IWIW RWBY

Matrix Dragon · May 3, 2024

LordDarthYoda said:
Also love Ruby's memories are a better graphical quality than the original events lol

She did forget Zwei in the group shot at the end of V2 though.

michaelb958 · May 3, 2024

Matrix Dragon said:
Not sure about the deliberate reduced framerate for style during deployment though.

This has been another RWBY animation style gag. Just like old times.

SolipsistSerpent said:
And that way you won't end up stuck in a damned Cold Equations scenario.

Relatedly, I have a new entry on my shortlist of least favourite stories!

LordDarthYoda said:
Also love Ruby's memories are a better graphical quality than the original events lol

Memory sucks at being an accurate recollection. I cannot blame Ruby for somewhat literally rose-tinting the time before the Fall of Beacon.

LordDarthYoda said:
The FNDM of course dubbed the Leviathan 'Bubbles".

Bubbles x Kevin OTP. I declare the ship name is Turned to Stone.

Matrix Dragon · May 3, 2024

michaelb958 said:
I cannot blame Ruby for somewhat literally rose-tinting the time before the Fall of Beacon.

BOO.

michaelb958 · May 3, 2024

Matrix Dragon said:
BOO.

Pun not intended, but I'll take it.

michaelb958 · May 4, 2024

volumes 4-6

animation upgrade so all the heartwrenching sadness can be seen in painstaking detail :))))
the two main teams split up and adventure across the world because oh shit it turns out grimm aren't the big concern
there's an immortal sexy witch with the world's most overcomplicated suicide plan and the world's most incompetent henchwoman
*singing one note* magic genie! magic genie! she's blue! she's sexy! she's a magic genie!
smth smth faunus uprising smth smth gay chameleon smth smth fantasy racism is a dicey area to play around in at the best of times
remember all the cool looking grimm from the first few seasons? well they're back and like x3 more nightmarish!
ren and nora actually get character depth (i.e. she's a sweetie and he's horny but doesn't know how to deal with it)
we learn that weiss' dad is a dick but like. we already knew that.

(Which one's the incompetent henchwoman? Is that Cinder, or Emerald, or someone else I've forgotten about?)

Okay, so, now that that's all happened, some videos! Firstly the one I keep forgetting about, which lists lines in the Remnant: the Game scene from V02C02 that foreshadowed things that happened late in V3:

Ruby deploys "the Atlesian Air Fleeeeeeet!" Not sure that counts, given it was introduced earlier that very Chapter, but it certainly tried to do things later.
Ruby makes crashing noises with the Atlesian Air Fleet. Cue that crashing VTOL from V03C10.
Yang's trap card: "Giant Nevermore!" It turns up late in V03C09, then next Chapter gets through the arena forcefield because there's nothing to chase it off and threatens to kill Pyrrha about two Chapters early.
"But, if you roll a six or lower, the Nevermore will turn on your own forces!" This is tangentially connected to Roman Torchwick getting eaten by a Griffon in V03C11.
Yang sifts through Weiss' hand and finds "Resourceful Raider! See, now you can take Ruby's discarded Air Fleet-" ("Nooooooo...") "-and put it in your hand!" Rather like what Torchwick did in V03C10 with that ship where he later died.
Yang then comments on another card allowing Weiss to "disable my ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate my kingdom", which does not get a video explanation, but is trivial to tie to subverting the Atlesian robot corps and/or Cinder doing Cinder things since the end of V02C02, the very Chapter where this happened.
Weiss doubts Jaune's "tactical cunning", to which Yang reminds Weiss that "you attacked your own naval fleet two turns ago". Cue footage from V03C09 of Torchwick at the helm of one big ship shooting down two more.

That done, it's time for that one particular "aggressively non-positive approach to certain topics" but occasionally-funny video that I have mixed feelings about:

So This Is Basically A Series Of Cheap Jokes About RWBY

(Nested quotes may or may not show expanders depending on how the forum software is feeling, so you might lose out on a little bit if you have quotes not set to auto-expand.)

Ruhwuhby is a smash-hit internet show about 3D anime girls smackin' each other that somehow got popular despite its initial budget of seven dollars.

Well, it checks out so far. Also, the crayon visuals at "seven dollars" are my second-favourite joke.

The world of Remnant is filled with monstrous creatures called Grimm, and mankind's only hope for survival are the Huntsmen, a group of warriors who fight for the people with sensible weapons like a tuba that is also a gun.

Still trucking along. Is that an oblique Flynt Coal reference? It's also my third-favourite joke.

Team Rude Bees is a group of four girls learning how to be Huntresses.

In case you hadn't figured it out yet, one of the recurring jokes is that at (almost) no time is the name of the show/titular team pronounced correctly. Also here we run into the awkward gendered descriptors. I'd call that a deliberate attempt to draw negative attention to said descriptors, but I'm pretty sure a deliberate effort would have been written in neon.

Ruby is the leader of Team RWBY, which isn't confusing at all. /s

Not in the slightest! /s

She's a protagonist who puts the petals to the metal and has a secret Sharingan.

One obvious pun, one reference I'm not anime enough to understand (Ruby's silver eyes).

She's also got a dead mum, who was added to the series at the last possible second on a whim-

-because Ruwumby's writing likes to fly by the seat of its oversized clown pants.

And here the insults really begin. I'd disagree on the planning (and general quality) of the writing, but it's not like I'm a trained literary critic, or even a vaguely competent one, so it all looks subjective from here and I'll let it slide.

WHINES is a standard hoity-toity rich girl-

At the start, sure. There's this thing called character development.

-and Ruby's best friend who hates her.

For, like, half of Volume 1?

Her special power is losing every fight she's ever been involved with.

I know this is a meme, but it's also the first joke in this video that I can fact-check, because the wiki has lists of every fight that everybody's ever been involved with, and the results thereof. So let's count all the battles with which Weiss was involved until the end of V6. There are nineteen. Thirteen (68%) are listed as wins. (A fourteenth is the Battle of Beacon, where she "Withdrew" after clearing every opponent present on screen.) So this factual claim doesn't hold water. Fact-checking rates it False.

Bland is secretly an alley cat...

I'm just going to skip over this bit because it makes me angry.

...how would you feel if humans just randomly changed around how many arms we have? (Yang's mech-arm falls off) Oops.

Worth a chuckle.

Follow their exciting adventures at Beacon Academy! Except don't, as the show introduces a million side characters, explores none of them-

Very true. See Team CFVY at left-of-screen there? Half of them weren't even named until V3. On the other hand, right-of-screen includes Sun and Emerald, who have been explored.

-and then the school blows up.

But the show isn't about the characters! Boy, is it not about the characters.

This is another subjective claim that works better in the earliest Volumes. Which, to be fair, are where most viewers will start.

It's about the over-the-top spectacle fighting! And the fights speak for themselves. Or rather, they would, if they weren't constantly accompanied by non-stop butt metal.

Being rude to the soundtrack. I like the soundtrack. (And here's the non-oblique Flynt Coal reference.)

Outside of the fights, the animation is pretty shaky-mistakey. The models do so much clipping and clopping that one could reasonably mistake them for a horse.

Haha ponies.

And the lip-flap mo-cap looks like it was done by a bass-on-a-wall.

(shrugs) It worked well enough for me. But, to be fair, I'm not a film analyst.

Everyone's got a magical fight power called a Semblance. Take Pyrrha, for instance: a prodigy with so many death flags that she might as well be communicating in semaphore. Her Semblance is magnets, so she can collect more death flags.

Although this does set up my favourite joke:

There's also Adam, whose Semblance is 'being the worst'.

Goodbye Adam. ...No, no, correction: Badbye Adam.

But remember, Semblances aren't magic. You can also augment your powers with Dust, a special powder that allows you to use magic. But that's not magic either.

Eh, sometimes you just have to decide which words mean which things. But that's subjective too.

The villains spend two entire Volumes stealing Dust, before the writers forget about that and never bring it up again. I'd say they magically forgot, except that couldn't be it, 'cause magic doesn't exist.

The real thing that got magically forgotten here is that the villains spent one entire Volume (i.e. the first one, and last two, Chapters) stealing Dust. At the end of V02C01, Cinder orders Torchwick to knock off the Dust thefts. The stockpiled Dust then gets moved to Mountain Glenn to be loaded on the train that Team RWBY later prevented from causing too many problems by activating early. This factual claim is rated False.

Oh my goodness, magic does exist?! "Wait, what makes magic different from a Semblance, or Dust?" That's a good question! They forgot that too.

Simple. Magic's been around longer (in-universe).

Maybe the answer lies in World of Remnant, the Robby Rotten side-series that answers some of the many, many questions the show thinks it doesn't have time for. Because the best way to do your worldbuilding is to ignore it the first time around, and then give your viewers homework.

Honestly, I was a little irritated about that. I thought I left homework behind when I finished university, y'know?

There's also ("Ruhwuhby", but pronounced through a full mouth) Chibi, which is a series of dumb gags that somehow uses the cast better than the actual show does.

Someday, after all the actual show and Ice Queendom and maybe one or two other spinoffs I forgot about, I'll get around to watching Chibi. Possibly even before Warner Bros. Discovery throws it all down the memory hole for tax reasons. Until/unless then, I don't have enough information to comment on this.

Spend forty episodes impatiently waiting for the plot to start until Team Kanga-ruby-

+1 for the kangaroo joke, even though it's the only Australian animal that most non-Australians have ever heard of.

-joins up with Ozpin, an immortal reincarnated into the body of a little baby.

Can confirm, Oscar is baby, your honour.

His goal is to save the world from Mummy Salami, an evil witch who fell into the Oozy Jacuzzi and got really mad.

A vastly simplified, but otherwise mostly not inaccurate, summary of the fall of Salem. The catch is that her evil was debatable before she fell in.

The best way to watch Roomba is to think of the first three Volumes as one long season, and then have a friend tell you what happens in Four and Five so you don't have to watch them, 'cause they're garbage.

So what you're saying is, either the plot hasn't started, or it's garbage. Points off for lack of internal consistency.

Speaking of garbage, which is a segue I could put anywhere in this video-

Instead of trying to find worthwhile words for how this doesn't impress me, I'll just tell you that for a long time I thought "segue" was pronounced "seg". Thanks France!

-the writers desperately want you to think that Ozpin is as morally grey as his hair, but they also keep forgetting to have him actually do anything evil.

Do they want that, though? Or do they want us to think that he (and Raven) made in-character bad decisions, to the revelation of which everyone else also made in-character bad decisions? Because that's the impression I got.

"Drunkle Qrow? What exactly did Ozpin do that was so bad?"

"You don't get it, kid. Ozpin gave me the power to turn into a bird."

"Is that, is that a bad thing? Are you, are you cursed?"

"No, no I can do it whenever I want. And I can change back. Whenever I want."

"I don't get it, that sounds exclusively beneficial."

"No, Ruby, you don't understand. I can turn into a bird, Ruby. I can turn into a bird!"

"U-uncle Qrow I-I don't-why is this bad?!"

"What do you do with a drunken sailor early in the morn-ing!" ("Uncle Qrow! Please stop!")

The memetic sequence. I have no further comment.

RWWWWWBY's real problem is that they throw in every cool idea they have and then don't develop anything. Why advance the plot or talk to people? That's dumb! My favourite character is the only one who doesn't talk. But I'm excited to see how they ruin her! (Neo's sign now reads "I'M RUBY'S MOM")

Look, there's a fair bit that just doesn't happen on screen, which isn't great for a show that happens on a screen. But I don't agree that the plot doesn't advance. That's the thing they've been doing instead of talking to people. The claim is subjective, but in mutually-exclusive subjective halves, so it's Half-True at best.

Sometimes not talking is the best way to advance a character! Like Yang and Bland, who not-talked their way into being girlfriends 'cause the fanbase was so insistent about it that the writers just gave up, I guess. I can't wait for Volume 7's equally well-earned moment when Weiss finally gets to hook up with Torchwick's ghost!

...I don't words very good sometimes, so I shall borrow the words of someone who words better to give this claim the consideration it deserves:

Masterweaver said:
Yang has canonically only made a "hot guys" reference twice, once to trick a criminal into getting punched in the face and once as a highly performative general statement set up as her playing up a defiant teenager persona rather than any particular attraction. Blake remained unaware of Ilia's affections while dating a psychologically abusive man who literally made her think of herself as a coward despite how ridiculously brave she has shown herself to be both before and after said relationship; it is heavily implied that Adam himself deliberately manipulated Blake into not noticing or outright dismissing any signs of Ilia's affection. Weiss's relationship with Neptune was proceeded by her denying the very similar wooing by Jaune, and presented as surface-level appreciation of his Coolness in contrast to the deep and meaningful (though in fairness not necessarily romantic) relationship she has with Ruby. Attempts to ignore all this are not only heteronormative, but show a lack of reading comprehension.

The creators of RWBY have repeatedly gone on record to state that Blake/Yang was planned from the beginning. At this point, pretending that they 'capitulated to the fans' is willful ignorance of not only the context clues in the series itself, but denial of Rooster Teeth's own statements. Any sentiment to the contrary degrades the effort put into the series to a disgusting degree. I've tolerated these claims in this thread for a long time, since I acknowledge the fandom is broad enough to include the ignorant, as well as those that choose to deliberately misinterpret what is presented, and yet I cannot help but become significantly aggravated at the wanton refusal to acknowledge what is presented, the cherry-picking of factoids to support one claim over the other. Especially in a thread like this, where the story is quite literally about the characters of the show presenting their own opinions about the fandom and their thoughts. Now that I'm thirty chapters in and this shows no sign of stopping, I'm going to put my foot down.

Any attempt to apply a heteronormative interpretation to RWBY as a show or its production is automatically going to be considered a derail and responded to appropriately.

That's not to say you can't talk about shipping, or that there can't be boy/girl ships (or even completely heterosexual ships). But that discussion should be strictly regulated to fan interpretations, not 'This is what Rooster Teeth really intended' or 'The show is obviously saying' statements. The hatedom has enough power as is.

In short, this joke is not funny, and this claim is rated Liar Liar Pants on Fire.

"Oh, I get it. You want some real emotional investment? Did you know that my sister and I were cursed to be birds?!"

"Uncle Qrow please stop!"

"Why is my name spelled with a Q?!"

A cuestion for the ages.

"Oh hey there! I'm John Roosterteeth, here to insist that you please watch any of our other shows besides RWBY. Buy a shirt!" (the shirt is RWBY)

Look, I've seen enough ads for gen:LOCK by now that I find this funny because it's kinda true.

Well that was a draining slog. Here's something a little lighter:

What michaelb958 Says About "What Your Favorite RWBY Ship Says About You"

Or, further proof that Waltz of the Flowers goes with everything.

Ship	Favourite	Implication	Agreement	Notes
Bumbleby (Blake/Yang)	🌟🌟🌟🌟	"You want to get railed by Yang Xiao Long."	🌟
White Rose (Weiss/Ruby)	🌟🌟🌟	"Regardless of what anime you're watching, your favourite character is always the tsundere."	🚩🚩
Monochrome (Weiss/Blake)	🌟	"You think RWBY hasn't been good since Volume 3."	🚩
Freezerburn (Weiss/Yang)	🌟🌟	"You think RWBY peaked at Volume 5."	🚩
Ladybug (Ruby/Blake)	🌟🌟	"You're just happy to be here."	🌟🌟🌟🌟
Pollination (Ruby/Weiss/Blake/Yang)	🚩🚩🚩	"You're just... really horny."	-	Favourability rockets up to 5x🌟 if Enabler is excluded (this is called Strawberry Sunrise Pollination).
Enabler (Ruby/Yang)	🚩🚩🚩	"You are absolutely fucking thrilled about this whole 'stepsister porn' trend."	🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
Lancaster (Ruby/Jaune)	-	"You are heterosexual."	🌟🌟🌟
White Knight (Weiss/Jaune)	-	"You are extremely heterosexual."	🌟
Arkos (Pyrrha/Jaune)	🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟	"You just wanted good things for Pyrrha. And really... who wouldn't?"	🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Renora (Ren/Nora)	🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟	"Renora is the Mr Rogers of RWBY ships: wholesome and uncontroversial. You just want everyone to be nice to each other and have a fun time."	🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Black Sun (Blake/Sun)	🚩	"You think Sun is hot and funny and you had no tolerance for Yangst."	🚩🚩🚩
Sea Monkeys (Neptune/Sun)	🚩🚩	"You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of bromances."	🚩
Snowbird (Winter/Qrow)	🚩🚩	"You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of bitter rivalries."	🚩	Now here's some room for some mundane age-gap discourse.
Baked Alaska (Yang/Neo)	🚩🚩🚩🚩	"You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of height differences."	🚩
Crosshares (Coco/Velvet)	🌟🌟🌟	"You are a firm believer in ignoring the main cast in favor of cool-looking side characters."	🌟🌟
Changing Colors (Ilia/Blake)	🌟🌟🌟🌟	"You just wanted good things for Ilia. And really... who wouldn't?"	🌟🌟
Prismatic Ponytails (Ilia/Weiss)	-	"You fully bought into the 'Weiss is a useless lesbian' meme and then you were like, 'Hey, you know what's better than one useless lesbian? Two useless lesbians.'"	🚩🚩	I rate this one 'least likely to ever happen'.
Greek Fire (Pyrrha/Yang)	🌟	"You have a thing for buff girls, but like, even moreso than the Bumbleby shippers."	🌟
Falling Petals (Cinder/Ruby)	🚩🚩🚩🚩	"You don't actually want Ruby and Cinder to get together, you just want a hot, evil lady in six-inch heels to step on you."	🚩🚩🚩
Strawberry Shortcake (Ruby/Neo)	🚩🚩🚩🚩	"You don't actually want Ruby and Neo to get together, you just have a thing for short girls."	🚩🚩
Rose Garden (Ruby/Oscar)	-	"You don't actually want Ruby and Oscar to get together. Or... at least I hope you don't, 'cause I... don't want to deal with the age-gap discourse if you do."	🚩
Nuts & Dolts (Penny/Ruby)	🌟🌟🌟🌟	"You just wanted good things for Penny. Or you took Ruby's love of weapons to its natural extreme."	🌟🌟🌟🌟	"And really, who wouldn't?" ...That picture hurts my hand by existing.
Tauradonna (Adam/Blake)	🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩	"You kin Adam Taurus."	🚩🚩🚩🚩	Die Adam. Wait, he did! Stay dead, dirthat!

...I feel like I'm going to have to defend ranking Enabler and Enabler!Pollination equal-fifth-worst ships in that list of 24. It's quite simple. First place is Tauradonna: Three words, Adam "Cancer" Taurus. Tied for second place are Baked Alaska, Falling Petals, and Strawberry Shortcake: Cinder and Neo both looked pretty shady even before they were revealed to murder for fun and profit (in Neo's case she outright tried to murder Yang), and as of V6 they have just made a pact to murder Ruby. Enabler really isn't a good ship, but you could do a bit worse: Ruby and Yang have no risk of inbreeding (unless exactly one of them is trans and that one isn't reproductively crippled by dysphoria and/or trans-affirming hormones), the power dynamic isn't irretrievably skewed, and they do both genuinely care about each other. (Feel free to contrast the toxic mess that the Worm fandom calls Guts and Glory, where about half of one of those things applies.)

Matrix Dragon · May 4, 2024

michaelb958 said:
So This Is Basically A Series Of Cheap Jokes About RWBY

Oh hey, it's the douche that got a voice role in V9 for some reason, who then tanked his voice acting career by being a douche, making up easily disproven lies about another studio he'd done voice work with, claiming he 'fixed' a translation of an anime (Mostly by rewriting all the female characters to be bitches), while also bagging the hell out of said animes source manga and writer, and suddenly discovered no one in the industry wanted to work with him.

michaelb958 said:
But, to be fair, I'm not a film analyst.

Neither is he.

michaelb958 said:
Points off for lack of internal consistency.

The point isn't consistency, it's to really clumsily hurl insults at a show for... reasons. Mostly money related reasons, because videos about things sucking are favored by the magical youtube algorithm, so he has to rant about it sucking to make money.

michaelb958 said:
"You want to get railed by Yang Xiao Long."

Blake: Wellllllll.....
Yang: *BRAIN CRASH*

Mizu · May 4, 2024

jelly video maker said:
Sometimes not talking is the best way to advance a character! Like Yang and Bland, who not-talked their way into being girlfriends 'cause the fanbase was so insistent about it that the writers just gave up, I guess.

I'd never gotten the impression Yang and Blake becoming a couple was unexpected, honestly. They got along pretty well and the show rarely dived into relationships in general compared to the main plotline or fight scenes, from memory, so when romantic gestures and confessions happened in the later seasons it didn't bug me.

That jelly guy sounds unpleasant, going off his video. A few funny jokes but mostly it's just mean spirited criticism about the show.

GuestLurker · May 4, 2024

michaelb958 said:
Very true. See Team CFVY at left-of-screen there? Half of them weren't even named until V3.

They got a couple books.

michaelb958 said:
Eh, sometimes you just have to decide which words mean which things. But that's subjective too.

Might as well argue that electricity and computers are magic.

SolipsistSerpent · May 5, 2024

Matrix Dragon said:
claiming he 'fixed' a translation of an anime (Mostly by rewriting all the female characters to be bitches),

I believe he actually claimed the opposite in the bit I read (the accuracy of the statement is a different issue).

But, really, not badmouthing a project you were involved in right out the gate is basic business sense.

Matrix Dragon · May 5, 2024

SolipsistSerpent said:
I believe he actually claimed the opposite in the bit I read (the accuracy of the statement is a different issue).

Sorry, I should have phrased it better. At least in the version I saw, which was right after he got booted out the door, the claim was that the original manga and anime had all the female characters being horrible people in general and transphobes to a trans character specifically, and that he 'fixed it' by rewriting the dub considerably. Unfortunately, while Lovely Complex is from the early 2000s and thus has some bits that don't conform to modern attitudes towards trans people, the fact is it still manages a lot better than some modern animes that broach the topic. Basically, he was claiming to fix a problem that didn't actually exist, and throwing other people under the bus in the process with since disproven claims about their dubbing work.

GuestLurker · May 5, 2024

Matrix Dragon said:
and throwing other people under the bus in the process with since disproven claims about their dubbing work.

People are still going to use those claims to complain about issues that don't exist or replace people that know how to actually translate things across both languages and cultures with AI that will go over things as literally as possible then maybe have an editor go over it to make sure it doesn't say anything that stands out too much in the name of saving money.

Matrix Dragon · May 5, 2024

GuestLurker said:
AI that will go over things as literally as possible then maybe have an editor go over it

Yeah, the crowd using AI don't bother with an editor, and it's led to some utter disasters beyond even the old '100% Accurate, but no accounting for English structural differences crowd'. My favorite dumpster fire there was the one that turned Keikaku into 'Keikaku means plan' every time because a meme got into the AI.

michaelb958 · May 5, 2024

V07C01 The Greatest Kingdom

Ironic episode title senses tingling...

Camera tilts down from an aurora borealis (it would be an aurora australis if it were in the southern hemisphere), past the shattered moon, to a 'small' section of the Atlesian air fleet. 'Small' aircraft flit about like specks of dust between flying dreadnoughts. (I refuse to believe that's not what they're called. Come on, the etymology is absolutely perfect.)

One 'small' aircraft approaching from the south looks a little more blackened. This is the one holding Teams RWBY and JNR, not to mention Maria, Oscar, and Qrow. We appear to have picked up immediately following last Chapter, despite the inter-Volume hiatus.

Atlas air traffic control gives them a docking bay address and says to expect security to meet them there. Ruby, being Ruby, is a bit anxious as to what that means. Jaune says it's fine, they got the Relic to Atlas, next steps once they're on the ground.

Weiss isn't so sure of that plan. They're technically flying a stolen aircraft (it's true, there are no Atlas military on it), so a security team meeting them on landing would not be particularly receptive to anything they might say. "They might even take me back to my father." Weiss Schnee Protection Squad go!

(It's a miracle! The subtitles are in sync again!)

Fortunately, Weiss has a plan: Winter. Presumably Winter Schnee.

In the meantime, they fly through what I'm guessing is Mantle. While there, they catch a national broadcast by General Ironwood where he says all the right words to keep the population calm. Ruby and Yang reckon Ironwood looks tired. (Apathy flashbacks intensify.) Qrow is busy noting the soldiers and hoverdrones patrolling the streets of Mantle, which probably isn't helping anything. Weiss agrees.

Air traffic control calls them out on their detour and orders them to go to their docking bay. Weiss is still on Plan Winter (yes, her sister). Everyone else agrees on Plan Abandon Ship. Weiss considers changing her mind when the next broadcast is Winter being the stick to Ironwood's carrot.

The gang emerge from an alley in Mantle, having made enough distance from their landing site to avoid strict scrutiny. Maria urges them onwards towards whatever their destination is. A hoverdrone takes an interest in Yang, the rearmost of the party. It takes a flash photo of her. She gets angry and punts it into the road. It nearly recovers before a passing truck takes it out.

Maria gives a little history lesson on the way.

"You have to remember, the kingdom had just lost the Great War. The people of Mantle needed a sign of a brighter future, and that sign was Atlas. After all, a home in the clouds is about as bright as it gets."

Nora sees a passing truck full of downtrodden mine workers, several obviously faunus. "Unless you're the one having to look up at it," she says. She'd know about looking up at the haves.

Blake comments that the place looks awful, which starts an argument with a couple of overly-patriotic drunks who pop out from nearby. They all put up with it and try to deescalate until one of the drunks breaks out the racism, to which Weiss Glyphs him into a bin and declares it worth it as they flee just ahead of official attention. Go Weiss!

Let it be said that the Kingdom of Atlas has an absolutely awful yawning class divide. Ironic episode title senses appear to have been right.

Maria is first to enter what looks like some kind of clinic, where she has to remind the guy at the front desk who she is despite the cybernetic optical implants he really should have noticed her wearing by now, seeing as he adjusts them "every ten years or so". On the other hand, I can't remember jack squat about the people I might have met for an hour ten years ago.

This guy's chair is like a wheelchair, but instead of wheels it has four legs. Clearly its occupant is an engineer-type. He and Maria wander over to the clinic's exam bed while they catch up. Maria didn't think she needed to introduce this guy, but seeing as nobody else seems to have recognised him, she will anyway. Somewhat. Pietro explains that his day job is really high up (literally and figuratively), but volunteering down here makes him feel like he's actually making a difference.

Pietro is also wearing the exposition hat for this Chapter. He exposits that whatever it was Ironwood saw at the Fall of Beacon, it's turned him (Ironwood) paranoid, and somewhat rightly so given how the Atlas expeditionary force got played like a fiddle to join in the terrorism. (A chalkboard in the background reads "DAYS SINCE LAST NONSENSE: 0".) Whoever hacked everything was "either a genius or one of our own. I fear the answer may be both, and so does the General."

Weiss asks how the Atlas Council or Winter Schnee are taking Ironwood's paranoia. Pietro gets as far as the Council being so scared they're rubber-stamping Ironwood before he recognises Weiss Schnee. Yang tries to get him to continue about some councilmembers from Mantle who don't feel like rubber-stamping and is taken aback by the response of "...you painted it!". (Did he build that prosthetic arm? Signs point to yes.)

Pietro has just realised that he's speaking to Team RWBY. Ruby is taken aback to be recognised. Pietro says his daughter talks about them, and doesn't get to elaborate on who his daughter is before a red alert is sounded.

The gang run towards the trouble, as is their wont, and soon find robot troopers losing a fight against a Grimm incursion. (Blake's sword is broken? ...Adam did that, didn't he?) Seeing as our protagonists outnumber the visible robot troopers even before their incredible quality advantages, they have less trouble with the Grimm. Oscar stands out as having the classic newbie problem of focusing on the Grimm he just killed to the extent of missing the next one coming for him. Fortunately Ruby is here to cover him.

A sudden barrage of lasers from above deals with the dregs of the incursion, after which the alert is very rapidly cancelled. Apropos of the source of the lasers touching down to greet them, some music:

In case that was an insufficiently clear callback:

For the probably some of you who still have no idea what I'm talking about, please welcome back to the narrative Penny! Yes, that Penny. You may now hyperventilate like Ruby is.

Penny, whom Pietro describes as his daughter, hasn't changed a bit and it's great. (Of course Penny would chatter about Team RWBY at every opportunity.) Sadly for her hopes of catching up with Ruby, the work of the Protector of Mantle is never done.

Spare a thought for Maria, who has never even heard of Penny before. What a sad state of existence.

Qrow comments that things went okay. This apparently qualifies as tempting fate. As everyone else makes to follow Pietro and Maria back inside, Ren has just enough warning to widen his eyes before they all start being wrapped up in bolas. Qrow, last to be captured, manages to draw his weapon, which doesn't help him at all when the bola with his name on it comes. The Ace Ops, here to arrest them for landing in Mantle and helping defend it, brook no argument with their authoritah - even from Pietro - confiscate their weapons (and the Relic of Knowledge, knocked loose from Ruby's belt), and leave the robots to clean up as they scram to their next objective. I hate them already.

"Now this," says Qrow in the back of a police van, "this is much closer to what I was expecting."

Two-and-a-half minutes for titles (and credits).

Sets of coloured panels with silhouettes of characters: first Team RWBY, then Team JNR+O. Ren has a new hairstyle that looks way too much like Tyrian's.
Team RWBY stand on a snowy clifftop. Ruby dramatically takes her hood off as the lyrics kick in. Now they're in silhouette looking at Atlas. They turn to dust that reassembles into the title card.
Team RWBY each get their turn to have a little action shot that would look perfectly reasonable on the ground, but the background has no ground, only flying through the clouds, so it looks a bit silly.
General Ironwood stands in a command centre looking at a big holotank of Atlas, with Amity off to one side. No sign of Mantle. Camera abruptly goes into one of his eyes and finds coloured panels with silhouettes of I'm guessing the Ace Ops. Yep, there they are.
That looks like Watts doing Watts things, which would make the dancing silhouette in front of him Tyrian. I did not miss Tyrian.
Ironwood, on the street, has just fired his gun at the camera.
Mist transition to Jacques and Whitley looking too much in agreement with each other. Now here are Weiss and Winter not looking enough in agreement with each other.
Pietro and Maria in the clinic.
Teams RWBY and JNR+O stand around on pieces of Mantle architecture.
Penny!!
Yang (hair on fire, just like old times) and Team JNR soften up some Grimm before the Ace Ops tag in.
Closeup of someone. They'll be important, then.
People are throwing rocks at a holographic banner of Ironwood. This cannot possibly end poorly for anyone. /s ...oh dear, it flashed to a banner of Jacques for a moment as a rock passed through.
Ironwood duels Oscar. Implications concerning.
Blake and Weiss fight some Grimm in what looks like a subway station.
Tyrian fights ...someone? Qrow arrives to help the someone. Possibly the same someone from the closeup, but I can't really tell.
Ruby fights Grimm in Mantle, before dark silhouettes of Team RWBY do coloured attacks on a white background.
Full cast photo on a balcony on the edge of Atlas somewhere.
Series creator credit, behind which is briefly visible what I presume is another of the Relics.

Amateur lyrical analysis: Climbing nearly to V1 levels of positivity.

The credits, longer again, are set to Penny's reintroduction music. The audio lead appears to have gained some fancy letters after their name. Yay for them!

No Rooster Teeth post-credits outro? I'm more disappointed than I should be (low bar, but still).

Next time: It's a school, but some don't learn.

Mizu · May 5, 2024

I was definitely surprised when Penny was reintroduced. Her death several volumes earlier was rather final, as things go.

Matrix Dragon · May 5, 2024

michaelb958 said:
While there, they catch a national broadcast by General Ironwood where he says all the right words to keep the population calm.

That's pretty much the worst things he could be saying, in all honesty. Fiction or reality, people don't take it well when, after restricting their movement, strangling their economy, and putting soldiers on the streets, have canned public announcements telling people how lucky, safe, and above all, how free they are.

Seriously James, I know you meant well with the announcements, but you never took a single class on public relations, I swear...

michaelb958 said:
Weiss agrees.

There's a nice touch here where Weiss sounds uncertain if Mantle was always like this. After all, she was trapped in the gilded cage Jacqueass built for her, she's never really had a chance to see Mantle for real.

michaelb958 said:
Weiss considers changing her mind when the next broadcast is Winter being the stick to Ironwood's carrot.

For certain values of carrot.

michaelb958 said:
she has to remind the guy at the front desk who she is despite the cybernetic optical implants he really should have noticed her wearing by now, seeing as he adjusts them "every ten years or so". On the other hand, I can't remember jack squat about the people I might have met for an hour ten years ago.

And in fairness to Pietro, he clearly has a lot of patients, given we see one leaving the clinic right before.

michaelb958 said:
"either a genius or one of our own. I fear the answer may be both, and so does the General."

Have you guessed the answer yet? I mean, we have info Ironwood doesn't in this case, but still...

michaelb958 said:
Seeing as our protagonists outnumber the visible robot troopers even before their incredible quality advantages,

Seriously, those drone mechs aren't a suitable replacement for even basic troopers yet. They really were put into general deployment too soon. A classic of militarys in fiction and real life.

michaelb958 said:
(Blake's sword is broken? ...Adam did that, didn't he?)

Remember how it was in two parts when they stabbed him? He broke it not long before Yang introduced him to his one true love - Tires.

michaelb958 said:
Penny, whom Pietro describes as his daughter, hasn't changed a bit and it's great.

During early development of V7, there were plans to have Penny NOT have her memories at first, and recover them over time. Thankfully, they decided that would be cruel, and also they wouldn't have enough time to devote to that topic no matter what. It was also a common fear in the FNDM regarding possible Penny returns, given her unique construction, and seeing her reaction to the team AND her 'Salutations!' was a much needed wonderful moment. Ruby mostly agrees. Her spine doesn't right now.

michaelb958 said:
The Ace Ops, here to arrest them for landing in Mantle and helping defend it, brook no argument with their authoritah - even from Pietro - confiscate their weapons (and the Relic of Knowledge, knocked loose from Ruby's belt), and leave the robots to clean up as they scram to their next objective.

Fun thing about this I realized after a bit. Not only did they not help with the grimm, but they can't have come up on the group and ambushed them so flawlessly without setup. Which means there was a very good chance they used Penny talking to them as a distraction to set up for an ambush. During which time it never occurred to them 'hey, these people are talking to a legally recognized authority in Mantle. Huh.'

On top of that, not only did they ignore Qrow stating he was an official huntsman and to check his license, they actually had no proof the heroes were the one to steal the airship they claimed to be arresting them for. We know the charge is valid, but they actually don't. If they had, say from surveillance drones showing them disembarking, they would have arrested Maria as well. She was standing right there unnoticed.

michaelb958 said:
I hate them already.

Yeah, not a good first showing for the team so special they have FIVE members.

michaelb958 said:
Team RWBY each get their turn to have a little action shot that would look perfectly reasonable on the ground, but the background has no ground, only flying through the clouds, so it looks a bit silly.

A nice touch is that the team all cycle through their Beacon Looks, their Mistral looks, and then their not-yet-seen-on-screen Atlas arc looks.

Grey Rook · May 5, 2024

michaelb958 said:
For the probably some of you who still have no idea what I'm talking about, please welcome back to the narrative Penny! Yes, that Penny. You may now hyperventilate like Ruby is.

Eeee!!! It's Penny, the most adorable killbot! Oh I wanna hug her. But then, almost every named character in this show deserves hugs. I also want to note that Penny's shot in the intro is very much that of the love interest. Y'know, just saying.

Also that Ironwood in the intro has just fired his gun, then looks regretful for some reason. Foreshadowing? Nah, can't be.

I want to mention that there was a spinoff of RWBY called RWBY Chibi,which ditches the plot and fight scenes in favour of pure comedy, with each episode being just a few minutes long and usually involving two or three short skits. It's very hit and miss at best, but sometimes manages to be funny. Just in case you didn't have enough on your plate already.

Mizu said:
I was definitely surprised when Penny was reintroduced. Her death several volumes earlier was rather final, as things go.

On one hand, yes. On the other hand, her being a gynoid makes her one of the very few characters whose resurrection was justified and believable.

Matrix Dragon · May 5, 2024

Grey Rook said:
Eeee!!! It's Penny, the most adorable killbot! Oh I wanna hug her. But then, almost every named character in this show deserves hugs. I also want to note that Penny's shot in the intro is very much that of the love interest. Y'know, just saying.

I mean, that shot of Penny and Ruby in her memory montage while triggering her Silver Eyes...

Grey Rook · May 5, 2024

Matrix Dragon said:
I mean, that shot of Penny and Ruby in her memory montage while triggering her Silver Eyes...

That too, yes. It is clear that Ruby values Penny greatly.

Matrix Dragon · May 5, 2024

Woop, missed this note.

michaelb958 said:
Tyrian fights ...someone? Qrow arrives to help the someone. Possibly the same someone from the closeup, but I can't really tell.

It is indeed the same person from the closeup

engiSonic · May 5, 2024

Mantle is very much Not A Great Place To Live, but I have to say from an architectural and set design standpoint I really like it.

Indivisible · May 5, 2024

This is my favourite RWBY opening song.

michaelb958 · May 6, 2024

Matrix Dragon said:
That's pretty much the worst things he could be saying, in all honesty. Fiction or reality, people don't take it well when, after restricting their movement, strangling their economy, and putting soldiers on the streets, have canned public announcements telling people how lucky, safe, and above all, how free they are.

I'd argue that a lot of folks will keep their head down and struggle on through some pretty severe circumstances because anything else requires more effort, but really this has been today's episode of michaelb958 Fails Reading Comprehension.

Matrix Dragon said:
Fun thing about this I realized after a bit. Not only did they not help with the grimm, but they can't have come up on the group and ambushed them so flawlessly without setup. Which means there was a very good chance they used Penny talking to them as a distraction to set up for an ambush. During which time it never occurred to them 'hey, these people are talking to a legally recognized authority in Mantle. Huh.'

On top of that, not only did they ignore Qrow stating he was an official huntsman and to check his license, they actually had no proof the heroes were the one to steal the airship they claimed to be arresting them for. We know the charge is valid, but they actually don't. If they had, say from surveillance drones showing them disembarking, they would have arrested Maria as well. She was standing right there unnoticed.

Hey, why let the facts get in the way of a good arrest?

Grey Rook said:
Eeee!!! It's Penny, the most adorable killbot! Oh I wanna hug her. But then, almost every named character in this show deserves hugs.

Preach it!

Grey Rook said:
Also that Ironwood in the intro has just fired his gun, then looks regretful for some reason. Foreshadowing? Nah, can't be.

The titles, foreshadowing? Would they do that? (sweats in V6)

Grey Rook said:
I want to mention that there was a spinoff of RWBY called RWBY Chibi,which ditches the plot and fight scenes in favour of pure comedy, with each episode being just a few minutes long and usually involving two or three short skits. It's very hit and miss at best, but sometimes manages to be funny. Just in case you didn't have enough on your plate already.

There's a bit on my plate. My plan is to finish the main show, then Ice Queendom, then Chibi, then maybe some bits and pieces left over.

Indivisible said:
This is my favourite RWBY opening song.

It's definitely up there.

Matrix Dragon · May 6, 2024

michaelb958 said:
I'd argue that a lot of folks will keep their head down and struggle on through some pretty severe circumstances because anything else requires more effort, but really this has been today's episode of michaelb958 Fails Reading Comprehension.

Nah, that's the sort of situation where both our viewing angles are valid, honestly. A lot of people will do like you said and just press on but at the same time, the canned public announcements over loudspeaker don't really do anything to help make them feel safe. Meanwhile, they're practically designed to encourage those that are already near the edge of unrest.

(Edited because I repeated a lot of words, like a budget mojo jojo.)

michaelb958 · May 6, 2024

V07C02 A New Approach

A flying police van is taking our protagonists somewhere. They're not happy about it, but they don't have any options.

Weiss tells them (anybody who didn't pick it up from Pietro) that they were captured by the Ace Operatives. This cues some other captive they've been bundled in with to explain what those are: the best of the best, "and Ironwood's personal attack dogs". He continues on at Nora's prompting to explain the circumstances of his capture, so 50% chance the regular police confiscated his tinfoil hat. ...Make that 100%. Apparently our exposition comes tinfoil-flavoured this Chapter.

For reasons quite unclear to everybody, but especially Mr Tinfoil, they land at Atlas Academy - the centrepiece of the flying Kingdom - instead of anywhere more mundane and expected. This is not Tinfoil's stop, but it is everyone else's. Ruby theorises that they will, in fact, be seeing General Ironwood.

Atlas Academy is a very atmospheric place. The gang are still a bit miffed about the Ace Ops having more time to arrest them for helping repel a Grimm incursion than to fight the Grimm incursion themselves, and have been marinating in Mantle's mood before and after that, so they're a little unsure how much to plan to say to Ironwood. They arrive at a maze of twisty passageways at the top of the structure, and soon run into Ironwood, Penny, and Winter there. Winter is deeply unimpressed to see them all handcuffed and orders the cuffs to be removed with extreme haste.

The headmaster's office at Atlas looks rather like the one at Beacon did, except with fewer gears and the desk is on a dais. Ironwood apologises for the Ace Ops' treatment of them, but defends the necessity of being suspicious of an aircraft that they had no way to know wasn't stolen, which is fair. Ruby admits it was stolen, which is probably a blunder. Yep, Winter's aghast. She walks down from the dais to lecture them about how much danger they put themselves in and, being Winter, is extremely surprised when Weiss blurs over the last metre to hug her.

After Weiss defuses her, Winter turns her ire on Qrow for not stopping whatever harebrained scheme they cooked up. Qrow dares her to do better at stopping them, and also they have a confidential report for Ironwood. Penny and Winter demonstrate that they are in Ironwood's confidence. Now it is Qrow's turn to be aghast.

Ironwood pulls the Relic of Knowledge out of his desk drawer and explains that he needed his own team he could trust. So he made one: not just Penny and Winter, but the Ace Ops too. (So they knew exactly what they were confiscating...) He thinks that he can put together a plan to actually stop Salem for good.

Penny explains that the Relic of Creation - a staff, that I'm pretty sure we saw in the titles - remains safe inside its vault in Atlas. Winter reports that the Winter Maiden - not her, I'm pretty sure - is secure and "in stable condition"; Qrow fills in for the others that the current Winter Maiden is getting on in years.

Ironwood admits he doesn't look trustworthy, but trust him, he's decided that this problem requires a military solution. The resources of Atlas and its armed forces are now entirely focused on keeping Atlas safe from Salem. The uncharitable interpretation is that he's decided that everybody can hang separately. Yang says the elevated military presence in Mantle is just alienating them, to which Ironwood just insists they trust him.

"Ozpin believed the best way to fight Salem was to do so in secret," Ironwood begins explaining, deploying the holotank (Ruby and Oscar have to step aside as it rises from the floor under them). He says he can't judge whether that was the right idea, then immediately starts judging it as the wrong idea. His new plan is to turn Amity Colosseum - recalled after the cancellation of the last Vytal Festival - into a replacement for Beacon Tower to fill the hole in the CCTS, that might even withstand the loss of another Tower on the ground. They reckon they can put it high enough in the atmosphere to be Grimm-proof, which I somewhat doubt.

Qrow points out that that doesn't need the entire military. Phase 2, says Ironwood, is to broadcast the truth about Salem. This is, look, I can understand and applaud a commitment to transparency, but this is the biggest 'what could possibly go wrong?' idea I've heard from anyone all show. Everybody's scarred by the Vytal Festival broadcast and the fall of Beacon. Imagine the panic and fear (which draw Grimm) in every polity when they find out about Salem. And Ironwood, being Ironwood, is only thinking of the panic in Atlas. Never mind Mistral or Vacuo or Vale, or maybe even Mantle, and absolutely forget about between-kingdoms, anybody who gets news there is gonna freak out and so die.

Okay, it's not quite that stupid, phase 2 is to tell Atlas and phase 3 is to tell the rest of Remnant. I really hope there's a military redeployment in between. Not that it'll help that much, because remember, the last thing most folks saw the Atlas military doing was murdering civilians in Vale, imagine what they'll think when it turns up at their doorsteps without so much as a by-your-leave. Winter says sure they'll redeploy, but I don't quite trust her to have thought through the implications. Like, this is going to accidentally (if not deliberately) turn into Atlas annexing the world, mark my words.

Qrow, meanwhile is busy having flashbacks to the last time a headmaster deviated from Ozpin's plan. Which was Lionheart being a traitor, to be clear. Ironwood says he can't exactly consult with Ozpin any more, now can he. They break it to him that Oscar has Ozpin. Of course, Ozpin's not coming to the phone right now, which shatters Ironwood's hopes just as fast as they got up.

Ruby fills in why Ozpin's not talking, except completely skipping over the important parts. She says Ozpin said the Relic of Knowledge had no questions left, but phrases it in a way that leaves ambiguous whether Ozpin said that then or she's saying it now, and still declines to elaborate on their discovery that that wasn't true when Ozpin said it. Look Ruby, I know you're miffed, but this whole unnecessary secrets business seems uncomfortably familiar. If only I could think of a time that bit everyone. /s Ironwood, having heard the same thing from Ozpin before, doesn't question it. And so the seeds of trouble are sown anew. This gives a lot of context to Ironwood v Oscar in the titles that I still don't think I want.

Ironwood returns the Relic of Knowledge to Ruby. She's a bit surprised at the gesture of trust and openness. I can understand why.

Everybody's on board with phase 1. But first, weapon upgrades! Complete with surveillance footage of Blake last episode to rub it in. Rude.

Outside, the gang meets the Ace Ops, on better terms this time. Comedy ensues when Ruby finds someone else who can out-Ruby her. Also, remember way back when when Ironwood and Qrow were on the same conspiracy? They do.

Anyway. Referring to "Team JNR+O" is getting awkward, so I'll be finding a new team name for them. {{Probably the most common is "ORNJ", but I don't like that much because it displaces Jaune as team leader in favour of Oscar, and presumes Oscar can just slot right into the Pyrrha-shaped hole in an existing team ("JNOR" does that but moreso). The same place that pointed that out suggested an alternative name of "ALPN" ([Jaune] Arc, Lie [Ren], [Oscar] Pine, Nora [Valkyrie]), and I like that logic so I'll be going with that.}} The fact that we are in Atlas right now, in Remnant's likely closest Kingdom to an alpine biome, just makes it better.

So Teams RWBY and ALPN try their best to keep up with Penny's tour but they're getting very tired now and would like to know where they can crash for the next many hours. Penny explains in terms that probably came straight out of an advertising brochure that Atlas provides individual rooms for students. Ren reads between the lines that they'll be staying in the dorms. "It'll be just like Beacon again!" says Penny, evidently having forgotten that Beacon provided one room per team. Or maybe she just never knew that: she might not have even seen Beacon's dorms (checks not on screen), much less stayed in them. And even if she did, the exchange student dorms may work differently, as evidenced by Cinder implying that Emerald and Mercury each had their own rooms distinct from her own. Not that I believe a word out of Cinder's lying mouth without corroborating evidence.

Down in Mantle, Watts is the absolute worst kind of pedestrian, forcing road chaos in order to not run him over. (Somebody really should have.) He is also explaining to Tyrian over comms how picking one hideout and sticking with it makes them more likely to be discovered.

Tyrian is concerned about being surveilled while they're on the move, as will be necessary if they don't stick to a single hideout. Watts tells him not to worry, he (Watts) wrote all the code for the surveillance system, before demonstrating it by switching off every camera in the area. Now it is safe for Tyrian to walk the streets. In this instance, surveillance cameras really were good for public safety.

An utterly dark shape dramatically rises into the view of another camera. Presumably we'll find out about that later.

This was another massive-voice-cast Chapter.

Next time: Nothing good happens in mines, I swear.

Matrix Dragon · May 6, 2024

michaelb958 said:
Apparently our exposition comes tinfoil-flavoured this Chapter.

Sometimes the resistance against government oppression is actually just a crazy guy who needs to touch grass. Sadly, Mantle and Atlas have ice.

michaelb958 said:
Winter is deeply unimpressed to see them all handcuffed and orders the cuffs to be removed with extreme haste.

And threatens the mooks. Come on Winter, you can be better than that. You don't NEED to threaten them, for that matter.

Also make note of Ironwood grumbling about council meetings with the rest of the Atlas Council.

michaelb958 said:
except with fewer gears

No Gear-dicks!

michaelb958 said:
Ironwood apologises for the Ace Ops' treatment of them,

Should be apologizing for not focusing on Grimm in the city James. Especially if the information was able to reach you fast enough to send the heroes to meet you directly after being arrested.

michaelb958 said:
Ruby admits it was stolen, which is probably a blunder.

And the pilot is still at large!

More seriously, at this point word is going to reach Ironwood sooner or later about events last season. Might as well tear the bandaid off now.

michaelb958 said:
Ironwood pulls the Relic of Knowledge out of his desk drawer and explains that he needed his own team he could trust. So he made one: not just Penny and Winter, but the Ace Ops too.

While cutting allies in Vale, Mistral and Vacuo out of the loop. Remember, he abandoned Lionheart at the start of V5. Yes, WE know Lionheart was a traitor, but Ironwood had no evidence of it. So it feels less like he wanted people he could trust... and more people that answered to him in the know. Especially when you remember how he ran to the vale council in V2 and backstabbed Oz then to take control of security for the festival.

michaelb958 said:
he's decided that this problem requires a military solution.

He thinks EVERYTHING needs a military solution. Best intentions, road to hell and all that...

michaelb958 said:
The uncharitable interpretation is that he's decided that everybody can hang separately.

Abandoned his allies in V5 to turtle up...

michaelb958 said:
Yang says the elevated military presence in Mantle is just alienating them, to which Ironwood just insists they trust him.

This is a big point, actually. When presented with something that contradicts his belief that the military solution is going to work, including mass unrest in his own nation, he seems to brush over it with a 'trust me'. Much like Oz in that regard, although Oz tended to at least explain his own thought processes about the subject, even when not actually addressing the issue.

michaelb958 said:
He says he can't judge whether that was the right idea, then immediately starts judging it as the wrong idea.

'Everything needs a military solution' strikes again.

michaelb958 said:
His new plan is to turn Amity Colosseum - recalled after the cancellation of the last Vytal Festival - into a replacement for Beacon Tower to fill the hole in the CCTS, that might even withstand the loss of another Tower on the ground.

This part of his idea? I like it. Oz, in his earlier life, set up the CCTSs failure point to encourage cooperation between the kingdoms. The problem is, when Salem targeted it, the loss of communications led to mass unrest, fear and unease, and helped cause the paranoia that led James to use his two Council seats to force through Atlas turtling up. Here, he's offering a solution that could help the kingdoms start to heal.

michaelb958 said:
They reckon they can put it high enough in the atmosphere to be Grimm-proof, which I somewhat doubt.

I mean, we saw Salem making new types of Grimm at the end of the last volume. Even if she can't reach low orbit yet, I'm not sure that'll stay that way. Amity would need defenses. And of course, the higher up you go, the less efficient Dust is...

michaelb958 said:
Never mind Mistral or Vacuo or Vale, or maybe even Mantle, and absolutely forget about between-kingdoms, anybody who gets news there is gonna freak out and so die.

To quote a line from the Amity Arena game, about an in-universe source claiming Ironwood would be the one to save all the kingdoms.

"Menagerie? What about it?"

michaelb958 said:
Like, this is going to accidentally (if not deliberately) turn into Atlas annexing the world, mark my words.

Do they have the firepower to annex the whole world in the name of ensuring peace? Or will the kingdoms see it as an invasion, fight it off and trigger great war 2.0? For that matter, closing the borders the way he has prevents him from bringing other governments in on spilling the beans about Salem. Who's to say they'll believe him? This has a LOT of failure points, and based off the show up to this point, I doubt James has thought it through half as much as he should have.

But then... they've never actually fought a war.

michaelb958 said:
Look Ruby, I know you're miffed, but this whole unnecessary secrets business seems uncomfortably familiar. If only I could think of a time that bit everyone.

At the same time, she's not sure they're actually on the same side anymore. Trust, verify, and then share. (Oz struggled with the last step)

michaelb958 said:
Ironwood returns the Relic of Knowledge to Ruby.

James. Get the winter maiden. Open the vault. AND THROW THAT LAMP INSIDE!

God, I am annoyed at EVERYONE there for not insisting on that.

michaelb958 said:
Outside, the gang meets the Ace Ops, on better terms this time.

Also this is when Marrow, as I mentioned back near the start of V6, is sharing a story about being kicked off the premises somewhere for being Faunus.

michaelb958 said:
Penny explains in terms that probably came straight out of an advertising brochure that Atlas provides individual rooms for students. Ren reads between the lines that they'll be staying in the dorms. "It'll be just like Beacon again!" says Penny, evidently having forgotten that Beacon provided one room per team.

Yup, truly, Atlas is above and beyond all the other Academies in every way. Or just advertises itself as such.

michaelb958 said:
Down in Mantle, Watts is the absolute worst kind of pedestrian, forcing road chaos in order to not run him over.

How pathetically evil do you have to be to cause potentially fatal traffic accidents because you couldn't be bothered waiting to cross, or looking both ways before crossing the street, but fuck with traffic systems to protect you instead?

michaelb958 said:
Watts tells him not to worry, he (Watts) wrote all the code for the surveillance system,

This part fascinates me in a lot of ways. For starters, it finally confirms on screen what was only suspected, in that Watts made Iwin.exe for Cinder back in v2, AND explains just how it was able to work so effectively. It also shows how the pair were able to get into Mantle at the very least. Which makes James breaking out the Aceops to go after the airship last ep even funnier. He keeps jumping at the obvious targets, while missing the real threat moving around in the background. What's worse is that Watts also says all the updated security was implimented in Atlas, but not Mantle. It just got more robot drones. Which feels like Atlas pushing the weapons they can't trust anymore to a seemingly low-priority target, and not actually doing anything about the actual security.

Most of all, for me at least, this was the point I became convinced that Watts was the best minion Salem could have gotten. More than Cinder, more than Hazel, more than even Tyrian. He designed the security for Mantle, and at this point, I became convinced he was actually rather high ranking in Atlas's R&D arm. The reason Salem's been able to predict Ironwood so well she's been playing him like a kazoo, and built her plan around the actions she knew he'd take? This bastard right here. He put together a profile of James Ironwood that found every structural weakness. Not even Lionheart had enough regular contact for that.

Also, little detail, I'm convinced Watts was from Mantle originally. The way he talks about the people in charge up in Atlas never paying attention to Mantle sounds like its from personal experience.

IWIW RWBY

(Verified Michael)

(Verified Michael)

(Verified Michael)

volumes 4-6

So This Is Basically A Series Of Cheap Jokes About RWBY

What michaelb958 Says About "What Your Favorite RWBY Ship Says About You"

Software Developer

Endlessly Devouring

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V07C01 The Greatest Kingdom

Software Developer

Genuine Nerd

Genuine Nerd

Yesterday's Minder

(Verified Michael)

(Verified Michael)

V07C02 A New Approach