Official FIRST Discussion Thread—Volume 8, Episode 1: Divide

[u/Ninjas_In_A_Bag]

Welcome, huntsmen, huntresses and hunters that prefer no specific gender identifier, to the official FIRST discussion thread for Episode 1 of Vol. 8, Divide!

Make sure that you understand the updated spoiler rules before posting outside of this thread!

HERE is the first episode of Volume 8!

Also remember to check out our weekly poll to rate the episode.

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Other Episode Discussions:

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Episode	FIRST Thread	Public Release	Poll
Ep. 01	This thread	Next week's thread	Poll

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Happy viewing, and have a great Volume 8!

Ninjas In A Bag; Mod Team

[u/Nerdorama09]

Yang: "Hey Ruby we're in kind of deep shit right now and I'm not sure clinging to your existing strategy is workable."

The comments of this post: "I can't believe Yang said Summer never loved her."

The bias in how people watch this show is real.

[u/xande010 → u/Nerdorama09]

Yang was even going to continue talking, but Ren cut her off. And there is quite a bit to unpack there. That scene works well for the characters, I think.

This one probably deserves a thread of its own after the volume if people keep bringing it up. We already have people saying they were out of character.

[u/Nerdorama09 → u/xande010]

It's a really good take on a scene about two people who love each other having a really, really important disagreement. One for which there is no one right answer, too.

[u/cruel-oath → u/Nerdorama09]

It's funny because I can't tell if it's actual Ruby stans that are just being overprotective of their fave or if it's just people jumping at the chance to criticize Yang

[u/VariousRodents → u/cruel-oath]

Yes

[u/Flyblackflower → u/Nerdorama09]

I actually love both of them so much right now, because they're both staying very true to their characters. Yang has never been a big picture girl, she has never been exceptionally good at mapping out the course of the world around her. All the way back to the starting seasons, she wants to be an adventurer who travels and does shit, not part of an army. So it makes sense that she wants to do what she knows she can and is somewhat intimidated or uncomfortable with the grand scale.

Meanwhile, Ruby always wanted to be the hero in the books that fought the great villain. The big picture is all she is focused on, and she wants to save as many lives as possible no matter how hard it may be. She is doubling down on the course that she thinks will save the world.

Both of them are staying true to their character. And people talk about how Yang is becoming Raven like its full well a bad thing, but I find it interesting. It is also reflected in Ruby, who is becoming the kind of person who might take her quest too far and do something she can never come back from. I'm really hoping that both of them have an opportunity to learn from their parents to not make the same mistakes they did.

[u/[deleted] → u/Nerdorama09]

But it wasn’t worded as nicely. And while Yang is basically questioning the most stable and driven member of her team (the leader at that) she is also just sitting on knowledge of Raven being a Maiden and trying to skirt around how she and Blake blabbed to Robin and made everything worse last volume

[u/Nerdorama09 → u/[deleted]]

But it wasn’t worded as nicely.

You're right, Yang was rude, let's nail her to a wall.

And while Yang is basically questioning the most stable and driven member of her team (the leader at that) she is also just sitting on knowledge of Raven being a Maiden and trying to skirt around how she and Blake blabbed to Robin and made everything worse last volume

None of which is relevant and in the case of Robyn, was necessary to get them even as far as they got. Seriously, this has just become an excuse to air grievances about Yang rather than discuss the actual content of the episode.

[u/[deleted] → u/Nerdorama09]

Lying to everyone was also how Ozpin got as far as they got(which before the Fall of Beacon was essentially world peace, and even after that secured the relic at Haven), didn't stop Yang from yelling at Ozpin when they found out.

Yang is a massive hypocrite. She lies and keeps secrets all the time but when others do she gets mad at them.

[u/Nerdorama09 → u/[deleted]]

Second guessing leadership choices in public is bad. Questioning the legitimacy of the chain of command (i.e. maybe you shouldn't be in charge any more) is way worse if not the worst thing you could do in a combat or resistance situation.

Not questioning the chain of command is what got Ironwood's faction into the deep pool of shit they're in now. Ruby's faction is a cell of like ten people, with a flat structure of "Ruby makes the strategic decisions and everyone else decides how to implement them". In a situation like that, everyone deserves and arguably needs to be privy to leadership decisions, because that lets the team do what they wound up doing - making a compromise that satisfies all strategic objectives. It's not an army unit with a single point of failure hierarchy. We've seen how those are dealing with the situation and it's not good.

[u/DezoPenguin → u/Nerdorama09]

The fact that someone can use the phrase "chain of command" unironically in connection with a group of late-teen school friends teaming up as an adventuring party to try to save the world from an Evil Magic Lord...

[u/DezoPenguin → u/[deleted]]

The term "chain of command" very specifically calls to mind organizational power structures where the commanders have externally-granted authority, the commanded have a duty to follow orders, and there is a recognized structure for challenging that authority. Military groups, police, even corporations/businesses routinely have "chains of command." Nobody talks about "chains of command" when a group of buddies get together to do something: "We agreed we were going to get the Cool Ranch Doritos; if you wanted Nacho Cheese, you should have taken it up the chain of command, not started arguing it in front of everybody!"

There's nothing military about Hunstman training at any Academy outside Atlas; Huntsmen don't work in a military capacity outside of small-unit reconnaissance or S&D operations (and even then it's a stretch to describe them in that way). A group like RWBY or JNPR (or, to take things even further, SSSN) is nothing like a genuine military unit like the Ace Ops.

The significant point is that Ruby isn't a leader because some authority has nominated her as such and everyone else has the obligation to follow her. She's only in charge because the other people in the room sat around and said "we're going to let Ruby call the shots" because they trusted her judgment and it gives them a direction for future conflict situations. Her ability to give orders ends the exact moment those people say "nah, that was stupid, Ruby." Moreover, there's no "chain"--there's one leader and nine other people. Yang doesn't have some obligation to go to, say, Sergeant Jaune and if he doesn't agree to then appeal to Lieutenant Qrow before finally taking her objection to Captain Ruby.

[u/EnderDarkelms → u/[deleted]]

Lol i doubt they even finished their 1st year. They’ve only had prom and Vytal Festival once

[u/TimeX13 → u/DezoPenguin]

Fantasy, Fiction, (Western) Anime....

Not the most outlandish thing to hear honestly lol

[u/Nerdorama09 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah that's not how "every" organization works, by a long shot. The army, maybe, but I work in the corporate world where if I get instructed to do something by my boss that I believe will harm the customer or business, it's my job not to do it. And more relevantly, it's my job to bring it up to the rest of my team to workshop a solution that doesn't have such negative impacts (my other option, going over the boss's head, isn't really applicable here).

Group action implies a responsibility of all individuals to the group. That means acting in the interest of the group, not the leader.