Good morning Vietnam and other assorted countries, it’s time for you to be reading this paragraph of text telling you the recap for Chapter Five is here! This week’s recap features more Pyrrha than you can shake a gatling gun stick at, Blake’s horrifying transformation, and Jaune unleashing his inner artist. You can check out last week’s recap in case you missed it, and all recaps before that are hanging out in the Recap Masterpost. Helpful stuff, right? The more you know! Anyways, ready to go? Click the Read More below and get to it.

Y'all did pretty amazing this week what with the liking, reblogging, following and that one guy who saved a basket of puppies from a burning building. So good job! Also, a special shoutout goes to kiaxet for the shoutout on last week’s RWBY Afterbuzz stream; if you haven’t seen them yet, what are you waiting for? There’s interviews with RT staff and everything. It’s great. And plus they totally got me hooked on some of their other recap shows - The Walking Dead, in anticipation for next season ‘cause it’s so close oh man - and so yeah, great time sinks for nerds like me. Good times. Now to move on to recapping times!

PREVIOUSLY ON RWBY :: Penny’s grand reveal led to some questions being asked, and we learnt that she was built to save the world. But she had to go before anymore could be revealed, 'course. Across town, Yang and Neptune visited Junior’s club, bantered with the local gangsters some, and learnt that Junior’s real name must be Jon Snow because he knew nothing. Blake and Sun, meanwhile, witnessed a performance by Roman Torchwick at the White Fang rally, as the dapper villain rallied the oppressed through their mutual hatred of humans. He also brought a giant mech along, which always helps. After spotting Blake and Sun, Roman gets into the mech. Highway chase ensues. Sun and Neptune don’t fare too well. Rest of Team RWBY is called to battle under the highway. Ends on their win, thanks to the power of shipping names! But before they can put down Torchwick for good, we meet Neo, a new henchman who we are all in love with. I mean, damn. Oh, and Sun and Neptune decided to go get some noodles or whatever. GG boys.

We begin this episode some time later, and with a fight scene. And not just any fight scene. A fight scene that starts with a certain someone armouring up in a locker room, then walking out while we get quick cuts to the fight that’s about to go down. That someone is none other than Pyrrha Nikos.

Get. Hype. Words cannot describe how much I wanted to see this. This is P-Money Unleashed. And who’s she up against? Well, for one:

Cardin Winchester. A jerkass fellow student whose pasttimes include bullying, casual racism, and golfing. This ducking guy. The stage is set for him to start changing his ways to become someone that can play well with others, and maybe develop out of his hard spiky dickish shell he’s got going for him. But for now, it is rather satisfying to see Pyrrha beat his ass. Shame about the lack of broken legs, but there’s still plenty of time for that. Hell, I’m putting money on him breaking his legs the moment we actually like the guy and could feel bad about it. Cardin is based off of the Cardinal of Winchester Henry Beaufort, who famously presided over the sentencing of Joan of Arc. Last year’s hate boner for Jaune Arc seemed to have been set aside after Jaune saved him from becoming the end product of wondering if bears crap in the woods, but no one thinks that’ll stick. Cardin is voiced by RT IT guy and professional Joel babysitter Adam Ellis, who also voiced the ill-fated Tukson back in the first episode of this volume. Groovy.

So Pyrrha Vs Cardin is the most prominent match-up in this amazing fight (Which, by the by, someone totally dubbed Cherrybomb over it and it made it ten times amazinger), which does also kinda feel doubly satisfying given Cardin’s hate boner on her was highlighted a bit last year too. And now, while the fight’s kinda hard to recap on the grounds that I’m spending too much time drooling over how awesome it is, I tried succinctness, for a change:

It really is an awesome battle. I think one of my favourite things about it is that each hit felt… felt, for lack of a better word. We haven’t had all too many human versus human fights, and while monster/robot fights get cool finishing moves, human fights have this different momentum to them that I love. Later we’ll learn this was a training fight only, which makes me seriously want to see what these characters could do in a life or death battle against other humans.

P-Money’s other three opponents are the rest of Cardin’s team, Team CRDL. They all have bird names. And now, their own weapons! Aww, boys are growing up. Growing up to be beaten up. But really, isn’t that what growing up is, anyway? /deep.

Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing and Sky Lark. Bird names, see told ya. Kinda a theme. No earthly clue what their historical/mythological/et cetera references are, but for all we know they could just be Larry, Curly and Moe. Nyuck nyuck nyuck. Russel is probably Cardin’s partner, and fights with twin dust revolver daggers, which are neat. Dove is a student of the Brock from Pokemon school’s closed eyes ways, and has a simple-lookin’ gunblade. And Sky wields a halberd. That is all. Russel’s voiced by animator Shane Newville, and if you haven’t seen his That’s A Big Ursa remix yet, you’re missing out. We don’t yet know the VAs for Dove and Lark, but they did have various battle efforts to them here, so yeah. We’ll see when they actually get lines. Poor guys. Poor Sky Lark, most of all, who gets taken out from the battle first.

And then after Russel goes down, there’s Dove. All ready to step up, be the man his parents have always wanted him to be, and then he gets taken out in a backswing by his leader.

Aww jeez. Cardin why. Team CRDL does seem to have some competent fighters on it, just lacks proper leadership by the looks of things. Shocking news, Cardin is a terrible person. Who knew. P-Money knew. Hence the final blow.

Man, what a fight. And the lights come up as Glynda steps out.

She congratulates Pyrrha and says she’s a shoe-in for the Vytal tournament. Pshaw. P-Money’s gonna win that damn thing. She already won MVP from me, if that means anything. It totally does.

Glynda then looks for more students to fight, zeroing in on the one who doesn’t seem to be paying much attention. Classic teacher move. Happened to me all the time. It’s Blake, by the by.

So something’s bothering Blake. Shocker. Glynda notes she hasn’t been very active lately.

Poor kitty. But before we get to her problems, we’ve got a volunteer to fight! It’s Mercury. Remember him? Dun dun dun.

And his opponent he picks out, and who obliges 'cause she’s pretty confident in kicking his ass?

In the crowd sits Team RWBY and Emerald, the latter neutrally watching the proceedings.

Mercury steps up to the plate. The fight begins.

Seriously look at that exposed crotch. How could you not just punch it. P-Money’s honourable, probably. But yeah, Mercury you really should know -

- better than that. Anyways, the fight continues. It’s a more cautious one than Pyrrha Vs Team CRDL. You get the feeling Mercury’s trying to get a measure of her. We’ll find out why later, but the biggest takeaway he’ll get is when Pyrrha does her polarity thang.

A question for the -

- ages. In the crowd, Ruby compliments Merc’s skill to Emerald, who fakes a smile and then rolls her eyes.

Hurtful, though.

So yeah, solid fight overall, and the conclusion -

- is that Mercury decides to forfeit, his job done.

Pyrrha’s face says it all, really.

Merc pulls the line that she’s a world-renowned fighter with a hundred PSAs filmed, so what’s the point? Of course, dude was holding back some. Round Two oughta be good.

Glynda chastises the guy for it. It’s not very effective.

The bell rings, Glynda mentions that the dance is coming this weekend, and their first mission the following Monday. Blake is shocked, mostly by the bell.

I, however, am intrigued as dicks about this whole first mission thing. We’ll get a chance to see the teams head out into the world and do what they’re training for? Like, officially? Do we get to learn some kinda hierarchy or glimpse at older, more experienced, teams? What does it all mean?! I’m guessing the mission or whatever will be part of the arc for Chapter Eight to Chapter Ten. Six and Seven will be some remaining hijinks revolving around the big dance. Or who knows! Merc and Emmy Rald probably do, 'cause they’ll be behind said hijinks.

Out on the grounds, Team RWBY’s heading out, and we catch a glimpse of Sun’s team nearby.

Annnnnnnd that’s it for Team SSSN bar Sun. Who comes along, gets Blake to wait up, and then asks her to the dance.

Awkwardly, I should add, because Sun’s a dork with a crush. Though hey, props to him for actually sucking it up and asking. I remember I didn’t ask this one girl to this one dance and then when she hinted to me she had no one to go with I made a joke about us going and then finished it off with, “Yeah nah, you’ll find someone”. Classic self-sabotage. High school flashbacks with Matt are always fun. But yeah, Sun asks Blake to the dance. She… doesn’t seem to notice anything around her.

And goddamn, Blake snaps at him. She doesn’t have time for a dance, and she figured Sun would understand that. Hurtful. Maybe truthful, but still, dayum gurl. Tired Blake is catty. Well so is regular Blake, but you know what I mean.

The rest of her team watches her leave Sun behind.

And then there’s Sun himself.

Been there buddy, been there. We then cut to Team RWBY’s dorm aka their secret clubhouse where all the drama happens. Speaking of, these four totally need their own superhero hideout somewhere. Like, the basement under Junior’s club, or a warehouse somewhere. Something cool. Like Batman cool.

So the other girls want Blake to go to the dance. Blake ain’t having it.

It turns out that the investigation and superhero stuff is what’s getting to Blake. Not shocked. Slipping into obsession like that while trying to balance classes would be very difficult. And we already knew from earlier this volume that Blake was obsessing; the minor victory of defeating one Paladin isn’t enough.

Blake doesn’t care for her school grades - Hermione Granger would be appalled - because lives are at stake. The rest of the team points out that they know more than they did about Torchwick’s operation. Nothing about Neo, though I’m sure they tried.

But it’s not enough. Not for Blake, who wanted so badly to believe that the White Fang weren’t the monsters Adam was becoming. She was so very wrong and then saw her kind be rallied by Torchwick’s honeyed words and giant mech presents. She’s afraid, she’s angry, and she’s just tired.

Weight of the world on her shoulders. Hard to sleep that away.

RWY just wants her to take it easy for a day, just to rest and relax. Enjoy the dance. After all, Yang and Weiss have taken over planning for it.

I mean what. Yeah apparently Team CFVY are on an away mission that’s lasting too long. That’s Velvet’s team, by the by. And they got namedropped! Aww man I wanna meet them so badly, especially if they were planning a dance in their spare time. I’m just imagining the most fabulous group ever. Or they were ordered to do the dance and it’s pretty terrible before Yang and Weiss stepped in. Who knows. Either way, Blake doesn’t care.

It’s a waste of time, she says, storming out to head for the library.

Oh Blake-y. Heavy is the crown that rests upon her tresses. I totally get where both sides are coming from, and I know that eventually Blake’ll be convinced, if not for her own sake, then for the sake of her team members, who are her friends. She’ll go with Sun if so, no question. I wonder if Sun’ll have his suit shirt unbuttoned or not… Questions for another time. For now, there’s a knock on the dorm door.

(Rapping, no knocking. Dammit me). Brace yourselves. It’s Jaune. And he has a guitar.

Hahaha oh man. You utter dork, Jaune. Who asks out girls via acoustic guitar anymore. What, you’re too hipster for dubstep?

The door slamming in his face is kinda the best instinctual response, tbh.

But, like a persistent squirrel after his nut, Jaune knocks again. Promises not to sing. Yeah, and I’m the Pope.

He launches into his song. I want a full version on the soundtrack, if only for Miles Luna to lose his mind after singing as Jaune for three minutes or so. But yeah, Jaune asks Weiss to the dance.

Where’s an informative P-MoneySA when you -

- need one. Twenty guesses on Weiss’s answer? C'mon, guess. Doooo iitttttt. It’s no. Weiss shuts the door in his face.

Yang and Ruby react appropriately.

I wouldn’t call that rejection particularly Ice Queenish at all, but eh. Weiss talks about how boys have only cared about her last name, which is pretty hilarious given that Jaune is probably one that doesn’t at all. And she says she already has a date in mind. Or I wonder if Weiss is just waiting for the dinosaurs to eat man and let woman inherit the earth. Aren’t we all. Well okay not me, I’m waiting for the zombies.

Yeahhhh. It is kinda worth pointing out that humour of that whole situation. Neptune hit on Weiss the exact same way as Jaune did at first, but Neptune’s spell seemed to have worked. Would be something if Weiss soon discovers Neptune’s attentions go all over the gaff - Yang, the twins, a random tree - while Jaune’s at least one-woman oriented. Because I think we’re setting up for Weiss to discover Neptune wants to go with Yang instead/Yang snipes Neptune first, and if not, they could go the route where Neptune goes with Weiss instead of Yang because of Weiss’s last name and potential influence. Icky all 'round. Funnily enough, if Jaune hadn’t been so overtly persistent to the point of getting on Weiss’s shit-list forever, you could almost expect some romantic comedy movie ending comin’ for him and Weiss, with Neptune as the possible romantic comedy movie jerk jock along the way. Hahaha nah. Vegas odds are rooting for Arkos. Speaking of, they’re doing some training!

I was rather looking forward to seeing some of the training for Jaune that was promised at the end of his arc last volume. Compared to her thrashing of Team CRDL, P-Money’s obviously going soft on her team leader. Still wins, though.

As she helps him up, it’s mentioned that they’re trying to discover Jaune’s semblance. Which is cool. I too am curious. I’m betting it’s kinda something defensive, like a super shield or super healing. The end result of Jaune’s semblance for me should be that it allows him to survive potentially being burned at a stake or whatever. But anyways, Jaune’s heart isn’t in it, as it believes it’s been broken by Weiss yet again.

P-Money is upset that the big thing on Jaune’s mind is Weiss, and not her. Probably.

Been there P-Money, been there.

She tries to be encouraging. Oh how she tries.

But as much as Pyrrha’s this big champion who is great at everything she does, she’s lonely in a way that just having friends won’t cover. There’s a connection between her and Jaune for sure, and it seems she wants to make it deeper. I can dig it. It gives us plenty of this:

Unfortunately, Jaune possesses a lack of irony detection in his own words of saying she’s probably got guys by the truckload trying to ask her out.

I’d imagine being a famous amazing celebrity person like Pyrrha means that people are either too intimidated by her, or would try to get with her because of her status. It makes me wonder if she’s been hurt before. It also kinda makes me sadly lol 'cause Weiss faces similar problems. All this Pyrrha/Jaune/Weiss/Neptune stuff, why can’t they all just engage in polygamy! That solves all problems, or so fanfiction has taught me. For now, Jaune leaves on the note that if Pyrrha doesn’t get a date to the dance, he’ll show up in a dress.

Guess who has two thumbs and is going to show up in a dress to that dance! Not only Jaune, but two out of the three folk discussing Pyrrha at the moment.

Cinder calls P-Money the invincible girl. If that’s a common nickname for her, again, the irony in her being something untouchable to the point of someone like Jaune not getting close to her is deliciously sad. Merc and Emmy Rald aren’t on the invincibility train, thanks to their earlier observations.

They’ve noticed the polarity semblance. Nobody can tell by just watching, and that makes Pyrrha look untouchable. She doesn’t broadcast it to keep her opponents at a disadvantage, as was speculated by some of us last year. Of course the same people speculating that were laughed at after Chapter One where Pyrrha did her magnetic wave of soda cans by the rest of the fandom, but hah, we won the day in the end. Sweet victory. Tastes like maple syrup. Oh Canada.

Cinder muses on the fact Pyrrha is letting the chips fall where they may and fate just wants her to win - hey Achilles shoutout - but in fact she’s letting the chips fall herself to support herself to win. Sneaky. Makes me curious and all about her darker moments where she knows what she’s doing and hates herself for it. This revelation by Cinder earns Pyrrha a spot on a mysterious list. What’s it about?

Who knows. I’m guessing it’s just a watch list for those that’ll be a problem when Cinder enacts her plans. Merc’s sure that Cinder would be able to beat her. Good for him.

But Cinder says it’s not about overpowering the enemy, it’s about taking away the power they have. People have speculated this means that Cinder’s going to be stealing Semblances. Possible, wouldn’t be against it. But I think it’s probably just a metaphor for putting P-Money in a position where her powers are exposed and people turn their backs on her. Sets her up for a fall, basically. Of course the power of RWBYJNR’s friendship will help save her, but still. It’s going to be a hell of a ride. Mercury can’t wait for it.

And so, to cap off the episode, Cinder assures her minions that they have a fun weekend ahead of them. The camera zooms in.

This whole time, she’s been sewing or something. A dress infused with Dust is the general guess. Could just be a rockin’ dress she Bedazzles later so she can win Prom Queen. I mean, if you’re going to infiltrate a school years after your education’s over, why not go for broke? Pew pew pew. Episode’s done now.

Fun one. Freaking loved the opening fight, am so aboard with a Pyrrha development arc, and ball hijinks give me lovely Yule Ball flashbacks. Blake’s deepening obsession is a neat touch of realism to the main quartet doing their main character thing and fighting bad guys. Jaune… give him time. As to where things are going to go for Chapter Six, I couldn’t tell you. It’s a safe assumption to guess it’s going to be the big dance, but I don’t know, actually. I’m hearing that the preview scene Monty showed at PAX Prime this past weekend, which did include a glimpse of the dance, might be for Chapter Seven, and if that’s so, then Chapter Six is going to be… a thing. We’ve been promised some Weiss/Yang tension, either over Neptune, their conflicting styles of dance planning, or maybe even Yang constantly encouraging Jaune’s attempts to ask out Weiss (If that’s the case, its 'cause Yang’s a trolling Goldilocks. Trolldilocks.). Some of that, some Blake stuff, and continuing Pyrrha angst. All good.

Also, I’m aware that in the community that coming up there’s going to be a couple of… outbursts. When there’s a dance going on and there’s teenage characters involved, it can be expected that there’s going to be ship teases. And already there’s folk bracing themselves and battening down the hatches as it’s probable the biggest ships won’t be doing any dancing. The show’s in pretty early days and it’s not like every couple here is going to be married and have ten kids by Volume Three, so. Don’t give up hope for your ships, sure, but also don’t be assholes about whatever happens, because the second something’s happened, it’s happened. Can’t change it. Can’t loudly ignore it forever. Rational fan input on how things are going compared to how you’d prefer it to go will be much more appreciated than any irrational hatred and impatient whining. And for the love of freaking god, don’t take it out on others in the community (Such as RPers for certain characters, or shippers for certain ships) without provocation. Maybe I’m the asshole for saying all that, but eh. Everybody be good and you’ll get ice cream.

That’s about it from me. Before we go, a word from our sponsors!

Fantastic. You can also find RWBY fans hanging out at the following joints: There’s 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 awesome), and the main tumblr tag. Hopefully not with joints at those joints. 4/20 just blaze, amirite. Yeahirite.

That’s all folks! Until next week, remember that knowing is half the battle!

Also, I’m more than a dress and a voice…