RWBY – Volume 3 Chapter 9
Penny is having a very bad day.
It’s safe to say that Cinder’s plan is in full swing now.
Grimm Situation
The showdown.
Following up on the previous chapter’s cliffhanger, it turns out Mercury merely keeps Ruby occupied instead of capturing her. This is just a bit strange, as I’m not sure how he or anyone else in Cinder’s faction would know that Ruby is on to their foul play. Which is pretty much the only motivation for keeping her preoccupied while the match goes on. Not that she could have really done anything to prevent the final outcome anyway. And the fact that he lets her go so easily after only a slight scuffle is equally puzzling. Other than the usual plot armor, the fact that Ruby is still alive usually implies that Cinder has a use for her in the future. But I simply cannot fathom what that might be. The only thing the heroine could do is throw a wrench in the villainess’s plans. So by all appearances, there was no point in Mercury showing himself to Ruby. He had no knowledge that Ruby was starting to figure things out, he wasn’t out to eliminate her as a potential threat to Cinder’s plan, and he didn’t even try to recruit her to their cause (as futile as that would have been). Unless we get a little more explanation on what might have been going on there, it’s looking more and more like Mercury just plain got bored and decided to return to the festival. And then he had to run into Ruby for plot reasons to confirm her suspicions of foul play. I’m still not sure on why he let her go though. Perhaps he figured that at this point, it wouldn’t matter even if she explained the truth to anyone? That seems a bit too sloppy for the likes of someone as careful and methodical as Cinder, but I wouldn’t put it past Mercury.
Roman gets to work right away.
Anyway, the match this time is as short-lived as it is macabre. Emerald uses her usual mind tricks to coax Pyrrha into lashing out with her semblance instead of relying on her skill in the martial arts as usual. And the result is horrifying. Penny gets butchered by the wires that she uses to control her swords, as they are sent flying back at her by a terrified Pyrrha. Damnit, Emerald. That is not cool. I’m holding on to the hope that Penny can be pieced back together and reactivated good as new, as that is one of the advantages a machine has over man. But seeing as she has something as nebulous as a soul in her, I’m not sure if Penny can simply bounce back from such catastrophic damage. In any case, it seems that Cinder’s goal here really was to reveal Penny’s identity as I had expected. And the reason for this is now made plain. The villainess hijacks the tournament broadcast to paint a picture of the world’s leaders as power-hungry and paranoid. She claims that the kingdoms are on the brink of war with each other and cites Ironwood’s secret creation of a new weapon (robots indistinguishable from humans) and Ozpin’s training of brutal warriors (exemplified by Yang and Pyrrha) as evidence. This, combined with the negative reaction from the two latest tournament matches, is enough to spur the world into a panic. And for the finishing blow, Cinder has the White Fang bring in creatures of Grimm to attack the Colosseum as well as the academies (we only see Beacon attacked, but I think it’s safe to assume the other academies are targeted as well). The introduction of the Grimm throws the people into mass hysteria, triggering the brutal cycle that draws ever more Grimm.
Wow. That is a real whopper of a chapter. With some clever manipulation thanks to illusions and a system virus, Cinder is able to instill mass amounts of outrage, anxiety, and fear into the public. And at the same time, she has probably shattered the public’s trust in their leaders. This truly has become a full-blown revolution. Now, I will say that I found it a bit too convenient that the people would just take her words at face value. I thought it was a bit of a stretch to go from “Ironwood has been creating more robots and Ozpin’s students are out of control” to “your leaders are madmen who have been deceiving you.” But I concede that it’s not unlikely for the mass population to just go with the flow without thinking for themselves whether things actually make complete sense. We can sadly look to our own world for plenty of examples again. Anyway, Cinder is now in full control. Ozpin has his hands full defending Vale from the Grimm. Ironwood’s forces are also tied up with the Grimm and are even under attack by Roman (who is set free by Neo). And the academies are under attack by the Grimm at the behest of the White Fang. The roller coaster has been set in motion, and we’re in for one wild ride.
The White Fang arrive.
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