Broadcasts from Remnant - RWBY Volume 7 Opening Analysis
It's so nice to have RWBY back. The first episode of Volume 7 didn't disappoint either. I thought we'd reach Ironwood by the end of Chapter 1, but what we got instead was a very well done tone setter. We learned a bit about the political situation in the area, met some new characters, reunited with old characters, got some good banter and action, and it was just generally a strong introduction to our new setting. I'm sure Chapter 2 will give us a good idea of what our heroes' goals are this volume and what the main conflicts are going to be, but until then I thought it'd be fun to go over the amazing new opening for clues. Obviously here's a SPOILER WARNING for Volume 7's opening episode.
First thing to note: this image. Is Oscar part of Team JNPR now? Will he become a member by the end of the volume? I'm assuming he's the new P, because he's Oscar (P)ine. However, it's worth noting the order of the characters: Jaune, Ren, Oscar, Nora. The Team RWBY silhouettes are in the correct order - Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang - so it's weird that JNPR aren't. Either it means JNPR 2 aren't an official team and they're just grouping Oscar with Jaune, Ren, and Nora for the sake of the design, or it means JNPR 2 is actually called JRON. Or JRPN. Or...JLON (Lie instead of Ren)? JLPN? No idea. Either way, it's cool that Oscar is part of their group. I really want Oscar to get more development in Volume 7 - the idea of a farmboy with an immortal wizard in his head pressuring him to go on a world-saving quest he's way out of his depth for could be the basis for its own show or a series of books. I'm also a sucker for characters with different incarnations, like the Doctor. Jaune really needs to make it up to Oscar for being so shitty to him in Volume 6 though, and I'd like to see Oscar sticking up for himself a bit more. Qrow punched him in the face. He's 14. That really needs to be addressed more.
Next, these five. I'm actually angry at how good of a pun AceOps is for a futuristic organisation in a fairytale setting (much better than GRIMM from Once Upon a Future). Their introduction in this episode wasn't enough for me to have opinions about them as individuals, but I found their line about "non-licensed huntsmen" interesting. Is it possible Volume 7 might have Ironwood giving Team RWBY + JNPR their licenses, making them officially huntresses and huntsmen? It would be a huge moment and they've certainly earned it. All except Oscar, who is a sweet child who can't really be considered a huntsman yet.
I'm sure these five will get plenty of big moments, and we'll probably learn some cool details about each one individually, but adding five new characters to an already big cast is kinda pushing it, so I expect they'll mostly be background decoration. Cool designs though.
Watts seems to be a major villain this volume, which is fun considering all the robotics stuff going on in Atlas. The obvious thing to do for a big ridiculous masterplan would be to hack Penny, or create an evil robot to fight her. Tyrian is also focused on in the opening, and we see a fight scene with him later. The end of Volume 6 implied Salem would be leaving her evil realm to wade into battle herself, but she isn't in the opening. Maybe she won't actually be in Atlas but doing things elsewhere in Remnant.
Of course the Schnee family are going to be important this volume considering we're in their territory. I've seen a few theories connecting the Winter Maiden to the Schnees; Winter is the Winter Maiden, their mother is the Winder Maiden, the whole family is descended from the Winter Maiden, etc. If she is somehow connected to Weiss' family, that makes me think all of Team RWBY might end up as maidens before the end of the show. I think Yang inheriting the Spring powers from Raven is pretty much inevitable considering how perfect of an end to Raven's arc it would be. Maiden powers pass to the last people you think about, so Raven giving how powers to her daughter with her last thought, proving she does actually care about her, would be too good of a scene not to write. If Weiss then had some connection to the Winter powers, and Ruby inherited the Fall powers whenever she defeats Cinder, that would leave Summer for Blake. I could definitely see that as a future evolution for Team RWBY.
The intro shows a cool new outfit for Qrow, the first redesign he's had. It's a great outfit, completely inkeeping with his first. It's probably one of my favourite redesigns of the volume. Seeing everyone in Episode 1 made me realise how much I'm going to miss the current outfits, which are all still perfectly fine. I think a few of the new ones are downgrades, making things much too busy and losing the characters' individual colour schemes to overcomplication, but whatever. We see Qrow having a rematch with Tyrian and fighting alongside a character apparently called Robyn Hill who'll be involved in Atlas politics. It's possible she's the Winter Maiden, and yes I AM basing that purely on her being a mysterious woman who helps our heroes.
Finally, here's the reason I think the Winter Maiden will be introduced this volume: Altas' vault and its relic are obviously part of this story. I'll be interested to see if we stop in Atlas for a while or if the group are just gonna take this next relic and leave to the next place. Also, I wonder when we'll learn about the Beacon relic.
And those are my thoughts so far on where we're headed. I'm sure I'll make another Volume 7 post later about theories I have mid-series, but for now I'm just glad this amazing story is continuing.