain themselves on that hate forever.

[@thedarklordx]

The entire season should've been about the fall/battle of haven with 4 episodes of setting up characters, plans, motivations, actions, etc. 2 episodes of dealing with menagerie, 1 episode being episode 10 as a whole and the other being everything else from menagerie, the final episode should've been a timeskip epilogue to prepare us for V6 in atlas The remaining 7 episodes should have been entirely dedicated to the siege and defense of haven The good guys should've held the line and drove them off with both sides taking casualties and the villains stealing the relic in the confusion OR been forced to flee with the relic from a destroyed haven/mistral There's no reason for any side to get an anti climactical total victory or a hope destroying loss

[@kraljdred7614]

Awesome review, you nailed it.

[@ElricKyra]

I agree with most, but it never was about murdering Qrow. Raven was at the third volume, and is likely very aware what happened when they got Cinder. She wanted to use him to set up a counter trap. Qrow was in the area, and she knew she could rely on them to get Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum off her back so she could waste Cinder.

[@justinbrummett]

This video was well reviewed with good constructive criticism. And best of all, you didn't tare it to shreds, Just well done my friend. Also, I never saw that RWBY's villains you made a while back mostly because I'm kinda new here, sorry. :/

[@Ghost_Drive]

15:35 ...didn't even notice that. I was assuming at that point that any characters not in the center of the screen weren't important.

[@joshuamigel]

0:44 When the cover art of the show looks better than the show itself. LOL

[@daymi7300]

not that unusual

[@GandalfTheTsaagan]

Man, you're always so on point.

[@undeadwolf5844]

14:55 Hey look I think we found a new trope it's called the "Kill Triangle". Get it?

[@zten9092]

Undead Wolf Someone get Terrible Writing Advice on the phone; we've got a new gag he can run with!

[@undeadwolf5844]

Agreed let's call him now!

[@CryoJnik]

I do like that you touched on one thing that I don't see or hear a lot of when it comes to Vol. 5: The fact that the crew does indeed care about what they do. Seems everyone and their grandmother is pretty much in full on bitch mode about the volume and is ready to lambast and bash the show like it's the spawn of Satan. And frankly it's enough for me to roll my eyes at their 'critique'. You're probably the first person I gave the time to really listen to instead of groaning inwardly about wasting my time listening to audio crap.

[@anewchallenger2825]

I just want to point out, I think Jaune's Job Class is Paladin. He is still pretty tanky but he has the bonus of having healing spells. Honestly, I hoped that he would learn some sort of "Getsuga Tensyo" Type of attack, but I guess Jaune isn't really the main DPS. Someone has to take support, because no one in their team has supportive semblances. That's why their best DPS died in the first place. XD One thing I was looking forward to this season was Renora's arc as a couple. I honestly hoped for an episode where Nora says: "We're together... together." and I am still hoping for more Couple stuff like fighting over how to use toothpaste or finding Jaune a GF or just spending time together together, you know? Anyways, great review. I am also rooting for rooster teeth and looking forward for their comeback. Maybe someday they'll be able to look back on this season and just laugh at it.

[@CNWhatImSaiyan]

ANewChallenger I constantly compare Jaune’s fighting style to FFXIII’s paradigm system. For most of the show, he’s a Commando and Sentinel (doesn’t utilize dust so no Ravager) and with the reveal of his semblance being aura amplification, he can become a synergist since he can power up his teammates’ respective semblances and stamina at the cost of his own (So protect, shell, brave, and faith). At least that’s how I see it. When he trains more on it, he’ll probs use it like Pyrrha’s used hers; subtle and not telegraphed.

[@harveywhite1159]

is my man back! heck yeah good two see you!

[@Sheffdawg2305]

Thank you for talking about the Jaune and Weiss thing. I said that it was poorly executed and it made zero sense that Weiss would be the one to unlock his semblance. She always treated him like trash, he got over her, and they never even spoke to each other at all in season 5 then all of a sudden she's injured and he cares enough to finally unlock his semblance. It was dumb. It should have been Nora, Rin, or Ruby to get injured instead.

[@kaosmage20]

Its awesome to see you back! Great job on the video, very thorough and constructive. It was far better than other videos that just shit on RWBY because views. One question I had is that I remember hearing that Volumes 4 & 5 had the largest animation team since RWBY started but you mentioned it being one of the smallest, where did you heaar this from?

[@camerongrow6426]

When I heard "My old videos are terrible" I thought: "What!? Their not masterpieces but there still pretty good." I see this video and I suddenly understand. Can't wait for your next video Blizzic.

[@soarel325]

If you want to see how crappy his old videos were, go to watch the one that he is best known for and look at the comments. I spent a month+ presenting facts to him and he refused to listen. I’m glad he feels ashamed of his old content, it sucked.

[@user-lb6ml8or4r]

Yay you're back

[@hallowedfool]

The most disappointing thing about volume 5 was that it was bad but still better than volume 4

[@StakeMammon]

I really hope you're still watching the current volume because I think it's a great comeback.

[@zUltra3D]

One thing I like about RT is that they actually listen to the community.

[@nothen3681]

Do they tho? They seem to mock most people who critic the show

[@bazbaz8940]

A few issues with your assessment and some agreements. 1.The spring maiden was hardly a shock, but I agree that I wanted more from Raven. But the lackluster bandits and Raven made it all the more believable that Yang was totally over it. I mean Yang spent most of her life wondering and searching and seeing her mom be a badass on the train - she built her up. But then, she figures out who and what Raven is beneath the surface - a coward. Yang was OVER being disappointed and OVER her mom giving up and running away. She chose to see her mom simply to get to Ruby (family she loves) faster and give her the last bit of chance she stood to be there for her. I think seeing Blake coming back right before she confronted her mom gave her all the more resolve to give Raven the middle finger because "screw you, ppl who care DO come back." 2. Its not a healing semblance. Its a boost just like he's always done. He is Lucio/Mercy damage boost and I think he would be terrified of hurting ppl with an insane ult. 3. Adam wants Blake to hurt as much as possible and he needs to know she still cares about him, for love or hate. He wants and needs control. Her telling him she isn't there for him in the slightest is the biggest dig she could give! Everyone choosing NOT to fight was the most powerful thing they could do! Like what are the White Fang going to start shooting their mothers and brothers? Doubtful. They were doing all this to protect these ppl. 4. Qrow is def getting to say his piece here in Vol 6 *episode 4 cough cough*. I feel like it was worth the oversight in Vol 5 for his current explosion. 5. In general I think Vol 5 was needed to simply set up Vol 6. Right now we are really getting to the heart of everything and all the characters are getting the chance to take their newfound knowledge, skills, and insights to sucker-punch us and everyone in the face. In general, I think of Vol5 as a bit like Vol2 (Yang's speech to Blake, the campfire, the insight to the grimm, the big fight at the end) and so im SUPER EXCITED to expect that Vol6 will end up being very much like Vol3 with awesome high stakes and true growth. And considering that this show is weirdly similar to Harry Potter, I'm not upset that Vol5 was very much RWBY's "camping trip". Overall, great analysis and I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on some things :). Sry for the long post P.S. WHY THE HELL DID THEY JUST GO SEE LEO AT THE END JUST WHYYYYY YALL KNOW HES SHADY

[@theironmuttonchops5398]

10:03 OH MY GOD! This is when i lost any respect I had left for the writers. Honestly, can anyone explain to me why everyone freaked out about this?

[@tsukiryu]

New Like and subscribe, I like the way you construct your dialogue. Very fluid and eyebrow raising.

[@Blizzic]

thanks ma bro, welcome aboard

[@thatnflweeb7023]

That moment when they miss a big fight for Yang and raven to talk and we go back to see the fight has already ended

[@ItsXandi]

I REALLY liked your opnion regards Volume 5, and i agree with you completly! I was thinking about the writing process of RWBY for some time now, and i realised how they are trying to make it some kind pf BIG story since Volume 3 (where they introduced the Maindes and the Relics and Salem), its a very similar aproach to a book series like Cassandra Clair's or even Harry Potter with the Deadly Hallows, its not a bad thing but i can see that the writters need time to adjust again... i don't think i'm the only one that saw the fight scenes suffer since Volume 3 (of curse that Monty's death its related to that) but as you said, they can do better. Just one thing... your avatar creeps me out.

[@TheLastHylianTitan]

14:35 i know that was probably just improv, but that is legit a good villain line.

[@vsGoliath96]

23:32 Going to have to respectfully disagree with you on this one. Ren's little speech about how they have all grown was just... awful. Like really terrible. And that's because most of the characters HAVEN'T grown or changed all that much. Ren is just stating it so the writers can try and convince us that they have. It's a speech directed straight at the audience trying to justify bad writing.

[@KPH101]

RWBY hasn't been the same after Season 4.

[@Avengedtenfold]

I'm a simple man. I see and hear Sugar Song to Bitter Step, I subscribe.

[@ShinKyou918]

As far as the writers' apparent decision to throw Yang's question of "Why did mom abandon us" to the side... As with many points in this video, I think we're in agreement. For this one, I prefer to think that the decision to sweep that side-plot under the rug goes hand-in-hand with another theme they wanted to stress. While choice was definitely a big one, I think perspective was another; and, just like the choice theme, this is brought up not only in the case of Yang and Raven, but also Blake and Adam. Yang spent the first few seasons obsessed with her mother's abandonment of the family, and Blake was haunted by her past with the White Fang. By this season, though, both characters have learned of greater threats looming over their world, and are coming to the realization that at this point, their lives aren't just about them anymore. Their individual demons don't matter, when the fate of the entire world is at stake. So, it's not so much that Yang has forgotten her feelings of abandonment, or that Blake has forgotten the fear Adam inspired in her. It's that they've each realized, as Blake said herself, that they have more important things to deal with, so they're putting aside their own personal hangups in order to be the heroes they need to be. But yes, even if that was the aim of the writers, it could probably have been handled better, and the pacing of the season was inconsistent at best. Seasons 3 and 4 were great, though, so I'm hoping they've taken the time since 5 to regroup, look at what worked and what didn't, and go into season 6 with a much stronger game plan. There's a lot to love about this series, so I'm looking forward to seeing what else they come up with.

[@cbbartman1360]

The main issue I think is not only the lack of focus to dive deeper into characters like Qrow (who I REALLY wanted to see more into) and his tragic curse as he calls it, wanting to protect those he cares about so much but knows that he would only make things worse, also i like the way his semblance is completely forgtten in this season, I mean every fight scene he's in there's not even a single sign of someonr getting bad luck, or anyone for that matter. Anyway back to my point, the other main reason for me is that there is no threatening villain now for me, they've all been beaten, gone thats it. There's no threat now other than Salem, all the villains here like Cinder as a perfect example and also Adam that you briefly went over either didn't change at all from development or changed to be NOTHING like the ones we first saw. Adam is my always go to guy for this for before we knew he was zealot on fighting against Fauns oppression to a fault, he would do anything to set his people free even working with the Grimm to have an opportunity to bring down his oppressors major city. Yeah in Volume 3 he does go on with Blake but she was much rather an after thought a more "Well lets kill two birds with one stone" sorta deal, he felt intimidating, being able to easily over power Grimm that got in his way and take Yang's arm with only a few seconds of confronting one another, hell he didn't wait to let Blake suffer after he tried to take her head seconds after. But in Volume 5, its now ALLLLLLLLLLL about Blake, he feels like a needy ex that cant get over a girl that dumped him. He feels like he doesn't care about the Fanus or his kind he seems to just want to hurt Blake in its entirety. In Volume 4 Salem got Hazel to watch over Adam I actually felt like even Salem saw him as a potential threat to her whilst she still had a maiden with her, to me thats HUGE. I was expecting this savage warlord that was being held back by Hazel to follow along with Salem's plan with this terrorist trying his best to cause the suffering of everyone not just Blake. But no when he shows up, he gets knocked down in seconds, tries to blow up the city because he could take Blake with him and whines about wanting her for himself, then proceeds to get beaten in 5 seconds....

[@JustCallMeHeavy]

5:42 what is that

[@Blizzic]

It's a vulture

[@JustCallMeHeavy]

ok then i had the thought it might be something star wars related.

[@jokertxgk]

It really sucks that this volume turned out the way it did, expecially because if layed down on paper it seems to be great and promising. Hopefully in a few years we can look back to volume 5 as just a little bump in the road of this great series that is RWBY.

[@soarel325]

I wish I could say that too, but the writers have not acknowledged any of the problems that made this season, or the season before it, such crap. They don’t understand what the show’s primary selling point is on a fundamental level, they don’t understand the basics of character driven storytelling, and they don’t understand basic consistency. They laugh at critics and dismiss their complaints based either on tone or on the very fact they’re making complaints in and of themselves (see “ITS A CARTOON” at RTX Australia 2017)

[@jokertxgk]

Well, according to their latest A.M.A. they did indeed acknowledge this volume's problems, at least the major ones (they also made a comment about how the pacing was off and needs to be improved): www.reddit.com/r/RWBY/comments/7x3w4s/crwby_ama_w_miles_luna_kerry_shawcross_and_paula/du59yzn/ Also they showed that they're able to take criticism seriously when it's not troll or overly rude, so please don't spread misinformation. If cracking jokes at a panel means shrugging off critiques for you, then i'll just leave it at that.

[@soarel325]

Miles has played this "I'm listening to criticism, we will improve" card before with no results to show for it. He said the same thing after V4, and V5 was a trainwreck even worse than the already abysmal V4. He hasn't improved. He's not going to improve, period. As well, M&K have NOT acknowledged the primary criticisms of V5 (and V4 by extension). The only things they have acknowledged are Ruby not having much focus and characters forgetting their powers (such as Weiss focusing only on summoning, Ruby and Yang forgetting their semblances, Blake forgetting her cleaver blade, etc.). While these are massive problems, they are secondary to a multitude of even bigger problems. In particular, they haven't acknowledged: >The standing around and talking during the fights >Everyone being limp and weak instead of fast and energetic in fights (even V4 was better with this) >The storyboarding method which gives the writers complete control over the fight choreography and gives the actual fight animators little to no say >The characters sitting around in the house and having no agency in the plot >The macguffin collecting excuse "plot" >The litany of retcons in V4+ >Mistral being a wasted setting that got a 5-minute montage of its slums, some still shots, and nothing more

[@jokertxgk]

Some of your points were already mentioned with "better fights" Besides, who's to say they won't improve? Maybe volume 6 will nail the points where 4 and 5 failed to, maybe it won't. You gotta wait and see.

[@soarel325]

The only thing about the fights they acknowledged needed to be better was characters not using their powers. None of the other problems, especially not the fact the animators have no say in how the fights are done

[@ajiththomas2465]

Regarding your previous old videos, are you also disowning your video essays as well? Because i honestly liked those videos.

[@Blizzic]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with liking my old videos. I'm just unhappy with my own performance from a creative standpoint. The reason I tell people not to watch them is that I want to put my best foot forward, and I feel like I can do much better than what I used to make. And have, with this video! But my old work being sub par by my standards does not mean that you can't enjoy it.

[@teheyepatch]

I called Raven being a Maiden from the very beginning, as soon as I found out about those powers.

[@tulpaart8462]

Some of RWBY's problems you've descibed also apply to Game of Thrones and ASOIAF. Lack of cohesiveness and having subplots to keep people watching to see their favorite character once in 2 episodes. But the subplots themselves are boring and make no sense if you think about them individually. Wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle

[@AlphaNinjaFTW1]

I do feel though that at least in game of thrones, there aren't massive changes in attitude and it doesn't feel rushed while being slow.

[@tulpaart8462]

AlphaPrime There certainly are changes in attitude (Sansa's whole character changing in like half a second? Stannis burning his daughter? Can't remember more cause it's been years since I watched it) And the plot structure was basically nothing happens for an entire season until some big twist in episode 9. And the character development is not just rushed, it's non-existent because they change for the sake of a plot twist and with barely any lead up to it.

[@AlphaNinjaFTW1]

EscapistAmoeba Sansa didn't really change on half a sec more like her entire view of the world had been destroyed, her father was beheaded in front of her, she was mal treated by joffrey, she was then saved only to basically be raped a while later by bolton, so her character change seemed justified to me. The show also seemed to be showing that while she hated cerce she still learned from her and she is using that now. Stannis on the other hand was strange, I can see what they were going for though with how far a man would go to be king but, it is drastic.

[@tulpaart8462]

AlphaPrime I meant the fact that Sansa became a seductress manipulator in like half a second while she was in Vale. And then she made the (absolutely idiotic) decision to marry a Bolton for revenge (honestly, what did she think would happen?) Her arc actually makes sense in the books where her character change is very gradual and the whole Bolton marriage plot never happens thank God. It makes Petyr and Sansa look like complete idiots in the show.

[@itsozpin9830]

Okay i can get the TV show but don’t bring in the books the books have good writing and characters

[@BigBoss-sm9xj]

Finally a video! I need more!

[@syrusangi8743]

NO! Cinder is dead. She had her chance. It's her/CRWBY's fault it was wasted and uneventful. Forgive me if I come out too harsh but I don't want to deal with her BS anymore. Either she's dead or Salem would kill her herself for disobeying her

[@soarel325]

Cinder is not dead, and Salem doesn't do that. She didn't do that to Tyrian and she didn't do it when Cinder failed before

[@siloPIRATE]

You need a kill confirm for her to be dead. We didn't get that

[@syrusangi8743]

Soarel Tyrion tried to do his job while Cinder flat out disobeyed her orders. I just don't want her to come back

[@soarel325]

Syrus Angi Cinder didn’t disobey her orders. She was forced by Raven and then tricked and betrayed by her.

[@syrusangi8743]

Raven never forced her actually. She only tricked her so she still had a choice to listen to Raven, and she betrayed Raven first. But Whatever you say is your opinion

[@eliserss9179]

I see all of Volume 5's issues but honestly.. it is my favorite season currently (I just started 6), I don't really care that the characters didn't develop much since I already loved the characters as they were and I personally enjoyed all the subplots going on, and I think the ending wrapped everything up very well