Review: RWBY Vol.4 – Chapter 7 “Punished”

RoosterTeeth has a demented sense of humor during the holidays.

Overview:

The recurring theme of this episode as this title implies is the different ways people are “punished” and the consequences we often face with said “punishment”.

Because of the situation Oscar is in, Ozpin confirmed their souls are connected, and they now share all the same senses and memories. It’s also clear that Oscar, so far was just a seemingly normal kid before all this happened and it’s heavily implied that this voice in his head thing could’ve also happened to Ozpin when he was his age and views this as a punishment of sorts due to the heavy amounts of emotional weight and responsibility this all must be for him to accept.

Whatever happens to this kid, I hope he’ll be okay and be able to be his own person. Ozpin maybe powerful but it’s still Oscar’s body and his life he’s tied with.

I give the episode points for showing Weiss standing up against her father despite her punishment. Weiss is consistently getting some awesome development right now, and I love it! I have a feeling she’s going to find a way to take back her title as heiress and take down Jacques with or without the company’s help. Despite the big revelation of Whitley being the new heir, I refuse to believe he’s a douche-monkey like his father until we see him do something really terrible like animal cruelty. He’s young, and he’s likely being manipulated by Jacques, and knowing how both of his sisters are very opposed to Jacques’s views, I wouldn’t be surprised if Whitley soon gets the same treatment his sisters did when they were in line for the company.

With Weiss is no longer an heiress, It means that, right now, Atlas is incapable of change from their one-percenter ways. And Weiss is a prisoner in her own home, now. I really can’t fucking wait to see Weiss break out and give a big middle finger to Jacques. Seriously, this is like all most of us wanted for Weiss at this point to do since we learned about her dipshit father back in Volume 3 from Winter, We’re about to see Weiss finally doing what she needs to in order to stand up to him once and for all. Stick it to the Man Weiss!

It’s clear Qrow is definitely poisoned and this is a form of Punishment for Ruby for not keeping herself out of danger despite claiming she had everything under control. We did get foreshadowed glimpses of Qrow’s Aura being depleted. At this point, he has no way of regenerating while the poison is in his system, and that just means the poison’s going to run its course faster. Damn!

The only other good thing to come out of all of this aside from Weiss being motivated to escape is Tyrian’s stinger being gone and it’s clear Ruby just made an enemy for life in the process.

Part of me kinda suspected this would happen, Tyrian can’t possibly leave without doing at least some damage, or it would undercut him as a legitimate threat. Now even though he had to retreat he basically neutralized Qrow who secretly protected them, making their journey harder even without him hunting them. With the way it ended, It’s a nice indicator that Team RNJR is going to get some much-needed explanations, probably off-screen so we don’t have to rehash the “Maidens” thing from Volume 3.

I think one of the biggest developments this episode would have to be (despite this being addressed last season) is the change in maturity of the show with Tyrian calling Ruby a “Bitch” I really wasn’t expecting that either.

I genuinely had a lot to say about this episode and a number of people within the RWBY community all over Twitter, Tumblr and even Facebook suspected something would happen to Qrow when this episode was first announced, So all that’s left now is seeing some future development with Blake & Yang. Let’s hope they’ll get their shit together during these next 5 episodes.

I hope those of you are reading this all have a pleasant & safe New Year and Merry Christmas!