Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well guys it’s the fall which means RWBY will be returning soon, meh. What would normally be an exciting announcement is now being met with lackluster fanfare. As a fan of the show this is both sad but at the time understandable. The writing for the characters and parts of the stories have not been handled well over these last few seasons and have frustrated fans to no end. Still, despite these problems I still look forward to watching the show as I want to know what happens next and always do my best to build up excitement whenever a new volume is around the corner. So with that said let’s take a look at volume 8. With the way volume 7 ended you knew volume 8 was building up to a lot of bad things about to happen as Salem was finally coming out of hiding and making her presence known. Out of all the volumes this is the one volume that I’m down the middle about. There actually were some good things here but there are some bad things as well. It’s like whenever they do something good they follow it up with something bad and bring everything back to square one. Let’s get ready to go up against the inevitable. This is RWBY volume 8.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “For Every Life” by Casey Lee Williams with Jeff Williams. This opening perfectly sets the tone for the season. The world is burning around our main characters, nothing they do seems to be working, and one by one they are falling. Once again Casey is really on point in this song as her voice just gives me chills. Her voice throughout these openings has been great. To see how far she’s come from the first volume to where she is now is just amazing.
The ending just like the previous volumes is a collection of songs we hear throughout the volume. Where I have to be honest, this volume had a pretty weak soundtrack when compared to the others. It’s not really all that memorable.
Episodes 1-4
So the volume opens up with a young girl scrubbing the floor (can’t help but feel if the animators are crying for help). We then cut to Cinder and Neo who have returned to Salem (giving off Emperor Palpatine vibes) presenting the Artifact to her as a gift (scene here: https://youtu.be/YuEegpoueVI). After that, we return to Mantle where the place went to shit fast. The city has lost electricity and heating, the military is no longer protecting them, and they’re defenseless against Salem once her army arrives (I’m sure they’ve had better days). Ruby manages to find Oscar in the slums (you mean Mantle wasn’t the slums?) and they return to everyone else. The group is now wanted by Atlas and are working with Robyn’s Merrymen to protect the citizens. The plan is to move everyone down into the Crater which is beneath Atlas where they’ll be able to protect them better. We see the group is split on what to do. Ruby wants to get the satellite up and running to warn all of Remnant about Salem and hope others will come to their aid. Yang and Ren believe they should just focus on saving Mantle and forget everyone else (well screw you too~). With the group split on what do, they decide to split into two teams. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Nora, and Penny will work to sneak into the military compound and activate the clearance to launch the satellite. Yang, Jaune, Oscar and Ren will focus on helping the people of Mantle and doing what they can do best. As for Ironwood, he continues to go down a slippery slope of no return by straight up killing a councilman.
For episode 2 we focus on Yang’s group. After they acquire some hover bikes, they start to help escort people to the Crater for safety as well as take down any Grimm that gets too far into the city. We do see signs of tension particularly on the part of Ren and Yang. When the group heads back out to take care of some Grimm, one Grimm sneak attacks them, captures Oscar, and even talks (by God, they’ve gained human intelligence). The Grimm then morphs and flies away with Yang, Ren, and Jaune going after it. In other parts of the episode, we see Ruby comfort Penny who is trying to adjust to her new role as a maiden. We also get a chance to see Qrow, Robyn, Watts, and Jacque in cells which are right next to each other (well misery loves company. Although I wasn’t expecting it to be this pompous and annoying).
In episode 3, we focus on Ruby’s team who sneak into Atlas to get the final data they need to complete the satellite. One of Robyn’s Merryman whose semblance allows her to create a force field to make everyone inside invisible joins them on their mission. Using her semblance, they manage to sneak past all the guards (a box would have been equally effective) but come to a hurdle when they reach the main security hall and there’s too many bodies to navigate around. Thankfully, Penny reveals that Ruby can use her semblance to get everyone through which is something she didn’t know she could do (https://youtu.be/pele5vptVgc). After causing a distraction (thanks Nora), they get into the room they need to get to and get the information they need. While this is all going on, we see that Ironwood has employed (or rather forced) the help of Watts to gain control of Penny (really Ironwood? REALLY IRONWOOD *slams desk repeatedly*!? Need I remind you of The Frog and The Scorpion? You. Frog. Him. Scorpion. Death~). Ironwood discovers the group’s infiltration into Atlas and sends ACE to retrieve Penny. ACE manages to separate Penny from the others, and we get a good 4 on 1 fight (it’s not really all that fast paced but the choreography is good and we finally get to see Penny use her maiden powers. Also, we see how ACE still falls short in the teamwork department until the end when they finally do employ some teamwork in order to catch Penny. Again, even with the number games in their favor, ACE continues to defeat themselves by not coming together as a team). Nora manages to break open the door separating them from Penny, but at the cost of injuring herself severely (no~, you will not destroy another ship). Once Ruby and the others join the fight, ACE retreats, but not before taking one of Penny’s weapons at the request of Watts (double cross imminent). Ruby and the others escape and Penny heads out to the satellite where she’ll board the satellite with Pietro and Maria in order to keep the maiden’s power out of Salem’s reach.
So in episode 4 we start with Robyn and Qrow still locked up where Robyn comforts Qrow about Clover’s death saying it wasn’t his fault (it kind of is). After that, we go to the frozen wastelands where Yang, Jaune and Ren try to rescue Oscar. We get a chase scene (that’s almost reminiscent of the speed biker chase from Return of the Jedi. Key word being almost) where the group unfortunately comes up short in rescuing Oscar and lose two bikes with the remaining one being damaged (scene here: https://youtu.be/ZbykfmQwT5E). As the three walk back to an outpost to escape the cold weather, we see Ren continue to push everyone he cares for away as he has an argument with Yang and calls Jaune out on cheating to get into Beacon (many fans have felt that Ren’s change in attitude has come out of nowhere which I kind of agree but at the same time it makes sense as it ties into his semblance. Ren’s semblance is all about eliminating emotions and making himself invisible. He believes that in order to be an ideal huntsman he has to put away his emotions or not feel them at all. However, his feelings for Nora and friendship with everyone is interfering with his original line of thinking and causing an internal conflict resulting in outbursts as he’s not sure how to handle his emotions and is afraid of what’ll happen if he can’t control them). The three manage to make it to an outpost to rest and make repairs to the bike, not knowing that something is out there. Back with Ruby’s team, they make it to Schnee Manor to nurse Nora where things are pretty bad there. The staff has quit (don’t blame them), mom has locked herself in her room, and Whitney is in charge (wow, this family truly is screwed. Royally). Things aren’t better for Oscar as he finally comes face to face with Salem and won’t divulge information, so she leaves him in the hands of Hazel (who I’m sure has been looking forward to this moment). We also see that Salem’s ranks have their own issues as Cinder wants to return to Atlas and find Penny and prove her worth, but Salem says no (https://youtu.be/906lPhQo9cA). This leads to Cinder deciding to sneak out on her own and see what Ruby and the others are planning as she knows they won’t give up. Neo refuses to help, so Emerald steps up to prove her worth to Cinder (https://youtu.be/906lPhQo9cA. Ever get the feeling that Salem’s group is just a bunch of people begging for attention because their parents didn’t notice them enough?).
Episodes 5-9
Talk about an emotional rollercoaster. Pietro, Maria and Penny manage to get the satellite launched and are now in orbit. However, Cinder, Emerald and Neo sneak onboard and a fight commences between Cinder and Penny (we also get a short fight between Neo and Maria where we see Maria still got it). The fight between Cinder and Penny is okay, it’s mostly Penny running away until she’s forced to fight where she manages to knock Cinder out. Maria also knocks out Neo (that’s a first. We finally found Neo’s kryptonite) and this forces Emerald to retreat with their unconscious bodies (and when they get back to Salem they’ll wish Penny would have killed them). Unfortunately, the battle knocked the satellite out of orbit, so they can’t broadcast to the world. Penny decides to push the satellite back in orbit despite the fact that she’s putting her life in danger and Pietro doesn’t want to risk losing his daughter again (you really do feel the sadness and anger in his voice as he’s being forced to say goodbye to his daughter again). Penny pushes the satellite back in orbit and they manage to get a little bit of their message out before Ironwood screws them over. He has Watts take control of Penny and this causes her to fall back to the surface (where she has no doubt burned up entering the atmosphere. If she survived, she’s severely damaged). Back with Jaune and the others they come across a river of Grimm about to enter Mantle.
In the first half of episode 6 we get to see more of Cinder’s backstory. We see how she was a slave girl who worked tirelessly in a hotel ran by a cruel woman and her twin daughters (I get it. Cinder, Cinderella). One day, she decided to take matters into her own hands and stole the weapon of a huntsman to kill them. However, the huntsman stops her and offers to train her so that she can become a huntress herself. At first, things were going well, but Cinder’s hatred couldn’t be contained. She killed the hotel manager and her daughters and then went on to kill the huntsman who trained her (this was meant to make us sympathize with Cinder, right? Because it honestly makes me dislike her more. It sucks that she had a terrible childhood, but she at least had someone who offered her another way out of it and instead of trusting him she turned on him and killed him. She allowed herself to be ruled by her anger and at the end of the day she’s the one who broke her life. Not Salem, not the hotel manager and her daughters. It was all her). Cinder wakes back up in Salem’s flying fortress with Emerald there to greet her and they all get called to the bridge (villains on deck). Rather than punish Cinder (okay, she punishes her a little bit) Salem instead gives her the mission to go out and retrieve Penny and the staff. We than focus on Winter and ACE who pick up Jaune’s distress call but it’s too late. Salem has arrived in Atlas (and she brought Grimm and death for everyone).
We get a good episode for episode 7. The Grimm have attacked Atlas outnumbering the army greatly (see, this is why we should have called in for help. It’s because of that stupidity that I can’t wait for Salem and the Grimm to tap dance all over your privileged military ass). Oscar and Ozpin continue to get beat by Hazel where Oscar takes a big chance and actually tells him how to summon Jinn believing that he can pull Hazel to his side and that he’ll make the right decision. Emerald overhears their conversation and finally realizes that the person she’s following is trying to destroy the world (really? The fact that she can control Grimm didn’t tip you off?). As ACE and Winter are flying back to Atlas with Jaune, Yang, and Ren, they get a call from Ironwood who plans on creating a bomb to destroy the whale and they’ll be delivering it to the beast. Knowing that Oscar is inside, Jaune begs Winter to let them go in and rescue Oscar saying they can use them as scouts to get an idea of what’s inside. ACE is of course against this and Ren of all people says he and the others will never abandon their friend no matter what (where did this change of character come from? I mean I’ll take it, but still). In a rather interesting scene, Ren can see the semblance aura of ACE and sees their true emotions. The running girl claims that she is over Clover but in truth deeply cares about him and is both sad and mad that he’s gone. Ren also figures out that the reason ACE lost to RWBY in the previous season is because they don’t remain true to their feelings for each other and as a result they never truly function as a team (basically what I said about them last season. If that fight was one on one, ACE would have won. However, it was a team battle and that is where ACE falls short at. They aren’t a team, they’re just a group of strong individuals with no teamwork to speak of and those who work as a team can defeat the strongest of individuals). Just before a brawl breaks out between Ren and ACE (oh you guys want another L? He may be in handcuffs but I guess you guys could use a handicap), Winter stops it and allows Jaune, Yang, and Ren to go on their rescue mission (we also see she’s struggling on what to do. Follow orders, protect what she can, or do what she feels needs to be done?). Back with Ruby and the others, Nora could use a good doctor and luckily Whitney called Klein to help out (looks like there’s hope for the boy yet). But as always, whenever something good happens something bad follows after it and in this case it’s Penny falling from the sky and landing just outside the Schnee manor severely damaged.
In episode 8 (congratulations on reaching 100 episodes), Ruby and the others bring Penny inside and hope Klein can help out. The power soon goes out and Ruby doesn’t know what to do anymore (it’s too much). Klein gives his words of wisdom (as any good butler should) and tells the group to just focus on what’s in front of them and tackle everything one at a time. They decide to use the backup generator to restore power and then Whitney comes to the realization that they can use their company’s cargo ships to get everyone in the crater to safety while the Grimm are busy fighting Ironwood’s troops. Ruby and Blake get the power back on only to get attacked by that talking Grimm from episode 2 along with other more disgusting Grimm (they just keep getting uglier and more otherworldly). The talking Grimm has come for Penny and manages to knock out Ruby before going into the mansion in search of Penny (scene here: https://youtu.be/-BsUq9n8tm0). We see Watts’s bug activate and almost makes her go berserk, but Nora is there to calm her down (even when hurt she still remains one of the best). The talking Grimm almost gets Whitney, but escapes with his mom (by the way, we really need to have an intervention with her when all of this is over) and Weiss is there to protect them. Ruby regains consciousness and saves Blake where they hurry back to the manor to save everyone (never a moment to breathe around her). Eventually, the talking Grimm gets a hold of Penny and Ruby uses her eyes to blast the Grimm out the window (and stay out) only to climb back in and give us a big shock, there’s a person inside of it (Grimms are people~). The talking Grimm meets its end when a large statue falls on it killing it instantly. While all of this is going on, Cinder shows up to break Watts out of his cell (scene here: https://youtu.be/UP0mdHLiujM).
For episode 9, Jaune, Ren, and Yang enter the belly of the Grimm to rescue Oscar. Speaking of Oscar, we see his plan to separate Salem’s troops might be working as Hazel brings him to the Artifact to see if he was telling the truth or not and Emerald is there as well. Oscar summons Jinn (Corbin: Is she more naked than when we last saw her? Either way, the Northern Lights are growing). With this confirmation, Hazel sides with Oscar and vows to get him and Emerald out of there where they go their separate ways (for some odd reason). Oscar and Emerald reunite with Jaune and the others where as soon as they find the exit, Salem catches them and plans to torture Emerald for betraying her and taking the Artifact (which she didn’t, so sucks to be you). Hazel shows up where he saves Emerald by fighting off Salem and giving them a chance to escape. Oscar stays behind and the episode ends with him and Hazel trying to take down Salem (just keep hitting her until she stops moving. That healing factor has to have some limit. Scene here: https://youtu.be/P1azADlC4Es).
Episodes 10-14
At the start of episode 10, Oscar’s massive explosion destroyed the whale Grimm as well as wiped out a number of other Grimm (way to go Oscar) and Neo escaped with the Artifact (skipping through the battlefield without a care in the world). Despite this victory, Atlas can’t celebrate as there’s still work to be done and Ironwood is pretty much having the most stressful day of his life. He finds out about Watts escaping along with Qrow and Robyn and orders his men to find them. We see that Watts is with Cinder where he tells her about the virus he implanted in Penny which will force her to open up the vault and then detonate herself (don’t think my heart can handle seeing her die again). Cinder doesn’t like this plan as she wants the maiden power from Penny and decides to go with her own plan. Just when she’s about to kill Watts (Salem’s team has a lot of anger and trust issues) he plays the psychological game and actually beats her to keep on living (and making her cry in the process as he just roasted her. I thought Cinder was the one with fire powers. Scene here: https://youtu.be/s0Tc_nRFKv0). We see Jaune, Yang, Ren, Oscar, and Emerald are okay (scene here: https://youtu.be/X1THPJHeZZE), but Hazel is nowhere to be seen (yeah, he dead). The group takes Emerald hostage (why, I have no idea. If it was me I’d put a bullet in the back of her skull for all the damage she’s done) as they make their way to Schnee manor where Oscar reveals he received help from Ozpin. While the group travels underground, they come across all the residents of Atlas who hid underground for safety. They eventually reach the manor where before Oscar can explain his stray (I’m talking about Emerald here) an announcement goes out courtesy of Ironwood. He’s finally gone off the deep end and turned evil on us (I knew this was going to happen. That man is terrible in high stress situations that require smart thinking) and has destroyed the remote-controlled cargo ships meant for the people of Mantle. He then gives an ultimatum to Penny. If she doesn’t give herself up and return to Ironwood he’ll destroy Mantle and the people with the bomb he has left (scene here: https://youtu.be/9uJWl8zXrrY, he truly is out of his damn mind).
Episode 11 prepares us for the finale of the season. We start off light with Ren talking to Nora and admitting he was being an idiot this whole time. He also apologizes and confesses to Nora who also confesses (scene here: https://youtu.be/a3yi2pysLAQ, please let their relationship end better than Jaune and Pyrrha’s relationship). As for the others, they’re not sure what to do as Ruby is about to give up but Yang is there to comfort her sister and fulfill her role as a big sis. The virus inside Penny starts acting up again and she’s about to head off to the vault until Ruby and the others stop her. Penny tells Ruby to kill her so that she can inherit the maiden powers and keep the Artifact safe, but Ruby refuses to do that. Emerald gives everyone a pep talk telling them not to give up (scene here: https://youtu.be/_TMOmByBhEo) and even Ozpin returns to apologize and offer his help as well. In the end, the group decides to take one final risk and give Ironwood what he wants, but they’re gonna have an ace of their sleeve.
Things surprisingly take a turn for the better in episode 12 (man, this season has been so depressing I almost forgot what hope looked like). Ruby and the others decide to open the vault, but it’ll be on their terms. They take down Ironwood and ACE with the help of Winter, Qrow, Robyn, and the Faunus member of ACE who had a change of heart (ironic how the animal has more common sense than the humans. Scene here: https://youtu.be/BR4uh7o1n_4). We find out that the Artifact in the vault is the Staff of Creation which is the power source of Atlas. It has the power to create anything and once they remove it, Atlas will fall on Mantle (not immediately, but I don’t think anybody wants to be around when it drops). Jaune says they should use the staff to teleport everyone to safety, but Oscar and Ozpin says it doesn’t work like that. They also have to deal with Ambrosius, the spirit inside the staff and he’s a character (translation: he’s difficult to work with). He can build you anything you want but like any true craftsman he needs you to explain in detail what it is you want him to create meaning you’ll need blueprints as references to give him an idea (sort of like an animator being told to create a character). Whitney has them covered on the blueprints and team RWBY takes Penny to the vault where she opens it. Ruby grabs the staff and meets Ambrosius (cover your eyes girls, you don’t need to be seeing that just yet) who I have to admit has a good personality and voice that matches up with him (he seems to be channeling Robin Williams here a little). So the group tells Ambrosius they want him to create a new Penny one without the mechanical parts meaning she’ll be a real girl like them (and the Pinocchio story comes full circle). This is a dangerous procedure according to Ambrosius and not even he’s sure what the end results will be, but the group has faith in Penny’s soul coming out on the other side. Ambrosius creates Penny’s new body and it worked, Penny is now human (well that’s one problem solved. Let’s move on to the next one). Next up, getting everyone to safety. Since the group won’t have time to evacuate everyone, they decide to move them all to a safe location, the vault (makes sense. Whatever these places are they’re on a different plane of existence). They’ll enter a portal which will lead them to the vault and exit out of another portal which will lead them to Vacuo. Giving Ambrosius references and blueprints, he manages to create the portals for everyone in Atlas and Mantle to use to get to the vault. With their job accomplished, they all get set to head to Vacuo hoping that everything goes smoothly once they arrive (knowing their luck, I doubt it).
Sure enough, everything goes to hell in episode 13. As everyone is slowly evacuating to Vacuo, Cinder strikes. Using the power of Jinn she finds out what Ruby and the others are planning and she worked out a plan with Watts and Neo to take them all down. Watts gets complete control over Atlas and he unleashes Ironwood from his prison where he kills Jacque (this was the good news of the episode) and sets his sights on Winter for betraying him (you betrayed her first). Henrietta of ACE manages to get free and takes an airship where she plans to drop the bomb on Mantle (for God’s sake woman are you out of your damn mind? This is pointless killing). This leads to Robyn and Qrow going after her with Qrow taking her on himself. Back with Ruby and the others, Neo tries to take out Ruby from behind, but Yang takes the hit for her and falls down into the black abyss with Blake weeping (wow, they’re really pushing that ship aren’t they? I said before I didn’t care who Blake ended up with as long as it made sense in the end I stand by that. I’m okay with her and Yang being a couple, but there’s a right and wrong way to handle this relationship. So far, this is not the right way). The remainder of Team RWBY and Penny fight against Cinder and Neo while everyone evacuates to the outskirts of Vacuo where they’re in a middle of a sandstorm and Grimm are waiting for them.
In the final episode we got fights galore. Winter fights Ironwood (rip out his iron heart), Qrow fights against that one girl from ACE (I know I should know her name, but I really don’t care), and Team RWB with Penny take on Cinder and Neo. Qrow and the remaining members of ACE manage to stop the bomb from launching as well as bring the dumb girl to her senses (you were seriously going to kill hundreds of people for nothing. What is wrong with you? Elite fighter my ass), but Watts activates the counter remotely and they won’t be able to escape the blast. Luckily, one of the members of ACE sacrifices himself and contains the blast killing himself and saving his friends (scene here: https://youtu.be/-4gNLiBON3M). Getting back to the main fight of RWB and Penny vs Cinder and Neo, Cinder manages to get the staff and takes the lamp from Neo before pushing her and Ruby off the edge. Blake tries to save Ruby but Cinder burns her wire and she falls into the abyss with Ruby. This leaves only Weiss and Penny to fight with Jaune joining in where Cinder manages to severely injure Penny and in order to stop Cinder from getting the maiden powers she asks Jaune to do the hardest thing a friend has to, kill her. With tears in his eyes, Jaune kills Penny and she transfers the maiden’s power to Winter where she arrives to fight against Cinder. Jaune and Weiss try to escape but Cinder blasts Weiss down into the abyss with Jaune not too far behind (scene here: https://youtu.be/VjiRH2PA-m8, my God, they are trying hard to make us believe they’re killing all these characters off). Cinder escapes with the Relics and Winter escapes through the portal to meet back up with the survivors and protect them. Back in Atlas, Salem returns and Cinder hands the Relics over to her (that’s a good bitch). Atlas finally falls on Mantle and both are wiped off the map (along with Ironwood as well. If he somehow survived then this series has jumped the shark). As for Watts, Cinder left him there to die (the girl has loyalty to no one but Salem). After the credits, we see Ruby’s scythe on an island with a big tree (scenes here: https://youtu.be/Llfd55GQe9k and https://youtu.be/UbI8RBsACYU).
Final Thoughts
Okay, wow. This season was a rocky one, but you can say that for all the recent seasons. This whole season just feels like an impossible wall the characters are trying desperately to climb. Seriously, it feels like the whole world is against them and the people that should be on their side are making dumb decision after decision and making things worse. The season does a good job capturing that despair and death the opening showed us. Even when things seem to be going their way for once and you think they’ll finally be able to turn it around, tragedy strikes the group and this season strikes hard. The season starts off good, has a rocky middle, and ends on a sad but interesting note as we see the main characters we all like die or are supposedly dead. I especially feel bad for Jaune who was forced to kill Penny. Just when you think the guy didn’t have enough on his plate, now he’s got this. The backstory of Cinder was alright. It doesn’t make you feel any sympathy for her, but instead shows us just how messed up she is and the only thing that matters to her is Salem and hurting everyone around her. I did like Ren and Nora finally showing their feelings for each other and did like Ambrosius. The main problem I had with this season was underutilization and just a lot of dumb choices that make no sense. They don’t do a good job utilizing the characters or stories they have going on. The stuff with Hazel and Ozpin doesn’t get properly addressed as it should. I wanted to learn what really happened to Hazel’s sister in the past and if it really was Ozpin’s fault. Emerald switching sides sort of comes out of nowhere. Or rather, the execution of it was poor especially when it seems like she and Cinder have some deep history with one another. The ACE operatives are barely used and come across as crazy especially that one girl who was going to destroy Mantle. Even them recognizing each other as friends comes across as phoned-in. The Grimm being made from humans gets pushed to the sides. The storyline with Penny plays with our emotions. We see her go through so much this season, become a real girl, get invested in her and then have all of it taken away from us just to get a rise out of us. It’s as if they knew they couldn’t get emotions out of us with team RWBY, so they threw her death in there to make sure they got something out of us.
The animation for the most part is good. The fights this season are sadly not as well-choregraphed as the previous season. It feels like the characters are just moving around and reacting to each other. There’s no strategy or purpose to their movements. Even the music is a bit of a letdown this season as there really doesn’t seem to be that many memorable tracks as the past seasons.
Final Score
The final score for volume 8 of RWBY is a 5/10. I really had high hopes for this season and while it had a few good moments it was a rocky season from beginning to end. It almost feels like the team behind RWBY were focused on the next season instead of making sure this season would be a good follow up to the 7th season and serve as a good starting point for the 9th season. With all the effort they’re putting into the 9th season, I’ll be watching, and I hope it justifies not putting the same amount of effort in season 8. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.