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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Fault”

Hello, everyone! We’re not even bothering with an introduction today, let’s just get straight to the only thing that matters.

HERE HE IS, THE MVP OF THIS EPISODE, OF THE WHOLE VOLUME, THE SERIES, THE ONLY ONE I CARE ABOUT RIGHT NOW

I’m joking… but only a little. In all seriousness we will get to Ren, but you all want to hear a funny story first? I somehow got it into my head that there was no RWBY episode this week—the holiday and all—so I poured all my meta time and energy into a ridiculous Ironwood analysis as a placeholder, only to wake up this morning and find the strongest (and most complicated!) episode this year waiting for a recap. Like some sort of grimm nosing into my inbox.

Okay, so it’s not a funny story, but if RT would just do a better job with their website my life would be a whole lot easier.

So here we are, taking a look at the episode “Fault.” Quick question, is every episode this volume going to have a one-word title? It’s not a criticism, I’ve got nothing against a punchy name, I’m just curious since RWBY has never done that before. If anything, they’ve gone more for symbolically significant phrases like “A Brawl in the Family,” “Players and Pieces,” and “The Lady in the Shoe.” I wonder what sparked the change.

Anyway, we open on Robyn laughing about some story she’s told, something about Joanna losing a fair fight for the first time, presumably to her. This is what we’ve learned about Robyn since this volume started: she refuses to acknowledge that she had a hand in Clover’s death; she was asked by Blake and Yang to keep the Amity secret but, according to May, couldn’t keep her mouth shut about it; and she tries to cheer Qrow up by bragging about her own skill.

Alrighty then.

Obviously, this little story fails to land. “Tough crowd tonight.” Robyn looks to Jacques as well as Qrow when she says this and since she clearly doesn’t care about cheering him up, she must want to get a rise out of him. Create something, as she says at the end of the scene, that’s exciting. Robyn just really loves to start fights. Against Ironwood, Clover, bickering matches with Jacques—stories told about winning them! If she’s not fighting someone she’s not interested.

Qrow does eventually give the smallest smile though and Robyn cheers. “Did I win?” They both quickly grow serious again though and Robyn says she’s “sorry for what happened. It wasn’t your fault.” Her apology would mean more if she was apologizing for her actions, not providing a generic ‘Sorry for your loss’ like she had no hand in this.

Qrow then insists it was his fault… but, of course, not for the reasons why he’s actually responsible (also, didn’t we do this two weeks ago?). For starters, Qrow blames his semblance for everything that went down, despite the fact that his semblance is not responsible for him breaking Clover’s aura, or Tyrian stabbing him. The most we’ve seen his semblance do is cause minor mischief, which in and of itself is absurd considering we’re meant to believe that it has kept him from his family most of his life, and informs choices like whether he’ll travel with the group in Volume 4. Still, it’s not unexpected that he would blame his semblance and think that having friends is a “childish dream”—depression is one hell of a liar—but rather, it’s frustrating that no one is helping Qrow see the truth of the situation, both the good and the bad. He certainly doesn’t need Robyn providing generic platitudes that absolve them both of their choices.

You know what the worst part is? The two kind, level-headed adults with enough distance to help Qrow acknowledge his mistakes while also correcting him about his misconceptions… are Ozpin and Clover. The former is still ignored by the cast, the latter barely got to be a character before he was killed.

Qrow goes on to say that he “made a deal with the darkness and [Clover] paid the price.” I’m sorry, what does that mean?? Outside of referencing his team-up with Tyrian, that’s the most dramatic, nonsensical thing he could have said. Qrow doesn’t admit to the team-up though, rather he starts blaming Clover for his own death.

Precisely like a good chunk of the fandom has done 🙃

He says that Clover just “wouldn’t let up” (translation: he wouldn’t agree to let me go when I was under arrest) and that they could have “worked together against Tyrian if Clover had just—”

There’s a lot to cover this episode, so I’m not going to dive into another explanation of all the justified reasons why Clover didn’t trust Qrow in that moment and why Qrow was the one who “wouldn’t let up.” If you’re interested in that rundown, head here.

Side note: can RWBY please stop with the weird mouth closeups? I’m begging the animators. Especially when so much else in this episode is gorgeous.

Yes:

No:

Robyn’s response is to make it all about her. I say, as a hypocrite, because my instinctual response in comforting someone is to also bring up a way that I might, sort of, know what they’re going through. It’s something to work on and, as always, I’d be more receptive to Robyn’s attempts if she weren’t failing so spectacularly in every other aspect of her characterization. Case in point: she says that having a truth semblance tends to make people push her away, but we’ve never once seen that. We’re introduced to Robyn as she’s adored by Fiona. The people celebrate her. Yang and Blake trust her immediately, for no reason, and comment on how useful her semblance is—they’re not concerned with it. Ironwood likewise works with her and allows her to use her semblance on him in public, at least for a time. May spoke fondly of Robyn last episode. She just finished a story about Joanna… where is this pushing away you speak of, Robyn? I really wish RWBY would consider things ahead of time and actually show them to us, rather than just having characters announce that they’re (supposedly) there.

Nice symbolism though with Robyn touching the electric bars and pulling her hand back. You reach out, you get hurt, curl in on yourself, blah, blah, blah. Too bad it’s not a moment attached to an actual struggle of hers.

Qrow buys it though, saying he’s never thought about it that way before.

You know, I get why a lot of people in the fandom hate Clover. I can’t even claim I’m much interested in him as an individual. I’m sick of straight, white, able-bodied men getting the spotlight, which is one of the things that drew me to RWBY in the first place… so theoretically Robyn should be the better choice for Qrow’s BFF, right? Especially in a world where FairGame only existed in RT’s social media queerbaiting. Give us the badass gender-bent Robin Hood instead of the boring military man!

On paper it sounds great… which is why it’s astounding that RT bungled that so badly.

Qrow never finishes his thought about Clover because the Ace Ops come in to return Watts to his cell. Interesting. The writing has definitely made Ironwood stupid, but perhaps not as stupid as he could have been? If he got Watts to hack Penny (we don’t yet know what’s going on with her during all this) and then promptly shut him away again, that’s just about the best way you can follow up on your worst decision.

Harriet spots Clover’s pin and tells Qrow “You don’t get to keep that,” but then doesn’t take it from him. See, that right there is a better motivation for potentially opening the cell. Qrow says he didn’t kill Clover, Harriet shoots back that his blood was on Qrow’s blade (again, focusing on the wrong way that he’s guilty), Robyn challenges her to get the truth via her semblance… and Harriet considers it? Why? She’s not the one struggling with her loyalty here, that’s Marrow, yet he’s the one who has to pull Harriet back with “What are you doing?” when she looks at the keypad. Have Marrow almost be swayed by Robyn’s taunting, or have Harriet almost open the door because she’s furious and desperate to get Clover’s pin back. Either one of those would make more sense than this.

Also, no one checked Qrow during his arrest/before he was thrown into his cell?

Also, note that Marrow uses a nickname here—“Hare”—so I’m continually unpersuaded by the ‘They’re not friends’ claim. Yes, Harriet hits his shoulder on her way out… and Ren will later scream at Jaune about cheating. Harriet being in a bad mood because their leader was just murdered isn’t evidence that they’re not close, no more than Ren responding to Everything Traumatic Ever is evidence that he doesn’t care for his friends.

Also (x3), Robyn calls Harriet “mohawk”?? Can’t this woman come up with a single good insult?

As the Ace Ops leave Robyn lays back down on her bunk, exactly as she was before, and says, “Well, that was almost exciting.” Kind of like this scene! Luckily, the episode is about to get a whole lot better.

The music immediately picks up as we segue to Ren, Jaune, and Yang chasing after Oscar. On the whole I really enjoyed this scene, largely because it shows the group doing their best—in a way that feels persuasive. I’ll admit that others have a point about them just standing around while the Hound changes form—yet still failing because, you know, our villain is actually powerful! However, there are, as always, some nitpicks.

One of the first bits of dialogue we get is Ren noticing that the bikes can’t stand being in the cold for very long. It bugs me that bikes suffer more from the cold than the civilians do. To say nothing of the fact that it once again doesn’t amount to anything. Their bikes carry them through the whole battle and Jaune looses his because of a grimm. Then Yang manages to fix the totaled bike with a single part, despite the continued cold. Why bother introducing this as a problem when it’s meaningless each and every time?

The three do demonstrate some great teamwork though. When Yang yells that she wishes one of them could fly, Jaune uses his shield to launch Ren at the Hound… so that he can get dragged through the air, hitting rocks. This poor guy. I like that though because no, these teens shouldn’t be perfect, strategic masterminds and yes, they’re in the kind of situation where they just have to try something and see if it works. Jaune can’t think ahead to what Ren will do once he grabs the Hound, they just have to get him to that point and go from there. Which they do. Ren snags a boulder to slow them down further (that’s smart) and Yang goes higher to fire at the Hound’s face (don’t hit Oscar he doesn’t have aura!!). They’re at a crazy disadvantage here and still trying their best to get our boy back.

The overall tone is… fine? Again, love supportive Yang—that high five with Jaune was wholesome—but it continually feels weird to get that when Oscar is in the literal jaws of death here. On the whole though the scene keeps to the action and seriousness of the situation, which I appreciate. We’ll talk more about tone during the outpost scene.

It's looking like they might be making some sort of headway when the Hound lets out a roar that, as Yang puts it, calls for backup. 1. Yay giving this grimm even more power to mess with the cast, 2. Holy shit there are so many grimm around. See, scenes like this is why I’m side-eyeing the anti-army rhetoric in the show (a stance I’d otherwise agree with 100%). Because do you see how many there are? That’s not Salem’s army, that’s just the normal grimm hanging out around Atlas. The cast is screwed if anyone were to, say, order them to attack the kingdom…

Kudos to RT for bringing back the centipede grimm though. I honestly thought they’d just be a one-off action sequence in Volume 7.

While everything is falling apart Ren catches a glimpse of Oscar, complete with rosy cheeks to make him look super young, and the sight fills him with

He starts climbing towards the Hound and we cut away.

Meanwhile, Jaune’s bike is hit with some of the centinel’s acid (again, not the cold causing problems) and he takes a tumble, managing to keep his feet before Yang snags him. Moments like that really do show how far he’s come and I’m glad we got to see such a moment in an episode where his cheating was brought up. Jaune then uses his shield to fly over one of the dragon-y grim, but... wait. The shield is flexible?

Literally what is the point of that? As a shield, I mean (it clearly works fine as a ramp). If you can just tip it over like that then so can the grimm or another fighter. Forget how tiny the shield is, all a monster would have to do is boop it and it would fall over. In fact, it probably should have with the grimm scratching at it before. Seems rather useless, unless you’ve got writers crafting convenient situations. Also, does Jaune have multiples of this thing? He picked it up before, but there’s no way he found that one again. Idk, I’m really not feeling this addition to Jaune’s arsenal. Better to give him a range option so he’s more versatile.

Still, they fly over the grimm and the two let out a sigh in synch. Whatever else we might have to say about this volume, RT is definitely giving us different interactions and team-ups. Well done there. Why, Jaune and Yang have managed to survive all that together!

Oh wait, never mind. They’ve gone off a cliff.

Honestly, I’m shocked they actually went over. I thought Yang would stop in time, or we’d have a classic moment of them tumbling off the bike and ending an inch from the edge, maybe going off slow with time for one to hang on. But nope, they plummet and it was done with such confidence by the camera that for a split second (the illogic of killing them both off aside) I thought that was it. They’re done for. Lucky for them, Ren catches them at the last second, managing to snag Jaune’s sword and them and immediately use his semblance so the grimm doesn’t eat them. That’s skill, baby!!

But you can see why he’s pissed, beyond just the fact that his semblance is holding this group together. It’s not Jaune and Yang’s fault that there was suddenly a cliff, but last we saw Ren he was heading towards Oscar. He had a plan. Granted, not one that was likely to lead anywhere given the Hound’s power (and the plot needing Oscar to reach Salem), but that’s not the point. He was pulling himself towards their kidnapped friend and then at the last second had to cut himself loose to save two others. This moment wasn’t anyone’s fault, but it would take someone with no emotions at all not to be frustrated by it.

So we leave the trio literally hanging out and return to Ruby’s group who is threatening kids!

Seriously though WTF, Weiss? Look, I haven’t always been kind to Whitley. In fact, I think there’s a Volume 7 recap where I really laid into him for his attitude and for supporting Jacques. But then—with the help of some friends and other anon perspectives—I thought about it for a hot second and considered how little power this child has. I was wrong to blame him for so much given the various circumstances here. It took, like… five minutes of thinking, and that’s for a fictional character, not a real life brother. Weiss clearly hasn’t given her brother five seconds of thought. He’s in the same abusive household that she was. He wasn’t blessed with combat abilities and a semblance to easily escape. He didn’t have Weiss there to guide him like Winter guided her. He had to watch BOTH his sisters abandon him to Jacques… so when exactly was he supposed to learn to be better? Why would he be inclined to? Weiss was an entitled racist when she got to school and needed new friends to show her a new path. She admitted as much last volume! Yet the fact that Whitley is completely alone in this house while their mom locks herself in her room to drink doesn’t register at all? This woman, an adult out to save the world as we’re frequently told, never once considered what it took to get her here and realize that Whitley has had none of the resources she did?

I want to emphasize that Weiss threatens him with her weapon. It’s not just that she’s dismissive of him and his plight, she’s also happy to use violence if Whitley doesn’t do exactly as he’s told. Violence… against her brother… who is a child… without any training. Again: WTF, Weiss? You know how I was praising RWBY last episode for not having the group beat up the Atlas personnel? Yeah, we get this instead.

Then she tells him to go to his room??

Speculation is that Whitley is about 2-3 years younger than Weiss. Or, to put it another way, roughly the same age as Weiss’ leader, Ruby. She’ll follow Ruby unquestioningly into world-changing decisions, but sends her brother to his room like a toddler? Which is it, RWBY? Are 17 year-olds leaders you should listen to, or babies who must leave the room while the grownups talk? He certainly can’t be any younger than Oscar, so again, she’ll fight beside him, but treat Whitley like this? Whitley isn’t exactly going to offer help in a respectful, eager manner, but that “Fine. What do you expect me to do?” was incredibly open given his situation. He was willing to help and that was the perfect opportunity to have him, you know, do something. Something small and innocuous that wouldn’t threaten the team if he betrayed them, but kept him around so he could talk to someone. But nope. Weiss just sends him to his room after criticizing him for not understanding that they’re “busy trying to save Atlas.” Weiss, what does Whitley know about all that? He’s locked up in this manor after your father was arrested and the one news clip we’ve seen said that no one knows why Ironwood recalled his forces, or what’s up with those grimm overhead. She’s acting like he should have any idea what’s happening right now.

Also, all of this is coming on the heels of Willow begging Weiss not to forget her brother, so that’s just great. RWBY has the rest of their time in the manor to fix this, because if Weiss comes out of that scene having only been handed the means of arresting Jacques… that’s just bad all around.

Finally, should we talk about how strange this choice is? Last episode we saw the group flying away and I assumed it was them leaving Atlas to go back to Mantle. It certainly looked that way, but now they’ve decided to stay until Nora is awake. Why? Isn’t it more dangerous here? I mean, they didn’t know the staff was gone and there are still arrest warrants out. Was Weiss just going to threaten anyone who dared report her? Where are these shields Ironwood spoke of? Have they gotten through them somehow, or are they currently trapped in Atlas?

This is “Oscar is in the slums, leaves the slums, learns they’re going to the crater, but the slums are actually the crater, so we’re heading back now” all over again.

The one good thing about this scene is that Blake and Ruby talk! …for about two seconds lol. Eh, better than nothing. Blake says that if Ruby is worried about Yang she could try calling her. Ruby has, and Yang isn’t picking up.

Does Ruby think she’s in danger or ignoring her? Unclear. We, however, know that Yang is now lost in the middle of nowhere with no reception and no transportation back to Mantle. The three of them start trudging towards an outpost Ren spotted, needing to find shelter “before this weather drops our aura levels completely.” So what about everyone without aura?? I wish that I could check off the bingo space again because this is ridiculous.

Ren, once again, isn’t in the mood to talk, but unlike Jaune, Yang can’t leave something alone. So she coaxes him to tell him what’s wrong and you know what? She does a real good job at first. She’s encouraging, but her voice is level and she doesn’t come across as accusing. Well done, Yang.

Things quickly fall apart though as Ren says EVERYTHING I’VE EVER WANTED TO SAY TO THIS GROUP. Holy shit, everyone, let’s count ‘em up:

Nothing is going smoothly so let’s stop pretending it’s all fine

Oscar has been horrifically kidnapped that’s #bad

This is not a normal part of being a huntsmen

We don’t know the first thing about being huntsmen!

Every time we’ve had to make real decisions we got them all wrong, yay us

We’re trapping a city here for Salem to destroy whenever she feels like it, yay us x2

Our leader is barely more than a kid and one of us cheated our way here

People are going to die because of us

“I’m just saying what nobody else wants to”

Yang’s response? Incredibly weak imo. Just as weak as the fandom’s has been since this conflict started in Volume 7. Her argument against letting Atlas go is that Salem won’t just let it fly away with her whale… but no one knows that. She’s certainly just letting it sit right now! Assuming that something won’t work because you expect the worst is not a compelling reason not to try.

Her argument against their ineptitude? They saved Haven, took down a leviathan, and got the lamp to Atlas. Let’s break that down a little more.

Did they fight well at Haven? Yes… overlooking that Weiss would have died if not for a timely semblance reveal. But the real point here is that they “saved” the school by getting the Relic. Problem is, they never won the relic, it was handed to them. Literally. They retrieved it not because they were capable of overpowering Salem’s forces and a Maiden, but because Raven decided she’d rather her daughter be a target than her. That doesn’t tell us anything about the group’s skill, only about Raven’s flaws.

They took down a leviathan… after drawing it to Argus in the first place. That’s kind of an important detail when Ren is trying to make the point that their decisions suck. Also, how did they take it down? Using Ruby’s silver eyes, which only worked because Jinn randomly decided to let her stop time. Oh, and also using the rest of Cordovin’s mech that they hadn’t yet destroyed. Again, nothing about that fight demonstrates their skill, only others’ abilities, resources, and the strange favoritism they benefit from.

Getting the lamp to Atlas. Well, you drove Ozpin away who was your ticket across the border. Then Maria told Ruby how to save you all from the Apathy (and Ruby herself was the only one able to resist long enough to demand you get the Relic back in the first place). You started that leviathan fight and ended it surrounded by Cordovin’s fleet. So how did you get to Atlas? Because she let you cross. How did you reach Ironwood? Because he dropped your arrest. Yang stopped Adam, yes, but that was its own, separate fight. Regarding the “getting to Atlas” point they botched that up completely.

Basically, this resume of victories is unpersuasive, to say the least. Yang highlights the end goal rather than acknowledging Ren’s point: have we, as individuals, actually made things better lately?

They absolutely have not.

Note how, in contrast, Ren includes himself in this criticism. He doesn’t just lay responsibility at Ruby and Jaune’s feet, he’s second on the list for being underprepared. For messing up. He’s just an “orphan from nowhere” and this tells us that, unlike Qrow, Ren is actually concerned with this problem and his own place in it. He’s not just blowing off steam and running from his responsibility. Rather, he’s making important points here yet, as he says, no one else wants to listen.

And that’s why the scene ultimately sucks. “But, Clyde! It’s a speech straight out of your metas!” Yes it was and it was beautiful to witness, but the problem is that Ren’s supposed to be wrong. Jaune glares at him before leaving. Yang clenches her fists and asks if he just wants to push everyone away. He’s left hanging his head. Then later they talk about how “broody” he is and provide advice about how to stop doing that. The takeaway here is not, ‘Holy shit, Ren is right and we should rethink our choices,’ but rather that Ren is wrong and needs to come over to their ‘correct’ perspective.

I love that this was laid out. I love that the group is actually fighting for once (way better than Ruby and Yang’s ‘fight’). I also love that we finally see what’s bothering Ren… but we all know this isn’t leading anywhere. The scene ends with Jaune dismissing everything by stating that if Ren doesn’t want to be a huntsmen, fine, but he has a job to do. Ren is supposed to feel guilty here for… telling the truth? Jaune is supposed to look like the hero for soldiering on with his responsibility while moody Ren drags behind. The scene is great, but the purpose of the scene sucks.

Actually, I’d like to talk about a portion of the outpost scene real quick. Skipping ahead, because we really see here how little RT believes the words that they’ve put in Ren’s mouth. Jaune admits that he’s right about cheating into Beacon… but nothing else. Indeed, that “mistake” is swept away because he’s earned his right to be here now. You shouldn’t care about that anymore! Ignoring the point Ren was making about how much they’re in over their heads. Yang apologizes to Jaune on Ren’s behalf, making it clear that she cares more about his potentially hurt feelings than any of the points Ren made. Remind you of anything? Like oh, say, that time Yang cared more about Jaune’s feelings than whether he’d hurt Oscar after slamming him against a wall? All of this despite the fact that Yang JUST accused Ruby of the horrible situation they’re in. Now Ren acknowledges that they’re in a horrible situation and Yang… doesn’t care?? Again, RT is good at giving us the pieces we want, the surface level stuff, but is rarely able to combine it into something fulfilling. If anyone actually takes Ren’s stance seriously, changing their ways rather than talking him out of it, I’ll be shocked.

Especially since the real nail in the coffin of this scene is Jaune telling him that “The more you hide from what you’re feeling, the more alone you’re going to feel.”

Jaune………..buddy……….pal…………were you asleep during that scene? Ren DID tell you what he was feeling. For the first time he did come clean about everything he was experiencing and you both rejected him for it! He’s not pulling away because he’s hiding from what he’s feeling, he’s pulling away because he did show it and both his friends reduced it to “pushing [them] away.” Which is it, Jaune? Should Ren be more open, or should he stop saying things you don’t want to hear? It’s a more complicated version of telling your parents about your interests, them mocking those interests, and then they’re surprised when you don’t share things with them again. I mean, the gall of Jaune to reject everything Ren said in the moment, ignore it after he’s calmed down, and then lecture him about being hiding his emotions.

Jaune and Yang (and the story) don’t want Ren to say what he really thinks, they want him to say what they think. Ren should speak up, but only if he’s going to agree with them.

So Ren sits out in the snow because potentially dying from cold is better than staying in a room with Yang and Jaune. I can’t really blame him lol.

One last thing about the fight scene. Remember how May was put in her place last episode for not using Penny’s name? Well, Yang doesn’t either. Granted, “the Maiden” isn’t as overtly insulting as “tin can” (or whatever it is May said), but it amounts to the same thing: both are replacing Penny’s individual identity with her status as a tool they can use. May sees Penny as the cool tech girl who can get them into the military base. Yang sees Penny as the cool magic girl who is the answer to all their ‘How do we win this?’ problems. Everyone is using Penny. Ruby to launch Amity, Ironwood to open the vault, but you know RWBY will never have a scene where Penny corrects Yang about her name and Ruby looks on, smug. Because the group can continually make the same mistakes as the adults/antagonists around them, but aren’t called out on it in the same way. Ren calls them out and he’s told he’s wrong.

Anyway, the tl;dr of this scene is that Ren is the best. Too bad the story doesn’t realize that.

We then move to my poor Oscar who wakes up looking at his own feet, Ozpin’s voice is as reassuring as it can be under the circumstances. “Oscar? Don’t panic. We’re going to be okay.” I mentioned two weeks back that I hoped the show would explain why we didn’t see Ozpin try to take control during the Hound fight and we still don’t have an explanation, so that’s disappointing. This line is all we get from Ozpin because that’s the norm now. We moved from him being written out of the story entirely to having one or two lines an episode (excluding a speech meant more for the audience than the characters). So, improvement? But a lackluster one, I think. Especially given that he is the focal point of this entire situation with Salem.

I’m avoiding the elephant in the room though. Oscar’s torture is horrifying. In the sense that it should be horrifying. Salem might still inexplicably not be attacking Atlas—and what she’s after at any given time might be getting more and more muddled—but she’s absolutely terrifying here, which is what we needed. The mix of assault with that nurturing tone is just skin crawling. “My long lost Ozma. Found at last” while she (I think?) shows images of their daughters. Honestly, I only heard that from friends, didn’t catch it myself, but then my eyes are shit to begin with. I couldn’t see a thing in this shadowed shot.

(It’s like watching Game of Thrones all over again.)

Oscar tries to pretend to be Ozpin and he does a damn good job with “I’m sorry the reunion isn’t living up to your expectations.” It’s not enough to fool Salem though. She says he’s “not him” yet and I’m again reminded that the show continually references this merge without showing us any change. They’re apparently closer to one person now, but they still speak as individuals. Oscar has Ozpin’s magic, but hasn’t used it, even when his life was on the line. The closest we get to evidence that the merge is underway is that Oscar attempts to lie about knowing Jinn’s name… but what the hell else is he supposed to do here? I suppose he could go the action hero route and shout that she’ll never get the answer out of him, but trying to lie is by far the safer option. That doesn’t tell us that he’s becoming like Ozpin, or even that they’re truly “like-minded souls” as Salem claims. It just tells us that Oscar has two braincells to rub together and can say a short sentence without totally giving himself away. Maybe the kid played a few rounds of Remnant’s Among Us.

This moment highlights another justification for Ozpin’s secrets though. He lives an existence where he is not in control of his own (“own”) body. At any point the host he’s with could falter, fail, turn on him, and in doing so give crucial, world ending information to the enemy. It’s already happened on a small scale, with Oscar successfully taking control, stealing the Jinn information, and giving it to the group. Now here he’s being tortured. How long can he last? Will Oscar give up Jinn’s name? If Ozpin didn’t have the location of the Relic locked up tight in his own consciousness, would that information be lost too? I’m not looking to blame Oscar for anything here—I don’t want to imply that this situation is karma for him taking Jinn’s name, or some such nonsense—I just want to acknowledge that this is the sort of stuff Ozpin has to worry about. If he shares these secrets then that’s more fallible people who are capable of giving that information to Salem. If he keeps them…well, he’s the only one who has to keep his mouth shut during a torture session. His host might want information about the Relics, there’s an argument to be made that they’re entitled to them, but if I were Ozpin I wouldn’t want to take that risk either. The question has essentially become, “Would I trust a 14 year old to keep quiet while tortured by a witch?” Maybe Oscar will! He’s enough of a BAMF to manage it… but that’s still not something I’d want to bet on. Better that Oscar simply doesn’t have that information to give Salem, period.

So obviously this “working relationship” that Salem wants isn’t going well. When Oscar lies she jumps straight to torturing him.

This was legitimately hard to watch and I’m torn about that. On the one hand it’s what I wanted: a scary, powerful Salem who uses the tools at her disposal to get what she’s after. That’s great! Yet I’m still reminded of how far this show has gone to literally beat up the child of the group. Oscar is the one punched into a tree, attacked by a friend, shot by an ally, the star of the show’s most horrifying kidnapping, now the first to be outright tortured by Salem. I don’t really have a point here, I’m not looking to level any specific accusations at RT, I’m just commenting on the pattern and acknowledging that it makes me uncomfortable. There are parts of a story where you’re supposed to be uncomfortable—like the villain torturing a hero—and then there are parts where you’re uncomfortable because the writers seem overly focused on showing images of a specific kid suffering and that’s… weird.

I’m not sure what to make of that just yet.

Anyway, Salem’s magic here is surprisingly pretty. Pretty and painful, but I expected more red and blacks, perhaps some spikey imagery, so the rainbow was an interesting surprise. Given the amount of pain Oscar is in, I suspect too much of that would kill him, so Salem calls in Hazel to continue the interrogation. The first few hits he deals are for Haven, the others for his sister.

See, this is why RWBY needs to actually embrace its “life isn’t a fairy tale” theme. You cannot show me child torture in one week and then move to Ruby “We’ll win because we’re the good guys ^_^” Rose the next. The whole reason why Ironwood (and Ren now) was right is because this is the shit reality they’re dealing with. You didn’t run when you had the chance and now Oscar (and Ozpin) is being tortured. You keep talking about saving Mantle, but the only reason why they’re not already dead is because the writing randomly turns the cold danger on and off. This mix of horrific, real world danger and unjustified confidence doesn’t work.

…also, I officially don’t want any redemption arc for Hazel. This guy is beating on a child because he’s convinced that he’s Ozpin, blaming Ozpin for his sister’s decision, all while forwarding a genocidal maniac’s plans. Hazel and his ridiculous shirts can just get on out of here, thanks.

Finally, I just want to say... this is the woman a lot of the fandom defended. This is the woman you wanted raising those girls and blamed Ozpin for trying to escape with them.

This is how Salem treats children.

Oh, and all of this is without his aura because it just broke. So Oscar is in serious, non-fantasy trouble here.

Someone please rescue him soon 😭

We finish up with some frankly boring stuff with the rest of the villain cast. We learn that the Hound is an “experiment” and a new one given that Cinder has never seen it before. Salem’s dialogue is admittedly great—“Do you hear that, my pet? She thinks. She wants.”—but Cinder just rehashes everything we’ve heard from her before. She wants the Winter Maiden power. She has trouble remembering that she’s playing at Salem’s slave. She even rehashes the exact same line, “Without you, I am nothing.” Why are we wasting time on this when we had that tantalizing backstory before?

Bleh.

Salem tells her in no uncertain terms to stay put.

So Cinder immediately leaves LOL.

She just wants to “check on” Amity tower because she “knows those kids” in ways Salem doesn’t. I’m admittedly slightly confused as to how Cinder knows to go there? Did she believe Ironwood’s lie that it was finished even though it apparently IS finished now? Has she overheard something? I’m not sure. Frankly, keeping track of that stuff in RWBY is headache inducing, so let’s just roll with it.

Neo, the only one with a brain around here, makes it clear she thinks Cinder is an idiot for going. Emerald, always the Cinder fan, offers to go in her stead. She’s been working on her semblance, so I expect we’ll see something cool with that soon. They head off, apparently not worried about what Salem will do to them when they get back.

Which is when we move to the outpost for our final scene, most of which I’ve covered. I only have two more things I want to bring up here.

The first is the tone. As said earlier, the tone of the Hound chase wasn’t horrible, but I find myself disappointed in the overall attitude of Jaune and Yang. Yang is making jokes about how they can’t fly, high-fiving Jaune, and they’re both shrugging off Ren’s concerns. Jaune says he won’t be able to sleep due to worrying about Oscar, but neither of them act particularly worried. Which isn’t to say they need to be sobbing the whole time or whatever, just that Ren is the only one who feels real here. They may not agree with his stance about everything else, but they’ve all experienced the same event: watching a grimm that can morph, talk, and think horrifically kidnap a teammate. Shouldn’t there be more emotion attached to that? Things have gotten better with Oscar than they’ve been in the past, largely due to details like Nora’s hug at the beginning of the volume, but let’s be real, they’re still not perfect. Do we think Jaune and Yang would be this nonchalant if Ruby were kidnapped that way? Say all you want about Ruby being her sister, or others being teammates for longer, but the fact remains that Oscar has been taken to Salem herself and the only one reacting to that in any meaningful way is Ren.

Who they say will “brood himself to death.” That right there. The one guy freaking out about your kidnapped friend should not be described as “brooding.”

All of which segues into my second point, namely that Yang doesn’t seem to care about Ruby anymore either! She asks Jaune, “Do you think she thinks less of me?” for not going to Amity and when Jaune reassures her that Ruby will always love her, Yang’s response is, “Yeah… Ruby.”

She was thinking about Blake.

The kicker? I thought she was talking about Ruby too. Because Ruby is her sister. Because she and Ruby had the fight (“fight”). Because Ruby was trying to call her to check in. Because Blake and Yang didn’t even acknowledge that they went on different missions here. I thought Blake was like Jaune, not really taking a side and just heading with Ruby because the team is splitting down the middle. Where did this worry come from?

And I want to praise RT here (I really do) because I can see the effort. I said Blake and Yang needed to spend time apart, they have. I said they needed to work through their co-dependent identities, now Blake is reminding Nora (and theoretically herself too) that someone you love is just a part of you. I said that the group couldn’t be a hive-mind, now there’s disagreement. I said the show needs to make Blake/Yang canon at some point and you can’t do that if they don’t talk about and to each other. So I fully admit that this is everything I asked for… so why does it feel so badly done? No matter how many boxes it checks off, it’s still a moment where we thought Yang was finally worrying about her sister again—like she used—and then it’s ‘Sike! It was really just about Blake! Again. Yang is worried about a problem that was never even introduced.’

I suppose that’s why it doesn’t work for me. Yang and Ruby had the falling out, but Yang and Blake, somehow, become the focus. Is it really so hard to write Yang as a sister and a potential love interest? Yang apparently can’t care for Ruby and Blake, Weiss can’t care for her team and her brother, Ruby can’t care for Mantle and Ironwood… it’s like each character gets one (1) thing to put their emotional energy towards at any given time and that’s it. That’s all they get.

On the flip side, this is why Ren feels like a person this episode. He cares about Mantle, and the future fight, and their past mistakes, and his place here, and the problems within the team, and Nora… He feels like a well-rounded person! vs. Yang and Jaune who don’t even consider his perspective, vs. Yang having a fight with her sister but only cares about Blake. They’re one-dimensional in comparison.

It is, as always, disappointing.

As the group “broods” then the camera shows us a piece of the ice nearby, slowly cracking as Jaune says that “Things always seem to get worse before they get better.” Well, that’s unexpected. I didn’t think our opening would be literal. I’ve been worried about Atlas falling on everyone, not everyone falling… to whatever is underneath the kingdom as a whole. Is the kingdom falling apart? Or is something waking up and moving towards the surface? If RWBY can reproduce the characterization we got with the Hound, I wouldn’t be opposed to another leviathan grimm rising from the snowy deep to assist Salem…

Though how the fuck group will survive everything and that, who knows lol.

And that’s our episode! Issues aside—most of which have been ongoing issues. We knew they were there—I think this was our strongest episode so far this volume. Well done! There are still problems, no doubt, but at least I was only bored for a small portion of that 20 minutes. Let’s just keep heading in that direction.

Exciting Saturday, huh?

Regarding bingo updates:

RWBY actually re-used a grimm I thought they’d abandoned, so well done there.

No civilians around for the giant grimm army to attack, so that was fine. Kind of strange though that they completely disappeared after the Hound left.

The timeline is starting to get wonky. For example, what kind of stakes am I supposed to expect when Cinder decides to head to Amity? Is it currently empty? Is Pietro there? Has Penny made it yet? I said weeks ago that RWBY would need to follow multiple groups to fill out fourteen episodes in just two days—and they’re definitely doing that—but that means we don’t have a clear sense of what events are happening simultaneously and what are meant to be linear.

No Winter or Ironwood this episode.

Watts is back with Jacques! Potential for team-up 2.0? That will admittedly be hard with Qrow and Robyn there, unless those two escape.

(Oh yeah, I thought Qrow and the others would be held in the military base and Ruby would find him during her heist… but she doesn’t even care that Qrow is in jail.)

Maria is still a ghost. If we hit the halfway mark with her not doing anything I’m calling the space.

I definitely wouldn’t call this cliffhanger needless. That’s actually a cool way to end things, even if Jaune’s line was pretty on the nose.

Neo may be getting closer to backstabbing Cinder if those expressions are anything to go by.

Still waiting to see if Amity works.

And finally, drumroll please! …

“More obvious Blake/Yang implications without confirming a relationship.” Yup, I’m marking that this week. After Blake’s ‘just a part of you’ comment and now Yang only being worried about her reaction? Definitely calling it. If RWBY confirms a relationship this volume I’ll eat my words—and some celebratory cake — but until then salt prevails. Especially after the fiasco that was Supernatural.

Still no bingo. Ah well, maybe next week lol.

Until then! 💜

[Ko-fi]

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #rwby fault #rwby recaps #mymetas

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warriordreamer95 · 4 years

Text

RWBY Volume 7 Crew Commentary Notes!

All credit goes to Sweetfable over on Reddit! Sweet, if you’re on Tumblr and have already posted this or want to, let me know and I’ll take this down!

Chapter 1

Featuring Kerry Shawcross and Miles Luna.

Miles says he was hoping people didn’t figure out Atlas was a floating city in the sky before they got there. Even in World of Remnant, they were very careful with how they worded things to avoid spoiling this fact.

A large portion of ep 1 was intended to be in V6

Originally it was going to end with Penny being revealed, dealing with the Grimm, and ending on “Salutations”

Almost everything up until the Penny moment was how it was going to be in V6. For production and story reasons they decided to end V6 with just seeing Atlas.

Mantle is a little more Blade Runner and utilitarian looking, while Atlas was made to look like it was created by Apple. Two different futuristic looks.

When making the four kingdoms, they compared it to parts of the real world. Atlas and Mantle were two different versions of America

The drunk guy (Drunk Mann) we see insulting Blake is based off of Joel Mann and the other is Dustin Matthew (Grape-kun).

We saw Pietro (his hand) for the first time in Volume 3. They didn’t want to make him too similar to Dr. Weller from gen:LOCK, and so they made him to be like a ‘big’ kid. It’s where Penny gets a lot of her attitude from.

Kerry wants to do a show with all the old RWBY characters

V8 was harder to write than V7

It was a challenge in this episode to make it clear that Atlas is a new place for some characters, but a familiar one for several others, but that the Atlas in V7 is a different one than what they remember.

They try to theme the grimm to the location. So Grimm from Atlas are those that are from the Ice Age.

Miles compare Grimm to Pokemon. Some will pop up in every region, while others are region specific.

They had a lot of discussion surrounding what they wanted Penny 2.0 to look like. They considered giving her a conflict of her being a clone or not having her memories, but ultimately with the amount of stuff that needed to happen this volume they felt that it wouldn’t have been able to be done well.

Chapter 2

Featuring Kerry, Conner (director), and Kiersi

Forest became a fan-favorite

This episode was tricky to write because it was getting close to being an exposition dump

They had to balance movement and how much the characters can emote (especially when characters lie this episode)

Ironwood’s office shifting to present his plan was a cool idea + it was another way to stay in the room without having things get boring

Really wanted team RWBY to feel like they were on the right path and had something to follow. Establishing the trust theme early on.

Qrow and Ironwood’s relationship is super interesting to Kerry, and he wishes they could have explored it more. Conner pushed for Qrow’s hand to be lower in the hug scene (lol)

Conner jokes that he also proposed Ironwood should propose to Oscar when kneeling

Ironwood giving the relic back was his biggest sign of trust

They comment about how positively Penny states ‘it’ll be just like Beacon again!’ when she got destroyed there in V3

Kerry calls Watts ‘Daddy Long Legs’

Chapter 3

Featuring Kerry and Miles

They were confused when they saw people on Reddit and Tumblr think that this volume would have a shopping montage

Team RWBY jumping out of a plane is a callback to landing strategies and to see how far they have come since V1

The crew thought everyone would love Jaune’s new haircut, and was shocked when everyone immediately hated it. Miles wanted to see Jaune grow up a bit, so he liked the change.

They wanted team RWBY to start acting like and learning from professional huntsman

Miles wanted Atlas to feel like the Beacon days at first, and first came up with the idea that some Atlas academy professors would teach them. But that evolved into mentors, which eventually became Atlas’s best of the best.

The Ace-Ops are not only fun characters, but also foils to some of our main characters to help move their stories along

The Ace-Ops having five members + a team name not based on a color was very intentional. It was to show that Ironwood doesn’t care about Oz’s rules and would rather have an efficient team.

Eddy came up with the name Ace-Ops. Each member is based off an Aesop fable.

The mine scene has us seeing the SDC logo everywhere. Adam, as a terrible of a person as he was, when he was younger, was arguing with someone at a SDC place and the other person grabbed a brand and gave him his scar. So seeing the logo all over the mine was very intentional to put that in the forefront of Blake’s mind, and Yang notices

The fight with the Centinel grimm was originally supposed to be a bit longer and there was going to be an alpha variant of the centinel (which they imply we will see in the future)

Some characters got more upgrades than others. Weiss is already perfect, so she didn’t need any changes. Miles was excited that they were able to give Ren heavy rounds to shoot with. Ren has his father’s dagger on his arm

Many things that seem like retcons are actually not, and instead is just Kerry and Miles learning how to tell a story while simultaneously telling a story. So things were not always explained well early on.

Qrow and Clover were an interesting couple of characters, Miles says. For a long time Qrow was the guy that worked best alone (compared to Shadow the Hedgehog) and wanted him to interact with people that aren't his nieces and their friends. Clover was made to be a total bro and like Captain America- who always makes luck puns. He constantly feels like he is in an action movie because things always go right for him, so he doesn’t need to look where he’s about the jump. Which ultimately leads to someone who relies too much on their semblance. He rides the line of confidence vs arrogance. Clover is kind of person that Qrow always wanted to be. At the beginning of their friendship, Qrow doesn’t really like Clover and finds him irritating. But eventually it evolved into friendship, and later tragedy.

They left RWBY out of the battle of the Ace Ops vs the Geist to showcase how they didn’t need RWBY to get things done. It was their moment to shine

Wanted to give a sense in these first few episodes that, maybe everything will work out okay

Spoiler alert: It won’t

Chapter 4

Featuring Paula (co-director), Dustin (co-director), Eddy Rivas, Kerry Shawcross

Wanted a chance for the characters to breathe a bit before bigger things went down

Kerry loves the lighting in the first scene. They referenced how lighting looks in the tundra

The first draft of the scene where Ironwood is giving orders originally happened in his office

From V5 they learned it’s great to be efficient with sets but they can fatigue the audience and the crew

Originally the celebration wasn’t going to be in Amity, and instead it was going to be in Atlas’s version of an auditorium.

The ship Jacques arrives in is the same one Winter arrives from in V3. It’s a Schnee company ship

Paula thought it was important that Blake hold Weiss’s hand and be the first to stand by her side when Jaques is yelling at Weiss since Blake knows what it is like to be in an abusive relationship. Ruby and Yang didn’t even really know a father would talk like that to his daughter.

They were excited to write Penny and Winter’s ‘mirror-destiny’, which they laid some of the foundation for this episode

Qrow talking to Ruby was barely on the outline for the episode, but it was on their wish list if they had time to get it in.

Dustin says ‘fatherly’ when describing the moment and Kerry is like, ‘you just opened up a whole can of worms’

Eddy loves the ‘Jim’ gag when referring to Jaune.

Watt’s entrance was a difficult shot to execute properly because of the door.

Chapter 5

Featuring Conner, Eddy, and Kerry

They originally weren’t sure about having a montage in this episode

The penguins we see for a moment were possibly going to be grimm penguins

Kerry wants RT to sell the cards Clover has, and Eddy thinks it’s funny he would have cards with him emblem on them.

They liked having the moment of Clover and Qrow in the middle of this episode to show that Qrow is now becoming a mentee of sorts.

Adding in the Robin encounter was a late addition to the outline. She wasn’t going to be introduced until Chapter 6 during her rally

But they wanted to put the two factions head to head earlier on.

It was also the first moment of Clover being a bit duplicitous.

The plot line of tying the supplies through Robin’s storyline was a late addition while writing

Weiss vs Winter with summoning is a callback to V3C4 with them training together

Weiss being able to sit on hard-light (a block) is something Kerry was unsure about at first

Originally Weiss and Winter going to see Fria was going to be Winter getting an alert from Ironwood and having to leave, and Weiss following her suspiciously. But it worked better as Winter revealing a secret while Weiss was still keeping one

Chapter 6

Featuring Paula, Kiersi, Miles, Eddy, and Kerry

Eddy is the one who came up with the idea for the middle part of the season while he had a really bad fever

Originally Tyrian was going to make it look like a bunch of Atlas soldiers fired on civilians in Mantle. Then Eddie thought it should frame RWBY, but ultimately they went with framing Penny.

Nobody has ever offered Penny a fist bump before, so she wanted to do it perfectly

An old draft had the team and Ironwood doing an investigation at this warehouse post-massacre

There was also no montage in C5, just them sitting around a table talking about what they did

Miles also mentions there was going to be a scene in C3 with Marrow trying to bond with Blake about being a Faunus, and also about him specifically being a Faunus in Atlas who is a part of Atlas’s military team. But that episode was so packed they wanted to move it to C6, but then that episode also became too packed. But they plan to get to it in future volumes

They wanted to show how much the Happy Huntresses care about each other and about Mantle

They also originally did not want to have anything political in this season. But the more iterations they did, they felt it was the best course of action to do that with the story.

They wanted to give the heroes a high personal moment with Renora kissing right before things went down

Penny was not used to fighting sneaky enemies, so that is how Tyrian got the upper hand

While they don’t usually check back up on extras, things turned out that we kept seeing Drunk Mann and Grape-kun throughout the season to represent the city of Mantle

Chapter 7

Featuring Conner, Kiersi, Miles, Eddy, and Kerry

Fiona’s semblance was originally going to be Torchwick’s semblance, and it was called Deep Pockets. But they never found a moment for him to use it. So they decided he could be a great example of how some people don’t unlock their semblances

Originally some of C7 was meant for C4 where they found out earlier that Tyrian was involved with things

Miles wrote the description we got of Tyrian’s past (Salem first contacting Tyrian), and it was one of his favorite things to write.

Qrow looking at Clover when he is willing to go with Ironwood’s plan was meant to show some distance growing between the two

We were going to get more of Ren explaining why he was feeling the way he was and agreeing with Ironwood, but ultimately they are pushing it to next volume

Originally Blake and Yang were going to directly reference Adam when they had their talk, but they later figured out how to reference him indirectly

The arm robot Pietro has in his office was originally going to have more of a character like the robotic arm Tony Stark has

They tried hard to get Maria more scenes, but there was often no room for it

Miles realizes he was dumb to suggest that Pietro cover Watt’s face with his thumb while looking at a picture since they already did that with Raven in V3

The lady in the photograph with black hair is not Cinder’s mom (which was apparently a fan theory)

Robin encountering the Bees was a late edition to the outline. But it gave every member of RWBY a moment

They wanted the vault in the Academy to feel similar to the one in Haven but not a direct copy

Miles believes that if Ironwood would allow himself to be more vulnerable more often things would’ve gone differently

The invitation to the Schnee manor was originally going to be to a news conference

Chapter 8

Featuring Dustin, Miles, and Kerry

They didn’t specify what the hood ornament on the car would be, so Dustin was happy when it came back as a velociraptor, which references a raptor Monty Oum would put in photos with RWBY characters

Fans have guessed what direction they are going with Whitley. He starts off as a jerk, but Miles implies that is going to change. It is also an easy way to remind the audience of how the elite act

At the table, Jacques’s chair is bigger than everyone else's

Miles wrote the gag of JNR sabotaging Whitley’s conversation with Weiss and expected it to take only a few seconds, but as more people worked on it the longer it got

The stack of food was taller than Dustin expected it to be, and they even had to scale it back because it was going to be even taller

Another power move of Jacques is to only give a few people wine, as well as not giving Penny any food

Willow was originally going to be in the intro

A joke was made about Salem being Jaune’s sister in the V6 intro before everyone knew who she was

None of the writers expected Penny and Winter to have such a bond this volume initially

Miles wanted to portray when Weiss is talking to Willow that she doesn’t really know how to act around an adult with such an adult issue. Since Weiss is quite young (Miles compared it to him having to help an adult with an adult issue when he was 13)

Chapter 9

Featuring Paula (director), Kiersi, Eddy, and Kerry

It was difficult to keep the shots interesting in the dining room

We see Grape-kun and Drunk Mann again this episode

In earlier chapters they made sure to have an orange glow to represent the heating in Mantle since they knew it would be turned off in chapter 8

They wanted to showcase that Ironwood was starting to have doubts, which would later be clearly seen in episode 11

The foot soldiers (AKs) that the Grimm are able to overwhelm in only a few seconds were meant to represent that Atlas wouldn’t provide them with much defense against Grimm because they don’t care enough

Every storyline was coming together in this episode, and it’s tricky to make a setup episode like this not seem like filler

Ruby and Oscar’s awkward interaction came from them both ‘riding the high’ of the moment where it seems like they each have great plans that will go well.

Oscar is starting to tap into some of Ozpin’s memories, as alluded to when he mentions how Atlas is held to a higher standard

Terry the grimm being hit by a fireball (part of a plane I believe) was a call back to Jurassic Park

They struggled a long time with where to put the Neo reveal

Chapter 10

Featuring Conner, Dustin, Kiersi, and Kerry

They felt that if they showed a lot in the first scene of the episode, they wouldn’t have to saturate the background with other fires and crowds.

The shot of Weiss’s knight being summoned and overshadowing Marrow is setting up their fight in C12

When seeing the shots of the enemies infiltrating the kingdom, they didn’t know if they wanted to show Neo and Cinder or Tyrian and Watts first. But they went with Neo and Cinder because it would show that they thought their cover was blown, when it would really be about the other two.

The place Neo and Cinder are staying at is an Atlas ‘high-life’ apartment

They always knew Elm would have a rocket launcher/bazooka, but never got the time needed to show it until now

They had to restructure Mantle a bit to allow the huge elephant to fit in the streets

The main characters working with the Ace Ops in this episode was to make it so things hurt so much more after events in the following one

All the background characters apparently have little backstories as they made sure they didn’t appear in two places at the same time

Ironwood jumps down a ridiculous number of feet to meet Watts. They had to cheat to not make that so obvious as well as say this is animation logic so people working on the shot would stop questioning how he could possibly make it.

Chapter 11

Featuring Kerry, Paula, and Miles

Originally a gravity biome in Amity was going to appear in V3C5. It was going to be Sun and Neptune vs Pyrrha and Nora. It was written, boarded, and ready to go but they realized there wasn’t time for it

This was a hard episode to write. A lot of stuff that needed to happen, and happen in a specific way

Watt’s gun was inspired a 20-shot revolver Kerry saw on Reddit

Ironwood losing another hand represents him losing another part of his humanity (possibly confirming he lost his one organic arm)

The first cut of this episode was 23 minutes and was deemed too long so they had to scale back, but they still felt they kept in everything that was needed to make the episode great

Initially the Tyrian vs Qrow, Robyn, and Clover fight was going to be a chase that turns into a fight that turns into another chase. And Qrow is the only one that could keep up with Tyrian since he can transform into a bird. Qrow would land in front of Tyrian and say ‘that’s enough’ and Tyrian would ask, ‘are you able to talk when you’re a bird or do you have to wait until you’re a person to throw your one-liners?’ (Tyrian asking the real questions here) Tyrian’s lack of self-preservation would be shown even more. He would have run down an alley packed with Grimm and would just trust that he could’ve made it through

The fight with Tyrian was initially going to be more of a Tyrian vs Qrow fight, but Miles loves that they made it a 3 v 1 so it could show off Tyrian’s exceptional skill

The fight was also a callback to the first Tyrian vs Qrow fight, where Ruby tried to be good back up for Qrow but was ineffective. But instead this time have Robyn and Clover be effective and more experienced teammates

Clover is defense, Qrow is offense, and Robyn is picking away at Tyrian with her long-ranged weapon

There was going to be more discussion of where Oscar was at the end of the episode, as well as a whole bit where the Ace Ops and the kids land and they get a hand-written note saying they’ve been compromised instead of getting it via scroll, but it turned out to be too much

The scene of Ironwood talking to RWBY and his turn to being against them was the most important scene in the episode, and something everything in the season had to build up to

Miles said it was about time the two sides met face to face with RWBY meeting Salem

They wanted to make Ironwood’s progression into villainy subtle and make sense

Salem made things personal for Ironwood, so he felt like he had to come up with a solution

They wanted more Cinder and Neo in the volume but had to cut back. But to compensate they had to be instrumental to the collapse of Ironwood (Miles first said collapse of Atlas so wonder if he slipped up)

Chapter 12

Featuring Dustin, Conner, Kiersi, Eddy, and Kerry

They wanted to have a false sense of resolution in the previous episode just to blow everything up here

Eddy handled the Ace Ops vs RWBY and Winter scenes while Kiersi handled the rest

Kerry learned from V5 that having everyone in one room for a fight doesn’t work well

Eddy is a big Weiss stan

Clover has no idea who he’s up against with Tyrian, and thinks of Qrow as the big threat, as well as Tyrian manipulating Qrow

Clover saw both Qrow and Tyrian on the wrong side of the law, so he felt like he had to fight both of them no matter what

They made sure team RWBY can’t just stomp on the Ace Ops, but still show their teamwork. Plus the lack of Clover being there didn’t allow for the team to have a ‘cheat code’

This is another episode they had to trim down in length

Cinder was always going to lay waste to the medical facility and attack Winter

They also wanted to do a Qrow vs Tyrian reprisal

Kerry said he loves Clover

It was crazy for Qrow to meet someone that was a genuinely good person

Chapter 13

Featuring Miles, Kerry, and Eddy

The Neo vs ORNJ fight could have been shorter

At one point they wanted to show Cinder using maiden magic to bring some dead AKs (Atlesian-Knight) back to life to fight Penny (was going to be some sort of puppet joke).

But Miles realized that Cinder could just blow up the room and bust through the walls

Ren is struggling with some heavy emotional stuff that is not resolved at all this volume, but it is hinted there will be a lot more for him next volume.

The writers knew a lot of people wouldn’t be happy with Ren’s attitude this volume. But he still cares about Nora, even if he doesn’t always communicate it well

Miles cried during the voice over session of Fria’s scenes for this episode

They had a lot of talks about how the maiden power would be transferred. They debated if Penny would have to kill Fria.

Originally one pod was going to be broken, with the one with Fria being in tact. But because Penny is a robot, she could ‘remote-interface in’ and get the powers. But that still felt like stealing, and they didn’t want to go that route.

Oscar has matured so much in his role (joking call him Farm Man)

Ironwood is still expecting Oz to show up. He still really wants that guidance

Ironwood arguing with Oscar was the finale scene they wrote this episode

Ironwood feels that he is backed into a corner and is doing the only sensible thing.

Winter was waiting to be the Winter Maiden her whole life, but in a split second she gives it all up

There was one line in Oz’s monologue they were struggling with for a whole day

They loved the idea of ending the volume on almost an identical shot from where they started

Neo’s look after Cinder takes the relic and doesn’t thank Neo for getting it is setting up some things for V8 (probably a betrayal)

Oz came back at that moment because he heard what Oscar said to Ironwood and that made him brave enough to return

Miles reveals that the Grimm whale is based on Monstro from Pinocchio

It is once again said that Volume 8 is the hardest one they had to write so far. Miles seems super excited about it

Volume 8 was made with some fan-input in mind (since it was still being written by the time V7 ended), but Volume 9 will be the first one written in a vacuum

#RWBY #RWBY Volume 7

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dragynkeep · 3 years

Note

do you have a backstory for the ace ops, since canon legitimately gave us nothing? and will they be in azre? i’m gonna reread it today since it makes me 🥺🥰

I actually do have backstories for the Ace Ops, and yes they do appear in AZRE! I did the backstories for Clover and Harriet, and my friends in my discord server did backstories for Elm, Marrow and Vine!

Clover

Since Clover is obnoxiously Irish coded in AZRE, I took a lot of inspiration from my older relatives’ childhoods for him.

He was born in Mantle to a family along with a younger sister, Ciara, his mother Fionnuala, his father Patrick and his grandfather Niall. Before Clover, his family were all miners, and are very proud of it. In his youth, Clover was far more of a troublemaker and a delinquent, especially with his troubled relationship with his father when Clover decided not to go into the mines and instead wanted to be a Huntsman.

Before Clover entered Atlas Academy, Patrick passed away from Dust Lung; a dangerous respiratory disease caused by inhaling Dust and is inspired by the real life disease that affected miners, Tuberculosis or “Black Lung”. Clover took the loss hard and his place in Atlas was threatened due to his behaviour, but he was brought back from the brink by Ironwood, who was the new general and headmaster of the Academy.

Obviously, when Clover graduated from Atlas, he joined the Ace Ops, becoming the leader after a few years in service which was considered highly unusual and just showed his great prowess and skills. He was in the Ace Ops with Elm and Vine from the beginning, and Harriet, Giang and later Marrow joined later on. After years in service, he and Ironwood entered a romantic relationship but had to keep things on the down low due to unprofessionalism and laws meaning that relationships between a general and his soldier was disallowed.

A few years before current time, he had a son through a surrogate; Riley.

Elm

The only Ace Operative to actually be from Atlas. Elm had a fairly normal life, her family was in the cuisine industry and enjoyed baking, something that Elm picked up on from an early age (That cake in the RWBY celebration party? It’s hers now, she made it, change my mind.)

When she decided to join Atlas and become a Huntress, it was never about the fame or money, but rather she’d spent her entire life watching her parents brings smiles to people’s faces and wanted to do that to, just in a way she was best suited in. In the Academy, she was put into Team SBLE, where the team quickly showed that they were exceptionally skilled together with winning the Vytal Tournament. After leaving the Academy, the four went into the Specialist career, a rare choice for all four to stick together for graduation.

During their first year, it went great. But soon they were called on a mission to clear out a Grimm nest near one of the sensory towers, hidden in a mountain that was connected by dozens of mines. The team went in, and there they found the biggest nest ever recorded. By the time evac came, Elm was the last one, having collapsed the mountain on top of them in a desperate attempt to kill the Grimm.

While she survived, the loss broke her. Elm handed in her resignation and spent time at her parents’ home in her room, just staring at the photo of her team at the Vytal Tournament. When General Ironwood personally visited her, she nearly slammed the door in his face. But he understood, and he was kind, and he offered her another chance. An idea he was coming up with, a unit of the best. He only had one other candidate so far, and in the back of her head Elm thought 'maybe this one will be lucky enough not to die'.

She put on a grin when she met the man who was about to be her new teammate, and poor Clover O’Connor found himself first on the receiving end of one of her handshakes, and then got a box full of fresh baked brownies immediately after.

Vine

Vine originally came from a very rural village in Northern Mistral, living there until he was nine years old before moving to Argus due to his adoptive parents finding work there. Vine wasn’t particuarly happy with the move since he enjoyed the solitude that rural life gave him, and being a quiet person, moving to a busy city made him close in more on himself to the point that he became a selective mute.

However, he was brought into a small dojo in Argus with the teacher there seeing a small Vine and teaching him what he knew. Vine showed an aptitude to fighting and went into Sanctum to further his education. When he graduated though, he was given a spot in Atlas Academy due to his skills, but Vine didn’t particularly want to go because of his anxiety. However, he was convinced to give it a go and graduated Atlas, being chosen for the Ace Ops due to his abilities and for his personality, able to handle the more outspoken Elm and carefree Clover.

On top of that, Ironwood saw this unsure young man and decided that having Elm and Clover on his team would bring him out more, and give him opportunities to break out of his shell so to speak. For Vine, the Ace Ops ended up being that security that he didn’t really have in life, and both Clover and Elm would welcome him into the fold.

Harriet

A Mantle girl through and through, Harriet was always a competitive girl, never backing down from a challenge and wanting everything to happen quickly, showing no patience for anything. In her eyes, being from Mantle meant that you had to give twice the effort for half the respect, and she would be respected.

Throughout her childhood, she had a best friend who stuck with her through thick and thin; Giang Meo. They trained together, had fun together, stuck together, and when they managed to secure spots in Atlas Academy, they were even put on the same team. Both mimicked each other, with Harriet specialising in wrestling and hand to hand combat with her plated arm weapons, while Giang specialised in kickboxing with his plated leg weapons.

After they graduated, both were picked by Ironwood, on Clover’s suggestion, to join the Ace Ops, making the iconic five man group along with Clover, Elm and Vine. Harriet was proud, taking her job seriously and wanting to show what she was made of, but her insecurities were compounded with every job in Atlas. Even after she made a name for herself, even getting the title of the Fastest Huntress in Remnant and breaking the previous record, she was still a commoner, and commoners weren’t respected in Atlas.

Worse still, after Giang defected due to Atlas’ inability to handle the Faunus racism and his own radicalisation being pushed by growing White Fang activity, Harriet was broken. No longer trusting people, she didn’t see her team as friends, believing that it would just get in the way of her work, and she kept that mentality ever since.

Giang

The Turtle to Harriet’s Hare, Giang Meo was the son of a Southern Mistrali immigrant who came to Mantle for work. His mother found work in Atlas working under the Nguyen family, a southern Mistrali family that took came to Atlas, starting a flourishing fashion company and making a fortune for themselves.

During his childhood, he found little friends in Mantle due to his Faunus heritage, being a snow leopard, and latched onto Harriet when she showed kindness to the boy. Quickly becoming the best of friends, they protected each other for years, even going into Atlas Academy and joining the same team. However, during his time at Atlas, the racism he faced was just compounded, pushing Giang further and further into the radicalisation that would later claim him.

Once graduated and given a spot in the Ace Ops, Giang started moving away from his team. During that time, he married the only child of the Nguyen family; Chau, which sparked many controversies in Atlas due to them being a human and him a Faunus. Because of the push back from their family, Chau and Giang had to marry in secret, which was not considered legal by law.

This further embittered Giang. He joined protests, at first hiding his identity, and then showing himself proudly, but one protest turned into a riot and Giang joined in the destruction. Given his identity as a Huntsman and an Ace Operative was well known, Ironwood was formed to reprimand him and arrest Giang for multiple crimes.

As the Ace Ops moved to arrest their former friend, Giang tried to see if Harriet would at least defend him, but she did nothing. Betrayed, Giang fled, resulting in a chase that ended in Giang wounded on the face, Harriet’s hip broken and Giang falling off Atlas’ ledge, where Ironwood declares him dead and seals all documentation on him. However, Giang didn’t die, and after nursing his wounds, he was brought into Salem’s forces, wanting justice and revenge for him and the Faunus of Mantle.

Marrow

The Amin pack was a small but close knit family unit that was only small in terms of their tiny house on the far end of the crater, where the children are packed into the bedrooms like very rambunctious sardines and the neighbours learnt that complaining about all the howling and play fighting was useless, because an entire family of dog faunus working the mines would rather let their kids be happy and have fun when they can.

Marrow's mother was a newcomer to Mantle, a wolf faunus from a town far out in the tundra, with piercing blue eyes. While Marrow and Ulna took the husky genes from their father, their older brother Ramus took the wolf. Ramus and Marrow, like so many children, had to take jobs in the mines to help keep food on the table, and as the oldest of the next Amins, they eventually took on the job of helping out with the younger cousins and eventually, younger siblings.

Marrow doesn't like the mines. He didn't like being a trapper. Faunus can see in the dark, sure, but spending twelve hours in pitch black by a little trap door, the only job being to pull it open to let air flow through, would be miserable for anyone. Sometimes though, he was sent into Mantle to pick up supplies if they had spare lien to get maybe a bit of bread to go with the customary broth that made up every dinner. One day, he ran into trouble.

A bunch of children who saw a hungry dog faunus in a secondhand miner's uniform and decided to play chase. It was over in one word, when he threw their taunts back at them and told them to stay, his anger at the unfairness his family suffered peaking in that moment. Suddenly he had a chance for a better life. A Huntsman life.

He applied for every combat school in the kingdom, and one said yes. Marrow put everything into this new chance, enough to make a scholarship into Atlas Academy at the end. Team MCHA, however, was not so happy to have a scruffy boy from Mantle with a tail and a secondhand miner's uniform as the A on their team.

May Marigold had better things to do then coddle an affirmative action student. Marrow ignored it. He knew his worth. He just had to get through four years, and then he could sign up for the military, and finally help his family, he could work his way up the ranks, make a difference for his people. He had ambition, and he knew how to use it. Then a mine collapsed. A worker tripped handling some agitated dust. Chain reaction.

Ironwood immediately sent everyone he could to help out. If nothing else, the enhanced strength of a huntsmen could help them clear the fallen rocks. Marrow and his team arrived just in time to see another huntsman pulling Ramus out from under a boulder, and they put a shroud over his brother's head. Ulna ran away, Marrow's grades plummeted, and his team told him to get over it, faunus died, it happened a lot in the mines.

He pulled himself up again himself, and eventually got what he was working for, graduating second-best in his year after May. The moment he got his first specialist paycheck, he funnelled as much as he could to his family, so that none of the kids had to work in the mines.

Soon, Ironwood decided to give Marrow a chance, moving him into the Ace Ops to further hone his skills and fill in the hole left by Giang. While most of the Ace Ops welcomed Marrow and tried to put the past in the past, Harriet was cold towards him, unable to shake the feeling that he was only there to replace Giang. Despite her animosity towards him, Marrow kept trying to prove his place in the Ace Ops.

And that’s it for the Ace Ops’ backstories! Hope you like them tbh, me and my friends worked hard to build these characters up after having crumbs for them for over a year now.

#rwby #clover ebi #elm ederne #vine zeki #harriet bree #giang meo #marrow amin #answered #luke.txt #i love them so much so if crwby refuses to give us anything imma make it up myself

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thebigfailwhale · 4 years

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Background history on the ACE OPS

“So I tried to find the Aesop fables that the ACE OPS team are connected to and write a bit about them so that maybe they can be better understood. Hope you enjoy!

Small disclaimer: I tried to write this as comprehensible as possible but as English is still my third English there might be some mistakes in my writing, so I apologize for that. Also I don’t do any studies related to studying reading/writing so if I missed anything obvious, I’m also sorry. Allright, let’s get to it!

Clover Ebi

Seemingly the team leader with a four-leaf clover pin, a horseshoe, a rabbitsfoot and what looks like a fishing pole weapon. With this knowledge it seems his origins can be partly found in the fable. “A Fisherman’s Good Luck”.

“A fisherman had been a long while at work without catching anything, and so in great trouble and despair, he resolv’d to take up his tackle, and be gone: but in that very instant a great fish leapt into the boat, and by this providence he made a tolerable day on’t.”

Now, here’s the kicker, there is also a fable named “The fisherman and his Flute”:

“It tells of a fisherman piping to the fish to make them dance. When they will not oblige, he catches them in a net and mocks their death agonies: “Silly creatures, you would not dance for me before and now that I am no longer playing you do so.” In this context the fable is given the political meaning that those who refuse a benefit when it is first offered will gain nothing by acting as asked when constrained to”

This fable makes for an interesting possibility in the future. Maybe Clover is connected to Salem? Maybe he strives to be better than anyone, no matter the costs to anyone but himself? I have no clue, but it gives us some fun points to speculate on.

Lastly, with all the imagery associated to luck, I wouldn’t be surprised if Clover’s semblance is the opposites of Qrow, where he always gets lucky. This would also be an interesting confrontation between the 2, if something like that ever happens.

Edit: My friend jonthejournalist found that there is a god in the Japanese Pantheon that’s called “Ebisu”. This is the god of Fishermen and luck, whcih explains his last name, and has more callbacks to the fisherman and luck being part of his character.

Harriet “Hare” bree:

Harriet is presumably named after the Hare from the Aesop’s fable “The Tortoise and the Hare”. Many of you have probably heard of this one, as it’s a very popular children’s fable. It’s about a Hare who makes fun of a Tortoise, who challenges him to a race. The Hare, very confidently, takes a nap in the middle of the race, and thus loses the race.

Combined with vine’s “not everything’s a competition” I can guess she’s very competition driven and always thrives to be the best, which is why she’s a part of the ACE OPS.

Elm ederne

The buff lady with the big hammer. Elm’s fables origins I believe is in the Aesop fable “The elm and the Vine”. As elm trees are usually used to support vines, it is usually taken as a symbol of marriage. A poem from the 20th century about The Elm and The Vine:

“Ageinst him where he sat

A goodly Elme with glistring grapes did growe: which after hee

Had praysed, and the vyne likewyse that ran uppon the tree:

But if (quoth hee) this Elme without the vyne did single stand,

It should have nothing (saving leaves) to bee desyred: and

Ageine if that the vyne which ronnes uppon the Elme had nat

The tree to leane unto, it should uppon the ground ly flat.

Yit art not thou admonisht by example of this tree

To take a husband, neyther doost thou passe to maryed bee.”

this poem means that the Elm and the vine need eachother, the Elm for the company and the Vine to grow up it and get its full potential.

This leads me to believe that Elm is the backbone of the team, the support and friendly, chipper team member. And seeing ep 2. Makes it even more clear.

Vine Zeki

Could be the vine opposing the Elm tree, or Elm Ederne. Which I guess would make them a couple or married?? Besides this the only other fables I can link to Vine would be “The goat and the Vine”:

“When a goat starts eating a vine's leaves and shoots, the vine retorts that it will still have enough juice left to produce grapes, the wine from which will be poured over it when the goat is sacrificed.”

The morale of this fable is “Ingratitude perverts all the measures of religion and society, by making it dangerous to be charitable and good natur’d.”

This does seem to correspond with his monk like attitude and look, but there’s nothing more I can add to this now. (Also Zeki is a Turkish name for boys, meaning “ God remembers).

Marrow Amin

So according to a tweet by Kuppa137 on a twitter conversation with Larissa Angus (Senior Character Concept Artist) he seems to be based on the fable “The dog and its reflection.”

“A dog that is carrying a stolen piece of meat looks down as it is walking beside or crossing a stream and sees its own reflection in the water. Taking that for another dog carrying something better, it opens its mouth to attack the "other" and in doing so drops what it was carrying. An indication of how old and well-known this story was is given by an allusion to it in the work of the philosopher Democritus from the 5th century BCE. Discussing the foolish human desire for more, rather than being content with what one has, he describes it as being "like the dog in Aesop's fable".”

I also think that there could be some correlation to Marrow and the fable “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”:

“The tale concerns a shepherd boy who repeatedly tricks nearby villagers into thinking a wolf is attacking his town's flock. When a wolf does appear and the boy again calls for help, the villagers believe that it is another false alarm and the sheep are eaten by the wolf.”

In episode 2, when the team meets the ACE OPS, we can hear Marrow talking about the second time he got banned, and before he can tell us about the third time, Clover tells them to cut the Chatter. This reminds me a bit about the boy who cried wolf, because the morale of that story: “Liars are not believed even when they speak the truth.” Could come into play later in the series.

So that was my little analysis on the ACE OPS team, hope you enjoyed it, and I hope I’m not completely wrong! Thanks for taking the time to read this!!

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 7 spoilers #ace ops #Marrow Amin #Harriet Bree #Vine Zeki #Elm Ederne #Clover Ebi #my posts

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flipomatic · 3 years

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Range of Emotion: Chapter 3 - Anger and Longing

Fic Summary: Penny never thought she could feel such a wide range of emotions, but that was before she met Ruby Rose.

She didn't think she could feel them so strongly either. The way her body reacted, the way she acted irrationally, proved her wrong.

Author Note: Spoilers for volume 8 from this point on. Volume 8 Penny is very complicated. I’m sorry this chapter took a while; I spent the last week tiering d4dj 5+ hours a day.

First Chapter Previous Chapter

________________________________________________________

On the day that Penny became the winter maiden, the day her whole life came crashing down around her, she followed Ruby. She made a choice to do what was right, to not abandon Mantle to Salem. That was the only decision she made that day that she was certain about.

Everything else, well, it all lived in her memory bank. Images of the previous winter maiden, of Winter, and of Cinder haunted her thoughts. No matter what she did, she couldn’t shake them.

She regretted leaving Winter behind, as injured as she was, but she didn’t leave them any options. Penny hoped that she would recover, and that she would be able to work through the waves of conflict that raged inside her.

Was taking the maiden’s power the right thing to do though? Penny asked herself that question, unable to calculate an answer. Perhaps she could’ve prevented it, if she’d done something differently. At the time there hadn’t seemed to be other options, but if she’d only tried harder, maybe she could’ve found one. From the minute she acquired the power on, the question echoed through her mind.

This conflict, the dwelling on what could’ve been and calculating different paths, was strange for Penny. She could process thousands of pieces of information, categorize them, and then analyze the results in less than a minute. This question though, she was stuck on it. She kept turning it over and over again in her mind, unable to come to a conclusion.

Even on the ship as they left, Penny looked down at her hands and wondered. Ruby noticed and leaned against her, with Weiss holding her arm on the other side. Their touch, a fairly new phenomena to Penny, provided warmth and comfort. It was a welcome distraction.

When the group later divided into two, with Yang and Ruby arguing about what to do next, Penny again went with Ruby. They needed to stick together; she would help and protect her friend.

Ironwood’s call brought her doubts back to the front of her mind, about being the winter maiden. They had never fully left, but again she couldn’t stop thinking about them.

Ruby, who always seemed to know what Penny needed, noticed. She helped calm Penny’s mind, and told her she was still protecting Mantle.

It helped. Words could only do so much, but Ruby knew all of the right ones. The hug that followed amplified that effect.

Penny tried to set her conflicted emotions aside as Weiss found the way up to Atlas. They had a job to do, and she played an important role. She needed to focus.

She managed to do that, staying in control of her thoughts as they navigated the base, until her father said she should come to Amity Tower to launch with it. Even Ruby said it might be for the best. Penny didn’t want that; she wanted to stay, to fight alongside her friends.

When the Ace-Ops showed up in the hallway, lobbying questions at Penny, those thoughts were pushed aside.

She could only argue back against them to defend her position, to defend her choice. They continued to bombard her with accusations, not listening to her explanations. She didn’t want to fight them, only wanted them to understand why she made the choice that she did.

That was, until, Harriet threatened Ruby.

“One more word, and I’m throwing you in jail next to your uncle, runt.”

Penny’s mind, which had been clouded and conflicted all day, was suddenly clear. In this moment, she knew what to do.

Penny thrust one arm in front of Ruby, who had started to step forward. “Leave her alone.” She said, the words coming out low and firm.

‘And what are you going to do about it tin can?” Those words were a challenge, one Penny was prepared to meet.

She stepped out into the hall with narrowed eyes, which widened as the door behind her began to shut. Penny spun back as Ruby called out for her, but was too late to stop the door from completely closing.

Perhaps it was better this way.

Penny would protect her friends, she would fight for them, for Ruby.

She turned back towards the Ace-Ops, slowly, green appearing around her eyes. Her anger towards them, a heat that pulsed through her circuits, was pointed like a knife. From it came strength and focus.

How dare they attack her friends. How dare they threaten Ruby.

Penny hadn’t had much practice with her maiden powers yet, but they came easily now. The wind whipped past her, pushing against the Ace-Ops.

She gathered the wind with her hands and used it to push the four of them back, beginning the fight.

As Penny fought, one versus four, she struggled to manage her opponents. They weren’t called the Ace-Ops for nothing, but she refused to allow them to harm her friends.

If not for Marrow and his semblance, she might’ve been able to win. When she calculated the odds at the start, they were still quite low, but there was a chance. Being able to fly gave her an edge on the bridge, and as the battle went on she was utilizing her maiden powers better and better.

Unfortunately, he did have his semblance. He used it to freeze her in place, and then to hold her as Elm approached with handcuffs.

That would’ve been the end, if not for Nora breaking down the barrier.

After the explosion that echoed out from the door, after Nora collapsed to the ground, Penny ran to her side. She had a strange pattern etched into her skin, like lightning had surged through her. Her aura was completely depleted, leaving her defenseless. Penny scanned quickly, relieved to see that her heart was still beating.

Nora must’ve channeled electricity through her weapon, though her body, in order to get the door open. She did this to come save Penny, who was supposed to be protecting her friends.

If Penny hadn’t stepped forward to fight, to go alone, this wouldn’t have happened. Nora wouldn’t have had to bust the door down, wouldn’t have been hurt like this.

Why had Penny done that, going out by herself? If her friends had been by her side, if she’d stayed with them, the odds were much higher of the battle going in her favor. She would’ve been fighting alongside her friends, but not protecting them.

It was irrational, to separate herself from them, to fight alone. It went against her programming, which guided her towards the best odds.

Regardless, guided by anger, she had done it.

Now Nora was hurt.

Again Penny fought, now alongside Ruby, Weiss, and Blake, against the Ace-Ops. She was still angry, but not just at them,

No, she was also angry with herself.

___________________________________________________________

As Penny flew away from the ship, already having charted the route to Amity Tower, she once again pondered the decision she was making. It hung over her, threatening to pull her down even as her rocket boots pushed her higher into the air. Leaving the ship had been incredibly difficult, even after Ruby promised to see her again soon. If anything, that promise made it harder.

Every moment Penny spent flying away from the ship, she longed to turn around and go back. She wanted to keep fighting with her friends, to be on the front lines of the battlefield. She wanted to do her duty as the Protector of Mantle, to protect the citizens from Salem.

How could Penny do that from thousands of feet above the ground, stranded on Amity Tower?

She couldn’t, and she knew it.

Her father had given her this instruction, to come meet him at the tower. Penny had to do it; she wouldn’t disobey him.

He had thought this through, and it was the best course of action, the best way to keep the winter maiden’s power out of Salem’s hands. She wouldn’t be able to get to Penny if she were far away.

That didn’t make Penny dislike the decision any less.

It wasn’t just that, she also wanted to stay with Ruby. The thought of leaving her on her own, where Penny couldn’t protect her, couldn’t be by her side, wouldn’t leave Penny’s mind. The worry that she’d felt before Ruby came back into her life, which reared whenever her friend went on missions without her, swung back in full force.

When Penny had wrapped her arms around Ruby, right before leaving, she yearned to stay like that. To keep her safe and close in her embrace. Penny had tightened the hug before letting go, to extend it. Even as she flew, she could remember the sensation.

Penny had to resist the urge to turn right around and fly back, to say “I’ll stay with you” to the red hooded girl.

She longed to go back, but she couldn’t. This feeling, this yearning, was irrational. Her calculations agreed with her father that Amity Tower was the best place for her. Her calculation showed that Ruby was a highly competent huntress and would be able to protect herself. She was even with two of her teammates, who were quite strong.

Penny, in what was certainly a malfunction of her personality, disagreed with those calculations. Like earlier, when she had moved out of anger, she again desired to act against the best course of action.

Her code, which helped her make decisions, knew not to. But that didn’t diminish how she felt.

What did stop her was the effect of her earlier decision. Because Penny had acted rashly, Nora had been injured. The group was taking her somewhere to rest, but she had barely stirred since collapsing. Penny hoped she would recover.

Ruby’s face flashed through Penny’s mind again, the last glimpse of her Penny had before turning away from the ship.

Penny put a hand in her pocket to touch the hair clip Ruby had given her. She carried it with her ever since, clipped securely to the inside of the pocket. Touching it calmed her, centered her thoughts.

Penny had to focus on what was most important. Stopping Salem from getting the Relic was more important than her feelings.

This irrational behavior, these stirs of emotion, Penny had to stop them. She couldn’t let herself keep acting on them, to keep following the suboptimal path.

Protecting the relic was what mattered the most. Following the path with the best chance of success, no matter what she longed to do, was the only way forward.

And so she flew, steadily through the air, to where Amity Tower hovered over the mines. She again asked her father if she could stay, and he again said no.

He couldn’t stop her from going to fight Cinder when she broke into the tower.

Next Chapter

#rwby #rwby fanfiction #nuts and dolts #ruby rose #penny polendina #nora valkyrie #ace-ops #volume 8 spoilers #volume 8 #rwby spoilers #spoilers #do i really think that penny blames herself for what happened to nora?#yes i think she probably does #i was rewatching that episode to write this #and the look on her face #makes me think that #one more chapter after this #thanks for reading!

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its-a-branwen-thing · 4 years

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r/RWBY AMA Highlights

For those who weren’t aware, r/RWBY did an AMA with the voice actors of the Ace Ops early this morning :) I wanted to share some of their answers here for ya’ll in case people didn’t feel like trekking through the thread. Here are some of the Q&As that I found fun/the most interesting! These are just my personal highlights, by the way! :)

First, some introductions (I put the character next to the name but...just in case I mess up):

And now, for some of the Q/As!

Q: FancyDancyMaho: For Mick - so who is the Goodest Boy and why is it Marrow? If you had to take a guess, is Marrow a mix of insecure and overcompensating because he's the Rookie?

ricepiratemick (Marrow): Absolutely. The thing is, he's a Rookie to the team, but not a rookie in general experience. The AceOps don't just hire anyone.It's like being a senior in high school: you're the upperclass. Then going to college and starting back down at the bottom of the food chain.Plus he's young, AND a little "different" from the rest. He's got a lot to prove. But unfortunately, "needing to prove something" can sometimes get in your way.

Q: JazzRen47 asked: Hi! This is a general question for all of you. I know voice acting is different from stage work, but was there anything in particular that helped you get into character for your recordings? I'm currently a University theatre student so I'm beyond curious about getting insight wherever I can haha! It was an absolute joy to get to hear your performances this Volume (and an aside for Dawn: you are a wonderful singer, ma'am). Thank you so much for taking the time to come do this.

ricepiratemick (Marrow): Some VA's sit while they work. Focusing all that energy and nuance directly into their voice. I've never been able to that. I gotta stand up and move around (which is sometimes a problem, but I've been able to reign it in and keep it more manageable).

But I'm still flailing my arms around and pointing at imaginary people lol

Q: silent-film asked: Clover’s tone in his scenes with Qrow is noticeably different from his tone when speaking to the Ace Ops or the kids. Can you say anything about that or what your thoughts were on their interactions as a whole?

ChristopherWehkampVA (Clover): I approached Clover as a guarded leader type character, who rarely allowed others into his mind on a personal level. So you see that reflected in how he treats most people, keeping a professional but kind distance.

Q: CapitalStory4 asked: Anairis, what is the best part about being the female Flash?

anairisq (Harriet): At this point? The memes.

Q: Mpatrick23 asked: Hey y'all! I wanna thank you five for taking the time to do this AMA! Now down to the questions:

To all: What was it like in your own perspectives to be a part of the ride with the RWBY cast and who were your favorite VAs to just hang with when not recording? And do you guys have spare time hobbies? Also, just throwing a compliment out there: Dawn, you did beautifully in War!! That was bloody amazing. I loved Harriet up until the "It's not excessive if it's necessary" line as well. I hope you guys make convention appearances soon and possibly see the rest of you in V8!

One of the many loyal fans, -Mitch

DawnMBennettVA (Elm): Hey Mitch! Thank you so much!!! :'D

We generally don't get to see each other a lot when we're not recording, as actors have the most unpredictable schedules. However, I did get to see Anairis before we were able to announce our roles, and we totally geeked out and got excited about each others' performances since we hadn't heard them yet.

I think I'd say my hobby is cooking and baking! I love trying to make new dishes I've never made and see what works. My last favorite food I made was lavender tea bread with a honey lavender glaze. My kitchen smelled fantastic.

Q: MrZissman asked: Hi Dawn! Question - who wins in an arm wrestling contest: Nora or Elm?

DawnMBennettVA (Elm): I think Elm would win at first, but then Nora would probably keep challenging her for rematches until she won. And then Elm would do the same back to Nora until it became an infinite loop of flexing.

Q: BiFross asked: Anairis, the beginning of the season's Harriet is much different than the end's Harriet. How did you make that distinction between friendly threats to actual threats?

anairisq (Harriet): Oh, definitely. Harriet was really serious and angry by the end, so there was no room to play games. You don't see her confidence manifest as playfulness as much as it manifests in frustration by the end, and that's the distinction I made in my head.

Q: Firegirl15639 asked: For Chris, A lot of people's favorite scene you were in was the one in the truck with Qrow. What can you tell us about getting into character for that scene?

ChristopherWehkampVA (Clover): Thanks, I loved that scene. It’s a good glimpse of how professional and capable Clover is while also still having a warm hearted side. I remember wanting to show that warm hearted side with my reads and have it contrast to how all-business he would be later in the scene

Q: threefoldthrowaway asked: Chris, I absolutely loved you as Clover and I’m gutted to see you leave. Clover had most of his screen time shared with Qrow so I just want to ask: How do you think Clover and Qrow’s relationship changed over the course of the volume?

ChristopherWehkampVA (Clover): Thanks, it was so cool to play with their dynamic. By the end of the volume Clovers pain at feeling he had to arrest Qrow was so genuine. He was dealing with the very real pain of having to choose sworn duty over what was becoming an important relationship to him

Q: BrokenLevel asked: Why do you suppose each of your characters are so steadfastly loyal to Ironwood? No need to be canon, personal conjecture is also fine.

ricepiratemick (Marrow): For Marrow, he's a faunus, and there's clearly social tensions that come with that. Having been brought into THE most elite group of huntsmen in the Atlesian military, I can't help but think Marrow (despite being a bit cocky) is hugely appreciative and humbled. He knows how difficult and rare it is for those of his kind to be placed in a such an important role.

That said, of all the AceOps... I think he'd be the first to question his "steadfastly loyal" position on Ironwood.

toddwo (Vine): I think it's the military thing. It's chain of command. He's in charge. The RWBY kids can use their hearts more as a guide because they're not military-first like I think the Ace ops are.

Q: ArmoftheSpoonFiend asked: What would you guys rather fight, 100 duck-sized horses or 1 horse-sized duck?

DawnMBennettVA (Elm): 1 horse-sized duck. Gonna need a giant oven, though.

ricepiratemick (Marrow): Marrow prefers a single target :]

anairisq (Harriet): 1 horse-sized duck. Easier to run away. :') I know if it was Harriet, she'd take on all 100 the duck-sized horses just to show off.

Q: OutcastMunkee asked: Quite a few (mainly because a few from my friend who is at work so can't make it!) questions here for everyone...From me, I gotta ask what you think about the Ace Ops vs RWBY fight and why do you think RWBY came out victorious?

As for questions from my friend, he wants to know:

Did any of you know of/watch RWBY before you were cast?

How did you end up auditioning for the roles?

Was working on RWBY any different to other voice acting jobs you've done in the past?

Thanks for doing this AMA folks! <3

toddwo (Vine): Firstly, RWBY team cheats in battle, so that's why they beat us ;)

I actually produced two seasons of the broadcast show RWBY rewind about RWBY, so I had seen nearly all of it by the time these auditions came around, and programmed entire episodes of that show around episodes, characters, and events of RWBY.

I usually submit every time there's a call for voice actors. I've been voicing various things in videos for a decade, animated characters, puppets, Reggae Shark. So I just love leaving the headspace of being at a desk at work and going to imagination land and recording voices.

I think I answered this in a different post, but I'd say the difference is being close to the show - I work at Rooster Teeth - and knowing the directors personally. It makes it way easy to ask questions, get feedback, and just be loose, as compared to skypeing in to some jerk director in L.A. lol.

ricepiratemick (Marrow): I've seen the debates about the fight results on twitter and reddit and I think it's fairly simple (and that many folks got it): AceOps were not on the same page and down a leader + RWBY were fighting for their lives and the lives of the people they were trying to save. It's as simple as that. Sure "team work" and "friends" and all that, but for those who were disapproving of that being the sole reason... I think it was clear that there were many legit reasons why RWBY came out on top.

Before getting cast, I knew of RWBY, especially some of the folks on the team, but wasn't an avid follower of the series before. Since being cast...gotta say, I love it. And will continue to watch no matter what happens to Marrow.

Audition was sent by the magic of electronic mail.

One main difference (compared to other acting jobs) is the time they take to nail down a line. In many VO jobs, yer on the clock and they roll through the script at a clip. With RWBY, it wasn't like there was a 100 takes of each line, but they knew what they wanted while still wanting the actor to explore. Just super positive, organic, and overall great experience recording with them every time.

anairisq (Harriet):

1) Yup! From the beginning. :)

2) I had received the audition online while living in FL! Submitted it pretty much the same day and tried not to think about it. I was so, so excited when I heard I booked.

3) It was for me! It was my first time doing prelay work in the booth. I was a little nervous about how it'd be like, but each session was really fun.

Q: patrizl001 asked: Todd, did you ever notice your character never used their weapon throughout the volume? Why do you think that is?

toddwo (Vine): This is totally a guess, but I feel like it's Vine's "nuclear option." He's all zen normally, so I tend to think he wants to solve things organically, and not just go nuts and use some metal blades to do the job of stretchy-ness and tactics. I could be wrong tho! Maybe it's just a fashion accessory!

Q: Eldi13 asked: For everyone: Where do you hope to see your characters go in Volume 8?

ricepiratemick (Marrow): Obviously, I have no official say in what happens to Marrow and his place in the story. But I can't help feeling he's gonna get a lot of heat from Ironwood and company after Harriet rats him out for not fighting, especially in light of Clover's death.

Personally, I'd love to see him help/side/join the RWBY gang, even if he's not a mainstay. But no matter what, he's definitely been built up to be the most conflicted of the Ops and I'm curious/excited to see where they leads.

DawnMBennettVA (Elm): Like Mick said, I have no say in the story, but I'd also love to see Elm's growth after Clover's death and the possible events to come (like what's gonna happen to her team after losing its leader, y'know?). She really does seem like a team mom at times, and I'd love to see her give Team RWBY another chance.

Q: Eldi13 asked: For Dawn, (if you make it by later!) what was the recording process like for the song in episode 12? Did Jeff and Casey arrange the whole thing, or did all the vocalists have input as well?

DawnMBennettVA (Elm): Hey there! I believe Jeff and Casey did indeed arrange the whole thing. (Obviously, someone from production please correct me if I'm wrong)! :'D

I was approached by Jeff during the process to be a guest singer, which absolutely blew my mind!!! He and Casey are such crazy talented musicians and it was an honor to be able to perform with them.

Then Christopher Sabat (voice of Arthur Watts) kindly let me use his recording studio to track my vocals, Briana Villarreal engineered me, my cousin Kaitlyn Fae coached and directed me, and I sent my vocals off to Jeff!

Jeff had asked me to sing whichever lines I liked best and he'd pick which ones to use from those. You can imagine how happy I was to hear myself singing when Elm appeared on the screen. :')

Q: SentientHam asked: Thoughts and opinions on each of your character's sembalances and weapons?

ricepiratemick (Marrow): It's fetching. Despite not seeing it's full potential, I think it's got a lot of staying power.

Q: AylaPazza asked: For all VAs, do you have any particular headcanons for your characters? Like hobbies or ways to relax, things like that! Also you all did a fantastic job this volume! I hope we see more of all of you in volume 8!

ricepiratemick (Marrow): Marrow uses his semblance to hack speed-runs of difficult games.

toddwo (Vine): I try to channel Paul Bettany's Vision character and make a lot of resonating noise in my head and relax at the same time. My voice is really high naturally so I spend a few minutes just humming low to myself to get someplace different.

Q: galaxyseal asked: To any of them: have you guys gotten to meet any of your fellow cast members in person?

DawnMBennettVA (Elm): Yes! From the Ace-Ops, I already knew Chris Wehkamp, and I met Anairis not too long after recording! I also met Lindsay and Michael Jones years ago when I started working on Fairy Tail, and Elizabeth Maxwell when we were working on Dragon Ball Super.

Actually, now that I think about it, I've met way more of the RWBY cast than I thought... The voice acting world is smaller than you think! :D

anairisq (Harriet): I met Dawn! She's just as much of a sweetie as Elm is <3

ricepiratemick (Marrow): I haven't!!!! >:[

Buuu~t I've gotten to meet/hang/know some of the team members :D

All solid, passionate, hard-working peeps

Q: brendans1989 asked: For anyone to answer - what is the most powerful advice you would give to anyone aspiring to become a voice actor?

DawnMBennettVA (Elm): Know that rejection is just part of the job. You're not going to book everything you audition for. Learn to let things go. Also, your friends' progress is not a measure of your own.

Even when you're at your lowest and you think you might be the worst, don't give up. Talk to a private coach, take classes, do everything you can to improve yourself. Keep pushing, keep trying, keep moving forward.

------

I hope this is fun for everyone to read through! I tried to balance out answers on character questions and misc. ones, as I bet some folks are interested in hearing about their journey as VAs! If anyone wants to check out the full AMA, it’s here.

r/RWBY seems like a cool crew of people, this seemed like a lot of fun, and the mods did a good job curating! Hope I gave credit where it’s due for question askers--this was all their hard work!

Happy Saturday everyone~

#rwby #reddit #rwby ama #vine zeki #marrow amin #clover ebi #harriet bree #elm ederne #voice acting #long...sorry

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synvamp · 4 years

Text

HAPPY PLACE 8

“Love and other irritating crap that I don’t understand” - Qrow finally comes to the horrific realisation that he might be *in love* with Clover. Slow burn, flirting, banter... lovebirds at their angsty, sexy best.

(Part One HERE)

Title: Healing

Fair Game – Part 8 / 10?

Rating: M

---xxx---

The pillow hit Qrow in the side of the head. “Mffffff,” he said.

“Come on, you have to get up or you’ll be late,” Clover’s voice. Clover’s scent. Ah, that’s right. Clover’s bed.

“Urgh,” Qrow groaned from deep within his black soul, “I ha..”

“Hate mornings, I know. Here,” Clover laughed lightly.

Qrow blinked blearily and tried to focus. Finally he made out an incredibly muscled arm holding a mug of coffee. He sat up, pushed his hair back and took the offering.

After a few sips, his brain fog started to lift. It was good coffee. “Wait you’re dressed? You got coffee? How long have you been up?”

“I don’t know; hour and a half?” Clover shrugged, looking perfectly groomed and ready to take on the world.

“Why didn’t you wake me?”

“You were snoring.” “That is not a reason. Also, I do not snore,” Qrow pitched the pillow back at Clover’s head.

He dodged effortlessly (stupid agile morning people) and stood up waving his scroll, “Well you won’t mind that I made you my ringtone then, will you?”

Qrow scowled, “If I wasn’t naked…”

“Ah, but you are! And I am not going to be late again, so drink up and I’ll see you later,” Clover leaned over and Qrow kind of froze. He didn’t even know why, they’d had sex quite a few times and Clover’s hands were often on his shoulder, around his waist… but this little gesture just caught him utterly unawares. Clover leaned down and just kissed his lips. Not a passionate kiss, just a little ‘I’m going to work, see you later love’, kind of kiss.

Then he straightened up, flashed that seven thousand watt smile and flexed his ass out of the room.

Qrow stared at the door for a long time, mind blank and heart doing something he couldn’t even recognise.

---xxx---

“Hey, Uncle Qrow! We thought you weren’t going to make it!” Ruby enthused, running up to greet him as he slunk into the briefing room.

“I overslept,” he reached out and tousled her hair.

“You sleep?” Ren asked.

“Har har, so what are we up to today?” Qrow asked, noting Clover was nowhere to be seen.

“Team work!” Nora shouted.

“O… kay?”

“Clover’s given us all a day in the training room,” said Yang, “said we could polish up our hand to hand,” she grinned dangerously.

“That so?” Qrow mused. It was true that they could learn to be more adaptable in combat. A brutal weapon was wonderful when you had it but he knew better than anyone that life didn’t always work out that way.

Qrow teamed up with Yang (he didn’t want her to beat the crap out of anyone) and then put the others on rotation. Fifteen minutes with one sparring partner then change it up. Flexibility was an important part of being a combat specialist and as he watched Blake and Jaune out of the corner of his eye, Qrow decided Clover had a good head for teaching. It was just the right time to do this kind of thing, they were confident enough to be challenged, mature enough to learn from their mistakes.

A metal hand ploughed into Qrow’s face, sending him cartwheeling across the floor. “Yes!” Yang pumped a fist into the air, “Take that!”

Qrow sat rubbing his jaw, that prosthetic really packed a punch. Yang wandered over and offered him a hand which he swatted away, “I’m not dead yet,” he grumbled, standing.

Yang leaned a little closer so that no one else could hear, “You need to stop daydreaming about a certain Ace Operative and pay attention.”

Qrow didn’t even deny it, “I guess so. That was a good hit though, the way you moved inside my range… very smart kiddo,” he raised a hand to tousle her hair then thought better of it. He’d done that once when she was eight. Once.

“So… how are things going?” Yang whispered conspiratorially, “Are you dating?”

“I… things are good,” he smiled. “How about you?”

“What about me!?” Yang said loudly.

Qrow kept his voice level, “You ever going to tell the others about you and Blake?”

Yang took a step back, “How did you…?”

“I guess it takes one to know one,” Qrow laughed.

“I… we’re waiting for the right time,” Yang looked away.

Qrow nodded, it wasn’t like he was in a position to lecture on this one. “You do what works for you. It’s just nice to see you happy.”

Yang smiled sheepishly, “You too.”

“I am not happy! I’ve got a reputation to maintain here.”

Yang laughed, “Well it’s good to see you enjoying the misery for once.”

“Yeah, feels good too,” Qrow admitted, thinking of the way Clover’s arm wrapped around him when they slept.

“Is that fifteen minutes?” Marrow called out, “My arm is going to drop off.”

Qrow turned at the sound of Weiss’s lilting laughter. Seems like someone is finding Ice Queen Jnr. a bit of a challenge.

“Alright, time’s up!” he called, “Hit the showers then lunch. I’ll meet you back here at two. Got it?”

“Got it,” the students chorused.

Qrow took his time wandering up to the mess hall. He let his fingers trail on the wall and thought about Clover’s touch, light but sure. So much of his time seemed to be dedicated to thinking about how Clover smelled these days. How his hands felt when they tripped down his body, lingering where he’d learned Qrow wanted them most.

“Here you are,” Clover rounded the corner, “I’ve got a meeting at two so I thought maybe we could have lunch?”

“I…” Qrow started. He was thinking about Yang and her ‘right time’. Was it the right time to be seen in a relationship? He didn’t want the kids to think that he wasn’t there for them. That he would ever leave them to go it alone after all they’d been through together… maybe he was over thinking. Yang just seemed happy to see him happy. Maybe it would be a relief for them to not have to worry about him being a moping sad sack any more. He felt bad for relying on them emotionally like he had. It wasn’t right to make kids carry adult sized burdens and despite everything they’d done… all they had achieved, they were still kids.

Clover’s beautiful green eyes narrowed, “Or we could not.”

“Uh…” What do I say? I want to be with him so much but… so much has happened and I just don’t know if I’m ready for this.

“It’s fine,” Clover smiled easily, waving his concerns away, “I should sit with the Ops for once anyway, what did Weiss do to Marrow? He can barely hold a fork.”

“He just needs to focus on his leg work.”

“Ok, noted. Well… Just let me know when you’re ready.” And with that, Clover turned on his heel and sauntered that muscled ass away.

---xxx---

When I’m ready.

Qrow lay face down on the couch and groaned.

When I’m ready.

He means when I’m quite finished dicking him around and I know what I want. I’m sure that’s what he means…

Qrow looked at the clock. Five past eight. He groaned a little louder.

This is the longest night in the history of human kind. There’s some sort of time dilation happening. I refuse to believe that I’ve only been here twenty five minutes.

He lifted up a couch cushion with one hand and pulled it firmly over his head.

I could be there right now. I could be lying on his perfectly made bed completely naked with his hot tongue trailing up my thigh.

Yay, he thought pressing his now very hard cock into the cushions, now I’ve made it worse.

HOW FOR THE LOVE OF ASS CAN I STILL BE SEXUALLY FRUSTRATED?!

Qrow let himself roll off the couch and onto the floor.

He’s probably waiting for me right now…

But what is he really waiting for… he said…

Qrow swallowed. He had to confront this eventually. Seemed like today was the day.

He said that he was in love with me.

He might have meant it, he might not, but he said it. And it’s time I figured out how I feel about this because if he loves me and I just hurt him… the thought of Clover upset did a funny thing to his chest. Tight. Tingly?

Like something was crushing his heart.

Come on. Admit it to yourself. You could be in love with him. How would you even know? It’s not like you have a string of positive relationship role models and a sparkling personal life to draw on. To him love had always been retrospective. The revelation of what you had lost in the very second that it was snatched from you.

Do you want it to happen that way again? Do you want to wake up knowing that you’ve squandered yet another chance at happiness?

He’d always pushed people away to protect them but… Clover didn’t need protecting. He was the first person in… near forever who made Qrow feel safe. Safe with others. Safe with himself. Like he wasn’t a curse or a burden or a jinx…

But how do you even say these things? Oh Gods I know just how it would play out.

Qrow: *knocks on door*

Clover: *opens the door, is shirtless for some stupid sexual frustration reason*

Qrow: *stands gaping for an inordinate amount of time*

Clover: Are you having a stroke?

Qrow: *squeaks*

Clover: So I’m just going to leave the door open, in case at some point you feel you can move your legs.

Qrow: ILOVEYOU!IHAVETOGO! *runs*

Clover: Ok. What an excellent choice I have made picking Qrow out of all the gorgeous fuck boys who clamour after my sleeveless GodBod. Really turning out great for me.

Qrow turned over on the floor and pushed his face into the cushion again. This is so fucking stupid.

Clover would know what to do. He was great at all this touchy feely stuff…

But I’ve pushed him away.

NO. Qrow sat up suddenly and hit the back of his head on the coffee table.

“AH, FUCK,” he exclaimed rubbing the significant bump that was growing beneath his fingers.

That’s it. I’m not going to waste my life lying on the floor with a boner.

I am going to go and see Clover and I’m going to tell him how I feel.

If I can figure out how I feel on the way.

He put on his shoes and glanced at the clock as he walked out the door. Thirteen minutes past eight.

REALLY!?

---xxx---

Part Nine

#fair game #qrow branwen #clover ebi #rwby spoilers #rwby 7 #fanfiction

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littlemisssquiggles · 4 years

Note

So Willow said she bugged every room in the Schnee Mansion... sooo she got a live recording of Oscar telling James of Salem's apparent immortality. And Neo and Cinder were in there, along with a very unhappy Whiltey Schnee how might now be in control of the SDC and feeling more abandoned by his splintering family...

Heyo Miki-chan! Yeaahhh…here’s the thing with that titbit about the recording:

Even if a recording of Oscar andIronwood’s conversation should exist realistically within the show given the setupabout Willow bugging every room in Schnee Manor with cameras, I honestly don’tthink it’ll ever be used nor will it come up for the remainder of the season.

To me, I think the sole purpose of the narrativehighlighting that little detail was to: a) Provide a nice little way for Willow Schneeto contribute to the PLOT when she finally made her first onscreen debut. b) Provide a nice little way to redeem Willow’s character in the eyes of the audienceas she was originally pegged to be the quintessential ‘absent mother’ who spent most of her time drowning her sorrows in alcohol whileallowing her husband to abuse their children and run the family name that her deceasedfather once built into the dirt.

And finally c) To conveniently give Weiss the exact thing she needed to out her father for hiscrimes.

Gee-whillikers, I thought Clover Ebi was the one with luck on his side. Howlucky was Weiss that Whitley was the only obstacle keeping her back fromexploring Schnee Manor. Not to mention that it was also really lucky how noneof the staff at Schnee Manor tried to stop Weiss at all from wandering aroundthe place…in spite of the fact that the last known worker was fired for‘allowing her to leave the manor’.

How lucky was Weiss that Jacques didn’timplement any kind of new policy with the staff at the Manor barring her and herfriends from exploring any part of the premises unsupervised since she left home.

How lucky was Weiss that Jacques didn’tforce her to be a ‘guest’in her own home by barring her fromexploring the Manor; thus providing a bit of a tougherchallenge to get to her dad’s office than justpoor Whitley.

Hard to believe that this was the same authoritarian father who once cut Weiss off financially just because she chose toattend an academy far away from her kingdom rather than stay home where Jacquescould keep a watchfuleye on her and dictate her education.

Hard to believe that Weiss could justeasily return home and wander the Manor as freely as she did when she lived there back in V4…despite leaving anddespite previously telling off her father in front of the friends she pledgedwere her family over her biological one much to Jacques’ clear annoyance.

Hard to believe Weiss faced zerorepercussions because of that moment. Turns out Weiss can tell off Jacques and STILL walkaround her home like she never left. Seriously, did Clover rub off some of his goodjuju on Weiss because that is just such gosh darn luck.

But wait, there’s more! How lucky wasWeiss that she was easily able to make her way to her father’s office and findit open when she needed it to be.

How lucky was Weiss that Jacques wasthe type to keep his office shut when he’s there but somehow leave it perfectlyaccessible when he isn’t there.

How lucky was Weiss that the night shechose to snoop around her father’s office just so happened to be the same nighther mom chose to make herself present for the first time ever in the story inthe exact same place as her.

How lucky was Weiss that her motherjust so happened to have the information she needed to rat out her father onhis crimes waiting right there in the room to give it to her when she arrived.

And theglazed cherry on top? How lucky was Weissthat her mother was able to provide her with the exact info she needed becauseshe just so happened to have rigged all of Schnee Manor with cameras. Wowee! It’s notlike that detail raises any kind of questions at all. Nope. None. Weiss reallygave Clover a run for his money with just how lucky she got in V7CH8. Amazing.

Alright, alright, my dry sense ofhumour aside—Not to be that person, however the more this squiggle meister watches RWBY, the more I’m starting to catch onto the CRWBYWriters’ overreliance on the almighty Power ofConvenience for the sake of pushing the PLOT.

For example: X thingamabobble was only introduced in this one scene for the sake of providingCharacter A with the precise thing they needed for the next scene and thenX thingamabobble is never used again in the PLOT since it already servedits key purpose.

As established in V7CH8, Willow onlyplaced the cameras for the sake of having a resource to out Jacques in theevent that she ever needed to leave him, I’m assuming.

“…You puta camera in here.”

“I putthem in every room of this house, for our safety, in case I ever needed to—“

I think the camera jig was purposefullyplaced as a plot device to provide a means for Weiss to rat out Jacques on hissecret alliance with Watts. Somehow, I have a better chance at believing thatthe camera detail will never be used ever again for the remainder of V7 thanotherwise.

Unless the PLOT attempts to introduce anothersubplot in which an emotionally distraught Whitley Schnee discovers therecorded footage of Ironwood and Oscar’s conversation about Salem on the Scrollhis mother gave Weiss and decides to use the information about Salem toblackmail the General and the Council into releasing his father from prisonunless they wanted to risk a repeat of what transpired down in Mantle with allof Atlas being plunged into a panic that would bring forth another wave ofGrimm. Especially during a tense time where both the People of Mantle and Atlasare living up in the sky and tensions are even higher now as the People ofAtlas are upset that they’re forced to share their kingdom with the “bottom feeders” and the People of Mantle still blame Atlas for the decimation oftheir home.

Even if the Robyn and the rest of theAtlas Council know about Salem’s existence, I doubt they’d want to reveal thenews to the rest of the kingdom as yet especially in the wake of tense timesfor both Atlas and Mantle.

Here’s what I’m thinking: My hunch isthat by the end of V7, Mantle’skingdom will be near destroyed and infested with Grimm with most of its kingdommoved up to living in Atlas. You’vebeen anticipating a ‘consequence’ for our heroes actions, right Miki-chan?

Well what if… thefitting consequence was that our heroes’ actions contributed toward the Fall ofMantle while settings things in motion for the inevitable Fall of Atlas?

As described before, when Mantle falls,all the People of Mantle will be moved up to Atlas right? While this will markthe first time in Remnant history that Atlas and Mantle are united, imagine if…noteveryone is happy with the reunion.

I can see the People of Atlas,particularly the upperclass, lashing out at the Mantlese, accusingthem of being unwantedimmigrants exploiting the resources of their kingdom while the surviving People of Mantle would argue that Atlaswouldn’t exist without them so if anyone was “exploited”, it was the Mantleseespecially since they still blame Atlas for what happened to their kingdom.

Having a subplot where the truth isused as weapon to bring forth more devastation—this time for both Atlas and Mantle who was now forced coexiston the same soil together— that could be fascinating to watch play out. Especially if you add the detail that Atlas hasnow become the equivalent of dangling a baited worm on a hook over a pool of piranhassince… imagine that Mantlebecomes exactly like Mountain Glenn and what’s left of Beacon after its fall—an abandoned, desolate kingdom infested withGrimm from the tundra all around Solitas that have now made it their territory;making it unsafe for the People of Mantle to return to their home for a whileor ever again.

With this, I can see Robyn Hill and her Happy Huntresses becomingmore prominent characters for theAtlas Arc as they would have to work with theAtlas Council and Military to siphon the rising tensions in Atlas due to thedisputes among both sides of their citizens.

With Atlas hovering over a literalcesspool of Grimm in the remains of Mantle below, let’s just say that Atlascould not afford another Grimm wave like Mantle. But as I said, tensions arerising. The People are miserable and the supposed leaders of both respectivekingdoms are at their wits ends trying to deal with the demands oftheir people.

I can even picture this as being anopportunity for our heroes to gain triple the experience in the field, workingwith the Ace Ops and the Happy Huntresses to clear out all the Grimm down inMantle. However this proves futile most of the time since the Grimm keepreturning to the city in droves due to all the tension up in Atlas.

To make matters worse, what if… there iseven tension among some members of the Ace Ops and the Happy Huntresses—like Marrow and May for example— which affect the troops ability to work togetherand often creates more problems than the Grimm do.

So basically it’s a scenario wheretimes aren’t all that hunky-dory anymore. The tension between Atlas and Mantle is growing by theday, plaguing everyone including its huntsmen and our heroes are unfortunatelycaught between all of it, forced to feel guilty about the whole thing sincetheir past choices were partially responsible for placing both kingdoms in thiscurrent “rough patch”.

With that thought in mind, that wouldmake the Fall of Atlas far worse since it could potentially kill not just the People ofAtlas but Mantle as well. If Atlasfalls, there would be no place for either Atlas or Mantle to go since the kingdom in the sky has fallen and what’s left of Mantlewas now a ghost territory made unfit by the Grimm. Basically, if Atlas falls,the People of Mantle and Atlas will be forced to restart from the same place their ancestors once did decades ago.

That could be a very cool developmentfor Atlas. Not to mention it could make a really, really great season for RWBYto watch unfold. Buuuuuuuuuuuut….I dunno. These are all just ideas here. Idoubt the story would do something like that with Whitley. As I told oneanon-ninja, I don’t want Whitley to become a villain. However I wouldn’t mindhim being used as an unfortunately pawn since I can see a greater likelihood ofthat.

Then again, what I mostly want for Whitis for him and Weiss’ relationship to become a focal point of Weiss’development. Imagine if…in addition to having to deal with recovering what’s left ofMantle, the tensions between the Ace Ops and the Happy Huntresses, the tensionbetween Mantle and Atlas overall—Weiss also has to deal with tension between herand her brother.

Like she’s trying her best to be a good big sister for Whitley like Winter was to her but Whit wasn’t meeting herhalfway at all on anything. No matter what Weiss did, Whitley would always shuther down since he blamed her for placing their father behind bars—not evenacknowledging that Jacques placed himself at the foot of this door. Weiss justpushed him inside.

No matter how much Weiss tried, she couldn’tseem to catch a break. None of our heroes could. Everything was just such a messand it was only going to be downhill from there.

I dunno. I guess what I’m mostly sayinghere is that I don’t expect the camerafootage plot device to come back; given how thingsoften go within RWBY.

If it does somehow return to serviceyet another subplot like you anticipated then alrighty then. But as of now, I’mnot expecting it too, fam.

As for Neo, while she was indeed insideSchnee Manor under disguise, she was also conveniently under disguise on thesame night our heroes showed up for the Schnee Dinner. Going off of what was foreshadowed back in V6—I think Neo was only there at Schnee Manor to scopeout for Ruby and learn where her next whereabouts were going to be. Since the Fire and Ice-cream duo labelled Ruby as their target, I’m expecting them to ambushher under the haze of the Fall of Mantle. That’s my guess with that.

~LittleMissSquiggles(2020)

#squiggles answers: rwby #oscar pine #whitley schnee #rwby neopolitan #rwby theories #rwby volume 7 theories #rwby volume 7 spoilers #miki-13 #squiggles answers

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aceopmari · 4 years

Text

Unpopular Thoughts

Some of you are aware of the Injustice Superman.

In that story, Superman accidentally murders his wife Lois, resulting in his home city blowing up.

As a result, the once beloved Super hero became a feared dictator who controlled the lives of citizens, using any means necessary to protect the people. He wasn’t above behaving ruthlessly or murdering allies who either opposed him or got in the way of his view of protecting people. No one would ever challenge the most powerful man in the universe.

Where does this fit into RWBY you might add?

Well take a look at Ironwood!

As a councilman, he holds 2 seats.

He also takes great pride in his Atlas technology that he believes will protect everyone.

After seeing his own machines turn against him at the fall of beacon, Ironwood grew paranoid.

He closed the borders as he felt it would keep Atlas safe. This affected others of course.

A sociopath like Jacques Schnee even pointed out how Ironwood “only trusts himself”.

But Ironwood was willing to open up his range of trust by extending it to Winter, the Ace Ops, as well as team RWBY.

Little did he know, team RWBY was keeping secrets. At the same time, Ironwood was being framed for murder and he kept supplies away from Mantle in favor of amity.

Then we have Episode 11 when shit hits the fan and team RWBY gets exposed for their lies.

Ironwood cracks.

He decides to take control by telling Winter to claim the maiden powers, lock away the relics, use the staff to put Atlas up in space, leave Mantle to die at the hands of the cold and/or at Salem’s hands.

He then decides to lock up team RWBY, seeing them as a threat to his plans.

Ironwood also decided that he will declare martial law. That means he will take complete militaristic control over the kingdom which just like Superman’s method of running things, it will affect the lives of the citizens.

Ironwood said to Watts who he may or may or not have killed, that he would sacrifice ANYTHING to stop Salem.

The scenes mentioned above shows just how far Ironwood would go to keep Atlas safe as a dictator.

Who else will oppose Ironwood?

How will he react?

Will he arrest those who go against his views or maybe even murder those who choose to challenge him?

Will Clover or Marrow step up and help team RWBY?

Thoughts?

#rwby #rwby volume 7 #rwby ironwood #ironwood #james ironwood #general ironwood #rwby ace ops #rwby clover #rwby marrow #team rwby

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

Note

You know, in retrospect, the heroes sure are lucky that Salem landed the Whale Grimm instead of keeping it in the air, otherwise they'd have to fly themselves and the bomb in.

A lot of the heroes’ lack of dead-ness is explained by a sentence beginning with “They sure are lucky that Salem didn’t...” XD

In a tighter written story that could have been a significant challenge. We established during the initial Mantle battle that grimm are attacking airships, Ruby’s group has managed to snag one thanks to May, and the Ace Ops already have their own, but the whole point there is that they weren’t willing to approach the whale for Oscar alone, leaving JYR in the lurch... So there are a lot of details there that could have been woven into an engaging hurdle. How do JYR get to the whale? Is this where some of the Ace Ops - like Marrow and Winter - officially join their group? Do they reunite with Ruby first, making Oscar’s rescue bigger and/or involving different characters? How do the Ace Ops get the bomb inside while dealing with airborne threats? Will we ever acknowledge that Salem was specifically building an army of flying monkeys? Is this when they finally come back?

Really though, the story doesn’t need to make things any harder than they already are. As the Hound attests, I think a great number of the challenges already established will be “solved” via more “Isn’t it lucky that...” moments, rather than the believable skill and strategy of the heroes. The more challenging their threat becomes, the less chance they’ll be that they’ll overcome it in a satisfying manner.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #mymetas #Anonymous

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kitkatopinions · 3 years

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The more I think about Ren's new semblance ability and the scene with the Ace Ops, the more I hate it. Long post full of crit ahead.

No one else is discovering new semblance abilities in tense situations other than Jaune, who discovered his one ability. Llike, maybe the Fall of Beacon would've been stressful enough people would be discovering new abilities? And Weiss doesn't count, because her ability was treated like just another glyph, only this one is special. Whether getting new powers is experience and skill based, or trauma based, long time hunters like Qrow and James should have way more abilities than they do, and the Ace Ops and Winter all should have at least two powers. CRWBY is very choosy about how and when they use their ill defined rules about auras and semblances.

Ren is in control of this power right after getting it, and chooses to use it on the Ace Ops and Winter, but not Yang or Jaune. This implies that Ren doesn't read their emotions because that's a breach of privacy, but feels free to not only breach the Ace Ops privacy, but talk about it out loud. Because trust is for friends, and so are basic boundaries. It would make sense to me for Ren to use his new powers on Jaune and Yang as well, since he's doubting everyone’s capabilities and strength right now. But whatever. Why would we need to know how they feel?

But on that… Why do we need to know how the Ace Ops feel??? We as an audience already know Marrow is sad and doubting his place, Harriet is angry incarnate, Elm is also angry, and Vine seems fine. This doesn't do anything for the story except let Ren try to divide them more than they already are, during the worst time possible. Sure, while Salem's at Atlas's doorstep and literal children are probably dead, tell one of the members of the most elite team of Atlas graduates who were just tasked with a vitally important mission to ditch his position. Winter seemed fully convinced by Jaune actually having a good plan, so Ren figuring out a new power and turning into a mood ring didn't do anything. Also, Ren doesn't just tell them what they're feeling, he also reads their motivation and where they belong at the same time. Because 'Harriet angry' apparently translates into 'Harriet is incredibly torn up about Clover dying and trying not to feel it!' And 'Marrow sad' apparently means 'Marrow no longer fits in with this group and is actually a good person!'

And then Ren reads Winter's emotions and sees that Winter is feeling everything. So like… Okay. Are the Ace Ops Tinkerbell in the Peter Pan book? Only able to feel one emotion at a time? Harriet isn't angry and sad, she's just so angry it's all Ren can see! And Vine isn't sad, or angry, he's just (presumably) calm. But Winter is feeling all the emotions equally. Which of course, means she also doesn't belong here.Most adults feel more than one thing at a time, by the way. Idk why this makes Ren think Winter is special and different, rather than him wondering how the Ace Ops can only be displaying one emotion.

Ren also tells the Ace Ops the reason they fail is their terrible team work, since they won't admit they're friends, despite the fact they fought amazingly as a team at the start of the last season. Everyone jot that down. Strategy, planning, experience, knowledge of each other's skill set, and common goals all mean nothing. The only thing that can make you a fully functional team is friendship. We're ignoring the fact that Blake and Yang scoffed at the idea of working outside of their duo, never mind that the group literally drew their weapons on Qrow in V6 and demanded he do what they want or leave. Never mind that Yang and Ruby are currently fighting, Yang and Blake are apparently fighting, Yang and Ren are fighting, and Ren and Nora have been distant, cold, and frustrated with each other for one and a half seasons now. They still haven't had any problems fighting as a team because underneath it all, they're friends! In a normal, fun romp anime or cartoon, I might be able to be okay with this. But isn't RWBY marketing itself as a hopeful grimdark? Or at least, aren’t they saying this is a more mature, nuanced tone than the fun romp that only hinted at more darkness in the early seasons? You can't have 'morally gray characters that drift between ally and antagonist’ just lose because they aren't admitting they’re friends in even a hopeful grimdark. And it’s not strong plot for the most powerful graduates of a strict military school who have been on the field for at least a couple years (except maybe Marrow) lose to the first year drop outs THEY HELPED TRAIN because they're hiding their feelings for each other. I'm sorry, I thought this was a show where skill and consequence mattered.

On top of all this… We all know that portraying women of color - specifically black women - as constantly angry and hiding her emotions is a racist stereotype, right? I don't mean 'having a black women displaying anger is racist,' but again, the show had Ren sense her emotions and figure out what's wrong with her, and she was only angry, and Ren decided she's hiding her feelings behind a wall of thick anger. Elm is the same way, even going so far as to try and attack Ren. And it's not just this instance. They've been overwhelmingly angry since the end of volume six. Whether or not CRWBY thought this through, they should've done a google search that could've let them know not to do it. Vine is almost as bad in being the stoic, calm, at peace, Asian. I'm only holding off on calling him just as bad because I don't know for sure that green represents peace or calm.

Don't get me wrong, there were things I liked about that scene. Ren choosing to act and do what he could was a great choice, he clearly took what Jaune said to heart, and decided inaction due to doubts and fears wouldn't help anyone. I hope this doesn't mean the end of Ren doubting things and challenging the team (since his concerns are very valid and weren't solved,) but I like that direction. Winter really shined in this scene. I just wish the writers would put as much care and complexity into Harriet, Elm, and Vine. And the main star of this scene in my opinion was Jaune. He didn't fight the plan to blow up the whale, only requesting that they be allowed to go in ahead and try to rescue Oscar and laying out the benefits. I love this. Jaune isn't asking her not to do her job, he's not doubting that it has to be done, he's not blaming her for it, and he's accepting that if they go in, they may become part of that sacrifice. But he's trying to save a friend that's important to him anyway. I think this might be the best I've ever liked Jaune, actually.

But the cons of this scene, in my opinion, severely out weigh the pros.

#rwby criticism #rwby critical #rwby crit #RWDE #rwde content #I know this is pretty severe #the rest of the episode isn't bad!#although ruby weiss and blake doing nothing was weird and bad #May Marigold Whitley and Jaune are the stars of this ep #I just kept thinking about this scene and realizing things I didn't like #it was like the Hobbit all over again

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real-jaune-isms · 4 years

Text

RWBY Volume 7 Chapter 12 Review/Rundown

Well well well, looks like it did NOT get much better this week than it was last week. And with Miles and Kerry saying Volume 8 will still have our heroes in Atlas, I don’t see much of a happy and satisfying end to the finale next week either. But you know what they say, the night is darkest just before the dawn. I will say, there are definitely some things in this episode that folks did not like one bit, and subject matter that must be taken quite seriously. We will get to that, and I will do my best to take care. But just to be safe we’ll save that portion of the narrative for last.

So since we’re skipping over the first scene let’s instead begin with Winter stood still in the hallways of Atlas’s research labs looking at her phone. Ironwood has sent out wanted posters for Team RWBY, JNR, Oscar, and Qrow. It was only RWBY that he saw oppose his plan, but Ruby did tell everyone else and he knows them well enough to realize they would agree with RWBY. Winter is concerned over what Weiss has done to cause this, which seems a bit rude to assume but she does know how vocal her sister is about not trusting Ironwood so... it’s a somewhat fair assessment overall. Penny is instead worried about Ruby’s warning of Ironwood leaving Mantle to die, and she can’t believe Winter seems unfazed by that news, that she is actually defending his actions. We get a reprisal of their conversation from a few episodes ago about personal feelings being discouraged in this line of work and how they need to instead do as they are told. But Penny seems to have more of a heart here than her superior, or is at least more willing to listen to it. Winter may be groomed to think that her terror about her sister’s safety is a liability and weakness and shouldn’t be allowed to affect her judgments and obedience, but Penny stands firm that regardless of what they’re told these feelings should matter. Winter tries to appeal again, saying that Ironwood is making the tough decisions as a leader so they don’t have to. But that’s taking away their power of choice. A political leader doesn’t get to just do as he pleases because he’s the leader so clearly his actions are for the good of the Kingdom... whoa. Got a little to topical there. The point is, it’s not up to Ironwood to decide these things for them. They need to be able to think for themselves, it’s part of human life to be faced with hard choices and grow from the mental turmoil of decision. Taking away that choice and forcing them to accept whatever decision he makes is taking away their freedom. Winter says this is for the good of everyone, though when Penny says this does not seem to be for the good of anyone she quietly agrees.

When we next see these two Atlesian maidens they are putting the actual Maiden into... an Aura transfer machine like the one Ozpin used on Amber and Pyrrha. Oh good, so that wasn’t in the room back in episode 5 just for funsies. But at least Winter isn’t actually killing Fria. She’s just attempting a scientific procedure that has never successfully worked before on a dying woman. That seems safer. She does say she hopes it will be painless for Fria, so at least she has some empathy and realizes this is a risky move. But Penny is still holding onto her earlier words and chooses now to throw them back in her face. Why express a personal sentiment for the comfort of another if your personal feelings don’t matter? Winter just says that she understands how serious the situation is and how necessary it is to put the Maiden powers into a healthier host so the Vault can be more effectively protected, even if it costs a good woman her life. But she admits that struggling to balance that duty with the importance of your personal feelings and your moral compass is essential and even she is having a tough time of it. But that’s what being human is. That’s not an especially comforting thought, but Penny understands. She’s doing that deadly dance in her own head too, and it’s not easily mastered. But their internal battles are interrupted by a great booming shudder outside, and Winter rushes out to check the situation. Only the flashing red emergency lights are on, and at the other end of a hallway filled with broken robots stands Cinder, who throws a fireball at Winter. She’s quick enough to dodge back into the medical room and lock the door, but that does next to nothing as a giant hole is blown in the wall where it once stood. Cinder of course believes this will be an easy slaughter of Ironwood’s “puppets”, which I think is a bit insensitive toward Penny after all the trouble she’s had with getting caught in her own strings. But of course Winter is ready to do her damn best to beat the Fail.. I mean Fall Maiden. Penny instead points out that Cinder was responsible for all the tragedy at Beacon, including her own original destruction, and Cinder laments how that was only temporary. But she assures Mantle’s protector that this time the annihilation will be far more total and leave much less to salvage. With little to no reason outside of it setting up Penny’s next line, Cinder asks what she thinks about that threat. All things considered, “it gives me personal feelings” isn’t the greatest epic one liner, though it does have the benefit of context and meaning something. Penny having the determination to stand for what she believes in is very satisfying, and I certainly hope she sticks to those convictions when Ironwood’s next orders come. But for now we have to wait on the epic fight sure to come until next week.

Now, if you want some really good banter and one liners, the return to Team RWBY’s story thread has that almost right out of the gate. Weiss is still trying for diplomacy and saying the Ace Ops should reconsider, but Harriet just sticks to what they were ordered, arrest Team RWBY. To this end, she puts the office in some kind of lock down with metal barricades covering the escape routes of the giant windows and the door. Vine doesn’t want his side to have to use force, but Blake makes it clear the girls won’t hesitate to fight if the Ace Ops don’t back off. Marrow is the only one who doesn’t draw his weapons at first, he really doesn’t want to have to fight their new friends. But Harriet says it’s up to the young huntresses if there will be any fighting or not, at which point Ruby finally walks back from behind the desk to deploy Crescent Rose. Marrow sees this is inevitable now and pulls out his gun too, but the first attack is verbal instead. Harriet laughs at the idea of Team RWBY trying to fight the Ace Ops since they are the best of the best in Atlas, but Ruby says they sealed their own fates by training Team RWBY and now they’ve been replaced. In a feat of strength that astounds many, Ruby petal bursts past the Ace Ops... and busts open the reinforced steel of the locked doors with her speed form. Imagine what she could do if she hit a person with that kind of force... Harriet of course gives chase, annoyed that the pipsqueak is trying to outrun her and escape to most likely catch Ironwood. Ruby is playing on Harriet’s competitive nature to goad her into acting recklessly, and it works. The older woman becomes obsessive about proving she’s better, and it costs her overall. The Hare is still falling victims to challenges of speed and superiority, it would seem. The others start fighting in the office while Harriet cuts Ruby off at the elevators and their brawl begins. Ruby tries to appeal to her again, saying this kind of division and internal fighting is exactly what Salem wants, but Harriet isn’t listening. She claims she was suspicious of Team RWBY all along and now she’s been vindicated.

Meanwhile, Yang is fighting Elm in an open area back up the hall and Blake is trying to outmaneuver Vine as they both swing around and dodge each other. Elm isn’t budging much and Vine throws Blake into her grip to get Yang’s attention. He still wants them to just surrender, but Elm has taken this very personally. More than anyone else, she feels betrayed by this change of goals. I do feel a little bad since she was one of the more friendly members of the group. And when Yang says it’s not worth appealing to their better natures because they’re puppets blindly following orders now, she just gets more angry and charges the blonde down. Vine stretches out his feet to get to a vantage point while Elm lands a few hits with her hammer. We shift back over to the office where Weiss is fighting Marrow, including forming ice on the ground to make him lose footing and fire a wave of fire that he barely jumps over. It does singe the end of his tail though, and create a fog. He tries to insult Weiss, saying she’s always gotten everything she ever wanted as a Schnee so she should let something go for once. One, that’s not remotely true of her life but you never empathized enough to learn about those nasty little details. Two, You’ve spent time with her so you at least know she’s not the spoiled brat the world assumes she would be. Three, Weiss Schnee is a hard woman to bargain with and she summons her Knight to help her, saying she’s not giving up on her home without a fight.

Ruby and Harriet are seen fighting again as the latter kicks the former back into the office then berates Marrow to “cut the crap”, since he’s apparently not trying hard enough to beat Weiss. His perfectly logical excuse is that he’s just trying to incapacitate her, not the more excessive option of doing a murder. After having deflected Marrow’s boomerang from hitting Weiss, Ruby takes the chance to run for the exit again while Harriet is insisting the extra effort is necessary. Harriet of course notices and gives chase again, and we next see the Bees fighting again... where they are getting their butts kicked. Yang knocks Elm off her guard long enough to get a shot in at Vine so he’ll stop shoving Blake against a wall. Elm says now is the time to get serious and wrap this up, but Vine points out that she probably needs that pep talk herself. Blake and Yang reevaluate their plan and realize they have more teamwork than their opponents, so they’ll use that. The girls dodge their opposing pair’s attacks more successfully and throw one of the piece of debris Vine was chucking down back at him with some explosive guests. He avoids that and grabs Blake, but she’s actually a shadow clone decoy covered in sticky bombs. Without any time to dodge, Vine is sent flying and Yang leaps up to meet him. In one fluid motion she grabs his gravity cuffs/bolas and ties him up in them before slamming him into the ground hard enough to break his Aura. Everyone else takes notice. One down, three to go. This 3 pronged fight scene was already spectacular in terms of fluid animation and choreography, but this is where it goes up to 11, complete with a new song sung by 4 women including the voice of Elm herself. This new bop, called War, is sure to be a hit when the soundtrack comes out. I just wanted to let folks know since this whole episode deserves huge props even for those factors alone. Back to the combat itself, Weiss creates a bunch of sharp icicles along one wall and pushes Marrow against it with a Glyph. He manages to avoid getting skewered but then has to dodge the Knight’s sword as it chases him across the length of the icy wall. Marrow uses his Semblance to stop Weiss from sending any more glyphs or elemental woes his way, but the Knight is still after him so he jumps into the middle of the room and tells it to Stay. Unfortunately that means he’s no longer focusing on Weiss and she is unfrozen. A few fireballs and he is down for the count too. Halfway done, team!

Harriet is still running circles around Ruby and getting plenty of hits in, even knocking her to the floor and trying to cuff her. But Ruby petal bursts out of her grip and wraps the bola cuffs around Harriet’s arms and torso instead. No more punching with those techno knuckle dusters, but she can still headbutt the Huntress and keep running around. Back to the Bees, Elm is standing her ground but it’s not staying so sturdy for much longer. While she’s been dodging Blake’s leaping attacks from above the big bruiser didn’t notice Yang was turning the footing around her roots to rubble. The blonde brawler runs in to knock her down since she doesn’t have her sure footing anymore, but Elm just brings out the rocket launcher to try and shoot Yang point blank. Luckily Yang is quick thinking too and uses her Semblance for a shockwave punch into the ground that sends Elm skyward. The fiery effect enveloping her hair is really really cool to see, but what is more impressive is Blake launching off of the ceiling and Yang leaping from the ground to catch Elm from both sides in a brutal punch-slice combo that decimates her Aura before she loses the last of it as she hits the ground. I can only imagine how much that must have hurt, seeing how her body bends when Yang wallops her in the face. Three down, only Harriet to go. And she’s not going down easy. She’s dodging every shot Ruby takes at her, and catches the younger girl in a flying leg lock that makes me greatly miss MCU Black Widow. Ruby recovers quickly and dodges most of the flips and kicks that follow until the two are staring each other down from across the hall. With a determined and enraged yell, Harriet charges at Ruby again... and instead runs into a wall of ice. Weiss came to back her partner up, and the blunt impact was enough to knock Harriet out. Triumph for Team RWBY! And it was enough of a struggle for both sides to make the win feel well earned, so I don’t wanna hear claims about this being a cop out plot armor win. The team is piling up all the unconscious bodies in the middle of the hall, when in come Maria and Pietro! I missed our sassy grandma, and she reminds us why in only a single line. “This is the part where they ask us to help”. Her tendency to state the obvious and just be so done wit everyone else’s shenanigans is quite endearing, and the fact that she and Pietro rushed over to check on them when they heard there was trouble shows she was going to offer help anyway. We love you Maria, and I wish we had gotten some more of you after how you snuck into our hearts last Volume. Maybe she’ll pull another grand scheme to create a distraction in the finale? Who knows, though I do have some thoughts on what help they will actually provide. Maybe Pietro has finished the weapon upgrades he said weren’t ready yet back in episode 3, or he can re-enable their Scrolls so they can get another warning out?

But for now, we instead shift to Jaune, Ren, and Nora. They’re still looking over the mess of broken robots in Oscar’s room, and Nora in particular starts calling his name and looking down the other hallways. Sure enough, they spot Oscar rounding the corner with the Lamp in tow. Our dear leg breaker runs to hug him, very relieved that their missing friend has been found... but they hear a desperate cry from where he had come from. Sprinting towards them is... Oscar? Okay, I act like it’s some big mystery when we had all kinda puzzled it out already, but we weren’t immediately sure what the situation was going to be. The real Oscar looks like he’s been through hell by the state of his clothes, but he’s got enough fight in him to sucker punch Neo in the face and send her flying down the hall. She lands on her feet, but he knocked the lamp off of her waist and reclaims it. So she’s gonna want that back. But it seems like Ruby shared a few stories around the campfire during the trip to Mistral, because Jaune and the others know Neo’s name and apparently her reputation precedes her. We’ve got a 4 on 1 fight on our hands for the finale, and it should be a doozy. But here’s where some perspective might be necessary. We have this picture in our heads of Neopolitan, the great agile fighter who outmaneuvered and beat Yang in Volume 2 and didn’t seem all that fazed by Ruby in Volume 3. We assume that since she’s held her own without taking much of a beating for it against two of the main cast’s best fighters she’s on a whole other level and she can’t be beaten. But I think it’s more of a matter of who she’s been paired against in the past, and how the odds have been. Ruby and Yang both have particular fighting styles that Neo is naturally pretty good at evading and countering. But Jaune and Ren both have vastly different ways of fighting that she might not be so ready for, not to mention the powerhouse that is Nora. Not to mention, every fight we’ve seen her win has been a 1v1 or 2v1 where she had help from Roman. She hasn’t fought multiple people at once before, this could very well be too much for her to handle on her own and she may very well fail or have to retreat empty handed. But defeating them isn’t her objective to begin with, she just wants to get the Lamp for Cinder. So it’s going to be a matter of playing keep away, and I do hope our good boys and girl can manage it.

And now, boys and girls, we must come to the tragic portion of the episode. And it starts with how this group left off. Qrow, Robyn, and Clover are in their airship escorting Tyrian up to Atlas when they hear Ruby’s warning. Robyn is of course vocally against Ironwood’s plan, but Clover defends his boss, says he surely understands how much these goals would effect the rest of the Kingdom. Or he would, except he gets the notification that RWBY, JNR, and the others are to be arrested. So he gets up to explain, and maybe he intended to arrest Qrow at that point too. Unclear. But when he mentions that RWBY have warrants it just cements in Qrow’s head that Ironwood has gone overboard. And Robyn understands why he would want to arrest the kids, because they’re opposed to the awful plan. She takes out her crossbow on Clover saying she won’t be taken in quietly. But she doesn’t actually load a bolt into it until Clover expressly says he intends to arrest Qrow. Now Clover has his weapon drawn too, and Qrow tries to talk them both down like a sensible person. They’re almost back to Atlas, they can try to reason with Ironwood there. Unfortunately, the peanut gallery won’t shut up and Tyrian says they should stop talking and just kill each other already. And because Robyn is a hothead, she takes that as an invitation. You can feel like you should say or do something daring all you want, but as soon as someone else brings it up that’s in the air now and you can’t go back. So she shoots, Clover blocks, and it looses the bolt Tyrian’s cuffs are tied to. While Qrow gets annoyed and jumps into the fray, the criminal they all just worked so hard to capture gets loose and kills the pilot. He even puts his hat on for a laugh... and then purposefully crashes the ship into the snow. Clover is the only one quick enough to jump out.

We see Qrow walking out of the wreckage and finding Robyn’s body. She’s alive, but she needs medical attention. Clover confronts his friend and says they can get her to a hospital as soon as Qrow surrenders. Qrow points out how manipulative that is, but after everything he’s learned about tonight he’s not too shocked anymore. Like his teammates, Clover implores the other man to just give up, he doesn’t want to have to fight him. But Qrow has been through this song and dance with people he called friends before. This is the inevitable conclusion to associating with a bad luck charm like him, and that’s rather depressing. The two men resign themselves to this inevitable clash and charge each other down. Back in the ship, Tyrian seems to have nary a scratch on him but still has to figure a way out of his cuffs. And he has a very unsettling solution. He manages to dislocate his right thumb so his hand is able to slip out of the tight cords. And then he just hits his hand on the ground and pops it back into place. Personally, I’ve been watching Arrow for 8 years so the concept is nothing new after Oliver Queen has used it to escape from capture on several occasions, and I’m not that affected by seeing it here. But it is admittedly a rather gruesome body horror concept to see out of nowhere so I understand how it might have unnerved or sickened some people. The CRWBY did put out a warning on Twitter to warn people there would be something in this episode that might make people want to puke, and I can believe it would be this. Regardless, the madman unties himself completely and joins Qrow and Clover out in the snow. The two seem evenly matched, but once Tyrian makes his presence known Qrow shifts priorities to taking him down. That leaves him open to Clover’s attacks though, and it becomes an utter free for all. Unfortunately, this is when Tyrian starts talking again. With such a grudge between the bird and the scorpion, why not take Clover out together so they can settle their feud without interruption? It’s a terrible idea of course, and you should never trust Tyrian at his word. He can’t help but screw you over, it’s just his nature~. Qrow doesn’t want to side with this killer, as you would expect. But after Clover has the nerve to throw a goddamn lucky horseshoe at him, the poor guy suffers a lapse in judgement. Better the fight be 2 on 1 against Clover than every man for himself and Qrow having to guard against two opponents, I guess. So he stops attacking Tyrian and the bastard laughs his ass off at how the tables have turned and things have grown so chaotic before the two charge at Clover.

The makeshift teamwork does a good enough job of keeping Clover off his guard and they land a few hits on him, but he still fends them off fairly well and holds his own. The back and forth continues until Clover hooks Harbinger and knocks it out of Qrow’s hands. While he gets back to his feet and tries to decide if he can reach it, Tyrian is trying to claw at Clover with his hands. We see his hands glowing with his Aura so we can assume he’s trying to tear open a weak spot like he did against Fiona back in Chapter 6. But the Ace Op is nimble enough to dodge all that and wraps the faunus up in his fishing line again. To Tyrian’s apparent delight, Qrow decides to just run in and gut punch Clover instead of retrieve his weapon. And that gamble works for the moment, the punch breaks Clover’s Aura. Qrow tries one last time to talk to his former ally, to ask why he had to be so stubborn and loyal to the man telling him to do such awful things. But Clover says sticking to his convictions was a hard choice but the only right one in his mind. He trusts Ironwood after all these years, and even after knowing each other for so little time Clover really wanted to be able to trust Qrow. But their morals and ideals just aren’t aligned. In an instant, everything changes and tragedy has struck viciously and swiftly. Tyrian was left unsupervised again, and grabbed Qrow’s weapon... the same weapon that has just been thrust through Clover’s back and out his chest to leave a splash of blood on the snow. We see the reveal in a visually captivating silhouette shot where the only color besides the black of the bodies is the grey of the sky... and the bright red covering the blade. Harbinger is pulled back out of Clover’s back, he stumbles away dropping his now bloody lucky badge before falling onto his back, and Tyrian tosses the murder weapon into the snow. See, Tyrian thought it would be fun to frame Qrow for his friend’s murder and then run away while the incoming police arrest the huntsman instead of him. Only he would find that fun, Qrow is just enraged and wants to kill him where he stands. But he can’t give chase because he decides it would be better to stay with Clover in his final moments. So Tyrian gets away, oh goody... Clover seems to say he understands and he doesn’t really blame Qrow, but Qrow promises he will make sure James takes the fall for this. It was his paranoid overreacting and crazy plans to isolate Atlas from the world that lead to the arrest warrants and this whole fight after all. That’s not to say Qrow and Robyn don’t have some of the blame for getting riled up and fighting rather than surrendering to the law. But the initial problem was Ironwood. Clover wishes him good luck and breaths his last before succumbing to his wounds, and we see the sun rising behind them. Everything from the dinner party in episode 8 until now has taken place over a single brutal night... and a new day is here with new determination to make things better. But before that, we have to talk about what this whole scene meant for these two, and what they meant for the fandom.

Ever since they started interacting in Chapter 3, and even since people noticed all the good luck charms Clover carried, people had been shipping Qrow and Clover together. There is nothing wrong with doing so, their chemistry seemed quite healthy and playful and they seemed to bring the best out of each other. Clover’s good luck gave Qrow hope that he could bond with someone without that ending in misfortune like his presence has caused so often before. Even if you didn’t ship them and just thought they were good friends, you had to admit they worked well together. And a healthy male friendship is nothing to be discouraged by either. A mlm relationship is completely acceptable and to be honest is rarely seen in animated shows in comparison to wlw romances. We have a lot of female characters in this show especially so the shippers had a lot of fuel for lesbian pairings while Martial Arcs (Ren and Jaune) was one of the only gay male ships that got anywhere near as popular. But then Lucky Charm, or Luck of the Caw as I personally called it, came around and so many people were happily on board. And now Clover has died, and a few people are quite outraged. But here is what must be understood. This pairing had only just started and for all the flirting and chemistry we saw between the two men, they were not in a relationship. There was no more proof that they were headed that way than there was for Bumbleby after Volume 1. Sure there were plenty of good moments between those two in that Volume, but their bond had not grown and developed to what we see it is now. Lucky Charm was still in that early stage and we cannot explicitly say Qrow and Clover were going to be a couple. You can be sad they didn’t end up that way, no doubt about that. But this is not a case of that old tragic trope of “bury your gays”. We had no confirmation that Clover was a gay man, or that Qrow is either. We can infer things from their conversation, but that’s it. An unfortunate loss to the fandom, yes. But this was likely not intentional baiting. And it is too bad that we couldn’t have this ship become canon, it would be great to have more mlm relationships in cartoons. Even if it only stayed a friendship, we need more of those that aren’t just macho action heroes. These two were emotionally open with one another and expressed their thoughts and doubts. It was a great thing while it lasted, but hatred over what could have been should not be the response to it ending. Nuff said.

One has to also wonder how the other Ace Ops are going to react to their leader being killed. He was the most level headed of the bunch and the one to keep them all in check when egos or tempers ran high. What would they do without him? We will have to see. But as Qrow screams in sorrow and frustration in the cold snow, the fans are left just as cold on the inside while we wait for the finale where things will hopefully wrap up on a better note. Like I said at the top, the night is darkest just before the dawn. And we literally see the dawn coming over the horizon behind Qrow. This is tragic, demoralizing and polarizing. But it is sure to be the worst this Volume gets. So lets all band together and face the new day with optimism and hope.

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tonotbelionized · 4 years

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Volume 7, Episode 4: Pomps & Circumstances

Well, that was... an episode. I honestly had difficulty writing this review and needed a few days to think things through properly, especially with the ending and some important characters coming back. So, let’s just get into it!

The biggest thing that jumped out to me was the Monochrome food. I loved it, Monochrome is one of my biggest OTPS, and the small details during that scene with Jacques and Weiss, as well as the rest of her team’s reactions, they were just so good. Ruby seemed confused and upset, Yang was yangry, but Blake looked furious. She knows what it’s like to be in Weiss’ shoes, and the hand holding just shows that she’s there for Weiss, as well as the rest of the team.

Adding onto Ruby’s small expression changes with Weiss’ counter to Jacques. She’s sad when Weiss says they’re not friends, likely because not only is this coming off the revelation that Harriet doesn’t see her team as friends, but reminds her of her and Weiss’ less than great start in Beacon. Weiss wasn’t there to make friends, and she and Ruby clearly didn’t get along, so hearing her say that after everything they went through scared Ruby.

But that’s not what Weiss meant. Ruby isn’t her friend, because she’s her family. With that last bit, Ruby’s expression completely changes to happiness because Weiss is acknowledging that, yes, Ruby is not only a teammate, a partner, and a friend, but she’s Weiss’ family.

They’re all Weiss’ family now, and for someone who actually has the biggest family of the girls and yet felt the loneliest, that seemed like the best thing for Weiss at that moment. Jacques may be her father, but he’s not family.

It definitely makes up for the ballsup with Weiss’ “White Guilt” complex in the last episode that I really hated, and I’m just glad for more interactions between the girls that aren’t partners.

On top of that, the way Team RWBY is played off of the Ace Ops following Harriet’s confession is interesting. While I’ll note something that I didn’t quite like later on, I did enjoy that how Ruby views her team and how Harriet views her team sets the two kingdoms apart nicely. Ozpin believed in working together, that your partner was someone you would have to trust and work with, along with your team, for the four years they were at Beacon, and even after they graduate.

He encouraged the girls to be children, to have fun and not worry about the war that was going on in the shadows, and it’s clear that above all else, he wanted the teams to be ones that work together not only professionally, but emotionally as well. It fits into not only his personality, but his whole goal. He wants everyone to be united and that starts with the students under his care.

James is more practical and professional. He treats Ozpin and Glynda like close friends, and he’s nice enough to Ruby and the other students, but he makes no mistake in letting them know that he’s the general and that he’s not their friend. He pushes for the Academy to funnel into the military, and isn’t against Atlas’ push for unity and conformity regardless of what the individual might want.

It’s reflected in their teachings. While Ozpin wants his students to remain kids and not worry, Ironwood already pushed for his students to be ready for war, regardless of whether they’re still children or not. He told Penny in the earlier volumes that they were no longer at a time of peace, and that she had to be ready, and he was the most clinical and professional when telling Pyrrha their plan to take Amber’s remaining maiden powers. He isn’t as callous as Qrow, but he doesn’t try to soften the blow or show disapproval to the plan like Glynda and Ozpin.

So while Team RWBY have come to see their team as family that’s gotten stronger because of all the hardships they’ve been through, the Ace Ops just see it as part of the job. They’re a team, they are supposed to protect and fight alongside each other, but that doesn’t mean they’re family. Yet it’s interesting that the rookie of the group, Marrow, doesn’t seem to share that sentiment. It could be that he hasn’t been in the mindset for very long or his personality just doesn’t work with that ideal, but we’ll have to wait and see if anything comes of it.

The only downside I have to it is that it would’ve driven it home better if the Ace Ops didn’t act so chummy with each other. I never would’ve thought Harriet didn’t consider her team friends from her interactions with Marrow last episode, with teasing him over the fact that they have to “babysit” him. Or how close Vine and Elm seem to be. It just would’ve helped if they stayed professional with each other to counteract how close and personal with each other Team RWBYJNR are.

Moving onto the scene at Amity Arena, it was... there. I didn’t hate it, I didn’t like it. I’m just... meh.

I did like that the group were interacting with each other outside of not only their partners, but their teams. It was nice to see Yang joking around with Penny, or that Weiss was chatting with Ren before Nora came in. It makes them actually feel like friends that want to talk to each other, rather than having to be in the same scene because they’re the protagonists. However, I got annoyed because no one mentioned OSCAR. He’s once again been shafted from the group.

No one even asks where he is, no one even thinks about saving him some cake, or sad that he couldn’t join. It just makes it seem once again that the group just don’t care about him, and after all the bullshit they put him through last Volume, I’m beyond annoyed anymore. Please CRWBY, stop shafting my son.

I like that once again, Ruby is isolated herself from the group, just like she did in the Brunswick farm and after the fiasco with Jaune and Oscar in the last volume.

She seems to shoulder all her negative feelings by herself, but this time, rather than her just happening across Maria or Qrow busying himself with a drink, Qrow extends help out to her. Ruby is finally able to talk about what’s bothering her and Qrow isn’t thinking about his own problems without a care for anyone else like last volume. I was so happy when we finally got Summer lore after like seven volumes of hardly anything about her, and we see under the surface about how Ruby truly feels about her deceased mother.

It’s not much, but I’m glad it’s there. It was interesting that she kept secrets from her team and even Ozpin, and that the mission she died on wasn’t one that Ozpin sent her on, so the annoying ass theory that he’s somehow responsible is taken out back and put down like Old Yeller. Though I do wish it was Taiyang and Ruby talking about her, just because there’s barely any interactions between them despite Ruby also being his daughter, but it was only a mild thing for me. Overall, a very cute scene.

That being said, the topic about it... wasn’t. It was trash.

I’m tired of the whole “Ruby lying is totally different to Ozpin lying!” because it’s really not, and Qrow trying to spin it that Ozpin was keeping the truth from everyone while Ruby is letting people in is... bullshit?

WHO has Ruby let in? She couldn’t control whether her team, Qrow and Maria knew the truth because they were there when Jinn told her. She told Team JNR not because of any practical reason, but purely emotional reasons. She told them not because “Oh they’ve proven they can be trusted so they can know now.”, but “They’re my friends and I have to tell them.”

She hasn’t told anyone else. She hasn’t told Penny, the Ace Ops, Winter, even Ironwood. When should she tell them? What do they have to do to prove to Ruby that they can be trusted? What about Penny sharing the very classified information about her being a robot to Ruby, or Ironwood telling them about his plans that only a hand selected few know? Is that not enough for Ruby to think “Okay, they trust me with this, so I should trust them.”

And Ozpin trusted the Pod Squad with way more than anyone else. They knew about Salem, the war, Maidens, Magic, the Gods, everything that Ozpin himself knew except that Salem can’t be killed. And what would be the point of saying? Tell them that, freak everyone out, and just have them more likely to leave because there’s no point, even though they can still do some good by protecting the people from the Grimm that definitely won’t leave even if they could kill Salem? Or keep it from them and have them continue fighting because otherwise what else could you do? Roll over and let everyone die?

And the worst thing is? Ruby lying wasn’t a bad thing. It was interesting, I wanted to see how she’d cope with knowing that maybe Ozpin had a reason to lie, that being betrayed over and over and over again for centuries has a way of fucking up someone’s ability to trust, and that now she’s in the leadership role without Ozpin to fall back on like in her Beacon days. It’s a complex issue, and if this scene is just Qrow saying this and now feeling like the show itself is pushing it, then I would be fine.

It’s how a character sees a problem. Just because Qrow believes that Ruby’s different from Ozpin doesn’t mean it’s actually right, but Ruby isn’t being challenged on that. Oscar isn’t there to give that counter argument, and the rest of the team is so hypocritical that it would just annoy me if they did. Blake’s kept secrets, Yang’s kept secrets, Qrow’s kept some pretty big secrets, and now with the latest episode, Weiss has a secret to keep as well.

That doesn’t mean they’re horrible people, and Ozpin keeping his doesn’t make him an asshole like the team, and by extension some of the FNDM, likes to think.

I hope Team RWBY and Ozpin can reconcile, and not just have one or the other be the only one in the wrong. The way the show is going, however, I’m worries that only Ozpin will be shown as in the wrong and have to apologise.

Moving on to the final scene, I’m so happy that Whitley came home. I missed my son.

But more seriously, I’m glad they actually showed that, yes, Whitley is being abused just like Weiss is, and without Weiss there for him to keep his walls up, we’re finally able to see him as the vulnerable teenager who scared and alone. His voice actor did great in portraying the nervousness and fear that Whitley was clearly feeling, and we know it’s not because of Watts because Whitley just sorta glares at him when he finally appears.

It’s Jacques that Whitley’s scared of. Even as the “Golden Child”, Whitley isn’t exempt from the same abuse that Winter and Weiss went through. Here’s to hoping they don’t throw yet another male abuse victim under the bus by making Whitley evil or something.

And on the topic of Watts, he’s just becoming more and more of my favourite villain. Hazel and Tyrian still outrank him, but these past two episodes have done more to endear him to me than the past three years he’s been in the show. Only downside is that “have your cake and eat it too?” line felt kinda cheesy and didn’t really bring home how intimidating Watts as a villain could truly be.

Given that Jacques knows him enough to call him by his first name, I’m curious to see what’s more for our Lorax Hacker Man.

So that’s it. Definitely the best episode of the volume so far given that I couldn’t find any BIG problems with it like the last episodes, and even though it was definitely slower, there was still tension in it without there being any fighting. Eddie did a great job with this episode and I’m looking forward to more of his works.

Episode Rating: 8.5 / 10

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 7 spoilers #episode review #crtq #I put all these points in a doc last week and with the newest episode out #my thoughts on some things have changed #it'll be elaborated in the next review

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