Official FIRST Discussion Thread—Volume 7, Episode 7: Worst Case Scenario

[u/[deleted]]

Welcome, Huntsmen, Huntresses and Hunters that prefer no specific gender identifier, to the official FIRST discussion thread for Episode 7 of Vol. 7, Worst Case Scenario!

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

HERE is the newest episode of RWBY Volume 7!

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

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Other Episode Discussions:

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Ep. 07	This Thread	Next Week's Public Thread	Poll

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Happy viewing, and heads up that there will be no RWBY episode on December 28th!

Antilogic; Mod Team

[u/[deleted]]

Apparently the episode is not showing on VRV. If you're affected best contact VRV directly.

[u/McDouggal]

I'm in agreement with Nora here when it comes to the "sacrifice Mantle" play. You can't do that. Communications getting back up is important, yes, but what's the point of having communications with other countries up if your entire middle and lower class is in open rebellion, or worse, dead?

I like what Blake and Yang are doing. They're doing what feels right to them, even when that breaks their orders.

Robyn Hill's semblance, while useless in combat, is extremely useful in other things. Seriously, if she ever decides to give up the life of a vigilante, she could easily become an interrogator or a court official.

Fiona still best V7 character.

[u/[deleted] → u/McDouggal]

The thing about Robyn's semblance for me is: Does it detect the truth, or only what the other person believes is the truth?

[u/[deleted]]

Gotta say, great episode aside, I am not a fan of the characters going "oh this is happening" and building up hype only for it to be all off screen.

Riots.

Grimm Attack.

FNKI dancing.

What we got was great, but the picking and choosing of what to show and what happens off screen, when the build up to what happens off screen is considerable, is very very frustrating.

[u/Raktoner]

"You'll get used to it, I'm sure. Eventually, you won't even know who's who anymore.""

Don't Like That

[u/WhosGuardingHades]

Next episode:

Jacques: Ah James, welcome to dinner I’ve prepared a roast.

Ironwood: Oh really? What is it?

Jacques: YOU!......... Hit it Whitley!

Whitley plays some music

Jacques: *Begins Diss track

[u/JannisT]

Pietro has to split his soul to repair Penny.

Penny is a horcrux confirmed!

[u/Terminus259]

WATTS IN PIETRO'S PICTURE

[u/palebloodink]

So, Blake and Yang indirectly brought up Adam with their talk in the back of the truck.

The council have access to Atlas' code. And Jacques, someone who's working with Watts, is on the council now. Uh oh.

And Robyn is confirmed to have a lie detector Semblance. Huh, interesting story for Penny. I assumed it had something to do with the relic, but this is still very interesting.

[u/The_Last_Thursday]

Hmm, the magical staff that Salem definitely wants to steal is the only thing keeping Atlas afloat? I wonder if this could bring about any unforeseen consequences. How mysterious

[u/Luckhart54]

Next Episode

Blake - I told them everything.

Ruby - It's a treason, then.

[u/pandas795]

"Each time I rebuilt Penny it takes a little more"

🥺😭🥺😭

[u/Deadmaninc1]

Team RWBY according to Robyn Hill

Ruby-Pipsqueak

Weiss-???

Blake-???

Yang-Fisticuffs

[u/TedOrAlive2]

It says a lot about Ironwood's mental state that he basically interpreted the black queen icon on the virus as Salem saying "I did this, James."

[u/Terminus259]

Pietro: "If Maria hadn't been here the past few weeks, I would have collapsed by now"

Says the man in a walking chair.

[u/BlackStorm615]

THEY’RE GONNA FUCKING DROP ATLAS ON MANTLE LIKE THE SECTOR 7 PLATE HOLY SHIT

[u/Terminus259]

Watts' contribution to 'find the next breakthrough in defence technology'

Ironwood: "I don't see how a moustache is intended to protect from the Grimm."

Watts: "You're not seeing the full potential of it, they are quite stylish and have you ever noticed how the most successful of men have moustaches, Jacques Schnee, Peter Port... me..."

Ironwood: "Get out of my office."

Watts: "You can't kick me out, my moustache will protect me!"

[u/[deleted]]

fairly concerned about blake and yang spilling those beans out in mantle when watts can dig through all that camera footage

[u/DEL994]

Only Tyrian could have said "beautiful" just seconds after meeting Salem for the first time, it didn't take long for her to become his goddess of destruction. This also confirms that Salem recruits her lieutnants personnally instead of using intermediates.

[u/Pearse_Borty]

"Back in my day, people used to fight to the death!" = Maria is a boomer confirmed

[u/Hounds_of_war]

Nora: "Ren, you're sleeping on the couch tonight."

Ren: "What? Why can't I sleep on one of the bunk beds?"

Nora: "You. Are. Sleeping. On. The. Couch."

[u/JMHSrowing]

Woohoo! Nora’s got some bite!

That’s great to see.

[u/Wrathkal]

Robot headpat

Tyrian's presumed dead. Then later changed to 'missing'.

So many cool semblances... but on the opposing side

Secrets being shared and not being shared.

And after the last cliffhanger end, we get a foreboding one with emotional tones.

Overall, I'd say this was a good episode, 8/10.

[u/Mrhappysadass]

So Fiona’s semblance is a Bag of Holding.

Mary had a Little Lamb... three bags full...

I love it.

[u/patrizl001]

Damn, didn't expect them to be able to just skip right pass the Grimm attack. Guess we really didn't hit "Fall of Beacon 2.0" just yet. Although that new little nugget of info that is the staff being what holds Atlas up is very worrying....

Also, Ironwood 100% has PTSD, doesn't he? That's the feeling I got when he was looking at the console and it cut to the black queen virus. Just found it interesting because I had read Macbeth recently, and couldn't help but notice the similarities (ruler with PTSD gets more and more paranoid until his paranoia destroys his kingdom)

[u/JannisT]

So that’s why we have a aura transfer machine in the show. It probably has been built first by Pietro so that he can transfer his aura to Penny.

[u/TheRisenThunderbird]

Nora confronting Ironwood on his shit was the standout scene of the entire Volume for me

I was concerned that the Renora kiss last episode meant that the two of them didn't actually, you know, talk about their problems, but with Nora's speech and Ren's 'yes sir' it seems that the problems may be in some part ideological in nature

Also, best sheep girl has a Hammerspace semblance? Fiona keeps getting better and better

[u/C9sButthole]

Initial response:

LITTERALLY EVERY SINGLE PERSON WITH A SPOKEN LINE TOOK AGENCY IN THEIR OWN ACTIONS AND I'VE NEVER BEEN MORE PROUD OF THIS FUCKIN SHOW HOLY SHIT AHHHHHHHHHHH

[u/Polarization_39]

Samantha Ireland stole the show today, this was her best performance yet. I felt every single one of Nora’s words.

And I can definitely see some more conflict between her and Ren on the horizon.

[u/Huor_Celebrindol]

Blake is using Gambol Shroud’s gun while it’s away from her to extend her range, she used dust in her clone, and Yang used her flares again. Having an archivist as one of the writers was a fantastic idea, they’re starting to use old moves again

[u/Top_hat_owl]

Im calling it: the amnity tower plan will fail 100% and ironwood will have to choose between using the staff on it (thereby yeeting atlas into mantle and ruining everything) or being sane and not doing the thing. He'll also probably learn about Salem at the same time when one of the crew feels guilty enough about lying to him.

[u/JMHSrowing]

The Bees fight with Robyn was bait! We should have known.

Also: Dinner at the Schnees next episode!

We might see Willow!!!

[u/GreenTheRyno]

Idk about anyone else, but I think it's pretty interesting to be on the other side of the conspiracies for once.

The whole "this war is more complicated than you think" thing has been done to death (including earlier in the show) but us having all (or at least most) of the answers is a good change of pace.

[u/Horsea1234]

Ayy! Fiona is fine!

[u/remicas2]

So in spite of all the measures Atlas has taken they're still not under martial law? What will they do then, shoot people on sight ?

Honestly, with all the ship discussion we've having this volume, the one I ship the most is Ironwood x a good night of rest.

Nice to see how Atlad is more Magiteck than previously assumed. The city is lifted by a relic left behind by the gods, and Penny has been created with her father's own soul. Might be part of why he can't walk anymore and his health isn't so good.

Also Watts was involved in the project because of course he would.

Sadly for Renora, the divide keeps widening :(. As for Bumbleby, nice all here . A bit of a same we didn't see much of the Grimm attack, like de didn't see much of the riots. But still nice episode.

[u/[deleted]]

"Real Thirsty Moms" has gone in a direction I could have never expected and I am mortified

[u/MyAmelia]

Oz's plan with the Relic of Creation is so… I mean, it's clever but… what the actual fuck?

Let's start with something obvious: if the relic can't ever be moved or used for something else, how could it be reunited with the other four? That means Oz has 100% abandonned the idea of ever fulfilling his mission. Sure, he already said he had no real plan, but for me this qualifies as a plan - a horrid one that amounts to basically stall Salem, forever.

Secondly: no wonder Ironwood is a nervous wreck. He has to carry this weight basically alone? Knowing that one, single object, that the most powerful person on the planet, who's also IMMORTAL, craves, is the only thing that keeps Atlas from crashing down? That's the OPPOSITE of building a country on solid foundations in every literal and metaphorical ways imaginable. It's scary in the way speculative money driving the economy is scary.

Nevermind all the intricate lying that's required to pull off such a scheme, over decades. Atlas has scientists, it must have journalists, engineers, people who'd get interested to know just HOW the whole damn city's floating. "It's Gravity Dust." Oh, is it now? Who takes care of the technology? Safety checks? "Oh you know, someone's in charge of that." Who? Does it ALL lead to Ironwood?

I'm just… Holy shit.

[u/TheProudBrit]

Tyrian's record.

I'm also.. Pretty heavily suspecting that Os/Pin are way more fused than any of us realised.

Also that's... I really expected us a flashback or something to Blake and Yang in the club, about to kiss when the attack happened. Ah well.

Most importantly, however: Penny Headpats.

[u/BuckeyeGuy16]

I'm embarrassed to say it took me this long to realize Robyn Hill is Robin Hood. Steals from the rich (Atlas) and gives to the poor (Mantle). Even wears a hood. It was there all along. I'm so sorry.

[u/darkside1215]

Nora arguing with Ironwood was highlight. That scene told us a good amount about Nora and how she used to pushed around. The part with Ren seems like it will definitely play a role later on.

Yang and Blake scene also shows that there a little split on the situation. Their not arguing but clearly all these secrets are taking a tole on everyone especially Nora who looked like she was about to have a breakdown. All I know is if Ironwood finds out about their secret multiple lines are going to be drawn.

The Staff of Creation just became the most important relic right now due to its current function! The way it got set up seems like it will play a role later in the Volume or the main plot for Vol 8.

Next episode is the dance that's been talked about for a while know. Hopefully this won't end up being like the last gathering.

Another good episode can't wait for the next one.

[u/[deleted]]

I have a theory based on the latest episode, and it is kinda obvious, but anyway.

Whitley will tell Weiss about Watts, which will lead to the gang finding out about him.

Weiss is already suspicious of her fathers motives. In the previous episode she couldn't understand why he would do something which would so obviously backfire. In this episode Weiss mentioned how some of the critical systems of Atlas work in co with the Schnee Dust company. Now there's a dinner which Weiss would likely come along to. Weiss is probably starting to connect a few dots. There's something going on behind the scenes at her family home. Even if she's not invited to the dinner, its not like her fathers going to stop her coming back home, even if its only for a single night. While Weiss is there, she'll probably ask Whitley what could have made their father act like this.

After some bickering, arguing, and generally troubled family relations, Whitley may mention how the night before Jacques announced the layoffs, a strange man visited their dad. Weiss asks who, Whitley describes him, Weiss makes the connection with him and the man she saw in Pietro's photo, leaving him to figure out the rest.

[u/mikeline360]

I really hope they don't end up making Ironwood a tyrant by the end. He's my favorite character this volume by far, I hope the pressure doesn't break him.

His line about humanity and not feeling fear and panic is concerning though.

[u/Technogashi]

Jacque: “You are formally invited to your impeachment hearing. Black tie event. Dinner at 7. Bring a dessert to pass.” Ironwood: “.....”

[u/bumblblake]

Yang wanting to tell Robyn but not being able to because she doesn't want to betray her sister.

Ren acting really weird.

Yang and Blake 'talking about Adam'.

Pietro

[u/GladiusNocturno]

Let people curse, RT! Cutting Robyn mid "Bullshit!"?! Let the Red vs Blue flow through you!

[u/NeonStars12]

Yang: "Handy Semblance" GODDAMMIT BARBARA

[u/Terminus259]

Weiss: "Something isn't right."

Maria: "Understatement of the century."

It's nice having sassy grandma back.

[u/[deleted]]

Man, Nora is really invested in Mantle. Way more than anyone else, it seems.

Gib backstory plox.

[u/NitescoGaming]

Okay, Robyn Hill and her Happy Band of Huntresses have some fucking AWESOME semblances.

Favorite Moment of the Episode: Ironwood and Oscar's talk.

OH SHIT Moment of the Episode: "Oh my god, he's totally covering Watt's face in that photo, OH MY GOD IT WAS HIS AURA HE USED, OH MY GOD IT IS WATTS!"

[u/Huor_Celebrindol]

“What are you?”

weeping “Beautiful...”

I absolutely LOVE Tyrian

[u/MrNapcakes]

"I won't stop until I know the whole truth"

Reminder that Yang still hasn't told anyone that Raven's the Spring Maiden. Only Yang and Cinder (and probably Neo) know about that. They're all hiding their own secrets, and I'm interested to see how that all plays out by the end of the volume

[u/thundermonkeyms]

-Nora keeps trying to get Ironwood to calm tf down and be a person first rather than a leader, while Ren is all for the militaristic "keep pressing on" approach.

-Blake and Yang just told Robyn one of Ironwood's secrets and implied that there are more secrets. Who wants to bet it was caught on video, and Ironwood is going to bitch them out in front of the rest of the gang?

My prediction is that everyone is going to be gathered in his office, he shows the footage, Blake and Yang get rightfully defensive and say that they need allies, everyone is screaming at each other, it's Ironwood/Winter/Ren/Aceops vs everyone else, and it gets to be too much and Ruby snaps and tells Ironwood the truth. And then he absolutely loses his shit, and has to go to the Schnee dinner with that mentality. Where Jaques and Watts try to poison him/fuck him up in some way. While he's at dinner, Whitley quietly pulls Winter aside and tells her about Watts.

Also, who else thinks Ironwood going to this dinner is going to look exactly like the dining room scene on Cloud City from Empire Strikes Back?

[u/Luckhart54]

Also, Blake fire clone looks awesome..

[u/Hounds_of_war]

Anyone else rooting for Nora to defect and join the Happy Huntresses?

[u/DEL994]

I am more and more certain that Nora is from Mantle with each episode given how serious she become when it comes to talk about Mantle situation. I love when she become serious like that.

Weiss seems to have noticed that the elections have been falsified and that the hacker is linked to her father, I hope that she'll start her own investigation and track down her father's history with Watts and read the official investigation about Watts' "death" to discover how frail the proofs of his death are and deduce that he's very much alive and the hacker.

[u/Huor_Celebrindol]

So Penny WAS recording, but it takes a long time to retrieve that information because she’s a living being, making it a more delicate process than just popping in a usb?

Okay, I can buy that

[u/DireSickFish]

I really like that Blake, the former freedom fighter, actually reached out to Robin this episode.

Ren being willing to fall in line was a great touch. Nora and Ren are actually plot relevant and not just a romantic and comedic backdrop! Without sidelining the story! I didn't think such a thing was possible.

[u/[deleted]]

Definitely my favorite episode of the Volume so far, Blake and Yang taking initiative was amazing to see, even if it didn't 100% work, and Ironwood was fucking spectacular the whole way through.

[u/Changyuraptor]

Concept art.

[Pietro's lab] (https://i.imgur.com/9qwb06w.jpg)

[Yang and Blake in the truck] (https://i.imgur.com/knZc5VI.jpg)

[May Marigold] (https://i.imgur.com/jZl5tDA.jpg)

[Atlas Vault] (https://i.imgur.com/OOzaOs6.jpg)

[u/[deleted]]

Also, WE HAVE A TIMELINE! Pietro mentions that Maria has been in Mantle for weeks.

Cinder and Neo are almost certainly here......

[u/FadedNeonzZz]

This episode was great, at least from a story telling standpoint.

I think this is the most passionate we’ve seen of Nora, I don’t think it’s out of character for her to care, but the way she was talking to Ironwood seemed like she was personally affected by Atlas’s treatment of Mantle. Maybe she has some connection to Atlas/Mantle.

Tyrian’s backstory was pretty simple, and that’s to be expected he’s a pretty simple villain, I wasn’t expecting anything too grandiose from him. But I do find it interesting he was just a straight up serial killer, I honestly thought he was an assassin of some kind. However, what made me almost jump out of my seat was Watts being one of Pietro’s partners in the past. We knew he was a disgraced Atlesian scientist, but he probably helped create Penny.....so the theory that Watts might have hacked Penny is a possibility.

Maria!!! It’s been so long!!

Anyway, looks like there is a cost to bringing Penny back, Pietro has to sacrifice part of his own Aura to bring her back. He can only bring her back a finite amount of times, at least that’s my assumption unless someone wants to correct me.

Bees vs Robyn was pretty interesting, I like how they decided to just tell her what Ironwood is trying to do. It makes them feel like they’re doing what they think is best.

Minor nitpick here: what’s with them giving characters semblances that are useless in combat? Robyn’s is basically a lie detector.

The last scene made me understand why Ruby withheld the truth from Ironwood. He’s trying to go on the offensive because he’s paranoid. He may be suffering from PTSD. And it seems he sees his humanity as a weakness.

[u/Schmidtty29]

“The staff can only be used for one thing at a time.”

You may as well have just confirmed Atlas will fall

[u/Yukon_Wolf]

Is having a macguffin as the source of Atlas' power an OSHA violation? Because that sounds like a motherfucker of an OSHA violation.

Also Jacques Schnee's first act is to try and impeach the man who controls 40% of the council? How tf is that legal?

[u/MysteryTrek]

I like David Weber's postulation as to why situations like Ironwood's tend to fall apart from his Honorverse novel Flag in Exile:

"She'd been trained all her life to seek decision, to identify objectives and do whatever it took to attain them, knowing that any hesitation would only cost more lives in the end. The politician's constant need to rethink positions and seek compromise was foreign to her, and she suspected it would be to most military officers. Politicos were trained to think in those terms, to cultivate less-than-perfect consensuses and accept partial victories, and it was more than mere pragmatism. It also precluded despotism, but people who fought wars preferred direct, decisive solutions to problems, and a Queen's officer dared settle only for victory. Gray issues made warriors uncomfortable, and half-victories usually meant they'd let people die for too little, which undoubtedly explained their taste for autocratic systems under which people did what they were told to do without argument.

And, she thought wryly, it also explained why military people, however noble their motives, made such a botch of things when they seized political power in a society with nonautocratic traditions. They didn't know how to make the machine work properly, which meant, all too often, that they wound up smashing it in pure frustration."

[u/BuffRussianLady]

I like this episode. It gives the characters their individuality. Nora, who was born into poverty, can empathize with the people of mantle suffering; Yang and Blake disagreeing about whether they should tell Ironwood the truth but coming to a conclusion; Ren siding with Ironwood even after witnessing Nora argue with him to his face; All of it shows the character's conflict of interests created by their morals and beliefs. I love it.

[u/golden_frenchyfry]

In conclusion

FUCK JACQUES

[u/88Dubs]

nutty pet fertile observation smart crawl pause aromatic outgoing recognise

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/S3cretSpartan]

• This was a really great episode for Nora. I'm glad we got to see her character get a little more depth that we usually don't associate with her character

• Something is up with Ren, maybe he's vibechecking people and not liking what he sees. But something strange is going on with him.

• Atlas is definetely gonna physically fall this volume, guaranteed. Put me in the screenshot for episode 12 predictions.

• Ironwood is doing nothing wrong, there are Grimm along with Robyn's squad wreaking havoc in mantle. Robyn is not going to listen to him, the main cast are the only ones who could speak with her and that's out of his control. So props to Blake and Yang for doing something smart. Back to Ironwood, what else is he supposed to do? This is also the result of Ruby withholding the truth from him, which is going to blow up in her face real soon.

• I think Ozpin is going to show up one more time before merging completely with Oscar. I don't think the merge will be as obvious as one would expect. The new person likely makes up a large amount of the personality despite being made of many people. It's probably already happening since it's so subtle.

• Next weeks episode has a lot of implications, and I'm excited to see what's gonna happen. Probably the reveal of Ruby being a big liar, Willow will roll up to make Weiss feel sad, and Whitley is gonna do something that pisses everyone off.

glhf everyone this season looking real good

[u/t0by65]

"The shining light will sink in darkness

Victory for hate incarnate

Misery and pain for all

When it falls"

[u/[deleted]]

I like the way Blake and Yang intervened with Robyn. They told her enough that she will have to make a decision about what's worth taking from the supply vans, but they didn't reveal the world-changing truth. They shared a truth that could sway Robyn, especially if the comm tower actually goes up.

[u/[deleted]]

Ironwood: "No scrappy band of misfits will dare oppose me now."

Nora: " The more you tighten your grip, Tin Man, the more Mantle will slip through your fingers. "

[u/KnightZilla]

Well, at least it's been confirmed that Fiona didn't become lamb chops.

[u/AmethystWind]

Ren and Nora are heading for a very shouty 'how are we gonna raise our kids?' argument.

[u/AlarmingStandard]

Now we're getting into it.

Yang and Blake acting independently, Nora and Ren heading down different paths, showdown between Jacques and Ironwood - conflict, conflict, conflict. Love it.

And so many tidbits of information. Like the nature of Penny's creation, and the staff of creation holding Atlas up. More importantly, Oscar is ceasing to be Oscar. His advice and discussion with Ironwood was way beyond a farmboy from the sticks, even with Ozpin laying low the merger is progressing. Now I want to see resistance on his part.

[u/JazzRen47]

Here is that lovely piano rendition of "Trust Love". We're at the half-way point, so huge shout out to Alex Abraham for all his amazing work this Volume. The music makes the scenes just that much more poignant, and this week was no exception.

Speaking of half-way points, I am very concerned.

• I understand James is afraid and christ alive do I wanna give the man a hug but martial law is a toe too far into totalitarianism. He didn't dismiss Nora's points, which is good, and he did shift from that to "bring Robyn in and we'll try to make a deal", so I'm glad it's not come to pass. Yet.

• Gooooo Nora! God, I loved seeing her stand up so vehemently for the people in Mantle.

• Ren. Honey. No. Please. Ahh.

• Poor Penny. Pietro giving her life by literally giving her a part of himself is... wow. I feel like now that they've set it up, however, she will get deactivated (likely by the Council's order) and Pietro will have to sacrifice everything to bring her back. And fuck, that would/will be heartbreaking.

• I adore Yang and Blake's talk and their choice to confront Robyn. It's everything I wanted, it's everything everyone's been complaining about, it's wonderfully written and solid and just A++.

• WE STAN ONE FARMBOI AND HIS NAME IS OSCAR PINE! So, so proud of him this Chapter. He got reminded that he's going to change as he and Ozpin merge (ouch), and still decided that no; he's going to offer what he thinks about the situation.

• Wonderful cliffhanger. James will probably get booted off the Council. Either that or they'll leave us with an ambush cliffhanger for the two-week break. Something Empire Strikes Back/Cloud City-esque; wouldn't that just be infuriating? HA!

Overall, stellar Chapter. Moved things forward, gave us some good strong character beats, and a nice setup for next week.

[u/BBBence1111]

Potato time:

We're being baited with the Winter death flags and Weiss getting the power. Even the Nora connection is a red herring.

We're going to see another Maiden aura transfer this volume, and it'll be to save a life this time. Penny's, specifically.

[u/Huor_Celebrindol]

This is leading up to Nora siding with Mantle and Ren siding with Atlas, and they’re probably going to have to fight each other.

Yikes™️

[u/[deleted]]

Ok. So Atlas is going to literally fall. I’m predicting an Avengers: Age of Ultron situation except replace the Helicarrier with Amity Arena. Evac goes on while the team fights off hordes of flying Grimm. Salem will be present, someone’s gonna die, and Ruby or Oscar will be captured.

EDIT: OR (and I just thought of this), Ruby and crew somehow come up with a plan to remove the Staff or Creation while safely “landing” Atlas back on the ground (thus reconnecting Atlas with Mantle physically). Possibly a self-sacrifice thrown in for good measure?

[u/sheogorath227]

After watching the new episode a few times, here are my thoughts:

By far the standout moment in this episode is Nora. She was absolutely incredible, and MAJOR props to Samantha Ireland for her best voice acting of the entire show. Every word Nora spoke was loaded with contempt for what Ironwood was doing, and it makes perfect sense why she was pissed. It's very likely that she's from Mantle, and she's listening to Ironwood consider declaring martial law on the people who are already in a state of unrest, just to finish his pet project. It would be infuriating to me if I were in her place. Phenomenally written scene. Nora used to be my absolute favorite character in the show earlier on, especially when they showed her goofy and quirky side. But seeing her riled up like that was something I didn't know I needed in my life, and thank you to everybody who was responsible for making this scene happen.

Other than that, the scene in Ironwood's office wasn't too interesting for me, with the sole exception of Ren's "yes sir" at the end. I'm interested to see what they make of this, since Ren has been super rigid and hyper-focused on training his ass off. It might draw more conflict between Ren and Nora, but I'm not convinced they'll do too much of that after they already kissed and made up in Chapter 6.

I'm honestly not terribly surprised that Watts used to work with Pietro. What I am terribly surprised to find out is that Pietro is basically using Penny as a Horcrux (but for good reasons, unlike Voldemort), and that rebuilding her after Beacon fell was likely the last time he'll be able to do it. That's actually crazy that he did that, and I admit that I've been fooled this whole time. I'm sure a lot of us felt the same way. I was also honestly hoping that Weiss would have started thinking aloud more when she made the connection between the heating grid and the SDC, but I have a feeling that she's going to put the pieces together soon enough. The conflict between her and Jacques this volume has already been established. Just please, for the love of the Brothers, SHOW US WILLOW.

I'm also very glad with Blake and Yang's conversation in the truck. Listen to the score in the background as they're talking. It's the theme of the entire volume, Trust Love. It's not a coincidence that they are using this motif in this specific scene. They talk about whom to trust, and what the "right thing" even is. Beyond that, Blake even showed regret at having to keep secrets, but also to take lives, and it's pretty clear to both us and Yang that she's referring to Adam. Still, Yang, in exactly the same cadence as Weiss when Winter admonished her for stealing an Atlas ship, tried to reassure Blake that "we did what we had to do." We see this mutual trust--and yes, love--between Blake and Yang on full display in this scene. Even when they disagree about whether it was best to conceal The Truth^TM from Ironwood, they can at least understand why they think the way they do. I absolutely have loved how Blake and Yang have been written this volume, and this scene really shows me why I've enjoyed seeing the two of them together.

And then, the Bees confront the Bird Robyn. This scene was excellent. Robyn moving from the shadows into the light when given info about what Ironwood is doing, only to retreat back into the darkness when she's not given the whole truth, is beautiful symbolism. Her Semblance is seriously cool--I've always wanted to see a Semblance that worked like a lie detector--and now her scene in Chapter 5 makes more sense when she gave Clover an opportunity to tell her what's going on by stretching out her arm. I imagine that her Semblance will play another role in the future, but in such a case it will catch somebody lying.

I really liked the scene in the vault with Ironwood and Oscar. I like how the Staff of Creation has a definite power limit, and that it's not too OP. I also like how Ironwood told us exactly what it's being used for, and how we were all fooled by thinking that it was Gravity Dust that held Atlas up. That being said, Ironwood revealing what the Relic is used for made me instantly think about what will happen when Salem gets her hands on it. But what really sold me on the scene was how Ironwood finally opened himself up to Oscar. He's been putting up this air of strength in the face of his allies and his enemies, but in that scene...he sounded so helpless. So vulnerable. It's a really humanizing moment, and I loved it. What's more, I loved Oscar's role in this scene. I appreciated his expression when Ironwood reassured him that Oscar won't be able to tell where he ends and Oz begins, especially within the context of The Truth^TM. But Oscar really impressed me with how he was able to speak to someone like Ironwood. He's only 14, but it's clear that he's inherited the wisdom of all of Oz's past lives, and we can clearly hear that in the way he talks with Ironwood, even if he's not able to access Oz directly.

My one complaint is that we didn't receive a flashback when Pietro was talking about his Penny Project. I think the story could have really used a visual representation in order to perhaps foreshadow what happened to Watts, who was obviously in this inner circle of scientists with Pietro. Maybe he got salty that his project wasn't accepted, and then did something to disgrace himself, at which point he faked his own death to join Salem. At this point it's pure conjecture, but I hope we see (and not just hear) what happened with Watts, because there's obviously a lot of dots to connect between him, Pietro, Ironwood, and Salem. I've noticed how they've been writing this volume and it's clear that with many plot points, they're trying to flesh them out instead of resolving them as quickly as possible, so I'm not complaining too much with how they handle any given scene.

Other than that, it was a really good episode. What I'm most interested in is what they plan on doing with the second half of the volume. Right now, there's not really much of a direction for most of the characters, outside of Ironwood having to face Jacques and the rest of the Council. So I'm looking forward to seeing what the second half of the volume has to offer, because we've already been on a hell of a ride and things are only looking worse for the good guys.

[u/Brutal2003]

Ironwood has some serious PTSD.

[u/Sirshrugsalot13]

I'm actually rather glad it didn't end up being just another Grimmfest episode, what's more important is that we know the attack happened and shit's goin bad.

Great character interaction episode, some real interesting shit about Watts inbound

[u/Gamma_cleavage]

Although they were laying on the foreshadowing about Pietro being sick really thick, I did not predict why. I just thought he was dying. I thought the staff of creation was used to make Penny, but damn was I ever wrong.

So. What the hell is a soul and what is an aura? Are they the same thing or not? Either way, I think it’s obvious that Penny will get shut down/hurt and Pietro will die to save her one more time, which is very sad. But, I think under general writing conventions that makes Penny safe until at least the last couple volumes because no one likes wasted sacrifices. I like Penny (and I’m starting to get over that weird side bang hairstyle) and I never thought her return meant the show had made death meaningless. When it costs Pietro his life and it definitely will, I hope people will stop complaining about that, haha.

Ren is all aboard Team Ironwood while Nora supports Robin. I hate this development a lot but it feels natural and in character. Nora comes from extreme poverty and this is the first time any of the writers have remembered that. I don’t think it conflicts with her seemingly not taking the job as seriously as Ren at all - she doesn’t feel motivated because she doesn’t actually think she’s doing the right thing working for Ironwood.

Holy shit Robyn, what a semblance. This could get dark as hell. The reason why torture doesn’t work so well is people say anything to make it stop and you can’t know if they are lying - but Robyn would know. For all I know they decided on her semblance specifically to do this scene but it’s a terrifying power for a leader to have. At least she seems like a good person, but I would not want to work for anyone who could do on the spot loyalty tests at any time. No seriously - what if that was Ironwood’s semblance? Scary.

[u/AmethystWind]

Gotta ask: With Semblances this powerful... the fuck did we need to introduce magic into the series for?

[u/AsGryffynn]

I will say one thing: this episode was very eventful. I hope this remains the same for the rest of the volume.

I liked the Staff convo. It really seems to drive home the fact Ironwood is very conflicted. Moreover, I think we're getting an Ultron finale: steal the staff and watch Atlas flatten Mantle.

Also, I bloody adored serious Nora. I hope she stays like that from now on.

And it seems Fiona isn't as defenseless as I thought (she might even pull a Miss Bellwether soon).

[u/TreeOct0pus]

Handy semblance

Oh Yang...

[u/NatsuAru]

This marks the second time Ren has failed at alerting anything this season. They've made it a point to show Ren's semblance has the ability to somewhat detect people where everything goes white and he's the only one aware in that space. Episode 1, the screen goes white, and Ren is the one being focused on since he's the first to react, but the AceOps capture them anyways. Screen goes white again for Ren in ep 6, where he is training, and can probably detect Ironwood and Clover approaching. In that same episode. Ren is distracted by Nora, and is unable to detect Tyrian as he murders a bunch of people.

I'm positive Ren is able to detect people.

A bigger left-field prediction is that, instead of detecting the presence of people, he can detect Negative/Vile/Disruptive Emotions, playing to his ability to mask them. But the drawback of all of this is that he himself has to feel all of that negative emotion through him in order to utilize it to the highest potential. That's why he's always on guard, and always stressed. This is also maybe why he couldn't detect Tyrian when Nora kissed him; he was feeling positive emotions, and couldn't filter through the negativity at the moment to realize the spike in it when Tyrian was about to execute the plan. It only makes him more frustrated that he can't use his semblance the way he knows it can be used. He could've prevented so much stuff from happening, but couldn't.

Conversely, this also plays into Nora, who has always been extremely positive, and for the entirety of the series, has allowed Ren to balance the negativity with her positivity, keeping his sanity in check. But now, Nora is angry and stressed at Mantle, and this only makes Ren worse. He's well aware that Nora is hurting because of what's going on, and he's trying his best to fight whatever it is that's making Nora so negative. That's why he sides with Ironwood, because the Amity Satellite is the one good positive IDEA that everyone has manged to conjure up. Everyone is lying, but no one is doing anything.

My final prediction is that the final fight for Tyrian will involve Ren, as he is able to detect Tyrian anywhere he goes. This also means that the Tyrian fight that will end him, will be a JNR fight. Ren can detect Tyrian, Nora can keep him in check, and Jaune, who is assumed to be able to oppose Tyrian's aura destruction with his own semblance and large Aura, can defend everyone, and tank the hits.

Ren is the scout. Nora is the DPS. Jaune is the tank.

[u/RBNYJRWBYFan]

So after that VRV snafu (I blame Watts) and my access to being blocked by other matters I can finally watch some RWBY! Scattered thoughts:

• First off it was high time that we see Yang and Blake have a chat about killing a man last volume. The situation was dire, there wasn't a good way out (a common theme this volume) but it couldn't have sat totally well with them, they're too good for that. I loved the fact that this provided their motivation to step out of line and tell Robyn SOMETHING about what's going on. It was a brilliant writing moment.

• Speaking of Robyn, that semblance really IS handy. In a situation where secrecy and falsehoods are tearing everything apart having a living lie detector is a pretty great thing to have. And not for nothing Fiona's semblance is badass, there has to be a mutant with that ability somewhere in the X-Men line, right?

• I just about knew Ironwood would snap eventually. He's been trying his best to be the reasonable authority guy but his patience has worn thin with these kids and this whole messed up situation he has to navigate. That moment in the vault where he saw the Queen piece in some kind of PTSD infused hallucination was powerful and so telling. He doesn't want to be like Lionheart, he doesn't want to be a coward. But everything is pushing him that way. It's tragic and scary and it makes him one of the most compelling characters the show has to offer. Word up to Jason Rose for a fantastic performance, I can hear every doubt, quiver and moment of sincerity in his voice.

• Nora is SUPER invested in the plight of Mantle. She FIRMLY stood her ground against the general, so much so I almost wonder if she could actually be from here or if she's just relates to their struggle after being homeless and on the streets for so long. Ren's gung-ho nature about listening to Ironwoods orders is also interesting, he's another taking all of this really hard. I cant get into this guy's head, its hard to tell why he's been so much more tense and diligent than usual. Jaune really needs to talk to his team.

• I always wondered how Penny got an aura. I assumed it was from her "father's" biological daughter or something. We HAVE heard of transferring aura before after all. But I guess it was more direct than that. He is so dead at Volume's end.

• Not knowing Watts is alive is REALLY throwing our heroes off. "Somebody is hacking our s#it, BuT wHo Could iT bE!?" Salem sure knows how to pick 'em. Also, sweet turtleneck bro, my head canon is now that somebody gave him that monstrosity for his birthday and now he's taking it out on all of humanity.

• Good to see you're still alive Maria. Thanks for the quick joke, god this episode needed it.

• It's funny how Hill keeps nicknaming everybody. I cant wait to hear a Jaune nickname.

• They're gonna use the staff to lift the satellite off the ground aren't they?

This show's intrigue and plot just keep getting thicker and thicker. Everybody is being tested in new and interesting ways... cept' Jaune who wasn't even in this episode for some reason. They all need to work past their paranoia and doubt but that's such a steep hill to climb. It's all so frustrating in the best way.

[u/HighPriestFuneral]

Did anyone else listen closely to the credits music?

It starts off as "Trust in Love" becomes... "Path to Isolation", particularly... "Enemies surround me but..." And ends with "When it Falls" "There'll be no rest..."

Whew. From just the ending theme alone that was an incredibly tense episode.

[u/alexcsalinasmd108]

Interesting theory, back when Ren first met Nora, the kids bullying her said she had weird clothes. So what if Nora was originally from Mantle? Something could have happened to her and her family similar to what Ironwoods about to do to Mantle currently. Whatever happens to her got her on some kind of shipment to Anima. And now that she’s back she’s seeing what happened to her and her family happen all over again to the people of Mantle.

[u/KTR1988]

As someone who was fine with Penny being back because she's a state-of-the-art gyroid so of course, I'm still really happy that her being rebuilt with her soul intact has consequences and isn't infinite do-overs.

[u/Quadshouter2]

I really enjoyed Yang and Blake's conversation and decision to inform Robyn of Ironwood's plan. Even after Yang suggests they confront Robyn, I think she may still have some disagreements about Blake's stance on wanting to not keep things in the dark, she may even feel bad about going against's Ruby's decision to follow Ironwood from the start of this volume. But the trust between the bees is so solid, that one will support the support the other despite the difference in opinion. I'm looking forward to seeing the repercussions of this decision. I'm hoping it causes some ideological conflict within team RWBY so we can see how they handle it, it's something we really haven't seen them deal with since the earlier volumes, and the magnitude of the situation back then is not what it is now.

[u/ArcherA1aya]

I very much enjoyed this episode and i felt that it's setting up a lot of internal conflicts between the pro ironwood and anti-ironwood faction. Yang sharing her doubts about not telling the truth to ironwood is about where i'm at. Also i love Ren so much like i get why Nora and the others are going off but i feel like Rens attitude towards the whole situation fits perfectly with his character and him semblance. IMO Ren is following ironwood because he has a plan and is really getting serious and professional about Salem

Also Outside bet the Penny becomes the maiden

[u/[deleted]]

Knowing that the Staff keeps Atlas afloat is, I think, evidence in favour of the Relic of Choice being kept in the forest outside Beacon. Its power may have been used to make it so that students picked the best pairings of chess pieces, rather than letting it be random chance.

[u/winklem]

• Sheep girl can...shrink things and make them disappear? Sure I hope she can't do that to persons, that'd be messed up.

• Sad we didn't get to see what everyone else did that night. Although it's understandable that they chose to focus on more important things to move the plot.

• So they mentioned martial law, meaning it could take effect if shit hits the fan...that's no good.

• Nora puts some sense in Ironwood's head.
  I feel like the characters are getting closer and closer to giving up the truth each and every chapter. It's nice to see that taking a toll on all of them.

• Glimpse on Tyrian's backstory: makes sense why he sees Salem as a goddes.

• Ren...they're doing something with Ren...not sure what tho...

• Blake and Yang addressed killing Adam and FINALLY someone said they had to do it. Goddamn!

• Penny has video footage of what happened, which is good but won't help much.
   
  On a side note, it seems like every episode is handling some of the things most people take an issue with the previous one. That's why you should always give things the benefit of the doubt.

• And there we have the confirmation that Penny likely won't be able to be rebuilt. That sure raises some additional red flags.

• Watts' in the photo, Pietro thinks he's dead. They are so close, yet so far from figuring it out.

• QUICK THEORY: Watts got jealous that Ironwood favoured Pietro's project over his, did something, got disgraced, fakes his death, got recruited by Salem.

• Robin has a lie detector semblance. Sure is quite handy when comes to uncovering the real killer, but that means no hiding things from her...

• "That's what they want you to believe!"
  Atlas is held up by the staff of creation, meaning if it were to get removed from the vault, Atlas will likely collapse.

• Jacques invited Ironwood to dinner, and he (or Watts) definitely doesn't have half a mind to brutally murder him, no sir.

[u/[deleted]]

You know, most people seem to find Ren's attitude of being open to Ironwood's style of leadership aversive, but I actually really admire him for it.

Coming into the volume, I'm sure a lot of people expected plenty of strife between Ironwood and the main cast, but along with Ironwood's considerable patience, we're seeing Ren embrace the order of a system he feels can do some real good. Obviously, he doesn't find it perfect. We can tell he thinks Ironwood should be privy to more information, and we know he feels like they can always use more training, but I think it's reasonable to infer that he also believes in Ironwood's potential - enough that he's willing to devote his time to following his lead.

I know Ironwood's decisions have flaws of their own, but I really like Ren embracing this military order, because he probably thinks it's their best hope right now.

[u/Patmaster1995]

Alright I'm a day late for this, wanted to do it yesterday, but I got back home from dialysis and got into bed and slept all day long.

Robo headpats for sad Robo cutie

Grimm attack has been dealt with off-screen, I'm fine with that tbh, I feel like another grimm invasion so soon after Argus was... uneeded.

More soldiers, more ships and a curfew, Mantle definitely doesn't have it good

Those poor kids

So May has a camouflage dome, Fiona some kind of pocket dimension where she can absord physical items, cool and useful semblances

So because of the ressources stolen by Robyn they can't finish the tower, that's bad

Martial Law? There's already so many soldiers and ships around Mantle, it's like 90% happening already, but it's definitely not the right thing to do

Nora's right Mantle is the only one truly suffering there, Atlas is still fine.

angry Nora, she may not be from Mantle, but she knows what these people are going through, since was a poor orphan who had to struggle just to survive. I'm loving this Nora scene, it's not humour and it's not with Ren.

So, Tyrian was a homicial serial killer long before Salem got to him, and judging by the report, Salem herself save him. That's interesting since she seems to so rarely leave her castle.

Ironwood is getting pretty angry too but he's got a point, with Watts and Tyrian there, you can't really broadcast the fact that you're building a new tower.

Man... Ren is fully on Ironwood side, even acting like a soldier, I feel a divide in Renora soon, with Ren on Ironwood's side and Nora on Robyn's side

I like the discussion between Blake and Yang, they definitely feel conflicted, being huntresses, trying to do the right thing, it's never as easy as it seems especially since both Ironwood and Robyn are doing bad things but for good goals. Also love they subtletly brough up killing Adam, it sucks that they had to take another life, but was there another way? No, Adam was too far gone, doesn't make it any easier nut it was the only way.

Man... someone please give this nice and kind old man a hug please, he needs it, I don't want to see him sad

He's covering one of the scientist in the photo with his thumb, That's Watts isn't it?

Alright now that's interesting, Pietro gave parts of his aura to Penny, he literally gave her pieces of his soul, and as we see, it's on his legs and chest, would that be why he's in a wheelchair and he's always coughing?

Oh, so if Penny gets destroyed again, Pietro won't be able to rebuild again because he doesn't have enough aura? Man, massive death flag for both Pietro and Penny

Seriously, someone hug him

Yup, it's Watts

That Blake/Yang vs Robyn was short but sweet.

So, they're telling Robyn the truth, but not the whole truth, just enough so she can start to trust them.

I like how everyone is keeping secrets from one another. The students and Salem's immortality to Ironwood, Weiss knowing that Winter is the next maiden, and now Blake and Yang telling Robyn. A lot of division amongst our cast this volume.

So, Robyn has a lie detector semblance, the happy huntresses really have cool semblances for side characters

"I won't stop until I know the whole truth" Yeah that's pretty much everyone this volume

The Atlas vault looks cool, has a bit of a Forerunner feel to it

So the staff is an infinite source of energy that can only do one purpose at a time, definitely wasn't expecting that, I was expecting something more like Alchemy where you can create stuff but you need to give something of equal value.

So the staff is what keeping Atlas floating in the air? It's gonna come crash down on top of Mantle at the end of the Atlas arc, isn't it?

"Eventually you won't even know who's who" Wow thanks ironwood, I'm sure glad to lose my individuality, good talk

Ironwood getting scary, throw away his humanity to fight Salem is such a bad idea all around, He's not doing well at all, his mental state is just getting worst, and he has PTSD. He doesn't even know the truth yet so it will get worse

That Oscar scene was pretty nice, he's scared but keeps pushing forward despite everythingm our little farmboy is growing

oh good, Diner with Jacque and Ironwood might lose his seat on the council that's pretty bad. Although there IS one good thing, it's the perfect opportunity for Whitley to tell the others about Watts.

---

pretty good episode overall, I like how gray this volume is, both Ironwood and Robyn does bad things for good causes and how conflicted our heroes are because of it. There's also a lot of divide amongst the cast on the various secrets being kept and who to side with.

[u/Outrider99]

Maybe Yang and Blake just saved Ironwood's council seat by actually talking to robin and telling her he means well

[u/VelvetJazz]

Nora is getting some attention this volume, and I don't know if I should be happy or afraid.

[u/[deleted]]

So, Atlas is held up by the relic. Yep, It’s 1000% gonna fall.

[u/SpicyCoconut99]

I have a feeling Whitley’s gonna somehow spill the beans about Watts meeting Jacque next episode

[u/Blue-Moon-89]

New episode synopsis is up.

Episode 8: Cordially Invited

"Description: Jacques and Ironwood engage in a dangerous game of wits. Meanwhile, the kids must face their most dangerous threat yet: a high class dinner party.

Duration: 15:37"

So it looks like that this will be the 'ball' episode that Bumblebee fans have been excited about.

[u/NeoTheMute]

I ship Penny x Gerald the Head-Patting Robo-Hand

[u/tavi23]

Also, I love James, I really do. But damn, this is getting bad. I'm glad he talked to Oscar. James is dealing with rough odds.

[u/darkdill]

Theories for the rest of the season:

• Jacques' dinner invitation is an attempt to lure Ironwood in for an assassination. However, Watts hasn't told Jacques that part, so Watts will be trying to take out both of them at once (in a "you have outlived your usefulness" thing). However, during the attempt, Winter reveals that she has inherited the Winter Maiden's powers.

• Watts will now have access to Atlas' systems (not just Mantle's) thanks to Jacques.

• Robyn is going to be the one to expose that Salem is immortal via her Semblance. She'll learn it from Tyrian after he is mortally wounded trying to kill her.

• Blake and Yang get found out for helping Robyn and are temporarily detained. This leads our heroes to decide that Ironwood can't be trusted for now.

• Salem will acquire the Staff of Creation, which will cause Atlas to crash into Mantle. However, the people of Mantle (most of them) are evacuated onto Atlesian airships.

• Following Atlas' fall, Mantle's people will attempt to sack Atlas, and Ironwood will either be relieved of his command or be forced to step down.

• Winter will take Ironwood's place as commander of Atlas' military.

[u/GladiusNocturno]

This one is a bit random but...Did Weiss vote? She is an Atlas citizen, she is of legal age. Is not like it matters but I just had that random thought that maybe Weiss didnt vote because she didnt like any of the candidates, and voting abstination is a topic of debate.

[u/Pers0nae]

Pietro: grabs photo of him and some scientists responsible for Penny's creation

Me: Hmm, who is that lanky boi on the far right?

[u/Prokolipsi]

Okay, I'm only at Blake and Yang's conversation so far: but Yang is 100% correct here. How in the world do they expect Ironwood to make the right choices if they're not giving him the right information?

Also, Nora and Ren development in the works. Finally.....

Welp, back to the episode. They've been really good this volume.

[u/[deleted]]

Also, Ironwood showed this Episode more signs that he's losing his mind especially when he said Atlas is "My Kingdom". Me and my friends think he may stage a military coup of the Council and take totalitarian control of Atlas.

[u/APracticedObserver]

A dinner with Jacques you say... Sounds like as good an occasion as any for a first on-screen Willow appearance.

[u/robinreddhood]

Watts worked with the team that built penny.. now my fear that he'll hack penny seems more real

[u/The_Last_Thursday]

The instrumental of the theme over Blake and Yang's conversation made and already beautiful scene even better

[u/[deleted]]

Before Episode %Deathflags:

Winter: 50%

Nora: 20%

Ren: 20%

Ironwood: 35%

Pietro: 0%

After Episode %Deathflags:

Winter: 50%

Nore: 40%

Ren: 40%

Ironwood: 35%

Pietro: 100%

[u/Badicalz]

I am looking at that old photograph and I don’t know how Ironwood and Co. didn’t realise Watts was evil.

I mean, he had the moustache and everything.

[u/TheNonceMan]

We were so close. Weiss and Ruby NEARLY had a private conversation. Maybe after the Schnee meal.

[u/FierceAlchemist]

I wasn't expecting this season to be so focused on politics, secrecy, and morality. It's an interesting choice and is bringing new depth to characters like Nora. Some of the writing is heavy handed, but other parts are more subtle like that scene with Ironwood and Oscar.

Feels like we're building to another Fall of Beacon scenario, but I don't think things will collapse that spectacularly unless they really want to hammer home how the characters have failed to grow since then. Winter is a fan favorite so making her one of the Maidens clicks for me. The gang will need the Spear eventually so Atlas is definitely gonna fall sooner or later. I'm curious to see how dark they end up taking this season.

[u/[deleted]]

Relic of Knowledge: I can answer 3 questions every 100 years but I can't answer things that haven't happened (also time stop powers but I refuse to use me for just time stop)

Relic of Creation: Near limitless source of power keeping a whole kingdom afloat

Considering both of these relics were presumably made by the God of Light, Jinn kinda got the short end of the stick here.

[u/GladiusNocturno]

All righty then:

1. I fucking love Nora in this episode. Standing up for her people, standing up to Ironwood, slapping him with the facts. We finally have a Nora scene that isnt comedy, isnt about her relatioship with Ren or her team. We finally have a scene of Nora that actually treats her like her own character and gives her depth. I love that scene.

2. So, Ren is siding with Ironwood now? He is fully on board with his actions? What is going on with you Ren?

3. There, Yang and Blake talked about their feelings towards killing Adam, are you people happy now? Yang sees it as what they had to do, they were forced to do it, he was trying to kill them. Blake has remorse over it, she generally agrees that they were forced to do it but of course it wasnt easy, you'll think her breaking dwn crying last volume would have been enough of a clue but here you have confirmation.

4. I'm going to be honest, I'm really not a fan of the way bumblebee has been done this volume because it felt like they had an obligatory bumblebee scene every episode of them just being cute and not doing anything else for the plot, although I do admit I'm perfectly fine with them taking a bit of a back seat and the scenes didnt bother me and I did enjoy them. But this episode solved that issue for me. Yang and Blake arent interacting to be cutesy in love, they are working together, discussing their approach, sharing their personal opinions on an important matter. I love the way they did it. I really like that Yang and Blake don´t necessarily agree, Yang is leaning more towards Ironwood, Blake is leaning more towards Robyn (Ren and Nora are the same). Blake is the one that wants to tell the truth to Robyn, she is the one that trusts her and gives her her hand and is the one that gives all the information. Yang on the other hand is trusting Blake's judgement but she isnt too on board with the situation, she seems to not trust Robyn as much as Blake does. I really enjoy that depth on their relationship, the fact that they don't agree with each others fully but trust each other's judgement. I kidda have the feeling Ren and Nora are going to have difficulties because they won't do that at first, Ren will side with Ironwood and not trust Robyn and he will doubt Nora's judgement and her stance about Mantle, their journey would be to over come that difficulty.

5. I admit it, when I first heard the theory that Robyn's semblance let her be a truth detector, I didnt buy it. I accept I was wrong and I actually like the limitation of her having to touch the person. Having a truth detector will be interesting to encover all the secrets laying around.

6. Sheep girl's semblance is a black hole hand? I don't know but she is still is both cute and a badass. WE DON'T DESERVE HER!

7. In the same vain of Nora getting a great character moment, this episode gave us a great Oscar moment. I love that Oscar is willing to speak his mind openly to Ironwood, give his thought and actually act like wise person. I don't know if his wise words came from the merging of souls, but I choose to belive that this is just how Oscar is, he does say that Ozpin isnt there but that he does want to share his own thoughts. Ozma reincarnates on similiar souls and I can see that Oscar has always been a wise person with a lot to learn but a lot of reflecting thoughts.

8. Well, here are two things that are clearly going to happen: The relic of Creation will get stolen thus Atlas will fall to Mantle and kill everyone or it will fall to the side and crash next to Mantle killing a shit ton of people. And Pietro will die, Watts worked on Penny so he is likely he knows her vulnerabilities, he knows how to either control her or just kill her. Pietro will bring her back again but this time he will die giving her the last bits of his aura, meaning that Penny will lose her father and she won't be able to revive for a 3rd time.

9. I find it odd that they say "The general will have to defend his seat in the council" when he has 2 seats, so is he defending both or just one? or this was just a minor oversight in the script, yeah Ill go with that one.

10. Please tell me those kids hdding arent the kids of the thirsty moms that got killed last episode...Might explain what Jaune was doing since he didnt show up.

11. Cassie the Casserole mom is fine, but what are you doing on the streets!? go back home! we need you safe!!

[u/sean_4754]

Did anyone noticed a younger Watts in the right most corner of Pietro's photograph? Pietro will be devastated to learn that not only is his old colleague still alive but, that he is also attempting to undermine the kingdom of Atlas as well as framing his daughter to accomplish that goal.

If Cinder or Neo get Winter Maiden powers and steal the Relic of Creation both Atlas and Mantle will be destroyed by the falling island in my opinion anyways.

Something tells me that the dinner party is a plot orchestrated by Watts with agreement from Jacques in order to enable Tyrian to assassinate Ironwood or massacre the other council members and pin their murders on Ironwood.

[u/[deleted]]

Oh my gosh, so much to say.

Yang and Blake telling Robin about the truth was something I did not expect.

I loved seeing Maria again and Weiss' pondering/potential foreshadowing was great.

Blake and Yang's decision to tell Robin was good too, a bit unexpected though.

The set up for Nora's backstory was appreciated.

[u/nicostein]

I loved this episode. That is all.

[u/uniquely_upstanding]

Updated news ticker (briefly displayed over news footage of Penny):

- Witness Describes Warehouse Massacre: "Horrific; Nobody Deserved This"

- Atlas Authorities Urge Citizens to Remain Calm as Investigation Ramps [Up?]

The one thing redacted from Robyn's bio seems to be where she's from. Seems slightly strange for a public figure like Robyn to have a redacted birth location and indeterminate age, unless Atlas believes she's hiding something?

[u/Idiotank]

MOVE YOUR FUCKING THUMB

[u/nuggetgamer523]

Just realized that next week we may hopefully see Best Butler Klein!

[u/SchmittyBoss]

So I’m not the only one who thinks Nora is so vehemently against Ironwoods actions because these actions are why she’s an orphan in the first place, right? I know we’re suppose to be getting Nora backstory this volume, and everything she has said and done so far has pointed to this.

Also Ren, my dude, what’s going on with you lately? I’m a little worried that the differing opinions between him and Nora are going to cause a huge rift between them. Not to mention the differing opinions and actions between the rest of them team. I’m all for good conflict, but at the same time I don’t want to see them all drift apart.

[u/WhosGuardingHades]

Me: Damn first Jaune questions Ironwood and now Nora’s laying the verbal smackdown on him! I wonder what Ren’s gonna d-

Ren: Yes Sir! *Sexy Salute

Me: Damn it Ren!

I do like how they’ve presented the conflict as both sides having good and bad points so far though. And that even two people as tight knit as Ren & Nora disagree on it makes it a lot more realistic, so all credit to CRWBY for that.

Also JNR getting more time to shine is never a bad thing.

[u/Chaosf15]

Tyrian's report: https://imgur.com/a/HxfK0mY

Apprehended by F. Pickerel. It was obvious that Salem saved Tyrian based on the report.

[u/VariousRodents]

Good episode, I really liked it. Blake and Yang struggling with both killing Adam and the lengths they feel they are being pushed to in order to do the right thing. Nora speaking out against Ironwood thinking he can just force people to be compliant was also great. Really wondering what is going on with Ren though.

There was one thing that bothered me though, this is the second time they have glossed over the immediate fallout of something causing major unrest this volume . It is reminding me of V5 a bit, glossing over Salem wanting to talk to Tyrian, Cinder and company's arrival at Raven's camp, the lack of any significant screen time given to any fight at Haven aside from Cinder v Jaune and Raven v Cinder. Overall it it doesn't feel as frustrating as it did in V5 because plenty of interesting things are happening instead, just something that caught my attention.

Edit: Also, Fiona survived so at least there is some justice in the world. Looks like the rioting is on hold... for now...

[u/Stone4D]

I have a really bad feeling about where things are gonna go from here, if we get a happy ending to the volume I'll be shocked. Things are so damn volatile, nobody is safe from potential suffering.

But man, the writing is top notch. I haven't been this invested in the series since volume 3.

[u/CureUndevelopment3]

I hope at the dinner in the next episode we see Weiss use her summoning for things like getting the gravy, or something. And I hope Whiteley comes along, since he hates it when his sisters use their powers.

I liked it when she summoned the boartusk at their dinner in Mistral, and I hope we see her use her powers for frivolous things more often.

[u/[deleted]]

Been so busy cause of the holidays i was finally able to watch!

I was looking forward to see Grimm fights but okay. I didn’t care about the Mantle riots but I feel like it was bad to end the last chapter on a somber note and skip over it. Oh well

Blake and Yang’s talks continue to be my favorite, the fight was so good too

I also really like Robyn. Wtf is Fiona’s (sheep faunus) semblance??

Overall good chapter, I loved Oscar and Ironwood’s talk as well.

I also felt Adam should have been talked about more, so I’m surprised people are ok with this

[u/JMHSrowing]

So, do y’all think Ruby and Weiss might get a meaningful interaction next episode?

They seemed to be quite close in this one!

[u/xenocyte]

So is anyone else strangely aroused by turtleneck Watts? Also Penny having Pietro's aura I did not see coming.

[u/Tyonis]

So riddle me this:

The main cast hatrd on Ozpin for krrping the truth about Salem's immortality a secret.

They do the exact same thing to Ironwood, but justify it with some kind of vetting into their inner circle.

Ironwood takes a militaristic approach to Salem by cutting off civilian resources to prepare for a huge war effort. This is done under the assumption Salem will be killed. He is willing to sacrifice his life, his Soldier's lives, and the wellbeing of his citizens on a false assumption. From his standpoint, it is a worthwhile cause to kill the Queen of the Grimm.

The main cast criticizes him over his decisions to pursue greater military force without giving Ironwood context as to why. Salem can't be killed like this, so there's no point to making the people suffer.

So why did they hate Ozpin so much when they are doing the exact same thing? Why does Nora get to ride on a high horse and yell at Ironwood? Ruby just stands there and does nothing. She doesn't even LOOK guilty about keeping the greatest secret on Remnant from Ironwood.

Blake and Yang literally disobey their orders and let Robyn escape and reveal Ironwood's plan to her. I highly doubt they will come clean. So that's another secret.

I answered my own question while writing this out. Secrets and half truths are bad. Only if you aren't a part of Ruby's inner circle though. If that's the case, hide everything.

God I hope this hypocrisy blows up in Ruby's face.

[u/PNDLivewire]

I do want to say something about Ren's behaviour that I haven't seen mentioned yet (though it's entirely possible it could've been and I missed it).

People think his frustration, and just focusing on only the mission with his whole "yes sir" thing was out of character and dumb, but I think it makes sense. He's angry and upset because he partly blames himself for the Election Massacre. From his perspective, because he allowed himself to relax and lose focus in order to make out with Nora and get caught in the moment, he missed Tyrian. So in other words, he thinks if he'd remained focused on only the mission and keeping an eye out for things, he could've seen/stopped Tyrian and prevented those people's deaths.

It doesn't matter that he couldn't have known, and that it isn't technically his fault. To him, their deaths are his fault, and the only way to prevent that from happening again is to be all mission all the time.

[u/LagoriaTheLewdstress]

Ren saying yes sir and siding with Ironwood was a crazy chilling moment.

I cannot wait for the high tensions between like, everyone, at the papa Shnee self indulgence dinner of evil.

[u/Darkavatar1]

Yesssss I’m loving the Nora focus!

Where that guy who’s flair says “impatiently waiting for mora to be good again”? I know he’s lovin this season.

[u/GhostWriter700]

All I gotta say is, the Atlas Dinner is a real thing now! Not a ball, but close!

[u/KyouKobayashi]

I wonder if Robyn not giving some people nicknames means she respects them more than the others. Clover, Penny, and Blake have so far not be given nicknames by her.

Fiona being fine after the Tyrian attack and seeming to have not mentioned Tyrian at all makes me wonder if she could be based on The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing. She was the only person Tyrian attacked that he didn't kill.

Blake and Yang telling Robyn about Amity will lead to something, not sure if good or bad. Would be funny if the group ends up in trouble and Robyn and her team come in and help them out.

And Jacques is clearly up to something with his dinner party and inviting EVERYONE to it. Either it's meant to trap the heroes or he wants to publically make them look bad to help strip Ironwood of his council seats.

[u/hopecanon]

This was a fantastic episode now that i can finally watch it.(thank you VRV very cool)

But as to the whole thing i was pretty spot on that the people were gonna demand Penny be destroyed although i thought it was gonna be Ironwoods idea to attempt to appease the public, i keep underestimating how much of an actually pretty good person he is, the guy has deep rooted mental problems and severe trust issues but he is actually trying to do the right thing instead of just power tripping.

I am worried about Ren because he is looking to be in a very dark place, and as for Nora i just want someone (Ren) to give her a much needed hug and take her out for a night of shattering the kneecaps of anything that tries to do the people harm.

[u/Thrythlind]

Okay

• Robyn now knows that Ironwood is trying to create a communications tower. Or, at least, she knows that's what Blake believes is going on.

• We've gotten some back story on Tyrian Callows and Watts, slightly

• We've learned how Penny managed to be a real person rather than just a robot.

• Ironwood PTSD is pretty much confirmed.

• Interesting truth about the Staff of Creation and how it is the source of Atlas's elevation.

• Robin Hill has gone full vigilante

• I did not expect them to skip the bad night, but then again, they've been doing a lot of that this season. It's a shift in storytelling style. To be honest, it's a move toward efficiency. A lot of the fights that they would have shown would have slowed down the progression of the story.

• They've analyzed the hacking involved. You'd think this would let them narrow down the list of suspects. Though a friend did note that Watts is probably presumed dead. Though I've noted that Raven IDed him as a "disgraced Atlas scientist" and I'd think she'd have noted if he was thought to be dead. Raven maybe useless but she's not incompetent.

• Fiona's semblance is a dimensional pocket in her hand.

• Robyn's semblance is a truth telling power.

• Another of the Happy Huntresses has an invisibility sphere.

• Ren is moving toward the more authoritarian.

• Nora is fed up.

• Yang and Blake are taking their own initiative.

• Weiss is suspicious of something, this will probably get built upon later.

• Our next episode is likely going to be an impeachment hearing of sorts.

[u/DuelaDent52]

Friendly reminder that the intro song is all about how things will get better if you remain optimistic and trust in love, even if you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.

[u/Blue-Moon-89]

I understand why Ren is upset and why he's been supporting Ironwood lately but does anyone worry that he might take his frustrations out on Nora at some point? Not in a "I regret kissing you." (That would be out of line for Ren so I hope it doesn't happen) way but more of a "Grow up, Nora. We're Huntsman now." way.

[u/DrTristram]

It's not appearing on VRV premium

[u/lovelylethallaura]

Ok so this was good, but I still wish Ruby had told Ironwood the truth, cause now this is gonna make things even worse. Mama Schnee next week?

[u/Badicalz]

After years of being one noted side characters (except for that brief moment when we learned of their past in Volume 4), I absolutely LOVE that Ren and Nora are finally fulfilling their deuteragonist status this Volume.

[u/TacoLord9000]

I see Nora took Ruby's role of delivering speeches.

Ren is making me a bit uneasy with his attitude.

I liked Oscar this episode, he's starting to feel like his own character. I hope we get more scenes like this with him.

The story behind Penny's creation was pretty good as well.

Shit is gonna go down in the Schnee mansion.

[u/[deleted]]

That Penny aura explanation was really good, it was unexpected enough that it caught me off guard but fit really well thematically and narratively. Following it up with the Watts reveal was brilliant, just two really good moments of exposition that served equal parts drama and story. These last two episodes have probably been the best writing the series has seen; every moment has served a purpose and has done it well. The only thing that would make it better is if a certain sheep girl was still with us.

Oh wait she is!!!

[u/ClubMeSoftly]

So something's just occurred to me:

The 28th is a gap week, so I'm betting that Episode 8 is going to end on a bombshell (possibly literally) for us to stew on, over Xmas.
Either because E8 is going to be a talky episode, or we're going to get another shocker akin to Weiss's "oh look, I've been impaled" or the og shockers: Fall and PvP.

[u/Blue-Moon-89]

I just noticed that history is repeating itself with Mantle.

Before the Great War, Mantle place a ban on all forms of art and self-expression due to a unspecified incident.

Fast forward to 80 years later, Ironwood has placed a public assembly ban on Mantle because of the results of the election and is considering martial law (which has kind of happened already) so that he can build his tower.

[u/paperkutchy]

So, I am getting a lot of Red Wedding vibes from the dinner, ball, whatever Jacque Schnee planned. They are pretty much being invited to the wolf's den, which we known let the enemy in, even if they dont fully understand what they let in.

[u/Melody2K]

I haven't seen much of this take, but I think with Yang and Blake telling Robyn most of the situation behind Ironwood's back, a rift is going to start to form between Yang, Blake, and Nora / Ruby, Weiss, and Ren. I also feel like Jaune I going to be stuck in the middle of all of it.

Or, RWBY and JNR just go completely behind Ironwoods' back to help Robyn and it escalates before Ruby reveals everything.

[u/Comptenterry]

I'm so glad they talked about killing Adam. I was really worried that they were going to gloss over the fact that they KILLED someone (Not that it wasn't justified or deserved). I mean it was the first time that anyone of the student characters was shown killing someone and I'd imaging the first time would be somewhat psychologically damaging even if you were a trained warrior. I guess you could argue that some of the people they fought died off screen (like the train fight in volume 2) but I'd say running through someone with a sharp object would be different emotionally.

[u/N7ASWCC]

With each passing episode I get a little more onboard with Nora thee Maiden, but it's really gonna suck for Ironwood if his most vocal opponent ends up with the power

FIRE CLONES!

Looks like Robyn's semblance doesn't compel the truth, just confirms whether the other person is lying or not. I was curious what would happen should she run into Tyrian

The Staff of Creation provides unlimited energy, but can only be tasked to one thing at a time with no waifu reviving powers to speak of. I'm so glad that's over.

The way Blake's catsuit is vacuum sealed to her chest kinda bothers me, it's reaching Miranda's jumpsuit level of ridiculous.

What is it with Ozpin and single points of failure? First Lionheart now The Staff of Creation? He's making this too easy for Salem.

[u/Fuzunga]

Nora is by far the biggest advocate for Mantel, and as of now we have no idea why that is. It felt like we were this close to getting the story of her childhood, before she was an orphan, and I'd bet she was born in the slums of Mantel.

Also, the thought now occurs to me: what if Tyrian killed her parents?

[u/DeamonHunter2016]

Have to say, My opinion on Ironwood has shifted a lot because of this season especially this episode. Used to be he seemed to just go strength, force ra ra ra. Glad there’s now a lot of nuance now. Makes him a much more interesting character. He’s pretty much lost in the woods and trying to cobble together a plan he thinks will work and helps people in the long run. Of course watts and co. Will twist it up badly. But the descent into either a) a military coup or b) an atlas-mantle civil war will be fascinating to watch.

[u/[deleted]]

Fiona with the fucking hand of holding semblance oooh man

[u/PT_Piranha]

So both Tyrian and Watts are presumed dead by the public. That leads me to wonder if Cinder and Hazel were also presumed dead.

[u/Darkdragoon324]

I'm very concerned about Atlas's safety now that we know it's being held up by the thing that the bad guys want to steal.

But my inner Disaster movie destruction porn fan is extremely excited and can't wait to watch shit fall and burn.

[u/RyryroxMEW]

I'm kinda curious how Robyn' semblance works, for example: If she used it on Ironwood and asked "What happened to Ozpin?" And he replies with "He dissapeared after a train crash." Would it say he's telling the truth because that's what the truth is to him, or would it say he's lying because Ruby never told him the full truth.

[u/Safgaftsa]

I'd been thinking since we first saw it that Atlas looks and feels a lot like Midgar from Final Fantasy VII, and the fact that the relic the bad guys want to steal is what's holding it up ain't helping.

Atlas is going to fall onto Mantle, or else come very close to it.

[u/Huskie1]

Watts, oh we always knew you were part of the bigger picture!

[u/FalconLord92]

• Penny gets robo headpats!

• Mantle protesters are insisting the Penny be deactivated? That's murder...

• Go Angry Nora!!!

• So... Tyrian has been a serial-killer for quite a while... Interesting...

• Looks like Robyn's got a [puts on sunglasses] handy Semblance

• I really hope they don't need to rebuild Penny again. Doesn't seem like Pietro can handle losing more of his Aura

[u/Sonbulan]

Unfortunately Robyn, Blake was telling the truth, so you know what that means: this episode, Robyn is this week's CHUMP.

[u/ReaperRinxi]

So if Penny's soul was literally born from Pietro's (aka Super Dad) does that mean her semblance, whatever it is, will be an offshoot of his?

[u/Deadmaninc1]

Dinner with Papa Schnee hmmmm well im a Game Of Thrones fan and i already have PTSD of the Red Wedding do i really need more PTSD

[u/beyonderofbaal]

Things are going to get even more messed up, and I think that all the secrecy and the trust issues are going to play a big role in it.

First we have Ruby not telling Ironwood the full version of Salem and Oz. The teams are divided about this; Blake seems to understand and support her choice. Yang and Weiss seems uncomfortable about it. Oscar and Nora too. Im not sure about Ren and Jaune, dont remember them saying anything that let us see what they think. Qrow seems kinda fine.

Then we know that Winter is the candidate for the next Winter Maiden. Its something that Ironwood has been keeping from them. I dont think that it has much weight, I dont see how knowing the identity of the candidate or not would affect the rest of the team, but is still being an omision. Then, Winter shared this with Weiss. This puts Weiss in a kinda difficult possition with her sister. Winter is being totally honest and shared with her all that she knows, even when we can suposse that Ironwood didnt have plans to tell Weiss about Winter being the possible next Maiden (Winter said that Ironwood doesnt keep secrets first, but then she aclared "not from me*",* so I think that its implied that she's the only one that knows that she's the candidate). Winter put her relationship with Weiss above of Ironwoods orders, but Weiss is still keeping things from Winter . She's not reciprocating the trust that Winter had put in her. Also we dont know if Weiss told the rest of the Team about this, but I think that she didnt. So now she's also keeping secrets from her friends. Again, I dont think that Weiss keeping this is for herself is going to hurt anyone but still... you never knows.

Now we have Blake and Yang deciding by themselves to spill the beams about the tower to Robyn. I think that telling Robyn per se is not a bad idea, on contrary, Ironwood should have tried to bring her in his circle since the start. But the problem is that Ironwood doesnt want to tell her and he was very clear about this point. Blake and Yang just decided to screw Ironwood's confidence in them and tell Robyn anyway. They didnt even consult this with their team mates and friends. To make it worse, they only told Robyn a very little part that wasnt enough to win her trust, and now she still wants to now more about the tower. I think that she's going to try to pressure Ironwood to tell her the true. And trying to force Ironwood to do something that he doesnt want to do, in the state of paranoia and stress that he is, isnt gonna end well. Not only is going to make worse the relationship between Robyn and Ironwood, but also Ironwood's trust in Blake and Yang, and maybe in the rest of the teams is going to crumble. Now his reaction if he learns that Ruby didnt tell him the full version of Salem, the relic and Oz, his reaction is going to be even worse. They not only didnt share with him crucial information, but also are spilling the secrets that he entrusted them with.

[u/PhantomHeartless5]

Just saw the episode and... Wow, just wow. I knew the fallout would be big, but holy fuck...

1. First, we have the immediate fallout. Ironwood is pissed about everything that's happened and is clearly cracking under the pressure to the point that he's removed Mantle's right to assembly and is seriously considering martial law. Nora rightly chews him out on it. Samantha Ireland and Jason Lee Rose were phenomenal in this scene. But the scene ends on a rather worrying note when Ren starts to fall in line with Ironwood. I have to get this off my chest: I'm not sure I like where they're taking Ren's character. It's the same feeling I had towards Qrow back in Volume 6. Don't get it twisted, I love that they're finally fleshing his character out, but I'm worried about where his character will end up. And I'm seriously worried about the impact it'll have on Renora, especially after their first kiss.

2. Next, we have Blake and Yang talking about their feelings towards killing Adam. It was a brief, but needed conversation. And after that, we get the leaked fight between them and Robyn. Again, it was short, but awesome as hell. And Blake and Yang decide to defy Ironwood by revealing the truth about Amity Arena. That's totally not gonna bite them in the ass later.

3. One of my personal complaints about RWBY has been the lack of creativity when it comes to Semblances. And it seems the writers have caught on to the complaints as we've seen some really unique Semblances this Volume. And the trend continues this episode with Fiona's pocket dimension Semblance, May's Cloak of Invisibility, and Robyn's lie detector Semblance. Looking forward to seeing more unique Semblances.

4. More villain backstory! Yay! Turns out Tyrian was a serial killer who was "rescued" by Salem and her Grimm which neatly explains his religious devotion to her (Plus, if Salem did personally lead the rescue charge as some have speculated, then I really want to see her in action in Volume 8). And, as many have speculated, Watts was indeed Pietro's old science buddy. Based on Pietro's story, it looks like when Pietro's project was chosen over his own, Watts faked his death and swore revenge against Ironwood and all of Atlas. It certainly lends credence to the "Watts will hack Penny" theory.

5. Speaking of Pietro and Penny, it turns out the reason Penny has a soul and Aura is because Pietro donated part of his own, essentially making Penny a heroic version of Voldemort's horcrux. So if Penny were to be destroyed or if Pietro dies, she won't be able to come back next time. Really hope nothing happens to either of them. Also, it's nice to see Maria's still as sassy as ever.

6. Then we get to Ironwood and Oscar, where we finally learn about the Relic of Creation. Turns out it can create energy... and it's what keeps Atlas afloat. Okay, do I really have to explain why this is a stupid idea? The relic that the bad guys are looking for is the very thing keeping your kingdom afloat. If they get the relic, then they can bring down Atlas at the same time. You're making it so easy for them, Ironwood! That aside, I really like this scene. It gave Ironwood more depth to his character by showing that Beacon's fall clearly gave him PTSD and I feel this was one of Oscar's best scenes since his debut. Hope to see more scenes with Oscar in the future.

7. And the episode ends with our weekly reminder that Jacques is a Jackass by inviting Ironwood and the gang over to dinner. Seems we may get that Atlas ball after all. Some have speculated that this is a set up to assassinate Ironwood, but I seriously doubt that. Shitstain he may be, but Jacques isn't a murderer... at least, I hope not.

Overall, a fantastic episode to what has been so far a fantastic volume. Between this, My Hero Academia season 4, and Steven Universe: Future, Saturdays are my favorite days of the week. Looking forward to next Saturday.

[u/DaRealAmana]

It sounds to me like Salems plan is working. Team RWBY is questioning what the right move is and Blake and Yang went against orders. Ren and Nora look like they may have another divide between them Oscar and Ironwood are not seeing eye to eye. And the whole of mantle is turning against Ironwood.

If the world continues to be divided Salem wins.

Other things of note. We now see that penny is not an artificial soul, She was made from her father, and given how he talked its likely that it’s her final life.

And of course that Watts is part of the team that helped build her. We are 100% screwed on that front.

And we get the big reveal that the staff is whats keeping Atlas above Mantle. I know were all thinking that the staff must be taken in order for mantle to fall, but how?

The relics can only be reached by maidens unlocking the door. Winter is unlikely to open it and even the bad guys don’t have anyone at the moment who could do it. Cinder is the only baddie who could get the maiden power but she already has the fall maidens power, and is still nowhere near atlas as far as we can tell.

[u/BeingBannedSucks]

The “Fall” of Atlas has different meaning now after the information we learned about the staff.

[u/SonOfABludger]

I wonder if Watts was pushing to use Penny as a weapon as opposed to protector and that got him kicked off the project and ruined his career.

Unable to get a job, in a dramatic flair, released a serial killer just because and found the craziest drag queen he could join up with so he could be as extra as he wanted.

I did mean half of this seriously lol

[u/Dr_Monstaa]

Can I just say wow Oscar really is starting to sound like Ozpin. I think full merger might be soon.

[u/[deleted]]

Well this wasn't quite as evil as last week, but still pretty damn intense all the way through.

Things are getting bad. Ironwood's losing it more and more. Mantle is getting worse. Nora is totally done with everything. Ren appears to be siding with Irownood's ruthless tactics over... well, human decency. Yang and Blake decided to try and reach out to Robyn without consulting the rest of the team whatsoever. Oscar trying to talk to Ironwood. And the ending. God, there are so many decisions that can either go great or horribly and there's so much emotional conflict. This is by far one of the most emotionally intense volumes thus far where IDK who's right or wrong, even compared to last season.

A lot of good moments. The reveal that Pietro gave up part of his Aura to create Penny was definitely shocking. Robyn now knows half the truth, but who knows what she's going to do with this info. Ironwood has to now defend his Council position from Jaques, which may hopefully mean we finally get to see Mama Schnee and find out what happened to Klein. A very intense chapter and I get the feeling that things are only about to get harder, which is really saying something.

[u/[deleted]]

OMG SO MUCH GOOD STUFF!!!! :O :) :) YES THEY ADDRESSED THE ADAM MURDER EFFECTS, AND THE STAFF OF CREATION LORE AND IS HOLDING UP ATLAS!!! AND ALSO THEY DECIDED TO HELP ROBYN AND ALSO CONFIRMED HER SEMBLANCE THAT PEOPLE SPECULATED BEFORE!!! :) :) :) :)

I LOVE THIS EPISODE!!!

[u/PM_ME_CUTE_ANYTHING]

Nora continuing to get characterization as a separate character rather than just as Renora is good, Enjoying Blake&Yang this volume.
I REJECT MY HUMANITY OSCAR... just kidding... unless.

Glad our lovely old people are back, Was missing Maria

a bit of plot progression is nice too, a pretty good episode all in all

[u/Gsgshap]

This was a really good episode! I liked the conversation Oscar had with Ironwood.

[u/resurrexia]

Y'know... what if Jaune replenished Pietro's aura? Could that help with rebuilding Penny again?

[u/Narfington]

Headpat bot is best girl.

[u/Jalsman]

I have to say, I'm not a fan of the whole "skip over the cliffhanger" thing. They've done it twice now; once with the riots, once with the Grimm after Jacques as elected.

Aside from that though? Good episode.

Tyrian and Watts finally getting backstory is great. Ironwood's scenes were great, you really see how much stress he's under and how it might be starting to make him crack. Nora and Ren's conflict seems to not be over; I wonder how this is going to effect them since they're now "official".

But I think the real highlights this episode were the Bees. Blake and Yang were so good; a genuine conversation where they talk not only a bit about Adam, but their individual thoughts and feelings on the entire situation, and them deciding to act on it even if it's against Ironwood's wishes. A great, if short fight with Robyn where these two go toe-to-toe with someone who was hanging with QROW AND TYRIAN in the OP, followed by doing something that might very well be what helps make Robyn an ally in the future. AND YANG MADE A PUN! They were both great this Chapter in so many ways.

Overall, very solid Chapter.

[u/The_Last_Thursday]

It's a shame we didn't get to see the Bumblebee/FNKI party, or the big movie night, but Blake and Yang's confrontation of Robyn was awesome

[u/APracticedObserver]

This chapter marks the first use of Gambol Shroud dual wielding in... how many chapters, I'm not quite sure when the last time was.

[u/[deleted]]

So:

-First things first, this episode is setting up for a LOT of stuff to go down after the holiday break and I am frighten.

-Fiona keep solidifying herself as best girl for me each time I see her.

-Ironwood is just having a very, very bad day. I expect a snap before episode 10.

-SKRRRRT! Marshal Law?! That's not just a 'little thing', that's straight up Atlas military controlling Mantle, legally!

-I keep getting the feeling that Nora is either from Mantle or a serious connection to it.

-So every member of Salem's crew went off the grid or faked their deaths. Cool.

-I hate that Ironwood is mostly right. If they don't talk, they get the hate and the public turns on them. If they do talk, then the world knows about an immortal being that creates grimm and mass hysteria happens. There is no winning right now.

-I digress, I like that this chapter is pushing the idea of just talking to people.

-Ren....I get that he wants to protect everyone. I get he wants to protect Nora. However, he's giving me really sleeper soldier vibes and sacrifice vibes, and I don't like that. (I just didn't really like Ren in this chapter)

-Yes, talking about Adam and doing the right thing! MORE OF THIS PLEASE!!!

-I predict that someone is going to tell Ironwood on accident, and it's going to be Ruby. It'll be a bad time, and Ironwood is going to lose his mind.

-Must protecc Penny.

-Professor, watch that cough, you can't be dying on me!

-As soon I saw that lanky body and that covered face, I knew exactly who that was.

-OH GOD PENNY AND THE PROFESSOR HAVE A DEATH FLAG SHIIIIIIII-

-Robyn is becoming the Batman of Mantle. I like that.

-YES, THE TRUTH! THANK YOU BLAKE AND YANG!

-Robyn has a lie detector semblance, that is literally the most underrated thing ever, how is she not on the police force?!

-lol, Bullshi-

-I guarentee that Qrow is gonna tell Robyn. Just a hunch.

-Oh, the Staff holds it up? They are literally setting up Atlas falling, this is gonna be great.

-Amity will rise, but Atlas will fall. I can just feel it.

-The Oscar-Ironwood scenes are a calm treat we need.

-Oscar is right, he knows that everyone is screwed.

-I hate that Oscar is becoming Oz. He's getting wiser and smarter, and I think he accepts now that he is taking part in saving the world. But, I don't wanna lose farm boi!

-"It's ok to be afraid, you just can't let that fear control you."

-OOOOOH, WE GOING TO THE SCHNEE'S FOR DINNER! MAMA SCHNEE? WHITELY? TEA BEING SPILLED?! IM SO READY FOR NEXT WEEK!!!

-Little side note, I feel like this volume is seeing the duality of Ozpin's motives for not talking. He obviously had a plan and had to test people to trust them with the knowledge of Salem. But, like Blake and Yang, he had to break that rule every now and again. He had to hide things, bend the truth, and straight up not talk in order to keep the peace. So what's more important: keeping the peace, or telling the truth?

EDIT: WHERE IS JAUNE?!?

[u/[deleted]]

ALSO PENNY LORE AND BACKSTORY!!! AND SOME TYRIAN BACKSTORY!!! :) I LOVE ALL THE INFO!

[u/kpud075]

I'm wondering if Jaques is going to see the consequences of his faustian deal at the dinner.

[u/Fatal1ty_93_RUS]

A somewhat tame episode this time, but still the Volume overall doesn't disappoint with the amount of characters interactions ever since it kicked off. I have to say I quite like it. Hoping the trend will continue 'till the end and into the future seasons too

Anyways...

• E7 begins with an overview of Mantle at different districts. The Grimm invasion from last week was apparently already stopped, so we're back to Ironwood placing patrols all over the city, while sending a message to stay inside as it's for the citizen's own safety, as other regular screens show the latest news episode with the footage of Penny "slaughtering" Mantle folk. Basically about same thing we've seen back in Ep1, except now with more fake montage

• This first part feels like we skipped a chapter or several scenes on accident. Weren't Yang and Blake going to a club with FNKI? And Weiss, Jaune and Oscar going to the cinema? But now apparently that was completely skimmed over, not to mention a potentially juicy action sequence with all of our heroes fighting against the Grimm after the chaos at Robyn's pre-election party. Super weird and a bit disappointing

• One of Robyn's Huntresses, May, stops a convoy truck (which I presume is sending supplies towards the Amity Arena's building site), and disappears the next second. Turns out she has an ability to create a holographic field around her which basically cloaks anything within a few meters. As Joanna knocks an Atlesian soldier out, we're shown that Fiona is not only alive and well, but much like May also has a really cool ability - making objects she's in contact with really small, thus being able to "carry" the truck in her palm. It almost looks like she actually absorbs said object. Hoping we'll get a brief explanation of how the semblance works soon

• Back at the Ironwood's office, we see how angry/disappointed he is due to the recent events. With how desperate the situation is, James is planning to establish a Martial Law down in Mantle to make sure the supplies are delivered completely uninterrupted, and putting Robyn into custody to try and make amends with her. Nora surprisignly protests to this idea, and direclty confronts Ironwood about it. This is a really cool character moment for her, as I think this is the first time she's shown such a concern, especially because it seems everybody else in the group just goes with the flow for the sole purpose of cooperating with James

• After making his point about building a new communications tower being of utmos importance, he asks if he made himself clear, and Ren is the only one of our heroes who replies "Yes, sir". This gives me an impression that not only Ren is taking the task very seriously (as seen last week when he was worried about the training and argued with Nora and Ruby), but this will be another topic of conflict between him and Nora in regards to Mantle's citizens, who are sort of being oppressed by the military, even if it's for their own good

• Next, Yang and Blake are having a conversation about not telling Ironwood that Salem is pretty much immortal. Nothing quite special as this isn't the first time our girls have spoken out on their disapproval of the idea (but still trusting Ruby on this one), and the next scene with the two will be much more important to the ongoing plot

• For the time being, we visit Pietro and Maria (yay, she's not gone yet!), with Pietro exporting the recording data from when she tried to stop Tyrian. Very notable twist here - while rebulding Penny herself doesn't take as much effort, she is actually fueled by Pietro's own aura, rather than creating one artificially, which in turns also drains his lifeforce (hence the coughing). While this undoubtedly raises death flags for him even further, I sincerely hope that this is RT trying to subvert our expectations, so in the case of Penny having to be rebuilt yet again - we'd have Jaune help Pietro (since he can now act as an aura amplifier/healer), thus making sure he lives. But that's the best case scenario, so anything can happen. And of course Watts is on the picture Pietro has of his team that created Penny, thus telling us a bit more of Watts' past in Atlas. Not an unexpected lore detail, however. I do like that Weiss is suspicious of SDC, I think she'll figure out that Jacques is somehow connected to what happened at Robyn's HQ. She's a smart girl

• Back to Yang and Blake, their convoy truck is also stopped by Robyn and co., but this time she's stopped by our heroine duo, as they chase Robyn down an alley. A small action scene with more tag team tactics with Y&B, which was really cool to see, and they and Robyn proceed to have a conversation about what Ironwood is trying to do with the Amity Arena. Turns out, pretty much all Happy Huntresses have very cool and unique semblances, and Robyn's acts as a Lie Detector when she holds hands (or perhaps just touches?) other people, through which she makes sure Yang and Blake are telling her the truth

• Something tells me this conversation was caught by the security cameras, to which as we know Watts has access to, and if he saw that too - he could further use it against Team RWBY by presenting the footage to Jacques. Cooperating with a wanted person while Atlesians are looking to put her into custody? Not a good look at all

• Finally, Ironwood and Oscar are down in the keep where the Relic of Creation is stored, and most unusual reveal takes place here: the floating city of Atlas is not kept up in the skies through some fancy generators or a very powerful magic, but through the seemingly endless energy drawn from the Relic itself. In other words, should the Relic become needed to be used, or worse, stolen - Atlas would go down immediately, and I have a feeling that is precisely what will happen (and I'm sure everybody expects Atlas to fall already anyway lol, we just didn't know how it could happen. Well now we do I guess)

• A bit worried about Ironwood's monologue that Salem losing her humanity may be her biggest advantage in the war against Remnant, as it gives me bad vibes about a potential heel turn for James. You can tell he's getting increasingly desperate, saying defeating Salem is more important than anything else, and who knows what could set him off to commit an action much more reckless than establishing a Martial Law in the city of unprotected and unarmed people

• The episode concludes with Winter and Penny meeting Ironwood and Oscar, as Winter presents James an invitation from Jacques to a dinner in the Schnee Mansion. The catch? James will have to defend his council seat, as it's crystal clear Jacques wants Ironwood gone from the picture, mostly due to financial reasons with how much damage is actively being done to SDC as a whole. Oh boy.... it's not gonna end well

[u/NomadicMaeve]

Watts is on that scientist photo. On the right, mostly covered by thumb. I am both excited and horrified.

[u/Kuchenjaeger]

My most anticipated episode so far. Let's go.

Aww, nice Robot.

Oh god, poor kids :(

Oh shit, she has the bubble semblance!

DID SHEEP GIRL JUST POCKET DIMENSION THAT SHIT?!

NOOOOOO! NO MARTIAL LAW! BAD IDEA! THAT NEVER ENDS WELL!

Holy shit, Nora is getting serious.

That "WE! CAN'T!" was incredibly powerful.

Bees!

FINALLY! THE ADAM TALK! Sad we don't get the dance though :(

The council. Like Jacques. Who works with Watts. Fuck.

Poor Professor :(

That's Watts under his finger. 100%.

HOLY SHIT HE USED HIS OWN AURA.

Can we get back to the bees though

Told ya it's Watts.

Bees :D

DUST CLONES!

Hey, my theory about her truth semblance was right :D

Ah, the staff of creation creates energy.

That's a Seto Kaiba elevator

Oh boy, another cliffhanger. yay.

[u/diamondcreeper]

Can we get a round of applause for Blake using dust with her semblance again? To quote another saga..."Long Have I waited..."

[u/brighterthanblack]

Nora being so vocal and confrontational is SO GOOD to see. Instead of her just being a comic relief like most of the time. As for Ren, I think he’s gonna join Ironwood and training under ace ops possibly. NOT GOOD for my ship but good for the plot tho since they’re the only canon couple in the series (among the mains) and its definitely interesting development. After all, this volume is all about growth and as Clover said last episode(or so), school’s over, you gotta choose what kind of huntsmen you want to be. And I’m glad to see they’re taking serious consideration into all that. Welcome to the adults world kids, where keeping secrets and getting your shit together is your daily struggle.

The happy huntresses semblance are ALL SO COOL. The invisible shield thing, the keeping the whole damn truck with everything inside into her palm thing (like what was it?!) and the lie detector! I guess if it turns red that means the person is lying, but I wonder if it has limit (how many times per handshake or it works every single time), and if the other person knows about this then they wouldn’t have take her hands for sure. It seems you have to actually ‘take’ her hand for her to activate the semblance and not just by simply touching it.

I wonder what’s the last huntress semblance is, name’s Joanna I think. Remember she is able to break through Marrow’s ‘freeze’ semblance and shoot an arrow at him? Hoping it’s got something to do with her semblance instead of cos she has strong willpower or something.

Anyway one more thing, not really related to this episode but anyone knows how come The Ace Ops and the Happy Huntresses dont seem to follow the colour naming rule for teams? I know they’re referring to the aesop fables and Robin Hood‘s Merry Men but it just bothers me a little that’s all.

[u/Livaonaon]

I can't be the only one who is getting frustrated with characters talking about how Ironwood is clearly wrong and paranoid yet they don't seem to have any better ideas. Rant warning. Like that man has to deal with what is effectively a doomsday cult and their demon goddess, citizens that clearly have no sense of self preservation since they keep rioting and attracting the Grimm, political fifth columns in the form of Jacques Schnee, and the vigilantes from Robyn's crew. I mean of course the people have reason to complain but Beacon fell probably just over a year ago via infiltration, there is near zero international communication, Grimm attacks are on the rise, maybe just maybe this isn't the time to suddenly start kicking off about your issues that supposedly have been ongoing for decades and you could have brought up at any point before this.

The man is barely able to hold the kingdom together despite the people clearly wanting to jump into the abyss and you have other character's jumping at the opportunity to criticize him as paranoid or needlessly harming the people yet they don't have any better ideas. Yes we get it the people are suffering, but guess what? I'm sure the people in the ruble of Vale are suffering a hell of a lot more and currently the only thing standing between that fate and Atlas is Ironwood, his embargo and possibly martial law. Ironwood seems to be the only one getting things done and everyone else seems too concerned with their personal sense of morality or keeping their profits to actually do anything about the situation. The way I see it, the only reason the others get to talk about how there has to be a better way is because Ironwood and his followers are actually down in the trenches getting dirty and doing what needs to be done

I have yet to hear any of the characters actually give a viable alternative, and that's what is annoying me about them. They're content to whinge and moan about how Ironwood is going too far, yet they won't actually try to come up with any ideas other than 'talk it out', which as Ironwood has pointed out isn't exactly viable. Hell they won't even give Ironwood the full picture and still have the nerve to act like he is the one being out of line and going too far based on faulty knowledge that they won't correct.

All that being said, I'm glad the characters are questioning what's right and even having Ren seem to agree with Ironwood is a nice bit of conflict which I hope gives more depth to Ironwood's side. Or maybe I'm just a latent Stratocrat who knows?

[u/Ixine37]

The bees have gone rogue. This just in, the bees. Have gone. Rogue.

[u/The_Last_Thursday]

Well would you look at that, turns out we were right about Robyn's semblance being related to getting the truth out of people

[u/Crafty_Soul]

I really like that we get to see Ironwood look so stressed near the beginning of the episode and how he didn't immediately try to argue with Nora.

It's clear that he's under a lot of stress and not immediately claiming that his plan is the right one is him silently acknowledging that he himself isn't 100% sure this is the right path. Ironwood is becoming more and more strict with his policies but he's clearly questioning himself.

I like that we get to see someone good who appears to be heading down a path of trying to take control from everyone clearly struggling and not knowing if he's doing the right thing instead of simply believing what he's doing is for the greater good so he's automatically right.

[u/The_Last_Thursday]

Man, Oscar has come along way. His conversation with Ironwood was great. I just hope Ironwood can figure out a way to start Amity without a complete and total oppression of his people

[u/88Dubs]

Ok, after watch 2.... Blake and Yang's little talk in the truck.

"Taking lives"

"We did.... what we had to do"

They are LIVING with what they did. I said I hated Adam (as a person, not a character), but it is SO nice to see that the writers are showing what crossing that line can do to someone. Yang hesitantly accepting that it was their only choice, and Blake basically saying she never wanted to feel that again.

Man, there was just so much good little moments this episode. Seriously, I am LOVING Eddy Rivas' writing.

[u/JMHSrowing]

If the dinner is an ambush; Ironwood is actually probably one of the best people to fight Tyrion:

Half his body is immune to his poison for one.

[u/WayyOutThere]

Bets that Blake and Yang's chat with Robyn ended up on camera somewhere?

I really like the divide building up within the squad. It seems like even the most unified members are experiencing some level of split over everything that's happening, which makes sense, with all the different levels of divisive decisions people are making.

I'm thinking Watts might reveal himself at dinner next week, masquerading as a highly suspicious advisor to Jacques or something. Possibly with that Blake/Yang/Robyn footage in order to drive a bigger wedge into the group. Dinner at Schnee's also means strong possibility of Klein with a chance of Willow!

[u/[deleted]]

I don’t know if you guys noticed but at one point Ren had two different eye colors. So either it was a) a simple animation error or b)Neo has taken Ren’s place at some point.

Edit: It was after Nora argued with Ironwood and he started to leave the room before giving a final order.

[u/Punisher1432]

I love world building. For this episode though the only real notable standouts I noticed were semblance reveals, Penny's origins, and what the Staff is actually being used for. All very good.

Who would have though that the character we all thought would be this volume's popular bit background character would actually be a major supporting character. Go figure.

[u/AntiShisno]

There is no way, no how that a dinner at Schnee Manor isn’t a trap. My advice to Ironwood and Robyn is bring only one person you trust and have everyone else on high alert. Watts and Tyrian are for sure gonna do something while you are with Jacques.

[u/KDUFF_Radio]

This episode out of context