Review RWBY Vol.7 “Ace Operatives”

What’s left of JNPR and the Ace-Ops begin their mission with their substantial upgrades thanks to the Atlas scientist Pietro, and completely new redesigns as shown from Vol.7’s most promotional material with Oscar left behind and entrusted with the Relic. While I’m glad to see Oscar and Yang question if Ruby made the right choice in lying to Ironwood, I also LOVE how Blake and Weiss were open-minded and supported her and that Yang, despite the questioning, was more concerned about Ruby and her choice than being angry at her.

Their first mission to make this satellite happen is to clear the launching point which is at a long-abandoned dust mine that had the unfortunate history of being part of a disaster, and heavily gives off some very uncomfortable vibes since the SDC logo is strongly present (a logo that was revealed to be branded on Adam’s face last season). But the dust crystals themselves will at least be beneficial to help in launching the satellite into space. As they delve deeper into the mines, Weiss gives a genuine apology for her family’s history of abuse against the Faunus towards Blake and her “complacency” in it. The Grimm they seemingly encounter during the exciting action sequences indeed give everyone one hell of a challenge, especially a “Geist” Grimm which is a ghost-like entity that was somewhat introduced in Vol.4.

The character interactions, new weapons and the battles themselves are what steals the show within this episode and seeing the upgrades in action is quite entertaining to watch. Such as Blake’s weapon upgrade having gold markings on her Gambol shroud, while Yang’s new glove weapons that plant tiny yet powerful explosives on the target each time she lands a punch on them in rapid succession before standing back to detonate. It’s a badass moment that almost gave off some Fist of the North Star-like vibes. Also the Ace-Ops have their moment to shine and display a professional level of teamwork before our protagonists as they show what each of them bring to the table with their team leader Clover having some interesting moments with Qrow as their semblance powers in a strange way, cancel each other out (Qrow has bad luck powers while Clover has good luck). The episode ends on a cliffhanger when we cut to Tyrian meeting the activist who told Team RWBY about Robyn Hill and let’s just say to anyone who isn’t part of Salem’s evil council, Tyrian considers a sadistic plaything…

Our Take

This was a great way to introduce the new looks for almost everyone within Team RWBY and Jaune’s team in a way that makes sense. The Ace-Ops with the names of each member revealed to be Clover, Marrow, Harriet, Elm, and Vine. I really enjoyed watching these five’s comradery and how perfectly in sync as they work & function like a team that gets things done and trusts each other. On the other hand, I also noticed that while I can understand that they’re working with new people in the form of RWBY and JNR, the Ace-Ops at first, come off as excited to be working with them, yet throughout this episode, they either seemed to undermine or dismiss their capabilities. It might be just how arrogant most upper-class people are in Atlas, but something just feels off about that…

Aside from a random moment of implied romantic tension between Blake & Yang with Yang complimenting Blake’s new hairstyle. I have a feeling that things are going to go wrong sooner rather than later. Working alongside these highly trained elite Huntsmen/Huntresses in a series of actual missions as part of an organized plan is a bit too good to be true. Also, with two dangerous members of Salem’s evil council still in Mantle (Tyrian and Dr.Watts) and the fact Ruby felt the need to still withhold the truth from Ironwood which may or may not come back to bite their asses, it compels me to think something’s up but it remains to be seen what that will entail in later episodes.

Hopefully, we’ll find out what that is as the plot continues to progress.