RWBY 4x09 "Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back" & 4x10 "Kuroyuri" reaction & review

Right!!! I do remember that look! That's crazy that they just missed that Grimm....!!! Thanks for the info!

Melissa Moore

So yes, Raven & crew did attack Shion village, but that attack caused a flood of negative emotions which drew in the Grimm.....do you remember the huge hoof print Ren & Nora saw in Shion? There was a look of recognition in their eyes when they saw it, and looked at each other for confirmation. We see the hoof print again when RNJR splits the party, and once more again inside this cave....and Ren also finds one of his father's arrows....you can see the trees shaking, indicating movement away from the cave and towards the ruins of Kuroyuri....where Ruby, Qrow & Jaune are....Ren & Nora literally just missed whatever Grimm uses this cave as its den....

John J Ronald

Now onto 1 of my favorite episodes of volume 4 episode 10. I want to talk about the stuff between Ruby and Jaune 1st. I love how loss is brought up and handled in the show. Because yes the loss of Pyrrha was more permanent but Ruby lost things too showing different forms of loss. Jaune reinforcing and reassuring Ruby that they chose to follow her because of her courage and perseverance is so great and I love their friendship although there are a good amount of people who ship them. Also seeing this utterly destroyed town is so eerie and unsettling especially seeing scattered belongings including a child’s bicycle. I love all the transitions from the present to pass like the dead Lotus to the living one and the dead cherry blossom tree to the picture of Ren and his family in front of it while it was alive. Seeing him young with a British accent for some reason with his mother is so wholesome and heartwarming. I love seeing him trying to figure out what to get his dad but being too young for everything is hilarious. Also yeah Kitty bread is really awesome. Considering how Nora is now seeing her homeless and getting bullied is really rough and sad. The sad part about Ren not wanting to get involved or help is that is definitely that is unfortunately realistic to actual bullying. I love his father’s design and how wise he is and I remember people comparing him to Hanzo from Overwatch back when this episode came out especially because he uses a bow and arrow. An Ren dying is something I want to hate but just can’t because it’s so tragically well-written. I personally think the voice acting in this episode is fantastic especially from the father whose name is also Lie. I love how much determination and resolve his father has to save his son even though he’s just a hunter of animals and not a Huntsman. Even before you see the big Grimm in full it’s still terrifying especially seeing the silhouette with glowing red eyes in the smoke. Also Ren’s weapon at least the sharp hilt is inspired by the knife his father gave him. Seeing death and destruction everywhere and Ren having what appears to be a panic attack with him hyperventilating. But luckily at his lowest point he unlocks his aura and gains a semblance which helps him save Nora by hiding his and her emotions. Also this may be tragic but at least Ren has found a family in Nora and his friends. Also the 2 of them are so cute and wholesome together. Seeing the monsters cave and all the weapons of people it had killed almost like collecting trophies of its kills is so disturbing. Also it’s scream like roar is terrifying. I love how this episode shows the 2 sides of the show with the really dark and bright moments. Finally the music was really good and fitting for this episode. This is a great reaction and keep up the great work. :-) <3

Supermonaman

I love episode 9 a lot. The great thing about the title of the episode “2 steps forward, 2 steps back” is how it references Yang and Weiss moving forward while Blake and Ruby’s group seemed to be moving backwards. I love the training session between Yang and her father. I think it’s cool to see from the spar the similarities between their fighting styles because he was the one who taught her to fight. I think the lesson she learns here about being levelheaded and to keep her emotions in check is so important especially because her relying on her semblance is what led to her injury and PTSD and this will make her a better fighter in the future. I love the rough around the edges but clearly loving relationship between the 2. The conversation about her mother is so interesting to me because of the comparisons between Yang and Raven but also it just makes Raven all the more interesting to me. I may not like her as a person because of her clearly not caring about her own daughter but I like her a character because of the mystery of how she became the way she is now and also what went on with Team STRQ. The only thing I have to say about the Weiss scene is how impactful and impressive her gaining more precise control of her summoning after struggling with it in volume 3. Also the fact that it’s so powerful it breaks her windows is so crazy. Also the new design with the summon color scheme is amazing. Something we can see in the short fight is that using a lot of his clones for too long rapidly depletes Sun’s aura I think he uses 5 of them here. I also like other comments have said really love Ilia as a character. Her blade whip is such a cool weapon. Also unlike other Faunus her animal trait camouflage is much less obvious and I love how like actual chameleons she can use it for camouflage like being pitch black when spying on them but also reflects her emotions like feeling sadness and shame and turning her skin green and hair and spots blue and in the Blake short being angry and happy with her skin turning red and her hair and spots turning yellow. Also about the Qrow mumbling stuff the most likely thing is informing about Summer being gone but it could also be about Raven leaving her family although that’s far less likely. It’s also sad but I love the somber atmosphere of the final scene. I love seeing the caring these characters have for one another.

Supermonaman

She is?! Oh wow!!! I can't wait to get to know her better!!! :D

Melissa Moore

Ilia is a precious Cinnamon Roll and must be protected. She is arguably best girl. As a Weiss Man, myself, I will always stan Ilia.

Ian Moscrop

Right?!!?!? Me too!!!! I love learning more from you guys, it makes each series so much more fun! And then I get to tell everything I've learned in my intros and sound smart LOL!!!!!!!

Melissa Moore

Awww that makes sense! :(

Melissa Moore

Ahhh okay! That makes sense! She probably wandered in from another town. Good point! Thanks!

Melissa Moore

Ah yes, thanks for clarifying that! Wow, that's a great point about the mask, so she's human or just doesn't look like a Faunus?! That is sad, that she needs one just to fit in; kind of similar to how Blake wore the bow to fit into human society. So true that they emphasize themes of prejudice, loneliness, etc. on this show quite a bit, so this character is more evidence of that!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for all the info!

Melissa Moore

Thank you so much!!!!!! Aww haha so glad to hear it! Exactly - so much going on at once! Glad I'm not the only one who could use some Roman right now haha. Thanks about the arrow! Hope you love my reactions next week!

Melissa Moore

Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!! Me too! Can you believe I just filmed the last two eps?! Can't wait to hear the soundtrack! I know I'll love it too!!! Hope you love my reaction! :D

Melissa Moore

Thank you!! And thanks for the heads up on the shorts! Awww yes I'd love to see RWBY Chibi when I'm caught up!!! It sounds absolutely adorable and I'm sure it will explode my heart lol!!! Thanks!

Melissa Moore

Hi Spadeas! :D Ahhhhhh okay, so that's what the semblance is! Yes, gotta love any reference to Boop hehe!! Also "not together together" LOL!!!! I agree, I love Jaune and Ruby's friendship, and scenes like that help it to grow! Ah good question, I usually do streaming if it's available on a site that won't crash my PC haha, a few of the shows I watch (like Kamen Rider) I have to download because the streaming options are on sites that don't agree with my pc. :P I don't think I've ever used DVDs for a reaction, isn't that crazy?! What's the series you're thinking of? :D

Melissa Moore

Ahhh okay! Thanks for clarifying about Winter and Weiss. Oh yes! That line went over my head about Ilia! Yesss I thought that was the same knight! XD Glad to know I remembered Hazel correctly. Omg, wasn't the Nora story heartbreaking?! So sweet that Ren was the one who gave her the hammer first! Ahhhhh alright, having watched the next two I'm glad the Grimm was unseen....I thought I had forgotten it or something...I'm like, how did I manage to forget THAT from last ep haha, but then I went back and didn't see it, good to know they set it up that way. Thanks for clarifying about the nest and also the shorts!!! I'll be watching those in the coming week or two!!!!!

Melissa Moore

Awesome!!!!!!!!!! I'm going back and forth on unboxing mine....they're a bit harder to displaying in the box though!!!

Melissa Moore

I’m taking notes down from these handy dandy comments 🤓 ✍🏼 📝

Manny

I read a nice post about how the Schnees cover the typical reactions to domestic abuse that victims have. Flee, Fight, and Fawn. Winter, Weiss, and their mother, all fled and fought in their own way. While Whitley couldn't do either, so turned to fawning. Enabling and emulating his abuser as a way to survive.

Beowolf Chow

My perception of Whitley is that he is a clay mold sculpted by Jacques. Seeing as he's the youngest and seemingly closest to their father. Also, as far as we know, their mom is pretty much absent. In addition to that, Whitley probably didn't have Winter and Weiss around as much to influence him, since they were both training to be huntresses probably most of his life. I'm just saying not to be too harsh on him, because he really didn't have a great upbringing either and I think that affected him a lot. (He's totally still a jerk and should get called out, the first step to progress is recognizing your own mistakes, so here's hope for our sassy boy). All in all these reactions are great as always! Can't wait for the next two because it gets intense :o Keep up the great work!!!

When Qrow is delirious and talking in dreams he's more than likely talking about Summer after she went missing, giving Tai the news of her disappearance.

Also, it's not as if Tai had ever been harsh in saying "you lost brain cells besides your arm", Yang's reaction to this moment shows that this isn't the first time that Tai throws lines like this. Add the fact that Ruby says in episode 1 of Volume 3, that Yang learned well from their father, in other words, it is Tai who taught Yang to fight and he has surely already been hard with her at this. moment. It's not as if he doesn't love his daughters, it's precisely because he loves them that he's being tough at this moment, to prepare her for the future.

Spadeas

Nora was homeless in Ren's hometown but as those bullies said she was dressed weird..well she was dressed differently because she was from a different town....one that was more western style compared to the eastern style of kouroyuri. Her home town may have been destroyed by that same Grimm that killed Ren's parents....that's just my guess anyway

JAMES D'ALESSANDRO

Corsec and Fennec said to Blake when they saw her, that "Sister Ilia would be elated" to hear that she returned. That's the first time she gets mentioned. And the photo that Sun took of a masked White Fang member in the marketplace would have been her. Ilia is the only WF member who wears a mask in Menagerie, and when you see it break in the fight, you hear why, Sun says "But she doesn't even look like a Faunus!" (and that's probably why she turned red in anger and stabbed him). Her chameleon horns were on the mask, once that was gone she looked like a regular human. And I think that's part of the tragedy of her, constantly wearing a mask just to fit in; a literal one in Menagerie so she's not treated as a human, and a figurative one in the rest of the world, so she isn't treated like a Faunus. This show often plays on themes of loneliness and feeling like an outsider, so having a character literally themed about "passing" in a prejudiced society, and how hollow that acceptance feels, is really on point.

Beowolf Chow

So glad you're getting to the end of the volume because that means you're closer to getting caught up :D. It was definitely nice to have most of Ren/Nora backstory in one ep. Yes the dude that helped Oscar was Hazel from Salem's team. There are some folks that don't like the scene between Tai/Yang, saying he's being too hard on her but I love the scene. Looking back at v1-3, you see how Yang was a very careless fighter and often lept before thinking. She did it with her fight against Neo and then Adam. She had an overconfidence in her skill that she could never be hurt because it would just amplify her semblance but she knows now that it's not true. One thing I wish the show actually focused on was that Yang feels the damage she takes. While people normally avoid getting hit, she puts herself out there to take all the damage to fuel her semblance but she feels every hit. Like that fight in v2 vs the mech, imagine being punched through a concrete pillar and feeling that but being able to keep going because it makes you stronger.

Haughtbreaker Nic

oh my I love your shirt. Your reaction to baby Ren and Nora is exactly what I thought it would be. So many things are happening all at once, will Weiss escape, will Sun be ok, will Qrow make it who knows. You are not the only one who misses Roman. Also that cave is The Grimm cave and that was Ren's dads arrow in there. I cannot wait to see your reaction to the last two episodes next week.

Ronix

LOVE the reaction! I love the Ren and Nora backstory episode. It just adds so much depth and adds more reasons to love them both. I'm so excited that you are almost done! Volume 4 really breeze by. I can't wait until you do the soundtrack for volume 4 because I know you gonna love it! :D It is honestly one of my tops favorite soundtracks for RWBY that I even still listen to it today, along with volume 7.

Fay

- It is a good things or a bad things ? - It's a Grimm going near Ruby, Jaune and poisoned Qrow. - That would be bad. Sorry but between your last sentence and Hime telling us that she miss Roman, I couldn't help myself.

Spadeas

I don't have much to add to what others have already pointed out. Just that the arrow that Ren finds in the cave is the same kind of arrow that his father used and that at the end of the episode when we see the trees rustling it looks like whatever it's causing it is moving away from the cave, so... Good news, Nora and Ren are safe. Bad news, Ruby, Jaune, and Qrow not so much.

Daimah

awww so excited your nearing the end of the volume, also theres 3 character shorts before V5 the first one is Weiss then Blake then Yang shorts, then its V5. But hopefully you or someone here will find them for you without seeing spoilers. also I think your making the right call doing RWBY Chibi when you have caught up with everyone, or if you finish a different show just replace that show with Chibi if you want that extra RWBY love in your life sooner then later, I would love to rewatch Chibi with you, because Chibi Season 1 and 2 have 20 plus episodes and each episode is only like 5 minutes long roughly, reactors tend to watch 3 or 4 episodes in one, Season 3 of Chibi has only 15 episodes I think cant remember but they are adorable :) xx

Darren

Hi Hime :D For Ren semblance, it's explicated fast later, but to be clearer, he can hide emotions, and Grimms were attract with negative emotions. So his semblance is really effective to hide from Grimms. I'm glad you notice "Boop" when little Ren and Nora where together (but not together together ^^). The little moment between Jaune and Ruby is not the last and I love to see their friendship show. Friends from the first day of school and it has continued to grow. I am so hyped to see your reaction for the OST in two or three week :D. Edit : By the way, how do you watch your anime, just streaming or sometimes DVD / BR for the reactions? My number 1 series is probably no longer streaming in the USA (it is from 2004), but I saw very few people react to this series and frankly, both music and emotion, we are spoiled with it. So if you sometimes react via DVD / BR media, I could suggest it ^^.

Spadeas

So the Schnee family all have the potential to be effective in combat its just that Winter and Weiss are more naturally gifted. Ilia was mentioned when Blake and Son first got to Menagerie, Fennec and Corsac mentioned her when they visited Blake's house. That knight that Weiss summoned was absolutely the same one that she fought in the White trailer. Yes the big guy we saw with Oscar is one of Salem's followers, his name is Hazel. Nora is my absolute favorite character and this episode broke my heart the first time i saw it and I absolutely love that the Ren gives her the little wooden hammer and thats why she still uses a hammer as her weapon. Ren's semblance is what you might have guess pretty much a camouflage for grimm. The do such an amazing job of setting up the unseen grimm that destroyed Ren's home. I'd tell you its name but I wouldnt want you looking up its inspiration beforehand. The cave they were in was the grimms nest and the weapons were from all the people that died trying to slay it. Also there are 3 shorts to watch before volume 5, one for Weiss, Blake and Yang.

Zen Reacts

I have RWBY FUNKO pops too I havnt unboxed mine yet

Darren

YAY!! Hope you love it!

Melissa Moore

WOO I was waiting for this!

Zen Reacts