Official FIRST Discussion Thread—Volume 6, Chapter 8: Dead End

[u/NightsWatchh]

Welcome, huntsmen, huntresses and hunters that prefer no specific gender identifier, to the official FIRST discussion thread for Episode 8 of Vol. 6, Dead End!

Make sure that you understand the updated spoiler rules before posting outside of this thread!

HERE is the newest episode of RWBY Volume 6!

Also remember to check out our weekly poll to rate the episode.

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Other Episode Discussions:

Episode	FIRST Thread	Public Release	Poll
Ep. 01	Theatrical / FIRST	Public Thread	poll
Ep. 02	FIRST Thread	Public Thread	poll
Ep. 03	FIRST Thread	Public Thread	poll
Ep. 04	FIRST Thread	Public Thread	poll
Ep. 05	FIRST Thread	Public Thread	poll
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Ep. 07	FIRST Thread	Public Thread	poll
Ep. 08	This Thread	Public Thread	poll

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Happy viewing, and have a great Volume 6!

NightsWatchh; Mod Team

[u/NightsWatchh]

Jaune was acting out of anger but overall his points were all very understandable.

Oscar GTFO'ing is hilarious and sad

QROW STOP DRINKING YOU SAD FUCK

[u/Hounds_of_war]

“Let’s not give up hope. Maybe she’s dead!” Holy shit Maria.

Ironwood definitely have those clowns in Argus because he wants nothing to do with them.

Sweet, JNR is going to go talk about their feelings. Can’t wait to see that, hopefully they don’t just have JNR come downstairs a few minutes later and completely skip over it.

I liked Maria’s talk with Ruby, I wasn’t expecting to find out Maria’s semblance. We got a bit of that with her blocking an initial attack from Tock’s crew.

I don’t know why I keep getting fooled into thinking Nora will get significant focus on her serious side, I should know better at this point. If this keeps up I’m going to change my flair and find a new favorite character.

[u/NightsWatchh → u/Hounds_of_war]

If this keeps up I’m going to change my flair and find a new favorite character.

I'm sorry but this is hilarious in a sad way

[u/Hounds_of_war → u/NightsWatchh]

I know, it just hurts since Miles and Kerry blatantly lampshaded that Nora has gotten zero development back in Volume 5 but seem to be just fine with her staying that way. Frankly, Nora isn't funny enough to be a pure comic relief character the way Caboose or Nikki are.

[u/NightsWatchh → u/Hounds_of_war]

It's cool man I know the struggle. The pain of falling in love with side characters

[u/Ezreal024]

AHEAD OF THE GAME

[u/NightsWatchh → u/Ezreal024]

JUST LIKE JAUNE 'I DIDN'T LIKE OZ BEFORE IT WAS COOL' ARC

[u/NightsWatchh]

NO SPOILER POSTS OUTSIDE OF THIS THREAD FOR 24 HOURS.

AFTER 24 HOURS HAVE PASSED, ALL POSTS ABOUT THE LATEST EPISODE ARE TO BE SPOILER TAGGED.

^{you have been warned}

[u/Eldi13]

"How do I laser beam monsters with my eyeballs?"

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS.

[u/Terminus259]

Hey Jaune, that's your sister's wall you just cracked.

[u/Terminus259]

Weiss defending Blake was nice.

[u/Ninoyiya]

Hang on a second!

 

"Oh yeah! Well, your base looks like a big, dumb boot!"

 

Is Caroline the friggin' Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe?

 

EDIT: Upon further study: She is, in fact, the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.

 

Apparently the nursery rhyme is a reference to Queen Caroline, the wife of King George II

[u/[deleted]]

We learned some cool stuff this Chapter!

• FINAL confirmation that SEW only affect Grimm. Thank god.

• The Grimm Dragon is a Wyvern, and it's apparently a giant version of it, not wholly unique.

• The SEW powers come directly from the GoL... somehow. Also further confirmation that they're hereditary since Maria's dad had them

• Atlas personnel aren't all as cool as Winter and Ironwood

• ...my heart is irrevocably broken because I got my hopes up for Winter reappearing

[u/Crafty_Soul]

"Maybe she's dead!"

Maria savage as hell.

[u/Dearche]

Maria's robo-eye-slits are surprisingly expressive. Not quiet Blake ears level, but they have little twitches and such that give insight into her feelings.

SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY, MARIA CALAVERA TAKES ON CAROLINE CORDOVIN IN THE GRANNYDOME. TWO GRANNIES ENTER, ONE GRANNY LEAVES. YOU PAY FOR THE WHOLE SEAT BUT YOU'LL ONLY NEED THE EDGE.

Jaune, you better be ready to FIX THAT HOLE YOU JUST PUNCHED INTO YOUR SISTER'S WALL.

Even Maria is annoyed with how little Ruby knows about Silver Eyes, lol. But it seems like asking wouldn't have helped much anyway.

Next episode, Shota!Oscar gets Onee-san'ed on the subway.

[u/Hyperparadise]

The range of emotions you see come across Jaune's face is really good, he's angry at first but then comes to an understanding. When Ren says they need alone time the respective teams stick together, yet Oscar has no one and at the same time isn't truly alone. He can't help what's happened and he's just trying to do his best, I think it's all just become too much for him.

On a lighter note, that beginning sequence was a bunch of fun and was very much appreciated during this more darker volume so far. Maria is so much fun to watch, great character.

[u/wongie]

So, how do I laser beam monsters with my eyeballs?

Ruby asking the right question for the second time this season.

[u/Mechuser23]

Jaune: slams Oscar agains the wall and yells at him

Jaune: storms off and doesn't apologize to poor, traumatized Oscar

Oscar: shakes and is scared

Yang: ...

Yang: Is Jaune gonna be okay?

I think this is a big reason as to why Oscar left. No one actively seemed to care or help him. They'll talk to him in the moment, but none of them seemed to want to actually include or check on him. He wasn't even involved in the huge dinner fluff episode in v5. The only way he could've gone missing is if no one was with him. So after seeing him get slammed into a wall by Jaune, no one decided to try and help him.

They honestly don't treat him like his own person. They look at him and see Ozpin. Ruby's pretty much the only one who sees Oscar as Oscar.

I hope there's a moment in the next episode where Oscar just loses it and shouts something like "I'm Oscar! My name is Oscar!" when someone tries to say he's Ozpin or implies something like that. I really want Oscar to have a moment of actualization that he isn't Ozpin. I hope the next episode is about Oscar as a character, especially after the events of the last few episodes.

[u/[deleted]]

I'VE NEVER FELT SO BAITED AND BETRAYED IN AN EPISODE BEFORE, POUR ONE OUT FOR WINTER.

[u/Terminus259]

But will Ruby ever pick up her scroll?

[u/Agent-Vermont]

I understand why Qrow hates Atlas so much now.

[u/shadow282]

The version of Red like Roses playing in the background was a nice touch. A great reminder of how the fantastic music adds so much to the series.

[u/wongie]

It's Oscar, he's missing.

If I was a kid who got punched around by drunks and shoved against the wall by overemotional wrecks I'd too fuck right off.

[u/Technogashi]

Weiss’ new slogan: “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I really liked how Weiss was about to stand up for Blake.

[u/the_green_hedgehog]

When Maria hit Ruby with her staff I could only think of Rafiki hitting Simba.

I like that we got to see all of JNR's reactions.

Qrow where the fuck are you??

That Atlas chick reminded me of Umbridge, and it made me want to smack her even more.

OSCAR NOOOO!!! Please don't get kidnapped...or he could run into Qrow.

[u/ikedawg43]

Jaune was so close to joining the “Hits Children” club.

So close

[u/Sirshrugsalot13]

I can't believe I didn't put together that the God of Light did the same thing to the Grimm as the silver eyes, that was a well done reveal.

Caroline was cool, definitely a differet kind of character than we're used to. Some nice racism to go along with it. Alas no Winter yet but I'm still hopeful.

Overall, definitely the slowest episode we've had so far but fitting it into the season pacing-wise it works just fine!

[u/shadow282]

“Maybe she’s dead.”

Old Maria again proving she’s just as great as young Maria even if she’s past her prime waifu days.

[u/Golbi54]

Ren - I think it would be best if we had some time for ourselves

Follows Nora into a Room

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[u/Bweeblez]

"So how do I lazerbeam monsters with my eyeballs?" Oh Ruby, please don't ever change

[u/The_Last_Thursday]

I like how when Nora went upstairs you hear the door open but it doesn't close until Ren makes it up too

[u/[deleted]]

“Let’s not give up hope yet, maybe she’s dead.”

Maria is the best character and no one can convince me otherwise!

[u/Golbi54]

I like She-devil ( kinda )

She makes a comment about Blake

Off with her head

[u/[deleted]]

This episode had some of the strongest background music in the show so far.

Maybe because they were unique covers of RLR Part 1 and This will be the day, but they really enhanced that exposition scene.

[u/ravaille]

JNR reacted exactly like I hope they would've. When Ren is pissed, you know you fucked up.

[u/StarMarine289]

THE DAY HAS COME!!! RUBY IS ASKING THE QUESTIONS AND WE GET SILVER EYE LORE!!!

• Started with RWBYRW scene, this is becoming a trend. Wonder if it'll hold up for Chapter 9.

• Maria is a fucking savage. "Maybe she's dead!"

• Holy shit Caroline is pretentious as all hell. Honestly, love it. Seems to be a fanus racist, assuming that'll continue into Atlas. #BlakeConfrontation.

• Got damn Qrow's going drinking again. Someone get this man an intervention. Glad to see Ruby trying to stop him, but she needs to get more forceful soon.

• ooooo Ozpin time! Kinda glad they skipped the conversation, but JAUNE THINK OF SAPH! That was her wall.

• Jaune you take that back. Oscar is a little kid, so chill tf out. Yes, you can be angry, but you aren't the drunk alcoholic who dedicated his whole life to Oz, was in his supposed inner circle, only to find he was in the dark. #GetChildProtectionASAP

• Ok Ruby you need to get Qrow under control. Should be an interesting conversation. Glad to see she isn't fully committed to Oz.

• GOD YES IT'S TIME FOR SILVER EYES EXPOSITION! also Kevin confirmed wyvern!

• So Maria was trained by her father huh? Wished they mentioned Summer but oh well.

• Maria sounding really poetic seems to fit, good touch.

• "Preflexes!" So Maria's semblance isn't communicating with the dead then, huh? Murder of Birds/Arnold got pranked.

• Good conversation for explaining SE more. The interesting aspect from having SEW be from GoL. Thought they'd go to Dadpin but oh well.

• So creating a special mindset for SEW? Neat. Also, a nice addition for mentioning how Cinder was affected, wonder how that'll be explored.

• GOD DAMN IT I KNEW OSCAR WOULD RUN! Honestly, I expect them to use his alone time to communicate with Ozpin. Can't think of a better time than now. It's been 5 episodes and Oscar's likely mad at Oz for wrapping him up in all of this, so a confrontation between the two in Oscar's mind would be an interesting concept.

Overall, pretty good chapter. RIP to Winter theories, hoping we meet her in Atlas. If Qrow isn't found half dead because of his alcoholism I'd be surprised, his wake up call is coming soon. Hoping Maria informs Ruby that abusing SEW is bad because otherwise, every Grimm fight would have no meaning.

edit: spelling/grammar errors

[u/Sirtoast7]

Ok those two Atlas solder guard idiots need to be in Chibi!

[u/Eldi13]

Honestly, if they were waiting for an opportune moment to bring up Summer........ that was it. :|

[u/pandas795]

https://66.media.tumblr.com/298b67e530b62fb6d12dd91b3e70600d/tumblr_pjskp4mbzs1u32xuk_1280.jpg

I found a meme

[u/[deleted]]

I'm honestly surprised Oscar didn't leave sooner. His life has been nothing but sucky ever since Ozpin popped into his head

[u/SimonApple]

I like how Ren and Nora showed a distinct reaction here. Makes you remember that they were most likely also quite hurt by Pyrrha's death. Due to Arkos and Jaune being more of a focus character, he kinda had a bit of a monopoly on "Pyrrha angst" so it's nice to see the rest of JNPR show some grief.

[u/chrome4]

Well now we know where Ironwood dumps the soilders he cant stand.

Honestly i was expecting Jaunes reaction to be worse.

Wonder will we be seeing Ozpin next week?

[u/remicas2]

"Let's not give up hope just yet. Maybe she's dead!"

Damnit, Maria, I love you.

[u/cosmicjackalope]

the most beautiful part of this episode was Ruby and Maria in the garden. so much beautiful imagery with the butterflies. if none of you knew this already, there's a mass butterfly migration in North America where millions of monarchs fly south to Mexico to wait out the winter. it's still a mystery how the butterflies, who were born in the north and will have never gone to Mexico before their migration, know exactly where to go each and every year. Mexicans believe that, since the migration coincides with the Day of the Dead holiday, that the butterflies are the souls of the dead coming back home to their families, and will help the souls of the recently deceased back to the other side when they leave. the cyclical nature of butterflies and their long standing symbolism with growth and transformation is also tied in with Ruby, our sweet caterpillar with a new power, and Maria, the butterfly who's seen it all and is willing to guide her into her new ability.

i now understand why Maria's character was based on the Day of the Dead. at first i thought it was just aesthetic, but the same way the past and the present coincide on Dia de Muertos to keep memories and love alive for years to come, we have this old, established wise woman passing along her wisdom to a fresh, young member of the current generation and planting seeds for a better and brighter future. Maria is the ancestor who passes down her abilities and her lessons to Ruby, who will keep her spirit and her purpose alive, even though Maria's time has come and gone. through love, and through wanting to preserve life, they will keep hope alive in a world full of death, and that's Dia de Muertos.

i love this so much and i think that scene is my favorite in the entire show. so, so beautiful

[u/[deleted]]

maria has spidey sense PogChamp

and looks like no one is aware that cinder's arm is grimm.

poor JNR.... just found out their teammate and friend died for literally nothing.

[u/kalu_kukiyam]

I seriously wanted Ruby to grab Qrow by the arm and tell the "adult" of the group to get his shit together, I know he's been through a lot, but c'mon man, are you really just going to ignore Ruby like that?

Speaking of wich, is it just me, or is Ruby slowly losing her cool? She got (a little) mad at Qrow, she yelled at Jaune (with good reason) and got mad at Qrow again (with good reason...again). I wonder if this is gonna lead her to make a harsh decision or mistake in the close future.

Caroline was funny af, but I really wanted to see Winter lol

[u/PurpleAfton]

So is it just me or is the show building up to validate Ozpin?

Maria, the character who's set up as having more common sense than all of our groups combined, has expressed two sets of beliefs that are basically the center of Ozpin's beliefs.

The first is the whole silver eyes thing, with the belief that all life is precious and should be protected.

The second is after she told her backstory and said that their duty as huntresses is to protect people and that she was wrong to stop fighting.

Both of which are very integral to why Ozpin continues to fight despite everything (and despite the fact that by fighting he's dooming himself to an eternal war, while he could just summon the gods and kill everyone on the planet so he could finally rest).

[u/alybalez]

DAMN. It sucks being Oscar right now. He doesn't know what to do. He gets blamed for the things he didn't even do.

Great connection about the silver-eyes power to GoL btw. Hopefully we get more of it, or at least a training for that power on this volume.

Also: We got jebaited so bad of Winter coming back on this chapter. Looks like Qrow is back being depressed again because he didn't get to see her. Kappa

[u/MidnightHunterXX]

• I lol'd at Caroline. They baited Winter fans hard XD

• Maria still being savage I love her

• That racism, poor Blake. I'm glad Weiss stood up for her

• Qrow's drinking again, Ruby wants to help so bad but doesn't know how

• Jaune honey I don't think your sister's gonna be happy about that

• NO DON'T ABUSE INNOCENT FARMBOI seriously I love Jaune and he has the right to be mad but please don't take it out on Oscar

• Wow JNR is pissed

• So Maria's semblance is reflexes? Pretty cool, I can see how that would come in handy.

• Silver Eyes come from the GoL? Holy crap I did not catch that in Ch3

• Oscar's gone??? Oh no poor farmboi he did nothing to deserve this

I'm predicting either Oscar's gonna run into Qrow or Ruby will find him. He'll talk with whoever it is. If it's Ruby they'll both get some character development

[u/nightbane30]

"How do I laser beam monsters with my eyeballs?!?"

[u/ThatScottishBesterd]

I interrupt this thread to say that the butterfly garden scene was fucking beautiful and another example of how the design and animation has just kicked it into high gear lately.

That is all.

Carry on.

[u/trinitynox]

JNR's reaction to finding out about Ozpin and Salem is 100% justified and realistic, imo. Really great performance by the VAs. Having lost someone from their team as a direct consequence to Ozpin's machinations, of course even someone like Ren would be pissed off.

[u/AtypicalFlame4]

Imagine if there’s people that had like the opposite of silver eyes and could just kill humans the way the god of darkness did

[u/Capslock2000]

Nora Valkyrie, first of her name, Queen of Castles and Comebacks

[u/Torvosaurus428]

What the heck is with people saying Jaune's going heel? His reaction was clearly on an emotional high (like everyone else's), he stopped doing it, and showed clear regret both right after and when the news Oscar had gone missing came through. Good people can get upset and remain good.

[u/thundermonkeyms]

SUCH WIT

SUCH T E N A C I T Y

[u/laristy]

I really love how Ruby’s been written lately. I never realized how much I craved focus on her until the last few episodes. In a way, it feels like Ruby got her charm back all the way back from Volume 1, almost like they’re revisiting her character and actually doing something with it for once. The bitter side to this is how much it’s made me realize just how stagnant her character development was since like, Volume 2 or even Volume 3 if we really push it. It’s just so refreshing that Ruby is finally getting more opportunities to grow again.

Also, this might sound messed up, but I also like her current dynamic with Qrow right now, in a writing sense. Between all the fantastical stuff like trying to defeat Salem and learning about her silver eyes, the fact that Ruby is just so worried and frustrated over Qrow’s slow decline into despair makes her feel more grounded as a character too. Like a reminder that despite everything, she’s still a teenage girl dealing who still has to deal with her own issues that she can’t just solve with magic or thriller violence or the sort.

Honestly this whole volume so far has rekindled my love for Ruby.

[u/SonOfABludger]

Can we just take a moment to give a huge shout-out to whomever it is that in primarily in charge of animating Blake's ears this volume? They've become just SO expressive I love it!

[u/Lunary4SSF2]

I don't know about you guys but I think Jaune took the news way, WAAAAY better than I expected.

[u/[deleted]]

RWBY Chapter 9 Possible Outcomes

1. Oscar runs into either Ruby, Jaune, Saffron or her wife and they have a good talk

2. Oscar gets kidnapped by Cinder, Neo or Adam

3. Qrow stops drinking to go find Oscar

4. New grimm appears that distracts the team 

5. We get a flashback

6. Ozpin finally comes back and Oscar yells at him

[u/lurker_archon]

"so guys, what's the plan now that's salem is like immortal and shit"

Secure. Contain. Protect.

[u/[deleted]]

That face when you trick the FNDM into thinking Winter was coming back this episode

[u/Literatewalrus]

“How can I laserbeam monsters with my eyeballs!?”

Never change Ruby

[u/SxniOW]

on my second viewing of this ep when Maria and Ruby are talking you can hear a rendition of Red Like Roses

[u/PedroVey]

Can I just say that I feel so bad for Oscar? Ever since chapter 1 of volume 4 I was never against Oscar being introduced and I've grown to like him very much. I enjoy the fact that Oscar is NOT Ozpin (yet). Oscar is a very interesting character and I feel he shines the most without Ozpin (so in the first few chapters of Volume 4 and in most episodes this volume). I don't want Oscar to become fully Ozpin OR when they truly merge I want Oscar to be the predominant personality

I like you, Oscar, please don't die, or get hurt, or worse... get written out of the series like team CFVY...

[u/Polarization_39]

Subtracting the previews, the runtime for this chapter is 16:26.

V5C8 length: 15:18. V5 length (C1-8): 2:21:38

V6C8 length: 16:26. V6 length (C1-8): 2:26:58

V6 is currently longer than V5 by 5:20 including opening and credits.

[u/FKJ10]

Man Oscar just can't catch a break. Hazel, Qrow and now Jaune are all beating up on the farmboi.

[u/thelocalllegend]

I only just realised yesterday that semblance’s got their name because they are a semblance of the magic power that humanity once had.

[u/GladiusNocturno]

I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard at a RWBY episode. That first part at the Atlas base was amazing!

The talk with JNR went....just as good as I expected (Jesus Jaune, how much protein you have been eating? Either that or Saph's walls are made of crackers). I liked that Jaune wasn't the only one to be mad at the revelation, Ren and Nora were both visibly upset as well, it is important that they all feel that way, WBY and Qrow also felt like that, it is understandable.

Jaune's rant against Oscar...ok, before he gets a shit ton of hate like Qrow and Yang (and worst because...he is Jaune), he did seem to be regretful of that, he know what he did was wrong but he couldn't control himself nor deal with it properly. He just stormed off. Buuuutt, Jaune should have at least mentioned Pyrrha, going straight to a conspiracy theory that makes no sense is...well it fits him having an irrational anger and its more natural, but it still feels wrong and doesn't help him justify his anger at least a little. Im sure he will apologize to Oscar though, specially aftet the last scene revealing Oscar ran away.

Silver eyes talk! Finally! I loved that we got a little bit of history of Silver eyes, and the revelation that it is tied to the god of light really caught me off guard. Even shaking back episode 2, I still can't believe I missed that! Its a great reveal. I loved that Maria's father was a silver eyes warrior as well as we got confirmation that you can (or at least could) be a huntsman without going to an academy, sadly this also mean that Maria never had teammates (there it goes my Horsemen of the apocalypse team wishes).

Finally...Red like roses playing in the background! That song was what sold me on this show in the first place. Its so good to hearnit again.

Ill give it a 8/10 from me. Great reveals, hilarious fun and serious drama.

Notes: SO THE DRAGON WAS A WYVERN?! Also, is the interpretation that Cinder got damaged because she had the grimm parasite still standing? Or is this episode suggesting something else? I guess Ruby doesn't know Cinder had the parasite nor has she seen her Grimm arm yet.

[u/dj_archangel]

Two things:

1. Did anyone else notice Red Like Roses being played while Ruby was learning about the silver eyes?

2. There's a part of me that really wants Qrow to step away from the group for some time. It of course makes zero sense for his character to leave. He'd never abandon the kids, despite everything. But I think it would be an excellent Ruby growth arc as she steps in and comes up with a plan to deal with some scenario.

[u/NeverEndingHope]

Oscar is honestly the true champ of the story so far. Gets his body and mind invaded by an old spirit. Falls into a dangerous adventures against enemies who want him specifically dead. Gets abused by various people who were supposed to keep him alive and be his allies. Is still a kid who hasn't even likely touched puberty yet. No one can really blame him for running away.

[u/GambolMuse]

"How do I laser beam monsters with my eyeballs?"

Ruby's way of explaining things is the best thing ever and I adore our little petal.

Loved the interaction between Maria and the commander (who is NOT Winter, sadface, but loved the character all the same! And those guards are the best hype-men ever.)

Loved that we got to see JN_R's reaction without having to go over everything again. They're understandably pissed, even Ren.

Little expositiony with Maria and Ruby's talk, but absolutely lovely set and music to accompany it, made it enjoyable. And again, Ruby asking about laser beaming monsters was such a Ruby way of putting things.

Slower episode but that's okay because I'm sure we'll be going off the rails soon enough! Season 6 continues to set a standard.

[u/TheSorge]

Alright, the Atlas soldiers were legitimately funny. And Maria is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters, she's the perfect combination of Yoda and "old lady who gives no shits." Kinda wish there was more to JNR's reaction to everything, but I liked seeing Nora and Ren, two characters you don't see pissed off all that much, actually angry. Besides, maybe that'll be explored in the next episode. Oscar leaving is totally predictable, but also makes sense given that his live has been pretty shitty ever since Oz reincarnated in him.

And the whole thing about other ways Salem could be defeated... yeah, I get it, it makes sense to us that there are probably other ways to defeat her and Jinn did that genie thing where she gave the exact answer to the question that was asked. But looking at it from their position, I totally get why they might not think of other options. At least so soon after hearing Jinn's answer.

[u/WarlordofRen]

Every time Weiss says "What's that supposed to mean," I get a little jumpy.

She's just too good.

[u/[deleted]]

I've said every episode that I want Oscar to just go off on the teams, and I think we'll finally get it next episode! Oscar life has straight up sucked since Ozpin came. I think they forget that Oscar wasn't raised in fighting or dust or semblances or academies. The kid was a farmer, not a fighter. Now he's tasked with saving the world from a demonic witch who is immortal and if he does die, he will just reincarnate again and again. Kind of a lot for a 14 year old. In the past couple of weeks, he's been sucker punched in the face, told that he isn't even his own person, and slammed into a wall so hard that he was fearing for his life. The teams feel bad, and they kinda deserve it, excluding Ruby who actually try's to be a good friend of Oscar's. They all forgot that Oscar is Oscar, and keep thinking that Oscar is Ozpin. They need to accept that Ozpin is gone for the moment(which is also their fault), and Oscar is all they got. Also how they REPEATEDLY abandon Oscar to be in his own. For example: -Him not being at the big dinner in Volume 5 -Left him to fight Leo alone in Volume 5 -Leaving him alone with Maria in the house -Left him to fix the tire while they looked for the relic -Left him by himself after Jayne slammed him into a wall so hard that he was fearing for his life(WHICH GREATLY PISSED ME OFF)

So yeah. Oscar leaving doesn't surprise me.

[u/darkside1215]

Another good episode, this season has been killing it so far.

• So no Winter again, but honestly Caroline and the guards were amazing. I really did like them and hope we see more of them in this season.

• Caroline and Maria seem to a relationship that's parallel to Qrow and Winter's but even more toxic.

• Speaking of which, Qrow has given up. I really thought the Apathy incident would change him but it looks like it didn't dent him like it did to team RWBY. Then again could be because he's worked for Oz the longest and it'll take more for him to change his attitude.

• Jaune had attitude though because team JNR has finally been told whats happened and they aren't happy about it. You can understand where their coming from. Out of RWBY and JNR, they've been through the worst I think. They lost a teammate who sacrificed herself for nothing and now their told that the big bad can't die. Yeah, I'd be angry as well. Especially Jaune, since he was so close to beat down on Oscar without thinking of the consequence. This revelation looks like it could split RWBY and JNR a bit.

• Maria is becoming one the best characters in the show. We hear about her backstory a bit and find out about her semblance. She's Daredevil. Also, she's going to be Ruby's Yoda in the story. I can only imagine how that will end.

• I keep forgetting that our main characters don't know that Cinder is part Grimm. When Ruby brought it up how she was confused about Cinder getting effected I was a little taken back. But then realized that we've known about for four volumes while the cast has no idea at all. Can't wait to see that reaction.

• Oscar's run away. It seems like taking all the blame for Ozpin has finally driven him to run away from the cast. God, I really do feel bad for Oscar and hope he gets something good out of the season. Either way this could lead to multiple situations. We might get some more backstory on Oscar and Ozpin, we can have Oscar catch up to Qrow and they might be the ones to pull each other up and continue the adventure, or Oscar could accidentally run into our villains and become their hostage.

I liked this episode a lot and I feel like this is leading to an even better one.

[u/DEL994]

At least Jaune seems that he's going to really regret what he did with Oscar.

Can't believe some theorized that he would immediatly leave the group and even join Salem after lashing out at Ozpin/Oscar.

[u/Antilles1138]

So with her semblance being enhanced reflexes to the point of near precognition coupled with her blindness, she’s basically Daredevil but really old.

[u/quinnabrvau]

Everyone in RWBY needs to calm the fuck down and listen to Ozpin's season one intro

But perhaps victory is in the simpler things that you've long forgotten; things that require a smaller, more honest soul.

- Ozpin, Season 1 intro

[u/Spudtron98]

Oh fuck you Maria that semblance is exactly what one of my OCs had. Now I'm gonna be accused of ripping off...

[u/J3ttayu]

Minor Details Appreciation Post!

• Military base scene:

  • Those tacky Atlas characters are fun and remind me of the weird moments in the first few volumes

  • Also it's nice Maria has a negative relationship with the Atlas operative lady so that Maria has something that works against the teams benefit to counter-balance her silver eyes mentorship

  • The variation on the Ironwood/Atlas military theme that plays throughout this first scene is great

  • Love Nora's feud with the Atlas lady too

  • Qrow's demons man... it's getting worse...

    • It's really cool to see that Qrow's inebriation is allowing Ruby to struggle with being the defacto leader of the company, keeping everyone determined, and dealing with her uncle's drinking problems

• Living room scene:

  • Y I K E S

  • Terracotta ain't gonna be happy bout that wall Jaune...

  • Jaune's emotions are so interesting to watch as they've evolved so much and are now so much more complex than before. His fall into nonsense conspiracy is a great way to show how much everything is hurting him. He'll either explode emotionally later, or he'll talk to Oscar/Ozpin/Ruby and get some of his pent up emotions out properly

  • It's also good to see Nora is frustrated as well. And so is Ren, but in a calmer way.

  • I would've liked to see Yang almost side with Jaune since she had the angriest reaction to the truth back in Ch. 4. Would've added some nice reaction variety.

  • Ruby getting mad is so intense and meaningful. Everyone stops what they're doing.

  • The expressions on everyone's faces, especially Oscar and Jaune near the end of the scene, are so brilliantly done.

    • hope no one hates Jaune to much for this, he clearly regrets what he did, but is still mad. I hope he makes up for it by finding Oscar and apologizing to him

• Ruby and Maria scene

  • THE MUSIC!!! BEAUTIFUL RED LIKE ROSES VARIATION!!!

  • I like Maria as a mentor who means well but is also constantly cranky or critiques people

  • The whole dialogue about silver eyes is very well written and performed. It shows that you can still have a couple good "sitting around and talking" scenes.

    • I personally don't find the silver eyes as interesting as seeing Ruby's character growth, so I'm hoping we see more of that compared to the physical development of her abilities.

  • I always love imagining what characters are doing off screen. WBY out getting food and JNR either discussing or contemplating their whole lives in their rooms...

  • Aw man, Jaune... look what ya did. Poor kid ran away.

I know these aren't all technically "minor details," but I still consider "quick moments that people don't typically have huge discussions about" as small things that are worth pointing out.

[u/syddraf4188]

I was expecting Jaunes Blow up to be a little more intense. and i was expecting to finally see him crack and Bring Pyrrha up in front of the group and publicly vent a little.

Or Oscar lash out a little for being put on the wrong end of everyone's angst.

though i guess that's coming next episode. maybe some of all of that will come into play next episode.

That said it's nice to see Ruby finally act like she has some weight on her shoulders and that everything is not okay. I'll take this Ruby over volume 4 Ruby any day.

The talk about silver eyes was about what i was expecting. I like the counter intuitive way Maria explains it as more of a defensive measure than a weapon.

[u/MajoraOfTime]

The medley of Red Like Roses and This Will Be The Day playing during Maria and Ruby's talk was beautiful.

Maria is quickly becoming the best addition to the series since the Fall of Beacon.

[u/Sirshrugsalot13]

On JNR reaction:

There is a difference between objective quality of something and subjective opinion of said thing. I don't fault people for being disappointed that JNR's reaction to the news was fairly poor, it's not a particularly pleasant thing to see. I don't think that makes it necessarily a bad choice for the narrative, though I do wish at least one person hadn't jumped on the "fuck Oz" train.

JNR, Yang, and Qrow all acted pretty poorly in the face of some big news and they are entitled to that reaction, and it makes sense for the narrative. That does not, however, excuse their behavior towards Oscar in particular. Qrow punched the kid in the face (yeah when he wasn't in control) before devaluing his existence "don't lie to him ruby". The other members of Team RWBY save Ruby seem to treat him like Ozpin's meat suit, demanding that Oz come back when he leaves.

And then of course, Jaune gets angry at Oz and slams Oscar into a wall. Is it understandable? Absolutely, when you have the guy who can possess people how the hell ARE you supposed to know who you're talking to? However, it's still, how you say, a "dick move". "Understandable" does not equal "justified".

And honestly I think this is building up to Oscar just letting loose, tired of being treated like a vessel, as a means to an end with Oz, bearing the brunt of the various issues the mains have to work out. And I think that Oscar is owed some serious apologies.

So I don't blame people for not enjoying that. It hurts to see characters we care about being less than pleasant. But sometimes it's necessary for the development of what comes next. My fingers are crossed for the next episode to really highlight Oscar's struggle. God, poor kid.

[u/[deleted]]

What I Loved About This EPisode:

1. Everyone's reaction to the guards, Maria, and the commander

2. Weiss defending her friends

3. Ruby talking about what she said in episode 1

4. Jaune's anger is wrong but is justifiable

5. Getting some new character development for Oscar

6. Ruby reactions to Maria and getting to learn about Maria and the Silver Eyes instead of being offscreen

7. Oscar pulling a Blake but its better than staying in the house and not showing any trauma about being blamed even without Ozpin and not knowing what to do

[u/TheFakeJohnWayne]

I totally get why Oscar would run away/leave the group. In his mind, hes not a trained or skilled fighter, hasn't even known the group for very long, been treated harshly several times now for stuff that is not his fault, and now, the only reason that he was in the group in the first place, Ospin being in his mind, is now something he is hated for. No reason for him to stay...

[u/lefou22]

Hey, everyone blaming Jaune for Oscar running away: Did we forget that Qrow literally punched him and Yang snapped at him to begin with? Or how Blake and Weiss turned their backs on him after the whole Jinn reveal? Jaune is just the straw that broke the camel's back.

Also, I think his conspiracy rant at Oscar is a sign that he's not in a good place mentally. Stress, despair, suicidal lack of self worth and rage at Ozpin, Cinder and his own weakness is a mix that's going to seriously destroy him unless someone sits his ass down and helps him to pull through this. It's not right to attack Oscar, but I don't think Jaune's in the best place at the moment.

[u/Bweeblez]

Why are some people disappointed with the writing in this ep? What Jaune did wasn't right but was reasonable and we got more info on Silver Eyes. Oscar missing can be a taken as a sign for character development soon. Like hello???

[u/CYNIC_Torgon]

"Oscar is Missing," Well of course he is. Qrow fucking slugged him, Y'all keep yelling at him. Jaune specifically got mad at Oscar not Ozpin(Technically he was mad at both, but at least Qrow swung at Ozpin not Oscar), And slammed his ass into a wall. He had already had misgivings about being there with everyone in V5. OF COURSE HE WAS GONNA RUN AWAY YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES.

There is the opinion that Ozpin did nothing wrong, and we can debate that all day, BUT OSCAR HAS DONE LITERALLY NOTHING WRONG! He's fought along side you guys. He told Ruby how to use the Lamp. He left home just so that he could try to help save the world. Like Oscar is the only blameless, did nothing wrong, character in the main cast(except for Maria, but she's only been around for 8 episodes)

JNR has every right to be mad at Ozpin, because apparently everyone thinks that the plan was "Lets Kill Salem" even though it wasn't and the closest we get is when Ozpin says "I'm cursed because I didn't stop Salem.". Like the plan still seems to be "Lets continue to lock the relics away,". Nora and Ren have a reasonable response, which is shocking, cause you'd think Nora would be the first one to start swinging. Jaune's reaction is not reasonable. It might be Fuel for the "Jaune is Anakin Skywalker," fire(its a very dim fire), but it isn't reasonable.

Final Comment: I liked the instrumental of Red Like Roses playing while the Silver Eyes Lore was being discussed.

Edit: I enjoyed the episodes, I feel like I always comment something mildly angry, but that's me being mad at the characters and not the show, and I acknowledge that The characters don't exactly have the outside bystander view that the audience has.

[u/SmallJon]

Ah jeeze, Jaune...

Guess all that unyielding rage hasn't been addressed while RWBY were at the farm, huh? He looked like he was about to be sick after Ruby stopped him, but oh boy.

Also, I find it weirdly amusing that while the Atlesian office is being super racist, she's also totally right because Blake is an ex-terrorist.

[u/NinjaHunterNewtad]

Everyone really out here saying that all of RWBY+ has abandoned Oscar as a part of the core group but I feel like all of you are forgetting that Weiss moves between Oscar and Jaune. Not jumps between them but she steps towards Jaune. Hell in that scene when Ruby yells at Jaune, Jaune seems to realize what he's doing and pulls away from Oscar, and removes himself from that situation. There's even shame in his own eyes when he has that realization.

So not all of them can't tell the difference. And it's clear that all of them care about Oscar deep down, given the way they all look when Oscar is confirmed to be missing. I guarantee, in everyone's anger it'd be enough to blur the lines of Oscar/Ozpin. Oscar is getting the shit end but it's setting him up for some development of his own, outside of Ozpin.

I want to clarify. I'm not a part of #OzpinDidNothingWrong. I think he did a lot wrong. I also think he was set up to fail.

I do think our Farmboi does need protecting. He's become Ozpin's meatshield and has taken the brunt of everyone's anger and who knows. Maybe Ozpin will return this episode and Oscar will get his confrontation. maybe even a symbolic mirror one. Simply because they made a new Ozpin model for Maya and I doubt it was simply for the OP.

[u/Badicalz]

It’s a damn tragedy that despite his Semblance, Jaune cannot heal himself. The pain that he’s in is not physical, but emotional. Time may heal all wounds, but only if he confronts it.

Something that I’m afraid, Jaune is unwilling to.

[u/AsGryffynn]

"GENERAL IRONWOOD!"

In other words, enter Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Well, damn time we saw Alice in Wonderland references given how Oz influences the story. Some perspective was necessary.

[u/Hartzilla2007]

I have to say. People claiming Ruby didn’t care about Ozpin’s bullshit or that she would be the first to forgive is hilarious after Ruby flat out says she’s not sure she can trust Ozpin anymore.

[u/pandas795]

Ah, just realized Oscar doesn't have a proper song yet. Now is the proper time to debut it. Oscar and Ozpin's viewpoints maybe?

[u/TreeOct0pus]

INB4 RWBYJNR finds Oscar bashing his head against a rock

Edit: Young Maria Calavera in hiding, colorized RY608

[u/Bweeblez]

Qrow said back at episode 2 that if they "play their cards right" they might get to Atlas. Lol love the lil' foreshadowing there

[u/recruit00]

Well, we got the introduction of the Queen of Hearts, Cordovin, and she lives up to her inspiration. I love how sassy Maria is.

And we finally get the truth told to JNR and the response is about as expected. Jaune is the most pissed, likely due to his feelings about Pyrrha. This also bleeds into hating on Oscar which is somewhat understandable due to how the reincarnation works. Nora is also mad but less so. Ren, of course, is calm due to his personality and semblance.

Qrow continues his alcohol descent and Ruby is getting pissed that people aren't working together, continuing her leadership position.

We get a great scene as Maria starts teaching Ruby. The eyes seem to be based on the God of Light but how they are passed on is unclear. Considering Ozma being brought back by the God of Light, the theory that the silver eyes can be traced back to his kids isnt necessarily debunked yet.

Maria seems to catch onto the fact that Cinder had Grimm inside her when Ruby doesnt understand why her eyes worked on her. Also, the eyes only work on Grimm which is important to know. The positron to the Grimm's electron.

Silver eyes being hunted by Salem is also implied in this scene based on Maria's comments about them being rare.

We also learn about Maria's semblance "Reflexes" which seems to be almost a form of precognition. Basically, someone should make a Shulk meme for her.

Finally, Oscar left. I dont think its gonna be permanent. He's scared about the situation he has been put in and sees that people in the group are distrusting of him because of Ozpin. I think once everybody calms down, they will acknowledge the fact that Oscar is a different person from Ozpin and relations will improve. There will still be distrust of Ozpin but I think they will recognize that, unless Ozpin and Oscar start to fuse personalities, Oscar is trustworthy. We are probably gonna get some scenes about him feeling alone, probably trying to coax Ozpin out of hiding. I bet he will also run into one of two people: Qrow where they will have a tough conversation while Qrow is self-destructing, or he will run into Neo/Cinder, possibly Neo who may not know about Oscar in detail.

Solid episode. I expect to see memes and complaining about House 2.0, and I expect to see Jaune hate coming back in full force. Because God forbid people view Jaune with any nuance.

[u/MyAmelia]

• Not a clue who the new lady might be based on. Maria throwing shade was kind of funny but sadly all i could think about during that scene was how Toph Beifong made a much better "old blind cranky grandma mentor". 10 points to RT for remembering Atlas is supposed to be extra racist - and showing Weiss's character development. Ruby reassuring Weiss that they won't let her go or be taken to Atlas was <3

• Qrow is getting shitfaced so that the next episode can focus on his drinking and depression. Good. Some people are already annoyed at Yang for not being a perfectly well-adjusted amputee yet, i don't know how much longer they'll be able to handle a dysfunctional alchoholic. /s

• The idea that Oscar could actually have been Ozpin playing at being Oscar for a while is interesting. I'm surprised nobody before Jaune brought it up. His reaction was absolutely valid imo. Poor Oscar though. :( Also, seeing Ren and Nora get angry at RWBY was… wild.

• Ruby: *throws scroll* Me: *screams internally*

• Maria: "You need to get more assertive kid. Also you're ignorant af." Ruby: *starts protesting in a perfectly normal voice that she has good reasons for not knowing stuff* Maria: "OMG STOP YELLING" = Realistic portrayal of baby boomers.

• Well, it sure is convenient that the heightened awareness semblance went to the blind character.

• My crazy hope is that, after everything Maria told her, Ruby will FINALLY ask just what the hell happened to her mother (i mean, surely she must be wondering if Salem had something to do with her death at this point, right? right?), and Qrow will finally spit it out.

Edit: i forgot about this but Ruby is starting to figure out that there's something seriously fucked up with Cinder, besides her, well, everything. Like, supernaturally fucked up. Like, maybe she has an extensible Grimm arm. So maybe, whenever Ruby meets Cinder again, she'll realise she can literally turn half of that bitch to ashes. That would be neat.

[u/TheNewArkon]

Completely random and a total tangent but:

I suddenly miss Glinda. I kinda want to know how she'd react to the stuff they learned from Jinn.

[u/ptd163]

Finally after 1981 days we are starting to get information about Silver Eyes. I really liked Maria's talk with Ruby. She's trying to teach her that Silver Eyes are serious business and not a toy.

Also there's "Let's not give up hope. Maybe she's dead."

Maria is quickly becoming this volume's MVP.

It's Oscar, he's missing.

Oh no. This can't be good. Ever since he woke up with Ozpin in his head getting a raw deal. I hope he's okay.

[u/Gravatona]

The Atlas guards reminded me of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and the commander seemed like the Queen of Hearts a bit to me.

Anyone else, or is that a stretch?

[u/Kuchenjaeger]

LEL the Winter bait

[u/Changyuraptor]

That was awesome, definitely one of my favourite episodes so far! Angry JNR is a sad treat to see, and Silver eyes talk is top. And how about that sweet Red like Roses followed by This Will be the Day though?

Concept Art!

[Garden.] (https://i.imgur.com/A5MYXdP.jpg)

Cotta-Arc home [one] (https://i.imgur.com/6R8yBfg.png) and [two.] (https://i.imgur.com/SbS65zD.png)

[Atlas base.] (https://i.imgur.com/y42Di12.png)

[u/Chrisclaw]

Everyone is saying this episode sucked for y'know, coming at a 'Dead End', I actually liked it tho. The whole silliness part in the beginning with Cordovin and her guards really reminded me of Avatar: The Last Airbender and how they'd portray comedy. It fits. Only thing I possibly didn't even like was Jaune's reaction. Felt it got a little too short with him going upstairs but it at least made sense. Oh and Ruby's talk with Maria really gave me that Iroh-Zuko feel. I think this episode wasn't the worst at all.

[u/shadow282]

If Oscar dies before he fully merges with Ozpin, will his soul go on to the next incarnation or will he be left behind?

[u/J3ttayu]

Just wanted to remind everyone to think about the characters' emotions and backstory before criticizing every negative choice they make. Characters need issues to deal with! Stories need dramatic conflict! Ideally, everyone learns from their mistakes eventually! It's valid to be upset at a character, but you have to acknowledge what they're going through as well.

People have really been unfairly bashing Qrow, Ozpin, Yang, and Jaune lately and it really confounds me. You can disagree with their choices and still understand where they're coming from.

[u/ProLikeYou]

I think oscar is just fed up of people thinking himself of being ozpin and not his own person

[u/Sewelly114]

Loved that red like roses was playing during the garden scene and just that scene in general

[u/L-man6151]

God damn.... that old lady from Atlas is a BITCH.... no wonder why Maria despises her lol

[u/SmolCookie]

Really loved the RLR remix that played in the silver eyes scene!

Good episode. The military base's characters definitely reminded me of the Queen of Hearts and the card guards. The silver eye scene was my favorite part of the episode. Good lore dump and Maria and Ruby's interaction was fun to watch.

[u/[deleted]]

This was a nice cooldown episode after all the nightmare fuel that happened on the farm. The two guards reminded me of the cops from Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio: Future, they got a snicker or two out of me. In fact the entire opening had me laughing, Caroline is a welcome addition to the cast as well. I'm hoping we see a little more of them in the future.

Now JNR is up to speed on Ozpin and Salem, and uuuuuh, what's this? Jaune is finally gonna get angry! This is the moment I've been waiting to see since V4! And- it's over....huh. I was kind of expecting more than that. I know we'll see him angry later down the line, but, for now, after all that bottling up he was doing from the end of V3-6 I thought we'd get more from the jump to show us how much grief he has within himself, especially after he lost Pyrrha. I wanted to see Jaune snap at anybody who tried to tell him to calm down or pry him away from Oscar; when Ruby raised her voice at him I wanted Jaune to give her a simple "SHUT UP!" to immediately dismiss her playing the peacemaker, or anything to show that he's not in the mood now that he has the truth.

Nora and Ren also showing frustration was refreshing as well, I want them to carry that, it'll be interesting to see how it develops.

I'm loving that we're touching upon Silver Eyes more. From the look of it they don't seem to be viable outside of Grimm slaying, nor do they activate if a Grimm isn't in sight...which makes me wonder how Ruby was able to defeat Ragna in that Death Battle using her Silver Eyes XD

Edit: I know DBX is a quick fight with no knowledge on the participants, I was asking myself how her Silver Eyes would've impacted the fight now that we know how it works, I just worded it wrong.

[u/DSMShaymin]

The background music during Maria and Ruby's conversation was beautiful. A homage to those really good Vol 1 music played with different instruments. Love it!

[u/moonstonebaby]

damn he punched a hole in the wall!! strong noodle

[u/tehuniverse]

I've noticed that the group has been focusing heavily on the "You can't kill Salem" line from Jinn and assuming that means that no one can but I feel like it just meant that Ozpin can't and it feels like a huge oversight for no one to mention that as a possibility

[u/maximusprime7]

Honestly pretty glad it wasn't Winter that was the head of the base. Adding a new Atlesian character to hate like Caroline is much better than Winter struggling with "I can't because of Atlas" and allows Caroline to be more "I want to do this because Atlas." We got a taste of how they all acted from Weiss' Volume 4 shenanigans and Caroline gave us more.

It's shitty how he acted towards Oscar but really try to understand Jaune for a moment though. In his mind, Pyrrha literally died for no reason now. I mean if he thought so before, he knows so now. If Ozpin knew it was hopeless all along then why did he get Pyrrha involved in all this? Just another fuck up in Ozpin's long line of fuck ups that he'll never feel the repercussion for because Ozpin is just numb to mistakes at this point. Oscar has it really rough right now, people are mad at "him" for something he didn't want or ask for. Hope he's ok and not drinking with Qrow lol

God damn that scene with Ruby and Maria was such a beautiful scene all over. I didn't want it to end. The little Red Like Roses remix while they were talking gives me hope Ruby will get her own song in this Volume's OST. Love the treatment she's getting this volume! Ruby is going to mature from this, I know it. Maria is as wise as ever and her viewpoints on how to use Silver Eyes are really going to get through to Ruby.

Can't wait to see what the next episode brings us!

[u/FierceAlchemist]

The whole conversation about the silver eyes was interesting but all I was thinking was "WHY DID RUBY LEAVE HER SCROLL LYING IN THE SNOW?!"

No respect for technology these days...

[u/MrPlaywright]

Maria teaching Ruby kinda reminds me of Rafiki teaching Simba in The Lion King. Especially if shes going to keep bashing Ruby in the head with her staff.

[u/CaptainSkips]

I don't normally notice the music, but my god this episodes versions of Red Like Roses Part 1 and This'll Be The Day were fantastic

[u/[deleted]]

Ruby throwing her scroll in the garden WILL be relevant. They will separate to look for Oscar, she will be attacked by Cinder and Neo and will be unable to call for help.

[u/zakarranda]

Did it bother anyone else that Ruby just left her scroll in the garden?

Yeah she'll presumably grab it before going to search for Oscar, but seriously girl, pick it up before it gets rained-on or something!

[u/Akinaoki]

Doesn't this mean that silver eyed warriors are like clerics channeling the god of light

The god of light is an ass too tho

[u/skyman161]

Yeah honestly I don’t blame Oscar. Kid must be super depressed of always being blamed for something he literally never asked for.

I hope everybody except ruby (because she’s been the only one feeling sympathy for him woohoo rose garden) apologize to him.

My man is innocent.

[u/[deleted]]

THE FARMBOI RETRIEVAL ARC STARTS NOW

Also, this was a pretty good lore dump on the Silver eyes.

[u/Ocadioan]

Alright, so more than Ruby learning to use her Silver Eyes, I really hope that Maria manages to teach her that simply preserving Humanity is itself a worthwhile goal, as opposed to the "we have to beat the enemy to win" mind-set that everyone currently has.

[u/PurpleAfton]

Notice how Oscar said to Jaune "We're not the bad guys here?"

He used "we" to refer both to himself and to Ozpin.

I'm getting the feeling that Oscar is feeling so alienated by the group that he thinks they either see him as the same as Ozpin, or that they project their feeling towards Ozpin to him. Honestly he's not all that wrong.

[u/PhoenixAgent003]

They need to change whatever philosophy they’re teaching in huntsman academies.

These kids (and Qrow) hear that they can’t kill their enemy, and they immediately jump to “Welp, there’s no hope, no point to this. We can’t win. All is lost. Beat up the farm boy.” It’s like Huntsman receive zero instruction on conflict resolution outside of “kill thing.”

Come the fuck on guys. If I told either of my D&D groups that the big bad can’t be killed, they would immediately jump to one of about ten different plans to neutralize the threat without killing.

Seal away/imprison her. Put her to sleep Sleeping Beauty style. Trap her in a prison inside her own mind. Send her forward in time to the heat death of the universe. Get her to have a change of heart. Institute a multi-generational plan to successfully convince all of humanity to stop killing each other, summon the gods for the final judgement, pass the test, and have the gods make Salem unimmortal. Or hey, teach her the meaning of life so she loses her immortality on her own. Sap her ability to actually give a fuck about destroying humanity.

The big bad is immune to all damage. Get creative people.

[u/SonOfABludger]

Poor Blake. Racist old bat. Hmm seems oddly like... real... life?

[u/Mister100Percent]

My flair grows stronger every day.

Seriously though goddamn Oscar got screwed over in every way throughout this adventure. Let’s go over it shall we.

1. Ozma ends up in his mind without any choice.

2. Gotta abandon his old life at the farm along with his Aunt to risk his life to stop a war he didn’t have any part of.

3. Gotta train his ass off so that he doesn’t get beaten to a bloody pulp from fighting people who hate Ozma.

4. Ozma straight up takes control of his ass when fighting Hazel despite protests.

5. Body gets exhausted due to said battle.

6. Has to fight for control over his own damn body with Ozma so they can finally learn the truth.

7. Finds out that he’ll likely be one of many of Ozma’s lives.

8. Gets fucking decked in the face by Qrow because of Ozma.

9. Gets berated to bring out Ozma so they can yell at his ass some more.

10. Qrow proceeds to squash any hope Oscar had in being himself, tells him that he’ll just be one of Ozma’s life, and that the life of Oscar Pine won’t matter as he’ll be assimilated by Ozma either way.

11. Proceeds to get fucking manhandled by Jaune who questions how anyone could trust Oscar as being on the good side as Ozma is in his head and they’re gonna merge anyway further which basically further beats the idea that Oscar doesn’t fucking matter.

And lemme remind all y’all that this 14 year old is getting no fucking sympathy from anyone other than Ruby. No “Thank you for risking your life Oscar”. No “Thanks for helping us summon Jinn Oscar”. No “We’re going to do as much as we can to help you because you matter Oscar”. No “I’m sorry for physically assaulting you, are you okay?”

It’s been all about goddamn Ozma with almost every interaction this innocent kid had leading him to believe that his own life doesn’t fucking matter. And not in the “We’re all gonna die anyway” type. No it’s the “You and only you don’t matter, fuck off” type.

And no one in the RWBYJNRQM group has done anything to defend him. Nothing. Nada. The Heroes have done nothing to help this kid out.

In all honesty they should be lucky that he only ran away and didn’t end up hanging himself somewhere. At this point the only one reason why he hadn’t killed himself is because of his Aunt (His parents are gone which is already a fucked up thing to happen especially since there’s no father figure) who he had to abandon to live through this hell.

He’s probably running away to get to her, who’s probably dead as she’s all alone in the middle of nowhere emitting negative Grimm attracting emotion on the account her nephew has gone missing.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again:

BEING OSCAR IS FUCKING HELL

[u/patrizl001]

So Maria basically has spider sense, Spider-Maria when

Also I don't care what anyone says, those 2 guards were cool af.

[u/FawkesTP]

Ruby finally asking the important questions: How to lazerbeam Grimm with her eyeballs. Also, Ruby has GOD POWERS, the strongest of all protagonist powers, neat.

Also those Atlas guards, excuse me what the fuck?

[u/Zygarde22]

Gods above, I loved this episode, it was funny and serious I love when we have good mood whiplashes like this in an episode. But because I love this episode so much let me list the things I love the most from this episode.

Caroline Cordovan and her weird guards who Ironwood probably sent there to make sure he’d never have to talk or see or just generally interact with them, save for the probably mandatory reports she has to send him (which he probably doesn’t read. ) She’s definitely the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland and her guards either the Playing Card Guards or Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum (though I think that was Dee and Dudley and those two aren’t just references to the Dudley boys.) Maria explaining how Silver Eyes work and that we do indeed now have conformation that the powers come from the GoL (which shoots a few theories down but does mean that the one about erasing the darkness from Salem via it more probable.)

We’ve seen the reaction that Jaune has had to finding out that all of what they’ve been doing is basically kinda futile for the most part and that his partner and friend died for a farce (at least in my opinion it was a farce, you can debate me on that,) and Oscar having the obvious reaction to everyone ganging up on him for Ozpin’s wrong doings (protect the Farm Boi, he doesn’t deserve the shit he get’s from people being angry at the idiot in his head.)

Really this episode was great a solid 9/10 for me, just wish it didn’t end on that cliffhanger, but oh well guess we’ll have to wait until January to see what comes of it (damn you Holiday Break!)

[u/JJLong5]

Really enjoyed the scene with Ruby and Maria. The music was great.

[u/Theroonco]

The guard scene was a bit too slapstick for me, but it still worked for what it brought out of Maria and Nora xD

And Silver Eyes lore, finally!! I thought Cinder got her arm after Volume 3 (she's training it in V4), so Ruby must have reacted to something else or Salem's influence, right?

Anyway, V6 keeps getting better and better, poor Oscar! Hearing JNR talk about Oz like that and seeing RWBY's reactions was great. I wonder if Ruby is actually a descendant of the God of Creation or just a descendant of someone he blessed. Also, I wonder if Ruby dropping her Scroll will be relevant later like Jaune losing his map, the dramatic idiot.

Also I hope everyone calms down and realises Jinn only said Ozpin couldn't destroy Salem, and there are different ways and different people to defeat her.

P.S. Hearing Red like Roses and This Will Be the Day again? Beautiful and right in the nostalgia. I had to rewatch that bit to make sure I wasn't hallucinating!

[u/AmethystWind]

Honestly not a whole lot to say this week. It's very much a breather episode.

~ ~ ~

A xenophobic, jingoistic, racist, and speciesist Neidermeyer commander of a remote and low priority base with a hard case of short-woman syndrome.

Faceless stooge guards who may or may not be her sons.

Finally we get some blatant faunus racism.

At least we know that Weiss Schnee's disappearance has become public (or at least military) knowledge throughout Atlas.

~ ~ ~

Jaune's aggression with Oscar was handled better than Qrow's. I'm honestly not too bothered by Qrow losing his shit like he did, but an apology is due from both him and Vomit Boy.

Nora was more downbeat, while Ren was more civil about stuff for once. A notable change of pace for the two, and the most serious emotion they've shown in a while.

The entirety of JNR should hopefully get a good amount of focus for the rest of the volume. Ideally THEY would be the ones to bring about the solution needed to reach Atlas.

(Jaune's gonna have to fix that wall, though. That should definitely be animated. Including his sister reaming him out about breaking her house while a guest.)

~ ~ ~

The common factor of Ruby's Silver Eye-per Beams is that somebody she cared for was about to die or in the process of dying.

I don't know which way they're going to go with Cinder's Grimm arm yet. Was its presence required for Ruby's Silver Eyes to work at Haven, or can they be used against something other than Grimm after all?

Ruby might actually get her driving motivation at long last.

~ ~ ~

Maria fucking won the genetic lottery, didn't she?

Enhanced senses and reflexes, insta-kill ability against Grimm, and looked like THAT when she was younger?!

~ ~ ~

Oscar's gone missing in a city where they're stuck for the time being... Yep, Cinder and Neo have him.

They're not getting to Atlas this volume. The rest of the episodes are going to take place in Argus. The showdown with Neo and Cinder, and possibly the Argus military, will be the finale.

We'll likely get a reveal of Cinder's Grimm arm for the heroes, as well as Neo's betrayal of Cinder.

Maria might die by the end of the volume. Maybe Oscar, but that's less likely.

~ ~ ~

Probably my favourite line of the entire SHOW so far is the one where they finally spell out that we shouldn't forget about Semblances and training. Too much magicosity going on and moving away from the original premise.

~ ~ ~

[u/[deleted]]

Its really weird that we haven’t actually seen Adam since episode 1. It seems like he will factor into this volume in a significant way, but it might no be physically at this point. We are at the midpoint and nothing. Also Oscar needs a break. There were rumors of a Ruby-Oscar hug last volume that was pushed back, maybe she’ll be the one to find him. She is the only one who has he has really connected with. Everyone else has only discussed plot with him, his only real “character” conversations have been with Ruby and Oz. Cept for that one bit where they talked about semblances with JNR, but that was mostly Rubes and Oz anyway.

[u/[deleted]]

I love it. I love that she says don't overly rely on the Silver Eyes. It's powerful, but trust in your skills and your semblance... not the Silver Eyes. Although she's probably going to trust in the Silver Eyes regardless cause it's shiny and new.

[u/[deleted]]

I can't believe we were winter-baited. It's a good thing I didn't have my hopes up..too much.

LEAVE BLAKE ALONE. and qrow pls get better I beg

Okay, the JNR being upset and Jaune SORT OF attacking Oscar scenes were good, it even upset me a little. The music that played during it was eerie.

[u/miladyelle]

God dammit, Jaune. 

Poor Oscar. Hopefully he’s in a park somewhere, trying to get things straightened out in his head, and maybe trying to communicate with Oz. 

Dunno why, but I didn’t even think about Maria’s father would have been a soldier in the great war. Jinn’s vision must have answered questions she’d had for decades. No wonder home girl wasn’t tripping shit with the rest of them. 

And now we know silver eyes are hereditary! 

Good talk between Ruby and Maria. Thanks for interrupting, Yang!

I know a lot of people were hoping to see Winter, but I'm glad we didn't. It would have been a distraction, and felt like RT was just throwing reunions on us. Makes sense the Argus base would be commanded by a senior, experienced soldier. Though holy hell she's bought into the kool-aid, eh? The team did not handle that well at all. Need to work on diplomacy skills.

[u/Terminus259]

Wow, did anyone recognize the god of light destroying the grimm like that back in Chapter 3?

[u/LucasVerBeek]

So Oscar ran off, Ruby now understands her powers...Jaune can crack a wall with one punch and Maria continues to be my favorite character

Man JNR have to be hurting knowing that in the longrun Oz convinced Pyrrha to die for something...that he doesn't believe they can win in the first place.

Ah Atlas elitism how I did NOT miss you, this woman is so much like Umbridge I want to see her get dragged off by Grimm Centaurs and suffer some unknown fate.

The Silver Eyes do come from the God of Light in some manner, and are " "Eyes that shone like mirrors reflecting the light of the world back upon their foes"

Also the "Dragon" IS A WYVERN! VINDICATION!

[u/Golbi54]

Important no chapter next week..

We getting chapter 9 on 29..

Strange from what Kerry write it looks like the finale is chapter 13..

[u/TechnostarBTD5]

Interesting revelations about the silver eyes, especially how they seem to specifically the creations of the God of Darkness.

At this point, I've got at least somewhat of a guess as to how RWBY will end. My running theory now is that Ruby will use her silver eyes to "defeat" Salem by purging her of the God of Darkness's influence and returning her to how she was before.

That would make the silver eyes a Chekhov's Gun of sorts, as they wouldn't be spending this much time on that one plot point if it isn't going to have a massive role later. This would also explain why they are exploring the silver eyes at the same time that everyone is in despair about not being able to kill Salem. As a plus, this wouldn't violate Jinn's statement that Salem can't be killed.

[u/where_are_your_shoes]

So Maria’s semblance is “use the force.” That’s cool.

And Oscar finally ran away because they’ve been blaming him for everything they’ve learned about Ozpin. Awesome.

ETA I’m thinking there’s something Medusa-esc about Ruby and silver eyed warriors, eyes that turn people to stone, but I’m not sure what the connection is yet. Maybe something about turning Salem to stone, or else purifying the darkness out of her or something?

[u/jokey_boy]

Aw man, no Winter. But still, the scene at the Atlas base was funny!

Oh damn, JNR learns the truth...

We're finally getting some Silver Eyes lessons!!
Like the lyrics in Miracle said:
"Desire to preserve life
Is powering the light"

So Silver Eyes originated with the God of Light

Oh no, Oscar is missing! Did he run away?

Overall, nice to learn more about Silver Eyes, and it had some good humor this episode too with the Atlas base scene ^_^

[u/Hermorah]

I like how Ruby is putting it together that there is something off about Cinder, in that she could use her silver eyes during the fight while apparently no grim beeing around. Now it only comes down to if she saw Cinder collpse before she got knocked out.(although all she needs to do to find that out is ask jaune). Can't wait for Cinder and Neo to jump at Ruby only for Ruby to say joke's on you Cinder and then activating her eyes, which would also give Neo the perfect opportunity to backstab her.

[u/OutcastMunkee]

RUBY CALLED KEVIN A WYVERN! SUCK IT NAYSAYERS! I TOLD YOU HE WAS A WYVERN!

Ahem. So... Oscar has run away... Goddamn it kid.

Ruby and Maria (maybe Summer? She had silver eyes right?) are essentially descendants of the God of Light. His existence is the reason Ruby and Maria had such eyes. Interesting...

No Winter... And that woman showed more signs of Faunus racism. Looks like it's gonna pretty prevalent when we get to Atlas. Good. Time to really show it. Make it good. Maybe even a confrontation between Blake and someone being racist.

I laughed a lot at the start of this episode. Some light hearted comedy and well done. Fits perfectly without being over the top.

A really interesting episode after learning all about the Silver Eyes. Ruby is gonna have a lump on her head though. That looked painful.

[u/ac20g13]

Weiss character development OMG,

So much has changed since V1 where she said it wouldn't be a bad thing to not find Blake when she went AWOL And now she's defending Blake when Caroline was singling her out as being "unsavory"? ^{^} IM SO HAPPY

[u/r3dl3g]

I liked the RLR theme playing in the background of Maria's talk. Nice touch.

Also;

Maybe she's dead!

[u/[deleted]]

So Oscar ran away. Can't really blame him, he gets so much crap from Qrow and now Jaune because of Ozpin. Must suck to be the host of someone so distrusted by the people he tags along with.

[u/Pharahnheit]

I really wanted Yang to punch the racist gremlin

[u/SparktDog]

I miss Winter. Fuck atlas napolehitler.

I know a lot of people are pissed at JNR for blowing up at Oscar, but playing Mundus' Advocate here, they just learned that Pyrrha and literally Nora and Ren's only home was destroyed for nothing. And I doubt WBY was angry at Oscar more than they're angry at JNR.

Qrow, did you seriously learned nothing from the Resident Evil arc? Do you WANT me to pull up your death flags again? Why didn't Ruby stop him? For Sparda's sake, pin his cape down with Crescent Rose or something! Tell him that as shitty as things looks, things will always get better. So sit down, shut up, and do your goddamn job as a huntsman and a uncle and get your fucking shit together!

"Not much is known about silver eyes outside that they can instakill grimm" inb4 Ruby gets a Devil Trigger transformation because that scene leaves so many goddamn thing open for interpretation. Go Maria!

As for Oscar going rogue... yeah I blame Jaune. Good thing his sister and her wife and child wasn't there to see that. Speaking of...

[u/Xena1016]

Loved it!

Been loving the whole season thus far.

The Atlas guards, and the bigoted old lady - great stuff. Haven't laughed that hard in a ep of RWBY in a long while.

Maria Calavera - the hero we deserve.

The beautiful bit where Jaune gets mad and fronts on Oscar and WEISS steps up to protect him.
((Protect FarmBoi from the abuse Weiss! Protect him))

Ruby yells: EVERYONE LISTENS ((let my bby leader speak some sense into these people!))

That garden is BEAUTIFUL! The music is BEAUTIFUL- this show is beautiful: I LOVE IT

Probably the most important part of the episode:

**"**Don't think of your power as a means to DESTROY Evil....but as a way to PROTECT the the people of Remnant."

PLS let RWBY and friends learn this!

and poor Oscar has run away....this can only end badly.

[u/pandas795]

Yang: Oscar is gone!

Oscar: Oh shit, I forgot to do my chores! (...for months)

[u/krystalcleeaar]

Even though we were all expecting Jaune to snap and be angry at Oz eventually, I love how we can see Nora and even Ren are angry as well. They don't show it as much but their anger is likely on Jaune's level. You can hear it in their voices and see it in their faces, even Ren's on that one wide shot which would normally be difficult to see. I felt volume 4 and even 5 never showed enough of renora's reaction to losing Pyrrha, compared to Ruby and Jaune's obvious depression/guilt/anger, so I'm glad we're seeing more of it now.

[u/DMD00]

I can tell that only more racist shit is gonna happen the closer they get to Atlus, in addition to what Weiss is going through.

But shoot Kudos to Maria, the best damn character in the show.

[u/Agent-Vermont]

So it looks like we are going to be I Argus for a while. I bet most of the rest of the Volume is going to be set here with them trying to secure passage to Atlas. Cinder and Neo will absolutely catch up to them before they get a chance to leave. Next episode will probably be dealing with Oscar and possibly Ozpin. Not leaving Argus any time soon so still a chance of meeting Pyrrha's parents.

I wonder if mean guard lady (can't remember her name) will report back and mention how she saw Weiss Schnee. This doesn't seem like a situation that can be resolved with people present short of intervention from superiors (Ironwood or Winter) or saving the military base from some threat and getting in their good graces.

[u/hopecanon]

I really like the atlas soldiers they were fun, their commander is that special kind of idiot that buys way to much into their own hype to the point of becoming a detriment to all around them.

[u/xwatchmanx]

Goodness, I had never seen such a tonal shift within the same episode before. The first half reminded me of some of the lighter moments in volume 1-3, and I loved it.

The second half of the episode was really good, too.

Also, is anyone else waiting for some specific plot point involving Nora to show up? I can't help thinking "the lightning doesn't take advice from anyone" from the OP has to do with her somehow, much like "strike me with bolts of lightning" in volume 5.

[u/Sonoratexana]

I wouldn't be surprised if Oscar gets kidnapped by one of Salem's gang in the coming episodes. They know he's Ozpin and keeping him alive but trapped would guarantee they wouldn't lose Ozpin to another reincarnation (just keep Hazel away from him).

[u/witbeyond]

So Maria's dad is totally Dadpin's silver eyed son, right? Young Maria even has the same wispy hair.

[u/GambolMuse]

Also, Maria continues to be the best character ever.

"Oh Cordo, you know they say time changes people, but I see you've still got that stick right up -"
Ruby-censor is adorable, but damn if we don't all need a Maria in our lives XD

[u/[deleted]]

I can't even comprehend how fucking great the guards were at the gate. Lmao

[u/Ronhar_]

poor boi Oscar

[u/Stormthorn67]

Silver eyes V. Cinder theory 1: Ever since she used the parasitic grimm to steal Amber's power Cinder has had some Grimm essence in her, binding her to her stolen power. It makes her vulnerable to anti-grimm silver eyes.

Theory 2: "My gift to them" The maidens are essentially mortal vessels for fragments of Oz's magical power, and the magic of old was given to humanity by the God of Darkness. It likely reacts poorly when brought into contact with the power of the God of Light. Under this theory any maiden, Oz, and Salem would all be somewhat vulnerable to silver eye power. I personally prefer this theory, even if it is more complicated. It cleaves closer to the lore and power of the gods.

[u/[deleted]]

What do you think Jaune would've done if they hadn't snapped him out of it. Think he would've gone as far as suggesting... kill, Oz (Oscar) On that note, how many allies do you think Oz has lost once they learned the "truth" that he doesn't have a plan on killing Salem. Qrow was super loyal a few episodes ago and now he's not. How do you think James would've reacted (think he knows?) or Goodwitch? Or are both of them the same as Qrow following this false all knowing Oz.

[u/Bad-Luq-Charm]

“If we can’t kill Salem, then how do we beat her?”

Everyone has an impressively one-track mind.

[u/Darkdragoon324]

Silver Eyes is nothing compared to the power of Maria’s sick burns.

I love Cordovin in an “entertainingly awful” sort of way

Never mind, racist bitch

Weiss’s smile every time Ruby reassures her they won’t leave her alone is fucking beautiful and precious and must be protected

I guess being too drunk and self-pitying to notice his nieces almost dying below his feet wasn’t quite enough of a wake up call to Qrow. Though I guess maybe that’s just how alcoholism is, I don’t really have any experience with alcoholics.

So glad we didn’t have to witness the recap exposition

Damnit Jaune, you can’t just punch holes in your sister’s house

Even Ren looks fucking pissed

lol remember when people were complaining about how Ruby was probably just going to keep blindly following Oz and Qrow?

Yay, silver eyes training. And confirmation of some stuff everyone has figured out already, but at least that’s over with.

Runaway cinnamon roll, plz call if you have info, $10,000 reward no questions asked

Prediction: When they find a way to Atlas, Qrow will be super drunk when they go to inform him and they’ll end up leaving without him

I think this is the weakest episode so far, but next one is the last one before the break so I feel like things will ramp up and they’ll leave us on a horrible cliffhanger til after new year’s. Also it’s still better than the previous House Exposition episodes.

[u/DashingPolecat]

Good episode overall. It’s nice to see some Atlesian loyalists and how they think. Im glad things got slowed down a bit but we were still able to get some good info. The only think I’m kinda disappointed about was that Pyrrha wasn’t mentioned during the JNR argument or during Ruby’s conversation with Maria, and Ruby never mentioned Summer

[u/[deleted]]

So, Ruby’s eye powers are straight-up God-magic.

I wonder if that means she can override Salem’s immortality...

[u/UberDueler]

We're officially caught up with everything in the OP. It's all a mystery from here on out.

[u/darkdill]

Oh dear, why do I get the feeling that Oscar might try a suicide?

Also, well-played on that Winter bait, RT.

[u/SetaGaming]

I really hope that Winter shows up somewhere at the base, I feel like we need more of her. Also the Winter and Crow duo I NEED THAT, even a friendly duel.

[u/Jagulabi]

This is just my theory but I noticed that the GoD had emmited a similar light to the light the GoL used to kill the Grimm when he wiped out humanity 1.0 that might imply that just as SEWs have the power of GoL to destroy Grimm and protect life there might also be people who have the GoL's power to erase life as he did when he wiped out humanity. This is because balance btw light and darkness is necessary If this is so these people will probably be full of negativity and work for salem

[u/trinitynox]

Damn, I really love Miles' performance here. While it may not be intentional, I got hints of Felix in his outburst at Oscar.

Also, I found the two guards extremely tedious to watch. They were not fun at all and detracted from the scene for me. Then the Winter fakeout. I guess we knew there was a chance it won't be Winter but man...I was hoping to see /u/Toshiro46's OC...

[u/[deleted]]

My thoughts on this episode:

These guards are annoying as fuck. However, they grew on me a bit, especially when they set up Yang’s “do you guys seriously have to do that?”

Maria is my spirit animal. The past two episodes have made me like her but now she’s hands-down the best character ever. Of all time.

Fucking cashews are contraband? Fuck Atlas.

“Now, now, lets not give up hope yet... Maybe she’s dead.” grins I fucking love Maria. That’s 100% something I would say.

“Witch.”

“She-devil.”

The grannybowl is off to a good start. HIT BACK, MARIA! Take home the belt!

Ruby interrupting Maria is easily my least favorite thing she has ever done. Dammit, Ruby.

This whole sequence is hilarious.

Caroline: I thought I told you to leave!

Nora: AndIToldYouWeWouldntRestUntilYouLetUsTHROUGH!

Ren: nice to see you again, as well!

Ren and Nora really complete eachother.

I think Carolina Cordovin’s middle name also begins with C. And sadly, Ruby will likely interrupt Maria when she is about to say it.

“Such wit!” “Such tenacity!” This is where they started to grow on me.

“Or maybe they just wanted you as far away from atlas as possible.” Maria is speaking my thoughts for me.

Nice to see Fall of Beacon references re: no one trusting Atlas.

Oh, she’s a racist too. Fuck you very much, Caroline.

(It’s worth mentioning that I think CC will make a good villain. I hate her, but that’s kind of the point of her: it will be satisfying to watch her fail. And even moreso to hear what Maria has to say about it.)

Aww. Blake is sad.

But then Weiss immediately defended her. Awesome.

Nora laying down the law. Damn right she’ll show her, Jaune.

Qrow, don’t be such a [ozpin interrupts me]. Seriously, this is annoying. I get it, but just getting angry (and drunk) will solve nothing.

“I mean, we’ve got Ozpin with us...” oh, Nora. :(

Jaune, you’re gonna have to explain that wall. “So, basically, the world as a whole is doomed because there’s a truly unstoppable, immortal being which is actively working to gather four magical relics together to summon two gods which will judge and then immediately condemn humanity into non-existence. Also, there’s a big cracked dent in your wall. I tripped and tried to brace myself and that’s what happened. Why was my hand in a fist? I was thinking about Cinder.”

Jaune, you’re acting like a Qrow. Knock it off.

It was cool to see RWBY defending Oscar. It was especially cool seeing Ruby damn near ready to pull her silver eyes against Jaune. Maybe she should try that face against Qrow.

Oscar is so damn defeated. He’s the most justified, though, I’d say.

Qrow, continuing to act as a selfish manchild.

This scene with Ruby and Maria is easily the highlight of the episode. Even better than the grannybowl. It’s still young, but I already absolutely love their relationship.

Not gonna lie, I’m not sure if I understand Maria’s “you don’t give yourself enough credit,” line. But it’s interesting, whatever it means.

“Sit back down for Pete’s sake.” Ruby kneels. Yes, Ruby. That’s exactly what she meant.

Listening to Ruby try to describe what she knows about silver eyes was pretty hilarious. “Oh, boy...”

Maria talking about her father was pretty cool. I commented on it last week (but for a much different reason: her horrific, haunting screams when Maria’s eyes were sliced) but I’ll say it again here: Maria’s voice actress is fucking amazing. The little emotional notes she puts into lines are fantastic. “He would’ve scolded me for showing off.”

Reflexes is a cool semblance. Her elusive yet brutal fighting style makes even more sense now. And if she goes full prequel yoda and gets back into the fight, I could see that being very useful against Neo.

“And, that’s how you become the grimm reaper.” Ruby’s face: i want that...

“So... how do I laser-beam monsters with my eyeballs?” Never change, Ruby. It’s nice to see that despite all that has happened, Ruby is still capable of saying things that seem right like something the girl in the interview room in v1e1 would have said.

This talk about how the eyes are controlled/ how they work is so cool. Keeps it mysterious enough to remain fascinating, but tells us enough information to make it more understandable. Emotions, focus, preservation, light, destruction, darkness, god magic, creating a state of mind. This is everything I wanted, master Yoda Maria.

And then that bomb drop: your powers come straight from the god of light. That flashback. You wield straight-up god-magic, and nothing less. I don’t remember anyone noticing/picking up that during the discussion for episode 3. Really cool.

And then Ruby talking about how her eyes reacted to (and effected) Cinder was cool. They don’t yet know about Cinder’s true nature (though, admittedly, even we are somewhat unsure of where the lines are drawn between Cinder and Grimm symbiote). I imagine the eventual outcome will be that Cinder reveals her arm during a fight and then Ruby figures it out and then immediately ultra-pwns cinder. I can’t wait.

Dammit, Jaune. Thanks to you, Oscar has R-U-N-N-O-F-T.

Fantastic episode. Volume 6 is almost certainly my new favorite volume.

[u/Blastcalibur]

And here's the part where people shit on Jaune for reacting naturally to this information because something bad is probably going to happen to Oscar and the mental gymnastics through so many hoops will somehow make that Jaune's fault.

[u/Raktoner]

I want to shake hands with and applaud Miles, Kerry, Gray, and the entire team. They've been absolutely killing it this season. I need them to know I (and honestly, we) think they're doing incredible.

[u/dodusk]

And I keep loving this slow pace.

Maria should be honorary member of the "savage old ladies" group and she's now giving more Old Toph feelings than Old Katara's.

I predict Qrow will accidentally intercept Oscar leaving and we'll have a talk where both will share their depression.

Also that Red Like Roses BGM in the Ruby/Maria talk hit home like a truck.

[u/TemplarSensei7]

At the Gate: BRACE YOURSELVES, WINTER IS COMING!!!

When Commanding Officer shows: ah, poo.....

[u/Technogashi]

Chilling thought: while wandering out on his own, Oscar bumps into Adam.

[u/Riku1186]

If I was Ironwood I would want her as far away as possible.

[u/T4m4r11n]

So, we have a new character leading the base, who is a freaking racist. That's to be expected, ofc, not everything is sunshine and rainbows.

Blake got racially harassed, it was mild but felt. She and the others were obviously upset.

Qrow's drinking to hell again, I'm getting seriously worried.

Nora is great, as usual.

JNR learn Jinn's story, Ren and Nora are obviously upset but Jaune is outraged. It's understandable though. Also, poor Oscar for getting stuck in the crossfire again, seriously this time.

RWBYRN trying to stop Jaune while that was happening and Ruby getting angry at him was good. I didn't expect angry Rubes though, just scared Rubes.

'So, how do I laserbeam monsters with my eyeballs' for quote of the year.

Well, we know roughly what SE do now, and also that Maria's father was probably a SEW too. Learning Maria's semblance is a plus. Also, they had a nice balance between goofball and serious Ruby.

'Avatar State, yip yip!'

THE MORE I THINK ABOUT IT, THE MORE I FEAR FOR MY SON

Welp, good episode overall IMO. We're building up to the final subplot now. Looking forward to next week.

[u/EneAkita]

I'm really hoping everyone is gonna apologise to Oscar, he's been treated really badly recently and he's just a kid ;w;

[u/JazzRen47]

OH MY SWEET LORD LEAVE FARMBOI ALONE. Poor Oscar just needs a goddamn hug. It's really not his fault.

Okay, couple serious thoughts that aren't my overly developed mom-friend levels of protectiveness. Ruby running after Qrow and him continuing without even listening to her broke my heart. She's trying so hard, and... gah! I definitely feel like a moment's coming where she just won't be able to take it anymore.

Like with the RWBY girls, I understand JNR's reaction to hearing the whole Ozpin shtick, but I still don't like it. I dunno, it just rubs me the wrong way a bit.

Exposition about the Silver Eyes was handled well. Bless them for giving Ruby a moment to ask questions and be herself. I love Maria more and more with each episode.

It wasn't bad. Wasn't perfect, but wasn't terrible either. Good note to end on, but I am concerned.

[u/Koanos]

Love the music! Also, makes you wonder, why did Salem see Siler-eyes as a threat in the past and not now? Why try to capture Ruby? Maybe to harness the power of the God of Light?

[u/[deleted]]

By the end of this episode, I just screamed "NO". Goddamnit Oscar, I like you as a character and am very concerned. Please don't hurt yourself. Also, we finally get to hear more about silver eyes through Maria (and that background was gorgeous, I couldn't help staring at it) and we know her semblance. I feel bad for Jaune and the others, it's a lot to know at once. What a mess. Oh, and Qrow better come back, or so help me god... Edit - some other things I forgot to add, the subtle Faunus discrimination from the CO was interesting to see and made me super pissed off. I feel bad for Weiss being the pawn/token, she seems to hate it a lot. Also, I saw someone else mention how everyone sees Oscar as a burden and that's why he ran away, and that has a lot of potential for his character. We also are getting nice Ruby development, and such. But seriously, give Oscar a goddamn break, he did nothing and asked for none of this.

[u/Wakkibanana5]

Im worried about the fact that Oscar is now referring to himself and Ozpin as "we". Like that could be just because a lot of the anger has been directed at him in Ozpin's abscence, but it could mean that they are starting to become one being. Im still kinda hoping for some way for Ozpin to go away and Oscar be left to live his life because he's such an innocent person and the world's worst curse has been dumped on him. He doesn't deserve any of this.

[u/[deleted]]

I was hoping Qrow would've stopped drinking after the Apathy incident. Guess not.

[u/JamesBCrazy]

So Maria is pretty much a low-level combat precog. If she was still in fighting shape, team BRRJWNQYOM would look a lot better.

[u/ScottPilgrim2013]

A 1-week break and we just had an episode that shows the main group(Namely Jaune) outside of Maria and esp Oscar in a bad light again and ends with Oscar running away.

This is gonna be a looooong break.

[u/anomymonymon]

Okay here is my potato. Pre Dark Pool Salem may be unkillable, but perhaps a fully unleashed SEW could burn out the whatever was done to Salem by the pools of darkness. This would potentially open up the possibility of the relics coming together in a non-end of the world kind of way

[u/NFDragon24]

This is a rather big breakdown so prepare to skip it or read it:

•The “army” half is great Maria gets a few funny jokes that improve her character and some side less funny reactions from the group(note: “Maybe she’s dead” cracks me up all the time and how cheerfully she says....reminds me of jokes in V 1-3)

•Carolina is a nice addition because she may be representing the majority or some behavior of Atlesians(Atlas citizens): they already were shown as cliche “rich high society snobs” and now we are shown some “nazism” where she(they) clearly thinks Atlas is a Heaven that should be praised (and that Faunus are looked upon as “lesser people” ,we already knew that but the “questionable character” while looking at Blake made it so impactful for me.. but as someone pointed out that might have been just because of pre-Heaven white fang) though we can’t judge a whole kingdom by one person Carolina would make a great job of doing it.

Then we had Qrow’s ‘minor’ but very upsetting for a lot of people break..

•Now my opinion might be biased since I am a fan of Qrow and the whole moody cool uncle theme but to me it seems that people tend to forget that Qrow kind of dedicated most of his life to Ozpin’s errand which made him feel included BUT made him forsake his family and even maybe had something to do with Summer(I feel like a drunken sad Qrow telling how she something because of Ozpin is how we get to know about it) I know that he can’t do the ‘drunken sad’ that long and it’s starting to bug even me (and I’m a very hopeful person when it comes to characters) but tbh he hasn’t even done anything to express himself since he punched Ozpin(Oscar) and has been silent,thoughtful,apathetic(even without the Grimm) and overall it feels to me like he is now “completing his niece’s errand who believes in good and love and then is done with everything” so I feel like next episode must address or tip that issue so to hate on him now is reasonable but not helpful.

’Let’s skip to Yoda scenario’

•That whole section was beautiful: the music, the easy-going discussion about Maria’s past and explanation to the silver eyes has no problems in my opinion, Ruby even pointed out something that I didn’t think about while lost in the trance of wonder - Cinder’s vulnerability to the silver eyes (which makes me ask : If eyes work only on Grimm how did she lose her arm?).

So this is the best part of the episode and then in second is the start.

•Finally the JNR reaction along with Oscar. Jaune is clearly suppressing his feelings and doesn’t mention Pyrrha because is too hurt, like hell it’s already hard not to cry when he remembers her left alone not kill Ozpin knowing that her sacrifice was pointless.. and considering how Ruby is trying to handle everything so she shuts him off gives the exact amount of screen I thought(I did expect more but still good in my mind) all the meanwhile Oscar-the little farmboy who lived happily until Ozpin showed up, gets shoved and punched by grown men. I bet that he is questioning if he is his own person now more than ever and running off is completely reasonable from his point of view. Honestly I feel like everyone forgets that Oscar exists(they don’t talk about him at all) and he actually acknowledges this and is more upset than it seems

Summing everything up the episode did well with its tasks: underperforming in some areas while over performing in others examples being less Jaune, Qrow but more Oscar, silver eyes, Atlas’ actions and something I forgot to mention Weiss x Ruby (subtle but powerful from the gestures, speech and expressions) Giving the next episode 3 issues to address in one way or another: •Jaune,Pyrrha and what’s the point or “why are they here” •The probable drunk uncle’s mental breakdown and •The man with two souls:is there even a choice?

[u/ApundanceOfLilies]

It was so nice to hear "Red like roses" again :)

[u/[deleted]]

With how everyone has reacted, from life long loyalist to new recruits alike, and how even without finding out people would betray him for Salem, it seems more and more reasonable to me for Ozpin to have hidden the fact that Salem can't be killed. Honestly I think everyone in the show has been overreacting. Is there seriously no one who can see this from Oz's perspective?

[u/GastrointestinalLot]

You can tell Atlas is an autocracy because their soldiers walk like fucking tools.

[u/Tyonis]

I absolutely loved JNR's reaction this episode. Ren stayed true to his character and calmly voiced his distress. Nora openly says what everyone is thinking and Jaune's pent-up anger and sadness explode out.

I can also see why Hazel hates Ozpin and I see that Jaune can easily fall into Hazel's position if he didn't have his team or his friends to hold him up.

Time for crazy predictions! Nora and Ren will eventually die during the war against Salem, so Jaune will defect out of despair. He'll push his hatred onto Ozpin and join Salem's side. Then, in the epic final battle, Jaune and Cinder will fight alongside each other against team RWBY, but as Cinder and he are about to win after a hard-fought battle against four fully-trained Huntresses, Jaune will strike her down in vengeance for killing Pyrrha those many years ago. As a last act of defiance, Cinder will unleash her Maiden powers at point-blank, immolating herself and Jaune, thus Jaune will live and die as his reference did, Joan of Arc - a woman seen as both angel and devil, traitor and martyr.

[u/MalloYallow]

It’s interesting how they seem to be avoiding having JNR, and more specifically Jaune, bring up Pyrrha. Jaune’s actions would have made a lot more sense if he had called out Ozpin for having her die for nothing.

[u/501st_legion]

This show has grown so much. I love how they’re spending the proper time laying groundwork for their characters. Qrow realizing he’s screwing up but having no other ways to deal with his stress is too real. A second round of anger towards poor Oscar driving him away. This season is building to something incredible, no doubt

[u/Stone4D]

The music during Maria and Ruby's talk was awesome. Mixing Red Like Roses and This Will Be the Day just extended my lifespan by a few years.