#another grimm has elected episode

[grimmmeow]

Grimm has elected... short mediocre stories!!!

I don't write often since I set my standards too high and ger frustrated when I don't meet them, so I started a collection of short fics that aren't meant to be good, but are just meant to exist. For no other purpose than to write it and practice writing.

1. Bug Watching

Yugo peered down at the bug, watching it wander through the long blades of damp grass. Despite it being a game, the bug looked so realistic, as though an entire team had worked on this one singular texture, or as if they had taken an actual bug and placed it in the game. Even the grass seemed realistic. Yugo could still see drops of water clinging to each [synonym for blade of grass or smthn] of nature.

Behind him, Yugo could hear one of his companions approaching. The lack of a metal clang made it sure to Yugo that it couldn’t have been Yuto, and if it were Yuya Yugo was sure he would have already said something, leaving only Yuri to be the person approaching from behind. It also might have helped that Yuri and Yugo were the only two ones deep in the field biome, meaning they were the only ones who had avatars close enough to talk.

After a moment of staring at Yugo’s avatar, Yuri spoke. “What are you doing?”

Yugo responded. “Looking at this bug. It looks just like the real Red-Colored Beetle.”

“I was wondering why you went silent, I thought maybe you were lagging, but you were just staring at a bug? Just kill it already! I want to finish this quest so we can get back to Yuya and Yuto.”

“You don’t get it!” Yugo whined, pouting at Yuri’s words. He probably couldn’t even kill the bug, it’s hit boxes were too small.

“You’re right, I don’t,” Yuri deadpanned.

And with the sound of footsteps trailing off behind him, Yugo released his crouch and followed Yuri across the field.

[radiantmists]

serious question: why isn’t ghira part of ozpin’s inner circle?

like, I guess you could argue that only the huntsman academies were relevant to the whole relic thing, not the government, but since the academies were being established at the same time as menagerie was, that’s not precisely an excuse, because why not have an academy on menagerie? as i’ve said, having four schools to hide four relics seems like an advertisement of where they were, and founding a fifth school would have added an element of confusion that might have thrown salem off for even longer. also, given that menagerie is (reportedly) infested with grimm, it makes sense to have a locus of hunters there.

moreover, if the headmasters also had the function of allowing ozpin to know and guide world politics to head off any of salem’s attempts to destabilize the world, the chieftain of menagerie ought to have been just as important a contact. and ghira is (supposedly) demonstrably committed to peaceful activism in the pursuit of unity, the exact sort of person ozpin would want on his side. maybe he avoids holders of elected positions because they change so often and he can’t influence their selection, but again, the fact that menagerie was the only major power he didnt ensure had some sort of advisory government position who could be in the know still makes this kinda sketch.

the role the faunus played in the great war is kinda unclear-- it must have been big for them to get menagerie, and they were their own force in at least one major campaign based on oobleck’s history class, though. based on the world of remnant episode it seems likely they supported the vale/vacuo side, given that the issues with mantle/mistral’s treatment of them were one of the tensions that led up to the war, so theoretically they should have been negotiating from a position of strength.

but it was oz as the king of vale who we’re told got to basically dictate the terms of the vytal treaty, and apparently what he dictated was the creation of menagerie on an island so hostile that it was likely expected to kill anyone who lived there, and a some kind of toothless requirement for legal equality for the faunus that didn’t stop any of the abuses that characters like ilia or adam faced.

maybe he couldn’t have stopped all faunus racism, but there’s also a hell of a lot more he could have done. especially the whole treatment of menagerie in the treaty really reads like he gave the smallest concession that would allow him to feel good about how he’d treated the faunus, and then completely dismissed them from thought; they aren’t even included in his grand plan to teach people to protect themselves from the grimm.

relatedly, something that I have seen talked about: why doesn’t menagerie have a CCT? like, maybe it wasn’t stable enough when the system was established, but having more seems like it could only help, however ‘poetic’ ozpin finds the engineering nightmare that is the whole internet going down if one tower fails. it’s just another example of how the faunus are just totally excluded from any of ozpin’s efforts to unify the world.

the modern faunus of rwby live under a society that at best doesn’t care about their struggles, a society that uses the grimm as justification for refusing to confront any issues with itself because resentment and conflict bring the grimm, and oz is the in-world founder of that society. from a watsonian perspective, there’s very little interpretation other than that he’s a racist-- probably an unconscious one, true, but one who over literally a century has shown minimal care for improving the situation of the faunus, the kind who plays lip service to being fair while in actuality treating minorities as an afterthought and making no real effort to ensure they’re not left behind.

This is especially absurd given that one of his theoretical goals is to unite people. If we’re being less charitable, it’s mildly plausible that ozpin doesn’t think of the faunus as part of the humanity that he’s been told to unite, and that in establishing menagerie he’s consciously left them to fend for themselves against salem. We don’t have any evidence that he’s ever been reincarnated as a faunus, and he literally predates their species, so it’s not unimaginable that he would view them as fundamentally separate from his version of humanity. i don’t think this was the intended reading but there isn’t actually that much to contradict it in his behavior.

Obviously from a doylist perspective, the reason for all this is that the writers are the kind of people who pay lip service to justice while in actuality treating minorities as an afterthought and making no real effort to ensure they’re not left behind, so when they were making oz create his ideal world as the king of vale, oz who’s supposed to be a paragon of virtue (if not perfect, at least fundamentally good), they didn’t bother to have him include the faunus in it. also the lore seems to have been reverse engineering the modern world they already had to a certain extent, so they were building on a flawed foundation.

I don’t know what the conclusion is here, I’ve just been thinking about racism in rwby and this was one expression of it that I haven’t seen commented on much.

[remnantoforario]

Unmerry Men AKA The Problem With Robyn Hill

I’ve been sitting on this rant for a while. I’m sure there are people who have talked this topic to death since Volume 7 ended, and did a much better job than I am about to, but I still feel the need to throw my hat in the ring (or shoot my arrow at the target given the subject matter) and say definitively and without question: that Robyn Hill is a terrible character. 

Get some snacks. This is going to be a long one. 

Let me preface this rant by saying I don’t hate Robyn HIll...in CONCEPT. That last word is very important. 

The idea behind her character is a sound one: Atlas is characterized as a country with a VERY clear disparity between the rich (Atlas)

and the poor (Mantle)

So it makes perfect sense that there would be a Robin Hood (see what I did there) type character that would bridge this gap between the two and seek to make things equal, or at least a little less lopsided. As an idea this is great, but the problem (as with most everything in RWBY) is in the execution. 

Outside of Forrest extolling her praises in the back of a cop car in Chapter 2, the first time we see Robyn is when she stops Clover, Ruby, Qrow, and Penny from reaching the Amity tower site. 

During this introduction, she tries to coerce Clover into disclosing classified government information via her Semblance, and Penny has to expose her ambush tactics. Not the best first impression.

Now in a vacuum, this scene isn’t really that bad. Thanks to (clunky) exposition, we are already aware that there is friction between the military and the Happy Huntresses. As such it makes sense that we the audience first meet Robyn as an antagonistic force against RWBY and their allies.

The thing with this though is that all four of the writers of this volume forgot to lift the perception of Robyn being an antagonist until around the final third of the volume. Objectively, there is no reason anyone outside of her own group to want to trust or follow her. 

The M,K,K, & E are trying to position Ironwood and Robyn in the roles of the Sherriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood respectively. The main problem with this is that they fail to establish Ironwood as a tyrannical threat on par with the Sherriff. 

Does he make questionable decisions? Certainly. Are his choices morally wrong? In some cases, yes. But they are more often than not written in a way where the choices he makes are OBJECTIVELY best for everyone (even if they try to frame it otherwise). 

Closing the borders, hiding the Amity plan, diverting resources to FINISH said plan, and his other tactics (while at times misguided) were done in order to protect as many people as he could from Salem and her forces. They were all calculated risks that clearly took a mental and emotional toll on him. He’s a severely broken man trying to keep whatever he has left from falling apart, but everyone is working against him (including his own allies but that’s another story). 

This brings me back to Robyn. She is hailed as the “Hometown Hero of Mantle”, but all we ever do is see her take shots at Ironwood and Jacques and talk about how much the former ISN’T helping Mantle. My question to her, her hardcore cans, and CRWBY is “What has Robyn done to help Mantle?”. RWBYJNR and various talking heads mention how Robyn is helping the people of Mantle, but because the volume (seemed) so rushed to get to Salem’s arrival, we never see her doing anything that’s not directly tied to the plot. 

She’s not working on Mantle’s wall, she’s not in the streets talking to people, handing out medical supplies, giving away food, or anything that actively helps Mantle. We don’t even see her fight Grimm in the streets until the FINAL episodes of the volume. All she and her group do is actively antagonize the military and steal (which we never see them give to the poor). For someone hailed as the town’s hero, she doesn’t seem to really be doing anything to earn that title.   

After the election night massacre, she openly declares war on Ironwood essentially and begins stealing resources needed for the Amity project, until she is ultimately stopped by Blake and Yang. 

Now in theory I have no problem with Yang and Blake telling her about the Amity plan; my main hang up about it is that Robyn has done nothing to earn this trust. 

Until this point Robyn has been getting in their way as they try to reestablish global communications, but now they suddenly feel comfortable telling this sensitive information to a complete stranger and risking a leak even when they KNOW Tyrian is in the city? Instead of telling her that, why not tell her about Tyrian instead? I’m sure she would want justice for the people he killed. 

Then she is later invited to the Council meeting (despite not being a member) and made aware of classified information that she shouldn’t know of, as well as make a complete ass of herself and show why she probably shouldn’t have won in the first place. 

This leads to her finally believing Ironwood, but eventually that gets tossed out the window at the end of the volume where her actions almost directly lead to Clover’s death.  

As she, Qrow, and Clover are transporting Tyrian back to Atlas, Ironwood’s order to arrest RWBYJNRQO is issued. Now there are three things that are very important to keep in mind here after this order is issued: 

1. Clover is clearly conflicted about following this order. 

2. Qrow is calmly trying to talk things out. 

3. Robyn is NOT under arrest. 

Let me repeat that. ROBYN IS NOT UNDER ARREST.

So as Qrow is level headedly suggesting they all talk it out, Robyn (who again is NOT under arrest) starts a fight that results in Tyrian escaping his restraints, the plane going down (after Tyrian kills the pilot and co-pilot), Robyn herself being unconscious, and Clover being ultimately being murdered. 

Now tell me after all the information is presented, why we are supposed to care for this character? What have the writers done to position her as someone we should invest in? 

A lot of her accomplishments are told to us rather than shown, and whenever we do see her onscreen she’s mostly a nuisance that makes pretty much any situation she’s in worse. Yes, I know this is just one volume and she will obviously be a central character in V8 and possibly 9, but the damage has been done. Any attempt to salvage her will just be cleaning up the fall out from V7. 

Now since I’m not one of those people that likes to complain for the sake of it, I’ll voice my opinion on how Robyn could have been written better. 

The first thing we do is distance her from the Happy Huntresses. She will still be the leader, but that information won’t be revealed until AFTER the election. It’s not really a good look for a vigilante to try and run for a public office if they are still breaking the law. That’s like Bruce Wayne running for mayor of Gotham AS Batman (though the people would likely still vote for him). 

So as far as the public (including Ironwood and RWBYJNRQO) are concerned, Robyn is a normal Mantle city official and Joanna Greenleaf is the leader of the Huntresses. For those of you who don’t remember who she is (and I don’t blame you), this is Joanna Greenleaf: 

The second thing I’m going to do is give her a more established connection to Ironwood. My idea? Former military. Robyn was once a part of the Atlas military’s intelligence and recon division because of her lie detecting semblance. When she discovers corruption within the system (lets say something having to do with Faunus, the mines, Mantle, or the SDC) she exposes it but quickly becomes disillusioned with military life and is discharged. She then begins living in Mantle and becomes their representative. We can say this happened maybe five to ten years before the series itself starts. 

She served under Ironwood and has a deep respect for him, but does not agree with his decisions as defacto head of the Council. This is what leads to the friction between them. 

Next, we change up how she and the Huntresses are introduced in V7. When RWBYJNRQO arrive in Mantle the election race has only barely begun (we’re pushing it back). We see posters for Robyn and maybe hear snippets of an interview she is giving to a news station on one of the TVs. 

When the Grimm attack, instead of RWBYJNRQO running out to help immediately, they are cut off by the Happy Huntresses who quickly get rid of the monsters. Ruby and the others wonder who they are before the Huntresses scatter when Penny and the Ace-Ops arrive. The heroes are still arrested for stealing an airship and violating Atlas airspace (as they should have), but now there is some intrigue about who that group of women were. 

Forrest still gives his exposition, but leaves out Robyn because no one knows she’s their leader. 

When the gang arrive at the school they meet with Ironwood and Winter, but hear Ironwood complaining about “that woman” after having just finished a call on his scroll. 

Fast forward to the mine mission. Instead of Jacques showing up, this is where we gets their first full appearance from Robyn. She is brought via airship to the mine (along with an exasperated Winter and Penny) and begins to badger Ironwood about ducking their meeting, stating that Mantle still hasn’t received the supplies he promised days ago. You could also have her briefly greet the kids and Qrow before going back to argue with Ironwood. 

Things proceed as normal, but inbetween some of the bigger story events we see news reports of Robyn helping people around Mantle. Feeding the poor, cheering up the miners, handing out supplies, giving speeches, and other things to show that she really is the hero of the people. Not everything has to be directly tied to the plot, you can use extra devices like tv news and the like to expand on characters. They tried this in V7 but they didn’t go far enough with in my opinion. This would inform us more on Robyn’s character without her being the direct focus as well as give the audience an actual reason to get behind the things she says. 

The main aspect of Robyn’s character that I would focus on would be her relationship with Ironwood. Nothing romantic, just how their ideologies align (or don’t) and how they view each other. They respect one another. Robyn knows Ironwood is a good man, but she doesn’t fully understand why he’s doing the things that he is doing. She doesn’t know why he’s being so secretive. She wants to give him a chance, but he keeps denying her. 

On Ironwood’s part he knows that morally Robyn is in the right and genuinely wants to help everyone in both cities, but his paranoia will not allow him to simply tell her what is really going on. Salem’s reach is far and if she was able to turn Lionheart (one of Ozpin’s closest confidants) then she can get to anyone and that is frightening. 

This is why Robyn utilizes the Happy Huntresses. They are able to move outside the law and do the things she can’t (similar to Jim Gordon and Batman). She doesn’t want to condemn Ironwood because of all the good he’s done, but people are suffering and something needs to change.

Neither are wrong, but they can’t find common ground.  

I’d position Robyn more as a fringe type of character. She doesn’t directly intervene in the plot, but you know she’s always there bidding her time until she can be more prominent.

I have more ideas for her, but this post is long enough as it is so let’s just end it here. 

TLDR; Robyn Hill is a good character concept with horrible execution. Hopefully she will be somewhat better utilized in future volumes, or kill her off at the start of V8. At this point I’m good with either. 

[real-jaune-isms]

RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 11 Review/Remix

Not the most action packed chapter we’ve ever had, and certainly not as dramatic as Chapter 11s from past Volumes. But this week had some wonderful surprises and existential dread and depression in equal measure and I think that’s a formula for a pretty damn good watch.

Despite the devastating energy bomb Oscar delivered last episode, we open with the city of Atlas overrun with tons of Grimm. The people are still hiding in the subway, fearing for their lives twice over now that Ironwood’s monologue is playing and showing just how off his rocker he is. Those in the crater mines take it far worse, though we see some of the humans and faunus who had previously seemed on edge with each other holding one another in solidarity and comfort. Fiona breaks down in tears and is pulled into a Happy Huntress group hug by Joanna and May, so it’s a small comfort to see they’re all still alive.

Ironwood and Winter walk the halls of Atlas command together, and Winter can’t help but notice the fearful reverence the general’s presence instills in lesser officers. The Ace Ops are talking things over in the wake of their boss’ ultimatum, and Elm is of the belief that Ironwood was just bluffing about nuking Mantle if he doesn’t get what he wants. Vine agrees it may very well be the kick in the pants Team RWBY and the others will need to finally see the right path, but we the audience are getting pretty sick of hearing this shtick. Marrow thinks Ironwood is taking this too far, and Harriet is just angrily indifferent about the whole thing. Ironwood rounds the corner and addresses the squad with their new orders: get some drones ready to drop the bomb. Winter asks why exactly they need to actually make those kind of preparations, and he makes it clear that he really does intend to remove Mantle from the equation if he is prompted to. He actually thinks committing this massacre, nay genocide, will make Penny more willing to return to his command if she no longer has an alternative job. No, dumbass, she’ll only want to defy and even kill you more! This is how he believes they will save Atlas, but Marrow has had more than enough and calls him on his shit for a line like that. All this is doing is helping Salem in her mission to divide and destroy the world, and it’s spitting in the face of everything Marrow thought the Atlas military stood for. Harriet threatens to clean his clock if he doesn’t shut up, and Vine again suggests that this would be a necessary sacrifice for the good of the Kingdom. Elm tries to agree, to say that this should be their top priority whether they like it or not, but Marrow has more to say. He can’t believe any of them actually buy the nonsense they’re spouting, and wants to know if there’s anything his teammates actually believe in anymore. With so many moral compromises, where do they draw the line of patriotism vs fascism? The faunus man gives a pretty good clincher to his tirade by calling his badge and rank nothing more than a collar. Say what you want about the writing of the faunus discrimination subplots in the prior volumes, I think this was pretty good. Ironwood isn’t about to let Marrow walk away from a rant like that without consequences and we can hear his cocking his gun. Marrow hears it too, but before he can react Winter comes in from his right with a sucker punch that knocks him to the floor. As she drops a knee on Marrow’s back to cuff him for insubordination we see Ironwood was a second away from shooting this man, one of his few trusted elite soldiers left, in the back of the head for an execution without mercy or hesitation. She just saved his goddamn life and that makes her an MVP for this Volume. The other Ace Ops realize this close encounter with death too, and they all share the same expression of shock fear dread and confusion. Not even Vine can hide how much he doesn’t like what could have just occurred. Winter says she’s going to take this “traitor” to the brig where he belongs and Ironwood allows her to leave and do so, only taking his finger off the trigger once they’ve walked past him. Those with a better understanding of trigger discipline than I could probably make something poignant out of that, so have at it if you can. What is abundantly clear to us is that Winter will be taking Marrow no such place. She has absolutely had enough and she’s about to desert with him in tow. The remaining three have to get back in line and spend a little time rethinking their positions on this job. Well, at least one of them will be, I don’t think Harriet is gonna change course after what she’s already done.

From one tense situation to another, we go to the Schnee manor dining room where Team RWBY are trying to figure out their next moves with Oscar and Emerald. They know they don’t want Ironwood getting his hands on Penny, but they don’t know what to do instead that won’t result in mass casualties. They don’t know that Robyn and Qrow have flown the coop and might come to their aid soon, and under Ironwood’s watch there’s no way to try and evacuate the people in the crater before he drops the bomb. It’s a real bad situation with no clear solutions or backup plans. Emerald can’t help but be snarky and say if the perpetual optimism engine that is Ruby can’t think of what to do then there’s no right answer at all. Weiss is annoyed that Em is giving them sass when they really don’t need any, but Yang is downright furious and her to GTFO if she doesn’t like trying to help them solve this. Emerald tenses up when Yang stomps towards her with clenched fists, and her hands go to her weapons in case she needs to defend herself. We know Yang wouldn’t actually throw a punch even if she’s mad like this, but Em doesn’t. Probably because the most substantial thing connecting the two of them was the time Emerald used her semblance to make Yang look like a heartless brute who would break a leg for no reason on live TV. Also Emerald doesn’t have the best role models for how to handle frustration... Oscar continues to insist they all just take a deep breath and remember the big picture rather than lose it over small disagreements, and reminds them that Em is going to be staying on their side cuz Salem won’t let her safely be anywhere else. But when he tries to reassure the group with a reminder that Oz is back to offer help too it just tenses the situation further. Ruby’s got her head in her arms on the table, and she’s really having a hard time of it all. Oscar muses about all the negative personal energies keeping them from a productive cohesion, and Ruby pops off. A day’s worth of their best efforts, hard fought battles and painful consequences, and nothing has gotten better. Just like at the start of the Volume, all they’ve been able to do is argue over what to try and do while Atlas heads towards its demise. Yang tries to put an encouraging hand on her shoulder but she brushes it off and runs out of the room in a huff. Everyone silently realizes how much they’ve fucked this up if Ruby is so hopeless and desperate, and Yang follows her sister out of the room.

Upstairs, Jaune is doing his best to boost Nora’s Aura and help her heal faster, but it’s not doing anything about her lightning scars. Those babies are here to stay, and I don’t mind it. It shows history, survival and a damn good story about what she’s been able to power through. Ren is sitting at the foot of the bed, and the best he’s able to offer is how glad he is Nora is okay. She seems indifferent and even passive aggressive at the diagnosis on her scars, claiming it’s just another example of her being classic dumb Nora. Ren tries to object that this wasn’t her being stupid or foolhardy, but she bites back at him with all the resentment she seems to have been holding in since they split ways yesterday. He’s got no right to say what it was or wasn’t, he wasn’t there to see it. He pushed away from her when things went wrong because he didn’t want to have to feel anything he thought would be too hard to deal with. Ren makes no effort to argue, he knows she’s right and he apologizes profusely for how he wronged both her and Jaune. He regrets the things he said to them, or more likely the things he said to Jaune out on the tundra since he and Nora haven’t exactly talked much. He admits he’s been mad at himself for not measuring up to their mentor figures in the Ace Ops, for how little he could help when Tyrian came a’ slashing at Robyn’s election rally, and for slipping up and letting Neo get away with the Lamp. Mentioning the rally of course gets Nora’s attention away from her pissed off brooding, and she does start to listen a little more sympathetically. Ren says that he tried to tunnel vision on getting stronger in the hopes it would mean he wouldn’t fail again and bring the team down with him. We know from Ironwood how bad tunnel vision is, so I’m glad Ren is realizing it was a bad choice. Ren has realized now that by doing all that he failed the worst of all, that being in his role as a member of this team and as a partner to Nora. The two of them lock eyes, and Jaune notices the deeper meaning behind this prolonged eye contact and knows he should make himself scarce for now so they can have this more important conversation sans his third wheeling ass. Good boy, but a bit over the top excusing himself.

All Nora can find the words to ask is why Ren hadn’t said anything about these personal doubts sooner so they could try and deal with it and grow as a team, and he says he wanted to try and solve it himself because it was his problem and he was the one dragging the group down because of it. She disagrees on the grounds of her own perceived failings, being silly of mind and strong of muscle and little else of value. Ren won’t hear that kind of self depreciation sitting down, so he moves further up the bed to sit by her lap. He tries his best to give her affirmations by rephrasing her qualities as great things but she’s just not willing to hear it... until he gets a little more passionate about it than he may have meant to. These are the things he loves about her. Because he loves her. Lie Ren tells Nora Valkyrie “I love you”. Nora knows in her heart he really means that, but she has some things she wants to get off her chest. In the single sentence of backstory we get, her mom apparently abandoned her and fled from a Grimm attack before she ended up in Kuroyuri meeting Ren. SInce then they’ve always been an inseparable pair, and she wouldn’t give up a day of that for anything. But now she realizes she needs some time to really learn who she is as her own person and fighter, and going back to being as close as they were wouldn’t allow that kind of growth. Because Nora loves Ren too, always has. And she can tell their separate missions have done him some good too, but she needs a little more time before she’s ready to be the partner a great guy like him deserves. She just wants to know if that kind of request is okay with him. He puts a hand against her cheek and lovingly wipes away the tear she had shed. Of course that’s okay. He’s proud of her for being mindful of her own happiness and growth, and is willing to put the relationship they both very much look forward to having on hold while she grows as a person. This is a very healthy dynamic and all meming aside we really love to see it portrayed so naturally and acceptably in media. And for good wholesome measure, Ren Boops Nora. They laugh and smile and press their foreheads together because Rooster Teeth loves showing us that as a sign of proximity and intimate comfort.

Cutting to something far less happy, Qrow is retrieving Harbinger and Robyn’s gauntlet crossbow from a locker in what I assume might be evidence lockup. He asks Robyn if she’s got the security cameras running on loop, presumably so they can sneak through the halls undetected, but she is currently distracted. At least one screen is feeding audio of Ironwood’s threat to Mantle, and others are showing he really is gearing up to do so. Qrow tries to reassure her by resolutely saying they’ll stop him before he has the chance to, but she doesn’t seem to pleased with that plan. Regardless, they make their way through the halls and head for an elevator to take them up to the Academy. After avoiding being spotted by guards, they make it to the elevator but Robyn stops Qrow before he can hit the call button. She tries to advocate for a better way to solve this, he insists there isn’t one. Robyn says it’s not just about Qrow so it isn’t his choice alone to make what is or isn’t the only solution. Qrow just keeps insisting that this is what he’s gonna do and when he does it’ll all be safe and over with, but Robyn tries to suggest success isn’t guaranteed and if they fail it’ll only doom hundreds more than if they try something else. Qrow doesn’t give a damn, he just yells that Ironwood deserves to be killed, because in case the pronoun game was too hard Qrow is dead set on doing a murder. Robyn claps a hand over Qrow’s mouth and pushes him against the wall because they ARE still trying not to get caught remember? I really have to admit on my first watch I thought this was gonna be an eruption of some kind of romantic tension I just hadn’t noticed til now and she was going to shut him up with a kiss. But no, thank god they didn’t pull that tired trick. After making sure the coast really is clear, she gets to the heart of things. She can tell Qrow is in pain, he’s mourning, and its a shroud he’s well accustomed to. But don’t act like this is righteous justice for the people at large, Qrow wants blood on his hands purely for personal vengeance. She acknowledges that Clover had a lot of qualities worth looking up to the way Qrow had, but she thinks that at the end of the day Qrow has proven to be the better man and the better Huntsman. I feel like she could have phrased that a touch better so as to not speak quite so ill of the recently deceased, but the pep talk is there. He’s got the will to fight for what he believes is the right course of action rather than just what a higher up says he needs to, and that is the sort of strength of character that’s worth a whole lot in this world, so she hopes he won’t go abandoning it now that the going is even rougher. He seems to be calmed and inspired by this, but before any more words are said the elevator pings that it’s stopping on this floor so the two ready their weapons to fight whoever emerges. The doors open, but we have the perspective of whoever is inside looking out to see the two hunters drop their guard in confusion. As that is the end of that scene we will not be finding out who they saw for at least another week, but I think it’s most likely to be Winter and Marrow and the four of them will form an unlikely alliance.

Back in Schnee manor, Yang reaches the foyer to see Ruby sitting on the stairs clutching a banister. Instead of going right up to her Yang goes past to take a look at the collapsed suit of armor. She’s heard by now how Ruby and the others managed to kill the Hound, and tries to give her little sis amused props for doing what the elder sibling couldn’t. Instead Ruby just asks if Yang knows what they saw inside the Grimm. Yang says she does, and tenses up like she wants to brush past this very depressing topic Ruby is hinting at. Ruby is having none of that and just says what we’ve all been thinking. Summer Rose was most certainly turned into a Grimm too. Fearing the possibility in her head was one thing, but to hear Ruby say it aloud with a voice so hollow and hopeless is too much and Yang falls to her knees sobbing in a second flat. Yang tries to wipe the tears away, to be calm and strong like always, but Ruby isn’t stopping. They know Salem used to want Silver Eyed Warriors dead because of Maria’s brush with death years ago, but now Salem wants Ruby brought in alive and it seems obvious why. So why wouldn’t it be the case that Summer was the turning point, that fighting her was when Salem realized she could do so much more with her mortal foes? Ruby has had enough of lying to themselves for the sake of optimistic hope, her hope that Amity could get a message out got them nowhere but further failure and she blames herself for being childish. Yang takes her hand and assures her that it wasn’t childishness but rather optimism and hope. Those are things they desperately need in this struggle, but to be blindly optimistic can certainly be bad so they need to be smart about which risks they take. Ruby still isn’t about to concede this point because the risk she took was a failure and their message didn’t bring any help. I should like to remind the reader/viewer that it took about a week for Team RWBY to get from Mistral to Atlas and this message went out... 12 hours ago? Maybe 16? You’re giving up the ghost a little soon there sweetie, though they do need that help ASAP so better late than never isn’t really a viable option. Yang reminds Ruby that her plan was a bust too, but she kept trying to do good things that weren’t part of the plan and they did some good there. Summer took a risk too, by leaving for the mission she never came back from. And there’s little question that went according to plan either, but she still did her best and Yang still considers Summer her hero. As she embraces her little sister, I get the strong feeling that Summer isn’t the only Rose she considers her hero either... and by the tears that start welling up in Ruby’s eyes she clearly knows that.

Their sweet moment is shattered by the sound of equally shattered glass, and Jaune comes rushing down the stairs to tell them to get outside immediately. Penny woke up and the virus is in control again to make her head for the Vault without delay. Ruby bursts into her path to beg her to stop, and it does get her to start struggling against her digital orders. She begs to be stopped, and Ruby wraps her arms around her because honestly she’s just trying her best and with a weapon like Crescent Rose she’s gotta have some upper body strength. But that’s pretty meaningless against Penny’s rocket boots as she takes off with Ruby in tow. Blake and Ren use Gambol Shroud and Storm Flower (thank god for the grappling hook upgrade last Volume) to try and pull her down by each arm with the rest of their teams providing tug of war style support. Weiss uses a black glyph to really hold her in place once her feet are on the ground again. Before anyone can figure out what to do to properly subdue her Penny uses her magic to summon a cold vortex and blow them all off guard so she can start flying away again, still repeating her orders to open the Vault and self-terminate, though now she sounds emotional and conflicted about it due to her mental struggle. Before she can get any farther, a new set of chains grab her shoulders. Emerald has joined in, and even if it was a small gesture I found myself very enthusiastic to see her pitching in for the rescue. She yells for someone to do something already, and Jaune lets go of Blake’s side of the struggle (guess it would have been off balance if him Nora and Oscar were all helping Ren) to boost Weiss’ Aura so she can make a stronger inertia glyph. Back on the ground, Ruby hugs Penny again and asks how she can help her friend. And Penny says Ruby should kill her. If she does, Penny guarantees Ruby will be the one she gives the Winter Maiden powers to. None of the group like hearing this idea one little bit, but she thinks it’s the only way since she can’t fight the virus. But once again Nora swoops in with the sage words about it only being a part of you and not letting that be the end of it. Penny’s more than just a robot receiving orders, she’s got human spirit and willpower that’s been resisting for so long. This gets the gears in Ruby’s head turning and she realizes the human part can be what saves her. Jaune needs to boost her Aura, which he rushes over to do immediately. It seems to do the trick, and her soul is doing a much better job of keeping the virus contained, though it’s not gone forever. Everyone comes in for a happy group huddle, and she is assured that she is far more than a machine and that humanity is what will keep her going in spite of the remaining virus. It’s a very soft and touching moment. 

Then Emerald has something to say. They’re wrong... about being in the same place they started yesterday. They’ve made progress even though they can’t quite see it right now. They’ve taken some hits, and she admits some of that has been her fault, but that’s war so you gotta roll with the punches and fight on. She just really won’t like it if they give up the moment she decides she’ll fight by their side, okay?! It’s not like she likes these friendly, kind, understanding and emotionally complex fellow teens that are willing to take her in, baka!!! Oscar points out that she’s admitted she wants to stay with them and they all have a happy laugh realizing she’s got a softer side after all. Oscar helps her back to her feet, then addresses the group. Ozpin has some things he wants to say to them all, if they’re willing to hear it. They all share a look and decide that yes, they will listen. Oz comes forth and immediately launches into a speech about a fairy tale. Typical. We can presume these are further details about “The Girl who Fell Through the World”, and he says that girl took her grand trip to run away from consequences of a choice she has to make. But her problems only grow because the initial issue was never resolved. That’s the very thing he’s done here, his problem being the consequences of the truth and his past coming to light. He regrets not trusting them with the whole story and he regrets retreating into Oscar’s mind when he was found out. The group decides they understand where he was coming from a bit since in that interim they had to make some impossible choices about trust too. Trusting in someone is a risk, and they decide they’ll take that risk on him one more time. From the look of things, that second chance is going to Emerald too, and I hope she makes them proud. Penny winces again and it’s clear that one way or the other they will need to take her to the Vault. Ruby thinks on that for a second and realizes that’s actually worth a shot considering who they have at their disposal and the likelihood of it not going exactly how Ironwood thinks it will. To that end we see Ironwood down in the Vault receiving a call from Ruby saying Penny will be there. He sets the stipulation that Penny meet him at the entrance of the Academy and she has to come alone. I’m sure no green haired illusionist will play a hand in whether or not she really is alone... But either way there will be unexpected company because Watts hooked up a broken Scroll to the wiring of an Atlas robot to listen in on Ironwood’s call and know where the meeting will be. Neo arrives in the alley where the doctor and Cinder waiting, and it seems miss Fall has a scheme to get the ice cream psycho precisely what she’s demanding of them.

But what exactly these carefully laid plans will be has to wait a little while, cuz that’s the end for this week. Great job all around for this well balanced episode with many kinds of scenes and many ways to make my heart hurt...

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY team impact anon. Thank you for answering my asks! I did want to follow up with one quick question. Does RWBY actually represent anyone? Nobody appointed/elected them. Blake is a princess bc she's Ghira's kid and that's it. IW has a commissioned duty. RWBY doesn't seem to have a legal right to make decisions for Solitas...let alone withhold information from IW that could impact the continent's defense. I'm confused why these kids are the protagonists? Has CRBWY done enough to justify that?

Of course! :D

I touched on this briefly many months back and as far as I can tell, no, the show hasn’t done a particularly good job of answering that question: Why are these people our protagonists? What gives them the power to get involved? Usually stories—particularly fantasy stories—provide clear-cut answers so that we can best immerse ourselves in this situation, rather than continually questioning why this group, out of all groups, is the one we get to follow. The two most common explanations are: 

This group has to fight whether they want to or not. Meaning, some outside force is exerting control over them. They’re stuck in the center of this fight whether they like it or not and thus we, in turn, are stuck with them as our protagonists. Think Harry Potter with a prophecy hanging over his head. Luke being born as a Skywalker. Geralt forced into a witcher’s life with a destiny to juggle. These characters are all bound to something larger than themselves and are, to one extent or another, carried along on the current of that. They have to fight. (“Have” — often overcoming the internal conflict of whether they’ll agree to this unwanted responsibility adds to their heroism. They COULD just run for the hills like Ozpin with his cabin, but they won’t). 

RWBY, however, undermines this sort of setup at every turn. Our characters continually reject responsibilities that may have led them to being a part of other fights—Blake leaves the White Fang despite her parentage and life-long involvement in it, Weiss walks about from the SDC despite being born as an heir and wanting to improve the company—and the closest thing we get to fate is with Ruby’s silver eyes. However, that was likewise undermined when Maria came onto the scene. Rather than presenting us with a world where silver eyes are either unique or rare enough that Ruby feels compelled to fight Salem even if she doesn’t otherwise want to, they gave us a character with the same skill, even more talent (if Maria’s moniker as The Grimm Reaper is any indication) who then said no thanks. She left. Bowed out. So what’s stopping Ruby from doing the same? Nothing. She could pull a Maria and be done with this nonsense and the world would continue surviving as it has for over a thousand years (with the exception of Salem’s new involvement, but again, we don’t see Ruby deciding to fight because Salem is now a more active threat). Ruby is not at the center of the world’s safety and there is no other outside force acting on the group to a point where the audience feels that their involvement in the fight is unquestionably necessary. We might have gotten that if the story had spent more time developing Ruby’s silver eyes. We might have gotten that if the story had spent more time establishing that if Ruby were to bow out, she and her friends would still be endlessly hunted by Salem (AKA, if she wants any kind of life, Salem has to be defeated first). We might have gotten that if the silver eyes/other talents were presented as lynchpins, etc. As it is, RWBY keeps providing examples of how heroes can leave, do leave, have every reason to leave, because they’re not the most talented, their powers are not unique, not necessary, there is nothing in the universe saying YOU have to be a part of this fight... so why are they? 

This leaves us with heroes who fight because it’s the right thing to do. Think Frodo saying he’ll take the ring to Mordor. Katniss stepping in to save her sister. Peter Quill yelling that he’s going to try to save the universe because he’s one of the assholes who lives in it. There’s nothing like destiny, a prophecy, or an inborn talent forcing (“forcing”) the hero to step up, they just do it because it’s the right thing to do and/or they realize that no one is able or willing to help. They and others might both assume they’re not be the best for the job (insert theme of underestimating Hobbits here), but they’re doing it anyway. They’re all that’s available. 

Similar to the above, Ruby could fit really well into this setup. She’s just a kid, she’s talented but she’s barely trained, she knows nothing about magic or this intricate war... surely there’s someone better to take her place? But Ruby wants to help people, which means she’s poised to step up if that’s required of her... but RWBY failed to create those circumstances. Ozpin is not an inept or corrupt leader who she must replace — he created a time of peace and kept the relics safe for who knows how long. Ruby does not live in a world where others refuse to step up — she’s surrounded by talented fighters who are already involved in this war. Ruby doesn’t even live in a world where she fights alongside these more talented and informed fighters — by the end of each volume she’s replaced them as the “real” hero. When someone asks, “Why is the screw up group of convicts trying to save the world in Guardians of the Galaxy?” the answer is, “Because no one else is doing it. The world has to take what it gets.” With RWBY it’s, “Why is the group of second year students, traumatized from a recent battle, going off to find a Maiden they definitely can’t beat?” and the answer is, “Because... they want to? There are other older, more powerful, more informed people dealing with this situation already but Ruby’s group is going off regardless.” “Why is RWBYJNR at the center of this fight now? Have they proven themselves some way? Is there no one else?” “Well no, not exactly. They just showed up at Ozpin’s safehouse expecting to be involved, they definitely provided much needed support at the Haven battle, but then they created circumstances where they were at the center of things regardless of whether others approved of that: stealing Ozpin’s secrets, driving him off, lying to Ironwood, etc.” Then, because the story hasn’t successfully laid out why they have to fight or why others would want them to fight (they often don’t), we get the plot turning in on itself to explain their continued involvement. Like refusing to grapple with their recent behavior. Or having them suddenly able to beat the Ace Ops. 

RWBY’s underlying reasoning for why this group is at the center of this plot is “Because they’re the protagonists” which is a circular explanation. You should craft protagonists that have a reason to be involved, not ignore the lack of a reason for the generic protagonists you’ve got. And don’t get me wrong, RWBY has lots and lots of nods towards various reasons, but they’re never well developed. Things like Ruby’s eyes, her “I want to help people,” the others’ devotion to her, the villains’ interest in them... they’re all the beginnings of compelling explanations, but RWBY never does much of anything with it, largely because we haven’t gotten enough of a look into the group’s personal motivations. Why is Ruby so compelled to throw herself into a war? Because of her mom? That’s never said. Why is Jaune? Because Cinder killed Pyrrha? Then why isn’t he trying to hunt her down? Why is Yang? Because she’s Ruby’s sister? Give us better motivation for Ruby then. And so on and so forth. This is particularly important post the lore episode because the group learned about Salem’s immortality and came to the unanimous conclusion that this war was impossible to win. So why are you still in it?? Volume 6 and 7 should have been an exploration of why they’re fighting, what they’re fighting for, and what they can bring to the table. Instead they happily ignore all of it until Salem and her subordinates get right in their face, then Ruby took control of the situation despite the story failing to establish why she wants to, let alone why she should. 

When we have characters like Ironwood and the Ace Ops trying to stop her and the takeaway is supposed to be “Omg how could they stand against Ruby they’re evil!” ... I just find myself agreeing. Ruby is a teenager. Ruby has one year of formal training. Ruby has thus far rejected or screwed over everyone she’s allied herself with (outside of the group who has agreed to follow her). Ruby has a very useful skill, but does incredibly little to learn about it or train it. Regarding the question, “Should Ruby be the hero we follow?” we’re shown a number of things that give a resounding “No.” She’s the protagonist because her name is in the title, not RWBY has convincingly written a world where her help is necessary or, at this point, even desired. She runs off to nearly get kidnapped, orchestrates an attack on the Argus military that results in a Leviathan grimm showing up, emotionally cripples the world’s oldest defender, undermines and betrays his replacement, and is now risking two relics/a Maiden by hanging around to fight Salem head on. At this point it doesn’t matter how pure her intentions are, Ruby’s actions have been inconvenient at best and downright damaging at worst. Though they clearly don’t intend it, RT is closer to writing antagonists then protagonists. Outside of their pure “We want to help people” outlook, we’ve got this group shouldering their way into this war and, more often than not, making things a whole lot worse. If the story had done a better job of explaining their involvement, such mistakes would be quiet sympathetic, but as it is their insistence on getting involved reads more as arrogance rather than resignation/drive: I have to help. There’s no one else. I’m needed. 

[misstef]

Thoughts 7.03 of RWBY

Just wanna get some (ended up being 30 sooo...) points out, cause this episode was just that freaking good. 7/5

(Spoilers obviously)

1. Pietro says that he already has more enhancement for the weapons in mind. So will we get even more upgrades for them? Maybe not this volume but in the next?

2. The scene with Jaune touching his reminder of Pyrrha was so sad, yet the way they did it so smart. There are no words or anything and we still new immediately what was implied. I also feel like it means that Jaune is moving further on as it is a process.

3. I feel like Oscar’s voice is changing somehow. I noticed it in the last episode but his “Hey...Ruby?” especially sounds different to me. Idk maybe it’s puberty, maybe it’s him and Ozpin merging (which I don’t hope).

4. Really liked the landing strategy scene, but really...who wouldn’t? It also shows how much they have improved (Weiss casually summoning while falling and Jaune even having one to begin with).

5. Jaune’s sighing before he jumps and him trying not to appear completely helpless at the end is also a nice touch.

6. Now to the part everybody is excited about: I reeeaally like the loving way Yang stares at Blake before she notices. 

It just really is that “lovingly gazing at your crush in hope they won’t notice” trope and I’m here for it and I know all the shippers are too.

7. Of course Blake would jump to the conclusion that it’s bad and be self conscious about it. Yang reassures her immediately, not wanting her staring to be misinterpreted. (Love that they really put a blush on Blakes face. Could not have been more obvious that way.)

8. Love the bickering between Harriet and Marrow. I love these two in general.

9. Finally they discuss that Ruby just pulled an Ozpin on Ironwood. But they for now agree with Ruby’s decision. Except for maybe Yang, but she accepts that she’s outvoted by the others. (*cough* You still haven’t told them about Raven being the spring maiden though.)

10. We really being fed this episode with all the ships, huh? I don’t get why Ren pushes the comment away right after. Is he too dense or does he just not care?

11. Jaune at least is trying to cheer her up, but I don’t think he gets why exactly she’s sad. Good try though, good boi. I really like the voice acting of Miles for this. Kinda reminds me of chibi actually.

12. Is the explosion Blake is referring to the same one Ilia talked about, where her parents died? If yes, that makes it all even more sad.

13. Blake looking at the SDC sign when Marrow is talking about people activly abusing faunus, was a nice, subtle call out to Adam.

14. That jump scare really got me the first time. Like, I flinched quite hard. Good job RT!

15. Every time Yang says the “That’s disgusting.” line my head urges me to say “Disgustaaaang” and I don’t know why.

16. Weapon upgrades! Yang can put little bombs on her enemies while punching and then detonate them when she needs to. Ruby’s scythe now can change direction, which I can see coming in handy in a future scene. Jaune’s shield is now a shield-shield. Ren’s daggers can shoot out, similar to Emerald’s weapon. I’m not sure if Nora’s got an update. If so, it was not very noticible. Then of course there is Blake’s but it’s more a fix than an actual upgrade like the others. Maybe another time.

17. Not sure what Marrows semblance is exactly. Maybe he freezes them in time for a short while or he manipulates their mind to do as he wishes (if grimm have minds idk).

18. Does Nora slap Ren on his butt right before he jumps sliting down behind Jaune? Because it looks like it to me.

19. Again, I love Miles’ voice acting with the line “That’s just kind of our style.”. Reminds me of chibi too.

20. I love how Herriet’s weapon is basicly an exoscellet with which she can punch. Really hard. Now the question is, who punches harder, she or Yang?

21. Qrow says he can’t always keep his semblance under control. I thought, it was something permanent that he can’t control at all, it’s just always there.

22. Colver’s semblance is good fortune. Who would’ve guessed that? Also...is he flirting with Qrow? Seems like it to me. 

Man, three episodes in and Qrow already has two boyfriends. Good for him.

(I just noticed that Clover raises his eyebrows for a second when they kinda stare at each other a little too long after he says that. Now all the subtlety is gone.)

23. Can’t stress it enough. I love Marrow.

24. When the Ace-Ops are fighting they just need to call out each others name for that person to know what they have to do and I think that shows their great team dynamic and practise perfectly.

25. Not two minutes later and Clover is already flirting with Qrow again. His look as he jumps of to help his team really says “Watch what I can do.” as he is trying to impress Qrow. That is only emphasized when he stresses that it was talent and not his good luck when the fight ends.

26. Harriet is pretty much the flash right? They have the same effects. Also, I can’t stress it enough. I love her.

27. So Ruby’s semblance is not speed. But we knew that already, right? Someone of the CRWBY once said something like that, if I remember correctly. So it didn’t surprise me. Though I still wanna know what they will reveal what other stuff Ruby can do with it, as that is implied here.

28. Bees flirting again, loudly. It does not get unnoticed by Weiss. 

Seriously though, isn’t it natural to think that the jokes, which the person you’re in love with makes, are funny? It’s mentioned all the time in movies and shows when a character is cleary in love with someone and others notice. RT really out there trying to make it as obvious as they can for everyone not on board with the ship (yet), that they are in love.

29. RIP Forest. I really liked him and the voice acting. So shoutout to Eric Baudour.

30. Love how they explained what Tyrian was doing at the end of last episode without having to say it out loud. It was established that Forest openly supports Robyn Hill, that Watts and Tyrian will play a roll manipulating the election and that Tyrian killed someone last EP. Conclusion: He kills supporters of Robyn Hill to turn the election to Jacques’ favour. But I wonder what they gain out of it? Maybe the borders not being closed anymore? Well, I just wanted to say that this is an excellent example of visual storytelling, in which this episode really does a great job at in general.

So my conclusion: Bees: great. Possible M|M representation with Qrow and Clover (yes I ship it): great. Ace-Ops: great. Animation: fantastic. Sound effects (at the first bee flirting scene and with Nora later especially with the comedic effect): great. Episode: even better than last one and I liked that already veeery much.

I fear I begin to like the Ace-Ops way too much. And that after 3 episodes. What if one of them dies? Or betrays everyone? I will not be able to handle it.

My serious rating for this (considering the storytelling, character interactions, animation and buildup) would be around 9 to 9.5 of 10 points. First was like a 7 and second a 8 to 8.5.

[littlemisssquiggles]

This one is probebly simpler to answer but possibly now but, which of Salem's faction do you think is close to a point they might be kiled off? For me Hazel is currently safe atm, Cinder is neutral point she already had two fakeout deaths but possibly still has some plot. It is a toss up between Watts and Tyrian given both have a point that could be there end. Watts being executed by Ironwood as a show of force to Salem and Tyrian's desire to please Salem by recapturing Ruby.

Hello again Crystal. That’s actually another good question and I do agree with you on your predications to some degree.

I believe Hazel will be kept around since there is still some unresolved business between him, Oz and Oscar. I have a feeling we could potentially get a rematch between these three characters. Not to mention that as of V6, there also seems to be a growing connection between Hazel, Emerald and Mercury. Particularly Emerald. I quite liked Hazel’s display of empathy towards Emerald where he was willing to sort of take the full brunt of the punishment from Salem for their---well technically Cinder’s failure---at retrieving the Relic of Knowledge during the Battle of Haven.

I feel like this could potentially lead into Hazel becoming a sort of fatherly older brother type character for both Emerald and Mercury. Both of these kids have been victims of not having a proper support system throughout their lives with Mercury being a survivor of child abuse at the hand of his own father and Emerald never having a family to begin with. Not to mention that Hazel still has his own inner demons to heal from regarding the death of his sister. This is why I love the idea of there being more potential moments for these three---Hazel, Emerald and Mercury---to bond since I can actually picture the prospect of their relationship being exactly what they need in a sense.

Mercury never felt the love of a devoted parent---particularly one that’s male. I can easily picture Hazel filling that void since he practically had to be both an older brother and a father figure to Gretchen. He definitely acted like one during his outburst at Oscar back at Hazel.

“…She was only a child! She wasn’t ready!”

I’m actually curious to see how Hazel would react and treat Merc upon learning his backstory of abuse. The same could be said regarding his response to learning that Emerald has never had a family before and had no one (outside of Cinder) to look out for her. Bottom-line, what I’m getting at is that I think a strong family dynamic could develop wholesomely between Hazel, Emerald and Mercury. Through Emerald and Merc (or at least Emerald), Hazel could potentially have a second chance at being a better big brother by looking out for the two teenagers partnered to work with him (to some extent). So yeah, that’s where I see Hazel’s story potentially going along with him making amends for his relationship with Ozpin through his connection to Oscar (maybe; not sure).

Regarding Cinder Fall---to be honest, Cinder could go either way for me at this point. For me, Cinder could either live long enough to see herself overthrow Salem and become an even bigger threat to Remnant than the Wicked Witch (see my Red Queen Cinder Fall headcanon right here and here) or…she can succumb to the Grimm inside of her and practically transforming into inhuman monster in the process. I can’t help that feel like Cinder’s descent will come at the hands of the very Grimm arm that has now fused completely with her body. Notice how back in V7, during her clash with Winter  Schnee, even after Winter had succeeded in cutting off Cinder’s Grimm arm, rather than the arm just falling limp to the ground, it regenerated back into the place on Cinder’s body.

It was like watching a lizard grow back its own tail. The Geist Grimm arm has become so integrated with Cinder’s biology that she’s able to regenerate it---rather painfully--- at will. I can’t help but feel like that right there is a clear foreshadow either for Cinder’s rise or fall. Like I said, Cinder could either end up surviving yet again and ascending to become a powerful Grimmoire (half Grimm, half human hybrid) to overthrow the likes of Salem and take her place as the new Red Queen and leader of the Grimm (after pilfering Salem’s magic in the process)…OR…she could lose what little shred of humanity she had left---finally giving herself fully to accept the full power of the Grimm that’s become a part of her; literally becoming an abomination of man that our heroes will have no choice but to slay.

Cinder could either live or die in my books and it can work either way. I just like the prospect of her overthrowing Salem and becoming a worst final boss than her more intriguing than her being killed off. But that’s just me.

Regarding Arthur Watts---not going to lie; apart from Hazel, Watts is the second member of Salem’s Inner Circle who I legit like and wish to believe in his redemption. The way how I see it, Watts could either end up being redeemed through begrudgingly offering to aid our heroes for his own self-preservation upon learning the full truth about Salem and her intentions with Relics or…he’ll just spend the rest of his years in prison to make amends for his actions against Atlas or something along those lines. I believe Watts could possibly live through the potential Fall of Atlas. But again, this is just my opinion.

This leaves Tyrian Callows. Again, I’m going to be honest, I think Tyrian could be the one most likely to be next on the chopping block in regards to main villain deaths. For me personally, the only fitting death I can picture befalling Tyrian is if he were to die somewhat ironically.

What I mean by that is… imagine if…Salem was the one who ends up killing off Tyrian in the end or rather, it’s a case where Tyrian fails in his mission against our heroes and he becomes so distraught at the mere thought of dying by Salem’s hands as a result of failing her a second time that the Scorpion Faunus just offs himself.

Picture it…Tyrian is given another opportunity to redeem himself for failing to capture Ruby Rose. But he ends up failing a second time after being thwarted by the combined efforts of JNR and potentially Qrow Branwen. Maybe it’s even a case where Tyrian does succeed in capturing Ruby and our little red rose is literally whisked away to Salem’s castle by a Winged Beringel while Tyrian is left to fight Ruby’s allies and prevent them from going to save her.

That could be another interesting take. Even though Tyrian is defeated and possibly killed, Ruby still becomes a prisoner of Salem to some degree. That’s another cool thought for the table of potential possibilities.

Going back to Tyrian---a part of me wishes to believe that Jaune might contribute to Tyrian’s official defeat. In V7CH5, Vine suggested to Jaune that he should try ‘extending his aura’ and this was followed up in the next episode---V7CH6--- when we saw Jaune training with Nora while Oscar observed and kept check of his aura levels on his Scroll. As remarked by Oscar, Jaune was able to recover and replenish his aura levels immediately after taking damage.

“…Nice. Your recovery is getting faster…”

Bearing that in mind, I have a feeling that that little detail is going to come back at some point during V8 particularly in respect to Tyrian Callows. In V7 CH7, during the attack on Robyn’s election victory party, we saw that Tyrian was able to use his semblance to cut through an individual’s aura. If it’s been established that Jaune is able to quickly recover his aura then currently, everyone’s favourite Arc boy is the only one who has an edge over Tyrian.

At the moment, Jaune’s semblance is the perfect counter to Tyrian’s since even if the Scorpion Faunus is able to cut through Jaune’s aura, his attempts will be proven futile since Jaune will just recover his aura immediately after taking damage. Thus, my hunch now is that Jaune may play a part  in Tyrian’s ultimate defeat. I think the only way for Tyrian to truly go down for good is through death considering the fact that his whole backstory has been him constantly evading capture.

To stop a cold-blooded killer, you basically have to kill the killer, right?            

I’m also curious to know if we’ll have Qrow getting a chance to enact revenge on Tyrian for killing Clover. After all, it was his own weapon that Tyrian heartlessly used to murder Clover and frame the Branwen man for his death. Wouldn’t it be the most fitting karma if Tyrian receives his comeuppance by having Qrow blindside him and cut him down from behind using Harbinger, just as how he did Clover.

I’m not saying that I’m all for Qrow murdering Tyrian---I guess what I’m more picturing is a better rematch against Tyrian that parallels the events of V4 where he made his first appearance to the RNJR group. During that encounter, RNJR was completely powerless against Tyrian leading to Qrow’s intervention.

Personally I’m digging the concept of a reverse parallel to V4. In that season, we saw Tyrian fail to capture Ruby for Salem resulting in him being defeated by the efforts of Qrow who came to his niece’s aid after her and JNR were overpowered by Tyrian.

In V4, it was Qrow who came to RNJR’s aid when Tyrian arrived to take Ruby. What if…for V8, it is JNR who end up coming to Qrow’s aid after Tyrian succeeds in capturing Ruby?

Picture it. Perhaps…it’s a scenario where Qrow was out doing reconnaissance alone in Mantle with only Ruby. However things take a turn for the worse when Tyrian leads an ambush against the two. If I recall correctly, Qrow was inspired by the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. Well in the Wizard of Oz story, I remember there being a part where the Scarecrow is ripped apart by the flying monkeys who were successful in capturing Dorothy for the Wicked Witch of the West.

Perhaps… there could be a RWBY equivalent to this in V8 where Qrow gets brutally injured during an ambush by Tyrian Callow who leads his own army of Winged Beringels, resulting in Ruby being captured this time as a powerless Qrow could only watch helplessly as his niece is whisked away to become Salem’s prisoner.

As for Tyrian, he arrogantly stays behind to finish Qrow off and further mock him over the events of Clover’s death; ultimately leading to Jaune, Nora and Ren all arriving in time to save Qrow this time; just as how he saved them in V4.

I think that could potentially be a neat scene to see; dontcha think?  

Tyrian facing off against Nora, Jaune and Ren again alongside Qrow---I’d love to see that. Heck yeah! I’m definitely digging the idea of Tyrian facing off against a stronger Team JNR who actually give him a good run for his money this second round; especially Jaune with his semblance.

I like the notion of JNR succeeding in defeating Tyrian with Qrow getting his chance to finally cut Tyrian down for what he did to Clover.

Basically what this squiggle meister is trying to say with my jibber jab is that I don’t expect Tyrian to survive for another volume.

Of all the villains in Salem’s army, he’s the one I expect to see go down next; more so than Cinder Fall since I’d like to believe there is a sliver of a chance that Cinder could survive long enough to see herself rise higher and succeed beyond the likes of even Salem. If Salem is the Black Queen then I am 100% on board with Cinder becoming the Red Queen equivalent to that; becoming a more heartless, blood-thirsty and monstrously power-hungry threat beyond the likes of what Salem set in store for her. I’m all for the satire of Salem basically creating her own worst enemy in Cinder. Consider me a firm advocate for that headcanon.

Beyond that, my money is on Tyrian to be offed next. As for how he’ll die, that’s anyone’s guess. If I had to picture it, I can see Tyrian going out one of two ways. Either Salem is the one to kill Tyrian or… Tyrian commits suicide in a twisted ‘I’d rather kill myself than face the anguish of crawling back to my beloved goddess after failing her a second time’ type of deal in the event that he does fail to capture Ruby a second time.

As weird as that may sound, imagining the look on Tyrian’s face at the prospect of being killed by Salem makes me curious. Tyrian literally worships Salem so how would he feel if she was the one to kill him. Will he be genuinely stunned or will it be another example of him accepting everything in the name of his divine goddess; even if it meant his own death.

Or…since I brought up the prospect of Tyrian succeeding to capture Ruby for Salem…perhaps…it can even be a scenario where, after Tyrian is defeated and completely overpowered by the efforts of JNR and Qrow, knowing that there was an off-chance that the heroes might use him against Salem to find Ruby, Tyrian commits suicide out of spite; thus eliminating the group’s only chance at finding and rescuing the captive Ruby.

This could’ve been a cool idea if Ruby was taken all the way back to Salem’s castle in the Dark Domain and since the members of Salem’s inner circle were the only ones who knew the whereabouts of where Salem resided, finding Ruby would be a wild goose chase---granted that Salem kept her alive long enough for her comrades to save her.

When I look at it like that, colour me intrigued because these concepts aren’t bad to ponder on. But again; this is just me once again putting my thoughts and ideas out there. 

Overall, I hope I was able to answer you again Crystal. Please let me know if I did with your thoughts on my thoughts, thanks.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)  

[kob131]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4DPZGlNP8I

I was watching MangaKamen’s video deconstructing Cvit’s Persona 5: Style Over Substance video and I...I just couldn’t watch it. Basically, Kamen’s own videos on RWBY and Cvit’s Persona 5 video are way too similar (in that both make logical fallacies just to avoid their assumptions.) So, despite covering this briefly, I’ll do it in full here.

And if MangaKamen himself sees this: You can’t keep responding to people, criticizing them for stuff that you do yourself. I literally couldn’t listen to your video on Cvit because of the hypocrisy. Stick to your own standards: people respect you more for it.

P.S. Don’t create a circlejerk in the reblogs and replies. I do not have the patience for it today.

Before I begin, I should point out a small bit of hypocrisy. In his “Cvit Doesn’t Understand Video”, he complains about an influx of videos all about going into unnecessary details about how X things suck, calling it the ‘Joseph Anderson effect.’ I bring this up because one of the videos he brings up is The Cosmonaut Variety Hour’s video on Kingdom Hearts (which is, being generous, 22 minutes.) MangaKamen’s video is, again generously, 38 minutes. And I do mean generaously because I automatically rounded up Cosmonaut’s and rounded down Kamen’s videos. I don’t think he should be complaining about that. 

While you could argue he was also complaining about the title as well: A. Kamen’s first RWBY video was literally titled “Whats Wrong With RWBY?!” with a title saying “Here’s why RWBY Sucks” in big bold letters. B. His video makes fun of people who are there to disagree with his title and nothing else and C. I watched Cosmonaut’s video on Kingdom Hearts: He’s actually more positive towards Kingdom hearts 3 than Kamen is to RWBY.

This is a small microcosism of he issue with his hypocrisy: it ends up affecting the quality of other videos too.

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His first section is on ‘contrivances’ or ‘things that happen in a story that don’t make sense’. Before he even gives a true example, we run into yet another problem with Kamen. In his explanation, Kamen mocks the scene were Jaune gets hit on by the mothers of the kids he’s helping with an image of Miles Luna saying ‘Remember, NOT a self-insert!’.

Issue? The episode wasn’t written by Miles Luna, it was written by Eddy Rivas. How do I know?

The episode says so. This is especially egregious because he chews Cvit out for just typing in “Persona 5 sucks” into google and saying a certain source popped up...and yet typing in “Miles Luna Jaune Arc Self Insert” would actually bring up something that outright shows Miles is self conscious about Jaune to the point of avoiding his scenes (https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBY/comments/7x3w4s/crwby_ama_w_miles_luna_kerry_shawcross_and_paula/du5dnc6/?context=3). So while Cvit may have been looking for evidence instead of thinking critically: he at least took the effort of doing a search result whereas Kamen probably made an on the spot decision with no sources whatsoever. Combine this with the fact this is not the first time he’s taken potshots at Miles and you have an effectively WORSE version of what he says Cvit did.

“But this is just a joke!” Yeah, and Sham-Amon was a joke about M. Night Shamalyan by Doug Walker. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t an insult and was correct (Shamalyan was actually a reason why the Airbender movie even RESEMBLED the cartoon.) That doesn’t make this okay, especially since I know a similar ‘joke’ towards someone he’s a fan of would get you a video made on you.

Now onto one of his examples: He says it makes no sense for Robyn to be allowed to run for Atlas’ council because ‘she is stealing supplies from the government.’ Issue is: judging by the footage he’s using, he’s talking about Volume 7 Episode 5 “Sparks” where Robyn created a blockade and stopped a supply truck Qrow, Clover, Penny and Ruby were on. She never actually makes a move to steal the supplies in the episode though. While you could argue it wwas implied because she had people behind them hiding behind camoflague-

In his Cvit video, he criticized the guy for saying that we don’t know how long Futaba’s friend was abused by her parents when Cvit makes the argument that the friend was abused for over a decade, never entertaining other possibilities. You know, what he does. (P.S. Sparks is the same episode with the Jaune-Mothers ‘joke’.)

He uses this faulty and hypocritical point to jump off into how it would be a bad look for her to steal from the government even if it was for a good cause and that most government prevent people from running because of this. See, not only is this still based on a point even Kamen would argue is not enough- The context in the scene (that Mantle hates Atlas government and Robyn’s platform is based off that discontent...Huh) would show that even if she was stealing, it would HELP her image. As for the ‘governments prevent people convicted of theft for running for office’- She hasn’t stolen anything yet STILL. Also, in his Cvit video, he complains about a point where Cvit’s source edited out preceding text to make the phrasing of a certain textbox look extremely awkward. So again, hypocrisy.

Then we have...another shitty joke. A really bad one too. It’s the scene with Weiss and Winter talking the training room with the audio taken out and speech bubbles that say ‘Why are we just staring at each other?’ ‘I dunno...just to look cool?’. Not only is this blatantly not what is happening (you can tell their heads are bobbing from talking), I literally cannot take this ‘joke’ any other way than a malicious potshot at the show. It doesn’t function any other way. I’m trying to be calm and concise but this stuff really harms any benefit of doubt I can give.

His next point is-Oh god damnit, the fucking Penny frame up AGAIN. You know what is more frustrating than a shitty point? A shitty point repeated ad nauseum. Before Kamen even made this video, I had already argued every single perspective of this. There’s literally nothing new he can give?

Security? We never see how Tyrian got in and considering his immense agility and stealth: he could snuck in or hid in the warehouse.

Fanaus night vision? Not all Fanaus have night vision and most of the crowd was seen trying to rush out of the warehouse (during a scene Kamen shows no less). He also says the show alludes to Atlas being a racially biased system...even though Jacques Schnee says he pays all his workers equally (AKA he treats all his workers like shit.)

Scrolls? Again, most of the people are shown trying to run away and no one who remains is said to have brought their scrolls.

Break in the argument for a smug laugh even though all he’s done is repeat other people’s failed arguments. (Issue with either being bitch basic with your arguments or copying others? I’ll have fought the issue long before you make it.)

Ends with saying “When the lights come back on, there’s no blood on Penny’s blades!” (Cognitive bias against Atlas. Like say, calling a character a self insert over a scene that wasn’t written by the person.)

He goes onto say that this is just the latest example of contrived writing but because his points are all faulty, it doesn’t come across as contrived: it comes across as normal but Kamen is too focused on making everything look as bad as possible.

“But what about Robyn’s Semblance?!”

I dunno, why do people say that the Covington Catholic kids are still racist when we have proof otherwise? Cognitive bias is a thing. Robyn wouldn’t try testing this (even assuming she COULD since it would be logical Penny just ran off after this in fear) because it al ready confirms her own biases.

His whole temper tantrum here is all based on around pure logic...something he himself has argued against in media. This thing goes on and on and it just test my paitence and gives me more and more reason to assume Kamen isn’t just missing info, he’s indulging in willful ignorance.

Then we have him bitching about Yang and Blake telling Robyn what is going on and how it’s contrived that they would think that Robyn was on their side since she hasn’t done anything good. Issue? This is all based on KAMEN’S perspective. A perspective that, at best, is heavily biased against Robyn.

Thing is, Robyn’s thefts (which began AFTER he said they did) were to help repair the break in Mantle’s wall protecting them from the Grimm, something Team RWBY agrees with. Of course they’d assume Robyn is a good guy since she’s acting in the interests of the people, something they do as well. Robyn’s only bad when you completely ignore how James brushes over the current struggles of the people is elected to protect and serve in order for his bigger picture, a method they don’t agree with. Something the show is showing isn’t a good idea as people see him as uncaring and unfeeling to their struggles. 

“But Ironwood has been helping them!”

Cool. That has nothing to do with him alienating his own allies through his paranoia, causing Yang and Blake try and make peace with Robyn themselves. There’s also the fact that the team should be opposing this. After all, it’s the same thing Ozpin did to them and they chewed him out over it. And unlike with the lying to Ironwood, there would be no hints that this hypocrisy would be intended by the showrunners. So Kamen is literally advocating for bad writing here.

This was added in post edit by the way so the man literally shoved in a point that does nothing but push the theory he is biased without ever considering what is necessary in the show. Even though he demands it from others. It’s really inconsistent. Dare I say...the standards are contrived?

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Next is the ‘design work’ part. He’s says this is gonna be positive for a moment and it does lack his usual malice. Doesn’t mean it’s good.

He criticizes the designs of the main cast besides Ruby. He says that Blake’s design now emphasizes the color white despite supposedly being black before. Issue is that her alternate Vol.2 and Vol.4 designs also emphasized the color white and her original design has equal part black and white. Weiss’s is supposedly that her dark blue dominates her design and is too busy to be elegant. Issue is that it’s only on the jacket and it’s mostly the same color as her previous design (even having more white.) As for being elegant: I could definitely argue it goes for a military-esque elegance. And Yang is...too brown? Uh...her original outfit was dominated by being brown.

He praises Ruby’s for still having it’s red coloring but...it’s too red. Her original design was actually closer to being goth than Blake’s and was mostly black with bright red frills and her signature cloak. And her hair has drastically changed, like he complained about with Blake.  He really shouldn’t be giving Ruby a pass here.

I have nothing to say about his point ‘they’re all too busy.’ I feel like any side I take will be too heavily influenced by my own feelings at this point.

He complains about the logic behind the long fabrics being easy to grab onto and says that because they justified the new outfits with ‘it’s cold’ they should listen here. Issue- Not only are these two different trains of logic but by his own arguments, he should be arguing for all of them to wear white and wear bulky armor since that’s logical as well, following his logic. He doesn’t set what the limit should be.

Honestly this whole part is just kind of fluff. A lot of nothing was said and kind of feels like it was put in just to make the argument ‘Well I said something nice about RWBY!’

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Next up is ‘consistency’. ... Oh god.

“Aura was rewritten!’ He never cites what happened here but I know this dance so well I could get paid for it. Aura has always been a thing you needed to activate, back in Volume 1 where Jaune was cut by a branch and Pyrrha said ‘why don’t you use your aura?’. The supposed inconsistency comes from WOR: Aura saying it was passive even though certain definitions and uses of passive work under these examples. He also says that people cant use their Semblances when they run out of Aura but they still do, citing that old example of Yang’s Aura flickering in her character short. Flickering, not breaking. Meaning she still has Aura.

He also adds in that point about the WOR Atlas saying that the cold of Solitas killed the Grimm. While they are depicted as freezing here, it should be noted that the Grimm have been known to evolve and adapt. Meaning they could have easily evolved to withstand the cold. Again, editing out context which he says is bad.

“Hey, Miles. Kerry. You ever gonna acknowledge what you showed in the World of Remnant again these days?”

Dunno, are you ever gonna acknowledge what you say in your own videos? Glass houses Kamen.

I also find it funny that he calls out the ‘it’s just a cartoon!’ thing out of nowhere on a tangent even as he previously blocked me over this. Apparently contrivance is okay if it can be used as a shield. And if he has a problem with this, look over your videos not even just the RWBY ones You have said harsher- deal with it.

He goes onto criticize the argument of not all Fanaus have night vision because of specific moments...with Blake and Sun, only two Fanaus. In fact, the first example has him say that Blake and Sun used their night vision to escape a White Fang meeting. ... White Fang. Fanaus. He’s trying to argue that this is a case of Blake and Sun having night vision to contrast when she apparently ‘doesn’t’ but never notices that his own argument kind of confirms what the show said.

Then we have his other example of Blake against Illa were she couldn’t see Illa. A chameleon Fanaus. With camoflague. Where lighting up the room would alter how the colors look to see her more easily. ....

This whole point was about how the show doesn’t give strict rules to the Fanaus night vision, even though other shows with more fundamental powers (as in, the thing their premise is based on) bend these rules (like MHA with so many Quirks not being related to their physiology or Jojo bending every single Stand rule) for their plot. This isn’t directly bad as he says it is and he never emphasizes why anyone should care other than the strawman of ‘STRICT RULES!’ even as his own favorites don’t follow that.

He also says there’s no repercussions for the Penny cover up since he says it was to cause a riot to attract the Grimm but the Grimm disappear and people are being arrested for their rioting in  the next episode. ... The Grimm don’t invade until Episode 9. He’s talking about Episode 7. The arrest was for breaking curfew that Ironwood imposed afterwards to due the discontent from Jacques winning. Then we have the fact that Penny’s frame up leads to Robyn actually stealing supplies, which leads to Yang and Blake telling her about Amity, which leads to Ironwood’s paranoia taking over. So you know...kind of some of the biggest repercussions in the show.

I also remember he said it was to frame Penny in his contriavances section...which makes no sense if it was meant to cause a riot directly afterward. In trying to callout inconsistencies that don’t exist, he became inconsistent himself.

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Next part is “Don’t Show, Never Show”. .... How professional.

He begins by bitching at other people for misrepresenting his arguments about the Fanaus and how their oppression isn’t well shown. ... After he’s personally attacked the creators over a subject one of them is innocent and self conscious of and will mock that person for mocking his critics. Classy.

“Jacques is Orange Man bad stand-in-”

A. He never mentions anything about securing Atlas’ borders and in fact wants to OPEN them.

B. He’s never talked about making Atlas great or appealing to any sort of false patriotism.

C. He opposes the military whereas Trump supports them.

D. He has no slogans for his campaign, especially none like Trump��s/

E. He isn’t colluding with foreign powers aside from a generic bad guy orgnazation with no connections to the countries Trump is accused of.

F. Jacques being a slimy business man was made before Trump came into the presidency.

And G. Robyn Hill only connections to Hilarily Clinton is a gender and half a name (a name that is actually rather common in real life). In fact, considering her position is all about distrust in the government and appealing to the common man- She’s a closer stand in for TRUMP than Hilarlily. 

Again, argument’s been made a thousand times, beaten it a thousand times. 

His overall point is that Jacques is said to be a terrible parent but not shown, using the line from “This Life is Mine” ( Amazing how you conquered me, Chained me in servility) before going on to say that he ‘let her go to a different school’ (he was forced to), ‘Do whatever she wants so long as it doesn’t affect his business and reputation’ (contradicted by cutting her off, trying to limit her actions because of her ignoring his calls even though that does not affect his business or reputation), ‘spending his money at Beacon until she ignores his calls’ (finical abuse 101) and ‘she embarrassed him at a party by assaulting one of the guests.’

... The woman was outright mocking the people she knew, the ‘assault’ was an accidental summon, Jacques was trying to prevent her from just getting away from him, Jacques pressured her into singing for him despite her discomfort and never once tries to talk to his daughter like a person or calm her down, instead trying to silence her. All of THIS without getting his physical intimidation of grabbing her and slapping her, which is what Kamen strawmans the response being. Also ignoring what he did AFTER the slap, effectively trapping her in her room and spreading the idea she was unstable to save his image.

No amount of money matters here, ignoring once again that he tried withholding it once she acted outside what he wanted. That is the ‘chains of servility’ and I know you wouldn’t argue this outside RWBY. You’d be calling this ignorant beyond acception, Kamen.

“The worst examples of Jacques’ abuse happen outside the-”

Jacques’ worst abuse was being trapped in her own room for calling out the callousness of people smack talking a tragedy she went through. This is effectively mocking a war in front of a veteran then locking them in the basement while telling everyone they’re coocoo. That is in the show, stop trying to blame other materials THAT DO NOT EXIST just to appeal to a common compliant (about supplemental materials in RWBY).

“Well Winter abuses Weiss!”

So let me get this straight. A small smack on the back of the head before asking about her personal life to show she cares about Weiss (another example of cutting context) is at all comparable to abuse of parental power, controlling Weiss like a puppet and locking her up? What was your definition of contrivance and consistency again?

“Can I go off on a tangent?”

No. You have not earned that right. You have far exceeded any patience I should have given you. The fact I am STILL HERE is too much and I should just throw the rest of the video in that garbage dumb your delusion of the writing is. But I will STILL give you chance.

P.S. You use HBomberguy as an example? Even though one of the videos you chewed out in your Persona video (’Steven Universe is Garbage and Here’s Why’) is BASED OFF his work? So what? His hours long shit talking is okay? And no, this is not

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His next segment is titled ... “Okay What Is This Shit I’m Actually Cratching My Head I’m So Dumbfounded And Confused AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

... You misspelled “Scratching”.

He says the Grimm Attack after Robyn’s failed election was handled off screen. That never existed and the Grimm attacked THREE EPISODE LATER and is handled on screen.

He says that Jacques being arrested makes no sense because Watts can control technology and should have used it disable the security cameras in the Schnee Manor. As he outright says, Willow hid those cameras and Watts HACKS technology and cannot hack what he DOES NOT KNOW EXISTS. It’s outright said BY THE SHOW and SHOWN that he cannot just magically control technology.

He also questions how Willow got those cameras in there, ignoring that Jacques DOES NOT HAVE OMNISCENCE.  Why she did when she SAID it was to make sure he didn’t abuse her kids. When doesn’t fucking matter. It’s all pendantic bullcrap. You can apply this to any situation in media and I know Kamen would bitch about the show’s pacing if they did this because it would be boring as fuck.

He says that there was no foreshadowing that Willow set these cameras up which I would like to give...if not for the rest of his video which illustrates to me he would have made this point with or without foreshadowing.

“How come Robyn isn’t being arrested because she stole supplies?!”

A. Because you keep inferring she stole supplies BEFORE the election, I’ll have to assume it’s the same here and say SHE DIDN’T.

B. If you aren’t and have changed to saying AFTER the election: The show SHOWS YOU that they’ve been trying to arrest her. She’s been EVADING them.

C. If it’s at Jacques’ house: Remember what you said about image? Wanna guess how damaged Ol Jimmy’s image will be if he arrests his biggest critic while under suspicion of rigging the election against her AND being questioned for supposed abuse of power?

D. Gee, not like the heating system in an artic climate shut down, Jacques just got exposed for helping a KNOWN CRIMINAL TOO, The Grimm actually invade, they have to save all the people, things collapse between RWBY and Ironwood and a fuckton of other things of higher priority than one woman stealing supplies to fix something IRONWOOD HIMSELF SHOULD BE FIXING.

“Hur dur, Salem generic’

Says the Jojo and Yugioh fan. Say, how did your precious VRAINS turn out again hm?

“HEY, WHY NO RUBY TELL IRONWOOD AND TAKE RESPONBILITY?!”

Maybe because there’s a bunch of soulless abominations currently running amok in a city full of innocents so she should take responsibility as an official Huntress and do her damn job while the comparatively combat inept Oscar handle the non combat situation. Or did you want contrivance to work in your favor even though you’ve been proven to be a biased liar who will betray everything he stands in order to make a shit point about a flawed show he couldn’t criticize with a fucking guide on it?

“Why not have Ruby stand behind and say ‘I’ll catch up with you later’?-”

Because you’ll cut context and make her look irresponsible. Your suggestions mean NOTHING when you have proven that you have no honesty on the subject and will flip flop to suit yourself.

Also I love how you mock Mediaocrity4 for ‘treating his opposition as idiots’ as your fucking video STARTED and is littered with you doing JUST THAT. Fuck, I bet you’ll do JUST THAT with this post. 

“Oh look at this character who has been shown as overly emotional, rash and prone to not thinking when mad act in line with her character how dumb!”

Gee, like say...., A shut in otaku making constant video game and anime references in, let’s say, a JRPG filled with these references? 

Huh, guess you agree more with Cvit than you say.

“Dur, fistcuffs mean Jojo!”

Oh wait, Fist of the North Star did it first. And it’s a stable in most fighting anime. But hey, who cares in Kamen shanks Jojo in the back if it means lashing out against RWBY amirite?

“It’s like the context of the fights-”

Where the Ace Ops against RWBY are highly emotional, having felt betrayed by people they though as comrades and acting individually instead as duos or even as a team while all being people with shown emotional issues failing to defeat a far calmer and more developed team that have been working with them and are aware of their flaws?

Or that Clover tried to blindly follow Ironwood’s orders just as Qrow did in the past with Ozpin as the two characters heavily mirror each other, Qrow tried to fight Tyrian at first even as Clover attacked him and never actually helped Tyrian (in facting ATTACKING HIM at one point) after Clover tried arresting him in front of Robyn, someone known to do rash things when it comes to Ironwood?

I’m so glad you decided to FOR ONCE IN THIS ENTIRE, NEARLY FOURTY MINUTE VIDEO actually pay attention to the show and not the memes of the people who agree with you.

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“Conclusion”

‘Like I said in the Steven Universe Movie, I don’t let the fanabse dictate my opinion on something-’

Which is why there wasn’t a single original viewpoint, perspective, criticism, wording or even ‘jokes’, all shit ripped straight from the mouths of others. It’s all shit I’ve seen before by other people. If I absorbed even more of this bullshit, I’d probably be able to see exact wordings in here too, I am THAT certain you didn’t think about this for yourself.

If you did, you would have noticed that you were repeating the exact same mistakes you constantly criticize in others. You would have seen that you were making assumptions based on your preconceived notion of ‘RWBY bad’ and not what the show itself was doing. You would have seen the vidnictive smugness you decried MatPat over. You would have seen the immense hypocrisy you called out before. You would have stuck to what you called your principles.

You have the failures of your biggest targets in this very video. The bias and brain rot of Quinton Reviews, the hack job of MatPat, the manipulativeness of Verlsify, the sheer level of bullshit of Cvit. You burned every single standard you set for others here, you did every wrong thing you screamed about, you failed in the same ways as those you profited from criticizing. Again, because I said all this THE LAST TIME and yet you got WORSE. 

You mock and belittle the creators even as you give them every reason to treat you like shit because even the worst they’ve done looks justified compared to what you pulled. ‘Oh they said that people being mean is so bad!’ says the man preying on his weakness. ‘Oh he’s shit talking his critics!’ says the open liar. ‘Oh the writing was done by platypuses!’ says the man who wants to be taken seriously. ‘Oh it’s just a joke!’ Says the man who bitched out MatPat over jokes. 

And I guarantee you’ll cry foul at me if you ever find this, decrying me as just a salty RWBY fanboy. And this time, I’m not accepting any excuses. You HAD your chances. 

4chan trolls are more respectable than you. They have principles and stick to them. Fanboys are more respectable than you. They don’t claim to be anything else. And yes, your targets are more respectable than you. Their channels aren’t based on hypocrisy THIS deeply rooted.

I regret ever watching you because you were clearly speaking out of your ass.

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Post-Edit:

So i edited a couple of my less explained points to get my issue across. Just saying this here so that no one accuses me of editing the source for malicious purposes.

As for why I didn’t rewrite the last two sections to remove my anger: that stays to prove a point. I had tried to stay neutral or at least calm throughout the video. But my frustrations just kept on building as you became increasingly smug and condescending, even though you called out such shit against others. I can’t even respect your arguments as arguments because considering the erratic nature of this video as well as how out of place some of them are (”Orange Man Bad”): it sounds like you just took every single compliant ever said about Volume 7 and threw it in. 

You end all your videos saying ‘Examine Your Fandom’. Did you ever do that yourself?

[strxga]

Thoughts & Review on V7C12

This is my personal review for the latest chapter of RWBY. I tried to keep my points objective and organized, and to not take too much time discussing each, and I would sincerely appreciated if it could be given a read. Thank you if you do read it.

Well. It’s finally happened.

After a hazy but relatively positive start, I can say that Chapter 12 is yet another tipping point in a direction. The last chapters of Volume 6 were certainly… A lot, but compared to this one, Volume 6 pales in comparison. This one is… A doozy for several reasons. Let me preface by saying this: I love this show.

I sincerely adore it and the characters, and the reason I’m writing this think piece is precisely because of that. Because it could be so much better, it could be truly a love letter towards Fantasy, anime, and its fandom… But the writers specifically seem to not know how to balance that… But enough ranting. Off to the meatier sections, which I will progressively go from what I liked the most to what I liked the least.

Penny & Winter Scenes

This was, by far, the best written scenes in the episode, and coming from an unlikely pair of friends. Penny has always been emotional despite being a robot while Winter, despite being human, has always acted mechanical. This episode provides a nice contrast between the two, with Penny emphasizing with Winter and trying to get through to her only for Winter to refute her claims, but doing so with a sadness to her face because deep inside she knows James Ironwood’s plan is flawed. In a way, one acts as the other should, but doesn’t. Their awkward but working friendship makes that its mold and comfortably rests atop it.

It’s flawed, but realistically, it’s the best option to take over having to fight Salem with depleted and exhausted forces. The two play off one another marvelously, and this keeps up until Cinder’s entrance (which is another point I’ll discuss later) and the entire time they keep up this great dynamic. Penny asking if it’s going to hurt Fria to transfer her Aura directly to Winter, only for her to once more act as Penny’s foil and say that it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is following orders and keeping the Relic and Maiden Powers safe.

Team ORNJ Scenes

Thankfully this time, it doesn’t take an entire episode to figure out where Oscar is. Frankly, there isn’t much to talk about here, but what little there is of it is good! A problem is established, and then it’s swiftly solved by Neopolitan’s confidence only for everything to fall apart when the real Oscar appears, confirming he wasn’t taken away but had been actually fighting solo against Neopolitan for the lamp.

It establishes he’s no longer the wimp he once was and is making full use of Ozpin’s cane, but I honestly do feel like it was mostly a cat-and-mouse game with Neopolitan stealing the lamp and him chasing after her, because I don’t think he could’ve beaten her on his own. Team ORNJ then sets up to fight Neopolitan, spicing up the fight between them that’s going to take place in the upcoming chapter.

(Upcoming) Neopolitan vs. Team ORNJ

There honestly isn’t much to talk about this regarding on what happened in the episode, but what it did amazingly is set up the fight. We know Neopolitan is an experienced fighter, and strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Cinder without her using her Fall Maiden powers. We also know that Jaune and Ren aren’t the strongest fighters, but they can still hold their own, and them accompanied by Oscar who is slightly below-average but still powerful enough to hold his own and Nora who is, now that Pyrrha’s gone, the strongest member of what remains of Team JNPR, I think the battle between them and our favorite ice cream girl is going to be a highlight of this season, especially with how it was set-up.

Cinder’s Entrance

This is when we start to get into the ‘meh’ section of this episode. Cinder is usually compelling in small doses, but extremely dull, boring and irritable in extended scenes due to how confident, smug and self-assured she is despite her multiple failures ever since the Fall of Beacon. But from a writing perspective, she was amazing. She showed how fearsome she is yet again and that her cleverness is part of her character and not just a plot device. She sent Ironwood into a paranoia and then tracked Winter knowing he’d send her after Fria.

Now, the only thing I don’t get, but this might be just me having forgotten, is if there was one point in which Cinder actually learned Winter was the next candidate to be the Winter Maiden… After all, prior to this point, Cinder had never met or encountered Winter or even less have known of her affiliation with Ironwood in the sense that she is her second-in-command. I have difficulty following that thread of logic… Unless Neopolitan told her at some point? I don’t know. Not knowing is what makes me ‘meh’ about this scene.

Clover, Qrow & Tyrian’s Fight

Taking away the connotations and context from the fight and looking at it purely from a choreography perspective, the fight was amazing and showed all of the fighter’s individual styles and strengths. As per usual, Tyrian was shown as crazed and psychopathic. There is no rhyme, reason or logic to his moves, and therefore there is no pattern or proper way to attack other than improvise. Qrow was versatile in using both his hand-to-hand skills and Harbinger to get the job done, but who stands up the most to me is Clover.

Clover really shows why he’s the leader of the AceOps. He was strategic in using Kingfisher to constantly tie-up Tyrian a few times (I cannot remember if he caught Qrow though) and managed to actually keep up with both of them for a long time! Had it not been for Tyrian’s interference while Clover and Qrow spoke, well… I’ll mention that later. But the point is, Clover was an absolute king in the battlefield and despite his weapon being a fishing rod, he was able to use it tremendously.

Furthermore, what surprised me the most is the fact Qrow and Tyrian worked so well together. They made-up for each other’s flaws whenever Clover had one of them against the ropes, and this surprises me even more considering the fact Tyrian was responsible for Qrow’s closest brush with death. It was… Surprisingly bittersweet.

(Upcoming) Cinder vs. Penny & Winter

Nothing much to talk about here given that this hasn’t yet happened, but as per usual Cinder is flaunting and showing off her power while severely underestimating her opponents. It has been approximately three years since she last saw Penny and since she was rebuilt stronger than before, not to mention the combat experience she’s accrued defending Mantle from the Creatures of Grimm and the occasional bandit and the like.

Winter has also presumably gotten stronger since then, but the scope of her abilities are still unknown since she only engaged in combat once and it was against Qrow all the way back in Volume 3. There’s so many ideas up in the air regarding this upcoming fight that nothing’s stopping me from theorizing Fria will wake up and use her Winter Maiden abilities to kick the snot out of Cinder.

But I am looking forward to what the fight has to offer. I don’t think any of them will die though. Cinder is still too important to the plot as are Penny and Winter for as long as the setting is Atlas.

Clover, Qrow, Robyn & Tyrian Scenes

Yeah. This whole encounter was… It wasn’t exactly ‘bad’ but I felt like the characters here acted completely out of character. Well, sans for Tyrian of course, given that at his core, he is simply a psychopath.

Clover has always been one who acted as one of the most morally-upstanding member of the AceOps as well as the one who was, arguably, given the most screen time. But for some reason, this episode had him betray everything he stood for and wanted to arrest Qrow even though Qrow… Well, what did Qrow even do for Ironwood to want him arrested? That’s another minor nitpick I have about the situation. But with how closely Clover and Qrow had bonded, you’d think he’d try and make sense of the situation instead of acting as a drone even though before he had never done so.

Robyn went from a pragmatic and understanding leader-like figure to, well… Whatever that was. I sincerely can’t understand her character because she isn’t cohesive at all. The only trait about her that remains is her loyalty to Mantle… But that’s it. One moment she’s against Ironwood, the next moment she’s siding with him… Then she sides against him and then once more sides with him. It’s honestly very boring and for someone who is supposed to be based on Robin Hood, she’s never done anything Robin Hood-esque. Even her aesthetic doesn’t match him. She feels like an incomplete character and the only side of her we see is a temperamental, indecisive leader. She couldn’t even tell it wasn’t Penny who attacked her at the election party even though almost every single part of her, weapons included, are bioluminescent. It’s frustrating, really. She should’ve known something was wrong from the get-go when Ironwood gave the order instead of immediately resorting to blind anger.

Qrow… There has never been an instance in the show when Qrow reacted with direct violence ever since Volume 3 while he was drunk. He saw Robyn attack Clover first and decided that he was going to attack Clover when he was the one being assaulted. Robyn and Qrow, as far as I know, never even had a single interaction together one-on-one, and even if he did, he’s always been one to stand against wrongdoings despite his shady demeanor. It honestly sucked seeing him being so out of character this entire chapter because he is a fan-favorite and for good reason. He has had a good amount of development. But he acted on violence instead of simply sitting down and having a talk with both Clover and Robyn. It simply didn’t make sense to me.

AceOps vs. Team RWBY

Just like before, I will focus entirely on an unbiased analysis of how this fight went and criticizing the things that particularly stood out for me whether bad or good. I’ll also be dividing this into subsections because it’s going to be a more direct and easier way for me to do so, and in case anyone’s reading this, that way they can skip ahead to their favorite fight. I watched this battle several times in an attempt to breakdown as best I could. So, let’s start with the main show and the one we saw the most of:

Ruby Rose vs. Harriet Bree

Arguably the most balanced fight out of the four short ones we saw. While I am apprehensive of aspects such as Ruby’s Semblance being able of breaking through iron barricades so easily despite never having alluded or shown her Semblance doing something like that before… I can give it a pass if anything because it made the environment more malleable. Despite that, however, I did like the fast paced match between the fastest members of their respective teams. It’s a very fast battle, but we can see it fully and what we see… Is a fight in which Ruby is on the defensive the entire time, and a battle she should’ve completely lost.

Ruby landed exactly zero hits on Harriet. Zero. Well… Not entirely. She does push Harriet down once but Ruby… Isn’t good at hand-to-hand combat and it’s been shown time over time that she’s not very physically strong so I’d hardly say that counts as a hit… But it does happen. Yet we’re supposed to believe that she was taken out by running into an ice wall created by Weiss at the last moment and that her Aura broke from that? Harriet landed exactly 5 very powerful attacks on Ruby and yet her Aura never even budged. I find that hard to believe. First Ruby got kicked on the face with enough strength to send her flying towards an elevator and break the doors off the wall.

Then he got double-kicked by Harriet on the gut and sent flying back. Then she got punched right on her back by Harriet’s weapon, Fast Knuckles, which are basically Yang’s gauntlets. An attack like that should’ve, at least, done significant damage to her Aura given it was strong enough to buckle her legs and crash her against the floor, which in and of itself should count as another impact given how hard she hit it. Then after that, Ruby got headbutted on the face by Harriet and then choked on the neck by Harriet with her legs and once again slammed with tremendous force on the floor. But her Aura is unscathed for some reason?

Then in comes Weiss, puts an ice wall in front of Harriet for her to crash into, and somehow that takes her down and breaks her Aura. Objectively, this battle was amazing, but Ruby never even once had the advantage. Ruby should’ve been knocked out by Harriet when her Aura broke, but for some reason… That didn’t happen. Good choreography, however.

Weiss Schnee vs. Marrow Armin

I frankly can say this one was expertly choreographed as well. We finally get to see a fight in which Weiss gets to use her Semblance at its full capacity, and this time she doesn’t abuse ice dust only. While it’s still in the vast majority of her attacks, she also relies on fire dust, which does add a degree of excitement and a fresh take to her battle style. Not to mention she now isn’t as reliant on the Arma Gigas only. It was a good balanced diet of everything Weiss can do! There still was very little of her in actual close-quarters combat, but that’s never been her specialty. She’s more of a mid-ranged fighter than anything else with lots of tricks and gimmicks. As for Marrow– well, Marrow… Could’ve made things so much easier if he had used his Semblance effectively.

When it comes to the battle itself though it was… Very lackluster on Marrow’s end, but then again it is heavily-implied by Harriet that he’s not fighting seriously at all and was purposefully holding back, so perhaps the fact he was defeated so easily really isn’t that hard to believe considering his heart wasn’t on the fight and even then he still put up a good fight. But like with Harriet… I find his Aura breaking so easily to be… Weird? He only got hit one time by Weiss’ homing fire dust… Flames? Bullets? Rays? I don’t know what to call it, but he got hit just once with Weiss’ dust and I don’t really count it as a hit but he got pushed to the wall once, but nowhere with near the same intensity as Ruby getting slammed and thrashed all over the environment by Harriet.

But ultimately while it is a nice fight… Again, I find Marrow going down to a single attack borderline offensive and humiliating for one of the members of the AceOps, but then again this was the only battle that felt like a member of Team RWBY deserved to win, and that’s saying something given Weiss��� battle track record isn’t exactly the cleanest and she’s lost the most fights out of any Team RWBY member when it comes to one-on-one encounters.

Blake Belladonna & Yang Xiao Long vs. Elm Ederne & Vine Zeki

Honestly, this is probably the best fight out of the ones regarding Team RWBY vs. the AceOps. It is nice to see this fight’s choreography because it was quite enjoyable. It was very dynamic and there was a lot of movement which made it flow just like a river of water, but there were also… Lots of inconsistencies regarding the character’s power levels and how they performed in this fight, especially regarding Elm and Vine who, from an objective standpoint if one sits down and analyzes the fight as I did, it’s also easy to tell that… Elm and Vine should’ve won.

While it’s disappointing that we didn’t get to see Vine’s weapon in this final bout, we did see Blake and Yang working together as well as Elm and Vine despite their personality conflicts. There really wasn’t a lot of team coordinating, but both sides performed admirably. Yang & Elm with their brawn and ferocity as well as Blake & Vine with their strategic minds and nimbleness. Now… While I can only praise the dynamics, the battle was, again, stacked against Blake and Yang. Like I did with the battle between Ruby and Harriet, I went through this one thoroughly and counted the amount of hits each character received.

Yang landed a total of three direct blows against Elm. A punch to the face that sent Elm staggering back a few steps, and then she didn’t land a single hit on Elm until she punched the ground with her Semblance, destroying it and sending her flying, but this doesn’t count as a hit because Elm wasn’t harmed when Yang did this. She was only sent flying in mid-air and then Yang and Blake both delivered a single attack on Elm before she fell to the floor, shattering her Aura. Now, we know Elm is basically the Yang of the group, except bigger, stockier and presumably stronger, so with how tough she’s been portrayed up until now, that she was defeated so swiftly surprises me… Especially when she herself beat Yang down to the point her Aura should’ve broken as well.

First she headbutted Yang, knocking her off-balance and later swinging her hammer with enough strength to send Yang, the strongest and bulkiest member of Team RWBY, flying a considerable distance with her massive hammer. This didn’t happen just once, twice or thrice though. Elm hit Yang on the chest with Timber, her hammer, four times, and every single time she was sent flying. We’ve seen the ridiculous feats of strength Nora Valkyrie’s performed with Magnhild. Well, Elm is at least twice stronger than Nora. The fact Yang’s Aura never even budged despite getting hammered on the chest with the heaviest and most powerful hammer we’ve seen in the show is beyond me. It doesn’t help that she got also hit directly by Vine with a rock the size of her entire body and pushed back. If anything, Elm and Yang’s fight is the most balanced one so Elm being defeated is not the issue. The issue is how despite receiving double the punishment, Yang’s Aura never broke while Elm’s broke with just three hits that didn’t pack the same punch and power all of Elm’s attacks which connected did.

Now regarding Blake’s encounter with Vine… Like Ruby with Harriet, Blake landed a total of zero hits against both Elm and Vine. Coincidentally, however, Blake also was also hit the most in this battle to the point her Aura actually did break. Why only her’s though is not something I can answer. I could describe how Blake got hit, but two of those times she got crushed by Vine’s Semblance and slammed against the wall twice, the second time enough to break the wall as well, and the one time she got hammered on the chest by Elm with enough strength to send her several feet on the air, which likely hurt a whole lot since every single one of Elm’s hits pack two massive punches. Now if any of you are curious about how many hits Vine took before his Aura broke…

It was one. He got sent flying to the ground by Yang and his Aura broke. I don’t count the explosives that detonated near him because he was using his Semblance to hold onto them, reducing the explosion’s power and size, but it still destabilized him and sent him careening to the air for Yang to grab. But Yang’s explosives aren’t exactly the strongest anyways so even if they did do some damage, it was still extremely minuscule damage for his Aura to break from a single hit like Marrow’s did. It was honestly disappointing, especially after we got to witness how strong they truly are by perfectly fighting against a Geist in the earliest episodes of the Volume.

My overall rating of the fight is that, objectively, it was amazingly choreographed… But the power level in RWBY is still awful and largely-irrelevant, since there is no instance in which Team RWBY will actually lose a fight even if throughout the encounter they are taking more hits than their opposition. This is an issue they still need to fix…

Team RWBY’s ‘Plan’

This one is… Upsetting. Even more so than the above because, at this point, Team RWBY is devoid of any and all potential consequences of their actions, and frankly I’m tired of it. Ever since Volume 6 their ‘plans’ if they can even be called that, have been compromising even more things for the sake of their so-called righteousness. In Volume 6 they endangered all of Argus and attacked an entire military base, and to this day they’ve suffered exactly zero consequences for their actions. If anything, they got rewarded for their criminal activity by getting a free pass to Atlas. Ironwood didn’t even look in their direction after they did that too. All for their selfish righteousness too, which in most occasions isn’t even right. They just do whatever they can even if it comes at the cost of other’s safety as long as it serves them

Now they even refuse to even see where Ironwood is coming from. They don’t offer him help, all they do is judge him and criticize him both to his back and in front of him and only side with him when it benefits them. They are, physically, mentally and emotionally incapable of sympathizing with others yet they want others to sympathize with them and their hypocrisy only continues to go rewarded. The narrative is very obviously in their favor and attempts to sway the viewers into thinking Ironwood is the villain for… Doing the only few remaining things he can do to try and keep not just Atlas and the Mantle survivors safe, but all of the world. They don’t even bother to see his point. At no moment during that confrontation do they go ‘we see your point and where you’re coming from, but that’s just playing into Salem’s hands and we can’t do that.’ No, all they do is yell at him and tell him he’s wrong, that he’s an awful person.

They don’t see the greater scheme. All they see are their own lofty ideals. They physically cannot save all the people of Mantle. They physically cannot keep the Lamp and the Staff, and they certainly, at this point in time, physically stop Salem if she is coming. They need ships to save the people of Mantle, they need to be on guard duty to protect the Staff and the Lamp. They need to keep Fria safe to keep the Winter Maiden powers from being robbed, but how are they physically going to do that? By ‘standing their ground?’ That is such a nonsensical, idyllic solution. They can’t do all of those things, but somehow, someway, they are ‘right’ because they want to do ‘the right thing.’ Except. There is no right thing thing to do. Not everything is as black and white as they want it to be. And every single time they do this and experience zero consequences while reaping many rewards for their hypocritical and catastrophic reckless decisions, the more faith I lose in the writers and the show.

Team RWBY defeating the AceOps

Like I said above, this was something I really didn’t enjoy… As I’ve mentioned above, it seems Team RWBY’s recklessness and inconsiderate behavior that endangers far more lives than they save will always go rewarded, and here is no different. I’ve gone through the battle several times and the only fight which deserved to be won by a member of Team RWBY was Weiss’ battle against Marrow, and this was largely because Marrow was holding back and implied he could push Weiss more against the ropes if he wanted to. Not to mention that it was due to Marrow’s hesitation Team RWBY even had a fighting chance. Had he used his Semblance at the very beginning he could’ve frozen all of Team RWBY where they were and have them apprehended immediately because they’d be unable to move.

Besides that one, the only other one who could’ve gone in Team RWBY’s favor is Yang’s fight against Elm, but even so it was… 75/25 in Elm’s favor. But the proof is in the animation, and it shows Elm landing far more attacks on Yang than Yang ever did on her, but since Team RWBY’s victory is required for the plot to progress, they were able to defeat the AceOps. Blake’s fight against Vine and Ruby’s fight against Harriet is not something I can even justify if I tried to do so because it was entirely one-sided on the AceOps’ favor. I try to give a lot of leverage to the show and its writing, but I cannot suspense my disbelief for such a one-sided fight, especially when the AceOps dished out punishment after punishment for Team RWBY and none of their Auras broke nor did they look even remotely tired while the AceOps all went down with two-to-three hits that I find hard to believe would take down the most elite Hunters in all of the Atlas continent.

We don’t know the AceOps’ members’ age, but what we do know is that they’ve been serving directly under James Ironwood for years now, and as the most elite, that makes them the strongest military platoon in all of Atlas with several years long specialized training years under their age while Team RWBY received not even a year of formal training at Beacon Academy and fought some Creatures of Grimm on the way to Mistral, had very limited and minor training under Ozma/Ozpin and then had small bouts against Salem and Raven’s forces in the Battle for Haven. Then after that they faced off against more Creatures of Grimm on the way to Atlas except for the one time they teamed-up to fight against Caroline Cordovin’s Colossus. Compared to the AceOps’ rigorous daily training and constantly having to carry out extremely difficult tasks under Ironwood’s leadership, Team RWBY’s training really pales in comparison.

There are many other ways that Team RWBY’s physical, mental or emotional strength without having them win fights they don’t deserve, because at this point it simply feels like no matter what happens, no matter how gray the situation the writing team behind RWBY attempts to portray, the narrative always tries to portray Team RWBY as being in the right even though for the past two Volumes they have been wrong in their methods without suffering any consequences. It’s exhausting and frankly, not good writing. I understand this is said a lot, but in this case, it can really be attributed to bad writing. Team RWBY doesn’t have to win every fight, they don’t have to always come out on top. They don’t always have to be right. And they most certainly don’t have to always be at the center of everything. That’s what side characters are for, side characters that they rarely use at all but keep around and keep increasing the amount of side characters for the plot. It’s overwhelming in all the wrong ways.

By the way, it was Team RWBY who attacked the AceOps, not the other way around. They could’ve stood down, they could’ve calmed down and realized they were in the wrong in this scenario, and Harriet herself said it first. They decide what happens next. Ruby draws out her weapon and escapes the room, forcing Harriet to chase her. They were the ones who forced the AceOps into acting, not the other way around. But the next moment Ruby is begging Harriet to team up with her to fight Salem even though a moment ago she was challenging Harriet to a fight because of her arrogance and unjustified massive ego. At this point, Ironwood might be paranoid and making bad decisions, but Team RWBY certainly poured gasoline all over his paranoia.

Qrow

I think most of the FNDM can agree that what they did with Qrow makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. There are a lot of things wrong with his character this chapter. For starters, at no point since he was introduced did Qrow try to solve the problems he faced with outright violence. He always preferred the diplomatic and peaceful approach because that’s what Ozpin taught him to do and what he genuinely believed was the right step today, because violence leads to panic, and the panic leads to Creatures of Grimm… Except in this case where he… Decided to rely on violence.

But the greatest offender was the fact he teamed up with Tyrian of all people– that’s right. Qrow willingly teams up with Tyrian, the same person who has tried to slaughter both Ruby and himself and has successfully murdered dozens of innocent civilians for his own amusement to attack Clover… What? Then he has the audacity to blame Clover for what happened and feels awful when, to no one’s surprise, Tyrian betrays him and stabs Clover with Harbinger when it was him who knocked out Clover’s Aura in the first place.

It’s awful, and I can understand why so many Qrow fans are enraged by this, because even I was and I don’t relate to Qrow that much. Just as the meme goes, ‘everything happens so much…’

Clover’s Death

Didn’t need to happen. Literally that’s my entire point on this section. It didn’t need to happen, it shouldn’t have happened, and this was RWBY’s writing team attempt at shock for the Volume. Because Qrow is just not allowed to have happy endings or friends. Qrow has no rights mourning Clover’s death when he himself was the direct catalyst for it to occur in the first place. But there is something else that is horrifyingly atrocious in the writing department going on with Clover in the last moments of his death. Seconds before getting stabbed with Harbinger, Clover states that he would trust Ironwood with his life… Then, all that changes right after he is nearing the end of his life.

The moment he realizes his life is fading away, once again, Clover goes against anything and everything he stands for by wishing Qrow good luck when the other claims he’s going to make sure Ironwood takes the fall for what happened, when Ironwood is doing nothing wrong. Ironwood keeps getting painted as the villain even by his most loyal soldier, the one who claimed he would trust the general with his life, but that ultimately doesn’t matter based on the show’s writing. Clover previously also talked about how Ironwood was doing the right thing by making the toughest decisions, the decisions that realistically could and would save thousands of lives unlike Team RWBY’s lofty goals.

Goals which by the end of the episode continue being unanswered. How are they going to accomplish all the naïve promises they want to fulfill? From a non-biased opinion and how they tend to solve the writing’s plot holes in past volumes, what most likely’s going to happen is yet another Deus Ex Machina. In Volume 4 it was the ‘random’ troops that just happened to arrive to Kuroyuri on time to escort the group all the way to Mistral and seek medical first aid for Qrow. In Volume 5 it was Blake showing up with an entire militia of the reformed White Fang as well as Vernal, somehow, still living to get that cheap shot in for Raven to have an opening to knock Cinder off the vault’s cliff. In Volume 6 it was Ruby’s empty speeches somehow convincing Cordovin to give them a free ship so they could travel to Atlas even though Team RWBY and company were responsible for everything bad that happened to Argus because of their selfishness.

[pulaasul]

Ships and the Sacrifices the Show Makes to Cater to Them.

As of writing this post, we’re already on cusp of the season finale. We’re already at the tenth episode for a 13-episode season. There were a lot of sacrifices made just fuel, so to speak, a certain ship.

In this volume, we’ve seen Blake and Yang interact a whole lot from subtle eye contact to a conversation between the two. That’s all well and good, however the interaction between the two has sacrificed a lot of character dynamics in favor of having these two characters share the screen at the same time.

Weiss and Ruby barely interacted in this volume, even when they do, it’s almost always turned into a Team RWBY thing rather than a Ruby-Weiss thing.

Yang and Ruby barely interacted in the sisterly way this volume. Sure there was that scene in a montage where Yang and Ruby were together, then again, there were no words exchanged no banter between sisters, nothing.

Apart from the Weiss-Jacques scenes during this volume, Blake and Weiss haven’t interacted at all, same goes for Ruby and Blake.

That’s just covering Team RWBY.

Oscar barely has a scene with anyone other than Ruby and Ironwood..

Jaune barely had any screentime interacting with Team RWBY or Team JNPR

Ren and Nora barely had any scene with the members of Team RWBY.

They get a small pass tho, considering their conflict is being addressed, albeit subtly.

Their conflict is also related to the plot about trust and lies.

Renora interaction has more than the Rose-Xiao Long sisterly interactions.

Another thing that has been sacrificed just to cater to this side of the fanbase was the plot and timing and this goes all the way back to volume 6.

I am of this opinion that Adam shouldn’t have been off-ed at the end of Volume 6. He would’ve made sense as the V7 end of volume villain to defeat considering his connections to the Schnee Dust Company, and the slavery program ran by the people of Atlas, by Jacques Schnee.

Due to the ending of V6, V7 feels incredibly rushed.

If V4 and V5 were moving at a turtle’s pace, then V7′s moving at the hare’s speed.

Team RWBYJNQR’s lies should’ve continued on up until the beginning of the next volume.

Heck, Arthur and Jacques meeting should’ve been the V7 after credits scene

The elections should’ve been the first thing we see in V8.

The ramifications of Penny’s frame up should’ve been felt more than what we got.

Maybe two to three episodes worth of ramifications from the riots to the councilmen debating about her.

Then the scene with Pietro happens.

Mantle’s guards that were looking out for the grimm should’ve been seen being killed one by one by Tyrian.

That’s when this episode should’ve been in

Yes this episode should’ve been a V8 episode lol

Considering how ‘in your face’ they are with Blake’s and Yang’s interactions with each other, I guess there’s really no choice but to sacrifice everything about RWBY and make it all about the two’s interactions.

I mean, the fanbase for that particular ship don’t care about anything else other than getting these two gals together, they don’t particularly care about the plot or any other character dynamic other than Blake’s and Yang’s.

Still, RWBY was getting better with V6′s intro. Then this shithole happens.

I mean, that fanbase is huge, so I can’t say I can blame the company for pandering towards them.

That ends my rant about the shitshow RWBY.

[helihi]

The Good, The Bad, and The Dirty: RWBY Vol 7 Ep 1

It’s been 4 years, but the FNDM was right and our treasure child is BACK! Sadly, Pyrrha died thinking she had extinguished this beautiful ray of sunshine.

For my new followers: Hi! This is my weekly RWBY review, where I go over the episode and analyze the writing/plot. 

Overall Rating: 8/10

SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Good:

I’m gonna be completely honest with you peeps, this is the first Episode 1 of a volume that I genuinely enjoyed since I started watching RWBY. The last time this happened was with volume 4, when I didn’t know better and we all know where that went. However, this time there are a few signs that show improvement on the writing department:

The art direction and the scenery were beautiful to look at. The magical Atlas contrasted with the Gotham like Mantle was great. There was a lot of attention to detail when it came to the scenery and the backgrounds from the color palettes and the architectural references to little details like the election posters and the background characters interacting with the environment.

Faunus rights:

We see a truck carrying mine workers which include very sad Faunus. 

There are some “No faunus allowed” signs on the background. 

A nice SHOW YOUR TEETH graffiti which reminds us of Ilia’s Smile song.

While one drunk Altesian spouts some racist bullshit, another one is not agressive or racist (which shows a mixture of opinions in the public).

Blake  wants to diffuse the situation, where her friends are offended by the dunk man’s comments, and it’s Weiss the one who acts against the racist dude.

Political commentary regarding the Kingdom’s situation:

Just as I expected, there’s an Atlesian council, and James acts based on their orders. Mantle has their own representatives, which don’t seem happy with the situation.

The close borders policy was not only put in place because of Salem, but also because of the International tension after The Fall of Vale.

It seems that there’s a 24/7 transmission of Ironwood and Winter telling the residents they will be kept safe and to trust their government. This not only strengthens the propaganda and authoritative position of the government, but paired with what we see in Mantle a great example of how the kingdom is falling apart. If Atlas was safe, there wouldn’t be a need for these types of constant transmissions. They are trying to make their citizens feel safe and failing miserably, which increases the Grimm attacks.

The Atlesian Ace ops come late to the fight and only to apprehend out heroes. Add that to the fact that there are no licensed huntsmen in sight and only useless robots, and you can quickly realize how little the Atlesian government cares for its Mantle residents, who are mostly poor, working class, and Faunus.

The people of mantle are not fond of the government. We see a couple of children attack a surveillance drone and be scared of it. The good drunk man is also unhappy to see the robots coming his way.

Character introduction:

We’re introduced to Penny’s father, who happens to be Gepetto from Pinoccio. Here’s a post explaining and analyzing his office. Great background story telling!

Penny is back, and her reintroduction was heartwarming, in character, and perfectly explains how she retains her memories. Just like I expected, her core was saved from that fateful day, and her father was able to rebuild her and make some updates to the model (I hope that includes a failsafe to magnetism like Semblances). Some people were suggesting Penny join Team JN_R, so they become team JNPR again, but based on that opening it sees that team JN_R has officially become team JNOR (Junior). I laughed at Penny leaving as soon as she was introduced, that joke did land, as well as her “SA-LU-TATIONS!”. I hope Ruby gets a shit ton more hugs from her. LONG LIVE NUTS N DOLTS.

Fight scenes: I’m glad the episode packed some action. It seems like the characters are using their fighting skills to their fullest like they should. The pacing was really good, but not perfect, a couple of pauses could’ve been avoided, but I loved some of the character details: 

Yang is the first one to jump into the action.

Nora is frustrated that Ren leaves before her and uses Jaune’s shield without a question.

I’m loving that Qrow leaves his weapon for a second to punch some Grimm.

Huge fan of the Weiss+Ren combo.

Blake watching Yang’s back <3

Oscar killing his first Grimm

Overall, I really enjoyed the episode, and I think it’s a great introduction to this new arc and volume.

The opening is better than last one’s and my absolutely favorite things are: the color flashes with the characters at the beginning, the 2D animation, James’s figure changing into Jacques after someone throws a rock at the hologram (Awesome foreshadowing).

The Bad:

Gotta say, I’m not impressed by the beginning of the fight scene, we hear a lot of people scream, but there’s barely anyone running away. It was kind of underwhelming.

María gives us exposition, that might not be needed from her and could’ve been given by Penny’s dad.

Ren had 1 line.

The Ugly:

A drone took a picture of Yang, I thought this would come in to play given the Vital tournament and how the whole world saw Yang “break an innocent guy’s leg”, but nothing is mentioned regarding it.

Weiss uses her powers to put that trash man in the trash, and the other dunk guy recognizes her as Weiss Schnee, yet when the Atlesian soldiers capture everyone, no one makes a comment about her.

I can only hope this things are touched upon next episode for continuity’s sake.

Please tell me this isn’t gonna be the last we see of María. I know she’s not plot relevant anymore, but I love her.

-

Rating: 8/10

A/N: WINTER SCHNEE IS BACK. BABY, I’VE MISSED YOU.

[toooldforfandom-liveblogs]

RWBY V07E05 - Sparks

Wow, this could be about anything and everything.I saw a thumbnail with Robyn in it so I know she appears, so that's something. I think Sonic Harriet throws sparks when she's powering up, Yang's semblance has sparks too. It could also be about the "spark the fires of revolution" or "the spark that can ignite hope." Considering the current political climate I'm guessing it'll probably be closer to the former than the latter.

Let's do this!

What a blessed way to start the day and the episode. Penny is living her dream considering staying close to her friends was the only reason we heard about why she wanted to stay at Beacon.

This is so wholesome that every day I fear more and more for everyone's lives.

The one thing I don't like about the Maya style is the way they enlarge the eyes anime-style for cuteness points. I'm sure it _could_ work but it just looks weird and somewhat out of place to me. I remember Yang and Weiss cooing over Saphron's child looking more disturbing than cute.

This is the cutest thing I have ever seen.

Yeah, yeah, fights, explosions, grimm, * yawn *, whatever.

Finally, here's the huntsman I want to see. There's no way this "simple" mission doesn't end up with him somehow becoming a hero.

Or perhaps he is already a hero.

A highly wanted hero.

This is amazing. And tragic. He has everything he ever wanted when he had just entered Beacon, and now they are all probably at the bottom of his priority list.

I'm not sure how to interpret this. Winter gets distracted and Weiss feels like she's not doing enough to impress her sister? It kinda fits with their little moment in the OP, but I hope Weiss grows past that this season. It's not exactly a healthy dynamic.

Ooh, one more OP scene.

I feel like my mind is blowing. He does have a ton of aura, what if he could harness it for more than just healing? Is his semblance just "healing" or is it actually aura manipulation (since he's actually just jumpstarting the other person's aura generation)? I already want to see where they go with this. Something like Vine and his arms? Or something more like a larger shield around him?

Note from the future: I had a complete brain fart when I wrote that and forgot that his semblance is “aura amplification” but most of what I wrote still applies. I’m really curious about what can he do with a _lot_ of aura.

I think this tiny line is just enough to make me more interested in Ren than I have been since Volume 4.

There was a hint with him blowing off Nora because he wanted to focus on the mission. Was it just that or does he want to become a better/stronger huntsman for something different than the obvious (which would be to protect people from having the same fate as his parents) to the point of considering everything else as secondary? I remember Nora was speculated to be from Mantle... How does it all fit?

My heart.

And Ruby is the other one who's living her dream, she _always_ wanted to be a Huntress. No doubts, no late night conversations about her future next to a fire, no soul-searching questioning. And it probably helps that while while this montage is happening, she doesn't have to question her decisions or think too deeply about the future.

Aw. I like the progress from getting his mug stolen to giving Marrow one.

oh no

no

no

She's _really_ good at poking insecurities, huh?

I'm speechless. Nora is riding her weapon like a witch.

Here's another example of what I was talking about. In any previous season Ren would have shook his head, smiling at the lovable scamp that is Nora. Now he almost looks sick of her attitude?

Woo! They are talking!

Now talk about death.

Sorry, _this_ is the cutest thing I have ever seen.

WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS, WRITERS. WHO HURT YOU.

thinking emoji

Nevermind everything I have said about Ironwood. He's evil and deserves everything bad that's probably going to happen to him.

The biggest mood. In real life _and_ for, well, everyone in the show, but especially Ruby.

I'm not sure if it's her sleepy face or something else but Ruby looks really grown up here.

From one ship to the other.

Poor Clover, wasting his efforts complimenting the guy when Qrow has a thousand-feet high shield made of self-hatred.

oh?

oh my god, he's perfect

AAAAAAA FINALLY, ROBYN!

So that grafitti _was_ important.

I was thinking the same thing. Wouldn't she, being a candidate to being elected, need to keep her nose clean?

There goes the possibility of one of the Ace Ops being a traitor for Robyn's group.

Did she fail a dice roll on her semblance check?

Hmm. Only Qrow has used that word so far in the show, once of Ruby and once for Oscar. Probably a coincidence but still.

By showing us how willing Robyn was to attack a military convoy, she either thinks she's going to lose the election (maybe because she thinks it's rigged) or thinks it won't matter for some reason. Why would she risk the possibility of fixing things from the top otherwise?

There are no traitors (yet) in the Ace Ops because she'd know why Amity is so important.

Did she call off the attack because Penny is a powerhouse or because she only thought she could win by ambushing them + a number advantage? Maybe it was all a bluff to get more information.

For having such a short intro scene, Robyn is _really_ interesting.

And she seems to have fewer scruples than Ironwood, making her and the whole conflict even more interesting.

Where's Ruby and Nora with the popcorn!?

Okay, nevermind, I misunderstood Weiss's deal earlier. Go Weiss!

Aw, she likes that Weiss is finally standing up to her a little.

But is that what Weiss really wants? Now that I think about it, we haven't heard anything about that since... I don't know, V2? Beacon changed a lot of things and getting disowned changed even more.

Her main goal was to get her family back, both RBY and Winter, but now with that done, what does she want? Does she still want to clean her family name?

Wow, this is an even more interesting conflict between them.

...yeaaaaaaaah, sure How many episodes before that's proven wrong? Unless Ironwood is really being setup as the total Anti-Ozpin and he really did tell everything to Winter? Naaaah. Since she knows about the relics and the maiden, maybe it'll have something to do with Amity Arena? Orbital weapons, anyone? No?

All the technology in the world and they haven't invented chairs.

She's either been all over the world or she's painting what she's never been able to see. Both are tragic, considering her current state.

Wow. I guess that's one way to make sure the power goes to Winter but wow, that's awful.

...you know what happened to the last person who said that?

On the other hand, maybe the fact that Winter choose of her own volition to become the winter maiden, with all the time in the world, without Ozpin breathing down her neck, is going to make all the difference.

They _really_ nail his awful, awful character.

He's strong-arming the population into voting for him. But doesn't he have Watts fixing the elections for him? Or is it _because_ of Watts that he's doing this? Nothing says riots and unhappiness like having a ton of people suddenly become unemployed.

yyyup.

The montage was okay (with some cute and interesting character moments in between all the fighting) and FNKI's cameo was fun, but everything after that was _gold_.

Poor Ruby, she pairs with Penny, Yang and Weiss this episode but no Blake. Those lines they spoke to each other in the past couple of episodes were too much.

I'm really curious about what's going with Ren. They have been showing him just enough that it has to be more than a coincidence. It really feels like he suddenly gained a focus towards being a huntsman that he didn't have before and that, so far, came from nowhere. But why? Is it Nora related? Is it even going to be explained this season? He's just background enough that the writers could be setting up for next season. The big Yang/Blake drama arc is over so they are introducing Ren's? Uhm.

Jaune being thirsted over is amazing and he deserves it. I want to see what he's going to do with his aura, especially now that Tyrian is back, he expressed a direct interest in him so maybe a fight is coming (since he already had his chance with Cinder for the time being)

Ruby living her dream life is so cute that I'm just waiting to see how it all crashes and burns. Penny's words about having to choose between what she wants and what she needs to do were very on the nose about Ruby's situation. Well, everyone's situation since Winter apparently had to deal with that and _chose_ to make both the same. Have we had anyone who chose the opposite? I guess Raven, making her a pretty good contrast to Winter.

Weiss's future is still in the air but I hope she doesn't abandon reclaiming her family name. Unless Whitley actually ends up becoming a sane human being and Weiss ends up entrusting everything to him to continue being a Huntress?

Clover is being pushed pretty hard as an all-around perfect good guy. So he's either going to die, he's a traitor or had an awful _awful_ past. Because nothing good lasts in Remnant. He did seem genuine when he wished Robyn luck though (even if it's probably kind of his thing).

Robyn was on screen for maybe four minutes and it was enough to make me very intrigued about where this season is going. The way they are setting up the conflict as [grey vs grey] vs black, with multiple interconnected plot threads, is pretty ambitious so I hope they manage to stick the landing.

There's the election, Robyn apparently not caring about the election, Jacques definitely not caring about the election, the villains' plot that requires general discontent, Ruby's secrets, Ironwood's plan, Ironwood's secret secrets, Winter possibly becoming the Winter maiden or dying or both. And then you have the smaller things that may or may not happen, like Ren's thing, Clover's being too good for this earth, _Penny_ being too good for this earth, the way it feels like it's going to be Beacon V2. Neo and Cinder are still missing but we know are on her way.

In comparison V6 was a walk in the park, with a pretty clear goal all the way through. So, yeah, I'm a bit worried about where this is all going. It has a _ton_ of potential though so I can't wait for the next episode. Until next time!

[dreanner95]

RWBY V7C2 Review - Ace Operatives (SPOILERS)

Synopsis

There is a time jump at the beginning of the episode signified by a little montage that shows RWBY and JNR getting their upgraded weapons and new outfits from Pietro.      

In the present Clover briefs Ruby, Jaune and Qrow on their first mission together: They need to clear the launch site for Amity Tower, which was overrun by Grimm after the Dust mine located there was abandoned. The big problem is an old Geist who has evaded the military until now and has retreated into the mine.           

After splitting up into three groups (RWBY & Harriet and Marrow, JNR & Vine and Elm, Qrow and Clover) and landing in different areas of the mine, everyone moves forward to enter the mine. But RWBY stays behind because Yang stops them to question the choice Ruby made during their meeting with Ironwood. After Blake and Weiß voice their support for her decision (and after a flashback of Oscar doubting that same decision is shown) the team continues the mission. In various instances of this mission it is made clear how advanced the Ace Operatives are in comparison to RWBY and JNR. While JNR is a little demoralized by that, Ruby on the other hand is very impressed by them and Harriet especially. Qrow also has to deal with similar feelings after he finds out that Clover’s semblance is Good Fortune which is the complete opposite of his own.              

After all the teams advance to a large chamber filled with a lot of Dust, they all confront the Geist in its Giga form. The Ace Operatives work together to defeat it and make sure that all the Dust that is also part of the Grimm’s body doesn’t explode on impact and destroy the launch side and ruins all the Dust that is needed for build Amity Tower. RWBY, JNR and Qrow stay on the sidelines and watch this display of teamwork. In the end Ace Ops lose track on one of the Dust crystals that threatens to create a chain reaction. Ruby uses her own Semblance to catch it and is met by praise from Harriet and Elm.                                            

In Mantle Forrest is let go from the police and walks through the street. There he meets Tyrian who seemingly kills him.

New information

Semblances:

·       Harriet: Speed

·       Clover: Time-stop

·       Vine: Aura arms

·       Elm: Aura foots (reason for walking around without shoes?)

·       Clover: Good Fortune

·       Ruby: Harriet mentions that there may be more to her semblance

Weapon Upgrades:

·       Yang: Remote controlled explosives

·       Ruby: New adjustments to Crescent Rose

·       Jaune: His shield is dust infused with Hard Light Dust and Gravity Dust

·       Ren: The blades on his weapons can be fired (but stay connected to the weapon through wires); his father’s blade is sheathed on this shoulder

Opinions

In general:

This whole episode is paced very well (Reminiscent of “Argus Limited” (V6C1)). And while exploring the upgrades and hair changes in more detail would have been cool as well, the little moments in this episode are still very effective. Jaune looks at his stash while remembering Phrrha and realizes his hair is bothering him, which signifies him becoming more mature since the first Volume with the help of his lost friend. Blake on the other hand looks in the mirror with a more excited look. She seems happy as she decides to cut her hair, because it is her way to move on from her past with Adam.   

The connection of the destroyed Dust mine with the accident that killed Ilia’s parents is prevalent without Blake saying it explicitly. In the same scene Adam is shown to still have a presence in both Blake and Yang’s mind as seen with both of them reacting to the SDC logo on the crates in the mine.                                  

Another great thing in this episode is how the fights are integrated in the story. The fights are littered during the whole episode and show how well the Ace Ops work together, what their Semblances are and what kind of upgrades RWBY and JNR got.  There is also no needless standing around unless it makes sense (like RWBY, JNR and Qrow letting the Ace Ops fight).     

I want to highlight the landing scene because it evokes the early days in Beacon. The music, everyone being excited and Jaune actually succeeding in his landing strategy make this scene very emotional.

Other character Moments:

This episode is littered with great interactions. Blake and Weiß are shown to have grown very much: Weiß reacts to the dust mine being the location for a mining accident and regrets her having been complaisant in the suppression of Faunas. Another big moment is the reaction from the team to Ruby’s decision. Having Oscar be the one to doubt her makes sense and the reasons stated by Blake and Weiß why keeping the secret for the moment make sense and are identical with the ones I came up with during the week. A big accomplishment is the portrayal of the Ace Ops. In other shows those same characters would be mean. But here only the actions from them make a few of the characters uncertain of themselves and a few comments from them to make clear how much of a gap there is without them seeming arrogant about it.

 Shipping Moments:

Even if there were only a few scenes between the main ships, what we got was very poignant. The two main moments for Renora and Bumbleby are the acknowledgements of the new looks and even parallel each other: Yang stares at Blake’s new hair which she notices and gets insecure about. Yang is quick to reassure Blake that she looks good. Blake’s blush and Yang being flustered shows clear romantic (under)tones. Nora does the same with commenting on Ren’s new outfit. Ren rebuffs her though, which could be due to him being focused on the mission or not being comfortable with such affections in public.    

Other Bumbleby moments include Yang noticing Blake’s realization to what happened in the Dust mine and making sure she is okay, Yang also noticing how Blake remembers Adam and grimacing at thinking of him and Blake laughing at a funny quip Yang makes while the same comment only make Weiß grin a little.  

Clover’s comment towards Qrow saying “Lucky You” and winking while saying than also happened with a waitress flirting with Qrow in Volume 4. This makes for another unexpected (but not unwelcome) shipping moment.

TLDR

Overall this is my current favorite episode of this Volume. While the first two episodes needed to spend more time on set up, “Ace Operatives” includes a lot of interesting, cute and heartwarming character interactions that show how far everyone has come. The landing sequence with its music and the positive and confident vibe the characters are emanating is an especially great moment followed by CRWBY throwing subtlety out the window with telegraphing very clearly that Bumbleby will happen. My first viewing of the episode was a little tainted though due to all the upgrades and outfit changed being glossed over. But as I already said, the little moments dedicated on that topic are very effective, and with the whole episode being so perfectly constructed, I was able to let go of this gripe as soon as I watched it again.

Predictions

Everything from the Volume 7 trailer was shown now. So now only the foreshadowing in the episodes can be used to predict where this Volume could be going. Knowing about the election between Jacques and Robin Hill makes it clear that the seat in the council will play an important role in the following story. And with Tyrion killing Forrest, it is clear that him and Watts also have an interest in the election. Combine this with the fight between Tyrian, Robin and Qrow shown in the opening, and I am pretty sure this will be the main plot of the Volume.                                                                

Both the Renora moments and the Bumbleby moments also set up those relationships being explored more in this Volume. Because of that it becomes more and more possible that we will learn more about Nora’s past. And with Blake remembering Adam, her weapon upgrade that clearly includes metal from Yang’s weapon (or something invoking it) and their flustered interactions, the big talk that will probably mirror their talk in Volume 2 seems imminent.                                                                                                

And of course with the main plot dealing with Jacques Weiß will have a big part in it because her guilt and her being fed up with Faunas discrimination will most likely push her to take action against her father.

[calliecat93]

The kids are official Huntsmen/Huntress’ now! Yay!!! Ah, I still remember the days when Ruby was blowing up craters and Jaune was vomiting off of airships. Good times man, good times. But that was then, this is now. It’s been quite a long road to reach this point, especially in V7 alone so far. We’re only five chapters in, but it’s felt like a whirlwind. We ain’t done yet though, and now with our kids’ official Huntsmen/Huntresses, what are they going to get in to? Especially with so much going on with Mantle, Ironwood, and the Council elections? Well, let’s take a look and find out!

Overview

Penny has been assigned as Team RWBY’s alarm clock as she wakes them up for work. We get a nice montage showing the gang’s daily routine. It mainly consists of briefings, supply runs, and various other jobs like Grimm fighting or basic help around Mantle. Like Jaune escorting children to school, which the mothers greatly appreciate! And that ain’t an exaggeration! Oh thirsty moms joke, I knew that you would pay off~ They’re also training frequently with the Ace-Ops and Ironwood has taken Oscar under his wing in hopes of being able to jog out Ozpin. It’s a nice montage, all with a really rockin’ Jeff and Casey song! I couldn’t 100% make it out cause of the talking, but it’s all about after feeling so bad and like life has been in so much disarray, the singers are taking their lives into their own hands, making something happy out of it, and starting a new day. It is awesome and I love it~!

JNR and Oscar are training against, of all people, Team FNKI. Yep, Flynt and Neo are back and we get to see their teammates Kobalt and Ivori. I… didn’t care about FNKI back in V3 and still don’t, though Neon’s design is nice. But not much to say aside from Neon successfully pissing Nora off more than I think she did Yang. That is saying a LOT. Still, it’s a nice scene but JNR has to pass on lunch cause they’re still bogged down with work. Which makes sense, but we’ll talk about that in the review. But Ruby’s starting to feel the fatigue as she, Penny, Qrow, and Clover are en route to Amity Arena for a supply drop. Poor girl can barely keep herself awake, mainly cause of boredom but she’s gotta be feeling the exhaustion from so much Huntress work by now.

Penny though is as perky as always and happy that she can embark on an official mission with Ruby. You know, a friend! This gets Ruby’s attention as she asks Penny if she’s made any other friends since the Fall. Sadly, Penny’s been so busy since being rebuilt/made Mantle’s protector that Ironwood pretty much told ehr that she has no time for friends. Which is just… depressing, especially when you recall how Penny wanted friends back in V1 and wanted to stay at Beacon. When Ruby asks how she feels about it, Penny expresses how she wishes that she could both do what she wants and what she needs to do, which is relatable as Hell. In the back, Qrow and Clover are playing cards with Clover talking about how well-rounded Ruby and the kids are. Which makes sense since they had Qrow to look up to, though he shoots that down. Clover notices Qrow deflecting the compliment, and expresses how he shouldn’t do that since he still helped the kids get to where they are. Even more than he may realize.

Things come to a halt, however, when they reach a roadblock. The gate is closed off and being blocked by a pair of women. One is the lamb girl from the last episode, who the credits reveal is named Fiona Thyme. The other? Well, this marks the first in-person appearance of the long-awaited Robyn Hill. Why is she stopping them? Well, as it turns out, the military has been making construction equipment/sources meant for Mantle’s worn-down protections due to needing them for Amity Colosseum, and Robyn wants to know why. That little tidbit clearly has Ruby taken aback, but that’s another thing we’ll discuss int he review. But since no one can go into the real details about the arena, they give Robyn no answer. Just then, Penny bursts out of the van, telling Robyn to recall her girls that were trying to break into it. Robyn does so, allowing the van to proceed forward. But if Clover won’t directly give her an answer, then she’s going to find out herself…

Back at Atlas, Weiss is training with Winter, who critiques her Summoning in a way that only she could. But nevertheless, Winter is happy to see how much that Weiss has grown and that she successfully left their family name behind instead of clinging to it as she once did. She’s hoping that she’ll stay with Atlas, but Weiss is hesitant. While she’d be grateful, she still is unsure if Ironwood can be fully trusted and that even if he thinks that he is, he isn’t doing the right thing. Given Mantle’s current state and us now knowing that their resources are being pulled, it’s hard to not blame her. Winter does admit that Ironwood hasn’t handled things perfectly, but she still trusts him, and she believes that he fully trusts her. Why is she so sure? Well, she takes Weiss to, of all places, a hospital. They go to a heavily armed, monitored, and guarded area and Winter has Weiss watch from a window as she enters the hospital room of an elderly woman named Fria. The Winter Maiden.

Later, Winter tells Weiss of how Fria could die at any moment’s notice, and as such only she is allowed to see her. Weiss quickly puts the pieces together. Yes friends, Winter is being pegged as the next Winter Maiden and has been since the Fall of Beacon. Weiss is quite taken aback by how her sister has seemed to accept the fact that Ironwood groomed her entire military career for this, with WInter admitting that she wasn’t happy at first. But once she thought about it, she realized that with the Maiden powers, she could do a lot of good for Atlas. For Remnant. Is it ideal? No. Did WInter’s life get decided for her? Oh Hell yes. However, she’s ultimately decided to take it, and make it her own choice. She’s choosing to b the next Maiden, and to make that legacy her own regardless of how that legacy came to be.

Just then, Atlas broadcasts a live statement being made by Jaques. So… you think that you hate the man already? Think that there’s no way that we can hate him even more? HA! Jaques announces that due to the embargo affecting his business, he has shut down all nonessential SDC operations within Mantle. He won’t reopen them until he’s elected and able to lift the embargo. You heard that right folk, Jaques is robbing people in his employ of their jobs to essentially blackmail the citizens of Mantle into electing him. When the transmission ends, all Hell breaks loose. Weiss and Winter are stunned and the episode ends as we see riots break out all across Mantle. As Winter notes, the spark needed to burn the kingdom down has been ignited.

Review

Well, THAT took a turn fast!

Ho boy, where should we start? Well… let’s go with the Winter Maiden first. There’s been a LOT of speculation about her with the popular opinion being that it was Mama Schnee. I felt that wasn’t true because it would have been idiotic for none of them to tell Weiss that in Chapter 2, and it is now debunked. There’s some speculation that Fria is based on Freja, the Norse God of Love, which… well...who else in RWBY do we know of who are based on Norse mythology? Hmm? HMM? It’s still too soon to say, but Sam Ireland (Nora’s VA) DID say that some Nora backstory was upcoming, so if the theory is true… well… yeah, that’ll be a thing.

Not surprised about Winter being pegged as the Winter Maiden, and not just cause of the name. We’d all been expecting she either was or was going to be for a long time now. But it’s just… sad. While I like that she took her fate and is going to make it her own, in so many ways she’s in the same place that she tried to escape when she left Jaques. She had her whole career groomed for a fate that she got no say in. It’s like with Pyrrha, only with Winter having already gone through the acceptance process and not having nearly as short an amount of time to decide to go with it. And I not only get the feeling that she’s not gonna get the powers or not have it long), but that when she does make her own decision for her own life… it may very well be the final one. Pray that Cinder doesn’t get near her, is all I’m saying.

Okay, let’s talk about the growing Mantle problems. So we find out that resources needed to repair Mantle’s protections have been stripped for the Arena. This looks really bad on Ironwood for at least not putting something out to explain why. I know that he doesn’t care about his image, but due to that, he’s really making things worse for Mantle. The fact that Ruby is clearly surprised by this fact also means that he didn’t tell RWBYJNRQO this tidbit despite assigning most of them to help Mantle. It may seem minor, but this is the cause of many of the Grimm attacks swarming Mantle, So yeah, telling them that detail and trying to work out a solution should have been a priority. It just makes Ruby’s decision to not fully trust Ironwood yet all the more well-founded if Ironwood isn’t providing all the info, despite how he claims that he wants to be apparent with them.

But it’s not just that. Because of Ironwood focusing his armies on Atlas, Mantle has such weak defenses. The few soldiers in the city you can see run for it when the riots break out. Penny is the only one among those forces capable of doing something, and due to it, Ironwood has stripped her of ANY chance of a normal life. She can’t make friends. She can’t go to school. I doubt that she can see her father all that much. Ironwood is treating her as only a weapon, not like a person which is just horrible. Penny seems to have just resigned herself to it and put on an optimistic facade, though you can tell that she isn’t happy with her position when confronting Robyn. She isn’t happy with the situation at all. She knows that Mantle is suffering and is trying so hard to help in the limited capacity that she has, but it can only do so much. Penny may have survived Beacon, but she is in exactly the same place that she wanted to avoid. It’s why she had her plan to stay at Beacon that hee death went and screwed up. It’s just… sad to watch.

This spreads to the others as well. Through the montage, we see them working constantly. By the end, we see them tired and falling asleep at briefings and Ruby in the supply van. Ruby begins with her usual amount of high energy but is clearly worn down by the time of the mission despite her being the only one awake still at the end of the montage. JNR can’t hang out with Team FNKI or get lunch due to the frequent missions that pop up. All of their focus has to b on Amity Arena, the Grimm, and other random tasks due to the low number of forces to do those jobs due to being on standby. 

More or less, Ironwood is subjecting them to the same exhaustion that she’s subjecting himself and forcing essentially an army-sized amount of work on a small number of people, including recent graduates. Now Huntsman/Huntress work is demanding, but it’s just too much and eventually, it’s going to push them to exhaustion and not be at full strength. Which when the Salem info goes public, them not being at full strength is going to be very, very bad. At least they’re training, which will help them get stronger, but that’ll mean nothing if they’re too tired to channel it.

Mantle is in a very bad spot. For all his talk fo wanting to help them, Ironwood’s doing a shit job and his lack fo care about his image is going to make the people mistrust and hate him. THey’re not going to trust the military to protect them from Salem. Worst? Jaques has taken an even larger leap to being utter garbage and is now pretty much blackmailing the city to either vote for him, or be unemployed. It is a despicable act and has caused the city to break out into chaos. Ironwood’s likely not going to issue a statement or anything, so it only makes them hate him more and blame him for their predicament either alongside Jaques or even instead of Jaques, the person actually responsible. It matches so much currently going on in RL and it’s scary but accurate at least. Considering that the next episode is supposed to happen at a political rally, it’s only going to get crazier.

But speaking of, we FINALLY meet Robyn! Yay! So far? I like her! She seems like a confident, friendly individual though of course she’s not opposed to resorting to theft ala her inspiration of Robin Hood. She is fully aware of the problems going on in Mantle, but she, of course, is unaware of why. But she’s clearly Hellbent on finding out, and her pursuit of this along with her own push for Council are gonna be interesting to see. I can see her being a great opposing force to the heroes, though at least she seems noble. Her design, as well as the other Happy Huntresses’, look good and her being voiced by Cristina Vee (Marinette in Miraculous Ladybug)? Bless. I’m looking forward to seeing more of her, especially if she does uncover the truth. Now THAT will be interesting.

The montage was fun, especially with the badass Jeff and Casey song. The pacing was both fast and slow but balanced well, and it introduced a lot of good things. Robyn and her gang, the Winter Maiden, furthering the political problems in Mantle, it truly feels like we’re not in Act Two. Eddy’s knocked his episodes out of the park so far, especially with the beauty of the Thirsty Moms joke. I fully believe that he did that just to mess with Miles, and I am forever grateful~ WHile I don’t care about Team FNKI, it was nice to see them pop up and see the two that we didn’t previously. The training session was fun. The score was good, especially the instrumental of The Path to Isolation that played when Weiss and Winter talked. Nice talks between Ruby and Penny, as well as Qrow and Clover and the confirmation that Qrow indeed quit drinking makes me happy. Just a lot of good here. I like it~

Chapter Six Predictions

We’re probably gonna see more of the gang’s growing fatigue considering that the chapter is meant to give them a day off. It’s also supposed t take place at a political rally, so expect more chaos there. I imagine that the rally is for Robyn, who’s likely going to take Jaques’ recent order and use it to try and convince the people to elect her so that she can fix it. We know from the thumbnail that Ruby and Penny will be there and I’m hoping that means we’ll also see Pietro and Maria. I hope for the latter at least, God do I miss her.

This could also lead to the Robyn vs Tyrian fight that’s int he opening, or at least the beginning of it. Which heck yah! I am SO ready for that! Hard to say what else may happen though. Maybe we’ll see more of Ruby struggling with her decision to hide the truth, especially with Mantle only getting worse. Maybe we’ll see more of her and Oscar since we still don’t know how he took Ruby’s explanation, but I get the feeling that he is the one least happy with it. Either way, ti’s probably gonna be an insane episode… as if the others haven’t been XD

Episode Stats

Favorite Character: Robyn Hill and Winter Schnee Favorite Scene: Weiss and Winter scenes Least Favorite Scene: JNR+O vs FNKI, but only because I don’t care about FNKI Favorite Voice Actor: Cristina Vee (Robyn Hill) Favorite Animation: Neon’s updated rainbow effect Rating: 10/10

Final Thoughts

So far, this is my favorite episode! Great scenes and discussions, nice plot developments, good character intros, and another badass song. It was funny, dramatic, and just a fun watch. V7 has been fantastic across the board so far, and ho boy it doesn’t look like it’s going to drop the ball any time soon. There is so much that I am excited about due to this episode! Once again, Eddy knocked it out of the park and I think that he is a very welcome addition along with Kiersi cause this volume has just been great! Love it~!

[real-jaune-isms]

RWBY Volume 7 Chapter 7 Rundown

This episode was not as stressful and tense as the last... it was just kinda depressing. But I felt better at the end of the chapter than I did at the beginning, which is a good thing.

Much like how last episode started with the aftermath of the rioting over SDC layoffs, this begins with the Grimm attack following Jacques’ election and Tyrian’s killing spree being pretty much over. I had expected it to be a much bigger deal, honestly. But shows what I know. The worst Mantle has ever seen is yet to come.

It starts with somber music on a somber scene: Penny sitting sadly and in deep self doubt back in her father’s Altas lab as she gets a small sign of reassurance and comfort, that being a mechanized arm probably used mostly for maintenance patting her on the head. Other than that, she’s all alone and she definitely feels it.

Ironwood is now in full paranoia mode and has enforced a curfew for everyone in Mantle. No one is allowed to be out at night without good reason, and no one may gather in assembly for any reason. It’s incredibly restricting, but it’s all he can think to do to keep people from grouping up in any place they might get attacked again. At least, that’s the only logic I could think to gather from it. As airships patrol overhead, we see that the thirsty mom who gave Jaune the casserole two episodes ago is still alive with her child, though still very much afraid. Unfortunately... they were some of the lucky ones. We see two of the little kids Jaune helped cross the street hiding from Atlas soldiers behind a dumpster. I can only assume it was their mothers who were slain by Tyrian, and now they may go hungry on the streets or maybe don’t know how to get home. It’s incredibly depressing and upsetting... 

Two people walking the streets are chased by soldiers just for being out late, and a newscast says that despite a public statement about the killer footage of Penny being faked people still think she’s a danger to society and should be shut down. With the rush of a truck in front of our view, we cut to a thrilling scene that lifts our spirits a little. As a supply van, the same sort we saw Ruby, Marrow, Qrow and Penny riding in a few episodes back, drives through the city we see some figures giving chase from the roofs. Familiar figures. Then another welcome face stands in from of the truck and makes it stop. It’s the new FNDM favorite, May Marigold!!! When the robot drivers tell her to step aside, that gets the attention of patrolling soldiers down the block. When they round the corner... there’s nothing there. Not even the truck! Turns out it was May whose Semblance was keeping her and Joanna invisible when they approached the other truck in their first appearance. And even more good news, dear Fiona has made a full recovery! And it turns out her Semblance is really amazing. She just places a hand on the van and the entire thing dissolves into dust as if being sucked into her palm. How exactly it works we don’t know, but it reminds me of Blackbeard from One Piece and his ability to create black holes to absorb anything he touches and save it for later. In this instance it’s a very useful way to take all the contents of the truck without taking up much room. 

Unfortunately it’s also really bad news for Ironwood because now Robyn is officially breaking the law and adding even more trouble to the situation of Penny being framed for a massacre and Jacques getting a position of governmental power. And Winter prompts even worse news out of him. Because of Robyn’s new habit of hitting up supply trucks to redistribute the materials to where the city most needs them, the Mantle suppliers have gotten bold are refusing to supply until conditions improve. So there will be no more deliveries to the Amity Project, no more progress. It’s been stalled completely, so close to the finish line. Nobody likes that. The only solution Winter offers is an even worse prospect though: declaring martial law to make every business obey military demands. And much to Nora’s quite vocal dismay, Ironwood is willing to take that path. He sees the big picture first and foremost and it’s blinded him to how important it is to address how awful the problems are here and now. Global communication? Or keeping their equivalent of a ghetto in good enough shape that the people can sleep safely at night and stop complaining to him? He said before he doesn’t care about his public image being ruined, but if this is what it means to ignore the defamation and bad press then maybe he should?

Nora is having NONE of his bullshit. He’s trivializing the lives and safety of hundreds of people. Saying they have to wait a little longer for things to start getting better is easy to say from the tallest and safest building, in the richest Kingdom ON THE ENTIRE PLANET!!! He doesn’t have to hide in the dark wet streets unsure of where the next safe place to sleep or thing to eat will come from, not knowing if he will be found and eaten by Grimm or arrested by the military just because he wasn’t where they want him to be. He doesn’t know what it’s like to be the little guy. Nora, we can mostly certainly have guessed by the condition she was in when she met Ren, has. Ironwood claims everyone has had to struggle in these recent times, but he refuses to admit he’s making Mantle bear all of the burden because that’s the easiest path for him with the least direct resistance. Ignoring their pain and keeping on with this game of patience is only making it worse on them, and sending more men to bully and order around more people will only create despair and strife, and they all know damn well that will just be trading the current problems for more Grimm than even they can handle. It’s a staredown, and ultimately Ironwood backs down and takes a seat to contemplate. Ruby is on Nora’s side, this treatment of Mantle isn’t right and is only going to make ripping the peace apart easier for Salem. This is exactly what Tyrian is here to cause.

Which brings up an interesting moment. Clover says the only reason Ren, Nora and Ruby are here is to confirm without a doubt that they saw who they say they did. He pulls up a visual of what’s essentially Tyrian’s rap sheet, and Winter explains that he was one of the worst killers Anima had ever seen who disappeared after he was caught and then let free by a Grimm attack on his prison transport. The info page itself tells a pretty eerie story of his past. The arrest was aided by a huntsman with the last name Pickerel, who insisted there should be more guards for the transport to the point he had to be removed from the mission for obstructing the process. A pickerel is a type of poisonous frog, and Tyrian’s inspiration is said to be the fable of the scorpion who asks a frog to carry him across a river on his back. The frog doesn’t want to for fear he will be stung, but the scorpion assures him he would not because it would only lead to him drowning as well. Yet the scorpion stings the frog anyway, for it is just in his nature to do so, he can’t help it. Poetic, especially since after Tyrian’s escape Pickerel is found dead in his home. Despite Grimm activity in the area of the transport route being minimal shortly before, a distress call came from the pilot that a swarm of Grimm came for the ship as Tyrian was in transit. Despite the ship being split in two within 6 minutes and some people whose names seem to be redacted from the record presumably dying, that same pilot named Cornetto continued to talk over the transmission. And a lot of that was just “What are you?!?!” before he too was killed. The last thing anyone heard from the scene was Tyrian himself seeing his unholy savior Salem for the first time and weeping at her beauty. Quite telling of why he worships her so much.

Ruby and Qrow agree that this is proof he’s here as Salem’s agent to start chaos before a major attack; Atlas is definitely her next target. Unfortunately, Ruby’s hopes that the public can be warned about this dangerous suspect and know who to watch out for instead of Penny are dashed by Clover. No one is gonna like the news that a long lost serial killer is in their streets, it’ll only make things worse so this has to be secret too. Nora? Well she hates that too, she hates ALL the secrets Ironwood is making them keep. Cooperation and appeasing tensions would be so much easier if they could tell people who the enemy is, what Atlas is actually doing to help. But that makes the General the Big Angry. Any info getting out is a disaster in the making. Telling people about the Amity satellite means more opportunity for the enemy to sabotage it, and telling people about Salem means people are going to freak the fuck out sooner than the good guys will be ready for. So secret it must stay and complete the tower must be, though hindsight is kicking us all in the ass because a few words said way sooner would have gone a long way to making the situation better. For now, the General implements a strategy the likes of which haven’t been seen since Kyle Rayner in Infinite Crisis! Arrest Robyn Hill and make her cut a deal so the supplies can start running and the tower can be finished. As you would expect, Nora and Ruby don’t like that plan. But Daddy Ironwood don’t care, he’s on a roll here. Priority #1 is Robyn and anyone not on that case needs to find Tyrian and his accomplice to figure out what their plan is and how they’ve gotten this far. And in full totalitarian leader mode he calls Mantle/Atlas HIS Kingdom. Winter and Clover are of course obediently agreeing, but surprisingly so is Ren.  But it’s not hard to understand why. His village was destroyed by a Grimm that there was a possibility might have been defeated if there was a Huntsman or two there, so of course he has respect for the established power he wishes could have been there in his time of need. Inversely, Nora has very likely been a street urchin in the big cities and seen how poorly they treat the common man so she holds a grudge and wants them to make changes for the better. It’s fascinating character juxtaposition that may very well drive another wedge between them...

But that’s a problem for another time. Now we have the Bees in the back of a truck for one of my favorite scenes this episode, nay this Volume. They’re part of the effort to bring in Robyn, being in a decoy truck while most of the Ace Ops are implied to be in other trucks so they can cast a wide net and no matter which one Robyn decides to ambush she will be met only with opposition. Once a truck gets stopped the others will be alerted and come running as backup, but until then it’s radio silence. And in that quiet comes some time to talk. After all this escalation of force Yang wants to know if Blake thinks they should have told Ironwood the whole truth about Salem and Oz earlier on. Blake can tell that’s what Yang thinks should have happened, and the blonde clarifies that even if she does have faith in her sister she still believes the General deserves to know just like they deserved to. Blake has reason to disagree, since Ironwood’s behavior even without that knowledge shows a paranoia and habit of overreaction that could have been exacerbated by such catastrophic news. He didn’t have many good options to work with, to be fair, but those are in short supply for all of them these days anyway. And these two have had to make more of those choices than most recently, not just the secrets but also killing. Yes, after 7 episodes it’s time for these two to actually talk about killing Adam. Because you don’t just do that without repercussions, without feeling some guilt and remorse. But Yang says it plainly: that was the only option they had in that moment. It was what they had to do. They can feel remorse and guilt about killing, but it was in self defense against an evil person who intended to murder them. Still makes the both of them wonder how far down this path they’ll have to go to keep doing “the right thing”. And one thing is for certain, even if it was what they had to do in that moment Blake wants to make sure they never find themselves in a place where they have to again. 

My mind wanders back to the Adam character short between Volumes 5 and 6. When Blake voiced her concerns and apprehension about what they were doing to Adam and said she wanted to stop hurting people, he chastised and belittled her for not having the strength to do what he insisted they had to. He gaslit her into thinking she was weak and cowardly, that she was an insult to the White Fang like her parents and her way of thinking was invalid. He wanted her to be unwaveringly obedient to him and not think for herself. In stark contrast, when Blake says she doesn’t feel right ambushing a Huntress trying to do good for Mantle... Yang agrees. She admits that’s a valid way to feel and that they don’t have to go through with what they were told if it’s going to make Blake uncomfortable. It’s differences like this, not explicitly stated but evident if you’ve been paying attention all this time, that show how much better a partner Yang is for Blake, romantic or otherwise.

The scene shifts once again to Pietro’s lab where Penny seems to be in a charging stand of some kind while they analyze her personal footage to prove she didn’t kill anyone at the party. Ruby and Weiss are there with them, as is Maria!! Our chaos grandma makes her return after 6 episodes of absence!! Ruby wants to make sure Penny is gonna be okay after how traumatizing being framed must have been, and Pietro assures that she likely will, she’s just scared about how wrong things have gone and how she’s hated and feared now. They can prove her innocence, surely, but they can’t just take away the fear and doubt that are in people’s hearts now. In that sense, Watts has won so far. And that upsets Pietro a lot, since Robyn would be dead if Penny hadn’t been there to try and help. But Ruby sees the truth here, Robyn was never in any real danger. Salem just wanted people to think she was and that Penny was to blame so further division and distrust could be sewn in Atlas and Mistral. Penny stepping in was exactly what they wanted, just as many others had been in Vale two years ago (their time, as best as I can guess). Pietro points out that the similarities don’t run there, since Atlas tech is once again working to the enemy’s advantage since the footage everyone is in a tizzy over uses imagery from all the hero work she did in Mantle so it would take a tech genius with a watchful eye to gather what they would need for this deep fake.

Maria gives a point of levity we were all subconsciously thinking and says she misses the days when people just fought to the death face to face. Thank you for that. Pietro admits the Mantle security system is chump change for the kind of hacker they saw the work of at the Fall of Beacon, but Atlas got the better network protection. And a million IRL I.T. people screamed in frustration that they left the ghetto city with outdated security that could undeniably and inevitably lead to their downfall. Weiss asks the important question, how WOULD someone get access to the Atlas Network? Fortunately, only few people have that clearance: Ironwood and other Council members, the leads of surveilance and cybersecurity, and the overseers of critical city systems like sewage and the heating grid. And there’s where the ball drops: Weiss reveals the heating grid is run in partnership with the Schnee Dust Company. Suddenly everything Watts has been doing becomes much more clear. He wouldn’t have helped Jacques win the election for free, so clearly he asked the SchneeEO for access to the heating grid in exchange, and now that’s his in to mess with the security of Atlas as a whole. And we see what he does with that next episode...

But for now, the heroes don’t know as much as us so for now they’re just a little suspicious. Ruby already knows about Penny so now she asks how Pietro himself is doing, and he admits the stress of both building the tower and worrying about people wanting to hurt Penny would have broken him down if Maria hadn’t been helping him. But we see there are still cracks in his composure as he starts tearing up just looking at her. My heartstrings are tugged every time I see the emotion on this poor man’s face. Ruby tries to reassure him that even if the worst does happen to Penny he can always rebuild her like he did after Beacon... but she doesn’t know the whole story. Penny is one of a kind for a very good reason. And so we get her backstory.

Ironwood initially challenged a team of Atlas’s best and brightest to come up with the next breakthrough in defensive technology, and Pietro was the most creative and introspective with his idea. A protector with all the might of Atlesian innovation, but the indomitable soul of a human. Apparently very few thought the same way he did, but the General believed in the project and so it was chosen. It’s likely that many of the other scientists who had pitched their concepts were transferred to help make Penny whether they believed it could work or not. From the photograph Pietro is holding as he recounts this tale, that includes a certain disgraced Atlesian with a fabulous mustache. We now have a plausible motive for his betrayal and defecting to Salem’s side. Considering his skills being computer hacking and enough cybernetic knowhow to build Tyrian’s tail, he may have had a plan for something akin to Skynet or Dr. Gero’s Androids but his idea got tossed aside for something he felt was ridiculous and beneath him. It does still give him enough experience with the development to know how to hack Penny however, and that does concern me a good deal. What worries me even more is what we learn about how exactly Pietro got the Penny Project to succeed. Everyone thinks he managed to create an artificial Aura for her, but that’s not really accurate... He actually gave her a portion of his own, leaving himself that much weaker. He’s had to do this both times he built her, and he doesn’t have enough life left in him to survive a third time. People complained there were no stakes or risk with Penny if she could be so easily rebuilt without consequence, but that all goes right out the window here. If she gets destroyed again, it will either be permanent or mean Pietro will die for her. Because look at that man. You know he would do it. And we really don’t want him to... As Ruby promises they will find the one responsible for all this trouble we get the “dramatic reveal” that Pietro’s thumb had been covering Watts’ face in the photo... but we had guessed it already.

Scene shift again right back to the streets of Mantle as the Happy Huntresses are striking again at another truck, which as luck would have it is the one with Blake and Yang. Robyn opens the back doors to see the Bees raising their hands in surrender, but she panics and runs anyway, telling the rest of her squad to scatter and regroup back at base. The girls chase Robyn into an alley where there is a very cool shot I can best describe as panning up from the pavement to dolly zoom in on Robyn as she checks over her shoulder. Blake tries to trip her up and then has to dodge bolts from the crossbow on the older woman’s wrist, all the while trying to explain that they just want to talk. But Robyn doesn’t stop to listen, she just slashes with her weapon’s razor sharp sawblade of feathers. Very versatile and transforming weapon there, Miss Hill. Blake uses a fire powered shadow clone to dodge, and Yang strikes from above and tries shooting at Robyn as well. But the feathers make a good shield too, as she further demonstrates when both huntresses start attacking up close and she fends them off pretty well. It takes the Bumblebee technique (yes, I’m sticking to the name, it works well and it’s canon) to send Robyn flying back a bit into a more open area with a kick from the airborne Blake. Robyn tries to intimidate the pair by saying they won’t be enough to take her in to Ironwood, and they openly admit they aren’t the only ones looking for her and their backup will be on their way since the truck got stopped. So they need to talk NOW, because she needs to hear this. She thinks it’s just a stalling tactic, but Blake presses on and reveals the plans for the satellite and the Tower... and Robyn is in disbelief. Yang tries to explain what that would mean, but that’s not what Robyn is so hung up on. So we get another reveal that’s been hinted at for an episode or two, her Semblance. Blake is told to take her hand and answer the question again. And with a green glow of the Aura flowing between them, we see Robyn is a human lie detector. The confirmation of the Tower being Ironwood’s secret project only confuses Robyn more, because surely he could just tell people that’s the plan and there would be no argument it should be done. Blake tells her the people framing Atlas for all the wrongdoing could cause a lot more harm if they knew the Tower was being worked on, but they won’t tell Robyn who those people are yet. She almost calls bullshit on that, but we can’t have swears in this show so Harriet radios Yang to check on her and Blake and Yang cuts the conversation short and says Robyn needs to trust them that the Amity project must stay secret since they trusted her enough to tell her this info. Blake runs off to distract the nearby soldiers long enough for Robyn to get away while Yang lingers to make sure she agrees to their terms. Reluctantly the politician turned vigilante does, but she says she’s still determined to learn the full truth. That strikes a deep chord with Yang since she had that same drive to seek answers from Raven for so long... and now she’s keeping the secret that Raven is the Spring Maiden.

For our final scene we shift to a First Civilization vault from Assassin’s Creed... I mean the Atlas Vault for the Relic of Creation!! Sorry, they look very similar. Ironwood is down there with Oscar explaining that he had hoped seeing this place would jog some of Ozpin’s memories within the lad. Plot twist, the Staff is what’s keeping Atlas floating in the sky, an idea originally pitched by Ozpin. The public story is that it’s Gravity Dust doing that job, but the Staff is a constant seemingly limitless energy source that could in theory lift Atlas higher than they could imagine. And that’s where Ironwood got the idea for doing that to Amity. But they have to use Gravity Dust for that, since the Staff can only do one job at a time. And the sky grows much darker from that sudden foreshadowing... Someone is definitely going to move the Staff or use it for some other purpose, and Atlas is going to fall... Oscar gets a surreal feeling from seeing something so complex that his past incarnation built, but Ironwood assures him that he will soon acclimate to the assimilation... real smooth there Jimmy. Ironwood admits he wishes he could get Ozpin’s advice in a time like this, and since he can’t give that Oscar offers his own opinion. The way Ironwood is handling this, trusting only himself, is only going to hurt him. The General asserts that nothing matters more right now than beating Salem, but Oscar has a counterpoint. Keeping their humanity matters, because it keeps them from becoming like Salem. Ironwood worries that’s Salem’s advantage though, lacking humanity means she’s willing to sacrifice more to achieve her goals and that may end up winning her the war. She may not feel fear or hesitation anymore, while her attack on Beacon brought both those debilitating emotions out of Ironwood as he helplessly watched his robots hurt people and was taunted by her calling card of the Black Queen virus being on all the computer screens. As the elevator comes to bring them up out of the vault, Oscar encourages the General that fear is normal but they shouldn’t let it control them. Ironwood doesn’t want to become like Lionheart, and wants to know if Oscar believes in him. Oscar has the only good answer to a question like that, that he believes in multiple people INCLUDING the General. The best thing Ironwood can do is talk it out with the people he’s afraid of, so he can learn to relax and let others in. But be careful what you wish for, because Winter is waiting up top for them with a letter. Jacques has invited them to a dinner party at Schnee Manor where Ironwood will have to go before the Council and defend his position. Sounds like an excuse to see our heroes back in fancy dress and meet Mama Schnee...

[itsclydebitches]

Another realization on why the Ace-Ops v RWBY battle was so terrible--it may be hard for some people to remember, but the back-half of the Volume takes place over just a few days. By my count, at least three days go by--the election, the day after the election, and then Jacques' dinner party and the Grimm invasion of Mantle. At the beginning of the election day, we are shown RWBYJNR training, still levels under the Ace-Ops, but then three days later, they're able to take out them out no problem.

Honestly I didn’t pay enough attention to the (frankly muddled) timeline but that doesn’t surprise me. “That was before you trained us” simply isn’t a good justification for that kind of beat down, not unless your characters are all super prodigies who are able to excel in a tenth of the time as everyone else. But Ruby is the only prodigy on her team. It’s now worth asking whether she even is a prodigy given that we know Ozpin let her into Beacon in part to keep her safe from Salem’s henchmen. I don’t believe he did or would have let her in on that alone, but Ruby being ready in terms of scythe skills doesn’t mean that everyone else wouldn’t be. For all we know lots of second year Signal students could technically get by in Beacon via their fighting skills but are kept to the four year structure so that they can mature. In the same way that you could be great at a certain subject - Math, English, etc. - but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for you to skip ahead two years. As we saw with Ruby falling asleep in most of her classes, she’s got a pretty focused skill set. Even if we agree that she’s actually phenomenally better than others, the rest of her team are all normal girls in the sense that they applied to Beacon and got in. That’s it. We can assume they’re special and lots of people do - Weiss got super special training via Schnee money, Blake trained in the hard world of the White Fang - but that information is useless without knowing what everyone else’s life was like too. For all we know every single Beacon student has a cool backstory like that. Indeed, what little info we have from Team JNPR supports that: Pyrrha is an actual prodigy who trained in multiple tournaments, Nora and Ren got hard training by living on their own. Jaune is the odd one out who lied his way into school. “Oh but Team RWBY has faced lots of powerful people and grimm out in the world.” But we’ll assume the elite Atlas team working for years under Ironwood hasn’t? Basically what I’m saying is: this amount of abnormal fighting experience is normal. Everyone did something amazing prior to their final four years of schooling and it’s probably that additional effort that got them into a top school like Beacon in the first place... or Atlas. With the exception of Ruby’s scythe skills, her silver eyes (not used in the fight), and Pyrrha’s overall accomplishments (she’s not there), no one out of this group has been written as extraordinary in terms of their skills/power levels. Certainly not to the extent that they can bypass this group in just a few days when, I continually feel the need to note, the Ace Ops are training too. By training RWBYJNR they keep improving themselves as well. That development doesn’t suddenly stagnate. 

I think a lot about their introduction. How they were explicitly written to be leagues ahead of our heroes. This is the team that took out RWBYJNR + Oscar + Qrow in literal seconds. Only Ren seemed to realize they were nearby. None of them had time to dodge the restraints. Even when Qrow watches everyone else fall and gets his scythe in hand he’s taken down without a fight. Yet supposedly this team was done in after only a few weeks of on and off training where the Ace Ops were also improving, learning all of Team RWBY’s weaknesses, demonstrating that they can still easily take them out just days before this fight, none of them using their extraordinary skills even after they decided to fight seriously, all of them military trained to do a job despite any emotions they’re grappling with... yeah, that fight is a mess lol. 

Consistency is important. If you want Team RWBY to absolutely trounce the Ace Ops in episode twelve, don’t show them to be that incredibly powerful in episode one, episode three, episode ten...