RWBY, Volume 3… Yeah, let’s just get this over with. It may have upset some people but, none of that matters, right now. The only thing that does matter is… How Evil is Volume 3?

First off, let’s review a little. Cinder and company infiltrated Beacon, and hacked the computer system; Juan is currently being trained by Pyrrha, who has feeling for him; and Penny is a robot, who will attend the tournament. Okay, those are the ones that matter most, right now and you’ll find out why during the summary.

The volume begins where you would expect – Team RWBY fighting in the tournament. They, of course, win their first round, and go out to celebrate, quickly learning that Weiss’s daddy issues are bad… really bad. Almost costing them their meal, bad. Pyrrha saves the day, and Team JNPR heads to their first round, which they also win.

After the fight, a ship belonging to Winter – Weiss’s older sister – arrives, and Ruby’s uncle crow greets her with the business end of his weapon. After a short, but glorious fight, James and Ozpin break it up. They meet in Ozpin’s office, where James unwittingly helps Cinder hack into the Tournament lineup, giving her control of the entire thing.

Next up, the tournament has shifted into half-team battles, and Cinder’s team is up. After a rather terrifying display of skill and stealth, they win without getting hit. Meanwhile, Winter is trying to get Weiss to master her Glyphs, which would let her recreate her most dangerous opponents as summons.

Back at the tournament, Penny single handedly wipes out a team and is greeted by Ruby. After a brief talk, the next battle begins. Weiss and Yang vs. a musician and a roller-skate girl? After a sacrificial act from Weiss, Yang manages to win the fight. Soon after, Cinder discovers Penny’s secret. We get a little backstory about beings called Maidens, who are literally godlike in power… yeah so that happened. Pyrrha has been chosen to safe guard what’s left of the Fall Maiden’s power. Oh, and there is a huge underground area beneath the school, where the comatose maiden now sleeps.

Back to the tournament. Yang vs Mercury. The fight is brutal but Yang pulls of a win… or does she? When Yang is walking away, Mercury seemingly attacks her so she hits back. Just one thing. The audience saw her hit a helpless opponent, so she’s kicked out of the tournament. This prompts Ruby to investigate. During the announcement of the next match, she finds Mercury completely fine, walking around in a restricted area and he is not happy. The would-be fight is interrupted by the next fight’s announcement Penny vs Pyrrha.

The fight goes as badly as you might expect. Using her magnetic powers, and lacking the knowledge that Penny’s a machine, Pyrrha accidentally rips the lovable robot to shreds in front of the audience. So yeah. She’s good and dead. For now, anyway. Pyrrha and Ruby are devastated. It’s a good thing negative emotions don’t attract… oh. Well, crap. An army of Grim attack the arena, and to make matters worse, one of them is a dragoon that spawns more Grim. It gets even better. The White fang transport Grim to Beacon using airships, and Roman takes over James’s capital ship, wiping out most of the supporting fleet.

Ruby boards the capital ship and faces Roman and Neo. She manages to beat Neo, and Roman gets eaten by a Grim… Dang it that’s two of my favorites gone. Cinder retrieves the remaining Fall Maiden powers and battles Ozpin while Pyrrha and Juan run for it. Cinder is then spotted by Pyrrha, heading to Ozpin’s office. Blake runs into Adam and he straight up stabs her, attracting Yang to the fray. After a rather disarming move, Blake escapes with Yang. Pyrrha faces Cinder in Ozpin’s office and is vaporized before Ruby’s eyes. Okay, the mentor figured died… that’s not cliché or anything. Ruby wakes up at home and is told her eyes somehow froze the dragon… I can’t make this up. We also see Weiss going home and Blake skulking about.

Okay, rating time. Where do I Begin? The story telling hit a high in volume two with everything going on and then this happened. Roman who is arguably the most stylish enemy in this series gets eaten by a giant bird after mopping the floor with Ruby. That’s a bit anticlimatic, by itself. They killed off the mentor figure. Pyrrha and Juan had an awesome chemistry going on. His skills from volume 1 til now increased greatly.  My question, though, is why did she have to die? Answer possibility: He needed her to die to give him a reason to get stronger. My Answer: Bull. She was his love interest he would grow stronger just to be even with her.  Now to Penny. She’s a robot I’m sure she can be rebuilt. Didn’t Yang suffer enough with the tournament? Did she need to lose an arm?
Well, those are my gripes. Oh. And Ruby’s eyes. Um… well that… happened.

Now to talk about what I liked. I think we all knew Beacon would be destroyed. I mean it’s in the songs, but I never expected how bad it would be. The Maidens lore, while feeling a little forced, added more of a fantasy element to the series and gave me a lot more questions than answers. Overall they added a lot more things that I like than dislike and some of it was well written. So I would say that Volume 3 is about as evil as a Henchman.
 I will be reviewing Volume 4 when it is finally out on Blu-ray. If Volume 4 rectifies my problems with Volume 3, maybe I’ll change my overall rating. After all, that’s happened before with other series… it’s rare, but it has happened. We shall see. Anyway, thanks for letting me waste your time, people.

Keep It Classy,
Evil Bob

Rating System