Emerald was using her semblance the whole time. There was actually a super well choreographed fight going on, but Emerald was using her semblance on us, the audience, to make us think the fight looked bad.

Cinder clearly doesn't play DnD otherwise she would know she can't do that much in just 1 turn.

"Ren Kick"
*squeaky toy sound*

"IRONWOOD KICK!"
*God Damn Explosion!*

Lmao Perfect!

I swear every time a rwby critic pulls out a full diagram detailing weird character positions in the middle of a fight, I lose my shit. It's so bad, that you need pictures to explain how jank it is.

As an Ironwood fan since volume 2. His fight against the Alpha Grimm was LEAGUES above this fight.

28:42 They could have had Ironwood raise his arm to block Nora's hit, but Ren tie it with his own weapon and force it down. Ren is like the perfect interference to Ironwood's straight punch attack.

I think the "bag of sand" Cinder throws in the first fight is supposed to be a bag of flour. It would make more sense than having sand lying around a storage room, but it's still a bit strange admittedly.

Wait, I just noticed this.
So, throughout all of v8, Ironwood's left sleeve is rolled up to show off his new black metallic arm (you get, cause he's evil now, oooh). But when Emerald backflip kicks his gun out of his hands, his sleeve is rolled down and he's wearing his glove.
They used his v7 model in the latter half of v8! How do you mess that up?!
Man, you were right about the animation errors becoming more noticeable in the second half.

Feel like the Ironwood fight suffered from RWBY's real biggest enemies...the budget and the Deadline.
Like you said if they just showed emerald using her semblance to throw Ironwood off abit, like that Nora charging in the sky the teleported to right next to him was an illusion and Nora was charging closer to him that caught him off guard. Just little things like that or show a illusion fading from where Ironwood's fist was to show that they are  disorienting him just enough to miss. Just ...a little bit more effort please ( still not bitterXD ).

Nora was done so bad in this volume. She spent 7 out of the 14 chapters in bed, and when she finally got up, all she did was 1 hit and that was it. That one hit was all of Nora's combat for the entire volume. Also, why does Nora get a song this volume? Why not Ruby? I'd love a Ruby song that isn't just about Summer.

On one hand, James did get ganked by five people. On the other hand, they really should've made it easier for Ironwood to unlatch/unhook/unholster/whatever his guns from that bfg he carried. That and he should've been doing tekken combos.

Also, now that you mention it, I've seen enough standing moonsaults in wrestling to believe in a standing 180, if not just a 135.

I really wish Ironwood’s final “punch” against Oscar showed him hesitate or show a quick little look of regret since he knows Oscar has his friend Ozpin in his head. It would show that Ironwood knows what he’s risking by attacking Oscar, losing his friend again (probably forever if Oscar dies now).

Then again now that I’m typing this he did shoot Oscar beforehand so… I don’t know… it would’ve been interesting to see a little remorse.

I will never believe,  a orphan slave girl given secret combat lessons would be able to fight a seasoned huntsman on even footing for even a second especially in the way they set up the scene like come on now

My favorite thing about Winter’s electric glyph is that she’s imitating Weiss’ technique, which is impossible cuz Weiss’ rapier is built to store and use dust and Winter’s can’t lmao

I just realized that Winter started using other elements like the ice shard and gravity glyph in this fight as well. And I don’t wanna nitpick just cuz she doesn’t have dust in her weapon, but literally the whole point of Weiss’ weapon having dust chambers is to use them for her glyphs, so why doesn’t Winter have them as well. She has never shown evidence in the series beforehand that she has used elemental glyphs before so I’m just perplexed.

"I'm mad because I'm losing again >:("
Your delivery and comedy is consistently so much fun

I’ve been watching Naruto recently. And with a big group like the JNPR + ironwood fight…. Like what Kakashi said “TEAMWORK!!” RT needs to learn that a big group like 3 or more. The group needs to learn fucking teamwork. They get thrown into combat without any realization about how to fight an opponent. What happened to team attacks. Oh.. wait. That results shipping bullshit!! Because oooh let’s have team attacks be a shipping name!! RT needs to fucking step up their game. Fights needs a lot of damn work….

Coming back to rewatch this, honestly your point about making sure we see new fight techniques prior to the fight stands for the Ironwood fight too because when Winter did her Killsteal all I could think when I first saw it was 'What was that and when did she figure out how to do it?'

On the Ironwood fight: imagine Winter using her glyphs to support JNR but still not able to get a good hit in. Then a camera cut and we see them attacking one at a time in a wide shot, but their techniques are switched up. Ren is barely attacking and just dodging to tire out, Jaune isn’t using his shield, and Nora is barely swinging her hammer. We see the look of confusion of Ironwood’s face as they are now getting some hits in. But he lands a decisive blow and he calls out that he knows this Oscar. Emerald drops the illusion she put up in the camera cut to reveal Oscar was going to toe-to-toe with Ironwood while disguised. They fight a little bit more, Oscar does his cane multi attack, but then he gets punched back. Maybe it’s in the spot he was shot. But JNR and Winter have been getting into position. Suddenly, Ren ties up Ironwood’s leg, Nora smacks him around so he curves about in an arc (Winter can have a glyph on Ren so he so fixed in the middle), Jaune bounces Ironwood back in the opposite direction with his gravity burst, and that’s when Winter does her finisher. Oscar gets a bigger role in the fight, Emerald’s illusions are necessary, there is greater teamwork, and Winter’s betrayal is still the finishing blow.

100% agree. Another issue I have with these fights is just how floaty everything is. I know this a criticism that's been said before but I think it bears repeating.  The moment where this really stood out to me was when Nora was getting her attack ready. At first I thought Winter was using her glyphs to keep Nora in the air while she readied her attack, but then I remembered its the dark glyphs that stick things in place, so I guess Nora is just floating in the air until it's her time to attack. It's small moment but it completely pulled me out of the fight, and that's the main issue I have with these fights. Nothing has weight to it anymore. Characters can just flail their weapons around with so much ease they might as well be made of cardboard, attacks don't leave an impact (like seriously, Ironwood takes a metal hammer to the face and it doesn't even stagger or temporarily daze him) and everyone can jump super high and move so fast gravity might as well not exist (and makes super speed characters feel less unique). Also this doesn't really have anything to do with the the fight but it bothers me how everyone can basically fly now, like the fact that Nora can just fly on her hammer like a magic broom stick instead using its weight and the recoil of her rocket launchers to get around really annoys me, like the first time I saw her flying around on it in volume 7 broke my brain

27:17 I laughed so hard, it wasn't even that funny lmao