#they didn’t even talk to each other until like Fairly recently beyond Jason trying to murder him

[sing-me-under]

You know, I love Batfam as like an actual family but also I don’t really understand how people can look at the actual comics Batfam and think “yeah, these people are definitely family” like… at BEST they resemble something like martial siblings in wuxia novels. Sometimes they’re close enough to genuinely be brothers/sisters in all but blood but sometimes they’re also just “yeah we trained under the same sect and have a shared teacher but one of us has a life long grudge against him”

[calliecat93]

One month into V7, and it's already been a crazy ride. IDK if I’d call it crazier than V6’s first few episodes, but it’s certainly close. There’s been so much talk in a short amount of time. Ruby’s lie to Ironwood. Ironwood in general regarding his choices. The villains and their schemes. The state of Mantle and it and Atlas’ potential fates. Pretty much everything has been discussed in depth in one way or another. And I’m sure that this chapter will give us even more things considering what happened. So, I guess we better get to it, huh?

Overview

With the Dust Mines all cleared, the military brings Amity Arena over while our heroes are busy gushing over the badassness of the Ace-Ops. Though Ruby s surprised to learn from Harriet that they aren’t friends, they just work together. It doesn’t help when Ruby tries to convince WBY to go exploring when they get back to Atlas, but none of them are interested due to either being tired or the fact that they did exploring all over Anima. Worse? Ironwood speaks to Ruby, Jaune, and Qrow, telling them about a recent string of murders which includes Forest from last week (RIP #FRWBY). This has only made Ironwood’s image, as well as Atlas’, even worse and Jaune points out how maybe it wouldn’t be as bad if they didn’t put out the Dust Embargo. Ironwood… actually agrees, and he is hoping that RWBYJNR can do some good within Mantle. The talk is cut short, however, when Ironwood is informed of someone landing. Someone that he is not looking forward to talking to.

We cut to the area where the ship landed… and a familiar company logo is on the hangar door. Out comes… ugh, Jaques Schnee. Yep, this asshat is back and he is furious that Ironwood took over the mine site, even after Ironwood tells him that since it’s a military operation there was no council vote required. Jaques starts to go off… until he sees Weiss. He’s furious that she’s been back in Atlas and not told, assuming that Ironwood has something to do with it, but Weiss makes it very clear that she’s there by her own choice as it was when she left. Jaques is pissed… but then calms down, and cue the gaslighting when he comments on how Mama Schnee is doing badly due to Weiss leaving. He turns to then thank Ironwood for screwing himself over as poor Weiss is left utterly derailed. Fortunately, the other three girls stand by her with Blake holding her hand, which encourages Weiss to call them her family when Jaques turns back to her.

Winter arrives just as Jaques leaves… as does Penny, who sends our girls flying. Oops. She’s there to congratulate them. Why? Well, we cut to inside Amity Arena, the location where everything changed for everyone. Why are they there? Well, Ironwood speaks of RWBYJNR’s actions from the Fall of Beacon, to defending Haven, to now and says that they aren’t acting as students. They are acting as Huntsmen and Huntresses. As such, he grants them their Hunting Licenses. That’s right everyone, after seven seasons, our kids are FINALLY official Huntsmen and Huntresses! Yay!!! Ironwood is relieved that he has fighters that he can trust helping him, which haha… that sure isn’t plunging the knife in deeper regarding Ruby’s lie or anything! Ironwood has to return to managing the current operation, leaving the kids to enjoy their cake and celebrate their accomplishments. Despite this, they all feel it’s almost trivial now after all that they’ve been through, but Qrow encourages them to take the time to enjoy themselves for once.

Everyone celebrates… well, almost everyone. Ruby has opted to sit alone in the stands while the others enjoy themselves. Qrow goes to her, clearly proud that his niece has made it to this point, but he can tell that this, the current events, and the lies have gotten Ruby conflicted. Ruby expresses how she’s worried that she’s acting like Ozpin, though Qrow tells her that while Oz only trusted himself with the truth, Ruby does still trust others and is just waiting for others to prove themselves. He says that Summer would be proud of her… which gets Ruby to ask a question that we have wanted to hear for SOOOO long now. Was Summer’s last mission, the one that she never returned form, Oz related? According to Qrow… no, it was not. We confirm that Qrow was NOT with Summer on that mission, and Oz appeared as lost and confused as him and Tai. But of course, now that Qrow knows the extent of Oz’s lies, he can’t be for sure. But he does know that had Summer found out the truth, she’d do as Ruby is now: press on.

So as the kids sign up for Huntsmen missions (with poor Jaune getting saddled with escorting children XD), we cut to the Schnee Manor where Jaques is drinking in his study. He’s interrupted by Whitley informing him of a visitor. One who invited himself in. It is, of all people, Watts. Jaques is stunned by this, sending Whitley away and says that Watts is supposed to be dead. But we don’t get any more details on that as Watts is there for business. Why? Well, you know how Jaques is running for council? Well… let’s just say that Watts knows of a way for Jaques to have his cake, and eat it too. Ho boy, things are about to go insane…

Review

A calmer episode compared to the past few, but still really good! 

So let’s go into Schnee drama first. I hate Jaques. I didn’t think that I could have him more than I already did, but I was proven wrong. That’s not a complaint either. Jaques is very well-written and a perfect embodiment of an abusive asshole. He not only lashes out angrily when things don’t go his way, but he’s even scarier when calm. The way that he tried to gaslight Weiss after her open defiance, bringing up Mama Schnee and ‘how she gets’ when upset. Trying to make Weiss feel guilty, even though it’s HIS fault that his wife is in such a state and he clearly doesn’t care. It’s just cruel and incredibly scummy, but not a surprise coming from him. We also see at the end that even though Whitley is his favorite and has groomed him to the point that even Watts notes the similarities, even he isn’t immune to being talked too harshly and we see that the kid is clearly afraid of him. Is it any wonder why Winter stayed in the army van until Jaques left? I don’t blame you, hon.

I loved seeing Weiss stand up to him though. She spoke up for herself and made it clear that she wasn’t going to let Jaques control her anymore. Yeah, his gaslighting brought her back down, but he didn’t beat her either as she has RBY there beside her. Seeing all three supporting her was so sweet and so perfect and Weiss calling them family? Beautiful. Special mention to Blake though. You can tell that she absolutely knows the game that Jaques is playing since… well, that’s what Adam did to her. Her holding Weiss’ hand was such a sweet gesture and just shows how much these girls love and support each other. It was such a well-done scene, and I loved it!

So… our kids are Licensed now~ This was, honestly, a long time coming. Yes, we can debate on if they’re truly ready for it or not. But at this point, they’ve gone far and beyond what was expected out of them. They fought in the Battle of Beacon. They went to Haven and defended it. They reached Atlas. They’re now fully a part of this larger conflict and, despite any rough patches, are all committed to it and their duties as Huntsmen and Huntresses. It only makes sense that they are granted their licenses at this point. But the question is, is Ironwood giving them the licenses because he believes that? Or is he aware that they’re not telling him something, and trying to do things to get their trust? It could be either one or could even be both. Either way, that’s where we are now.

But the event is treated with little fanfare, tbh. Which again, isn’t a complaint. I honestly quit thinking about them getting their licenses since about V4, since RNJR at leat were pretty much acting as such by then. There have been so many other things that have happened that I gotta agree with Yang, it does feel trivial now. I’m glad that it happened, but it just feels like ‘oh this happened, that’s cool’ over anything grand or triumphant. Still, I’m glad that they are licensed and it was nice that they could take it easy for a moment. That much they’ve absolutely earned. It was cute too, like Nora piling up on cake, Yang playing the removable arm trick on Penny, and Bumblebee selfies. I liked it~!

The highlight though is, of course, Ruby and Qrow’s talk. First, it’s so nice to see Qrow be an encouraging uncle again. I did not like Qrow during V6, even if I get why he was like he was. So seeing him in a much better headspace and being able to support his niece really helped remind me of why I like Qrow as a character so much. Jason Liebrecht has been doing such a great job voicing Qrow as well. He just puts so many little touches in the performance that lets him express so many emotions, and it’s fantastic. It was especially needed since Ruby’s clearly struggling. She tried to get the others to do some fun stuff like they used to, but they aren’t interested. She finally got her license, the thing that she’s wanted since a little girl, but at that point so much has happened that it didn’t really matter anymore. She’s worried and feeling guilty about her recent decisions, and is worried that she might end up like Oz, lying to everyone around her and making decisions that ultimately do nothing and lead others to their deaths.

There’s a lot weighing on Ruby right now, and I’m fairly sure that it’s only going to get tougher for her. But it was so nice to see Qrow comfort her, especially after how much Ruby tried to make him open up and talk to her last volume. Say what you want about her speeches, but they clearly helped Qrow as demonstrated here. But of course, we finally have Ruby ask about Summer. Nothing too major is revealed except that her last mission at least appears to not be Oz-related and Qrow wasn’t with her. Which… leads to something I’ve been wondering about for a while. Is Summer dead? All that we know is that she never came back, so maybe she was just presumed dead. But if she’s alive, where is she? I have some ideas, which I talked about here if you’re interested. But if she is alive… then why did she never go back home? Plenty of questions, but we can only wait for the answers. But hopefully, it won’t be too much longer now.

Then we have the ending. Ho boy… so Watts knows Jaques. And he’s supposed to be dead. Wondering why that was necessary, but it doesn't seem like Jaques is surprised that he’s alive. That he’s in his house? Absolutely. Alive? Mmm… not to me. But then what the heck happened that caused Watts to fake his own death? And what’s Jaques’ involvement with it? It was probably something bad, but still. But yeah, Watts is going to help Jaques out it seems. What for? Well, I've talked about what I think the big plan would be, and if I’m right… ho boy, it's gonna be America during 2016 all over again. It’s gonna be interesting to see how this plays out, especially on the Mantle side of things. Which may be coming soon, going of the thumbnail for next week...

As I said, this was a calmer episode compared to the first three. But that’s not a problem at all. The pacing was good. There were some great character interactions. It helps push along the narrative and allows characters like Ruby, Weiss, and Qrow to show off their character development. The animation was good, especially with the more cartoony moments. Thunder Thighs makes me cackle every time. This was Eddy Rivas first episode as writer, and he did a fantastic job! As did directors Dustin Matthews and Paula Decanini. They did an excellent job here, and I loved it. If V7 keeps up the level of quality, I think that it can rank up there with V3 and V6 as the best~!

Chapter Five Predictions

We saw in this episode that two individuals were spying on the Amity Arena activity, one of them being a Faunus girl who has a certain emblem on her clothing. It appears to be Robyn Hill’s emblem. This, as well as Robyn being on the thumbnail for the episode, confirms her finally making her debut. She’s likely going to be informed of the recent activity, though whether she’s aware of Ironwood’s plan (at least the satellite part) remains to be seen. But if not, she’s likely going to want to know why. Which hopefully means that we get to see how she leads/operates the Happy Huntresses and how she’s running her campaign for council.

Speaking of, we’ll probably get to see the actual election and what the respective candidates are doing. Since Jaques is now with Watts, I expect plenty of smear campaigns and corruption going around to make Ironwood and perhaps Robyn look worst. Like I said, the American 2016 Election all over again. It likely also means seeing more chaos and protest in Mantle, ones that I doubt are going to be peaceful. And then we have Jaune on his first mission, and I thin that Miles’ ‘thirsty moms’ comment is about to come into play, haha. Not sure about the rest of the gang, or even if we’ll see Oscar after he was absent here. Guess we’ll find out soon~!

Episode Stats

Favorite Character: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Qrow Branwen Favorite Scene: Weiss facing Jaques/RBY supporting her Least Favorite Scene: The Mission Board since it just kinda dragged. Favorite Voice Actor: Jason Liebrecht (Qrow Branwen) Favorite Animation: Thunder Thighs Rating: 8/10

Final Thoughts

A slower episode, but a great one nonetheless. Great character writing, great accomplishments, and of course more development of the plot. Moments like Weiss against Jaques, Ruby and Qrow’s heart-to-heart, some talk on SUmmer, and our heroes getting their Huntsmen/Huntress Licenes made me smile so much, and all without feeling cramped or forced. I think that we earned a breather, and this one delivered without feeling boring. Eddy did a great job and since he confirmed that he also wrote Chapter 5, which is 20 minutes BTW, I am super excited to see what else he brings us~!