Review: RWBY Vol.7 “Gravity”

Right off the bat, a series of Versus matches begins amidst the chaos such as Ironwood Vs Watts, and boy did we not expect this one… It’s easily one of the best fights so far in Vol.7 as the two have an intense and tension-fueled battle inside the long-abandoned coliseum filled with traps, and random environmental and even gravitational changes that Watts seems to trigger mid-battle to almost gain an upper-hand but let’s just say Ironwood manages to impress in terms of fortitude. The 3-on-1 battle between Clover, Qrow, and Robyn vs Tyrian was equally well-done but slightly shorter. As for what happens next, however, we can assume that all good things don’t exactly last for the proceedings of this volume when Ironwood arrives at his office recovering from a very intense injury and see a familiar object on his desk that completely changes his mood. As Team RWBY and the Ace-Ops report back to Ironwood, Jaune’s Team stays to check out an unrelated incident, while Winter gets a call to look out for the Winter Maiden with Penny after evacuating people to safety, it’s here when shit really goes down…

And wouldn’t you know it? Ironwood’s fear & paranoia has gotten the better of him, and every lie that Team Rwby has told and every essential piece of important information they withheld from him now has now come back to bite them on their asses as a Black Queen chess-piece that was planted on Ironwood’s desk indicates that Cinder and by-extension Salem has gotten the upper-hand in some form. While they were out protecting the people of Mantle, their outside communication defenses have been cut-off to keep them from anticipating any future attacks, and the Ramifications of RWBY’s previous actions including Yang & Blake telling Robyn about the Amity project before he was unsure she could be trusted at the time, may have potentially culminated to this and to put it mildly, this wave of truth-bombs hits hard for everyone involved, but to further add to the distress and mistrust that Ironwood has, a ghostly message from Salem shows up to offer Ironwood a chance to give up both Relics to her with the promise that his people would be spared but being the stubborn bastard that he is, Ironwood stands is ground while Salem states that she’s going to show up at Mantle’s doorstep unannounced.

It’s also here when Ruby has some words to say to this immortal monstrosity of a woman but even that doesn’t exactly go well when Salem herself reveals a small truth about Ruby’s long-dead mother Summer Rose. After her cryptic message, while messing Ruby’s silver-eyes, Ironwood decides to do the one unthinkable thing he never wanted to do to stop Salem: declare “Martial Law”. And since Team RWBY isn’t on board with his new plan, Ironwood orders the Ace-Ops to confiscate both relics, give Winter the order to forcibly take the Winter Maiden powers, and enact a plan to send everyone within Atlas off to space away from Salem’s hands which was a plan Ozpin had in the past (with the claim that the people of Atlas will be protected by an artificial atmosphere in space) while leaving Mantle to die. But to me, this makes Ironwood’s demands for absolute honesty and loyalty all the more hypocritical when they figure out that Ironwood publically lied about the Amity Tower being finished for the sake of getting Watts out in the open. As Ruby tries to warn everyone via-scroll about Ironwood’s crazy plan, she’s abruptly cut-off but Ironwood knows that Team RWBY won’t just stand there and do nothing. So before exiting his office, he gives the Ace Ops the order to arrest them. And the episode ends on a note of uncertainty as Jaune discovers that Oscar is missing (presumably kidnapped by Neo) Robyn & Qrow are left to wonder what Clover’s reaction is to hearing Ruby’s message while Penny & Winter also hear the message as they enter the hospital for the Winter Maiden.

Our Take

There were some major positives in this episode, namely the fight-scenes, but the majority of this episode was mainly the drama of the good-guys fighting amongst themselves for some things that may or may not have been warranted. It feels reminiscent of the Antisocial Pathologies episode of Young Justice because, from a storytelling standpoint, this is how you properly convey how such a string of dishonesty and lack of communication can slowly erode whatever relationship you have in general. While Salem is an upper-tier evil that everyone can agree is worth stopping, Ironwood’s current attitude and the decisions he’s aiming to make are for once totally in the wrong on a monumental scale. He’s arguably doing what he thinks is right, but anyone with a calm mind could see that his paranoia may have indirectly gotten the better of him as he’s dividing the very people who are trying to stop her just like she wants, the phrase “divide & conquer” springs to mind.

Honestly, even if Ruby and Oscar hadn’t previously revealed the truth at this point or did so from the start… Ironwood would have reacted the same. It wasn’t Salem being immortal that set him off. It was Salem outwitting him. It was finding out that he played right into her monstrous hands. None of that was provoked by how god-like she is. He still would’ve gone bat shit crazy over the mere sight of that damn chess piece. He’d have still turned on RWBY when they protested against his irrational decision. And that’s because he’s so fixated on believing he’s the only one who can stop Salem. Sure, team, RWBY’s decisions weren’t perfect either, but they were nowhere near as catastrophic as Ironwood’s, but they didn’t cause the current problems. Those are all due to Ironwood’s savior complex, as well as his strict militant, tendencies, and detachment from the people who are supposed to matter. When you break it down, this is Ironwood extremely overreacting to the situation which still remains an ongoing character-flaw that he can’t seem to fix and this was long before Team RWBY came to Atlas.

We’re now down to two episodes, so unless Ironwood’s crazy plan is somehow stopped, this may very well just cost him everything.