RWBY Volume 6 Episode 11 - The Lady in the Shoe: Review

Cordovin controls the giant Atlesian mech, which trudges through the ocean and pursues the airship that Maria and Weiss are on. Weiss radios Ruby and asks “You’re joking, right? You want to fight this thing?!” Ruby replies “We've fought giant monsters before. This is just a tiny old lady... with one very big robot.” Cordovin threatens to stop their journey to Atlas with the brute force of the Atlesian military. Cordovin prepares to take down the airship with a missile that pops out from a slot on the arm cannon. The missile fires and locks on to the airship, but suddenly, it detonates harmlessly just right behind it. Cordovin turns to see Ruby with her Crescent Rose. Ruby had fired a shot at the missile causing it to detonate. Ruby lowers her weapon and glares at Cordovin while the others get ready to fight. An enraged Cordovin growls and prepares to fire a missile at Ruby and the others. Weiss and Maria see this and are shocked. Weiss tells Maria to dive; Weiss unbuckles her seatbelt and gets out from her seat while dives for the landing. Just as Maria lands behind the others, Weiss approaches the airship door with Myrtenaster in her hand. She jumps off and raises her weapon creating a rock wall that shields the group from Cordovin’s ice Dust attack.

Oscar comments to group that was close. Ruby says that they need to figure out how to stop Cordovin and protect the airship until they do. Jaune says “Let’s give her more targets to focus on.” Nora asks “You mean us, don’t you? Jaune says “Look at that thing. It's not designed for small enemies. It's probably meant for giant Grimm that come in from deeper waters. We can turn our size into an advantage. We just have to be smart.” Ruby asks Maria if she can keep the ship out of harm’s way. Maria replies “They can take my driver's license, but I won't let them take this ship!” Oscar says that he will be more useful if he goes with Maria because he can try to spot a weakness from up high. Qrow says “Well, he's not the only one who can grab a bird's eye view.” Weiss says to Ruby “You said that you needed me on the ground?” Ruby nervously smiles and says to Weiss, not exactly.” As the team strategizes, Cordovin keeps a keen eye on their location. Suddenly, her eyes widen as the group breaks into three: Jaune, Nora and Ren run down the left path along the cliff, Maria flies the airship to the right in a steep climb, and Ruby and Qrow fly straight up into the air using her Semblance and his corvid form, respectively. Ruby reforms from her Semblance and fires Crescent Rose, cracking the mech's windshield and causing Cordovin to growl. She fires a volley of missiles to Ruby's location.

Ruby lands on a tree branch and uses her Semblance to dodge the missiles. She eventually reforms and runs and jump along the missiles before freefalling down to the ocean. An incoming wave is frozen by Weiss as Ruby slides along it and shouts “Let’s go!” Weiss also slides off the frozen wave before using Myrtenaster to freeze small patches of ice for her and Ruby to leap on toward the mech. As Cordovin keeps her attention on them, her mech is suddenly struck by a volley of pink grenades. Jaune shouts “Hey! Over here!” Cordovin is surprised and looks over to Jaune’s group as they keep running. Nora says to Ren “And you said it wasn’t beach season!”

The three then take cover behind a boulder for each of them. Nora fires off more grenades from Magnhild, but suddenly, a hexagonal shield pattern appears protecting Cordovin's mech, doing no damage to her. Cordovin laughs and then says “Surely you knew Atlas was the father of hard-light Dust, or do lesser kingdoms simply lack proper education?” Cordovin charges up her mech's arm cannon again, this time firing rock Dust, forcing Jaune's team to abandon their cover. Jaune informs Ruby and Oscar that Cordovin just activated shields. Oscar tells Jaune that he saw that and that they need to find whatever's generating it. Ruby says “You know, in video games, the weak spot's usually on the back of the giant boss!” Weiss replies “Ruby, this isn't a game!” Ruby replies “I'm just trying to-- LOOK OUT!!” Cordovin's mech is seen stomping at a part of the ocean. Unbeknownst to her, Qrow flies around in his avian form. Cordovin shouts “You are ants! You are lower than ants!” As Qrow flies through the clouds, he transforms back into his human form and takes out Harbinger's scythe form. He propels himself forward and grapples onto the giant mech. The leitmotif from “Bad Luck Charm” is heard in the musical score.

Cordovin feels the impact from the damage Qrow inflicted but doesn’t know that Qrow has done so. Qrow says “Until the shield's down, we're gonna have to get up close and personal with this thing.” He starts firing shots at the scratch he just made. Suddenly, he sees the mech’s giant hand begin to reach for him. Qrow transforms back into his avian form to get out of the way. Ren replies “That’s easier said than done!” Ruby informs the others that she and Weiss are on it. Ruby and Weiss land on a patch of ice on the ocean together. Weiss tells Ruby to hold on and then stabs Myrtenaster into the ground, creating an ice attack that knocks Cordovin's mech off balance for a bit. Cordovin yells out in frustration. As the airship flies by, Oscar realizes something. Just as he is about to inform the others of his discovery, Cordovin aims her cannon at Ruby and Weiss. Oscar gasps and tells to Ruby to move.

Cordovin fires a volley of missiles at Ruby and Weiss, creating a large plume of water. Weiss and Ruby emerge from the plume unscathed as they ride Weiss' Queen Lancer summon. Ruby leaps off and uses Crescent Rose to propel herself onto Cordovin's mech, embedding the scythe's blade into it. Maria cheers Ruby on. The force of Ruby's strike knocks the mech back into the cliffside, the tremors being felt by the citizens in Argus. Cordovin lets out an enraged scream. Jaune, Ren and Nora proceed forward. Ren leaps onto the mech's arm and runs along it, while also using the blades of StormFlower to hang on. Jaune uses the two handle form of Crocea Mors to slash at the mech's hip joint, while Nora uses the hammer form of Magnhild to smash at the arm cannon. Cordovin manages to stand the mech back up, causing Ruby to be lowered down into her view on the windshield. Ruby hangs on to Crescent Rose as she nervously smiles and waves at Cordovin. Cordovin yells at Ruby to get off and tries to grab Ruby with the mech's left hand, forcing Ruby to let go as she uses her Semblance to fly downward. Luckily, Weiss flies by on her Queen Lancer summon and catches Ruby.

Ruby looks back towards the mech. Weiss asks her “What if I hadn’t caught you?” Ruby replies “I knew you would” and grins widely. Weiss just groans. As they fly around the mech, Ren lowers himself down along the mech's back. He notices a panel with a humming machine sound coming from behind it. Ren uses one of his blades to pry the panel off, but nearly falls as the mech keeps moving around. Fortunately, Qrow appears and catches Ren by his wrist. Qrow asks Ren what he found. He tosses Ren back up as the both of them look at what was behind the panel he just opened. They see a whirring machine conveniently labelled "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY, SHIELD GENERATOR" written on top of it. Qrow and Ren draw their weapons and shoot at the machinery, disabling the mech's shields. Cordovin shouts in frustration as she watches her screen as the shields are reduced to zero.

Cordovin then feels a tremor as Nora fires a volley of grenades at her. Nora shouts “You get back here with my man!” As Nora continues firing at Cordovin, Weiss and Ruby fly by to Ren and Qrow.Weiss tells Ren and Qrow to jump on. The two men do so. Nora continues to fire until she runs out of ammo. Suddenly, Jaune notices Cordovin lifting up the mech's arm. He runs over to Nora. Cordovin says “I've had enough of you ingrates!” Cordovin slams the mech's arm into both Jaune and Nora, knocking them back and breaking their Auras. The two struggle to get back up. Ren shouts no in response to seeing Jaune and Nora getting hurt. 

Suddenly, Weiss gasps as Cordovin fires the mech cannon at her group at point blank range, destroying the Queen Lancer summon and knocking herself, Ren, Qrow and Ruby back over to the cliff. Ruby uses her Semblance to fly back over to the cliff, but falls short of the cliff edge and falls towards the sea. Ruby embeds the blade of Crescent Rose into the cliffside and holds on for dear life. She notices Cordovin approaching her. Cordovin says “This is what happens when you think you know better than those rightfully in charge!” From the airship, Oscar notices Ruby in trouble and runs over to Maria. Oscar says that they got to do something. Maria flicks some switches on the controls and flies back over to the mech. Just as Cordovin is about to fire her arm cannon at Ruby, Maria flies by and fires a missile. Suddenly, the mech grabs the missile with its hand. Cordovin then turns the mech around to Maria's direction. Cordovin realizes Calavera had fired the missile. Everyone watches helplessly as Cordovin throws the missile toward the airship's direction. The missile explodes in front of the airship, causing it to rattle…

Back in the forest, Blake Belladonna and Adam Taurus continue to fight each other intensely. Their blades clang loudly as they clash back and forth. As their blades lock, Blake hears a distant explosion from behind her. Blake's distraction causes her to dodge quickly from Adam's attack. Blake uses the kusarigama form of Gambol Shroud to grapple and swing from tree to tree. Adam pursues her. Adam shouts “Can you do anything besides run?!” Adam then jumps onto a tree trunk and leaps off of it as he continues to pursue Blake, who continues leaping from branch to branch. Adam then fires Wilt and it crashes into Blake's Gambol Shroud’s kusarigama form just as she was about to grapple onto another tree. Due to her loss of momentum, Adam manages to catch up and slash at her, but he merely just slashes Blake's trench coat off. Blake then kicks off Adam, knocking him back. As Blake lands back on the ground, she fires at Adam, who blocks some of her shots but some manage to still hit him. The two then leap out of the forest and find themselves on a natural stone bridge in front of a waterfall.

The two then clash again, with Blake evading Adam's attacks with her shadow clones from her own Semblance. Blake manages to catch Adam's sword with her own cleaver/sheath, leaving Adam to defend himself with Blush. Eventually, Adam catches Blake's wrist and blocks her Gambol Shroud with Blush. Adam says to her “I wouldn't have to be doing this if you just behaved!” Suddenly, Adam grabs his sword and flings away Blake's cleaver/sheath, before knocking her in the side of her head with the hilt of Wilt. Blake gets knocked back several feet and says that she is selfish. Adam knocks Blake back again and calls her a coward. He then knocks Blake back a few feet again. Blake says to him that he is delusional. Adam then points his sword at Blake's abdominal scar that he gave her before during the Battle of Beacon. Adam then uses his Semblance, which causes the Blade of Blake's Gambol Shroud to break in half. The broken weapon clatters a few feet away from Blake.

Adam then stops to remove the blindfold from his eyes. Adam says “People hurt me long before we met... All sorts of people in all sorts of ways... (Blake looks away sadly upon hearing this) ... but no one hurt me quite like you…” Blake looks back up to Adam as she sees his own eyes: his right eye a healthy blue eye, his left eye permanently scarred with a brand labeled "SDC" for the Schnee Dust Company. Adam continues “You didn't leave scars, you just left me alone.” As Adam continues talking, Blake hears a certain motorcycle drawing close. Adam says “So... tell me, Blake... how does it feel to be alone?” Blake doesn't pay attention to what Adam says as she hears the noise get closer. Suddenly, Adam raises his sword and lets out a loud yell in fury as he stabs Blake in the abdomen. Suddenly, her form disappears, another Semblance shadow clone. Adam then looks behind him as Blake picks up her cleaver/sheath. Blake says “I'm not alone.”

Suddenly, from above the waterfall, Yang drives off the cliff, and hurls her motorcycle, which crashes into Adam, knocking him down, before falling into the river below. Yang lands a few feet away from Blake as she stares down Adam. The leitmotif from “Armed and Ready” can be heard in the musical score when Yang lands. I was so happy when she appeared! Time for Blake and Yang to get some payback against Adam.” Blake is relieved that Yang is here to help her. Yang fires a shot Adam, which he blocks. Yang then activates the shotgun in her prosthetic arm. Suddenly, Blake falls to her knee as she holds her stomach in pain. Yang says to her “It's okay. Catch your breath for a second. I can hold him off.” Adam says “She's right, Blake. It's okay, we have... unfinished business.”

The two combatants stare each other down. Adam makes the first move, delivering a series of quick slashes and Semblance arcs that knocks Yang back a short distance. Eventually, Yang begins to strike back, managing to land some hits on Adam that he wasn't able to block. The leitmotif from “Armed and Ready” can be heard again in the musical score. Yang knocks Adam back a good distance before firing at him. He blocks and absorbs the shots with his sword. Adam then quickly runs in circles around Yang before using his Semblance to let out another attack that causes Yang to slide back a short distance.

Blake says to Yang “His Semblance is like yours! He absorbs energy through his sword, stores it up and then sends it back when he's ready.”  Yang replies “He gets to dish out damage without having to feel it? (she sighs in frustration) That's just cheap…” Yang launches herself towards Adam and they proceed to trade blows again. Yang lands a series of punches and kicks on Adam, but he manages to send her back when she punches his sword. Yang gets knocked back next to Blake and the two share a glance with each other. Adam notices this and lets out an angered growl. He readies his Semblance once again. Blake shouts “YANG!!” With a loud yell, Adam lets out a devastating attack with his Semblance. When the smoke clears, Yang is still standing, though her prosthetic arm has some small scratches in it and her foot barely hangs off the edge of the bridge. She lowers her arm and glares at Adam. Yang says to him “Leave. Us. Alone. This is your last chance.” Adam stares back at the two as he grips the hilt of his sword again. Yang's left arm trembles slightly. Adam says “Do you really believe that? Or are you just trying to scare me away so you won't have to die trying to protect her?” Yang, angered, prepares to fight him again despite her hand still trembling. Suddenly, Blake takes Yang's hand with her own.

Blake says “She's not protecting me, Adam. And I'm not protecting her.” Adam glares back at the two of them angrily. Blake says “We're protecting each other.” The two friends stand hand in hand in solidarity as they glare at Adam together...My prediction that Blake and Yang would team up to fight Adam came true! On top of that they have restored their friendship and it looks like their relationship will go beyond the two of them just being really good friends. I started tearing up at that scene because I was so happy for Blake and Yang. This episode is absolutely one of my favorites from this volume. And Adam, to quote Judas Priest “You’ve got another thing comin’.”