Hm, considering some people were outright roasting the finale I didn't find it to be that bad. I think what most people are upset about is that the end of Vol. 5 didn't feel like an ending similar to the ones from previous volumes. All of the other 4 we were left with a big sense of expectation for what would be coming in next year's volume, but this one... All we can expect is 'oo, field trip to Atlas'. There's no real sense of what the objective is there other than bringing the Lamp there. (Nice reference to Egyptian mythology btw, the Lamp of Knowledge and all that)
To explain myself further, there's no guarantee that we'll see a resolution to the Schnee family power struggle that's going to end up happening here, how to get into the Kingdom now that their borders are closed, how General Ironwood will react to them all coming, or what element of Salem's followers will be in Atlas to oppose them from accessing the Relic there. We can make assumptions that Jacque will likely make a tremendously stupid deal with Watts to overthrow Ironwood as head of the Atlas council so that he can re-open the borders because he's a greedy bastard, I can even see our protagonist crew being seen as fugitives for entering Atlas illegally and being hunted by Ironwood and/or Winter before things shift to try and take care of Jacque. Not to mention what part Whitley or perhaps finally Mrs. Schnee will play during this whole coming volume.
Also, holy fuck did the villainous and protagonist groups get neutered here in Vol. 5. Qrow was next to useless in that whole ordeal against Hazel, Ren did nothing but get beat around, there was absolutely no real sense of a fight involving Emerald, Mercury, Ruby or Yang, and Adam... well, I don't think I need to say much about THAT disappointment. There is more that I could go on about but there's little need to. This show has to step up next volume in a lot of ways, because there are a ton of flaws that have both been there since the beginning of the series, as well as many that have become apparent since Monty passed after Vol. 2.
...Now with the negative stuff out of the way, let's get to the positive part of this finale episode. That exchange between Yang and Raven was probably the best acted thing out of this show and RT in general in a VERY long time. Perhaps the way to go with this series is to make it more drama rather than action-oriented, because that worked very well. Lastly the stinger at the end of Taiyang seeing Raven's feature could mean we have a talk coming that's been long in the making, or it could mean Raven just portaled to him to get away and nothing comes of it.
Those two swings in expectation I feel define my thoughts on the volume and for the future in that it still has promise in one direction, or it could end up meaning nothing and be a complete waste of one's time to focus on. I guess we'll end up seeing what happens this October, but I think I'll be giving it the standard anime treatment this time with a 3 episode trial. If Vol. 6 hooks me back in, than I'll watch it weekly. If not, I'll just wait until it's finished about this time in Jan./Feb. 2019 and binge it than.
Originally Posted by Elf
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