ANALYSIS : RWBY Train Fight 

Okay, yeah, now I _really_ miss pre-summoning Weiss

Neo is definitely the Tai Lee of the RWBY series

I remember seeing a post about how Yang struggles against opponents that specialize in kicks...but I don’t think that’s accurate. More over she struggles against opponents who specialize in pissing her off😂

i love when characters just grab their enemy and body them onto the ground, it's the most satisfying thing in any fighting media.

You forgot how Neo's dropkick breaking the 180 rule creates the illusion of the camera spinning around, because we see her starting the kick, then there's a camera change, then the kick connects, so it makes the audience feel disoriented like Yang, but in a way that doesn't actually confuse them

Yang vs Neo is the fight that got me into RWBY. A friend showed me it because they knew I like Zoning and counter tactics and I loved the fight. Neo dodging and never letting Yang get too close to her and always reacting to anything Yang did which would lead to her next move. Yang throwing punches to try and hit her and close the distance is so fun to watch. Along with the fluidity and constant action speed of the fight made me want to see RWBY.

9:50 Opening the umbrella also limits Yang's vision. In 10:04 for example Yang probably can't see Neo at all, which is probably part of her strategy to make Yang mad.

The next one should be the number one fight in the show.....the food fight between team rwby and team jnpr🥖🍔🍗🍟🍕🌭🧃

Tell me why I never realized that neo changes her eye color before her fight with yang

The most disappointing thing about this fight for me was how Roman was nerfed. In his fight against Sun and Blake, he had no trouble being able to deflect and counter all their hits, until Blake attacked right after sun. Yet here Blake defeated him so easily. Still these fights are awesome, even though Weiss makes some questionable decisions I still enjoy her fight, and her rapid hits with time dilation is my favorite moment of all these fights.

Sweet! Now do the food fight!!

Unpopular opinion: I LOVE the weiss fight scene, I think it could've been executed WAY better but imo it also shows her elegant fighting style

I am very late to this vid, but I notice Neo is constantly in an exaggerated cat stance. Basically, a cat stance means you keep most of your weight on one foot, and the other ready to kick and act as a counterweight. Suits her style perfectly.

Ok, ~ Weiss thoughts~ I think it still doesn’t make sense that she lets chainsaw dude stand up because he says he’s trying to kill her, BUT I think she does this because Beacon-arc Weiss is all about form and finesse and dueling-focused. (Remember in early V1 when Weiss corrects her form and waits for perfect timing aloud and then gets mad at Ruby for just going in and killing the grimm first?) I think the writers are intentionally showing that she’s immature as a fighter, relying too much on strategy and trying to perfectly execute moves (all these spin attacks look practiced/rehearsed, like she’s stringing together combos) almost like she expects someone’s behind her grading and critiquing her technique, which is why her fighting is confusing and doesn’t make sense even though she’s talented and has some cool moves. So although I think it’s partially allowing Blake to have her moment confronting Torchwick from a writing standpoint, I think that Weiss’s focus on dueling instead of fighting to win is what causes her to lose despite starting from an advantage in speed and skill, as well as having Blake’s parry create an opening early in the fight. I interpret the shots of her smiling as her knowing she is better and giving her opponent a chance to stand up so she can show off, like in a duel, not a fight to the death. Which is why I think when she gets grabbed by the face she’s terrified and thrown off to the point she can’t recover. I think this gets better for her as she gains experience and confidence in later volumes. Wow, didn’t mean to write an essay here, but I think this fight highlights especially for Weiss and Yang the weaknesses in their fighting styles that they are forced to work on in later volumes.

I think the reason noone talks about the fights in 1-3 in any critical sense is because they are FUN and good to watch. Volumes 4-(i'd even say)7 are just not fun to watch. The camera work is shoddy, the action is never as fun paced, the characters use their weapons (like you said) as if they either weigh a tonne or weigh nothing. The Raven vs Cinder fight for example, I do like it but I think the most annoying flaw (FOR ME) is how the weapons don't have impact. The two swords sound like two scrap metal bars pinging off eachother. The absolute force and speed R and C are clashing at should have alot more oomph to them. I do love when the song kicks in and we get those slow-mo shots of Raven having fun and being an expert fighter. Also I do like your theory about the time dilation thing because the characters already move fast, sounds legit. But the "canon" reason is that after the time dilation ends the character is afflicted by a massive slow down in their own movements. Overall, the characters in volumes 1-3 completely nailed "rule of cool" in which all of their fights (well, most and those were Monty animations) were flawlessly cool. Yes you ripped into Weiss's fight but it doesn't change the fact that we got to see Weiss's style. Shes very flexible herself, she is able to take full control of her own bodies centre of gravity while dealing decent strikes and thrusts with her rapier. Unfortunately it's an animation style that none of the animators have managed to copy which is why nobody likes watching Weiss fight anymore, because she's shit without Monty. The Winter style on the other hand is slightly different, in that she is far more efficient in slashing rather than thrusting which is far easier to animate for general animators. The train fight showcases incredible animation and how different the three girls fight to eachother, and it is a lost art. Noone will ever put that much effort into that fight choreo again, and this is why nobody goes into actual in-depth talks about it because when you watch these fights, you are having fun and you are in awe at this. Loved this review though and I hope to see more because listening to your analysis on different scenes on a tech level is very enoyable.

I think the way they could have made Weiss’s fight better is if they changed Weiss’s attitude in the fight to something similar to Neo’s attitude. He made the comment about killing a Schnee. If she had the attitude of superiority over this random thug, it could have looked like she was taunting him the way Neo did, with the only difference was that she underestimated her opponent, which her overconfidence would be her undoing, whereas Neo was watching Yang and studying her. Making sure to keep control of the fight. Weiss’s moves looked similar to dancing of sorts and that motif probably would have looked better for someone showing-off, rather than someone overly serious.

WHEEE! 20:08 I Died! XD Wonderful review of this fight, I am super hyped to see more of these! I feel like Wiess's fight was a "well, we need someone for Weiss to fight" issue. Banesaw has a real "villain of the week" feel, and never comes back again. If I want to be charitable, maybe this is playing off her "noble confidence" arc, with her moves more designed to style on this terrorist than beat him? This is the first time she actually fights the White Fang on camera (Roman in the Paladin doesn't really count), so perhaps a bit of that Schnee snootiness gets the better of her, resulting in a loss that... never gets brought up again for reasons. Look, I admit it's a stretch, but at least it can kind of fit, right? Anyway, can't wait for the next video, keep up the awesome work!

18:24 have the writers forgot that Blake can do stuff like that.

Yeah, the Yang vs. Neo fight is still one of my top favorites in the show, nice to see it analyzed in depth!

Ah yes...back when RWBY was just dumb fun, where hitting a dog with a blunt object, setting it on fire and launching it like a rocket would not earn you a visit from the ASPCA.

I feel the move Neo made on Yang is possible, it's just you need to be flexible and strong enough to make it. IDK, maybe it's not possible. Weiss really needs her time dilation in some fights like use it as a combo against Salem or a very strong Grimm. Neo also should have this style back against Yang if they did a rematch but at the same time we see Yang counter Neo's style and lands hits or any stun to be able to defeat Neo as a result of Tai's training.

Neo: oh your approaching me? Instead of running away you choose to come closer? Yang: I can't beat the shit out of you without getting closer. Neo: Oh, then by all means come as close as you like. Everything is a Jojo's reference.

Do Mercury vs Yang from V3 which is imo one the most underrated fights in the whole series.

I think for most of the fights that makes me like them. It’s the music. I liked the Raven/Cinder fight when the music picks up. “This is the end! Here’s where you die!”

10:04 Neo is literally doing that move where the big dude puts him hand on the little dude's head to distance him. God I love Old Neo.

I will still never understand the weiss and banesaw fight like they really embarassed her like that

FRICK, I just LOVE your analysis videos as well as your sister's!

Neo vs Yang is my second favorite fight on the show after Blake and Sun vs Torchwick

Do more of this! It was interesting to see a breakdown of every angle and cut to see how much all these things impact the fight and viewing experience compared to normal speed

i wish Raven lived up to her awesome intro at the end of the train scene. This was a good video. I hope there's more, I'm curious to see you analyze post-monty fights. I never realized how off Weiss's fight with the bane guy was, i was always too mesmerized by her twirlig flips. It'd be interesting to see you do a video on the Pyrrha vs Cinder fight.

it would be really cool to see your top 10 best and top 10 worst RWBY fights! i love seeing your opinions on these things

I love you content but THIS made me subscribe. It's the one thing about the series people aren't discussing, what with all the recent volume(s) drama, and I am completely obsessed with it! A fight's choreography can do more storytelling and character development than an entire season run, and I'm pretty sure if I look hard enough I can pull up a solid piece of evidence :/

I think my favourite part of Neo’s fighting style is using her opponents momentum against them~ which makes sense because she is tiny~

I was today years old when I realized Neos' eyes switched colors after she blinked... HOW DID I MISS THIS

I find it really cool a video that make a deep analysis of the fight in RWBY. Amazing job as always.

Oh my god this was so amazing and interesting, i really want more. Maybe the yellow trailer could be fun to analyze?

Torchwick isn’t that bad at fighting, he clapped Ruby before he died to plot armor

I really liked the analysis! Thanks my guy!

This might be one of my favorite videos of yours so far. Great analysis!! I love more in depth stuff like this

I think Wei's is doing the noble gentlemen rules of a fight where you weight for the opponent to be ready and don't cheat

Well... at least Neo remembered social distancing.

PLEASE do this with more of the fights of this series! I adore some of the fights from this show and im trying to learn animation (including fight animations) and this is so helpful!!!!!!

My favourite part of the Blake versus Roman fight was when Roman tries to talk Blake down and then Blake has none of it and kicks him in the side of the head , that's like the only strike in the whole show that actually feels real

It's one of the greatest fight sequences in the show. I miss those days.

Thank you so much for this video. I grow tired of people not talking about the deep nuances of the fights and simply offering shallow non-constructive anecdotes about them and never touch on the technique and strategies the characters use in their combat. Please please more videos like this :)))

This is such a great video! I love this fight, and your commentary was really good.

Since I’m a fan of Weiss because of her fighting style and weapon of choice, I’ll try my best to explain why she does the unnecessary twirls. 1. She does it to do more force into it. - Since her weapon is usually fast, twirling around can gather more force. 2. She does it to confuse enemies. - Reacting to fast movements in a short amount of time is hard to do, so when Weiss’s twirls not only she confuses the enemy but also imply that her back is not exposed. Not making her just a person who just stands. 3. Twirling gives you more options to choose and keeps the enemy guessing. - If the enemy did react quick enough of her twirl there are a lot of moves Weiss can do (Gather force and hit, Preparing to parry the opponent, Using momentum to get her in positions of the fight, etc.) 4. To assert dominance - This is more of a joke but what this is what I thought (the other was also my opinion why Weiss do the twirls) but she does it to unintentionally toy with the enemy cause doing unnecessary movements while you’re getting hit and thrown to the ground enrages the enemy.

0:05 Personally, I actually love that fight. And song is really awesome too. It's literally the only reason I watch Volume 5 at all for rewatches

I loved this! It's so great to see someone break down every individual shot and analyse why it does or doesn't work. It's an incredible level of insight I didn't think anyone would work so hard to give, so I'm beyond thrilled that you did it! It was fantastic, and I love that I now I understand WHY some of these incredibly iconic shots landed so well. And hot damn does it make me MISS Weiss' old fighting style.

Love your vids! Keep it up :D

This is one of my most favorite fight of all volumes. I could gush about it for hours.

I have to disagree with your comment on the 180 camera change with the Weiss scene, I feel as though having that POV switch actually emphasized her weapon more, it put focus on the sword while also adding to the impactful blow that comes right after. The latter being a similar technique done with Neo's fight with yang, the change in POV helped make the hit look heavier like it can actually bring down these giant opponents.

Your analysis videos are amazing! The fights are neat but you walking us through them is more interesting than the story for me.

This is something I've been trying to do myself. Break down the fights I love to see what I like, what can be done better, and what works. As someone who wants to animate fights eventually (in my never so present free time) I want to know good practices and techniques before spewing out a poor result

I like how Weiss is set up to be killed (the guy wants to “kill a Schnee”, has her set up to be cut in half) but the scene cuts away and the next time we see them Weiss is just.. alive for some reason. It’s for plot reasons obviously but it’s still funny.

That weiss landing you complained about was for me at least a nice shot. It conveyed the elegance of her landing and the backflip that followed afterwards.

I love how in depth this is snd this one of my fave fights in the whole show i wish weiss will use yime dialation stain

I miss Roman even when he's out classed he's still so fun to watch

I really love this I hope you do more

Neo vs Yang on the Train is remains one of my top favorite fights in RWBY to this day. Everything about it is just so satisfying to watch, especially because Neo's fighting style is just so beautiful. I love how she toys around with Yang, while also making sure not to damage Yang too much until the end so that she can't use it against her. Also Neo's just like super cool

I want to see more reviews like this!

Weiss vs Banesaw became a little more interesting to me after hearing your analysis and seeing her mentality in the Bunta Kinami manga where she says that as a Schnee she needs a "perfect partner", Weiss's fight could have been displaying a character flaw like overconfidence or being to focused on being flashy and perfect which made her scene more erratic than it needed to be. Your assessment has her scene as a bad example of cinematography, and I agree with that and am not trying to disagree; I am basically asking if doing something like the weird camera work on purpose could help establish character personalities or is useful in any way? Weiss's actions in the fight itself just make her seem overconfident and being overly meticulous on her attacks, which seemed to be related to her main character flaw in the early show.

please do another fight analysis 😩 maybe one from a newer volume to show how things have changed since volume 2. this is probably my favorite video you’ve done and the type of rwby content i’ve been looking for!!

This fight makes me wonder how it would go if Neo fought a dedicated grappler; as Weiss vs the Lieutenant proves, a serious counter to quick and evasive opponents is the use of command grabs, and seeing how fighter as agile as Neo handles that threat would be really interesting

Please make more of these analysis videos!!!

I didn't know I needed these, but I need them.

i love this plz do more

Her saying “wee” is kinda cute

I just thought of something that would have been cool Velvet and Yang having planned sparring matches so Yang can get used to different sorts of fighting styles like Neo's Like what Phyrra and Jaune did Velvet's semblance allows her to mimic other's movements, and she made her camera weapon to copy their weapons - surely she's studied all sorts of fighting styles with different weapons Maybe she's copied the weapon and skill set of very agile people like Neo? And then she could help Yang with going up against smol, agile, flippy kicky people?

Finally, I get to kill a Schnee

Neo has always had my favorite design, personality, and fighting style. Nice to see a break down of that

Really hoping to see more of these, as a bit-by-bit breakdown of the RWBY fights isn't something we see. This is very unique, and the way you speak about the compositions and shots really shows us that you know what you're talking about! Honestly, though, I do wonder what you think of some of the later Volume fights, as from the looks of it, you don't seem to like them too much. Or at least, not key moments of them.

how a character fights shows a lot of, not only their personality, but also the animator's grasp of that personality. have you considered doing an analysis of comparing the evolution of a specific character's fight scene in vol1-3 vs. vol4-8? (for example, neo's fight here vs. her fight with cinder later?)

11:24 Yoooooo I hope somebody makes fan animations of these match ups, they actually sound kinda interesting!

Okay I have a lot to say but drunk me + ADHD.... I can't figure everything out I want to say right nowww. This was wonderful. The fight scenes are a favorite part for me and hearing someone else talk about it is so fun even if I don't fully agree ugh. Gets my mind working lol 💙 Keep posting pleaseee

I BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE TURN IT UP

I really wish they’d had time to really build up Neo more. Imagine if her eye color switching was implied to give her different powers or style based on which eye is which, but it was just Neo forking with everybody.

Awesome video

Remember when Weiss was mobile and capable fighter? Pepperidge farm remembers

Maybe Weiss was watching to make sure Blake got out safely?

I love this can you do them for more RWBY fights?

I just binged watched RWBY when I first started watching it and now I want to do it all over again.

I would love to see a fight analysis on torchwick v sun and Blake. Torchwick was a phenomenal fighter which combined with his wit made him my favorite character. In every fight he’s in he rarely takes more than one or two hits (I’m excluding the paladin fight, it wasn’t really “him” fighting), and those are always due to something unexpected happening, or when he gets caught monologuing. My favorite example is the fight at the docks; he holds his own agains two dual wielding opponents, only getting hit by cheeky shots from someone butting in. Literally sun came at him with a gunchuck rush and torchwick parried *everything.* There’s also the fact he sniped ruby from probably over a hundred yards with little more that the stability of his arm and a crosshair on a monocle six feet from his face. I dunno what the streets were like for a crime boss to need to fight like that, but I’m sad that he bounced right off Ruby’s plot armor.

at 26:00 i don't think Yang is recoiling to evade i think she is just off balance after putting too much into that throw, just another example of Yang thoughtlessly going for big swings only for it to leave her wide open for punishment. Also just shows Yang's boxing style, she would be slugger, someone who relies on big swings and power to knock their opponents out. Sluggers are also know to struggle against "out-boxers" or people who evade blows and capitalize on mistakes, which is exactly what Neo does the whole fight. Another fun boxing tidbit, is Sluggers beat out swarmers and that's kinda how Weiss' fight plays out. She tries to flood the fight mindlessly with as many small strikes as she can only to come up short to Banesaw's stamina and get hit by his big swings.

4 months later and not another fight analysis? I'd love to see this become a series

Time Dilation among other things in RWBY's early seasons are things Monty definitely took from his work with Dead Fantasy. There are many times when looking over Monty's portfolio where its clear Monty likes to revist concepts he either enjoyed or wanted to redo. Time Dilation is definitely something he liked from Dead Fantasy, a lot of Wiess Glyths are just magic from Dead Fantasy really. Penny's fight style was also something he probably pulled from his unfinished 6th fight animation with Kairi/Namine fight. On Red Vs Blue I believe the Falling to the Sky segment was a revisit of the falling segment of Dead Fantasy 2, at least in setting.

I like to rationalize weiss's performance in that she's still mostly used to "proper" fighting. She's giving her opponent time to recover because that's what high society sparring does. She makes unnecessarily flashy moves that are kind of dumb because she was trained to fight in that showy way, and it's worked out for her so far. It's kind of like a martial artist getting mugged and not thinking of going for the eyes or nuts, because even though you *know* there are no rules in this fight, your muscle memory still acts like there are. It could've been done *WAY* better, but if this was the intention of the fight then it works on paper.

6:00 You could say that with a lot with other reviewers, it's only how pretty the colors are, aka how good is the sakuga.

Any else noticed that Yang's Two punch and knee combo was the exact same as Washington's in his Fight with Texas?

6:41 I never noticed that Neo's eyes changes color here TWICE

Sigh I miss the old fight choreography...so brilliant

I think I have a possible explanation in regards to the backshot with Weiss at 12:14. This is a merely guess mind you Critter. But my guess is that they did the camera shot right there to show Weiss winding up as it quickly changes camera afterwards in which we see Weiss deliver a fierce uppercut to emphasize the impact of the attack. That's my guess anyways.

I would love to see a similar analysis of the Mercury vs Yang fight of V3

12: 40 Is confusing also because weiss isn't wielding a weapon that take advantages of that sudden camera changes? Like, with a rapier you would want to get fast strikes that don't wind up as much

So Haste is a spell in both Final Fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons, and many other fantasy magic systems. That's what people are saying Time Dilation "rips off". It's not copyright, it's a speed up effect. A lot of systems in multiple forms of media have this

One thing is sure the animators did an amazing job with this fight

That scene before Oobleck hits Zwei, our little doggo buddy looks back at him as if saying "I want join in too, Let's do this Doc!!" Type of thing

Yooo it would be sick to see this for other works of montys, esp any of the dead fantasy fights 👀 But love the analysis! Really makes ya wish there were more actual martial art consultants for rwby 😭

Showing the Raven vs Cinder fight is saddening since we are currently seeing one of the best fights in RWBY while also seeing an attempt at making that kind of fight in modern RWBY It really makes me sad

2021 and we're talking about fights that happened in like 2015!