RWBY V5 C12

## Plot

Just seconds after the previous episode, everyone is still in shock over what just happened. Jaune picks up his weapon and runs over to an unconscious Weiss. Oscar sees that Ruby has been knocked out. He gets mad and hits Leo hard enough to send him flying down the stairs and into Hazel. Rose Garden! Lionheart tells Hazel that Oscar is Ozpin. Upon hearing this, we see Hazel actually get angry for once. It's terrifying. He yells at Ozpin, saying that he'll die over and over again. He tears his coat and pulls out yellow Dust crystals. Salem talked about Dust and its various applications in the very first World of Remnant. While Cinder has previously sewn Dust into her clothing, Hazel stabs himself with the crystals here, infusing his arms with lightning Dust. Well, that probably explains the scars. Ozpin tells Oscar to run instead of fight, but he refuses. This leads to Qrow having to save him a few times. Cinder, Raven, and Vernal decide to head to the vault while they still have the upper hand. It turns out that the beautiful statue that reminded me of Pyrrha and had its own piece of concept art is significant after all: Once Leo's watch is inserted into it, it's revealed that it's the elevator that leads to the vault. It's significant for another reason, but that's volume 6 stuff. Foreshadowing! Yang is left wondering what to do, with both of her present teammates unconscious. Nora tells her to stop them. Before she can though, she's stopped by Emerald and Mercury. Jaune is trying to stop the bleeding while Ren takes Weiss's pulse. Oscar refuses to switch and let Ozpin fight for him. However, Ozpin says that this isn't his fight. Oscar asks why Hazel is so upset with them. Hazel yells that Ozpin killed her. Ozpin explains to Oscar that Hazel had a younger sister named Gretchen who enrolled at Beacon to become a Huntress. He was against her decision though, and she was killed while on a training mission. Hazel holds Ozpin responsible for the incident. Oscar asks Hazel if his sister knew the risks of being a Huntress. She made a choice to put others before herself, the same choice Oscar makes. Ozpin basically knocks Oscar out and forcibly takes control to fight Hazel. Weiss is barely breathing. Jaune begs her to stay with them, because they can't lose anyone else. He finally unlocks his Semblance. It looks like he uses his Aura to recharge someone else's, which heals their wounds. Cinder, Raven, and Vernal reach the vault. The tree looks gorgeous. Ozpin fights Hazel while Qrow fights Leo. Ozpin uses the fact that he's faster, smaller, and more agile to his advantage, getting a lot of hits in and performing all sorts of jumps and flips. Ruby finally regains consciousness and struggles to comprehend what's going on. Weiss will be okay. Jaune's new healing ability is stabilizing her. However, Yang is having trouble against Emerald and Mercury by herself, while Qrow and Ozpin are struggling with the combined efforts of Hazel and Lionheart. Ren will help them while Nora covers Jaune and Weiss. Ruby herself leaps back into battle to help Yang. Just before Vernal opens the vault and Raven plans to betray Cinder, she betrays them first. She freezes Raven and impales Vernal. From several feet away. With the left arm that she never uses in combat. The one that's very vulnerable to Ruby's silver eyes. The one that's always completely covered. And here we finally see why. It turns out that Cinder lost almost her entire left arm to Ruby's power, and it's been replaced… by a Grimm arm. It's just as disturbing as it sounds. She plans to take Vernal's Maiden powers for herself. Meanwhile, the ice encasing Raven is cracking. It's heavily implied that Cinder kills Vernal, but she can't find the power. Raven frees herself, and says that Cinder won't find it, because Vernal *isn't* the Spring Maiden. Raven herself is, with Vernal acting as a body double.

## Review

I remember first seeing the preview for this chapter, and then the chapter itself. Throughout it, two words kept popping into my head to summarize the events: Oh shit. No matter how bad things seem to get, RT keeps finding new ways for things to go from bad to worse for our heroes. I really hope that Blake finally shows up with some much needed reinforcements in the next episode. Until that time though, I'll simultaneously entertain and terrify myself by imagining what a battle between Cinder and Raven would look like, while hoping in vain that Vernal is still alive. I'm assuming that Hazel and Gretchen's names are a reference to their fairy tale inspiration, Hansel and Gretel. That's really clever. While I loved seeing Dust being used in a new way, it is a little hard to take seriously when it makes Hazel's voice artificially deeper and echo-y, and makes his muscles even larger. Luckily, they dropped it during their next and final depiction in volume 8. That being said, here I feel like, unintentionally or not, it makes an interesting metaphor or allegory or parallel to illicit drugs. Also, I just realized that Jaune's character arc for volumes 4 through 6 is dealing with his grief about Pyrrha's death, from a selfish, isolated, and self-destructive way and blaming himself and others like Qrow and Ozpin for it; to a way that actually allows him to heal and move on, but also never forget her and everything she did for him along the way, and acknowledging that he's not the only one who lost someone or something important to him at Beacon.