Fandom. Fandom never changes. In the early years of the twenty-first century, we witness Superman fight Batman, Iron Man fight America Man, and today, RWBY Recap Man fights the world. In this week’s episode with a title brought to you by a Matt And Kim song, Emerald gets to take her inner serial killer out for a stroll, Qrow discovers the meaning of life, and Weiss has bunk bed PTSD. All previous recaps can be found at the Volume Three Recap Masterpost, while this week’s can be found if you journey to the Emerald City and find the Great And Powerful Oz, only to realise you had it all along and you should’ve just clicked the Keep Reading below!

All my love to those who read, laughed, liked, reblogged, shared, commented, absorbed via osmosis, snorted or sauteed with a side of mushrooms last week’s recap. Y'all Dwayne Johnson. Been a crazy hectic week, so apologies for being a bit later than usual. Also, turns out my Tumblr app is making mincemeat of asks and fanmail and apparently has been for weeks, so if I didn’t get back to anyone, sorry! I’d like to say it’s sorted - into Slytherin probably - but eh, nobody knows. Enough of that, time for recap time.

No time for previouslys, let’s just get into this week’s episode, where we begin with a return to Amity Colosseum. Heh, remember when I said it might be like, four episodes’s break before we got into the doubles rounds? Welp!

In the red (inferior team) corner, with their teammates cheering them on…

Team CFVY. Our favourite utility players by virtue of endless teases culminating in a kickass introduction, amazing theme music, Coco’s everything, and the tantalising mystery of Velvet’s box. They’re a pretty sweet team, and not just because they’re all named after various sweets, and we’ve all been eager for a little more. Well, we got it. Shame Coco (played by Ashley Jenkins) and Yatsuhashi (played by Joe MacDonald) were in a game that was rigged for the start. Maybe next tournament, guys. Maybe next tournament.

Sass is the first weapon of the day, as our challengers prepare themselves for quite the bout.

When the countdown hits zero, Merc and Emmy K.T. Rald’s first move is to back up into the tall grass, Homer Simpson in the hedge style.

Unfazed, Coco and Yats get right to it. Their strategy is pretty simple: her job is to shoot everything, his is to protect her from anyone trying to get too close and stop her from shooting everything.

Starts off plenty fine, until they realise their targets ain’t there. Or in the shielded crowds, but props for trying Coco. Bold move.

I’d imagine Cocoyashi’s strategy would’ve worked on fellow students, intimidation factor making the opponents sloppy and careless, but they weren’t destined to be so lucky against whatever training Merc and Emmy have had. Or cheat codes they’ve activated. Blake screams into the sky to look out, but it’s too late.

Mercury flying dad bomb’s down on Yats, before going full Quicksilver to avoid getting Coco’d. More familiar faces in the crowd notice something’s wrong with the picture…

No, not Abe.

The Jessie to Merc’s James is nowhere to be seen, but no complaints. This section of the fight, with Merc dominating the other two, is hella fun enough.

Casey Lee Williams’s got some new vocals going in the background, which is like, double hella fun if my mathematical proofs are accurate. I like to think the reappearance of CFVY warranted the new track, in which case, CFVY every week pls. The song is called “I’m The One”, by the way, confirmed on Casey’s twitter.

Merc’s done his part, and Emmy, like any good showman, knows when it’s her cue, and she hooks, lines and sinkers Coco something fierce at just the right moment.

Enraged, Yats is able to grab ahold of Merc, no doubt annoyed that Quicksilver isn’t going to be around but this Mercury loser is. Bet didn’t see that one comin’, didya Merc.

Unfortunately, it’s a short-lived one-up, as Merc takes command again when they hit the hot springs area, and Yats is left at the mercy of a faithful recreation that one death scene with the old lady in Dante’s Peak.

He rushes to his feet, Casey hits her crescendo… and then there’s Hg.

One amazing transitionary shot later and we’re back with Coco, who hits a tree trunk in the forest section so hard the tree gets the human equivalent of a tree giving a human a splinter. Skintler? Hmm. Regardless, the result of the high-wooden-stakes battle of Coco Vs Tree is one casualty.

Could be worse. She could’ve secretly had the Gorgon semblance, where her gaze would turn anyone who looks upon it to stone. In this scenario, it’s worse for Emerald. Great for us! We need another semblance confirmed on the spreadsheet.

Emmy and Coco have a quick rumble in the jungle, Coco learning the hard way that her bullets cannot actually cut down trees - maybe she turned them to stone first! - and that Emerald’s long-play to always dress in green means she’s properly camouflaged at just the right time. But, as Coco hunts for her prey, now comes the curious part. Maybe even one of those cheat codes I mentioned earlier. All of a sudden, Coco’s attention is drawn away from looking for Emerald at a vital moment by the appearance of Yatsuhashi.

But wait! All of a sudden, Professor Port is announcing Yatsuhashi’s been eliminated! All of a suddener sudden, Coco realises she’s been played. It’s all very sudden all of a sudden! Now, what’s the deal here? Did Coco ingest peyote for breakfast? Always possible. Did we see a glimpse of Emerald’s semblance? Possibly. Did we see a glimpse of Neo - the Meowth in this scenario (which is ironic ‘cause Meowth is a talking Pokemon whereas Neo is, y'know) - posing as Yats or projecting an illusion of Yats? Also possible. I know it’s been posited that Neo could’ve been doing some illusion work earlier when Merc and Emmy headed into the grass - explaining why they were able to give Coco’s bullets the slip - but who knows. Regardless, there’s some kind of cold medina funkiness going on, which only raises more questions like if the cameras picked it up or whatever. Concerns were also raised about whether or not if someone had an illusion semblance they’d actually tell the tournament folk, which, I mean, wasn’t it kind of a secret Pyrrha’s all polarity-y? Food for thought…



Oh, and Coco - visibly shaking by now, the poor thing - is about to get Emmy The Ripper’d.

Shia Surprise! The round goes to Team Mass Effect.

Interesting to note there’s not much in the way of applause for Merc and Emmy’s win. Coco was a crowd favourite, and it seems to be something of an upset that it went down like this. Especially so to Velvet and Fox.

It was a pretty brutal loss, to be fair. Coco’s sunglasses got broken! Some lines folk shouldn’t cross, and they were crossed and then danced on! And the dancing took place in Footloose! I like to imagine the humiliation aspect was part of Cinder’s plan somehow. She wanted to give them a good show, and she succeeded.

Yeah, I’m glad things are looking up for Cinder. She’s a real go-getter, really angling for that Christmas bonus. Step up your game, Ozpin and Ironwood, it’s getting embarrassing. Meanwhile, in The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett…

Winter and Weiss are catching up the only way rich people know how: with croissants. I don’t have a big sample size, but I once ate a croissant and was struck with the passing fancy of wanting to roll in a pit of money…

Right off the bat we learn that this will not be a Long Winter.

Yes, Winter is leaving, hopping on a bus that’ll probably loop back around in time for the finale. After all, she was just there to oversee a shipment of Paladin mechs heading into Vale. That’s code for spy stuff, I have to believe! Also she drops that the Paladin that Team RWBY beat up last year was in fact just a prototype. Which hey, answers the question of how a group of students was able to kill one of Ironwood’s new hotnesses. They basically killed that iPhone prototype some guy left on a bar stool… Might take them a season before they can take down the real thing. Especially with the help of Weiss’s potential power we’re learning about just now!

Final Fantasy X/RWBY fusion fic starring Weiss as Yuna with her guardians Ruby, Blake and Yang pls. Pls.

Yes, apparently the Schnees can summon things with their glyphs. Which, I mean, is just plain awesome. Weiss is like full-on mage, bit of ice magic, bit of Haste, bit of summoning… I love it. It gives her something to build to character-wise that also ties in action-wise! Ahh, the possibilities…

Unfortunately, Weiss has the summoning yips, and has for some time. Preposterous, Winter says, for each Schnee is has the summon power, even the bastard cousin nobody really talks about since they became an accountant.

Fascinatingly, hereditary semblances are a rarity in the world of Remnant. It makes me wonder just how the Schnees managed to pull this off - good breeding? good incest? I bet they also have Aether and Galeforce, the show-offs - and if their ability to do so is what made them rich and powerful in the first place. Does it have something to do with all the Dust they’ve mined for centuries or whatever, maybe? Are families with these semblances placed put into powerful positions by virtue of this?

I mean, I doubt the world at large would worship the family whose hereditary semblance is to fart from their mouths and burp from their anuses, but still. If folk knew that the Schnee bloodline produced summoners, how many steps away would they be from harvesting or exploiting it somehow? An army of white-haired summoners fighting back the Grimm might come in handy.

Oh god, what if Jaune’s family became so famous in the war because they’ve got one too. And for the good of mankind going forward they have to create a breeding program of Schnee and Arc bloodlines, with Weiss and Jaune as the Adam and Eve. Oh god. I feel like I’ve stumbled onto something I shouldn’t’ve here. I feel like I need a shower. And then I feel like I have to write the greatest fanfic ever.

Back to the main action, as Winter stresses the importance of practice making perfect in the art of summoning. Like a muscle, it must be made swole, and Weiss has been skipping leg day because she’s not getting it as she eventually gets everything else. Winter, like an actual decent teacher, even brought a practical demonstration to the class in the form of a summoned Beowolf.

Man, Winter must’ve killed like, a lot of tiny Nevermores to get that flock that attacked Qrow last week. I mean, I get it, 'cause birds are the worst, but still, that’s some effort put in.

Speaking of Qrow, we find him and his nieces hanging out much like the Schneeblings, only sans croissants because they are but lowly cookie-eating peasants. Qrow, in an uncomfortable comparison to Charlie Sheen, is winning.

They appear to be playing some sort of game in video form? I don’t know how it works but I imagine Dust is involved.

With Ruby eliminated, Yang is tagged in, ladder in hand.

Maybe not so much “tagged” as “shoved"…

While Yang and Qrow duke it out, Ruby reminds her uncle that he was in the middle of revealing some state secrets.

While the dorm room is open! When Jaune can hear all about the breeding program?! For shame.

Qrow’s journey takes us to the always beautiful land of what I like to call Flashbacktopia, where the art style is so amazing I wish I could I watch an entire series with it. Almost MVP, that art style. Almost. (Mirror Mirror Part Two playing softly in the distance…)

We’ve seen that style before, in the World Of Remnants and in Yang’s flashback last year, but I gotta admit it was kinda funny to have it basically lead up to a punchline instead of, y'know, being a serious flashback involving those Huntsmen who’d been hired by lowlifes to get up to nefariously lowlife things. Like… Croquet.

And so, Qrow was defeated by the power of a short skirt. For my part, I’m shocked and appalled. Thought he’d be more of a boob man that could only be defeated by the power of a low-cut top, so wow my character reading skills are shot. Yang is similarly outraged, because his story got her thinking about short skirts to the point where she lost the round.

Better luck next time, Beatrix Kiddo.

Yang moves on for a best two out of three approach, leaving Ruby to be the one asking the real questions here.

Et cetera et cetera Qrow’s back in town for a mission, Ozpin and he go way back, RWBY’s still celebrating that only Tony died in the Breach, and Yang loses again.

Then, out of nowhere, it happens. The thing. Well, not the thing, but a part of the thing. A subsection of the thing. A subthing, if you will.

Someone bust out the poppers and the party hats, 'cause it’s time to update the Roman Torchwick Doomsday Clock from half-past "rotting in jail offscreen” to “finally gets namedropped” ayyyyyyy!

PARTY HARD. I’m calling it now, we’re less than three episodes away from seeing that beautiful ginger face again. Probably at the end of an episode as a cliffhanger before a World Of Remnant week before we actually get a more substantial appearance in the following episode, but stilllllll.

That aside, Qrow brings up something of a point here. Torchwick’s been Orange Is The New Black’d - #FREETORCHWICK2K15 - and crime’s way down, but that doesn’t mean they’re living happily ever after. Not even close.

See, you cut off one head of a criminal enterprise, two more grow in its place. Standard Hydra logic, Hail White Fang and all that, and I love the idea that crime hasn’t dropped since Torchwick’s been decapitated, it’s completely stopped. There’s something eerie about that, a calm before the storm that’s way too calm so you just know the storm’s going to be way too storm.

Qrow’s about one sentence away from going full-on melancholy conspiracy theorist drunk as he muses on Ironwood’s thick metal head, but he decides to change the subject towards lighter things. Like his old team. Who are, in the stained and tattered old photo below respectively: dead, dead inside, deadbeat, and alcohol-induced brain dead.

They were the coolest team back in the day - James Potter and friends feels intensify - and went by none other than STRQ, or Stark. Most folk were aiming towards it being Stork more than Stark, but hey, it works. They are Iron Man.

Something about Qrow’s wording about the team being where he met Ruby and Yang’s parents kinda indicates to me that he’s playing ignorant on the idea of Yang being Raven’s kid, for reasons unknown but possibly related to Raven’s disappearance. He also probably notices Yang staring at the picture very intently.

Just a hunch. Personally I’d imagine if I were Qrow that encouraging Yang to think of Raven as her mother would only put Yang down dangerous paths in the search for her. I mean hell, Yang’s first memory of meeting Uncle Qrow was when she took Ruby out and nearly got them chowed down by some Grimm. Just sayin’, Qrow might not look too fondly at the idea of Yang putting herself or Ruby in danger for someone who decided to abandon her daughter. And her brother…

It’s also time for Qrow to leave - not leave entirely like Winter, though I kinda expect something like that might happen soon - with some words of wisdom about how RWBY’s still in the shallow end of the protagonist suffering pool, comparatively.

Especially poignant is his declaration that’s a variation on Monty’s “Keep Moving Forward” mantra. Once upon a time I remember hearing Monty was going to be the voice of Qrow, so that’s a little double whammy here. It’s sweet, to say the very least.

To cap off the episode, we return to Weiss and Winter, training hard as the sun sets and as an always-appreciated metaphor for possibilities in character development slithers on by.

One day it’ll turn into a beautiful butterfly, just like Weiss. Or maybe Weiss and Jaune’s science baby… This fic writes itself.

Winter, as a mentor, is doing her militant best; I personally would’ve gone the “wax on wax off” route, but I’m a slave to the classics. And a training montage. I think Weiss needs a good training montage. What she’s got now ain’t working, as we see.

Big sis is sure little sis has no hope of winning the tournament, let alone succeeding at her life’s ambitions, without letting go of doubts and fears. Weiss… kinda has a lot of those. It’s come up before. Once or twice. An episode.

The crux of the matter is soon, err, cruxed? Winter is well aware that Weiss is having financial issues related to their father being a prick issues, for she went through the same thing when she joined the military. Weiss is looking to go her own way, forge her own path, be her own man, and it’s clear Papa Schnee isn’t going to pay up until she veers back onto his lane.

Though it is to her, it’s not entirely shocking that Weiss will have to sacrifice things in order to achieve her dreams. Her choice is thus: pick up her father’s calls, and even if he accepts whatever she says and starts paying up, he can still cut her off at any time, or go full ham with her character development, ditch the money, and mooch off the fortune her girlfriend Blake’s going to make when her smut writing career kicks off.

Poor Weiss has become Sophie. Quite the choice here.

And now she’s left alone to make it, because Winter has to go. Her planet needs her. We get a nice hug before that, at least.

And we also get the start of the true MVP of the episode. I thought it was a treat enough we got a new song in the fight earlier, but Mirror Mirror Part Freaking Two? OH.

MY.

GODS.

And yeah sure sure we see that Weiss did successfully summon something in the form of a tiny glowy sword that also happens to be the sword that the giant knight she was fighting in her trailer wielded, and so it’s damn near guaranteed her beautiful butterfly moment will be her summoning that thing to kick some ass in the season finale or thereabouts, but MIRROR MIRROR PART TWO THO.

So, story time: I liked the Red Trailer when it first came out and all, more than happy to see more of it, but I distinctly recall my very first real RWBY hype coming in the leadup to the White Trailer. I doubt anyone remembers this, but hours before the White Trailer was released, Mirror Mirror got leaked on Google Play or somewhere, and then uploaded here. And that song, man. That song spoke more to me than Red Like Roses of the character we were about to meet, and was just a damn good song.

Loved it to bits. Couldn’t stop listening to it. Did it all night until the trailer was released. The first RWBY hype train I ever boarded. The White Trailer was the one that got me invested, and is still probably my favourite thanks to “feeling” of it, and that one shot of Myrtenaster’s revolver revolving while blood drips down Weiss’s face and the giant armour’s sword falls in the background (Don’t worry Blake, yours won for story!). And, of course, because, “Everyone is entitled to their own sorrow, for the heart has no metrics or forms of measure. And all of it… irreplaceable.”

But yeah. Getting a part two for Mirror Mirror, with upgraded lyrics to match Weiss’s development? Golden. Can’t wait for the full version. Like, Red Like Roses Part Two was amazeballs already, and the idea of having these character themes evolve every few years is undeniably awesome. I Burn 2 = I Burn Everything. From Shadows 2 = From Shadowy Shadowness. Boop 2 = Boop 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Oh, and the episode ended. You go Weiss, fight the powah. Me and Mirror Mirror Part Two believe in you!

So we are now a third through the third volume (and if there turns out to be nine volumes, then I’ll come back and edit this six years from now and say this is a third of a third of the third!) and now things’ll get really interesting from a character arc point of view. Weiss’s will continue on as she and Yang fight in the next round, for sure, but the question becomes who takes over from here. Yang, on the trail of her mother and confronting Qrow about it? Blake, finally returning from Belize to bump into Adam at the local bakery and share heated words over a pastry? Someone from Team JNPR? Dare we dream it’s an all-Torchwick adventure? Nah. I anticipate another fight or two my poor heart will love to watch but suffer to recap, and Ozpin and Qrow play chess or something. WITH LIVES.

That’s all from me, so keep up the sharing and commenting, thanks all for reading, and see you next week!

Also, the inspiration for Qrow’s journey, the greatest deleted movie scene in existence.