Many Bothans and Roosterteeth Servers died to bring us the finale, and now we stand on the precipice of hiatus and wonder, “Was it worth it?” We laughed, we cried, we cried, we cried, we didn’t laugh at all why did I say that we laughed, and yet, much like Pandora’s Box, there was hope, right there in the end. Also, I recently discovered that Pandora’s Box? Actually a jar. Not even a box. False advertising! Speaking of, this final Volume Three Recap was made on a $150M budget, cures cancer, supercancer and superdupercancer, and was the project that finally got Leonardo Dicaprio his Oscar. Meanwhile, Pyrrha has a date with destiny, Taiyang can’t keep the Impregnator 9000 in his cargo shorts, and we come to realise that even if there was a Bumblebee wedding on the horizon, Blake would probably run away from the altar anyway. To catch up with all the recaps so far check out the RECAP MASTERPOST, and when you’re done click the KEEP READING below and enjoy the finale!

First off, one penultimate thank you to all those who read, laughed, liked, reblogged, shared, commented, absorbed via osmosis, snorted, sauteed with a side of mushrooms, took a magic carpet ride with, defeated seven evil exes for, suffered through Battle Before Dawn on Hector Hard Mode for, genetically spliced a fly’s DNA with tragic results into, went in on Aspen timeshare with, sacrificed yourself so that it could become the Recap-Who-Lived, joined a cult whose goal is to hide all knowledge of it so that it and the other Recap Old Ones will never wake from their eternal slumber, or, really, just existed at the same time as any of this volume’s recaps at all. It’s certainly been a different ride than usual, denser and whackier and weirder, but hey, it’s been fun. Eleven down, one left, let’s get in, get out and go back to eagerly awaiting what horrors this hiatus will bring before we can get back to eagerly awaiting what horrors Volume Four will bring instead.

And hey, just like the finale, let’s start with a bang.

Ozpin and Cinder have elected to skip the foreplay, and it’s amazing. The speed Ozpin moves at is impressive both in and out of universe, like, dayum. We got a glimpse of how experienced Huntsmen move in the just-as-sexually-charged Qrow/Winter fight, but Sweet Christmas, this is something else.

This is also like the most anime-y fight yet. Short and sweet, but a ridiculously cool way to prime us for the rest of the finale. Outside on the docks, the evacuation of Beacon is in full swing, led by:

Shocker. Although they survived their Butch and Sundance impersonation, given how things are about to work out for Beacon, it’s worth worrying for these guys’s job security instead. Ah well, maybe they can just go live on safari forever…

Ruby’s finally able to catch up to the group, but a happy reunion is soon ruined by Yang’s general existence. Again: shocker.

R.I.P. Like, three times confirmed dead by Gray on the marathon livestream. Ahh well, no biggie. Meanwhile, a both metaphorically and literally gutted Blake lies beside her partner, apologising tearfully, and Ruby can only stand there and watch.

While it sucks for Ruby to see her older sister like that, she finds a new resolve when Nora tells them Jaune and Pyrrha are missing. Nora didn’t catch quite what they were off to, something about getting in pods…

It doesn’t matter that Kevglenn the Dragon is itching to make a nest atop Beacon’s tower, and that the White Fang have even pulled out in fear of it; to Ruby Rose, there is no other path. She’s going to find her friends, and that’s that.

And she’ll be joined by Weiss, because dammit if Weiss isn’t now the type to jump on a grenade after already jumping on another one earlier that night. Bless her. Sun watches them go, channeling his Michael Jones-ness more than ever to call them idiots.

Elsewhere, we find Jaune and Pyrrha at a crossroads. Well, Pyrrha, anyway.

The teens hear the unmistakable sound of Cinder having won her fight, but hey now, don’t blame Ozpin for not lasting too long. He’s an older man, okay, and just be proud he got it up without the use of a little blue pill.

Pyrrha knows the score. With Ozpin out of commission, all that’s left is magic, in the hands of a killer. Magic that’s supposed to be her destiny. Her burden. Her responsibility. Much like Ruby, she sees no other path ahead of her: she has to stop Cinder Fall, no mater the cost.

So when it becomes clear Pyrrha decides it’s a good day to die (though not as good as other days. But if there’s one a little ways a way, well then hey!), I wasn’t as surprised as Jaune when she did this:

Lewdness rating 100/10, someone hose ‘em off. What a beautiful goddamn moment, though. The girl who was placed on a pedestal, and the boy who treated her like any other cool quirky girl he wanted to talk with. A kiss that goes on forever, only slightly ruined by the nearby corpses. This was a long time coming, and Jaune’s shock melting into him pulling her closer into the kiss… Way to make it hurt more, RWBY crew.

While Jaune is left both bewildered by the kiss and more than a little curious about how they can best utilise Pyrrha’s magnetism powers in the bedroom, she’s already moving on to her next objective: save the noodle.

And again, way to make it hurt more, assholes. An “I’m sorry” callback? The rocket locker callback? Jaune’s panicked pleas? Settle down, El Diablo Robotico.

Those poor kids. Pyrrha’s doing what she believes she has to, not what she wants to, and all Jaune wants is to not be that idiot stuck in the tree and be there with her to help. She puts him that locker to protect him and out of love, but… Again: pain. Totally and painfully logical endpoint, brutal as all heck, gonna make those rewatches a right hoot. Hey, remember when these two were laughing and dancing last year? Me too! Hahaha ow.

While Pyrrha’s goes to create her own express elevator to the top of the tower, the moment Jaune’s locker lands he calls Weiss and begs her to go help Pyrrha. Begs. Pleas. Demands. Everything. Loses his composure completely.

Miles knocked it so far out of the park here VA-wise, in the most gut wrenching of ways, like, holy shit. I can hear Jaune’s scream in my soul. And if you ever wonder why we don’t get a scene of Jaune actually learning she’s gone? Well, imagine this, but like twenty times more painful. So yeah, I’m calling that lack of a scene a mercy for the audience’s emotional states.

Ruby and Weiss see Glennvin climbing up the tower like an overgrown bat, and prepare a plan -

- while up in Ozpin’s office, Cinder decides to welcome her new draconic overlord.

She can communicate with the gargantuan Grimm - shocker - and assures it that yes, it can make a nest on the tower. Whatever comes next for Cinder and phase two, however, is interrupted.

P-Wozzles comes in throwing sword, shield and self, but does little against Cinder’s fire. Every line on Cinder’s face seems to be screaming, “Dude I beat Ozpin you really think you can take me?”

Turns out? Hell yeah she can. She puts up one hell of a fight. Warrior prodigy, four-time tournament champion, recently got to finally kiss the guy; Pyrrha’s at the top of her game, and the top of her game can go toe to toe with a fully powered Maiden. She has no intention of dying, despite knowing that risk. Not when she could one day make it to second base with Jaune. Go P-Money go.

But this initial burst doesn’t last. Cinder’s got fire powers and a dragon, and uses both at the same time; the former to destroy Pyrrha’s sword - welp - and the latter to take out the tower’s foreskin. With the office’s destruction goes the CCT, too. Gee, that World Of Remnant on the CCTs was foreshadowing something, wasn’t it? Hmm…

He will forever be missed.

Anyway, weaponless don’t also mean defenceless in Pyrrha’s vocabulary; she has her shield, she has her magnet powers, and she’s all outta bubblegum. Seriously, Cardin and his team got lucky she wasn’t in a “fulfilling destiny” kinda mood the day she wiped the floor with them.

Despite the brilliant move on Pyrrha’s part, Cinder ain’t in the mood to give out any Olympic medals. She blasts the clock gears away, and one is sent careening towards Pyrrha…

… and when it strikes, the impact takes her down for the count. Thanks to Mercury and Amber, we know what that shimmery effect is: her Aura, completely depleted. Uh oh. Let’s see what Ruby and Weiss are up to!

In a callback to Volume One, Weiss sets up the glyph-y path for Ruby to run up the side of the tower. One last little partner interaction before the school completely goes to hell, and with the partner system in the first place. But hey, at least one of these two didn’t lose an arm. Or their life. Doing better than most partners…

Back up at the tower, we find out that few escape Cinder’s magic arrow, and Pyrrha is, unfortunately one of them. Cinder you cheating chupathingy you. That trick with the shield was mean. And hitting Pyrrha where you did was meaner.

Also, I’ve watched a few reaction videos for this episode (Shoutout to Niriall and MurderOfBirds, at least), and I’m proud to report the consistency rate of reactors to go, “Achilles heel!” or whatever variation when this happened was a solid one hundred percent. It’s almost funny, y'know, if it wasn’t followed by the ugly crying and all (me included).

Cinder monologues about the Fall Maiden’s power never being Pyrrha’s destiny - yeah we kinda got that, Cindy Cind - and goes in for the kill, just as Pyrrha herself gets to ask just one more question.

“Do you believe in destiny?” As far as what’ll turn out to be her last words go, these ones are very fitting. It’s one of those lines that, when you first hear it, you’re like, “Why is she…” for one second before it just clicks. Like a cascade, you remember her speech to Jaune back in V3C8 about destiny not being this inescapable thing to her, but a culmination, a final goal. Disparate pieces of a life’s journey, every step taken on every path, all with the same destination. Threads get tangled and frayed and doubting as time goes on, but they tie up in the end to become something, just like this. Maybe someone looks at the end result and wishes there was more, wishes those threads that were Pyrrha Nikos’s life became a fully-knitted sweater and not a single mitten, but what matters is she wasn’t looking at it that way. Pyrrha chose to do everything in her power to stop Cinder Fall, put up a hell of a fight, and even if the end result was brutal and unfair, she still looked her killer right in the eyes and told her, right down to her very soul, that Pyrrha fucking Nikos believed this was her destiny.. If this was it, this was it. Kill her all you want Cinder, but you’re not taking her life away like you have so many others; you’re killing a body, not a spirit, not an essence, not a soul who in passing achieves immortality. What happens here was meant to happen. What happens next because of it, because Pyrrha Nikos fulfilled her destiny, well, it may just be worth it. Because today Cinder’s snuffling out a flame, but she just helped destiny light a wildfire in all the tomorrows to come.

And that wildfire’s name is Ruby Rose.

There was another one hundred percent consistency in those reaction videos: when Ruby arrived at the top of the tower, they wanted her to have gotten there in time to save Pyrrha. But no, she got there in time to witness Cinder fire her last arrow. It strikes true, and Pyrrha…

… dies gasping. Destiny or no, Blake’s words come to mind. Life isn’t like a fairy tale. It gets pretty ugly. As sin.

I feel like I could spend a lot to be words talking about Pyrrha Nikos, both her life and her death. The Greek tragedy aspects, what it means for the show’s tone… but mostly I want to say that she’s dead, and I’m totally satisfied with it. Well, “satisfied” is a bad word for it, and maybe me saying that I hope she’s totally dead and she doesn’t find a way to come back as Pyrrha The White is just as bad, but… you get my point? It sucks, it hurts, but holy hell if it didn’t come together to make a hell of a story. And seeing what it set up as the episode goes on is like icing on a story cake that already had icing to me. I’ll miss P-Wozzles a hell of a lot, but I’m just so intensely proud of how the long game Miles, Kerry and Monty were playing turned out that it’s like… Satisfying. Brutally satisfying. I think it’s the storyteller in me. It feeds on pain. Also helps that this recap was beginning to run that “Pyrrha is going to die” running gag into the ground. Thinking of new material is just plum hard, so thanks for having my back, RWBY crew.

And look, it’s not as if Pyrrha is truly gone forever. Joan of Arc spoke to dead people all the time, and Pyrrha didn’t help unlock Jaune’s soul for nothing… Even if not that, we’ll get something of her spirit and influence, through the words she said or items she left behind. Everyone in RWBYJNR lost a friend, and they’ll honour her in their own ways, right up until the final episode years and years from now. And even beyond the main show, Pyrrha’s going to show up in alternative media, bet on it. Grimm Eclipse is set in between Volume Two and Three, for one. Oh, and there’s the manga, and any other future games, manga, books, whatever. And she’ll be just as active as ever in the fandom, in our art and our stories and our hearts and the kids we name after her, Harry Potter style. Pyrrha Laura Bailey Roman Rider, you were named after two of the bravest people I ever knew, and some chick with magnet powers. Also, Pyrrha will also forever live on in those latest theories on how she’s not really dead. Despite being Hiroshima’d by Cinder’s fire powers.

Yeah, that’s not a teleportation or some fancy “Huntsman returning to Dust” death, sorry to say. That’s Cinder cleaning up the evidence, crown that’ll definitely show up later aside. Also, hang on a minute. Guys, I’m seeing a pattern. First Penny, then Torchwick, now P-Money. What’s the pattern here, guys? Yes, that’s right, they all don’t have sisters. The universe is comin’ for all of the sisterless souls out there. RUN BLAKE! RUN NORA! RUN REN! They is killin’ alllllll the sisterless out there!

Ahem. Anyways, remember what I said about Ruby being that wildfire? I’ve also compared her to the dawn last week, so fair to say what I’m trying to convey here is that she’s monumentally important. Victory is in a simple soul, after all. And the crushing grief over being too late to save Pyrrha - despite the speed semblance, Ruby’s often too slow to save anyone, it seems - unlocks the first instance of that victory, as Ruby bleeds goddamn wings of light out of her silver eyes.

The impromptu rave envelops the tower, taking the screaming dragon and the shocked Cinder with it.

That look on Cinder’s face, when she truly had no idea what was going on? When, despite believing in her own destiny to be powerful and feared, and being on top of the world and flush with magic power, she then got completely blindsided? That was the most satisfying thing I’ve seen since Major Lilywhite stormed the Meat-Cute. For all her scheming and her planning, Cinder didn’t expect the dork in the red hood. Neither did we! Things got all white and ear-ringy, and we hear one familiar voice talking with a new - yet still familiar to most - voice. Belonging to this guy:

Taiyang Xiao Long, in the erect flesh. Our cowardly lion, rendered as such from the understandable circumstance of losing two baby mamas within the window of time of a presidential term, is played by Roosterteeth founder Burnie Burns. While some probably caught the voice right away, it probably took some people longer on account of Taiyang not, y'know, yelling at people like Church. Or speaking Spanish like Lopez. Or yelling at people, like Epsilon Church. Or being annoying like Vic. Or yelling at people, like Burnie himself. He’s so calm and good dad-like, it scares me. I’m also glad to be eating my words about not seeing the guy this volume - after the 2D model we saw in the first episode, I thought it was a solid assumption at the time. Guess not! And we get to see the Xiao Long-Rose house in the process? Dude, best finale ever. Oh my god look we’re in Ruby and Yang’s bedroom there’s Grimm figurines and posters and and and…

Ruby wakes up and gets caught up. Firstly, that Qrow was the one who rescued Ruby -

- and that Yang is going to be all right.

She lost her arm, but she’s going to be alllllll right. Again, circus career. Or she could go into the Winter Soldier business! “Who the hell is Yang?” And poor Taiyang, though. Guy already lost a lot, but the close calls with his daughters is like another fifty cars on a pileup. One daughter briefly comatosed, the other less-briefly needing a pirate’s hook or something ASAP… The way he says he’s glad to have his girls back home makes me glad his girls are back home, poor guy.

The damage to Vale was severe - poor Flynt Coat’s father lost yet another business, but to be fair, he really shouldn’t’ve gone into the “Combustible Collectables” business - but the school hasn’t been so lucky. The CCT is down, and with it all communication to the kingdoms, and it ain’t going to be fixed anytime thanks to Kevglenn the dragon, who isn’t dead (unlike Pyrrha), but ain’t gone (unlike Pyrrha) either. It’s frozen at the top of the tower where we last saw it, and the Grimm are drawn to it like metal to a magnet (like Pyrrha used to do. Before she died.).

Oh yeah, and Ruby did the freezing. And she has no recollection of doing so. Solid defence, tell the cops that all the time.

Oh, voice actor jokes. We can call that ship Chocolate Sugar Daddy, amirite.

Qrow shows up, drinking away his… I wouldn’t say sorrows. Or anger. Or happiness. Or any feeling really. He’s drinking his time away? He’s drinking. Must be Tuesday. He also wants Taiyang to go so he and Ruby can have a chat. Taiyang’s a little annoyed, but leaves anyway to make some goddamned tea, Highwind style.

Also, if this past week has taught me anything, Taiyang actually appearing seems to be more fuel for the “Qrow is actually Ruby’s father” theorists. Which is a shame, because we all know the truth is that Qrow is secretly Yang’s father. The Branwen twins did the Lannister thing before it was cool, you heard it here first.

I also have to wonder if Raven and Summer ended up leaving Taiyang 'cause he was just an average lay or something. I mean, Summer took the leaving thing a bit further, but she’s nothing if not committed. Anyways, back in reality, Qrow prods Ruby - who hurts all over from whatever she did - about what she remembers last. Annnnnnd it’s Pyrrha dying. Oh god here it comes.

The pain. Poor Rubaby. Qrow confirms Pyrrha’s gone. I’d like to think he picked up the crown and gave it to Jaune, Ren and Nora, but he was probably busy saving Ruby at the time, so.

He was also too busy to probably take care of Cinder, too, but we have no idea either way. She’s either frozen up there too, or was frozen and then thawed herself out with her Maiden powers… I’m pulling for frozen forever. Just so someone can come along later and punt her off the tower or something. It’d be hilarious.

Eventually, Qrow gets right down to it. He has an idea about what Ruby did…

And boy, talk about a long pay off…



Silver eyes. Much rare, so special, very silver. We’ve all been waiting for that bomb to detonate since Ozpin said it, and theories have been far flung about Ruby being a Maiden because of them - from me too! - but it turns out she might be something else entirely.

Folk are guessing she actually is a Maiden and Qrow is just not telling that whole story, but I’m sticking with silver-eyed warriors being a different thing, as he explains. It would be something if Ruby the Warrior also got Maiden powers one day to become a Warrior Maiden or whatever, though one special power might be enough for her at the moment.

They say a pair of silver eyes once got into a staring contest with Death, and Death blinked. They’re that cool. Apparently the Grimm are outright afraid of the argent ocular’d fighters, and one look could strike them down. Right now, we know Ruby was able to freeze Glennvin, a primordial Grimm beyond anything most people have probably ever seen, so… It’s like she’s a basilisk from Harry Potter, but right now she’s just stuck in petrification mode, not kill mode. Still pretty cool, overall. The simple soul with the eyes that could one day defeat the Grimm. Power that’s only unlocked thanks to the death of a friend, and a long series of events that even got Ruby to that rooftop in the first place. Think about it for a moment. Ruby thwarts a robbery, and then she makes a choice to follow Torchwick to that rooftop, and ends up fighting Cinder and meeting Glynda… Which leads her to meeting Ozpin, getting into Beacon early, et cetera et cetera. A choice that, to her, was just the thing to do. Just like Pyrrha’s choice. Two separate destinies, one unlocking another…

Also, a stray thought: I wonder if there’s a silver-y reason Adam wears a mask like he does. I know everyone and their mother will play the “I wonder who’s secretly got silver eyes” game just like we played the “I wonder who’s secretly a Maiden” game, but, I mean, the rose motif Adam and Ruby share… Somewhere, Monty’s laughing.

So anyway, Qrow explains that his missions away have all been for Ozpin, but now that he’s missing… there’s a new Ozpin in town. A sexier, drunker, Ozpin. All hail.

Qrow’s first mission will be to follow the enemy’s trail to Haven, the Beacon equivalent in Mistral aka where Cinder, Mercury and Emerald claimed they were from, and Cinder did mention Mistral in her speech as well. Qrow mentioning this Haven tidbit to Ruby, then winking, definitely smacks of “I know you’re going to go out there and do something anyway, so you might as well have a lead to follow, kid” to me, which I love. Sexy drunk Ozpin 2.0 for the win.

Ruby contemplates the future with grave seriousness -

- before deciding to pay a visit to some Make A Wish kid who’d love to meet a silver eyed warrior.

Yang sits alone in a spare bedroom with some sunflowers and her remaining Ember Celica gauntlet for company, and, after a moment, she allows Ruby to briefly comfort her.

The hug the sisters share - Yang no doubt wondering if Ruby’s rubbing in her ability to give two armed hugs - goes from sweet and sad to just sad within a blink of a silver eye, because Yang isn’t all right. It’s all gone, she says, and not just her arm…

I should probably take a moment here to give a shoutout to both Lindsay Jones and Barb Dunkelfarb for the VA work, especially in this episode. It feels kind of stupidly right that it’s Ruby and Yang that get this emotional heft in the aftermath; Qrow gets the exposition duty, and Taiyang gets to anchor things, but Ruby and Yang are a very core relationship in the show, and comparing their interaction in the first episode to this one here? Heartbreaking. (Also, comparing Jaune’s first appearance to the last time we saw him earlier this episode? Double ouch) Miles and Kerry writing this was like shooting it in the heel, then Barb and Lindsay killed it, then the animation team then went ahead and Nagasaki’d the corpse. Thanks, guys.

“It’s all gone” is not an incorrect summation. Weiss’s father came for her, because in the haze of miscommunication over things like Ironwood’s robots going haywire, everyone’s scared. She’s back in Atlas now, which is a storyline goldmine to say the least, while Blake…

Blake Blake’d it, and Sun saw her go. And while Yang previously looked as dead in the eyes as Jon Risinger throughout every episode of On The Spot, when Blake gets mentioned…

No brainer why Blake left, either. Guilt over Yang, duh, and to avoid getting anyone else she loves hurt. Adam told Blake he’d destroy everything she loved, the dick, but no one else knows that. So Yang’s anger and frustration makes total sense; she thinks Blake is just doing what she does best. When the two reunite, I’d expect some badness. Even when Blake explains Adam’s threat, she still ran…

It’s a total superhero move, straight up. Let’s just hope she’s also going to be spending her running time hunting down Kylo Taurus for some payback, too. Nanananana Blakeman…

All in all, Yang’s not in the mood to do anything now. Totally understandable, definitely hurts to see that bright flame as dim as it is (I’ll stop with the fire metaphors someday), and there’s an interesting role reversal with Ruby almost appearing the older sister here while still being younger and a little lost herself.

Side note: what with all the JRPG-y comparisons story-wise going on, I gotta say this whole sequence felt like something out of a video game. Character wakes up after a big event, wonders what’s going on, gets some info, then gets up and goes to investigate the nearest friendly face: Yang. I’d wager if game!Ruby went back to talk to Yang, we’d just get a repeating “Just go away” dialogue, and then Ruby’d head off to explore the house a bit and find an Elixir or something baller in a cabinet. RPG 101: Check. Everything.

But, in the end, just because P-Money’s currency has been devalued worse than China’s, Ruby won’t remain sad and lost forever. Months pass, and the season changes, fall to winter. It’s fair to speculate that it’s been a year since the Red Trailer (V1 was Spring, V2 was Summer), and with it means Ruby could even be sixteen years old now! They grow up so fast. After three years. Hmm.

Y'know, I’ve seen a bunch of people this week decry RWBY’s tonal shift this volume. That the charm of the series, the whacky fun times, is gone, and in its place is this depressing story where nobody wins and the world is a terrible place. I mean, the world of Remnant is a terrible place, definitely not a fairy tale and all, but those themes have been dripping from the series from the start. It’s all been leading up to this darkness - the songs, the foreshadowing, Monty saying he likes Game Of Thrones - and if you want to abandon the series now because it’s not an anime-y school days story anymore with some cool action scenes, that’s fine. But it was never going to be that forever, and you know what else it isn’t? That depressing story, and you know why? Because hope. This story, at the end of the day, is about a light in the darkness. The light of the earlier episodes is tainted by the future dark, but it’s not invalidated. Not to us, and not to the characters. It may take time, it may be hard, but there is that hope. That you can keep moving forward, and go out there to fight the good fight. When winter comes, Ruby chooses to do so, and it’s goddamn beautiful.

Lately I’ve talked a lot about Ruby’s role in the series, that dawn to break the long night et cetera, and she’s certainly gotten a lot more main character-y momentum going forward than usual. And it’s because she is that hope personified. Everyone on her team has experienced arcs that have left them doubting themselves, but Ruby just redoubles her resolve. Despite the darkness, the story is telling you to look to Ruby Rose. Maybe she won’t be as whacky and fun and innocent as she once was in Volume Four, but she’s still fighting. Maybe she’s simple and small, but the world needs that. Her plan is to head to Haven, through wind, sleet or snow, and even if she was going alone, she’d still go. Thankfully, she’s not alone.

Team leader synergy, bitches. That’s how it’s done. I told you all that when these two team up, they solve every problem ever. And now the plot going forward is them on a trip to get to the bottom of the bad guys that killed Pyrrha and Penny and so on?

So. Much. Potential. And not only with Jaune.

It says something that these four are probably the four who have been played for the most comedic effect so far, and now they’re a team heading on this journey.

And where they’re going, they’re not going to need roads… They’ll need a boat or something to get off Patch, and then to Mistral. Oh my god what if they fight sea Grimm next year. Or pirates. Or both. Seriously, so much adventuring potential for these four. We’re talking about two teams coming together, having to find a new groove without replacing their other friends, Jaune, Ren and Nora mourning their teammate, Ruby having to hold together and not succumb to her own doubts, and well, look where they’re heading! A whole new kingdom to explore. New characters, new enemies, old friends (Hey, don’t Team SSSN go to Haven?!), old enemies (I wonder what Mercury and Emerald are up to…), the horrifically sad possibility of the gang having to break the news to Pyrrha’s mother… Oh, and it would be pretty neat if we passed by Ren and Nora’s home village on the way, wouldn’t it? Seriously, I liked the other two volumes’s finales, but the promise this one offers in the future boggles the mind.

Like, it’s so open now. No more school story, we’re going straight up adventure. To use a Final Fantasy comparison? It’s like we just left Midgar. The Remnant is our oyster now. And to all those worried that the show will be come the RNJR Power Hour: you’re being silly. So stop that. Team RWBY is scattered to the wind not so we could sideline Weiss, Blake and Yang forever, but so that we get some amazing personal stories before an inevitable, and amazing, team reunion. Like, Yang’s still got to find her mother, and work through her depression, and… Who knows.

Oh, and brief side note: I think after some of the running jokes in this season’s recaps I need to make it clear I don’t make Yang into the recap’s punching bag because I don’t care much for her. I do it because it’s hilarious. And I don’t care much for her. Wink. Meanwhile, with the Blakeman:

Blake can’t run forever. She’s going to have some kind of mission. Stop the White Fang somehow. Could be fun if she decides to form her, actually less terrorist-y, version. She wanted to become a Huntress so she could do something for Faunus equality, and so she might just go right at it. Same thing with Weiss:

We don’t quite know the circumstances of her being taken by her father, as in how much choice was involved. Regardless, I’d wager we’re going to investigate some of the Schnee family dynamics on their home turf, and Weiss is going to do something heroically Weiss-y along the way. I also have to wonder if Ironwood’s back in Atlas too, could be some kind of storyline there Weiss gets involved in. Oh, and I hope we get to meet her seven dwarves servants back at Schnee Manor…

As for Ruby, Jaune, Ren and Nora, the adventure continues. Please Insert Disc Two. Side note: I swear to god if Zwei’s in Ruby’s bag I’m not going to react well.

Okay, one last elephant in the room to talk about: the narration going on over these last scenes. Jen Taylor makes her triumphant return, and her tone, much like the show’s, transforms dramatically. She’s looking for that smaller, more honest, soul… so she can snuff it out. It’s a direct continuation of her conversation with Ozpin in the first episode - which I just love - and it’s basically a victory speech. Mankind, once united, can stand tall. But now, divided and clinging to their last hope, they’re doomed. Because Jen Taylor’s got beef. Cue the reveal:

Salem, named in the final credits ala Cinder and Raven, much like Ozpin, breaks the colour name rule, so she’s old. Y'know, if the humanoid Grimm look didn’t tip you off. Yeah, we don’t know quite what she is, but Grimm Queen sounds about right. She’s the Wicked Witch Of The West to Ozpin’s Great And Powerful (and probably the wizard from the Four Maidens story, natch), and she and him have been apparently at this a while. Things start clicking into place immediately, as many predicted: Salem’s Cinder’s boss, the Queen with pawns, et cetera. There’s really not much to say except, “Oh crap”, really. Nice to have a Bigger Bad hanging out, very JRPG-y again, but I don’t expect much personal play from her yet. Maybe some interaction with Cinder or a new big evil player for Volume Four, but yeah. Who knows! Again, it’s open. And doomed. We’re mostly doomed.

And boy I hope things are going better in the alternate universe…

Welp. Cue the credits and two amazing songs back to back. Divide, which is about Salem - similar to Cinder and Sacrifice last year - and Cold, in-universe about Jaune and Pyrrha (Forever Autumn by Justin Hayward cost too much), and out of it about Monty.

We sure do. And the whole crew at RT for a great season, of course. Volume Three caps off the “prologue” of the true story of RWBY, and to say I’m satisfied with how it came together would be as much of an understatement as saying that Pyrrha’s somewhat not alive. If you haven’t already this past week, send all your love to all the directors, writers, producers, animators, actors, compositors, modellers, concept artists, designers, editors, sound engineers, whoever gets their coffee for them. Maybe all of you should buy a DVD or Blu-Ray when it comes out in May, yeah? No, buy two. And the soundtrack, which’ll be out around the same month. Buy three of those, all right? Don’t let me down, guys. Also, buy four DVDs. Even if you don’t have a DVD player. Just do it. And hey, maybe you want to get some shirts or plushies, too? Just throwing it out there. You know you want to.

Oh, and, as usual, a post credits scene happened. Qrow’s got Ozpin’s cane, and can turn into a crow. Bird thing’s either semblance, voodoo magic, or some fairy tale thing. Everyone’s looking over past episodes to see the crow (trailers too!) now, and I don’t blame them. Also, it’s a fair assumption that Raven might be able to do the same, if only so she can fly away from her problems.

He’s gone from the show, but not from our hearts, and especially not from this recap. You’re welcome, Torchwick. Be grateful you’re not on the moon, at least.

Annnnnnnd that’s it from me. My eternal thanks to all those who’ve been reading this volume’s recaps. The recap’s grown a bit, audience-wise (awesome!) and length-wise (I’m so sorry), but we seem to have a good thing going, so, me falling into some kind of black hole notwithstanding, same time next season, yeah? May even surprise you in the hiatus with some stuff, who knows! This is, after all, “the year of RWBY” according to Gray, Miles and Kerry, so no reason it can’t also be the “the four months of RWBY Recap and other assorted ventures, RWBY-related or otherwise,” is there? Regardless, I’ll be around - here, RT site, Reddit, wherever - as I spend my time ritualistically sacrificing goats in order to finally get Day 5… The usual, really. Happy hiatus, everyone, and good luck!

Good times. Until we get some more, laters for now, and, as always, thanks for reading!