RWBY V8 C6

## Plot

This episode starts by showing us Cinder's backstory. I think Jessica Nigri is a phenomenal voice actress, but she doesn't even try to sound like a child. Her performance in this episode is still amazing in spite of that, and she sounds better as a teenager. Also, why is it that in fantasy and action adventure shows, movies, books, etc., social services like CPS and therapy are almost always nonexistent? A young Cinder is shown scrubbing the floor of what looks like a barn, and crying. It seems to be a poorly run orphanage, or a place where criminals sell children to people. Although we don't see much of the area, I'm guessing that it's somewhere in Mistral. Some boys were allowed to have fun and pick on Cinder, and she was dismissed if she tried to fight back. A woman did eventually adopt her, and brought her to the luxurious hotel she owned, the Glass Unicorn. It looks like it's in Atlas, judging by the background. The woman had two daughters. They treated Cinder terribly, and she had to do all the work. The "stepsisters" were needlessly cruel to her. She had to resort to eating scraps of food that the patrons didn't finish. A new, but extremely short song plays as she works, and when it stops, she trips and accidentally breaks some dishes. *Clean the linens Sweep the floors Shut your mouth And do your chores Scrub the dishes in the sink No one said that you should think Shine the silver, wash the clothes And when you're finished Darn the socks, draw my bath Fetch my slippers, fill my glass And rub my feet Hurry up, you're so slow You're no good, I hope you know That your life is of no use And the truth is that no one's ever loved you* While angrily scrubbing the floors, she stops and notices a Huntsman show off a sword to some other guests. The stepsisters drag in mud to antagonize her even more. Her anger activates her Semblance, Scorching Caress, which lets her super heat things. When she heated up the brush and threw it, it made some sort of steam explosion. The woman, referred to in the credits as Madame, punishes her… By using a remote control to shock her with a necklace she's wearing that has lightning dust in it. She tells Cinder to remember her place, and has her say the whole "Without you, I am nothing" bit. Someone, obviously her, later took the Huntsman's sword. He found her in her sorry excuse of a bedroom, and when she threw the sword at him, he easily deflected it with his other weapons, which look a bit like maces. He threw them down and told her that he wasn't there to hurt her. The credits reveal that his name is Rhodes. His Semblance is the ability to turn his skin into metal, which is a reference to the Marvel superhero Colossus, which in turn also makes him a reference to the Colossus of Rhodes, an ancient statue of the Greek sun god Helios that collapsed during the earthquake of 226 B.C.E., and parts of it were later sold off by invaders eight centuries later. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Anyways, when Cinder tried to attack him with one of his weapons, he easily caught it in his metal hand. He's seen her around, and he knows the way she's being treated isn't fair, but hurting the people who are abusing her isn't going to make her life any better. She'd be put in jail for assault or murder, and at best would be sent back to that sorry excuse of an orphanage. She could run, but then she'd be running for the rest of her life. Or, she could find another way to handle it. Honestly, running away or getting emancipated sounds like the better option at this point. She starts crying again. Rhodes can do whatever he wants and go wherever he wants. He asks her how old she is. She's ten, which means he has seven years to get her ready for the Huntsman exam. Or he could at least *try* and arrest the obviously abusive mother, or one of them could just take off and break the necklace she's wearing. Sure, Madame will probably just get a new one, but still. A temporary reprieve is better than none at all. Or maybe he could even take her with him, at least once she gets better at fighting. Once she's 17, she can apply to be a Huntress, and she won't need her guardian's permission. They train in secret for several years whenever he stays at the hotel, and he even gives her one of his swords. One night though, her stepsisters saw that she had a weapon, and told their mother. About twenty minutes later, Rhodes entered the hotel, but no one was in the lobby. He heard something from Cinder's room. There, he saw that the stepsisters were dead, and watched in horror as Cinder also killed her "adoptive mother", despite trying to shock her with the necklace. She thought she didn't have to run now because they were dead, but Rhodes told her that's all she'll ever do, and he takes out his weapons to bring her in. Her expression switches from a broken smile to one of sadness and hurt at the "betrayal", and then anger. Trust goes both ways. It's like glass: Hard to make, but easy to shatter. Unlike the classic story, this girl didn't demonstrate patience and wait for her fairy tale ending. That being said, she shouldn't *have* to, she was a child in an abusive environment; no one should just "wait" to age out of and escape a relationship like that. I knew someone who did that! And I didn't do or say anything. And now I have to live with that guilt and regret for the rest of my life. From what I can tell though, she's doing much better now. In the background, bells toll as the clock strikes midnight, and they fight each other as a snippet of a different song plays. It's called "Awake" by Ok Goodnight, a metal band that Casey Lee Williams provides the vocals for. They also worked on the music for volume 9. This song came out as part of an EP, or extended play, one month before this episode originally aired. An extended play is basically a mini-album. The bit we hear Casey sing is part of the breakdown, which is when various instruments have solo parts (breaks). *Silence fuels the deadly cries Ripped apart by knives in lovers' lies Curse my innocence goodbye Take my hand then take my life* Rhodes tried turning his skin into metal, but then Cinder used her Semblance to super heat it. She threw a bag at him, which was full of a white ingredient like sugar or flour, and she used the distraction to take his other sword. She broke his Aura, and then he broke hers. He thought he had knocked her out. When he dropped his weapons and approached her though, she stabbed and killed him. She takes off the necklace, which reveals a scar that almost all of her outfits cover, barring only her spy one in volume 2, her Vytal Festival one in volume 3, and her volume 6 disguise. Cinder has had *so many* outfits. She sheds a final tear as she looks at the broken moon. A broken moon for a broken girl. However, as we know, she merely traded in one abusive relationship for another, and one shock collar for another. Does Cinder deserve abuse for what she's done? No, that's victim blaming, stop that. Does her backstory excuse what she's done? Again, no, that's taking things too far in the other direction, like with Harumi in the series finale of Ninjago. She's in a different abusive relationship now, but she still abuses Emerald, not to mention all the terrible things she's done to try and accomplish her own goals, as well as Salem's. Her backstory simply gives context to her actions. It's meant to explain the why behind the aforementioned actions, words, behaviors, etc. I know a lot of people were disappointed because her backstory was basically the first part of the classic Cinderella story with a twist or two, and I kind of agree, but I also kind of don't. Don't get me wrong, it *was* almost a direct copy and paste of the Cinderella/Rhodopis story. Rhodopis is the earliest known variant of the Cinderella story, and the name also has similarities to Rhodes, probably because they're both Greek in origin. Lots of famous stories are stolen from earlier sources. *Steal Like An Artist*, baby! Speaking of which, that book also said that the actual sequel to something will almost always suck in comparison to the sequel in our minds, and I honestly think that the same thing applies to RWBY, and probably many other franchises as well. There are so many characters with so many different weapons, Semblances, and character inspirations, but for obvious reasons, CRWBY can't focus on all of them and give them all a super detailed backstory and a satisfying character arc that answers all of our questions, at least right away, in an organic and natural way that doesn't seem forced or out of place in comparison to the rest of the story, so we the fans can potentially have *years* to come up with our own theories and stories, and we're obviously pretty upset when we're wrong. Cough, Adam, cough cough. This is why fan fiction exists. This isn't exactly a Tolkien amount of unnecessary but possibly still interesting details, lore, and world building. While I wasn't disappointed by Cinder's backstory, I wasn't exactly blown away either. I wish this whole episode, or at least most of it, had been about her backstory, instead of just the first half of it. Then the story could've been expanded on a lot more than it was. We still don't know how she first met and agreed to work for Salem. Speaking of which, the parallels between her, Salem, Emerald, and Mercury's backstories are insane. All of the problems were basically caused by abusive parental figures, poor coping mechanisms, and a lack of therapy. Like Cass from Tangled. In the present, she wakes up on the Grimm whale. Emerald is glad that she's okay. Cinder is upset that she failed, and that Emerald brought her back here. She says that Cinder was hurt and she was just trying to help. That kind of reminds me of Kit rescuing Surge from the heroes and taking her back to their old room in Starline's lab because he didn't know where else to go, not knowing that it only makes Surge's hallucinations and unstable mind even worse because of the awful memories. That's from the IDW run of the *Sonic the Hedgehog* comic book series. Mercury enters and tells them that Cinder's had enough help. She went against Salem, so Emerald should be careful who she backs. She says that Cinder's hunch about Amity was right, and they could've succeeded if they had support. Mercury once again tells her to stop protecting Cinder. She doesn't care about her. Cinder gets angry and tells them both to leave. She'll let them know when they're needed next. However, Mercury tells her that he doesn't follow her orders anymore. He's basically been promoted and is now her equal. Salem has other plans for him. She wants everyone on the bridge. Something big is about to happen. Meanwhile, Ozpin tells Oscar that this is his burden to bear. Hazel's grudge is with him. Oscar still refuses to switch, because he can tell that Hazel is holding back with him. Oscar, sweetie, your appearance suggests otherwise. Ozpin says he understands, but Oscar has done so much already. The least he can do is give him a break and try to get them out of here. However, Oscar says they can't leave yet. This is their chance. Salem knows she can't take on the whole world at once. She has her followers work their way in, sabotaging them from the inside, so maybe they should do the same. Hazel enters, and asks Oscar to tell him what he needs to know, and he'll be done. He doesn't need to fight in this war. However, Ozpin coming out enrages him. He thinks he's a coward who let Oscar suffer in his place. Ozpin knows how Hazel sees him, but asks him why he follows someone like Salem instead of stopping her. He thinks she's a force of nature that can't be stopped, like Leo and Raven. Ozpin sends children to their deaths for a cause that he knows has no victory or end. He says that someone has to try. Salem isn't a force of nature, because she can be fought… unless she brings the relics together. Hazel actually seems to believe him, or at least consider what he's saying. Unfortunately, Salem interrupts them. On the bridge, she tells everyone that Tyrian has heard from Watts. Despite being held in captivity, he's worked with Ironwood to gain some control over the Winter Maiden. He's still useful after all. And then Salem tortures Cinder by causing her Grimm arm to be in immense pain, for disobeying her specific instructions, only to fail again. Cinder has flashbacks to being tortured with the necklace. However, Salem stops and then claims that it's all her fault. Cinder has fought her whole life for what she wants, and Salem was holding her back, instead of lifting her up. She deserves so much more than what she's given her. Salem instructs her to go to Atlas and recover Watts, who will lead her to Penny. Whether she or the Hound gets to her first, she'll finally have the Winter Maiden's power, and Salem will have the staff. Ozpin tries to tell them that giving her the relics will bring about the end of the world, but Salem tells him that he's too late. She has more experience when it comes to manipulating others into being loyal to her. Unlike the stepmother and sisters, she did what abusers in real life do: Apologized for what she did and cared about what Cinder wanted, which was better than she was being treated before. These stages are known as reconciliation and calm in the cycle of abuse. With Cinder's "family", it was just incident after incident, which is probably why she eventually snapped and killed them. This difference means that she sadly doesn't make the connection that Salem is honestly no better than them, and she should leave her ASAP, because at the end of the day she only cares about herself and her own goals. Winter tells the bickering Ace Ops to shut up and actually act like Atlas elite. Marrow tells her that they're picking up an open comms broadcast. It's Jaune, trying to warn someone about the large mass of Grimm heading straight for Mantle. They land their ship next to him, Yang, and Ren on their hover bike. Yang isn't exactly thrilled to see them again. Jaune says they need to hurry, and is incredulous when Harriet asks him where Penny is. People are in danger, and Harriet just says they're in danger because the kids are acting selfish. Before she can continue, a series of large booms occur. They're like earthquakes. The people in Mantle and the crater can feel them now. However, the Grimm river instead launches upwards towards Atlas. It breaks through the hard light dust shield, and the ooze lands on the underside of Atlas. Centinels are formed and take out two hard light dust shield emitters, as everyone watches on in horror. When the shields go down, the Grimm whale lands on Atlas. When it opens its mouth, different kinds of Grimm are formed in the ooze and the episode ends. So, am I the only one who caught that Ironwood's first line in the previous episode was "It's time", which is the same as Salem's last line, and the last line overall, in this episode, plus its description? I just think it's neat.