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#mostly to keep penny company  and help with amity..!!
real-jaune-isms · 4 years
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RWBY Volume 7 Chapter 8 Rundown
Another fantastic chapter, and a real nail biting way to leave us hanging for an extra week of holiday hiatus. I have many thoughts about this one, lots good but some more foreboding. So, with this very late edition to my ongoing efforts to review the Volume, and a warning that I will be focusing on events one group at a time rather than cutting back and forth like the episode does, let’s begin. 
The chapter opens on Team RWBY plus Oscar gathered to look at the invitation to the dinner party Weiss is holding. According to his public statement on the news, Jacques says this is an act of kindness to soothe hostilities as he transitions into his position on the Council, but they know this is pure intimidation and Weiss even calls it a hostile takeover. The other council members have been described as scared and seemingly easy to persuade one way or the other, and if Jacques is good at anything it’s talking others into doing what he wants. So Ironwood will be on full blast here, with his rival having full control of the conversation rather than getting to open up about his actions on his terms. Weiss is still in disbelief that her father won the election at all, and they entertain the possibility that Salem’s influence had a hand in this. He’s not the type to get involved in her brand of evil, but he WILL do whatever he has to to get his way. So Ruby thinks they should do whatever they have to for the sake of proving his misdeeds. Team RWBY will go to the party and Weiss will sneak off to look around for clues of anything fishy. Afterall, no one would question why she’s walking around in her own house. Weiss looks like she doesn’t want to do that, but she will anyway. She’s a brave girl. 
We finally see an exterior shot of the Schnee Estate as the limos pull up front, and it’s just as sprawling and impressive as we had guessed. Ironwood and Winter are there with Penny of course, as are Team RWBY, JNR and Oscar came too, and even Qrow and the Ace Ops. Winter wouldn’t be caught dead smiling here though, which Ironwood cracks a joke about. The doorbell is rung and the doors open to reveal... Whitley, playing the part of gracious host with sickening false sweetness. It would seem dear Klein was fired, likely for helping Weiss escape. So that’s even more guilt for her to deal with. They all go inside, with the General, Winter, Penny, and Clover splitting off to meet with Jacques at the table proper. Qrow and Clover have a cute little exchange about wishing them good luck, before Qrow practically gets ‘nam flashbacks upon being offered a glass of wine. He heads off to patrol the grounds instead, and the remaining Ace Ops follow suit. Harriet warns the kids not to wander off or break anything and to be ready if called upon. Yang has a different set of guidelines in mind however, and Weiss heads off to go snooping... before being stopped at the stairs by Whitley who wants to brag about how he’s the heir now and she’s the runaway disgrace come crawling back. This one-sided conversation drags on for a while before JNR decide to cause a commotion to get him off Weiss’ back. Nora get a tray stacked high with food, and she and Ren “accidentally” bump into each other to send the food flying right onto Whitley... or it would have. Unfortunately a woman looking to get some hors d’oeuvres walks in front of him and gets the food all over her dress. Fortunately, she had a glass of wine and tosses it on Whitley when she freaks out over getting such a mess on her. So Whitley leaves to get cleaned up while Weiss is trying not to show any emotion that might suggest she was in on that and RBY laughs to themselves. Great job, JNR!
The General and company are greeted by Jacques himself and sit at the far side of the table from him, with two council members, Councilman Sleet and Councilwoman Camilla, sitting by the Schnee patriarch. Robyn Hill was even invited to the party, and sits halfway between the two sides in a subtle show of her allegiance being up for grabs. Jacques is playing gracious host better than even his son had, and says Robyn was invited to discuss the concerns towards the kingdom, of which they seem to have a lot. Before James can even propose a topic to start with, Jacques starts pointing venomous fingers at Penny, asking if her being there is in everyone’s best interest considering what the public believes about the recent massacre. Ironwood tries to set the record straight with what has been officially confirmed as the truth, but his words are a bit morally questionable. Oh sure, saying the footage everyone is freaked out about was doctored is fine, but he says Penny is completely under his control. That’s not how you refer to a subordinate, it’s how you talk about a machine like one of his drones. She is a living person with a soul and will of her own, you asshole. You don’t control her, you employ her. She can speak for herself and her own actions. Granted, she may not have the debating skills to keep up with a master manipulator like Jacques, but really neither does Ironwood. As a very clever podcast has pointed out, this is a job for soft skills, which Ironwood does not have a lot of practice in what with his job mostly involving ordering people to do things and making strategies for battles. The man would do quite poorly against Vizzini from the Princess Bride. Speaking of the bastard, Jacques springboards off of Ironwood’s phrasing to call into question exactly how much the General has control over. 
The scene shifts back to the kids but when we see the dinner table again it is now Councilman Sleet pointing out that they have given Ironwood free reign to act as he sees fit for the last few years but with the way things are in Atlas right now that may have to come to an end. They need him to cooperate and to feel like they can keep him from acting on any outlandish military motivated impulses that might endanger the kingdom at large. And when you think about it, this is an oddly laid out political system. There seem to only be 5 council seats in total, and it’s been established that as both general of the military and academy headmaster Ironwood holds two of those seats. The position Jacques now holds on the council is especially important since a manipulator like him could get the other two on his side to outvote anything Ironwood proposes. With all the secrets James has been keeping about who they’re really fighting and how Atlas might become the next Beacon, the council thinks there is no danger to the kingdom thus embargo is pretty much pointless and should be lifted.  After all, there is no immediate threat from another kingdom, they had no connection to the attack on Haven, and it’s been proven that the robot soldiers attacking at Beacon were hacked and thus they are not at fault. So all the embargo is doing is hurting their relations with the other kingdoms. This news is exactly what Jacques wanted to hear, since that means he can start selling Dust and earning money again. And Robyn apparently hasn’t been the biggest fan of the border closing either, since it’s been hurting the people within the kingdom every bit as much as it has hurt how the rest of the world interacts with them. The least these people deserve is an answer as to why they’re suffering. Jacques takes this opportunity to dig even deeper into Ironwood’s decision making and recent activities. If there are no leads or apprehended suspects for the warehouse rally massacre or the string of anti-Ironwood public figures murdered, the military seems quite ineffectual at keeping the people safe. Clover tries to play it professionally and say they can’t divulge the classified details of ongoing investigations like that. But their host points out there have been an awful lot of “classified” things that no one is being told about. To the surprise of a now in the know Robyn, the council has no idea what the Amity Project is for and have every reason to worry it’s a pointless waste of time and resources. As usual, the General tries to keep things vague but reassuring in saying that the Amity Project is going to help with the problems they brought up, but it’s very important that he not go into much detail about it. Jacques calls into question Ironwood’s very real problem with trusting others to know what he knows. Winter had been growing more and more agitated as accusations and doubts were thrown at the General, and at this point she SNAPS much to Robyn’s subtly smirking appreciation. Jacques Schnee can buy just about anything he could ever want in this world, but trust has to be earned. I almost wish we could look back and see her “Volume 4″, the point in her life where she broke under her father’s domineering pressure and realized she had to escape to make her own life like Weiss had. Unfortunately for her in the moment, this outburst is exactly what her Papa had been hoping for. If Mr. Schnee has to earn trust then so does Mr. Ironwood. And after everything he’s done as of late, ol’ Jimmy has burned through what trust he had without doing anything like catching the criminals plaguing the Kingdom’s streets to earn more. Winter is appalled that she has made things that much worse for her boss, and leaves for a bit to calm down. Penny comes out to find her fuming quietly in a hallway and tries to have a heart to heart. But Miss Schnee’s habit of saying exactly the wrong thing isn’t over yet as she implies that Penny is incapable of understanding how she’s feeling on account of, y’know, being a robot and not having emotions that can get the better of her like her’s did. At the very least, Winter realizes her blunder and apologizes, clarifying that this situation is bad only for her because she’s grown up here and had to deal with Jacques controlling her life for so long. Penny did not live that life and thus doesn’t know about how bad those experiences were. Winter thinks she had sounded like a petulant child back there, but Penny shows wisdom beyond her youthful innocence and thinks what Winter did was totally fine and natural, a human response. But Winter has been conditioned for so long by both her home and military life to think that speaking from the heart is a bad thing compared to staying in line that she sees this as a problem. Penny admits that Winter is right, she DOESN’T understand what Winter is so upset about. That kinda feels like a zing at the older woman’s mindset, saying her way of thinking about the contents of her heart is wrong and she should let herself be more open. And I hope Winter learns from that.
Weiss wanders the halls and passes a room where a wall is lined with many Schnee family photos. Weiss standing by her father, Whitley playing the piano, profile shots of Jacques and Willow (as her name is confirmed to be in the credits) on either side of the doorway from what we can assume by her veil was their wedding day, and Grandpa Nicholas Schnee himself in a suit of armor and a red cape. Lots of eye candy, and it lasts about 5 seconds. The other photos seem to be of places, like the entrance to the now abandoned mine and what I assume is a view of the city from a distance. Weiss gets caught off guard by a butler walking the halls whom she thanks for their hard work and walks by on her way to her father’s office. But once she gets inside and closes the door behind herself she finds a surprise waiting for her. Mama Schnee!!!! And she looks quite beautiful, in a white shirt and blue waistcoat combination with a belt just above her hips, a pencil skirt and a jeweled cravat. Her hair hangs over her left shoulder in a low ponytail that everyone has identified as the dead anime mom hair and her pale blue eyes have a few lines under them I am perfectly willing to believe are more from the stress of living with Jacques than any kind of significant aging. Now seems as good a time as any to introduce my classifications of the four absolute waifuTeam RWBY moms whom have all had at least a few seconds of on screen time. Summer is the lovable sweet mom who tucks you into bed at night and reads you a story and makes sure you get a peaceful good night’s rest. Raven is the hot mom you might want to sleep with. Kali is the spunky and flirtatious mom who might want to sleep with YOU. And Willow is the hard working mom who tries her best to keep her family together and doesn’t get enough praise for it, whom YOU want to tuck into bed and make sure she gets a peaceful good night’s sleep. She seems to be in her physical prime, though we see mentally she can’t quite compare... or can she? Some of her first lines are trying to give an excuse for why she’s not socializing at the party, blaming it on not feeling well, but here’s the saddening part. She calls it Weiss’ party. So either she’s so out of touch with the world around her that she doesn’t know who/what the party is for... or she thinks this is still the night of Weiss’ charity concert from Volume 4 and she’s missing that after party. Either option paints a despairing picture of her mental facilities. And the bottle of vodka in her hand shows right off the bat what the trouble is. Weiss seems all too used to her mom’s excuses and forgives her quickly, knowing she has no ill intent. Willow gets enough clarity and mindfulness to wonder why Weiss came to Jacques’ office when he’s elsewhere, and Weiss bluffs that she’s come to retrieve something she left in here. That seems to jog Willow’s memory that Weiss herself had left not so long ago, and the tone of voice is heart wrenching. As the same wonderful podcast I mentioned earlier points out, this realization hits her with a sense of “oh I forgot something important again...” and you can’t help but feel a little sorry for her. She’s in this deep rut of drinking to cope with her sadness, and that keeps her from being there for her children so she only grows more sad. That isn’t to say she’s helpless or dumb. Weiss admits she needs to check her father’s computer and that she has suspicions he’s done something awful, and Willow has enough wit to quip that the family has come to assume that conclusion at this point. Weiss is a bit curt and says that some of them are actually trying to do something about his ill intentions, and Willow only responds with a tighter grip on the rim of her cup and a glare before chugging vodka straight from the bottle. 
It has been brought to my attention that even the label of her vodka has a fairy tale origin, it being called Six Swans. The inspiration comes from one of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, of a princess whose six brothers are cursed by a witch and turned into swans. The only way to break the curse is if she can sew six shirts out of nettles in six years without making a single noise lest her entire effort be undone, a task she dedicates her life to. A different king is taken with her beauty and takes her for his wife, though misfortune and cruelty befall her at the hands of his mother and she is accused of witchcraft. With no way of defending herself or else her still continuing efforts will be ruined, she is sentenced to burn at the stake. The night of her execution the shirts are very nearly done and she brings them with her, only for her swan brothers to come flying in since the six years are up, and get the shirts thrown onto them lifting the curse. However, she hadn’t finished one sleeve so the youngest brother is left with a swan wing for the rest of his life. The princess is now allowed to talk and defend herself and with the help of her brothers they reveal the old queen’s evil deeds and get her burned instead, but still.. that’s an imperfect happy ending if I’ve ever heard one. And it may shed a little poetic foreshadowing for what may happen with our youngest Schnee child here... maybe he won’t get out of this as unscathed as his sisters? Who knows?
Regardless, Weiss looks sad and even a little guilty when her mom starts drinking, and then Willow lets her in on a little news that would make her task a bit harder: Papa Schnee has been locking his computer as of late. But now her brilliance shines through, as Willow reveals she has set up surveillance cameras in the office and every other room of the mansion that Jacques doesn’t know about. And it’s very likely that even Watts wouldn’t know about them or to try and disable them. So as luck would have it, she has a video of Watts and Jacques meeting up to talk back in episode 4. Though Willow’s motivations for putting the cameras in aren’t that grand. She did this to keep her family safe, so they can keep track of the madman they call Father, in case Willow ever had to... well she doesn’t finish that sentence but I have a few guesses. If she wanted to escape like Weiss she could keep track of where he is so she can avoid him. If he ever started being more abusive and she needed proof to show the police. But instead of worrying Weiss with grim possibilities Mama Schnee worries herself with if Weiss has come back to stay, and she asks as much. Weiss firmly and confidently says she has not. And Willow is glad, tearfully proud that her daughter has found a life outside of her father’s tyranny. The two awkwardly avoid eye contact for a moment while the mother wipes her eyes. Willow then tells Weiss about a man coming by and hands over her own Scroll. She worries Jacques is involved in something worse than even he realizes. Not worried for him, obviously, but for everyone else who may be affected. Chief among those she worries about is Whitley, whom she prompts Weiss not to forget about. Weiss tries to argue that Whitley wants nothing to do with her... but Willow tips the whole perspective on its head. Why would he want anything to do with his sisters? They went off to academies and left him alone in the house with a diabolically controlling father and a mother too drunk and scared to stop him. It’s a little sad that she recognizes she’s part of the problem, but she isn’t wrong. She didn’t help much. We all hated Whitley so much, thinking he was a little brat who wanted to be just like his dad, but really he was just adapting to survive. The Schnees perfectly show the 4 types of fear reactions in how they handle Jacques; Weiss: Fight. Winter: Flight. Willow: Freeze. Whitley: Fawn. As Willow leaves the room, Weiss stares in curiosity at the video and wonders just who her father has gotten mixed up with.
Fittingly, we cut to Watts himself standing under an umbrella in the rain, on a rooftop in front of a holographic billboard. He’s scrolling through all the systems he can now control thanks to his deal with Jacques, and settles on the most dangerous option. With a tap of his thumb, all heating systems in Mantle shut off and the rain turns to snow. At first people seem a little entertained and delighted, a safe and surviving preschooler even calling to his mom in glee as he looks out his window. But I’m quite sure it’ll be a dangerous blizzard in no time. Watts means to freeze Mantle to death and frame it all on the “malevolent” city of Atlas that have been screwing over Mantle for a while already. 
Let it snow indeed...
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team-orgk · 5 years
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Team ORGK Post-Fall explained. Part 1: When it Falls.
As promised I am finally expanding upon what happens to Team ORGK during and after the Fall of Beacon. 
This part will mostly be focused on the events of Volume 3. Additional part will eventually be linked here: [But not right now]
Ozpin and Glynda’s stories don’t diverge from canon for a while, so things are as they are in the show until stated otherwise.
Robin and Kurrant didn’t originally plan on attending the Vytal festival; being preoccupied with other things, but after the events of Breached at the end of vol 2 Oz asks them if they both could come because things are getting serious.
It does take some time for them to finish things up where they were and get to Vale, so they miss the conversation It’s Brawl in the Family.
Robin shows up first and is actually able to have a conversation with James. I haven’t worked all the details of it yet, but it basically ends in an argument and both being frustrated at each other.
As a result of that, as well as not wanting to ‘be part of tutorial detail’ Robin skips out on the conversation with Pyrrah in Fall. Kurrant shows up that day but too late to head over to Beacon in time for the meeting. 
Oz let’s R&K have the night off and they’ll reconvene in the morning. They don’t really want deal with the crowds at Amity Colosseum, so they decide to go out to eat and watch the tournament. O&G are busy with work so can’t go but the team promises to all go out together once the work load of the tournament is over)
R&K get set up a restaurant & bar just in time for the start of the one on one finals of the tournament, more specifically, the match between Yang Xiao Long and Mercury Black. Things are going good and people are settling in for a night of watching tournament fights, that is until Yang seemingly attacks defenseless Mercury, injuring his leg. 
(Not sure about how long it is between the talk with Pyrrah and the Yang v Mercury match but it seems like the same day?)
The two are just as confused and concerned as everyone else, but their gut reaction isn’t to pin the blame on Beacon’s staff like everyone is seems to be. Robin is initially furious at the accusations that people are throwing out, but Kurrant; despite also being upset about them, reminds her that causing a scene would only cause more problems and reaffirm the point. They decide get a box for the food (no point in letting it go to waste) and heading back to Glynda’s city appartment (where she’s letting them stay while they’re in Vale).
Due to incident, Oz and Glyn have a lot of work they need to work through. The whole team sets up a conference call to keep the two company until they’re done.
They’re a little unsure of what to do next, both Oz and Glyn know Yang and know that she wouldn’t do something like, and she’s adamant about Mercury attacking her, but they and everyone else saw differently. And even if Yang was telling the truth, they can’t prove it was anything serious or that anything else would happen during the festival.
Ultimately they decide to continue on the side of caution. R&K station themselves on top of a building in the city, watching out over the edge of it to watch for Grimm spikes while keeping an eye on the progress of the tournament. This leads us up to the fight between Penny Polendina and Pyrrah Nikos.
At the tragic end of the fight and Cinder begins her speech, Robin and Kurrant immediately turn their attention outward and get ready to fight the waves of Grimm as they emerge from the trees. 
They aide in establishing the safe zone in Vale after fighting off the hordes of Grimm. Eventually the two are able to meet up with Glynda (as well as James and Qrow). Now the Vale is in a more manage situation, they agree to send Glynda and Qrow back to the tower to help Ozpin while the other stay to help keep the city safe and to ensure that whatever status Oz is in when they get to him, he can get it quickly and safely as possible.
(typed this part 3 times now, FML)
(So this next bit will need some explaining, and suspension of disbelief)
I have Oz’s semblance as Chronokinesis: speeding up/ slowing down time, he has another ability with that. He can disconnect himself from time and is untraceable unless you’re an ally atoned to his semblance. There are many drawbacks to this though, it taking a lot to even do this, being disconnected from time is dangerous for various reason, and he needs a tether to be able to come back.
(tired of typing this, ask questions for clarification)
(With that out of the way)
Oz vs Cinder: the build up is the end up to the end of 'Heroes and Monsters'. At first Oz tries to talk her down, saying that she can’t trust her, but Cinder isn’t listening to it and they fight, It gets to the point where Oz knows that if he continues he’ll be killed and will only buy everyone a few second at most. If it was only him affected he’d be fine with that, but he knows that if he dies his “curse” will move on to someone else, Weighing all the pros and cons, he decides the few seconds aren’t worth the risk and disconnects himself from time, leaving his coat (to act as “burnt remains”), his cane, and a pocket watch (his tether).
Back with Glynda and Qrow, they make their way to the tower and arrive in front of it just in time for Ruby’s silver eyes to go off at the top. Qrow, knowing that it’s her, is worried so Glynda tells him to go and check on her and she can handle going to the vault on her own.
Glynda hurries to the value (the elevators are out so she jumps down the shaft and slower her decent with her semblance when nearing the bottom). Getting to the end of the hallway, she confirms that Amber is dead and she finds Oz’s belongs. She is shocked and dismayed at first, thinking that Oz died in battle but then notices the pocket watch and the stage… aura about it. Dealing what Oz did,, she takes the watch and his cane and hurries back up to the surface.
She meets back up with Qrow, who had gotten Ruby, and they head to the last of the transports leaving Beacon, At this point Glynda gives Qrow Oz’s can. they want her forces to believe that Oz is dead, and the best way to do that is to have Qrow take the cane and look for the next incarnation. (I haven’t decided whether Qrow knows that Oz is alive or not)
Glynda also gets in contact with Robin and Kurrant so they can establish a safe house to take Oz time once the situation is more under control.
And with that I think I’m done with my vol 3 summary for team ORGK, where everyone is immediately after the fall I’ll cover in the next part.
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