Well that was a cool and fun episode.
Ruby and Oscar punching each other in the face over and over never got old. And that headbutt, dang...
I'm curous when/if they'll ever stop giving Ospin the echo-y voice. He clearly didn't use if before. I guess they just feel the need to include it to differentiate the two for now.

I think Nora had the best line of the episode. "Craaaaazy Thursday".

There was something about the simplicity of Yang and Raven's conversation that just felt... awkward. It kinda dumbed down Raven's cool-factor, being so out the the open. And then there was that whole exposition about her portal ability, it seemed super forced and overly descriptive. I mean, I LIKE knowing its mechanics, sure, but having it explained like that was a pretty boring approach. Also, how did Weiss not hear Yang yelling at her mom from, like, 30 feet away before the reveal. She has a pretty distinctive voice. Oh well, It should become interesting to hear what she says in the tent. I was surprised she didn't invite her to talk in the tent from the beginning. I guess they felt the need to talk outside just to get Weiss.

So that girl at the camp that had Wiess' sword, maiden confirmed. She summoned lightning. I'm sure she definitely wont accidently super-power Nora at some point >_>

Counterpoint:

"Your mom kidnapped me?!"
"You kidnapped her?!"

It was a little heavy-handed, but it's nice to know more about Raven. I'm very interested to hear what she has to say.

That hug, tho.

Fun fact: Thursday is named after Thor. That's a pretty goddamn awesome nod.

Yeah, everything about Raven there was awkward as hell. The voice acting was flat, which might have been because there was no oomph in her dialogue at all. It was exposition central of things we don't need to know.

Not much to really say about this episode. It wasn't bad. It's just kinda the calm before the storm.

I'm starting to enjoy those two hooded dudes as characters in this show. They're the kind of lunatics that can calmly convince themselves that anything is acceptable, and they'll always agree with each other as their values escalate.

omg that ending. So sweet and happy. While I didn't find the rest of the episode that great, that ending was undeniably great.

Qrow not being able to find anyone was... ok, I guess? I'm curious to see if some of those names on his lists pop up in the future. That father/daughter scene was oddly well done. Not sure why.

Raven was... really underwhelming, again. She keeps saying "I know things! I know things", and the 2 "big" pieces of information she drops are all things that the viewers have known about for a long time now (Salem & bird-transformations). Seeing Yang's eyes actively change on-screen was nice. Obscuring Raven's transformation with a quick tree in the way to cut down animation costs/time was... lame. I'm sure the animators had their hands tied on that one, I know they do great work and must've really wanted to show it, but it's pretty unfourtunate that they couldn't.

I guess the brief history on Qrow and Raven's motives for becoming huntsmen was interesting. Definitely looking forward to hearing the rest of that story, but I don't expect them to necessarilly get back to it soon.

Anyways, if 3 of them meeting up was that nice, I'm reeeeally looking forward to all 4 finally getting back together.

Agreed about the White Fang dudes. I wasn't a big fan of them until they actually started expressing skepticism of Adam. It's the kind of nuanced extremism from the White Fang to actually make their struggle as an organization seem relatable - it serves a much better contrast to Blake's peaceful cooperation and actually has a philosophical leg to stand on, unlike Adam's ludicrously one-dimensional ideology.

The convo between Ruby and Oscar didn't present any real useful information or development on Ruby's part - you could infer everything she said pretty easily - but was solid setup for Oscar. Up until now, he's only really given lip service to any kind of protest towards what was going on, but they started showing some real doubt in him, and that kind of doubt is transformative. Personally, I'm really hoping that he cracks under it in some fashion and rejects Ozpin. But I'm biased - I like it when flaws lead to devastating failures (such as Pyrrha's death).

Overall, a good developmental episode that injected some nuance into plotlines that were in desperate need of it.

Well, despite the fact that nothing really happened this episode... I really liked it.

That food looked surprisingly good. That arm wrestle was awesome (and I’m hoping that that arm-detachment display was a set up for it to be used later at an important moment).
And Nora... Omg Nora continues to be hilarious.

Nothing better than bombshell plot twist episodes that forgot to include a bombshell plot twist.

Yaaaaay, things are finally happening!

I didn't realize any of them would actually get pissed at Blake. I guess I kinda get it in retrospect, but still.

For a little while, I actually thought Ilia might have defected, but the moment she said she was "sorry" I knew what she meant.
Good on Blake for having backup. For a while there, I actually thought they were gonna take her, and that the next arc would be to save Blake.

As fun as it was to see Kali shooting a gun, I don't think the assault on the Belladonna house was handled well. The White Fang side didn't really appear to have many people, and everthing just looked too... clean and basic. I think the animation team might be hitting their limits too much this season. And then when Ghira decided to go into rage mode... again, it just looks too simple to have the effect that I think was intended here. I don't know if this is a result of Monty being gone, or just the animation team being stretched too thin on all these weekly ~15 min episodes, but something's missing in the visuals (which is weird, because on a basic model scale, everything still looks better than ever). Ghira's roar itself was on point. Good sound design there, the anger and power definitely came across on the audio.

I am, however, looking forward to what the crazy twins do to attack Ghira. They difinitely won't be able to overpower him, so I assume they'll do something underhanded/sneaky. I suspect one of Blakes parents may die.

Since when did Weiss become the voice of reason/team glue? I'm glad to see that she's getting some more character development.

Speaking of which, lesbian faunus! I think Blake will wind up having to kill Illia in the end. The twins will definitely pull some underhanded crap, and wind up killing Ghira. I really want someone to brutally kill one these White Fang guys; to up the "oh damn" factor, and to show the White Fang that our heroes aren't messing around anymore.

I interpreted that differently... I thought that Sun's "Thanks for the invitation" was sarcastic, and he was just doing the stalkery Sun thing... just rewatched it and no clue what it was.

Still, super awesome episode.

The development here between the groups was great, particularly the arm wrestle between Nora and Yang - though I'm curious why Oscar wasn't invited.

We also get to see more artificial tension from the ZOMG PLOTTWIST of last episode. How DARE Ozpin...give powers to a couple students? What? That whole angle is incredibly contrived and makes no sense, particularly when they give Ozpin shit for leaving out information, when Qrow did the exact same thing. Apparently he just gets a pass, though.

The information that Ozpin created the Maidens would have been better suited for Raven's reveal, because not only does that have actual implications, she could certainly have spun that into a way better suspicious theory than Ozpin giving them a piece of magic.

I'm mildly disappointed that Yang didn't walk out, because I think that would've been great for internal conflicts, but I also recognize the story didn't give her much reason to (and gave her a good reason to stay).

Welp, stuff's finally hapenning and... yeah, it's pretty good.

Raven's negotiation scene was pretty well done. The setup for Ghira & Sun vs the shifty twins was decent.

If I had to nitpick, it'd be that the Qrow scene was pointless and that they ended it with another kinda lame "cliff hanger" on Blake and chameleon-girl about to fight.
Also, the fact that all these scenes are happening long periods of time apart from each other is not being indicated very well. It's playing out as if, despite the dialogue indicating otherwise, it's all happening at once. I think it'd come off better with fewer cuts between them and title cards indicating time frames. They seem to want to give all 3 groups some screen time per episode, but I think that's not good story-telling method in their current predicament.

Yeah, I think that was a deliberate and sincere invitation on Blake's part - a lot of her development and focus has been on her self-isolation and running from problems, which she's improved on through the season.

This was a pretty great episode overall. I hadn't expected Yang's reaction to Blake either, and when combined with Weiss playing mom, it brought out some excellent and unexpected dynamics (even if they did resolve too quickly). Weiss and Yang really haven't interacted much, so getting that was very welcome. I'd like to see more cross-pollination on that front, particularly with Jaune (who has been tragically ignored this season).

It's also a great piece of development for Yang's trauma, which has been pretty lame in its execution. As a heated individual already, directing her anger at Blake is an excellent way to explore how her sacrifice and resultant trauma interlock with Blake's isolatory nature.

well that was cool

I like the animation they're using when lil'Ozpin's whipping his cane around.

Glad to see the big guy finally get some background story, even if it's just a little.

When jaune started freaking out about not losing Weiss, it was kinda easy to forsee what was gonna happen, since his only thing this season's been about his lack of semblace. It's fine though. 'bout time the team had a healer. or, maybe a paladin in his case, whatever.

Raven's twist at the end though. Well played. Unless Cinder's got another big trick up her giant sleeve, I think she's gonna get wrecked, since she's still kinda messed up (and is she still only partial maiden? or did she get 100% when she killed Pyhra?). Either way, I think Raven will have the advantage, not than either of them will die. Then again I guess Cinder could take a hostage. meh.
Anyways, great episode.

FUCK

Holy crap that fight was sick. Loved it. I'm so glad that they followed through on amping up a maiden v maiden fight after hearing about their powers for so long.

Backing up to earlier stuff though,
I'm glad they made Jaune's power a little more complex than healing. Should be fun going forward.

Adam's freak-out, when he was screaming about how he's doing what he's doing to make humanity pay was great. loved it. It just so clearly displayed what a desparate lunatic he is. I liked how, just after that, he got taken down so uncerimoniously, as if he didn't even deserve a cool show-down.

That moment when Blake and the team saw each other was so quick. It wasn't the grand reunion I was expecting, but I still liked it. I guess since she ran away, it wan't the real reunion yet though. I hope there still will be one and not have like a whole season of them tracking down Blake. Although I suppose that wouldn't be completely awful. I don't know.

I totally called Yang's arm-detatchment being relevent this season, but I kinda expected that moment to be a bit more interesting than a quick grab and detach. I was NOT expecting that red-to-blue eye change though, that was cool. Showing that her anger was immediately flared up the moment he grabbed her, but then having her control herself and keep on task.

When Raven froze Cinder as she fell, I was completely hyped up, thinking that it was going to show Cinder shatter or hear the sound of glass/ice shattering off-screen. But, since that didn't happen, I'm just gonna assume she's alive. I'm still not even convinced that Torchwick is dead after getting eaten by that giant Neverore a couple seasons ago.