r/RWBY

I enjoy them a lot, before anybody gets angry lol as much as I enjoy the current choreography, I sometimes look up the older fight scenes just for the sheer hype of them.

That being said...it does (and has) introduced problems before. The thing about them is that, while the story acknowledges that RWBY and others are technically still novices, what we SEE is them fighting on par with pros, and when the pros or villains win, typically it looks less like "oh they're outmatched" and more like "they got in a lucky hit" (Weiss vs the chainsaw guy, for example).

There are exceptions to this! Namely Blake and Sun vs Roman and Yang vs Neo, but even the latter, when you think about it, may not have gone as smoothly if it weren't for the fact that Yang is EXACTLY the type of person Neo excels in fighting, and the former, as cool as it is, kind of makes Roman look weirdly overpowered (he should not be blocking shotgun blasts with a cane 💀). The opposite is also sometimes true: Blake gets in a hit only because there was a window of opportunity while Roman was busy countering Sun, or later in the train she had an advantage with dust cartridges to alter her semblance.

My point is that Monty's style made EVERYONE look like they were professional badasses from the get-go, and that can be an issue when it comes especially to assessing threat levels. I genuinely think that people would've accepted the idea of Weiss losing to Vernal because she was out of practice if we weren't used to seeing the team operate on what looks like their A-game even when the story tells us they're exhausted or not in top form.

Heck, back when Volume 2's finale aired, people acknowledged that the Grimm didn't feel much like a credible threat when Monty was allowed to go wild with making a badass fight scene where the Grimm all felt like they were being cut through like tissue paper.

I hope I'm making sense here and again, love Monty's style to this day, but I really think that the level of control he had over what happened in fight scenes led, however indirectly, to a lot of the confusion/irritation people have expressed when it comes to fights in later seasons. Obviously they couldn't have predicted they would lose Monty and the spectacle of his fight scenes is what drew an audience to the show to begin with, but to treat his fighting choreography as flawless and perfect is a little bit in bad faith to me...or at least too colored by nostalgia.

• Since I'm not talking about the animation anymore, I'm gonna skip it to...

• The story, JE SUS CHRIST IT WAS TENSE, seeing Ironwood at the end finally lose his mind and fall into the claws of fear was impactful, that man has officially lost it, I liked Robyn, good think she didn't died here, it would have sucked, but we didn't finished this season without one major death, poor Clover, I guess his luck ran out...also, am I the only one that noticed certain... "tension" between him and Qrow? Someone else?...just me? Ok...anyways, the Atlas's Elite Huntsmen were a delight as characters, Hare is my favorite of that team, and they worked as an amazing contrast to Team RWBY, they are a team, sure, but they are not friends, they don't hang out together, they don't know the other outside of work, they're work partners and that's it, and that's why they couldn't beat RWBY in their fight, they're not on the same page, while Team RWBY is connected through trust, loyalty, heart and friendship, other point is that NOW THEY'RE ALL CRIMINALS HOLY FUCK, I can tell Volume 8 is going to be a "vigilantes against our will" kind of Season, in which the main characters now have to fight labeled as criminals, oh, and also, I'm so glad that they're not going for the obvious route with the four maidens, at least not now, I was legit sure they were going to set up an eventual "Team RWBY will become the four maidens" story line, but either that's not on the plans yet or it's not gonna happen, period

The characters were awesome here! Also, WOOOOO PENNY IS NOT DEAD AND SHE'S NOW THE WINTER MAIDEN AND NORA KISSED REN, THEY FINALLY KISSED, AND NEITHER OF THEM DIED THAT VOLUME WOOOO...sorry, for that, I'm still traumatized for Pyrrha and Jaune, in which her kiss was the last thing she did with him before dying, but they didn't died...yet, I don't know what might happen, no one is safe in this show, the new characters introduced this season were also a delight, I was expecting Winter to become the winter maiden, but no, a curveball was thrown and now Penny is the winter maiden which... raises the question, how is she even gonna be able to pass the torch without requiring for her to get killed? She's a robot, she can't die of old age, Ironwood was really good too, at first you can see his point, and he has a plan, but once he sees and learns more stuff, slowly but surely he loses his grip and self control and now, he's full "dictator" mode now, and he's not going to hesistate now, anyone on his way is an obstacle, and he's going to get rid of it, even if it means killing someone, even if it means killing people who were allies in the past, and that reveal of Salem being the one that killed Ruby's mother hitted me hard, specially seeing Ruby breaking into tears, no anger, no flashy eyes, no "you...you... I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!" yell, just a complete meltdown, that girl is deeply broken, and yet she has the brightest smile and the purest of the spirits, I now want to see Ruby dealing the killing blow to Cinder and then to Salem, it would feel cathartic, the classic "your biggest mistake was killing my mother, and leaving me alive with a reason to kill you" moment, beautiful, cathartic and a good way to end what might be the last battle of the show

And now, in replacement of the animation part of this reviews, I'll talk about...my favorite battle of this season! Which is...TEAM RWBY VS ATLAS'S ELITE HUNTSMEN (yeah, I don't remember the name of their team, if you couldn't tell already), that battle showed the crutial thing Team RWBY has over them, trust, heart, loyalty and friendship, they're not just teammates, they're friends, they hang out outside of "work", they talk, have heart to heart coversations, they trust the other deeply, and that makes them be on the same page and not hesistate, because they know how the other thinks and acts, the other team doesn't have that, they're an elite team, but they're not friends, and that's why they lost, also, damn, that "You were...until you trained us" line of Ruby goes really hard, that girl can be a sweet cinnamon and also a badass at the same time

Overall, amazing season, it felt tense, really tense, and I loved it, Volume 8, here I go!

P.D: I'm two episodes into Volume 8, there's tension between Nora and Ren, the intro seemed more with a tragic aura, and Ironwood is completly deranged now, and yes, he will kill whoever that defies him, he lost completly

And the last time the intro had a tragic aura around it, Pyrrha died, and now that Nora finally kissed Ren, leaving clear that she loves him, and it's a mutual feeling, PLEASE DON'T KILL ANY OF THEM, YOU GUYS DIDN'T LET PYRRHA AND JAUNE BE TOGETHER, LET THIS TWO ALIVE, GIVE US PROBLEMS AND TENSION BUT NOT DEATH PLEASE... I'm feeling very normal right now