Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-27634103-20160118161527

I have to say, when I watched this episode the first time, my heart was racing from start to finish. And the second time, the third time, straight up to the fourth time. But now I'm ready to objectively analyse it and make some predictions.

1) Penny's fighting style awesomely echo's Kairi-Namine from Dead Fantasy.  That was goddamn epic.

2) Pyrrha had been struggling with the idea of losing who she is if she goes through with the Maiden power transfer (most importantly, losing her relationship with Jaune).  But after the events of her fight, I think she's thinking, "If this is who I really am, it would be better if I disappear" so she's going to make a bee-line for the vault.  Prediction: this will be a call-back to V1:EP3 regarding the book Blake was reading (a man with two souls, each fighting for control over his body).  Pyrrha's personality and Amber's personality will be cohabiting the same body and split-personality antics/drama ensue.

3) A lot of important people are split up all over the place.  Most notably, Weiss and Blake are together at the fairgrounds.  Prediction: Weiss and Blake are going to get into a bad situation and Weiss will finally master her summoning, calling up the giant knight from her trailer to turn the tide and save Blake (the tiny sword she summoned back in Lessons Learned was a mini-version of the Knight's sword).

4) Oh look, someone dropped a Penny (yes, I know, too soon, but hear me out).  Penny is, of course, a robot.  So "lethality" is a very different concept for her.  This could actually go one of two ways.  Prediction 1: This is a call-back to Penny's "plan to stay at Beacon".  She made a backup of herself and, maybe, had a spare body stashed somewhere.  So she's going to either appear somewhere, whole and hale, to help with the fight, or her backup will wage a "digital war".  She would probably be the one, in this case, to take down the Atlas ship that Roman and Neo commandeered (either in the "flesh" or from within the ship's systems).  Then, she'll probably try to defeat Cinder's virus.  Prediction 2: Ruby rushes onto the stage, all distraught, and Penny "wakes up" with her normal bright, cheery personality and is even cracking jokes about her dismemberment, maybe even offering words of praise to Pyrrha's skill. She explains that she had to temporarily shut down to run basic repairs, but will need to be taken back to her father for complete repairs. In this scenario, I predict that Winter will return and deal with Roman and Neo.

5) Prediction: Team CRDL is FINALLY going to redeem themselves and play some kind of support role, maybe defending the civilians as they seek shelter.  This goes along with the chess-piece motif: JNPR are the rook, primary defenders.  RWBY are the knight, unblockable attackers.  CRDL are the Bishop, which both attack and defend.

6)  Ozpin sends Qrow and Glinda to defend the city, so he is the only one left to defend Amber.  So he's likely going to fight.   Prediction:  And the whole fight will be cut out because RT loves to screw with us.  We'll see him start to draw the weapon from his cane, cut to other fights, then in another episode it cuts back to the end of his fight.

7) Prediction: At least one other Maiden will come to the aid of Vale.

8) Prediction: The city will be saved, but it will be in a bad state.  Next season, Team RWBY will travel to Minstral with Team SSSN (who are from Minstral) and Qrow to track down Cinder and her group.  Blake's secondary aim is to track down Adam and find out why he's working with Cinder.  Yang's aim will be to find her mother (Qrow's tip will end up having to do with Minstral).  Weiss takes up her sister's advise to explore Remnant and Minstral is her first stop.  Team JNPR stays behind to handle the continued defense and repair of Vale (with Pyrrha now having the Maiden powers as well as a mental roommate).

9) Prediction: At some point in the series, we'll find an enemy/situation that can totally nullify the power of Dust.  Since the go-to motif for weapons of the whole series is "It's also a gun", all dust-based weaponry will be rendered useless.  Enter Jaune with his proper appreciation of "the classics".  Villain: "Oh ho, I've nullified your Dust.  What do you have now?"  Jaune: *draws weapon dramatically* "I've got this sword... and a shield too."

10) Prediction: Fox is blind and an expert at blind-fighting so he's going to be the one to mop the floor with Emerald.  Her semblance DOES create both visual and auditory hallucinations, but it's easy to trick multiple senses at once.  Normally, both the auditory and visual hallucination "work together" to reinforce one another (like a ventriloquist using the dummy to distract from his own mouth movements).  Fox, with super-accurate hearing, will "hear through" the illusion and not be fooled.

11) Prediction: Velvet's pictures allow her to summon up the weapons she takes pictures of as well as the semblance of people she takes pictures of.  These pictures will be one-time-use, but we know she has a picture of Sun's weapon as well as Ruby so she's got that going for her... which is nice.

That's all I can think of for now. 