#rwby v8e07

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RWBY Liveblog V08E07 - War

Okay! The band aid has been ripped off so let's continue with RWBY! War seems to be a pretty self-explanatory name but who knows, maybe nothing bad will continue to happen? I don't know so let's do this!

I wonder why Atlas went with human soldiers versus using robots. Wouldn't a mass invasion be the perfect place to use all that canon fodder? Although, maybe Ironwood could be scared of getting hacked again.

Plain fields are Rooster Teeth's biggest enemy.

Other than getting distracted by the textured flat ground, I was thinking about how terrifying it'd be to see a whale that size just floating around or crashing close to me.

Very terrifying I'd say, even without the gross Grimm spit.

Okay. All I know about battle formations comes from playing some RTS games in the 90s and Mount & Blade... but, wouldn't using square formations be really bad for ranged units against melee units in a frontal attack?

Uhh, looking a tiny bit intense there buddy.

Can't imagine Manta Squad Omega is anything good if that soldier dared to almost question Ironwood's orders. What is going to be the new addition to Ironwood's list of war crimes?

That's a really late reaction considering THE GIANT GRIMM HORNETS

It shouldn't surprise me they arrested them in the middle of an invasion, but it does. * sigh * priorities

Huh. What could they have against a giant whale?

...somehow this is going to get Pietro inside that whale, isn't it?

Interesting expression here. What Ironwood is describing sounds like a suicide mission so I guess this is acceptance?

They left thousands to die in Mantle and Jaune still thinks they'd care? Although, once they are close to the whale Winter could go "go find Oscar, we'll detonate the bomb" to win back some karma points.

For a second there Salem looked like she was conducting an orchestra and * chef kiss *

watcha doing emerald

…how is her semblance affecting that Grimm? I was already confused by her semblance working against Penny...

A world order that will consist of having no world at all. Revolutionary, really.

Cinder's backstory? Really good. Hazel's? Waaaaaaaay down in the list.

I couldn't care less about Hazel, but Emerald is listening and that is interesting. What is she going to do? Oz hasn't revealed anything she hadn't heard before but she hasn't drunk Salem's kool-aid so anything helps.

oh right, these characters exist

"It's been a couple of episodes, did you forget Nora's deal this volume? No worries, here it is."

This volume has been rather blunt. I mean, RWBY has never been subtle but this volume has been trusting the viewer less than usual. Or maybe it's just that there have been more chances to make it noticeable.

I'm glad they are having this conversation, if only to know what's going to happen with them. Still a lot of episodes left, can't spend them all here.

And there's no way Ruby is not going to see and probably fight hacked Penny at some point. Writers gotta extract all the drama juice they can.

I wondered last season if May's being trans would be more than just a twitter message so, this is great!

May is already taking out and sharpening the guillotine.

I know this is supposed to be serious but she looks so incredibly shocked at the softest possible rebuke ever.

wtf are you doing May

(I know, I know, she doesn't like being compared to "the other side" but still, she seems to be just under Harriet in the "needs an anger management session" list)

…I mean, there are sides. Multiple sides even, trying to kill or capture you, Ruby.

But I guess she's right about the general population of both Atlas and Mantle.

A hint of character development???

It's nice to see Salem's goal finally be explicitly stated by someone. Oz could be guessing but at least it's the same guess that everyone had.

I mean, he's right.

Bold strategy Oscar, let's see if it pays off.

I'd usually say that it could work but EMERALD IS OUTSIDE. She could give the password to Cinder in hopes it could help her. Or stay quiet and escape with Hazel. Or, more interestingly, she could use the lamp herself. Although, I'm not sure what she'd be interested in asking. Hopefully not "Does Cinder care about me?"

Ohh, preparing for next volume. Mercury is probably at the bottom of my list in terms of being an interesting villain, next to Tyrian, so I hope he's joined by someone else.

While they have not been the greatest of friends, Emerald keeps going to Mercury since they were at least partners in being underlings to Cinder. Now she's going to be alone and I wonder why.

Isolating Emerald could work if the writers want her to have more of a reason to escape, but it's not like she wants to oppose Salem, she just wants Cinder [to care about her]

lol, and of course Tyrian would be around to confirm it all

oh no

oh noooo

Are they going to end up fighting each other in a future volume? I kinda hope they don't, or at least wait until they get a good dose of character development. As they are right now it wouldn't be very interesting.

ooooooh, nice one Jaune.

Winter was obviously struggling with the decision so that's the perfect excuse.

Harriet: "lol no."

REEEEEEEEEEEEEN, FINALLY, YOU'RE MAKING SENSE AGAIN

Who could've guessed that freezing his ass off for a couple of hours and getting arrested was what he needed.

Who killed Harriet's pet bunny

Having Harriet nearby is doing an excellent job showing Ren how wrong he was in idolizing how they worked. Thanks Harriet, you're a wonderful bad example.

...is Ren leveling up his semblance? Is that a thing they can do?

Huh.

"the power of friendship... is real 🤯"

I bet this episode was directed by the same dude that directed episode four.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh take that

I also bet someone already made the connection between the colors and the emotions they are supposed to represent. Which is not me, I'll just trust new and improved Ren.

end of the season: qrow and robyn save them

Wow, Heisenberg cameo.

aw, Whitley

One more mind blown this episode.

you baka

lol at Ruby in the background going "just like her sister"

awwwww

I'm glad there was this moment of brightness before everyone goes to die fight.

OH C'MON

This is so dumb.

I thought the writers would at least make an effort to have them fight somewhere else instead of having Penny somehow crash right in front of Ruby.

Oh Penny, I'm sorry too. You're just a vehicle for cheap drama. Made to suffer and rebuilt last season just to do it again.

---

So, besides those awful 30 seconds, that I'm going to totally ignore for as long as possible, I liked this episode. Lots of things happened.

Hazel, Emerald and Mercury now know the truth. Hazel and Emerald have the password for the lamp (maybe they'll hide who is going to call Jinn and just have it not respond when Salem tries to use it). May got an in-universe reveal that she's trans, which is great. Whitley gained a soul. Ren recovered his along with leveling up his semblance. And they made it explicit that both Marrow and Winter are not big fans of what it's going on (which feels... unnecessary)

It feels like the end of season is brewing but there are still a ton of episodes left so I'm very curious about what's going to happen. Until next time!

EDIT: Also, this episode was indeed directed by the same guy as the one who directed episode four! A lot more restrained this time so at least it wasn’t immediately obvious.