RWBY Volume Eight
(Spoiler Alert)
The RWBY season finale came with a content disclaimer slide in front of it and a suicide warning in the description. This made it very clear that things were going to get nasty. Volume 8 finished almost exactly how it began: with all hope lost. Team RWBY finished the Atlas arc in style, with the floating metropolis of Atlas becoming another Atlantis, friends dying, and our heroes plunging to an unknown realm. Although Volume 8 was not the best RWBY season, it was the most traumatic since Beacon died in Volume 3.
Following the chain of events that occurred in Volume 7 where General Ironwood went insane as a result of Cinder's paranoia and, Salem's rival forces infiltrating his alleged impenetrable fortress and cutting Atlas off from the rest of the world, Ironwood had made a series of terrible and imprudent decisions that had progressively continued, such as throwing the folks of Mantle under a bus when Ironwood declared martial Law. Also, for better or worse, this has prompted him to battle against the very people who are supposed to be his comrades (Team RWBY) and try to do things his way.
Our heroes' greatest fears have finally come true in RWBY Volume 8: Salem has arrived, and the timing could not be worse for the split Kingdom of Atlas. Friends have become adversaries due to fear, while doubt threatens to fracture humanity's last allies. With the odds stacked against them by both Salem and Ironwood and the fate of Remnant on the line, it's up to team RWBY to make their move before it's too late.
The RWBY series has always been engrossed in moral and ethical issues. This has been the entire essence of the series, whether it is primary topics or simply ideological disagreement. The moral conflict has always been the show’s driving force, whether it was Weiss facing Blake in Volume 1 or character arcs like Yang and Raven's or the Schnee family as a whole. Volume 8 went back to it in ways we haven't seen since those all-too-early volumes, and it went back to it in a significant manner. It's not ideal by any means, but it's a start.
Since the beginning of RWBY, Rooster Teeth's animation has progressed significantly. The art style has improved from plain backdrops to magnificent and immersive environments that transport the viewer to Remnant. Mantle's design has an incredible amount of detail, allowing us to see how the conflict has ravaged the city and how terrible the situation is. The animation and attention to detail alone enhance the stakes of each scenario, especially in the early few episodes when Team RWBY and the Happy Huntresses were defending Mantle from Grimm raids.
The fight scenes are still incredible, and they've progressed from the clashes seen in the previous two volumes. This is in sharp contrast to the paused backgrounds in Volume 5's concluding fights. What was once mundane battles have evolved into full-fledged spectacles, such as the conflict in the vacuum between Team RWBY and Cinder while the inhabitants evacuated to Vacuo. The action was constantly obvious, making it simple to comprehend the fight's surroundings.
Another notable feature of this season was how the antagonists, particularly Hazel and Cinder, were written expertly. Hazel was underwritten in Volume 5 as a supposedly cool-and-collected henchman-turned-madman seeking vengeance on Ozpin, who is still trapped inside Oscar's body.
The motive was strange because Hazel's boss, Salem, had killed his sister inadvertently, but he blamed Ozpin for allowing her to pursue her dream of being a huntress. In Volume 5, the encounter between Hazel and Oscar was disappointing.
After Oscar plays into his grief at the loss of Gretchen, his sister, he begins to reconsider his mind. Hazel explains that he works for Salem because he couldn't kill her no matter how hard he tried, and he recognized that working for her was the best option.
Oscar's release of Jinn, the spirit of knowledge within the lamp, teaches Hazel that he is trustworthy. He aids him and his companions (Ren, Jaune, and Yang, who had come to save Oscar) in escaping Salem's lair. Desperately, he sets off a big explosion, temporarily devastating Salem and distracting her forces long enough for the gang to flee.
The show's voice cast is really impressive. Samantha Ireland as Nora, Aaron Dismuke as Oscar, and Jessica Nigri as Cinder are the three characters who stood out the most in this volume. With her performance as Nora, Ireland gives emotional depth to a typically light-hearted character, and her delivery during the exchange with Ren had me in tears.
Dismuke is fantastic as a character who wants to avoid merging with Ozpi while also getting Hazel to seek vengeance on Salem by exposing him to the truth. Oscar's layers provide Dismuke with a broad spectrum of emotions to convey, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of him in Volume 9.
While Volume 8 started strong with its lore and characters, by the second half, everything surrounding this central storyline had devolved into a random jumble of rushed conclusions, depriving other characters of the depth of investigation they deserve.
In a video interview after the end of volume 8, Kerry Shawcross acknowledged that a character's death that occurred off-screen in the last episode was intentional because they didn't want to give him any sort of redemption arc. It's the wrong way to treat your characters, and it's the wrong way to treat your fans in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to hurt and degrade them. I'm hoping that if Volume 9 is made, it makes up for everything that's happened and that it grows on the lore and characters in ways that we're supposed to care about.
Volume 8 is a mess with several obvious flaws and some good moments. The Volume's ending is rubbish. The writers could do a better seriously. I am not the only one who feels this way; most RWBY fans do. Hopefully, season 9 comes up with a better plot and story.
