I was thinking about Volume 7 some more this morning and it really is where the writers just gave up. They broke their own world and any common sense or consistency to justify the dumb plot they wanted to happen to happen. Atlas and Ironwood are made incompetent and weak before anything even happens and it makes no sense.
Full military, ships, army, Huntsmen, not weakened like Haven was for years and years, Dust stockpiled thanks to the Embargo, a full Kingdom of resources that hasn't been fucked with by Salem at all, and it doesn't even have a functioning wall around Mantle? It doesn't have defensive turrets like we saw on the Argus? Where are all the Huntsmen anyways?
How could the Kingdom actually be low on resources when it's supposed to be fucking Atlas.
And a reminder, Beacon only fell because of a combination of the Grimm, the Wyvern waking, the Atlas ships and bots being taken over, the White Fang, and not having a Maiden. And it was only Beacon that actually fell and ended in a stalemate, not the entire Kingdom. But then Salem is able to personally brute force all of Atlas down herself and it can't even properly defend itself or do anything. It's like they thought they screwed up and made her position too weak after Volume 5.
Nothing in Atlas or Volume 7 makes sense. The heroes position is made stupidly weak.
Alright yeah, just kind of needed to vent that a little.