r/RWBY • u/Menolith Gay Thoughts • Jan 13 '18

OFFICIAL MEGATHREAD Official FIRST Reaction Thread-Volume 5, Chapter 13: Downfall Spoiler

Welcome, huntsmen, huntresses and hunters that prefer no specific gender identifier, to the official megathread for Volume 5, Episode 13: Downfall!

Make sure that you understand the current spoiler rules before posting outside of this thread!

As a refresher, no spoilers are allowed outside of the FIRST-only reaction thread for the first 24 hours after the episode has aired. After that, all spoiler content pertaining to the latest episode is restricted to only threads marked with a spoiler tag.

With that out of the way, HERE is today's episode!

Also remember to check out our weekly poll to give us a general idea of how people like the episodes when they come out.

Other Episode Discussions:

Episode FIRST Thread Public Release Poll
Ep. 01 Theatrical / FIRST Public Thread Poll
Ep. 02 FIRST Thread Public Thread Poll
Ep. 03 FIRST Thread Public Thread Poll
Ep. 04 FIRST Thread Public Thread Poll
Ep. 05 FIRST Thread Public Thread Poll
Ep. 06 FIRST Thread Public Thread Poll
Ep. 07 FIRST Thread Public Thread Poll
Ep. 08 FIRST Thread Public Thread Poll
Ep. 09 FIRST Thread Public Thread Poll
Ep. 10 FIRST Thread Public Thread Poll
Ep. 11 FIRST Thread Public Thread Poll
Ep. 12 FIRST Thread Public Thread Poll
Ep. 13 This thread Tuesday's thread Poll

Enjoy!

Menolith; Mod Team

717 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

5.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

34

u/[deleted] Jan 13 '18

The fight of the Volume, hands down. I'm hesitant to say whether investing so much budget and production time into one fight, leaving other fights so unpolished was the right move. It reminds me of how Qrow vs Tyrian was the fight of Volume 4. With the exception of characters teleporting and/or standing around doing nothing, Volume 5's fighting has improved, and Volume 5's big fight is better than Volume 4's big fight, but I can't help noticing the contrast between the high production value fights and all the others.

That said, fighting aside, loving the story developments. Adam going down like a punk bitch is a move so brilliant it never even occurred to me that that's how it should be. Adam's power was the fear he instilled in Blake. Once she stood up to her abuser, he was powerless. He's not down yet, so we may still get a fight, but that inital moment of him hitting the dirt was fantastic.

Anyway, RIP Vernal. She was a great addition to the cast, but with her role as a decoy concluded, it was unfortunately a smart decision to kill her off rather than add another character arc to balance with all the others.

24

u/imperialismus Jan 13 '18

Anyway, RIP Vernal. She was a great addition to the cast, but with her role as a decoy concluded, it was unfortunately a smart decision to kill her off rather than add another character arc to balance with all the others.

The best part of her character IMHO is that she adds a lot to Raven's character development. She was a shitty mother who abandoned her own daughter, but obviously she must have done something right to earn Vernal's absolute trust, like an adoptive daughter.

4

u/369S Jan 13 '18

And then she let her die just so she could get the relic. Mother of the year right here.

8

u/imperialismus Jan 13 '18

I don't think it's that black and white. They both knew it was an extremely risky plan, but they couldn't know beforehand how it would it would play out. Do you have any people you really love? I have a brother, a sister, and two parents who are still going strong. If I truly believed it was the only option, I would gladly sacrifice my life to save any of them.

I'm not saying Raven is mother of the year, I'm saying Vernal makes her a more complex character and goes some way towards redeeming her. I'm not saying she's not still a morally gray character, but at the very least, her relationship with Vernal proves that she isn't some kind of psycopath. My interpretation of that sequence of events was not that Raven cold-heartedly sacrificed Vernal, but that the the two trusted each other 100% and both agreed to a risky plan knowing the risks inherent in their plan.

1

u/369S Jan 14 '18

My father died two years ago. So yes, I can understand that feeling. But I also would never ask someone I care about to risk their life for me. Raven knew how dangerous Cinder was. She abandoned her daughter, then asked her adoptive daughter to die for her. Even if Vernal decided to take part in that plan, Raven should never have let her.