RWBY V7 Chapter 2 Review Script

COLD OPEN:

Clip of me calling Watts’ jacket ugly from Chapter 1 reaction. Watts showing up with new jacket this episode. Leave it to Watts to be super metatextually spiteful… but seriously, THAT JACKET IS FABULOUS.

INTRO / OVERALL THOUGHTS:

While this was a much slower episode than Chapter 1, it was still necessary for setting up the rest of the volume’s story. We have a clear goal, along with an undercurrent of darkness in the form of the last and best scene of the chapter. Believe it or not, slower episodes that are more dedicated to exposition aren’t inherently bad, i.e. a good chunk of Volume 5’s talks. Here all the information was new and / or necessary for proper setup and context, and since it was the bulk of this chapter’s runtime, we’ll discuss that first.

IRONWOOD’S PLAN:

Now the big surprise this chapter is that honestly… Ironwood seems to be doing pretty well for himself. We’ll discuss more on the details of his plan in a bit, but he’s definitely less paranoid and hostile than I expected him to be. At the very least, part of his plan actually seems like a great idea, and him letting Penny, Winter, and the Ace Ops in on the truth about the Relics, the Maidens, and Salem make sense given they’re basically his closest comrades.

Now the part of the plan I’m all for is using Amity Colosseum—or Amity Arena if you wanna go by the Easter Egg name (They’re practically interchangeable)—as a replacement for the CCT Towers. Some have asked why no one’s attempted satellite technology before, and the answer is in the old World of Remnant episode about Dust. Dust not working outside Remnant’s atmosphere. (World of Remnant, Dust)

It’s not surprising people seemed to have forgotten about this given, ya know, necessary exposition kept to a supplemental series isn’t the best idea, as those kinds of things should ideally contain… well, supplemental information that isn’t vital, but what’s done is done.

But getting the CCT System back in order would definitely lessen tensions across the globe and ideally between the kingdoms, given that since the Fall of Beacon, each kingdom has basically only been able to reach others within their own territories. If you live in Mistral, for example, you can still reach someone’s scroll within the city, but the further out you get, the trickier it gets, and forget about easy communications with people from the other kingdoms. It took a while for them to get that point across, but I think by Volume 5 that was clearly the situation.

But the part of the plan I’m not sure on is Ironwood wanting to tell the world about Salem. Granted, I get where he’s coming from, as Salem has been able to take the kingdoms without them even being aware of her existence. In his mind, what better way to finally take her down than to have the entire world unite with their full military might? Except he’s clearly unaware that Salem literally cannot be destroyed.

If the world were to learn about Salem, then discover she can’t die or be defeated, many people would either become apathetic and follow Raven’s lead of sitting the battle out, or even join her in hopes of saving their own skin. And that’s assuming most of them would survive the Grimm attacks that would ensue from the mass panic. And that might be something Watts takes advantage of if he’s able to intercept their message and use the Amity Tower plan to his advantage.

And that introduces our next topic of conversation: Ruby lying to Ironwood about Ozpin’s disappearance, and the Relic of Knowledge. Many have raised the point that her doing this is, and I quote, “stupid,” but as we’ve kinda made clear, Ironwood’s a little on edge right now. For the most part he’s kept himself together, but only because he thinks there’s still a chance to destroy Salem. If he were to learn the truth of her immortality, along with the fact that Ozpin had been lying to him about everything from the start, there’s no telling what his reaction could be.

If Ironwood doubles down, it’d only ensure failure and disaster, and if he just gave up, Atlas would crumble without the villains having to even lift a finger. It’d spell utter destruction. Ruby did what she thought was best, whether right or not, and it is clear that while most of the party is going along with her lead, Oscar at the very least is unsure and kinda peeved, probably because he received much of the brunt of the group’s anger towards Ozpin when the truth was revealed.

I hope we see some debates on whether this was the right call, and we might even see Oscar standing on his own and telling Ironwood the truth himself while they train. I’m all for this Rose Garden drama, especially if it means Oscar finally gets to do something and develop onscreen. But moreover, this may very well play into our overall theme of trusting in love.

As my friend Cynzi and I ... HI CYNZI, were discussing the episode, they brought up how annoyed they were by how harsh the fandom was on Ozpin after “The Lost Fable,” given that he’s more a victim of circumstances than anything else, and I will admit I myself was that way too for a long time out of habit of joking about Shady Oz, as that was what the earlier volumes had been hinting at.

But now, I understand why Ozpin lied. He knew that if people learned about Salem’s immortality, there was a very good chance they’d all give up and let Salem win. And in his mind, if keeping this war going forever meant humanity could be at least somewhat happy and protected, out of Salem’s control, it was worth it. Even if he had to fight for the rest of eternity, locked in a perpetual stalemate with the woman he’d once loved, protecting humanity was worth that struggle. And honestly, I kinda have to commend that.

So now, the question is when Ozpin will come back, and I think there’s a very good chance it will be this volume. Perhaps as the group questions Ironwood telling the world of Salem’s existence and the potential fallout, they’ll start to understand why Oz did what he did, and we’ll see both sides trying to rebuild the bridge they’d burned and rebuild their mutual trust.

Because honestly, after what they both went through—for Ozpin having to relive his trauma and having everyone turn on him; and for Team RWBY and the others, the realization they’d been lied to and the shock at the idea that their efforts had all been in vain—that’s a lot of pain and trauma that needs to be dealt with before they can move forward and trust each other again. It can be done, but it will take a lot of work, and a lot of honest, difficult conversations.

Now one more thing that merits discussion from the Ironwood scene is the revelations about the Winter Maiden. As of right now, her identity remains unknown, but she is currently in the care of the Atlesian Military, and is in, as Winter puts it, “stable condition.” Qrow also seems to know who she is as he mentions she isn’t exactly a “spring chicken.” Those unaware, the term spring chicken is used to refer to a very young person, so it’s not only lowkey shade at the former runaway Spring Maiden, but also an indicator that the Winter Maiden is much older than we’re expecting; perhaps a woman who inherited her power young and has had it for years.

Winter’s comment, and look of guilt, suggests there’s a good chance the Winter Maiden’s health isn’t that great and is being closely monitored. There’s even a chance the Military is keeping her alive through similar means they used for Amber when she went comatose. I do appreciate they’re taking a different direction with the Winter Maiden than they did with Fall and Spring, and I hope we’ll get to meet her later this volume and learn her story.

THE ACE OPS:

Now we move onto the Ace Ops, who we now have names for. We already met Clover last week, but now we have: Elm Ederne, the tall lady with a giant hammer who’s really sweet; Harriet Bree, a.k.a. the Hare from The Tortoise and the Hare who’s obsessed with competition; Marrow Amin, who is best doggo boi and I love him; and Vine Zeki, who… I don’t know what to make of him, but he seems like he’ll be cool. In fact, they all do.

There’s likely to be a rivalry between Team RWBY and the Ace Ops as the volume progresses, but I’m happy it seems to be a friendly one right now. The Ace Ops actually really respect the heroes for all they’ve been through thus far, and will likely be overseeing their missions going forward. Not much to say on them here, except I think Marrow put the underlying tension between the two group’s motivations best: “Questions are for the weak!”

While the team might be unsure of whether to trust Ironwood, or how they feel about revealing Salem to the world, the Ace Ops are loyal to Ironwood no matter what, and if push comes to shove, they’ll do whatever it takes to ensure his plan succeeds.

ATLAS ACADEMY:

Now, something I thought was interesting about this chapter was the use of 2D assets. RWBY has used 2D animation before for brief shots and sometimes environments to curb the cost of having to create entire 3D sets. The most infamous example is the Mistral matte paintings because… well, Volume 5 had next to no budget meaning next to no actual exploration of the city, so this was the best we got.

But Volume 6 saw more efficient use of 2D assets, particularly when it came to effects like water splashing up during the Colossus fight. And here in Volume 7, it seems that while the city of Mantle has been explored as a full 3D environment, the majority of Atlas, even Atlas Academy is a 2D asset drawn from different angles depending on the shot. Now I can already hear people screaming “See? CRWBY bad!” But rather, I think this was an effective solution to the real problem of having to create two entirely different cities back-to-back.

So select locations in Atlas will likely be 3D sets, i.e. the interiors of Atlas Academy, and maybe the school itself in a later chapter, the Schnee Manor, and… any other places we don’t know about yet. But it’s clear most of the story is going to be focused on those two locations, along with Mantle and the Solitas tundras. No real need to go ham on the rest of Atlas as a city when the beautiful 2D imagery will suffice.

Anyhow, the team will be staying in the dorms. Some are divided on whether Penny said “teen” or “team”—”Every team at Atlas Academy gets their own room!”—and it doesn’t help that the closed captioning isn’t sure either, but I’m leaning towards team because… well, would it not make sense to have teams sharing rooms in order to become a functioning unit?

But something Penny mentioned I think alludes to how this volume’s tone and story will progress. She says “It’ll be just like Beacon again!”, which on the surface level means dumb fun antics like the good ol’ days in the Beacon Arc, but there’s already an undercurrent of darkness and seeds for rifts between the heroes and Ironwood, and even amongst the heroes themselves, that will likely explode towards the finale. And if Atlas falls next volume, I think Penny’s description of Beacon happening all over again… won’t be too far from the truth.

Now I will say something that did genuinely bother me, but I’m still giving the show a bit more time, is Ruby still not properly reacting to Penny’s return. Everyone’s kinda… normal about it, and I hope at some point Ruby will break. The reason I’m still giving them time is because, ya know, none of them have slept yet or been given time to process any of this. But mark my words: if Ruby does not break, imma cut a hoe.

ROBYN HILL:

Now the episode opened on the team in the transport along with Forest, the crazy Happy Huntresses stan, and might I say I really enjoyed the humor he delivered while also providing handy dandy exposition. Again, exposition is not inherently bad. Pretty much all the info we gathered on Robyn and her campaign was from background details that casual viewers were unlikely to have really taken in, so it helps to have it clearly pointed out, and we did get some new info… namely the cute nod to Robin Hood’s “Merry Men.” “Happy Huntresses?” “Is that their real name?”

So Robyn and her gang are all graduates of Atlas Academy who decided not to join the military and remain in Mantle. I’d imagine given Atlas’ huge focus on military culture and enrolling as many Huntsmen into the centralized military force as possible, that was a big no-no for Ironwood and crew. But I’m very excited to see what the Happy Huntresses will have to offer in terms of helping Mantle in the face of the Atlesians’ neglect.

WATTS & TYRIAN:

Now we reach the best part of the chapter… where Watts shows everyone just how fabulous he is. Like, look at that purple, with that umbrella and bag? Just… YES. God I wish his normal jacket was this color.

But not only did this introduce Watts and Tyrian as the big antagonists for this volume, while also successfully building their threat level, it also did a great job in alluding to Watts’ backstory and showing off his personality. Of course, Mantle’s security code hasn’t been updated, unlike Atlas, because who cares about Mantle, am I right?

And Watts knows this and is exploiting it. He practically has control over the entire city, meaning he and Tyrian will be able to get around rather easily. The way Watts just casually walks into traffic and causes vehicle crashes really shows off just how sure of himself he is, and speaks to the threat he poses even if he can’t fight.

Tyrian, meanwhile, just as we thought, is assassinating… well, someone. Someone who sure does bleed a lot! Some are worried it was Pietro, but I doubt they’d kill him without actually showing the buildup to his death. I think it’s more likely to be a journalist, similar to the one we saw on the news last chapter, or perhaps one of the Happy Huntresses. I’m very excited to see what these two are up to, and to watch them clash with the heroes soon.

CONCLUSION & OUTRO:

So all in all, while “A New Approach” is slower, it did what it needed to do in completing the setup for this volume’s story: introducing a plan of action for our heroes; planting seeds of conflict and tension between them and well as with Ironwood; and properly introducing our big bads of the volume.

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I’m the Unicorn of War, proud leader of the Union of War, and this, much like Mantle’s outdated coding, has been a shit show.