While RWBY Volume 4 by no means held up to the magnificence of the preceding Volume 3. It still manages to tell 2 great stories, the stories for Weiss and Yang. The other story, Blake's, was seemingly lacking in any substance, feeling more like filler because Blake needed to be in this volume. And until the end of the volume with the great backstory for Ren and Nora, the RNJR/Qrow story line was definitely lacking.Weiss' story is by far the best of the two good stories. It shows how after her experiences at Beacon, she no longer wishes to be a part of the high rise society that is the people of Atlas. Her relationship with Klein is touching, we finally get to see Weiss sing, something she hasn't done since the White Trailer, and her relationship with Jacques brings an added weight to what she said in volume 1 "I'm a victim".The other story that I personally liked was Yang's. Yang probably had the hardest time coping with the events of The Fall of Beacon. As she is the only member of Team RWBY to actually lose something, her arm. The first part of Yang's story shows that she is scared to move on from her past, because she developed PTSD. Then when she receives a robotic arm, she feels as though everyone is trying to get her back to "normal". She does eventually put on the arm after overhearing her fathers discussion with Port and Oobleck, feeling as though she's the reason Tai hasn't gone after Ruby. And the relationship we see between Tai and Yang is just phenomenal. There are two sides to the father spectrum in RWBY, Tai and Jacques, being polar opposites towards their respected daughters.Aside from the four main characters, the new villains are great. We don't really see much of Hazel or Dr. Watts, but that will change in Volume 5. But the real stars here are Tyrian and Salem. Salem is terrifying, every time she was on screen, I felt chills. You know you have a good villain if their mere presence is enough to send chills down your spine. And Tyrian was, in my opinion, comical. Every time I saw him, I knew that the scene was going to involve good old fashioned maniacal laughter, and not to mention that we finally get to see two trained Huntsmen go all out on each other, via the Qrow v Tyrian fight, was one of the most enjoyable parts of the volume.So while Volume 4 was not a masterpiece like Volume 3, it was still enjoyable seeing how Team RWBY all dealt with the Fall of Beacon, and still had plenty of great moments.My Score: 8/10

After the intensity and level of the previous volume, this one was a little disappointing. A lot has changed, and with the deaths of last volume, that was entirely expected. With everything going on, it just makes sense in how the characters took the turns that they did. Weiss, Ruby, and Blake all had strong stories (especially Weiss), but Yang's story felt a little weak. I'm not saying it was bad, but given everything that happened, and how little time is spent with her, that story just feels like it's missing something. Then there's the new villains. Most of them we still don't really know a lot about, but Tyrian gets some good screen time. He's a strong enough villain, especially as we watch his already damaged mental state worsen towards the end, but I almost feel like he was trying be a copy of a familiar Dark Knight villain. Oh, and there's Salem. She's intimidating, and obviously has some serious power, but I don't feel like she's a solid character yet. She's just there. Overall, this feels like too much story, though. We get a lot of exposition, and plenty of world-building, but with only 12 episodes, it felt a little too much. On top of that, the pacing took a hit. For a 2-hour volume, it felt a little longer. However, the backstory for Ren and Nora was great, and overall, the volume was good. I wouldn't say it's bad, and I wouldn't say it's the worst of the series so far, but it's definitely a step back from what made Volume 3 so great.

There was so much people loved about the original RWBY. The lighthearted feel, the lovable and realistic characters, the jokes, so much was lovable. Then, Volume 4 took over. Sure, stuff had happened in the months we missed because the team was too lazy, I mean because it ignored Ruby. Ruby turned from the cute, lovable, silly main character to just a bland person with PTSD. Nobody bothered developing Yang, they just said "she know has depression". Weiss' change was long but great, it should how she changed overtime. But they dumped so many characters. CFVY, Neptune, Adam, and plenty of others. I found no joke. Sure, Ren and Nora got a backstory, but they all changed. Jaune became a skilled fighter, Ren just got sad, and Nora was no longer the obsessive but cute with a dark side. She was just bland, like everything. The new outfits are bland. It's all bland. The action looked nice, but the scenes were bland. I know the characters aren't gonna die, so the fight scenes were the same as exposition scenes. Nothing sparked my interest. This isn't RWBY, this is blandness the anime.

This season made me want to drop RWBY altogether, it's so bad. It's a huge shift from how I originally felt, because you have no idea how excited I was for this season when last season ended. This season further showed one of my biggest problems with this series. There's no payoff. It just goes on and on and adds things and silently changes or gets rid of others. Anything that ends has a shitty abrupt conclusion(sup Torch and Neo), or things that should have one don't. CFVY was hyped all Volume 2, and they did basically nothing in Volume 3. What happened to them huh? Couldn't have had them help Yang clear her name when she got framed? I mean they did fight Mercury and Emerald and encountered his semblance. They just went like "Oh hey they noticed something fishy in their fight with Mercury too. Funny huh?" And that was it. What even happened with that Yang got framed plot element anyway? And they had team RWBY fight Cinder's crew in the openings of two volumes, and that fight never even happened! (I mean, in a serious way with stakes. Yang and Pyrrha fought Mercury but not in a life or death kind of situation. Pyrrha fought Cinder in a serious fight, but Pyrrha's not part of team RWBY, so technically not even a main character got to fight Cinder. Then Ruby hit her with a solar flare so that's not even a fight) They built Cinder's crew up for 2 whole seasons, destroyed Beacon, and now they're second banana to these new baddies we don't even know without even really fighting the main 4 characters. Anyway, this season feels like filler, and doesn't do anything fulfilling in it, because the "character development" sucks.