#Qrow hates how Oz runs the team and acts like he knows everything

[zacs-of-rwby]

Cloqwork basketball AU

[rwbyconversations]

RWBY Volume 7 Review

Two weeks out from Volume 8 and I finally cared enough to write this. Go team I guess. 

Part of it came down to my feelings on Volume 7. It’s a complicated season that’s made me realize a lot of my overall feelings on RWBY as a series, particularly a lot of the less flattering feelings. Volume 7 is just... frustrating in general, as for all the good that it does have, and it does have a lot of great elements to it, it’s let down by a frustrating script and writing choices that feel distinctly amateurish, especially as the series moves on and gets better and better looking each year. There’s elements and kernals here of great character writing, season-wide arcs that land in a really good way and get me emotionally invested in the characters. But on the other... Ren only has two hundred words the entire season and you can tell! 

Volume 7 is a season of dizzying highs, some of the best moments of the entire franchise... and some of the series lows. It’s a season where there’s no production reason for its shortcomings... it just comes down to an awkward script that focuses on the wrong elements far too often. Let’s talk about that. In a very long and drawn out manner.

Thanks to @jamesbranwen​, @h-e-m-o-goblin​ and @retro-riffraff​ for help with GIFs and consultation on this review.

1) The Good Stuff!

A) Atlas is very pretty!

I cannot stress enough how on a set level, Volume 7 is leaps and bounds above the other seasons in sheer environmental detail and setting dressing. Mantle has a great atmosphere with its New York influences, the smog covered backgrounds and oppressive streets and alleys. Ironwood’s office which is deliberately designed to evoke astronomy themes to represent James’ love for the stars. The cold oppressive atmosphere of the Schnee Manor and how Jacques has begun warping it to glorify him with only lip service paid to Nicholas in public. Penguins! 

There’s a lot of great set design work that went into this season and the crew deserve props for it. Genuinely. 

B) Ironwood’s arc is the best character arc in the entire franchise

Yeah just wearing my heart on my sleeve there, I fucking love Ironwood and his character arc here in Volume 7 is the best written arc of the show. I simp for the tin man who just wants to do the right thing. This one season of content is better than a lot of the series-wide material being honest. I went back to James’s big volumes in the last month to rewatch the show and it’s interesting to see the early seeds in retrospect for where his arc goes. His need to protect everyone he can and the brutish measures he considers necessary for such an act, his conflicting loyalties towards Ozpin that manifest in both frustration at Oz’s seeming apathy to the growing conflict, but also desperate desire for validation from Ozpin that what’s he doing is the right call. After the Mistral seasons set up James as going off the deep end following Volume 3, having him open the season with an earnest smile, an immediate apology for the team’s arrest and trusting them with his plans for Amity and Salem is a jarring but pleasant surprise. He’s not been slacking off, he’s been trying to keep the world together in the way he thinks is best. He lets his guard down around the heroes and we see the good man underneath, which makes the moments where he raises his walls hurt all the more. While Em and Merc are still probably my favorite characters period, James is absolutely my favorite character in Volume 7 and Top 5 favorite characters series-wide. I’m very eager to see where he goes from here. He also rocks the beard and fixed his T-Rex arms so James came out of the washing machine that is Volume 7′s costume design. He truly is the Best Boi, and I cannot give Jason Rose enough credit for his performance this year. He hit every note of Ironwood’s character perfectly and I wish the fandom would give him more credit for giving James as much life as he does.

Oh, and as the obligatory comment on mlm rep that I am known for getting obsessively weird anon hate over: IronQrow hug nearly had me crying on a convention floor from how goddamn soft it was. Remember conventions? Ah good times.

This just... hits me... ya know? Seeing him lower his guard so much to come in for a hug just shows how isolated he’s let himself become to let himself have this moment of contact... Godamnit James. Also this is the second time after Martial Arcs that two guys hug and I really liked their ship for the following hiatus. 

C) Soft Qrow hours are nice

Qrow’s a good guy, he went through a lot of bad stuff in Volume 6 but now he’s on the other side and purged his voice of the demon within. I think Volume 7 was a very good year for Qrow overall. It was great to see him interacting with more characters his age and lowering his own guard. His moments of letting the facade drop around James and Clover especially are great expansion for his character. Jason Liebritch hit the ground running as Qrow and gave him a far more dynamic range than I think Vic could. While I wish Qrow going off alcohol had been given more of a focus as it’s kind of done off-handedly that he’s gone cold turkey and otherwise doesn’t get brought up barring his revulsion at the wine in the Schnee Manor, he overall had a great year. And trust me I’ll get to the fights later, I have a lot more I can say about the bird boi there. 

D) I liked the Ace Ops! 

I was ambivilent towards the Ace Ops on first watching. They’re kinda underdeveloped in the context of the season at large and most people immediately pegged them as a miniboss squad/fodder for Salem to kill. But in rewatch they do still get to shine, if not as brightly. They’re very enjoyable. Clover especially is just really fun in retrospect, I love cocky fighters in general, and he was infectiously enjoyable (I’ve already covered the FG stuff in the past, not doing it again). Marrow came a close second because... well it’s Marrow, he is The Best Boi. Harriet got points for being a punchgirl which is always cool, I liked how her Semblance was shown and being cocky while being able to back it up is always a win. Elm and Vine are tied for dead last, I like the body diversity Elm introduces with her muscles and Vine... existed... but overall I think with the time they had, they did get to establish themselves well. I wish I could say that about their relationship with Team RWBYORNJ but this is the Nice Section so we’ll leave it there for now.

This is one of the best shots of the entire season. I adore it. God I like the Teryx design.

E) God the villains rocked this year! 

I am a villain whore. I own that. I will embrace that monkier. But when they’re as cool as this, I feel validated in this Chilli’s tonight. Watts and Tyrian really make the season shine and don’t have a dud scene all season. They have great chemistry together, shining bright in even the weakest or most mediocre episodes. Watts went from “Oh yeah you exist” tier to “Oh yeah you rule” tier. His vendetta against Ironwood feels so real and pre-established, even though this season is the first time it’s ever come up. Watts just ozzes style in everything he does. The animators bring him to life and make every step, every flick of his twist and even just how he moves his eyes all bleed contempt. He’s such a rat and I love him! Chris Sabat finally gets to stretch his wings after a few years playing Watts as just Evil Scientist Guy, and he makes the most of it. 

And Tyrian remains an absolute treat. He didn’t get much in V6 but here he takes center stage with Watts and also gets so much impact because of it. All the little twitches, and tilting of his heads, and dramatic gestures, he’s still just so goddamn cool to watch and we even get a little backstory of him. I know he’s irredeemable. But I just want to watch Tyrian kill people and scream. Like hot damn his line “THE GRIMM SHOULD HAVE DESTROYED OUR ENEMIES, NOT MADE THEM FRIENDS!” is so fucking raw. He’s having fun destablizing a nation with his boyfriend! 

“You want more chaos than a Grimm invasion?” “If anyone on Remannt can do it, wouldn’t it be you?” There is no heterosexual explanation for how these two look at each other and yes this is me outing myself as a Nuts and Volts fan.

Watts and Tyrian really do become the absolute highlights of the season alongside James. They have a great dynamic and even during their more slower moments there’s so much care and thought put into their every mannerism. Animators, seriously, great job, I love what you did. And their fights... we’ll get there. But they’re so goddamn good. 

Look they even run the same! They’re soulmates! 

Honorary mention to Salem by the way. She’s only in two scenes but her presence is felt throughout Ironwood’s arc and his growing fear of her and she damn well delivers when she shows up. That shot of her arriving in person is a killer shot to end on as well.

Oh and I guess Cinder and Neo exist don’t they? Eh, we’ll come back to them. 

F) Oscar got a character arc!

Finally! He did it! He got an arc that began, continued and ended all onscreen! It only took four tries! 

But yeah Oscar had a really good set of scenes in Volume 7. I like him being the first to confront Ruby on the Ironwood lie, bringing up the hypocrisy after their condemning of Ozpin just last season. I like him having a more forward role (outside of not getting to be part of the celebration in episode 4 what the hell guys), and that he’s the big link between RWBY and Ironwood was a great call. Having Ozpin shelved for one more season so Oscar can take center-stage was an inspired choice. I love his dynamic with Ironwood, and how James closing himself off emotionally gets reflected in how he begins slipping in how he refers to Oscar, starting off as treating him and Oz as separate, ending with him gunning Oscar down as he doesn’t care anymore to differentiate the two.

My big issues with Oscar’s arc are that I’m first of all annoyed at the lack of followup on the Oscar stuff from V6, I’m still waiting for Qrow to apologize for punching Oscar guys! I also really wish Neo’s first attack wasn’t offscreen. CRWBY’s cliffhanger fetish meant I got to break out the Offscreen Pine jokes again. And of course, the Neo hallway punch was a bit bullshit.

G) (Most of) The fights are amazing

There’s no punchline. These fights are great, two of them are in my Top 10 Series Wide fights list and at least the duds aren’t Volume 5 bad.

If you’d told me before Volume 7 that Watts would get an extended firefight with James, I’d have felt that a bit cheap as Watts to me doesn’t feel like a fighter, more a planner who hides behind armies of mechanical soldiers. But damn if they didn’t sell me on Watts “You’ve yeed your last haw” Watts whipping out a Glock just to spite James. 

This is another one of my favorite shots in the entire series.

Ironwood vs Watts is potentially my favorite fight in the entire series, and if it’s not, it’s easy Top 3 alongside Yang vs Mercury and Pyrrha vs CRDL/Mercury. It makes great use of Amity in the abandoned gravity biome meant for SSSN vs JNPR, with Ironwood and Watts deftly moving around in a manner that very easily could have been difficult to track with the constantly shifting gravity, but the crew do their best to keep it coherent as to who’s where. The credits showed their dedication also stretched into visual continuity, as James and Arthur’s route throughout the Arena was carefully considered so they’d loop around organically. 

This is what I mean when I say the crew went above and beyond to keep things clean.

Ironwood vs Watts could have easily failed to impress, given its lack of choreography on the level the series usually does, but the team’s efforts went instead into showing a situation that lets Watts get a dragged out battle: James wins whenever he closes the distance here, so Arthur’s constantly on the run and being forced to tamper with the arena. Great camerawork, a GOD TIER song from Caleb Hyles that I’m still listening to today, and two characters with a fantastic history coming to blows makes for easily the best fight of the season and a series-wide highlight. Watching it develop from storyboards, to mocap, to animations and the full version is a delight to see. This is what CRWBY can do when everything comes togehter. The orchestra’s all tuned. It’s a goddamn symphony.

THIS is my favorite shot of the season.

Tyrian also gets to shine with his two battles this year. His alley fight with Qrow, Robyn and Clover is short but sweet, the corvid and the scorpion especially trading brutal blows in the cramped space. Qrow goes full Devil May Cry with his style-switching here, Harbinger being swapped between sword, tonfa and gun forms freely alongside Qrow applying The Power of Punching. His 1v1v1 with Clover and Qrow though is the true highlight of the season in terms of choreography. It’s lighting-fast, and has some impeccable shot work. Qrow gets to use his scythe with deliberate nods to the Red Trailer, Clover gets to shut up everyone who doubted his weapon, and Tyrian is just along for the ride and he makes the most of it. It’s frentic, it’s heart-pounding, it’s everything a fight should be. 

Honorary mentions as well go to Ace Ops vs the Geist, which is just really fun and has a great backing music choice, the opening battle with Sabre having Ruby’s obligatory ten seconds of fighting that come at the start of every new era of the series, and the Ace Ops vs RWBY fight which has some good choreo in places.

H) Winter and Penny have good chemistry

I don’t have a ton to add here, I just like their dynamic and how they advance each other’s arcs. It’s nice writing. I also like Winter apologizing to Penny when she’s angry at Jacques and takes it out on Penny by accident with the “You wouldn’t understand” line.

Penny as a Maiden is a nice idea, I think her new design is cute. Penny says trans rights.

Those are a lot of my favorite things about Volume 7. It’s a killer season when it’s firing on all cylinders but unfortunately... it often misfires in frustrating ways, many of which are unfortunately due to core emblematic problems with the series that won’t go away.

2) The Bad Stuff

A) The costumes

It’s been a over year. It’s low hanging fruit. I don’t care. Most of them are still not good and they’re ludicrously over-designed.

Blake’s in a fetish suit and I wonder how she even goes to the bathroom. Weiss just looks like an abino Sabre alt, Yang is what a Halloween costume site would describe as “Sexy UPS Driver,” (why does she have a thigh window) Ruby... looks fine, it’s one of her better costumes. Jaune’s hair is silly, Ren’s model has lost some muscle definition and he looks like an e-boy, Nora’s costume really doesn’t fit the Atlas visual design and looks like a rejected Kingdom Hearts costume. Cinder’s is too black and I actually can’t track her in darker scenes because of it (which is kinda bad during... a fight scene... where I need to know where she is...), Neo looks like a Ren Fair cosplayer doing a bit for her OnlyFans, Winter’s is anatomically weird with super skinny arms and legs, and Blake’s hair is a fucking hate crime. 

Qrow’s is one I liked at first but in retrospect it does feel like a downgrade. To quote @h-e-m-o-goblin​ from a Discord chat:

in a show like rwby, where color is such a vital defining aspect of every character, a cohesive colorscheme goes a long way. qrow's original outfit works great in this regard. neutral tones. greys, whites, and blacks, with red accents that pop against the otherwise sparse color. it's good! it's distinctive! it doesn't feel cluttered and it doesn't look like a clown vomited on him! the subdued colors really lend themselves to the grey, cynical energy qrow seems to carry with him. a literal lack of color in his life. the outfit itself feels like something he would wear; a combination of "clearly trying to look cool" and "a little disheveled and laid back." the design breathes, it isn't cluttered. let's contrast this with his vol 7 outfit. a lot of outfits in vol 7 suffer from this problem, but first and foremost it doesn't look like something he would wear. where his old outfit had a casual feel to it, his new look feels like someone dressed him up for a family christmas dinner. it's too... tidy. now of course you could argue this is him "cleaning up his life," but i dont feel like you have to sacrifice his own personal style in order to convey that. if that's really what they were going for, they easily could have just, oh i dont know, given him a cape that isn't tattered???

remember how i said qrow's original outfit really made his colors pop? how less is more when it comes to having a character with a specific color theme? vol 7 butchered that. we suddenly have articles of clothes that are tinted with greenish blue tones, browns, and with gold trim? on TOP of the old colors he already had in his design. it's muddy. it's ugly. the burgundy vest is fine, if they wanted to work more color into his outfit they should have done it that way throughout, shades of grey and different tones of RED. his COLOR. it just feels like they tacked so much on there without a second thought and i really think he deserves better. its just. such a mess.

The ones I did like were Watts’ new coat (I like the puffy hood), Penny’s is fine, the Ace Ops look great, Ironwood’s new outfit is stellar (those last six are great examples of how to do a lot with just primary colors of white and red), Neon’s Jolyne cosplay is cute and Flynt is slick. Otherwise, Volume 7 feels like it’s taken a lot of the wrong lessons from the costume design of the earlier seasons. Less is often more but now it feels like they have a pathological aversion to empty space on the costumes, leading them to feel like... costume vomit for lack of a better word. I didn’t love the Mistral outfits, but their modifications at least were carried by how many of them called back to the Fall of Beacon and emphasized the themes of loss in Volume 4. The new Atlas outfits... don’t have that shared theme. It feels like a hodgepodge of different design influences without trying to find a way to unify them. It’s like putting Baki the Grappler beside My Little Pony, they just fail to mesh.

Also for fuck’s sake already CRWBY just give the girls muscles already.

2) JNR suck and Ren’s arc is glorified character assassination

I don’t love JNR. They’re fine, but the show has arguably not needed them for a while and while I’ve liked them all at different points, it’s never been adoration outside of Ren in Volume 4. I was cool with the idea of them staying in Argus to help cover Mistral after its Huntsmen were wiped out, and Volume 7 has... made me wish they did that.

Jaune is just comic relief, and it kinda blows for later reasons but the big one is that he’s just not very funny. His big role in Volume 7 is basically to crosswalk some kids so we can have a joke scene during the Mantle Battle where Jaune uses his tactical genius to teach people to walk in single file. I feel like at this point Miles is just actively trying to kill Jaune’s fandom out of spite for how badly Jaundice was received. He’s never allowed to be cool or try and redeem himself. His hatedom aren’t going to stop hating Jaune because he gets more comedy guys. They’re going to stop when you write Jaune well. It’s a bummer he got some genuinely great upgrades for his sword and shield and never gets to use them outside of the opening. 

Nora exists. She got a surprising amount of focus this season in that she got focus of any kind. I liked her confronting Ironwood over his choking of Mantle because we know she was once the kind of person Ironwood would have been stifling. I like her being the one to realize the loophole in Jinn’s “You can’t” line. I don’t like much else about Nora this year, or at least the Nora the writing team are pushing. She’s not funny like Jaune but Nora just absorbs so much screentime in the first half with her constant shrieking. Sam Ireland has good range but making Nora into Discount Harley Quinn is pushing her out of it. She sounds shrill, making Nora sound like she has no heart outside of the election rally. A shrill voice is one thing. A shrill voice that never lands a single joke? Yeah that character is tainted by association. 

And Ren... oh God Ren what happened to you.

The Volume 7 commentary confirmed a suspicion of mine that Ren’s arc was heavily cut down from what was planned. Even watching V7 I could tell his arc was bare-bones at best, and it’s downright character assassination in places. Why is he suddenly so cold to Nora? Why is he now so obsessed with training? Why does he side with Ironwood for all of... one line which is this last between episodes 7 and 11. Ren only has two hundred words of dialoge in Volume 7 and they feel so weird in places. Ren goes from seemingly disliking Nora, to kissing her, to never referencing the kiss, to partaking in the Worst Scene Of The Season, all with no consistency. It’s not even threadbare. Ren’s arc just has no connecting tissue for so much of it! It’s insane how badly Ren was hurt by this, and I shudder to wonder how bad his Volume 8 arc will be because you know that was one of the first plotlines they cut down on when they inevitably overreached again. 

I don’t know how they made Renora kissing feel unearned? But by God they found a way with how much of a trainwreck Ren’s writing is in regards to tainting this. 

If Ironwood is an example of RWBY doing character writing well, Ren is the mirror image of how badly they can do. JNR really suffered from Volume 7 (also fun fact, Ren has about 200 words of dialogue? Ironwood has 4400). Maybe not to the level of irredeemable dislike? But very close to being on the same tier as Cinder of “Just go away already.”  I’m not looking forward to their content in Volume 8. 

3) RWBY themselves are poorly handled in Volume 7

It’s unfortunate that the actual title characters of the series are also some of this season’s weaker links. RWBY feel... superfluous to this season in a way they’ve never felt before. It’s baffling how much of the season doesn’t change if you just don’t include them, and apparently Volume 7′s first draft? Was even worse.

The commentary says that many of the RWBY moments were added later in production. Stuff like Ruby and Renora at the rally, Blake and Yang’s talk with Robyn and Ruby and Qrow’s chat were all either added in near the end of the writing or were “low priority” enough that they could have been cut which is... veyr alarming that’s stuff even the main protags have to worry about! 

Ruby feels half-baked. I was looking forward to her in V7 after how V6 gave her a more dynamic personality and the focus she got in Brunswick, and having Penny’s return had me interested in seeing Ruby grapple with her emotions about it. She watched Penny die, how would it influence her to see Penny back and OK? Good question, we never get to see it. Ruby’s just OK with Penny’s return, the one time they touch on it Penny immediately glosses over it. Ruby just goes back to her old happy go lucky persona where any and all negative emotions are immediately forced down instead of confronting them and growing from them. I’m getting a little tired of Ruby bottling her grief and being teased about finally getting her snapping like a Twix Bar. We finally got her crying and it lasted all of ten seconds. And it doesn’t help that Ruby’s still getting shafted for fights. Her scythe choreography has no excuse being as flacid as it is now after Qrow vs Clover showed they can do scythe fighting! Why is Ruby being upstaged by (let’s be real) a supporting character! Why is she being limited to ten seconds of good combat then nothing for the rest of the season outside of flimsily swinging it or shooting. It’s disappointing, especially after how good V6 Ruby was.

I swear, Gravity’s not just my favorite episode of the season just because Ruby finally cries in it.

Weiss was kinda just done dirty though. At least Ruby has a good outfit. Weiss confronting her father has been a long standing plot thread for the series, it’s been Weiss’s Big Thing since the White Trailer. And when Jacques finally appears, he’s very... bland. He’s just evil corporate dude who exists less as an obstacle for Weiss and more just a roadblock for the plot through the election. Weiss finally gets a chance to take her father down and work to redeem her family name... but instead of earning said victory and it being treated with the same gravitas and emotional weight as Blake defeating Adam... Weiss has her victory handed to her. And it’s played for comedy by her abusrdly attractive mother. 

Listen, I like I Willow Schnee. I think she’s a fascinating character and I like the idea of a person who is aware of the harm they’ve done by accident but is too broken to fix the issues she accidentally left. I love her calling Weiss out on her treatment of Whitley. But she is absolutely a Deus Ex Machina that exists to get Jacques out of the plot as fast as possible. You mean to tell me Hackerman Watts never once made sure Jacques had hidden cameras? Or that none of the staff found Willow’s cameras and reported them under the assumption they were White Fang spies? It’s so... convenient. It’s handing Weiss her victory on an unearned platter. Which sucks. I was really looking forward to Weiss beating Jacques. Instead she just gets given the plot device while JNR engage in the Worst Scene of The Season in that Whitley food stunt.

Me whenever I’m asked to rewatch Cordially Invited

Blake and Yang have much the same problems, in they never separate. I know they’re going to be together. I know CRWBY are making it canon (get it over with already). I still would like Yang and Blake to have individual character scenes. I’d like Blake and Marrow to talk about being a Faunus Huntsman in Atlas (another thing that got cut thanks to Robyn Hill). I want Yang and Ironwood to discuss their PTSD and have Yang thank Ironwood for his trust in her that he commissioned the arm despite Yang attacking Mercury. I want Blake to be well animated in fight scenes so she’s doing more than just jobbing so Yang looks better. I want Yang to stop hogging all the good Team RWBY choeography. I want them to interact with other characters and continue to grow instead of feeling like two halves of one character. And no, making a meta joke of how Blake and Yang don’t talk to other people doesn’t make it OK. It just means you’re self aware about your own faults. 

(Also give Yang better merch or quit the favoritism. If you’re gonna milk her, put effort into it beyond crapply overpriced flannel. RT’s merch store is actively making me hate Yang.)

Team RWBY’s biggest contribution to the season is the Ironwood Lie which is... a can of worms. They certainly had a point in withholding some of the bigger truths from James but I feel by Pomp and Cirumstance he’d proven himself truthwrothy enough to warrant being told the truth about Salem. But then when he’s finally told the truth, it’s offscreen’d and the consequence isn’t “Why didn’t you tell me earlier” but “Fucking Ozpin man.” Gravity has it bite them in the ass, but it’s more an accessory to Yang and Blake telling Robyn about the Amity tower. I wish more had been done with the team disagreeing on whether the lie was a good choice or not, maybe have Yang be hardline against it due to her own “No more lies and half truths” policy instead of... having Yang tell more lies and half truths (Commentary confirms she never told Ruby and Weiss about the Robyn stuff BTW). But that’s a wider problem where RWBY aren’t allowed to disagree beyond surface level “I don’t know if this is the right call” dialogue. There’s never a threat of one of them cracking and just spilling the beans to James, everyone just blindly trusts Ruby and Qrow tells the audience “No this is different from when Ozpin lied. Trust us.” 

This is the most RWBY get for content in the season finale: Ruby just nuking Cinder with no difficulty after having trouble with the eyes three episodes ago. Kinda lame tbh.

Team RWBY are just disappointing in Volume 7. They’re not given good animation, their story roles are largely insignificant, the impact of their roles on the story is threadbare and... well most of their costumes suck don’t @ me even CRWBY have admitted Blake and Weiss’s haircuts looked bad. It’s a whole barrage of a letdown for the main girls. And it’s really sad that the best scenes of the season... are usually the ones where RWBY are nowhere in sight.

Why the hell didn’t Yang get to keep the sunglasses come on guys. One job.

4) Robyn, the election plot, and the Happy Huntresses

Oh God, Robyn Hill is... not great. I could and likely will write a full meta on her character and how they bungled it but I’ll just be blunt here: I don’t like her design, the colors don’t mesh well, he head’s too small, Christina Vee is sleeping through the role and her weapon’s lame. Introducing her in a scene where she threatens to attack our heroes, and her agents are actively sneaking up on them to do it, is not a great first impression for a hometown hero. And that the commentary thinks she’s meant to be the hero in that scene is... staggering. 

RWBY’s greatest threat yet is a wine mom Karen and her Home Owners Association army. 

The election plot is less a misfire and more the engine just exploding. There’s so little good content between when it’s introduced and concluded, with it usually being individual scenes that are more good in spite of their connection to the plot (such as Tyrian’s massacre). It drags in pacing, going on for nearly half the season between episodes 5 and 10, and it purely exists as a roadblock to keep RWBY spinning their wheels while Watts and Tyrian keep going with the main plot. I don’t know why CRWBY went for this plot. They could have easily had something else fill the gap that also allowed for a lot of the character beats (such as Marrow and Blake’s talk and Ren’s entire arc) to shine, or at least condensed it to the important elements instead of letting it become bloated. It ends in such an unsatisfying way where Willow just shows up and goes “We have four episode left, here’s the plot device to beat Jacques, get back ot the main plot.” If they wanted to do the election plot, the best route would have been to give Volume 7 more episodes or stretch out its events to two seasons, but neither is realistically possible while RWBY lives off the teat of AT&T. 

Jacques and Robyn are just boring. Evil corporate man and a lame adaptation of Robyn Hood who only has fans because of thirst who also like downplaying Robyn making a racist remark at Marrow (to say nothing of that weird subsection of Robyn fans who make her a Fox Faunus who cut her tail off to join Atlas Academy which is... certainly a creative choice especially when Marrow and Neon are punching holes in that angsty BS backstory). They can’t carry this plot and the artifical attempts to make it seem more exciting with the two cliffhaners ending on Mantle under riot or Grimm attack are laughably cut short by the next episode in each case opening the morning after. On binge watch it becomes weirdly funny more than anything and that’s not a good reaction. The dual cliffhangers being cheaply resolved is a short but succint example of V7′s pacing issues, and they almost always loop around to the election plot being too bloated, slow and just boring.

Also the Happy Huntresses are just... lame. I like their Semblances but that’s it. Fiona’s OK because she gets some screentime but May’s just “the surly one” and Joanna doesn’t even get her Semblance or much dialogue (oh wow she really is just a female Sage Ayana isn’t she). Robyn should not have been leading the HH and running for Council. That’s really stupid. And kind of wrong. Having May or Fiona be running instead while Robyn leads the team in relief efforts would have been better and could have split the focus more effeciently instead of leaving May and especially Joanna feelng like roster padding. There’s also some delicious irony in the show trying to frame the HH as the resistance fighting for the people and representing individuality, only for them all to have the same boring outfit and weapons (I think even the exact same model just with different sizes) while the Ace Ops are meant to be the military drones who are “Just following orders,” only for them to be more racially diverse, more diverse body-type-wise, and have more unique weapons. It’s another one of those odd creative dissconnects between what the writers wanted and what the artists/animation teams chose to do. 

The election plot is overall toxin for Volume 7, and Robyn in my opinion, has one of the worst introductory scenes of any character in the franchise (and CRWBY have tacitly admitted that V7 had a character they were surprised at how controversial they were, which has to be Robyn). In a year where they were already juggling so much content and characters, adding in this bloated subplot was something I don’t think anyone wanted, especially now that we know we lost so much content on the sacrificial altar for this. It’s a black mark on the season and I don’t really care for the return of the Happy Huntresses or Robyn in Volume 8. None of them are interesting enough to care for outside of meta reasons like “cute.” 

Also fuck you Fiona, can’t believe you got a shirt before Ironwood. 

5) Cinder and Neo sure exist

To be fair, this is one of Cinder’s best years, easily her best since Volume 3 but that’s more because Cinder in the Mistral era was crap. (And if I wanna be cruel, because Cinder wasn’t in two thirds of the season)Her fans were finally vindicated after years of telling anyone who dunked on Cinder that “nooooo she has a super covert backstory that’s gonna be amazing when it’s revealed! You’ll see!” And well they finally got it. All of one line during a fight about how Cinder “refuses to starve.” 

It’s still something so I guess we have to take it. Seriously... how do we still not have Cinder’s backstory. 

There’s just not a ton to say about Cinder and Neo in V7 barring I that don’t think they needed to be here. They feel very superfluous and just here to have a big boss fight in Cinder’s case alongside continuing her streak of ending the odd numbered seasons fighting a female side character... which for me became an exercise in tyring to find during Cinder during the damn fight.

And this is why when most people saw Cinder’s V6 outfit they went “It’s gonna be hard to see her in darker environments,” then were vindicated when it became legit difficult to see Cinder in this scene. God if they at least just made the inside of the cape red it’d be easier.

Neo is Neo, which means she makes funny faces and mocks Cinder (I like that), but she doesn’t get a super good fight which uh... we’ll get to. I’m interested to see her finally exploding at Cinder and going for a backstab, but really Neo in V7 was kinda hit hard by the double whammy of the Oscar Hallway Punch and how humiliating ORNJ vs Neo was for ORNJ. Cinder’s definitely had far worse years and after how aimless she was in Mistral this feels like a sep in the right direction, but at this point CRWBY just need to shut up and tell us her deal. It’s been seven years guys. Come on. At least make her interesting if she’s gonna say around. They’ve had worse years, but unfortunately Cinder and Neo’s role in the finale leads into...

6) Some of the fights weren’t good

I wanna be clear, I like most of Volume 7′s fights. It’s just a bummer the worst ones are back and back and make up a chunk of the finale. ORNJ vs Neo is just crap. It’s the worst fight since the Battle of Haven. There’s nothing else I can say, it’s poorly animated, paced, choreographed and written. JNR especially are made to look like complete jokes after they spent all season training, to the point where it looks like V2 Yang could solo V7 JNR after this. Oscar I expect this from because he’s not allowed to have fun stuff onscreen after accidentally stealing the Haven budget for his fight with Hazel, but JNR were just done dirty. There were ways to make the fight work in a way where Neo still won but JNR looked good. They went for the worst possible outcome that just leaves Neo looking like she got fan-wanked and JNR looking like they’re just not allowed to be cool due to Miles’ spite at the Jaune-Self Insert stuff (and that’s not even getting into JNR being forced to run from lame rent a cops who can’t even handle a single Grimm). Cinder vs Winter and Penny isn’t much better, with her dark outfit making it very hard to track the fight because she blends into the background too well. It’s not a great showing for Winter or Penny given their earlier feats but, hey, some random female character had to fight Cinder in this odd numbered volume, carrying on Glynda, Pyrrha and Raven’s tradition. It’s at least better than ORNJ vs Neo, but that’s really not saying anything. At least Cinder’s VA work isn’t too bad this time but this fight commits the cardinal sin of a finale fight: It’s just not super interesting because we know Cinder can’t kill both Winter and Penny and she’s not becoming a Maiden, while Winter’s been too blatantly set up so it has to be Penny.

RWBY vs the Ace Ops also gets a dishonorable mention due to the choreography on display here... and the lack of it for Weiss, Blake and Ruby. Ruby never once swings Crescent Rose the entire fight and is just reduced to getting the tar kicked out of her by Harriet. Weiss barely gets to use her sword and largely just sticks to her summoning and glyphs which makes for a very visually uninteresting fighting style at the best of times. Blake just swings around and gets caught by the bad guys so Yang is motivated to fight stronger. She never dual wields (again) and her best moves are just setting up Yang to do all the hard work while Yang gets to personally KO two of the Ace Ops. There’s a lot that can be said about whether or nor RWBY earn the win, but while the animation team try to sell the Ace Ops landing heavy hits, having only Blake’s Aura even flicker really undercuts the idea from the commentary that this wasn’t meant to be a stomp for RWBY and they had to work together and be in synch to win.

Which is why Yang solos two of the Ace Ops whle Blake plays support, Weiss beats Marrow alone and then kill steals Harriet from Ruby, all while the song playing is an extended diss track from RWBY to the Ace Ops about how badass they are now, and the commentary itself says the Ace Ops are hard carried by Clover’s Semblance (because you gotta love basically saying four POC were only competent because a white guy led them, and then have them lose because said white guy wasn’t around to carry them!). Great job guys, you really sold it.

And talking of Clover, I feel it worth mentioning Qrow vs Clover vs Tyrian. It’s animation wise near perfect, but unfortunately I do feel it would be remiss to not mention that I feel the writing really has to bend over backwards to justify this fight. A lot of it is stuff I would say in that hypothetical Robyn essay, but I feel Robyn, Qrow and Clover all have to become massive idiots for this specific sequence of events to occur, and for Clover especially every retroactive attempt to explain why he prioritized Qrow over Tyrian just sounds more and more desperate. Between the references to MCU Captain America (a person whose entire arc is about learning when it’s OK to defy bad orders) or the attempt in the commentary to say “Oh Clover thought it would be easier to take out Tyrian alone instead of Qrow,” none of them land and just further drive home how much the plot had to stretch and reach to get that moment of Tyrian killing Clover. I like the fight. But I hate the road the show took to get there.

Some of the misc fights are also weak like ORNJ vs FNKI and elements of the Mantle Grimm battle, but those are the big offenders. Otherwise, again, the fights are largely good. 

7) The soundtrack wasn’t... great

I mean the vocal songs only, don’t crucify me. Trust Love is just lamer Let’s Just Live/Triumph, Celebrate and Let’s Get Real are so boring I thought they were the same song until the OST dropped, Brand New Day is boringly peppy and Jeff’s vocals are dreadful. I completely forgot Touch the Sky until I was checking the tracklist to make sure I didn’t forget any songs. War has good singers but tries to sell the RWBY-Ace Ops bond as way deeper than it was. The lack of a villain song did really sting though, those are always the highlights.

There are good songs. I really like Fear, I feel it encapsulates the themes of the volume well and serves as a good condemnation of Ironwod’s mentality. Until The End is finally the Ruby song I’ve waited for since Red Like Roses 2 and I enjoy that she got a melancholic song, and Hero is easily, hands down, best track of the record and probably best RWBY track, full stop. Caleb killed it, I loved the second verse, opening opera was strong, guitar riffs were a plenty. Stellar work all around for that one.

The OST has great work from Jeff and Alex as usual, but the Jeff and Casey songs are really starting to lose their appeal. Going for a peppy feel this year didn’t help cover the cracks that are beginning to show with RWBY’s vocal songs (especially Jeff’s vocal range), and while a few standouts remain such as Fear and Hero, they are the slim minority in an otherwise very boring vocal tracklist that barely scrapes above Volume 5 for weakest set yet.

8) It wasn’t as funny as it thought it was

Comedy is subjective but man a lot of these jokes didn’t land. RWBY really needs to realize that does work in traditional 2D does not translate into 3D and just comes off as making official reaction GIFs for your Twitter account. Making characters SUDDENY SCREAM LOUDLY is not good banter. Please stop making Nora into Harley Quinn. Marrow was probably the most consistently funny character but that was it. Also I dunno why CRWBY thought Forrest was funny or what the deal was with that FRWBY crap. 

“Honorary” mention to the JNR food scene in Cordially Invited which is genuinely one of the worst scenes in the entire show and I hope whoever animated it has their save files deleted for a game where they were about to beat the final boss. Nothing sums up JNR’s pointlessness in the series more perfectly than this.

C) Conclusion

See what I mean about Volume 7 being frustrating? 

It’s weird that I overal think of Volume 7 as a mid-tier volume. There’s so much here I genuinely adore, with some of the best stuff to do with the show coming out of this season (barring lame, overpriced merch that feels like clothing gacha), but simultaneously the whole thing is let down by outside circumstances that unfortunately are ones the show can’t ever really recover from. Put bluntly, Volume 7 is the most technically proficient season of the show with the best lighting, backdrops, (some of the) character models, etc. CRWBY definitely didn’t slack off this year, but the problem isn't with them. It’s with the writing. A wider reaching problem is just that Miles and Kerry can’t really improve to the level that the series now requires. Eddy and Kiersei’s first season could have gone far worse, but it definitely was notable whenever they took over. Volume 7’s core problems are fourfold: The comedy is terrible and none of the jokes really land, the season focuses on the wrong plots and gives them too much effort, too many episodes are spent building up to new plots only for them to be weakly resolved (especially the Mantle Riot/Grimm attacks that are shoved off-screen), and the character bloat strikes hard here and leaves a lot of the cast feeling like dead weight. CRWBY don’t need more writers. They need more editors willing to tell the team what has to go instead of them hemming and hawing themselves on if they if they can include a plotline. The election never should have gotten past its first draft, there was too much already in this season before adding that.

When this is an unironic shot in your series... you’ve got character bloat issues.

At this point, I think JNR need to go. The show had no idea what to do with them throughout the season, leading to Jaune just being comic relief while Ren and Nora became characters I actively dislike. Renora was the easiest ship in the show to land, and they still managed to blow the engines and ram at least three icebergs just to prove that RWBY can’t romance to save its life. Team RWBY themselves are little better, with Ruby’s feelings about Penny’s return being shelved, Weiss’s victory against Jacques feeling un-earned and undercut by comedy, while Yang and Blake are benched for the volume and become a singular entity with how tied at the hip they are. Maria basically yeeted herself out of the show and I didn’t notice, Pietro is just a death flag, and while the Ace Ops had a good intro, it was undercooked by how they had to play the villain role to give RWBY something to do in the final hours. Cinder and Neo didn’t need to be here. Robyn had one of the worst introductions for a character I’ve ever seen, I never enjoyed her moments and it genuinely feels like she only has a fandom because RWBY’s community are in fact that desperate. 

On the brighter side, Ironwood’s arc is fucking perfect and Jason Rose deserves all the love. Great fight, great song, great design, love the beard, it was a perfect downfall for Volume 7’s true protagonist. Qrow had a fun volume and I loved his dynamic with Clover (I don’t see the ship stuff but that’s more because I’m an IronQrow main so my blinders were on). Clover was also way cooler than I remembered. His fights stood out but the guy’s just really cool at the end of the day, with Chris doing great work as a VA. Oscar even managed to do stuff this year which was a shock and a half, but a welcome shock and a half. I didn’t mention it, but the Ozpin fear monologue is one of my favorite scenes in the entire show and it and the Ironwood/Oscar confrontation in the vault save the finale. And of course, Watts and Tyrian were the MVPs. I don’t have a bad word about either of them, they fucking nailed their roles and I can’t wait to see them again. 

And that’s kind of what I mean when I say Volume 7 flummoxes me. It’s frustrating at times with how it handles seemingly easy tasks and drops the ball. Renora went from “everyone liked that” to wondering how badly Ren’s stuff got butchered for him to be the way he is. RWBY themselves could be almost entirely cut and so little would change, and the fact that the finale basically hinges its entire emotional stakes on Winter, Penny and Oscar is a staggering call. And it really feels like the season was compressed beyond necessity because they decided going in that Volume 7 had to end on Salem’s arrival. There’s two volumes worth of material here, and maybe it would have been best to have broken up these events. Volume 7 does too much in too little time, and RWBY especially suffered from it. But when it works… it’s good. Never close to the highs of Volumes 6 or 3, but there’s genuinely good material here. The fights are mostly getting better with far less missteps than previously, the acting (mostly) continues to improve and it’s obvious that RWBY is a very good looking show at this point. Ironwood’s arc is franchise-wide highs, I loved Clover, and Marrow remains the best boi. But it’s frustrating that despite all the tech advances Volume 7 has made, it still makes such threadbare, rookie writing mistakes in cast management, comedy and character arcs. I’m glad Miles and Kerry finally realized that they needed more writers, but it won’t mean anything if the show just continues to circle the drain on the core mistakes it’s been making since 2013. Volume 7 has good in it. But I can see where it could have been great.

Thanks for reading, stan IronQrow and please get Whitley a therapist.

And for the love of God already make an Ironwood vs Watts shirt! 

[littleblackqrow]

((I think the most frustrating part of watching people analyze the actions of characters in vol8 is that the biggest complaint is that logic is thrown out the window and I would argue that’s the point. Especially because of the perspective of the show. I really hate to keep picking on Ironwood, Qrow, and RWBY, but those characters are the ones driving the plot, so I guess we gotta.

Lets start with RWBY. They’re kids first off. WBY are all about 19-20 years old and Ruby is 17. Lets start off by saying those are ages not exactly known for smart, long term decision making. Most people that age are trying to figure out what they want to do for the rest of their lives, struggling with college, dates, drinking, sex for the first time. They’re stumbling around in adult bodies while still having more or less the mind of a teenager because society has suddenly stopped treating them like a kid and expects them to be an adult. Except instead of having to struggle with decisions about their near future, RWBY is being asked to save the world. If you think you could handle that pressure well at 17-19, you’re lying. 

Does it make their decisions right though? No. The way they treated Ozpin for hiding the worst of his abuse and the fact that his ex-wife was an insane bitch who is functionally immortal is wrong. But again, I ask you, could you handle having all that dumped into your lap in an already stressful situation? The person who should be (and rightly is) condemned for his reaction is Qrow for throwing a punch. No matter how upset you are no hitting. Once you throw a punch in that situation, you’re the bad guy. And until he makes an effort of an apology he’s the bad guy in that situation. 

The biggest problem that team RWBY has is that all of their terrible decisions throughout the show have either been rewarded, or the got bailed out from having to see the real consequences. 

Ozpin allowed Blake to hide her White Fang past and therefore missed the least subtle component of the Fall of Beacon. Things could have been significantly less bad if he’d known about their involvement and was able to send Qrow in to spy on their operations. Maybe he could have figured out what Roman or Adam was up to, realized they were working for Cinder and by extension Salem.

Ozpin allowed team RWBY to do a mission that was a couple grades too advanced for them because he knew they’d break the rules otherwise. That was a tacit acknowledgement that he thought whatever they were up to was alright, and that they had his blessings on whatever it was that they wanted to do.

The best example of terrible decision after terrible decision that RWBYJNR makes is Argus. They have no idea how they’re getting the Relic to Atlas, and they seem road blocked. Jaune suggests stealing an airship, and Qrow, the adult in the room tells them that this is a bad idea, and if it goes bad it has the potential to screw up their entire life. He’s right. The problem is that he’d run off on his bender, and therefore the kids, and we in the audience, are supposed to see this as an unreasonable suggestion. 

However, it plays out as him being right. The incredibly complicated plan did go wrong. Now, they had no reason to suspect at the time that Adam was stalking Blake at the time (and I could go into why thats perfectly ic for him at another date), but there were a lot of moving parts in this plan and literally any of them could have broken. Everything that happened after they put this plan into motion was reactionary. Cordovan, obsessed with showing the Might of Atlas (TM), jumped into the mech suit. At that point, Ruby didnt really have a choice of not breaking it. But the ensuing fight created enough general unease that it summoned a Grimm hoard.

By rights, Argus should have fallen because of their bad decisions and in spire of their best efforts. Instead, Cordovan had a change of heart at the last moment and bailed them out.

This just reinforced the flawed idea that RWBY is always in the right and directly lead to s7′s climax. They are the unstoppable force.

Now you have Ironwood, quite literally the unmovable object, which I now realize is sort of his name. Ha.

Ironwood’s behavior does not come out of nowhere. Since his appearance, he’s had problem stamped all over him. He showed up with an entire goddamn army to a supposedly peaceful event that is to promote unity and the excellence of each kingdom. His rationale is that the people are going to be impressed with his big guns and feel safe. Ozpin gently points out that those big guns also signal to people that there is something out there that those big guns are designed to shoot. 

If its not a Grimm, could it mean that Atlas intends to shoot people?

Remember we’re not even 100 years out from the last World War, one that was basically started by Atlas. People are nervous. There are still grandparents and great grandparents alive today that were kids when the Great War was happening. Not only that but we’re also made aware that Atlas has rolled in the apolitical protectors of the people, the Huntsmen, into its military. This elite fighting force that is basically above the law and can go to any country in the world whenever they want, is now part of the military. The ONLY standing military that Remnant seems to have.

All of this has obviously caused friction in the Inner Circle. Qrow is not quite and never has been quiet about his disdain for James’ heavy handed techniques. Glynda calls James’ actions a dick measuring competition, and Ozpin was trying to be gentle about it, but he was clearly telling Ironwood to get his army off his fucking front lawn. And what did Ironwood do? He’d gone around Ozpin and talked to the Vale council.  They were threatening to remove Oz fro his position because they agreed with Ironwood: he was being too passive. Ironwood even tells Glynda that he cant believe that a man he trusted for so long would just sit by and stand to the side instead of meeting the problem head on. He didnt seem to understand why Qrow would want to go gather intelligence on an operation before sending in the big guns. 

Ironwood has never been a man to put a well thought out plan with all his ducks in a row into motion. This is a man who plows through opposition at every opportunity.

And when we see him again, we can see him steamrolling through opposition again. Somehow he got himself two seats on the council. That gives him an enormous amount of power. And his position as general means that at any point he can declare an emergency and become the de facto dictator of Atlas if he deems it fit. The problem is that he’s having these arguments against Jacques Schnee a man that the audience rightly hates, so he seems reasonable. Who gives a fuck about Jacques loosing business, he’s a dickhead. We’re not noticing the fact that James is consolidating power, or that he’s using that power to make unilateral decisions with no one telling him no.

There’s no one left in the room who is able or willing to tell him that these are bad ideas, that there will be consequences that he cant foresee. His  bullish behavior lead to both Robyn Hill and Jacques Schnee running for an empty council seat, and that created the environment that we walked into in s7.

Now, not all James’ ideas are bad. The Amity Project is actually a really good one, and James is right in wanting to keep it from the general public until its near completion. But you know who should have known? The other fucking council members. Probably the candidates. Playing your cards too close to the chest when you clearly need help and allies is a bad thing. But again, James didnt even trust Ozpin to be able to run his own kingdom, so durr hurr of course he’s the only one who can take care of Amity. And run a kingdom. And run an academy. And protect an ageing, ailing Maiden. And of course he doesnt have time to treat his horrific PTSD from the Fall of Beacon.

So when things go tits up because again, of course they will with a plan that complex James Ironwood doubles the fuck down on his terrible solo decision making. Clearly, non of this is his fault. No one is listening to him. He cannot trust others to make decisions so he’s going to make all of them. There’s no one around him to tell him no, especially because the first person that tried was publicly executed. 

James is scared. He’s had a mental break because of that fear. His paranoia, his PTSD, and the fact that there’s nothing there to help him back to stability means that he’s just going to be bouncing from one terrible choice to the next. He’s Hamlet in the throes of paranoia, heading down a road that is going to get everyone, including himself killed. He is King Lear as the world crumbles around him, acting cruel and making unreasonable, horrible demands of those around him. 

Working with Watts seems like an absolutely terrible idea, but to someone who thinks that he is in control of the situation because he has to be in order to keep functioning, there’s no way that this can bite him in the ass. For James, if no one is willing to follow his orders, he’s going to make them. This attitude is probably exactly why Watts did what he did and joined Salem in the first place. 

So when you combine the unstoppable force of Team RWBY, who’s been told they’re the child saviors of the world, and who’ve been either rewarded or bailed out of their bad decisions against the immovable object of Ironwood and his absolute conviction in himself, you have the mess Atlas is in now.

Honestly I find it kind of brilliant. 

[flightofaqrow]

mothering (on mother’s day)

qrow + Sun Wukong ( @ultravioletvoleur​ )

fighting clearly hadn’t been what was on the kid’s mind. maybe he just wasn’t thinkin’ at all; he definitely isn’t right now as words tumble from his mouth, barely coherent. qrow still doesn���t need to hear these things about his niece, but he’ll let this one slide.

Sun leans his back against the wall, tail swaying to and fro. His face spoke to the internal conflict he was struggling with when it came to this, “I was hoping I could actually… Ask for your advice?”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Quick update, may wanna say Happy Mother's Day to your niece. ...Kaybye!"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

qrow whips open Harbinger faster than a nevermore diving upon its prey, and fires a warning shot off as Sun makes a break for it, near missing the base of his tail.

he knows the kid well enough by now, and trusts Yang even more, than to truly buy into the implications of his statement. oh, but if playing this cat and mouse game makes the cheeky monkey so happy, qrow will absolutely go a round.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

“YIPE!”

That was a much faster reaction than he’d anticipated, barely making it ten feet before the crack of exploding gunpowder rang out. There was a hole smoking in the wall in front of him- dangerously close to banana height, and Sun began sweating. He turned very jerkily, with the closest approximation of a cocksure grin he could manage through his abject terror.

“Oh, uh. D-did you… Need something?”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

well, at least qrow got to make a point, should he ever actually need to act on teaching the kid a thing or two. alternatively, about picking fights one may not be able to win. a similar tough past he may have, thieves at least tended to work from codes of honor. not every struggle is the same.

he prods, sarcastic, feigned anger lining the sharp curve of narrowed eyes, sword still deployed at his side, “what in all of remnant makes you think you can just say things to me?”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

There is a very audible gulp as the Hunstman advances on him. Every other time they’d traded barbs, he’d gotten the sense that Qrow was something of an old glory days kind of person, who had lost their touch a bit. However, that split second action, and the pointed glare burning through his confidence like a hot knife through butter, told him a whole new story.

Qrow Branwen was what his nightmares were made of.

“Well you see I thought we were buddies and I thought you would know it was a joke I swear I haven’t laid a hand on your niece like that I would never well not never possibly in the future but definitely not right now not that I don’t think she’s attractive she’s very attractive oh but that’s not the only reason-”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

tch. forever a curse, even at his best. maybe he laid on the drama a bit too thick. honestly, he thought a bit of zeal is something Sun could appreciate. he’s far too much talk still, isn’t he? all bright light and translucent beaming rays which still questioned their own substance. he might be further ahead than he seemed at first, but still has a ways to go. …kids these days.

“of course I knew it was a joke, golden boy.” qrow folds away his weapon, drops his stance, while raising a brow. he lessens his posturing, but not his attention, hand still remaining on Harbinger’s hilt in the case of some trick.

“but I also took it as a taunt, tellin’ me you’re finally ready for a real man’s brawl. heh, guess i was wrong.”

fighting clearly hadn’t been what was on the kid’s mind. maybe he just wasn’t thinkin’ at all; he definitely isn’t right now as words tumble from his mouth, barely coherent. qrow still doesn’t need to hear these things about his niece, but he’ll let this one slide.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

“What?!”

He’d almost lost his stones by way of his ass for a sassback?! Their Uncle was even more intimidating now, and he was going to die on that hill. Still, though, knowing that he wasn’t actually angry was a huge relief. The tension left his body and he slumped down with a sigh-

And then he noticed Qrow’s weapon was still out and ready.

“He-hey, uh. N-no need for that. I didn’t come here looking for a fight. I actually wanted to get you riled up so we could then use that energy into doing something for her. I- I know her situation with her mom isn’t great. I dunno the specifics, that’s for her to tell me when she’s ready, but…” He trailed off, trying to find the words.

“Well, I guess… I just want to make today lively for her, instead of having people walking on eggshells around her. Make her excited and happy that today happened, rather than add it to a growing pile of disappointing holidays.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

“you moron,” finally, he fully releases, instead staring dumbfounded at the other. he really did think he could just come around and say whatever, and still get his way without consequences. what single-minded, reckless, stupid drivel. yeah, qrow had been an idiot brained teen at one point, but seriously never that bad. he didn’t have that kinda energy. different plans took different tactics, did they not teach anything at Haven or Shade anymore?

“i don’t need to be ‘riled up’ to do something for my family, kid. couldn’t you just ask like a normal person? i promise you, me bein’ jazzed up ain’t the kinda lively she needs.”

eyes now round with sadness; his chest deflates; pointed corners of his mouth turn down. it’s too close to the belligerence he used to have - unprovoked, but drunk. he’s trying so hard to be better than that. for a lotta reasons, but Yang too.

he breathes in, and out, fingers running in and out over his forehead. once satisfied in processing all these thoughts, in having switched gears, he turns to Sun once more, hopefully coming off with the same rational attitude he wants in return, “so, then, turn your brain and your sense of respect on, and just tell me what you had in mind, huh?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

“Well… That’s kinda the thing. I was hoping I could actually… Ask for your advice?”

He leans his back against the wall, tail swaying to and fro. His face spoke to the internal conflict he was struggling with when it came to this. In truth, he’d wanted to go about this like a normal person, more than anything. Something in him, however, be it a defense mechanism or just a general need for attention he’d never really received drove him to do everything to an excess.

Truth be told, nobody hated Sun’s antics more than he, himself.

“I… I’m going to try to be serious here, for a minute. It’s- It’s not something that comes easy.” He sighed and pinched at the bridge of his nose. “I’m… scared. I’m really, truly scared, Qrow, of how she makes me feel. How much it would hurt to lose her, or even see her hurting. I just get so caught up in my own head that I can’t think straight, and… I’ve never…”

Another sigh. “I’ve never had a family before. So I don’t know what to do to help someone who’s mourning theirs. But I see her hurting, and I want to help, and when I came to you, I swear, I wanted to just ask, but. …That would mean… Admitting I love her.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

oh, here we go. this roller coaster again. what about his look or his life or any of his choices made him seem like someone to go to for advice? qrow barely scraped his own life together, and still dropped the pieces too many times. but somewhere along the line, somewhere in just trying to do good - for his team, for Oz, for his family, for Ruby, something must have slipped in to his very psyche, huh.

Ruby somehow always knows the right thing to do. Yang had told her.

I had good role models. Ruby had told him.

he’s cursed. and he wrestles with it every damn day. and while he’d never call it a good thing, maybe some people see themselves in that same fight. maybe he sees himself in theirs and their struggle to understand and express themselves, and that’s why even in the times he wants nothing to do with other people and their decisions, and he’s sure he’ll just mess everything up, he can’t help but listen. he can’t turn them away. doing so would do nothing to mend the wounds of a broken world. and in the end, continuing to try is the only way to stick it to Salem.

he takes a spot next to the young man against the wall, knee bending and sole kicking up as he leans, crosses his arms, turns his head to Sun and fixes his gaze on him.  

“yeah. loving people is scary. probably means you’re doin’ it right.”

qrow doesn’t know a damn thing about romance. not like that, anyway. he’s never been brave enough to face that very fear, to let someone that intimately close. almost, sometimes, maybe. somehow his chances always disappear before he’s quite there, only confirming those very fears. a great and terrible feedback loop, that. although, he can’t say such words are entirely unfamiliar; admittedly, the whole conversation is nostalgic. thrice over. he laughs, a bittersweet little huff, “…you sound just like her parents.”

that kinda love he knows, found, eventually. family. and if you ask him, they’re equally as scary to think of losing. “our family has never been the typical picket fence dream either, so don’t think you’re missin’ pieces of some non-existent normal. there’s no big secret about bein’ one, kid. you just gotta be there for each other.”

a palm-down hand raises to sweep across his body in a dismissive motion, “an’ not everything has to be some grand production to top the one before. trust me, i’ve screwed that up enough times to know.” qrow looks towards the ground, slides the toe of his shoe back and forth. “Yang, she… she’s used to people comin’ and goin’ in her life. if they come back at all. so, seriously… just go to her. be with her. she’s a tough egg, and too smart. she’ll tell you what she needs if you can just shut your giant trap enough to let her.”

[kob131]

https://magicalhunterpaladin.tumblr.com/post/179157882878/you-want-to-talk-about-wasted-potential-lets

And just like ‘muh wasted potential’, you fundementally misunderstand the show’s goal.

Then Summer became pregnant with Qrow’s daughter, Ruby. Here the details get fuzzy, but the version of the story that makes the most sense to me is that the pregnancy caused Summer and Qrow’s relationship to break down. The two would have been unable to see each other for nine straight months; meanwhile, Tai would have stepped into the role of caretaker for Summer and eventual father figure for Ruby. Summer grew closer to Tai as her relationship with Qrow became increasingly strained, until the two finally broke up and Summer took up with Tai. Somewhere in the midst of this, Ruby was born, and the three parents agreed that Summer and Tai would assume the roles of mother and father to the two girls while Qrow would act as their uncle.

Does...does ‘oh you came pregnant so I’mma gonna break down this relationship’ sound like something Qrow OR Summer would do? This is on par with ‘Oh Aang didn’t give his kids enough attention’ in how contradictory the character is used. Qrow is basically defined by loyalty with how he fondly talks about his team, how vehemently he defended Ozpin, how betrayed he sounded when Raven used him and how broken he was by Ozpin’s betrayal. I don’t think Qrow would betray Summer or Ruby. And Summer? Doesn’t sound like the ‘I’mma keep this child’s parentage a secret’ type. Doesnn’t even make sense. Why would Taiyang care?

Summer and Tai have a few pleasant years together before Summer disappears. If Qrow hadn’t already become an alcoholic in response to the breakup and being unable to see or care for his own child, he becomes one now. -

Because a guy constantly watching people die, his family ditching him to go live with murderers and thieves and forced to research fucking SALEM wouldn’t be enough to justify his alcoholism alongside a dear friend dying?

This is really pushing things.

He’s lost the woman he loved, first because of his semblance and then because of other mysterious forces beyond his control.

Yeah, kind of makes you want to see him dead. That’s a pretty big issue for a show like RWBY.

Years of grief and loneliness follow as he waits for Yang and then Ruby to become old enough that they stand a fighting chance against whatever bad luck he drags along with him, at which point he throws himself headlong into their combat training.

Great, we’re also now erasing Taiyang from this since HE taught Yang, not Qrow. And you’re expecting me to think that Qrow would believe two untrained kids would stand a chance while the fully trained team leader didn’t? No, I’,m not buying that. Especially not from the woman who bitched that Yang shouldn’t have abandonment issues about Raven.

He loves both girls, but he and Ruby always shared a deeper bond. She takes after him in the way she dresses and even designs the same type of melee weapon for herself as the one he uses. Despite everything, their father/daughter connection still holds strong.

Several people have pointed out that Yang being torn up about her biological mom leaving when she was a baby doesn’t make a whole lot of sense since she never had the chance to get attached to Raven and she still had a loving and stable family with Summer and Tai, and I think that really gets at how the parental abandonment trope is supposed to work and why RWBY utterly failed at implementing it.-

Nuh uh, you already set a different standard.

But it’s too late for Qrow to turn back the clock on the person his grief made him into. He’s a drunk and a philanderer. He pushes everyone except the girls and Oz away - Oz, who’s too powerful to fall victim to the forces that cost Qrow his lover; Oz, who gives him a greater purpose than his lonely existence, even if it is as a pawn in questionable power schemes.

...

You JUST said Qrow threw himself into their training. For someone who bitches about RWBY;s writing, you sure suck at this.

And what of Qrow having a drinking problem? People can be functioning alcoholics you know.

Oh, and what part of Ozpin’s stuff a ‘questionable power scheme’? (You know, aside from ‘penis.’)

This is the version of Qrow that we could have had - a Qrow who was actually tragic and sympathetic and struggling to find his way after great loss. But the version of Qrow we got has almost no reason to be a womanizing alcoholic jackass. His entire drunkle schtick is rooted purely in self-pity. Now there’s a time and a place for a character like that, but it is not in the role of goofy, likeable hero that RWBY tries to play him as. And the more times passes since word of God declared that Qrow is not Ruby’s dad, he’s just like that, the more I wish Qrow would make like Sun and leave.

So basically this is a temper tantrum.

Okay then, let me tear into this stupidity-

A. Qrow is already tragic and sympathetic. As someone with depression, I’ve fallen into many of the same mental pitfalls as Qrow so my guess is you have no idea what you’re talking about. The man is a walking diaster area whose been stabbed in the back by his leader and sister while finding out his colleagues have all died. Pay attention.

B. WHERE exactly did we get ‘womanizer’ from? He made a comment about a woman’s skirt once to distract his niece and smiled at a waitress who FLIRTED WITH HIM. You don’t get to use memes the fandom took out of hand.

C. No shit, your version is also rooted in self pity. Your version is all about pitying himself to the point he broke down part of his relationship and ditched his kid while never telling her the truth. If anything, your version is WORSE because he’s basically a worse version of Taiyang (you know, that guy you hate.)

In fact D. This is basically Taiyang plus alcoholism. It even runs on an unsubtainated fucking meme. we don’t need another Taiyang.

E. how is Qrow a goofy likeable hero when he was portrayed as confrontational, rude, blunt, prone to drinking his feelings away and moody? These are all flaws the show points to, flaws you would be aware of if you paid attention.

And F. By this point, I don’t want Qrow to get better. At this point, the show has beaten him down to the point that I want him to die so the show can’t fuck with him anymore. You took a character in a show all about facing the darkness and doing what is right and made me want him dead out of pity. That is a spectacular failure.

Your ignorance has made this version to be not only the same character but with less consistency and actively attacking the show’s themes.

And you wonder why I don’t listen.

[homogrimoire-archive]

11 Nighmares

Grimmlord's Castle / Iron Soliton

General Ironwood, man of an Iron Will, will see that Atlas remains alive, even at the cost of his own life.

(A continuation to Ironwood's chapter, the sixth chapter, from my other series "The Remnant Branches." But if you didn't read that, I certainly wouldn't blame you if you didn't b/c it's niche, this will be kinda batsh*t crazy. But, if you can put up with that and want some canon-divergent Ironwood content, then here you go.)

AO3 Link

Salem was here. And she would destroy them all very soon if he did not act. He tried to ensure they would be safe, by soaring high into the planet’s atmosphere. But, that wonderful plan was made obsolete, thanks to Ruby and her team swaying Penny. He desperately wished she would have listened to him. But, the past is absolute. There is no changing what was.

After learning that the Ace Ops were bested by team RWBY and that Winter lost the Maiden powers unto Penny, he issued that he wanted them and their friends captured and brought to Atlas. They were no doubt already in Mantle by then.

Despite everything, he still wanted them alive and on Atlas for when Penny helped it arise, whether or not any of them liked it. They were strong people, people who needed to live. He wasn’t going to let them throw away their lives. But, they had strong wills of their own, desires that opposed his.

In a sense, he could respect their fortitude. Well, he had to respect it. Not accounting for it would only lead to undesirable results. Aside from them being powerful assets, he still could not fully explain why he wanted them so badly. Atlas would certainly live on without them, and there was no shortage of capable fighters. There was no use dwelling on that though. A new plan was in motion, one that occurred to him after killing Oz, one that that he wasn’t exactly sure would work, but had great faith in nonetheless.

And then came the news that Qrow and Robyn were en route, along with body of the deceased Ace Ops leader. Murdered by Qrow no less. On top of that, there was an escaped member of Salem’s Circle roaming around. It was unfortunate, but the fact that Qrow killed him struck him as odd. Ironwood knew he wasn’t that kind of man. He didn’t give it too much thought, for he was sure the issue would be resolved in time.

To prepare for his new plan, he had a new of weapon made: a large sword made from a melted down Due Process. That, and a small aircraft, was all he needed. He issued the finding of Penny to be of the highest priority. If he failed, if his will and soul were not strong enough, she had to lift Atlas into the air, lest it an Mantle both fall

Next, he needed to speak with Winter to inform her. In a short time, she would become an important part of Atlas, more so than before. He knew that she would live up to her duty. At first, she rejected it. But, she was soon convinced. She understood who the General is, and what he has promised to do. She knows she can’t stop him, even if she might want to.

After that, Qrow. He is brought to an interrogation room from his cell. He seemed sad, almost the saddest he had ever seen Qrow. He looked so defeated. That was until he saw who was interrogating him, and his expression changed. It was one of pure hatred. He’d seen that type of look quite a few times in his life, but on Qrow… it was truly disheartening.

“What do you want?” he spat out.

“To say goodbye.” he plainly told Qrow.

“What? You really think it’ll be that easy to kill me?”

“I’m not sending you to your execution.” James sighed.

“Well thaaank you for your generosity, General.” Qrow replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

“I never told you my semblance, have I?” James questioned him.

“I think you know the answer to that, General.” Again, general. It seemed strange to find that odd. He always requested for Qrow to refer to him properly. And here he did it not once, but twice in a row.

“My semblance is Willpower. It—”

“An iron will for the General with an iron fist. What a surprised.” Qrow deadpanned.

“… It, is a semblance that can make my will a reality. Ever wonder how I survived in the first place? Now you know.”

“Yeah. Good for you.” He said in a rushed manner.

“But all power comes at a cost, and sometimes, my power cost more than just replenishable aura.” Ironwood elaborated. Qrow looked surprised, likely imagining the implications of what Ironwood just said. But, his uncaring facade soon replaced the shock.

“And why, are you telling me this? I could care less. A lot of people are dead because of you.” Qrow told him, his voice wavering, building up with hatred and despair. “And so many more are going to die because of you. Clover, is dead because of you.”

“And that, I am sorry for. I truly am… Qrow, you—”

Ironwood was cut off by a screaming Qrow who launched himself at him, having somehow broken free of his handcuffs. He expected nothing less of Qrow, honestly. There were no guards at the door, since James requested the utmost privacy, and were unlikely to notice the commotion anyways since the room was soundproof. No one would be coming either since the utmost privacy he requested involved no video feed to be online.

“Give me one good reason I shouldn’t kill you right now you sorry excuse of a man!” he yelled as he pinned Ironwood down, holding a small but sharp knife to his throat.

It was likely something he managed to keep hidden thanks to the all to quick prisoner processing that had to occur. Additionally, it was not as easy as it looked to resist Qrow. He was much stronger than he seemed. So, he stopped resisting. He knew he would be fine, and he knew why.

“You’re a good man, Qrow. You’re a good man. One in a bad world. You know what you’re doing, so if this will soothe your soul, then go ahead and kill me.”

Ironwood knew that much about Qrow. Even when he was a terrible alcoholic, it was evident he was a good man. Just ask his real family, and they’ll attest to that. Even now, when rage-induced, grief filled his eyes, James could still see that he was a good man. Qrow was someone who couldn’t bring himself to take a life and live with it so easily, even a life such as his. James could see the surprise in his eyes

“Put your hands in the air!” a soldier ordered Qrow as he burst through the door. Qrow paid no mind to the soldier, and leaned in closer to James, whispering one final thing to him.

“I hate you.” Qrow leaned in and whispered. In a flurry of feathers, Qrow flew past the guards and into the hall. The guard rushed to the general, notifying others of the escapee on with his scroll.

“Sir, are you alright? Did you receive any injuries?” he asked, kneeling down beside the general.

“…” James wasn’t sure why, but to hear Qrow say that in such a way hurt him more than anything.

“Sir?” the soldier repeated in a more concerned tone.

“I’m fine,” he assured, snapping himself out his his daze, “and let him go.” he ordered the guard. James knew he was a fool to think he could try to keep a Branwen contained. Qrow would be fine. He was sure of that. “Any status updates for me?”

“Yes!” he enthusiastically answered. “Penny and her entourage have been captured.”

“Good. Make sure they cannot escape and that Penny is at Winter’s side. Now, report back to your post.”

“Understood, sir!” he saluted, and did as ordered.

Thankfully, that had gone as plan. All things were in now in place. A new weapon, an iron will unmatched. If that failed. Atlas and Qrow’s kids would be safe high in the sky, closer to the stars than anyone had previously been.

“Goodbye Qrow.” he said to the empty room. He felt warm tears running down his face. Why am I crying? he wondered as he wiped them away. Why does this hurt? He had though he had forsaken humanity.

-

After finally shaving and retrieving his new weapon, James left for the hangar, all alone, to enact his plan. He believed it would work, for it had to work. He didn’t want to leave the people of Mantle to die, but if worse came to worse, then it would be so. But, he was the General, and would be a hero unto many, a solitary hero who believes he knows no love, and believes it is too late for him.

-

Salem could sense that her Grimm were being killed by something. Someone. They were just barely noticeable. Just barely human. It was intriguing, to say the least. It was in no way concerning though. Within the whale beast, there lied someone whose efforts would be for naught. They were only coming to meet their demise.

It was unfortunate her underlings weren’t there to take care of them for her. But, it would be a nice warm up to her up and coming victory. Oh how much fear would spread from the fall of Atlas, the pinnacle of humanity. It brought a warm smile to her face, out of joy and the sheer irony of it. Pinnacle of all that is terrible in humanity wrapped in it’s grandest creations. In all her years of life, she had come to enjoy the little things such as this.

Ahh, her visitor had arrived. To her delight, it was the dear General Ironwood himself. Truly a wonderful way to begin the coming days. Already, parts of his clothes were torn, and blood dripped from a few cuts and scrapes. His hair was messy, dripping with sweat. He honestly looked like a mess.

“A pinnacle of humanity: denial. The pleasure to meet you is all mine, General Ironwood.” she greeted with a bow.

“Die!” he greeted back, lunging at her with great speed. Effortlessly, she dodged the first strike, and the next, and the next.

“Tell me, should I keep you alive so you can watch all your efforts burn to the ground? Or should I just kill you?” she asked him all while nonchalantly avoiding the strike of the sword.

“Die! Die! Die!”

“I think I’ll keep you alive. I am intrigued as to why you seem… different.” she told him.

Salem had seen practically all facets the of humanity that have existed. She recognized that the general was someone who believed they had given up their humanity, and focused all their might to a single cause. This berserker state was indeed powerful, but a mere child’s tantrum to her. Still, she respected that he managed to actually shed most of his humanity, most of his soul. For what?

Still, that fact was concerning. Was it instead that humanity found a viable way to masks their souls from Grimm? Was this some one off, freak incident brought on by his cybernetic state? Or was this just his semblance. That trait of the new humans often proved to be most annoying. Regardless, she knew she would find out the nature of this soon enough..

“Kill! Kill! Kill!” he shouted at her after she flung him away. At his command, the weapon moved, as if by magic. That was a genuine surprise. There was no gravity dust on him that would allow him to preform the feat. She could see that.

“Well, aren’t you interesting? This has been nice, but I think it’s time to end this, James. I do have plans to see through” she announced. She rushed towards him, and grabbed him by his throat, floating to lift him off the gound.

This close, she could see that his eyes were like that of a dead man: soulless. Yet, he was very much alive. He thrashed about. The sword flung itself towards her from behind. It missed, embedding itself in an artificial leg. Still, he showed no pain. Not particularly surprising.

“So foolish. What could have possibly possessed you to believe you could win? Let me tell you something.” she said as she brought him in closer. But, before she could tell him, the sword swiftly removed itself from the leg and went straight through her chest, jutting out of her back.

BloodBloodBloodBlood went through her mind. It was not a thought of her own. Black blood covered the large weapon, and it looked as if it were soaking it in.

MeatMeatMeatMeat Again, another thought not her own. This time, she could hear the general whispering it as her hand still gripped him by his throat. His voice was not the source of the thought. He alone was its source. His weapon, extension of the self, was the source.

She could feel her body weakening. This was not good. For the first time in a very long time she felt fear. Quickly, she regained her senses and tore the wretched thing from her body. Pain was something she had mostly lost long ago. It wasn’t easy to make her feel pain.

Unwittingly, she dropped the general. He fell to the floor, and then picked himself up as he gasped for breath.

“IronIronIronIron.” she could hear the insane and wretched man whisper in-between breaths.

Swiftly, she summoned spikes from the whale Grimm’s skin and used them to impale the man. Like her, pain did not seem to matter to him. Once she recovered, she picked up the wretched, and now, respected weapon. She could feel its desire to move at his will. But it was weak now, negligible, like the force of a small magnet.

“Any last words?” she asked him, raising the sword to his chest. He did not resist, nor try to escape. He accepted his fate. That was always an interesting sight, to see the despair of someone who admitted ultimate defeat.

He looked up to the sky, and noticed it’s breathtaking hues. In the distance, he could see Atlas and Mantle, picturesque despite the looming danger. And the white snow, it created a landscape he never really took the time to appreciate.

“The world. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked her, and smiled. “I should have appreciated it more.” Overhead, a flock of Nevermore cawed. “Loved it more…” he finished with a remorseful look on his face as he lowered his head. If only he hadn’t deluded himself with dreams of grandeur, to be a incomparable hero and exist in a world that didn’t exist. Reality is a beautiful place full of love, more so than any dream. One only has to look and hope.

With a wicked smile on her face, she thrusted the sword through his heart. Through the Grimm spikes, she felt his body go limp, felt the release of death take him. She released the spikes, and let the empty vessel fall to the floor. With her back now turned away from his body and facing the city, she studied the wretched weapon. A long, long time ago, she would have used it on herself in hopes of true death. She thinks it might have worked. But now, she has a goal that is not just her death, but the death of everything, even if her attempts might be futile.

Salem could hear a rumbling from beneath. It was not something of her creation. She heard the ice below break, and something pierced Monstra, causing it to groan out in pain. It knocked her off balance, making her fall to her feet. She looked to the sides, and saw pillars of iron rising up and into the sky. They met high up in the air, and coalesced into the form of a flower. She understood that this was the power of a soul unrestrained, one of the most powerful and difficult forms of magic to achieve control of and harness. She had barely even tapped into it with her SEW experiments.

The flower morphed into a wall, and slammed downwards. She attempted to block it with a barrier, but it was shattered as if were a hammer to thin glass. The wall pushed Monstra down, sending it to the icy ground beneath. The iron reformed itself once more, breaking up into many claws to drag Monstra and Salem to freeze beneath the ice. The whale groaned and struggled, but was no match for the willed iron.

She knew she was no match for this thing, yet. So, all she could do was save the power stored within the whale. It was filled with resources she would simply rather not lose. She began an incantation, a large-scale teleportation spell. She hated that she was forced to retreat, but, the opportunity to obtain the relic of creation would arise again.

However, she was interrupted by a bar of cold iron piercing her. Again, she could feel it weakening her. She screamed and cursed the wretched iron. Swiftly, she preformed a lesser version of the spell so that she could escape.

She fell to her knees when she was back at her Citadel, her breathing heavy. She yelled, slamming her fist on the ground over and over again. Still, how could she have let such a loss happen? Only a miniscule portion of Monstra remained… and the dead body of the General. Rage filled every part of her body, a rage that paralleled that kind she felt so long ago. She wanted to pummel the body to an indistinguishable pulp of blood, flesh, bone, and metal. But, she stopped herself from doing that.

“This is an opportunity!” she laughed. This was the opportunity to create something so wretched, something that could rival even the Hound! Surpass it even! And now, she had that wretched iron in Atlas that she could harness someday!

She joyfully laughed as she imagined the possibilities. With a material such as that, perhaps she could really kill the brother gods. Once they were gone, then there wasn’t anything that would stand in her way. She’ll admit it might be wishful thinking, but it would still prove an invaluable resource regardless if she could control it. And there was so much of it, that she could make whatever to her heart’s content. She also realized that if the metal could make her feel that way, it could perhaps put a stop to Ozma for good too.

Suddenly, the loss of Monstra didn’t seem so bad. Yes, she had put a lot of resources into the thing, but it was merely frozen beneath the ice. It could always be retrieved, or perhaps used for a surprise attack on Atlas in the future. And now, she would have an invaluable and shiny new metal in due time, and a wonderful little toy soldier to play with meanwhile. She grabbed the body by its shirt collar and dragged it beside her as she walked back to the castle where she and her direct underlings resided.

She would be sure to let Watts play with the dear General if he returned. He deserved it for his loyalty, and for surviving if he did. Besides, he was probably one of the few people who could help her with such an endeavor. She did not have a knack for the technologies of the new humans, nor did she like how prideful and arrogant he was. It reminded her of her father, may he rot in hell. But, at least he was useful to her, and obedient.

Tyrian would be sure to return in due time. She knew that. He would honestly only die if she allowed it. Truthfully, she did like him the most of her current followers. He was among her favorites of all time too. He was just so eager to please her, and he loved what he did too. It wasn’t often she had such a devout follower. If the world was full of Tyrians and the like, she might actually not want to destroy everything and die. Might. She wondered how she would reward him when he returned. Even if her plan failed, he, and Watts performed wonderfully.

Cinder was Cinder. Annoying at times, but predictable and and rather easy to manipulate. Salem detested her insubordinate tendencies, but she had drive. Salem could respect that. She was, unfortunately, also very necessary to her plans, currently. She was sure the girl would return eventually, one way or another, presumably with a gift in hand and probably with a new “asset” or two in tow.

Then there was Hazel. She found that she liked him to. They shared many of the same hatreds, well, mostly Ozma. Still, it was nice to talk with someone about how much they hated Ozma. He did as he was told, and hardly acted out of line. His only real weakness was his soft spot for children, which had proved infuriating only a few times. It was another thing she could relate to though. She too wanted a world where they would not suffer and be the playthings of immortals or gods.

Sometimes, she wished to tell him the truth. She felt that he deserved to know. That was because the last shred of humanity within her that held mercy, regret, and sorrow. She hated it. That same humanity wanted to tell him and see him break just so it could finally rest. Yet, she never did tell him.

-

Mantle and its shining younger sibling Atlas watched in horror and awe as the Grimm of incomparable size was dragged down to a watery grave by the unknown force. They saw the iron rise up into the sky and form a flowering star, watched as it morphed into a wall in attempt to cleave the giant whale Grimm. Even though it was their savior, they watched it in fear.

Qrow observed it from far away while in the sky. He had a feeling Ironwood was somehow behind it He wondered how a semblance, a single soul, could be so powerful.

Winter, Penny, and the Ace Ops watched it from the General’s office. Winter lamented the loss of Ironwood. She wanted to hope he wasn’t gone, but to hope for that would be a waste. She knew she there were far greater things to worry about now. Until she could confirm that the whale Grimm was decommissioned, the people of Mantle were still in danger.

Winter considered that they could perhaps be saved now, in case the whale Grimm and Salem could still attack. It was worth a shot now. With no time to waste, she got to work.

-

A month had passed. There was no sign of the whale or Salem despite the extensive search. Ozpin, however, was sure that Salem escaped. He had apologized to them, for having hidden the truth for so long. They had gotten nationwide comms back online. All that was left was to tell the world. So they did.

All knew of Salem, unkillable, but not undefeatable. She was cursed by the brother gods for uniting humanity against them, and forced to live until she learned the meaning and purpose of death. They knew of Oz, born again and again, and fallible. He was blessed by the brother gods, his only order was to help steer humanity down the right path. He wondered why they believed in him so.

The citizens of Mantle had returned to their homes and began to rebuild. The boarders were opened now, so that helped. In Mantle, a faceless statue with divine horns was erected, to symbolize all the lives that were lost to the war against Salem, against the injustices they had faced. It held the world in one of its palms. Robyn, now co-general and co-headmaster with Winter, was the one to unveil it.

In Atlas, a statue was erected as well, one of the late general who sacrificed himself. It was in the main hall of the academy, and unveiled by Winter on the same day as the other statue. It was a simple thing constructed of iron that captured his image perfectly. With his hands formally clasped behind his back, he sternly gazed forward.

It was that day the thing that took down the whale Grimm returned. This time, Team RWBY and company were able to witness it. In the distance, it arose from the ice. However, it was not the color many remembered seeing. It was now the color of sorrowful and pitiful rust. It soared through the sky in the form of a wave, eventually swirling around the base of Atlas to form a pedestal for the floating city to rest, the support penetrating the ground and ice below. Though, it was more akin to a cradle for a globe. Regardless, Atlesian and Mantlean alike found it fitting.

However, this was an opportunity to do something great. Winter expected nothing less of Ironwood. Robyn was still just surprised. Well, everyone was. Still, once Winter explained her idea to her, it was only a short matter of time before the issue made its way to the council. Only one disagreed with the plan, echoing a notable number of outraged Atlesians who felt the same way.

Resting atop a pedestal-cradle in the sky was the city of Atlas. Down below was the city of Mantle, with the statue of a god in its center. That statue held the world in one hand, and the Staff of Creation in the other. The staff now powered the city, and was protected by the dutiful Protector of Mantle.

The iron cradle was named Defense System Cherry, for its unique coloring, and for the tests that proved it to be a more than adequate defense system. This quelled the complaints of many Atlesians, who felt more comfortable with a mysterious yet powerful creation of their late general, rather than with something from the gods, gifted by the immortal Ozpin. Though, greed still influenced many, making them still desire the staff to be in their city.

Even though the defense system had no means of communication, any who touched it could hear its single message. When this was first discovered, many rushed to hear what was perhaps their late leader’s last message unto them. However, they were all met with disappointment. Its meaning eluded all but a few: Qrow, Oz, and Glynda. As Winter and Robyn looked to the ceiling of their office, once Ironwood’s, they could see that they were most likely right.

The Wretched Iron cried out its last plea, a plea that had been remorsefully cried time and time again. If it could look to the sky and join it, it would. If it could finally rest peacefully, it would. But it will never join the stars. It will never sleep. It was born with a plea to live and a prayer to be strong. The gods answered his prayer, and he was given a mighty will unmatched. However, the gods are cruel.

With his mighty will unmatched, came the weight of countless sins. The weight of those sins was more, far more, than the weight of all his metal. He will never join the stars. He will never feel the darkness of sleep. Let him sacrifice countless lives once more! Let him protect what is wrong in the world! Let him be the hero! Let him do all this and more again and again and again as atonement for his sins!

I dream, a deep, unfulfilled dream!

[essu-rwby-desu]

                                                       HERE IT IS.

                               Chapter 1: Welcome to Haven Reaction  

                                                    -LONG POST-

 First I want to say:

I love that they’re putting art back into the show.

URARAKA?!

So they’re obviously going to head to where ever that broadcast is coming from right? I mean if the pilot doesn’t go, Weiss certainly will.

I MEAN.

SHE CAN SUMMON HER KNIGHT NOW RIGHT?

CAN SHE SUMMON OTHER THINGS?

LIKE.  A GRYPHON? OR A NEVERMORE?

SHE COULD HOP ON THEM AND FLY THERE?

AND HOW MANY GRIMMS CAN SHE SUMMON AT ONCE? In Weiss’s character trailer, Winter was able to summon a handful of Beowolves to help her train. And when she was fighting Qrow, she summoned a bunch of tiny Nevermores.

WEISS COULD BE A ONE WOMAN ARMY. I’VE HAD THIS THOUGHT SINCE V3.

I’m really digging the building designs.

Hmmm. Wasn’t there a similar courtyard like this back at Beacon? If there was, then its a nice tie-in to connect all the schools via design.

“Maybe try…louder?” I can’t tell if she’s sarcastic or not, but because it’s Nora I feel like she was genuinely suggesting to go louder. Best.

I noticed this camera focus and was like “Nice.” /Facepalm I’m such a dork. TECHNICAL STUFF IS COOL, OKAY? I’m also sorry for the terrible screenshots. Idk wtf happened.

Lulz

“You… Filled them in?” Excuse me while I go wash my brain out with soap.

Nora has best lines this episode.

“Total Garbage.” Is what Sun said. “THIS IS FUCKING BULLSHIT!” is what I heard.

DEEZ FACES THO.

WAO, LOOK AT-

-DAT ARMOR.

RWBY has come such a long way with voice acting, and Ilia is no exception. Very convincing, much emotion. Especially with her last line: “I know.”

I really. Really can’t help it but.

Every time I see Blake’s shirt with those crossing stripes, I always think “That’s gonna leave a a weird tan line.”

Ruby screen time and lines TvT

Get the feeling class courses and materials weren’t the only reasons why he quit teaching.

Winter For Creation, Summer For Destruction, Fall for Choice, Spring for Knowledge

I find it a bit strange and bit interesting about the Maiden’s respective relics.

For example, Fall’s is Choice. Pyrrha was elected to become the next Fall Maiden. Even though Oz and the rest felt like she was the perfect candidate, she still could’ve declined and walked away. Instead, she accepts to inherit the new power, not because she wanted to, but because she felt it was the right thing to do. On the flip side: From what we know about Maiden’s and their powers, they can only pass the powers onto a new person to someone they think of before their time ends. Cinder had successfully stolen the Fall Maiden’s power; Both times when she first initially attacked her and again at the chamber where the Maiden was kept alive. Cinder had taken the Fall Maiden’s ability to choose who to pass her powers onto.

Now we know that the Spring Maiden is Knowledge. So how will it work for and against her? Did knowing what a Maiden was excite her and motivate her to train her powers? And did obtaining more knowledge and understanding the importance of being a Maiden cause her to eventually run away?

Shit son, stay tuned for the next episode of RWBY Volume 5.

Back to the rest of the post:

THE SPRING MAIDEN IS KICKIN’ IT WITH YANGS MA-MA!?

ONE SHOT. ONE OPPORTUNITY. OR RAVEN GONNA SLICE YOU UP INTO SPAGHETTI.

Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury all forged their papers to get into Haven. Feel the burn, Jaune. Get on their forgery level.

-In Michael’s voice- A lion?! MORE LIKE A RAT, YOUUUUU RAT FUCK.

Qrow, please. I know you were designed to have crow-alities, but your back. Plz. Looking like you’re straight out of a Persona game.  Guess you could say Qrow is the Persona-fication of a crow- ok ok I’m moving on.

Shout out to the Yellow Trailer. Speaking of trailers, Yang’s character short reaction thing at the bottom. Short and sweet.

Dude, the 80’s called, they want their entire look back. -Take on Me plays in the BG-

”Not too bulky, not too lean.”

“Just right.” Ah, Goldie Lockes- wait a minute, what was this gas station calle-

G’damn it, Barb.

”And your hair-“

Ok first of all, she doesn’t want anything to do with you, buddy. Second, what makes you think, after telling you off, that she wants you to touch her in any way?

And third:

I hope you’re ready to live with the consequences.

Get wrecked.

Rest in pieces.

See’ya, space cowboy.

Back to Yang:

Still on the road of recovery. You’re doing great sweetie.

“I’m looking for Raven Branwen. She’s my mother. I’m gonna give her the award of The Best Worst Mom Ever. And by ‘reward’, I mean my cold hard metal fist.”

#Mood

“Is there a ruby rose here?”

“Why?” In other words: “Tell me why, right now, before I break your legs.”

LOL. DRUNKLE QROW.

#ThatsMyUncle #Facepalm #Same #NotThisShitAgain #Mood

”Did you get drunk again?”

“Did I? I STILL AM!”

“Oscar, say to Ruby ‘You have Silver eyes.’, it’ll be great, I promise.”

“What the F*CK did you just say? The last person that said that to me got incinerated. Allegedly.”

“Guess what? I lived, b*tch.”

#Mood. Also don’t take up your uncle’s bad back habits, Ruby.

“I DID IT.” I feel like, no matter what or whoever you are, this is the #Mood for even doing the littlest of things.

CINDER IS BACK AND OUT INTO THE FIELD. AND WHOS THIS? IS THIS THE FALL SPRING MAIDEN (Woops, messed that up.)?

I really like this shot of Weiss.

REMATCH I WILL BE WAITING FOR.

I think I’ll be vectoring this screenshot. 

Also, I can only wish that when Weiss summons her knight, it will appear on screen Trigger-like animation style. I can only wish.

AW YIS. THE TEAM IS ALL HERE,

NOW WE CAN DIE TOGETHER.

 You know. When I was at the theater watching this, and we all saw team RWBY back together in the new intro, everyone shouted and hooray’ed in excitement. 

Then.

When this came on the screen, everyone suddenly got quiet.

I don’t think it was because seeing Monty’s name made us sad, but because it made us happy: We were happy, or at least I was, to see how far this show has come. In a way, it was also out of respect with a humbling feeling.

 BONUS: YANG’S TRAILER REACTION:

LOOK AT HOW PURE RUBY IS.

The fighting/choreographing has gotten better!

#FeelsBadMan

CLENCH THOSE BUTTOCKS.

AND SCREAM THIS, FROM THE DEPTHS OF YOUR HEART.

SMMMMAAAAASSSSSSSSSH!!!!!

–You Say Run goes with everything–

If you made it all the way to the end, you’re a legend. Thanks for sticking all the way through this long post. The episodes have become so long now, so reaction posts will be inevitably long as well. I would do videos, but after attempting to do lets plays and stuff, man I hate my voice (and even worse my own face LOL).

Anyway thanks again, and I hope you enjoyed! 

[rwbyconversations]

A retrospective on the first half of Volume 6

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I hated RWBY’s fifth volume. I felt it was a slog that started on the right foot but as time went on more and more cracks started to appear until the Battle of Haven episodes which were... unpleasant. I made my thoughts on them very clear over the summer. I will also note that I was very cynical regarding Volume 6 during the period between the V5 finale launching and RTX Austin, where we got Adam’s character short. Even with the short being good I remained only tentatively interested in Volume 6, since Volume 5 had good shorts too and look where that got the season proper. Volume 5 was a failure on many levels for RWBY, and while I’ve found things to enjoy about it, it’s ultimately my least favorite volume in the show. Coming off Volume 5, I felt concern that RWBY had peaked in Volume 3, and everything from there on in would just be a painful slide downwards in quality. 

Thankfully, I’ve never been happier to be wrong.

ALL HAIL THE BRINGER OF END TIMES AS SHE BESTOWS THE FLAMING MERCY OF DEATH WITH A SMILE ON HER FACE

RWBY Volume 6 Chapter 7 is now out for First members, and as such, we’re now at the halfway mark of the volume. I have to say, going in with lowered expectations even in light of the Adam short, I have utterly adored this entire volume thus far, in fact it’s probably my favorite set of episodes in the entire  show to date, and I’ve had very little to criticize in each episode beyond just “Give me more Mercury and Emerald.” 

As such, this week at the perfect halfway mark of the volume, and to celebrate my third hundred post, I’m doing a retrospective of each episode of Volume 6 and see how the chapters do their best to avoid the slights that dragged down Volume 5. As well, I’ll be consulting comments made by Miles and Kerry pre-release of Volume 6, specifically concerning what they wanted to focus on this year. In particular, I’ll be cross-referencing Miles’ three points that the crew wanted to improve on for Volume 6. I’ll also look at most of the episodes and see how they handle elements that were previously condemned in Volume 5 (which also means some potshots at Volume 5 if that’s a thing you need to know). This gets long, forward warning, hope you enjoy. 

0.5) Adam’s short

Adam’s short might have been thinly veiled damage control made with the intent of re-building Adam’s fear factor after the disaster that was his outing at Haven, but the short proved to be good damage control nonetheless. From an acting perspective, Garrett continues to grow his vocal talents and for fans of the gone-too-soon Sienna Khan, the short gave her some posthumous feats and showed her in the field. Really, none of my criticisms about the short were significant enough to lower my enjoyment- barring CRWBY’s continued love of the weapon spinning circle, both Adam’s solo fight and the fight that makes up the back half of the short were both enjoyable bouts. Adam’s short was the only short we got this year, but it proved to be an entertaining short that provided some fun battles and a killer song by Jeff- Lionized is already one of my favorite vocal songs in the show, I must have watched the first battle in the short like fifty times now just so I can hear the first verse. 

You’ll see, I’m their hero, I’ll be Lionized! 

All in all, a very solid short and a great way to win back some fans after Haven before the season started off. 

1) Argus Limited, the beginning of the redemption arc. 

Despite Adam’s short, my expectations were low for Volume 6, almost deliberately so. Volume 5 had burned me hard, and I wanted to avoid getting burned by my own hype. But you know what? Argus Limited might be the best premiere in the entire show. It’s damn near flawless in everything it sets out to do. 

In the AMA, Miles set out three things that the CRWBY needed to improve on for Volume 6- more fights that better utilize abilities and weapons, giving Ruby more agency in the plot, and fixing the “tell don’t show” problem that plagued Volumes 4 and 5, especially whenever RNJR were stuck listening to exposition monologues. And for the most part, Argus Limited does take steps towards all three of these problems. RWBY get a great fight which sees Ruby and Weiss especially using a lot of their skill-set that had been left to the curb in Volume 5, which is my nice way of pointing out that Ruby never used her Semblance in Volume 5 and Weiss over-relied on her Summons, which was a huge point of contention among Weiss’s fans in the now-infamous “Weiss vs Vernal” debacle. Ruby’s also given a stronger sense of being a leader than she’s conveyed for much of the past few years, being quick to take command of the situation when Qrow and Dudley start getting into an argument and forcing the team to focus on the Grimm instead of Oz’s newest round of omitting the truth. While there is a fair bit of exposition in regards to the timeskip, we do get a lot of information shown to us- particularly the sendoffs of Sun and Ilia.

While I’m still bummed that Ilia didn’t join the team going to to Atlas since I feel her character would have greatly benefited that arc, alongside her interactions with Weiss, she still gets a touching sendoff. And my Sunny boi shines as he usually does when in the spotlight. Absence makes the heart go fonder and Christ I miss Sun already.

Argus Limited is unique in that barring Adam’s short scene at the beginning, it’s the only premiere entirely focused on the heroes. The even numbered volumes beforehand had started with Emerald and Mercury, with Volume 4 also formally introducing the rest of Team WTCH. Argus Limited focusing only on RWBY and JNR allows for each member of the team to contribute during the episode, and also allows for more time to be spent on JNR’s departure for the rest of the first half. Jaune and Ruby’s quick scene near the middle has a great dynamic to it. 

And of course it goes without saying that the music is to die for. Be it the soft acoustic of Like Morning Follows Night as Sun bids Blake farewell, or the two new songs in Miracle and Rising, Jeff, Alex and Casey came out of the gate running musically. Argus Limited to conclude was a fantastic opening episode, so good that even notorious RWBY critic FatManFalling was impressed. And if that’s not a sign that even the most diehard of RWBY critics was impressed... I dunno what is. 

2) Uncovered- the truth comes out

Uncovered is a setup episode for a lot of the remaining first half, but one that executes its set up well. We immediately open with confirmation that Cinder survived the Battle of Haven, which is as much the crew going “Look you know we didn’t kill her, she’s on the damn poster,” as it is an acceptance that everyone capable of narrative comprehension understood that she wasn’t dead. Cinder gets a new outfit, meets a board game villain, and displays shreds of character development that I hope are carried up on. Meanwhile with RWBY we get one last scene in the Dreaded House where Ozpin flat out lies and Nora undoes the bad will of “They really ARE magic!” with some fantastically funny lines. 

“Can we ask for more wishes? CAN WE ASK FOR MORE WISHES?!” 

I also love the camera shot of Ruby promising they’ll protect the Relic before cutting to her digging it out of the snow. I’m easily impressed with camera trickery like that. 

Uncovered addresses a significant criticism of V5, specifically how RNJR’s plot devolved into them just sitting around and receiving exposition from Ozcar and Qrow. While we get another such scene in the House where Ozcar explains the Relic and its powers, it’s much more lively- the kids weigh in more and are much more dynamic, particularly Nora. They’re not just sitting in chairs in a circle, they actively move around or are on the floor packing. It’s the same vector of information delivery, but it’s much less passively received. 

Ozpin’s debate with RWBY is also similarly well-executed. The kids were soundly mocked last year for just blindly accepting Ozpin at face value barring the one instance of Yang bringing up the birds. Here, Yang and Weiss are openly confrontational of Ozpin, and while his argument of not telling the team about the Relic attracting Grimm has a logical reason behind it, the girls are tired of being spoon-fed information, especially after Oz bluntly promised no more lies or half-truths (Yang really should have included “omissions” in that list too in hindsight). It’s an argument where both sides have their reasons and both have good points that are presented, with everyone getting to weigh in (barring Maria, who is super chill during all these shenanigans).  

What’s that again? Oh. Good writing. Sorry, wasn’t used to it being there after “OZPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN,” “Because you’re afraid of Salem!” and “This is bad.” 

Regardless, Uncovered is a stellar setup episode that flows smoothly into...

3) The Lost Fable- OZPIN FUCKED

The longest episode barring the Volume 3 and 4 finales, Lost Fable is an episode I was cold on when I first watched it- after Volume 5, numerous times, spelled out that Ozpin was shady and not to be trusted, I was expected some deep skeletons in his closet- that he created the Grimm, that he caused Salem to become evil, something so horrifying that the Gods saw fit to curse him with eternal life. 

I didn’t expect the secrets to be “Ozpin’s first life looked like an isekai protagonist, he died of herpes, got Thanos’d like six times, fucked Salem at least four times and fathered the spiritual predecessors to the Maidens, had a life where he looked like my Starbucks server and... isn’t actually the bad guy.” 

That Ozpin wasn’t too evil- more his secrets are because of lifetimes of dying over and over, he just has severe trust issues to work through- was something that caught me off guard. That everything is the Gods of Light and Darkness’s fault rubbed me the wrong way at first, since it felt like revisionism, the show going “We can’t have Oz be too evil so let’s just put most of the blame on the Gods and Salem.” That said I do like how the God of Darkness is actually surprised and pleased when Salem came to him for help. It was a nice bit of character to the God that no one ever came to him for help, just punishment, so he basically gave Salem what she wanted on the spot just because of that. As he says to Light, “you may bask in the powers of creation but you do not own them.” 

Granted, there is still one massive story flaw in the episode- the handling of the Faunus just showing up during Ozma’s vacation in purgatory and slavery having already been implemented. It just feels like an awkward last-minute addition and one I do not very much like. It’s pretty much the one thing I outright hate about the episode, the rest execution wise is spot on. Hats off to CRWBY for the technical side of this tale, and to Salem, Ozma and Jinn’s actors for carrying this as well as they did. 

I’m still not sure where I sit exactly on Lost Fable- it’s no doubt a well executed episode and answers/raises a lot of questions about Remnant and its mythologies (like how the moon is shattered because Satan yeeted out too hard), and the animation is some of the best in the show, barring some slight irritation at the understandable reasons for not seeing Ozma vs Salem onscreen. It’s technically very proficient, my problems are just a few small preconceptions of my own holding me back. 

This planet empty. YEEEET.

... also that plushy dog was the cutest fucking thing and if we learn Salem kept that toy after digging it out of the rubble I may actually cry. 

I will buy this dog plush if you just make it RT, you are passing up my money for God’s sake!

Also just so we’re all clear, that holy war Ozma accidentally helped start was totally Remnant’s version of the Crusades, right? 

Also also, no, the kids weren’t the first Maidens, they’re the spiritual successors. Let’s just get that clear while I’m on a soapbox.

4) So That’s How It Is- Best Kids Finally Show Up

Merc and Em were in this episode so I’m contractually obliged to love it. Good thing I really do love their scene. It was good to finally see what the villains at large were up to while RWBY processed the knowledge Jinn had bestowed... while Qrow bestowed his fist unto Oscar’s jaw. In all seriousness, it’s good to see that RWBY retain the dynamic nature in the short final argument with Ozcar. Volume 5′s nightmarish scenes of just sitting around and passively listening are a thing of the past.  

Mercury as usual is relegated to short but sweet moments, namely “Back off, freak!” and his being the first to realize that Salem’s about to snap. Please RT, give him things to do, don’t waste Spider Man while you have him in the booth. Pacing wise I suppose this was really the earliest we could have gotten Em, Merc and WTH unless the first episode got a lot of additional padding, but it still hurts to see my favorite characters all of once in the entire first half of the season. Like I said, absence makes the heart go fonder, and I miss the kids.

Also props for making me give a shit about Hazel again. Turns out he’s not a bad dad when you ignore the whole... “OZPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN” thing. 

Ruby also gets a few short but sweet moments- she’s initially calm at the beginning, allowing Ozpin to explain his plan. She only gets more visibly angry after Ozpin admits that he has no plan, but doesn’t lose her cool like Yang does. She’s also the only member of the team to separate Ozpin from Oscar at this stage, taking the time to reassure him before they leave the train wreckage. It shows again that the crew are striving to make Ruby feel like a leader, by having her take charge and be there for everyone under her wing. 

Meanwhile Yang’s only interaction with Oscar is to demand he bring Ozpin back. ... When you think about it Oscar must have so many issues that he refuses to talk about Jesus Christ someone give this kid a therapist. 

I wrote about how much I loved how Salem conducted herself in the short clip released for RWBY Rewind, and while ultimately her temper did snap rather explosively, I love that she visibly tries to contain her rage, something the animators put a lot of painstaking work into.  

On the hero’s side, this is largely a cooldown episode and a conclusion to the “arc” surrounding Jinn in the first half while getting the team in place for the Brunswick episodes. For the villains it’s a chance to check in, and also see what they’ll be up for the year. The villain scene alone makes this a delight, with Watts being snarky and Tyrian continuing to be a walking :D in every scene he’s in.

... also who flew the airship that MEH took to Evernight? We never see the pilot.

5) The Coming Storm-

Let’s get the obvious praise out of the way, Neo vs Cinder? One of the best fights in the entire damn show, like damn they knocked it out of the park! 

Fun fact, I got an ask the day before this dropped asking if I thought Neo would be in this episode and I said no. This is where you all laugh at me.

Neo vs Cinder is a sterling example of the fights becoming more creative and better utilizing abilities. Neo’s Semblance shattering looks great in Maya (shame it came at the cost of her hair) and the fight flows smoothly. I was worried that if Neo came back, her fighting style wouldn’t be well-represented without Monty able to bring his magic, but the crew have managed to create a fight on par with Neo vs Yang in sheer spectacle. I especially loved the segment on the bar top where Neo used bowls as weapons. And if it wasn’t great enough, One Thing grants an additional look under the mirrors into Neo’s inner turmoil over Roman’s death- Casey finally got her wish of voicing Neo, at least. 

Also between this and Lionized, why do the villains get the best songs? 

The Brunswick segment may not be as dynamic, and I’m sure some people groaned when they saw RWBY would be in another house, but at least this time they use more than one room. Weiss and Ruby get a nice scene near the end and there’s a great unspoken moment of Weiss getting why Ruby doesn’t want Qrow to find the beer stash- since remember, her mother’s been a drunk for at least seven years. 

I appreciate the continuity touch in the garage scene that Yang saw Adam in his Beacon outfit when she hallucinated him, as she hasn’t seen his newer outfit. Regarding the garage scene, I can’t help but feel like it was misread by... a lot of people who were looking more for romantic validation than they were actual character reasoning. I’m not a fan of how Blake has acted around Yang this year, she’s been almost... condescending to her. Rushing for her bag in chapter 1 when Yang already had, the whole “I’ll protect you” line. Blake doesn’t see Yang as the strong person who stared a Maiden down and won, she sees... damaged goods. And that’s the last thing Yang wants or needs to hear. Yang didn’t crawl her way into recovery and ride off to another continent just so the girl who ditched her the first time without even waiting for Yang to regain consciousness could provide empty platitudes about not leaving and then assume that Yang needs protection in a manner that felt very patronizing to me. I particularly disliked how Blake reached over Yang’s real hand to grasp the cybernetic one, and how that got spun hard. Yes, the gesture was well meaning from Blake but all it takes is one look at Yang's reaction and that moment is just... not great at all for them. Yang is still hurting and shut off when she made that good intentioned but horribly misunderstanding gesture. Blake is trying to be there for Yang like Sun had been for her, but she can't help her because Yang isn't communicating what's wrong. That's not romantic. It's so awfully, bitterly sad. Yang is hurting and Blake can't undo the damage that she did when she left during the Fall of Beacon. It's not development, it's insight into the poor state of their relationship (regardless of how you view it, I just mean friendship here myself) after the events and the distance they suffered. Barbara herself has said that Volume 6 would see Blake and Yang’s relationship would never return to the way it was pre-Beacon after Volume 6, and this may have been what she was referring to. 

The Coming Storm has a great fight, so it’s already a great episode in my book, but it adds a cherry on top in some quietly good character moments as well.

And of course, Burrito Weiss is Best Girl.

6) Alone In The Woods- Ruby’s Redemption Arc

Right before Volume 6 started, I wrote a whole post about why the fandom had grown cold on Ruby in Volume 5. At the time I noted that part of me wanted to wait until Volume 6 just in case things either improved or Ruby’s character failed to develop for another season, giving me more citations regarding her developmental stump since Volume 3. 

But thankfully, Volume 6 has been very good for Ruby so far, and this episode is the peak of that. Ruby takes initiative, drives the team forward, and actually gets angry at a few points. Lindsay sells this so well and I’m so glad she finally toned down Ruby’s squeak in the more serious moments, because this episode would have otherwise died on its feet if Ruby still had the Squeak. In fact, if this positive trend of Ruby development continues into the back half of Volume 6, I’m planning on a post talking in more detail about Ruby and her development. 

The Apathy were terrifying, and are easily my new favorite Grimm. Funnily enough, in another case of me writing a post before Volume 6 that was partly addressed, I asked why the Grimm failed to scare the audience, and one of my ideas was just that with the protagonists being so strong, no Grimm can really pose a threat. Well the Apathy prove that such a thing is possible. Fans have been suggesting that the Grimm employ more psychological or emotional based attacks over sheer physicality for some time now, and it seems that all this time, the answer has just been waiting for the right moment. Miles revealed on Reddit that the Apathy was his “favorite Grimm” that he’s been working on getting into the show for a few years, and later added on Twitter that he’s been sitting on the idea of the Apathy since the start of the show’s creation, well over six years ago. It’s proof to me that Miles can have some stunning ideas when his heart and soul is dedicated into a project, and regardless of what some people on Tumblr, Twitter and/or Youtube may think, Miles cares about this. Add in the unsettling atmosphere and the amazing work that went into everyone’s eyes and making them dull and disturbing, and you have a stellar attempt at horror by relative newcomers to the genre. The Apathy worked at being terrifying for a large portion of the vocal audience, creating a villain that solved a problem that the Grimm have had since Volume 2, while also letting Ruby finally step up and gain the agency she’s needed for several years.

While Maria being a SEW was something most everyone guessed, it was good to finally see Maria gain plot prominence, since some people had been complaining about Maria joining RWBY feeling somewhat arbitrary. Regardless, she’ll serve as an important vector into getting SEW lore, which is one of the only major significant mysteries left now that we know about Salem, the Gods and the Moon. 

I haven’t mentioned it in the prior segments, but I’ll stop here to give the writers praise for finally giving Qrow an arc. While it is a bit odd to go from Volumes 3 through 5, where Qrow’s alcoholism is played for comedy (in fact it’s the punchline of the first episode) to Volume 6 playing it very seriously, I will still take any development for Qrow. He was the hardest hit by Ozpin’s secrecy, learning Raven was at least partly right in leaving Ozpin and as a consequence, learning that Summer likely died for nothing. He fell into depression, becoming an invalid wreck of a man. The Apathy had little to do to make Qrow a desolate waste, had he been left in that bar he’d probably have drunk himself to death while his nieces died just feet away from him. It takes seeing the Apathy to finally break him out of the stupor that hung around his neck like a noose, and I wouldn’t be shocked if we see Qrow hanging up the flask for good by the end of the volume. 

Alone In The Woods is probably the best episode of the season so far. Somewhat sloppy running animations aside it’s a stupendous attempt at horror in an action show, and signals our protagonist finally becoming our lead. 

7) The Grimm Reaper- Tick tock, tick tock

I’ll be honest, when I saw the Haven vault in the Rewind for this episode, I expected Cinder to open the episode by kicking Vernal’s corpse into the water out of jealousy. I’m not sure if I’m impressed  or not at how brazen Cinder’s loophole abuse is, but I am impressed at how both Cinder and Neo are visibly hesitant at different points in the scene to trust the other- the show is clearly setting up Neo backstabbing Cinder.

Maria’s flashback was amazing. I didn’t expect a new fight scene so soon after Neo vs Cinder but Maria hasn’t got time to waste on my opinions. She was such a badass in her youth. I loved her weapons (I still think they’re a reference to Darksiders 2, fight me) and as someone who’s wanted to see Gravity Dust in action for years, my expectations were more than met. Continuing the promise in the AMA of unique fights, we get Maria using Gravity Dust to whirl around the battlefield like a hurricane of sharp death, her weapons combining into a scythe was a cool moment. I loved how ferocious the fight felt, like there was barely any stopping for posing and everyone was moving. They even avoided using the Weapon Spinning Circles for much of the fight, which is always a nice touch. The ending was viscerally brutal too. I think it’s safe to say Maria vs Tock might break my top 10 favorite fights of the entire show, easily top 5 Maya era fights at least. 

Tock continues the show’s trend of one-off villains having really cool first outings and making me wish they’d stop dying so quickly. Regardless, Tock was a great one-off villain. She got a fantastic fight, had cool weapons, a unique design, and she wasn’t a reference to Tracer you idiots go read Peter Pan. Anyway, Maria’s flashback was really cool and I loved every second of it. 

Ruby got another great moment when after Maria destroyed herself and Qrow in the most vicious self-burn in recorded history, she tried to lift Maria’s spirits by asking her to teach Ruby to use the eyes. Ruby was said in 4 and 5 to be inspiring without much to back it up, and we see that now. Her bonds have grown closer with everyone on the team over the first half- even with Blake. Let me repeat, Ruby and Blake have interacted onscreen. I never thought this day would come. 

I didn’t expect the show to reach Argus by the halfway mark, in all honesty. The city looks breathtaking, I love the San Francisco vibe to it and how the entire trip to Saphron’s house is in 3D environments, unlike the Mistral scenes in V5E1. I have to admit, I did miss JNR a little. Nora was in peak comedy this episode, Ren was... back to being the exposition guy, nothing much changed there but Jaune was pretty decent. Miles remains a criminally underrated voice actor, if he doesn’t go pro in the event he leaves RT, the VA community is worse off. 

The handling of Saphron and Terra’s marriage was masterful, and I love the two of them already. V6′s new characters have been very consistently good I must say. I love how despite the first half of the episode being very dark and having someone lose their eyes onscreen, the back half is very cutesy. This time last volume we had the dinner scene, and the sandwich scene blows it out of the water. I love how everyone who talks to Oscar is far softer than they were to Ozpin, it’s good to see that the gang know the difference, and it’s good for the team to unwind before the next few storms hit their shores. Ruby and Qrow in particular were peak adorable.

I guess the baby was cute too but... look at them wiggling! :D :D 

The Grimm Reaper was a great mid-season checkpoint. Getting another new fight was a surprise to be sure, but it being easy “standout fight of the year” material made it a welcome one. Argus looks like a fantastic location and I would kill for a spinoff here, it seems like such an interesting city. 

8) Conclusion

Volume 6 had a lot of problems facing it on the onset- Volumes 4 and 5, 5 especially, had received lukewarm to poor reviews from the fans, and the pressure was on to prove that RWBY was a show worth watching. And judging by the first half of the Volume, Volume 6 is on its way to becoming the best volume in the entire damn show. We haven’t had a string of episodes this consistently good since Volume 3′s back half, and if Chapter 8 retains the quality, it’ll have exceeded that half numerically. Almost every major grievance I had with Volume 5- the protagonists being too passive, the excessive exposition, weak fights, the lackluster threat of the Grimm and Ruby’s placid lack of solid character growth- have all been addressed with gusto, as I hope I’ve explained above. At the very least, it does seem that the crew are meeting the three goals posted in the AMA with gusto. Add in some genuinely hilarious lines, spine-tingling horror and suspenseful action that rivals and at times exceeds what Monty was doing, and Volume 6 part 1 is this show’s redemption arc. While the second half could and likely will take a dip in quality, nothing short of a Battle of Haven level disaster can taint this volume, and I feel comfortable at this halfway mark saying we may be witnessing the new best volume of RWBY... if they gave Emerald and Mercury more screentime. But otherwise! New best volume. 

I think it’s telling that while I roughly knew what to expect around this time last year for Volume 5, I have no idea where Volume 6′s back half could take us and that excites me. I’m being led along for the ride and loving every damn minute of it. Keep it up CRWBY, let’s make Volume 5 a distant memory in the rear-view mirror as the show and fans go onwards to greener pastures.  

Or to put it in a more comedic way: 

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