Challenger approaching! It’s the recap for Chapter Nine, and it’s confirmed for Smash. Special moves include Team RWBY being grilled over their life choices, Mammoth-y Grimm becoming a thing, Doctor Who references that are more out of control than River Song’s hair, and everyone reading’ll realise that Smash Bros 4 has fried my brain to the point I’m reading this in my head as the announcer guy’s voice. To unlock it you gotta click the Read More below. Alternatively, you could go back and check out last week’s fighter, or just hit head back to the roster screen aka the Recap Masterpost. Pretty top tier, right? No Johns please, and let’s get to it.

So if my math is correct, three quarters of the volume are complete. Took like twenty minutes to work out, so y'all better appreciate. Speaking of appreciatin’, thank you all for reading, laughing/chuckling/giggling/tittering/grinning/grimacing as if in pain, liking, reblogging, upvoting et cetera. You stay classy San Diego. Francisco? Andreas? One of those.

PREVIOUSLY ON RWBY :: The morning after the events of the dance, Ironwood and Glynda argued over all things Cinder’s infiltration-related, and Ruby was brought in for a fruitless interrogation. Well, until she planted an apple tree in the form of slyly dropping a possible location for a White Fang hideout, which Ozpin picked up on. While Ruby returned to tell her team of her success in the orchard game, Ozpin declared his intent to wait and see what the bad guys would do next. Team RWBY were then distracted for a bit by the appearance of the Xiao Long/Rose family pet, Zwei the dog. And while Weiss fell in love quickly, Blake didn’t like him because she’s a cat! Get it! Ruby then not-so-subtly makes plans to not abandon Zwei for a week, and the gang gathers in the auditorium for another rockin’ Ozpin speech. It’s about unity of the four kingdoms on an anniversary of a great war that sought to oppress creativity and individualism. Heavy stuff, can’t hate that. Afterwards the team goes to get themselves a mission in the same area that secret hideout is, though it takes Ozpin deciding to allow it for them to get assigned. Outside, the return of Team CFVY - blessed are they - heralds more warnings about Huntsman work being harder than orchard management. But the girls are ready for the responsibility and they’re ready for everything that can get thrown at them! Except the identity of the Huntsman they’ll be shadowing: Professor Bartholomew Oobleck.

And now, on RWBY, we begin where we left off: with Team RWBY silently judging Oobleck’s attempt at a Inspector Gadget cosplay.

The Oobleckinator expounds on the nature of their mission: it’s recon, there’ll be no base of operations, hazardous wastelands, they’ll be camping wherever et cetera. He talks fast. Very fast. He also zeroes in on Weiss for referring to him as a professor.

Schnee pls, he’s a doctor, not a professor. He’s very insistent upon it. We must show him the Doctorly respect he deserves.

/me hums the theme. Ooohweeeoooooooo.

Doc McCoy zoom zoom zooms away to the airship, leaving the girls in the dust. Ruby tries to make the best of it, but she doesn’t believe that their best ally in saving is world is the guy who recently overdosed on a concoction called “quadruple coffee”. For shame Rubes. Their second-best allies roll up behind them.

Aww they came to see their friends/former recap title co-owners off! Or just came out to the quad to play some hackey sack. Man. I miss unironically playing hackey sack. After Nora blames Ren for an offscreen incident that left her empty-stomached, we learn JNPR’s heading outside the kingdom on their mission too.

That sounds cool. There’s sheriffs? I bet JNPR’ll see at least two showdowns at high noon. Three if they’re lucky!

Oh yeah look it’s Jaune and P-Money on screen together in the same frame and they’re not married with a dozen kids already. Gee and here we fans thought them dancing together the night before meant it was all set in stone! Wait, are Sun ‘n Blake and Weiss 'n Neptune not gonna last either? My heart can’t take this! Whatever shall we do! Ships are sinking! Icebergs everywhere! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Yeah there was a weird vibe to this little moment. Like it’s neat to see our little teenage family honestly wishing each other luck on their first mission, but yeah, vibe. Like, is this the end of innocence? They’re no longer kids having food fights, they’re heading out into the scary scary world. Or something. The vibe only increases tenfold with the appearance of…

Our other two teenage wastelands. If Penny was there it’d be a pretty picture. Shame RWBYJNPRPSN Recap isn’t a catchy title. Though consider: CFVY Recap. Yeah. Just imagine.

Man, Sage and Scarlet - Sun and Neptune’s other two team members in case y'all didn’t know yet - must really be having an intense thumb war they can’t break away from all this time. I wonder if they’ll be going on the funtime mission the other two have wrangled up: shadowing a crime specialist. And they get badges. If I got a badge I’d turn it in with my gun-gun immediately, because I’m a rebel.

CSI: SSSN coming next fall, and cancelled next spring. Dammit. They should’ve given it another chance! The fanbase was there, they called themselves SSSNbakers and everything! Dammit Nielsen ratings why! Just look at the devotion of this one fan:

See! SEE. Also, Sun and Neptune wanting to go into the city when it’s not in the middle of a turf war between the East Side RWBYs and the West Side White Fangs? Hi-larious. They’re gonna go to all the tourist traps. Ruby looks about ready to join them when Doc Ock calls at them to hurry up already. They’re late they’re late for a very important date.

The vibe-y-ness too comes back for an easy money sequel, as we get straight-on shots of all the groups. Dun dun dun.

Yepppp.

FOREVER. Nah, they’ll be fine. When they get back and Cinder’s android army has instituted a campus-wide dodgeball competition, that’s when excrement will go down. Anyways, we cut to:

Now the airship’s transporting them is probably on an auto pilot or something, but I like to imagine. Every school has bus drivers, so. And they come in so many types! There’s the jolly one that doubles as a mall Santa Claus in the holidays, the one with a hooked nose that seems a little too drug addict-y so he’s probably not one, the grumpy old valkyrie, the one that teaches you physics and is just doing this to get some extra pay 'cause he wants a new car to feel like a real man, Frowny Freddy, Late Lawrence, Marijuana Marketing Michael…

And there’s Dangerous Driver Dan, Creepy Carl, and the worst of all: Singing Steve. Man, bus drivers amirite. Doin’ good work. And hmm, was I meant to be… Oh right, recap. So Doc Brown is taking the girls back to the future, and he says that while he’s more of a lover - of smart stuff - than a fighter, he’s been around the block.

Tussles, truffles and brussels later, we learn that Doctor Pepper’s background in history is vital for the mission too. Because there’s caves and forests where they’re going, but there’s also something even cooler.

A great failure. A monument to the failures of a conquering race who dared to forget their place. Quoth Jon Connington and change up the pronouns: They rose too high, loved too hard, dared too much. They tried to grasp a star, overreached, and fell. It’s called Mountain Glen, and it instantly became the most quinnteresting place ever to me the second I learnt of its existence.

I mean c'mon an apocalyptic-looking city environment full of monsters? I am so here for this. They come into land with some epic rockin’ music backing them.

And then camera shots of the area ensue.

I AM SO HERE FOR THIS.

Doc Doolittle explains that this is their first mission as Huntresses, and it’s serious times from here on out. Of course he notices Ruby brought a bag as she was told not to do. Hey I’m just glad we’re getting the Zwei reveal out of the way. We’ve exploring to do!

Wait, I mean, uh, what! I am shocked. Horrified. How?! Zwei?! In the bag?! With RUBY?! In the study? Professor Plum? Or is he Doctor Plum too…

Ruby’s attempts at steathily getting Zwei out of sight fail, and Doctor Frankenstein don’t seem amused.

But then he turns it around! Because everyone is powerless in the face of HypnoZwei. And hunting dogs are always fun to have around, even corgi-shaped ones. Doctor Yes Frankenstein Was The Doctor Not The Monster And If That Was A Revelation To You I’m Sorry picks Zwei up and spins him around.

While Weiss and Yang facepalm this whole event away, Blake decides its time to get down to business.

No, not that business. The mission business. Because the landscape’s a hotspot for Grimm activity and grimmer wifi, and they could be anywhere. Why, even right over there.

The gang turns to look.

I kinda missed these critters. Been a while since we’ve seen 'em. Why have Jaune-centric episodes when you can have the adventures of Todd The Grimm 'N Pals? Priorities, Miles and Kerry! Nah it’s cool, keep doin’ your thing. But if Todd The Grimm shows up in next volume I’m suing. But anyways, with the reappearance of the Grimm comes the boom shakalakalaka boom.

Doc Moreau drops some amazing info: the Grimm are attracted to areas drenched in negative human emotions. Fear, anger, hate, suffering, all the other things that lead to the dark side. This is big! Or at least, feels big! In a kinda obvious way, like “oh the soulless monsters are attracted to negativity big shock”, but it’s still something. And something is something, and something is something, you know? And it might’ve put some past scenes into context, or at least can be worked hard enough to put past scenes in context.

Like the very first trailer we saw Ruby coming from her mother’s grave only to be beset by a pack of Grimm. I imagine the feelings coming off of anyone after visiting a grave of a loved one would be like advertising free donuts to the Grimm. And then later on encounters like Weiss being surrounded by a pack of Beowolves - first thing that comes to mind when you think negative is Weiss, don’t lie - and Cardin’s jerkassery towards Jaune attracting the Ursa Major, though the sap probably helped there. Either way, it’s a neat mechanic. And worldbuilding idea, because c'mon if I was a parent in that world I’d totally tell my kids to be nice to each other or else the Grimm will find and kill them! And of course the Grimm’d hang around a ruined city.

Doc Parnassus explains a plan to follow the lone Grimm to the rest of his pack, and by now I’m kinda laughing at the fact we’re learning so much about monsters from the history professor and not the monster 101 professor, Port. And then the rest of the pack shows up anyway, and they spot the gang.

Fight scene is imminent!

What’s coming’ll all be a bit more stylistic than the usual fare on account of it turning into basically a montage 'n stuff. Some liked it, some didn’t. Some seem to have forgotten the kinda letterboxing style appeared once before in Ren’s fight with the King Taijustu last year. I dig it. I dig styles. Stiles too. But yeah. Doctor Phil orders them to go and they go.

Yang leads the pack with some jaw breakin’.

Then we get somedat our queen and saviour.

Strange to think how little we’ve seen Blake-y just kill monsters. It’s fun, though! She slices and dices 'em up. Lots of bisections. Slim waists are the enemy, it seems. And speaking of folk we haven’t seen kill that many monsters.

Rapiers are cool. I like rapiers. I like scythifles too. Ruby does a bunch of killin’ with hers while Zwei watches on.

Murder death murder!

And then the montage continues. The girls do all the work. Everyone but Doc Light does the slayage.

After another round of level grinding, Doc Wily declares the area clear of both Grimm and criminal activity, but Yang has a quick query.

That line Yang has about wishing she saw their pro Huntsman do some fightin’ was such an audience surrogate one. Next episode girl. Believe.

Doctor Watson goes on to explain, as he’s wont to do, that he is a pro Huntsman in action, but just not the Buffy-y kind. He’s doing detective work, not superhero work. More Batman than Nolan Batman. And after all, hunting isn’t just about thrilling heroics, it’s also just extermination.

There’s boring parts of every job, else it wouldn’t be a job. Yang falters a bit before agreeing with Doc Martens about that much.

We cut to another victory screen, and then to Yang having some one-on-one time with Doctor Lecter. Tick tock Clarice, it’s question time.

Here’s where things get fun. He wants to know why Yang chose this line of work. Not what she does - hunting things, saving people, the family business - but why she does it. Yang’s answer is curious, for sure. She says she’s just a thrill seeker, out for an adventure, a sex machine ready to reload, and don’t stop her now. And if she can help people on the side, then it’s a win-win.

Something about that answer rings shallow or false, and the feeling comes again when Doctor Mario asks the other girls.

Next off is Weiss. See, Weiss Minerva Ulysses Schnee was born into silk and gold and golden silk, and it seems she was set to take a cushy socialite kind of job, not a messy monster hunting one.

She says it’s because she has a legacy to uphold. Once she realised she was capable of fighting, then she knew her future duty. Really, Weissfish? Really? Just that? Reaaaaallllllly? Yet another curious answer. Like it’s the kind of party line she’d tell people, just like Yang’s.

I wonder what Blake’ll say! When we see her, she’s off dealing with birdies.

Mini-Nevermores. Haven’t seen any of those since Ruby Birdie-No’d one last year. Blake shoots 'em all down. Duck Hunt Champion, ain’t she. And then comes Doctor Banner, same question. He notes that Blake seems to carry herself with purpose. That’s always a good place to start.

My lovely darling Blake wants to fight injustice and inequality. Someone oughta stop people from blowing up trains.

The question is… How is what she’s doing contributing to that? She doesn’t know, and that must sting. C'mon Doctor Evil there’s no need to send her on another angst spiral she’s had enough on her chow bowl this volume already. What next, are you gonna go after poor innocent Ruby?!

We expect another round of “Why you Huntress” but it doesn’t come. Some folk didn’t get why Ruby wasn’t asked the same question, but c'mon, it’s kinda obvious? Way back in the first episode Ruby said she wanted to be a Huntress to help people, because her parents taught her to be the type of person that does that. Two episodes later she tells Blake she wants to be like the heroes in the books, fighting for what’s right and defending the defenceless. Her biggest moments of self doubt were more about the social aspects of just being a teenager and being a good leader. She’s always been pretty on point in pulling that hero card, thwarting robberies and stalking evil sneaky spy ladies. She’s just an innately good person who channels it into her Huntress'ing, so she’s at no conflict with that part of herself. And Doctor Mario knows because he’s either perceptive or he’s heard a story or two. Maybe a bit of both.

Actually it’s kind of a neat way to approach a main character, I think. Ruby’s our ensemble’s lead but she doesn’t drive every plot, and especially not this season. In fact it has felt like she’s had a little less this year, but that’s actually okay! We’ve had Blake’s ongoing inner strife as the major running plotline, Yang revealing her vulnerabilities, Jaune and P-Money and Neptune having image issues, and a little bit on Weiss’s family complex. Ruby is just having a good time and helping her friends where she can. Her fall’s coming, somewhere somehow sometime. But for now? Notice that she was found with no Grimm corpses around her unlike the others. No uncertainty of self and no negative feelings about her, so they didn’t target her. Ruby’s solid.

Anyways, Doc Spengler-Stantz-Venkman declares it’s time to camp out for the night. He takes Ruby with him to secure the area, leaving devastated and confused teenage girls in his wake.

Contrastingly, her sister:

Yep. A moment later, Ruby turns around a corner or two to find something… big.

There was a moment for me of “wait what’s the perspective here” until I realised those were trees that were being made to feel inadequate in the presence of the gigantic monster elephants. Oliphants. Or, alternatively…

They’re called Goliaths, and apparently Ruby’s sniper fire would have less effect than a telemarketer calling during dinner. We saw last year how little damage bullets did to the Giant Nevermore and Pete the Deathstalker, so not shocked. They become hardy things as time goes on, it seems. And then there’s that other thing.

The Goliaths aren’t going to attack them… yet. Because not every Grimm is mindless forever, and in their advanced age and power, these mammoths are learning. They’ve attacked the borders before and learnt that it gets them killed, because a human’s will is a dangerous and brilliant thing in the face of death by gigantic mammoth. And so they wait, and they bide their time.

They wait for the day we slip. Waiting for the day they’re big enough to big larger than any building humanity can build. Can you imagine that day? I can. It’d be fantastic to see on screen. Attack On Grimm. I’ve already starting writing that fic, dang skippy.

And this is another little thing we’ve learnt that may add some context to past events. If the big old Grimm can learn to be patient, why did Episode 8 happen last year? Because they were provoked. Spacebattles user evilauthor pointed that one out as a possibility. After all, Ruby and Weiss took Edgar Allen Poe for a ride and literally ruffled its feathers, and Jaune and P-Money walked right into Dwayne Johnson as the Scorpion King’s lair and pulled at its non-relic-y tail a bit. If I were an older Grimm doing the patient waiting game, I’d give it up for a chance to get a little revenge. If it weren’t for the fact they’re waiting hundreds of years to pass before they become titan sized and then they can kill all the humans ever, I’d feel sorry for the guys for being disturbed, defending themselves, and then getting murderised. Poor wittle monsters. Meanieface huntsmen and huntresses.

Also hey, some Fridge Horror for you: if there’s giant Grimm hiding that close to Beacon, who’s to say they’ll be the first force in their attack. If they’re smart enough to not go and attack whoever’s hunting them - and I’d imagine there’d be hunts every now and then - and Huntsmen have gotten used to not challenging them, then the waiting game becomes as popular as the Newlywed Game.

Back to it. Ruby asks not why her teammates have been getting the interrogation treatment from Doc Mengele, but why he wanted to become a Huntsman. Turnin’ dem tables like a DJ.

He explains that the empty city crumbling around them is indicative of how many lives could’ve been saved. Huntsmen are there to protect people, and while weapons of steel and gunpowder work, weapons of the mind might work better in the long run. He’s a teacher after all, and has to teach the importance of history. We saw a glimpse of that last year when he told Jaune and Cardin as much, but it’s cool to see a very obvious example of history around them as demonstration. If humans learn from their mistakes, they can become stronger. And there’s nothing Doc Seuss would rather be than someone who furthers that strength for generations to come. Those that he’s already inspired to do some introspection are thinking that over right now, in fact.

They didn’t find any signs of evil gangs and are disheartened over that fact. And also the fact they don’t know why they’re there, not really. Did any of us really know what we were doing when they were seventeen? Do we even know now? I’m a pretty one step at a time kinda guy, and I’ve screwed me over before because of that.

That the girls face this uncertainty is a good thing. And honestly, necessary. I had little to no clue as to what the character arc would be for this mission arc, but that it’s these three facing up to their problems a bit more is pretty great. Especially when they contrast with Ruby’s ease of nature. Sort of a “young'uns have it all worked out” kinda junk. It’ll turn into a summation of the things they’ve learnt thus far during the year - for Blake more than anyone else - so yeah.

Ruby and Doctor Baltar return now, putting the fear of the coming Grimmpocalypse out of mind. Ruby and Zwei pretty happily park by the fire.

Doc Strangelove heads off to imbue some of those lost coffee beans he found, leaving Ruby to volunteer as sentry for the night. Before her sister heads off, Yang has to ask: did she get asked why she wanted to be a Huntress?

Nope, Ruby confirms. And doesn’t dwell on it. But the others will. They’re supposed to sleep now, but will they? Exploration of the self keeps us all up at night. … That sounded less like a masturbation joke in my head.

And so, as the episode closes, we get some last shots of our troubled strawberry shortcakes.

It’s cool, they’ll know what’s up with themselves come the morning. Hopefully.

Probably. Maybe. We’ll see. Ruby’s cool tho. Go Ruby.

And that’s alllllllll folks.

Thanks for reading. I adored this episode. Cool monster and world stuff, beginning of an avalanche of character development, bit of a bleaker tone to actually suit what’s been promised by Ozpin’s speeches, and stylistically fun and sleek. As for Chapter Ten? Well Doctor No’s gonna get into a fight, that feels like a given. With that one Goliath who spotted them? Maybe, though there’d need to be a good reason for them to cheat on the waiting game. Probably just to mop up five potential problems. Maybe even bring a little army of Beowolves and the like, that’d be fun. But yeah. Some more introspection, a bit of exploration, some killin’, some Zwei getting a cool moment - Angelo-esque limit break probably - and then maybe a tease of the last two episodes. It’d be funny to the gang coming back to find Beacon Academy on fire, but unlikely. Am curious! Am excited!

Am going back to Smash now because I have a problem. And it’ll help pass the time before C10 shows up, but if all of you are in a more RWBY-y mood, go to the always classic Roosterteeth forums (General discussion and the RWBY Vol. 2 thread), the RWBYForums, RWBY Wiki, the r/RWBY subreddit, the RWBY TVTropes page (And hey this recap even has a lil’ page of its own, which is much amaza), and the main tumblr tag. There’s a trophy in it for you!

That’s all for me. Remember that the two week episode gap - World Of Remnant Three will fill the gap, though - means that Chapter Ten’s recap will be a fortnight away. Until then, helter skelter, and don’t miss me too much.

Also, Elephant. And the other thing: