November 2nd, 2019 marks that debut of the 7th volume of Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC magnus opum, RWBY. *Following the adventures of adolescents tasked with the responsibility of defending humanity against the creatures of Grimm (predatorial manifestations of negative emotions).
Over the seasons, we’ve watched our favorite characters develop from budding newbies with aspirations of a grander purpose in life to tactile combatants with complex motivations with one common goal; to save the world. Last we saw of Team RWBY in Volume 6, the gang was on their way to Atlas, a city in the sky with a reputation for having the best military of all the Kingdoms.
Their goal was to inform James Ironwood, headmaster of Atlas Academy and a high commanding general in the Atlesian Military, that they had retrieved an item of great importance, the Relic of Knowledge, and gain his assistance in the retrieval of the other relics. As established in the previous volume, the Relics are physical manifestations of the four gifts the God of Light and the God of Dark gave to humanity: Choice, Knowledge, Destruction and Creation.
As the Relics grant varying abilities to users, Team RWBY has set out to gather them all, lest they fall into hands that aim for the destruction of humanity. Volume 7 picks up immediately following the events of Volume 6, as the Team is still on the airship approaching the city of Atlas, which is completely swamped with a fleet of deployed military personnel. One of the members of Team RWBY is Weiss Schnee, former heiress to the Schnee empire.
During the events of Volume 5, Weiss escaped from her home in Atlas, hoping to find her friends. Since then, Weiss has feared the day she’d have to return to her country and possibly be relinquished back to her father. After being instructed to land at a specified docking bay by the Atlesian Military, Weiss acknowledges that the amount of military activity is unprecedented and doubts the team will be permitted to interact with Ironwood.
Weiss suggests they attempt to contact her older sister, Winter Schnee. As Winter is a Specialist in the Special Operatives unit of the Atlesian Military, as well as a child that has already emancipated herself from the Schnee family, she’s a star candidate for aiding our team in their traversal of Atlas., our heroes head to the city that sits just below the city in the sky, Mantle. Propaganda video messages of General Ironwood denouncing the rumors that Atlas is a kingdom that needs to live in fear play to the citizens above.
When General Ironwood was first introduced in Volume 2, he was clean shaven and hair was neatly styled. The Ironwood we see now has shaggy hair and a full beard, which our heroes acknowledge, referring to his appearance as looking tired. Since the events that transpired in Volume 3, Atlas has been seen in a negative light, so it would make sense that the Ironwood we are currently watching is a haggard version of his former self.
Our first look into Mantle, militarized androids patrol the streets, alluding that Mantle will not be the safe haven our heroes thought it would be. With no words from Winter and Atlesian Military demanding their route be corrected, our heroes decide they must display board the ship and slip under the radar. Maria Calavera, friend to our heroes, insists she knows just the person to approach.
As they make way to land, they spot more video propaganda, this time displaying Winter Schnee’s reminder of the severity of punishment for defying Atlesian Military orders. The next shot has our heroes walking out of an alleyway as military personnel run towards the uninhabited ship.
Mantle life is portrayed as considerably unpleasant. Posters of propaganda litter the streets, roads show signs of neglect, and military units litter the crosswalks. Maria points out the city in the sky was meant to symbolize hope and light to the citizens of Mantle following their loss of the Great War, which is immediately followed by imagery of people working covered in soot and tar on the back of a truck. Blake Belladona, member of Team RWBY, and Faunas, a race of humans that have physical attributes of animals that have often been subjected to racial discrimination, expresses disbelief in the city’s conidtion which is immediatley rebuttled by an intoxiacted bystander.
Continuing to be antagonized after she attempts to apologize, Blake stops Ruby from coming to her defense, noting it’s within their best interest to not cause a scene. After the drunkard refers to Blake as a “stupid Faunus”, Weiss uses her special abilites to decommission him, saying it was worth the slight scene. This scene holds a lot of weight, as the first volume’s plot heavily surrounded Weiss’ hate for the Faunus, ideology that she disregards by the end.
We then see our heroes walk into a shop where Maria introduces herself as an old friend to the shop owner. Though not initially recognizing Maria, after taking a moment to gather his thoughts, the friendly shopkeeper gives Maria a warm welcome and recounts on how much time has passed since they last saw each other. As the shop owner moves around a desk that obstructed our view of him, we see that he’s sitting on top of a quadrupedal mechanism.
After light reminiscing, Maria introduces whom she refers to “…one of Atlas’ finest minds.” After Yang Xaio Long, member of team RWBY, mentions the man’s circumstances, Maria states it’s due to her friend’s desire to keep a low profile. Pietro, we discover to be his name, runs a local pharmacy when he isn’t tasked with assisting General Ironwood with his expertise in engineering. One slight detail fans might miss is that Pietro says one of his current passion projects he’s working on is “…shoes that make you dance.”, a sign for things to come. Our heroes ask Pietro about the events that have transpired in Mantle that would lead to the remilitarization of the city.
Pietro explains that following the aforementioned events from Volume 3, Ironwood’s mentality has shifted in which he’s become hyper paranoid. Pietro also shares that in addition to the Grimm being a greater threat than they have r been before, Atlas’s Security Code had also been compromised. As a result, the Kingdom of Atlas appeared like traitors to the eyes of many and incompetent in the rest that remained. Pietro shares that the person responsible for compromising the Atlas Security Code was someone of impressive intellect or a double agent, a sentiment that Ironwood also shares.
When Weiss begins to ask questions on the Council and Winter Schnee, Pietro expresses that the council bows to Ironwood’s commands out of fear, only to trail off when he begins to recognize the people who stand in front of him. Pietro remarks that he feels silly for not immediately knowing who stood before him, considering how much his daughter had shared about him. Just as Ruby questions the man’s statement, sirens begin to blare. Our heroes run outside to see creatures of Grimm begin to swarm the streets. This moment is also very defining, as the students that once more in a clunky fashion have honed their skills to become seasoned fighters. Shots are aimed accurately, slashes of swords all count; the execution in this scene is something that has not been seen before.
The scene reaches its climax when a Grimm pouches onto Blake as a light beam and slices it in half. Looking in awe, our heroes eyes take to the sky, looking for it’s sources, while the beams continue to destroy the Grimm. As the source begins to descend, it becomes very clear what, or more accurately, whom, the source was.
Rocking stunning redesign, Penny Polendina likeness fills the screen.
Penny was an android meant to be a prototype for experimental soldiers for the Kingdom of Atlas that was unfortunately a causality in the aforementioned events of the third volume. Though her name has since been referred to several times in the show, no one could have guessed she’d reappear. After Penny salutes her friends in a way only she can, Pietro explains that he was able to reconstruct Penny after they retrieved her corpse after the aforementioned events in Volume 3. Since her reconstruction, Penny has been appointed “…Official Protector of the City.”
After distant sirens go off and Penny departs, our heroes begin to to breathe as Pietro leads the way. Immediately after Qrow, uncle of Ruby Rose of Team RWBY, mentions how smooth everything had gone all things considered, magnetic bola are thrown and decommission all of our heroes, all but Maria and Pietro. Atlas operatives come out of the shadows and Pietro acknowledge them as the Ace Ops. One of the member shares that the teams were found guilty of multiple fractures of the law, and our heroes are loaded onto vehicle headed straight to Atlas.Â
Following this scene, the intro sequence for this Volume of RWBY begins. Accompanied with a new song titled “Trust Love”, the sequence informs us of several things. The first is that the adolescents will be receiving design overhauls, just as they had for the release of Volume 4. We also see the Ace Operatives posing in front of a building, implying their role will largely influence the Volume. Previous villains are also alluded to in the sequence, such as Arthur Watts and Tyrian Callows. As the sequence comes to a close, we see a dimly lit staff reflect light. This is a reference to the Staff of Creation which is said to reside in Atlas.
I found this Volume premiere to be lacking compared to many of the other premieres. Usually when volumes begin we are thrust into the middle of an action scene of our heroes. In cases where there are no action, characters are embarking on a long journey that is clearly distinct from the environment of the last volume.
This episode felt so odd starting exactly where the last finished with no energy or confusion. We are eased into a world that thematically simple and familiar. Penny’s return is AMAZING. As a fan of RWBY, it makes me super excited to see them use her existence as an android to their advantage. I’d be very disappointed if they failed to do anything with her, however, another cool thing was the introduction of Pietro. Most characters in RWBY has some kind of allusion to fairy tales in their themes and Pietro is no different.
Back when I mentioned that may have missed an important detail regarding Pietro’s passion project. Pietro is meant to be an allusion of Mister Geppetto, father of Pinocchio. Geppetto was a puppet maker of dancing puppets, and was also swallowed by a whale when Pinocchio ran off on his own adventure. Pietro happens to also own a statue of a whale that rests on his book case.Â
It seems pretty clear to me that the Ace Operatives are double agents. The image of their pose is shown to be one that a screen being controlled by Arthur Watts, which is then followed by the appearance of Tyrian Callows. In fact, their segment starts with a zoom into General Ironwood’s eye, a badge shown and is then grabbed, making me think that Ironwood is also suspicious of them.Â