Rooster Teeth FIRST members can now watch the season finale for RWBY’s eighth season. Titled “The Final Word,” there was a lot that happened and a lot of heavy things involved. If you haven’t watched the episode yet, this is your warning that there are a lot of spoilers ahead.
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Oh boy. Where to start. I guess we’ll start with the fight against Neo. Ruby is fighting Neo and then Weiss knocks her through one of the portals before getting hit by Cinder and her Aura shattering. Also, Blake has been knocked away by Cinder and Penny went to rescue her. Neo then pops back and Ruby is doing her best to fend off the silent assassin. Ruby almost falls off, but saves herself only to end up hanging off of Neo who’s hanging off one of the paths. Cinder then arrives and kicks Neo off meaning she and Ruby fall and dissolve into gold dust. Blake tries saving Ruby, but as they’re swinging back, Cinder breaks Blake’s rope and they’re both lost. This leaves Penny, Weiss, Jaune, and Nora against Cinder.
Something I neglected to say earlier was that Cinder currently has the Staff and the Lamp. Nora goes to try to get backup not realizing that it’s a one-way ticket probably. So, the three heroes team up against Cinder. It’s pretty cool to watch for the brief time that it happens and I wish Jaune could be the one to murder Cinder. He’s grown so much and is really cool now. Cinder is the exact opposite. No growth and giant brat. Sadly, Cinder is able to drastically damage Penny. Before finishing Penny off, Weiss is able to more or less force Cinder to stop, but things aren’t looking good. This is probably the heaviest point of the episode. Jaune can’t save Penny with his Semblance. It’s just not feasible. She wants to make a choice though. She wants to die so that she can choose who gets the powers of the Winter Maiden. Jaune really doesn’t like this idea because he has a freaking heart and soul. However, Penny does die by Jaune’s broken sword (Cinder broke it earlier). Jaune cries out in anguish at this turn of events and Cinder gets pissed. We’ll come back here later.
How’s Winter holding up against Ironwood? Pretty good. She definitely is a good fighter. Unfortunately, Ironwood is able to get the upperhand and deals some heavy blows to her. It’s at this point that we see Penny in a white limbo area and Winter joins her Penny passes the powers of the Winter Maiden to Winter in a very touching moment. When she comes too, Ironwood is seemingly a little pleased that his vision for Winter to get the Maiden powers has been realized, but Winters done with him. She goes full Maiden and really gives it to Ironwood before heading through the portals where she sees Cinder and starts that fight up.
Cinder and Winter are fighting and Cinder is outclassed. Winter has years of military training and service. Cinder’s just a piece of work. Cinder, being a villain who’s outclassed, decides to go for the cheap shots and while Weiss and Jaune start heading to Vacuo, and Cinder decides to attack them. Jaune tries to defend them, but it doesn’t work and Weiss falls off throwing Winter into a rage that her discipline is thankfully able to temper and she goes through the portal. Unfortunately, as Cinder escapes, the pocket dimension crumbles and Jaune actually is unable to make it. Winter makes it though and cries as she sees her family before launching with a rage at the Grimm.
I’m going to backtrack now. Qrow has been fighting Harriet and trying to talk to her. Things are still crazy, but Vine and Elm show up and she starts to maybe understand that she went a little crazy. Unfortunately, it’s too late. The bomb is active and can’t be stopped and the autopilot is locked because Watts. Vine ends up sacrificing himself to save everyone else. This is a moment for Harriet I guess as she sees her rash decisions have led to this point, but she’s just annoying so it was a blah moment for me. A little touching because Vine was a little more likable, but still not huge.
Okay. We wrap the episode up with Cinder arriving back at Atlas with Ironwood weakened on the ground and Salem arrives. Cinder lies to Salem about what events have transpired and I’ll be honest; I don’t think Salem is buying it. She has an expression that seems to indicate she doesn’t buy it. However, she says she’s proud of Cinder and that the Staff and the Lamp are still very useful. Ironwood goes to shoot Cinder, but can’t pull the trigger. Maybe he finally saw that he was no better than her. It’s also revealed that when the pocket dimension was closed by Cinder, that she ended up trapping Watts to die. The two villains then leave before Atlas crashes into Mantle and floods. I would like to assume that Watts and Ironwood are dead, but sadly in RWBY, it’s hard to believe a character is dead until you see the corpse.
But wait, there’s more. That’s right, there’s a post-credits scene. We see an island with a big tree and Crescent Rose sticking in the sand. That’s right, we’ve got the Great Deku Tree on Destiny Island for the greatest crossover event ever! Right? I know that there’s a theory that this is the Domain of Light and that very well could be true. There is a tree at the center of the Domain of Light that could maybe grow into this one. What do you think it is?
So, we have Team RWBY, Neo, and Jaune (along with nameless citizens) in this mysterious dimension. I think Neo’s going to take that betrayal by Cinder personal and actually help bring her down. I’ve heard that some people think Jaune will die at the hands of Cinder based on how Joan of Arc died by fire. I am hoping for the opposite though and for Jaune to murder Cinder.
In Volume 9, we have to figure out what’s going on with them and get them back to Remnant, we’re also going to be seeing the people of Atlas join up with Vacuo and some action with Shade Academy which should be a lot of fun. I think there’s also a good chance that we’ll finally meet the Summer Maiden. There’s enough stuff that still needs to happen that while I previously thought the series would end in 9 seasons, I think we’re going to need a 10th to really let everything have enough breathing room to not feel rushed.
I know that a lot happened and there are a lot of thoughts and feelings. What did you think of the season finale? What do you think is going to happen? Did you like Volume 8?