I’ve come to the realization I’ve been on the world wide
interwebs for quite a while now and I’ve lived through the drastic changes it’s
undergone over the years. Hey I was there when Myspace was top of the world and
Facebook was a small website that people in business and work used similar to
LinkedIn. It makes me feel pretty old but also pretty nostalgic to the parts of
the internet I first experienced. As a long time passionate lover of film, TV,
Animation and just story telling in any shape or form as well as a bonafide
Video Gamer you can probably imagine where my first steps were on the internet
besides FunBrain/MathBrain and other educational sites I visited because of
school. (FunBrain was the best hands down, anyone remember that? It’s so
different now.)
Youtube and GameSpot were big go tos in my early Internet
days and through there I discovered a whole load of content creators that I’ve
followed till this day. A lot of the content actually was fan films and animations
regarding Video Games, like Machinima movies which I believe I discovered
through GameSpot’s videos before Youtube. Through GameSpot and then Youtube my
eyes were opened to a new form of entertainment. I actually even attempted to
make some myself back in the day even though I didn’t have any kind of screen
capture software all I had was a camera. Finally that leads me into the main
point of the blog. One Machinima by the name of Haloid would introduce me to a
man by the name of Monty Oum. Yeah Haloid was basically a Machinima with some
external animation added in (I’m not even sure if it counts as Machinima) and
it had Samus going up against Master Chief with a very, very strange ending.
Monty Oum got pretty popular for this and would go on to start up his Dead
Fantasy series which was a animated fan series featuring Final Fantasy
characters mixed with Dead or Alive characters, which became a favorite of mine
but it would be quite a while before I heard of Monty Oum again. Due to his
work on Dead Fantasy and Haloid he met up with Burnie Burns (CEO and Co-Founder
of Roosterteeth) during a San Diego Comic-Con panel in 2009 after working on
Afro Samurai for Namco Bandai and Monty soon began working at Rooster Teeth on
the Halo Machinima Series Red VS Blue. (Which I followed quite avidly as well
back then and recently caught up on so that’ll be a future blog in itself)
With this new opportunity Monty brought to the table a
concept he had for years before, an original animation series idea by the name
of RWBY, which launched July 18th, 2013.
Not sure how
many of you know about RWBY it’s hit pretty big lately and I’ve been following
it from the beginning with it becoming a huge favorite of mine. Monty put his
already extensive background in animation to work alongside completely original
ideas inspired by fairytales and folklore from both western and eastern
cultures, this fairy tale inspiration is evident in the names and original trailers
of the 4 main characters, which I’ll touch on in a moment. RWBY is a online 3D
CGI Animated series that airs on Rooster Teeth’s website and Youtube channel
and began production in 2012 with a trailer releasing November 2012 after the
credit’s of the Season 10 Finale of Red VS Blue.
RWBY takes place in the world of Remnant, a futuristic-fantasy
world where fairy tales clash with awesome futuristic technology. Technology in
this world is run by a natural energy called Dust which has four basic forms
based on the four elements, Fire, Wind, Air and Earth. Dust can also be
grounded down and is also a high theft target.
Technology also comes in the form of weapons which the
people of this world use to protect themselves and others from the creatures of
Grimm who come in many destructive forms and lack a soul. These protectors
train at different academies and call themselves hunters and huntresses,
usually forming teams.
These Huntresses and Huntsman can also use their Aura, which
is one’s inner energy and activate their Semblance. Each Semblance is unique
and all have their different uses in combat.
Four trailers were released for the four main characters who
act as a central protagonist. Each trailer introduced you to the characters and
slowly the world they lived in with Monty’s awesome animation.
Ruby Rose is for the most part the CENTRAL protagonist and
the leader of Team RWBY. Obviously based on Little Red Riding Hood as
noticeable by her outfit Ruby uses a pretty badass scythe named Crescent Rose
to smite Grimm, oh yeah it’s also a gun. (Sniper Rifle) In the first trailer
dubbed “Red” it’s mostly just her fighting against Grimm with her weapon but in
the series Ruby is portrayed as a 15 year old girl with a passion for becoming
a huntsman due to her romanticized view of the Huntsman and Huntresses which
stems from the fairy tales she read growing up. While not anti-social Ruby can
be a tad bit awkward towards strangers and has the most adorable and awesome
voice ever thanks to Lindsay Jones who voices her in the original English
version.
With her Semblance of Speed (And Rose Petals, I’m not sure
where she keeps all the Rose Petals but they sure do fly when she fights) Ruby
shows amazing prowess in being a huntress to the point she’s able to skip her
last two years at Signal Academy to attend Beacon Academy, the top school in
the Kingdom of Vale for training teams of Huntsmen and Huntresses. Also Ruby
loves chocolate chip cookies, so much she eats them whole. (I’m not sure if
that was an animation defect or what but it always cracks me up.) Basically she’s
a cinnamon roll who can kick your butt, beware.
Weiss Schnee (Voiced by Kara Eberle) was the next character
to be revealed by the trailer “White”. Weiss is the 17 year old heiress of the
Schnee Dust Company, because of this she can be a bit stuck up but is confident
in her abilities and is a loyal friend once you break through her almost cold
exterior. Her weapon is a Rapier named Myrtenaster that can use multiple
elements of dust for different attacks, which is pretty incredible. Her Semblance
allows her to create glyphs to alter her environment during combat as well as
some other awesome things that would be spoilers to future seasons if I were to
mention it in this blog. Have to say out of the four Weiss was the one
character I didn’t really like in the beginning but keep watching she goes
through some great character development as the season goes on and it’ll make
you rethink your thoughts on her.
Blake Belladonna was revealed in the “Black” trailer as a 17
year old girl of mystery. I really cannot say much on her character in this
blog she has some big secrets in that mellow and quiet exterior of hers. All I
can say is pay attention to the bow. She fights using Gambol Shroud which I
actually have a hard time explaining it’s one of the crazier weapons (Okay a
Scythe Gun is pretty crazy I won’t lie.) it’s a multi piece sword that folds
into a sickle as well as having the ability to duel wield by using the sword
and sheath separately, though their connected by an extending ribbon. Oh yeah,
it’s also a gun, which is a running theme in this show. Her semblance allows
her to create shadow Duplicates of herself. The Black trailer actually reveals
some details that the show doesn’t touch on until later seasons.
Finally Yang Xiao Long, the 17 year old badass, gauntlet
wearing and master of puns herself voiced by Barbara Dunkleman (Who is also a
master of puns, I’m pretty sure Yang is just an animated version of Barbara.)
Unlike the other three Yang’s attacks rely more on close combat rather than
guns or swords. She wields Ember Celica a duel pair of gauntlets that increase
her fisticuff powers and fires shotgun like attacks. Yang’s semblance basically
takes everything thrown at her back at the opponent in an explosion. Her hair
and eyes change color making her seem Super Saiyan like. Oh yeah Yang is also
the big sister of Ruby. Yup despite the hair coloring these two are related, at
least by their father anyway. Yang is pretty excited to have her sister attend
school with her. Just never touch her hair; you’ll pretty much end up dead.
These four make up Team RWBY and many other characters are
introduced throughout this season such as Juan, Ren, Pyrrah and Nora who make
up team JNPR as well as being the second set of main characters. This is pretty
much what Season 1 is all about, setting up the characters and location and
giving some hints at the plot to come. I have to say the characters they do
introduce are all extremely memorable which makes it hard to pick a favorite. The
antagonist title of Season 1 falls mostly to Roman Torchwick who makes his
appearance in the first Episode and the initial trailers. Despite his gentleman
appearance this man is a ruthless criminal who loves to taunt his enemies. He
likes to make himself appear to be the one in charge of the corrupted actions
occuring Kindgom of Vale but perhaps something or someone more is behind this
man’s actions.
Back to the initial trailers another strong point for this
show I believe lies in it’s music and how it plays into the plot. Each trailer
revealed a dedicated theme song for each character and as we got deeper into
the story I never realized how many hints towards the future were placed in the
awesome songs written and composed by Jeff Williams and mostly vocalized by his daughter Casey Williams. (Which I always thought was awesome)
While this season made me fall in love and stick with the
show for years to come it did have its flaws, the animation wasn’t flawless
with a lot of the background characters being black silhouettes but I really
enjoyed the 3D Anime like animation and artwork. (Which actually got the show
popular in Japan, funny enough.) The episodes were quite short as well, with most
Episodes only lasting 5 minutes but In a way this left me hungry for more so
maybe it wasn’t too bad looking back on it. The Episodes became much longer in
the later seasons. I can’t really think of any other flaws that are even worth
mentioning, I really truly love this show and the plot and characters that have
evolved over these past few years. Monty went from making great animations to
making an incredibly vast storyline that has stretched on beyond his years.
That brings me to the sad note of this blog, while I wasn’t
running a blog at the time of his death this blog is in tribute to that awesome
man and his work. He died back in September 2015 due to an allergic reaction to
a routine medical procedure that rendered him comatose. His work and story in
RWBY have been a big inspiration for me and my own writing so it was sad to
hear of his passing. As a late tribute of sorts as well as hype up Volume 5 I’ll
be doing 3 more blogs discussing the rest of the seasons.
Anyway Season 1 of RWBY while short really kicks things off
and with Monty’s awesome dance inspired fight animations, animations in
general, a expansive world with a mysterious lore, amazing character designs
and personalities and the development Team RWBY goes through as they learn to
live with each other at Beacon make this show a must watch in my opinion if you’re
a fan of Anime or sci-fi/fantasy or just a good action animation with a great
story to follow. It’s amazing to think how big this show has become for being
just a web animation with even my local 2nd and Charles selling RWBY
Merchandise. (Which I discovered in this vlog a few months ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CsLHcUhKzs) If you haven’t
checked this show out yet you can through Rooster Teeth’s website and their
Youtube channel for FREE here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sGiE10zNQM
Speaking of RWBY Volume 5… They’ve just released another new
character trailer, one for Blake which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTJzFCebdvQ . I’ll talk more
about Volume 5 when it draws closer. (Which isn’t that far away but I don’t
want to spoil Seasons 1-4 on this blog.)
So with that all said and done it’s that time again, time
for the FREE Knitting Pattern feature! This pattern is completely unrelated
from RWBY (Sadly there aren’t any RWBY Knitting Patterns) but it’s an
incredible pattern nonetheless. This is “Butterflies are Free” by Yvette
Noel.
Oh my lord this is colorworks heaven, these are just pure
gorgeous. I’m not sure how difficult this will be, probably really difficult
from the looks of things due to a lot of swapping between colors but it’s
absolutely worth doing! You’ll need fingering weight sock yarn in two colors
you wish and 2.5 MM Circular needles for magic loop colorworks on the body and
2.25 MM needles for magic loop on the heel and toes. This uses a chart so be
sure to keep track and maybe stitch markers will be useful to you as well. This
may be one of the most difficult looking yet gorgeous patterns I’ve featured
yet so be sure to check it out at: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/butterflies-are-free-5. Be sure to check out Yvette’s patterns on
her Ravelry she’s got even more awesome patterns that are probably easier then
this.
This was ZAK Entertainment
See you on Friday!
Big announcement regarding future blog scheduling this
Friday be sure to read it! It’s not bad, just a bit of a change.
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