I'm not disputing that things like that can happen in fights because they aren't set in stone. You see upsets all the time in fights and in ball games, but what I am getting at has to do with writing and the facts laid in front of us that I see. Again, no disrespect, just giving my view on this whole thing as a writer, military guy and watcher of the show myself.



I will disagree with the "best huntsmen" meaning best at fighting Grimm. It should include humans as well. That should not just apply to Team RWBY. We see both teams destroying Grimm, true, but the ASEOPS more than likely did the same thing in school with fighting each other in combat classes like Team RWBY did at Beacon. Just because we didn't see them fight humans until they fought Team RWBY doesn't mean they haven't. We didn't see it, and this is another problem in the show. They introduce so many new characters and don't give them enough fleshing out so we can understand them or see where they come from and what they are capable of in terms of ability or character personality and background. We only know Team RWBY. The ASEOPS had the teamwork capability as it was shown to us in their dedicated episode of the volume. All we know about them is what we were shown in the volume and what was said.



In all honesty, Marrow may be the FNG of the ASEOPS, but he was the key to that fight. He could have frozen all of Team RWBY off the bat by saying "stay". He is capable of doing more than one target so long as they are in his line of sight. This was shown to us in the election chapter after he froze the entire group of Happy Huntresses when they tried to rush the stage. Of course logic goes out the window in a good amount of scenes for the sake of plot in my eyes, a key example being between the fight of Clover, Qrow and Tyrian. I already knew the ASEOPS were going to lose to RWBY because of the fact that not only are they the main characters, but I literally feel no danger or fear for them because they literally never lose a key fight anymore, and that's a problem. Volume three made me interested because they had the potential to be vulnerable and lose, now they don't. Nothing short of Salem taking them on can get me fearful for them losing another fight at this point. There is no risk for them outside of their differences in morals. That's it, and that's not good writing in my eyes. Volume 4, the Nuckalavee, overcame. Volume 5, Hazel, Cinder, Mercury, Emerald and the White Fang, overcame (this volume really was an embarrassment for the villains), Volume 6, Cordovin and Adam, overcame, and everything turns out okay for them in the end. Where's the risk or fear of them failing? It's nonexistent.



Now regarding the ASEOPS being the "best huntsmen in Atlas" should hold merit for a few reasons. One, they were essentially the SF and they are the best of the best and trained not to fail and die on their missions. Two, do you really believe General Ironwood would invite any soldier to be involved with the relics and the maidens? No, he wouldn't. Generals only want the best of the best, so that should be taken into consideration. They were his best and they had to have trained for years to get to that level of integrity, discipline and skill. They even trained Team RWBY to get up to speed and we aren't given a time frame for how long that lasted, but RWBY suddenly can beat them all in a fight? I call BS on that. I have no problems with characters growing and eventually passing the teacher, but it happened way too damn fast. Three, they were the Team RWBY of Atlas for Ironwood just as Team RWBY is for Ozpin. These teams should have been equal by the end of the volume, not RWBY surpassing them and curb stomping them like they did.



True, but we aren't focused on a lot of Huntsmen in the show. And with Qrow's backstory in Mistral and Leo, to be fair, Leo was compromised by Salem way before they got there. More than likely she made Leo send his Huntsmen on impossible missions to be killed by her creatures. Huntsmen probably do have a shorter life span due to their profession, but this is honestly irrelevant to the "best huntsmen" comment in my eyes.



Volume 7 was the best volume since volume 3 in my eyes and had the potential to be the "Empire Strikes Back" of the show, but the last couple of chapters had writing blunders that made no tangible, logical sense and only were done for the sake of plot devices and cop outs that left me thinking "Oh, come on, again? Really? Goddamn it." Again, although RWBY loses the relic, they are portrayed as the morally right ones at the end and gain a maiden out of Penny who in turn joins their group in place of the relic. All I'm saying is RWBY should have lost more than they did.



This probably comes off as me being butthurt and overanalyzing something, but this is just the way I see it. Good volume, but it was closed out in an underwhelming way.