User blog comment:Zathronas/Analysis by an author: Volume 2 episode 8: Field Trip/@comment-9090085-20140927074359

Well, Ironwood doesn't appear to be a bad person; but he seems to be a strong believer in "Victory through Strength" - I do believe the first episode mentioned that victory lay elsewhere.

This war between conformists and individualists raises a bunch of questions, but I'll focus on the same one you did: How did they have the time for a war when the Grimm were trying to kill them? My best guess would be that the Grimm were beaten so soundly before the war that, while there were some around, they didn't have the numbers to threaten civilization. And if CVFY's mission is anything to go by, the Grimm are regaining their numbers.

On a more interesting note, the War indirectly relates to two other conflicts in the show: the conflict with the White Fang is because the Faunus are different from humans; and the Grimm, "manifestations of anonymity", are fought by the quirky and very individual Hunters(it's not a perfect analogy, but whatever).

(I'll bet Ozpin put that mission up with the "first year student" missions just to get RWBY to take it - sneaky old man.)

Seeing as there's another World of Remnant after EP10, I'm going to go ahead and assume that the next two episodes are the "Mission Arc" of this volume. What do I hope to see? Grimm by the hundreds, enough to run RWBY ragged through day after day of fighting. Oh, some info on the WF operation would be nice too, but seriously, hundreds of Grimm; I want a big Grimm fight, and I assume the volume finale is dedicated to the human antagonists - unless it isn't, 'cause there's a third volume to this season and-

Gahh! I don't know which way it's going to go!