#IRONWOOD VS QROW AND ROBYN PLEASE

[spectralscathath]

Can you do Qrow for the character ask please?

I haven't done one of these in ages but I've done two like last year so I'll do the one of those for qrow that I didn't do for him, if that makes sense.

send me a character and i’ll list:

favorite thing about them: He really does have one of the best fighting styles in the cast, its clear the animators have a favourite.

least favorite thing about them: I don't like how his alcoholism has ended up being treated. If they were going to switch from its a funny joke to something serious, in keeping with rwby growing up, then they should have continued treating it seriously instead of writing it off entirely once that plot idea was done. By all rights, if Qrow was going off the drink in Atlas, he should have probably spent most of vol7 in a jocker. It's not an easy thing to give up and the effects are often unpleasant, sometimes life threatening. At the very least he should have been getting resources to handle it instead of just 'nah I don't do this anymore'.

favorite line: "Well, we're all glad you're still here, firecracker." (the hypothetical bond Qrow and Yang should have is great, wish it got focus)

brOTP: Summer and Qrow's hypothetical best friendship is great and I love it. Sorry, but hummingbird is not something I see romantically, it just doesn't work out for me.

OTP: Taiqrow, though if we want things to be spicy I'm not opposed to a little Tyriqrow

nOTP: Ironqrow, James deserves better (I'm also not big into Ozqrow, though that's just because the vibes don't hit me)

random headcanon: Cannot drive. At all. Why would he need to, he can fly. He can't even hotwire a car.

unpopular opinion: I wish Qrow died in the tyrian/clover/qrow fight, all his writing from that point on has been shit and it might have been more fun for Ruby's character if she had to deal with that. He's utterly unlikable in vol8 and he also doesn't even do anything. He sits around complaining about wanting to kill James, takes no responsibility for his own actions in Clover's death, and then completely switches tracks from 'fight james' to 'fight harriet' because... Robyn said? Idk, they set up a Harriet vs Winter and a Qrow vs Ironwood fight in vol8 and delivered on neither, that's not subversive, that's just boring.

song i associate with them: Walk by Foo Fighters.

favorite picture of them: Bastard (affectionate, at least back then)

[localboop]

Ultimatum

As the fog of war covers the kingdom, Atlas nears its breaking point.

Duration: 18:50

[femininetea]

"Always expecting betrayal... But never from you"

The general who became a father to his soldier (spoilers for rwby v8 ch13)

Personal impressions:

I was so mad last week, thinking IW would have been defeated already/too soon but they tricked us. And I'm so glad it's a Winter vs. Ironwood fight. And the emotions.... I can't.

He was her father figure and I'm sure it was viewed like that from both sides. We were clearly shown what IW would do if anyone was in his way. Even when she disobeyed he didn't shoot her. He trusted her until the last moment.... We saw him get mad, break down and hopeless. But never cry. It's not just any soldier he's fighting. He's fighting his right hand. Winter Schnee, someone who was like a daughter to him.

But let's get to their actual relationship.

An essay on Winter in RWBY is planned btw.

Winter seems to have the highest rank in the military next to Ironwood, which is impressive for her age and shows her determination but also how IW believes in her

In V4 Jacques claimed that IW "stole his daughter" and IW hinted at that they often had this conversation

In V7 Jacques asked IW if Winter knew that Weiss returned to Atlas

From the point of V2 and V3 it seems that Winter still had contact to Jacques but not as much anymore in V7, something happened and I think because of the dust embargo IW and Jacques had their confrontation and Winter obviously chose IW's side and detached from her father completely

(It was always hinted (and I think even stated in the remnant guide book) that Winter protected her siblings and had to take the most abuse. And you can clearly see that by her type of fight or flight trauma and how she's literally supposed to represent the ice queen with her hidden emotions and stuff

You see her in that state of shock, fear, panic, trauma etc. when she realizes that she failed Ironwood. He was proud of her for catching Yang, Ren and Jaune and put his hand on her since they would be useful. Harriet then told him and I think this represents how someone like IW would be able to hurt her that much emotionally since he is in the position of an authority and a father figure to her)

Also he was ready to shoot his people at any time like the council man or Marrow but he didn't shoot her and allowed her to stay by her side

That and how she defends IW most of the time show how she trusts her judgment, IW trusts her judgement as well as seen in V4 when he told Jacques that Winter told him that there was a threat in Mistral

In World of Remnant we see IW walking past soldiers and Winter standing out. It was about the technical grooming of atlas students to join the military but you can tell from what we know of Ironwood, that he has a good heart (eruption fang made a vid on that recently)

When Winter told Weiss that "the general would have a place for you" She said it with such happiness, atlas and the military was winter's new home and IW gave her the chance to repurpose her life

She even defended IW in front of Jacques, her biological father and she takes great personal offense when his judgement is mistreated. Even when Weiss talked about trust Winter said that he would never hide anything from her

The offer with the Winter Maiden... You could say that he did this to control her and I'd accept your opinion... But there's one thing that makes me think that he still obviously also cared for her. Over the years he knew how much the military meant to her. She even told Penny that her life doesnt matter and only her job does. It means everything to her and like Winter said herself, she saw the Maiden powers as a privilege and it makes me feel like Ironwood saw them as something that would make her unique and give her once again a purpose that is unique to her and not just her being one of many soldiers

He even apologized, knowing it wouldn't be easy for her (since he expected Winter and not Ozcar) and when he had his talk with RWBY he called Winter her/Weiss' sister instead of just her name and idk but that just made this even more special

In Volume 8 it is once again shown how Winter is basically the one who also trusted Ironwood until the end. And in ch 12 she didnt judge him... She expressed her worries for his behavior. She couldn't believe the man who made her feel like she was everything would ever become so cruel

They way their worry for each other looks so similar

And while I know that they have a theme for the Atlas military , I think it's obvious how Winter looked even more like IW in all her outfits compared to the rest of the military

Many people think Ironwood is dumb for over trusting Winter but I think it shows his flaw as a general. He let's his emotions get in the way since he cares about her and continues to trust her even though she disobeyed orders

His last words were "As my last order: step aside", he could've just shot her again as she layed defenseless on the ground but he didn't

Remember how in the first episode he said "Thank you Winter, I don't know what I would do without you"

Right before, she said that she'll be fine without him asking anything. It sounds a little more personal in my opinion. Why would you tell your boss that you'll be fine without him asking about your status? the conversation was literally about Qrow and Robyn before but he looked worried and wanted the room for themselves and she immediately said that.

Some people also talk about how they emphasized with Ironwood in volume 7 since wasn't shown to have family or a partner yet would do anything for Atlas. But again, he did care about Winter a lot and wanted her to be save.

Something I also noticed when writing this is that in volume 3 Ironwood called her Schnee yet in V7 he calls the Ace Ops and her via first name basis. Clover said that he trusts Ironwood with this life and I think that's how Winter and the Ace ops felt about him, the person who gave them hope. Especially Winter.

And now we're here. Seeing the man cry a tear. We know now, if Winter wins, she has to kill him. Imprisoning him wasn't enough. And I think that will be her final moment of her being a "Ice Queen", when she has to kill him, she will probably turn to her emotional side and grieve.

As mentioned, the military, her position, her rank and Ironwood meant everything to her. She talked so enthusiastically when she had her conversation with Weiss about moving in together without their father and how IW has a place for her younger sister. And now along with Ironwood, both are in a situation they never thought they'd be in.

That was it from me. In short form , I just wanted to share some ideas and things I've noticed about their relationship and dynamic. None of this is meant as a romantic way and you can of course disagree but please stay respectful. Thank you and we'll see each other next chapter<3

P. S. Winter please don't die

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “The Final Word”

Well, we made it to the finale, everyone, and if you're reading this it seems you've survived the watching of it too. Barely. To say that some questionable choices were made across these 20 minutes is... an understatement.

But before we delve into the episode, I want you to cast your mind back to November 7th, 2020. A horrible year that heralded a horrible RWBY volume. There, coming off the shaky writing of Volume 7, I posed a number of questions and concerns that the show needed to tackle, with the promise that we would return to these expectations in four months time. Now, here we are! Let's refresh everyone's memory, yeah?

Taken directly from that recap, what RWBY promised us, through various teasers and Q&As, included:

Emphasis on Ruby’s leadership and how Summer’s death has impacted her

Insight into Ren and Nora’s flaws

May Merigold will supposedly have a larger part

More information about The Long Memory (Ozpin’s cane)

Theme of the volume is that you can respect someone but that doesn’t necessarily mean you agree with them

Very short timeline (supposedly just two days)

Yang in particular is very suspicious and distrustful

And you know what? They did all this. In the spirit of being fair and honest to this show, RWBY succeeded in delivering on everything they promised... it was just our foolishness that expected that these ideas would be delivered well. Ruby's leadership took center stage in the form of her hiding for multiple episodes and then others telling her she's still The Best before the plot dropped a solution into her lap... one she could have used at any point prior to this. Summer's death certainly has an impact, though it's an impact born of a crazy reveal that Summer likely isn't dead, but turned into a horrifying grimm monster. Ren and Nora both delve into their flaws, but heaven forbid either grow from that reflection. Ren learns that if he pushes past his primary flaw of keeping his emotions buried and actually expresses his doubts for once, he'll be yelled at and ignored until he admits how wrong he was. The "real" flaw is being a bad friend, with "bad friend" equaling "Not agreeing with Ruby 100%." Meanwhile, Nora considers that maybe she shouldn't rush in recklessly and hit things with her hammer... which is why she rushes in recklessly, hits something with her hammer, gets grievously injured, and is told that this is just who she truly is. No growth there, not unless we count her sudden desire to figure out who she is without Ren... but that exploration hasn't started yet. Too bad she wasn't the teammate separated at the end of the volume!

Meanwhile, May did indeed have a larger role to play, one I quite liked, it's just that this role — like all the others — inevitably circled back to realizing how wonderful Ruby is. May challenges Ruby to make a decision, but instead of being the catalyst for Ruby's growth, May becomes another forgotten side character who does a sudden about-turn regarding her perspective, leaving the group with the contradictory message that Ruby is actually doing her best, she's just a kid, no need to try any harder... everyone who claimed otherwise up until now was mistaken. May is another Cordovin. She's another Qrow. She's another Maria.

Fun fact: we don't even know if Maria is alive right now. That's how little she means to the show!

Actually, wait... anyone remember this nonsense from Volume 7? 

I was too lazy to change the date.

Moving on, Ozpin's cane turned out to be a stakes obliterating bomb that came out of nowhere, makes no sense logistically — how do battles store energy that only hurts grimm? — yet nevertheless seems to have killed Hazel? It's a disaster of unanswered questions. Similar to the disaster of our two day timeline when, I'm fairly sure, we've had an unnatural number of sunrises and sunsets. I'll have to take a look back at the volume as a whole now that it's complete to be sure of that though. As for our themes... did we really explore the idea of respecting someone even if you disagree with them? Because Ironwood wasn't shown any respect. Ren wasn't shown respect. I think the closest we got was Oscar calmly validating Yang's worry about getting buddy-buddy with Emerald, but the whole point there was that Yang was wrong. She wasn't wrong, but that's what the text would have you believe. She is indeed "very suspicious and distrustful," but that's hardly unjustified in these circumstances. I'm still boggling at the fact that it took the group three volumes for forgive Ozpin, even while he was actively working to assist them, yet I-helped-destroy-Beacon-and-tried-to-kill-everyone-you-love Emerald is the group's new BFF after she... ran away with Oscar? She didn't save him, she just went along for the ride. At the very least we might have gotten a scene where Penny was like, "Hey, why are you all laughing with the woman who just tried to kill my dad?"

But oh yeah, the story doesn't remember Pietro exists either. His daughter is DEAD and he hasn't been on screen since Episode Five, let alone there when she passes.

I had my own list going in, including such expectations as "Ozpin bb you got done dirty please acknowledge this" and "Queer baiting, queer baiting… you’re on thin ice at this point, RWBY. Just skate on over to the queer snack bar before you fall straight into the lake." Obviously these needs were not met.

So what, given this mess of expectations, did we end up with?

Our finale — for some reason — breaks the one word title trend with "The Final Word." It's an expression that refers to the final word in an argument or a discussion, the idea of winning by making a last, devastating point. It can also refer to making the final decision on something, which is the best way I'm able to apply the title to this episode (outside of any “final” comparisons). Penny's death is certainly all about choice and making some kind of decision... but on the whole, this title doesn't feel like it fits well. Not like "Worthy" or "Creation" or "Risk." The two latter titles had obvious connections to the episode in question through dialogue and plot, while the former was a deliberate callback to Watts' speech. "The Final Word" feels... less obvious in what it’s trying to say.

That's a minor nitpick though. Let's get into the meat of the episode.

We open on the grimm whale still disappearing, which is weird. I get that it's massively bigger than any other grimm we've seen, but they all turned to dust near instantaneously and it's been, what? At least an hour since Oscar blew it up? Likely longer when we factor in their walk back to the manor, the fight with Ironwood, fixing Penny, and this entire evacuation. It certainly makes for a nice visual, but like so many details in RWBY, it raises unnecessary questions along the way.

The important bit though is that amidst the whale carcass a blob of evil is swirling about. Salem, obviously. 

She’s not reforming in time to actually do anything though, don't worry.

Instead, we cut to the Ironwood vs. Winter fight and there's at least some dialogue this time. Ironwood yells that he's sacrificed everything to keep Remnant safe. Winter yells back that he actually sacrificed everyone else. Obviously, Ironwood should be called out for things like, you know, his unprompted murders, but instead they have Winter listing stuff that she was never shown to have a problem with before. The embargo? "Squeezed Mantle until it broke?" She, as Ironwood's second hand, understood and supported both the decision to close the border and the need to collect resources for a plan designed to take out Salem. I hate that no only did she turn without an ounce of hesitation or grief, but now they're having her act as if Ironwood forced these decisions on everyone, rather than everyone supporting him through them. We all remember Volume 7 when Ruby pressured him to finish Amity, right? And in trust RWBY fashion, most of these words are meaningless. Mantle "broke"? What does that mean? The class disparity did not come about through Ironwood: that's been in the works for generations. The lack of resources made things harder, yes, but when they were reclaimed by Robyn nothing improved. Watts is the one who turned off the heat and Salem attacked Atlas, leaving Mantle alone. Now, all the citizens have escaped through magical portals. So how is Mantle "broken" exactly? More importantly, why is Winter upset over this vague, nonsensical dilemma when she could be yelling about Ironwood wanting to bomb Mantle?

Again: this woman watched Ironwood shoot the councilman, shrugged, and continued to believe in him up until she realized his bomb threat was real. That was one of the main reasons why I thought the councilman might be alive, with Ironwood only shooting a warning shot past him. Because this is how you react to a good person unexpectedly killing someone else

whereas this is what we got from Winter and Harriet.

Hell, Weiss has more of a reaction to Yang telling Ruby things aren't super great right now.

So either Ironwood didn't do something that bad, thereby justifying these tame reactions (unlikely, given where his character ended up), or we should believe based on the animation that everyone was super chill with him killing an unarmed civilian. Which is then directly contradicted when they're like, "You're going to shoot Marrow? Bomb a city?? How could you do such horrible things??? 😲" Friends, buddies, fictional pals... you already watched him murder a dude.

The point is, there's a lot for Winter to be upset about, but she's not upset about that. There's a lot that Winter herself believed in, but the writing has forgotten that. This entire arc went off the rails a volume ago.

Also, why is Ironwood fighting with that giant gun? This is his final battle, presumably ever, and he's wielding this awkward, sluggish weapon we saw him randomly pick up two episodes ago? Let him use his regular guns! Give us a fantastic battle like he had with Watts! Instead, RWBY's final showdown consists of him using this no-name weapon as a unwieldy club in some of the most boring choreography we've seen to date. It doesn't help that this fight needs to share time with three others. Instead of an epic showdown, we're given glimpses of the battle before continually cutting away from it. 

During that first cut we return to the Team RWBY battle where Penny, doing her best to stay out of Cinder's reach, is whisked away on Weiss' wasp.

Too bad she didn't do that for Yang...

Jaune and Nora watch this horror unfold until Jaune says, "Priority one!" and they split. Except... what is priority one exactly? Helping the civilians? I guess, because they don't enter the fight until the very end of it, when everyone else seems to have made it to Vacuo. And you know what, I like that. For once it feels like the group — or at least the B Team — is acting like huntsmen, putting the needs of the people over their own, personal desires. I'm sure Nora wants to help the group after Yang's (presumed) demise and that Jaune would like nothing more than to get his hands on Cinder, but they put those grievances aside to do the work they signed up for. Good job!

My only real gripe is that we don't really see this struggling in the animation, I'm just assuming it's there. In particular, there's a moment when Jaune sends Nora through the portal for reinforcements — not knowing they can't return — and they seem a little too jovial when, by this point, three friends have died.

There's letting your cast be supportive, and then there's having them ignore that three teammates have perished in an abyss. It really doesn't help to sell the idea that Yang, Ruby, and Blake are in any danger here.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Penny tells Weiss that since Cinder is really just after the Maiden powers, she can buy the rest of the group time to escape. Weiss, obviously, isn't fond of this idea... and then the both of them are blasted off the wasp by Cinder's fire. Which they deserve, frankly. They're just having this casual conversation about sacrifice while in the middle of a battle. Did they somehow forget that Cinder can fly too?

Note that multiple attacks from Cinder, another blast, and a hard landing on the pathway gives their auras a knock, but doesn't break them. The primary defense for Yang's aura shattering in a single, simple hit was that everyone is exhausted and running on little to no power... yet here the rest of the cast is, tanking multiple hits as we've come to expect. There is no explanation for Yang's defeat except that the writers chose to ignore the rules of their world for a dramatic death scene... even though that drama was erased a week later as half our team falls into the void too.

We'll get to that though. For now, Cinder corrects Penny's belief with "I want it all" and proceeds to try to finish them off, only for Blake to arrive, having made her choice from last episode about who to help. It's a legitimately nice attack, but I happened to pause at the bEST MOMENT

Anyway.

We leave that fight to return to Qrow and Harriet who have, off screen, started an entirely different battle. What I mean is, last we saw Qrow had broken through the windshield of the airship, roughly pinned Harriet, and was taunting her about getting the fight she wanted. Now, suddenly, he's going “You’re making a mistake, Harriet, what happened to Clover—” as if he's been trying to talk her down this whole time. It's jarring, especially when we consider that Qrow had a volume long "kill Ironwood" arc that was dropped because... Robyn reminded him that murder is bad? RWBY feels like a storytelling pinball machine. Characters bounce from one personality to the next, one perspective and another, round and round until you don't know where they'll end up.

Harriet screams for Qrow to just shut up already and honestly? Same. I love Qrow, he's one of my favorites, but I can't deny that he's been done dirty like so many others since Volume 6. I love who Qrow was, not the mess RWBY has created the last few years.

Time to delve back into fic after recapping!

Sadly though, this strange dialogue wasn't the only "wtf" moment. Harriet is still trying to drop the bomb — which is its own mess of confusing motivations — when Vine and Elm show up on Harriet's ship. Elm begs Harriet not to do this "because you’re our friend!”

Am I glad that they finally acknowledged that the Ace Ops have always been friends? Sure, but why did we spend two volumes claiming otherwise? They were friends, a fantastic team, then Harriet announces that's a lie and we get a bunch of "Team RWBY is superior because they're actually friends" messages. Except this entire time we're still watching the Ace Ops be kind and playful with one another. But they're not friends, the story says. Not friends as they fight these battles. Not friends as they grieve for Clover. Definitely not friends as they react in horror at Ironwood nearly shooting Marrow. No, there's nothing there... until Elm claims there is! Then Harriet reacts in shock. I have friends?

Except Elm was labeled the one "just following orders" by Yang. Elm is the one who shook off Vine after the whale exploded. This isn't the story of one character, Harriet, thinking she was alone and then realizing that people do care for her, this is a story that, seemingly at random, had this group being BFFs or acting like they hated each other — and at each point the visuals are contradicted by the story's message. When they act like friends, we're told they're not friends. When they don't act like friends, we're told they really have been this whole time. I mean, do any of them even care that Marrow teamed up with Qrow and Robyn to take them out five minutes ago? All three were going along with Ironwood's scheme until they were physically stopped, but now Elm is convinced this is a bad decision she needs to talk Harriet down from with the power of friendship?

None of these characters are characters, they're just slapped together reactions based on whatever the plot needs. Who is Elm? I've got no clue. Her personality changes every episode.

Also, love that Qrow moves to stop the bomb from dropping and Harriet screams at him to "Get out of the way!" rather than just... attacking him? She even throws her hands out like she's having a temper tantrum. This feels like schoolyard bickering, not a life or death struggle.

Even though, you know, the audience is aware that the people of Mantle have already been evacuated and Qrow's group is aware that Atlas is falling on top of Mantle as they speak, so... why does the bomb matter? It's going to, what? Destroy the city thirty seconds before Atlas does? Oh no, the horror.

Things then, if you can believe it, get even worse. The bomb is still about to drop, so instead of doing anything to stop it — I mean seriously, we know it takes four people to shoulder the bomb's weight, but you're telling me Qrow and a reformed Harriet can't snag it in a pinch? — Qrow sits there, looks at Clover's pin... and the bomb careens towards the side of the airship instead, stopping.

Because I guess Qrow has good luck now? Or always did and somehow never noticed it? Or his semblance evolved?? Again, we don't know, but it's a bad moment any way you slice it, imo. Qrow has always been defined as the guy with a bad luck semblance and, much like Penny's android struggles, the allure was in watching him overcome those challenges, not having the show erase the challenge entirely. Especially when we don't even understand how it was erased. Qrow just... stops drinking, stops caring for Ironwood, stops wanting to kill Ironwood, stops causing bad luck, I guess. RWBY takes major character traits and flips them off like a light switch, leaving the audience with no emotional tether. We didn't watch Qrow overcome his drinking, or realize he can't bear to kill Ironwood, or discover a way to live life with the horrible hand he was dealt, he just blinks one day and those things are gone. Why? No one is sure. Not even the writers, I'd wager, because otherwise they would have written explanations into the text.

Many in the fandom insist that any basic information provided by the story amounts to "hand holding" when in fact there is a massive difference between the sort of unnecessary exposition that bogs down a tale, and having facts enough for the audience in its entirety to be on the same page about what is actually happening. For example, recently someone argued strongly that the "Penny is human" take is incorrect because Penny isn't human, she has an inhuman body made entirely of aura... yet where in the world does this exist in the story? Ambrosius may have been unsure about what Penny would be prior to removing her robotic parts, but that ambiguity is gone once her body forms, the equivalent of worrying about that gun only for a flag with 'BANG' to appear instead of a bullet. Worrying about something doesn't mean that something actually occurred. Penny appears human, expresses human sentiments, and then, this episode, dies as a human. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck and succumbs to the mortal peril that all ducks face... it's probably a duck. As I said in a recent ask, I implore the fandom to stop writing RWBY's scripts for them. Or rather, do so in some amazing fanfics. Don't do it on critical posts as a means of insisting that your revision is canon.

So Qrow has good luck now, maybe, but this character change doesn't amount to anything because Watts remotely starts the bomb's countdown.

At least he’s entertaining and competent. We had that for a time. 

Back to the main battle, Neo is kicking Ruby's ass. Why? Because there's no consistency in power levels in this show. The ancient woman who hasn't fought in decades dances circles around Neo, highlighting how weak she supposedly is, yet now Neo dances circles around our main character. None of us should expect fights to follow the logic of the world, only what drama the plot wants to stir up. Ruby is eventually knocked down from a hard hit — yet her aura's intact! — and is saved at the last second by Weiss tossing Neo into one of the portals. 

Far more of a problem than the power leveling is that Ruby gives no indication here that Neo just murdered her sister. Again, that's what the characters are meant to believe, yet Ruby is as stoic as she would be fighting a bunch of White Fang grunts. If you showed this scene to a RWBY fan on its own and asked, "What do you think happened prior to this?" the answer would be, "Uh... nothing? Ruby is just fighting Neo like she did on the airship in Volume 3." Nothing about this scene — from dialogue to animation — sells the idea that Ruby just lost the person most important to her in the world.

When we do finally mention Yang, it's Weiss who goes, “Come on, we have to do this for Yang” and the delivery is... meh. Honestly, I normally don't pay much attention to the voice acting, but I had a problem with most of Weiss' lines this episode. The "Leave her alone!" during this fight and later a "Get back!" as she attacks Cinder both fell really flat for me. Given the devastation and charged emotion that's supposed to be here, we can't give her anything better than generic cries that, again, she’d throw at any grunt? In that later scene the animation absolutely helps sell Weiss' distress, but the dialogue is common and the delivery has no emotional punch, leaving it feeling like Yang is just hanging out in Vacuo and they promised they'd beat the baddies before catching up with her. No one but Blake is acting like Yang died.

In fact, we see more emotion from Ruby when Weiss shoves her back, taking the brunt of Cinder's blast.

Weiss' aura breaks, not that that's a danger or anything. Everyone falls before they're injured, Winter gets the Maiden powers, Ren barely has to fight. Losing aura in this show used to be a moment of peril, where just last volume Winter was bruised, bleeding, and now needs an assistive device because she had to continue a battle with no aura. Now it's a joke. Aura breaks left and right across the volume with no repercussions attached to that.

We see a bit of the Blake and Penny vs. Cinder fight where Cinder blasts Blake off the edge. Penny rushes after her because at least one character remembered that they can fly.

Ruby, meanwhile, remembers that she can fly when it benefits her. After getting hit down onto a lower level and watching Crescent Rose plummet, she taunts Neo into an attack with a move that's actually quite good. I like the confidence with which Ruby riles her up and I like the strategy of darting behind Neo to knock her off the path instead. “Whatever you wanted, I hope it was worth it."

The only thing I don't like is that this speed and ingenuity had to disappear to justify Yang falling.

Cinder breaks Ruby's aura from behind though, sending her over too and grabbing onto Neo's leg. In an obvious moment born of the trope, it looks as if Cinder is reaching to help Neo, only for her to snag the Relic instead. “You should have never threatened me," she tells Neo and to Ruby: "you should have never been born.” 

Love that they erased all that cool growth from last episode! And by "love" I mean "hate." As I said last recap, I'm not going to pretend that Cinder's character isn't riddled with problems, but realizing she was stronger by teaming up with Neo and Watts was one of the best things they've ever done for her. It made Cinder dangerous again and showed Watts' speech having a clear impact. It also made her more entertaining, creating a new dynamic among the three villains. Now though, Cinder is just... Cinder. The same boring, stupid Cinder we've had since Volume 4. She betrays Neo and then later betrays Watts.

So Cinder kicks Neo and Ruby both over the edge because why would we want to make her interesting? Neo falls, but Ruby has friends there to catch her! Unlike Yang. Jk. Weiss’ aura is gone and Blake actually tried both times, so major kudos for her. Using momentum supplied by Penny, she snags Ruby and hooks her weapon into one of the pathways... only for Cinder to cut the ribbon. Both plummet and once again Penny has a more believable reaction to all this, just like she did last week

Speaking of reactions, does anyone else find it weird that Cinder finally succeeded in killing Ruby and... doesn’t seem to care? 

No? Just me? 

At least we get that good animation with Weiss I was talking about before, even if the dialogue is lacking. I love that she snagged Blake's weapon and uses it to try and take out Cinder, shaking the whole time. Those are some great details. 

Back to the bomb, Qrow is trying to escape, but Harriet says there isn't enough time to get out of the blast range. "I've killed us all." Vine has the solution though, using his semblance to wrap up the airship, thus containing the blast when it goes off. His final words are to reassure Elm that he can give his life, "if it means saving all of my friends." Just in case you missed the part about the Ace Ops being super close this whole time. Even though they also weren’t. Trying to eat your cake too, RWBY? 

Frankly, I didn't feel much of anything during this scene, not when Vine made the sacrifice, nor when Elm and Harriet look on sadly while Robyn pilots them away (that's her contribution this episode). 

All I can say is, good on RWBY for not killing one of the three dark skinned characters, or just murdering the Ace Ops as a whole. What the story is going to do with them though, who knows.

Jaune and Nora have that ‘You can do it!’ moment after three of their friends have presumably been killed. I swear, about 80% of Jaune's scenes do not work tonally and oh boy, things only get worse from here.

First though, I like his entrance. He slams into the fight against Cinder and lines up with Penny and Weiss, who is still dual-wielding her and Blake's weapons. That's an epic shot.  

It looks as if they stand a decent chance against Cinder — Weiss' lost aura notwithstanding — except then Cinder's arm starts going crazy and she gleefully announces that Salem has returned.

Working on a time limit now, Cinder unleashes a volley of attacks that Penny steps in to protect the other two from. It's here that Cinder grabs hold with her grimm arm.

It's here that Penny dies. Again.

For the third time.

Friends, I am tired. This moment honestly deserves the most epic of rants, but that, in turn, requires energy. Energy? In this economy? Ha! That's hilarious. Taking this seriously though, the problem here can — as usual — be boiled down to a single question: What was the point?

Penny died in a horrible attack that shook the cast and audience both to their core.

That emotional impact was erased through her resurrection.

The resurrection did not create a new emotional impact for our heroes to grapple with.

Penny is given the Maiden powers, solidifying the fact that she's always been a "real girl."

That lesson was erased when the story decided to make her human for unexplained reasons (because no, she never needed to be human to survive the virus).

Penny then dies, passing the power to Winter... who was set to get the power in the first place.

We have, once again, come full circle. You can take Penny out of the story and nothing changes. Does Ruby lose any lessons or emotional growth? No. Does anyone survive who would have otherwise died? No. Does her getting the powers lead to someone unexpected snagging them upon her death? No. Penny's existence was filler. She was put in the story to take up time and, that done, was removed from the story once again. It's a choice that wouldn't be half as horrible if that filler hadn't done so much damage along the way.

First is the obvious: that Penny didn't deserve this. As a character, she didn't deserve to be brought back just to be killed off again, seemingly without narrative purpose, serving only to draw in viewers who RT knew loved the character. Second, keeping her in the story led to her entire arc unraveling. Initially, Penny died as an android in the world's eyes, but those who actually knew her — Ruby and Pietro — mourned the girl she really was. Now we have this horrible message that being a machine isn't real enough, so she has to die as a human being. It's a disservice to her character and, as an allegory for many minorities, downright insulting to the audience. Third, this offensive 'better to die as a human than live as a robot' message is wrapped up in the claim that Penny finally gets to choose something — “Let me choose this one thing. Trust me” — but she already did that when she chose to take the Maiden powers. We already had the better written version of this last volume!

And the fourth issue...well.  

Fourth and fifth are the real kickers. Fourth is that Penny's death was an assisted suicide. She explicitly asks Jaune to kill her so she can ensure she's thinking of the right person when she passes (never mind that her thoughts would probably be on Jaune while this is happening) and that's... pretty horrible. Look, I'm no purist. I like a great deal of dark, gritty stories whose plot exists to make us uncomfortable. That's a valuable emotion that fiction can generate. The problem is not that RWBY is tackling a sensitive topic, but that they aren’t tackling it well. Yes, they put in a content warning and (from what I've heard) a suicide helpline as well, but providing the already necessary resources is not the same thing as writing that kind of scene with respect and care. All of the above tells us that, no matter what RT may have intended, that respect and care weren't communicated to the audience. Like Yang, they didn't even bother to keep Penny's death within the rules of their world. Jaune is right there ready to heal her and Penny says no, there's supposedly not time.

Um... since when?

Jaune's aura boost is instantaneous. The second he amplifies aura is the same second the healing starts and their talk could have been spent saving Penny. There was certainly time to save Weiss in Volume 5. To have a character go, 'Nah, it's too late' when the solution is right there is the ultimate cop-out. Suddenly announcing that the solution will no longer work For Reasons is not a legitimate limitation and it's made doubly insulting that RT didn't simply use the limitations already available to them. Jaune has been running low on aura since the whale. He then expended a great deal of aura boosting Penny to keep the virus in check. Every other ally has had their aura broken in this fight so, there. That's your solution. Have Jaune take a few hard hits from Cinder, his aura breaks, and then when Penny is mortally wounded he no longer has a semblance to heal her. It's that easy! Yet instead they had Penny reject help so that she could ask to die. That's what's offensive here.

Finally, reason number five... why is this moment given to Jaune? That's another easy solution: Jaune has gone through the portal and can't get back to heal Penny. There. Done. But logistics aside, this scene should have gone to any other character. Who is Jaune to Penny? Or Penny to Jaune? No one! They don't have a relationship. I get that the writers didn't want any of the girls at her side because then it would be hard to justify Penny not passing the power to them (which I get: making one team member a Maiden changes the show drastically), but you know who should be there instead of Jaune?

Pietro.

Pietro, who built Penny as a weapon and who was never given the chance to apologize for that. Pietro, who told Ruby he could only rebuild her once more, setting up an expectation that he'd sacrifice himself for his daughter (despite the complicated racial issues that would bring up). Pietro, who watched Penny plummet and has no idea what happened to her, let alone that she's been made into a human girl. Pietro should have been at her side, saying goodbye to his child and helping her complete her last wish.

And it would be so very easy to pull off. All it takes is a single line where Penny remembers that her father exists, asking Ruby to ensure a portal opens up in Amity. There's a quick reunion along the pathways before Cinder attacks. We hear a cry of despair as Penny falls and she looks, seeing her father racing towards her, though she thought he'd already made it out. There, you’re done. We open ourselves up to a lot of attacks whenever we say, "Why didn't RWBY just do ____?" because those who vehemently defend the writing like to go, "Oh, you think you could write RWBY better?" and no, I don't. I struggle with long-form storytelling and massive casts. I don't think I could do justice to the sort of show RWBY wants to be, but I do think I'm a decent enough writer to spot when there are major problems like this. The question of "Why doesn't Penny remember that her beloved dad exists?" and "Why, out of that massive cast, is Jaune the one to do this deed?" are both things that a newbie writer can spot, and a sometimes okay writer can figure out how to fix them both simultaneously. A good writer will start thinking about themes — what might it mean for Pietro to kill the creation he made? — and a great writer will find a way to pull that off without having that insulting, discomforting feeling pop up. At this point, our RWBY crew feels less like new writers making mistakes (because they're not new, not at all), but rather just writers who haven't bothered to learn from their mistakes after eight years. That's a lot harder to watch.

Because putting Jaune here doesn't just mess with RWBY's internal rules (not using his semblance) and it's not just useless in terms of Penny's development (she doesn't know him outside of "dude who boosted my aura for an hour"), but it also falls back into a pattern I thought RWBY had finally broken from: making Jaune the story's emotional center. This is not the JAUNE show. It's the RWBY show. Yet here, once again, we have Jaune in the spotlight. Why, after a whole volume of Ruby avoiding making decisions, does Jaune finally make the hard call? Why, after a scene where Penny asked Ruby to kill her, does Jaune do that deed? Why, after a divisive arc where all the grief for Pyrrha went to Jaune, is Jaune now set to shoulder the grief of Penny? At least Jaune had a relationship with Pyrrha, even if Nora and Ren did too. Yet with Penny he seems to be there solely because the writers can't bear to keep him out of that center spot for long. All of Team JNOR make it through to Vacuo... except Jaune. Jaune falls into the abyss too because, if the show goes this route, we apparently can’t have a volume just about Team RWBY, the main characters. The main characters are separated from the rest of the team and it's Jaune, not Oscar and Ozpin with a connection to the lore, not Nora or Ren whose development now hinges on them learning who they are without the other, it's Jaune who follows the title characters into a new dimension. 

The issue is not whether Jaune deserves to grieve over the truly traumatic thing he just did now that he’s done it. He obviously does. The issue is the writers setting up a scenario where Jaune is situated to do that emotional work in the first place. 

I like Jaune as a character. I don't like how the writing uses him as a character. RWBY is built on the idea that these four girls are the heroes of this tale, not the expected blond, blue-eyed, sword wielding guy we’ve seen in so many other stories. So why does that guy get the most important scene of the finale? Yes, Jaune had much less screen time this volume than he did in the past, that’s a good thing given the number of important characters RWBY has to balance, but that hasn't erased the problem of him being given significant moments that should be going to title characters. Does Ruby’s team rescue Oscar and take on Salem? No, Jaune's team does. Does Ruby's team save Penny? No, Jaune's semblance keeps her grounded and then holds the virus off. Not everything is a problem — we've also got good choices like having Ruby defeat the Hound and Ruby's team take on Cinder for the majority of the fight — but that doesn't erase that Penny’s death wasn’t something Jaune should have been a part of. Not unless he was going to heal her. Doing better than they have in the past doesn't mean that RT isn't still slipping when it comes to giving him undeserved focus.

They took one of the most controversial characters, controversial because of how much emotional focus he's gotten in the past, and had him help a fan favorite commit suicide while he cried about it, showing more emotion for a near stranger than our title character showed for her sister. This is a character who, up until two or three episodes ago, had no connection to the victim and still has no reason to thematically be the one committing this act. That is why the fandom goes, “The crew loves Jaune and does everything they can to put him in the center of the action.” Ruby, as main character and Penny’s first friend, is the obvious choice here. Pietro, as Penny's father, would be a good choice too. Hell, Nora is a better option given their moment in the Schnee manor this volume. Or Winter given their moments in Volume 7! Have her escape Ironwood, find Penny, receive the powers, and then finish him off. Literally anyone would be better than Jaune, not because Jaune is a bad character, but because Jaune has no emotional stakes here and putting him in a position where he could heal Penny but doesn’t is massively stupid. No one should be surprised that a lot of the fandom is upset about this. It was one hell of a reach to give him this moment and, since Jaune's problem has always been getting too much screen time and emotional nuance compared to our main cast, it's no wonder this act brought up a lot of bad memories. RT fell back into an old pattern after two volumes of improvement and they did so at the worst possible time. 

The tl;dr is that Penny's third death is a writing travesty, just like her second. I shouldn't be surprised, given that this is the same volume that tortured a kid and the only thing they did with it was have him blindly trust his torturer... yet I find myself surprised nonetheless. Because Penny had such potential as an android Maiden and, as much as I personally hated it, potential as a former android learning to be human too. But why explore any of that when you can kill her off instead? Again.

As a final, far smaller note about this scene, we have the continuing problem of what purpose Cinder's arm is serving. If everyone recalls, its threat comes primarily from the fact that she can "siphon off" power from other Maidens.

She did it to Penny during the Amity battle and now she does it again, a great deal of green energy absorbed into Cinder. So what's left to give to Winter? Why doesn't Cinder become noticeably stronger with each successful theft? Like so much else in RWBY, we're told it exists without actually seeing the impact of that. Winter isn't a weaker Maiden for having lost power and Cinder isn't a stronger Maiden for having snagged it. It's just.. there, hanging out and looking vaguely menacing, I guess.

Outside of this unnatural not-transfer, we get to see how the power normally passes as Penny meets with Winter in some in-between place. It's a soft, heartfelt scene... with the exception that Winter says, “You were always the real Maiden at heart. I was just the machine. Just following orders."

I don't know how any viewer can doubt that RT now believes machinery = evil. Penny's machine body is magicked away so she can be a real-real girl. Yang announces that the arm she worked hard to make a part of herself is just "extra." The man with half a metal body is made this volume's villain and losing his second arm is, by the authors' own admission, a symbol of his lost humanity. Mercury with two metal legs remains a bad guy while Emerald and Hazel are hastily redeemed. Tyrian with his cybernetic tail is the most devoted crazy of the bunch. Maria, blind and in need of assistive lenses, is so forgotten by the story she was left in the tundra nine episode ago and won't be mentioned again until next volume (if then). Pietro, the guy in the wheelchair, is forgotten too, despite it being his daughter who dies on screen.

Now Winter, also bearing an assistive device, says that she's the real "machine" here and tells Penny, now human, that she was always the "real Maiden." I don't know what happened to make RT do a 180 lately, but the disability rep is no longer what it was.

Penny reassures Winter that she'll always be a part of her and then passes on, for good this time.

The rest of the episode feels lackluster, if I'm being honest. Images of Cinder beating Weiss are intercut with Ironwood beating Winter, getting her to a point where her aura breaks. 

But then the powers appear and, as we'd expect, she easily turns the tide. 

Gorgeous animation there. 

But RT once again rewrites earlier scenes by having Ironwood claim that the "destiny" he chose for Winter has finally arrived — isn't that Cinder's MO? — and Winter shoots back that he chose nothing, this was a "gift." Except, it was never about destiny or orders? This was why Weiss' anger in Volume 7 was ridiculous. She acted like Ironwood forced Winter to accept the powers and Winter told her point blank she chose this. Ironwood didn't decide anything, he offered and Winter chose... kind of like how Penny is choosing now. I hate how nearly all of Ironwood's character has been ignored or, during times like this, outright lied about to make him seem super duper evil. He tried to bomb a city! You don't need to make him seem evil anymore, that job is done! Like their sudden change regarding disability, RT now seems to be allergic to nuance. Heaven forbid Ironwood be allowed to have valid points like he did in Volume 3. No, if you've got an antagonist every single thing they've ever said must be twisted into a display of their evilness.

Unless you're Hazel, who Oscar trusts for #reasons. Unless you're Emerald, who the group immediately embraces. Unless you're Cinder, who gets to cry on a rooftop and secures the trust of her allies long enough to betray them again.

But Ironwood? Nah, screw that guy.

Salt aside, the fight is pretty boring. Winter literally just throws up a wall of ice and Ironwood's blast rebounds, taking him out.

Winter flies through the portal and we return to Jaune. His sword is broken by Cinder, so weapons should be quite the problem in Volume 9. 

There's a bit of sword vs. sword Maiden battling — this episode really pulled heavily from both Volume 3 and 5's finales — before Cinder gets smart again and attacks Weiss, currently trying to escape with Jaune. Weiss goes right off the edge and Winter isn't able to reach her in time. That's the entirety of Team RWBY, lost to the magical void.

Kudos to Winter's VA and the writing here though. This feels like an appropriate reaction to losing a sister. Screaming, sobbing, falling to her knees and beating the floor... Ruby, take notes.

A roar sounds through all the portals though, the sort of roar a pissed off witch might give. Jaune convinces Winter they need to leave Cinder behind, but before they can escape Cinder... makes a new wish?

Look, it works on all the major fronts. Cinder has the staff, check. We've basically established that Ambrosius can make an unlimited number of things per era, check. We know the previous thing disappears when a new wish is made, check. My only question is the timing. In all honesty, I'll have to re-watch the scene to be sure, but at the time it felt like the portals began disappearing almost the second Cinder left. Did she really have time to summon Ambrosius, deal with his explanatory nonsense, and get him to make a new wish without any fiddly concerns? Sure, fire is just fire, but it still felt like way too much happening too fast off screen.

Either way, the portals are gone and Winter makes it through in time, but Jaune does not. He falls through the void along with Team RWBY. And Neo.

Neo is the only addition I'm looking forward to here.

We get a few shots of our other characters as Winter arrives, saving the day by taking her grief out on the grimm. So glad something came of Ren breaking his aura again! Maybe they'll be more fighting at the beginning of Volume 9? If we see any of this group outside of 9's finale. My worst fear right now is that we'll spend an entire season away from the main action — remember how I said it would be stupid for Team RWBY to go on a side adventure while Salem is attacking the world? — and when they return there will have been some major time skip. Salem has destroyed most of Remnant, only pockets of survivors remain, it's all dark and dystopian... and oh look, every bit of character development happened off screen. How did Nora discover who she is without Ren? She did it while Team RWBY was gone. That merge we've been teasing for five years? That happened while you were gone too and, btw, Ozpin has ceased to exist. So sad, right? Not that anyone will actually mourn. Just take comfort in the fact that his last line was an "Oh no" about Ambrosius and his last major scene was apologizing for how the group treated him. Emerald's redemption? Off screen. Winter's grief? Off screen. Any and every one of these challenging beats to tackle can be waved away with, "We went through that arc while you were lost in the magical realm. Just get to know our new, improved selves now!"

Please, oh writing gods, don't let that happen.

Though I do worry because my last prediction came true.

But we all knew we’d end up here. My current theory? The portal should still be open at the vault. Winter will fight Ironwood, escape through it, and it will close right before he escapes too. He’ll fall with Atlas and everyone will act as if it’s some beautiful, poetic justice for him to perish with the city. 

Ironwood didn't make a break for the portal — too busy being unconscious — but we got everything else. Winter left him, he falls with Atlas, and this is some poetic justice, I guess. Really, it's just an undignified death. I'd hoped for a sympathetic kill, something that showed the characters still cared about him even if they knew Ironwood had to be stopped. Baring that, I'd hoped for an epic battle that took him out with style. Instead, no one even bothers to kill him. Ironwood is now beneath the entire cast, not even worth finishing off. Winter casually tosses his blast back at him and leaves. Cinder throws out a "that's checkmate" and leaves. I don't think Salem even looks at him. Ironwood (presumably) dies with no one and nothing, just a casualty of the city Team RWBY made fall. And I say "presumably" because the audience isn't even given the satisfaction of being sure he's passed on. Like Hazel, Ironwood's death is this weird, ambiguous moment that, based on the other character reactions, isn’t meant to be ambiguous. Is he dead? Most likely. Is it possible, based on what we've seen, that he'll pop up two volumes later like

Yes and, memes aside, that sucks. I don't want to be wondering for the next couple years if Ironwood survived and if they'll bring him back just to drag his character through the mud again. Move on.

But no, we don't even get that.

I've spoken at great deal about Ironwood both in these recaps and on my blog more generally. Last week, I said I'd covered it all and there was no need to rehash it all again. I stand by that, so let me just conclude this travesty with a final note: if your bad guy's final moment is using the last of his strength to point a gun at the actual villain of this story, and you don't realize the problem of how this image contrasts everything else the story has insisted about his character? … I just don't know what to do with that.

Oh, actually, final-final note: Ironwood’s semblance is officially a Schrodinger's semblance. It is both canonical and noncanonical simultaneously. Wooo. 

Cinder tells Salem she used her wish to "add more flames to the first of Atlas" and we cut to Watts, trapped in a roaring fire, unsuccessfully trying to break his way out. Wow, I hate that too! Next to Tyrian, Watts was our last remaining, entertaining villain. He carried a lot of the last two volumes and, I had hoped, was going to add some bright spots to the coming volumes as well. Apparently not.

Just another waste.

In addition to this casual, second murder of her ally, Cinder successfully convinces Salem that Neo killed Ruby and Ruby used the Lamp's last question, but she's back in her good graces since she snagged the Relics anyway. “You’ve done well, Cinder. Our work here is done" and they leave, blasting off like a less cool Team Rocket as Atlas plummets into Mantle.

Let's spend a second to tally things up then, shall we? What happens if Ruby, instead of throwing a moral fit, says, "You're right and we never should have lied to you, or betrayed you. But we want to help now. You get the Relics and the Maiden to safety in Atlas, if you can, we'll defend the people of Mantle"?

Well, they can still tell the world about Salem and call for help, much more easily now since Ironwood would likely just give them the code rather than them needing to spend an episode stealing it.

The Staff at least may not have ended up in Salem's hands and the group could have actually focused on getting the Lamp back (also solved if they'd been smart and just put it in the vault to begin with).

Mantle would still have been safe because Salem was never interested in Mantle to begin with.

Atlas wouldn't have fallen.

Ironwood wouldn't have died.

Penny wouldn't have died.

Even Vine wouldn't have died!

Our heroes unambiguously made the situation worse. Rather than banding together with their allies to fight the real enemy, Salem, they pushed until they made enemies of Ironwood and the Ace Ops both. Then they asked for help — which a pinch of logic said would never arrive — and twiddled their thumbs waiting for it. When it was clear none would come they...did nothing. They sat around, upset that the people were in danger, but not willing to do anything about it. It's only when one of their own, Penny, is threatened that they kick into high gear, hitting on a solution that they could have posed to Ironwood from the very start if no one liked the fly away plan. Yet instead of taking a few minutes to brainstorm other ideas — doing anything other than denouncing Ironwood to the rest of the group and attacking the Ace Ops — they spent two days sitting around, fixing minor messes they’d helped to create, then rushed through the portal plan, messing up the wish and stranding an entire kingdom in a sandstorm, with only Winter now to protect them from grimm.

Fantastically done, team. 

The villains won, yes, but not because the villains were smart and compelling. Watts' hack on Penny and the heat petered out to nothing and Salem... well, she sat around for the whole volume, expending energy only to torture Oscar and try to (unsuccessfully) stop some escapees. Neo and, miraculously, Cinder did the most damage, but only in the final hour, with this "damage" being that our characters fall into a void that we now know looks remarkably like a paradise! Everything bad that happened was a result of our heroes being stupid and stubborn. That's a compelling story to tell... but RT isn't trying to tell it. Our heroes caused so much damage, yet that damage goes unacknowledged — or worse, ignored into silence like with Ren — and everything else is waved away with the magic wand the series claims isn't there. The cold doesn't kill anyone. Oscar has no problems walking off the torture. Nora hops back out of bed. Ruby one-shots the Hound. The civilians lost to the void must have survived too. The entire kingdom successfully makes it to Vacuo... unless you count the massive army we never saw making use of the portals, but who cares about them, right?

The villains won, there was indeed something resembling consequences, but none of it was emotionally satisfying. Not even when the series tries so hard to insist that emotion is there.

Qrow watches Atlas fall, mouthing Ruby and Yang's names, but it's too little, too late. Where was this care for his nieces when he was obsessed with killing Ironwood? When did they care about him? Was it when Ruby shrugged at his arrest, when neither cared that he was missing, or when they were designing an escape plan that didn't include putting a portal where Qrow could reach? RWBY markets itself around the found family-ness of its cast, but they're done a poor job in recent volumes (not others) of convincing me that most of these characters care for one another. We went from Ruby denouncing all adults, to Ruby pulling an Ozpin with Ironwood, to Ruby watching blandly as her sister falls to her presumed death. This is my hero? This is the simple soul we're supposed to rally behind? Ruby doesn't feel like a character who cares about other people anymore and, given that she leads the charge, neither do most of her friends. Or, when that emotion appears, it's jarring and undeserved. Jaune cries over Penny's death? That's tonally and characteristically backwards.

This volume was the culmination of so many mistakes over the past two years. No, Covid couldn't have made things any easier for the crew — the fact that they got a volume out at all is amazing — but the pandemic isn't to blame for the problems in the story. These seeds have existed since Volume 5, with some (like Jaune) going back even farther. I don't think we're ever going to get that flawed, but emotionally fulfilling RWBY back. The show has dug too deep and unless it somehow manages to create a clean slate — those time travel ideas get more and more alluring! — there's nothing they can do but keep on digging. At this point, I can only hope that the series does wrap up within the next two volumes, rather than dragging RWBY to a Supernatural-esque length.

Our final shot of the episode proper feels fitting for what this volume has been. Atlas and Mantle flood rather than exploding, something that makes a certain amount of sense, sure, but definitely wasn't what I was expecting. And after all these shocking images — Penny dying, the grimm attacking, our main characters disappearing in a puff of gold dust — we end it all with bits of random debris. It's strange and underwhelming. Out of everything you could have done with the options you had, you choose to do this?

Of course, RWBY always has an after-credits scene (RIP Raven's, still amounting to nothing). Here, the sounds of water return to show us a beach. Crescent Rose imbedded in the sand, mirroring its classic pose in the snow.  

There's a tree. It's a very different kind of tree from what we saw in Volume 6, but the height and shape is nevertheless reminiscent of Light's domain.

A tree of life, anyone? After all, the group has fallen into a dimension created by a Relic, the gift of Light himself. It certainly seems as if RWBY is heading towards another encounter with the Gods, though what that will look like and how narratively satisfying it will be remains to be seen.

As for our bingo board, RWBY certainly pulled its weight! Only three squares got gold stars: Watts and Jacques didn't manage another team up because both are dead, Oscar didn't apologize for getting shot because he was too busy being tortured, and Qrow didn't drink likely because he didn't have access to any alcohol across the whole volume. Can't say that's a stellar result. The final image is something to behold though lol.

What a mess.

And on that less than exciting note... we’re done. This has been the volume of desertion, with a large number of fans telling me that they will no longer watch RWBY, but baring something entirely unexpected in my future, I'll be back next volume, for whatever that's worth. It never ceases to amaze me that even one person would give these nonsense recaps the time of day, so in all seriousness: thank you for reading. You rock.

Now go forth and fill the hiatus with great RWBY content!

✌️

[nightlilly0110]

We’re probably gonna get Qrow vs Ironwood sometime in the coming weeks and I just want to scribble out things I kinda wanna see-

Orchestral version of Hero on the horns with the strings playing Bad Luck Charm (if that is even possible idk I’m not a musician). Just some sort of warped combo of the two songs (kinda like how we got part of I Burn on the horns when it was Yang and Weiss vs Flynt and Neon). You get what I mean.

Or possibly a sadder version of the music that was playing when the Ace Ops were introduced.

OR a reprise of Qrow’s theme or a “continuation” (kinda like how Mirror Mirror and This Life is Mine are kinda similar at the beginning).

Or they give Clover a theme???? With words???? Please?????

Parallel to that scene back in Volume 3 when Ironwood thought Qrow was gonna cleave him in two but he was actually slaying a Griffin behind him except he actually goes for the kill this time.

Qrow using Kingfisher or just wearing Clover’s pin, I’m not picky (but if he does use Kingfisher I want Qrow to use the line and choke that fucking bitch and not in a kinky way)

Qrow and Robyn vs Ironwood somehow paralleling Qrow and Tyrian vs Clover.

I want Qrow “We Can Kill The Man Who Put Us Here” Branwen to go ballistic. Absolutely feral. He deserves it. No more Mr. Nice Bird. Fucking kill him.

[thesassiestcolor]

Do you think what Qrow said in the episode makes the Clover situation better?

Uuuuuhhhhhh short answer: no. Definitely not. There's not really anything they can do to make the situation better. Imo they made a cheap writing decision that has major consequences and cannot be undone that I feel will ultimately amount to nothing.

So, no.

Long answer: still no, but I'll give you an explanation that probably is really long winded lol

So, nothing is going to "make it better" because crwby creating a character and making him pretty likeable, in an interesting position, and centered around a big fan favorite character - just to kill him off for shock value, is cheap.

Its my opinion that if crwby wanted to have a cool Qrow vs Clover, there are a million better ways to have that. And if they wanted Clover to die for whatever reason, there are a lot better, more respectful, and thematically appropriate ways to do that too. (And I think his loyalty to Ironwood should have been established much much better and earlier on to start that whole shitshow off to begin with). 

Even if crwby somehow thought that what they made wasn’t really really gay; they knew people would latch on to Fairgame no matter what. People ship everything, especially in this fandom. Clover and Qrow could have hated each other (which would also be interesting for characters and plot, and make more sense to how V7 ended) and people still would have shipped them. I was losing my shit at the beginning of V7 because they were adults! That I could ship with Qrow! Crwby literally made a perfect foil to a fan favorite and didn’t think the fandom would go WILD??? 

Also I think Clover as a character was wasted. There's a lot of potential in a character with a passive semblance in an interesting position within Atlas' military and his relationships and all that stuff I'm that the good fic writers can run wild with (because crwby isn't. Because Clover was wasted). 

All in all, they cannot reverse the decision to kill off this character so they cannot fic it. 

BUT to get BACK TO THE POINT: the conversation in ep4 shows most of all that Clover's death and character is completely meaningless and just overkill for what we already knew about Qrow/what he thinks of himself. I don’t want to repeat what has been said but this post pretty much explains it. 

Qrow already had his “lowest moment / change of life” arc in V6 (and i get, from personal experience, realizing your addiction is hurting you is different from healing from depression/trauma/etc. But it is a BIG factor). Ruby also made a point to show Qrow is his self doubt and guilt is also more harmful than helpful. They both got addressed (which in this show, is a lot lmao, I was ready to accept that)

V7 was set up to show that Qrow was getting better. And the Clover thing just seems like they want to recycle his arc again? I mean, regression is great to show for a well rounded character, but this is literally back to square one. Probably even worse than that. And it’s for Qrow to learn....what he learned in V6? I guess? 

And I have to say: I really like the idea of Qrow just going off the fucking rails and causing chaos. Good for him, it’s gonna be fun to see. I like the friendship they’re building with him and Robyn. I think she’s the first female character in this show (besides Ruby) who didn’t Despise Qrow on Sight. That’s fun (and I’m just loving “Robyn is my Sibling now” meme. I can’t help it, dunk on Raven please) 

But Christ, again, there are so many other, better ways to get that story going. I would have accepted having James arrest him for no real reason be the cause of animosity. I would have accepted Qrow being furious that James would threaten his kids. Or James attempting to manipulate the maiden power to be under his control. Or the big one, that James is literally leaving million of people to die so “people who are worth it” can live. Plenty of people in this fandom who didn’t give a shit about Clover want James to die, this just proves that Clover was literally nothing but shock value. 

[moondrop04]

RWBY VOLUME 8 FINALE AFTERMATH!!!

SPOILERS!!!

SPOILERS!!!

SPOILERS!!!

WOW.......What A F***** Finale To End A Volume!!!! I was left surprised, shocked, sad, disappointed and ecstatic with the events that unfolded and also for the future of the RWBY series!!! I have so many theories and headcanons racking in my brain that I’m acting like a Giddy Little Troll 😆. So let’s jump right into the FINAL aftermath of Volume 8....

-(Tick-Tock Took Out The Vine) Before starting into this I want to give a shout out to CRWBY for starting out the episode with the “Warning” for the deaths that we were about to witness. I’m glad they were thoughtful for their fanbase’s wellbeing after watching this finale and hope they continue this trend of “warnings” in the future.

Now onto the first major character death of the episode......Vine 👀. I was fully expecting to see at least one of the Ace-Op members to die in the finale and I was actually quite surprised to see it only be Vine. Given the circumstances that Qrow, Vine, Elm, Marrow and Robyn were put into because of Harriet’s blind loyalty, it wouldn’t be too hard to have expected more characters to die in that situation.

Vine has always been the calm one within the team, so to see him willing to sacrifice himself to save his friends from death was a very touching moment. I was also honestly quite surprised he could used his semblance like that as well 😳. I kinda wished we had seen some more aspects of him extending his aura like that in previous episodes, but that’s just a bit of a small nit-pick of mine.

It’s also going to be interesting how this will impact the rest of the Ace-Op members going forward, especially Harriet. This will no doubt cause some inner turmoil for her character and only time will tell what type of effect it will hold in future dire situations .

-(Fighting For Your Beliefs) Hmmm......I’ll be honest......I was a bit disappointed with Winter and Ironwood’s fight 😓. Now I have a few reasons why I feel like this so let me explain....

1:I think the decision to make Ironwood fight with a “BFG” against Winter was a poor one. As we have seen in Volume 7 episode 11 we know that Ironwood can fight much better with his duel hand cannons. Watching him fight with a bigger weapon against a much more agile opponent didn’t feel right to me lol.

2: Having Winter win the fight using the maiden powers. Now I have no issue with Penny giving the powers to Winter, but I would have preferred if she could have found a way to defeat Ironwood without having the convenient power up. Winter is a very good fighter in her own right and I think having her defeat Ironwood with her abilities alone would mean much more before she was given the maiden powers by Penny.

3: Now I have said this before in previous posts but I would have liked it if Qrow was the one to fight Ironwood. There was indeed a bit of a build up for Qrow to fight Ironwood this volume so I do feel we were a bit blue-balled for that confrontation. Then after some time to think about it I feel the decision to make Winter be the one face Ironwood was the right one. Considering that this was the end of Atlas and that these two characters are the most associated with Atlas, made their fight against each other more fitting then leaving it up to Qrow.

The only positives I can give this fight is that it showcased more of Winter’s fighting potential and I was pleased how the animators made her fight with both Ironwood and later with Cinder. 😊

-(For Her Friends) Now onto definitely the most important part of this episode......Penny’s death. Now I’m really gonna be honest with all of you......I was not at all surprised that Penny died in the finale 😔. Ever since she gained the maiden powers she was always gonna have the “Red Flag” known as Cinder be connected to her. I more or less imagined that Penny’s powers would be taken by Cinder at some point and Penny would make some sacrificial play to save her friends while she still had her robot body. So when I witnessed her second death, as a REAL GIRL, I was shouting out “How could I be so RIGHT and so WRONG all at the same time!?” 😫

Now what has me intrigued about this second death is the part about Jaune’s involvement. I’m gonna keep my opinion about this choice from the writers neutral for now because I feel this is deeply connected to what they have already written for Volume 9. There’s is something they are planning for Jaune in the future and I want to see the whole picture of what they are drawing out before giving this either a thumbs up or a thumbs down. 😤

I have one more thing I want to bring up about this, and this is my opinion so if anyone wants to skip over this part I totally understand......so here it is. I truly believe Penny will be brought back to life in the future 🙂. When she first “died” back in volume 3 I fully believed she would be back eventually, so even if the circumstances are different this time around I am still having that same feeling that she will come back. I understand everyone else has their own feelings about what happen to Penny so I will not disapprove how everyone feels about it. It’s just how I feel about it is all 😊.....

-(The Captain Goes Down With His Ship) So.........this is the end of James Ironwood. As Atlas inevitably falls, so to does the man that represented as its symbol throughout the series and it’s aspects of strength, elitism and control.....

.......yeah I’m not buying it 😒

Something feels off if this is how he “permanently” dies..... I understand the symbolism of his “fall” parallels that of Atlas crashing down and being destroyed, but him dying doesn’t feel complete to me....

Not to mention this man has survived with half his body being destroyed in the past with what I believe to be nothing but his sheer will. So if I had to bet on anything I think he would have found a way to have survived Atlas’s crash and the flood that came afterwards....but I think he would be terribly wounded in the process....

There are also a few characters that I feel he hasn’t had a satisfying conclusion with that still needs to be addressed......Qrow, Oz and Glynda.

Also forgot to mention that apparently Arther Watts is dead too.....yeah I believe he’s not dead either 🤨. In fact I’m fully expecting Watts will survive but will be horribly burned and scarred the next time we see him. He will vow vengeance against Cinder and will stop at nothing to obtain his revenge on her. So it would be really lucky of him to find an unconscious and badly wounded general nearby that he could kidnap and experiment on to be his personal attack dog later to kill Cinder 🤔......wouldn’t that be a something to see lol

I’ll gladly wear some clown shoes and makeup in believing that we will be seeing both Ironwood and Watts again in the future, and if I’m wrong then I’ll gladly accept that L from everybody.....till then see you again next time general Ironwood and Arther Watts 🤗

-(Volume 9 and The Future Of RWBY) Alright! There is a couple of reasons why this post has taken me three weeks for me to write 😓.

First reason obviously is because of my job 😭. Some things have been happening at my work that has been stressing me out for weeks and honestly it’s been exhausting to even write anything....

Second reason is that over the course of the past few weeks after the finale aired I have been non-stop thinking of several headcannons, theories and speculations on what may happen in volume 9 and future volumes of RWBY 😆!! Don’t believe me? Here is some of the crazy s*** that came out of my head lol

-Team RWBY, Jaune and Neo meet the God Of Darkness

-The God Of Darkness gives Team RWBY power ups and new outfits to fight against Salem. Also gives Neo the ability to speak.

-Oscar vs Raven

-Salem sends Cinder to Vale to search for the Crown of Choice......but not alone. She gives Cinder 4 more experimental S.E.W Grimm to aid her and one of them happens to be Summer Rose.

-Horribly burned and scarred Watts kidnaps a wounded Ironwood and experiments on his body to change him into a complete cyborg with one objective......kill Cinder.

Believe me I have more context for each of those that I just addressed but that’s for separate posts that I hope to make in the future lol 🤗

Well that’s about all I got for that finale review and I literally cannot wait to see what happens next 😤 lol. I hope to engage with some of you in the fandom in the future and hope we get along 😎

Till next time........BUH-BYE!!!!

[littlebetesofeverything]

RWBY Vol 8 episode 2

Okay, episode 2 let’s be kind and not have too much angst please.

Again, the opening has a lot of meta I love to read into, but prob won’t make a post but will reblog others thought

The only reason I know that the teams won’t turn is the little nod Ruby and Yang have in the opening, do not make me eat these words, CRWBY...

QROW, my baby. Robyn talking to Jacques not Qrow

Damn Jacques, how dare you call anyone a murder. I do not put money on Whitney bailing out daddy dearest

Lol Watts, you have to admit the sarcasm is not gonna fly in Atlas

Robyn being helpless hurts so much, but, uh Qrow please don’t go down that road, please. It won’t help you in the long run

GO HAPPY HUNTRESSES!!!! look after your people :) 

Time for the bike scene, and I love seeing it all polished. And the glasses for Yang, I want 10 of them please CRWBY

Take out those cameras! and also the Grimm...

OHH, mobile shields??? Thank you, Pietro!

Okay, time for a lesson in racism from Yang. and don’t forget, the big wigs don’t really care for you plebians

Ozpin, thanks for joining us, but please make a U turn. Thanks for the reminder about the soul merge

Ren, baby, please be nice to Juane. Are you okay?

Is that Weiss’s leitmoif I hear? 

Ohh, using Schnee shit to sneak in? I love that for you.

Was the general ever your friend? Penny, don’t you dare believe the Dickwood. You deserve the Maiden power, baby girl

Kdin, I love you as May

And Nora just killed Weiss... and seemed happy about it? At least someone is having fun

Fiona is being the best commander, also FI!!! I love it

Ohh, tension that they don’t agree on the mission...

Yeah for community theft during the apocalypse!!

Nice teamwork, Team Mantle!!! Jaune comes in with the final blow

Okay, Grimm retreating is never a good sign

OSCAR!!! What the hell kind of Grimm did she make, his Aura broke so easily!!

Also, kudos to the design team on the Grimm shifting its boddy around

Smart Grimm? HOLY SHIT IT CAN TALK?????

The creepiness is 10000/10 with the wings just flopping out... all that gunk flying around

BRING OSCAR BACK YOU SHIT

Speculation time: is it too early to have an Oscar meets Salem scene? or are we gonna see Team Amity vs AceOps from the preview? But there is gonna be a lot of focus on Penny and her response to becoming the Maiden vs her duty as Protector of Mantle. No Ironwood this episode but uh, last episode did NOT inspire any confidence that he will do good things. Hello, new minor antagonist: benefits include getting more screentime and a definite forecast of doom. But Qrow also has me worried with his talk about killing Tyrian. At least I think he means Tyrian, but if he ends up fighting Ironwood? Hoo boy, that is gonna be one spicy fight. Prayer circle for the people of Mantle and Team Amity staying together

[theladypeace]

What are your hopes for volume 8

My Predictions For V8

- Raven’s return

- Cinder becoming a real threat again. (At the beginning of the show, she killed three characters I think. Now she just harms some of the main cast. Salem told her to not kill Ruby, she never told her not to kill anyone else.)

- Ruby loses an eye

- Neo backstabs Cinder but doesn’t join the good guys. I don’t see her being a protagonist, and the main cast is already way too big.

- Perhaps Cinder kills her, or Emerald sees Neo hurting Cinder and she shoots her in the head.

- Showing signs of a redemption arc for Emerald; Emerald hesitating to follow Cinder’s orders. She still listens to Cinder, but she doesn’t get fully redeemed in volume 8. She only gets redeemed later on.

- Salem wins the Battle for Atlas. The last time she won was back in Volume 3.

- While the Happy Huntresses break Qrow and Robyn out of prison, they bump into Tyrian who is breaking out Watts. A fight begins.

- when the truth about Raven being the spring maiden comes out, Ozpin takes Yang’s side.

- Ozpin might be scared to reveal he’s back, so he may be a bit quiet for some of the volume.

- Oscar using magic

- Oscar vs Ironwood

- Salem vs Ironwood

- Ruby snapping and making dark decisions.

- Strange partnerships; Ruby and Blake, Weiss and Penny, Ruby and Penny, Jaune and Oscar, Ren and Yang, Yang and Oscar, etc.

- The whale doesn’t die

- Ruby takes a break from giving so many speeches. Let someone else give hope to the group like Oscar, or Penny, or Nora.

- Ren and Nora talk, but with everything going on, Ren may try to shut her out again.

- Someone from the main cast dies. Pietro and Maria are useless to the story now, I hate to say it, but...

- Oscar gets captured 👀

- We get to see Willow using her glyphs, but she’s a bit rusty so she might die

- Whitley becomes a temporary antagonist, or reunites with Weiss, or he is captured by Salem or Ironwood and used against rwbyjnor, specifically Weiss.

- Ironwood and Watts semblance reveal

- Onscreen reaction of the Ace-Ops being told Clover is dead.

- Cinder backstory

- STRQ flashback

- do not bring back Summer or Pyrrha or Roman, crwby. Please. I hate it when a character is killed off but they’re somehow alive and it makes no sense.

- I hope the staff of creation’s ability isn’t to bring back the dead. The god of light was very against bringing back the dead so it wouldn’t make sense if it did that.

- lore on Watts and Pietro (they obviously knew each other at one point so a backstory is very much needed)

- The bees finally kiss 😌😌😌

- qrow and Oz talk if they get that chance

- ironwood and the ace-Ops stay alive for v8

- perhaps some of the Happy Huntresses die

that’s all for now, thanks for the ask!

[spectralscathath]

Harriet Bree for the RWBY character ask?

Send me a RWBY character and I’ll tell you:

Harriet Bree

My top three ships for the character

Harriet/Qrow, Harriet/Clover, Harriet/Ironwood (preferably in a ‘Harriet please stop trying to seduce the boss’ ‘no ❤️’ sort of way)

My three least favorite ships for the character

Harriet/Ruby, Harriet/Winter, Harriet/Robyn

My biggest criticism for the character

what the fuck was volume 8. And also: why, if she was going to be evil, why was she fighting Qrow? They were setting up Ironwood vs Qrow and Winter vs Harriet throughout vol8, and nothing came of it. Boring. I would have loved to see glyphs vs speedster. 

My favorite thing about the character

I love her powers and skills! I love a speedster character who is a hand-to-hand combatant, who’s brash and punchy and hits hard, not just fast. And the animation on her powers is so pretty~

A headcanon I have about them

You know how the Flash is constantly eating to fuel speed? Oh yeah. Same for Harriet. She’ll eat anyone out of house and home. Give her a minute to get started and say goodbye to the pantry.

What I would change about them if I was making a re-write

Definitely just everything about the ace-ops turning evil. I hate it. We didn’t need them to be villains, and the ‘redemption arc’ was bullshit. Everything about the ace-ops from Gravity onwards is poorly written, and I hate it. 

But on a personal level, I wouldn’t have her be the second-in-command of the team. While she could be an officer (a lieutenant), maybe, something about her seems... less experienced then the other ace-ops. She feels like she’s still got a chip on her shoulder, and doesn’t really strike me as good leader material. A good second, someone who’ll challenge a leader and go toe-to-toe if they think it needs to be done, but as a leader, she’s reckless and straightforward, which could be a problem. Not everything is a competition or an attack, and she has no chill whatsoever. 

What I I think of their character allusion and what (if anything) I would change about it

Personally, while I like her ‘hare and the tortoise’ allusion, I really do feel that the aesop fables part of the ace-ops doesn’t work as well as crwby hoped, since I’m not sure if Elm and Vine are actually based on a fable??

But, honestly, while Harriet’s allusion is fine, and I love that she’s basically a speedster (like the Flash from DC right down to the gold lightning), I do have a tendency to add a back up allusion to the ace-ops from Celtic mythology and in Harriet’s case I like to give her a Púca allusion. 

My lil reasons for this is that the Púca (pronounced pooka, iirc), are said to be bringers of both good and bad fortune, mischievous and tricksy with a proud streak. Púcaí are known to have dark or white fur or hair, luminescent golden eyes (specifically when using their powers), and are shape-changers, one of their most common appearances being that of a hare. 

I dunno, something about that just seems fitting. 🐇

[shadows-twilight]

RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 13

May various thoughts and opinions on the penultimate episode of RWBY Volume 8, “Worthy”.

Jesus Christ

SPOILERS BELOW:

Another Light Sensitivity warning. Oh boy.

Of course Jaune gets to be the guinea pig. Poor guy.

“If anyone will need help, it’s them” I don’t know, after all the shit that went down at the end of “Before the Dawn”, this might actually be a cakewalk in comparison.

Nora looks like a witch on a broomstick riding Magnhild like that and I kind of love it.

Can we get Penny some shoes. Poor girl’s going to be in the desert with bare feet.

I was very excited to get our first look at Vacuo and Shade. Should’ve figured they wouldn’t be spoiling us THAT hard. Though, to be fair, you couldn’t ask for a more Vacuan welcome.

Well, on the bright side, whoever ends up falling is going to have the company of about two dozen randos. Cinder definitely knows how to make an entrance.

I’m going to take a wild guess that Cinder’s not being all that sincere with her regret towards Neo? I mean, her acting isn’t exactly Oscar-worthy (Cinder’s, not Jessica’s. She’s actually gotten really good over the years).

Of all the things I expected the last question to be used on, this was not one of them.

Jinn looks genuinely upset to have to answer this. Aww, she likes them. But, you know, a genie-allegory’s got to do what a genie-allegory’s got to do.

Cinder officially knows that Emerald is on the side of the angels. The fact that her reaction wasn’t bigger is actually quite telling.

Damn, that cold cut between the people looking surprised and all of them being dead. Brutal. RIP, Bill.

“You deserve this, Arthur”. Oh boy, he’s going to die!

You know, it’s subtle, since their faces can’t move much, but I think Elm properly heard Robyn when she made the point about the kingdom being it’s people, not the city. Good on you, Elm.

The bomber robot is giving me serious Terminator vibes.

Marrow is just raking in those “good boy” points this volume, isn’t he? Dud just took a bomb to the face for these people.

So, umm, did Watts let Ironwood out on purpose? Particularly for the purpose of stirring the pot? That certainly seems like something he would do.

Well, uh, RIP Jacques, I guess. Not gonna lie, I figured that would have been more satisfying than it was. Oh well, rot in hell, dirt bag.

And there we have it, the first of our characters to fall. I mean, on one hand, no way in hell would they have one of the titular characters die in such a fashion, so this all but confirms that there’s something waiting on the other side of this abyss, but on the other hand they do a really good job of selling the shock and grief of “losing” someone. Damn, this show is good.

I like that for a brief second, Penny forgot that she no longer had Floating Array, thought me likey the replacements she constructed.

Almost thought Weiss was going to fall there, too, to be honest.

Ok, I was officially too hasty in writing Vine off. I’m ok with being wrong on this one.

Sadly, we were all too correct in giving up on Harriet. I mean, principle? Loyalty? She’s trying to blow up thousands of innocent people and for what? Clover’s memory? He’d be ok with slaughtering all of these people in his honor? Because if that’s true, than I’m now officially ok with him going out the way he did.

Sadly, while it looks like Vine might have actually been getting through to her, Robyn has arrived to shatter the mood. Can’t really blame her, since she had no way of knowing how that conversation was going, but still. Timing could have been better.

That is the second time Qrow has ambushed a confused person using his bird form, and it was just as funny as the first time.

Yep, there’s the reaction from Ironwood I was hoping for. God, every time you think this man’s hit rock bottom, bastard’s gotta go and pull out a pickaxe.

“I've never wavered in fighting the enemies of this kingdom. And I won’t start now.” If that is not the page quote on Winter’s wiki page after this, I am going to be SEVERELY disappointed.

If Ironwood was trying to garner sympathy with that tear, he has ridiculously missed the mark.

Yeah, I was wondering if that was going to be the case with those portals. Granted, I originally thought it was intended feature rather than a bug, but still.

Hey, we got our first look in-show look at the Ravagers! Now please, for the love of god, show me a Ziraph.

The end is near, and we have our final battles. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Penny vs Cinder and Neo, Qrow, Robyn, Vine, and possibly Elm vs Harriet (and, to an extent, Watts), Winter vs Ironwood, and Ren, Emerald, and Oscar vs a bunch of Ravagers. Things have gone all kinds of insane, and emotions are running high! I’m equal parts scared and excited going into next week’s finale, and while i have no idea how it’s going to go, damn, is it going to be a ride. Until then, pardon me while I go scream into the void for a week. Excuse me, Yang.

[juliettheraven]

TRQ Jailbreak!

okokokokokokokok. SO, last we knew, Raven has porta-ed to Tai. (This is important because it means that likely Raven is not Connected to any other of the tribe). Now, this was at the end of, what, Vol 5?? So it’s taken however long it took to get to Atlas + the time spent training with the Ace Ops + a day since then. I don’t know how fast birds fly, but I doubt Raven could fly across the ocean between Patch and Vale, the whole of Vale, the ocean and part of Anima in that time. And, even if she could, she was in no emotional state to do so after confronting her daughter and seeing Vernal die. I’m sure that whatever conversation she had with Tai didn’t help. 

So, the point in all of this is that there is a chance that she’s still in Patch with Tai. If she wasn’t, I don’t think she would have the initiative to portal to him herself after seeing Ruby’s broadcast, but if she’s with him, I have a feeling there’s a way Tai could bully her into taking him to Atlas. 

This is where things get a bit tricky. If they portal to Qrow, it’s going to be a jailbreak. (sidenote, have Raven and Tai met Ironwood? When did Ironwood get brought into the mix?). Now, unless Qrow goes through some intense therapy, I doubt that he’s going to be up for it. Buuuuuut, I have faith that Robyn could kick his ass into gear. So, they get Qrow. Where now? They could stage a classic jailbreak, busting out of prison with brute force, but then they would have to deal with Ironwood, Winter and the AceOps. I think Raven would teleport them to Yang, because as far as Qrow knows, she’s with Ruby. 

Ok, so now we have R + TRQ with JYR. They’ll explain what happened to Oscar and the Hound. Robyn, Jaune, Ren and maybe Yang will go back to Mantle to stop the river. Tai, Qrow and Raven are going to go save Oscar, maybe with Yang (ugh, I’d love to see some Xiao Long and Branwen team-up fighting). 

They sneak into the Whale HQ. (Remember, the only ones who are there are Tyrain, Mercury, Hazel, Salem, the Hound, and Oscar/Ozpin/Ozma.) 

YTRQ is fighting to get Oscar back. (Ok, I haven’t seen the episode yet, so I’m not sure if Tyrain got a job. If so, it would impact this cuz he wouldn’t be at the Whale). 

I’d assume by now, Salem has told Hazel to leave, and is further interrogating Oscar. Who knows, maybe she’s gotten him to talk. 

Thus, the Hound would be on guard outside the Salem/Oscar room. 

Yang vs. Merc, Qrow vs. Tyrain, Tai vs. Hazel (note: if Yang has gone with Robyn, Jaune and Ren, then I bet Tai would take Merc on a) because he messed up Yang and b) because he hasn’t been fighting as much as Raven and Qrow lately, so he get’s the easy kid. 

They defeat them! Yay! 

They get up to the room where Salem and Oscar are. Standing outside, as a guard, is the Hound. (Note, Salem may have gone off to yell at Cinder, so the Hound would be guarding Oscar even more, perhaps even being in the room with him, which could involve Ozma sensing something is off about her)

Here comes in one of my favorite theories: Summer Rose = hound. 

I can see this going many different ways. 1) They fight, somehow it is revealed that it is Summer. 2) The Hound recognizes them, and Summer fights to gain momentary control to allow them to pass. 3) Raven, with her portal sembalance, can tell that Summer is near, because they’re Connected. Whatever happens, you can be damn sure that this is the end of the Volume.

(Why? Because we need to know what’s happening with Penny, and the Grimm River, and Mantle, and the Happy Huntresses, and the Ace Ops, and Ironwood, and Winter, and RWBNM, and Whitley and Willow and Maria and Pietro, and Watts. The plot of what Tai and Raven have been doing might take up an entire episode, and follow them all the way to jail and then to Yang. That gets us to episode 7, which would go back to Penny and RWBNM. Then we have the hiatus! (Note, the TRQ episode might also be interspersed with Ghira, Illia and WF 2.0 trying to get to Atlas (or some other Academy to protect it). We might not even get Penny and RWBNM until after the break. This would leave us 6-5 more episodes. We’re going to have a grimm river arc (allow me again to o off on a tangent; RWBNM makes it back down to mantle, where R + JR is going, they meet in the crater, Ruby is informed, but she doesn’t have time b/c she has to make the tough decision and fight the Grimm river. Also, the Blake/Yang worry that’s been building would be explored further here, along with the stuff between Ren and Nora. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ren has a breakdown, further reducing the amount of Huntsmen able to fight the river, which makes Ruby have to stay and fight the Grimm River. We might even get the Achilles arc that people have been foreseeing. Anyhoo, it would require Ruby’s silver eyes, so she would have to explore the stuff Salem said, which would be fascinating if the timing worked out to juxtapose YTRQ finding SummerHound) 

To conclude this very complicated and not likely theory, I think it would give CRWBY an important opportunity to explore Yang’s relationships with all of team STRQ. They tend to forget about Yang’s emotions regarding Summer, so having the reveal with Yang present and not Ruby would do a lot in terms of exploring Yang’s identity as Ruby’s caretaker post Summer’s death and her relationship to Summer after Raven left. ALSO, we would finally get a STRQ reunion, which would lead to STRQ lore in the next volume (please please pleaseee), interactions between TRQ and Yang AND a Tai weapon/sembalance reveal, and maybe even a Summer weapon/sembalence reveal (although that seems more of a thing that would happen in the next volume STRQ lore dump).

Anyway, I would love this. I know people are getting grumpy with the sheer amount of characters, and wish that it would only focus on RWBY, but I would really love to explore STRQ + Y family dynamics, as well as the myriad of other opportunities this theory would give our characters in terms of development. (Also, if Nora is still incapacitated, I see Ren and Jaune staying in Atlas, perhaps with the Whitly, Willow and Winter, which would reduce the amount of characters. And if TRQ goes off in pursuit of SummerHound, maybe with Oscar, that leaves RWBY + maybe Oscar for the next leg of the journey. (I see Maria staying with Pietro for moral support after Penny). 

What do you think? Give me your ideas/critiques!  

[ac-liveblogs]

RWBYlog vol 8, ep 14

stockholm syndrome has kicked in. i am lipsyncing along to the opening theme. 

Aaaand we're off to a terrible start, folks! It's rapidly becoming this liveblogger’s catchphrase but "Setup and payoff! Use it!" is being screeched in record time as RT throws an entire volume of establishing Qrow vs Ironwood out the goddamn WINDOW! Will RT make all the time Qrow spent muttering about revenge worthwhile, or will Qrow and Robyn being locked in a cell for an entire volume ultimately be completely worthless?!

Jokes aside, I have no investment in Winter vs Ironwood. Even her betrayal was anticlimactic. I don’t know if I should be pleased we aren’t focusing on Qrow vs Ironwood bc Qrow’s grudge was stupid, or if I should be angry that we wasted so much time talking about it to get nothing. Also, Ironwood tried to BOMB MANTLE, nothing from Robyn? At all!? Seriously, why even bother putting them in the same building. Them fighting Ironwood was the minimum expectation. Qrow vs.... fucking Harriet is fine too I guess.

Also, Ironwood got cheesed so easily last time that he carries very little threat this time around. This is the Adam problem again - he has no weight as a boss because he already got taken down fairly easily earlier.

I... ugh. Winter giving Ironwood a big speech about all the ways he fucked Atlas... girl, you were loyal to him during all of this. You don’t get to whine about it when you helped him do it. 

Human!Penny is weaksauce. Also, “I’ll buy you some time!” is.. is that a deathflag. After all this.

Uh... how to interpret the bomb not falling out of the plane after Qrow grabs Clover’s badge. Bad luck for... Harriet, the bomb not being dropped? Or... good luck being passed on via... Clover’s badge? I’m going to assume that it’s “bad luck for his enemies is good luck for Qrow” but Clover’s Gay Lucky Charm is very funny too.

It is, as always, an absolute joy to watch Neo fight. Which is of course why she got thrown out of the scene ASAP. Because I can be allowed no happiness in this shitstorm of a show

The voice-acting on Weiss’ “LEAVE HER ALONE!” was terrible. What, no second take? Also, what’s with that fire animation? They’re 2D animation now? Looks awful. 

Wait. WAIT. How did Neo come BACK? She went through one of the doors? That should have been a “one way trip to Vacuo?” I thought she was locked out of the fight?? Unless she got thrown back into Mantle...

Congrats, Harriet! Now you and Qrow both have something in common - you got one of your friends killed for stupid, pointless reasons!

Yeah, I had a feeling Cinder’s simpering sweetness was leading up to her fucking over Neo and Watts. I’m absolutely fine with that - Watts is gonna get fucked soon. Also, will Neo survive death by falling a second time...

JAUNE VS CINDER 2! Aka one of the few grudgematches I am TOTALLY on board for!

....so we wasted an entire volume on Penny finding her humanity for a second time, like... so much of that episode on Ruby explaining in harrowing detail how to make Penny human, and she’s just. Dead now. Two minutes in a squishy meatsuit and for what. And the worst part is that she can’t even be saved now. Being human fucked her over. There’s absolutely nothing to salvage anymore. 

I like Jaune as the pragmatist that agrees to kill Penny. But after all this time spent establishing that she deserves to live,  that RWBY won’t let her die... mega-ouch. *slaps Jaune* You can fit SO MUCH Maiden-related trauma in here!

uh but once again jaune feels more main character than ruby... again...

Wait, dying Maidens can talk to the person they’re passing their power to?  Did we miss a hilarious montage of Pyrhha cussing Cinder the fuck out inside her own brain?

Anyway, Winter... is the Winter Maiden, now. All according to Ironwood’s keikaku. And like... why... I’m not pleased with this decision but its hard to articulate why. It feels like all the Maidens are just... distant from Team RWBY? I still feel like it’d be fun if one of the girls got that power, but it’d be pretty overpowered if they did. 

Winter takes Penny’s position as the Hero of Mantle.... like, the real one, I guess. I’m okay with this in a way... 

Did... Winter need Maiden powers to beat Ironwood? Because... she beat him pretty easily the last time... ah, never mind. I guess his gun is bigger this time. (and the main cast bloats again)

Getting real sick of the climactic end of season fights not involving RWBY in any way. Seriously, RWBY gets stuck with the mooks while Cinder gets to have big showdowns with literally everyone else and I am over it

Cinder fucking over Watts, sweet-talking Salem and winking at Ironwood as Atlas burns is actually fun. I have no complaints about her this episode. She was fun. Though I am genuinely shocked Ironwood survived, but I guess him dying with the empty, collapsing wreck of his city is poetic in its own way.

Ruby washes ashore in a strange new mysterious land... ozma of oz, baybee, but seriously, do we have time for this.

[toooldforfandom-liveblogs]

RWBY V07E11 - Gravity

I had to read my previous liveblog to remember what happened and the answer was "not a lot." There are two episodes left after this one and there's no way the fights that were about to start are going to last that long so I'm curious about the results even if not about the fights themselves.

What is team RWBY going to do while Ironwood and Qrow are busy? Is Neo going to steal the lamp? What about the staff? I wrote last episode that I thought Atlas wasn't going to crash since everyone was evacuating to the flying city, but the title worries me. I guess Amity Tower could crash? It does use Gravity Dust... I have no idea, so let's do this!

Are we finally going to learn what the gun does? Is it the fabled gun-gun?

Number of bullets?

Ironwood _is_ a certified badass so it's cool to see him in action.

Yeah, he's definitely counting down bullets. Or minutes are going down at the same rate as he's firing his gun.

This is already more imaginative than the fight between the two maidens and the giant swords. Mostly comparing them because Watts is playing around with things that _look_ like magic, like gravity and those floating Hard Dust fields.

Oh c'mon. Ironwood also losing his aura feels just a tiny bit forced.

This is straight-up break up talk.

...he was lying. Watts counted aloud just to mislead Ironwood. Welp.

Nevermind! I overestimated Watts deviousness. I was going to write "Ironwood can just cut his arm off" but that's his "good" arm. Is he cold blooded enough to cut his flesh-y arm off to get free?

AAAAAAAAA

he really is a badass

Watts reaaaally miscalculated there. Not only because he misjudged Ironwood's will but also because he left him with his extra strong arm.

That's a really good response.

Aw, c'mon. I wanted to see the moral dilemma of letting him fall into the lava.

HOLY SHIT that's amazing! I was thinking during the fight about how it was kinda boring that Robyn didn't have weird Hawkeye gadgets in her bolts and there you go.

This really feels too easy. Both of those fights over so soon? Suspicious, really suspicious.

And this is where all goes to crap. Cinder or Neo? I'm thinking... Cinder. Neo is probably stealing the other relic.

Aaaaa, what did James see!? I thought it'd be one of the two, but maybe they just messed around his office to make him suspicious enough to call Winter. Or it was Neo who called Winter.

His paranoia really makes me think he _is_ James.

It's funny that James thinks so highly of Salem when it was mostly a coincidence how everything ended up working for her.

Ruby gets it.

Oh.

Oh no. Ironwood _did_ turn over slightly too easy but I didn't expect him to turn against RWBY.

I _love_ this. Maybe I was underestimating the show but I didn't expect that detail to matter anymore. I was too laser focused in what seemed to be the ending conflict to think about how it could come back (I even wrote at the time how it would play up Ironwood's paranoia!)

Welp, Salem has been listening.

"The hearts of men are easily swayed"

Salem and her Grimm are dangerous but I forgot the most dangerous thing about her.

WHAT

THE

FUCK

...what, what is going on!?

This volume just got a lot more interesting to me.

Did Ruby _see_ Summer die and she blocked it? Why were her silver eyes reacting if she was in emotional pain?

Yup, totally expected reaction.

WHAT

I feel like I wrote about this possibly happening but I can't remember if it was here or on the discord. Is Winter really going to kill that old woman or is she going to try and save her? She seemed pretty committed to following Ironwood to hell if necessary.

Nooo, Weiss. Poor girl, seeing the one man he trusted in Atlas turn his back.

HOLY CRAP.

I skipped writing a caption for every screenshot I wanted to take during that final confrontation because they would all be variations of the above.

This is amazing. I mean... it's pretty bad, but it's such a good turn for the story!

I was feeling a bit disappointed about this volume because it felt like all the story hooks were solved really soon: they told the truth, everyone goes against Salem mooks, they win, maybe someone dies but zero surprises along the way. I thought this episode was going to be just fights and maybe some running around but in the end the most important scene was a conversation, and it was great.

What just happened opens a _ton_ of possibilities.

Some random thoughts since I'm too keyed up to write properly:

* Is Clover going to betray Ironwood? I'm guessing yes, he always seemed to respect Robyn on a deeper level. But Qrow vs Clover does have some interesting drama potential so...

* Harriet's comment about "not confusing the two" finally gets all the weight it deserves.

* Ironwood's plan is not _bad_, it's probably their best bet if they can really fly that high, it's just cold blooded in its execution. Like most of his plans I guess. Although we don't know how high the Salem's monkeys can fly.

* Cinder seems to be going for the Maiden (a Winter / Cinder fight? Yes please. But please skip the giant swords)

* Although, that'd require Winter killing someone innocent which I doubt Weiss would forgive. Is she going to try and stop her sister? Yang and Raven style?

* Did Neo try and get Oscar to give her the relic while disguised and failed? I really want to see _that_ scene.

* I'm really interested in Ren's reaction to this. He was looking pretty lost at the end.

* I'm going to break something if Penny gets overridden to fight RWBY. That damn blinking "power" button in her ribbon haunts me, along with Ironwood's comment about how he was in complete control. Is Penny going to try and stop Winter? If they do, her friendly chat earlier in the season really will confirm that nothing nice happens "just because" in RWBY. It's all to increase later suffering.

And finally, most interesting of all, what happened to Ruby? It really looks like she saw Summer die or at the very minimum saw her leave, and blocked the memory (she was very young though so it may be just that) Was her shock the only reason why she seemed to lose control of her silver eyes or was it something Salem was doing? Or something in her memories? AAAAAAAAA. The worst thing about it is that it feels like a multi-season mystery so there's no way we're getting the answers any time soon.

What a great episode, it completely caught me by surprise how much I liked it! Until next time!

patreon

[dinosaurs-last-day]

I rewatched RWBY vol 7 and compiling a list of things I don’t like or am confused by with in the volume.  

This includes everything from main plot points, side story arcs, and character designs. They are all my opinions. 

Go below the cut to read the list, since it’s so long.

- When did Qrow give up drinking exactly? They never said anything until the back of the truck scene.

-No relapses. I know the volume was only 13 episodes. But giving up drinking is hard, and Qrow had it bad. The most temptation he faced was being offered a drink at a party and the way he turned it down was too easy for someone who just gave up drinking. Did CRWBY not do their research on rehab? I, and I’m sure a lot of other Qrow stans, would have loved to see them at least touch on the subject.

-Ace Ops introduction. They come all the way to Mantle to arrest them and then just hand them off to two random soldiers instead of bringing Team RWBY and Co. in themselves. They could have gotten the kids and Qrow up there faster if they had all gone together. I know it adds to the drama of the Ironwood meeting, but still. 

-Ace Ops Hair. Marrow is the only one with a valid hairstyle.Elm and Vine get a pass because even though their hair is super basic, it works for their characters. Harriet and Clover are the two Ace Ops where I really hate their hair style. Hair doesn’t naturally stand up the way Harriet’s does and I hate her short Mohawk thing going on. I don’t even know what to call Clover’s hair, all I can say is that it’s bad.

- Marrow and Vine’s skin color. Like, Why does Marrow look greyish-blue? I know literally zero people who look like that. That ain’t natural. One the same note, I feel like I should mention Vine’s skin color. This one doesn’t bother me as much, but still. I know CRWBY makes their characters pale, but Vine is as white as a sheet of paper.

-Ironwood and Qrow hug. You cannot convince me that James would actually hug someone, especially initiate the freaking hug. 

-Jaune’s new haircut. This has been something I hated since the new volume premiered and we saw it for the first time. It looks like a bunch of bananas and I want his fluffy hair back. 

-The Moms flirting with Jaune. He’s 18, you have children. Really, what the hell.

-The way they introduced Robyn and her Happy Huntresses. I’m not talking about when that dude mentioned them in the airship, I’m talking about when they first appeared on screen. Robyn is a good person, she wants to change Mantle for the better, but she’s introduced trying to it illegally. I mean, she’s running for council, and she had a really good chance of winning. I know she wanted to help as soon as possible, but did she really have to do it illegally by stopping shipments? After the election is more understandable, but before?

-What was Willow Schnee doing in Jacques’ office? It felt like CRWBY just inserted her there to let us meet Weiss’s mom. I mean, they made it work, but I can’t be the only one wondering what she was doing in her husband’s private office. She couldn’t just be drinking, right? 

-Why wasn’t Robyn handed the position of Councilwoman when Jacques was arrested? I mean, the Council knows that she was supposed to win, that she technically won. And Jacques can fit back when he’s under arrest, especially if he’s being convicted of treason and assisting a murderer. It would have made sense to give her the seat, even if it wasn’t a ceremonious moment, she definitely deserved it. 

-Tyrian vs. the birds. (Robyn, Clover, Qrow). If the birds were taking Tyrian from Mantle to Atlas, which is floating right about Mantle, why would they need to cross the Tundra? 

-Episode 12. Do I even need to say anything about it? I don’t know a single person who enjoys watching episode 12. There are already so many posts about everything wrong with episode 12, I don’t really need to go over it again. Let’s just say that it is all kinds of messed up.

-One thing I will say about Episode 12 is: where the fuck did Tyrian go? He’s in the middle of the Tundra, with no shelter around. But when the military comes to pick up Qrow after the fight (you know what fight I’m talking about), he’s nowhere nearby. Did Tyrian teleport or magically disappear? Seriously, what is that about?

-Blood. This is about Clover and Winter, and how we saw more blood in two episodes than we have in the entire season. One thing RWBY has always prided itself on is being a family friendly, blood free show. That all went out the window in the last two episodes in vol 7. Not only did we see blood, but it was a lot of blood. 

-Ren’s personal story arc. Why is it necessary that he needs to doubt himself so much that he pushes Nora of all people away? What does it bring to the story but angst. I mean, I love angst, but there was already a lot of it in this volume without adding Ren’s personal pain into it.   

-Marrow’s wasted potential. I mean, he’s a faunus, working in a military position, and who obviously doesn’t agree with everything the government does and allows. I mean, Marrow couldn’t even look Team RWBY in the eyes when they stood up against Ironwood, when all of the other Ace Ops defended Ironwood. He stayed silent. He looks so sad having to arrest the girls, it’s pretty clear that this is not what he wants. CRWBY could have used that to make a really good side plot, but instead they just kinda erased Marrow’s personality and made him do whatever the rest of the Ace Ops were doing. Honestly, I could make this point it’s own post, and maybe I will later. 

-The Staff of Creation. Why is it in the intro if they don’t even show it in the actual volume? It’s mentioned a few times, and yeah, it’s the all important relic, but it was just in the intro to remind us that it existed. 

__________________________________________

That’s a lot to take in. This took me about a week to sit on and think about. The original list was a lot longer, and a lot picker, breaking apart every little moment in the show. But I shorted it to 18 notes, leaving only the ones I felt strongly about. Please feel free to add onto this list or DM me/send me an ask if you want to ask anything about my list. 

people who asked to be tagged in this post: @panickedpansexualpanda @jadeviridi78

[resplendentroses324]

Finally cooled off a reasonable amount to gather my thoughts.

THAT EPISODE WAS ABOUT TO BE SO PHENOMENAL. EVERYTHING ABOUT IT WAS GOING PHENOMENALLY.

THEN THEY CHOSE TO HAVE TWO SEASONED, PROFESSIONAL HUNTSMAN WHO /KNOW/ SALEM’S GOAL IS FIRST AND FOREMOST TO DIVIDE, FIGHT EACH OTHER INSTEAD OF TAKING CARE OF THE FUCKING SERIAL KILLER FIRST.

The 2v1 on Robyn and Qrow vs Clover? Sure, and they were actually pretty close to resolving that and everyone calming down. Even the 1v1v1 of Qrow Tyrian and Clover? SURE I GUESS Clover just HAS to make arresting Qrow a priority as well as RECAPTURING THE KILLER. But the fucking 2v1 of Tyrian and Qrow vs Clover was SO STUPID. You needed THREE HUNTSMAN to originally capture him! You’re down Robyn, WHY THE FUCK WOULD THEY HAVE BOTH QROW AND CLOVER ACTIVELY CHOOSE TO TAKE OUT THE ONLY OTHER PERSON WHO COULD FIGHT TYRIAN WITH HIM AND PROBABLY WIN.

(The rest of this post has been edited from what it once was to be a little more analytical of the characters in-show choices, but let the record show that I still HATE how the show did this and the writing was still bad for Qrow this episode. I’m reeling. Fucking TYRIAN. Seriously. )

Qrow I can KINDA understand because it’s a “do i fight both people who are trying to come at me at once or do I accept the offer to get at least one of them out of the way so I can handle the other” situation, and Clover definitely brought that on himself by refusing to stop going after Qrow.

If Qrow had given himself up to Clover he’d have been arrested and it would have left Clover to fight Tyrian by himself, but if Clover had given himself up to Qrow they could have taken Tyrian together and finished their shit later. THAT’S on Clover. Clover didn’t even give Qrow the option. Granted I’m sure Qrow could have said “you can arrest me after we deal with HIM” and then just...say sike afterwards.

Qrow’s biggest fault here is just not fucking paying attention. Qrow shouldn’t have trusted Tyrian even minimally to take out Clover without killing him. I mean did he really expect the serial killer to....not kill him?

BUT AT THE SAME TIME THO, CRWBY DIDNT HAVE TO FUCKING WRITE IT LIKE THAT EITHER. IT’S /SUPER/ BULLSHIT THAT THE ONLY OPTION THEY GAVE QROW WAS TO TEAM UP WITH TYRIAN THE FUCKING SERIAL KILLER THAT TRIED TO KILL HIM AND RUBY

Somewhat props to Qrow and Clover for trying to diffuse the situation innitially in favor of DEALING WITH THE KILLER FIRST and going to Atlas to sort things out with James. But uh, I haven’t liked Robyn since the beginning and honestly it’s her fucking fault for this by refusing to back off of Clover even though he and Qrow were ON TRACK AND WILLING to cooperate with each other to get to Atlas safely and deal with Tyrian. But she just wouldn’t give it up. I like characters, especially women, that fight for the people as much as the next guy but Robyn’s tactics (while it’s valid and necessary to resort to stealing and violence when up against oppression) has ALWAYS been to pick fights. Even when talking things out, she just has this attitude with people that she wants to pick a fight with them and it’s been super annoying. Since Clover initially wouldn’t tell her abt Amity she’s consistently been refusing to listen or hear other people out and try to cooperate even after Blake and Yang confided in her. But still when it all went to shit Clover should have given up on apprehending Qrow to, idk, FUCKING FIGHT THE KILLER.

Y’ALL WANTED TO TALK ABOUT WANTING TO BE FRIENDS SO BAD JUST FUCKING BE FUCKING FRIENDS FOR THE TWO MINUTES YOU’D NEED TO DEAL WITH TYRIAN AND THEN FIGHT EACH OTHER.

But calming down. I’m not really gonna call this one a Bury Your Gays, and while I’m as tired of it as the rest of you as a gay person, and fucking pissed that this is what they chose to do with Clover and a new relationship with some of the most potential, we all have to remember that from a hard standpoint this volume was already written and done with before we got our hands on the ship, and if they really were intending on the friends thing at first, they couldn’t just rework the volume’s whole ending to appease some tidbits that people saw between two characters. But I’m still angry, they still could have done it different. But I’m numb to it and not gonna cry over spilled milk and accuse the show writers of all kinds of bullshit because it’s not worth it. What’s done is done. I hope they do better.

But Clover was also scraping the barrel on our part for the rep, WE’re the ones that hyped him up and he was set up as a trusted loyal ally of Ironwood from the beginning and we’re all acting surprised that he made his choices.

We were all HOPING Clover wouldn’t follow Ironwood, but it’s not like we were seriously lead to believe he would, and Clover’s choice to blindly follow got him killed in an unfortunate circumstance. He walked and talked like he was completely loyal to Ironwood and if he wasn’t going to (surprise) be completely loyal to Ironwood, they would have built that hesitance and questioning up more. Fuck, MARROW was more hesitant to fight than Clover was.

That being said, what I am most upset and kind of mad about was how cruel it was for them to rescind all of Qrow’s growth and budding happiness, even if it was just in finding a good friend, one that had good luck and he didn’t really have to worry about him getting hurt by his misfortune. Someone who actually forced Qrow to see the good things he’s done and should be rewarded for when pretty much everyone has been putting him down up until now. While real life struggles like addiction ARE an on and off fight, In fiction it can get repetetive and somethings NEED to be put behind characters and resolved. If Qrow goes back to drinking Season 8’s gonna look a lot like season 6 but worse for our birb and with stakes rising and bigger fish to fry I don’t think anyone will have the patience to help him this time

100% pleased with every other part of the episode, ESPECIALLY Winter and Penny, the complexity of those two’s interactions was very intriguing and hopefully if not them, SOMEONE will fucking kill Cinder next week because she hasn’t been interesting as a villain since Volume 4. 100% pleased with RWBY vs the Ace Ops. Wasn’t expecting Elm to go off so hard. I like that RWBY has confidence in themselves and have proven they really aren’t just students or children anymore and that they can and will hold their own and they’ll win too. They’ve improved so well as fighters and I think the establishment of them as the strongest is key for why they’re the heroes of the story. If they weren’t going to end up as the best why would focus on them and not a more powerful group to oppose Cinder. AND proving that their bonds are what gave them that victory. The Ace Ops were demolished the second there was even a fraction of dissonance in them because they refused to be friends and cooperate and trust each other beyond their jobs, so their teamwork crumbled because Marrow and even slightly Vine were hesitant while Harriet and Elm were off the walls. Other than that, im maybe .5% pleased with THAT whole...Thing, ONLY because they were actually on their way to calming down and backing off before Tyrian crashed the plane.

It was 99% phenomenal and 1% bad choices but the gravity of that choice made the episode like, 20% less enjoyable than it should have been over all.

Here’s hoping that good luck kicks in and Clover still has a chance.