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I never posted this apparently??? gotta change that

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If anything, this volume just tells me that Team RWBY were never friends, and trapping them together on some other-worldly plane of existence has really shown just how bad their connection is.

Especially their connection with Ruby.

EP9 made me feel so bad for her, but not in the way CRWBY intended me to feel. They wrote this to make me feel as if there is hope for ascension and renewal, but actually, it just made me realize how alone and neglected Ruby had always been by her own team.

Even taking her own life made them have no reaction. They smoothly eased into the acceptance of Ruby's death and moved on to Jaune. The text shows that Ruby had never been valued as a person by her friends or sister.

It does make Ruby feel relatable in the sense that she's experienced intense loneliness and nobody bothered to check on her. I've seen posts that cast blame on Ruby for never speaking up, but I think they're missing the point of how ignorant her teammates have always been to Ruby. A lot of people who suffer don't always speak up, because they feel like they can't.

EP9 doesn't help Yang, Blake, and Weiss. They look like awful people that Ruby should've ditched years ago. They didn't really love her, they just felt obligated to love her.

Just to add that cherry on top, they're saying Ruby taking her own life was good. By extension, CRWBY is saying what Ruby did was okay. That is so sad and miserable to come away with.

And now she will come out a way better person... for them.

Also here's a Reddit post that really puts it all down way better than I could:

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#fuck if i’ll collect my weapon myself. maybe walk into the ocean and never come out. thanks for nothing.

“tHaNks fOR nOtHiNg!!”

“Why’d they all just ditch Ruby?” I NOTICED THAT TOO !! PLS how is that going over the writers head? How in the world do they not see what terrible/oblivious friends they’re making WBY out to be 🤣. Weiss keeps “accidentally” reminding Ruby of how much she’s fucking up, last episode Blake scolded her for thinking about Remnant, and Yang gets mad at her for being in the ever after. They’re doing more to make me feel bad for Ruby than the stupid herb trip shit on god.

like jesus christ they're supposed to be FRIENDS. In the first episode Ruby says that she'd fuckin KILL HERSELF to go after Yang (she's lying about why they're actually down there in the moment but to say that the way she did makes me think she'd do it in other circumstances) but I do not get the impression that the others would do the same for her. They keep ditching her, scolding her, ignoring or glossing over her obvious distress. The Ace Ops had a more believable friendship than this I swear to god.

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reading the commentary notes about the ace ops makes me wonder if the writers know those characters are supposed to be in their 20s-30s and not 15.

I feel like the Ace Ops severely messed with our understanding of age and maturity in RWBY, right when I was finally beginning to accept what we were told vs. what we were shown (regardless of how much I disagreed with it). As is evident by my earlier recaps, I very much considered the group to be “kids,” literal ages aside, just because that’s how the show treated them. Ruby as our leader is two years younger than the rest and Oscar as our host, arguably the most important fighter in this war now, is at least two years younger than her. Everyone attends a school that’s framed more like high school than college, with Ozpin emphasizing that they’re “just children” and Ironwood asking if his, “children can win a war.” When things really go to hell, they react precisely how we’d expect a bunch of inexperienced, terrified, still-growing fighters to react. This one is still under the thumb of her father. This one instinctively leaves to go back to her parents. This one is recovering in bed while her family cares for her and this one made the incredibly foolish, immature decision to leave for a dangerous mission on a whim. What says “kid” more than the literal plot point of running away from home, leaving only a ‘Bye, Dad!’ note behind? Ruby needs her uncle to stealthily follow behind and take care of various problems because the show establishes that even with three friends at her side, she’s just not equipped to be out in the real world by herself yet. Everything from “Weiss doesn’t have the power to refuse her father’s demands. She’s literally locked in her bedroom” to “The group barely got started before losing their map of all things, rookie mistake” characterizes them as young teens stumbling their way through a dangerous world with little experience and fewer resources. This is a story about growing up.

Things only continued to spiral through Volume 5 and the beginning of Volume 6: Yang demonstrates a petulant, childish attitude at the birds reveal and makes demands she can’t uphold herself, they react to the Relic’s priceless questions like they’re a party favor (treating this whole war like a fun adventure, not a dangerous responsibility), Ruby continues to ignore the important questions about her mother and her eyes, few of them have compelling motivations for throwing themselves into this fight, and when push comes to shove they act precisely how the adult said they would, crumbling under the threat of Salem’s immortality. Everything we see continues to paint them as willfully ignorant, inexperienced, or immature. Which is a good thing. I may not personally like how long this went on, but that’s some deep and complex setup to take the characters from the kids they’re currently acting like to the heroes they could very easily be. I kept waiting for them to wake up, realize their mistakes, and start taking their shortcomings seriously.

Instead, Volume 6 gave us the “We don’t need adults” speech, ridiculous airship theft, and by the time we reach Volume 7, the group has not only had their mistakes brushed aside, but were making even more while being made into licensed huntsmen. Despite refusing to allow the group to grow up, the story insists they're now the most mature, talented party around.

Okay. I fundamentally disagree, but at least I was starting to wrap my head around that idea. But then, we got the Ace Ops.

Despite introducing them as the more talented fighters who are clearly succeeding with their way of doing things, their professionalism is then immediately treated like a character flaw, re-emphasizing that the group’s Power of Friendship approach trumps everything else by default, not matter how often it fails, or how often the plot needs to bend to make allowances for it. Yet despite that distance, later the Ace Ops are shown to be the most emotionally volatile too, with Harriet and Elm in particular becoming furious to the point of ineptitude in battle, despite the fact that their detached nature is what the show was originally criticizing. So what, it’s both? RWBYJNOR is simultaneously better because they don’t take a professional approach to saving the world, but are also capable of remaining more professional than the actual professionals?

And then there’s Marrow. Marrow who is treated as the newcomer and the least experienced of the bunch, despite the fact that he has had much more training than our heroes and is at least several years older than them. He’s nevertheless treated as the baby out of everyone here (prone to too much excitemnent, put in his place by Robyn and Weiss, needing to be rescued and guided)… which is a characterization that gets really weird when, later, he’s the one to mourn about “kids” entering battle. Again, which is it? RWBYJNOR aren’t any older than Neon and Flynt—they’re possibly younger—so if it’s a tragedy that they’re fighting for Atlas, why the hell is it heroic for Ruby to try and lead the whole war? And if Marrow is characterized as the youngest and most inexperienced of the Ace Ops, who is he to be shaking his head at other, still growing fighters defending their kingdom?

RWBY has created a world where the protagonists are better simply by virtue of being protagonists. We spent years establishing them as the young, upstart fighters with incredible hurdles to overcome… only to, in the span of less than half a Volume, suddenly insist that they’re already perfect. And yes, that’s how the story acts, no matter how many times Ruby might say she’s made mistakes. What we’re shown is entirely different and, notably, that doesn’t even take into account how often another character (Qrow, May, Yang) will come in and insist that she’s wrong. She did do everything right. Nowadays, the group is characterized as superior to every other ally they encounter. They know better than Ozpin who has fought this war for over a thousand years. They know better than Qrow who kept them alive throughout this journey. They know better than Ironwood, general and headmaster of Atlas, who was already developing a new plan while they were just getting told the basics. They know better than the hand-picked professionals with years of training and experience. They’re more powerful than those professionals too. Pietro was told off for wanting his daughter not to die, Maria gave her self-imposed guilt trip and announced that the group is better than her despite having never seen them fight at this point, likewise ignoring that she left this war after losing her eyes. Would Yang have thrown herself back into the fray simply for the good of the people? No. We have confirmation that she's only here for Ruby. Then, both Maria and Pietro are forgotten by the story, rendering them insignificant on every level. So unless Theodore is written staggeringly differently from the rest of the adult cast post-Volume 4, there is quite literally no one else for the group to seek guidance from, look up to, or even treat as equals. The Ace Ops came along in a post-“We don’t need adults” version of RWBY, which means they had to very quickly lose their impressive stature. They’re not actually mature adults with a wealth of experience fighting grimm and people alike. They’re mindlessly obedient fuse boxes whose skill can be acquired through a few training sessions and who don’t understand that real power comes from believing in your allies. Unless they disagree with you, of course. Then you just need to lie to them, assault them, or ignore them until they fall in line. If they don’t? They’re not worth the effort. Division, according to the story, is only a problem if you try to divide when there’s no “good” reason to. If you don’t like what’s happening though, then yeah, reject allies whenever it suits. Don’t want to send your friend into her own kingdom alone? Don’t want to own up to the property you stole? Don’t want to take a risk on trust despite demanding the same of others? Don’t want to give up the powerful object in the name of world safety? Don’t want to be arrested after betraying your allies? Don’t want to compromise on the best way to save lives? Don't want to do anything hard? Well then, division is just fine! Our group died last Volume in large part because they refused to compromise and tried to go it alone, but I have no faith at this point that the story will recognize and extrapolate on that.

The Ace Ops should have been the middle ground. If RWBY really wanted to do a next generation story, the Ace Ops were the bridge between the incredibly optimistic, but inexperienced heroes and the flawed, but powerfully out of reach adults. Here’s a team that looks like what Team RWBY might have been if they’d been allowed to finish their time at Beacon. If they had even more years to grow close to one another. If they were older, a little wiser, and had learned to weather the sort of storm this war was now throwing at them. The Ace Ops could have been mentors, like I thought they would be during the geist fight. But that requires acknowledging that RWBYJNOR needs to improve, so instead we got a crazed Harriet trying to bomb everyone and Yang angrily insisting that they’ve done everything just fine. The Ace Ops are made to be weak and immature so that RWBYJNOR can look better in comparison, so how badly is our title team doing if the comparison is this level of illogical insanity and ineptitude? All the mentors that RWBY has introduced—Ozpin, Qrow, Maria, Pietro, the Ace Ops—have to quickly be made lesser in some way because the idea of our heroes looking up to someone and aspiring to be better is just not on the table.

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Sad Ruby

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That obnoxious thing in me that goes “Psh! You can totally draw something like that.” after seeing an amazing piece of fan art, then after trying (failing) at anything that requires at most a little skill, also convinces me it’s something you’re born with so stop trying.

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Blake and Ruby are both emo, but they’re different flavors of it

Blake is “Mad World” but Ruby is “Holiday”

Ruby is “You’re Gonna Go Far Kid” but Blake is “Mr. Brightside”

Please tell me you understand because I literally can’t explain any better than this

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With Ruby and abandoment problems (**non canon, mostly theoretical talk**): it's fairly common for children to develop unhealthy attachment issues when they're cared for by mostly an older sibling, combined with loss of a parent. Like Ruby being overly attached to her weapon, not being willing to let Yang be on her own during the first volume, and a desire to follow on the footsteps of the rest of the family (to become a Huntress - help others just like her parents taught her).

Yup! Even talking about what is in the canon (meaning, what we see on screen even if it's not really acknowledged by the story proper), we've got a lot of implications attached to Ruby's major character beats:

A dead mother who she remembers enough to picture, but didn't fully understand the loss when it happened (according to Yang)

Not yet given any closer about how she died or, at this point, even if she died

May have received a lot of parental-like support from her sister while their father recovered from his wife's "death"

That bond led to moments like trusting Yang to take her out into the woods — to find her absent mother — and nearly getting killed by grimm

Is let into a combat school two years early and is framed as so socially awkward she'd rather look at everyone's weapons than make friends

By the next day she's made leader of her team, shouldering responsibility for three older fighters, including her sister

Witnessed Yang (supposedly) break a peer's leg after he'd bowed out of the fight

Arrived just in time to find the dismembered body of her friend Penny

Participated in a horrific fight they ultimately lost, leading to the destruction of their school

Witnessed her friend Pyrrha turn into a cloud of gold dust as she's murdered

Wakes up an undetermined amount of time later, realizes Beacon is lost realizes the rest of her team is gone, realizes Yang lacks an arm, is told she has a super special magical eye power

Runs off to hunt down the woman who succeeded in killing a (frankly) more skilled fighter, leaving her PTSD-riddled sister in the process, something she'll later break down in tears over

Is unable to protect herself from a kidnapping attempt and her uncle nearly dies from poison while saving her

Learns that said beloved uncle has kept his semblance hidden her whole life and also, FYI, there's an evil grimm queen trying to kill everyone

Happily gives herself over to Ozpin's leadership until she decides to steal his entire backstory, learning Salem is immortal in the process

Proceeds to nearly die while facing the Apathy

Unanimously rejects all help from adults up until now, only accepting future help if she remains in control

Starts a needless fight with a military official to get to Atlas

Staunchly ignores everything war related while spending time there

Insists she's nothing like Ozpin despite repeating his exact choices

Flinches from the idea that her team is like the Ace Ops in embracing some level of professionalism

(Ruby is simmering in denial this arc)

Turns on her allies when no good option is available

Positions herself to the whole world as the leader they should believe in and look up to

Proceeds to hide out for the rest of the fight

Hits on a last minute attempt at escape that very much reflects the idea she originally condemned (use the Staff, not everyone gets to make it out, etc.)

Watches her sister die

Dies herself

Ruby is a mess. In the sense that this girl has been through trauma after trauma that yeah, could (arguably should) result in someone with abandonment issues and a warped ability to handle making mistakes because she's The Leader and would likely think she isn't allowed. The last couple of years I've been watching this character and wincing at how far she's spiraling. Ruby is starting needless fights. She's anxious over her team wanting time to themselves and outright panicking over the idea of separating for a short-term mission. She (and everyone else) treats a simple criticism as a slap to the face and leans heavily into any reassurance that she's actually doing things perfectly. She's making grand statements about saving everyone, as The Leader must, but then hiding away because she doesn't actually know how to solve any of these problems. Ruby will confidently condemn Ironwood, confidently take out the Ace Ops, confidently tell the world to turn to her... and then sit with tea, commenting on how sad it is that everyone else is dying because when push comes to shove, when she actually has to fix things after making those promises and condemning other options, she freezes.

And damn if that's not a really compelling story. Ruby is fascinating in her current status as a teenager who, to be blunt, is trying to run a war she's not in ANY way ready for. It's interesting to see a story that (quite unintentionally) goes, "What happens if you put a thoroughly traumatized 17yo in charge of saving the world? Things go very badly." The only problem is that RT doesn't realize that's the premise they've given us, so 99% of Ruby's compelling characterization is ignored. Her social anxiety was quickly dropped. No time is given to her working through Pyrrha and Penny's death, not even when Penny was resurrected. Ruby's relationship with Summer was ignored for most of the series until the 'She's a grimm' reveal was suddenly dropped into the mix. And worse, the numerous mistakes Ruby has made lately — made out of grief and panic and optimistic stubbornness — aren't acknowledged as mistakes. She's not allowed to grow from them. Ruby continues to simmer in all the unacknowledged consequences of these experiences while the rest of the cast informs her (informs the audience) that there's nothing to unpack here. Because Ruby is different from Ozpin. May is wrong to have challenged her. Ren is wrong about the entirety of the group's choices lately. Blake is in awe of Ruby despite barely speaking with her for five Volumes. Yang doesn't even remember she fought with her sister, that's how unimportant the idea of Ruby making a mistake is — now she's worried about Blake. Ruby has a WEALTH of experiences to draw from in order to develop her character, but at ever turn the story insists that no development is needed because look, she's always right. There's no trauma, denial, abandonment, unhealthy attachment, or fear at work that might push Ruby towards questionable choices. There's nothing to explore here.

Which is why so many fans are worried about Volume 9 because the Volume 8 finale dumped a ton of new experiences on top of what we still have going all the way back to Summer's "death." Ruby watched Yang die. She basically died herself. Two Relics are lost. Jaune killed Penny. They'll eventually find out that all the evacuees are lost in a grimm-infested desert. If we can trust our visuals, they failed to evacuate everyone else, including Maria and Pietro. I want Ruby to break. Not out of some desire for angst porn or whatever, but because she's been through so much that the show has continually glossed over, reiterating that these experiences have had no impact on Ruby's ability to make perfect leadership decisions, regarding a war she only just learned about, no less. If RWBY were still a silly action show I wouldn't care at all about the glossing (that's normal in a ton of other stories), but post-Volume 3 RWBY has gone hard on that impact for other characters. It's going to be more than a little jarring if Ruby just picks herself up after everything and the show continues to insist that she's just fine, making fine decisions, everything is fine here. In the show that now gives whole arcs to trauma recovery for some characters and uses trauma as the catch-all reason for why others made their horrific decisions for, why would we ever think that Ruby might be negatively influenced by everything she's gone through since stepping on screen? I'd love to see how socially anxious, lost-at-least-three-loved-ones-to-murder Ruby intersects with world leader Ruby, both in terms of how she overcomes her previous limitations and the (acknowledged) mistakes she makes as an inevitable byproduct of growing up.

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Obligatory tiny distressed Ruby?

she needs many naps