Broadcasts from Remnant - Anticipating RWBY Volume 7
Thank god RWBY is starting up again. Based on what we have so far, here are some random thoughts about Volume 7 before it starts.
1 - Atlas
Of course the big headline this volume is that we've now arrived in Atlas. I'll be interested to see if our heroes set up a new base there and stay for a while or if the plan is to just grab the next relic and leave. Personally I hope we stay in Atlas for a good long while to break up all the travelling, as fun as a good old fashioned quest to get to a place can be. Speaking of which, I also hope they keep the airship they stole at the end of Volume 6 and make it their personal mode of transportation around Remnant to speed things up a little. Obviously it can break down or get stolen from them whenever the writers want to do a walking volume, but still, it'd be a cool thing to have. It could be like Team RWBY's Millennium Falcon, a ship that can become iconic to the series and feel like a home away from home for the characters.
I know my predictions for Team SSSN and Team ABRN cameos in Mistral didn't come true, but I'm still going to mention the potential for a Team FNKI cameo in Atlas. It would be a nice callback and a chance to introduce the other two members of the team alongside Flynt Coal and Neon Katt. Even if they didn't show up as part of the plot, it'd make total sense to have them walking around in the background as a fun easter egg.
2 - Killing Salem
The most surprising thing I got from the trailer was there might be a way to kill Salem. When you think about it, it might not be that impossible. When Ozma asked Jinn how to defeat Salem, Jinn said "You can't." That might not mean Salem is immortal, just that Ozma can't be the one to kill her, forcing him to use his network of pawns, most obviously Team RWBY, to do it for him. After all, exact wording is a big deal when it comes to Genies.
Whether or not there's a way to kill her, I do think Salem and Team RWBY should meet face-to-face soon. The big final boss fight will mean a lot more if the characters have a personal connection with each other, rather than Team RWBY only ever interacting with Salem's henchmen. Right now, Salem knows about Ruby Rose as the girl who defeated Cinder, but does she even know or care about Weiss, Blake, and Yang? The end of Volume 6 did imply Salem would be wading into battle herself, so maybe Volume 7 is when we'll get their first face-to-face confrontation.
3 - New Costumes
So, those new costumes huh. My favourites right now are Ruby's, Blake's, Yang's, and Ren's, which all feel like natural evolutions. Nora's is also pretty good though it's a bigger jump - away from playful and slightly punky towards standard badass Huntress. Jaune's might potentially be good but the hair is giving me problems. Blake's hair has changed too but it's much less drastic. Animated faces are obviously less detailed than real faces so the main way you recognise a character is through shape and colour; head shape, hair shape, and body shape in conjunction with skin colour, eye colour, and hair colour. Changing the hair on an animated character is therefore a REALLY deal and if he wasn't wearing basically the same armour I'd have no idea who he was supposed to be. The other new design is Weiss', which is fine but I don't really like the white being overwhelmed by blue.
To be honest I think a lot of these designs are too complicated and would benefit from having less lines - less belts, less buckles, less patterns. The more simple something is the easier it sticks in the mind, and some of these are just too complex for me to remember without checking. It's the same reason why I'm not sold on Oscar's new outfit either. It has too much going on, with the bright boots drawing the eye to the bottom of the character, the huge stack of belts drawing the eye to the middle, and the injection of dark red contrasting the light green on the shoulders drawing the eye to the top. It's too much visual information. With Ruby Rose, the star of the show has always been the red hood, and her other clothes are usually black so the hood stands out. Nice, clean, simple. The other thing about Oscar's new outfit is there's nothing that says farmboy or wizard in there, just generic Huntsman, so it doesn't really reflect his character. Farmboys and wizards are both generally thought of as wearing simple, practical clothes, and there's nothing practical about having three belts. Personally I would've kept Oscar's original design but just subtly nudged it towards Ozpin's silhouette, maybe by putting a dark jacket over it.
Overall, my favourite costume evolution in the show is Jaune's. His colour scheme and style has always been consistent but he's been slowly moved away from bumbling idiot and towards competent warrior with the addition of gold accents to his armour. Those accents came from Pyrrha, who was the one who made him a more competent warrior in the first place, linking the costume design to his character development. Continuing this development may lead to the new hair actually being a great decision that's perfectly in-keeping with this new more mature Jaune. But for right now, I'm just not sure.
That's all for now. In a year without Doctor Who or really anything to watch week to week, I can't wait for RWBY to return. I might do a mid-series post going into some theories as things develop.