Guess who’s back, back again. Recap’s back, warn your friends. Yes it RWBYtober, just on the cusp of RWBYember then second RWBYember, and Volume Three has finally begun for realsies. We have a great opener to recap, so let’s celebrate Back To The Future Day late and Halloween a little early, as Team RWBY resorts to dirty pun warfare to demoralise the enemy, Emerald faces the challenges of being undercover, and the gang try and find Nora and Ren a good home. Meanwhile, I cannot for the life of me spell anyone from Team ABRN’s names. Sounds good? Click the Keep Reading below to, uhh, keep reading?

Response to the Volume Three Opening Recap has been overwhelmingly neato, so cheers to all who liked, reblogged, commented, read, possibly absorbed via osmosis et cetera. My favourite part is definitely seeing a lot of familiar names and avatar faces, as well as all the new ones coming in to join the ride. Y'all ready? We’re letting out the beast this year, get ready.

RWBY Volume Three begins with Summer Rose’s cliffside grave, last seen looking a little more snowed in three years back in the Red Trailer. And just like then, Red Riding Hood’s-a-visiting.



Ruby Rose, voiced by Lindsay Jones. Everyone’s favourite adorable weapons-loving team-leading pint-sized overly-hyphenated human disaster and our main heroine. Ruby’s had a pretty chill first two volumes, fighting some Grimm and some crime and some social awkwardness, but starting off this volume with her sombrely visiting her mother’s grave may indicate some more growing up will happen soon. They start us off easy with this, then go full ham and break her spirit some. Classic tactic. Or not, but still, it’s rewarding to see this side of her fully realised in a Ruby-y fashion.

And there definitely aren’t two volumes worth of them (cough Volume One cough Volume Two cough). So Ruby’s come to see Summer to catch her up, basically, which may also serve as something of a recap for those who’ve waited a year for Volume Three’s beginning.

The first thing is that her father - Taiyang Xiao Long - is heading out for missions, probably because his girls are off at Beacon and Zwei always beats him at Monopoly. The second thing is basically what’s she’s been up to, her teammates, the whackiness. Not all of it, but still.

Curiously, it’s mentioned that Ruby fighting crime has elicited a “like mother, like daughter” reaction. Summer confirmed for main character status back in the day? Man I so wanna see that prequel.

Zwei barks to stop Ruby before she no doubt launches into an explanation of every cool weapon she’s seen - A spear that turns into a sword and a rifle! A grenade launcher hammer! Handbag minigun/gatling gun/turret! Stevey! Stevey Mk II! - and this also gives us our first glimpse of Taiyang.

Much like Mercury and Emerald in the Volume One finale, and Sage and Scarlet last year, Taiyang is a 2D placeholder model, which indicates he won’t be appearing properly this volume. After all, he’s away on a mission! And we’re already meeting Qrow, so we can wait for Taiyang and his no doubt endless supply of dad jokes. But he’s here now, and Ruby has to be off for her first Vytal Festival tournament match.

I’m onto you, Kerry and Miles. Or I just gave you a great idea. You’re welcome. Oh, and quick thing.

Second thing that ends the scene is this touching tribute to series creator Monty Oum; the birds that fly over the sun end up spelling out his unique signature:

Beautiful. That whole first scene was, visually and audibly and content-wise, and very much sets a high bar. MVP to the whole production team for that one. And, as with all things, it’s time to move forward and right into some tournament arc goodness, taking place in this stadium.

It’s called Amity Colosseum, and it and the Vytal Festival’s backstory was covered in this volume’s first World Of Remnant. It’s neato! I’ve seen a few comments about the possible waste of resources by making a floating stadium, but pfft. The Vytal Festival is the Olympics of Remnant, and I’ve seen worse money sinks in our Olympics. They just built this thing once and moved it around to whichever kingdom’s hosting the biannual festival. I do wonder what it does in the off season. Maybe just chills out in some lake. Or they use it for Dustball, nobody knows.

Regardless, it’s a hell of a battlefield, and the stands are just packed with excited people.

Except him. And who’s fighting? Team RWBY, of course. Roll call.

Weiss Schnee, voiced by Kara Eberle. Heiress to the Schnee Dust Corporation, an able support class mage type whose words cut so much deeper than her rapier they’re probably a banned tournament weapon. Her quest is to purge the corruption in her father’s company with the legitimacy of a Huntress career under her belt, and she’s learnt a few valuable lessons along the way. And got hit on by Jaune a few times. Which may also have value?

Blake Belladonna, voiced by Arryn Zech. A scrappy fighter who is beginning to really weaponise her Semblance something fierce, this queen, all hail, has had, hands down, the most intensive and develop-y first two volumes of all. She’s looking to redeem her fellow Faunus in the White Fang from their terrorist actions, to the point of driving herself to sleepless obsession and her friends to multiple interventions. Poor Blake-y. Hers is a hard road, and I’m sure when she’s not being focused on they won’t do something like just reduce her to cat-related jokes. Especially not in this episode!

And finally, Yang Xiao Long, voiced by Barbara Punkelman. Hotter than the sun in the middle of July - or January, shoutout to my southern hemisphere peeps - Yang is the crowd favourite who could out-punch One Punch Man, and even recently destroyed Tifa Lockhart in a Death Battle. But behind the laughter, Yang’s got her own set of mommy issues that may be front and centre this volume, with last year’s appearance by Raven, both as a masked figure saving Yang’s life, and apparently in one of Yang’s dreams… Some good stuff ahead for her.

Team RWBY’s up against a Team ABRN - Auburn - of Mistral’s Haven Academy, but before we get to them it’s time we learnt the rules of the tournament. Maaaaaay be kinda relevant this year. Just a little. And who are our commentators? Why, none other than…

Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck, voiced by Joel Heyman, and Professor Peter Port, voiced by Ryan Haywood. Potential to be the greatest comic duo since Laurel and Hardy, these two. Whacky professors by day, crime fighters by night? Who knows. But they’ve had their little turns in the sun in arcs in previous years, and we’re always glad to see ‘em. It’s also funny to me that when I first learnt about the Vytal Tournament way back in Volume One I wrote down that I should have some shtick about two whacky commentators… Thanks for saving that horror from existing, RWBY.

So, next question, what are the rules to the Vytal Festival tournament? Well…

Actually, it’s more like that we begin with a team versus team fight, then a two on two fight, and finally a one on one fight. Interesting way to do it, and does make me intensely curious about which pairs and then which individuals progress where. I would’ve guessed that the two on two fight had to have team’s partners be involved, but that gets dashed a bit later. I’ll get to that. Anyways, on with the show, which is being watched from all over the globe! From Mistral to Atlas to Vale to Vacuo.

See, just like the Olympics they don’t actually really want to watch it. Shocker. In the battle proper, our first match-up is between Blake and this girl.

Reese Chloris. She’s a spunky brewster for sure, wielding a dust-powered hoverboard that transforms into blades that can double as shields in a pinch. We have no real clue what the mythological/whatever inspiration of her is, nor the rest of her team, but Reese is a word that basically means fiery, and Chloris means green and was a nymph in Greek mythos who was all about spring. Green like a chlorine-filled pool, amirite. In fact we don’t know all that much about Team ABRN yet, though I’ve discovered an inability to spell their names right on the first try. And look, I swear I’m not the only one who keeps seeing it as Reese Clitoris.

And sure enough, by the time Blake is done, Reese lands her ass on the ice, Blake is suddenly worried that she may have to pay for that hover wheelchair, and Yang is ready to begin re-enacting the third Back To The Future movie.

Her opponent?

Arslan Altan. I will never ever know if I’m spelling that right, but in my heart she’ll always be Aslan (the lion) Artisan (Whitebeard). Although considering that Arslan is Turkish for lion, maybe I’m not far off with that as the inspiration. Regardless, she’s the leader of Team ABRN, and seems to be the most on the level. Reese seems a hothead, and the boys are, y'know, boys, while Arslanana can go fist-to-fist with Yang - hey now - and uses some kinda rope thingie to get around. Like a yo-yo, really. Good ol’ Arslanavitch. While she’s smart to be handling Yang, probably should’ve been looking out for the rest of her team. Like this idjit:

Nadir Shiko. His inspiration is also currently unknown, and his name is going back and forth between Japanese and Arabic possibilities (Nadeshiko (Japanese) aka pink flowers, Nadir (arabic) for precious, Shiko (Japanese) for various rock-like meanings). Nadir I can handle - shoutout to Fire Emblem - but Shiko I spelt like Shako so many times I’ve Ctrl+F’d like twelve times to be sure I still got it. Think I got it by now! Anyway, Nadir Shako is bringing a gun to a gun gun fight here, and not getting much out of it but Ruby icing him in.

Ruby look out! It’s a trap!

And finally, Bolin Hori. Bolin like the Korra character? Unfortunately not. Bolin has Chinese roots meaning rain or elder brother, and Hori is apparently Basque for yellow. Cheers to you, RWBY Wikia, for probably needing to be corrected later but right enough for me to put this down now. Bless you. Also, Bolin does have one line, but his VA is unknown, same as whoever did the occasional grunts for the rest.

Weiss saves Ruby’s bacon - see, look at her being useful - so they can doubleteam the guy. Meanwhile, Blake’s off grooming herself, who knows.

But what if there was someone behind them all along… #2spooky.

Bolin bails from the fight to help Reese out…

Who then plans to use the fire Dust to take down Blake and defrost Nadir. Not that she really needed to do the first, especially after this:

Not for the lack of trying on her part, but Blake eventually rings her out something fierce through a little shadow Semblance-y and the always handy closeline. Blake is Biff Tannen. Confirmed. We learn about now that elimination is either via ring out or by Aura HP Bar running out; we saw the Aura HP Bar all the way back in Volume One with Jaune and Cardin, so there’s precedence there! Meanwhile, Weiss is being a show-off.

The ice fist becomes an ice ball that rolls onwards, only to be stopped by Arslanasmith - ever the mother lion. Shame she destroyed Weiss’s modern art, though.

So now it’s time for the patterned RWBY victory funtime. How? Similar to how they took down Torchwick’s mech, through the power of teamwork! Weiss makes some ice, Blake and Ruby launch Yang, Casey Lee Williams rocks the vocals in the background, and finally, Yang obliterates them.

Damn. And we never saw Team ABRN again. No, really, we never see them again.

Concerning.

Battle over, RWBY progresses onward. Now we have to ask ourselves if they have proper main character syndrome where they’ll end up in the finals and win, or if they have the Ash Ketchum Curse, where they’ll get knocked out by some vaguely friendly guy they just meet just before the league starts in the semi-finals. Or Tobias and his apparently endless supplies of Legendary Pokemon. Ash was so close, it was ridiculous. Ugh. First the GS Ball and now this. Pokemon anime you’re letting me down, make a Pokemon Special anime instead.

Where was I? Oh yeah, now with the battle over, RWBY wants to celebrate PG-style. With milk? Nah, with food! Recharge some Auras, maybe have another food fight. Blake’s up for it.

And so is a familiar face in the background, clearly.

The festival grounds they’re hanging out in - and probably will be all volume - are of course littered with food stands. No sign of cotton candy, so what’s even the point.

They head off, venturing into the unknown, when we get our first bit of super intrigue of the volume’s arc.

Weiss’s father is calling her, and, better yet, she decides to hang up on him with a little glare.

Gee, I wonder why her sister Winter is about to show up. What’s your bets for the call’s reason? Papa Schnee dying? Papa Schnee found out about Weiss’s torrid love affair with Blake? Papa Schnee just wanted to catch up with his favourite daughter and tell her dad jokes but Weiss wasn’t in the mood? That mystery will have to remain a mystery - a spooooooky mystery - because now it’s time for a gem who is truly truly outrageous.

Emerald Sustrai, voiced by Katie Newville. Cinder Fall’s probably favourite minion, Emmy Rald is an accomplished thief whose smile can disarm anyone. Literally disarm them; boom, now we know why Ironwood has a robot arm. Emmy’s been undercover with Mercury and Cinder at Beacon since early last volume, and the trio’s performance during the Breach has no doubt helped endear them to the gang. We meet her here handing back Ruby’s wallet, which of course we all know that Emmy pickpocketed just for the conversation starter, though let’s be real, we’ve all done worse.

She’s also here for her own mission, as we’ll find out in a bit, but she starts with a little buttering up. Complimenting on the match, et cetera. Evilllll.

Even makes Ruby blush! That one helped that ship for sure. For my part everytime Ruby and Emerald interact I just hope we get a character named Sapphire join in and make a too much water joke.

Now comes the fun part, where Yang asks after Emerald’s team’s first round of the tournament.

Okay not really. But I can dream, and I meant it when I said Torchwick will appear in every recap or so help me.

Although, the truth is actually even better. Mostly because we first got a glimpse of this person in a trailer released like two days before the episode, and a dozen theories sprouted up quicker than a potato on Mars about that person being another person.

A person that is the ice cream person.

Neopolitan. Voiced? Unknown. Go back and watch the episode and you’ll notice she has a few little giggles here, which is about the creepiest thing ever considering it’s proceeded with Neo stepping on some guy to certain death. Murder aside, Neo’s pretty great, and I’m happy to see even a glimpse of her. Love the new look, nice trick. Kinda makes me want to blow some minds by wondering if this is actually Neo’s default form and the ice cream look is her illusion. Boom. Pregnant again… Okay so that’s unlikely, but she probably does have a base form that’s neither. Shame she can’t make herself taller, though…

Okay but now I’m paranoid that everyone is Neo now. Blake in the following scene? Neo. Scarlet from Team SSSN? Neo. The shadowy background characters from Volume One? ALL NEO. Neo is secretly The Thing from The Thing. Neo is Agent Smith from The Matrix (Oh god the name Neo was a trick all along!). Neo is one. Neo is many. Neo is legion. Neo is forever. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Oh, and I’d be remiss without mentioning the favourite theory for Cinder’s team name. Now, everyone and their dirty minds have elected that the team of Cinder, Mercury, Emerald and Neo is called Team CMEN. Now while this does fit the team naming rules by evoking a colour, I feel the need to point out that Neo and Cinder might not be using those names, so no CMEN for us. I mean, Team RWBY knows Neo’s name, and Cinder Fall might be a known alias already, sooo… However, this thing does not discount the possibility of them using names that start with C and N anyway, so CMEN lives. In which case, CMEN all the way! Give me all the CMEN! I can’t wait to see what sticky situation CMEN gets into next week! CMEN spin-off? Just saturate the market in CMEN… What were we talking about again?

Mercury Black. Voiced by JJ Castillo when we met him last volume, but this year he’s voiced by VA legend Yuri Lowenthall who you may know from basically everything (Sasuke, Ben 10, mah boi Ricken). Merc is not exactly the chillest guy, which is no wonder that Emmy’s being the friendly spy, and has the distinction of being the only actual murderer we’ve met so far (although, I mean, how many Faunus did RWBY kick off a moving train into a hoard of Grimm again?). I miss Tukson and his sideburns so much… Way to be, Merc. Way to be. And now look at you, diabolically sniffing at some shoes.

What is up with that. I like to think it’s a classic underestimation tactic from him because he knows it’s him and Emmy going into the tournament’s doubles round. That it’s those two ain’t a surprise, given that Cinder and Neo have known fighting styles, and it especially makes sense when we learn who Team RWBY’s sending forward.

And it’s Weiss and Yang. Team Freezerburn for the win.

I love these two as the ones going forward for a number of reasons. The first is that it’s not what we expected. I was personally expecting actual partners to be doing it - 'cause, y'know, remember when those mattered for three episodes? - so it was a toss-up there. But this makes sense, second good reason. Yang is the cannon, she can beat anything if she’s pointed out it, and Weiss’s got the dust mage backup, support class who paves the way for Yang to do her thing. Last time they worked together we got a nice school ball, so maybe they’ll also find ways to weaponise balloons and punch bowls in their fights.

The next big reason is that it also helps makes sense of the opening credits, which have depicted Weiss Vs Emerald and Yang Vs Mercury for two volumes; now we know why Weiss Vs Emerald, huh! Clever girl. Although, let’s be real, it’ll probably end up being Weiss and Yang versus other people, what a shocker. And finally, the last big reason is that these two are vulnerable to their possible future character arcs. Weiss’s sister, much like Santa Claus, is coming to town, and Yang’s got her mother haunting her dreams. That's… a hell of a set-up for one or both of them to be in a bad place at a bad time, and cause problems for their progression. Does that mean Ruby or Blake might have to sub in? Who knows!

But what it means now is that Emerald is aware of her possible future opponents, which can only mean good things. When she meets up with Mercury, fuming all the way because it’s hard being so nice and cheery all the time - I feel ya Emmy baby - they certainly confirm as much. Cue the evil music.

Now it’s time to move on to the real action. The eating action. Pan past:

Then to the team at a noodle stand, ordering their, uh, orders.

Blake gets the special. It’s tuna. She drools. … Especially not all volume!

Who runs this stand, you ask? Why, did you even need to ask? Did I? Did any of us? What time is it? Purple mushrooms?

We don’t know this old man’s name yet, so I’m sticking with Abe. Honest Abe, voiced - grunts and sounds here - by Patrick Rodriguez. That guy is busy for his age, gotta say. Makes me feel unaccomplished. Or maybe he’s in a Nurse Joy/Officer Jenny sorta situation, and Honest Abe’s got like a hundred identical cousins. Are they identical because they’re clones, robots or products of dust and incest? You decide! This Abe’s just trying to make a living, and as such he’s not happy when Weiss’s Schnee Corp credit card is denied.

Ouch. Weiss, what happened?!

Don’t despair Weiss, you’re about to get the classic rich girl arc where you lose all your money, just go with it. It did wonders for Cordelia Chase! And the meal is going to be paid for because they all have another stinkin’ rich friend.

Ayyyyyyy. Look who’s here. Oh I missed these juniper berry cherubs.

Jaune Arc, voiced by Miles Luna, and Pyrrha “P-Money” Nikos, voiced by Jen Brown. What’s there to say? Jaune’s the intrepid leader of Team JNPR, who cheated his way into Beacon all hardcore-like, and Pyrrha’s the famous tournament winner who’s about to enter a tournament arc, so things look good for her. These two have been at the centre of more than a few “teenagers being teenagers” arcs, and their current Facebook relationship status is: “It’s not complicated at all, but we’re probably going to ignore that possibility for a while probably”. D'aww these kids! How we missed them so.

P-Money covers their meal if it gets JNPR some precious precious screentime, and the gang enjoys themselves a nice meal.

D'awwww the whole gang’s here.

Well, except Sun and Neptune, who have remembered they have other teammates to hang out with probably. Or they’re off being cops. Oh, and also:

Nora Valkyrie, voiced by Samantha Ireland, and Lie Ren, formerly voiced by Monty Oum and now voiced by his brother Neath Oum. The fandom’s given a nice warm welcome for Neath, especially given that Ren had quite a few lines in this scene! Nora too. These two are something of a comic relief duo who like to hang out and chill - maybe Netflix, we don’t know - and folk have been begging for more of them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up in the doubles round, they work so well together, even if that does rob P-Money of another possible tournament under her belt… But I guess first JNPR has to win the actual fight.

They’ve made the mistake of eating a lot before the battle, which has them fear that Jaune is going to vomit on them. Ren’s idea to have Jaune vomit on the enemy certainly has more merit, and if it’s anything like Jaune’s “I’ll wear a dress” line… Yeah we’re going to see vomit from that boy. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

For now, Nora starts off ultra confident in their team, Jaune aside. I am too, if it helps (it does). But then, as things go, Nora quickly devolves into something of an anime anxiety attack, where her nerves reveal her innermost fear of them losing spectacularly, getting ostracised for it, and then, worst of all, getting their team renamed to Lose-Iper. Heh. Get it. Oh, and there’s that one reveal: Nora and Ren have no parents or home left to go to. That one just slips out.

Wow.

This was not an unexpected reveal, to me. I mean, where we got it was, and mafia princess Nora was a fun theory, but still. We learnt last year that Nora and Ren have some connection with a village Team JNPR was heading out on a mission to, and in at least two of the DVD audio commentaries point out that that’s a hint towards something involving the two. Something sad.

Something that’ll crush us!

Yaaaaaaay!

Maybe if we’re lucky, something in this volume! Like I said, folk have been angling for more Nora and Ren funtimes, and we’ve still got like eleven episodes left.

But regardless, this is not that episode. After the gang discusses some confidence in their abilities thanks to everything else they’ve beaten up in the first two volumes, it’s time for JNPR to head off for their fight. Including an unfortunately-conscious Jaune.

Out in the stadium, RWBY heads to find their seats, and we get this intriguing moment:

Or, well, the fandom says intriguing 'cause we’d like to believe that Yang’s onto Emerald and Mercury’s shtick somehow - maybe Raven told her, maybe she’s secretly Neo and knew all along - and that means some juicy possibilities. Like what? Beats me. Yang looking over her shoulder was probably put there for some reason, even if Emmy does look great in those pants… Back to the crowd now.

I’m thinking I should give that guy a name. Maybe his name is also Abe. That’s why he’s so unamused, people keep calling him Abe but he’s an Abraham and no one deigns to actually call him that. Canon’d. After that shot we get in close with Merc, Emmy, and Merc’s popcorn, as they wonder if JNPR’s main character powers will trump their opponents. And then comes in our last character re-introduction (thank christ; first episode recaps are mean to me)…

Cinnnnnnnnnnnder Fall, and she’s voiced by Jessica Nigri. This smokestack is our main villain - I think the ominous background music tipped us off - and she’s on top of the Remnant right now. Torchwick’s in jail, so no more screentime for him, and everything’s going her way. She’s planted some sneaky virus into Vale’s Communications Tower - will that give her control of Ironwood’s robot soldiers we see walking around, or let her drop Amity Colosseum on everyone? Who knows! - and she has plans for Pyrrha - she’s on the list guys! The list! - AND she’s got a killer neverending wardrobe. That she comes into the scene picking up an unpopped popcorn kernel and then popping it with her fire powers may have just taken our love for her to another level. And given us the weirdest boners ever.

Turns out the true Halloween horrors of this recap are the existential kind. You’re welcome. #2spoopy.

Cinder is quite sure that even if she knows that her evil plans are coming to fruition, it’ll still at least be fun to watch, so she settles in for the show.

I like to think the same as she does, about the fact that JNPR’s going to utterly destroy their opponents. Who are this lot.

Team Bronze, from Shade Academy, which is speculated to be located in Vacuo. Fun name. I’m sure each member has names too, and they’ll be easier on me than ABRN, but hey, doubt we’ll learn 'em. For now, it’s time to set the stage of the battle, in a colosseum - admitted by the creators - right out of Super Smash Bros, cycling through the elements to create a battlefield.

(Side note: I worked in a pizza place, and do know why there’s that table thing. However, if I told you all they’d come for me. I’ve already said too much.) Anyway, Team RWBY is in their seats, sans popcorn because they’re still holding out for cotton candy, cheering them on…

But the field is set, half forest supreme, half mountain special. Here we go! Battle time! Yeah! Let’s do it! Get hype!

… Next episode! Let’s do it next episode! Get hype! Welp. That’s it for the premiere of Volume Three!

Great to be back, ain’t it? Like putting on a comfortable pair of shoes that transform into even more comfortable guns. And it seems like we have a pretty solid set-up for this volume, with endless possibilities for who gets the spotlight and when. From the trailer I’ll imagine that next episode will cover JNPR and SSSN’s battles, before we jump headlong into a little bit of family drama when Winter Schnee and Uncle Qrow come to town. Maybe throw in a bit of Ozpin or Ironwood intrigue, the usual. Round Two will ensue soon enough, some huge drama in-between. and then Round Three and some whacky evil plans going full evil. We’re told things will get a bit darker, and right now we have a smorgasbord to choose from. Ruby has her innocence to break, Weiss has her fortune to lose, Blake has Adam to meet again, Yang has her mother running around, Jaune has his own self, Pyrrha has Cinder’s sights on her, Nora and Ren have backstory possibilities… And Penny! We’ll need Penny. I miss that robot.

Ahh well, we’ll soon figure that stuff out. For now I’m feeling pumped to do this recappin’ thing again for another few months if y'all are. Even though there’s a week break between Chapters Two and Three - Roosterteeth is having a 24 hour charity livestream that I highly encourage all to watch because those livestreams get wild - I’ll probably swing up Chapter Two’s Recap in the break, and maybe something else, maybe not, maybe purple mushrooms. Either way, hope y'all have a good week.

Thanks for reading!

Also, no one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space…