V08C04 Fault
michaelb958
(Verified Michael)
- Location
- Wherever I am, there I am
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
V08C04 Fault
During the chessboard metaphor in the titles, close attention reveals that Ironwood is standing on the queen's space, not the king's as one might perhaps expect. This probably symbolises his immense hard power and otherwise strategic irrelevance. There are limits to the inferences that can be drawn, because the game has already been partially played. Salem, meanwhile, also stands on the queenside, and the kingside pieces appear to have all been moved - including the king, so either Salem is playing with a screw loose, or she's pulling double duty (which would fit).
The shot just before Team RWBY falls into the crevasse still shows Teams RSBV (Penny absent) and APRY. Maybe they won't reconcile? Maybe I'll just have to wait and see.
Anyway. In the cellblock for top-secret clearances, Robyn is passing the time by telling stories. Meanwhile, Jacques is being irritated by a fly, and I'm actually not sure I'd wish that on him given he's already in serious jail. How did it get in, anyway?
Robyn eventually cracks a joke that gets Qrow to crack a smile. It doesn't last long; Qrow is regressing just as hard as I thought and feared he would, blaming himself for Clover's death. This is somewhat factually accurate, as I explained when it happened, but I'm sure as h*ck not saying that to Qrow's face when he's already blaming himself for the parts that he shouldn't be.
Qrow drops a title song lyric in the middle of spiralling.
Find a Branwen/Rose/Xiao Long who isn't traumatised challenge (impossible).
Robyn can actually commiserate. Having a lie-detector Semblance isn't quite the same tier of terrible as a bad-luck aura (lowercase a), but it still gets in the way of human connection because humans like having a few things they keep to themselves. Qrow starts processing that, but it'll have to wait because here are the guards to shove Watts back in now that his usefulness has expired for the day. Harriet and Marrow are also supervising the process. Harriet now sees that Qrow kept Clover's emblem, and reminds Qrow that he's the prime suspect in Clover's murder based on the weapon-wielder fallacy, never mind the bad smell of Tyrian over the entire thing (but I guess it's an Ace Ops thing to underestimate Tyrian).
Robyn offers the use of her Semblance to clear the matter up, but Harriet expectedly rebuffs this with a threat of violence, and I'm not sure how much Robyn could actually contribute given that she was unconscious at the time. Robyn keeps goading Harriet anyway; unclear whether her objective is truth (like she says), violence (like she must be thinking), or getting Harriet to use her head for its intended purpose. Harriet might actually have been thinking about taking Robyn up on truth and/or violence; Marrow snaps her (Harriet) out of it, so she stalks off.
Meanwhile outside, Team ARY is still in hot pursuit of the Grimm that abducted Oscar; clearly it's been stringing them along for a while. Now the pursuit is getting into difficult terrain where it will be much more difficult for the hoverbikes to find a viable straight line to drive in to keep up. To make matters worse, the bikes aren't built for any sustained deployment outside urban terrain, and Ren's is starting to present warning indicators.
Yang wishes they could fly. This gives Jaune an idea: Ren abandons his bike and uses Jaune's shield to launch into the air, getting close enough to the Grimm to tether to it using one of his weapons. He promptly gets treated as an improvised flail and bounced off every rock on the sides of this canyon, but at least the Grimm is being slowed down a bit.
Ren tethers a decently-sized rock to slow the Grimm further. It catches on and gives him a good jerk to untether the rock, then resumes bouncing him off the canyon walls.
Yang hatches her own plan, taking advantage of a convenient 'ramp' wall and the Grimm's distraction to reach its level and start taking potshots at it. The Grimm's response to this is to howl in a particular way that causes every Centinel for approximately five kilometres to unburrow in Yang and Jaune's way. If you thought Team ARY were confused and baffled that a Grimm talked, wait 'til you hear their reactions to it calling for backup.
And here come the lyrics!
Flying Grimm have also been attracted, and are going to give Ren a really bad time.
Jaune's hoverbike takes an acid projectile from a Centinel, and doesn't like it very much. It takes him some pretty fancy acrobatics to abandon it and jump from the lower level of the canyon (where he was riding) to the upper level (where Yang can pick him up).
Yang dodges Centinels like a pro. A landed flier is much less dodgeable, so Jaune throws his forcefield grenade to create a ramp in front of it. Sadly the bike clips a rock during landing and doesn't like that very much either. Analysis of how that will affect its performance profile in even the short term is moot, because Yang and Jaune outrun the Grimm wave and are moments too slow to realise that the reason the wave is slowing down its chase is that it has them where it wants them: they're about to go over a cliff.
Song ends. Despite deliberately stacking the bike (it goes crunch on a rock) and rolling in the snow to bleed off momentum, they both go over the cliff. Jaune tries to anchor his sword in the ground to avoid this, and succeeds in the anchoring, but still has too much momentum so he loses his grip on it.
Suddenly, Ren! tethers one weapon to Jaune's leg (Yang grabs Jaune's scabbard) and the other to Jaune's securely anchored sword. Seeing an approaching flier, he masks them all to avoid provoking an attack.
The good news is that Team ARY have made it out alive. The bad news is that, aside from having no functioning hoverbikes left, they've failed their objective: Oscar is still being carried away. His abductor heads for The Whale now visible in the distance.
There's only one safe place Team RSB+M could think of to take Nora to recover: Whitley is rather taken aback when he opens the door to see them. He starts berating them, and is interrupted by Weiss, who has had enough of all this for one day, holding him at swordpoint.
Whitley's problem is the staff are all gone, Willow is self-isolating again (presumably with alcohol), the Schnee reputation is in tatters, and now some fugitives have wandered in and expect to be harboured. Blake disagrees considerably with Whitley's priorities; Ruby successfully plays good cop, negotiating down to staying out of his hair long enough for Nora to recover.
Oh Weiss. Weiss yes, but also no. Telling Whitley to go to his room like you're the second coming of Willow (or maybe Jacques) might feel good, but isn't going to help matters much.
As Weiss shows May where to cart Nora off to, Blake suggests Ruby try assuaging her fears by calling Yang. Ruby has already tried, and is still trying in the face of the evidence.
Yang gathers up loose bike parts as Jaune tries to call literally anyone who'll hear them. The snowscape they're standing on, and the triangular formation in which they're doing it, look a lot like that seen early in the titles (except that Yang is standing in for Nora).
Fade to the trio walking across the snowscape, Jaune walking a bike (presumably Yang's that they stacked into the rock, because presumably it's the one they could find). It is Yang's job to pay attention to their Aura levels as the cold bites at them, and they're now all crossing from yellow-zone to red-zone. She asks Ren, who is taking point, how much further it is to "the outpost". Ren initially doesn't answer; asked again, he says he doesn't know. From his tone, there's definitely an argument brewing; I hope they'll wait until they're under cover to have it.
It doesn't look like they'll wait to have it.
Nope, here it is.
I'm seriously torn between sympathising with Ren, and joining Yang in telling him to get a hold of himself. ...Now closer to the latter as he reckons that Atlas staying put is handing it to Salem on a silver platter. Ren, you were there when Oscar told you all it was a bad idea to open the Creation Vault.
Jaune has been trying to pry one of them loose from the argument the entire time. At his latest attempt, while Ren is listing why everybody (so far Ruby and himself) isn't qualified for making serious decisions, Ren decides it's Jaune's turn, turning to snap at him that "and you cheated your way into Beacon!" Jaune is undeterred, resolving to get out of the cold before making any other decisions. Yang follows, angrily asking Ren "Is your goal just to push everyone away?" Ren neither answers nor follows. What a fine mess this is.
Unsettling string music as Ozpin requests Oscar to "don't panic", which is nigh-always a counterproductive thing to say. The reason for panic is that he's dangling from his Grimm captor's jaws by the scruff of his neck while Salem monologues at him. I'd panic.
Salem drops that this beastie is called a Hound. Congratulations, show crew, you've made a Hound scarier than a Beowolf in defiance of the relative scariness of their names.
Salem is a bit angry that Oscar tried pretending to be merged with Ozpin.
Salem starts interrogating: Where is the Beacon relic? (By a process of elimination, it is the crown; and probably of Choice, because the sword at Vacuo is probably Destruction.) Oscar says he doesn't know; it is left uncertain whether he actually does, but I think he actually doesn't, because that seems like the kind of thing Ozpin would have tried really hard not to tell him for precisely this reason.
Salem tries another one: What is the password for Knowledge? Oscar says there are no questions left. Salem, uniquely among everyone in this entire show, immediately picks this for a lie. So, being Salem, she gets out the agony beam. Ow, ow, and also ow. After getting in her fill of torture for the moment, she insinuates that Oscar and Ozma are "like-minded souls" because of how easily they both lie (you shut your evil mouth), before monologuing about her certain eventual success in prying it out of either of them. Oscar backtalks. Oscar, that is a bad idea. Sure enough, Salem hands over to Hazel, who furthers the torture with his fists, forcefully enough that Oscar falls out of the Hound's grip.
I'm just going to try not to think about the continuing beating of Oscar.
(Obligatory note not to do torture - aside from the morals, it gets you unreliable information.)
Down a hallway somewhere, Cinder and Neo await. Salem and the Hound round the corner. Cinder kneels in supplication and gets three words into preparing to ask something before noticing the Hound and being a little creeped out. Salem introduces it as a successful experiment and bids her continue.
Remember when Salem pretended to give a toss about Cinder? Speaking of Cinder, she now questions Salem's short-term plan, which Salem will likely interpret as Cinder forgetting her station entirely. ...Yep.
Salem directly orders Cinder to stay on The Whale. Cinder's rehearsed answer almost makes me feel sorry for her.
Aaaand it's gone: Cinder schemes with Neo to leave The Whale and check on Amity Colosseum, muttering the whole way about how she (Cinder) knows better than Salem that stuff might be going down there. Maybe you should have led with this hunch? But then you wouldn't have been able to sneak off like this. I hope Salem gives you another disappointed glare when you get back.
Neo is unreceptive, but here's Emerald to try to stay in Cinder's good graces (having not figured out that Cinder doesn't have good graces).
At what I can only presume is "the outpost", Jaune percussively maintains the heater into working, then tries again to get through to Ren, who is passive-aggressively staring out the window at the semi-snowstorm. Ren instead leaves the building (passing Yang on her way in). Somebody keep an eye on Ren's Aura so they can go haul him in when it breaks.
At least Yang and Jaune are still getting on okay. Yang starts bike repairs. Soon she pauses to ask Jaune:
I get the feeling that Yang did not the slightest bit mean Ruby. I only realised that when Yang responded, but I'm not sure if Jaune realised at all.
Jaune tries to sleep first, despite his (very, very justified) concern for Oscar; Yang offers to keep an eye on Ren's Aura. Jaune reflects that "things always seem to get worse before they get better" as the camera goes on a journey that does not make me feel good about wherever it's going. Yeah, something's making its own cracks to climb out of the ice, I have a bad feeling about this too.
Next time: Do not adjust your set...
