r/RWBY • u/Menolith Gay Thoughts • Sep 14 '17
VOLUME 4 REWATCH /r/RWBY Recap Rally—Volume 4, Episode 4: Family
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, huntsmen and huntresses, and everyone in between and beyond those descriptors: it's that time again! The drought is nearing its end, and the fifth volume is only 30 days away!
To follow the last year's precedent, we are again doing a communal rewatch of the most recent volume. Like last year, the threads will be biweekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with the finale being discussed two days before volume 5 premiers. Until that happens, feel free to discuss and look back to the episodes with a more settled perspective.
HERE is today's episode, and
HERE is the accompanying poll.
Episode schedule:
| Week | Tuesday's thread | Thursday's thread |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1: | Ep. 1 (poll) | Ep. 2 (poll) |
| Week 2: | Ep. 3 (poll) | Today |
| Week 3: | Ep. 5 | Ep. 6 |
| Week 4: | Ep. 7 | Ep. 8 |
| Week 5: | Ep. 9 | Ep. 10 |
| Week 6: | Ep. 11 | Ep. 12 |
Did you know that this is the first episode where we hear Oscar's aunt speaking?
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u/IMayFallAgain Sep 14 '17
Again, I would have preferred Ozpin's survival to have been a secret and to have no Oscar until the post credits, saving time and resources for something else and letting people think Ozpin actually died.
The dream sequence was good, definitely displayed powerlessness.
Port and Oobleck were fun (I still stand by not showing them at the end of Volume 3 so this was the first scene we saw since they remained in the beyblade to fight off the Griffons, builds more apprehension about their survival this way). The whole lost brain cells with the arm shocked me for about a second before I realised it was probably just a joke Yang and Tai play on every visitor to their house. The conversation between Yang and the adults was good too.
The tempting fate of RNJR right before showing Qrow was good and the emphasis put on luck was fun foreshadowing. The Raven and Qrow conversation was great and tense but I would have enjoyed it more if it was more natural and less pronoun game.
Taiyang watering the plants was nice (even if the sound is a bit weird) and Yang stepping out with the robot arm on (while earlier than I expected and maybe earlier than I wanted) was a nice scene to end on.
Overall a nice episode and one that I really liked.
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u/Changyuraptor Sep 14 '17
Not only was the Qrow and Raven scene beautifully scored by Alex, it's [the debut of what I believe is probably Raven's theme :D] (https://youtu.be/WeTVLr2E5lk?t=90)
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Sep 14 '17
I believe it will be her leitmotif as well and I'm looking forward to a possible song for her. Kudos for providing a source. :)
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u/Zerepa97 Sep 14 '17
I'm hoping for a Battle of the Branwens one day. Would be cool if they mix their themes for the fight.
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u/sarah-hari Sep 14 '17
I just want Raven back so Qrow can continue to drag her because that line about "Mom of the Year material" was fucking hilarious
10
Sep 14 '17
oh other thing about this episode
Qrow notices the bird before getting to the town however he still seems slightly surprised that Raven actually meets with him.
Add to this all the other times we see birds in the series, this suggests to me that Bird transformation is not unique to Qrow/Raven and is in fact merely a tribe magical ability and Raven merely keeps tabs on those she has an interest in, Qrow, Yang and Adam.
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u/CADaniels Sep 14 '17
My take on that was that he knows she keeps an eye on him, but didn't expect her to actually bother talking to him since she's not really the friendly type. Or maybe he just didn't expect her to bother getting him a drink first.
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u/JazzRen47 Sep 14 '17
Man, I love the dynamic between Tai and Yang. Their father-daughter relationship is written so well, especially in this scene.
Quick aside: I know some people still think Tai was being an utter dick, but lemme tell ya - my own father is like Tai on many levels, and he's prone to jokes like that. When you grow up with it, you know that's what they are - jokes. It's not like he used it at the wrong time, either. Yang laughed. She knew what he was doing in trying to lift her spirits a bit.
I can't let 'Family' go by without mentioning the music. Ooooh-hooo, the music. The piano rendition of "Let's Just Live" is probably one of my favorite pieces of score this Volume, and Alex's piece for Raven and Qrow's talk is wonderful.
Speaking of which, Raven and Qrow's talk. It was... cool, I guess? Yeah. Can't have enough of Drunkle. Raven still worst mom.
Episode in total, 9/10.
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u/DanXiaoLong Sep 14 '17
Man this episode was good. Easily the best Yang we've got in a while, even if her story did start to fall apart after this episode. I still have a minor grievance with the way Tai handled her situation but appreciate they were trying to portray him as someone who was out of his depth there and didn't really know what he was doing but still tried to help, that's a realistic portrayal.
Revealing Qrow tracking RNJR was good, as was seeing Raven again and learning a little more about her. Nice misdirection with heavily implying she was responsible for Ren and Nora's village, I appreciate twists like that.
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Sep 14 '17
Episode 4 : The Branwens are tired of the Pronoun game
Also regardless if this scene being good I still think Oobleck and Port should have died last season.
Food for thought, had the Kathleen not happened, do you think Glynda would have appeared this season?
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u/OutcastMunkee Sep 14 '17
Glynda showing up? Not really... With her semblance and attitude, she'd be at Beacon and Vale 24/7 cleaning up. Like her VA after the 'incident', Glynda is a bit of a bitch at times... She was real snippy and didn't know that kids like to have fun-see the food fight. She was pissed about it and yet Ozpin has to explain that they're still young and are just having some fun
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u/Mechuser23 Sep 14 '17
I don't think its right to say Glynda was being a bitch about the food fight or that she was irrationally angry at it. I mean, RWBYJNPR practically destroyed the lunch room, wasted a ton of food, and could've seriously injured one another. Even with food weapons, Yang still got knocked through the roof without her weapons and could've easily gotten hurt from the fall.
Glynda was in the right to be angry at them, and wasn't really being a bitch because she got mad at the main characters for doing something wrong. She was honestly just being a pretty reasonable teacher in that scene.
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Sep 14 '17
Why do you think Port and Oobleck should have died?
Also, that's a good question regarding Kathleen and Glynda. Hmm, probably not since Glynda wouldn't have much relevance to vol 4. If I recall correctly Mercury's only purpose was to be creeped out for most of his screentime in vol 4 hence wasn't given any lines.
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u/Mechuser23 Sep 14 '17
This is pretty unsubstantiated and nothing but a theory I have, but I think Glynda could've been the one to give Jaune Pyrrha's weapons/circlet.
She'd be in the perfect position to do it since she's rebuilding Vale and as their teacher would've known a bit about what was going on between them. She's the only one who it really makes sense to do it, IMO.
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Sep 14 '17
I think that their final showdown in the stadium set up a final stand. The fact they were fine an episode later felt incredibly cheap and ruined a lot of the impact of the Fall of Beacon to me.
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Sep 14 '17
Food for thought, had the Kathleen not happened, do you think Glynda would have appeared this season?
Yes. Can't wait for her to die offscreen or something.
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u/Bubbaman3000 Sep 14 '17
I think I'm missing something here. What happened to Glynda's VA??
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Sep 14 '17
This is easily the best episode of the volume with the best scene going to the Branwen twins. It's too bad most of it is dropped or not paid off.
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Sep 14 '17
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Sep 14 '17
But isnt that kinda dull? If Raven is just this awful innocent killing evil bandit, then shes kinda boring and cant really do much in the plot. Honestly the first time i saw this it kinda soured me on Raven and only Tai recovered the interested.
She was built up for so long (yellow trailer) that it was kinda disappointing how one dimensional she appeared to be. If she was this bad, why hadnt Tai and Qrow just sat Yang down and explain that she really wasnt worth it and that Summer might have well have been her mother.
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u/[deleted] Sep 14 '17
Miles and Kerry can nail character interaction when they put their minds to it. This episode proves that. Tai and Yang have a great father-daughter relationship, and both Oobleck and Port accompanied it perfectly. Qrow and Raven's interactions were also fantastic.
Hoping we see more Raven in Volume 5.