Thread by @CJ_Black0

#CJs2Cents: #RWBYSpoilers
#RWBY8 #RWBY
Kerry, congratulations. You've all managed to get me legitimately hyped for what's to come in this volume. Do keep up the good work, as this is yet another episode where I find far more good in it than bad. So let's get the bad out first.

First, let's cover the biggest negative of this volume, Cinder's backstory. Don't get me wrong, it's a solid backstory but it's literally just a dark Cinderella story that takes place in a hotel. This was NOT worth the 6-7 years of anticipation and feels pretty lackluster.

The next negative would have to be the major worldbuilding issue we get from Cinder's mentor, where he says at 17, she'll be able to take the "Huntsmen Exam". I'm sorry, what? So this backstory & Maria basically disvalue the existence of the academies completely, huh?

Who needs to go to an academy for 4 years and train in the art of combat, learn teamwork and cooperation, study grimm and learn to help people in real life scenarios? Who needs all that when you can just fight good?

By the gods, the academies really are just macguffin holders...

And then there's Hazel, who just continues to be the biggest disappointment in Salem's ranks. So this episode, it pretty much confirms his sister was killed by a grimm & that his beef with Oz is because he made his sister fight back against what he sees as the inevitable.

While admittedly this is a potentially good motif for an antagonist, I just feel it wasn't really executed that well with his character. And speaking of character, I really am not a fan of how aggressively villainous/bad the Aces are, after we saw their good & bad sides in V7.

Correction, I should've used the word "antagonistic" instead of villainous, as the Aces are trying to do what they think is best for the greater good but they make them now look like such unsympathetic assholes to everyone who's not down with their side, especially Harriet & Elm.

#CJs2Cents: #RWBYSpoilers #RWBY8 #RWBY
Okay, now that we've gone over the negatives of this episode, let's shift gears towards the positives of this latest episode. And surprisingly, we've gotten back to back overall great episodes, from my end.

Starting us off, we have Cinder's backstory. Yes, I know I have this listed as one of the negatives and for good reason. However, I can say that the one positive thing about this backstory is that it gives much needed context into Cinder's character, within the actual show.

Also, another positive thing I like about Cinder's backstory is that it makes Cinder's life seem almost like a tragedy when you look at it. From when she was an orphan to her servitude of Salem; she's been powerless, given hope for a better life, and then left to suffer again.

Wrapping up the positives from Cinder's backstory, I did find it beautifully sad that in her tragedy of a life, Cinder did at least have one person who truly and genuinely loved her. And no Emerald doesn't count since the poor idiot's suffering severe manipulation from Cinder.

Moving on from the backstory, we have the return of Remnant's #1 bad boy, Mercury Black and I'm liking this new characterization for our RWBY Rock Lee. It seems like he's taken Tyrian's words to heart because he's ditched Cinder and is now fully on team Salem.

Mercury always the one henchman of Cinder who seemed to just go with her because it was in his best interest rather than being forced into serving her or through manipulation, so he was never "scared" or loyal to her. But here, he's straight talking to her like he's her equal.

Also pay attention to when Salem calls her forces to her, Mercury is kneeling alongside the other lieutenants and not the assets like Emerald and Neo. It would seem that Salem sees great potential in Mercury and wants to capitalize on it. Sorry Arthur, you've been replaced. 😂

I don't know if I've said this before in any of my thoughts for this volume, but most of the villains-the ones who aren't affiliated with Cinder-are coming off as legitimately threatening. Something they haven't been able to feel like in awhile, so it's greatly appreciated.

And wrapping up the positives of this episode, Salem has now initiated the attack on the kingdom of Atlas, Andy hopefully, the next episode will be showing us the attack in full swing and the begining of the end of the once great kingdom.

But yeah, those are my thoughts on today's episode. As you can tell, I thought it was pretty good and I'm actually getting excited to see what's next for this volume. And as for the writers, do keep up the good work and don't destroy this spark of hope you've created within me.