Review: RWBY Vol.8 “Amity”

Overview

Immediately after the events of Fault where both Team A and B are recuperating from their respective missions, we get to see the goings-on outside our protagonists in a series of character moments that leave quite a lasting impression within the narrative. For starters Maria and Pietro proceed to launch the Amity Tower as planned with Penny on board and even argue about Penny’s autonomy, and yet you can understand why Pietro would want to keep her away from possibly encountering Salem. And at first, things begin to go smoothly with the Launch, and later Ruby’s pre-recorded broadcast is shared across the world of Remnant asking for help while letting everyone know the existence of Salem, The Maidens, The Relics, and the fact Ironwood is batshit crazy and it’s a nice touch to see various RWBY cameos of supporting characters the longtime fans haven’t seen for quite some time all reacting to the news.



Cinder’s crew barges in and attempts to wreck Pietro’s shit in an effort to steal Penny’s Winter Maiden Powers at the Amity Tower which easily leads to two of the most entertaining action scenes in this episode in tandem as we see Penny Vs Cinder once more, while Maria despite being a small old woman, surprisingly delivers an unexpected ass-kicking against Neo. Of course, Emerald goes the extra mile and saves Cinder’s ass with Neo’s help and due to the damage left behind from their escape, Penny is left with no choice but to keep the Amity tower stable long enough to maintain the message.



We begin to see the machinations of Penny being hacked at play which is further indicated with Penny’s eyes changing to a bright red color. And In what seems like a tragic moment, Penny gives her final words to her creator/father before falling back into Remnant’s atmosphere on fire presumably landing back to Mantle. And since Winter Schnee is now in charge of the Ace-Op’s, Ironwood has ordered her and the remaining members to search for Penny once she crash-lands back on Mantle. While part of me saw this coming a mile away, Watts then begins to secretly set his small plan in motion with tools he smuggled with him before being dragged back to his cell which just proves the utter incompetence of the guards not bothering to check his pockets first, while the episode ends with Yang’s B-Team taking notice of the cracks beneath the ground and how far they stretch with an unpleasant surprise…




Our Take

I’m actually quite happy with the pacing. It’s only episode 5 and the Amity message is already out. Here I thought it would take the whole volume, but part of me feels like Ruby’s message may have consequences that she hasn’t considered, of course, this also means ANYTHING can happen at this point. The best thing about the past few episodes so far that they’ve shown Ironwood’s stubbornness being his downfall. If he didn’t have his head up his ass, he could’ve easily spared the time and resources to evacuate Mantle and launch Amity. But now he’s wasted even more time and resources by trying to do things his way instead of working with the heroes. His savior complex has convinced him so badly into thinking he’s the only one who can stop Salem that he’s left blind to the irony of it all. The character Cameo’s were nice and it was a lot to unpack during Ruby’s speech of uniting everyone, and I also hope they address Nora’s current condition than just showing her asleep and heavily bandaged up, but I’m at least glad they aren’t ignoring the consequences of everything that’s recently happened.

The only other downside of this episode was that Oscar didn’t appear. I’m also surprised that Winter Schnee wasn’t delegated to go after the heroes. So it wouldn’t surprise me if next episode, Pietro somehow gets in contact with Team-A or even Team-B and inform them of what happened to Penny while he’s stuck in outer space. Right now Penny has crash-landed somewhere out in Mantle after falling from the sky and I wonder who from the hero teams will go to help her unless the Ace-Ops get to her first? Not to mention that there is the big-ass discovery Yang made during the episode’s cliffhanger ending which leaves me wondering how is that even possible?

I’m also hoping that despite Emerald showing some iron-clad devotion in that particular moment of saving Cinder, that she’ll someday realize that Cinder doesn’t deserve this insane amount of loyalty. And unless she gets herself out of this one-sided partnership of boss/henchwoman, it is going to backfire on her in the worst way emotionally. I know we’re potentially supposed to learn more about Cinder’s past, but Why am I supposed to care about Cinder as an upper-tier threat when the only substantial victory she’s had against the kids was killing one of them in Volume 3? She just shows up and every time she just gets her ass kicked and yet, unfortunately, doesn’t die? How is anyone supposed to feel any tension, unless there’s an actual purpose for this string of failures from a narrative standpoint? I hoping this is later addressed while they slowly delve more into her origin story later this season.