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I dare say that this was probably the most satisfying episode of the series yet, and not just because of the fact that we finally got to see more than mere seconds of Emerald and Mercury in action. This was perhaps the first time a significant amount of runtime was set aside for some halfway serious character development and exposition. Which is not to say that it didn't retain its usual charm or that the whole thing was a joke to me beforehand, but this is probably the first time I sat down to watch RWBY and was forced to take it more seriously as a developing story than as the funny, flashy action brawler that it normally is. "Rooster Teeth are starting to show us that they and these characters they've created mean business," I thought, and it's a good feeling. Of course, it does help that its production values and length-per-episode are much better this time around, and are only getting better with each passing week.

Nothing AMAZING happened this episode, but I afford RT a round of applause for how such a relatively simple episode turned out to be such a large step in the right direction.

Volume 3 Episode 5.

What a Jazz theme episode.
Penny and her teammate Ciel go the next round where later Penny tells Ruby she wants to stay at Beacon.
Yang and Weiss faces off against Flynt (A Jazz Trumpeter) and Neon (Rollerblading Rave girl faunus) of Team FNKI(Funky).
The battle flows well with the jazz soundtrack.
spoiler[In the end, Team RWBY wins the match.
Also Cinder learns of Penny's schematics and does some modifications and Ozpin wants to make Pyrrha his Guardian.]

I was pleased with the theme of the fight and the soundtrack, but not the fight itself. It seemed like the animators were trying for something very high-velocity, which led to a general lack of smoothness. I can best describe this as "the Michael Bay Effect", where there's a lot of action and explosions happing in a given scene, but the viewer can barely comprehend any of it because the camera work is too wonky and there's just too much going on to focus on where and how the characters are moving.

I think this is kinda like one of those episodes in anime wherein the budget and time spent is noticeably less than in prior episodes. A quality lull, if you will. Hopefully, it'll return to form next time.

Volume 3 Episode 6.

Two words: Holy -bleep-! Shocked

So we found out why Ozpin and co brought Pyrrha to talk.
spoiler[Turns out long ago, four sisters named Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter called the Maidens were given magic powers. Power so great that it rivals Dust. And when a Maiden dies, her power is passed to her successor. However, there are two conditions: 1.Only women can inherit the magic power and 2. It had to be the last person the previous Maiden thought of.
As a result of this, it was possible for some woman to kill a Maiden and inherit her power because the dying Maiden's last thoughts was her killer. Ozpin and co are part of a secret group who protect the Maidens so the wrong people won't inherit their powers. However, Amber Fall, the current Fall Maiden, was attacked and her powers stolen(hinted to be Cinder) and is now on life support.
Ozpin and co. want Pyrrha to be the new Fall Maiden by using an experiment that will kill Amber and transfer the remaining Fall Maiden magic into Pyrrha, something they're not sure if it will work or might change her. Pyrrha finds this is too much for her.]

Later during the final 8, Yang fight against Mercury in an excellent fight. And then comes this episode's "Wham Moment!".
spoiler[Yang wins the match but Mercury tries to attack her which she shoots his leg. But suddenly the guards point their guns on Yang and the crowd is booing her. Confused, Yang looks at a playback of her match and to her horror, sees her and Mercury talking casually before she shoots his leg, hinting Yang was under an illusion and was tricked into attacking Mercury. The episode ends with guards surrounding Yang while her teammates are shocked.]

Currently the best episode of the season since we got some plot and a shocking conclusion. It's too bad, the next episode won't be airing until January.

Indeed...definitely raising the bar.

I'm calling the culprit as spoiler[Neopolitan. She has demonstrated strange illusory powers before. It'd be fitting as well, since Neo is arguably Yang's nemesis--the only person who has soundly defeated her in a serious altercation thus far.]

I also suspect that spoiler[Pyrrha will be one of Yang's benefactors, if only due to her previous scepticism of Mercury, but I guess that's pushing it a bit.]

I feel as if RWBY has been going through an up-down trend lately: one episode, like the previous, is decent, but lacks coherency in its animation and the end result isn't terribly compelling. But then, that episode is followed up by a real knockout like this. It's definitely getting more and more detailed and consistently good as time goes on though. I think this show is pretty much a late bloomer. And that's okay. Smile

No, don't do that to Yang!

My brother just put forward an interesting theory to me, that Ozpin might spoiler[be Mercury from the future]. Seems a bit crazy, but the idea is to explain that Ozpin spoiler[knows a lot of things because of it, the similar hair, maybe some slight similar personality]. And that the reason Ozpin has a spoiler[limp would be explained by this episode in Mercury being wounded].

Really just a crazy theory.

@ DuskyPredator:

Well...... jeez! I just... I just figured spoiler[Mercury had actual mercury poisoning in his boots when firing his projectiles, hence thepossible hallucinations Yang and Coco had.] I... I think I need to lay off the RWBY speculations for about a week or two. This show is getting more crazy than I expected.

Volume 3 Episode 7

It's a flashback episode on how Cinder recruited Emerald, Mercury and Adam and the White Fang.

spoiler[Cinder recruited Emerald after seeing her illusion powers and tells her master (who is unseen or heard) she wants to make Emerald her apprentice.
Later, they try to find and recruit Marcus Black, an famous assassin, only to find his son, Mercury Black, who has just killed his father.
Later, the three try to recruit the White Fang as they can achieve both their goals but Adam refuses as he won't work with a human. (This meeting takes place a day before the events of the Black Trailer where we see a cameo Blake.)
Cinder, Emerald and Mercury attack Amber where we see her Fall powers but is defeated and Cinder steals her powers using a special glove before being stopped by Qrow before she can take all of her powers.
With her new magic powers, Cinder gives an Ultimatum to Adam; the White Fang joins them or die.
Then we go back to the match between Yang and Mercury which Mercury is taken to an ambulance driven by Neo and Cinder who are disguised as paramedics.
As it turns out, thanks to Emerald's illusion powers and Mercury's mechanical legs(which he got after killing his father), it was part of Cinder's plans to make Yang attack Mercury which cause the Grimm to make chaos nearby since Grimm are attracted to negative emotions.
With Mercury going into hiding, Cinder and Emerald perform their next plan.]

Not a bad episode though as far as backstory goes there is still a lot of information we do not know which was rather annoying. Hopefully this will be addressed later on. The only critique I can really have for Volume 3 is that everything seems to be setting up something else in the background we will see in Volume 4, I hope they have some level of payoff in the end.

Also, another good fight scene, they have certainly picked up as the show as gone on.

Nitpicking, but the electricity in the fight kind of bugged me. As much as the episode might have answered, a lot more questions were asked, like how Cinder seems to be working under someone else.

@ DuskyPredator:

I guess I'm the only one I know of on the internet who thinks it's Neo Cinder was talking to considering we only heard her voice in the conversation. I can't help but find it odd that we got to see how Mercury, Emerald, Torchwick and even Adam were recruited, but not Neo. I also find it interesting that Neo is the only one out of these who hasn't been shown to be intimated or ordered around by Cinder. I dunno. I mean, she just feels too mysterious to be an underling and nothing more. Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm wrong since I've been off on multiple occasions this volume alone regarding whatever theories I've had anyway (such as the whole Mercury poisoning that I was clearly way off on as I mentioned a few posts ago).

On another note, I realized that while black cats depending on the culture can be known for bad luck, Blake dodged one hell of a bullet there by leaving the White Fang when she did. Had she stayed with the organization a day longer, she would have been forced to stay under Cinder's orders. And even if she managed to leave the White Fang, chances are Emerald and Mercury would've known who she was long enough to hunt her down and do with her what they did to Tukson back in Volume 2.

I knew that was gonna end off badly, but even still, that was a horrible cliffhanger! It needs to be next week already!

...spoiler[They animated tears. Twice.] And it looked right! spoiler[This show hasn't seen anyone cry until now.] It's another veritable signal that shit is finally starting to go down.

This episode makes me afraid of spoiler[what Cinder's team will manipulate Pyrrha into doing to Penny, for both of their sakes. I like them both, and can see this ending terribly for both. Pyrrha is literally the worst opponent Penny could face, especially in a rigged match.] D:

...Actually, now that I think about it (and maybe I'm forgetting something), it was heavily implied here that spoiler[Cinder's team is aware of Penny's artificial nature. Where would they have gotten that intel? Far as I remember, Ruby is the only one who knows her secret.]

Speaking of spoiler[Ruby, it has been shown before that she is essentially useless in a fight without the Crescent Rose. Mercury is a lot of things, but merciful is not one of them. This could turn out horribly for Ruby as well, especially if she, for whatever reason, cannot make use of her speed to retreat.]

I'm at the edge of my seat, Rooster Teeth! I eagerly await the next episode...

...and the next, since I'm going to another field exercise for the next two weeks, and won't really be able to watch in that time, unless there's some major downtime.

...Balls. Razz

Gatherum,

Cinder knows about Penny because spoiler[her hack program has infiltrated the General's system.] Re-watch the episode with the great fight between Qrow and Winter... the part afterwards, when they're in Ozpin's office. You'll notice where it happens. Then, later, Cinder is looking at her screen and specs show up with Cinder commenting on how they're going to change their plans a bit as a result of what she's found.

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