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44 – Volume 7, Episodes 4, 5, and 6 | Table of Contents | 46 – Volume 7, Episodes 11 and 12
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Alternate Title: It's Still Good!
Well, uh. Huh.
There’s no easy way to say this, guys. Rooster Teeth decided the plot of Volume 7 of RWBY was going to be a recreation (with some dramatic and fantasy elements added) of certain real-world political events with massive consequences for the citizens of certain countries.
I’m…still baffled that they chose this route.
Penny is sitting on a chair in some sort of mechanic’s office made up to look like a hospital checkup room. A mechanical arm pats her on the head to try and comfort her, and a broadcast from Ironwood can be heard.
I: Citizens of Mantle: following the most recent Grimm attack, a temporary prohibition of assembly is in place. There are to be no public gatherings of any kind. Please conduct your business and return to your homes before curfew. This is for your own safety.
Well, this shit just got bad. We can see the citizens trying to deal with this and many stricken with fear. The footage Watts uploaded of Penny standing over a fallen Robyn is making the rounds, and damage control is trying to insist it was doctored, but it doesn’t matter—there’s enough people that saw it and now want Penny shut down.
One of Robyn’s Happy Huntresses has stopped a caravan—encasing it in a bubble of invisibility while two others remove the robotic guards from inside and steal it. Then Fiona, the girl with the lamb ears, places a hand on it—compacting it down to fit into a sort of pocket dimension.
Man, why the hell are all the cool powers going to characters we only met this season? We cut to Ironwood’s office, where he’s understandably losing his mind at how upside-down the world just got. Robyn’s forces are hitting the supply caravans with extreme precision, too—and her actions have ignited defiance in the suppliers, who are refusing to sell until Mantle’s security is improved. That puts the Amity project on hold entirely.
There’s only one way to finish the tower, but no one wants to go that far: martial law. Well, no one wants to, but…
N: You're not actually considering that, are you?
I: …What's more important? Establishing communications, unite the world? …Or appeasing a few city blocks?
Nora, aghast, calls Ironwood out on his diminishing of Mantle’s plight, as its citizens are suffering under all of these heavy restrictions already. She’s unusually fierce today, possibly being reminded of her own time in poverty.
I: We have all had to make sacrifices for the greater good. Mantle has had to bear a lot of the burden, yes, but—
N: They're bearing all of it! The longer this waiting game goes on, the harder each day gets for people down there and now you wanna send in more soldiers? You can't just force people to fall in line. If you do that, you'll just be trading all of these problems for the Grimm!
Ironwood looks ready to bark at Nora, but sits down instead, folding his hands over his face. Ren and Ruby say that strangling Mantle like that will only play into Salem’s game, and Ruby says that Tyrian has taken advantage of this strategy already. Clover brings that up, referring to her seeing him at the victory party he attacked. He brings up a file on Tyrian, which is…extensive.
If you slow down and read it, it basically details how he’s a batshit insane homicide enthusiast, and he has a record of violence across Mistral that got him locked up before he escaped. And now he’s one of Salem’s inner circle. Ruby’s thought for telling the people doesn’t go far—a long-lost serial killer is running amok in Mantle and the police have no leads? Wouldn’t get them anywhere good, according to Clover.
Prowling Wolf Fallacy: 16
Unfortunately, that does fall under the purview of the Prowling Wolf. Not warning people about an axe murderer in their neighborhood leaves them less scared but more vulnerable. I’m ashamed of you, Clover.
Nora expresses fury at more secret-keeping, but Ironwood brings the proceedings around: the Grimm, for a change, aren’t the only reason they can’t tell anyone about Amity and Salem. If they play their hand now, they let Salem’s goons in on it and risk them attacking the Colosseum CCT before it’s finished.
Ironwood gives orders that Robyn is to be taken into custody, and can be given a deal if she cooperates. Those not pursuing Robyn need to hunt down Tyrian. Ironwood asks if he’s clear—Clover and Winter immediately respond with ‘Yes sir!’, but to Ruby’s and Nora’s surprise, so does Ren.
We cut to the caravan holding Yang and Blake, listening to Clover’s transmission giving them instructions, them being on the hunt for Robyn. Yang is conflicted about having not told Ironwood about Salem’s immortality, and Blake is rather unhelpful about it.
Y: I trust Ruby, but I think he deserves to know what he’s stepping into. We all did.
Blake is not as sure, since she cites Ironwood’s measures in recent months as evidence that he’s prone to overreacting. Both are unsure of how much further they have left to go before ‘the right thing to do’ is lost on them.
Here’s a tip: giving people incomplete information will literally never end well. Ever.
Prowling Wolf Fallacy: 17
It’s not hard, guys. This lesson can only be nailed in so many times before the wood splinters.
Yang, having noticed Blake’s grim mood, says they did what they had to do—referring to their slaying of Adam Taurus. Blake understands this, but doesn’t want to have to go that far next time. And their current mission to apprehend Robyn leaves her very uneasy. I don't know why she's talking like this--Robyn is going to be arrested, not killed, and a deal is even on the table.
Y: Then, maybe we shouldn't.
Ohhhh no. Do not split up the team now.
We cut to Penny, in stasis, with Pietro finally present. She’s scared, he says, and though her recorded visual data should prove her innocence, it won’t really matter. We see a broadcast—confirming that Arthur has doctored the footage, which now shows Penny butchering civilians instead of Tyrian. Pietro is enraged, citing that Robyn would be dead if Penny hadn’t saved her.
Ruby doesn’t think Robyn was even the target, but rather just chaos and carnage and division and doubt. Pietro reports that the doctoring came from security networks all over Mantle, and Maria disdains the complications of technology in the background.
P: Well, if we're dealing with the same enemy from Beacon, hacking into Mantle's system would be easy. Fortunately, the rest of Atlas is running on an upgraded network.
W: And how would someone get access to that network?
P: (cleaning his glasses) Well, only a few people have clearance. Ironwood, the Council, our cybersecurity and surveillance leads, and maybe a select few who oversee critical systems like sewage or the heating grid.
Weiss smells something rotten.
W: The heating grid run in partnership with the Schnee Dust Company…?
Pietro’s focus on the global CCT has been shattered by the framing of Penny. He reminisces over how Penny came to be, Ironwood seeing something worthy in his desire to grant a soul to a machine. Then my jaw drops and I remove my glasses, cleaning them thoroughly before putting them back on, because sweet mother of Christ, they actually acknowledged the Penny Aura Problem.
I said back in Volume Three when the Amber-Pyrrha-maiden plot was going on that there was a remarkably juicy potential for plot when it came to how a soul got inside a robot, and my own suggestion was the removal of said soul from a dying daughter and its insertion into a new body. This isn’t quite the case here, but the eventual canon is close enough: Penny’s aura, her soul, is a piece of Pietro’s own. In order to rebuild her, he had to donate another portion of his aura, and he would have to do so again were she destroyed...which is what the people desire now, and Pietro doesn’t have enough of his own aura left to fix it if she were.
Ruby says they’ll find who’s responsible. But can they find a guy who should be dead?
We cut to Yang and Blake’s caravan. When Robyn stops it and opens it, she panics, and scrambles her forces despite Yang’s calls to wait. The two are forced to give chase—but Robyn knows the city far better than they do.
Blake has some success in catching up to Robyn, but much less in convincing her to stop and listen. Once Yang joins the fray, Robyn’s attempt to fight them goes south, but she’s stalled long enough for them to explain the situation.
You know, when I watched this for the first time, I said out loud “Bet you $5 Blake does the ribbon thing” 'cause I figured that was a sucker’s bet. And I was right.
Blake hesitates to spill the truth, until given the go-ahead by Yang. She talks about the Amity CCT, but Robyn responds that this doesn’t make sense. She offers her hand to one of them, saying time is short, and the two hesitate. Blake steps forward and takes her hand, and with a shimmer, Robyn’s aura flows between the two of them as she exerts her semblance. She asks Blake to tell her what’s going on in the Solitas tundra again, and when she does, Robyn determines that she’s telling the truth.
Robyn has to be caught up on not just this, but why Ironwood is hush hush about it. He wants to be able to tell the world the truth—but until he can, he has to make sure the enemy doesn’t know about the big megaphone he’s building. They don’t get as far as Tyrian and Salem before Ace Ops agents are closing in. Blake tells her to run and that they’ll throw them off, but as Robyn retreats into the darkness, Yang shows some doubt on her face before following Blake.
What exactly stopped them from doing this after Robyn was in custody? ...Sigh. They have to know this will bite them later, right?
We cut to Atlas Academy’s maiden vault, where the Staff of Creation lies behind a door. Ironwood was hoping that bringing Oscar down here might jolt Ozpin into joining the party, and he mentions that Ozpin used the Staff in the past to lift Atlas off the ground and into the sky. Ironwood, smiling, says that it was the inspiration that fueled the Amity project.
When asked why not use the Staff to raise Amity into the sky, Ironwood says that the Staff can only be used for one purpose at a time—so anyone that wants to use it would have to, in essentials, crash Atlas. So getting that thing out from behind that door is a big no-no (so naturally, that’s what’s eventually going to happen).
Os: It feels strange, knowing that part of me helped come up with all this.
I: You'll get used to it, I'm sure. Eventually, you won't even know who's who anymore.
This disturbs Oscar somewhat, understandably. Ironwood doesn't seem to realize he's said anything that would make Oscar uncomfortable. Unfortunately, I think that's another one of those schisms I mentioned before. Oscar's discomfort with being assimilated by Ozpin remains consistent with his prior fears, only now it's been referred to as "fusing" with Ozpin, which will continue to be the insistent terminology they use for the rest of the show, despite all evidence that Oscar's fears are very rational given all evidence is that Ozpin will overtake and replace him outright.
Ironwood continues to reminisce, saying that he wishes he knew what Ozpin thought of all this. Oscar himself thinks Ironwood is making a mistake, going at all of this with the pedal to the metal. Ironwood, walking back towards the elevator says that nothing matters more than stopping Salem. Not even retaining one’s humanity, Oscar says?
I: Sometimes I worry that's her greatest advantage. Without humanity, does she still feel fear? Does she ever hesitate? When Salem hit Beacon, even with all my ships, all of my soldiers... I was no match for her. I've never felt so helpless.
Ironwood flashes back to the Fall of Beacon, where Cinder, and by extension Salem, pretty much rubbed it in their faces that she got everything she wanted and they couldn’t stop her. He turns back to say he won’t end up like Lionheart, and asks if Oscar believes in him. Oscar says he does, but also believes he should talk things out with those he’s afraid to talk with. Ironwood says that Oscar sounds like Ozpin now.
We cut to a room in Atlas Academy, where Penny is fidgeting and Winter is pacing. When Ironwood gets out of the elevator, she hands him a sealed envelope. Inside is an invitation from Jacques Schnee to a dinner, wherein Ironwood will have to defend his own seat on the Council. The episode ends.
Weiss is openly detesting Jacques’ move to depose Ironwood and his fluffing it up for the cameras. Everyone sees through the bullshit—this is an opportunity for Jacques to embarrass and remove Ironwood, not open a dialogue. Smelling bullshit as always, she continues to be suspicious of Robyn’s failure to beat Jacques. When asked if she thinks her pops is working with Salem, she says that she’s sure he’d do whatever it took to win. Ruby says that they should have Weiss look around her house, since she can do so without suspicion. Despite Weiss’ hesitation, that’s the plan.
That night, limos roll up to Schnee mansion. RWBYJNPRQ, Penny, and the Ace Ops are all getting out, along with Ironwood and Winter, the latter of whom is not going to even try to hide her contempt for being here. 
Whitley answers the door, to the confusion of Weiss, who was expecting Klein. Klein was fired, naturally, because Jacques Schnee is an asshole. Most of the team here will be on standby, not at the dining table, as Ironwood says. Whitley welcomes them in.
And then he leads Ironwood, Winter, Clover, and Penny to the dining room to meet Jacques. Qrow gets a vaguely gay moment with Clover that makes me squint--
C: [Calling over his shoulder to Qrow as he leaves] Wish us luck.
Q: Heh, I mean they already invited you, didn't they? [Smiling]
C: [Stops walking to turn back and smile at him.]
because Clover literally being lucky notwithstanding, that's pretty much flirting--before Qrow's offered a drink by a server, which he refuses. I’m proud of him. He opts to patrol the grounds, thus leaving the scene for the timebeing.
The remaining Ace Ops follow him, and give RWBY and Oscar instructions to be on their guard while being careful. With that in mind, Weiss heads off to do her espionage, but is held up by Whitley. In the dining hall, Ironwood and friends sit down at Jacques’ table. Two Councilmen are here, as is Robyn Hill. Jacques opens up the talk with knives by raising ‘concerns’ about Penny’s presence there.
RWB and Oscar are kind of just sitting there awkwardly, watching Weiss awkwardly chat with Whitley, who has obviously been put in place to keep Weiss from meddling in anything. Yang is bemused as to why Whitley won’t leave her alone, and JNR, who are also here despite having vanished for a few minutes, take to causing a scene to mix things up a little, and Nora, holding a huge plate of food, not-so-accidentally bumps into Ren for some cuh-razy chaos that will surely remove Whitley. Unfortunately, a plump rich lady gets in the way of the intended target of mess. This ends up not mattering, since she promptly spills her wine all over Whitley in her wailing in distress. So, mission failed successfully. Whitley, covered in wine, is forced to leave Weiss in peace.
The Councilmen and Robyn are skewering Ironwood for the tactics he’s held onto. Though their recommendations to open borders and relax the dust embargo are well-meaning, Ironwood, even when given a chance to speak, can’t afford to tell them the truth. Jacques, meanwhile, takes every opportunity to present Ironwood as a paranoid, secretive dictator, killing their country with his nefarious ways. Winter, meanwhile, is steadily losing her patience.
J: Are you saying you don’t trust us?
W: [slamming her fist onto the table] You can’t just buy trust like everything else! You have to earn it!
Her outburst is immediately used against their case, and Jacques leads into the matter used to depose Ironwood—the Council no longer trusts him. The failures to actually capture the culprits of the attacks at Beacon and on Ironwood’s critics is taken as proof he’s not up to the task. Winter tries to argue, but Ironwood stops her, and she leaves the room.
Meanwhile, Weiss walks through the lonely halls of her home, stopped only for a moment by a suspicious server walking alone through the manor, and makes her way into her father’s study…where she’s caught by her mother.
Winter, brooding in a corner elsewhere, is approached by Penny, who asks if she’s okay. We get a very cool bit of character interaction where Winter, after saying she wouldn’t understand, has to explain to a dismayed Penny that it’s not one of 'those things' Penny’s naivete isn’t ready for. This house, she says, is just a bad environment for Winter. Regretting that she lost control, Winter is nonetheless consoled by Penny, who thought she sounded fine. Winter responds to Penny’s assessment—that she was speaking from her heart—by saying that that’s the problem. Penny essentially says she doesn’t get that kind of attitude, and leaves. Winter is left to consider Penny’s openness versus her own strict style.
In the study, Willow Schnee, a bottle of alcohol in hand, does bother to ask why Weiss is in her father’s study, but is easily deflected. Unfortunately, she’s deflected onto Weiss’ leaving Atlas at the end of Volume Four. Weiss tries to cut around her to get to her father’s computer, but is held up by Willow’s questions. She clearly doesn’t have much use for her mother at this point, although the latter does—after a sip of wine—mention that Jacques has started locking his home computer. Though, she says, he does still have blind spots—and she gets a scroll, which is plugged into cameras all over the house. Cameras are in every room in the house, which is not made any less creepy when Willow admits to doing that herself. She doesn’t manage to explain why before cutting herself off, asking if Weiss is planning on leaving again. And yes, she is. Willow only says that’s good, apparently having reached the decision that Weiss shouldn’t suffer her father’s crap anymore, though she cries nonetheless.
Ww: A man came by… I’m afraid your father may be involved in something more dangerous than he realizes.
She leaves Weiss to peruse the scroll, only bidding that she please not forget Whitley. Weiss, by herself, takes a moment to remember Whitley’s situation, before turning to the footage of the unknown man in her father’s study.
Out in the rain, Watts stands on a rooftop. With the flick of a button on his scroll, he shuts down the heating grid to Mantle. The city’s lamps and lanterns turns off, and the rain turns back to snow. A child at his window marvels to his mother that it’s snowing, with no idea of what that means. The episode ends.
The title is an obvious reference to the freezing weather of Solitas being brought to Mantle.
Citizens are running into Pietro’s clinic, a safe haven for warmth. Everyone is confused on why the heat has gone down. Pietro and Maria look at each other, then up at the underside of Atlas.
Back in the Schnees’ dining hall, the Councilmen are basically telling Ironwood he’s out, dude. A server walks in, and whispers into Jacques’ ear, letting him know about the heat grid—which appears to have been shut down with Jacques’ own authorization. Robyn, meanwhile, will not let up about Ironwood hiding everything. When Ironwood dares to say he isn’t hiding anything, Robyn gets him in the trap—stick his hand in hers, and see if he passes the lie detector test. The problem is obvious--Ironwood can't disclose everything to her, especially in a public place like this, but if he denies her, it'll be taken as evidence he's lying. However, before Ironwood can be shanghaied, Weiss bursts in and gets the truth out! Thank god. This was edging a little too close to an HBO plot for me.
W: I know who's been framing Ironwood, who rigged the election. And my father does, too. He's been working with him.
Get ‘em, Weiss!
She presents the footage of Arthur Watts in Jacques’ study, and Ironwood, furious and safe to speak, tells Weiss to play it. She does, and Jacques’ meeting with Watts plays in full.
W: James Ironwood never recognized my genius. After everything I gave him, he still disgraced me. I simply wish to return the favor.
J: What’s in it for me?
W: A seat on the council. All I need is your login credentials for the Atlas network. You promise to make Ironwood's life a waking nightmare, and I will guarantee you victory at the polls by giving the voters down in Mantle a little… "digital push", if you will.
Ironwood crosses the room, and Winter’s eyes narrow dangerously. Robyn, similarly, is pissed.
J: I always knew you were a good scientist, Arthur... but I never knew you were such a good salesman.
Ironwood’s heard all he needs to hear. Weiss halts the video and Jacques is left stammering his defenses, and then…makes a break for it.
But Weiss will have none of it. Her Knight summon blocks the doorway, and she declares her father under arrest. She is, after all, a licensed huntress. Would that all cheats met their ill fortunes so soon.
But down in Mantle, civil unrest is mounting. Looters are robbing dust from the closed-up stores to make bonfires, and the rage against Atlas is rising with the flames.
Watts watches the chaos, and Tyrian joins him.
Back in the dining hall at Schnee manor, Ironwood breaks down Arthur Watt’s entire role in this, right down to framing Penny—and, what’s more, Watts' access has only increased, since Jacques’ upgraded security gives him backdoor access to Atlas’ network, giving him the power to screw up much more. Jacques’ pathetic attempts at weaseling out of trouble piss Robyn off, and one of the Councilmen asks what else Watts could do now with his access, and Ironwood’s answer?
I: Whatever he wants.
Well, fuck.
The bigwigs’ phones start to buzz, letting them know the heat in Mantle went down. Winter demands Jacques fix this mess, but that servant from before? Apparently brought news that Jacques’ already been locked out. Ruby asks how bad it is, and Ironwood determines that Amity’s CCT project is still a secret for now, but Watts is already starting to flood the Atlas network with his hacks, locking them out, too. Ironwood determines that the only way to stop Watts is to find his access point and force him out in the open. Robyn is apparently of a very one-track mind, because she’s still focused on why the Amity project is being kept secret, apparently not having realized that it’s because evil lunatics like Watts would sabotage it.
Down in Mantle, Pietro and Maria are watching the rioting get worse. The security robots that try to enforce order are smashed with pipes and hammers, and before long, the sirens are wailing: the Grimm are coming.
The small Goliaths that wander ("Megoliaths") the tundra are storming forward in a huge herd, and the Atlesian military are having little success fending them off, with the Grimm charging forward with greater viciousness as they go. The walls are broken through, and yet more dangerous forms of Grimm begin to emerge. It’s just like Beacon all over again.
Robyn, who has finally gotten the picture that Ironwood is working to protect the people, wants to demand the truth, but no time—the Grimm are storming Mantle. Ironwood, overcome with everything he was trying to prevent unfolding before him, wishes Ozpin were around to give advice, but Oscar probably has the better advice: Yeah, Ozpin probably would’ve encouraged Ironwood’s dependency on secrecy. But Oscar sees sense--he may as well be open, since everything’s going to hell in a handbasket anyway, and Ruby assures him he’s not alone. Thanking them, Ironwood directs Oscar back to the academy, and then starts spilling the beans about Salem to the Councilmen and Robyn. The rest, he sends down to Mantle, with himself ready to take down Tyrian and Watts. Ruby rises to the occasion, welcoming Penny into the fight as well—no better time than now to redeem her broken reputation. As they storm out of the building, a green-eyed waitress watches them go…
Ruby and Oscar, on their way out, have their own little awkward moment where they realize that yeah, if Ironwood’s spilling, they probably should, too. Oscar returns to the study to do so, while Ruby goes off to fight.
In the airship headed down to Mistral, Clover stresses that they’re saving the citizens, not just killing Grimm. Nora takes Ren’s hand. On the other side of the aisle, Yang looks like she might take Blake’s, but she doesn’t. And the airship’s flight through the skies is followed by a very large, winged beast…
In the manor, the Councilmen are trying to handle the truth about Salem. But Ironwood, now confronted with the truth of her immortality, is short-circuiting. Oscar’s assurance that they decided to tell him before he made any, ahem, sacrifices…well, you can imagine that turning up a few too many results in Ironwood’s brain, too. Oscar asks what he plans to do.
I: I… All we can do for the moment is what we can to save Mantle. That's what's in front of us.
Os: He'd be proud of you. You're bringing the hope that Atlas was meant to inspire. A city in the sky is held to a higher standard.
I: You say that... like you were there—
Ironwood’s scroll beeps. Their ride is here, and as Oscar makes to leave, Ironwood begs no more surprises of him.
In the skies over Mantle, the airship RWBY are in is being assaulted.
Weiss is doing something to try and deter it, but the Grimm is clinging to the ship and clawing through the very walls. Another draconic Grimm aims a fire blast down at the ship, severely damaging it. Will everyone survive this assault? Well, not if they stay in this sinking ship. Clover opens the door, and the Grimm screeches at him, ready to bite, only for a piece of the damaged engine to break off and smack it in the face.
Invisembl: 12
Everyone starts jumping out of the airship, Ruby included.
LuLaRwe: 37
They’ve fixed so much this volume, I shouldn’t ask for more, but I need them to fix Ruby’s fugly-ass semblance blob.
We return to the Schnee mansion yet again to check on Whitley, who is alone in the entry hall, watching his father be shuffled into a police caravan. His mother, watching, turns to face him, and Whitley storms upstairs.
Two servants seem particularly preoccupied with all of this. One of them, the green-eyed girl from before, starts skipping along merrily… She makes her way to a secret room in the Schnee manor, locked with a keypad she seems to know the code to.
Naturally, this servant is Neo, meeting up with Cinder.
Cinder asks if she’s found what they’re looking for. Neo, returning to her 'sexy magician's assistant' outfit that I hate so much,
LuLaRwe: 38
considers for a moment before smiling. The episode ends, but we shall do one more.
Chaos reigns in Mantle as the Grimm storm in.
Our heroes are intervening, Nora leading the charge by smashing a sabertooth Grimm into a pancake. Weiss and Marrow are ready to assist as more tigers storm in. Blake, meanwhile, is running for her life, chased by tigers and pumas and goddamn Megoliaths.
She leaves dust-filled clones to kill and trip up her pursuers, but that Goliath is not slowing down. It takes intervention from Harriet and Yang to put it down.
Blake is really going to have to learn to use her goddamn sword again, guys. That, or find a different weapon. She really couldn’t have thought to grapple up onto a building? The one time the ribbon nonsense would've helped?
She directs the citizens nearby, children included, to head to the nearest shelter. Said shelters are going to be filled to capacity soon, says Yang, but it’s all they’ve got until the Grimm are cleared out.
Elsewhere, Qrow and Clover are killing Grimm together. Well, Qrow is. Clover’s on the phone, and doesn’t answer when Qrow asks if they have new orders. We cut back to the street where Weiss and Nora are fighting, and Weiss seems to be going strong, but Nora is fading. Everyone is exhausting themselves trying to defend the citizens. The ones Nora is guarding demand to be taken to Atlas, as the situation out here is clearly too extreme. Nora is obviously not equipped to handle this, but she’s saved the trouble by a broadcast from Robyn, who exercises her sway over the populace.
Her broadcast zooms out to show Ironwood, and she displays the link between their hands demonstrating that he’s telling the truth. She lets him speak, filling the population in.
I: An ancient and terrible evil lies outside of our kingdom.
We see several cuts of the heroes fighting the Grimm, fighting to save lives, while Ironwood and Robyn together tell the world about Salem, and what she’s done to Beacon, and to Haven, and what she wants to do to Mantle as well.
Ironwood lets everyone know that her underlings are in the city now, and back in the Schnee mansion, Cinder and Neo panic just a little. But it’s Tyrian and Arthur he names, calling them out as responsible for the recent murders and sabotaging the heating grid.
I: But we cannot let ourselves give in to fear and panic. That is what she wants! Instead, we must unite, and fight back, together. Every single one of us!
Yes!!!
In the street held in check by Vine, Jaune starts issuing orders, commanding the civilians to get moving calmly and in an orderly fashion, his voice a form of security for the citizens. As Ironwood comes clean about the diverting of resources and the embargo, Jaune boosts Ren’s semblance, masking the citizens’ presences so they can escape the Grimm safelty.
He tells everyone that Amity Colosseum’s tower is now completed and ready to launch. Arthur, in his hidey hole with Tyrian, is baffled that James managed to keep that project secret from him. Ironwood says that everyone in Mantle will soon be evacuated to Atlas, and James is moving all security that was being used to guard the Colosseum down to Mantle until it’s clear.
Robyn gets the final word, rallying her people to unite together to defeat Salem, and claiming full support of Ironwood’s plan. Nora turns around, seeing the citizens, once angry and scared, now cheering and reinvigorated.
Tyrian is raging that the Grimm were supposed to destroy their enemies, not make them friendly. But Watts has an idea.
W: Our tin soldier’s heart has cost him his mind.
Whatever he’s going to do is going to be done up in Atlas, so he wants attention on Mantle for as long as possible—so Tyrian has some work to do. He looks up at the ongoing broadcast, where Robyn is promising to oversee evacuation efforts in Sector 17. So now, he has a target.
Cinder, meanwhile, is pissed that her thunder in the Atlas arc has been stolen by Tyrian and Watts, when she had thought Vacuo would be Salem's next target. Cinder does some quick math, and then orders Neo to get the lamp from Oscar. Neo manifests a Ruby disguise, but Cinder balks—they get what she needs for Salem first, then kill Ruby. Neo is adamant, but Cinder has an idea—she just needs to get to the winter maiden. Ironwood, after all, will spring into action if she’s threatened.
Down in Mantle, the defense effort is renewed, many more airships coming to aid than there were before. Many land, welcoming in civilians. Some sort of green beam flies overhead?
Things get bad when the Megoliaths stampede down the street towards the rescue ships, but Elm (the lady with the sticky feet) intervenes, transforming her war hammer—already bigger than Nora’s—not into a grenade launcher, but a missile launcher.
Elm blasts the Megoliaths to smithereens. The citizens cheer her, and her smile at them is marred by the launching sound of another green beam overhead. What’s going on?
Down another street, Ruby’s path to get her citizens to a safe shelter is promptly blocked by a Goliath that’s not so very miniature, and looks very mean. It charges, but then a green beam blasts it—Penny Polendina has arrived to help! And what does Ruby do? She thinks of all the people in this city, those she wants to protect…but she doesn’t get very far before realizing she doesn’t quite have the concentration for the silver eye blasts at the moment. She opts to do what Maria told her and rely on her training and semblance right now.
LuLaRwe: 37
She tries to assist Harriet and Penny, but Penny is thrown some block or two away when she tries to embed her knives in the Goliath’s headplate while in mid-air, not being able to anchor herself and getting tossed away like trash.
She’s fine, though. What is not fine is that the movement of Penny’s knives and their sound design is all off. They not only move in not nearly the crisp and sleek way they used to, but their lovely shing! And whirrr! sounds are absent. I hate that. Fuck you.
Your Fight Scene Sucks: 117
Ruby has a plan. We cut to a street away, where Harriet is alone and struggling to hold back the Goliath. An attempt to stop it in its tracks only ends with her mechanical sleeves failing and her aura broken.
Penny blasts the Goliath in the face to keep it from trampling Harriet, reminding me that she could just merge all of her lasers into one giant ‘fuck you’ laser of death, so…
Your Fight Scene Sucks: 118
Seriously—how may of those points do you think would fall under “Forgot About His Powers” if we had a count for that?
Surprise! Penny actually does exactly that—but the point is still staying because the beam only stalls the Goliath, as if this same massive laser didn’t completely carve apart two airships the first time we saw her use it.
LuLaRwe: 38
Penny separates a few lasers in order to focus fire on one of the Grimm’s tusks, heating it so that it’s stressed far enough that Ruby can cut it off. Once she does, she uses her scythe to trip up the Grimm and make it impale itself on its own tusk.
The civvies are saved! And many crawl out of their hiding spaces to cheer on Penny, who has been seen acting as the protector of Mantle once again. She radios in to let everyone know their sector is safe, and Robyn sends her Happy Huntresses off to start the evacuations, while she checks for stragglers.
In other words, she’s Tyrian-bait now.
He drops down, surprising her on the street, and the subsequent engagement looks like it will end poorly for her…but a savior comes in the form of Clover!
Well, Clover and his new boyfriend Qrow. It looks like these two got the orders to keep watch on Robyn, especially should Tyrian show up. He’s obviously outmatched…but let’s face facts, is he even going to get away if he tries to split?
While this is happening, an airship is making its way up to Amity Colosseum. Moments later, Watts is walking its empty, undefended halls, duffel bag in hand. He makes his way to the arena, where he says it’ll do for whatever he’s planning, though he wouldn’t call it finished. However, he hasn’t done anything before the doors to the arena seal shut, and a voice resounds over the intercom:
I: Arthur Watts.
That’s the sound of a very pissed General James Ironwood. Perhaps we can look forward to #Irondaddy making his first comeback since Volume 3?
He lands on the arena floor with an echo that sounds distinctly like thunder rumbling, and a grin grows on my face because despite knowing the shitty way this volume ends, it's still hard not to get hype for this fight.
Arthur, far from any indications he can’t fight, tosses his duffel bag straight out of the arena. Watts sneeringly remarks on the technological marvels of the arena, one of which being the biome system—which he turns on and takes control of, the rings on his fingers glowing. He blocks a bullet from Ironwood with some kind of miniature glowing barrier.
I: You always were a pain in the ass.
Please let Ironwood curse more, Rooster Teeth. Please make him as foul-mouthed as any military captain. Please.
As every biome panel on the arena floor lands on some kind of purple landmass, Watts starts dodging bullets.
He dives beneath the rising arena flooring, and when the panels rise, he’s standing on the high ground, the landscape resembling something akin to the training halls our heroes used while at Atlas, the "gravity" biome that was allegedly planned for Volume 3 but never made it in. Watts unveils his very own revolver, and does not intend to go quietly.
This stops our third post in a row at a solid 14 pages. Next time you see me, I imagine we’ll finish the finale, but who knows?
Counts:
- Jaune: 67
- It Was Right There: 52
- Fauxminism: 50
- Hypocrisy: 36
- Reliable Leaders: 40 + 15
- Prowling Wolf Fallacy: 17
- Threatening Enemies: 33
- Love to Be a Part of It Someday: 75
- Your Fight Scene Sucks: 118 + 33
- Evisceration Evasion: 34
- Ill Logic: 138
- Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Veil: 52 + 62
- Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge: 29
- Band-Aid Brigade: 33
- RSVP: 70
- Road to Nowhere: 24
- Y.A.S. Queen: 16
- Rooster Tease: 20
- LuLaRwe: 38
- The Lovegood Fallacy: 12
- How to Piss Off Gay People: 36
- Invisembl: 12
- Broke-Ass Clowns: 27
- Shut the Fuck Up: 7
____________________
44 – Volume 7, Episodes 4, 5, and 6 | Table of Contents | 46 – Volume 7, Episodes 11 and 12
no subject
Date: 2023-10-07 07:50 am (UTC)From:I suppose, particularly if you're an American, there's a consolatory fantasy aspect to having the Trump analogue get exposed and brought to justice so quickly, and before he can do any real damage, but - leaving aside how good Jacques is as an actual Trump analogue - I find this whole bit a massive anticlimax. This is Weiss' dad, her nemesis, he's been lurking in the background of her story since Volume 2, if not one, as a reason why she is the way she is, an obstacle for her to overcome... and her mother just hands her the evidence that she needs to bring him down without Weiss having to really do anything.
I'd just rather Weiss had to be a little bit more proactive and actually work for the win a bit.
All of which being said, the little bit about Whitley, and 'you left him here, with us' was a nice touch (and in general the character work with Whitley is one of the best things about Vols7&8).
Also, why does Ironwood roll up with his entire crew to the party and why does Whitley/Jacques let them all i? Especially dressed like that?
Before the volume came out there was some belief, on the basis of a misinterpreted tweet by Arryn, that there would be a fancy Atlas party and that Blake and Yang would wear fancy outfits and dance together in more Beauty and the Beast references (Whiterose fans were hopeful that Ruby and Weiss would also dance, possibly after Ruby gave Jaune a pity dance when she saw him all on his own Being Sad About Pyrrha) and as much as I don't care for Bumblebee I honestly think that would have been a big improvement over Yang and Blake getting into Jacques' mansion while wearing a UPS driver's uniform and a fetishwear catsuit respectively.
They probably couldn't have worn dresses because they had to go and fight straight afterwards, but they could have worn something a little more smart casual (I mean, they managed to make alternate outfits way back in V2, and that didn't have as much money as the later volumes).
no subject
Date: 2023-10-07 11:29 am (UTC)From:Oh, definitely. Would that Trump could've been ousted so quickly and without the disregard for criminality we had to endure for that long.
While I agree Weiss could've had to work a little harder for it, or at least played a more direct role in it, I don't mind because at this point (as far as we knew at the time, at least), the story isn't over. In the same way that Raven was sort of Yang's personal villain (Adam notwithstanding), but is still around to cause trouble in the future, Jacques' defeat here was a battle won, not a war. Jacques as Weiss' personal villain is tied to the SDC, and Weiss' ultimate defeat of him would have to tie into her redeeming of the family company later on. Jacques being in jail and not (yet) dead meant that he could foreseeably menace her again later, so I took this victory and cheered.
I also really like the final nail in the coffin for him, which is the Knight she summons to block the door. A bit of poetic justice, since Jacques was the one who made her fight that knight ages ago to block her from leaving Atlas, and now she's using it to block him from leaving the scene of arrest.
The Council are present and security details like that are common in the real world when a nation's leadership needs to meet. It looks like a lot of people because this is RWBY and that many characters aren't usually all in one frame at the same time, but it's really not as many as it seems.
Urgh, I remember that. I really do not care for the Bumbleby profligations that happened around this time, and all the off-the-wall theories about how Yang would just sweep Blake off her feet and/or save her leading to epic romance. "Blake gets attacked by racists in Atlas and Yang beats them up" comes to mind.
Not too charmed by the new outfits then, I take it?
no subject
Date: 2023-10-07 05:16 pm (UTC)From: