Of Runaways and Stowaways
"My hero!"
Written by Miles Luna & Kerry Shawcross
Directed by Kerry Shawcross, Gray G. Haddock & Miles Luna
Directed by Kerry Shawcross, Gray G. Haddock & Miles Luna
"Well, not many people travel by boat on their own. It can be quite a lonely voyage. But I found those that do tend to have the more... interesting stories."
— The Captain
On her way to Menagerie, Blake meets up with an old friend.
Back at home, Yang deals with the aftermath of her injury.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Artificial Limbs: Taiyang informs Yang that, without even being asked, Ironwood has commissioned a state-of-the-art cybernetic limb to replace Yang's lost arm. Although Taiyang tries to show it to her, Yang is unable to even look at it. The arm remains in its packaging, rejected.
- Boom, Headshot!: When Blake and Sun distract the marine Grimm against several sea stacks, the ship they're travelling on is able to ram the creature and blow off the entire upper half of its body with its main cannon.
- Breath Weapon: The sea Grimm takes the form of an eastern dragon and can create an attack that is fired from its mouth. The attack takes the form of a blast of lightning.
- Call-Back: When Blake calls out Sun's hypocrisy on saying she should've stayed with her team, he mentions this isn't the first time he's left his team to take a boat somewhere. He also alludes to Neptune's fear of water by pointing out there's no way he'd be able to get Neptune onto a ship anyway.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: While fighting a sea serpent Grimm that's bigger than any Grimm the ship crew has seen, Sun flirts with Blake and Blake is more interested in trying to find out why Sun has shown up than in the actual Grimm they're fighting.
- Clip Its Wings: The serpent Grimm is beaten by having Blake damage its wings to hamper its mobility, allowing the ship's main cannon to get a clean shot.
- Cool Old Guy: The captain spots that Blake is travelling alone and attempts to get her to open up, observing that a long ship journey is not a good experience for people who travel alone. When the sea Grimm shows up, the crew observe they've never fought anything so big. The captain rallies his crew, comes up with a plan for defeating the Grimm and manages to coordinate his crew, his ship and two huntsmen (Blake and Sun) all without losing either his patience or his cool.
- Evil Is Bigger: Blake's ship is attacked by a giant sea dragon Grimm. A crew member states they've never encountered a Grimm of that size before and the captain observes that never seen one of that size. The captain organises the plan that defeats the Grimm, rather than Blake or Sun figuring out what to do, and Sun uses the experience as a spring board for pointing out that things are now too dangerous in Remnant for anyone (such as Blake) to be travelling alone.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Blake deliberately takes off her bow and lets it blow away with the wind into the water. She observes she won't be needing it any more. In the past, she was wearing it because she didn't want anyone to know she was a faunus and she mentions to Sun that the bow allows her to be a criminal that is hiding in plain sight. Later on, she tells Sun that she's travelling to Menagerie, the continent that the Faunus have historically been forced by humanity to make its own.
- Falling into His Arms: When Blake and Sun fight a marine Grimm together, Sun is knocked down from a great height. Blake rushes forward and catches him in her arms just in time. He jokingly calls her his hero whereupon she dumps him on the ground like he's a sack of potatoes. Later on during the same fight, she is the one who falls from a great height and Sun returns the favour by catching her in the same way.
- Hypocrite: When Sun confronts Blake about abandoning her team, she accuses him of doing the same. He defends himself by claiming that he sent his team home by airship while he takes the longer route by sea, so that he can help Blake; he also points out that Neptune's hydrophobia means it's not possible for Neptune to travel by ship.
- I Resemble That Remark!: When the captain says that Blake is being paranoid, she snaps back at him that she isn't paranoid in a defensive, alarmed tone. He just laughs it off and leaves her alone, but the message is clear.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The ship impales the sea Grimm on its prow to pin it against a sea stack. This allows it to use its main cannon to blow the head off.
- In the Hood: A mysterious figure in a brown hooded robe follows Blake around the ship. When the sea Grimm attacks, the hooded cloak comes off revealing Sun, who rushes in to help Blake fight.
- Motive Misidentification: Sun thinks that Blake took off on her own so she could deal with the White Fang personally, because of all the things the Fang did to Beacon and her friends. In reality Blake is so broken by what's happened that she's avoiding the White Fang entirely and just wants to go home to Menagerie.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The Sea Monster Grimm takes on the serpentine form of an eastern dragon. It hides wings in its body that can pop out to allow it to fly through the air. It also shoots lightning attacks from its mouth.
- Seers: The jellyfish Grimm is called a Seer. Although Salem's group is not in Vale, the Seer Grimm is capable of organising the Grimm that are based in Vale, allowing Salem to keep tabs on her forces, no matter what the distance between them may be.
- Sea Monster: The huge serpentine Grimm that attacks the ship; it appears to take the form of an eastern Dragon and is far larger than anything the crew members have ever encountered.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran:
- After Adam's promise to destroy everything Blake loves, Blake is isolated, frightened and extremely paranoid. She doesn't want to talk to anyone, she's suspicious of the motives of anyone trying to strike up a conversation with her, and she gets jumpy even when children are playing nearby.
- Yang is lingering at home, spending her days watching television and doing household chores. She's depressed and uninterested, and cannot stomach accepting the gift of a replacement limb from Ironwood. When she drops a glass, she has a flashback to her encounter with Adam and freaks out, strongly implying she's suffering from PTSD.
- Shock and Awe: The marine Grimm is capable of creating a ball of electricity in its mouth that it can blast at any target.
- Ship Tease: Sun outright flirts with Blake during their fight with the serpent Grimm. Blake alternates between smiling and getting angry at his antics.
- Spoiler Opening: The fact that the figure in black following Blake around the ship was Sun was heavily hinted due to his presence in the title sequence.
- Tempting Fate: The captain tells Blake that such voyages tend to be extremely boring. Naturally, a giant lightning-breathing sea monster Grimm ensues, though the captain and his crew clearly did enjoy the resulting fight.
- Your Television Hates You: Yang has shut herself away at home in the aftermath of the fall of Beacon, the loss of her team and what Adam did to her arm. When she starts flicking through channels, every single channel is talking about the fall of Beacon and the consequences for communications and travel. The last channel she flicks onto, catches her attention immediately and shockingly; it is showing a picture of Adam as the newsreader comments on confirmation that Adam Taurus was leading the White Fang charge into Beacon. This identifies to her the person who cut off her arm.
"What are you planning?"
