RWBY (Season 7)

Season 7 of RWBY is easily the most ambitious season of the series, tackling interesting themes and ending on one of the show's biggest battles, albeit in a somewhat flawed way.

RWBY's seventh season has the teams finally arrive at Atlas to reunite with both General Ironwood and a rebuilt Penny! Team RWBY trains under Atlas's team, the Ace Ops, while Ironwood struggles with the increased paranoia and trust issues. There is a lot to this season, a ton of characters with their own motivations and arcs, but it manages to balance all of them incredibly well, from Qrow trying to lighten up, to Weiss confronting her family once and for all, to   The season takes a while to set things up, but the final three episodes have pretty much the entire cast and all of their lingering tensions and conflicts collide, and it's pretty amazing. Easily the highlight is none other than Ironwood himself, his slow descent into paranoia throughout the season is amazingly executed, and by the final episode, he's just too far gone. I also found the political aspect of Season 7 to be excellent, with a large conflict being about how to deal with the looming threat of Salem, whether to focus on saving Atlas and the relic or try to help the poorer Mantle as well. By the end, Team RWBY and Ironwood have entirely opposing views, but neither of them are necessarily wrong. I do feel like Team RWBY is pushed to the side a bit this season, especially compared to Season 6, but the other characters still manage to be entertaining.

All of this sounds amazing on paper, and it mostly is, Season 7 easily has some of the show's best writing. However, there are a bunch of aspects that hold this season back from being my favorite. First, there's the Clover incident. Honestly, I'm fine that Clover died, and I feel it wouldn't have made quite as much of an impact if the social media didn't point out his friendship with Qrow way too heavily, but the way he died is a bit shaky. On paper, it sounds cool, Qrow reluctantly teaming up with Tyrian. But logically, it doesn't really work. Like why wouldn't Clover prioritize restraining Tyrian? And why would Qrow even team up with the guy he hates more than anyone else? And how did he not expect Tyrian to kill Clover knowing how brutal he is? It holds back an otherwise amazing final arc. Speaking of which, while the first ten episodes of Season 7 have some good episodes, but most of the season is build up to that final arc, which means that by the time the season gets truly great, it's almost the end. Production wise, Season 7 is the best one yet. The visuals are just as great as Season 6, but the intricate cities of Atlas and Mantle are absolutely stunning. The action is top-notch too, even if there isn't much of it until the final four episodes. The best fights of the season are some of the best in the whole show, particularly the fights with Watts, Cinder, and the Ace Ops.

A Night Out: This episode is just plain excellent. It starts out unassuming with most of the cast going on a night out, Ren and Nora sharing their first kiss, and Robyn having a victory party. However, the tension slowly builds throughout the episode until everything goes to hell. Robyn loses, Watts shuts out the lights, Tyrian slaughters a bunch of people, and Penny is framed for all of it, it's an amazing buildup to a shocking final scene.

Gravity: Easily the best episode of the season, Gravity starts with the phenomenal gravity-shifting fight between Ironwood and Watts and it just gets better from there! I love the sequence where Ironwood and Team RWBY have the confrontation in his office. It brings the main conflict of the season to the forefront, signals Ironwood's descent, and finally lets Ruby and Salem have a conversation (a heartbreaking one at that). It's an excellent, emotional episode.

With Friends Like These: Despite my gripes with Clover's death, the fight between RWBY and the Ace Ops is my favorite fight in RWBY to date. It's fast-paced and exciting, giving everyone time to shine and is packed with creative uses of the characters' skills, not to mention the amazing music. This is how you do a four-way fight, it's everything the Battle Of Haven should have been.

The Enemy Of Trust: Despite the strangeness of having the finale not focus on Team RWBY at all, I think The Enemy Of Trust really works for being absolute cliffhanger insanity! Penny's the winter maiden, Cinder got the relic, Qrow's arrested, Salem's here, and so much more amazing set-up for Season 8. I especially love Penny and Winter vs Cinder, it's an excellent and tense fight with some great characterization and an excellent twist.

Overall, Season 7 is easily the most complex and thought-provoking season of RWBY yet and it boasts an incredibly strong ending. However, it doesn't nail all of its moments perfectly and suffers from a bit of a slow start.

4/5 Stars