RWBY v08e01-02 Before fighting the enemy, conquer your demons

(Lechería, November 26, O’kuroku).- After a very long wait the eighth volume of Rooster Teeth’s RWBY was finally released, and it is time to see if its beginning lived up to the expectations or not.

In my review of Volume 7 finale I stated I really wanted to see the Pinocchio arc that was hinted with the flying whale and Penny becoming the Winter Maiden, plus I was curious about how Ren was going to handle the things that happened during the fight against Neo. Well, the former part has not been covered yet, but the latter, oh boy… things are worse than what I thought.

RWBY v08e01

First of all, I liked the way Neo was portrayed in this episode. Not only she was legitimately afraid of being inside the whale and in front of Salem, but she got truly pissed off when Cinder took all the credit of getting the relic of knowledge. However, I did not like the way Salem treated Cinder, I just hate when the antagonist/villain treats his/her people that like tools. It is so cliché that it will eventually lead to some form of betrayal that it is not funny anymore.

Now, regarding the heroic side I have to say I honestly thought we would end up having a three sided battle with Salem’s group in one corner, Ruby’s bunch in other corner, and Ironwood’s party in the last one. Nevertheless, witnessing Ruby’s party breaking apart was a welcomed surprise.

I hate to say this, but Ruby has not been a good leader lately and it was about time for someone to point that out. Of course, the last person I would have expected to take that job was Yang, but I liked it was precisely her since she was the strongest Ruby supporter of the group.

What consequences will that have? I guess we will have to wait and see, but I just hope it leads to some character development for the entire group, especially for Ruby and Ren because they both need that a lot. Finally, the other thing I dislike about this episode was Ironwood’s behavior.

I definitely preferred him being in the gray zone where you could either support him or not because what he was saying made a lot of sense, but the things he was doing were somehow extreme. Unfortunately, RWBY writers decided we have to hate him so they made him went full crazy villain mode.

Shooting the council member in a cold blooded manner was just too much, especially considering he was not a real threat for Ironwood. Of course that will lead to some cracks not only among the Ace-Ops, but in Winter as well, but in this case I think they are way too forced (similar to what happened in Salem’s side)

RWBY v08e02

Ok, I know some people are complaining about how Yang, Ruby and the others were having fun in the middle of the apocalypse, but come on, we cannot forget they are still teenagers. Besides, the apocalypse has yet to hit them for real, so they do not have a precise idea of the danger they are facing.

If Ironwood, Qrow, Robyn or any of the adults would have been behaving that way I would have understood the complains, but I do not know, I guess I am inclined to give Ruby and the others some leniency on that regard.

Speaking of Qrow and Robyn, I do not like their attitude at all. Robyn needs to accept and assume she has a big responsibility on what happened to Clover. Had she behaved differently during the confrontation inside the plane, the leader of the Ace-Ops would have not died, and that is a fact.

The same goes for Qrow, wanting to kill Ironwood is as extreme as James cold-blooded killing the council member out of nowhere. I am starting to think the writers truly want them both out of the way so they are paving the path for killing them. At this point there is almost no room for redemption for Ironwood, and Qrow is approaching to the point of no return really fast.

I liked how they portrayed the people of Mantle, RWBY will always welcome any form of world building, and showing us how people distrusted faunus even when they are helping them was a powerful way of cementing the idea that faunus are being discriminated against because of their race.

Now, before speaking about the new Grimm I really want to take some time to talk about Ren and Oscar. They both are in a complicated place and they both need help ASAP before even starting to think about cooperation and the like. I would even go as far as to say Ren is currently in a very dark place. He is confused, angry, afraid, and he is dangerously pushing people away. He needs some proper guidance, but honestly I do not know who is currently suitable for the job, and that is by far the worst part.

Regarding Oscar, you could say his situation is even worse because he is facing being wiped out. His persona will disappear once the fusion process ends, and that is truly intimidating and frightening. However, he does indeed have someone suitable candidate for the job of helping him navigate that path.

Ozpin and Oscar are stuck together and they both will have to figure out the way for them to carry on, and that process is something I am willing to see. What will be the final outcome? Oscar will prevail? is it going to be Ozpin? Or are we going to have a third option here?

Ok, now it is time to talk about the new Grimm. My goodness that was a scary one. It is smart, it can talk and it is capable of transforming at will. Yang and the others were definitely not prepared to handle that kind of enemy, and the fight showed that flawlessly. I am aware some people are saying they did not act as proper Huntsmen and Huntresses, well they are not. They only got their licenses because of the circumstances, not because they were truly ready for the job.

However, despite of that, they were competent for fighting the Grimms and protecting the people of Mantle, but when they had to face a new and more powerful and dangerous kind of enemy, their limitations just had to show up. The key thing here is to know if that Grimm represents the limit of Salem’s capabilities, because if it does not then the future will start looking pretty dark for Remnant. See ya in my next RWBY review.

A great place for entertainment

It is not unusual to look for good websites where we can find tops, news and even useful tips regarding the entertainment industry. Well, if you are one of us, then Calibbr is a great option to satisfy that need. They have very interesting and relevant tops and articles about tv series, films and music. Furthermore, they even have an awesome article with nice suggestions about how to find the name of a movie you can’t remember. Isn’t that great?

By Jacinto Muñoz (@shougoamakusa)

If you want to watch the show you can do it in the official website.

Pueden unirse a nuestro Discord, haciendo clic acá.