Welcome back to my review book! Man it's been a while since I've posted here but now that it's RWBY season I'm back to making my reviews. So let's get to it. As usual this will contain SPOILERS!! So if you don't want to be spoiled because you haven't seen the episode I would go watch it then come back.

Alright let's go.

To start this episode off it seems that the CRWBY wasn't kidding when they said that this episode would start off right where volume 6 ended. It starts us off with the heroes being "welcomed" to Atlas by the military. But what I noticed right off the bat was how weird it was that Weiss said that this is the most she's seen the military out and about in Atlas. For a kingdom with such an emphasis on the military I would've thought that the airships circling the kingdom would be only natural.

Once the heroes land to avoid the soldiers coming after them and the ship we are introduced to the gloomy dump that is Mantle. And my goodness does this place look like it has fallen on hard times. And it's obvious from the few shots we got of the locals that they are not happy with Atlas's increased security. For example see children chucking rocks at military robots. Not that I blame them though. I mean c'mon Winter and Ironwood are practically on every screen talking about how the people have to cooperate with the military in order to stay safe. That would drive anyone crazy. Oh and a quick note it appears that Winter has a new outfit. So that's cool.

Anyway once the group ditches the ship they head around the city on foot. And the first thing I noticed is a shot of a small child hanging a poster that reads "Hill Is Here" and it seems that this Miss Hill is also running in an upcoming election. But more on that later.

As they are walking Maria mentions that the people of Mantle use the sight of Atlas above them as a sign of a brighter future. As she puts it "a home in the clouds is about as bright as it gets" so I guess the people living in the city believe that if they work hard then they can one day live up in Atlas with the elite. That does sound like a great dream, no matter how unrealistic it may be.

Oh great the second thing we get, Faunus racism. Lovely. Seriously they haven't even been in Atlas five minutes and Blake is already being insulted. So yeah these two drunk men come up against Blake for stating her opinion on how horrible the city is. Of course this is right after she sees a cart pass by full of workers from the mines, one of which is a Faunus. Thinking of Adam and Ilia Blake?

I am really glad though that Weiss was the one who stood up for Blake. It really shows character growth for her because we all know how she felt about Faunus in the first couple volumes of the show. But now, thankfully, she seems to be standing up for them instead. And this isn't the first time either, because, as you may remember, she stood up for Blake when Cordovin called her "someone of questionable character."

Maria then leads them to a pharmacy to meet an old friend of hers. This turns out to be the man who adjusts her prosthetic eyes every so often, Dr. Pietro Polendina. That's right I said Polendina. At long last we meet Penny's creator and father. And I absolutely love him. He's such a sweet character! But before I continue I want to mention something interesting, Pietro is voiced by Dave Fennoy. Now if any of you have played the RWBY video game Grimm Eclipse then may recognize his voice as the voice of the villain Dr Merlot. So is that hinting something? Or am I just crazy? Whatever let's move on.

I officially have a new ship. I hardcore ship Maria and Pietro. They're both so sweet to each other. Maria even calls the old doctor "the finest heart in Atlas" alright Maria I see you.

We then get a bit more information on what is currently going on in Atlas along with how everyone is currently faring. It seems that Ironwood's paranoid behavior is transferring to the rest of the Atlesian council meaning that pretty much whatever he wants to happen gets done. So now the council is looking into whoever hacked the Vytal Tournament and the Atlas robots and they've come to realize that it's more then likely one of their own former scientists. Which as we know Watts was revealed to be back in volume 5. However, I'm curious about what Pietro was trying to say about the representatives of Mantle. It almost sounds like he was trying to say that they don't agree with what the Atlesian council is doing.

So here's a little background thing I noticed. There's a shot of Pietro's shelves and on one of them there's clearly a model of a whale. Most likely referencing the whale that swallows Geppetto and Pinocchio in the story, further proving many people's theory about who Penny's father is based on. Also I'm gonna go out on a limb (haha limb) here and guess that Pietro is the one who made Yang's robot arm, because, if you recall, Tai mentioned that Ironwood told him that he had his top scientist working on the prosthetic. As soon as the doctor saw it he knew immediately who Yang and her teammates were. Well that and he has heard about them from his daughter, but before Ruby can ask who his daughter is it's time for a scene change because we have a crazy fight to get to.

Alarms then begin to echo down the street signaling a Grimm attack. As the group makes their way outside we are greeted to our first look at the new Saber Grimm. Based on prehistoric saber tooth tigers.

So as the group pulls out their weapons I couldn't help but notice Blake gasp when she looked at her still broken gambol shroud, I hope that that was "oh man I'm feeling bad for killing Adam" not "oh that's right my sword is broken." I'm not gonna go into extreme detail about this fight mostly because you all need to experience it for yourself, and I'm not very good at describing fight scenes. So instead I'll say what I liked about it.

As usual Qrow had amazing combos using harbinger in its sword mode and scythe mode and of course some good old fashioned hand to hand combat. It was so cool to watch. Oscar is also definitely doing amazing at fighting. Even though he is still learning he was able to hold his own over one saber before needing Ruby to help him take the second one down. And speaking of Ruby she had some amazing combos with crescent rose. My personal favorite being when she tossed it forward, used her semblance and grabbed it in midair before slicing down the Grimm. But if I had to pick a favorite part of this fight it would be the combo move done by Weiss and Ren. I've mentioned this before but I really want to see the two teams interact more on the battlefield as one cohesive team and this was a great step toward it.

But toward the end of the fight things don't seem to be going well as Blake uses her gun to shoot a Grimm that was about to attack Yang. She seems to be in the clear until a saber from the back leaps up to chomp down on her. But before the Faunus becomes Grimm chow she's saved by a green laser beam. We then see several more laser beams coming down from the sky and cutting the Grimm down. And who do these lasers belong to? None other then the protector of Mantle herself

Miss Penny Polendina. That's right she's back everyone! And my gosh am I so excited to see her again. Also if her new design looks familiar I'm 99.9% sure that her design is based on Penny 3.0's design done by Bachdo aka Dishwasher1910 on Twitter, who is a Gen:Lock concept artist at Rooster Teeth.

Anyway as you may expect as soon as Penny's eyes lay on Ruby she tackles her in a hug with a loud "Salutations!" which made me totally agree with Blake "this is strangely wholesome."

Now unfortunately this is where I have to address a complaint I had with this episode. I knew that Penny would come back but I thought there would be a bit more to it then what we got. Pietro explains that as soon as Penny's heart was returned to Atlas he was able to rebuild her. His daughter then joins in the conversations saying that now she is as good as new. But for some reason I couldn't help but notice that Pietro and Penny both seemed strangely nonchalant with what happened. They didn't even seem sad bringing it up and neither did Ruby. I don't know maybe Ruby will talk to Penny about it later but for now it felt strange.

Anyway Penny has to leave again but she promises to talk with her friends later. So it seems this won't be the only time we'll see her this volume. Also I love when Nora said "I can't tell if I understand what's going on or if I have a million questions." She speaks for the whole fandom XD.

But before Pietro can answer these questions the group is wrapped up in gravity dust imbedded handcuffs. This turns out to be the work of Atlas's ace ops led by a man named Clover Ebi. By the way he's voiced by Chris Wehkamp who is the voice of Aizawa/Eraserhead from My Hero Academia and Miles Edgeworth from Ace Attorney.

Anyway our heroes are put into a truck and sent off to Atlas as the episode ends.

Now one last thing before I wrap up this review. I want to talk about Robyn Hill who I mentioned earlier. From what we've seen of her photos and brief scenes in the opening it appears that she is running for the Mantle representative spot on the Atlas council against Jacques Schnee. She's also very obviously based on Robin Hood. Think about it, she wants to help the poor in Mantle by taking down the rich. I don't know how to feel about her right now based on what we've seen but I will share a theory I have. In one shot in the opening she's fighting Tyrian alongside Qrow and who do we know that Tyrian fights? That's right...maidens. So maybe Robyn is the winter maiden? We'll have to wait and see.

So my overall thoughts on the episode were I enjoyed it as an episode. As a premiere however I didn't think it was as strong as premieres we've gotten in the past. I don't know maybe it's because part of this episode was technically supposed to be the V6 finale. My only hopes that I can say for this volume are that I hope it's as strong as volume six was. So let me know your thoughts.