#and it was for sure not the cause when Amity trained an army looking at them directly in the eyes

[little-pondhead]

DP x DC Prompt

…

There are no more heroes.

Well, okay. Rewind a bit.

Danny has been doing the hero thing for a while now. He’s had a big reveal; everyone has accepted him (including his parents), the GIW disbanded, the Anti-Ecto acts repealed, and generally, everything is going great. Some of the A-Listers are even training as junior ghost hunters to help give him a break from his rogues! (Being Ghost King makes things hectic sometimes, and he just needs the extra help. Sue him!)

The point is, literally nothing is wrong with Danny Phantom’s afterlife.

And then Valerie Gray, the Red Huntress, disappears in front of his eyes.

Danny is baffled! She’s just…gone! Valerie just popped out of existence, like she was never there. But no matter how hard he searches in the Ghost Zone, he can’t find her soul anywhere. His core isn't broken in grief. So she’s not dead. Which is good. So then, where is she?

Some of the others come forward with ideas on how to find her. A few ghosts volunteer to go out into the mortal realm, an area Danny had declared off-limits, to see if she was out there. Danny approves it. He rounds up some of the friendlier (i.e., discreet) ghosts and Amity Parkers and demolishes the outside travel ban.

So everyone spreads out, looking for their dear frenemy and teammate. But it becomes apparent very quickly that something is wrong with the rest of the world.

There are no more heroes.

Every single living superhero on the face of the Earth has just…vanished. Villains are running amok; the countries are in chaos! Some aliens are invading Earth, mythical deities are trying to take over, and society is crumbling to the ground. Everything is on the brink of collapse.

Well, Danny was still there. And so were his people. They were pretty spread out, so could they just…take up the mantles? He also knew where to find the souls of dead heroes in the Zone; surely they wouldn't mind coming out of retirement for a little bit, especially if they couldn't die again. Oh! And that skeleton army leftover from Pariah Dark's reign might be useful in repelling those invading forces.

Honestly, there were more than enough hands to go around! And with the heroes gone, Danny didn't mind letting everyone out for a little break, as long as they followed his rules. They wouldn't stop the search for the other heroes, but hopefully, when they found them, the heroes wouldn't mind Danny's intervention too much. :)

In other words:

Someone fucks up, and all of Earth's living heroes are either wished out of existence or are whisked away to some far-off realm where Danny hasn't checked yet. In the attempt to figure out what's going on, Danny lets the dead run amok over the Earth as they search for clues. The skeleton army repels the invading armies, the souls of dead heroes deal with the world leaders, and his rogues and other Amity Parkers set up shop in place of famous heroes, trying to get the cities under control again.

Basically, they just do their best to keep everything from imploding until the Justice League and others are back.

(And why is it that Danny hasn't disappeared? Well, whatever caused everyone to go poof! only affected living heroes. Anyone heroes that were dead in the first place, or even just half-dead, stayed behind.)

[rachetmath]

Favorite (Characters)

Ruby: *barges in* RatchetMath!

Me: What is it Ruby?

Ruby: You’re showing favoritism.

Me: Okay. And?

Ruby: You need to stop. Why not draw us for once?

Me: Hm, maybe because I like Jaune more. Hell I like Penny and Neo more than you or your team.

Ruby: Why?!

Me: Because your team is horrible.

Ruby: So is team JNPR!

Me: Yeah, but only because they have to follow you. They have some individuality but we don’t explore that as much. Plus, your team would be dead without them. But you know what Ruby, I would rather draw Yang, Blake or any other character except Weiss than you right now.

Ruby: What?! But I’m-

Me: The main character that barely does main character things. Woman, Salem was in Atlas! Why was she not your top priority? Why was James your problem?

Ruby: Um well…

Me: Ruby, she knows your mother! She might know what happened to her! I get Yang was some levels your mom but shouldn’t learning what happened to your actual mom be just as important? Especially after that dark memory.

Ruby: That is true.

Me: You have silver eyes but you still don’t know how to use them. There was army of grimm around Mantle and that would have been good practice. And a better solution than Ren.

Ruby: But then I be overpowered.

Me: No. Ruby your silver eyes only work on one person. If someone sneaks up on you or doesn’t care about that light you give off then, you’re dead. Maria is proof on that.

Ruby: Um..

Me: Plus, the question that everyone in the audience could have an answer to is whether your silver eyes can even work on Salem. In all honesty, it proves the writer don’t keep track of the characters and their personalities to where they fit together in story. You know what I have been making skits, trying to be funny but… the jokes died. Look guys I-I’m sorry but… let me explain.

1. Ruby and Blake should have stayed in Mantle. Why?

1. Salem is the main villian. She knows Ruby’s mother. You know the same mother who left for a mission and didn’t come back. The same mother, who Ruby knows nothing about while everyone seems to have different perspectives of her. Or has a better clue on who she is, than Ruby herself. Plus wasn’t Salem after her too? She basically would be killing two birds with one stone by kidnapping Oscar and giving Ruby a reason to see her. That way Ruby isn’t assuming what happened to her mother. Let Salem antagonize Ruby. (Question: Can silver eyes work on Salem?)

2. Perfect training for silver eyes. Let’s face it, Ren proved to us he can mask a bunch of people without Jaune’s help. All he needed was concentration. However, Ruby is more effective because silver eyes seem to be able to destroy multiple grimm on sight. And with lives on the line that gives Ruby plenty of reason to start using them.

3. Ren calling Ruby out on her issues. Look I loved how Ren was willing to tell the truth, but him revealing Jaune cheated Beacon was… weak. Reason being it relates to Jaune’s character and Ren still follows Jaune’s orders. However, Ruby, who is supposed to be a prodigy because she came to Beacon two years ahead of her class, has not proven once that she is worthy of such praise. The only reason-The ONLY reason Ruby was enrolled into Beacon was her silver eyes. Ruby even in volume one has been nothing but liability. Initiations, she almost dies from a Stinger. Stake out, she almost got run over by a truck and it ended in failure. First mission, she gets kidnapped and almost destroyed a city block. Roman, a man with no semblance or aura continues to beat her four times in a row. And it gets worse. Ruby almost got her uncle killed. She was the first to get knocked out by Emerald. Almost dies by a robot and Godzilla. And the moment she arrived in Atlas her first move was to lie to James. She didn’t even try to stop Tyrian when she saw him. She had her gun with her too. Ren is not her sister, he might as well tell her the facts so she can do better.

4.  Blake is Faunus. Mantle hates faunuses. Why not have Blake help them to prove faunuses are people too? Let Blake represent her people. I mean Velvet and Sun represent faunses more than she does her whole existence. Blake also can relate to Ren’s problem. How? Blake was a part of the White Fang, so there were expectations she had to fulfill. Especially when trying to measure up to Adam. However, she explains the longer she was in the White Fang, the more she found out how messed up and extremely bias it was. Including with Adam to the point she decided to leave. She even states she was lucky that Yang even forgave her after all the trouble she caused her. Blake challenged her bias nature, and it made her stronger for it. Blake would be basically telling Ren the more he tries to live up to someone else’s expectations, without seeing their flaws, the more he loses touch with himself and everyone around him.

5.  Oscar shouldn’t have been able break out of Salem on his own: I’m sorry but… Oscar got beat up. Took a magic beam to the chest. Had to switch between him and Ozpin and mind you he had no aura to help him. He should be tired and unable to move. (In my opinion, this kid was given too much screen time. At first I was worried about him but now I’m wondering why was I worrying at all.)

2. Jaune and Yang should have gone to Atlas.

1. Penny is basically Pyrrha in the opposite light. Penny’s special because she’s a robot with a soul, a mind of her own and an attitude to prove it. She is just as human as everyone else, but no one seems to treat her as such. James only sees her as something of a weapon. Pietro treats her like child even though she’s more mature than the rest of the female cast, except Maria. And now with maiden powers, everyone is out casting Penny even more. Jaune is perfect for her because he has experience with this kind of issue. However, he would’ve had to take different route to the situation considering his failure with Pyrrha last time they had discussion on maiden powers or responsibilities (Destiny.).

2. Jaune already has been a part of maiden business since volume three. His reason to be with Penny would be make sure she doesn’t meet the same fate as Pyrrha or Amber. Not just for himself but for others around him. Especially since Cinder was in Atlas and is willing to hunt her down for the maiden powers. And James was willing to turn Penny into a soulless machine to follow his every command. (Actually, Watts is more a fault considering he hates Pietro.). James and Cinder are also opposite to Jaune in some ways.  James earned his position and earned respect from his military. Jaune on the other hand cheated, and unlike James might not have everybody’s respect. Cinder treats her allies like tools. And with power she just consumes and gives nothing return. Jaune however treats his allies like family. And instead of just taking power he gives power to others around him. He’s the reason Cinder has maiden powers. So, him making it his personal mission to make sure Cinder doesn’t get more power only increases his resolve to protect Penny. (Especially since he already had to kill her in the canon finale.)  In other words, James and Cinder purposed a challenge to Jaune. Can he pervert history from repeating itself? Can he really protect the maiden powers? Is he truly worthy of being a huntsman? What is he willing to risk in achieving his goal? (Also let’s be clear. Hazel beat Oscar down for the password to the relic. James shot the kid and was willing to let him fall to his death. Qrow intentionally punched the kid.  I don’t care if it was for Ozpin, he still punched Oscar. Lion before even knowing Oscar was Ozpin reincarnation was already about kill him anyways. All Jaune did was push him to a wall. Yes, Jaune still would have hurt Oscar, but he didn’t. He walked away.)  

3.  A lot of the situations could’ve been avoided or mattered if Jaune was there. Don’t believe me? Well let me explain. Was Ruby the only option when sneaking pass Central Command? No, because they had Weiss, Nora and Penny. Weiss could have done a freezer burn like in her fight with Marrow. Or Nora could have thrown her grenades and Penny just shoots them before the hit the ground or damage anything. Both causing a smoke screen, so no one sees them. Plus, they were already caught by using Pietro credentials. Did Nora need to get knocked out for the team to escape? No. If she had Jaune with her they could’ve one caused an EMP wave being Jaune has gravity and Nora has lightning. Or two, if Nora still went through with it, Jaune would have healed her immediately. Penny lifting and keeping the arena in place. If Jaune and Weiss were with her then once Amity was in position, Weiss with Jaune’s assistances can keep it place so Penny can come back inside and the whole video could be played. Also, Pietro would know what was going on with his daughter and can properly explain how to fix her. (Better than Jaune healing her.)

4. Nora’s whole character is knowing who she is without Ren right? Then why not just have her lead the evacuation once she’s done with Atlas? Why not have her and Yang work together along with the happy huntress to evacuate Mantle? Especially if their friends disappeared to save Oscar. (And before ya’ll tell me they can’t do it….. Yang, blocked a punch from a mech, held off a Manticore, and has a semblance that literally lets her take damage and dish it back five times harder. Nora who literally crushed Weiss and Yang in a food fight. Knocked a giant horse down on its knee. And knocked Hazel away.  Are you seriously saying these girls are not enough to take on a few little tigers? Come on!) If the whole point of Nora’s character development was finding out more about herself then let Nora try something without Ren. Let her call the shots. Let her take charge. Give her a character. (Hell don’t stop there. Have her interact with other characters. Like Jaune. Yang. Weiss. Or anyone other character than Ren. Let them tell her what they think about her. Let Nora be a solution to a character’s struggle. Ya’ll make it sound like Nora has no friends.)

5. All Yang needed was a break from Ruby and Blake. In all honesty Yang should have been the one to see the hounds face and kill it. Why? Well Ruby is Yang’s sister and only reminder of her nonblood related mother. And Blake is her girlfriend. And if we saw the hound’s face, we know it’s not just a silver eyed person. It’s also a faunus. This will give her a reason to protect both her loved ones because by seeing the hound she knows Salem intention with Ruby and want to keep her, and Blake from meeting the same fate of being turned into monsters. Yang should’ve been the 2nd to 4th member of team RWBY to fall. Why? One, a Yang vs Neo fight. Two, Cinder and Neo both wanted Ruby dead. So why not get rid of Ruby first? The fights would have been more thrilling and seeing the character, the show is named after, presumed to be dead would have added stakes and tension to the fight. (Also let me say this. Why is it, that the only great display of the maiden powers I’ve ever seen, was from Amber and not the maidens, as of now, Winter, Raven, and Cinder? The maiden powers are basically magic right? Why isn’t Cinder using any other element than fire?)

6. Weiss was completely useless. Look, as the saying goes, “You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.” And when it came to Weiss and family, she has little to no clue of what it is nor deserves it. Weiss should have been more of an inspiration for Whitley to do right. How? By simply talking to him. What reason would she have other than Mantle? Simple, he’s her brother and she started off like him. Beacon, she was a brat. She was arrogant. And more importantly a jerk. Blake ran because of her racist attitude. Ruby literally had to impress her to prove she can be leader. Even though Weiss is not leadership martial herself.  Plus, hearing May and how she and her family never resolved their issues should inspire Weiss to not repeat that mistake. And guess what, her mom, Willow, the drinker of the family, wasn’t wrong. Both her and Winter left Whitley alone. Klein wasn’t there for him either. All Whitley had was his father. So Weiss, actually acting like his sister and trying to help him allows him to feel less alone. Instead Weiss was complete Jacque through out the entire volume.  

And that’s all.  Look I know I should have seen this coming but I had to say it.  Volume 8 could’ve been good. The problem was.

1.       Characters are not placed well within the story.

2.       We lost track of who said characters are.

3.       The ships are in the way.

4.       Being dumb for the plot. (Sometimes it’s necessary.)

[mangobilorian]

Crash Landing | (mature) i

Pairing: Captain Rex x Reader

Genre: Fluff 

Words: 5352

Summary:  This was supposed to be a diplomatic mission between two peaceful neighbors to ensure that the Separatists wouldn’t invade your planets. And as the princess of your nation, you were expected to uphold proper decorum and exercise exact protocol at all times. So why were you laying on the jungle floor, stripped down to your under layers, curled next to a clone captain keeping watch of your tiny cave, miles away from the capital where negotiations were to be held?

White. White and blue. Those are the only colors at the forefront of your vision, aside from the black of the guns. In a stiff formation behind a robed man, are these… troops. Clones, you believe. All centered around the famed Anakin Skywalker. It has been quite a while since a Jedi or any outside military force graced your planet, much less your nation. But the creeping threat of Separatist forces would soon crash on your shores. And your nation, though prosperous, would not survive a Separatist attack without help.

“Greetings, princess. We’re here to escort you on a diplomatic mission to Theatis 06. I am Anakin Skywalker and this,” he points at a man who steps up beside the Jedi, “is Captain Rex.” The clone--Captain Rex-- salutes.

“We’ll protect you from any threat, princess. You can count on us.” You smile at the helmented man, bowing your head in return.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance. Accompanying me are my handmaidens and private guards.” Next to you, three girls in modest garb bend at the waist, and two armed men also bow. “Shall we start our journey?” The Jedi nods and directs his men to board the ship. The Captain, however, positions himself to flank you. He walks with practiced precision, his gait calculated like a routine.

Before boarding the ship, you turn to wave at the people who came to see you off. Your parents weren’t there, but that was to be expected. While your mother had gone to Coruscant and you were sent to Theatis 06, your father had to stay and rule the country. The only people that came were the senator and select members of the upper and lower chambers of Congress. They wave back. These people were vultures, their smiles hiding something evil. It would be a relief to leave their grip, so you could finally breathe without faking amity or hiding disdain. One slip up on your part, and these politicians would feast on the royal family. But politics was never your strong suit, and being the princess was tiring enough. A gentle hand on your elbow interrupts your thoughts when you realize with a jolt that you hadn’t moved.

“Sorry, your highness. We have a tight schedule,” the captain says. Your face warms at the contact while your handmaidens’ eyes widen with something akin to fear and curiosity. The guards even assume a protective stance briefly before understanding that you were not threatened. They loosen their arms after you dismiss them with a nod. However, the captain doesn’t seem to notice the intricacy of the situation.

“I… it’s alright, Captain.” You forge ahead, not minding the shocked girls, their faces quickly smoothing over to appear as disinterested as before. Thankfully, the makeup that caked your face hid the creeping blush on your cheeks.

The ship was gray and overall uninteresting. It was your first time on a Republic ship, and the whole ordeal seemed a little too excessive. Why would anyone attack a peaceful meeting between neighboring planets? A simple military convoy was enough, but sending a Jedi seemed a tad too much.

“Princess! Oh, it’s so nice to meet you.” Bounding to your side is an over-eager Togruta. Unable to contain her excitement, she bounces on the balls of her feet. “I’m Ahsoka Tano. I’m Master Skywalker’s padawan. I’ve never met a princess before!” The girl beams up at you. Amazing. Not just one but two Jedi. What was the Council thinking?

“Nice to meet you too, Ahsoka Tano. Yes, I’m a princess, but it’s really nothing special. I’m just a human.” You let out a small, graceful smile. Softened eyes, relaxed posture, eyebrows curved upwards. The facade of a princess. A face to exude warmth and comfort to subjects and allies.

“You’re so cool! What’s it like? Do you have to marry a prince?” Ahsoka sits down on a chair next to you, and you settle yourself into the stiff metal chair as well. In the corner of your eye, the captain stands, watching.

“Sometimes. You see, there aren’t many princes to choose from, so my parents pick someone worthy of ruling. In my country, the royal family is more than just a symbol. We have to be trained in politics, government, and military strategy,” you explain. “So marrying for lineage alone doesn’t cut it. One doesn’t have to be born a prince or princess to marry into the royal family. But royalty is quite tiring. Sometimes, I wish I had a break,” you chuckle. Startled, the handmaidens stare at you. Showing anything but happiness at your duty and family was definitely out of protocol. But who was here to enforce it? Certainly not the scheming congressmen. Besides, the young Jedi seems innocently curious.

“Wow… that sounds complicated. So... military strategy huh? Ever led a battle or maybe fought in one? I know quite a lot about fighting in battles, you know. I could take out battle droids with my eyes closed. And, as commander of the 501st, I’ve led a few missions myself,” she smirks, proud of her achievements. As she should be, you muse. The girl is young and already so confident in war. A sad reality.

“Alright, snips. Quit bragging,” Skywalker says, entering your section of the ship. “We’ll be there in an hour, princess.” He turns to leave for the cockpit, but the girl simply rolls her eyes and sticks out a tongue at her master’s back to which he replies in a similar fashion. The interaction causes a laugh to bubble past your lips. At this point, you feel that you’re handmaidens might be on the verge of fainting from all your breaks in protocol.

“That is very impressive, Miss Tano. War is a very hard thing. I personally have not led any military initiatives. My nation is a peaceful one, and I plan to maintain that peace. An official alliance with the prime minister of Theatis 06 would determine whether or not we can survive an impending Separatist invasion.” The girl nods in thought. She looks around, at your handmaidens, guards, and you. Probably analyzing the foreign clothes, the jewelry, the manner you and your people hold yourself. In a galaxy so vast, many cultures had nuances to everything. As her eyes wander, you eye the captain instead.

He’s standing tall and stiff. All the men had their helmets on, which unnerved you. Their eyes could be anywhere, looking at anyone. They were uniform in their blue and white, but the differences were also striking. While the captain had a pauldron, the others did not. The variances in paint differentiated one man from another. You knew that, as clones, they were supposed to look identical. But you had never seen a clone’s face before.

“Princess, is there something wrong?” You shake your head, not realizing that you had been staring at the captain. Maker, this was so embarrassing. You clear your throat before responding.

“No, captain. I was just… admiring your armor.” The man clearly wasn’t expecting your answer because he almost loses his balance. He coughs, almost shyly.

“Oh. Well, princess, there’s not much to admire. It’s just paint on plastoid.” He rubs the back of his neck with a hand, stance already loosened. The other clones glance at their captain before relaxing themselves.

“Nonsense. If you don’t mind, I’d be grateful to know what your paint signifies.” The handmaiden closest to you gasps. She tries to muffle it, but you catch it in time. Next to you, Ahsoka grins at the captain, unspoken words between them.

“Yeah, Rex. Tell us about your armor,” she teases. He sighs but obeys.

“These,” he points to the top of his helmet, “are jaig eyes. They’re a symbol of honor among Mandalorians. The pauldron is just a sign of rank. And the blue shows that I’m part of the 501st.” Hmm… Mandalorian symbol of honor, huh.

“So you’re a Mandalorian?” He shakes his head.

“Not really, your highness. Our template, Jango Fett, was a Mandalorian, and we know some basic Mando’a. But… we’re not born on Mandalore. Kamino is the closest thing to home.” His voice tapers off, probably due to some deeper feeling with Kamino, but you’re not certain. You’ve heard of the watery planet but never put much substantial thought to it, much like your knowledge about the clone army.

“I see. Thank you, captain, for sharing with me and my entourage. If you don’t mind, I’ll review the terms I’ll discuss with the congress of Theatis 06.” You pull out a datapad, glancing over at the information. By your side, Ahsoka seems to debate staying or leaving. Eventually, she stands up and heads for the cockpit, no doubt wanting to bother her master. The datapad is light in your hands, but the content is heavy. Piles and piles of documents condensed in one small piece of technology. Documents which, if used correctly, would earn you a formal military alliance with Theatis 06. If you lost the datapad, you’re sure that your parents and Congress would personally wring your neck.

The handmaidens relax beside you, finally relieved. This is what good princesses do, you mutter in your head. They focus on their task and don’t break silly rules. Rules set to protect your throne and reputation but silly nonetheless.

The silence and cold of space is not foreign to you, but it’s not common either. You rarely leave your planet, much less your system. Maybe once or twice a cycle, you go off-world for diplomacy or recreation. When you do leave, it’s always the same place. If it’s not Coruscant, it’s Naboo. If not either of those planets, it’s Yidone, Theatis 04, or Theatis 06. On its own, none of those planets were boring. But it gets tiring quickly, especially as a princess. However, that’s probably the spoiled, privileged part of you complaining. Your life of comfort is unimaginable to that of the impoverished people in your nation, the ones being sold into the disgusting sex trade, or those who suffer under an infinite number of tragedies. All of their lives, already horrible, would be even more wrecked under Separatist forces. So you push on with your boredom and complaining. For the sake of your people.

Just as you put your datapad down, a loud crash hammers the right side of the ship. Gasping, you grip the handles of the chair to stabilize, but your handmaidens aren’t so lucky. All three of them are flung from their seats and onto the floor, struggling to stand up. Your guards try to reach you, but they too are knocked off their feet.

“What is going on, captain?” You ask, almost frantically, at the approaching clone. On unsteady feet, he eventually stands in front of you, bracing himself. In this position, you won’t be forced out your chair with the clone acting as a barrier.

“Not sure, your highness. Doesn’t sound too good, though.” Another crash, this time from the top of the ship, further unbalances you. Your body surges forward, but the captain latches onto your forearms, pulling them into his chest. His chest plate digs into your arms, but at least you’re not sprawled on the floor like your companions.

A voice crackles from the captain’s comm. “Rex? Get the princess into an escape pod. A Separatist ship is firing at us. Hurry,” urges Skywalker.

“But, sir, what about you and Ahsoka? Wouldn’t a Jedi protect her better?” A second passes before a response.

“We don’t have time for this, Rex. Look, we’ll meet you down there after we settle this seppie ship. Get your ass to an escape pod, and bring the princess with you,” orders the Jedi.

“Yes, General.” The captain hauls you out your seat, an arm snaking around to grip your waist. In any other situation, you’d be blushing furiously, but only fear resides in your chest. Why was a Separatist ship already here?

The captain leads you down multiple hallways, weaving in out of the ship’s interior. All around you, other clones flit about, readying their positions for battle. In a relatively quiet area, the captain pushes a button open to reveal an escape pod. He quickly positions you inside before taking his own place. He settles in, and the both of you are launched into space without a second to spare.

As you calm your breathing, you begin to feel the tension in your muscles. The pod was obviously made for one person, as indicated by how small you had to curl yourself to allow for the captain to squeeze in. Knees pulled tight to your chest, there is still barely any space. The heavy jewelry adorning your neck only makes you tense up further. Stars, it’s getting hard to breathe. Next to the captain is a black bag, and you wonder how he had the time to grab it. You certainly didn’t remember him bringing it.

But if you two were stuck in the pod with a sole bag… that meant your clothes and, most importantly, your datapad was left behind. You didn’t even have a comm to contact your handmaidens and guards. The pain at the forefront of your head continues to build at the thought. No food, no contact, and no documents.

“Are you alright, princess?” You shake your head, trying to clear up your daze. His helmet is turned towards you, those blue jaig eyes staring.

“I think so. Why… how did the Separatists attack us?” The captain sighs, the breathy noise filtered out of his helmet.

“To be honest, it might be because they got intel about Republic ships coming to escort you. They probably realized that your planet would ally against them, and that didn’t sit well,” he considers. His hands are at the controls, expertly maneuvering them further away from the larger ship. Outside, you can see continuous beams of light aimed at the side of the craft, further jostling it. You hope everyone is okay. Especially your entourage and the excitable Togruta padawan. However, knowing the reputation of Jedi, Ahsoka and Skywalker will definitely survive the attack. You left your people in good hands.

“Captain,” you start, “this was supposed to be a diplomatic voyage. And yet, the Republic sends two Jedi and a legion of highly-skilled clone troopers. Did the Council know that something was going to happen to me? Granted, I am thankful for the extra security, but it seems excessive, does it not? And speak candidly. It’s only us two.” You shift slightly to angle your body to face him, tucking your knees under yourself. He doesn’t respond immediately, opting instead to stare out at the approaching planet of Theatis 06.

“I’m not authorized to say too much, and frankly, I don’t why we were sent either. So many other planets could use our help to directly fight off the seppies. Yet… here we are,” he sighs. “But I promise to keep you safe no matter what. As for your people on the ship, they will be taken good care of. Don't worry, princess.”  The crackle of the comm drives your attention to the console.

“Rex? Are you and the princess alright?” Ahsoka’s voice carries over, clear concern lacing her tone. Somewhere behind her, Skywalker’s commands ring out, ordering the men to keep order.

“We’re okay, commander. How is the situation over there?” The sounds of grunts and chaos pass through the comm before she speaks again.

“We’re--ugh-- fine, Rex. Just. Trying. To--kriff--stabilize this ship. See you on-”

Before the captain could respond, a loud crash sends your small pod hurtling in circles.

The momentum dizzies you, and you blindly reach out for something to grab on. Your hands tightly grip the closest thing, the captain’s arm, while the pod continues to spin. In this moment, his plastoid-covered arm and the floor below were the only solid things that existed. In front of you, the captain curses, trying to stabilize the craft to no avail.

The black color of space mixes with the blue and green of Theatis 06, circles and swirls of light and flashes. A heavy feeling of bile threatens to climb out your throat, but you push it down.

“Brace for impact,” orders the captain, and he moves away from the pod’s controls. Quickly, he encases you in his arms, one hand tucked behind your head, pulling you close to his chest. In a moment of clarity, you wrap your arms around his torso just as his free hand grabs the nearby bag and holds it behind you. He successfully entangles the two of you, making you as compact as possible. You shiver at the excessive contact. It’s been so long since you had prolonged touches with someone, much less a hug for survival. Overhead, a beeping noise indicates an oncoming collision.

You feel it before you realize. As your pod enters the atmosphere, it spirals further out of control at even faster speed. In space, it was merely uncontrollable loops. But as you crash into Theatis 06, the air pressure forces your small spacecraft to act as a bullet. There was no way you were going to survive the crash.

You close your eyes, taking a deep breath. Already, you’re praying to the Maker and to the Force or whatever higher power exists that you and the captain will survive. You just wish you could see your parents and country one last time. You hope that-

The sound of rustled tree tops interrupts your thoughts, jostling the two of you. As you peer up at the captain's helmet, the pod hits the ground, the impact shaking you to your very core. And everything goes black.

*****

It’s beautiful. The ocean waves pull up against the shore before receding back, its foamy crest creating shapes of all sizes. On the horizon, the three moons of your planet begin rising, the deep hues of red and purple illuminating the water. Next to you is someone in a full suit of armor. Mostly white with blue paint marking it. Behind him is a robed person. They take off the hood, revealing themselves. But they don’t have one face. Like a slideshow, the faces of politicians, your handmaidens, yourself , melt together. The person raises their hand, and the barrel of a blaster is pointed right at you and--

You sit up, gasping. The air in your throat is dry: suffocating and scratchy. You try to pry off your necklaces to alleviate the pain to no avail.

It was just a dream. A wonderful dream at the start but… it devolved to something much sinister. You crack your neck, stretching your arms out only to hit something hard. And that something groans . Immediately, you open your eyes to see a passed out Captain Rex laying next to you.

Slowly, pieces of your voyage and subsequent crash come together in your mind, and you realize that you probably landed on one of Theatis 06’s numerous jungles. Grunting, you stand up, joints cracking in protest. The top part of the pod was completely gone, as is a side piece. You hobble over to control panels, trying to see if the comm worked. Sadly, the whole thing seemed destroyed. This was worse than you thought.

You had one crashed escape pod, no way to contact your escort group, and one sleeping clone trooper.

“Princess?”

Well… that makes zero sleeping clone troopers. You turn to the captain to see him rise to his feet. He stretches briefly before joining you next to the control panel.

“Does anything work?” His voice is scratchy, with a hint of warmth despite being filtered. You give a defeated sigh. After button smashing the console in frustration, there is still no sign it was operable.

“Unfortunately, nothing does. I guess we’re stuck here momentarily, captain.” He doesn’t say anything, opting to grab the discarded bag on the ground. He lugs it over himself, wearing it like a backpack and motions for you to follow him.

“We’ll travel to the closest city and find a way to send our coordinates to General Skywalker. For now, we should get some shelter and stay out of danger.” You nod, satisfied. The captain looks around then, seeing a viable path, jerks his head in that direction and walks off. You follow behind him, making sure to not snag your clothes on the flora.

As you journey onward, sweat begins to drip down… everywhere. Your face, neck, back. It gathers underneath your jewelry, seeping into your heavy robes. The cloying heat of the jungle was suffocating, the humidity clinging to every part of you. You can only imagine how much heat the captain had to endure under his armor.

The jungle wasn’t a quiet place. Sounds of birds chirping, distant animal growls, and your own footsteps echoed off the forest floor. In another time, this trip would be considered pleasant. You were, after all, surrounded by beautiful, exotic nature. But the reality of the situation only deepened the further you walked.

Next to you, the captain stayed silent. He dutifully carries the bag, twin blasters at his sides, and head aimed forward the entire time. Occasionally, he steadies you with a free hand when you slip on a rock or trip over a root. Even then, he doesn’t say a word. With each step, your muscles continue to ache. Your leg muscles are especially sore, and the back of your head is tender at the touch, probably due to the crash.

After what feels like hours, the captain finally stops moving. You, however, don’t notice, and collide right into his back, almost sending the two of you flying forward. You apologize under your breath then look to see why the captain had stopped.  

A cave. A small cave with vines covering the entrance. You would have missed it if the captain hadn’t seen it. He steps towards the mouth of the cave, brushing aside the vines. You enter after him, and sit down on the ground. You sigh in the relief at the reprieve from walking. The captain sets the bag down in front of you and opens it.

Peering into the bag, you see a medkit, a canteen, extra ammo, a comm, and… rations. Maker, you didn’t realize how hungry you were until you saw those rations. Only now, the ache and noise of your stomach was noticeable.

The captain also settles down on the ground, legs spread apart, knees bent. He looks so relaxed--too relaxed-- for someone who was stuck with a princess in a foreign forest. He sorts through the supplies methodically, like he’s taking inventory.

You shrug off your heavy clothing, groaning at the air that hits your skin. Off goes your cloak, then head wrap, and lastly your skirt. All you’re left with is a black layer meant for temperature regulation and sight blaster protection. On top of that is a loose cotton slip dress, allowing the miniscule breeze of the jungle to provide you with some cooling. You try to remove your jewelry, but… you don’t know how to. You’ve never done it yourself.

“Captain? Would you mind removing my necklaces for me?” The helmet jerks up, interrupted from his organizing.

“Of course, princess.” He stands up and positions himself behind you. He shrugs off his gloves, bare, tanned hands reaching to the clasps. Grunts of concentration filter out of his helmet, probably in confusion at the locking mechanisms. It was, to his credit, a pretty complicated piece of jewelry. After a minute or two of struggle, the necklaces come loose. He sets it aside, on top of your discarded clothes.

“I’ll start a fire, stay here.” He starts to get up, but you grasp his wrist.

“This is a rainforest, captain. All the wood is wet and won’t burn. Try looking for the eyti leaves instead.” You describe the plant to him in detail, watching him nod in confirmation.

“I’ll be back, your highness. Here,” he reaches to his side and pulls out a blaster, “for emergencies.” He sets off, disappearing past the vines.

The air is thick around you, the urge to sleep becoming more tempting. You don’t even realize your eyes were closing, and jostle awake when you hear the snap of a twig. Snap .

Crack .

You rise slowly, clinging to the side of the cave. You brush aside a few vines, gripping the blaster until your knuckles turn white. You hold your breath and look out.

Green eyes. Massive green eyes stare right at you. Stars, that was a massive feline. You wrack your head for information regarding Theatis 06 jungle cats. You’re sure you learned about them somewhere in foriegn history class. But the growl leaving the cat’s bared mouth shakes you out of your thoughts. Stay calm. You’ll stay calm, move slowly, and breathe at a steady pa-

The cat lunges at you, and you raise your armed hand on instinct, frantically trying to pull the trigger. A shot rings around the area, and the cat slumps down, falling hard. The heavy thunk of its body ruffles the forest floor. You release the breath you were holding. Wait.

The blaster mark wasn’t on its front. It was on the cat’s back . From your periphery, Captain Rex steps out from between the trees. He marches over to you, setting down the eyti leaves before grasping your shoulders.

“Are you alright, princess?” You nod mutely. He leans down and picks up the blaster from the ground. You didn’t even know you’d dropped it. If he hadn’t been there… you don’t even want to think about what could’ve happened.

“I’ll start the fire.” The captain’s hands leave you, the absence of his warmth making you frown for a brief second. He piles the leaves into a mound in the middle of the cave floor. “I’ll get some rocks,” he starts, but you hold up a hand.

“I’ll do it. I’ll stay close, don’t worry.” Before he could protest, you’re already out of the cave. The search for rocks isn’t difficult, but halfway through it registers that you left the blaster. Well… you hope those jungle cats don’t travel in packs. Your small expedition was pleasant. The course you set wasn’t too far from your cave, and you get to admire the jungle without your restrictive clothes and jewelry.  

After a few minutes in the heavy heat, you gather enough rocks for a small pit to contain the eyti leaves. You use your shirt to hold the rocks, stretching the fabric to a concave and containing them. You return to find the captain at the mouth of the cave, stiff and wary, a hand ready on his blaster. He only seems to relax once he sees you.

Together, you set up the fire pit, but don’t light it yet. The captain leaves the cave with a knife, mentioning how he had to skin the dinner. You hobble over to the comm to see if you could connect to any signal. Nothing. You were too far to contact anyone. You slump in your position and stare at the cave wall. How did things get so bad?

After a while, the captain returns with the skinned meat of the jungle cat. Together, you start the fire and prepare some sticks to use for skewering the meat. Outside, the insects buzz and the frogs croak, the darkness sweeping over to indicate night. The transition between light and dark begins.

The two of you cook the meat in silence, leaving you to ponder. With each piece of meat that’s done, you plop it into your mouth with no hesitation. It tastes… like the green hens from back home. Pretty unseasoned and a little lean, but not horrible. The captain doesn’t eat his pieces immediately, setting them aside when he’s done.

Soon enough, you’ve eaten through your share, satisfied and full. A large dinner without using the precious rations is a success in your book. The captain, however, has yet to eat his food. Once all his pieces are cooked, he brings his hands to his helmet and tugs it off and… you’re speechless.

Light blond hair atop a well-structured face. Eyebrows that arch beautifully, a sharp nose, and a prominent jawline, the hard lines of stress and war prominent on his forehead. The thin line of his lips are downturned. And his eyes . The hooded, gold-brown eyes that reflect the flickering firelight. This man might have been the most handsome you’ve ever seen. And there’s a whole army of people who look just like him.

“Princess? Something wrong?” You jolt at his question. Kriff, this was the second time you had stared at him today. Heat warms your cheeks. You cough into a closed fist.

“Nothing’s wrong, captain. And you can call me by my name. I think we’re past formalities.” He lets out a small smile but shakes his head.

“Don’t think I can do that, your highness. Have to follow orders and call you formally.” You pout but don’t respond, instead taking the time to further admire him. His voice is even more captivating without the helmet. Maker, it was so smooth and melodic yet stable and- kriff when were you so attracted to a voice ? He starts eating, but those ochre eyes flit to yours, and you turn away.

To distract yourself, you pick up the canteen of water, and take a few sips. As you search through the contents of the bag, you find a compact mirror. You open and see… something horrible.

Your makeup has been smudged to all hell. The gold of your lipstick is smeared down to your chin, and the white paint on your face is half gone. The intricate golden markings that decorate you are no more than muddied lines, and there are visible sweat trails that erased the color on your forehead. You were such a mess. While you look like a melted dolly, the captain sits there looking all majestic. This was so unfair .

“Is everything ok, princess?” You close your gaping mouth and turn to the captain.

“You never told me that I looked like this ,” you frown, pointing at your face. “I look horrible!” The captain chuckles, the breathy sound sending shivers to your chest.

“With all due respect, I didn’t think it was my place to point it out. And you don’t look bad, either. We just crash landed in the jungle. Of course your makeup would be ruined.” His eyebrows arch, confused at your frustration. You huff.

“It’s just so unfair. You get to look like… that , and I’m here looking like a blurrg stepped in paint and walked over my face!” You bring a hand to your forehead in exasperation. Sure, you were being dramatic, but a princess should never have to be in such a sorry state. The captain has the nerve to look even more bewildered.

“I’m not sure I understand, princess. I look normal, like all my brothers.” A grumble about how he’ll never understand your predicament escapes your lips. The captain reaches for one of your discarded clothes and sets the lip of the canteen on top, dampening the fabric. “Here,” he gestures, “so you can wash up.”  You grasp at the cloth, gently swiping at your face. Paint stains the rich, expensive robe, but you don’t really care.

“Thank you,” you croak, face feeling fresher and cleaned. The captain nods at you, arranging your clothes to form a pile.

“Sleep. I’ll keep watch,” he advises.

“Shouldn’t we take turns? It’s no use if you’re tired tomorrow.” He considers your words then sighs.

“Alright. I’ll wake you when it’s your turn,” he decides. You lay your head atop your clothes, settling down on the hard ground. Pebbles dig at your back, and your neck aches at the lack of support, but it’s not as horrible as you would’ve imagined.

“Good night, Captain Rex,” you whisper, eyes already closing. The exhaustion from your long hike takes over your body. It seems that your adrenaline from the day is long gone.

“Good night, princess.”

[whitleyschn33]

RWBY Volume 8 Episode One: Quick Thoughts

Or not so quick, seeing how long it took me to write this and how much I ended up having to say. Spoilers (duh) under the cut, as this thing got insanely long.

So we open with a maid scrubbing a floor, a shot that lasted long enough I was starting to wonder where it was going before we cut to Cinder. So, Cinder backstory - interesting way to open the volume, but I’m not sure if it’s a good way. At the very least, I would have cut it a couple seconds, or have it flash between Cinder’s face and the flashback. Same information, but given in a quicker manner that lets us know exactly what we’re seeing instead of wonder who this random maid is for 10 seconds.

Whale aircraft carrier. The design is interesting, if looking a bit too clean for my taste. I would’ve liked to see the bones and muscles of the Grimm incorporated into the design a bit more, the surfaces less smooth and more textured, but it looks good.

Facial acting on Neo is good - I appreciate being able to see what’s running through her head, even if it also makes me wonder why Salem isn’t picking up on the obvious tells.

Emerald and Mercury are back and with new outfits; I can hear the diehard EmMerc fans screaming from here. Would’ve liked a better look at the whole outfits (I don’t think there’s even one close up of their entire bodies), but I like Mercury’s! Emerald’s model feels off to me for some reason, like it’s wider or more padded (?) than before, but it’s not a big deal and is probably just a result of her wearing a jacket now.

Oh, yeah, Hazel got one too, don’t care.

Why does the whale have a screen? A connection to one of those seer orb Grimm?

Cinder is still not interesting to me, but I am curious - can one woman hold multiple maiden powers? What happens if one woman holds them all? If they can hold multiple powers, what happens when they die? Do they both/all go to the same person, or would they split?

I like the Faunus that gives Oscar the soup. His design is pretty cute to me (I think he’s a mole Faunus?), and I feel like he’s based on something, but I’m not sure what. Getting a Narnia vibe for some reason, which I’m always on board for.

How did Ruby know where Oscar ended up? Did he call? 

Weiss’s braid looks much better! I’m still not a huge fan of it, but this model is an enormous improvement - it actually looks like hair instead of rope, it’s slicker, and doesn’t look as heavy. Nice job, animators. Blake’s looks better, too, more fluffy, but it’s not as drastic a change to me.

Nice to see the Happy Huntresses actually doing something to help Mantle, and having Joanna(? that’s her name, right?) take charge and be helping Ruby get Oscar back in exchange for their aid is nice. It feels realistic for a situation like this.

And more secret keeping, but in this case, dropping the Oz bombshell would actually probably be a bad idea. There’s enough going on, bringing up Oz being back can wait until tensions aren’t as high.

Why would Ironwood stop evacuation? That makes no sense for his character, and there’s no reason to stop them. Until he gets Penny back, Atlas isn’t going anywhere. Might as well keep evacuating until you can find here, get as many people to safety as possible before getting away. I’d assume the Doylist answer for this is that Mantle still needs to be a factor in any decisions made after this and it can’t be that if we can get everyone evacuated, but that doesn’t make the Watsonian explanation make more sense.

Actually a good plan, getting everyone into the crater if it is in fact warm (why, I wonder? Thermal vents? Heat coming off of Atlas?) solves the cold problem (that people should’ve probably already died from) and having to defend one smaller location is strategically a good option. Corralling people would also make any eventual evac to Atlas easier. There is the small problem of, you know, Atlas literally crushing anyone in the crater if the staff is used on anything else, and Salem is known to be after that Staff, sooooooo -

Okay, maybe a nitpick, but I thought Pierto’s specialty was prosthetics and robotics. Doesn’t seem like something that necessarily overlaps with what’s needed to convert Amity into a satellite. I guess maybe the engine/whatever is going to propel it into the air could be similar to Penny’s boosters/whatever lets her fly, but it doesn’t seem like something that he would be involved in raising Amity. Whatever - I know we need a scientist person to tell these things to RWBY+Co and Pierto is the most likely candidate to be in a position to do that.

It seems like, from Ruby’s dialogue, she both wants to warn the other kingdoms and ask for their help. This has been trampled to death, so I won’t rant, but - there is no one that’s going to be able to help. Argus is hours away, will take time to assemble, and isn’t a very large force to begin with. Mistral is still weakened from V5 and has next to no huntsman, and is even farther than Argus. No idea what’s going on with Vale, but they’re probably still nursing their wounds from the Fall. Vacuo is the only kingdom likely to be able to muster up a force, but they’re on the other side of the map and will take hours, if not days, to get together an army - and that’s if they decide they want to help at all. The other objective was warning the Kingdoms about Salem. Ignoring that Salem is immortal and can just throw as many Grimm as she pleases until the defenses fall, ignoring that the other Kingdoms might not even believe Ruby, what’s to say they won’t go “F*ck Atlas, they’re on their own” and recall every available Huntsman and Huntress to shore up their own defenses? Or what if the other kingdoms just fall into anarchy? Learning an immortal witch with an endless supply of Grimm will come knocking on your doorstep soon tends to cause chaos. Or is Ruby going to leave the whole immortal part out again? I just can’t see what this will accomplish.

Holy shit, it’s actually happening. Dissent from WBY, and it’s coming from Yang of all people - I love it. I wish Yang had gotten to finish her sentence, say something along the lines of “Maybe if we’d told the truth immediately things wouldn’t have gone this way” since that would fit with her “hate secrets” thing she had going on in V5/6, but the fact that Yang is actually questioning Ruby’s leadership and choices - yes yes yes, more of that please, less of the hive mind. I wish it’d come a little earlier, but at this point I’ll take what I can get.

I’m slightly confused at the sides that Ren and Nora are taking here. I like that we’re splitting them up here (we never get to see them separated, and after last volume, I am more than on board with letting Ren get some breathing room), but Ren going with Yang, Jaune, and Oscar to help evacuate Mantle while Nora goes on the “bigger picture” team to get Amity up and running seems weird considering where they were last volume. Nora was always screaming about how the big picture stuff was hurting Mantle, while Ren was pushing to keep training, keep working, support Ironwood and try and work at the big picture problem, so it would seem like they should be on opposite sides. I’m not saying it makes no sense - I can absolutely see Ren feeling protective of towns under attack from Grimm with no Huntsmen in their corner - but it feels like a bit of a 180 from their last positions. 

Did Oscar just call Jaune “John”?

Yeah, if nothing else, don’t let Penny get anywhere near Salem or her cronies. Salem can absolutely not be allowed to get her hands on the Staff, especially with the whole “get everyone to the crater” plan. Squish.

Yang and Blake splitting up, maybe we can actually get some conversations on what the hell is up with them that we should have gotten in V6/V7 instead of petty showing off and Nora projecting.

“But what about Mantle?” “Oh, I’m helping Mantle.” with the same thing you spent all last volume complaining about. Uh-huh, that’s not annoying.

Weiss has an idea on how to get up to Atlas - Winter’s ship, maybe? That one she came in on in V3 was her personal ship, wasn’t it?

Ironwood calls Penny. From the music, it sounds like they were aiming for foreboding and manipulative, but Ironwood just sounds tired, the poor man. Love how Ruby doesn’t even try for a comeback for Ironwood’s argument, really convincing.

Dead Clover, and I hope that he stays that way, because if he’s brought back to life, so much of V6′s themes of life and death and the natural cycle is just going to be spit on (again). Clover is dead, and there should be no way around that save interference from a literal god. Any attempt at bringing him back needs some kind of drawback - some prevision of life, a body that moves but his soul isn’t there, something, please RT, don’t double back on your “Death is permanent” thing again.

And Ironwood did lose his arm completely. It’s an awesome looking prosthetic, but the fact that it’s black when the rest of his prosthetics are silver, combined with the comments made by the CRWBY about Ironwood’s humanity, make me very afraid they’re going to go for some sort of bullshit parallel to Cinder’s black Grimm arm. I do like the orchestral version of Hero playing here, though.

I like Winter’s new hair style - similar enough to her previous one, but looser. Not exactly happy about what that might symbolize, but it looks really good. It looks like she might have nerve damage, though, which would mean she might be off the battlefield until she can get her hands (hah) on some sort of brace to help her move her hands (which might be hinted at in the OP~)

I do really like Ironwood and Winter’s relationship, please don’t f*ck it up, CRWBY.

Is the only thing CRWBY knows how to do to make Ironwood seem like the bad guy shoot people for no goddamn reason? Ironwood was surrounded by loyal soldiers after declaring martial law, there was no reason for him to not just order Slate detained (that one was Slate, right? Not that it matters). The man’s annoying and probably in cahoots with Jacques, but shooting him is out of character, excessive, and makes no sense when he could just be arrested. “It shows he’s slipping -” No. It’s lazy writing meant for shock value and to give characters a reason to go “Oh, he’s going evil now, I better question my loyalty to him” (based on the look Winter and Harriet share) rather than any actual flaw in his plans maybe because CRBY realized that Ironwood’s plans are rational and the best one on the table right now, so they can’t use that to turn people against him. F*ck that.

Salem sends a bloodhound or whatever after Oscar, we already saw this bit in the trailers. No comment.

TLDR: Once again, RWBY sets up a lot of stuff that I find interesting and want to see more of. However, their treatment of Ironwood doesn’t make me optimistic for them to treat him right, and RWBY has a track record of setting up good concepts/plots/characters/arcs and then failing to execute them well or at all. We’ll have to see if V8 actually lives up to the promise or falls flat due to the issues that plagued V6 and V7 .

Going to make a whole new list for the OP because dear Lord, this thing is dense.

This song is definitely more in line with RWBY’s usual sound than Trust Love, and I’m all for that. The beat is a little hinky to me - it’s going to take a few re-listens to get used to it - and once again I wish the lyrics were clearer, but I know people that weren’t as happy with V7′s sound will be happy with this return to form.

Establishing shots of Mantle going to hell, nice use of red and contrast, but I wish there was a bit more use of shadow to really sell the red coming from fires and emergency lights.

Ruby standing alone, turning to find the others standing at the ready to fight, but away from her and with their backs turned. Any chance of more dissent? Will we actually get some growth from Ruby, in regards to her leadership in particular? We can only hope.

The four girls, on a blackish/blue background with floating warm lights, with images of their V1 selves in their clothes/hair/weapons. I really love the animation in the portion, the girls look so good. It also makes me wish we’d get some sort of flashback to V1-3, because I want more of their Beacon designs in the new animation style. The fact that this background/setting shows up again later in the trailer makes me wonder if it might be what the interior of the Atlas vault looks like. No basis for that, just a random thought. Couple minor nitpicks, focused on Yang. The fact that she’s the only one not in a more dynamic pose (and this is Yang of all people) seems odd, and the way her hair flows looks weird to me based on the angles and whatnot. Putting her in a different pose like a charge would fix this, letting her hair flow more naturally and giving them the space they need to to add in her past self. Otherwise, gorgeous. 

Ironwood with Atlas inside him, slowly being overtaken by the red as he looks up. No real comment other than beautiful.

Clover dropping his pin, with the AceOps and Qrow in the leaves, before transitioning to Qrow taking Robyn’s hand in prison. It looks like Harriet will be taking over as team leader. I don’t have a lot to say here - Marrow’s the only AceOp I’m interested in, and Qrow and Clover’s relationship has never been compelling for me. Robyn, similarly, is not a character I like, so a Qrow/Robyn team-up jailbreak isn’t something that I’m interested in unless Watts is involved. Already teamed up with one villain, Qrow, why stop there?

Oscar in pain holding his head, while Grimm eyes surround him and then Salem with wyvern wings comes out and looms over him preparing to grab him. I like the visual of Salem as the Wyvern at Beacon, but her face looks almost doofy in this shot. I think it’s the lack of expression mixed with the eyes. If she had a more menacing expression, I think this would work a lot better.

The falling weapons of the girls, Crescent Rose with Myrtenaster and Gambol Shroud with Ember Celica. Cue the shippers.

Jaune with his sword in front of his face, pulling it down to be at the ready, with Nora and Ren in the far background, their backs turned on each other but looking sad at their positions. I know Jaune’s thing is probably generic, but it gives me Mulan vibes, which is funny considering. Hey, hint that Martial Arcs will become canon now that Renora is on the rocks? fingers crossed More of Ren and Nora’s rough patch, and I really hope that that gets some focus. Their kiss last volume left a bad taste in my mouth with how it went down, and getting into these two as separate characters and their relationship. Ren not requiting Nora’s romantic feelings towards him would be a really interesting place to go with these characters that everyone’s pegged together since episode 4 (in no small part due to their lack of interaction with anyone else, but I’ll get to that). 

Winter and Weiss walking towards each other on the Schnee symbol, passing each other by with Winter getting her new hairstyle and a brace of some sort. She’s actually wearing this brace in the hospital, but on the other arm, while now it’s on the arm she couldn’t bend her fingers with. Interesting, and it looks all looks really good!

The Schnee snowflake falls between Whitley and Willow, before shattering onto a chessboard. YESSSS, Whitley’s in the intro again! That’s more than I could’ve hoped, and I really really hope that him looking contemplatively like that means something - that’s he’s figuring things out, coming up with a plan, something! Still no new design though T-T CRWBY, what do I have to do to get my boy some new clothes?

From the chessboard, Salem rises up, turning the other black pieces into Grimm to attack the white where Ironwood stands. His pieces turn to dust, the board blowing away entirely. Nice callback to V1. Ironwood stands alone - no allies, and no space to move forward. He’s a king with nowhere to move - check or checkmate. 

Smug Watts hacking while leaning against a mirror, rotates to show Pierto doing the same, his reflection looking over its shoulder at him, then a pan to Penny to show the same thing before the mirror breaks. I’m not sure what this might symbolize. Inability to trust yourself, maybe?

A snowflake flies through the air and lands in Ren’s palm. It turns into a flower petal, (or scraps his hand, I can’t quite tell) then Yang, Jaune, and Oscar join him, Ren smiling to Jaune. Another flower petal flies by to transition to Nora, who reaches out but can’t catch it, looking dismayed until RWBP comes in to join her. I assume the symbolism is straight-forward - the snowflake turns to a petal when caught by Ren (lotus guy), then flies to Nora who can’t catch it. Really living for the Ren focus in the op~

Pans to a shot of the whole group in the middle of everything - Atlas and Mantle overrun with Grimm on one side, Salem’s whale and Grimm army on the other, and Amity in the middle, which Penny flies up to hover below. Penny is going to be vital to launching Amity, and probably for reasons other than the terminal.

Then Ruby and Yang looking at each other with a smile and nod before the girls jump into fighting some Grimm. Interesting bit when the volume opens with the sisters starting to have disagreements.

The entire thing freezes, Cinder strolling cockily past the crew to walk in front of a bored/disgruntled Neo and Emerald who starts to wave but looks dejected when Cinder ignores her. Not much to say here - I don’t really like the freeze frame for some reason, no idea why. This also doesn’t give us any new info on the dynamics between these three characters.

Cinder grabs her Grimm arm in pain as fire flares up behind her, transitioning into Merc, Tyrian, Hazel, and Salem with the lamp in her eyes, transitioning to the lamp and staff twirling around each other, both emitting smoke like they’re being used as they come together. I wonder if this means that the last question and the Staff are going to be used, and maybe together? Once again, though - Atlas falling, people in the crater die.

Smoke clears up to reveal Ruby, looking up to Atlas first in invasion mode, then peaceful. Turn to a shot of the group standing looking to the left, Yang and Ruby looking like they’re posed but the others just kind of standing there. It’s a weird shot, and I’m not sure what to make of it, honestly.

The ice breaks beneath Ruby’s feet, sending RWBY falling into a void, their bodies trailing those lights that we saw before. Ruby opens her eyes to see the brightest light, the Staff. She reaches out to it, but Grimm paws and hands drag her down. V6 callback?

The word Happy? flashes only to be crossed out, a sketchy Grimm roaring, then the words Ever then Never as it’s crossed out, with a sketchy Penny lifting her head and her eyes then face going red, then the words After Again being crossed out. I’m not really of the words - I think it’s going for a Happily Ever After Happy? Never Again thing, but there’s no Happily that I can see, and it just kind of comes across as a bit emo to me. I like the sketches of the Grimm and Penny - I think it might be a Wyvern Grimm or something like that, and the red spreading from Penny’s eyes to her entire outline is interesting. I wonder if it’s connected to the Maiden powers and how she’ll use them.

Sketches of RWBY’s weapon fall into the snow, Crescent Rose falling with the tip stuck in the snow, then a flash and a pull out to Crescent Rose in the snow in full animation, framed by the broken moon as rose petals fly by with the “Created by Monty Oum” credit appears. I really like this as a reference to the Red trailer, and compared to the very cluttered ending shot of V7, this is a nice change of pace.

I like this OP. It’s definitely above V7′s for me, with a good song and some beautiful animation in it’s visuals. If I had to criticize it, I would say that it feels very long and cluttered. My breakdown of the opening feels as long as everything I mentioned in the actual episode. I realize one was going almost shot by shot, while the other summarized, but the point still stands that this things feels longer than it needs to be (I’d have to check time stamps to see if it is actually significantly longer).

A more promising start, all in all, than I’d hoped for. Things irritate me for sure, Ironwood’s treatment, Ruby’s plan, all that stuff, but I know I would have those bones to pick going in. The shake-up of the usual teams and the promise of inter-group conflict is enough to get me to want more, and I look forward to seeing how my favorite characters will be utilized. 

What are your thoughts on the episode? Reblog and comment down below, and we’ll start a convo.

Until next time~

[itsclydebitches]

Giving it some thought, the entire subplot of trust and truth started in Volume 4, when Qrow first tells RNJR about Salem and the Maidens. Paraphrasing, Ruby says that she believes Qrow because she trusts him, but then asks "Why couldn't you trust me? Why couldn't you just travel with us instead of all this... secrecy, and-". I don't know what to make of it, because even back then it felt a little... I don't know, heavy-handed? And then it's made a central theme of V7 and it's even more ???

The problem with Team RWBY/RNJR - or rather, the problem with how they’re written - is that they conflate strategy and caution with a lack of trust. Meaning, the people around them have very good reasons for not divulging certain information at certain times and/or not doing certain things at certain times because that’s dangerous. It’s not a matter of trusting someone in the way Ruby means (willing to follow someone, willing to believe that they’re striving for the right thing) but a sheer matter of practicality. Qrow says it straight out: “this has nothing to do with trust.” 

Why didn’t he travel with them? Because he has a bad luck semblance that does all sorts of awful things to the people around him, like drawing more grimm, causing beams to fall, or tires to blow on your one mode of transportation. Qrow didn’t travel with them because that was the smart, practical move in a hostile world, not because he doesn’t trust his niece. Now, we can change the question to, “Why didn’t you trust us with the knowledge of your semblance?” and that gets into the complicated can of worms, “Because this has been a traumatic thing that I’m still working through and I’m terrified that people will leave me when they find out about it.” A fear that more of this group should understand by now. Why didn’t Jaune immediately tell his team that he snuck his way into Beacon? Why did Blake hide that she was a faunus? Do we even see Ruby tell her teammates about her super secret eyes or does the narrative just assume that everyone found out at some point (I honestly don’t remember...)? Everyone has secrets and parts of themselves that are incredibly difficult to talk about. The inability to admit to them unless pressured - which is precisely what Nora does to Qrow here - is not an indication of a lack of trust. It’s an indication of the group’s lack of emotional maturity that they thought then, and still think now, that everyone around them owes them every single piece of themselves. It’s an immaturity seen most overtly in Yang who believes that Ozpin isn’t trustworthy unless he divulges every piece of information that might possibly be deemed a secret, while simultaneously keeping secrets about her Mom being the Spring Maiden, Salem’s immortality, and Robyn’s knowledge of Amity. It’s a child’s logic to honestly believe, “Well this applies to you but not me because I’m just different.” A perspective that I thought the group was being set up to grow out of. 

Because this theme of trust vs. practicality continues in the conversation when Jaune wants to know why the whole world hasn’t been told about Salem. Qrow, via Ozpin’s teachings, has very smart and proven reasons for keeping things quiet: 

“Hey,” asks the teenager who has had one year of combat training and has only been in one non-grimm battle, a good portion of which he spent arguing with his teammate and trapped in a locker. “Why haven’t we told the whole world about the woman out to kill them and the magical relics she wants?” 

“Well,” responds the elite huntsmen who has been fighting in this war at least as long as they’ve been alive, “Because history has shown us that people panic when they learn stuff like that. Murder young women for their power panic (women like Pyrrha!). Try to steal the magical relics for themselves panic. Turn on each other panic. Start a new war between kingdoms and descend the world into chaos panic. And, as they’re about to find out via Lionheart, Join the witch instead of fighting her panic. We see in that final shot of Jaune that he doesn’t like hearing this, but he seems to understand it. Grudgingly. Problem is, this understanding doesn’t last. 

With all the info out in the open Ruby asks what they’re supposed to do and Qrow responds with, 

The looks everyone exchange are terrified. 

For the record, this isn’t bad writing. They’re barely trained kids. They should be looking to their authority figures and then be blindsided with the adults don’t have one easy, magical solution to grant them. That’s a part of growing up. What Qrow offers them instead is the adult solution: we do what we can. We’ll continue on to Haven where Lionheart should have been making preparations. We’ll see what he knows and work from there. Sorry I don’t have a ‘Defeat Salem and Make Everything Perfect’ plan hidden up my sleeve, but this is what fighting a war is really like. 

What does all this have to do with trust? The fact that the group learns nothing from this conversation. When more information about Salem is revealed - her immortality - Ruby asks the same question of Ozpin that she did Qrow: So... how are you, as an individual, going to fix everything for us? When he, like Qrow, has nothing simple to offer them they turn violent (and the fact that Qrow expressed the most overt violence just goes to show how little RT bothered to think through how each person would respond to this information). The group continues to conflate information with trust. Information in terms of “Share all your secrets” and information in terms of “We expect an easy solution to our problems.” When people fail to provide them with that - such as Ironwood having a plan but it’s not a plan they like because it hurts Mantle - they’re deemed “untrustworthy.” 

Now again, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing... if the group were on a track to grow out of this behavior. It’s not a bad thing to have Ruby be pissed that (to her mind) Qrow didn’t trust her, to think that Ozpin is untrustworthy because he didn’t share everything with them... and then slam her into a situation where she has the information and she realizes, “Oh shit. I’m too scared to tell Ironwood this right out. I want to keep this information hidden until I’m sure it’s safe to share and I feel it’s the right time. Even then it’s really hard to share it... Uncle Qrow and Ozpin were right.” Instead, the writing did the exact opposite. Ruby’s perspective and  her behavior is reinforced - she’s supposedly right to equate trust with sharing ever piece of information, the ability to provide perfection, and people’s willingness to follow her orders to the letter despite her having no power next to elders, more powerful fighters, and military rank - but the story ignores the hypocrisy of her doing the same things she damns everyone else for. She doesn’t share information. She doesn’t follow orders. She has no plan and is set to get everyone killed. The show set up a moment for the group to actually start growing up and mature emotionally in the face of an ethically complicated war... and instead had Qrow randomly insist that Ruby is simply different and special. She is, intrinsically, simply Better than everyone else and you’re not supposed to ask why. By extension, so is her team. Everyone from Nora to Oscar to Jaune insists loudly that telling the council, or Mantle, or the whole world about Salem is the One Good Answer here despite the fact that the narrative - via Qrow above and in numerous key scenes since Volume 3 - has given us numerous reasons why that’s a terrible idea and zero reasons why it’s a good one. But the story is no longer interested in weighing these perspectives and having the characters learn to make informed decisions. Even when lives are on the line. 

It comes down to an incredibly biased perspective by the writers. By working under the ironclad assumption that your young protagonists are always right and your older supporting characters are inevitably wrong, you get situations wherein we’re shown a situation where Team RWBY is wrong and the adults do have a point... and then we swerve at the last second to insist otherwise. Qrow is shown as having good reasons for keeping his distance, but Ruby says he didn’t trust her. Cordovin has good reasons for not letting kids across a closed border, but Ruby says she forced them to steal. All evidence points to the Ace Ops kicking Team RWBY’s ass, but Ruby says they’re stronger. That’s what drives the show nowadays: whatever Ruby claims is the truth. If the show actually followed what it had laid out on screen, rather than what Ruby insists to be true, then this show would now be a tragedy. Here’s the story of what happens when you give traumatized teens the power to try and save the world. Being forced into this war so early and receiving the gut-punch that the adults around them are imperfect immediately after a near kidnapping is something they couldn’t handle. The nuance of a 1,000 year strategy-based war is something they couldn’t handle. When you take a girl who wants to fight monsters like in the storybooks and put her in charge years before she’s ready... she’s going to insist that life will turn out like a storybook. So she’ll bravely fight an immortal witch with an army under the assumption that everything will somehow turn out alright. Except it doesn’t and everyone dies. The End. 

RWBY should have been a story of growth. At this point it logically should be a story of tragedy. What we’ll actually get though is that happy ending based on Team RWBY’s version of “trust” and “friendship” that is inherently contradictory to everything seen on screen... but we’re expected to just run with it because they’re the title characters.

[littlemisssquiggles]

Hey so this is my opinion but love to hear your take but I feel Watts might be Salem's more dangerous follower (for where the heroes are now) given he is been able to fly under the rader of the heroes unditected, able to make artifical tail of Tyrieon giving his deadly venom back and is able to hack into all of ATLAS Tech. He might not have any proper fighting skill but when he can have access to anything in a city in love with it's tech, he's the ideal sabatour.

Hello again Crystal. Complements of the season to you, fam! To answer your question, you are indeed correct in that regard. While Tyrian and Hazel are both worthy threats based on their strength, Watts being the mastermind in Salem’s army is why I find him the most interestingof her accomplices.

You’re right. While Watts doesn’t have the muscle power to hold his own in a fight, he does have the wits and the charisma to worm himself out of any tricky scenario. I have a great deal of admiration for that type of villain. I mean having power is great and all but a villain who is still able to succeed through clever tactics and the strength of their own mind by manipulating others into doing their bidding makes for a more compelling adversary in my book.

A part of me is looking forward to learning more about Watts’ backstory. Particularly his background with Ironwood and Pietro. After CH7 dropped and we got the reveal that Watts used to be one of Pietro’s colleagues, I made a tweet over on Twitter asking the following questions:

Since Pietro’s introduction, we’ve seen him walking around in his mobile wheelchair. A part of me has been curious about Pietro’s inability to walk. 

Has he always been physically disabled and worked past his impairment with his mind or…was it a result of a horrible accident meant to destroy him?

The impression I got from Pietro’s story was since his Penny project was chosen by Ironwood above the others, a jealous-minded Arthur Watts became infuriated by this and sought out to sabotage Pietro’s project while taking his revenge out on Ironwood and all of Atlas in the process.

A part of me wondered if Watts’ alleged “death” was caused by him attempting to ruin Pietro in a move that claimed the lives of Pietro’s other colleagues as well as costed him his legs or…were Pietro’s former colleagues actually accomplices of Watts who he manipulated into helping him thwart Pietro’s project which resulted in everyone else dying except Watts?

I’m very curious about that. Watts has been shown to have a way with words. So I’m wondering if part of the reason why Salem sought after him was, not just for his mind, but also his ability to charm others into doing whatever he wants like her.

I really, really hope we get  like some kind of flashback episode or explanation revealing Penny’s ‘birth’, Watts’ descent and supposed death and more importantly, how Watts met Salem. I’m wondering if it was actually Tyrian who scouted Watts on Salem’s behalf. I remember reading through the enhanced report on Tyrian with details on his backstory and how he met Salem. I find it incredibly fascinating how Salem and chooses her allies.

It shows just how much Salem has eyes everywhere. Like how did she know about Tyrian? How did she know about Watts to pick him of all people? Seriously I hope we get some background information on Watts’ story. I think I need that to be its own little episode by itself that jumps between the present and the past (in a similar fashion to the Kunoyuri episode from V4). But that’s just what I’m hoping for.

For now, yeah, Watts is Salem’s most intimidating accomplice and pairing him together with Tyrian to work together in Atlas was an even deadlier combination.

Colour me intrigued for what’s next to come in V7CH9. Are we going to receive a continuation of the events of CH8? Or will be similar to the start of CH7 where all we see is the aftermath?

Weiss once commented back in V7CH3 that without aura or proper heating, the cold of Solitas can kill the average individual in a matter of minutes. So is that what’s going to happen for the remaining five episodes?

Is it going to be a race against the clock to restore heat to Mantle before it’s too late while evacuating as much citizens up to Atlas as possible or…is Ironwood just going to return from his meeting with the Council at the Schnee Dinner to reports of multiple Mantlese citizens found frozen to death in the streets of Mantle—children as well as adults—as a result of the heatinggrid (or whatever it’s called) shutting down on Ironwood’s watch.

What’s stopping Jacques from pinning the blame for that incident on Ironwood yet again?

 I bet Jacques is just waiting right now to blame James allocating resources to the Amity Tower project that could’ve been used to better Mantle and prevent this unexpected issue.

Overall, CH9 will be a very interesting episode to watch. Moreover, I’m curious to know what else does Watts have planned to further ruin Ironwood’s integrity with the People of Mantle and Atlas in preparation for Salem’s inevitable arrival.

I still feel as if Watts’ plan is strip Ironwood of all his power so that Jacques can take his place; controlling both the kingdom and its military since I think Jacques will personally see to it that James loses all of his power including his authority within the military with Winter possibility being appointed as his temporary replacement or perhaps it’ll be Clover.

This also makes me wonder if this will be the part where Clover ends up ‘betraying’ Ironwood. 

While I like Clover as a character, the impression that I’ve mostly heard with him from the FNDM is that he could potentially be a traitor working with Watts.

While I’m not sure about the traitor part, I do stand by the concept of Clover switching sides and not really catering for loyalty anymore once James is taken out of power. After all, Clover (and by extension all of the Ace Ops) is nothing more than an attack dog trained to serve whoever is in charge without any real personal attachments, correct?

Despite voicing that he trusts Ironwood with his life, I can’t help but shake the icky feeling in my gut that Clover only trusts Ironwood due to his authority and status within the Atlas community. So the instant that’s stripped away from James, so goes Clover’s respect for him.

Like I’m just picturing Jacques usurping James, relinquishing him of his status as Headmaster of Atlas Academy and General of the Atlas Military and demanding his immediate arrest and Clover just goes along with it. 

And not as a ruse either. He just arrests James without hesitation, even going so far as to say that his duty is to serve his kingdom and since James was a current threat to his kingdom, he had no choice but to follow orders. Even if they were coming from someone like Jacques. Or who knows? Perhaps this could be a moment of character development for Clover? Something he and Qrow can have conflict with.

What matters more in the end? Loyalty out of duty or loyalty out of friendship?

Perhaps this could be something for Qrow to teach/advise Clover about for a change and it could FINALLY be what reminds him of his relationship with Oz. 

Because what I just realized is Qrow and Clover’s similarities in terms of their relationships with the men they respect and serve. 

While Clover seems to follow Ironwood and trust him out of a sense of duty and respect, Qrow followed Oz out of...possibly admiration and friendship?

Because at the end of the day, I think that’s what hurt Qrow the most. He didn’t just lose his faith in someone he just blindly served. He lost the trust of someone he obviously cared alot about. A man he was proud to call his friend once upon a time.

I actually would really like for this subplot to happen now just for the sake of having it lead into Qrow being reminded of his relationship with Oz and what it meant to him more than just having someone who gave him a good purpose in the world despite being dealt such a heavy hand.

So there’s that concept. Anyways, that’s enough theorizing and jibberjabbering from me for now. I guess we’ll see how things will go when V7 resumes for the new year. Unless Forest of #FRWBY got anything cool to drop for us before that.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

[lady-byleth]

I'm the anon who hasn't watched since V5 because I forgot. I was baffled enough by the whole Clover death and Qrow teaming up with Tyrian thing and now I've learnt that Ironwood sHOT A FUCKING CHILD?! Like, I know he's that character type of 'I'll do anything to fulfill my duty' but to go that far?! Doesn't help that I loved Oscar from his first appearance... Can you explain what happened in V7, 'cause I haven't understood a single thing I've seen of it and I'm not sure if I want to watch it...

It's pretty straightforward actually. Team RWBYJNPRQ and Maria arrive in Mantle which has basically been turned into 1984, meet Penny, get arrested by the Ace Ops and brought to Ironwood who reveals he told Penny, Winter and the Ace Ops about Salem

He then tells them about his plan to turn Amity Colosseum into a global communications tower that is going to be so high up in the atmosphere the Grimm can't reach it

Ruby decides to not reveal the whole truth about Salem and the Lamp, presumably because she doesn't fully trust him with how Mantle has been changed, but offers the groups help

The next few episodes deal with Amity, the kids getting their Huntsmen lisences and the council elections both Robyn Hill and Jacques Schnee are running in. They spend their time training and protecting the Amity project, Clover, Penny, Qrow and Ruby have a confrontation with Robyn who reveals Ironwood is repurposing materials for Mantle's outer wall without informing people. Then we get a scene with the Schneesters where Winter shows Weiss the Winter Maiden and reveals she was chosen by Ironwood to be next in line.

This makes Nora pretty testy and on their free day she, Ruby and Ren decide to go to Robyn's premature victory party where Ren and Nora first have a fight, which makes Ruby run off with Penny, then kiss just in time for Watts to tune off the lights and Tyrian to slaughter people to blame it on Penny. Watts uses the confusion to redistribute the votes cast for Robyn to Jacques, who he is working with

This makes Robyn and her Happy Huntresses go full on vigilante and they start robbing military transports for building materials and get the suppliers in Mantle to cut off deliveries to Ironwood

Nora hits a huge rage breaking point and goes off at Ironwood about how Mantle is suffering from his iron fist rule (queen) but he brushes her off as it being "for the greater good" and gives the order to have Robyn arrested

The Bees volunteer but decide to tell Robyn the truth about Amity instead

Jacques invites to dinner at the Schnee Manor to celebrate his victory and make Ironwood defend his actions to the council and literally the whole cast shows up, which is funny. Weiss goes to snoop, finds her mother in her father's office and Willow gives Weiss proof that Jacques was cooperating with Watts who meanwhile turns off the heating grid in Mantle. The unrest that causes draws in an entire horde of Grimm that, surprise surprise, finds the huge fucking hole in Mantle's wall and overrun the city

Weiss exposes her father and Watts, it's revealed that Jacques gave Watts his council access to the system (dumbass) and Watts used that to lock everyone out. With some prodding from Ruby and Oscar Ironwood decides to tell Robyn and the council the truth about Salem while everyone else goes off to fight in Mantle. Oscar and Ruby then decide to tell Ironwood what they learned from the Lamp, that Salem is immortal and presumably the rest.

Ironwood and Robyn then go live together to tell the people about Salem and the military begins evacuating Mantle with out protagonists. Clover gets a call and he and Qrow go to where Robyn is luring Tyrian to her and they kick his ass good.

Meanwhile Ironwood has lured Watts to Amity by revealing its purpose during the broadcast and by lying that it's finished. (It's curious that we don't see Robyn's lie detection Semblance when he does this so we don't know if she knew he was lying or not)

Ironwood defeats Watts but ends up skinning his left arm. When he comes back to his office he finds a black glass queen piece.

He calls the Ace Ops and kids back (JNR go to pick up Oscar at Atlas Academy tho) and shit goes real bad when he starts throwing Ruby's secrets and the Bees telling Robyn about Amity back in their faces and the negativity triggers the Seer Grimm on Watts' bag and Salem projects herself into the room to reveal that she's on her way and also apparently killed Summer Rose herself

Ironwood decides to use the Staff of Creation to lift Atlas into the atmosphere and remove the Relics from Salem's reach that way and reveals that he already sent Winter and Penny to get the powers of the Winter Maiden. Of course Team RWBY are against this. Ruby tries to warn everyone over scroll and gets as far as Salem coming and Ironwood abandoning Mantle before he shuts her off. So the present Ace Ops (Clover is still with Qrow, Robyn and Tyrian) stand in their way and it comes to battle

The girls fight the Ace Ops while Clover gets the message that the kids and Qrow have to be arrested on sight and, for some reason, decides to just go along with that despite what he just heard. Qrow is not happy but he's willing to cooperate but Robyn loses her temper and it comes to a scuffle during which Tyrian is freed, kills the pilot and makes the plane crash. Clover gets out in time (notably without even attempting to help Qrow or Robyn, for some reason). Robyn is knocked out cold and because Clover still insists on attesting him Qrow decides to fight him.

Team RWBY kick ass and defeat the Ace Ops, it's dope as shit. Penny's father and Maria arrive and Maria quips this is the part where the girls ask them for help.

Tyrian comes to, removes his last restraints and then, for some reason, he and Qrow join forces to fight Clover. Clover disarms Qrow, who decides to end the fight without hurting Clover and uses his fists to break Clover's Aura.

Tyrian uses the opportunity to stab Clover through the back with Harbinger. Clover dies, Qrow breaks apart. It's bullshit.

Cinder appears before the chamber of the Winter Maiden, Neo has meanwhile managed to get the Relic from Oscar and assumed his appearance but Oscar knocks her out of her disguise just in time and Team JNR get ready to fight her. She kicks their asses, but Oscar gets the Lamp back and they escape.

Except Neo takes on Nora's form, steals the Lamp back and gets away with it.

Oscar splits off to go confront Ironwood. He tells Ironwood that if he goes through with his plan he's just as dangerous as Salem and Ironwood shoots him off the ledge of the Vault. Ozpin comes back, awakens Oscar just in time to smash a whole through the bottom of the Vault and Oscar goes falling towards Mantle.

Cinder, Penny and Winter fight. Cinder knocks Winter's Aura out and her out of a building. Penny saves her. Cinder goes after Fria, and in her usual arrogant way decides to wake the old lady up before killing her.

Fria is like "bitch I don't think so" and unleashes the powers of a fully realizes Maiden that even Cinder can't stand against. Winter and Penny arrive again but Winter can't get through the cold air without getting frostbite so Penny goes instead.

She asks Fria if she's alright, and then cradles her as her life starts fading. Fria asks her if she's the next one and Penny hesitates to say no, looking back to Winter who she knows will go to open the Vault which Penny doesn't agree with.

Cinder shows up again, furious. She says Fria is hers but Winter interrupts her and cuts off her Grimm arm. Which grows back. Cinder then curb stomps Winter while Fria dies.

Penny becomes Winter Maiden.

Ruby and Weiss arrive to find Fria dead, Winter hurt, Penny with the powers and Cinder right there. Ruby's eyes active immediately and Cinder is so terrified she runs before the light can even get to her.

Winter calls for reinforcements but gives the girls a headstart at least.

Team RWBYJNR, Pietro, Maria and Penny escape in an airship. Qrow and Robyn are arrested, Qrow looks absolutely broken as he looks down at Clover's bloody clover pin and Robyn comforts him.

Winter tells Ironwood the powers are gone. Presumably she doesn't tell him who has them, at least we don't see it

Oscar asks Ozpin how they can save Atlas now.

Salem arrives with a massive Grimm army and a whale Grimm almost the size of Atlas.

The End.

[calliecat93]

The kids are official Huntsmen/Huntress’ now! Yay!!! Ah, I still remember the days when Ruby was blowing up craters and Jaune was vomiting off of airships. Good times man, good times. But that was then, this is now. It’s been quite a long road to reach this point, especially in V7 alone so far. We’re only five chapters in, but it’s felt like a whirlwind. We ain’t done yet though, and now with our kids’ official Huntsmen/Huntresses, what are they going to get in to? Especially with so much going on with Mantle, Ironwood, and the Council elections? Well, let’s take a look and find out!

Overview

Penny has been assigned as Team RWBY’s alarm clock as she wakes them up for work. We get a nice montage showing the gang’s daily routine. It mainly consists of briefings, supply runs, and various other jobs like Grimm fighting or basic help around Mantle. Like Jaune escorting children to school, which the mothers greatly appreciate! And that ain’t an exaggeration! Oh thirsty moms joke, I knew that you would pay off~ They’re also training frequently with the Ace-Ops and Ironwood has taken Oscar under his wing in hopes of being able to jog out Ozpin. It’s a nice montage, all with a really rockin’ Jeff and Casey song! I couldn’t 100% make it out cause of the talking, but it’s all about after feeling so bad and like life has been in so much disarray, the singers are taking their lives into their own hands, making something happy out of it, and starting a new day. It is awesome and I love it~!

JNR and Oscar are training against, of all people, Team FNKI. Yep, Flynt and Neo are back and we get to see their teammates Kobalt and Ivori. I… didn’t care about FNKI back in V3 and still don’t, though Neon’s design is nice. But not much to say aside from Neon successfully pissing Nora off more than I think she did Yang. That is saying a LOT. Still, it’s a nice scene but JNR has to pass on lunch cause they’re still bogged down with work. Which makes sense, but we’ll talk about that in the review. But Ruby’s starting to feel the fatigue as she, Penny, Qrow, and Clover are en route to Amity Arena for a supply drop. Poor girl can barely keep herself awake, mainly cause of boredom but she’s gotta be feeling the exhaustion from so much Huntress work by now.

Penny though is as perky as always and happy that she can embark on an official mission with Ruby. You know, a friend! This gets Ruby’s attention as she asks Penny if she’s made any other friends since the Fall. Sadly, Penny’s been so busy since being rebuilt/made Mantle’s protector that Ironwood pretty much told ehr that she has no time for friends. Which is just… depressing, especially when you recall how Penny wanted friends back in V1 and wanted to stay at Beacon. When Ruby asks how she feels about it, Penny expresses how she wishes that she could both do what she wants and what she needs to do, which is relatable as Hell. In the back, Qrow and Clover are playing cards with Clover talking about how well-rounded Ruby and the kids are. Which makes sense since they had Qrow to look up to, though he shoots that down. Clover notices Qrow deflecting the compliment, and expresses how he shouldn’t do that since he still helped the kids get to where they are. Even more than he may realize.

Things come to a halt, however, when they reach a roadblock. The gate is closed off and being blocked by a pair of women. One is the lamb girl from the last episode, who the credits reveal is named Fiona Thyme. The other? Well, this marks the first in-person appearance of the long-awaited Robyn Hill. Why is she stopping them? Well, as it turns out, the military has been making construction equipment/sources meant for Mantle’s worn-down protections due to needing them for Amity Colosseum, and Robyn wants to know why. That little tidbit clearly has Ruby taken aback, but that’s another thing we’ll discuss int he review. But since no one can go into the real details about the arena, they give Robyn no answer. Just then, Penny bursts out of the van, telling Robyn to recall her girls that were trying to break into it. Robyn does so, allowing the van to proceed forward. But if Clover won’t directly give her an answer, then she’s going to find out herself…

Back at Atlas, Weiss is training with Winter, who critiques her Summoning in a way that only she could. But nevertheless, Winter is happy to see how much that Weiss has grown and that she successfully left their family name behind instead of clinging to it as she once did. She’s hoping that she’ll stay with Atlas, but Weiss is hesitant. While she’d be grateful, she still is unsure if Ironwood can be fully trusted and that even if he thinks that he is, he isn’t doing the right thing. Given Mantle’s current state and us now knowing that their resources are being pulled, it’s hard to not blame her. Winter does admit that Ironwood hasn’t handled things perfectly, but she still trusts him, and she believes that he fully trusts her. Why is she so sure? Well, she takes Weiss to, of all places, a hospital. They go to a heavily armed, monitored, and guarded area and Winter has Weiss watch from a window as she enters the hospital room of an elderly woman named Fria. The Winter Maiden.

Later, Winter tells Weiss of how Fria could die at any moment’s notice, and as such only she is allowed to see her. Weiss quickly puts the pieces together. Yes friends, Winter is being pegged as the next Winter Maiden and has been since the Fall of Beacon. Weiss is quite taken aback by how her sister has seemed to accept the fact that Ironwood groomed her entire military career for this, with WInter admitting that she wasn’t happy at first. But once she thought about it, she realized that with the Maiden powers, she could do a lot of good for Atlas. For Remnant. Is it ideal? No. Did WInter’s life get decided for her? Oh Hell yes. However, she’s ultimately decided to take it, and make it her own choice. She’s choosing to b the next Maiden, and to make that legacy her own regardless of how that legacy came to be.

Just then, Atlas broadcasts a live statement being made by Jaques. So… you think that you hate the man already? Think that there’s no way that we can hate him even more? HA! Jaques announces that due to the embargo affecting his business, he has shut down all nonessential SDC operations within Mantle. He won’t reopen them until he’s elected and able to lift the embargo. You heard that right folk, Jaques is robbing people in his employ of their jobs to essentially blackmail the citizens of Mantle into electing him. When the transmission ends, all Hell breaks loose. Weiss and Winter are stunned and the episode ends as we see riots break out all across Mantle. As Winter notes, the spark needed to burn the kingdom down has been ignited.

Review

Well, THAT took a turn fast!

Ho boy, where should we start? Well… let’s go with the Winter Maiden first. There’s been a LOT of speculation about her with the popular opinion being that it was Mama Schnee. I felt that wasn’t true because it would have been idiotic for none of them to tell Weiss that in Chapter 2, and it is now debunked. There’s some speculation that Fria is based on Freja, the Norse God of Love, which… well...who else in RWBY do we know of who are based on Norse mythology? Hmm? HMM? It’s still too soon to say, but Sam Ireland (Nora’s VA) DID say that some Nora backstory was upcoming, so if the theory is true… well… yeah, that’ll be a thing.

Not surprised about Winter being pegged as the Winter Maiden, and not just cause of the name. We’d all been expecting she either was or was going to be for a long time now. But it’s just… sad. While I like that she took her fate and is going to make it her own, in so many ways she’s in the same place that she tried to escape when she left Jaques. She had her whole career groomed for a fate that she got no say in. It’s like with Pyrrha, only with Winter having already gone through the acceptance process and not having nearly as short an amount of time to decide to go with it. And I not only get the feeling that she’s not gonna get the powers or not have it long), but that when she does make her own decision for her own life… it may very well be the final one. Pray that Cinder doesn’t get near her, is all I’m saying.

Okay, let’s talk about the growing Mantle problems. So we find out that resources needed to repair Mantle’s protections have been stripped for the Arena. This looks really bad on Ironwood for at least not putting something out to explain why. I know that he doesn’t care about his image, but due to that, he’s really making things worse for Mantle. The fact that Ruby is clearly surprised by this fact also means that he didn’t tell RWBYJNRQO this tidbit despite assigning most of them to help Mantle. It may seem minor, but this is the cause of many of the Grimm attacks swarming Mantle, So yeah, telling them that detail and trying to work out a solution should have been a priority. It just makes Ruby’s decision to not fully trust Ironwood yet all the more well-founded if Ironwood isn’t providing all the info, despite how he claims that he wants to be apparent with them.

But it’s not just that. Because of Ironwood focusing his armies on Atlas, Mantle has such weak defenses. The few soldiers in the city you can see run for it when the riots break out. Penny is the only one among those forces capable of doing something, and due to it, Ironwood has stripped her of ANY chance of a normal life. She can’t make friends. She can’t go to school. I doubt that she can see her father all that much. Ironwood is treating her as only a weapon, not like a person which is just horrible. Penny seems to have just resigned herself to it and put on an optimistic facade, though you can tell that she isn’t happy with her position when confronting Robyn. She isn’t happy with the situation at all. She knows that Mantle is suffering and is trying so hard to help in the limited capacity that she has, but it can only do so much. Penny may have survived Beacon, but she is in exactly the same place that she wanted to avoid. It’s why she had her plan to stay at Beacon that hee death went and screwed up. It’s just… sad to watch.

This spreads to the others as well. Through the montage, we see them working constantly. By the end, we see them tired and falling asleep at briefings and Ruby in the supply van. Ruby begins with her usual amount of high energy but is clearly worn down by the time of the mission despite her being the only one awake still at the end of the montage. JNR can’t hang out with Team FNKI or get lunch due to the frequent missions that pop up. All of their focus has to b on Amity Arena, the Grimm, and other random tasks due to the low number of forces to do those jobs due to being on standby. 

More or less, Ironwood is subjecting them to the same exhaustion that she’s subjecting himself and forcing essentially an army-sized amount of work on a small number of people, including recent graduates. Now Huntsman/Huntress work is demanding, but it’s just too much and eventually, it’s going to push them to exhaustion and not be at full strength. Which when the Salem info goes public, them not being at full strength is going to be very, very bad. At least they’re training, which will help them get stronger, but that’ll mean nothing if they’re too tired to channel it.

Mantle is in a very bad spot. For all his talk fo wanting to help them, Ironwood’s doing a shit job and his lack fo care about his image is going to make the people mistrust and hate him. THey’re not going to trust the military to protect them from Salem. Worst? Jaques has taken an even larger leap to being utter garbage and is now pretty much blackmailing the city to either vote for him, or be unemployed. It is a despicable act and has caused the city to break out into chaos. Ironwood’s likely not going to issue a statement or anything, so it only makes them hate him more and blame him for their predicament either alongside Jaques or even instead of Jaques, the person actually responsible. It matches so much currently going on in RL and it’s scary but accurate at least. Considering that the next episode is supposed to happen at a political rally, it’s only going to get crazier.

But speaking of, we FINALLY meet Robyn! Yay! So far? I like her! She seems like a confident, friendly individual though of course she’s not opposed to resorting to theft ala her inspiration of Robin Hood. She is fully aware of the problems going on in Mantle, but she, of course, is unaware of why. But she’s clearly Hellbent on finding out, and her pursuit of this along with her own push for Council are gonna be interesting to see. I can see her being a great opposing force to the heroes, though at least she seems noble. Her design, as well as the other Happy Huntresses’, look good and her being voiced by Cristina Vee (Marinette in Miraculous Ladybug)? Bless. I’m looking forward to seeing more of her, especially if she does uncover the truth. Now THAT will be interesting.

The montage was fun, especially with the badass Jeff and Casey song. The pacing was both fast and slow but balanced well, and it introduced a lot of good things. Robyn and her gang, the Winter Maiden, furthering the political problems in Mantle, it truly feels like we’re not in Act Two. Eddy’s knocked his episodes out of the park so far, especially with the beauty of the Thirsty Moms joke. I fully believe that he did that just to mess with Miles, and I am forever grateful~ WHile I don’t care about Team FNKI, it was nice to see them pop up and see the two that we didn’t previously. The training session was fun. The score was good, especially the instrumental of The Path to Isolation that played when Weiss and Winter talked. Nice talks between Ruby and Penny, as well as Qrow and Clover and the confirmation that Qrow indeed quit drinking makes me happy. Just a lot of good here. I like it~

Chapter Six Predictions

We’re probably gonna see more of the gang’s growing fatigue considering that the chapter is meant to give them a day off. It’s also supposed t take place at a political rally, so expect more chaos there. I imagine that the rally is for Robyn, who’s likely going to take Jaques’ recent order and use it to try and convince the people to elect her so that she can fix it. We know from the thumbnail that Ruby and Penny will be there and I’m hoping that means we’ll also see Pietro and Maria. I hope for the latter at least, God do I miss her.

This could also lead to the Robyn vs Tyrian fight that’s int he opening, or at least the beginning of it. Which heck yah! I am SO ready for that! Hard to say what else may happen though. Maybe we’ll see more of Ruby struggling with her decision to hide the truth, especially with Mantle only getting worse. Maybe we’ll see more of her and Oscar since we still don’t know how he took Ruby’s explanation, but I get the feeling that he is the one least happy with it. Either way, ti’s probably gonna be an insane episode… as if the others haven’t been XD

Episode Stats

Favorite Character: Robyn Hill and Winter Schnee Favorite Scene: Weiss and Winter scenes Least Favorite Scene: JNR+O vs FNKI, but only because I don’t care about FNKI Favorite Voice Actor: Cristina Vee (Robyn Hill) Favorite Animation: Neon’s updated rainbow effect Rating: 10/10

Final Thoughts

So far, this is my favorite episode! Great scenes and discussions, nice plot developments, good character intros, and another badass song. It was funny, dramatic, and just a fun watch. V7 has been fantastic across the board so far, and ho boy it doesn’t look like it’s going to drop the ball any time soon. There is so much that I am excited about due to this episode! Once again, Eddy knocked it out of the park and I think that he is a very welcome addition along with Kiersi cause this volume has just been great! Love it~!

[tumblunni]

Cathedral Tower Defense Game character ideas and stuff so far! I’ve talked about some of these before but I wanna just compile it in summary form, and try and get thinking about more to add. It’d be so cool if I could make it like an early suikoden game where you have the world’s biggest party selection! Or at least have that equivelant but with recruiting shopkeepers and townbuilders and stuff.

So... long post ahoy!

* Protagonist (Sir/Lady/Master Amity) Your selectable renameable main charrie! A badass disabled veteran who lost their family in the war and ended up defending this cathedral town of strangers in order to prevent another tragedy. They’re generally distrusted at the beginning, have a lot of doubts about what philosophy they should take in life, and its up to you to decide how the story plays out. But no matter what, this protagonist is a cool grumpy comically-serious nerd gramp! (or gran or etc) i really REALLY like the idea of changing them to be an older veteran character, it just works so much better and seriously WHY are there like zero grandma protagonists in anything ever? I will vow to make this one as amazing as possible!!

* Florin Generally supportive yet sassy and lazy deutorogonist helper guy. He’s your first ally in this world and maybe kind of a tutorial, lol. Even though he’s a total cinnamon roll, he’s as distrusted as you because he’s a demon. Even the protagonist kinda wonders why on earth he wants to help them, and whether he’s some sort of enemy spy... His elemental realm is over plants, and he has no greater joy than taking a nice nap amoungst the flowers~

* Malachi At the moment the only fully developed idea I have for another party member, aside from Florin. Though I’m not sure if I want him to be optional or mandatory? In either case when you recruit him he’s the catylyst for a lot of character development for Florin, and they end up becoming like a lil adopted family ^_^ Anyway, Mal is a very young and adorable demon child that the party finds sealed away beneath some ruins. Precociously innocent, he seems unaware that he’s become a monster. I mean, everyone eats rocks, right?

* Admiral Chiffon (wip name) A major recurring enemy turned ally! Chiffon starts off as just the eccentric comic relief member of the opposing army, kinda harmless and kinda entertaining. And you might pity her quite a bit, because her coworkers treat her like absolute shit. I basically invented this character because I got sick of seeing the ‘ha ha flambouyant gross comic relief villain’ thing in recent fire emblems, and wondered what it would be like to have a villain whose LGBTQ status is treated as a sympathising aspect instead, leading to a redemption when she finds people who dont treat her like those damn writers treated everyone :P So yeah, she’s a transgender woman who faces a lot of predjudice in her career, and I hope I can make it very heartwarming when she finds true friendship with our heroes! And also I hope it can make the non-comic-relief villains seem extra disgustingly unforgiveable after you see how badly they treat their own teammates. Her personality is gonna be kind of a greedy merchant sort of person, but what if that archetype was a good character instead. She remains sassy and greedy even when she’s been redeemed, i like a good ‘ol vice-filled hero yknow! Character development is my jam! Also all i know about her design so far is that I think I want her to have stylishly skunk striped hair, to represent greying streaks and all. I was imagining her as the token grandma of the cast before I decided to age up the protagonist lol

* Currently unnamed church matron duo, aka Timon And Pumbaa One of my early-ish undeveloped concepts for non-battling town members. These two are florin’s equivelant, they’re the town workers you start off with before the game really starts. I’m thinking they’d be like nuns/priestesses that worked at this place before you came along, and you have a bit of a rivalry here because they pragmatically know they need you to defend the stronghold but they’re also very wary of you. The ‘timon’ one would be the main one who actually holds all these opinions, a sort of crusty matronly mega paranoid lady who thinks you’re gonna backstab us all at any moment! And she’s some sort of super scary chronic sufferer of resting bitch face, even though she sees herself as the ultimate arbiter of justice everyone else thinks she’s terrifying. Just imagine her trying to hug a baby that just cries as if it saw the face of death! Life sucks when you’re a lawful good character stuck in a chaotic evil character design! And then her partner is a funloving pumbaa-esque team chef, who’s actually kinda too loving and innocent to ever distrust anyone. But she always just falls in with whatever her boss says, its like a pinky and the brain situation. Oh and I’m already kinda preemptively shipping these two before I’ve even finished designing them XD

* Depression jail janitor Starts as a prisoner you take from one of the enemy raids, but he ends up winning your trust and joining your team. Entirely against his will! he’s a chronically depressed man who was forcibly drafted into the evil army even though he doesnt believe in their cause, but now he feels like he’s unforgiveable anyway. So he spends all his time trying to convince you that he is indeed pure evil! But the more humble he is, the more everyone believes in his genuine kindness. Alas! It doesnt help that he also kinda has chronic hero syndrome and cant resist helping out in every possible way. So that is how a prisoner ended up becoming the one in charge of the jail keys! And he’s like Everyone’s Dad. (Even the people decades older than him...)

* Former bully powerful friend The one other main child character, cos I wanted Malachi to have some friends. They start off at odds and she initially joins in with everyone bullying him, cos she wants to fit in. But he ends up helping her deal with her insecurities and realise she was only resenting him for being ‘weak’ because she saw herself reflected in him. or rather, the traits in herself she’d tried to hide to make everyone like her, even if it meant joining in with bullying and only having horrible asshole friends. So she sacrifices her popularity with the main clique in order to defend malachi, and ends up finding her first true friend with him. They’re better off being outcasts together! So yeah cutie malachi will have some sort of stronge deliquent friend with a heart of gold, and I’m not sure yet whether she’d be playable or not? i kinda feel like its not right to have someone that young join the party unless they have magic powers to protect them. So maybe she can fight by teaming up with malachi, actually? like, she rides atop his stone dragon golem form and supports with ranged weaponry or something. or just acts as an advisor? I liked the idea I had that there would be a buffs-only type of magic stone, and people could cast it on themselves to have enhanced senses at something or other and improve their supporting skills. Like the protagonist would maybe have an eyesight-enhancing buff crystal to act as a sniper scope!

* Rival warrior buff teen person Very undeveloped cos I just came up with them ysterday, lol! I’m thinking possibly make this character female just cos this archetype doesnt get to be female all that often. Kind of a draco malfoy type snooty rival, but with a more sympathetic side and ultimately you do become friends. Theyre just a simple ordinary citizen who was doing the best they could to protect their family before you came along, and now kinda resents the fact you’re all BETTER THAN EVERYONE and taking their job as guardian! They have a lot of anxieties over the fact they struggled so hard to become self-trained and now you’re here making it look easy. So the plot has a general theme of believing too much in ‘destiny’, and that some people are just born with talent and you’ll never succeed if you werent lucky enough. This character started off trying to act like theyre inherantly blessed with that talent, because they’re terrified that they aren’t... Oh and I think once you befriend them I think they might be like a ryuuji/junpei type of friend? But without the weird sexism and homophobia randomness that persona 4 threw onto yosuke. Just like a bit of a cheerful cliche ‘bro’ who isnt all that interested in books and likes to be all ‘cmon do it for the vine’. A good polar opposite to the protagonist who could have some cute interactions!

* Rival warrior’s chilled out older sibling figure of reasonableness Every rin needs a yukio! I think they’d be maybe a bartender or owner of a restaurant or something? Just some sort of super chilled out job where they act as an agony aunt to their customers, the place is very popular because of the great service. (Though also everyone is kinda like ‘yo you dont have to run it all by yourself, yo you dont need to give us bonus extra special treatment, seriously get some sleep dude!!’) But anyway they’re this perpetually relaxed super kind soul who’s always the reasonable response to their lil sib’s ohohoho angry rivalness. But the bad side to it is that they’re also a lil depressed and apathetic about their own life, they’re kinda like someone who really lives for their family, in a bad way. They’ve been like a single parent to their sibling because they had kind of a tragic backstory, and big sib has just grown too used to sacrificing everything in order to help other people and never taking care of themself. And they have a lot of trouble even.. feeling emotions. The outwardly chilled and happy-go-lucky facade covers up just a void of nothing but self hate and emptiness. They feel like they’d already been tainted by the way their abusive parents used to treat them, its too late for them and all they can do is try and save other people from falling down the same path. Oh, and I think maybe the two siblings are actually immigrants from the villain country? Like, when older sib ran away from the abusive family they ended up here, and now they try and keep it secret, to the point that even the younger sibling doesnt know where they were born. Basically I just wanna have a LOT of different subplots showing how the ordinary citizens of this country aren’t all evil just because their government are the bad guys in this story. And especially covering topics like characters who’re part of that ethnicity and get treated like they’re inherantly terrorists even if they were born and raised in a completely different country!

[theunknown-ericfanfiction]

Unexpected: Part 22

The Unknown Chapter Index.

Unexpected Chapter Index

Morgan and Eric didn’t spoke a word until they got to dauntless.

Eric closed the door of the apartment with a slam, Morgan was ready to head to bed, knowing that she had not eaten anything, but she didn’t feel like it.

“Problematic?” Eric said behind her. Morgan took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh “when did she called you problematic?”

“The first time I met her” she turned around to face her “and she’s been a pain in my ass since. But whatever, I don’t let the things she says get to me”

Eric slowly walked to her.

“What else did she tell you?” Morgan rolled her eyes.

“Eric, don’t do this now. I’m exhausted and it really doesn’t matter”

“Morgan start speaking, what else did she say to you?”

“Eric, it doesn’t matter” she said firmly.

“It matters to me because she’s talking shit about my wife”

“And you’re getting in her game by letting things get to you. Eric seriously fuck her. I don’t give a two second thought, I don’t give a fuck about what she says”

Eric sighed and backed away, turning around and heading to the door.

“Eric don’t make a scene out of this we really don’t need this right now” Morgan tried to avoid Eric going out and causing trouble with the leader of Erudite. Knowing that this could cause a little meltdown in the bridge that Eric wanted to maintain with dauntless.

“Go to sleep Morgan” Eric said monotone opening the door and exiting the apartment.

Morgan cursed and sighed, feeling really tired. Confrontation was the first they Anne forbid her, and it was the first thing she had found.

“Whatever” she muttered and turned to their bedroom. Eric could fist fight that bitch to extinction, she didn’t give a fuck other than to keep herself calm and her baby continuing growing healthy and relaxed.

∆

Eric stormed his way down the aisle of Erudite HQ, not bothering to check in with the receptionist.

His heavy footsteps leading him to the office at the end of the hall while the insistence of the receptionist was beginning to get to him.

His body was already to tense, his jaw was so tight he had a headache.

He opened the door to the office, finding the startled looks of Christine and two other people opposite of her in the desk.

“What the fuck have you been telling my wife?” He demanded while he walked to her.

Christine smiled a the man and woman in front of her apologetically and said:

“We’ll continue this later, thank you for your time” she said softly. They both stood up and left the room, as soon as Eric heard the door close he placed both of his hands in the desk, his body lurching forward on it.

“What shit have you been telling my wife?” He demanded to know again.

“Just the truth, and sometimes that hurts to hear. But she’s not the right woman for you Eric, she has faulted the faction system, broken everything we believed in, she is indirectly the cause of over a dozen suicides after she destroyed our faction system.”

“Morgan freed this city, she indirectly helped you get into this charge didn’t she? And by the umpteenth time, you don’t get to choose who I date, or who I marry. I’m not your little pupet anymore. If I hear Morgan telling me you’ve been misdemeanoring her again, you better find yourself another fucking army”

Christine sighed sadly after Eric stopped speaking.

“Oh Eric, you had so much potential when we offered you to go to dauntless and get yourself into leadership.”

“And do you think it’s not working because I’m married? Or for the fact that you cannot tell me what to do anymore?”

“Marrying that woman was a mistake.”

“And a fucking good one” He finished turning around, he was about to walk out when he heard the beginning of a sentence.

“I only wanted to bring you to your upmost potential son”

“I am not your son anymore. I’m not something you can mold to be perfect” he said turning and giving her a hard look over his shoulder “I know you thrive for perfection, but we all have flaws, the system had flaws, even you have flaws Christine. And I’m not bringing my wife into this utopy of perfection you’re dreaming of. So back off Morgan’s back or you can be damn sure I can make a murder look like a suicide. And yes, I did just threatened you”

Christine tsked her tongue disapprovingly and walked to the door to see Eric out.

“You used to be such a compliant little boy” she opened the door and waited for Eric to get out of her office.

“Morgan opened my eyes”

“Another reason why you shouldn’t have married her”

Eric rolled his eyes and muttered a ‘fuck off’ while leaving.

In his ride in train back to dauntless, when he had calmed down, he realized that maybe he could’ve gone to Erudite without pushing Morgan and getting her to worry. She was right, they didn’t need this confrontation right now.

What if Christine decided to take action against them and deny Morgan treatment for his baby? Granted he would do something about it if the case came to be.

When he walked into the apartment, he headed to the bedroom, it was past dinner time, and confrontation always closed his stomach. But Morgan needed to eat.

When he walked to the bedroom he found no one. Hoping that Morgan was out eating dinner, and since his headache was just now starting to dwindle down, he laid in bed and closed his eyes, falling asleep instantly.

∆

Morgan laughed as Creed finished his play, loosing the bet of points he had set down.

They taught Morgan how to play Doubt, a dice game in which they all had dices in a cup and had to guess how many dices of one number were on the table when the other played pulled their cups up.

It was Morgan playing, Creed, Johan and Jay, and Creed’s girlfriend Bobby.

Morgan had slipped on Creed having a girl, and after they all insisted to meet her he had to go out and find her.

Two hours later they were on their almost tenth round of Doubt, Morgan had won some, the guys others, but Creed always had the upper hand. He was either really good at the game, or a really good at lying.

Morgan had tricked him till the last second and rose the bid until he confidently bet all of his remaining points for the night and ended up loosing.

“We have to stop teaching her fucking bar games” he said angry at Johan

“You’re such a fucking sore loser, chill out” Morgan said as she counted the points teasingly.

“This is why I don’t ever go out with you” Bobby said sipping her drink.

“I bet that asshole Craig is all fun and games right”

“He’s not a sore loser like you”

“Yeah really Rapunzel calm down” Johan teased this time.

Morgan erupted in laughter again, remembering the embarrassing tale that involved Creed’s long hair and Bobby’s four year old niece that they visited when Bobby took him to Amity, where her sister lives.

“That was just one time OK, don’t remind me I still feel very gay for that”

“She got you a flower crown too, do you still have it?” Bobby kept teasing.

“Of course i still fucking have it, I’m not about breaking a four year old’s heart.”

Morgan covered her mouth as another fit of giggles engulfed her.

“Dude stop, my stomach hurts from laughing” Morgan said holding her stomach now.

When she finished and Johan began to clear the table to serve more drinks she knew it was time to go. She could only deny a beer so many times until the guys got suspicious as why she wasn’t drinking.

“Have you dirty points” Morgan said leaving them on the table and standing up from her chair “my leader position gets me a lot you know”

“Ah yes, the leader card, I see you use that shit well too” Creed said pocketing his points back. Morgan chuckled and looked at the guys.

“I had a blast guys, and that steak? Fucking delicious Johan, are you sure you don’t want me to hook you up in the kitchen”

Johan shuddered exaggeratedly and they all laughed at him.

“I’ll see you tomorrow guys” she waved at them and as they all greeted her goodbye, she exited the bar.

Inhaling fresh air from outside, she began walking, looking into the shops at one of the clocks, she noticed that it was well passed 2 in the morning, and four hours of sleep wasn’t going to do much. Also she expected a big scold from Eric for returning at this hour, but she surprised herself when she found Eric damn near passed out in their bed.

She moved to take his shoes off and to undress, covering herself with a blanket, she figured he didn’t feel the cold much, being fully dressed still.

She sighed and closed her eyes to give in to sleep, feeling Eric move beside and and place his hand on her bent thigh, making sure she was actually laying down next to him.

[chaplainkeane]

The Witness

Some maintain that there were no witnesses to the Resurrection of Christ, but that’s not true. Matthew 28:4 tells us plainly that there was

                                   The Witness

                   ��                 by: James M. Keane

Apollos entered the building, knowing he would find his friend at his usual table. The older man was to be found there any time he was not on duty or performing some pleasant task. Personally Apollos found little appeal in this. This drinking hole had little to recommend it, it was one of many such that dotted Jerusalem, except that perhaps here the wine was marginally better.

At any rate, he was not here for the wine. Nor for pleasant tasks.

Approaching the small table, he seated himself opposite his friend without waiting to be recognized, adjusting his short sword automatically to keep from poking himself. He gave more attention to the short red cape he wore; their Centurion was a stickler for a well polished and maintained uniform for his soldiers. ‘It would not do for the occupying army not to be neat, oh no.’ Apollos thought wryly.

“What tidings?” Phobias asked, barely looking up from his wine.

“Well you should ask. Stuck in this place, you still cannot be insensate. One cannot go down any dusty street without hearing the Jews talk of it.”

“I’ll bet.” Phobias said sourly, taking a hard pull of his goblet. “The rabbi who came down from the tree. The king who died and lives. ‘Iesus Nazareus Rex Iudorum’ that damned placard read. Might as well have been a spell to their god for all the fire it’s caused. Garbage!” He slammed the goblet down with more force than was necessary, and several eyes turned in their direction. They didn’t linger more than an instant however. An angered Roman soldier was nothing the locals wanted any part of.

They were not the only uncomfortable ones. Apollos thought he was more so than they were, and for good reason. “Phobias, you were there. You saw –.”

“Nothing! I saw nothing!” The man told him with deadly fire. But Apollos would not be put off. He had come to talk. He had to talk!

“We two, late in the night, an easy post. Guard a dead man in a tomb. Make sure his friends do not come in the night and roll a stone that took fifteen Legionnaires to roll into place back and spirit the body away for their convenient lies to stir the populace. But they didn’t need to make any wild tale, did they?”

“Didn’t they?”

Apollos wasn’t sure he was talking to the same man who had stood by him just two nights gone. “Phobias, the earth shook as if the very gods pounded upon it. That stone; it moved on its own, rolled away as if it were a chariot wheel. You saw it! And the light – so blinding I could barely stand it! And then he – he came out and the light came from him! Bright as the sun, brighter! His clothing white as pure light – his body shining so I couldn’t even keep my feet, but fell to the ground and could not move. You had already passed out by then but –.”

Phobias’ hand darted out with the speed of a striking viper, grasping his forearm in a crushing grip. “I’m a Roman Legionnaire,” he said with deadly fury. “A Roman does not pass out!”

Apollos looked into his friend’s eyes and saw no any amity there. Very carefully, very slowly, he drew back, pulling out of the grip. “Yes. But Phobias, he looked at me!”

“What?”

“He looked at me. I saw him, just before I – well…”

“If the light was as bright as you make it, you could not have seen him look at you.”

“It was that bright, and I should not have been able to, but I could. I could see his face as clearly as yours, and–”

“Enough!” Phobias leaned in close, his tone that of death itself. “Let me tell you something, fool! Nothing happened! That is what Rome says. That is what the Governor says. That’s what their own damned High Priest says!” He grabbed Apollos’ sword arm tightly, half to prevent him from going for his own blade as he leaned in closer, making sure his words carried no further than the two of them, but no less fiery for their quiet determination. “Their own Rabbis, Priests, whatever in Infernus they are, turned him over to Rome because they wanted him dead! They got what they asked for, we crucified him. Septemus even drove a spear into him to make sure. He’s dead and entombed, and whatever the talk that is going on out there, it is not going to change that!”

“But we–”

“Rome says he’s dead, he’s dead. I’m a soldier. I’m here to keep the Jews in line. They get out of line and they’re dead too. And if you are heard spreading this spurious tale about light and coming back from the dead, I may be ordered to make you dead too.”

There was a moment of horrible stillness. “You would do it.” Looking into his friend’s eyes, he knew the truth.

“If ordered, I obey. We’re soldiers – we fight! Remember, you fool; your destiny lies in that sword. It’s up to you which end.”

Phobias stood up and walked out, never once looking back.

Apollos stared after his friend, and called upon years of training to keep what he was thinking out of his expression. For years had he known Phobias and the man would run him through with his own sword without a tear.

Rome had said ‘nothing happened’ but they had not seen it. He had. They had! Phobias may close his eyes, but Apollos could not. What he heard on the street was not rumor. He had seen the truth of it in that one awful moment staring through the light at that face, that face that had held no fury, no ire, no condemnation. It had held … what? The soldier Apollos agreed with Phobias; this was too dangerous to think about. The man Apollos did not know what to think.

He stood up, unable to sit still any longer. He had been shaken, and by too many things over too short a time. He couldn’t think and desperately wanted to.

He did not want to go out to the main street; didn’t want people around him to distract him. He knew that, like every other such place, this one had a back door which led to an alley. That was where he would go. That was where he would find solitude to clear his mind.

He pushed out into the rear alley, wrinkling his nose against the stink. Alleys always stank; it was just a matter of how badly. He took a step down the dim path.

“What are you going to do?”

The quiet voice was almost at his shoulder, and when he turned sharply, dropping into a defensive position and reaching for his sword, he saw him and lost his footing on the slippery muck, fell to the slimy dirt.

  Him! It was Him! But it couldn’t be! But he stood there looking down at his former guard. His clothing was dazzling white, and his skin – Father Jupiter, his skin shone! Light seemed to come from him, and so dazzlingly bright it should have hurt, should have seared Apollos’ eyes from their sockets, but it did not. He looked up at the man – stared gaping at him – and for all the light he could see him perfectly. There was no pain, no squinting, and a light that dwarfed that of the sun itself.

The Jew reached out, bending slightly to help Apollos up, but the stunned soldier could only stare. His wrist, above the hand where the bone had been bourn by the nail still bore a hole, though it did not bleed.

The man waited patiently, his hand held out to Apollos.

[calliecat93]

So to recap briefly, the heroes made it Atlas! But they are now going to jail! Is that the fastest that everything has gone wrong in a volume? Anyways! We’re now going from the grimy city of Mantle, to the so-called utopia in the sky. What will happen now? Will our heroes become jailbirds and we get the RWBY rendition of Jailhouse Rock? Or will ironwood be able to bail them out… although if he does, I still would love a RWBY version of Jailhouse Rock. Someone tell Jeff Williams to get on that! But I guess we better answer the question, so to the review!

Overview

Atlas personnel are airlifting RWBYJNRQO to Atlas along with some random guy. As Nora tries to chew her way out like I do when I can’t get a bag of chips open, Jaune complains about how easily they got taken down with Weiss confirming that the Ace-Ops are Ironwood’s specialized forces. This catches random guy’s, who the credits reveal is named Forest, attention. He’s surprised since, in his own words, they are Ironwoods personal attack dogs so them going after anyone is kind of a big deal. He himself got arrested for protesting about the mistreatment of Mantle… well okay, it was because he threw a brick at a ship, but same deal! But from him, we learn of a woman named Robyn Hill and the Happy Huntresses, who are graduates of Atlas who stayed in Mantle to defend the people and try to make those people’s lives better. Robyn’s fighting for a seat on the council to end Ironwood’s ‘tyranny’. Weiss questions that last bit as dramatic, with Forest calling her out for living a cushiony life due to being a Schnee. To which Weiss can only reply that she isn’t anymore.

Things take a turn, however, as the gang isn’t taken to jail. Instead, they are taken to Atlas Academy. As they’re taken inside, Ruby isn’t sure what to do but says that they should be careful with that they say and Blake says that they’ll all follow her lead. Everyone is led to Ironwood and, to the surprise of Weiss, Winter. Oh, and Penny’s there too! Yay!!!  Winter has the guards free them, or she will start hurting them. Ironwood apologizes as he leads everyone into his office, having assumed that the ship was stolen… and Ruby confirms that’s the case. Winter gets angry due to how dangerous and irresponsible that was… but she’s stopped when Weiss hugs her. Weiss explains that they had to, to which Winter calms down and hugs back. Aww~ That being said, she’s not happy that Qrow allowed it, which leads us to the topic at hand. Qrow says that they have confidential intel to give… but to his and everyone’s surprise, both Penny and Winter are fully aware of the Relics and Maidens. Yep, Ironwood told them as well as Ace-Ops, but he does have a reason.

He explains that when Oz died, he had to formulate his own plans in order to ensure Atlas’ safety against Salem. Ace-Ops gave him the Relic of Knowledge after the arrest, with the Staff of Creation safely sealed in the Vault and the Winter Maiden is in stable condition. But now we get to the topic of Atlas’ current image due to the Embargo, the troop recall, the closed-off borders, and as the teens point out, the discourse and poor treatment of Mantle. This makes Ironwood look… well, bad, and he knows it. But again, he explains the reason why. Remember Amity Colosseum? The location for the Vytal Festival? Well, the plan is to turn it into essentially a satellite and with its launch, they can re-establish global communications and as such, even if another CCT were to fall then they can avoid that issue again. Which… is a good thing! It is a huge handicap for everyone across Remnant that locks them from the rest of the world, and fixing that is a very good idea. The problem? Well…

The second part of the plan is to go public about Salem. Let me repeat: the plan is to GO PUBLIC about SALEM. You see the problem with that, right?! Well, this is why Ironwood has his troops on high alert. He knows that this will cause mass panic and thus mass Grimm attacks. So he has all of his forces on standby to be ready when all Hell breaks loose. After everything is secure, then he’ll go global with the reveal. Essentially, Ironwood thinks that keeping the fight secret is now outdated, especially after the Fall, and as the title suggests, it’s time for a new approach. With Ozpin not there to guide them, Ironwood is doing what he feels is best despite knowing how many lives that Oz spent keeping the secret.  It’s at this point, however, that they reveal that Oscar is the new Ozpin. He’s happy to hear this and begins to express this to Oz… until Oscar breaks it to him that Oz is currently gone. Which naturally gets Ironwood to question how that is.

Before Oscar can say anything, Ruby steps in and answers the question… by saying that after the train crash, he was just gone. Nothing about Jinn. Nothing about Salem and Oz’s history. Nothing about Salem’s immortality. Oz was just gone, and they don’t know the reason why. When pushed about what Oz said about the Relics, she says what Oz originally told them; that the questions had all been used up, which she fully well knows is not the case. Ironwood seems to accept this and assures Oscar that he’s safe in Atlas. He then gives Ruby back the Relic of Knowledge as a sign of trust before offering the resources of the Atlas Military to help get the gang upgraded and ready for the fight ahead.

Everyone is free to go, and they briefly encounter the Ace-Ops. Clover apologizes for what happened earlier and that he and the others are looking forward to fighting alongside them. We also get to see and hear the other four and the credits reveal their names as Elm Ederne, Marrow Amin, Harriet Bree, and Vine Zeki. Harriet seems to be clearly based on The Hare from Tortoise and the Hare and Marrow could be one of many things since Aesop had a lot of wolf-inspired stories. But due to his brief fib about not looking forward to working with the team, I’ll say The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Not 100% sure about Elm and Vine, though there is a fable called The Elm and the Vine so that could be the inspiration, but we’ll see when we learn more about them. As Penny goes to give the gang a tour, despite their exhaustion and just wanting to go to bed… and not being pleased that they have to stay in dorms like the Beacon days, Ironwood stops Qrow. Why? Just to tell him that he is genuinely happy to see him again. He even hugs him! Aww~ Hopefully, THAT won’t lead to anything horrible later!

Speaking of horrible, remember in V6 when Tyrian revealed that he and Watts were being sent to Atlas? Weeeeellllll… 

We cut to Watts, a suitcase with who knows what in hand, walking through Mantle during a rainy evening. He and Tyrian are using mobile communications since being in one location makes it easier for them to be found out. He seems to have full control over the security tech of Mantle since unlike Atlas, the coding is never updated and we learn that he helped write said coding. He demonstrates this by knocking out the cameras and we end with Tyrian (with his fancy V4 coat back!) exiting a building. He walks away, a pool of blood spilling out from the cracks, and the cameras fail to see the man who caused it. A dark sign of what’s to come…

Review

HO BOY, do we have a LOOOT to talk about. So, we’re not gonna waste any time. Let's talk about Ironwood and his current plan.

Let's weigh both sides here. On the one hand, Ironwood’s plan… makes sense. At least logically. The plan to use Amity Colosseum to reestablish global communications is a sound one, and is something that should be done. Doing so could also help clean up Atlas’ tarnished image after all the recent decisions and after being painted as the bad guys at the Fall of Beacon. His plan about going public also does have a legitimately good point. What has keeping the fight secret solved? All they’ve ever been able to do is push Salem back, never stop her. The people deserve to know what’s actually happening, especially after the Fall where many got killed because of it. Ironwood is keeping it secluded to Atlas first and needs his forces ready for the fallout as well as all the ammo and safety precautions needed. It explains the Embargo. It explains the police state. It explains the closed borders. You can look at all of Ironwood’s actions, and it makes sense when you look at his plan. Chaos is going to break out, and he has to be ready for it.

But, of course, we have the other hand. For one, he’s depriving other kingdoms of safety and resources due to his actions, making it harder for them to protect themselves. And even then, Mantle is being treated like garbage, even though Ironwood should also be keeping them safe instead of acting like a dictator. Even if he accepts that as a necessary evil, there are better ways to help Mantle without making them terrified or feel like lower class. We saw last chapter that even children are fighting back against the drones and hanging up political posters. Children. That… is not a state that any city should be in. As Qrow said, they don't need the whole military for the Amity Colosseum, and there are better ways to prep troops without causing panic. Ironwood did this at the Fall when the Vale Council gave him control, and he had a huge army set out. The result? Well… I don’t think I need to recap that. He is doing the exact same as before, but without anyone there either capable or willing to talk back against him.

But now we get to the public plan. This is a horrible plan. As they said in V3, this breaks pretty much everything that the world ever knew and is going to cause mass panic. IDC if the army is ready for it, they are severely underestimating the results of this decision. Ones that are going to cost the kingdom. Badly. Like… brink of destruction levels of badly. Plus again, Ironwood is doing exactly what he did the last time. He’s opening the floor up for the exact same results. Even if they updated their coding, Watts will likely find a way through it. Look at how easily he did it in V3 with the virus he supplied Cinder. The same thing is bound to happen again, only this time I highly doubt that they’re going to get things under control until… well, there’s nothing left to take back.

This is insanely risky. Too risky. Now, could there be a way to break the news to the world without the same risks? I don’t know. But I do know that this is the wrong way to do it. It has too much room for error and doesn’t take into account any of the things that went wrong so badly last time. Then again, with Ironwood’s paranoia, who knows what else is going on that he just hasn’t said yet? Trust seems to be the theme of this volume, and Ironwood seem willing to give the gang his. But… IDK. Something feels off. There are some theories going around about him using the hug to bug Qrow, or bugging the Relic. IDK if I belive that, but I’m not ruling it out either. Maybe he does trust them, but the ‘what-ifs’ are too much in his mind and he can’t help himself. After all, as he said in V4, Oz didn’t listen to him. What’s going to stop anyone else from doing the same?

This is why I don’t blame Ruby for lying. Anyone can tell that Ironwood is on edge. How dangerous and reckless his current plans are. Ruby’s in no real position to argue, nor does she likely have an argument. So the best thing to do, until she can think of something better, is to go along with it and try to help the people. Yes, she is lying as Ozpin did. Some have argued how she didn’t technically lie since the train crash did happen and she did tell Ironwood what Ozpin told them, just as he asked. But it’s STILL not being truthful. She’s telling half-truths. She’s giving answers that she knows are false. Now I will say that this isn’t exactly like with Oz. Ruby is only lying to Ironwood and has a valid reason to do so, along with having very little time to think of much else. As she said before going in, they had to be careful with what they said, and she was. Oz lied and it wasn’t without reason, but he did so even without reason and to the people risking their lives for his quest that he didn’t explain the full extent of. Plus unlike Ruby, Oz had years to master the facade. Ruby had to make a split-second choice, and she was clearly uncertain about it in her body movement and in Lindsay’s performance. There is a big difference in this instance and in Ozpin’s instances.

But it’s a slippery slope, isn’t it?

No matter how much you justify it, it’s still lying. It’s doing the same thing that they called Oz out for in V6. I’m not calling Ruby a hypocrite though. Why? Because them doing this? This is a good thing. This is what I wanted to happen. Ruby is now the leader. She has to make difficult choices and face the consequences due to said choices. Previously, she only lead Team RWBY and she didn’t have to make many hard choices then. With Team RNJR, it was more or less the same except not as much since it wasn’t her team technically and when Qrow and Oz came into the picture, she didn’t have to make choices at all. She did as she was told because those who supposedly knew what they were doing were there, But then they were either gone or incapable of doing the job, so she stepped up and despite the setbacks, got them to Atlas with minimal consequence. I mean we just saw here that Ironwood let them free, so that solves that issue.

That’s not going to be so easy now. These choices are going to cause problems. Maybe Ironwood will find out on his own or if he did infact bug them. Maybe Ruby or someone else like Oscar will tell him the truth and he takes it badly. Maybe Ruby says nothing, and it leads to a disaster that she could have prevented if she had spoken up. No matter what route the show goes down, Ruby is about to get another harsh reality lesson, and that is how difficult leadership can be. This isn’t like at Beacon where if she messed up, they could solve it easily. No, this time she’s part of something much more complicated. She has to make the choices that Oz has had to make for centuries. I think that this will help her see where Oz is coming from and allow them to reconcile, but also allow Ruby to see where Oz went wrong and better herself. She’s not just going to understand Oz, but she’s going to become better than Oz. But that’s going to come with a lot of hardship, and it is something that she will have to deal with. Not just with herself, but chances are, with her team as well…

Okay, that’s enough on harsh and complicated topics. This is our general set-up episode, and it does a very good job! We have the plan for the arc established, setting up Amity Colosseum for launch and in the meantime doing work around Atlas and Mantle with Ace-Ops. We get to see Atlas Academy, and it looks gorgeous. We get to properly see Winter again, and Weiss hugging her just melted my heart. Makes me worry about later considering Winter’s loyalty to Ironwood and Weiss clearly not liking what’s happening, but still, I’ll take the happy for now. Penny was a delight, especially with the tour, which excellent animation there! Man, it’s just a joy to have her back~! Forest was fun and we learn about Robyn Hill and her group from him, which will likely come into play later. Especially since we can confirm that she’s going up against Jaques for council. That’s… gonna be interesting, to put it lightly.

This was Kiersi Buckhart’s first episode as a writer, and she nailed it! The exposition wasn’t boring and the characters felt very strong here, Ironwood especially. You know that he’s making bad choices, but the writing makes you understand why and that and Jason Rose’s’ performance as Ironwood was genuine with his views. I could understand all of these decisions, even if I don’t agree, and that’s what makes for good and compelling drama. It was strong in the character department and the pacing, os good job Kiersi! Connor Pickens directed the episode, and it looks excellent! Especially for all the camera angles as Watts walks through Mantle. Like when he steps into a puddle with the reflection of Ironwood on screen? Excellence!. Great job Connor~!

Speaking of that scene though… yeah, that was dark. No idea who Tyrian killed, maybe some kind of informant or something that's no longer needed. But man, what a grim (no pun intended) scene to end on. But it establishes the threat very well. Tyrian we all know is not a force to be taken lightly. But neither is Watts. He did his job in Mistral perfectly, and that only failed because of Cinder taking control and keeping Watts out of it after the new plan was made. But he’s the one in charge now and he is in his wheelhouse now. He has control over Mantle’s security, and if he could break Atlas’ before, he can probably do it again. And remember the Election Map that he had in the opening. IDK what the plan is, but with Watts heading it, it's gonna be bad. Add that with Tyrian, and we indeed have a lethal combination. Will our heroes be able to stop it? Only time will tell…

Chapter Three Predictions

It’s all but guaranteed that this is when we’ll get the new outfits, the haircuts, ad the new gear. It’ll probably be a bit of a lighter episode and maybe allow some nice character stuff and maybe even see the Ace-Ops more or see more around the Academy. But I do think that Ruby may have a bit of conflict as a follow-up to here. Remember the line in the trailer about her being uncertain about if the best thing is right? Well… IDK who she was talking to. Could be Oscar. Could be her team. Could be Qrow. IDK, but I imagine that it may very well bein this episode. Either someone confronts her (which judging by his expressions might be Oscar) or someone sees that something is wrong and get her to talk. Maybe it’s even part of some talk where Ruby expresses her uncertainty but tries to get spirits lifted and ignore her own conflicts as she normally does. Either scenario is possible.

Still, I imagine that it will be a lighter episode with some fun hijinks and maybe some emotional like Blake getting her haircut… or hilarious if they play up Jaune’s horrible haircut. Maybe we could get a bit of a glimpse into stuff with Robyn and the election or we see the Schnees again or something else. I think that it might end with the scenes in the trailer of the girls jumping out of the plane, ready for a mission, and it will lead to the scenes of everyone fighting in the mines that’ll cross into Chapter 4. Either way, as I said, we’re at least guaranteed the upgrades next volume and those are gonna be fun~! I can’t wait~!!!

Episode Stats

Favorite Character: Ruby Rose  Favorite Scene: Penny’s Tour Least Favorite Scene: The airlift to Atlas, the lighting looked kinda off to me… Forest was a delight though. Favorite Voice Actor: Jason Rose (James Ironwood) Favorite Animation: Final scene in Mantle. The camera angle when Watts is walking through Mantle in the rain were amazingly done, especially with Ironwood's reflection in the puddle. Final Ranking: 9/10

Final Thoughts

This chapter was fantastic! It’s a setup episode done very well. We learn all that we need to know for now, and it works with strong character personalities. It was funny, it was heartwarming, but most of all it was intense. THere’s a lot of good, compelling drama here and sets up so much for later on with Ruby, Ironwood, the villains, and the plans for Atlas. There’s a lot that’s coming, and if it’s already this intense then I can’t imagine how the remaining 11 chapters are gonna be. But I’m ready for it… I hope… still, great chapter!