RWBY Volume 6 Chapter 3 Reaction: The Lost Fable

[@dresdenfan88]

I feel like the CRWBY thought process was "you want some lore drop? you want Ozpin and Salem backstory? YOU WANNA KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE F***ING MOON!?!" Hold my beer...." lolol

[@135mikerules23]

“You must learn the importance of life and death only then may you rest” It’s not about destroying or killing or even defeating Salem, it’s about saving Salem and by extension saving humanity. Because even if Oz was able to unite 99.99% of humanity as long as Salem has not changed the stipulation of the “contract” still stands.

[@ChrisCipher]

THAAAAANK YOU finally someone who picked up on that. But I think there's gonna have to be a heck of a lot of development with Salem if they are going to save/redeem her. Because as it stands, I can't see her suddenly understanding what she did wrong and how important death is.

[@tobiasskorupa1649]

@@ChrisCipher First we need to remove the grimm from her with silver eyes and her magic... and a lot of talking over a very long time, without lying at her.

[@andres-vr2ou]

Its heavily implied that the children died, and the original maidens where the seasons/sisters and they basically gave the old man a little bit of hope back and they reminded Osma of his daughters. So Osma gave them their maiden power which is basically is own magic split in four, and since he reincarnates, the magic in the maidens does too.

[@Vision_Backup]

I've seen quite a few people say this though to me it just seems to add an unnecessary step. I think the story of the seasons and the old man are just that, a fairy tale (The girl in the tower is also a known fairy tale but it has to be different as no one knows about the real history of magic). Whilst the children probably died there they had inherited their magic and some variation of the reincarnation that Oz has. That doesn't fit what Ozpin said when he told the story but thats part of why I think it's true, he tends to lie about these things.

[@maxwellmediainc]

Gard Skarsten I really dosnt feel unessary it just adds a depth to the maidens tale like the daughters have no reason to reincarnate the maidens being gifted there magic after they reminded him of his children

[@simplymad6283]

This is probably what canon is. The old man was during one of ozpins reincarnation that was still in mourning (the old wizard). This adds a lot of depth to the story itself and to the time that passed between the first battle with Salem and now.

[@homunculus7]

Thats speculation. we still do not know the real situation of the Maidens. Ozpin has been known to lie... alot

[@bskec2177]

@@homunculus7 Except if he didn't create the maidens by sacrificing his own magic, then Ozpin has massive amounts of magic that we've never seen him use. He would of wiped the floor with Cinder back in Beacon. Instead he died. For the maidens to be his daughters, and not created by dividing his power amoung others, he would have to have allowed Cinder to kill him. Possible, but unlikely.

[@Jaded_Jinx]

Humanity tries to blasts god of darkness God of darkness catches their blasts God of Darkness: You should have gone for the head. Salem: NO! *SNAP*

[@SpiderandMosquito]

So team RWBY has to bring about world peace *voice cracking in frightened disbelief* no pressure

[@SamuelTBrooks]

When your options for defeating the villain are: 1) solve the world 2) kill the gods.

[@tunderdiamant8651]

Saddly world peace is absolutely impossible to make lol ^^ Even if you can it will only last so long

[@SpiderandMosquito]

@@The_Game_Professor .... kill the gods oh I'm sure that's an option. Ya got Kratos on speed dial? XD

[@maxwellmediainc]

Well Blake isn’t gonna help by telling her ppl to get over racism and help humans that don’t care about them

[@YouAnd_OnlyYou]

@@SamuelTBrooks Option 3) Dumpster the relics.

[@thequietdreamer2186]

12:19 “That which thou canst not undo.” “Thou hast undone our mother!” “Villain, I have done thy mother.” Sorry, sorry, couldn’t resist.

[@bskec2177]

In the Wizard of Oz books, Princess Ozma was hidden away by the wizard of Oz, who ruled in her stead. And Ozpin hid his origion as Ozma away from everyone. Also RvB called it, a god smashed the moon.

[@gnomiegnome9415]

"Man, born from dust." Salem said this all the way back in the very first episode of RWBY, and she would be the one that knows the most about humanity's rebirth. So, humanity probably reformed from the ashes left from the previous humans; like a sort of magic-fueled evolution. Without the gods to shape them, humanity's development was untamed and unrestricted, allowing spontaneous developments to presist without any "pruning" from the gods. Hell, maybe the dust crystals that people have been using all this time are the compressed ashes of the ancient humans, and they might soon run out of this "fossil fuel."

[@notatroll4]

"Man, born from Dust," i think when The Brother smashed the Moon he infused it with the magic he took away, and then that smashed into Remnant. Might've created dust from the fragments?

[@lapisleafuli1817]

That could also explain semblance and aura which could be a minor form of magic.

[@bskec2177]

@@lapisleafuli1817 Aura/semblance are not magic. Monty was adamant about that.

[@johnmiester8636]

What if Dust crystals are the ashes of old humanity

[@Ower8x]

@@bskec2177 No its not but semblance you can say is a semblance of magic .... that is quite clever from CRWBY and this is probably from Monty himself ... especially if my current theory pans out that before the schools Humanity did not have a system to a regiment way to unlock them and most were unlocked by accident ... that is until Oz as the Warrior King ... taught the world how to fight, on the condition that they will not use it against one another.

[@SenMysrana]

Oh, I've been looking forward to this... You know what really strikes me, though? For all Salem's insight into the hearts and minds of others, she lacks a certain self-awareness. Even in the earliest days, she never blamed herself for the things that happened.

[@Merilirem]

She did nothing wrong. It is perfectly reasonable to act that way during grief and she had reason to grieve. She didn't have time to get over it either since the gods immediately ruined things instead of counseling her. I don't blame victims. What she did wrong and the result is fact but it was unreasonable to think she was at fault for anything with the gods. They overreacted sooo heavily that you can't blame her for anything that happened. She merely got the ball rolling. If i upset someone is it right for them to do anything resembling what the gods did? The GOL could have been Nicer, more patient and understanding but was still ok in the first meeting. Everything after that was not ok.

[@TMAC_burninator]

I'm of the opinion Oz met four sisters long after the first fight with Salem, and they reminded him of his children, so he made them the first maidens.

[@firsealtonberry9712]

I am reminded two things Ozpin said in episode 2. Paraphrasing a bit, but the first is that he acts the way he does based off experience - and how lying and need-to-know got started when he learned what being honest and telling everything got him with Salem. Far more painfully, though, is his remark about Leo. He chose to honor the man Leo was before he ran into Salem. Considering Ozma entered this fable as a Legendary Hero, considering his second life was a warlord on his way to being a despot (for good reasons, but that's the road Salem was paving for them), and considering the cost of his first attempt to stand against Salem, I think Oz's words about 'never having met the man he was before Salem' are more than a little directed at himself in addition to Leo. Especially as we now have met the man HE was before he met her.

[@dyproxus1806]

22:41 I imagine Ozma was chosen because the God of light believed that perhaps the man Salem loved would be able to change her heart and learn the lesson she should have all those years ago. As nice as that sounds, I doubt that's going to happen.

[@normanpeckham9794]

That was my thought too

[@SpiderandMosquito]

Can we all acknowledge that he went by the name ozma? They finally did that they finally name-dropped ozma very very important character in Oz books

[@shadowangel3995]

Who knew that Ozpin was underestimating when he told Ruby in volume 1 he had made more mistakes then any man, woman, or child. It was because he and Salem are older then literally everybody in existence. I love the Harry Potter reference when Oz and Salem fought, evil using red magic and good using green.

[@Daimah]

I personally like the theory that the Faunus are Salem's attempts to recreate humanity from animals... I mean, if Oz's magic could give Qrow and Raven the ability to shapeshift into birds...

[@tunderdiamant8651]

Yeah it's weird it's like they did not have an idea for the faunus' creation so they just put it here so they don't have to explain it lol

[@Merilirem]

@@tunderdiamant8651 Its not like that at all. Its clearly a different mystery. The point is to show that we are missing a piece and that the Faunus, who look like the gods, never lived with the gods. Salem may even have started the hate for the Faunus due to their appearances reminding her of the gods.

[@BARALover96]

I just thought humanity evolved back into existence and the Faunes was a piece of that humanity that came back

[@Merilirem]

@@BARALover96 Thats certainly possible but damn Salems old if thats the case.

[@BARALover96]

@@Merilirem well yeah she is immortal and she was alone for a long time too

[@tyforestreacts]

“Foolish humans who would attempt to play God must pay a steep price for their arrogance. That is truth.” ~Father (Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood)

[@aidenharvey3784]

Best/darkest RWBY episode to date. The reason: Salem has been show as nothing but this being of pure evil, but with everything this episode shows us...Salem is nothing more than a broken victim of the world and the one she sacrificed so much for.

[@teamcybr8375]

I think it's worth noting that Salem had to work to earn both of her curses. The immortality curse didn't come after she lied to the gods and tried to trick them into violating the natural order in her favor. It came after they refused and she tried to attack them. And even then, they didn't totally fuck her. Her curse had an out. She just had to learn a simple lesson about the nature of existence. But instead, she went out and continued to deceive, and tried to get humanity to straight-up MURDER THE GODS. All because they wouldn't do what she wanted. Then, when Ozma came back, she lured him into working with her and then decided she wanted to WIPE OUT HUMANITY so she could replace them with her own descendants. Also, I don't think the children were caught in the crossfire. Because Oz would have spent all of his power trying to defend them. This is a character who was described as "thinking only of righteousness" and having "risked his life for justice countless times." I think Salem deliberately killed them to spite him. OOh, afternote: You kinda scoffed when the god of light said "A tragedy has befallen your world at the hands of my brother." But look at the scene where it happens. Look at his expression right before it happened.

[@bskec2177]

If the silver eyed warriors are descendants of Oz and mortal women, I can see why Salem wold want them dead, and why Oz would try to protect them.

[@Epsilon246]

The problem is that Salem lacked the emotional maturity to understand the lesson, something the God of Light really should have realised and taught her rather than just saying "No".

[@ksaraf23]

I'm starting to think Salem's daddy had made the right call when locking her up the first time!

[@Merilirem]

@@Epsilon246 I don't even agree with the lesson itself. The punishment was stupid in the first place. You don't teach lessons or reform people with punishment, it just makes things worse. The lesson however is flowery bullshit. There is no universal balance unless you are aware of some specifics on that matter. They did it anyway later so thats pretty questionable. Point is he should have explained why and left it at that. When she lied to them she should have been brushed aside at best. You could have killed her and been less in the wrong. They made her immortal, caused their own future problems and scrapped humanity on a whim. Humanity had very little value to these gods. Nothing we saw them do helped anyone. I sure hope they really did learn from this because they are the ones who need it most. The god of light says he understands her grief but he proves that he doesn't on some level. He may simply not understand grief to begin with.

[@Epsilon246]

@Kartik Locking her in the tower was the problem, she never grew up because she had no-one to interact with. That's why she acted like such a child, because from an emotional level she was one. @Merilirem That's kinda my point, hence why I said he "should" have understood why simply telling Salem to let him go didn't work. Between her aformentioned emotional immaturity and losing the first and only person she ever cared aboutshe just was just ill-equiped to cope. Really at least the God of Darkness did "something" even if it was for selfish reasons.

[@Half_theBattle]

The fact Oz had families post-Salem has fascinating implications. Any thoughts on glasses-wearing Oz's silver-eyed children?

[@ryanwilliams4937]

Its interesting that until oz came back salem was content to just chill in the woods

[@Merilirem]

She's clearly an irredeemable monster with an endless desire for destruction! Seriously though, Jinn says stuff but she hardly backs it up with facts.

[@arnowisp6244]

@@Merilirem Given her nature she was just stating facts and better yet was showing them.

[@Merilirem]

@@arnowisp6244 Your sentence does not quite make enough sense to understand properly.

[@arnowisp6244]

@@Merilirem Corrected it for you but if you want to know I meant how jinn can only state facts and truth as her nature with the limit being not knowing about the future and so what she speaks is true at the time.

[@Merilirem]

@@arnowisp6244 Still hard to understand you but i kinda get what your saying thanks to the above comment. The original is still too vague. I would have to extrapolate that you mean she's flawless. Jinn is not infallible by definition. She was made with the intent of X. We can assume X is telling the truth if we want but at best your left with her probably being right. The gods are fallible is the point and any creation of the gods is therefore not a perfect creation by merit of the gods alone. The gods are by some standards so fallible that it would be foolish to fully trust Jinn. Jinn said things like her being made to desire destruction by the pool. We do not see this however. She still seems fully reasonable and nothing shows this to be true. She only goes as far as to state that the pools do it and are "of destruction". Basically unless your taking her as fact, this isn't enough to draw a conclusion. Basically if the gods are wrong, she's going to be wrong unless she is somehow more knowledgeable than them or more correct. She could well be biased. She could have an ulterior motive built into her. We have no reason to assume that besides trust in the gods, and no one should trust them fully given this very story. If i tell you something, it isn't true because i said it. You would only deem it true with trust or trustworthy evidence. We have no idea if Jinn was even made to perfectly tell the truth. Let alone if the creators are even capable of such a feat.

[@TMAC_burninator]

I think this episode confirms Oz does not replace the person he inhabits. He was told he would never be alone and he eventually learns to live with the people he is paired with.

[@Merilirem]

Umm no. It shows that at best he keeps them around until death where they join the collective. Kinda like an avatar state you can't turn off. We do know they merge as time goes on but it may be that they don't finish until death.

[@curtismurphy6206]

@@Merilirem Ummm no. It showed him learning to live with them. Pretty explicit about it.

[@Merilirem]

@@curtismurphy6206 You do realize your comment isn't a correction right? There is nothing in my comment that says anything else. Maybe you misunderstood because i never refuted the point you seem to be making. He learned to live with them. My comment had no real bearing on that being true or not. It was drawn from seeing that happen.

[@perigraph6644]

I'd still like to know why Salem's father locked her away. Sure, it was an act of cruelty, but cruelty for its own sake doesn't seem adequate. I suppose we'll never know if it was just something as petty as looking for the right bride price.

[@zten9092]

7:19 Just realized something while watching this reaction: Salem's tower looks a lot like Beacon. Fascinating.

[@journey9411]

Maybe that's why she hated Beacon so much. Lol 😆

[@squiresam]

And still no one has noticed that the tree in the God of Light's realm is the same one in the vault under Haven Academy.

[@grantlangkamp1909]

Wait...I want to look back to confirm this

[@killakanzgaming]

As a 3D artist myself, I really appreciate how much you point out just how much work goes into the asset creation for an episode like this, let alone the amount of work that goes into the motion capture and animation fine tuning, lighting and rendering... Sadly it's quite obvious from a lot of comment sections that people just don't realise the scale of a project like this... RT have done an amazing job with this series.

[@TheSkyheart5]

"We need to spread our word...and destroy those who deny it"...Salem your grimm is showing.

[@andres-vr2ou]

The Gods are not dicks, Osma was given a choice and he said yes before more information was given to him. That is why he gave Pyrrah so much time even after she said yes as quick as he did once, and that is why he even asked again when she was in the soul-machine/thingie, and wanted a clear "YES" from her.

[@lucasf6946]

They also destroyed all of humanity and made Salem immortal when there was probably a better punishment they could have given her, so...yeah.

[@teamcybr8375]

Agreed. The younger brother's destroying of humanity is definitely an overreaction. But you can see that the older brother didnt want that. Look at his expression right before it happens.

[@lucasf6946]

@@teamcybr8375 Your right, but I kinda feel like the Elder brother could've stopped it if he wanted to. Or at least punish the younger brother in some way.

[@teamcybr8375]

@@lucasf6946 But that's not the point anymore. They're probably fairly equal in power at that point. And fighting each other is exactly what Salem would want.

[@lucasf6946]

@The Brennan I actually didn't consider the idea that they might be equal in strength when it came to a fight. And I doubt the younger brother would have listened if the elder had told him not to kill everyone. Alright, I can see where your coming from now.

[@ravenhull]

The dark brother coming out of the pool reminded me not only of the Nuklevee, but also of Cinder's contortions during her battle with Raven. Perhaps the result of being part Grimm. Oh, your comment about people being turned to dust... What if Dust is exactly that. The people of Remnant are using the remains of the previous generation? Got to admit, this puts an even more of a turn on Salem doing the opening narration in V1.

[@Merilirem]

"Man born from dust" People are zombie ghosts then? lol.

[@billyp1836]

All I keep thinking is how amazing Jen Taylor and Shannon McCormick are,especially in this episode.

[@SirAdamusGames]

telling an abused woman who was isolated her entire life and so never learned to handle grief to just 'get over it' was a dick move. the "still demanding things from your creators" also reeks of "i am your father and you will show me some respect" which again, ain't gonna fly with what Salem's been through gods are bastards, what else is new

[@UnorthodoxIndividual]

I know I’m pretty late, but I just need to mention how fantastic the music is in this episode, seriously it’s phenomenal. The score really adds a lot, while some episodes are better without that much music, but this one certainly benefited from having a grandiose and outstanding score.

[@inspectorwhoreacts]

The Gods need to chill. We owe Oz an apology. THEY HAD KIDS!? Also # Fu©&TheGods!

[@justinr1513]

he still lied

[@Merilirem]

Well the viewers might since they all assumed he was an evil monster, myself included. He's closer to a hapless fool who makes bad decisions. He was clearly not qualified for this task and the gods sabotaged him quite a bit by design. He definitely needs the work on himself a bit before he can be trusted though. I mean his closest allies needed to know some of this stuff and sneaking away with the children was a really bad move. I mean we were not shown nearly enough to justify that.

[@BARALover96]

Merilirem well I never thought he was a monster or evil but I didn't trust him and thought he was manipulative which my feelings are still the same.

[@Merilirem]

@@BARALover96 Yeah, thats the same. Many people just assumed he had done something terrible due to his "more mistakes" speech and all the secrets in the first place. He's also based off of the Wizard of Oz who is a total dick.

[@aidanquiett668]

Oz is still a terrible person, killing people for reasons that only he knows and keeping world changing secrets for a plan that he doesn't have

[@SpiderandMosquito]

If, I had my life To live over again I would truly take you For my love again Oh how I'd love you Over and over Over and over Over again Yes I would love you Over and over Over and over Over again One lifetime isn't long enough To be with you I'd need more time to give this love of mine That I have for you Then I would love you Over and over Over and over Over again Yes I would love you Over and over Over and over Yes over again Over, over again - Bobby Vinton

[@AdamFalconer9]

My running theory after this episode is that dust is the crystalised remains of the first humans and their powers :T ashes to ashes, dust to dust...

[@joebob4091]

I think salems goal might be to bring the gods back too, just on the off chance they finally decide to kill her.

[@arnowisp6244]

And humanity with her.

[@emmaabadeer9107]

I love immortality as a punishment. Divide with the knowledge. Salem’s view of how easily humanity is swayed. Salem’s song “Divide” them plant seeds of doubt. Oooohh. Just in the middle how different the beginning looks

[@grantlangkamp1909]

I think the punishment was extreme

[@Ka1ven]

Storylines with this kind of backdrop/twist will always have people split on who's to blame. For me the gods where not wrong in there judgement of Salem and her punishment. She tried to play "Mom" and "Dad" against each other was got the consequences. Was their punishment brutal? Yes. Did they also give her an out? YES!!! Up till then Salem had my condolences, but the moment she decided to trick everyone into wanting immortality is where it ended. She, through HER own actions doomed humanity to a second go around. You can say that the Dark Brother overreacted (and I agree with you), but don't forget it was Salem's lie. Sidenote: Keep up the great reaction ladies!!! Have always love your videos and been meaning to subscribe but always kept getting and forgetting. BUT NOT TONIGHT *furiously presses the subscribe button*

[@arnowisp6244]

One thing is certain. It was a split alright.

[@SilvyReacts]

BTW some important info. The maidens have existed for thousands of years. This was explained to Pyrrha. This means Ozma has been reincarnating for at least that long. But we also know he spent a lot of time mourning and trying to forget things before he created the maidens. Now as for Salem, I wouldn't be surprised if she has been alive for 100,000+ years. Probably far long than that btw, but I don't know exactly how the humans came back, but if we were to assume they evolved and repopulated the entire planet again without some form of magic to snap them into existence. Then she may have even been alive for millions of years. It's pretty crazy to think about.

[@malochroma6793]

Ozpin didn't deserve this. I think what made the Darkbro's dragon design so striking was the face. He had a very skeletal nature to him, almost reminiscent of the Grimm's carapaces.

[@DXDragon38]

Ruby just needs to convince Salem about the value of life and death, with her honest soul. Then boom, no more immortality.

[@TenebrousFilms]

The first maidens reminded him of his children with Salem. I suspect it's what got his butt back in gear.

[@Animaniac0451]

It's kind of implied that humanity came back after evolving on their own. (Will eventually grow to live again) I think the Faunus evolved from the normal animals left behind when Humanity 1.0 was wiped out. Salem was alone a long time.. also, watching New Diet Humans crawl from the muck would definitely explain, in part, her utter disdain for them.

[@giantmutatedceilinghippo9487]

Apparently there was an explanation for the return of humanity and where Fanus come from, but it was cut for time.

[@Elizabeth-go4kv]

Wait seriously

[@GoldenSandslash15]

Source?

[@bskec2177]

There may be more coming. We haven't seen "The Flying Man" from the trailer yet.

[@tunderdiamant8651]

I don't really think this needs an explanation tho :/ That way you can choose what you want :/ Either the gods created humans again after leaving and made faunus so that the humans would have to make peace with them, either you consider Salem made humanity back even tho it doesn't make sense at all because she was alone, either you choose that humanity just went back by normal evolution which means Salem was a LOOOOT of time alone lol

[@Merilirem]

@@tunderdiamant8651 Insert Spongebob "One eternity later" meme.

[@Elizabeth-go4kv]

Well it's 11 and I was gonna go to bed...

[@Arkatox]

36:28 That subtle Critical Role reference. ;)

[@xedgeforeverx]

"Kingdom Heartsing the fuck out of this." Holy shit I've never saw the Grimm as Heartless until now and I can't unthink it.

[@OniLink147]

Salem's line from the first episode might be literal. Man was born from Dust. Also I have a feeling that the endgame may be RWBY vs the gods. They are absolute dicks.

[@arnowisp6244]

Yeah right kill the gods especially the god of darkness that wiped out humanity with a flick....you do realize how much of an ass pull that would be? That would be so ridiculous they might as well have a goku cameo and have rwby beat him up. No the real end game is Salem and stopping from ending the world with the relics summoning forces beyond anything the Atlas military could even THINK of stopping.

[@OniLink147]

@@arnowisp6244 It wouldn't be the first piece of fiction to feature a rebellion against the gods. Given what they have set up there is absolutely no way that the gods aren't being summoned back. There is no question about that. It's just a matter of what happens when they are. The possibilities I see are 1. The gods come back and live among humanity again. I personally would hate this ending because of how dickish the gods are shown to be. 2. The gods attempt to destroy humanity and the characters have to figure out how to stop it. 3. The gods reappear and the characters somehow convince them to fuck off and leave humanity to decide its own fate.

[@Much_Ado]

You know, thinking about it, it's always said that if the hero wins, he is praised by many, but if he fails, he is cursed by many. That's kinda holding true here. Oz is the fallen hero, and even though he's still trying, people hate him.

[@emmaabadeer9107]

I love Jin’s smoke. That color and it’s flow. It’s such a pretty touch to the story.

[@Le7emeChat]

How did humanity grow back alive when it was only Salem left? NOW is a REALLY GREAT TIME to go back and watch again RWBY Volume 1, chapter 1, and realize the real new meaning of the Salem/Aspen monologue the very beginning. And how much in advance everything was plan and foreshadow...

[@YouAnd_OnlyYou]

9:00 "Pass, into the Iris!"

[@PyrotechNick77]

So moral of the story, always go to the Dark God first!

[@jaydubya20074]

I have 2 things to say number one salem would make an amazing kingdom hearts Villaness and number 2 after having rewatched the episode a few time I've noticed that they made sure to repeatedly showed huge attention to here eyes in the grim pool and when she Is crawling out i think maybe when they try and stop her they may go the route of redemption for her and when they finally make her understand and see that the first thing they will show her eyes changing back to there beautiful green signifying her return to human at least in mind

[@kyngtruccie8817]

Dude Rwby would fit SO PERFECTLY in a Kingdom Hearts game. Imagine having a world called Reminant! Man that would be hype asf with the Heartless/Grimm combinations. Edit: Actually the Grim would be Unversed due to the negative emotion thing. Not Heartless.

[@jaydubya20074]

@@kyngtruccie8817 true man I was mostly thinking about the villains showing up to try and nort salem and her scaring them off plus I'd like to see the villains and heros of kingdom hearts seeing or meeting the gods of light and darkness and seeing them perfectly balanced and just there reactions to it

[@kyngtruccie8817]

@@jaydubya20074 Xehernort would blow his load seeing Light and darkness perfectly balanced lmao

[@Reyn_Roadstorm]

Not only was a ton of stuff created for this episode, there are tons of little details all throughout it. Re-watch the scene when the gods rez and erase Oz over and over. Notice the gods as they are getting ready to fight. It's more noticeable with the god of darkness as he also sprouts wings and contorts a bit, but both their horns/antlers grow larger before the actual transformations. It's a small, easily missed detail, but one that I find awesome. As for theories about how the series will end, this episode has produced sooooo many. One I'm currently mulling over goes back to when Blake says each character is the personification of a single word. Ruby is purity, so I'm thinking as the gods get ready to pass judgement, they see her and pause. Then... something something (thus the still mulling over part)... she passes judgement on the gods instead and calls them out on their bullshit (with a bit of Yang's conversation with her mom "You might be powerful, but that doesn't make you strong" thrown in)and the gods leave to world alone. Or she somehow redeems Salem which somehow saves everyone. Or something something silver eyes (which does now appear to straight up be a god power). I also have a theory that at least one of the daughters did survive. Jaune ends up being her last descendant, - which admittedly doesn't bode well for his family - thus Oz and Salem's last descendant, and then when he gets killed (likely by Salem herself), Oz tells her who he was. And it straight up breaks her, thus redeems her. Yep, lots of theories from this episode.

[@tunderdiamant8651]

Yeah i think it's ^pretty obvious that their daughters weren't the maidens since they died but he definitely thought of them when he created the maidens ^^

[@Merilirem]

The only reason people say that is because "maybe they inherited reincarnation powers of some kind somehow" despite how little actual sense that makes.

[@theycallmebad]

As someone else put it; "And suddenly the names make sense. The world is called Remnant because it's only a small piece of what's left of the old world. The powers people can have are called Semblances because it's only a small piece of the magic humans could do before the God of Darkness wiped out the old humanity."

[@Zikoro]

Watching your reactions and watching this episode again, I found some interesting things. Like the God of Light literally turning away as the God of Darkness destroyed all of humanity, like I didn't see it, it doesn't count as a bad action thing. The gods only care if their creation breaks some rules they make up but when they mess with it, it is ok to turn a blind eye to it. Also how the GoL said that his brother caused the tragedy that befell his world, excluding his own involvement of the incident! The God of Light lied to Ozma for mistakes that both brothers made! Also the stipulation of uniting all of humanity. Yeah talk about an impossible task. They doomed the second coming of humanity. Also for fun, DUST IS PEOPLE!

[@Merilirem]

Also Ozpin lying to Salem and his mistrust were likely rooted in the GOL's final words. If anything the gods got pissed that they made creatures too similar to themselves and yet could not truly understand them.

[@Le7emeChat]

"The God of Light literally turning away as the God of Darkness destroyed all of humanity". The simple answer is: Because it was inevitable. They clearly established rule regarding humanity, first humanity is an experiment, not an end in itself, and it follow some pre-determine rule, like the cycle of life and death. Once the experiment reach some of the pre-determined line/event. The experiment is over. Shall the line they cross be determined to be those of success, they keep the experiment, or even expended somewhere else. What seems most likely is one of those line determining failure, is Humanity using one of the gods gift against the god him/itself, and as soon as the condition of failure is fulfilled, the god of darkness do what every good biologist do: destroy the bacterial culture you were growing to study/experiment with, usually by incinerate it. The god of light turn away because he know he cannot stop his brother: that was part of the rule for the experiment they decided on, and it will be done as it should, regardless of how interesting/fascinating those biological culture were.

[@whenwordsfailmusicspeaks246]

Installation complete welcome to RWBY 2.0...

[@IchigoKurosaki011]

The maidens had no magic, Oz gifted it to them. He was most likely reminded of his daughters when he met the sisters, but they're certainly not his children. Those kids are certainly dead.

[@rexamillion8446]

Gods are always like that, ALWAYS if you are coming across a god in any media, no matter how benevolent.....they are still gods. They will crush you just by accidentally thinking the wrong way.

[@meravl7615]

Personally, first time I saw it and specifically the god of light talking to Ozma, I just thought: "Wait, why didn't they just stick her between realms forever? That could have helped..." but I agree with basically everyone - VERY good episode. I also really liked your discussion. How have I missed you for so long?!

[@dyproxus1806]

22:22 Well, they do kind of have a good point. I mean, they can't just give magic back to a mankind that is still turned against each other. It would be like handing every person in Remnant a nuke and the big red launch button. I'm not sure I want to imagine a world like that. Though I imagine it would likely put the Schnee Dust company out of business (SUCK IT JAQUES!! XD ) Plus, I've seen plenty of arguments complaining about the God of Light bringing Oz back after killing him prior. But again, if life and death are part of a delicate balance, Dark god's snap tipped his side of the scale to the floor. At that point, bringing back Ozma as many times as he has is absolutely excusable. At least coming from their logic.

[@ashleyjohnson9651]

But then they prove that the balance thing didnt really matter because they killed literally everyone. It was just that to him, salem didnt have a good enough reason for him to give a shit. Later he explicitly says he didnt care for her as a human, he merely pitied her.

[@dyproxus1806]

@@ashleyjohnson9651 Actually, it seems more like the Dark brother who is less likely to jump to balance, as he messed with death three times thus far. Whereas light god looked away before the snap. Granted he knew what must be done, but he certainly didn't look like he was happy about destroying even the traitors Salem amassed. Speaking of which, he never directly said he didn't care. I mean, if he didn't care, he would have just killed Salem and be done with her. But he did present a possible way to reverse the curse. Perhaps they might not be the best at teaching lessons and it absolutely backfired in several ways, but at the very least they tried to redeem Salem. Honestly the big reason why it didn't go well was because they were indeed fallible as Salem deduced. Even they are bound to make mistakes or change their minds.

[@christopherk2185]

So, with this knowledge in mind, go back to Volume 1, Episode 3 (The Shining Beacon, Pt.2) and listen to Ozpin's speech. And then, go to Volume 3, Episode 6 (Fall) and check which fairy tail Pyrrha said last, when Ozpin interrupts her (special note, the first story was about The Tale of Two Brothers, which Qrow told us in Volume 4). Finally, grab a picture of the relics and then what the World of Remnant episode about the Great War. Yeah. This has been the day we've waited for.

[@SirAdamusGames]

my guess is the maidens were just four sisters who reminded the wizard of his daughters and that was part of his motivation to gift his powers to them, because other than them being four sisters, the daughters really don't have anything in common with the maidens we got in the WoR Oz narrated (the ages don't even seem to be in the right order for the counterparts), and it doesn't explain why the powers transfer (plus it doesn't line up with the fairytale with the old wizard living like a hermit - Jinn's story did say he isolated himself and moped for some large periods, plenty of time for that to have happened in the gaps)

[@thetntraider]

If they decide to bring back World of Remnants, I want Jinn to be the VO.

[@krys9463]

I love to listen to the commentaries when I get RWBY on dvd, they always say they have at least a few f*** you shots in some of the episodes. I'm going to guess that this whole episode was a **** you shot with how much work they must have put into it. XD RT is just so awesome!

[@hlyfall]

I vaguely remember Monty saying waaay back in the beginning that they have enough material for 10-12 volumes... though that was back then. Wouldn't surprise me if it's gonna be longer, cause they also said they story's gonna follow Ruby into adulthood. Couple more timeskips maybe :>

[@TheShockwave1138]

Really interesting after this episode is to rewatch Salem's "history of the world" from Volume 1 episode 1. "Man, born from dust..."

[@rexamillion8446]

OH my god I just had a brain blast just now. I've watched this this like 10 times now and when I heard the whisper of to dust during the death God True Thanos scene....I just realized that....it could very well be possible that dust could just be the fossilized remains of the magic baring civilizations of the past. Which is somewhat horrifying thought.

[@CarbonMage]

"Man, born from Dust, was strong, wise, and resourceful." Yeah, seems pretty likely that Dust is peeeeeeople

[@GeminiRosche]

I really like your theory about Team RWBY being the example by which humanity will be measured by the gods

[@bskec2177]

It might be just Ruby. The condemned all humanity based on the actions of the worst of humanity (Salem), maybe they will be redeemed by the actions of the best (Ruby).

[@Merilirem]

@@bskec2177 *cut to Ruby yelling "this is remnant" and decapitating the gods*

[@arnowisp6244]

@@Merilirem *And her hitting nothing and then getting blasted to oblivion* Yup definitely a reckless ruby thing to do

[@Merilirem]

@@arnowisp6244 I get your meaning but this wasn't an attempt but rather a success. Thats why its not "trying to decapitate" or anything like that. A better response would have been to imply it was useless and that the gods just put their head back on.

[@OmegaChimera]

I've got to say, I love all the 2D effect animation in contrast with everything in the Maya engine.

[@emmaabadeer9107]

I’d like to imagine a functioning society outside of the rest of the world, like the Sun Warriors in avatar, living in the whelm of light.

[@Phoenix_DarkMoon]

The maidens we know were women that reminded Ozma of his dead children. He granted them huge portions of his magic. The reason their powers pass on is because like Ozpin his magic reincarnated along with him. Since the maiden powers stem from that magic they are tied to reincarnation as well.

[@TheDrow79]

This episode reminds me of the first episode where Salem says, "Man Born From Dust..." So maybe Dust is the souls of all the people that died the first time around...

[@ilthok]

Man came from dust. It's one of the first lines in the Chapter 1 of Volume 1. :) The gods basically placed a cycle of life and death into motion where they could come back from the dead as a species.

[@josephcreed8749]

Anybody hyped for episode 6 tomorrow?😀

[@neolunaticus]

The gods punished Salem for being human. Basically that's how I see it.

[@Merilirem]

"she was weak!" Is my version of what the gods would say if you asked them about it and they were being honest. Though i highly doubt they even comprehended what was going on. Im on team let the gods leave, kill them if you have to.

[@ashleyjohnson9651]

Yeeeep. And she really wasnt even an example of a human that knew how to....be human. She was essentially a traumatised young woman who had never learned to cope with loss because of being raised in isolation. And the gods lesson was never going to work because she didnt have the emotional maturity to comprehend it. Not like they cared since they murdered literally everyone anyways

[@SilvyReacts]

In my opinion, judgment will be decided on whether or not Salem has been redeemed and not team rwby. However, I think Ruby will be the key to succeed in redeeming Salem by using her silver eyes to get rid of the grimmifcation. Given how it affected Cinder, we can assume it would do the same to Salem. Difference is, Salem is immortal and as such cannot die or be hurt. So using the silver eyes will likely just remove the grimm within her. The other thing is, I think Ozma is going about this the wrong way. He is suppose to be a hero. Someone who saves people. Yet he thinks he has to destroy Salem. He needs to go back to his routes and become a hero once again. He has to save her, not destroy her. Also, the reason I think Salem needs to be redeemed is because the gods claimed humanity must come together. I have to assume in their eyes, Salem is still a part of that. Cause can you really claim humanity has come together when you are leaving someone out? Now about the god of light .... The god of light was talking about life and death, how it's a delicate balance, yet the punishment given to Salem (making her immortal) quite literally breaks that balance far more than what she asked for (Bringing Ozma back to life). Then on top of that, after humanity gets destroyed he breaks his own rule and brings him back anyway and also makes him pretty much immortal in just a different way. What is the balance you speak of? Is it tasty? It is just absurd how he claimed this so called balance was important, and then throws it out the window just to teach a single mortal a lesson of the importance of life and death. But you know, also getting lectured by a god who is immortal about life and death being important is pretty infuriating to a degree. If it's so important, how come the gods are immortal? Why is it not important for them? It just seems hypocritical and sends mixed messages.

[@BrittanyArtPoetry]

If you look at the map you have the obvious dragon continent which is in the shape of the God of Darkness Dragon, but if you look at the bottom right corner it kind of looks like the God of Lights Dragon form, very sea serpent shaped as opposed to the classic western dragon. I wonder if the fountain of life and creation is hidden somewhere there and if that will play a role, especially as the God of Darknesses domain clearly still exists

[@yujirohanma7470]

Not gonna lie, Salem was very hot during her time as a white-skinned goth.

[@blackvial]

Yep

[@timothystamm3200]

On the two dragon forms of the gods the light appears to to be based off of Huandi who the king of the gods of the four cardinal directions in Chinese mythology, he's in the middle of the other four, and according to some interpretations of their mythos he's king of the gods or at least greatest of them and he looks generic because shenlong is a golden east Asian dragon with a bigger beard longer whiskers and more complicated horns than the rest of the eastern dragons. (Kinda like our at least 8 point antlers golden big beard long whiskers god of light in dragon mode.)

[@johndunkelburg5143]

Ozma, the hidden queen of Oz while Ozpin was the 'Wizard of Oz' and came to rule The City of Oz after Ozpin left.

[@JamesCPotter13]

as someone pointed out. Ozymandias banged Salem AT LEAST 4 times.

[@DarkRedDragon77]

So, the only true way to kill Salem is for her to accept the truth of life and death. Only than will she find her eternal rest.

[@bskec2177]

Or physically destroy the world, or stop it from turning. "So long as this world turns, you shall walk it's face."

[@journey9411]

@@bskec2177 OMG RUBY'S GONNA PULL A SUPERMAN!!!

[@onedumbgamer9672]

So dust came from the moon and the domains of darkness and light are on the western and eastern dragons respectively (mirroring the gods dragon forms)

[@johnmiester8636]

One Dumb Gamer what if Dust is actually the ashes of the old humans

[@dklounge7082]

Correction: the longest reaction video you guys have done was for the season 2 finale of camp camp at 52:09 with the murder fridge episode of red vs blue being 20 seconds shorter

[@Kiaxet]

Yeah, but the Camp Camp finale was a 26-minute episode. The longest reaction video we've done for a normal-length episode of anything was that RvB video. Also, I'm kind of impressed that you went digging, ngl. :Db

[@ISAFMobius18]

remember what the gods said to Salem, only when she understands the importance of life and death, can she rest.

[@BlackRainRaven]

episode 4 is in fact animated

[@xXSnipistXx]

Looking back at this episode you guys said, "He (God of Light) could have picked anyone", yes I agree that the God of Light could have picked anyone else for the task but I see it as another chance for not only Salem but also Ozma. Another chance for Salem in that she could redeem herself and change, and for Ozma a second chance to live out his life with Salem which he never got the chance to. Remember the God of Light already gave Salem another chance when he gave her immortality, people often forget that it isn't a permanent punishment, she had to "learn the importance of life and death, only then may she rest". That already was a chance for her to redeem herself, so I saw the God of Light picking Ozma for the task as not only a second chance for Ozma but also for Salem, and in the bigger picture, a second chance for humanity itself. You also have to remember, the God of Light was OFFERING for Ozma to return provided that he has a task to accomplish but the decision was never forced onto him, Ozma chose to accept because as I said it's like a second chance for him to live the life with Salem he never had. Also when you guys said that the Gods could have killed her and she would have found peace, but that defeats the purpose then, she would have never learn from her mistake. The God of Light was trying to teach people to live in a proper way so-to-speak and at the end of it all the God of Light has never been seen to actually take life, sure the God of Darkness could have done it and killed Salem but again that defeats the purpose.

[@KonathaoSoberuNartio]

I know the spoiler thing wasn't me but if I want to I WILL talk about spoilers with other people. However I will ALWAYS add the spoiler tag thing to my comment and leave several spaces so if you read it then it's your own damn fault. Also no, they weren't the first maidens.

[@blackvial]

I like to call the episode "The Tragedy of Ozma and Salem". It is almost a Greek tragedy

[@lfz4611]

This mean the new humans are created by dust and the moon. Remember first rwby chapter say that man come from dust maybe its literal

[@ravenfal1496]

So which gods are better gods - The Gods of Remnant or The Cosmic Powers (from RvB).

[@TwistedSynn]

Either the maidens just reminded him of his kids and he gave them his power, or maybe they inherited the reincarnation thing from Oz, but instead of their souls it's just their power. People are theorizing about how people came back, think about episode 1 volume 1 Salem narrating says man was born from dust, now what happened to the people in the old world? they were turned to Dust. This could explain why people have "Semblances" of magic can also explain the dust they use as a power source could be some kind of fossilizing magic wielding people who died long ago, I'm thinking the Dust they use for power came from the moon shards that fell to the world a moon destroyed by the energy of the Dark god who said he gave magic to the world, maybe it left some kind of magic radiation on the Dust crystals. Now I have a theory about the Faunus now, as the humans were being reborn into the world they showed all that was left in the world was Salem, The Grim, and the animals, maybe the Faunus are those animals now covered and breathing in not only dead magic people but also the moon dust, maybe this is how the Faunus came to be, since they did state the Faunus did not exist in the old world, they were a new creature in this new world.

[@kersonwoodyjames5784]

After the Snap animals were alive so........yeah Faunus maybe?

[@8mad]

Part of me feels sympathy for Salem and kind of wants her to win............. Whatever she's planning and/or goal is. Though, this origin has left me with more questions then answers. But this was a BEAUTIFULLY animated episode for sure.

[@journey9411]

Ya know what I find ridiculous? Out of both curses to break, Salem has to learn one lesson about life and death, Ozpin has to unite all of humanity and prepare them for the return of the gods. -.- ...So much for balance, Mr. God Of Order.

[@ashleyjohnson9651]

Yeah they really dont care about balance. They cared and hated that a lowly human was brave enough to stand up to them and then murdered a planet for it Down with the gods

[@mattiekarwin3667]

Three seasons, nine volumes.