Spoiler: Volume 7, Episode 1 - Quick thoughts
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* The recovery of Penny: Pietro says that her core was left on board the arena, which flew back to Atlas. As such, it does track that he'd be able to recover her remains easily.

* Winter: Weiss worships her sister not just for being a badass but for being able to put her foot down when something is clearly wrong (such as when dear ol' dad growing increasingly ruthless). She really thought that if Ironwood went bad, Winter would already be running a rebellion. The fact that she's boldly parroting the company line is a shock to her (because of her idealized image of her sister), even if it's not really a shock to us (because Winter has regularly displayed as reliably militaristic to us).

* The Elites: I have to say, I was impressed by how reasonable and professional the elites were at the end. Yeah, everything they accused the party of was true, and didn't require unreasonable awareness for them to know. It's a new touch of restraint within RWBY to have antagonists that don't (at least at first) appear to be evil evil bad guys. Makes it easier to believe they'll be able to get along and be friends later (which we all know is leading bet, yeah?).

I really wasn't expecting to enjoy this episode, but I found myself extremely pleasantly surprised by the weight and restraint they displayed. The action wasn't as frenetic as it has recently been, but more structured and controlled. The humor is still there, but is now grounded and character-based rather than focused cheap gags and silliness. We aren't told nature of Mantle so much as shown it through careful and thought-out setting design and the brusque defiance and casual racism of the two drunkards. If this episode is any indication of how the volume is going to flow, I have good hopes for it.