I'm kinda torn about the "when will they reunite" situation tbh. On one hand I'm with farronheit. Having a huge hiatus in between will (at least for me) immensly take away the arc of suspense and momentum that was being built up in Volume 8 - especially with the latest ep. Like...the audience is at their seats right now, so is the BB fandom. Not following through now would pretty much choke that fire for many I think and for me would feel ill paced. I mean I'll binge the last volumes anyway right before V9 starts to hype myself up and get back into RWBY but not everyone does it and I feel like the impact would be less...impactful having a few months till they reunite again. People will calm down in the meantime, the desperation and angsting will go away, people will cope, watch other stuff...can't describe it better in english but I hope you get what I mean. Many would be like "oh right, that was a thing back then, I nearly forgot". Also unless the gang spends some time searching for Yang, shoving a confession & kiss at the start / middle of V9 would also feel ill paced to me (once again way less impactful than having it at the climax of a volume as a phenomenal send-off into hiatus). This could be averted by letting RWB angst over Yang & search for her for multiple episodes but tbh the last thing I want is yet another "RWBY is split" plot. We had volume 4, 5 & 8 for that - specifically 8 where Yang was the only RWBY member being absent from her team for the majority of the volume. It#s just...I don't want it repeated... On the other hand, reuniting them at the finale might be way too soon (depends how it's handled and to be frank, CRWBY has no qualms rushing certain things so I wouldn't put it past them to pull it off in the next ep - Weiss was shown to be treated after Cinder impaled her right in the next ep too) and if Yang alludes to the fairy tale, we might be given a solo arc for her which might even change her. It could also open up especially Ruby & Blake dealing with supposedly losing Yang but without wanting to throw shade at CRWBY: V8 already offered plenty of opportunities for such plotlines (just in a lesser scale because they suspected Yang was safe) like...it was the perfect opportunity but CRWBY largly didn't take it and just brushed the topic here and there with a line or meaningful look so why should V9 be any different? It could easily be integrated in the finale fights against Neo & Cinder by Ruby & Blake having some verbal outbursts. Then again seemingly killing a character to leave their fate unknown in a huge cliffhanger until the next season rolls around is a famous trope in media so this could absolutely be the plan (but THEN again everyone and their grandma knows that Yang isn't dead anyway and I think CRWBY ain't dumb - they know that the fans don't buy that for even a second so that is that). It might as well end with the famous "They all fell but at the end of the volume we'll see it from Yang's PoV who wakes up". So in conclusion: I'm torn. I don't want it rushed of course but I don't want another "destiny tore them apart for the 100th time and Yang is missing from team RWBY again" plot in V9 because I have enough of that. It's repetitive at this point and not different from V8 only with more angst but otherwise the same. I also don't hope that any trope like amnesia or such is being pulled to further drag out making Bumbleby 100% canon with treating it like the het couples (aka confessions & kisses) because me believing it's slow burn & not baiting for ratings has it's limits and for me it's nearly reached at this point. So I still kinda hope Yang falling was only used as a one week angst fuel to really get the fandom in disarray (and the Bumbleby fandom in an emotional turmoil) only to pull a "bitch you thought" at the finale with RWB falling too...and getting the culmination of their build-up & pining with the "I thought I lost you without ever getting to tell you that I love you" trope before sending us off into hiatus. Maybe some reverse V5 finale with Yang saying "Blake?" when they all fall, they get their moment until the whole team hugs it out similar to V5 before all look around, wondering where the hell they are and we see a glimpse of...wherever they landed which will be the huge cliffhanger.