Battle of Beacon
The competition's over. The fight for survival begins.
Written by Miles Luna, Monty Oum & Kerry Shawcross
Directed by Kerry Shawcross, Gray G. Haddock & Miles Luna
Directed by Kerry Shawcross, Gray G. Haddock & Miles Luna
"Whoever was on that microphone... they're the ones that did this. And we have to make sure they don't take anyone else."
— Jaune Arc
War breaks out with battles occurring across the arena, city and school. Formerly adversarial tournament teams unite to fight the Grimm together, while Ruby goes after a rogue airship that has turned on the rest of the fleet. The computer virus makes things worse by turning the robotic Atlesian army against both the city and its defenders, and then...
Tropes in this episode include:
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Weiss and Blake do this whilst fighting off Grimm, White Fang and reprogrammed Atlesian Knights. Earlier, Port and Oobleck do this as they face off a horde of Griffons; when Ruby returns to the stadium, they and the Griffons are gone.
- Big Damn Heroes: Ruby rushes in with Penny's sword in an attempt to protect the shell-shocked Pyrrha from a Giant Nevermore. However, all of the Huntsmen academy students we've seen, even opponents from the festival, come to both her and Pyrrha's aid.
- Cliffhanger: So much. A Wyvern Grimm has appeared, what happened to Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck is unclear, as is what happened to Ironwood, Ruby has reached Torchwick's airship, but Neo goes to confront her, Blake encounters Adam, Pyrrha sees Ozpin and follows him while Jaune tries to find out what she's doing, and Cinder's eyes suddenly start to glow.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: The concept art at the end of the episode states the giant Grimm is a "Grimm Dragon"; this was changed after the episode aired to a Grimm Wyvern, due to the creature's design resembling a wyvern instead of a dragon.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Emerald actually looks rather horrified by the carnage all the Grimm are causing.
- False Flag Operation: This is implied to be one reason why Cinder has Mercury filming the Atlas robot soldiers switching sides.
- From Bad to Worse: Last episode was bad, now we have turn-coat robots and a massive Grimm laying waste to everything.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Sage and Yatsuhashi strike at the Nevermore's neck at the same time. The next shot is a close up of the Nevermore's head dissolving, framed so that we can't see if it's actually been decapitated.
- Heroic BSoD: Pyrrha and Ruby continue their shell-shock from the previous episode. Both shake it off when a Nevermore nearly kills Pyrrha.
- Hold the Line: Done by most of the adults: Port and Oobleck remain behind in the stadium so that the students can evacuate. Ozpin orders Glynda and Qrow to hold the Grimm off in the city.
- Line in the Sand: General Ironwood tells Ruby and teams JNPR, SSSN, CFVY, and ABRN that they can either fight and protect their kingdom and school or flee. They choose to head to Beacon.
- Little "No": Blake lets one out when she sees Adam attacking an Atlesian soldier. As does Glynda when she feels the telltale rumbling of the ground signalling the Wyvern Grimm.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The general reaction from everyone when they realize the Atlas robot soldiers have turned against them. They get another one when an enormous Grimm breaks out of a mountain and attacks.
- Mook Maker: The Wyvern Grimm that emerged from a mountain ejects goop that spawns fully grown Grimm when it hits the ground.
- The Oner: A long camera shot moves from scene to scene showing all the Huntsmen fighting the Grimm before panning over to Cinder Fall and her group standing on a building.
- Psychotic Smirk: Adam sports one of these when he sees Blake.
- What Does This Button Do?: Torchwick almost says this verbatim as he plays around with the control panel of General Ironwood's flagship.
- While Rome Burns: While Vale descends into chaos, Cinder Fall and Mercury Black are watching and taping the whole thing. Emerald seems at least regretful but Mercury and Cinder are enjoying it.
Nora: Where's she going?
Jaune: I'll go find out. You two stay here and keep fighting.
Jaune: I'll go find out. You two stay here and keep fighting.
