Review: RwBy “Battle of Beacon”

For a longer more detailed version of the previous episode review of “PVP” Click here. but for a shorter recap, The match between Pyrrha and Penny began, with both of their respective headmasters observing this time. Meanwhile, Ruby attempts to flee from Mercury, but he prevents her from doing so. During the match, Emerald casts her Semblance on Pyrrha, causing her to hallucinate Penny summoning hundreds of her swords. Pyrrha then uses her Semblance to deflect them all, but the wires attached to the swords start to coil around Penny’s torso and arm, causing her to be brutally ripped apart. Everyone in the colosseum is horrified of the events that took place, and Cinder broadcasts a message saying in her own words “This is what happens when people place their trust in the Kingdoms and the Huntsmen Academies.” Meanwhile, massive hordes of Grimm start to make their way to Beacon. Neo breaks Torchwick out of the prison within the ship and he cripples The Atlas’ air-fleet. While this is going on The White Fang led by Adam also arrive with Grimm in tow.

And now Spoilers…

The episode begins when Weiss & Blake running out to witness the chaos of the Grimm attacking people within the coliseum while the Atlas Robo-Troopers are shooting at them and Weiss says to Blake “I don’t believe this”.

Blake uses her scroll/phone to contact Yang asking if she’s ok and Yang asks if she’s ok but They’re currently unable to contact Ruby but Blake assures Yang that she’s their leader and can hold her own. (It’s understandable given that her phone was destroyed in “PVP”)

Yang Runs out with her Dog Zwei and closes her fist thinking to herself that she can’t just leave the building and do nothing despite being under house-arrest and runs out.

Yang tells them to meet at the docks discovering that the White Fang have unleashed Grimm into the school and Blake is in shock and Yang tells her she has to go after hearing Grim growling in the background.

Weiss asks what they’re going to do and Blake says to her “We are going to docks and we’re doing our job” and uses her scroll to deploy their weapons close to their location. (A callback to “Dance Dance Infiltration as it reveals that Lockers in the world of RWBy have this ability to rocket themselves to the locker owners location.)

While all of this was going on, I was quick to Notice as they were contacting Yang, There’s Grimm chasing people 5 feet away from them screaming for help. Airships are crashing and burning, shit is on fire and these two are just fuckin standing there and deciding whether they should go to the docks or not but Priorities Right? 😛

We cut to the Nevermore smashing the barrier and Ruby understandably still distraught from Penny being ripped to pieces due to the shit that went down in “PVP”.

The security computer voice says the safety barriers are failing and everyone is still running in panic.

It then cuts to Phyrra understandably still in shock from accidentally killing Penny with her Magnetism Semblance.

While she’ still frozen in shock Jaune tries to yell for her to get out of the way and to move knowing that at some point the Nevermore is going to break loose.

As Jaune jumps out of the audience and runs towards her, The Nevermore finally breaks into the stadium and establishes how terrifying it is while sending a shockwave that blows Jaune away from Phyrra in the process.

And While Phyrra stands frozen in sheer terror, This happens…

Phyrra looks in shock at Ruby holding what’s left of one of Penny’s blades stabbing the Nevermore and then Ruby screams with a roaring conviction the words “LEAVE HER ALONE!”

The Nevermore circles around the Stadium before diving down for another attempt at eating Ruby & Phyrra and what happens next made me chuckle… The Weapon Lockers of the other Tournament people and Team JNPR all show up and all land on the Nevermore knocking it to the ground.

The lockers open and the weapons of their respective wielders are presented to them.

The Nevermore gets up and they swiftly take it out with Nora’s Hammer to it’s head.

And a Decapitation from both Sage and Yatsuhashi.

Phyrra gives her deepest apology over what’s happened but Ruby doesn’t hold her accountable for it and assures her “It’s not your fault.

Jaune walks towards her handing her her weapons and tells her that the whoever was on the Microphone giving that speech in “PVP” is the one responsible and to make sure they don’t do this to anyone else.

In a series of images it’s pretty clear that Jaune and the rest of the other teams don’t hold her accountable either in both an assuring and heartfelt way.

Ruby looks at all the teams together in what leads to one of the greatest group shots in the history of this show. 🙂

Out of nowhere a group of griffin-like Grimm Creatures proceed to attack while Ruby gets her Scythe weapon and Ruby asks Sun to use her Scroll deploying her weapon to her location and a griffin gets in the way.

Before being shot at by the two commentators/Beacon teachers Professor Port and Dr. Oobleck.

They tell all the students to leave the Stadium saying that they’d preffer to have them live to tell about this day in history. 🙂

Strangely enough while Ruby is leading the charge, Velvet is using her camera to take pictures. (Unless Velvet’s weapon is revealed we really don’t know why taking pictures is so damn important but I’m hoping it’ll actually explain in the upcoming last two episodes.)

Port laughs with glee at the monsters him & Oobleck are about to fight and it cuts to showing more civilians run out in panic and evacuating on safety ships away from the Floating Coliseum.

More White Fang Ships show up transporting Grimm to the Coliseum and one of them quickly dispatches two Atlas Robo-Troopers. (It’s a large Werewolf-like one this time.)

Ironwood then gazes at the beast with determination.

And in a small series of Gifs leads to one of the best fight scenes we’ve seen in a while.

Holy Fuck! I know Ironwood is a skilled military man (and a douche) but this is the first time we’ve seen this combative side of him. It’s heavily implied by fan theories all across the communities that his right arm is mechanical which explains why he hides his right hand with a glove but It always bothered me that he never wore another glove on his left hand to further conceal this.

Also his Gun has a badass design too.

All the Teams arrive in front of Ironwood and he Informs them about the White Fang & Grimm have invaded the city, The White Fang has Hijacked Beacon Academy and a “Vagabond” (Torchwick) has seized one of his ships and Ironwood Intends to “Take back the Skies.”

Ironwood then informs the students:”You have two choices: Defend your kingdom and your school, or save yourselves. Nobody will fault you if you leave…”

Ironwood goes on his ship to confront Torchwick and all the student teams and Sun tries to find a route to get to Beacon so they can clear it of any Grimm and it then cuts to Torchwick gleefully pressing random buttons on the airship he hijacked with Neo.

Neo hands Torchwick a scroll with the Black Queen Virus on it and attaches it to the ship’s access point and with a foreboding red color that glows.

It then cuts to Glynda & Qrow accompanied with the Atlas Robots to take out Grimm.

Without warning, The Atlas Robots are covered in a glowing red aura like the “Omega Force Soldiers” from  the game Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.

Suddenly the Robots Proceed to pull their guns on civilians, Glynda, Qrow, Blake and Weiss.

Of course This is exactly what went on in my head after seeing that scene.

As Ironwood is on his way towards Torchwick the Robot’s in the back of his ship activate and open fire on him.

The Ship then explodes and we’re left wondering whether or not he survived the whole thing. (There’s an unspoken rule in tv & film that nobody is truly dead unless you see or reveal their corpse.)

I’m more worried about what happens when he runs into Glynda and Qrow again after his robots were hijacked. Because we all know how Qrow feels about his robots.

But speaking of Qrow and Atlas, man winter would be really handy to have around right now.  A shame he publicly helped humiliate her and had her sent home early.

It cuts to all the students looking on in horror at Ironwood’s ship as they proceed to Beacon.

Ruby runs out and jumps back to the Coliseum Arena where her rocket propelled locker is and programs it using Sun’s scroll to launch her in the sky where she uses it to jump onto Torchwick’s Direction.

Ruby finally makes it to the Hijacked ship.

And Torchwick asks Neo to investigate what that loud thump is outside.

We cut back to Weiss taking out most of the last Robo-Troopers.

While at her opposite direction Blake takes out some White Fang Members.

Afterwards they see Killer Mechs & Giant Grimm and in two small gifs, they decide to split up with Weiss saying to Blake “Be Safe”.

After that we cut to Blake while running in the streets discovers a familiar figure through the window killing a Atlas Trooper.

To her horror that It’s revealed that it’s Adam who is not only alive after the “Black Trailer” (She presumed he was Dead since he was planning to bomb a Train full of people when originally she thought it’d be just a heist.) but is Leading the Assault at Beacon and Creepily says the words to her “Hello my Darling!“

It then cuts to the rest of the supporting characters/teams Kicking some Grimm Ass.

Then the Camera Pans to Cinder and her Teen Brigade watching with glee at the destruction they’ve indirectly caused.

Emerald looking partially Sad while Cinder orders Mercury to capture footage of the Atlas Robo-Troopers they secretly programmed with their computer virus killing people during the Grimm attack (which of course happens entirely off camera).

Before jumping off the building she says to Mercury “Do Not miss what happens Next!”

We then cut to Ozpin watching the footage of the soldiers doing their best to fend off the Grimm & White Fang Attacks while innocent people are up on their roofs away from danger and stranded.

Ozpin decides to leave and takes his cane with him.

(Many Fans think it’s a sword of some kind but I hope we get to see him in action.)

He’s briefly shaken up but the loud noise of an explosion

It briefly cuts to Qrow and Glynda also feeling that shockwave with Glynda saying “No!” as if she knows exactly what’s happening.

Jaune hears it while the other Teams are taking on a giant Grimm.

And out of the Mountains White Claws and a Glowing Red Eye Appears.

The camera pans back to the Mountain and this happens…

As the Grimm Dragon flies by, It begins to drop black dots off it’s tail and when they land in the ground only produce more terrifying Grimm.

In a bad ass Moment, All the Teams come together to valiantly stand their ground.

There’s even a small cute moment where Jaune & Phyrra share eye contact and smile. 🙂

This is until Phyrra notices Ozpin and proceeds to walk towards his direction.

And Jaune decides to follow and tells Nora he’ll be back to find out what’s going on.

The Camera then cuts to Cinder who’s watching from a distance before it zooms in with her Giving a sinister glowing look with her eyes before it cuts to black.

We’re left to assume that Cinder is pretty smart for letting the Grimm push humanity/ Ozpin really to the point where she wouldn’t have to search for the fall maiden and the fall maiden would come straight to her.

Overview.

This was a great episode. Ruby jumping in to defend Pyrrha so adamantly, holding no ill will towards her. So the Dragon Grimm is pretty much a Queen Grimm by the looks of it. Finally get a confrontation between Adam and Blake, I hope Sun gets involved somehow, I don’t think Blake will be able to take on Adam by herself. Can’t wait to see the fight between Ruby and Neo. Ironic that the second to last episode last season it was Yang fighting Neo, now her sister is going to fight Neo in the second to last episode of this season. And it appears that Cinder is making her play to get the rest of the Fall powers.

Also, I think Jaune has finally moved past “useless” territory. The concern he showed for Pyrrha, trying to snap her out of her shock, vaulting over the seats to reach her as the Nevermore breaks in? That’s the type of person Jaune should be. I’m so glad we’re seeing him take charge.

And all of the teams vs. the Nevermore? Awesome. I’ve been wanting to see an inter-team battle with Grimm for awhile and we finally got it.

On to Torchwick, I love how he was just experimenting with the buttons on the ship’s control which was comedically handled, though it makes one wonder how he knew to steer the ship and fire a cannon like in episode 9. And him using the Queen Virus to infect the Robo Troopers? It honestly was to be expected. If it could be used to hack a coms tower, it can be used to hack robot soldiers. Though I am hoping Ironwood is alright being shot down by his creations like that.

When Ruby went to defend Pyrrha you can absolutely hear the pain, anger, and resolution at, “leave her alone!”

It was also very touching how Ruby and Pyrrha handled the situation. Pyrrha just sounded so broken apologizing to Ruby’s, “I know. But it wasn’t your fault,” is so in character of her and even heartfelt.

Now honestly, I feel like Weiss’ combat style has been lacking this volume, but episode 10 really made up for it. I love seeing her using her sigils to just dart around the field and wipe out enemies in a flash like that. Her and Blake teaming up like they did was great and I honestly hope we see them fight together again.

Though, they are at the docks where Yang said she would be. So, where is she?

Now, onto Blake and Adam.

The fact that Blake was so destroyed to finally see Adam taking part in all of this just tears me up inside because she just didn’t want to believe he was the one to orchestrated the White Fang attack, and now she’s seeing him with her own eyes in all of this bloodshed.

And Adam’s, “hello my darling,” was just so…wonderfully creepy. Something tells me there’s more to Adam and Blake’s past than meets the eye. And that music holy fuck, that classical version of “From Shadows” sounds sort of like a church organ which was foreboding & atmospheric.

Ruby did so great this episode despite the problems I had with her in “PVP”. But really though, all of the characters did really well. Im just glad all of the characters are getting what I like to call “Breathing Room”. (A Moment or sometimes an entire episode that’s devoted to giving all the supporting characters a chance to shine while the Main characters are absent which is something Dragonball Z would do just to build up Goku as their last line of defense when the other characters fail.)

I still think the most horrifying part is that Cinder is doing all of this just to attain second half of the Maiden powers… all the deaths and destruction are just byproducts of her primary yet-vague goal.

This kinda plays into a Fan Theory from Tumblr for how this volume will end. I think that Cinder has setup a Xanatos Gambit, so that no matter what happens, she wins. If the Grimm overwhelm Beacon and Vale, she wins since no one will be left alive to stop her. If the Hunters succeed in defending Vale from the Grimm/White Fang, she still wins because there’ll be no one available to defend Amber. (Assuming she’ll overpower Ozpin.)

Its like Rooster Teeth are saying “you think that cliffhanger is just a bit too intense?”
and then someone just goes “nah let’s make it even more intense”
“but they haven’t recovered from last week’s epis-”
“There will be no recovery!”

It’s hinted that Emerald seems to be having second thoughts about this whole plan now that she’s seeing mass genocide before her eyes, but that dick Mercury is still into it.

The Tumblr Fans already speculate that Emerald is beginning to have doubts about whether what she is doing is the right thing – I think her character is still salvageable, and able to turn to the good side. However, It’s clear that Mercury, Cinder, Roman, Adam, and Neo are all evil.

The moment Ironwood’s robot soldiers turned on everyone because of Cinder’s hacking my mind immediately went to “execute order 66” because that’s totally what happened.

One thing I also always thought was really cool in RWBY is how they barely re-use songs. There’s new music or a new rendition/remix of a previous song in every episode and incorporate leitmotifs in the new ones in a subtle way. It feels like the story is directing the music, rather than the music directing the story.

So that was a super Grimm at the end. It makes sense. No one really knew where all the Grimm were coming from so why not. Glynda sounded like she knew exactly what it was. Then at the end it’s like Cinder had a look of knowing she’d finally get to fight Pyrrha for the other half of Amber’s power.

I guess Dr. Oobleck and Professor Port have a kind of Legolas/Gimli relationship, which is awesome. If Ironwood’s revolver doesn’t expand into a giant axe, I will be sorely disappointed. And where the hell is Winter? Ruby better kick Neo’s ass off that ship and then kick Roman in the balls! Blake obviously made the right choice in leaving the White Fang when she did, seeing as Adam has no qualms in participating in Cinder’s schemes.

What’s easily one of the biggest plot-hole’s in this episode is Where the fuck is Taiyang and what’s up with Zwei?

In volume 2 we meet Zwei, in the episode “Field Trip”. He comes with a note from Taiyang stating: Dear girls, I’ve got to leave the island for a few days, so I’m sending Zwei to you to take care of. Enclosed is all the food you should need. Love you both, Taiyang.

So this means that wherever Taiyang is going it’s:

off of Patch
he’s going to be there for a few days
he can’t bring Zwei
We then get to see that Zwei is a very capable hunting dog in the following Mountain Glenn arc so I want to assume that whatever Taiyang was doing wasn’t a hunting mission because if not then why wouldn’t he take the dog?

Regardless of where he went, fast forward to episode 1 of volume 3; Round One. In the beginning we get to see mother talking to the grave of Summer Rose with her father and Zwei in the background. We know that chronologically this takes place after the first two seasons/semesters because of what Ruby talks about.

So Taiyang is back in Patch? If so, then why does Zwei show back up in the dorms in episode 4 of volume 3 lessons learned? In fact, he shows up in every other episode where we see the dorms after that even up to today’s episode.

My question is, if Taiyang is back if Patch then why didn’t he take the dog back? He only sent him to the girls because he was going to be away from home. If team RWBY still has the dog because Taiyang is gone then where is he now? Didn’t seeing him in Round One make it seem like e was back from wherever he had to go?

And as a final note: if Vale really has been calling all available hunters and huntresses to take on the rise of Grimm after the episode Fall then why hasn’t Taiyang answered the fucking call??

None of this is properly explained!

Hopefully we’ll see what happens next with Ruby Vs Neo, Phyrra possibly explaining to Jaune what’s been going on with her since the “Fall” Episode, Blake Vs Adam and the possibility of Yang Encountering Raven.

Who knows what will await us in the next episode. 😉