Review: RWBY Vol.8 “Strings”

Overview (Spoilers Below)


While Team-B lead by Yang attempts to rescue Oscar after being kidnapped by what could possibly be the most advanced Grimm they’ve ever encountered, Team-A lead by Ruby proceeds to infiltrate the Atlas Base in an effort to get their plan in sending the Amity Tower into orbit, and fortunately for them, Ironwood didn’t think to remove Peitro’s security clearance. Within a separate subplot that ties back with the last episode, Dr.Watts the very same asshole that Ironwood kicked the ass of in Volume 7 is now being forced to Hack into Penny but does this arrogant douche monkey really think Watts isn’t going to betray him somehow? Although, I do wonder if the chance to fuck with Pietro’s creation (Penny) outweighs his loyalty to Salem, but the point is that Ironwood can’t be sure of that either.



If anything, at least Ironwood is smart enough to keep Watts under continuous guard. We’re even left to assume that he tortured Watts’ ass before this when Ironwood later puts his hand on Watts’ shoulders and says to him, “I’d hate for us to have to try motivating you, again.” Of course things don’t completely go as planned when the alarms go off and decide to quickly accomplish their mission where we learn something new about the functionality of Penny and her connection to her creator/father Pietro which may raise some red flags in future episodes given the pieces that the audience is slowly putting together.

 

At the same time this is going on, Nora has a heart to heart talk with Blake & Weiss about some codependency issues. It’s easily one of the highlights of this episode where we see another side of  Nora outside of her outgoing wacky self and gives her the breathing room to vent out her own issues to her teammates regarding the struggle to have her own sense of identity and the lack of communication she currently facing with Ren. Pietro later reveals a series of other things that may come into play later involving Penny’s connection to the Amity tower, but as Penny attempts to return to Pietro, the rest of Ruby’s Team predictably face resistance with what’s left of the Ace Ops lead by Harriet whom after failing to come to any sort of rational agreement, attempt to capture Penny while trapping the rest in an energy field which leads to Nora doing something unthinkably awesome which hopefully won’t have devastating consequences later in the plot. After they manage to escape, Penny decides to stick with Pietro with the promise that her and Ruby will see each other again despite Penny feeling uncertainty in all of this. But the episode ends with some foreboding implications when the Atlas guards deliver something to Ironwood & Watts they extracted during their Penny Battle…




Our Take

The title itself “Strings” seems a bit on the nose with the Pinocchio allegories this time around as there were no strings on Pinocchio, and Penny’s character-arc has always been about her gaining the ability to define herself as a real girl and proclaim her independence. Based on observation, Penny has grown so much, but others still want to control her (Ironwood, Cinder…). I think they’ll definitely try, but it remains to be see what the outcome could be in future episodes. Also am I the only one who thinks it’s strange for these assholes from the Ace Ops are still working for Ironwood? They are still working with the guy who helped start this whole mess who’s recently done some despicable things before their eyes. At what point will them and Winter realize their boss has gone batshit crazy?

We do get several revealing character moments such as Nora having to struggle with her own sense of identity without Ren in her life, it’s an interesting conversation that gives Nora the introspection she needs to grow as an individual while addressing some of her own issues with Ren whom himself was up until volume 7 a very quiet reserved individual who rarely emoted about anything. It’s clear they’re are both having problems with their individuality, and it seems like a big part of this volume’s theme in combination with the other characters dealing with their own shit in some way.

Overall I thought the whole storming the military base would be longer than one episode, but now new events are set in motion that will put everyone to the test and hopefully if they can get their heads out of their asses, they’ll most likely barge into Salem’s base and hopefully save Oscar after both teams achieve their separate goals.