Heroes and Monsters

"Heroes and Monsters" is the thirty-ninth episode of RWBY and the eleventh episode of Volume 3. It premiered for Rooster Teeth sponsors on February 6th, 2016 and was made public on February 7th, 2016.

Summary
The Grimm Dragon flies by as Ruby Rose fights off hordes of Grimm on the deck of Roman Torchwick's stolen airship. Neopolitan challenges her and alerts Torchwick to her presence. Ruby fights them both as Torchwick explains his motivations – nobody can stop what is coming, and he merely wishes to be on the winning side of the conflict. Neo disarms Ruby and prepares to finish her off, but at the last moment, Ruby opens Neo's umbrella, which sends her flying off into the wind.

Angered, Roman continues to beat the disarmed Ruby while chastizing her for not seeing the world as it is. He claims that all "heroes" die, but dishonest men survive. Just after he says this, he is eaten whole by a Griffon. The stolen airship, damaged during the fight, begins to crash and break apart. Ruby reclaims Crescent Rose and leaps off the side, using her weapon to slow her descent. She lands safely on the landing pad of Beacon Academy.

At the Beacon courtyard, the students are fighting a number of rogue Atlesian Paladin-290 mechs. With the students losing ground, Coco Adel tells Velvet Scarlatina to unleash her weapon, which is revealed to have the ability to create "light copies" of the weapons she has encountered. Velvet fights off the Paladins with an arsenal made up of the weapons of her fellow students, destroying two of them, but she is eventually overwhelmed. Weiss Schnee intervenes with her Semblance, summoning one arm of the giant suit of armor, which destroys the last Paladin.

Qrow Branwen, Glynda Goodwitch and Cardin Winchester are fighting against Grimm and rogue Atlesian androids in the streets of Vale. James Ironwood joins the fight, having survived his crash, which has exposed large parts of his body as being cybernetic. Ironwood orders Qrow and Glynda to set up a perimeter and evacuate Beacon while he reclaims his airship. Moments later, the stricken ship crashes nearby, and the remaining androids and mechs shut down.

Adam Taurus and Blake Belladonna meet again at Beacon. Adam calls her a coward and vengefully re-states his intentions to start a revolution to change the world. When he threatens to execute an innocent student, Blake attacks him. Adam promises to make her suffer for her betrayal and vows that he will destroy everything she loves – starting with a nearby Yang Xiao Long. Adam stabs Blake in the lower torso, causing her to cry out and attract Yang's attention. Yang immediately lunges at him, enraged. Adam retaliates, using his Semblance to deliver an attack so powerful that it completely depletes the remainder of her Aura and cuts off her arm. Before he can finish her, Blake distracts him using a clone and escapes with Yang.

Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos and Ozpin rush to the vault beneath Beacon to transfer the Fall Maiden powers from Amber to Pyrrha. Pyrrha sorrowfully allows Ozpin to begin the transfer process as Jaune looks on, confused and helpless. Suddenly, an arrow fired by Cinder Fall pierces Amber's heart, interrupting the transfer. Amber dies, and her powers pass on to Cinder. Ozpin orders Pyrrha and Jaune to escape and bring Ironwood, Qrow and Glynda back to Beacon. Cinder, now with the Fall Maiden's powers complete, finally confronts Ozpin face-to-face.

Cinder muses that "she" (most likely Salem) was right about Ozpin's arrogance.

Trivia

 * This episode reveals the true nature of Velvet's camera, which creates hardlight copies of weapons she had taken a picture of.
 * Most of the moves that Velvet performs with everyone's weapons are taken directly from each weapon's first appearance.
 * The fight between Neo and Ruby was partially Monty Oum's work.
 * When Adam and Yang attack each other, the animations used are the finishing move from the "Black" Trailer and the finishing move from the "Yellow" Trailer.