With the unfortunate passing of Monty Oum in February 2015, the fate of RWBY was uncertain to fans for much of that year. Yet despite the unfortunate loss, Volume Three was created and has become the best volume of RWBY that has been released yet. RWBY Volume Three serves as not only a touching tribute to Monty but also as something that he would have been proud of.
The story
The crew of RWBY learned a lot from previous volumes with the story. The scope of this volume was much tighter than previous volumes and the story benefited greatly from the increased focus. The viewer finally got a glimpse at who the villains really were and what they were planning on doing. This led to a much darker tone to RWBY which helped to give real, lasting consequences to the events this volume, unlike Volume Two.
I would have appreciated it if some more time had been spent in establishing characters who only showed up for a brief amount of time, like Winter. However, it’s easy to see why they had spent less time with Winter and the teams that appeared in the tournament. Special care had been put into Pyrrha’s arc and the arc of Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury and it really showed. Getting to know the villains helped to solidify them into the world of RWBY and made you understand their motivations for them being villains.
Arguably the best improvement to RWBY that was made in Volume Three was the pacing of the story. The previous two volumes were rife with pacing problems, with certain parts going on for too long, Jaune getting blackmailed, or for not long enough, the final two episodes of Volume Two coming to mind. This time the sweet spot was found. There was enough focus on the characters and events that mattered and less time was focused on inconsequential matters.
Despite the improved pacing, some areas were still not given the depth that they deserved. There could have been more time devoted to Yang’s subplot as well as with Weiss’s relationship to Winter and their father. The moments that were given to them were small and felt almost brushed off. There needed to be much more time devoted to how the events of what happened throughout the volume affected Yang, as we had only saw the beginning and outcomes with little of the in between moments.
The action
The only bad thing I can say about this volume of RWBY is that the action scenes weren’t as incredible as they had been in the previous two volumes. With that being said, I still thoroughly enjoyed the action.
The tournament was one of the most fun parts of the volume and the arena was one of the coolest places in the RWBY world for the fights. The way the characters were able to interact with their environments and the challenges it added made for really fun fight scenes.
The characters added for the tournament were also extremely fun. It was with them that we got to see more of the silly weapons that are a huge part of RWBY’s charm. There was everything from trumpets to glow sticks to skateboards and they were all awesome. I had never thought I’d be wishing for an attack trumpet, but RWBY made me wish I had one. Despite how over the top and silly the could be, they all functioned well as weapons and never were too silly for the fights. It would have been easy for them to give a character a jokey weapon and have it be completely useless and obnoxious, but luckily that particular pitfall was avoided.
The biggest problem that had stuck out with the action this volume, however, wasn’t the actual action sequences. The problem came about from a scene with the physics in one of the later episodes of the volume. Ruby controlled a massive fall of hers by shooting out of her scythe. RWBY is known for its physics defying actions, but the suspension of disbelief could only go so far. I had to pause the episode and say “what?” as I watched that scene.
TL;DR
RWBY Volume Three fixed many of the pacing and story issues that the previous two volumes had. Despite action that was less impressive than previous volumes, the scenes were still impressive and enjoyable. In the end, RWBY Volume Three is something that Monty Oum would have been proud of.
+Tighter scope benefited the story
+Better pacing than previous volumes
+Managed tone well
+Finally got real action from the villains
+Scenes had real repercussions
-Action scenes weren’t as impressive as previous volumes
-Physics sometimes broke the suspension of disbelief
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