RWBY V7 C7

## Plot

Just like the previous two chapters, the Grimm attack was taken care of offscreen, just like the riots. On one hand, I know people who only or mostly watch RWBY just for the action are probably upset about this, but if you think about it, it makes sense. We're most likely going to spend this and the next volume in Atlas, and we're only halfway through this volume, whereas the Fall of Beacon started three quarters of the way through volume 3 with Pyrrha accidentally killing Penny, which was kick started a few chapters earlier by Yang looking like she attacked Mercury on purpose with no provocation. Framing Penny is clearly only the first big step. It's had such an impact that General Ironwood has ordered more troops and drones in Mantle than ever before, instituted a curfew, and has effectively told everyone to not feel negative emotions, and that they don't have the right to protest. And remember, the destruction of art and self-expression and attempting to control everyone's feelings was one of the reasons why the Great War happened. Watts uploaded fake footage of Penny killing everyone at the party. Military officials have told everyone that it's doctored, but many citizens are still calling for Penny to be deactivated. Since losing the election, Robyn and her band of Happy Huntresses have turned into full on vigilantes, ambushing the supply trucks for Amity and taking the supplies for Mantle instead. It's revealed that Fiona is alright. We learn that May's Semblance is the ability to create a force field that makes anyone and anything inside it invisible to anyone else, except Penny of course. It looks like Fiona's Semblance can make a small portal that can store anything inside a pocket dimension. Ironwood is extremely angry and stressed out by these turn of events. Several people from the party are dead, Penny is being framed for their murders, Jacques Schnee is sitting on the council, and Robyn Hill and her team have been hitting shipments for Amity Tower since election night. Atlas's suppliers in Mantle are refusing to sell them more provisions until their city is adequately repaired. With Robyn stealing the supplies they already have, the Amity project has stalled. Ruby wants to know if there's a way they can finish the tower, and Winter says they can declare martial law. Nora is horrified that Ironwood is even considering it. He asks her what's more important: Establishing global communications and uniting the world, or appeasing a few city blocks? She tells him it's not that trivial. He's not the one having to struggle. He says they've all had to make sacrifices for the greater good, but Nora yells that Mantle is bearing all of the burden. He can't just force people to fall in line. If he does, he'll just be trading all of these problems for the Grimm. Damn. I think that might just be Samantha Ireland's best performance yet. Ruby puts a hand on Nora's shoulder and agrees with her, saying that this kind of division is just playing right into Salem's hands. She confirms that she saw Tyrian at the party, and she's sure that he's the one framing Ironwood for all the murders. Tyrian Callows was accused of murders all across Anima. According to his report, his prison transport was attacked by Grimm and he was presumed dead, before he murdered the Huntsman who arrested him, after which he was declared missing. According to the report, Salem herself attacked his transport and freed him. Now that they have a suspect, they can tell the people. However, Clover says that telling everyone that a long lost homicidal maniac and serial killer is loose and they have no idea where he is might make things worse before they get better. Nora finally snaps and says that she's so sick of secrets. She wants to tell everyone about Amity and Salem, but Ironwood yells that they can't. If they tell everyone about Amity, they risk Salem's forces working to sabotage it. If they tell everyone about Salem, then they risk falling to the Grimm before they can reunite Remnant. Ironwood wants Amity Tower finished ***now***. He wants Robyn in custody. They can offer her a deal if she gets Mantle to cooperate. Anyone not trying to catch her will focus on Tyrian. Ironwood wants to know who he's working with, where he's hiding, what he's planning, and how that video of Penny got all over ***his*** kingdom. Clover and Winter stand at attention and say yes, sir, you've made yourself clear. Ruby and Nora are shocked when Ren does the same thing. Yang and Blake are hiding in the back of a supply truck. Clover thanks them for their help. They may all be split up between different trucks, but they need to be ready to act as one in case Robyn and her team take the bait. If their truck is hit, they have orders to pursue immediately. Everyone else will move in as fast as possible. Until then, they'll be going radio silent. Yang thinks they should've told Ironwood the truth about Salem before he put so much on the line for Amity. She trusts Ruby, but she thinks the general deserves to know what he's getting into. They all deserved to know the whole truth, but they had to learn it from Jinn. Blake points out that Ironwood is prone to overreacting. Yang says he didn't have a lot of good options, and Blake isn't sure that there are any good options left for any of them anymore. Keeping secrets, taking lives… It makes her wonder how far they'll have to go to keep doing the right thing. Yang assures her that they did what they had to do. She knows that, but next time she wants to make sure they don't have to go that far, and ambushing a Huntress who's just trying to help isn't an option she's thrilled about choosing. It's pretty clear that the two are finally talking about how they killed Adam, and I'm so glad that they both agreed that they had to do it, because there are a bunch of idiots online who seem to not know that self defense is a thing. Anyways, Yang says that maybe they shouldn't choose that option. Ruby and Weiss are visiting Penny at Pietro's lab. She's still confused and scared, and is unconscious while Pietro recovers her footage of the attack at the party. It should prove her innocence, but the damage has already been done. Maria is there too. It's revealed that Pietro also knows about Salem. She's still trying to divide them, and her associates are once again using Penny to do it, just like at the Vytal Festival. Exactly like how someone is once again using their own technology against them. They stole footage of Penny from her work all around Mantle through the surveillance network. If they're dealing with the same person who hacked into Atlas's forces at Beacon, then hacking into Mantle would be relatively simple. At least the rest of the kingdom is running on an upgraded network. Weiss asks how someone would get access to it. Only a few people have clearance, like Ironwood, the rest of the council, their cybersecurity and surveillance leads, and possibly a select few who oversee critical systems, like sewage or the heating grid. Weiss knows that the SDC runs a partnership with the heating grid. Something isn't right, but she's not sure what it is yet. Ruby asks Pietro how he's doing. It's revealed that Maria has been helping him with his work these past few weeks so he doesn't metaphorically collapse from exhaustion. Getting Amity Tower into the sky was already difficult, but now he can't stop thinking about what people want to do to his girl. Ruby suggests that he not worry so much, because even if the worst case scenario does happen, he can always reactivate Penny again. However, Pietro says that there's a reason she's the only one of her kind. When General Ironwood first challenged him and four other scientists to find the next breakthrough in defense technology, the others went into more obvious choices, but he always believed in looking inward for inspiration. He wanted a protector with a soul. Surprisingly, the general chose his idea over all the others. Weiss doesn't think it's that surprising, because he figured out how to create an artificial Aura. However, Pietro reveals that Penny's Aura is actually a piece of his own, which is why his health is so bad. Each time he rebuilds her, it takes a little more of his Aura, and he doesn't have enough to reactivate her again if she's destroyed. He puts a photo of himself and his colleagues back on the table, and it's revealed that one of them was Watts, who was probably jealous of him. Ruby promises to find whoever is responsible. May stops another truck. When Robyn opens the back doors though, she sees Blake and Yang with their hands up. She immediately tells the others to scatter and meet her back at the hideout while she runs away. Blake and Yang go after her and are forced to fight her. Blake finally uses an elemental clone again. She hasn't done that since volume 5, and she hasn't used a fire one since it debuted all the way back in volume 2. Robyn says it's going to take more than a couple of kids to stop her. Yang tells her that stopping the truck alerted the Ace Ops. They don't have long before they get there, so she has to hear them out now. Blake tells her that all of the supplies are for a new communications tower. She asks one of the girls to take her hand. Blake does and repeats what she just told her. Their hands glow green, which tells Robyn that they're telling the truth. That's what her Semblance is, and it's why she offered her hand to Clover back in chapter 5. She wonders why Ironwood would keep the new tower a secret. Blake tells her that he doesn't know who he can trust. Atlas isn't out to get anybody. The people murdering civilians in Mantle are just trying to make it look that way. And if they learned about Amity, they'd do everything they could to try and sabotage it. Robyn asks who's really behind all this, but the girls can't tell her. They're trusting her right now, and ask her to trust them that Amity Tower has to stay a secret until it's done. They hear the Ace Ops nearby, and Blake tells Robyn to run while they throw them off. Before she leaves, she tells Yang that she won't stop until she knows the whole truth. Meanwhile, Ironwood and Oscar are in the vault, which is beneath Atlas. Ironwood hoped that bringing Oscar down there might help jog some memories. This was all his idea after all. Including the part about using the Staff of Creation to lift Atlas off the ground. The public story is that they use gravity dust. With the staff, they have a constant, seemingly limitless source of power. It's been speculated that it could take them as high as they wanted, and it served as the inspiration for the Amity Tower. However, the staff can only be used for one purpose at a time, so they are using gravity dust to lift up and keep Amity in the sky. Oscar still can't believe that a part of him came up with all of this. Ironwood tells him that he'll get used to it, and eventually he won't be able to tell who's who anymore, unaware that that's Oscar's biggest fear: Losing his sense of self and identity and individuality because of Ozpin. After all, just because he accepted that it was going to happen in the previous volume doesn't mean that he's suddenly okay with it. Ironwood wishes he could ask Ozpin what he thought about all of this. Oscar can tell him what he personally thinks. The path he's heading down, where he's the only one with the answers, and where he does the thing he thinks is right no matter the cost, it's not going to take him anywhere good. He tells Oscar that nothing matters more than stopping Salem. However, Oscar thinks that some things do matter more, like keeping their humanity. It's what makes them different from her. Ironwood is worried that's Salem's greatest advantage though. Does she still feel fear? Does she ever hesitate? When she hit Beacon, even with all of Ironwood's ships and soldiers, he was still no match for her. He's never felt so helpless before, especially when she basically told him that she was there through the Black Queen virus that Watts developed. Oscar tells him that it's okay to be afraid, but he can't let that fear control him. Ironwood is determined not to end up like Lionheart. Oscar says that he still believes in him, but not just him, and he thinks the best thing he can do is sit down and talk with the people he's most afraid to. Ironwood tells him that he's starting to sound like Ozpin. When they leave, they run into Penny, as well as Winter. She hands the general a letter. For her father's first act as a councilman, he's inviting them all to dinner… so Ironwood can defend his own position on the council.

## Review

Okay, I'm loving this volume so far. At this rate, it might even end up being better in my book than volumes 3 and 6. However, all of the secrets that everyone is keeping from each other and the divides that are being created are giving me serious anxiety. First of all, it seems like Yang *still* hasn't told anyone about her mom being the real Spring Maiden, and while I understand that it doesn't matter at this point, I'm still upset with her for not being honest. We don't even know why she lied to anyone. Technically though, most people haven't lied so much as they haven't disclosed everything to each other. I think the only person who has outright lied so far has been Ozpin, claiming that he had a plan to defeat Salem when he didn't, and given everything that happened to him over thousands of lifetimes, I can understand why he lied. That doesn't make it okay, but still. I'm glad that Blake and Yang apparently told everyone about Adam. However, now it seems like they're going to keep their impromptu meeting with Robyn a secret. There's also Weiss seemingly not telling the others about the Winter Maiden and her sister, and Ruby telling Ironwood what Ozpin told them. I wonder if she, Ren, and Nora ever told the others about the possibility that someone besides Ozpin could destroy Salem? That's not really a secret, but they need to figure out a real plan instead of just stumbling forward blindly and doing what Ironwood says. Granted, I'm sure that Ruby was relieved to basically hand leadership over to an actual adult for once, but still, being an adult doesn't automatically mean that someone is well adjusted and knows what is best. Is it bad that I'm kind of hoping that all of these secrets get out at the same time, and everyone starts yelling and fighting with each other, and the only people who didn't lie or keep secrets (and are currently in a good headspace, unlike Ren, Nora, and Penny); Jaune, Oscar, and possibly Pietro and Maria; are the rational ones trying to keep everyone else calm and work on a real solution to everything, especially since Jaune and Oscar are good with strategy and tactics, Pietro is a brilliant scientist, and Maria is fairly wise, straightforward, and observant? Because that huge block of text is basically what I'm hoping will happen, in either this volume or the next one. What is it with me and my love of angst, trauma, and turmoil?