Talk:Neopolitan/@comment-6003266-20160530083546/@comment-410526-20160530122413

Stupidity of the authorities? Who said anything about stupidity? Beacon Academy and Ozpin, who coordinated the security and defence of the city, are gone. Many Huntsmen and Huntresses and other people who are supposed to be protecting the city (law enforcement officers, etc.) probably died during the big battle that destroyed half the city.

The Atlesian security forces are definitely gone. Don't forget that the White Fang were able to amass an enormous force and Grimm were able to enter the city, even with all of these safeguards in place. Now that it's over, how could the situation possibly get better when the authorities have substantially less resources to work with?

The theme of the next Volume is division. Salem says that when divided, humanity is weak, and that she plans to defeat them by exploiting that. This is the prime opportunity to show that what she is saying is true, that she's a real threat, that her posturing can hold water. If they immediately showed all the people going hand-in-hand through their happy life, the threat of Salem would fall just as flat as Cinder's after Volume 2's ridiculous "Breach" fiasco. Unless you're seriously saying that Volume 3 heralded an optimistic tone for Volume 4, in which case I really have no idea what to say to that.

Will things get better? Of course, eventually. But I think Volume 4 will be dealing with consequences of the events portrayed in Volume 3 and there is no better way to show that than to put on display the darker side of humanity. It'd be a thematic misstep to show things in such an optimistic light so quickly.