DAMN YOU ROOSTER TEETH FOR EVERYTHING!
With that out of my chest, as the title suggested, spoilers ahead.
Volume 3 was at the same time the best and worse season of RWBY. The very first half with the tournament thing was cool to show off fights but had no story development for most part. Take team SSSN and NDGO fight for example: it had no other purpose than show off the characters created by fans in a contest, and was utterly unnecessary for the plot. Winter was a wasted character that barely helped to give Weiss some development and introduce Qrow. It's a problem when you put too many new characters when you have little time to develop them all.
Also, I hated the number of World of Remnant episodes and interruptions. It broke the flow of the show to add very little in the way of lore. We even get the tale of the Seasons told twice in the exact same manner only for RT to get some extra production time. I hope next Volume they just spend more time in pre-production instead of giving us what surmounts to disc extras like they were episodes.
I also didn't like much how they came from the funny side to the angst side so fast. This tonal shift felt it happened too fast. Also, they hate redheads considering they killed almost all of them. Honestly, why they didn't killed Cardin off (a character that was basically thrown away after volume 1) and let us keep Pyrrha?
That said, it was the best season in terms of plot development, since everything happened there. V1 and V2 served more to an introduction to the world, and now we probably will spend more time with plot development than world building, so I'm excited for Volume 4.
Now, about that ending…
Penny's 'death' probably will be the only one that can be reserved, though I'm pretty sure Penny won't have the memories from before if for nothing else just for a plot point. I think we might know more about who created her, why and especially how. I think she might have received a soul transfer from a dying person or something. If that is the case, it means no Penny backup and every new Penny would be different. Ruby will suffer a little more if that is the case.
Roman is dead. Good. RT already said in their podcast he was never supposed to have this big of a hole but became a fan favorite, but now is one less character to worry about. On the other hand, I wonder what that means for Neo, that is totally alive but now without her partner in crime. I'd like to see Neo helping the good guys now that she don't have anyone, it would be a nice plot seeing her trying to fix the shit Roman helped to create.
Pyrrha… WHYYYYYYYY? Sacrificing Pyrrha was a low blow, a plot device for Ruby Silver Eye Power to manifest. The way she died was weird, no corpse and such, so maybe, maybe they plan to bring her back, maybe Dark Pyrrha and making Jaune's love for her bring her back. But that would be predictable and I'd rather not see them resurrecting characters wily nily as it makes any death in the show lose any impact.
That of course will force Jaune have another character development, and I think we will have plenty more screen time next volume. I can see him trying too hard to become better as it was clear the reason Pyrrha tossed him in the locker was because she knew he had no chance of surviving with his current skills. I can see him throwing himself in training to the point of hurting himself, forcing Ruby and the rest of his team to try to get him out of it. And I hope this means a timely intervention by some member of his family to help him heal. I want to see his mother as I'm sure she is the badass of the family.
No Lancaster though. Not because I want Ruby to be with Weiss, but because I think it would be cheap if Jaune and she develop a romantic relationship. I think Jaune won't be interested in anyone for the entirety of Volume 4. I think though after he heals and we finally see his Semblance we might get to see him moving forward. Who knows, maybe we might get him and Neo, both having lost their redheaded partners get together? Or, since I'm week for it, maybe we can see our two favorite blondes get together? One can dream.
Yang needs to heal physically and mentally, and I think a confrontation with Raven will help her. Then Weiss will give her a badass prosthetic and the two will go after Blake. The Faunus girl probably ears Adam will keep coming at her and her friends, and that is why she is running away. I think Volume 4 will have one last confrontation with Adam and the reunited team RWBY will get hid of him, showing that them together are stronger than any single foe.
Mercury and Emerald are at lose, and depending on what really happened to Cinder, in trouble. Mercury is a jerk, so I think he'll keep working for whoever appear in Cinder's place if she dead, but Emerald already showed she might regret her choices. The only reason she worked for the villains was her troubled childhood and the promise of a better life, together with her love for Cinder. It's pretty much the kind of relationship Joker and Harley Quinn have, one of abuse and dependency, but if Cinder died she can overcome it. In the other hand, if Cinder reappear I fear Emerald could be sacrificed for their goals. Mercury can eat shit though, fuck him.
Ozpin is probably the Old Man, and Salem was one of the Maidens. After giving them powers they might realized it was a curse since people might have seek them non-stop for help, and that can be too much for them. Or accusing them of being witches (making the Salem reference more clear) and hunted them down in fear of their powers. Whatever the case, it's clear Salem has a personal vendetta against him, but that will barely be touched in V4. Only after she makes her big entrance we will know for sure.
Or they based her on the cat from Sabrina, I'm fine either way.
Anyway, I'm taking this week off writing to better let what happened in V3 sink in to plan ahead about my stories. I'm bad with dark themes and such, so I might just finish this story before volume 3 and write some AUs until V4.
Thanks for your understanding and support.
