I would have liked at least a little mention of it before, but as Ozpin said, they spent a lot of time essentially covering it up over the years.

The fight was fantastic, and I can't wait to see how the others are going to play out. I have a feeling that Pyrra is going to lose her fight, being conflicted about what she learned. As for Merc, I think he lost fair, but it's hard to tell if it was on purpose or not. Being the finals, he couldn't forfeit at the start like his sparring match with Pyrra in S1.

I'm sad that we'll have to wait a while for the next ep., but I'm really excited to see what's going to happen. Especially with the Grimm looming nearby, including the big-ass elephant ones, which according to Prof. Oobleck in S2, are supposed to be smarter than the regular ones, due to having more exposure to humankind.

Well, I was glad to see at least team RWBY was still on Yang's side and didn't get too broken up about it. I have no idea why General what's-his-face was the one explaining the repercussions of what happened though, I would think Ozpin would be more suited for that role but whatever. Glad to see Ruby already got a clue about Emerald being the Illusionist, I'm sure she'll put two and two together soon enough. I can only assume that Mercury went to the coliseum specifically to attack, kidnap, or otherwise silence Ruby as part of some mission. Otherwise him appearing there would make no sense since she's now seen him walking fine, especially after he JUST got told to lay low. That ending though... something's gonna go horribly wrong with that match up. Really excited for the next episode.

After all the build-up to the fight with Penny, with the villains looking at her blueprints and all the sinister looks and half-sentences, I expected something a little more climactic than the "oh she got cut in half but look her eyes did a blinky thing so she might still be okay under all her wires being severed" that we got. I was thinking there'd be some thing where Penny had her programming overtaken by the villains and her full arsenal being revealed and it becoming a massive deal. The little speech miss fire eye delivered was kind of... I dunno. Underwhelming? Nothing about the way it was set up - the fight before it, the music during the scene, the reaction shots - really helped it pull off what it was trying to pull off. I've always felt that her voice actress was ill suited to the role they try to have her in, with her smirking, cocky attitude. It feels like she'd do better with someone who was a bit more emotional than calculating.

I'm also disappointed in how nonexistent Ruby's confrontation with Mercury was. And why was that a thing? Why did Mercury show himself, when he was told to lay low? What was the point of holding Ruby up there? How does that play in to their plans? How did Ruby hear about Penny? I mean I guess it was broadcasted, but why did Mercury suddenly let up on his attack at that point? Why? That whole thing just seemed... incredibly pointless. Like, super, humongously, pointlessly pointless levels of completely and utterly pointless. It advanced nothing, it felt extraneous and it just added confusion to the motivations of the villains and took screen time away from what could have been a more developed, impactful scene. I'm simply not feeling any sense of urgency in the plot right now. There's an attack going down but we've seen how the heroes respond to this; they kick ass, the witch comes in and fixes the area with her magical wand of +10 CTRL-Z and everything's roses but somehow more tense?

Holy crap, people are dead, arms have been severed, and Cinder just became a force of nature. I can't wait to see what happens next.

As much as I could complain about a handful of recent little things, the one disappointment that stands out the most Crow's weapon reveal. I mean, granted we kinda knew it would turn scythe (based on the diagonal lines, and the fact that he made Ruby's weapon), the show specifically held it back early on, implying that its reveal would be a big deal... and then it's completely wasted on some random grim scrub. Even with the surrounding context of that attack, it's kind of a waste. That kind of thing should have been saved for a conflict with Cinder or Neo or someone/something more significant. Speaking of Neo, Ruby's method of removing her was freaking hilarious and great.

Anyways, since things are looking so bad at this point for Vale, I think it may actually fall. In fact, I HOPE it does. That would cause something to happen like that journey I mentioned before to happen, leaving behind the academy setting and going out into the world of Remnant. And I think (and hope) that's even more likely due to this season's intro. The first season intro ended up being surprisingly revealing to the events that took place in it. Based on this one's dark/defeated tone, it really may become a reality. And this series would likely be better for it. Guess we'll see.

Adam is like every thirteen year old male fantasy character; he has a lightsaber, does cool red effects, wears black and a mask, has red hair, his love "betrayed" him, he's hurt by the actions of his former love and has the cheesiest tween dialogue. "Why do you hurt me blake?"

But Adam himself aside, two members of team RWBY getting chumped by one of the lead bad guys: Awesome. ...Even if it felt like his personality is a 180 from what it was meant to be from everything that came before.

Holy freak'n crap that was incredible.
So, I guess Ruby's one of those seasonal maidens or whatever? Probably summer. Cinder's reaction was certainly entertaining. But dang, I was not expecting that to happen to Pyrrha. Her last words were odd though, I wonder if we'll be seeing her again somehow. I was so glad to see my hopes about the results coming true. The acadamy's gone and we get to have a journey. Yaaaaay~

I wasn't expecting the team to be broken up like that and for Ruby to be going along with team JNPR though, which is fine, maybe even better that way. I wonder how long it'll take for team RWBY to get back together. Yang'll certainly have to make a major comback/intro with some sort of crazy artificial arm. I wonder if they'll have Crow make any kind of reference/joke about that (with his VA's arguably most popular role from FMA).

But man, the way they revealed the "big bad" at the end (Salem, according to the credits), was pretty nuts. We've all become so accustom to Jen Taylor's voice as the Narrator of the World of Remnant, and her speech started out like that of a narrator. But when she started phrasing things as a character, the slow realization that she was indeed a character all along, and who she is... was fantastic. Loved it. Easily the best RWBY finally, and I can't wait for the next season.

I think that Ruby isn't actually a maiden, but something else entirely. Qrow didn't have time to tell the full story, but it seems like "silver eyed warriors" are on the same level, if not greater. I really wasn't expecting Pyrrha either. Literally dropped my jaw.

Definitely expect Yang to return at some point, probably after a pep-talk/training montage type of thing (I'd love an FMA reference in there too). I'm liking the idea of a journey, and it should hopefully reveal a lot more in-depth info. about Remnant as a whole. I fully expect Penny to make a return, or even better, her dad/Gen. Ironwood sends the group on a mission back into Beacon to retrieve her remains.

Overall, the finale was amazing. I cannot wait until S4 now.

That 10:30 mark.

...WHAT.

And what's this scene? Who is this guy? Is this Jaune? Are we operating under a timeskip? Is this dad? *skips back a few minutes* Uhh. Seriously, WHO IS THIS GUY? I really digged the first 10 minutes of this though. It was pretty great. Hoping the next 20 are okay, too. His name is... Tai? Tie? Something like that. Seriously WHO IS THIS GUY? Hey it's uncle Qrow.

Also damn, actual major character death here. What the -nine- though. I'm glad they didn't pull that punch. Like, I'm gonna miss her. I laughed in a way when Cinder hit Pyrrha in her heel because she's basically girl-Achilles.

This scene with Yang. Yang's been hit pretty hard this season and we're finally seeing the fallout from that. Ouch. I like this whole thing. Some actual payoff. I'm liking it. Still not too happy with Cinder as a villain, but the rest of these past two episodes are hitting me in some fairly positive ways. I like. Though, really, I wish we'd seen what happened to Ruby at the top of the tower.

Oh hey that WAS dad. Poor dad guy.

Wait what the shit happened to Cinder. Is that Cinder? It looks like Cinder. What.

I agree. This is actually what I'd been hoping for throughout the entire season. And I guess that's Salem, according to Shmits. Pretty great episode all around and I'm actually looking forward to S4 too. GIMME MORE.

Wow. I'm surprised at how much of a turnaround those 2 episodes were.

I wish 12 h ad more action, though. Like, show what Ruby did to Cinder and to that Grim. It would've been a great way to capstone the season, but I guess cliffhangers are fine, too.

Qrow is a Crow. The [radio edit].

I love the new look to the show, I feel like this is a huge leap towards what this show was always intended to look like.
Great callback to the original Red trailer, with the twist of a boss fight.
Music, great as always, consistently setting the proper tone for the scene throughout the entire trailer.
It was cool seeing a new scythe configuration, even if it was minor.
Oh and that trip trick she pulled on him. Wonderful.

I do have one nitpick though. Most of Ruby's new outfit looks great, but I'm not really convinced that the open chest part really suits her character. Kinda out of place from my perspective of her in particular, but whatever. Also, the "always ripped" legging's a little silly-looking to me.

As expected, the visual upgrade was really nice.

I'm so glad they're out on a journey-style adventure now, it just opens the show up for so many more possibilities and it really helps us get a better view of what the world of Remnant is really like.

The evil council scene was a good idea I guess (I always like it when the villains get plenty of screen time to flesh out their behavior and motivations), but feel like they could have been a little more subtle about it. Speaking of subtlety, I feel like the cackling crazy villain guy really could've used some; he was just a bit... too in-your-face about it for my tastes. And HOOOOOLY crap I had no idea Ruby did that much of a number on Cinder. That is crazy, and I love it. Can't wait to see how she tries to exact her revenge.

The Golem-thing(Gheist?) fight was pretty fun; definitely showcased the new team well. The Ruby/Nora attack was cool.

So, was the extra material that Jaune had forged into his equipment Pyrra's circlet I guess? Interesting idea, I'm curious to see how that'll come into play later.

It was a good call to put the usual episode intro at the end of this first episode. I liked viewing the new character aesthetics as the came up in the episode rather that thrown at me all at once in a quick intro. That said, the intro looks/sounds great. I particularly like the first few seconds with the character-colored lights shooting out of the broken Beacon tower and flying towards their respective locations of the Remnant map. It's both cool, visually, and very informative about where they are now. I love that kind of thing. The music is nice, I guess it was appropriately themed on recovery after last years huge downfall-theme. And we all know how much they tend to deliver on their themes by the end of the season (looking at you, Yang!). Other than that, I'm really looking forward to seeing Blake's new crew; they looked fun.

I have to wonder when team RWBY will finally get back together, probably not until the very end of the season, or later. I'm not in a rush for that though. All 4 of them basically now have their own story going on and I hope that each and every one of them get fleshed out exactly as much as they should before re-uniting.