Players and Pieces

Players and Pieces is the eighth episode of RWBY that premiered on September 5th, 2013.

Summary
Ruby and Weiss are first seen hanging off a giant Nevermore, with Weiss berating Ruby on how it was a bad idea. As the two continue to argue, Ruby jumps off the creature and ditches Weiss mid-argument, resulting in her cursing Ruby. As Ruby falls, she collides with Jaune in midair, and the two of them land in a nearby tree.

Yang and Blake are watching everything transpire from the ground. They then notice an Ursa stumbling out of the forest and collapsing on the ground with Nora and Ren riding on its back. Ren seems to have been exhausted by the experience. Nora quickly makes her way to the chess pieces and delightfully takes a white rook chess piece before Ren angrily calls her back.

Suddenly, Pyrrha Nikos arrives with a Death Stalker on her tail. Yang explodes with anger, due to all of the commotion. Soon afterward, the group notice Weiss hanging on the Nevermore muttering about how Ruby had left her behind. Soon, she lets go of the Grimm, and starts falling. In an attempt to gain her favor, Jaune jumps off the tree and catches her, although his plan quickly backfires since he failed to take the rest of the fall into account. This ultimately results in him landing face-first on the ground, and then being used as a landing pad by Weiss right after.

As Pyrrha lands in front of them, Yang sarcastically mutters that the entire team has gathered at the location, and now they could die together. Ruby decides to take out the Death Stalker on her own. However, her attacks prove ineffective. As Yang tries to get to her, the Nevermore starts firing its spear-like feathers at the two, as they try to escape Ruby is pinned to the ground by one of the feathers.

As the Death Stalker raises its stinger to strike Ruby, Weiss intervenes by freezing its stinger in place, while muttering how Ruby is childish, hyperactive, dim-witted, and has a poor fighting style. However, Weiss admits that she is similar to a certain extent and since they must work together to come out of the initiation alive, as long as Ruby does not show off, Weiss promises to be nicer. Ruby counters that she is simply trying to prove herself, receiving an assuring reply from Weiss that she is fine.

The group eventually realizes that they should seize the artifacts and escape to the summit, instead of fighting the Grimm. However, the Death Stalker and the Nevermore give chase, forcing the group to separate into pairs and take cover in the ruins. Nora creates a diversion for the Nevermore while the others run further into the ruins.

Blake and Ren cover Nora, and hold off the Death Stalker while Weiss picks Nora up. Ren and Pyrrha both take a few shots at the Death Stalker, while the Nevermore destroys a section of the bridge. As Jaune notices Blake, Pyrrha, and Ren fighting the Death Stalker on their own, he wishes to help.

The gap in the bridge, however, is far too wide. To assist him Nora transforms her weapon Magnhild from grenade launcher to hammer and catapults Jaune over the gap by slamming her hammer on the other end of the broken bridge. She then stands on her hammer's head and creates an explosion to launch herself over the gap.

As Nora lands a few hits on the Death Stalker, she accidentally bumps into Blake and pushes her off the bridge. Blake uses Gambol Shroud to latch onto a piece of the ruins, swings herself onto the Nevermore and repeatedly slashes its head and back before jumping onto the ruins near Ruby, Weiss, and Yang.

With Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang now standing on the ruins, the Nevermore swoops in for the kill. It is met with a hail of fire from the quartet and their weapons. However, the Nevermore is unaffected by the projectiles and slams into the ruins, which forces the group to move to a higher section. As Ruby comes up with a plan to take out the Nevermore, Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren engage the Death Stalker. Ren climbs onto its stinger and begins to shoot it.

As Pyrrha gouges one of its eyes out, the Death Stalker swings its tail and slams Ren onto a nearby wall. Jaune notices the stinger is almost cut off and prompts Pyrrha to sever it, causing the stinger to fall and impale the Death Stalker's head. Jaune then instructs Nora to propel herself off Pyrrha's shield, allowing Nora to smash the stinger further into the Death Stalker's head with her hammer before firing a round into its cranium, which kills the beast and causes its corpse to fall into the abyss.

As Yang keeps firing Ember Celica at the Nevermore, she eventually grabs its mouth and fires five rounds down its throat. When the Nevermore smashes into the cliffside, Weiss freezes its tail feathers, locking it in place. Next, Yang and Blake hold both ends of the ribbon connecting Gambol Shroud between two stone pillars, creating a crude slingshot. As Ruby hooks on to the ribbon with Crescent Rose, Weiss muses about how only Ruby could have come up with such an idea.

With Weiss' help, Ruby slingshots herself off the ribbon and latches onto the Nevermore's neck with Crescent Rose, dragging its body up the cliff-side with the help of Weiss' Air Step spell and the recoil from Crescent Rose. She eventually decapitates the creature at the summit. As everyone else watches in wonder, the Nevermore's headless body falls to the ground.

Back at Beacon, Professor Ozpin forms the teams. They include Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing, and Sky Lark, who form Team CRDL (pronounced "Cardinal") led by Cardin himself. Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren form Team JNPR (pronounced "Juniper") with Jaune serving as its leader. Finally, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang form Team RWBY (pronounced "Ruby") with Ruby leading the team. Afterwards, Ozpin notes that this would be an interesting year.

Elsewhere, Roman finished talking to someone over the phone and sighs in frustration. He lights a cigar, while paying a masked man to deliver a case of Dust crystals to him. He notes that he will need reinforcements...

Trivia

 * Despite Episode 7 hinting at the appearance of the Nevermore with a single large feather, it is never explained how Weiss and Ruby came to ride it at the beginning of this episode or get on it in the first place, besides Weiss commenting that it was Ruby's "terrible idea."
 * When Blake pointed to a falling Ruby, her headband can be seen twitching for a moment, slightly like cat ears. This is also seen when she is commenting on Ruby's fall to Yang. This can be seen as a significant foreshadowing of her being a Faunus, as revealed in Episode 15.
 * The song playing from 7:52 to 10:36 is the episode version of Red Like Roses Part II. The RWBY Soundtrack has a longer version without the instrumental lead-up.
 * Both Nora and Ruby had the idea to hitch a ride on a Grimm.
 * After being saved by Weiss, Ruby whispered "normal knees" to herself; a reference to the first episode where Ruby expressed her desire to be treated like a normal person (with normal knees), after Yang said that Ruby was "the bee's knees".
 * After defeating the Death Stalker, Jaune's team lands in order of their team name: Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and then Ren.
 * Pyrrha's three-point landing pose is identical to the one assumed by Agent Carolina from another Rooster Teeth series, Red vs. Blue. Jen Brown, the voice for Pyrrha, also provides the voice for Carolina.
 * This episode was first seen as a preview at PAX Prime '13 in Seattle.
 * This episode marked the first appearance of a White Fang member, although they weren't completely seen or identified until Black and White.