RWBY Volume 6 Intro: Breakdown and Analysis

Breakdown and Analysis:

The intro begins with the Volume 6 theme song, “Rising” (feat. Casey Lee Williams) by Jeff Williams and with some close up shots of Crescent Rose transforming from rifle to scythe. The camera then zooms out to a full body shot of Ruby as she swings her weapon. The camera slightly pans to the left then, Blake drops in from above, unsheathing her Gambol Shroud as she takes up a her fighting stance. The camera then pans to the right, focusing on Yang, who immediately goes into a fighting stance and activates her Ember Celica.

The camera then pans back to center as Weiss comes into the shot. She then spins as some ice dust appears from the tip of her Myrtenaster and then transitions to the a shot of the moon with the RWBY Volume 6 logo. The logo then disappears and part of the moon shatters. The shattered moon then fades out to a shot of the train station with Ren, Nora, Jaune, Oscar, and Qrow (who’s sleeping). Jaune’s shield then expands and knocks Oscar’s magazine on to Qrow’s face.

The camera then cuts to Ruby who is chasing Weiss aboard the Argus Limited. Both are very happy which shows that their friendship is growing stronger. The camera then briefly follows Ruby and Weiss until if focuses on Blake and Yang, who are seated at a table. Blake is smiling as Ruby and Weiss pass by while Yang is resting her head on her hand (see image above). As Yang turns her head to look outside the window the camera jump cuts to outside the train car. Then an image of Adam appears. Even though Blake and Yang’s relationship is still strained, their common hatred of Adam could be one thing that could help them restore their friendship. The camera then zooms out to a shot of the Argus Limited and the Alpine mountain landscape. A grimm then flies from the top left corner to the bottom right to act as a transition between the scenes. 

After that transition, we see Ruby and Qrow and then “Maz” appears. The camera then zooms in on “Maz’s” eyes and the cuts to Ruby and then zooms in on her silver eyes. This could mean that “Maz” has silver eyes! The shot then transitions to Qrow, who proceeds to take a swig from his flask and then is immediately grabbed by the arms of a grimm and is pulled into the darkness. We know Qrow loves his alcohol, but I hope it doesn’t develop into a larger problem that the team has to deal with. A bunch of red eyes then appear along with those grimm arms, which reach out to try and grab Ruby, who is able to fight them off.

The scene then transitions to a mystery woman in yellow robe with a brown hood walking in the rain down a street lined with shops. Jump cut to a medium shot of this mystery woman, who turns her head slightly as ROMAN TORCHWICK’S HAT FLIES BY!!!! Great Scott!! Who is she? Is that you Neo? Could this be Cinder? Definitely keep an eye on this mystery woman. Then the intro transitions to Adam, who has fallen out of favor with the White Fang and the Faunus of Menagerie. I think it looks more likely that he will join the ranks of Salem’s goons in order to achieve his goal: getting revenge against Blake. The intro then transitions to some shots of Hazel, Tyrian, Mercury, Emerald, and Dr. Watts followed by a transition to Salem, who is viewing her goons through a seer grimm, or what i like to call the Probe Droid Grimm. 

A cloud of aqua-blue smoke serves as a transition to the scene with a mystery blonde woman in a light blue and white dress standing in front of a statue of a man with a cane, who sort of reminds me of Prof. Ozpin. Another jump cut transitions to a shot of four men, the former forms of Prof. Ozpin. The camera zooms in towards the version of Ozpin from Volumes 1-3. The second form position to the left of Ozpin could possibly be that mysterious floating man from the Volume 6 trailer. If so, that clip from the trailer could be a flashback to a moment Ozpin’s past. As the camera finishes zooming in on Ozpin, he transforms into Oscar, who is then grabbed by Jaune and slammed up against a wall. Transition, to Qrow fighting against the new Sphinx from the Volume 6 poster aboard the Argus Limited.

The camera then jump cuts to the mystery woman in the yellow robe. It’s very dark in this shot, but if you look closely at this screenshot, her left arm is wrapped in bandages and she is using a very familiar sword. This sword resembles the same type that Cinder used in her fight with Raven. The intro uses another jump cut to Yang fighting off the new Manticore Grimm on the Argus Limited. As she fires off some rounds from her Ember Celica to help her knee slide underneath the Manticore Grimm, a jump cut transitions to Blake coming coming out of the Yang’s knee slide. Blake then unsheathes her Gambol Shroud and charges toward another Manticore Grimm. She jumps up, spins, and then goes into a mid-air back-flip. As Blake nears landing the back-flip, she transitions into Weiss, who sticks the landing and the uses one of her glyphs to propel her towards the grimm. After killing the grimm, she lays down a line of glyphs which helps her maintain her footing, the camera transitions to a high angle shot as Ruby comes into view charging towards the Sphinx grimm. The camera then changes to a lateral tracking shot as she continues her charge. Then Yang appears the her left, followed by Blake to her right, and finally Weiss right in front of her to assist her with some glyphs. Ruby uses the glyphs to gain some height to aid her attack as the camera transitions to a backwards tracking shot. Crescent Rose acts as a transition to a high angle shot of Weiss helping Ruby stand up. As the camera follows their movement, the rest of the gang (to the left of Weiss: Qrow, Yang, Ren, Nora, and “Maz”; to the right of Ruby: Blake, Jaune, and Oscar/Ozpin) can be seen in the background. All of them have very determined looks on their faces. The fact that Weiss and Ruby have their arms around each other shows the growing bond between the two characters, who have grown so much since they first met back in Volume 1.

Overall, the is probably the best intro I have seen in the whole series. The theme song is absolutely perfect, it shows how the team is rising up from the challenges they have encountered in order to take on the coming ones. The Intro also gives us some more questions and some hints for these questions. It shows us how much Ruby and Weiss' friendship has grown over the series while also addressing the strained friendship of Blake and Yang, who are still trying to work on restoring their bond.