Heroes and Monsters
"It's not what I have to gain, it's that I can't afford to lose!"
Written by Miles Luna, Monty Oum & Kerry Shawcross
Directed by Kerry Shawcross, Gray G. Haddock & Miles Luna
Directed by Kerry Shawcross, Gray G. Haddock & Miles Luna
"You got spirit, Red. But this is the real world! The real world is COLD! The real world doesn't care about spirit! You want to be a hero? Then play the part and die like every other Huntsman in history!"
— Roman Torchwick
On the airship, Ruby fights Roman and Neo, while Ironwood joins Glynda and Qrow on the battlefield below. As the students fight Atlesian Paladins, Blake confronts Adam in the school's cafeteria, leading to a showdown between Yang and Adam.
Meanwhile, in the secret vault, Ozpin, Jaune and Pyrrha attempt to transfer Amber's Aura to Pyrrha, but Cinder shows up before they can finish.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Autobots, Rock Out!: Velvet's fight scene is set to the rocking song, "I May Fall".
- Berserker Tears: If you pause just right, you can see tears forming in Yang's eyes as she gets enraged and attacks Adam.
- Big "NO!": Blake being stabbed causes Yang to instantly tap into her Semblance, before leaping at Adam while shrieking "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" in anguish.
- Bloodless Carnage: Yang's arm sparkles golden with her Aura, rather than bleeding profusely or showing bone. However, when Adam's advancing toward Yang afterward, he flicks his blade and something red can be briefly seen... but it's not clear whether it's from Blake's stab wound, or Yang's loss of an arm.
- Breaking Speech: Roman tries one on a relatively defenseless Ruby. It...doesn't go as planned.Roman: You've got spirit, Red, but this is the real world! The real world is cold! The real world doesn't care about spirit! You wanna be a hero? Then play the part and die like every other Huntsman in history! As for me, I'll do what I do best. Lie, steal, cheat, and survi—!
- Call-Back: There are several call-backs in this episode.
- Velvet mimics other people's weapons and fighting styles. As a result, almost every single attack she delivers is a call back to the original users at different times of the series (including nods to all 4 trailers and later volumes)
- When Adam severs Yang's arm, the scene slows down and blanks out for a moment, similar to when he destroyed the Spider Droid in the Black trailer.
- Finally, Weiss manages to summon part of the Knight that she fought in the White trailer, whose BFS was briefly seen in an earlier episode.
- The title of this episode is a reference back to Volume One, where Ruby affirms her motivations for being a Huntress to Blake by emulating the stories Yang read to her of "heroes and monsters". Her Shut Up, Hannibal! to Roman is also a reference to this.
- Chekhov's Skill: We finally get to see a landing strategy in action since its introduction in Volume One; allowing Ruby to safely land after jumping off the crashing battleship.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends on a dark note, with Adam slowly pursuing an injured Blake (who carries a maimed and unconscious Yang), and Cinder confronting Ozpin after slaying Amber and gaining the full powers of the Fall Maiden.
- Continuity Nod: Velvet took a picture of Ruby holding Crescent Rose last episode, and a few episodes before that she seemingly took a bad picture of Sun's butt. Turns out both were of their weapons so she could replicate them.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Adam makes short, brutal work of both Blake and Yang, and came within moments of killing them.
- Neo holds the upper hand throughout her fight with Ruby, but it quickly gets turned back at her when Ruby opens her parasol. The unarmed Ruby then gets thoroughly beaten by Torchwick.
- Die or Fly: Weiss finally manages to partially summon her Knight, out of desperation to protect Velvet.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The first time we ever see Roman show concern for someone other than himself is when Neo is sent flying off the airship. He also seems to become noticeably more merciless and angry after this happens.
- From Bad to Worse: Yet again, things have progressively gone more downhill. Blake is stabbed in the abdomen, Yang has lost her arm, and worst of all, Cinder has succeeded in killing Amber and now has all of the Fall Maiden's power.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Blake's torso isn't clearly seen after Adam stabs her there, making it ambiguous as to whether her Aura absorbed it and she was just pained, or if she was maimed like Yang was. Blake's abdomen is bandaged in the next episode, indicating that she was indeed stabbed.
- If I Can't Have You…: Adam creepily refers to Blake as "my darling" and "my love", and ultimately intends to make her suffer and die for betraying him. Finally when Blake stands between him and Yang despite her injured state, he complains of Blake "hurting him" and tries to kill them both.
- Ironic Last Words: Near the end of Roman's rant during his Villainous Breakdown about the futility of heroism, he says "As for me, I'll do what I do best. Lie, steal, cheat, and survive!" Seconds later, he gets Swallowed Whole by a griffon.
- Kick Them While They Are Down:
- Even though he's already defeated and disarmed her, Adam stabs Blake, just so she'd scream and get Yang's attention. After he beats Yang, he walks right up to Blake and attempts to decapitate her. Though it's only Blake's semblance image that was decapitated, Adam's intent was clear.
- Torchwick also beats on a downed and disarmed Ruby with his weapon as punctuation to his Breaking Speech.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Torchwick becomes Grimm chow right in the middle of his motive rant.
- Motive Rant: Roman delivers his to Ruby, which boils down to both a Hannibal Lecture and I Fight for the Strongest Side! justification.Roman: You're asking the wrong questions, Red. It's not about what I have to gain: it's about how I can't afford to lose! [one Curb-Stomp Battle later] I may be a gambling man, but even I know there's bets you just. Don't. Take. Like it or not, the people that hired me are going to change the world. You can't stop 'em, I can't stop 'em. You know the old saying. If you can't beat 'em—
- Offhand Backhand: When Adam slowly walks to pursue an injured Blake carrying an unconscious Yang, a Creep tries to jump on him, only to get sliced without Adam even bothering to look at it.
- Oh, Crap!:
- The moment Ruby opens Neo's parasol, the latter lets out a small gasp before getting carried off, followed by Roman shouting her name out of concern.
- Blake's reaction to hearing Yang call out for her, after Adam promised to destroy everything she cares about.
- Power Copy: Velvet's true ability, using it to copy and use the weapons of Team RWBY, Nora, Sun and Penny.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After Ruby forces Neo off the ship, she says she's going to stop him regardless of what he tries. Executing a volley of moves to regain the upper-hand, Roman points out to Ruby how dangerous Remnant is, people who try being heroic just get themselves killed, and the only thing Huntsmen do well is die young.
- The Reveal: After a whole volume of wondering, we finally get to see Velvet's abilities: she can create copies of other people's weapons and use them with just as much skill.
- Sedgwick Speech: Roman goes on a furious rant when he believes Ruby has been beaten. In his arrogance, he completely ignores the on-going battle and the numerous flying Grimm all around him. His speech is cut short when a large Grimm lands behind him and swallows him.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Ultimately, despite spending the better part of half a season agonizing over the idea of sacrificing her identity in order to save the world, Pyrrha never becomes the Fall Maiden, as Amber is killed during the middle of the power transfer by Cinder, who absorbs the rest of her power. Just to add salt to the wound, Ozpin tells her to get the rest of his posse, since she'll only get in the way now.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Ruby refutes Torchwick's Hannibal Lecture.Ruby: I don’t care what you say! We will stop them and I will stop you! BET ON THAT!
- Shut Up, Kirk!: How Roman reacts to that.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Part of Torchwick's Breaking Speech is that heroes don't exist, and people who try to be them just get killed. Ruby disagrees vehemently.
- Single-Stroke Battle: How the fight between Yang and Adam plays out. Adam wins.
- Smash to Black: Used to accompany the Last Note Nightmare to "Such Arrogance..."
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Used deliberately. The scenes between the failed power transfer and Adam's skirmish with Yang are juxtaposed with Such Arrogance...
, a chillingly ominous, but quiet and slow piano theme. It doesn't stop when Yang enters and demands Adam get away from Blake, nor when Yang screams and powers up. It somehow makes it clear before it happens that something immediate and horrible is about to happen to Yang. - Stab the Scorpion: Qrow does this for Ironwood, who tries to stop Qrow when he thinks Qrow is attacking him. Turns out, Qrow was just trying to cleave the Griffon about to attack Ironwood.
- Swallowed Whole: Happens to Roman just as he is finishing a rant to Ruby with a declaration that he'll always survive.
- Swipe Your Blade Off: When Adam cuts off Yang's arm, she lands on the ground unconscious. Adam casually flicks the blood from his sword as he strolls towards her.
- This Is Gonna Suck: After struggling to take down the Paladins, yet another one with unique red markings charges at the students. Sun sums everyone's reactions up.Sun: [Beat] You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!!
- Took a Level in Badass: The Atlesian Paladins have come a long way from their prototype forms in Volume 2. Three of them are able to give several allied teams the fight of their lives, even with Velvet and Weiss taking out two of them.
- Transformation Is a Free Action: Double Subverted, Jaune actually tries to attack Cinder while she's powering up, but gets blasted away for his troubles.
- Why Did You Make Me Hit You?:Adam: Why do you hurt me, Blake? [attempts to decapitate her]
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Ruby manages to destroy the airship that was being used to control Ironwoods militia, thus deactivating all of the robots and mechs attacking the Huntsmen. Unfortunately though, Cinder is still able to complete her ultimate plan and kill Amber to absorb the rest of her power.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
- Torchwick's exasperation to finding out that Ruby (of all people) has boarded his hijacked cruiser.
- Sun says this outright when he sees what's implied to be an even more powerful Atlesian Paladin charging at them.
- You Shall Not Pass!: While Pyrrha and Jaune run to get help, Ozpin intends to hold the line against Cinder.
"This whole time... right beneath our feet. She was right about you. Such arrogance."
