IWIW RWBY

The idiot can't even steer!
You assume it was an accident instead of spite?
Salem learnt at least part of the right lesson. The gods are assholes
If only she learned more from that than being an asshole herself.
Turns out when you torture an emotionally broken young woman with a horrible fate, she will NOT STOP until you are fucking dead.

Not excusing her actions, but the Gods still brought it on themselves.
It's like beating a dog and being surprised when it bites you.
 
You assume it was an accident instead of spite?

While spite is valid, I entirely believe the dumb fucker wasn't watching where he was going, and right after the moon went boom...

'SHIT, OW! ... I totally meant to do that.'

Because making things worse through their stupidity is kind of their thing.


If only she learned more from that than being an asshole herself.

Sadly, she became another example of the cyclical nature of abuse, where it is all too easy for the abused to repeat what was done to them, because that's the system they're used to. *Gestures at Salem's interactions with Cinder*

It doesn't excuse her misdeeds, but it does help explain them.
 
I love how awful these gods are, in a very mythological way. They're petty, they treat their worshippers like shit to 'teach a lesson', and people still follow them. They ARE the uncaring universe.

Also for anyone who knows anything about Parahumans - dual gods with paired themes one of whom is gold who granted strange superpowers and called the world an experiment before fucking off and destroying what's left behind, are the gods entities, discuss.
 
love how awful these gods are, in a very mythological way. They're petty, they treat their worshippers like shit to 'teach a lesson', and people still follow them. They ARE the uncaring universe.

I'm a final fantasy player. My response to shitbag gods is to want to break out the fancy weapons and give them a reason to fear mortals.

.... Would you prefer the Pokemon solution to asshole gods?
:p
 
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Well, Jinn's telling us something, all right. In a time of magic, past-Salem was imprisoned in that tower, and wished only for freedom. Enter the legendary hero Ozma (surely that name means something), the latest to brave the tower, but the first to to be motivated only by "righteousness". Because this is a fairytale, he succeeded.

How ironic, the guy who wasn't there for the "young maiden's hand" ends up getting it.
Now, I haven't actually seen this episode, but I was under the impression Ozma was a woman (and a reference to a character from the Wizard of Oz who is a princess who is cursed to turn into a boy).

"The hearts of men are easily swayed," says Jinn to tell us that Ozma went along with it. I'm contractually required to bristle a bit at the casual sexism inherent in that statement.
I'm pretty sure that's meant to be a gender inclusive plural even though it uses the masculine term, much like 'mankind'.
 
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I'm a final fantasy player. My response to shitbag gods is to want to break out the fancy weapons and give them a reason to fear mortals.

.... Would you prefer the Pokemon solution to asshole gods?
:p

In the first game in the SaGa series (Final Fantasy Legend), which might be the original JRPG In Which You Kill God, the answer to a callous God involves a Chainsaw.
 
One of the things about the Lost Fable that really made me think when I realized it is that we never actually get Salem's POV in the same way as Ozma's POV.

The story never actually goes into her head and explicitly says what she's thinking or what she experienced; after the Gods kill of the humanity of old we get a hard jump to possibly tens of millions* of years in the future where the status quo of Remnant is already established and Ozma is unceremoniously dumped into some dude's body.

Even when she's a focal character, we only get secondhand information about her. I think that's neat.

*Extrapolation from side material.
 
V06C04 So That's How It Is

V06C04 So That's How It Is


...well, yes.

Titles: I can't help but feel that maybe the lightning should take advice sometimes. Then the past reincarnations shown are the original Ozma, the second one who had kids with Salem, and the inventor of the cane-weapon.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that Yang is angry. (She's interpreted "you [Ozma] can't [destroy Salem]" as "Salem can't be killed".) Oscar!Ozpin is in no condition to defend himself (verbally, at least for now...). Ruby gets in Yang's way, but pretty much inflicts worse:
"Professor? What is your plan to defeat Salem?"

"I... don't have one."
To which Qrow punches Ozpin into a tree many metres away. Qrow what?

Qrow has built his entire self-worth about being able to accomplish some good in Ozpin's service. Now he thinks he was just helping Ozpin spin his wheels, and is taking it very badly.

Ozpin hands back control. Yang storms over to demand Oscar pass on a message, to which Oscar (who is handling the pain of Qrow's punch much worse than Ozpin) explains that contrary to previous occasions Ozpin hasn't so much as left a mental forwarding address.

Oscar's panic rapidly infects Team RWBY. It is left to Maria, the absolute newcomer to the mission, to remind them that they're all standing around in the frozen middle of nowhere attracting Grimm, and had best plan not to be those things by the rapidly approaching night. She takes no crap from Yang about any of it, which impresses me. Ruby signs off on Maria's plan to follow a nearby trail.

The gang gather their things from the crash site. Yang has finally managed to dig out her bike, and is wheeling it with Maria sitting on it. Ruby attempts to reassure Oscar that he's not just "going to be another one of his lives", which Qrow sabotages on his way by (while drinking heavily, which is probably more title sequence foreshadowing so I don't like the look of it).



Back in Salem's Hell, a Mistralian airship delivers Team MEH to the closest hellish approximation to an airship dock. They are unsettled to be greeted by Tyrian, and who wouldn't be.

Tyrian (whose tail now sports a prosthetic hardpoint) rubs in the absence of Cinder, correctly surmising that she was defeated (not that it's a hard deduction), and not helping Emerald's fragile mental state in the slightest.

Tyrian, did you just deliberately cut yourself on one of Emerald's drawn weapons. You absolute ultra-weirdo cultist. Anyway, Mercury has to defuse the possible fight - not a role he's played much, I imagine - before they go up the steps, leaving behind Tyrian, who continues to cackle maniacally. But he was spot on when he said that failing Salem was a tragedy...

Salem is so angry she's looped around to sounding absolutely calm. She asks for an explanation, which Hazel misunderstands as asking for an explanation. After interrupting him, she asks for a scapegoat. Hazel offers himself up, to which Salem loses her false calm and literally flips the table - Tyrian barely dodges out of his seat in time. "But that wouldn't be fair now, would it?!" she says, chaining Hazel down with Grimm arms (title sequence foreshadowing strikes again!) and letting them all sweat for a bit, before asking Emerald to offer up a scapegoat and implying very clearly that there is exactly one correct answer.

The correct answer is Cinder, which Emerald offers up just in time to avoid a potentially very painful death. Salem reasserts her false calm and explains to Emerald in no uncertain terms that Cinder is cut off "until she redeems herself". It is news to Emerald and Mercury that Cinder is even still alive. Watts is loudly skeptical as to how Salem knows that, which is a mistake, as it gives Tyrian a chance to snarl at him with Salem's tacit backing.

Salem makes her attitude on "love; justice; reverence" very clear - she controls them, and y'all'd best be absolutely loyal - before letting Hazel breathe Grimm-free again. She starts planning how to get "the sword under Vacuo's Academy, Shade-" and gets exactly that far before Hazel has the audacity to interrupt. He presses on through the threat of another chaining to report that the Relic is being moved to Atlas and Ozpin is in charge of that effort. The gang are surprised that Ozpin would reincarnate so soon, and theorise that he has the best chance of convincing Ironwood of anything, before realising that the windows are cracking: If you thought Salem was angry before, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Even Tyrian isn't safe now. Hazel leads the charge out of the hall in time for all to avoid her sonic wrath.



On a forest trail, things aren't improving: the snow and the arguing both continue. After some time Ruby hears something: the sound of a tiny piece of civilisation, labelled "Brunswick Farms". Weiss observes that the place looks abandoned. As is pointed out to her, it will at least keep the actual snow out, mostly.

It looks for all the world like Qrow's overly-enthusiastic shoving of the farm gate is going to have it swing back and hit him on the rear. It doesn't - he's just a little too far past it towards the farmhouse.

Credits concept art clarifies that the trail led there. Also they use a little Ruby figure as a scale reference for everything, even Salem's castle gatehouse.



Next time: .
 
To which Qrow punches Ozpin into a tree many metres away. Qrow what?

More than that, he also punched Oscar, the boy who risked the wrath of the man possessing his body. This was uncalled for.

occasions Ozpin hasn't so much as left a mental forwarding address.

Yeah, as near as the fandom could tell at this point, Oz just broke. Which, well, I can't blame him, even if the timing is terrible.

Also, this is why I tend to refer to the Oz in Oscars head as just Oz when possible. I like to hope that the Ozpin part of the bond wasn't dragged along, and at least part of them gets to rest in peace... Or team up with his fellow hosts to figure out a way to break out of the afterlife, save Oz from his fate, and maybe set Light on fire on the way out.

It is left to Maria, the absolute newcomer to the mission, to remind them that they're all standing around in the frozen middle of nowhere attracting Grimm, and had best plan not to be those things by the rapidly approaching night. She takes no crap from Yang about any of it, which impresses me. Ruby signs off on Maria's plan to follow a nearby trail.

Maria is awesome. That is all.

Ruby attempts to reassure Oscar that he's not just "going to be another one of his lives", which Qrow sabotages on his way by

The sad thing is, I don't think Qrow was trying to be mean. It comes up in the side content as well, but he HATES lying, even things as simple as Yang making up a story about Summer being asked to cook for a Faunus King to impress three year old Ruby. He thinks Oscar deserves the truth. Which on the one hand, respect, on the other, time and place Qrow. Also, where's your apology for punching the man?

Tyrian, did you just deliberately cut yourself on one of Emerald's drawn weapons.

Yes. He did. Because the chance to fuck with the kids in over their head for his amusement is too good to pass up.

Salem is so angry she's looped around to sounding absolutely calm.

And here, even Tyrian is too scared to move.

If you thought Salem was angry before, you ain't seen nothin' yet

She still hasn't recovered from the divorce.
 
Qrow has built his entire self-worth about being able to accomplish some good in Ozpin's service. Now he thinks he was just helping Ozpin spin his wheels, and is taking it very badly.

So, remember how we had our complaints before about how if semblance readily does equal personality then Taiyang was calling the daughter he parentified a child throwing a tantrum?

Well what does it say, and just as importantly what must Qrow think it says, that Qrow's semblance is that he will always, no matter what he wants, bring misfortune to everyone around him?
 
V06C05 The Coming Storm

V06C05 The Coming Storm


Cinder returns to Little Miss Malachite's to demand her (Cinder's) information, and gets it: her targets have gone to Argus, likely as a stepping stone to Atlas. Information obtained, she goes to leave, but stops in her tracks when Malachite drops her name. Did you really think the information broker wouldn't know who you were?

Malachite says "It's not often that a single customer brings me double the business." Whoever it was just dropped in on the mezzanine may go some way to explaining that remark. But not out loud they won't, because please welcome back to the narrative Neo!

Cinder does not feel very welcomed, because Neo's here to beat her up.

Title sequence foreshadowing strikes again!

Cinder is the Fall Maiden. But unarmed and unwilling to burn the place down, she's about down on Neo's level (haha short people jokes [I hope Neo can't hear me from here]), so the fight is not over quickly. After a while Malachite insists they stop breaking her establishment, but makes the mistake of phrasing it as "take it outside", so Neo throws Cinder through a second-storey window to accomplish the letter of the request.

Neo follows, and does her old shattering trick on impacting the ground. Cinder calls it a "nice trick", spends some time on passive senses finding her, and throws a fireball to demonstrate they've both skilled up. (Neo is now wearing Torchwick's hat. Title sequence foreshadowing strikes again!) Cinder then attempts to talk Neo into blaming Ruby for Torchwick's death. It doesn't work.

Now Cinder is armed, and more capable of fighting Neo, but she has to escalate to a clear show of Maiden power to get Neo to actually back off. Neo actually looks rattled - I wonder when that last happened, either on-screen or off (off: when she heard Torchwick died?). Now they can talk about how they're going to kill Ruby. Great. /s



A good first move would be to find her before the snowstorm does the job. It doesn't add up to Ruby why the farm appears abandoned without any sign of the inhabitants being driven out.

It's all pretty weird, especially when Qrow finds the door locked. They kick the door open, mill about uselessly in the foyer, then eventually barricade the door shut when Maria reminds them it can still get colder inside.

Most of the gang fans out to find blankets or assess their chances of starting a fire. Ruby finds pictures across the foyer of the former inhabitants of Brunswick Farms, and agrees with Blake that "something doesn't feel right". Weiss screams from out of sight. It's probably a cheap jump scare at this point in the Chapter, but never say never. Okay, it's an expensive jump scare, she was the first to find the corpses of the inhabitants.

With Plan Blankets forever scarred, all coalesce around the lit fireplace. Qrow returns from outside to report the same scenes in every house: every bed contains the dead body of its sleeper, as if they just went to sleep forever. Weiss does not like the thought of sticking around, but Qrow vetoes leaving into the intensifying snowstorm, and sensibly so.

Yang is also deeply unsettled, so they resolve to continue searching for useful things. Qrow volunteers himself to sweep the grounds again, but asserts nobody else is to go anywhere alone. (And what makes you special, Qrow?) Blake and Yang will look for vehicles. Ruby and Weiss search the main house for supplies, mainly food that somehow hasn't gone off. This leaves Oscar and Maria in the main room to respectively manage the fire and scour the bookshelves for anything interesting.

In the first shed, there is a tractor, which Blake remarks probably isn't "street legal" (are you in a position to be picky?), and a lot of storage shelving. Blake theorises some more on what killed the farmers. Yang reports being tired, finds a potentially ridable trailer for the tractor, then hallucinates Adam out the window which really can't be a good sign. They agree that they can't just assume Adam died in a hole somewhere, then swap notes on how he screwed them both over. It feels like they were making progress, then Yang decides she's done with the talk and leaves, remarking that the trailer can fit everyone and be towed behind Bumblebee (the motorbike, I'm guessing). Blake is discomfited.

Weiss pulls a little fire Dust trick to light every candle in what looks like a cross between a dining room and a bar. Ruby swiftly mentally inventories all the alcohol and decides that Qrow is not to be let in. Yes, she really said that. She then enters the next room first, which is giving me real feelings of what-could-possibly-go-wrong. What goes wrong has nothing to do with the next room: Weiss has serious misgivings about continuing towards Atlas. Ruby presses her, to which she retracts, explaining that she's tired and hates this place. (That's two of them tired. Probably important.)

The next room contains mainly more alcohol, but also a locked cellar door, but also also some food, which is enough to get Ruby energised again. Remember the Ruby we saw excited about weapons in V01C02? It's a little sad that we now get something like that Ruby over a tin of beans. But straight back to comedy when it becomes absolutely clear that Weiss has never previously had to even think about eating tinned beans.

After they leave, the cellar door bangs as something tries to get out. Yeah, something is definitely rotten here, and hopefully it's not the beans.

When was the last time a credits song had lyrics? I can barely remember, and I'd have been fine with not having these ones given that they describe the new Cinder-Neo accord.



Next time: Don't sleep!
 
Fun detail: When they're fighting on the bar Neo has the blade of her parasol out literally trying to slit Cinder's throat.
 
It feels like they were making progress, then Yang decides she's done with the talk and leaves, remarking that the trailer can fit everyone and be towed behind Bumblebee (the motorbike, I'm guessing). Blake is discomfited.

I don't remember the exact wording, but it feels a little perverse that you missed the reason Yang drops the conversation: Blake starts talking about protecting her like she's an invalid and incapable of protecting herself, which naturally isn't Great.

Also, on Ruby not wanting Qrow near the alcohol - yup, obviously. Given how Qrow was earlier, having him near his addiction isn't great. Welcome to that being serious by the by.
 
Neo follows, and does her old shattering trick on impacting the ground. Cinder calls it a "nice trick", spends some time on passive senses finding her, and throws a fireball to demonstrate they've both skilled up. (Neo is now wearing Torchwick's hat. Title sequence foreshadowing strikes again!) Cinder then attempts to talk Neo into blaming Ruby for Torchwick's death. It doesn't work.

Now Cinder is armed, and more capable of fighting Neo, but she has to escalate to a clear show of Maiden power to get Neo to actually back off. Neo actually looks rattled - I wonder when that last happened, either on-screen or off (off: when she heard Torchwick died?). Now they can talk about how they're going to kill Ruby. Great. /s
When I saw this, pretty much before the episode ended, I figured that Neo was only pretending to go along with Cinder and just waiting until she found people who hated Cinder as much as Neo did (Ruby and co) to team up with, because it was clear she couldn't kill Cinder by herself.
 
Weiss clearly sympathized with Ruby in that scene with what we've seen of Jacques and Whitley's comment about their mother she's probably knows where she's coming from.
 
After a while Malachite insists they stop breaking her establishment, but makes the mistake of phrasing it as "take it outside", so Neo throws Cinder through a second-storey window to accomplish the letter of the request.
Neo and her have some history, so it may have been on purpose for that.
Good show of restraint on Cinder's part. Would you ever expect her to try to de-escalate a murder attempt
Salem was right about her needing to spend some time on her own to learn her lesson.
 
Ruby swiftly mentally inventories all the alcohol and decides that Qrow is not to be let in. Yes, she really said that.

She's dealt with Qrow for all her life. She KNOWS how he deals with setbacks. Remember the first episode of last volume?

Good show of restraint on Cinder's part. Would you ever expect her to try to de-escalate a murder attempt

On the other hand she knows how Neo thinks and how to deal with her. And she needs minions.
 
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I don't remember the exact wording, but it feels a little perverse that you missed the reason Yang drops the conversation: Blake starts talking about protecting her like she's an invalid and incapable of protecting herself, which naturally isn't Great.
In which Blake accidentally pushes a trauma button again. Poor Yang. And Blake, really. (Sometimes I forget they're possibly not even adults by our standards.)
Sit down ma'am, we can't all be as neurotypical as you.

Good show of restraint on Cinder's part. Would you ever expect her to try to de-escalate a murder attempt
:o

Salem was right about her needing to spend some time on her own to learn her lesson.
"Salem was right" are some words I don't like to see together. Cinder's personal development, even more so.

She's dealt with Qrow for all her life. She KNOWS how he deals with setbacks. Remember the first episode of last volume?
Well, I do now. And it's not like Oscar can wander in to refocus him from this one.
 
V06C06 Alone in the Woods

V06C06 Alone in the Woods


Oh look, the fabled pre-episode ad, for gen:LOCK. (shrugs)

Titles: In the first scene after the title card, Jaune accidentally activates his shield while it's busy being his sword sheath. Cardin flashbacks intensify.

Ruby, why are you sitting on that staircase by yourself when everyone else is in the main room with the fire? The answer is that Qrow isn't in the main room either so she's keeping watch on him. He's found some of the alcohol, despite her best efforts. Qrow reports that the storm has cleared up so they should be able to leave the next day (it is now night). He also has a bad feeling about Brunswick Farms. "Especially with me around." My dude, you are the only one blaming you for your Semblance. Regardless, he claims the entire night watch before resuming drinking. I have concerns.

Maria has found the diaries of the head of the farm, and has been reading through them. Ruby interrupts to tell everyone that Qrow said they should all sleep. I have more concerns, given the dead bodies. Maria refuses - she's too old to let "some kid" tell her what to do.

The next morning, Ruby is abruptly awoken by the sound of a (visually distinct) bottle of alcohol dropping from Qrow's sleeping hand. After opening the curtains (Weiss objects), she goes to rouse Qrow, and is largely unsuccessful - she has to escalate to throwing the bottle away to shatter. Qrow eventually realises he said he'd wake them up at sunrise and it is well past sunrise. Fortunately none of the gang have died in their sleep.

As Weiss and Yang prepare Bumblebee to tow the trailer, Blake and Oscar commiserate in still being tired. Absolute mood, that's been my entire adult life. Qrow and Ruby push the trailer into proximity; it then develops a sudden and catastrophic flat tire, implied to be due to Qrow's Semblance. Maria really does not help anything by throwing peanuts about bad luck.

Yang isn't in a good place, convinced the universe doesn't want them getting to Atlas. She's also still tired. Weiss wonders out loud why they're going to Atlas at all. Yang wonders out loud whether they couldn't just hide the Relic where they are. (The answer is that it attracts Grimm: Salem would just have to look for a random hotspot.) Ruby, admitting to also being tired, goes to throw the Relic down the well. She reconsiders. Then she startles at Grimm eyes down the well and drops it anyway. Great. /s

Even Qrow now just wants to leave. Ruby is the only one at all interested in retrieving the Relic of Knowledge first. Yang's argument that it might take Salem years to find the thing doesn't hold as much water when you consider that there's probably a Grimm down there right now, but most of them just don't care and gaslight her instead. Team WBY eventually acquiesce and head down the well with Ruby. Qrow has Oscar fix the trailer while he takes up drinking again (to Maria's displeasure).

Title sequence foreshadowing means I don't like where this is going.



Team RWBY advance through the tunnels under the well (do wells work like that? I feel like they shouldn't) in search of the Relic. Meanwhile, Maria continues to page through diaries.

Team RWBY have the bright idea to switch their lights off and look for the characteristic glow of the Relic. Soon they seem to find it.

Maria turns the page and discovers documentation of "The Apathy". Oh no. With a name like that, it explains a fair bit...

Ruby has found the Relic. In accordance with its Grimm-attracting properties, she's also found the Apathy. I haven't been this freaked out by a Grimm since the Nuckelavee. Fortunately Team WBY can't gaslight her about seeing nothing when it rounds the corner behind her.

Crescent Rose accomplishes very little. Then the Apathy screams, and everyone loses half their wakefulness. It is up to Maria to get them to flee. How did she get down there? Good question, that might even be answered someday. The Apathy can't move fast enough to catch them, so it just screams again, stopping them all again at the well shaft. They don't have the energy to get back up. At least, that's the best explanation I've got for why Ruby takes them along another passage instead.

There are actually a h*ck of a lot of Apathy down here (it is unclear to me how many human-looking bodies make one Apathy), almost managing to cut off Team RWBY+M at every intersection. Eventually they reach what looks like a cellar and run out of options. More Apathy screaming saps almost all their remaining energy. Maria manages to identify an exit: it is the cellar!

Ruby crawls to urge Weiss on (Yang is at the front), but Blake can't even crawl any more, and there are way too many Apathy slow-boiling into the room. Ruby turns back to get Blake, but runs out of energy herself halfway there, and can only watch as Blake's death comes for her...

Please welcome back to the narrative Ruby's Eye Beams of Doom! Suddenly there are fewer Grimm in the cellar. Kinda like bailing one bucketful out of the Titanic.

Everybody is energised again - even Maria, who's wondering what just happened. Weiss discovers the cellar door is locked. (Remember that?) Yang goes to apply her strength to the problem. Then more Apathy screaming puts them all on the floor. Maria, whose vision is definitely tinted blue, recovers just enough to go and ask Ruby some very important questions as the Grimm encroach upon them:
"What colour are your eyes?"

"They're... silver."

(audibly gasps) "You have a family? Friends?"

"What?" (hears Grimm)

(covers Ruby's ears) "Don't think about them. Think about the people who love you."
And so, as Weiss frantically tries to overcome the locked doors and Yang frantically tries to get up to help Weiss, Maria coaches Ruby into the protective mindset required for deliberate activation of her silver eyes. This time a lot more Grimm are burned away.

Yang blows the door open and they emerge into the kitchen(?) where Qrow is pretty drunk. Blake and Yang dash out the front of the house to help Oscar prepare for immediate departure. Weiss first sets fire to the cellar entrance where yet more Apathy are trying to emerge. (This is a callback to last Chapter where either she or Ruby gazed upon the alcohol and commented that they weren't going to have trouble starting a fire.)

The comedy is Qrow's reaction to Weiss smashing alcohol bottles to create the conditions for that fire. It turns out not to be funny, because Qrow is in the throes of apathy - until, as Ruby and Weiss drag him away, he recognises Grimm burning. Then he sobers up really fast at the realisation he almost just drank while his nieces died.

Yang drives them away as fast as she dares, as the main farmhouse burns.

So really Qrow's Semblance - and Weiss - saved anybody who might have passed by here in future.



Maria, sitting at the back of the trailer, tells them about the Apathy - "They're not strong, or ferocious. They drain your will to go on." - and how they got there. The head of the farm was looking to cut any costs possible to financially survive, and Hunter protection was a big one if everybody could be kept calm and not negatively emoting at all. So he had the absolutely universe-brained idea to lock a couple of Apathy in the cellar. Fortunately for the plan, they didn't die of spite. Unfortunately, they chose to live because they were smart enough to know they had him right where they wanted him.

The water tunnels, connecting to the cellar, were sealed from the outside world the next morning - but overnight the rest of the pack of Apathy had followed the missing pair in. "No one was angry, or sad, or scared. No one was anything. And then, no one was left." The last diary, that explained all this, is mostly nonsense Latin - contrast Ghira's speech notes - but the last words are very clearly

Maria yeets the diary into the snow. Why. That was valuable evidence.

Everyone has a recrimination session. Blake blames everybody's out-of-character conduct on the Apathy rather than anybody needing to apologise. Maria blames herself for not recognising the signs because she wasn't expecting them that big. This leads Ruby to ask her how she knows about Grimm, and for that matter knew how "to make me - make my eyes do that."

"Well, isn't it obvious, girl?" says Maria, "I had silver eyes."

This episode's voice cast is tiny - only seven characters spoke (all of the seven who appeared).



Next time: Maria Calavera's Tangentially Related Storytime. And then Arcsister's.
 
Regardless, he claims the entire night watch before resuming drinking. I have concerns.

You should.

Maria has found the diaries of the head of the farm, and has been reading through them

Maria, read the last of them first dangit! Don't worry about spoilers!

Blake and Oscar commiserate in still being tired.

Swear to god, feels like a sibling moment so bad.

Weiss wonders out loud why they're going to Atlas at all.

Given Atlas was Ozpins idea, I can't blame them for having questions about that plan at the moment.

Ruby, admitting to also being tired, goes to throw the Relic down the well.

Note the blank eyes the other girls had at this point. Helps convey that something fucky is going.

Even Qrow now just wants to leave.

He's too busy getting drunk to care about the lamp after all.

Actually, rewatching this ep, as you inspired me to do an episode a day as well, and I've been misremembering the order of events slightly. I though he went back into the bar after the tire popped and he was sulking. But it was AFTER Ruby dropped the lamp. Jeez Qrow...

(do wells work like that? I feel like they shouldn't

It varies. Some do, to funnel water from multiple deposits to a single location.


Welcome to one of the most terrifying of Grimm. When they're ALONE. These ones are not alone.

How did she get down there? Good question, that might even be answered someday.

Actually answered in the next ep via deduction. See if you can guess after that one and get back to me :)

Eventually they reach what looks like a cellar and run out of options

With a caved in wall that opened up into the wells. Hence why it was chained shut at the top of the stairs.

(it is unclear to me how many human-looking bodies make one Apathy),

One per apathy. there is a metric FUCKTON of them.

can only watch as Blake's death comes for her...

Please welcome back to the narrative Ruby's Eye Beams of Doom! Suddenly there are fewer Grimm in the cellar. Kinda like bailing one bucketful out of the Titanic.
Maria coaches Ruby into the protective mindset required for deliberate activation of her silver eyes.

Yup, and this is also one of several reasons Ruby hasn't been able to figure out how to use them.

the kitchen(?) where Qrow is pretty drunk.

Its an in-house bar. Given the later comments about the farm losing money, I'm suspecting the owner was just bad at decision making.

Weiss first sets fire to the cellar entrance where yet more Apathy are trying to emerge. (This is a callback to last Chapter where either she or Ruby gazed upon the alcohol and commented that they weren't going to have trouble starting a fire.)

This is also a callback to the fact Weiss has wanted to burn down all the alcohol on Remnant for years.

And it also means three of team RWBY have now destroyed a building, even partially. Yang got Juniors nightclub, Blake got to set fire to her family home, and now this. LET RUBY BURN THINGS!

It turns out not to be funny, because Qrow is in the throes of apathy

But not really the grimm. He was that deep in the bottle he didn't even notice what the girls were panicking about until he saw the burning monster.

So he had the absolutely universe-brained idea to lock a couple of Apathy in the cellar

BAD AT DECISION MAKING.

Maria yeets the diary into the snow. Why. That was valuable evidence.

At this point, given how the farm has burnt down, I think she wanted to be rid of the dumbass. Also, narratively satisfying.

Blake blames everybody's out-of-character conduct on the Apathy rather than anybody needing to apologise.

*STARES at Qrow.* She's talking about out-of-character behavior, bird-brain.

And then Arcsister's.

Aw yeah, its mah girls!
 
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