I wanted to address some messages I’ve gotten over the last few days, as well as some posts I’ve seen, regarding RWBY Volume 8 Episode 3 (titled “Strings”).
From this moment on, in this post, I’m giving you all a quick warning that we’re going to be heading into SPOILER territory!
The episode opens up with May and Penny helping Ruby out of the transportation tube, the team regroups after an admittedly jarring ride, and once everyone is settled they continue onward.
May asks Penny where they need to be headed, quote: “All right, robo-girl, you’re up. Which way?”
Penny finds the pathway to where they need to go and responds to May with the directions. Then corrects May by saying “And my name is Penny.”
Ruby, smugly gives May a bit of deserved sass, and May responds with her typical eye roll because these kids just totally showed her up.
So let’s hit those timeline of events we seen on screen one more time in fewer words:
May asks Penny which way, Penny gives the directions then corrects May, Ruby gives May some sass, May responds to Ruby’s sass with an “alright alright no need to rub it in” response.
The next time you hear May and Penny talk, May drops the nickname and calls her Penny because Penny has stated, very clearly, that is her name and May, of course, respects that and the nickname of “robo-girl” is never used again.
The important thing here is Penny felt comfortable enough around May to correct her and May reciprocated in kind by dropping the nickname immediately.
May’s praise in Episode 2 and use of a nickname in Episode 3 is her trying to form familiarity, but once May is properly told these things are hurtful to Penny she immediately corrects herself, which is the exact behavior you want to see.
Something else to note! Someone very close to May, Robyn, has shown a natural habit of giving nicknames to people she doesn’t really know the names of or she’s still unfamiliar with. May’s picked up Robyn’s habit for this as well.
Keep in mind that until the start of V8 the core group (Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Jaune, Nora, Ren, Oscar, and Penny) and the Happy Huntresses (May, Fiona, and Joanna) have had next to no interaction with each other and honestly have very little idea of who the others are or even what their dynamic is.
Another thing to keep in mind is the actual time between the end of Volume 7 and start of Volume 8 is next to nothing and we’re still at the beginning of the same day we started on, so actually learning about each other has to coincide with the actual missions every group is taking on.
A great moment to look at about this is the look Nora has when she hears the others referred to as “friends” despite her feelings toward Ren being more complex than that and Yang’s response to hearing the uncertainty of her team’s skills when they aren’t all together.
These interactions have all happened throughout the first few episodes, these two groups are JUST getting to know each other in meaningful ways and you’ll continue to see them grow together as we go through this Volume.
Final note! For what it’s worth May actually really likes this group a lot. You can see her intentionally being protective of the entire group several times, showing caution for everyone’s current safety over the success of the mission throughout the episode. She’s literally there to make sure everyone is okay and when the episode ends she’s understandably shaken to see the kids so beaten up.
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