#“What if SEW were like Grimm but light?”

[diaryofamadsunwukongfan]

Silver Eyed Warriors

Light and Shade, the eternal dichotomy that everything in Renment is seperated in. Flora, Fauna, Faunus, and the rest of Humanity are the light for they posses Aura, the very manifestation of the soul. The creatures of Grimm are the Shade, the only living (if they can even be called alive) beings without an Aura, without a soul, without anything but pure vice... or are they?

Grimm don't have families, unless they do. Grimm don't feel love, unless they do. The Creatures Grimm are monsters of pure evil, which is the same things Humanity used to say about regular creatures and Faunus. The truth is Humanity really do not know much about the Grimm, much more than the truth that they endlessly hunt human beings. But Darkness is evil, no? Even though humans themselves are half light and half shadow. The truth that Humanity refuses to accept, is that they share more in common with the Grimm than they care to admit...

Long ago... in the kingdom of Vale... hidden deep in the forests... there lived a nation of warriors... who all had Silver eyes. Their mirrored eyes were a gift from one god, who created the warriors to defeat the followers of the other god. But even after giving it their all, the god of the Silver eyed peoples lost, and blamed his failure on his people. So that is why those Silver eyed lived apart from the shattered world.

Yet even so, it was the calling of every Siler eyed warrior to become a huntsman, travelling the Renments of the first world to do battle with Shade. But the creatures of Grimm were not the only followers of the other god. Human beings, who lie, who cheat, who steal, who hoard wealth, who murder, who abuse, all who act like Grimm were hunted down by the Silver eyed warriors.

This angered Humanity, who refused to be hunted by anything. The day when the humans found our home was the day when all but three bloodlines of the Silver eyed were banished from life. La Rosas, whose beauty is second only to their brutality, La Calaveras, who walk between life and death, and finnally... me, who was found by you lot of witches from Salem!

Hear me, children of two gods! In days past you're fathers and mothers called us demons... and they were right. To every evil human, we are monsters with fur and fang, claws and horns! And when you push me to the edge, you'll find that I look just like a Grimm to you lot! But the difference between Silver eyed and Grimm is... we eat Grimm too...

Now that you know the truth, you understand why I wanted to wipe them out?

[anthurak]

Okay so, thematically speaking, the reason why I think they'll use the Staff instead of Ascension for Summer is because the Hound, while smart, did not have the faculties needed to actually take ascension, and as shown with Alyx, dying in the Ever After just means you end up as a ghost forever instead of ascending, so the Staff is just about the only way they'll be able to de-Grimmify Summer.

(This is also why I'm thinking Summer being saved would mean Penny coming back for Round 3, or vice versa, given Penny's aforementioned thematic parallels with the Grimmified SEW's. If a dignified death is the closest to a happy ending Penny will ever achieve, then they'll have no choice but to mercy kill Summer. It's just a matter of whether Penny's return or Summer's rescue would come first.)

On somewhat a related note (given how my last two asks were combined), I'm also thinking Cinder's ascension would mark a good point to close out the penultimate Volume on, that way the Final Volume would have time to develop her next incarnation alongside Team RWBY, since they'd kind of have to flesh out her new identity.

Regarding Summer, I think the assumption that you’re making is that Grimm!Summer is going to be just like the Hound. And I really doubt that’s what we’re going to see.

Largely because I think Grimm!Summer simply being a raving, mindless monster would not be nearly as interesting, nor hit nearly as hard emotionally, as if she was fully cognizant.

As I’ve gone into in other posts, I think Summer is in fact fully cognizant and self-aware after having essentially become the SAME kind of Light/Dark hybrid that Salem is after a dip in the darkness pools. Though at the same time completely psychologically broken by Salem into being her willing follower. And that the Hound, the other hybrids and even Cinder herself have been part of Salem’s research and experiments into trying to replicate what happened to Summer, and herself.

Again, I think this would hit WAY harder than Summer just being a mindless monster. I mean just imagine Ruby, Yang, Raven, Qrow, etc. expecting a Grimm!Summer to be some raving monster just like the Hound… only for some mysterious armored humanoid grimm to unmask herself to reveal Summer, who ISN’T mindless and straight up says she’s serving Salem WILLINGLY.

For one, this allows Grimm!Summer to be an actual CHARACTER instead of just a big scary monster. It lets Summer be an actual VILLAIN who can have conversations and debates with Ruby, Yang and the rest of her family, rather than just spouting creepy disjointed phrases.

Most importantly, it allows Summer to be a proper antagonist and foil to RUBY. An actual character to properly represent and embody Ruby’s self-destructive hero-complex taken to its inevitable conclusion. A way for Ruby to confront and battle, both physically AND ideologically, this part of herself she struggles so much with.

Finally, it allows Summer to be saved not through esoteric magic, but through Ruby and Yang and Raven and the rest of her family getting through all the pain and trauma she’s suffered and convincing Summer to come back to them. And for Ruby in particular, to save who essentially represent a broken version of herself.

Which in turn, going back to your point, means that Summer is actually fully cognizant and able to attempt ascension herself.

Regarding Cinder, I do more or less agree with you on that. Particularly if we end up getting another volume or two after Salem’s defeat to deal with the Gods. It would certainly be good to have some actual time to explore and flesh out Cinder’s new identity.

[shieldagent93]

The Parallels Between Agents of SHIELD's Uprising Arc and RWBY's Fall of Beacon Arc

Honestly, as a fan of both, it surprised me how much they have in common. Now, for those of you who've only seen one or the other, here's some background. Warning, lots of spoilers.

The Uprising arc for Agents of SHIELD (AoS), as promotional material liked to name it, was episodes 1x16 - 1x22 (season finale). The events of those episodes ran alongside the plot of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, where Nazi organization HYDRA was found to be inside of spy organization SHIELD since SHIELD's inception. This arc of the show was written with the movie in mind.

RWBY's Fall of Beacon arc was episodes 3x07 - 3x12 (volume finale). This arc was planned from the inception of the show and the first two and a half volumes spent building up to it. It culminated in the annihilation of the Beacon Academy (the main set location up to this point in the show), the destruction of worldwide communications, and a lot of other things.

I was rewatching the Fall of Beacon arc all over again the other day and it hammed home just how much these shows had in common. They both have:

An arc in the back half of the season/volume that completely change the trajectory of the show HYDRA reveal and the dissolution of SHIELD (Uprising) Maidens/Salem reveal and the Destruction of Beacon (Fall of Beacon)

This arc takes place between one episode titled End of the Beginning (AoS 1x16, RWBY V3 finale) and another titled Beginning of the End (AoS S1 Finale, RWBY 3x07)

A popular main character gets badly injured Fitz gains a traumatic brain injury Yang loses an arm

This character is then separated from their future love interest, and believes they were abandoned by them Fitz by Simmons Yang by Blake

Crazy obsessed boys working with the bad guys who can't let go of the girl and become worse with their obsession later on in the show Grant Ward (with Skye) Adam Taurus (with Blake)

First semi official appearance of a "missing" family member of one of the main characters in the finale. They officially appear in the following season/volume having a temporary alliance with the series antagonists. AoS ending scene has Skye's dad, Cal, cameo (just his hand is shown) RWBY has Yang's mom, Raven, cameo (in bird form) outside Yang's window

One of the main character's are "special" Skye is one of several characters who were given alien blood to heal from the brink of death and the only one who didn't have a negative reaction to it. Her origins at this point are unknown to everyone, including herself. Ruby's Silver Eyes are revealed to be able to neutralize monsters known as Grimm with a flash of light from her eyes

Both of these character's "Special" traits are passed down from their mothers and put a target on their heads Skye is later revealed to be an Inhuman and gets superpowers. The inhuman genes were passed down from her mother, Jiaying. At various points in the show, inhumans are locked up/killed due to their powers, dissected in the name of experimentation, or used by others like weapons. Ruby's silver eyes are a rare trait passed down by her mother, Summer Rose. These silver eyes make her a target of Grimm Queen Salem, who has historically hunted down and killed Silver Eyed Warriors (SEWs). In recent years, she has also done experiments on SEWs to transform them into Grimm.

Betrayal Grant Ward tricked the rest of his team. He was HYDRA all along RWBY and Co had thought Cinder and her team were just transfer students when they had been placed there to bring the school down

Good Guys figure out what's going on too late Skye only realizes Grant Ward is HYDRA after discovering Agent Eric Koenig's body and recognizing Ward was the only one who could have killed him (the two of them are the only ones remaining in the Base). Ruby starts piecing things together when realizing Emerald is still in town (not leaving with her injured teammate as Ruby's team was told earlier) and seeing Mercury (Emerald's teammate who should have had a leg injury) unharmed. Sadly, she is unable to stop their plan from going into motion and Penny Polendina is killed.

Season baddie who dies and then returns in some form during the latest/last season John Garrett, whose past self showed up in S7 Roman Torchwick, who appeared via Neo's illusions in V9

Big guy in charge assumed to be Killed In Action, later revealed to be alive Nick Fury Professor Ozpin (Ozma)

I know some of this information was revealed in later Seasons/Volumes, but it was at least starting to be set up during the arcs I mentioned.

There's probably more similarities I haven't thought of, but man was there a lot just off the top of my head.

No wonder I love both shows lol

[bestworstcase]

I like your analysis on many things and I generally concurred on your points regarding Salem not seemingly doing anything but a thought did occur.

How does the idea Salem wasn't engaging in a secret war align with her killing Silver Eyed Warriors? No one else has anything to gain from their demises after all, so it wouldn't make sense for someone we've not met to be doing it.

the worldbuilding gremlins in my brain will not permit me to answer this without first noting that people are absolutely fantastic at rationalizing pointless violence and there’s a fine line between a savior and a scapegoat.

all it takes is one rumor that the warrior who turns grimm aside with a mere glance is really their master, sparing the faithful but unleashing the monsters on those who do not fall in line. or someone putting old myths about the maidens—witches whose power you can take by killing them—together with silver eyes. or one charismatic zealot blaming silver eyed warriors for the massacre of a village they couldn’t save. you know?

but, realistically, if silver-eyed folk are all descended from ozma, they’d have to be pretty rare to begin with—man doesn’t seem like he’s done a lot of settling down to have kids on the regular—and i don’t imagine there’s ever been enough of them for anyone but salem to be consistently picking them off.

although i will add that our data points here are: 1. maria, who was unambiguously targeted because of her eyes, 2. summer rose, who sought salem out on purpose, 3. hound guy, who salem fucked up good, and 4. maria’s father’s theory that the only reason silver eyes could possibly be so rare and obscure was if someone was hunting them down, which… isn’t logically sound actually, it requires the presupposition that silver eyes were common once and aren’t anymore, which probably isn’t the case bfjrhrk

and then like, look at the circumstances surrounding the three silver eyed people that we know FOR SURE that salem crossed paths with in some way: maria was a legend who styled herself as the grimm reaper. summer chose to go after salem, not the other way around. the hound… we have no idea where, when, or how salem found that guy, but we do know that he was the first, bc the hound was an experiment.

2 out of 3 are clearly atypical, and the 1 who isn’t was a SUPER high profile huntress, and combined with V9 establishing that summer’s “normal” was constant false alarms and ‘emergencies’ that turned out to be nothing? to me that raises the question of whether salem made a regular practice of culling silver-eyed warriors or if she went after maria bc maria’s fame brought her to salem’s attention?

BUT. THAT ASIDE,

i do think it’s pretty likely that salem regularly put bounties on the heads of SEWs of maria’s caliber, and may have exerted more effort than that (although if so, those efforts seem to have tapered off in the postwar era—it beggars belief that summer, ozpin’s protégée, would have slipped salem’s notice).

why? salem’s a grimm. grimm are very clearly shown to be… not mindless demonic monsters; they’re social creatures, they’re way smarter than huntsmen give ’em credit for, they have a drive to live just like any other living thing. and they’re all salem has. she’s been exiled from human and faunus civilization for thousands of years, but the grimm have never rejected her. it makes sense to me that she’d want to protect them?

and also, if she made the same connection maria did, and assumed silver eyes derived their power from the god of light… well. all the more reason to strike them down.

but, more to the point, salem taking maria out was entirely unrelated to whatever conflict she may or may not have been engaging in with ozpin at the time, because maria… didn’t know ozpin, wasn’t party to his conspiracy, had zero knowledge of salem’s existence. she was a lone, legendary hero doing her thing completely separate from what ozpin had going on. (which if anything supports the broader theory that salem was Focused On Other Things besides him; ‘other things’ need not necessarily be ‘good things’ hrgjshk)

there’s this pretty widespread fanon that ozma recruited silver-eyed warriors to his cause / that there is a power struggle of some kind over silver eyes akin to the one over the maidens, but i’m not… sure how well that holds up. certainly ozpin placed some importance on ruby’s eyes, but the impression i get is that ozma sees silver eyes as a proxy for his ‘smaller, more honest soul’—he’s not looking for the power so much as he’s looking for a particular purity of character. & obviously there’s silver-eyed folks out there who don’t answer to him or even know him.

so salem targeting silver eyes might sometimes overlap with taking out an agent of his, but equally it might just as often be motivated by—somewhat ironically—wanting to protect the lives of grimm.

[foodandfolklore]

The Straw, the Coal and the Bean

The Brother's Grimm are probably the most well known authors when it comes to vintage fairy tales. However, what a lot of people don't know is a lot of their stories are not originals. Not exactly. Many of their stories are reinterpretations or retellings of old folk stories THEY heard. Which is why stories like this one, retold by the Brother's Grimm but seems to remain mostly untouched by Christianization, I find especially interesting.

The story of The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean is meant to give some explanation as to why beans always have a little seam. The type of bean is not mentioned, and Old Illustrations show bean variations from Green Bean to Kidney bean to Lima bean and more. Kitchen Witchcraft correlates all general beans with: Family, Harmony, Protection, Reconciliation, Co-operation, Wisdom, Luck, Money, Divination, and Prosperity. Perhaps this Fairy Tale/Folktale can give some insight as to why.

In a village lived a poor old woman, who had gathered together a dish of beans and wanted to cook them. So she made a fire on her hearth, and that it might burn the quicker, she lighted it with a handful of straw. When she was emptying the beans into the pan, one dropped without her seeing it, and lay on the ground beside a straw, and soon afterwards a burning coal from the fire leapt down to the two.

Then the straw began and said:

‘Dear friends, where do you come from?’

The coal replied:

‘I fortunately sprang out of the fire, and if I had not escaped by sheer force, my death would have been certain,—I should have been burnt to ashes.’

The bean said:

‘I too have escaped with a whole skin, but if the old woman had got me into the pan, I should have been made into broth without any mercy, like my comrades.’

‘And would a better fate have befallen me?’ said the straw. ‘The old woman has destroyed all my brothers and sisters in fire and smoke; she seized sixty of them at once, and took their lives. I luckily slipped through her fingers.’

‘But what are we to do now?’ said the coal.

‘I think,’ answered the bean, ‘that as we have so fortunately escaped death, we should keep together as good friends, and because a new trouble might find us here, we should go away together to a foreign country.’

The idea pleased the two others, and they set out on their way together. Soon, however, they came to a little brook, and as there was no bridge or foot-plank, they did not know how they were to get over it.

The straw hit on a good idea, and said:

‘I will lay myself straight across, and then you can walk over on me as on a bridge.’

The straw therefore stretched itself from one bank to the other, and the coal, who was brave, but still glowing from the fire, tripped quite boldly on to the newly-built bridge. But when she had reached the middle, and heard the water rushing beneath her, she was after all, afraid, and stood still, and ventured no farther.

The straw, however, began to burn, broke in two pieces, and fell into the stream. The coal slipped after her, hissed when she got into the water, and breathed her last.

The bean, who had prudently stayed behind on the shore, could not but laugh at the event, was unable to stop, and laughed so heartily that she burst.

It would have been all over with her, likewise, if, by good fortune, a tailor who was travelling in search of work, had not sat down to rest by the brook. As he had a compassionate heart he pulled out his needle and thread, and sewed her together. The bean thanked him most prettily, but as the tailor used black thread, all beans since then have a black seam.

[aspoonofsugar]

What do you think about the possibility of Ruby losing her silver eyes? Does it work for the story or no?

Hi!

Do you mean as in becoming blind or as a consequence of the tree treatment? Either way, I don't think it works, sorry :)

I am considering the tree scenario because I guess you are referencing ascension.

I don't think Ruby is gonna change in any particular way physically... Maybe she can get a new outfit or a new hairstyle, at most? In general, I think the result of her little therapy session with the Blacksmith (it turns out the tree is a free therapy session :P) should be for her to just accept who she is. We'll see, but this is where I am expecting we are going, as for now. At most, she can modify Crescent Rose a little. Still, I don't think she should come out as someone different.

Now, when it comes to her eyes specifically, they are literally the crux of her arc. Every character is going through the different stages/gifts (Knowledge, Creation, Destruction, Choice) in different ways. When it comes to Ruby, the motif, which is guiding her through it all is her eyes.

She uses them for the first time in Beacon, in ignorance (Knowledge)

She gains Knowledge about them and uses them to save everyone in Mistral (Creation)

She fails to use them in Atlas (Destruction? I think we might have something more for Destruction tbh in Vacuo)

She will probably choose to use them to save Cinder, instead than killing her (Choice)

Not only that, but the Silver Eyes are a metaphor for idealism:

SEW are idealists that can see the Light even amidst the Darkness and can use that light to fight Grimms aka manifestations of Darkness and Anonimity

Salem's attempt to turn them into Grimm is then her attempt to break their hope

Maria's loss of her SE symbolically results in her running away from her mission as a Huntress. She states outload she fails because of that, but once she meets Ruby she finds hope (light) again and teaches her about the eyes

Now, Ruby isn't meant to lose her idealism. Tbh we have already had an idealist lose its ideals and that was Ironwood and it did not turn out well. Like, not at all. Alternatively, we have also had an adult running away from her mission out of cynism and that was Raven and it did not end well either. So, Ruby is now at a crossroad... will she grow up like the adutls who failed her or will she become something different?

Now, obviously before she can do it, she needs to let go of her idealistic image of Summer, hence the way the last episode ended. She needs to really understand she doesn't have to be her mother and that her mother is just another person. Symbolically, her struggle is really the inverse of Oscar (one of her major foils):

Ruby wants to become Summer

Oscar doesn't want to become Ozpin

That said, I don't really see the SE as just Summer's legacy... they are a part of it, of course. Still, I think Ruby's self-actualization won't come from her giving them up, but rather by her choosing how to use them.

After all, they are Dorothy's slippers and LRRH eyes :''') Ruby is not supposed to give up on the main attributes of her fairy tales...

Just like let's say...Weiss isn't meant to give up on her Schnee name nor her legacy. Winter did and it is framed as a negative thing, as a way for her to escape from who she is. Similarly, Blake is not meant to leave her Faunus heritage behind nor to hide her cat years. And Yang is not meant to get her arm back.

All their identities are meant to be affirmed through and despite these attributes that were given to them. And yet, they all can choose what to do with it.

Thank you for the ask!

[nyxlarkyn]

I'm just sayin that, to snuff out knowledge you start with the books first:

Ever After's Warriors

Maria said that her father could only find legends about her kind. So, then they are legends, storybook legends in fact.

Storybook legends that somehow managed to leave The Ever After through their abilities.

Every time we've seen the girls transport from another location to another, the transition has the exact same effect that Rubys eyes have.

We will come back to this transition and move on to this one:

These intro shots feel really similar. Note the focus/zoom on the Jabberwalkers eye before speeding through. The fact that the Jabberwalkers face is hidden behind a metal mask with silver highlights that make the mask look like a butterfly (the symbol that comes around Ruby and her SEW powers a lot) really makes me think it's related to Silver Eyed Warriors. Doesn't have to be one necessarily, there's many possibilities on how they fit within these warriors' legends.

Either as beasts they had slain with their abilities in Ever After, another form of a Warrior much like the Hound, or something seeking to destroy SEWs. Seeing the lack of reaction to Ruby, it's easy to doubt it. Yet the creature had a lot to process as well, with Yang chasing him and three more threats. (Curious if Summer hiding her face as the blacksmith could be in part of the Jabberwalker.)

If the Jabberwalker is something seeking to kill SEWs, people gifted by the God of Light with some of his powers. Then, as others have mentioned, surely the God of Darkness could create creatures set out to destroy them. To balance it out.

We know he's not above doing that when he created the Creatures of Grimm after the creation of humans. So, when his brother decides to create a type of warrior that can easily destroy his Grimm, he creates one that can kill them. This time in his likeness since his brothers' eyes in dragon form is silver just like his warriors.

One issue I have with Silver Eyed people in Remnant is that they shouldn't be possible in Remnant.

What we are told is that the Gods wipe out Humanity leaving only Salem, and that humanity will eventually return, but they are gone until humans sort themselves out. Therefore, the God of Light shouldn't be able to give selected humans his powers.

Where would he give humans silver powers then? In his and his brothers dumping ground of creations.

Let's say a warrior manages to come to Remnant in order to escape the Jabberwalker. Ever After reacts to emotion. So how would a warrior, one whose abilities, the very magic made to create the world, held within their very eyes react when they want to disappear/escape from where they are? Could they teleport the same way the world teleports others, but their desperation takes them to another world entirely? (Fuck that could be what "The Boy Who Fell from the Sky" be about since Ruby has so many themes about falling and rising.)

Once Salem discovered SEWs were from books and/or discovered information of them in books that showed their other worldly powers, powers that could rival hers, she decided to wipe the books out before the warriors.

This could be why she made the hound in the first place. An homage to the creatures who first posed a serious threat to them in her own twisted way.

If y'all have any more thoughts please let me know

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

*crashes in, late to the talk of Culture/world building in RWBY* Sorry I'm late but OMG Can we talk about the biggest flaw in rwby WB that is just all of it when we get the Salem Backstory?! Like lets say we ignore Light being a hypocrite that makes even the Greek gods look better just by 'lets not allow one life to come back but i'm ok with WIPING OUT EVERYONE ELSE'. Lets talk about the ruins that were left behind! Wouldn't they and any items of magic (given that magic was only taken from flesh but if Enchanted Items existed they'd last a really long while) be apart of the culture? The Last humans didn't get to go 'oh btw we got nuked lol' so wouldn't there be questions about it? Like Ex: Mass effect had a race of beings that were highly advance then suddenly POOF! gone! noone knows where they went or what happened to them, only their structures and lil bits of tech remain. Remant would've had that! Then you got Salem who was being a Tryant (Tyrant who didn't get there fully) during their fight with Oz, so what happened to that?! Like ik humans now a days barely want to remember anything that doesn't aid their cause but we seem to remember a good chunk of the horrible people in history who did things for various reasons. So surely Salem was in the history books as the Cruel Queen, right?! Tapestries, old tales, cruel yet intresting sculptures, anything! She had the biggest way to flip the god of light off and didn't take it?! And if Oz gave up during certain amounts of time why didn't she 'unite' the world her way to help prevent Oz's actions moving forward? Groups that could be Salem's Lot that prevent the finding/obtaining of Relics so Oz's inner circle couldn't get to them easily. If RWBY was given the same TLC, Passion, and Soul as any other hit series We'd have our answers, and the four coteninets that seem to matter would have some beautiful mixture of all cultures despite the flaws of each one. Hell I'd love to see a Roman structure built with the same Material as the the Lost City in Mistral, Vale having a way to balance out the various cultures that came through from times of war while still having parts of it self that says 'I am Vale, through and Through' and what saddens me is my head can only go 'Sand! its everywhere! Get used to it!' for Vacuo because they made it seem so. with I believe 1 oasis...I might be wrong its been abit. Atlas-or rather Solitas- could've been Viking theme with bits of other warrior cultures with the main though it 'Tough times brings out the Strong' or something of that nature due to the cold being so harsh even Grimm can't withstand it, and as it progressed to Mantle and Atlas it still head that believe/culture but its more of a 'teach but not done' as the new tech made lives abit easier. I still see Menagerie as Australia just due to its position on the world so i can't think of much for it right now.

Sorry for the long rant. It was one of those things I had to get off because its nuts we went through not 1, not 2, but 3 kingdoms but held very little that could only be described as Lazy cause they knew we weren't going to explore the world and everything was just quick décor in a mario lvl of old.

First off never ever apologize for long asks I love the and I should apologize to well everyone for being slow as shit to reply to them.

Unfortunately, RW//BY suffers from a severe case of the writing is written by the writers flying by the seat of their pants and it shows. We have no hints of humanity existing before the gods killed them all. No signs of the worship of Salem which really should be a thing given she and Ozma acted as gods to humanity 2.0 and Salem killed Ozma before he could do anything about it so she realistically should have continued that cult following telling people his husband betrayed her or whatever sewing the seeds of distrust towards him and all of his reincarnations. Their is just so much that realistically should have happened with Salem that....didn't because the writers didn't bother to put in the work, they didn't build up the world realistically or have this big plan like they claim and the lack of consistent or realistic world building shows that.

Each of the kingdoms should have their own cultures and foods and religions and languages even. They should feel distinct and unique from one another while also still feeling like they all belong to the same world. Haven not having the same tech as Beacon feels jarring. As RW//BY traveled the world they should have repeatedly felt out of place in whatever kingdom they where in because they don't know the culture or customs within the world. We should have them struggling to communicate with people who speak different languages, or at least establish that after the great war everyone learned a single language to allow for communication between the kingdoms.

Sorry back to your point. When Salem killed Ozma the first time, she should have amassed a massive following of worshipers who hated their goddess's treacherous husband. She should have made a mad run for the relics to gain control of them before Ozma could. Their should have been a battle happening for a long ass time over them. Their should be some sort of reason why Salem wasn't causing mass chaos for decades before the events of RW//BY. This war should be much more known about then it is and it doesn't make sense within current cannon why it isn't more known. To hide Salem's existence he should have had to do something to strip her of her strength and influence but we have no evidence of any of that. We have no reason to believe that Salem hasn't bothered to try for the relics until now and that is most definitely a major problem. For example in ATLA, we know the Fire Nation couldn't enact it's ultimate plan because they had to wait for Sozin's comet to return. We have an in universe reason for what has been holding the Fire Nation back until now. RW//BY just doesn't have something like that built in to explain Salem choosing to hide and not acting until now.

I just cannot fathom why CRWBY/fans try and insist that this show has been planned since the beginning with so much evidence that it wasn't and couldn't have been. We have incomplete and contradictory world building, story lines that where never set up. Story lines that where dropped and conflicting canon information and it is just beyond infuriating.

[bridgyrose]

Can we potentially have a follow-up to that "lost mind of a forgotten rival" AU drabble? The cliffhanger has me intrigued.

Ruby stared at the journal that sat on her bedside table for weeks, her fingers gently sliding over the worn cover. Everything she could ever want to know about Cinder were written out on the pages, and yet… she still couldnt find it in herself to look inside. Even with Cinder’s permission, it felt like a violation of privacy. With a heavy sigh, she pulled away from the journal and leaned against the wall her bed was pressed up against, still unsure of what she could do. 

“You could just write it,” Weiss said as she walked into the bedroom. “She did ask you to, right?” 

“And you know why I cant.” Ruby slowly moved herself to the edge of the bed, grabbing hold of her cane and picking herself up. “I know I said that I let go of that grudge decades ago, but seeing her again, knowing that she never paid for what she did…” 

“Maybe there was more to it?” 

“And what more could there be?! She worked with Salem, she made our lives hell for years-” 

“Emerald and Mercury did too, but you managed to eventually work with them.” 

Ruby went quiet, knowing Weiss was right. It hadnt taken her long all those years ago to work with them, and even now she knew she could trust them if she needed anything. She glanced over at the journal once more, her hand shaking for a moment as she tried to keep herself from reaching towards it. Finally, she picked it up and moved it around in her fingers. “I… I still cant do it.” 

Weiss sighed and sat down next to her. “And why not? She asked you-” 

“And this is still going to violate her privacy.” Ruby sat the journal down next to her. “Besides, what am I supposed to do? Lie about who she was?” 

“Who said you had to lie?” 

“I-” 

Weiss grabbed the journal and started to flip through the pages. “All of this is who Cinder is. The good, the bad, what we might not have understood… and all we have to do is look through and find out who she really was.” 

Ruby sighed and slowly took the journal from Wiess, flipping through a few pages before starting at the front of the journal. The date on the page had long since faded from wear and tear, a few of the words faded from some water damage. 

“I met a woman who said she could help me. Since she’s taken me in, she’s taught me how to read and write. All of this feels… strange to me. She’s not anything like the woman who took me in from the shelter, though, I’m not sure she’s human. I’m not even sure she’s faunus either. Still, she’s been willing to help me, teach me, helping me survive. She told me that tomorrow will be a different kind of lesson, one about the grimm and where they really come from. I’m still not sure what she means, but… its not like I have much of a choice. I owe her my life.” 

Ruby flipped through a few more pages, most of them filled with drawings of various grimm or outfits that Cinder had designed, small passages about her attempts with sewing dust or the grimm she was shown. Finally, she made it to the next passage, dated almost two years before Beacon fell. 

“Salem has shown me the truth of this world, and now she’s trusting me to help her. I’m still not sure if I want to, but after having gone back to the Glass Unicorn, seeing the hotel that the Madam had run sitting there, abandoned and used as a memorial of respect to her and Rhodes… of course no one knows what really happened, not that it’d matter if I said anything. The scars from that damned collar still act up whenever I touch electric dust, but I’m used to the pain now. “Though, it doesnt matter. Everything will come to light soon enough and people will see the huntsmen for what they really are: pawns of a game older than anyone ever knew. I’ll make sure everyone loses trust in the huntsmen, the same way I did. And then I can help Salem claim the relics and fix this world.” 

Ruby flipped through a few more pages, her hands shaking until she stopped at a page with erratic handwriting, almost illegible. She took a breath and silently read through the passage, her heart nearly stopping. 

“Beacon has fallen, Haven still stands, Atlas is gone, Salem has two relics and there’s still two more to get. I should be feeling better, but nothing is helping. Even knowing Ruby is dead isnt making this pain go away! What more do I have to do to get my heart to stop aching? I still see Rhodes in my nightmares, still hear his words, see the disappointment in his face… why didnt he help me? Why did he let that woman continue to hurt me, continue to abuse me the way she did? Was I not worth saving? Am I still not worth it? If only those with power can be free, then I’ll keep fighting for that power, keep doing what I have to until no one can chain me down. I refuse to go back.” 

“Everything okay?” Weiss asked. 

Ruby shook her head and closed the journal, her hands shaking as she sat it on her nightstand. “I… I think I need a walk.” 

“At this time of night?” 

Ruby nodded and slowly stood up. “The lamp never left, right?” 

Weiss paused for a moment. “I’m not letting you take a trip to Mistral alone.” 

“Then come with me. But I need to know the truth.” 

“The truth about what?” 

“The truth about Cinder.”

[nottoxicfr]

On the RWBY side of things, is the Shadow war still going on since Salem is still there? What about the maidens?

The series has progressed the same until the Beacon Arc, so the Shadow War is still going on between Salem and Humanity. Things like the Maidens and Magic, the next Oz-carnation, all still apply in the world of Remnant. However, Beacon’s Fall doesn’t happen (mostly) which changes how things unfold.

I don’t want to say that the war with Salem came to a screeching halt when she heard about l’Cie, but I do think she was kind of like, “Whoa, hold on, let’s go figure that out” to her henchmen. After all, the Fal’Cie and l’Cie are stories from when she was a child, so I think she understands that this could potentially be a big deal. 

Salem and Oz also see themselves as a sort of pseudo-l’Cie, as they’ve both been cursed by the Gods with a task to complete and a deadline. In that way, Salem is hoping to use the new l’Cie to either break her curse of immortality or to seize the relics.

I haven’t talked about what Cinder and the gang are up to while all of this is happening, but they’re basically the secret third group chasing after the l’Cie. While they’re doing that, they’re also masterminding similar events to what happens in the canon series. For example, in the Atlas Arc, Atlas begins to fall onto Mantle. In this case, Vulcan, the Fal’Cie under Mantle, catches it and puts it back in place using magic.

Another thing I want to note about Salem’s role in the story is that she’s actively being disrupted by the Fal’Cie as they awaken. The Fal’Cie were made to maintain the world and protect Humanity. Currently, the Grimm are hugely overpopulated in relation to the number of humans, so the awakening Fal’Cie tend to kill off large amounts of Grimm. It’s giving Salem a hard time, and she has to rely more on her human servants.

...will the silver eyes sort of nullify the Grimm attracting effect of being a l’cie or is it something akin to the relics where the attraction to it overpowers the repellant that are SEWs?

Being a Silver Eyed warrior protects Ruby a bit from the attraction effect of the l’Cie brand. When she’s alone, Grimm tend to avoid her unless they’re directly seeking her out with orders from someone. However, when she’s with Oscar (or any other l’Cie), the attraction effect overrules the Silver Eyes. Basically, if there’s more l’Cie than Silver Eyed people, it doesn’t work very well.

In terms of fully unlocking her powers of Silver Eyes, I don’t know if she will. I definitely want to have her use light-affinity magic, which could be seen as an extension of her eyes. However, since her main enemy isn’t Grimm, she doesn’t have anything to fully unlock them for.

Does Oz just stay at Beacon the whole time?

Oz stays at Beacon for the most part. He’s got a day job that he has to attend to, and the Vytal Festival is still supposed to happen! It remains to be seen if the accumulation of terrorist crimes the l’Cie are accused of will cause it to be canceled…

I want Ozpin to enter more directly into the story at the end of the Atlas arc though. He, Oscar, and Ruby have a brief encounter over the phone because they have to sneak into Ironwood’s office

He, Oscar and Ruby have a brief encounter in the middle of Atlas over the phone. They have to sneak into Ironwood’s office to get a security key and he’s on a conference call (Ironwood had to leave due to a distraction). After speaking, unsuccessfully, he ends up arriving in Atlas just after the l’Cie board a ship to Vacuo. Then he has to straighten everything out with Ironwood, Atlas, and Mantle, so he’s lagging behind the l’Cie. He recognizes this whole situation has gotten out of hand and it would have been simpler if he just took the time to speak with them directly. 

Are we also initiating Dadpin in the case of the dearest farm boi? 

No Dadpin though, at least not notable enough to tag. They definitely have a connection, but there isn't enough contact in the story to let that really take hold. Oz definitely offers Oscar a place at Beacon after this is all over though, so maybe in the future?

They have a bond built on bearing the wait of divine tasks given to them, so I think that's a good foundation.

So…

*steeples fingers*

FFXIII Rosegarden. I must know the inspiration aside from FFXIII being AMAZING (and my childhood) and also RWBY for the same reasons.

Scratch that, I must know everything. This is a crossover I never knew I needed.

I’m sorry this took so long! Seriously, my bad. If you have any questions, please tell me. I promise I won't take three months to answer this time

This will be long.

For inspiration, the short story is that I have a lot of Final Fantasy-RWBY AUs, for basically all the Final Fantasy games I think of regularly (7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16) and even in the scope of Final Fantasy 13, I have a 13-1 and a 13-2 and a 13-3LR AU. I also have a KH AU I've been working on.

This'll just be the Final Fantasy 13-1 AU, though I’ll link the other story details when I post them.

Just to run through a few things, just to set a baseline of how the world works. This is a Remnant where the world increasingly reveals elements from Final Fantasy 13, rather than a true crossover.

For example, the l’Cie and the Fal’Cie are the same idea in concept. The l’Cie are branded servants of the Fal’Cie, mechanical deities serving the Gods themselves. However, in this story, the l’Cie are a fairy tale to even Ozma, which means he only has a strange idea of what they actually are. Only l’Cie really knows what being a l’Cie entails.

A l’Cie is:

Someone who has been branded with a tattoo by a Fal’Cie, essentially the sign that they’ve been given a quest and a vision (a Focus) of what they have to accomplish

The tattoo slowly grows, setting a time limit for their quest. As it grows, the l’Cie also gains the ability to harness magic

However, if they fail to accomplish their task in time, they will be transformed into a monster, a Ci’eth

Someone who is branded naturally attracts Grimm to them, which makes traveling more difficult

Oscar is aged up here a bit, just a year younger than Ruby, and this takes place during a pseudo-Beacon Arc time period.

Oscar is the first l’Cie of the story. His brand is on his neck, under his bandage wraps. His Focus, his quest, is to awaken the slumbering Fal’Cie hidden around Remnant. They were put to sleep when the Brothers left Remnant and, for some reason, they’ve judged it time for them to awaken.

Outside of being a L’cie, he’s just a regular guy at this point and that makes it hard for him to get where he needs to go. For this reason, he hires Ruby to help him get to Forever Fall Forest, which is where he thinks the Fal’Cie he needs to awaken is.

The first arc takes place in Vale, where Oscar’s tremendous bad luck causes a trip that should only take a few hours take several days, which pushes him up the edge of his time limit. Naturally, this puts him in a bad mood, which makes him and Ruby have some friction between them. The situation is somewhat smoothed over when Oscar shows Ruby some magic and he vaguely explains that he needs to get to Forever Fall soon or he’ll die a miserable death.

Ruby distracts him for a little while by talking to him about her Team and asking him about his life. He worked on a farm for most of his life, his aunt died recently, and he’s always wanted to see the world. They fight several packs of Grimm as they hike and Ruby contemplates calling in reinforcements because, for some reason, Oscar insists he’s on a time limit.

They arrive in Beacon where they meet up with WBY and Team JNPR briefly, only to hop on a wagon heading to Forever Fall. Oscar is, at this point, seemingly kind of sketchy. To be fair to him, he’s basically dying.

The arc resolves when Oscar and Ruby plummet down into a sinkhole and find the sleep Fal’Cie of Forever Fall, Behemoth, who brands Ruby simply for being nearby. Now, aside from being paid, Ruby has been dragged into this race to awaken the Fal’Cie, much to the frustration of Oscar. He doesn’t feel comfortable with that, but there’s not a lot he can do but beg an uncaring Fal’Cie to unbrand her.

On the upside, Oscar is given an extension of his time limit and a new vision. He needs to go to the floating city in the sky (Atlas) next, which is where he needs to find the twin Fal’Cie sleeping there.

Ruby is branded as the second l’Cie. She has a brand at her collarbone, hidden under her shirt. Her Focus is to awaken the slumbering Fal’Cie as well, although she also catches further glimpses into the future that put an emphasis on encroaching darkness.

This starts the second arc, Atlas, or the journey to Atlas.

It kicks off when Ruby essentially runs away without telling anyone, under the assumption that once Oscar and her finish their quest, she’ll come back and explain everything. It’s not a very good plan, but she’s understandably occupied by everything that’s going on with her life right now. Ruby and Oscar try and fail to rent a car because they’re both underage. Following this, Ruby tries to buy them tickets directly to Atlas, which doesn’t work because travel to Atlas has suddenly jammed up. Instead, they have to take an indirect route from Anima (the Mistal continent) to Mantle, which takes a few more days but that’s fine.

Yang is, understandably, incredibly distressed that her sister seems to have given up her dreams of being a Huntress to chase after a boy she met three days ago. She reports this to Qrow, who tells Ozpin, who tries to get an understanding of what happened. Yang tells Ozpin about the weird stuff that she heard Oscar and Ruby talking about before, which entails something about Fal’Cie and l’Cie and the Kingdom of Atlas. 

She suspects Ruby has joined a cult and is, again, incredibly distressed.

As stated before, the words l’Cie and fal’Cie are like myths to Ozma. They’re messengers of the Gods and assistants to their angels and, most importantly, they’re almost synonymous with great change. Not good or bad, just big changes in the world. This rings alarm bells in Ozpin’s mind, though not to the point of overreaction.

Ozpin asks Yang to take Team WBY and go after her sister, just to make sure she’s alright and to try and bring her and Oscar back. Ozpin wants to speak with both of them over this supposed l’Cie business. Qrow says he’ll do some scouting ahead to search for them, hopefully, to wrap this whole thing up quickly. He’s not too fond of the idea that some kid swept Ruby away from Beacon.

Ozpin informs his inner circle about all of this, just to keep them updated. It seems like Ruby and Oscar are headed to Anima and then to Atlas, they’re talking about l’Cie stuff which is crazy because, etc…etc… He wants Leonardo to investigate Oscar Pine, he wants Ironwood to try and bring them both in and most importantly, Ozpin just wants to talk.

The lack of details makes Ironwood have a bit of an overreaction. The l’Cie are agents of change in the world and, with the Vital Festival on the horizon, it seems more likely to him that these “l’Cie” are probably going to cause a negative effect. He mobilizes some of his elite forces to capture Ruby and Oscar, as well as putting out wanted posters on Scrolls that these two people are wanted for questioning. It’s a bit of an overreaction, but in his mind, it’s better to be cautious when it comes to mysterious things that haven’t been heard of since Ozma was a child.

Leonardo reports this to Salem soon after, having defected to her not that long ago. Just as troubled by this reappearance of a fairy tale from her childhood as Oz was, she tells Cinder to go find them. She can kill one of them, but she needs the other one to question about what’s going on.

To summarize:

Yang, Blake, and Weiss are chasing after Ruby and Oscar from Vale. Qrow is also looking for them as a bird.

Ironwood told Winter and some of her troops to go to Mistral and cut them off. He also made wanted posters for them.

Salem told Cinder to go find Oscar, who told Roman to spread the word and find them.

Meanwhile, Ruby and Oscar’s air ferry to the port crash lands because, apparently, l’Cie magic disagrees with technology. They have no idea they’re being chased until Ruby sees a wanted poster on her Scroll, detailing that Oscar is a potential terrorist and Ruby is either an accomplice or a hostage. This causes Ruby to freak out and summon her Eidolon, essentially a summoned spirit meant to assist a l’Cie in the quest. She and Oscar have to subdue it before it attacks the people on the crashed ferry, because a freshly summoned Eidolon is naturally berserk.

Her Eidolon is Carbuncle, which basically takes the form of a giant wolf-cat when it is going berserk and is much smaller after being tamed. It has the ability to produce elemental dust from a gemstone in its forehead and is, generally, more of a support Eidolon.

They have to run now because Carbuncle managed to destroy a hefty part of the ferry while it was attacking them, which upgrades them from potential terrorists to probable terrorists, even if it’s only on accident.

This is as far as I’ve written properly because I’ve also been writing a dozen other things. As I said before, I have a lot of Final Fantasy AUs. However, I do have vague details on how things progress from there.

Ruby and Oscar run into Yang, Blake, and Weiss just as they arrive in the port town where they have to board a boat. They end up getting into a fight, Ruby verbally and Oscar physically, because of the miscommunications involved. It’s hard to explain being a l’Cie to someone who doesn’t have the context of apparently sleeping Gods under Remnant. For the most part, Oscar’s part of the fighting ends up being running away and casting magic, which baffles all three of the Huntresses (because of genuine magic) and ends up casting a Thunder (Thundara) spell too close to Blake. This knocks her out.

They board the boat, just barely managing to escape from Ruby’s teammates and there’s a climactic moment where Yang has to watch the boat depart without being able to chase after them. WBY makes plans to keep up the pursuit as soon as they can, with Qrow flying ahead to Mistral.

When Ruby and Oscar get to Mistral, where they’ll board another ferry to go to the north and then get on a boat, there’s a scene that plays out similarly to when Snow rescues Lighting and Hope in FF13.

Winter corners Ruby and Oscar in a plaza with her troops, putting handcuffs on Ruby, only for Yang to show up on a motorcycle and rescue both of them. Blake and Weiss provide supporting fire and they all escape to the rooftops to get away. This puts Mistral on high alert, which shuts down the air ferry, complicating matters significantly. Still, Ruby and Oscar are grateful they weren’t captured. At this point, Ruby’s brand is halfway developed.

They all talk things over and, although WBY don’t necessarily believe everything they’re saying, they decide to help them get to Atlas. Yang also frets over Ruby’s tattoo-brand, which feels relaxingly normal to the group.

While all of that is going on, Cinder begins to make moves towards Atlas, planning to take advantage of the chaos the l’Cie are causing to damage Atlas and capture them. Salem is contemplating what to do about the awakening Fal’Cie, who is purging the overpopulation of Grimm in the world.

Oscar summons his Eidolon, Pegasus, which can turn into a motorbike with wings.

Ruby falls off of Atlas, but is saved by Oscar in a Bullhead.

When they get to Atlas and awaken one of the Fal’Cie there, WBY gets branded as l’Cie. It’s kind of like a spreading curse, and eventually, it will reach JNPR too. That comes later on though.

One of the Fal’Cie is located under Mantle, Vulcan, and the other one is located on the under side of the island of Atlas, Venus. WBY is entirely branded by Vulcan, and Winter and Penny are branded by Venus (though this isn’t something RWBYO is aware of).

There’s only one more Fal’Cie to awaken after this, which is located in Vacuo.

-Oscar awakened the Mistral one

Ruby and Oscar awakened the Vale one

Ruby, Oscar, Yang, Blake, and Weiss awaken Vulcan, which awakens Venus

The last one is in Vacuo. JNPR and Oscar will end up awakening it by falling into a ravine (Woo!)

The final stage of the story reveals that the Fal’Cie want to harvest the collected souls of Humanity so they can use that power to evolve into a God themselves and follow after their creators. They despise Humanity and resent having to serve the inferior creations of the Brothers. Everyone takes a stance on what to do about that, though the main characters decide to fight that. This goes against their final vision, which tells them they are meant to assist in harvesting the souls of Humanity. This is called Humanity's Fall!

Pyrrha does get stabbed in the process and possibly dies, which relates to the RWBY x Final Fantasy 13-2 AU. I love interconnecting these things.

I love talking. If you have any questions or ideas about anything, please ask. Please. Again, my bad. It's been a rough few months.

[skylarmoon71]

Alexander (Grimm) Chapter 2

“Are you going to kill me?”

He looks as though he’s already accepted defeat. With the wound, you know that’s the only reason he’d go down so easily. Normally they lasted at least three minutes. You kneel, pulling a knife out of your boot, and he swallows.

“Why, is there a reason that I should kill you?”

He looks at you carefully. You know he’s unnerved by it all.

His clear disadvantage.

When you bring the blade down, he tries to lean upwards. You press your hand to his shoulder pushing him down, and he’s a bit alarmed at the strength. You nudge his hand away from the wound to get a better view. Pulling up the material opening, you can see it better. You close the knife in your hand, no longer holding him down. Sliding the blade back into your shoe, you pick up the first aid kit. The man doesn’t move, you have a feeling he’s too afraid to do much.

“It’s a bullet wound. From the amount of blood, I’d say it went straight through." You open the kit, pulling out the necessary items. He’s a bit surprised, because this first aid kit does not have the normal equipment. There is much more than bandages and cold packs in there. It makes sense.

You are a Grimm.

“I’m going to clean the wound and sew it shut. Don’t move or I’ll knick something. Then you’ll really wish you bled out here.”

It’s not like he has much of a choice. A part of him thinks this is some ploy. Maybe you’re trying to get him to lower his guard so you can slip him something to end it all. You pull out a needle and a small bottle, and he shifts.

“Calm down, it’s going to help with the pain and clot your blood. “ You stick the syringe into the bottle, drawing some liquid. When you turn back to him, his eyes give a glow, and his jaw is clenched.

“I won’t hurt you.”

This time, it sounds almost sincere. His chest is still heaving a bit.  When you see the light leave his eyes, you send him a smile. Sticking the needle into his thigh, he closes his eyes, letting out a breath. You remove it, tossing it into a bin as you pull on a pair of gloves. Sterilizing your hands, you get to work.

~

Now he’s seated upright. You’d successfully managed to close the wound. His shirt was hanging open, and he looked a bit more relaxed than before.

“Who are you, where did you come from?”

“My name is Alexander, I work for the Wesen Council.”

He looks a bit surprised at how easily he admitted that. Holding his side, he sends you an accusing look.

“W-What did you give me?”

“I might have slipped you a little something while you were all loopy. You’re so doped up I figured you wouldn’t notice. Guess I was right.” You’re smiling.

“So the Wesen Council, those assholes. You know they placed a bounty on a cousin of mine. We don’t take very well to being threatened. I guess that’s why you’re here bleeding out on my bathroom floor.”

“I was running from an organization called the Black Claw. I heard rumors of their empire falling apart. The last of them tried to settle a score. The other three men were not as fortunate as I was.”

“Oh I bet.”

He looks exhausted.

“If I let you stay here for the night, would I have to worry about you trying to take me out in my sleep?”

He looks stunned at even the suggestion of you providing him shelter.

“Why would you help me?”

You reach for your chain, fingers brushing the cross.

“You were defending yourself. If you’d turned out to be some psycho, I wouldn’t have thought twice about knocking you out and handing you over to the cops. But you were just trying to survive. I’m not sure if you realize, but that war you were fighting, it’s over now. Your council is also pretty much disbanded. "

“Why have I not heard of you. The council knew most of the whereabouts of living Grimms in Portland. Why not you?”

“I’m not exactly a follower of my family’s tradition.”

He looks up, letting out a short laugh. You can tell he doesn’t believe what you say.

“You expect me to believe that you’re not a mercenary like your ancestors.”

“I don’t enjoy chopping off heads, despite popular belief. “ You’re still gripping the cross on your neck awfully tight.

Alexander goes over a few things in his head. The quick assessment of his wound, clean cuts and even better cleaning and sewing of his injury.

“You’re a doctor..” He sounds a bit in awe.

“I am, and above all else, my job is to save lives. Not take them. Wesen or not.”

Alexander shakes his head with another laugh.

“I never thought I’d see the day. A compassionate Grimm. The times have truly changed."

He tries to pull his body upright, and you move closer, wrapping a hand around his back as you hoist him up by the shoulder. He stands a bit shakily, stumbling for a second. Your back is braced on the counter, and he leans a hand there to keep him from falling forward. You both make eye contact.

“Can you walk?” You whisper. He nods.

“I think so.”

So you try again. You begin walking and he moves in step. He’s a bit taken with how easily you support his weight. Grimms were naturally gifted far more than normal people, but this felt different.

“You’re quite strong.”

You giggle.

“You noticed.”

“It’s not something you can so easily ignore.” He’s not really sure where you’re taking him, but he follows.

“A hexenbiest placed a nasty spell on me a few years back. It sort of backfired. Those types of spells, they affect us much differently.”

You’re wearing a thoughtful look on your face, and when you get to a particular door, you open it. The both of you enter, and you guide him to the bed. When he’s seated, you move to flick on a light.

“It’s a guest room. I usually save it for when the family comes around. “

“So I’m sitting in a room often occupied by Grimms, I’m honored.” His words are laced with sarcasm.

“Don’t be cheeky. You’re not exactly in a position to be picky. I checked you early when you passed out. You have three broken ribs and possibly a concussion. The second the anesthesia wears off the pain will kick in. If you move around too much you’ll reopen the wounds. “ You walk to your drawers, pulling out some items. When you place the clothing and a towel in front of him, he’s stunned.

“When you gather your bearings, take a shower. I placed a cover on the wound so you won’t have to worry about it getting wet. Just remove the top after you’ve showered so water doesn’t seep in. You can stay here for the night. I’ll give you some more pain meds tomorrow, then you can be on your way. “ His eyes are fixated on you.

“I don’t understand, why are you helping me?”

“Really, aren’t you assassin guys supposed to be smart?”

“Enlighten me?”

You purse your lips.

“You’re kinda cute, figured I’d score some points.” He looks speechless, and you laugh, turning.

“Try not to mess up those stitches working through my evil plan. See you in the morning.” You close the door behind you, and he just stares.

No words come to mind.

[constantvariations]

I would have answered this in the post, but I have serious anxiety about answering things on the internet, so I’m on anon. Sorry.

But to answer your question about worldbuilding in RWBY, I’d firstly look into the Maidens. Why not have each Maiden use different elemental powers instead of whatever mishmash the writers thought were cool? Why not have the Maidens related to the trait the Relics stand for in some way, such as already having whatever trait as a prerequisite for gaining the powers (like being a nerd for Spring/knowledge, being an artsy type for Winter/creation, etc), or gaining the trait later (the real-world equivalent of having higher than average Offense stats for Summer/destruction, or faster reflexes (maybe?) for Fall/Choice)? I had always assumed that the Maidens were Ozma’s daughters and they had inherited his ability to reincarnate in some cruel twist of fate, so finding out they were inadvertently made just to be barrier maidens is a little disappointing to me, but it still would have been interesting if it was explored more. Like, the idea of your life being entirely uprooted because of powers most people don’t even know exist, and being mostly at the mercy of two different forces, well-intentioned or otherwise, could work so well. As it is, they are just Macguffin Carriers who open the relic doors and have about a 50% chance of being murdered by Cinder.

Secondly, the SEWs. Where do they come from, the God of Light or one of Ozma’s reincarnations? Can you be a SEW and a Maiden? Or a SEW and an Oz? Can you be all three? I know there is genocide involved, but are there really no other SEWs besides Ruby, Summer, Maria and Snuffles the Hound? Were they always Salem’s target, or did she take a while to realize that they were a threat to the Grimm? Do the powers always manifest as torches for eyes or can you do other stuff with Silver Eyes? Can the glow in the dark? Can they augment your Semblance? Are there short- and long-term effects of using the Silver Eyes? What is a typical childhood like with these eyes? What is an adulthood with them? Do they camouflage themselves by being a different color until first use? Is there a general distrust with people with these traits, or do people just flat out not know unless they’re in Oz’s or Salem’s circles? There is so little information about the Silver Eyes and it’s confusing.

Lastly, the Faunus (designs, the concept itself is already a whole different kettle of fish). It was already kind of uncomfortable making them stand ins for racial minorities, but why is it such a binary with Faunus traits? Why only make it one trait? Why not go all out with designs? The writers clearly don’t have an answer for how the Faunus came about after Humanity 1.0 was wiped out, so why not just include them in the beginning, drive home the point about how irrational and unrealistic racism is? And the heroic Faunus tend to have “cute” or “non-threatening” traits like tails and ears, but the villainous Faunus tend to have horns and stingers and such, even in the Fables, which is…something I would change. I also want more variety in traits. I want Faunus with rectangular pupils like goats. I want to know if fur/wool counts as a trait, or if it would be classified as hypertrichosis. I want to see hinged fangs, fins, gills, insect legs, hooves, chelicerae, all that neat weird stuff. If you’re going to have a half animal race, you might as well go all out.

No need to apologize, anon! I've been on tumblr for years and it wasn't until I got into rwby that I got over my own posting anxiety lol. And with that one shithead harassing rwdesters on anon rn, I understand completely why you'd want to protect yourself

The maidens absolutely need to be revamped, and I highkey agree abt giving them specific elemental powers that relate to their actual seasons. It's so weird how crwby said all the maidens have the exact same powers but Cinder only uses fire for weapons and flight, Raven only ever used ice for weapons, Fria just used ice, Penny... didn't do anything w the powers iirc, and Amber only got enough time to do some lightning and flight (seemed to be Wind powered tho so she's the most diverse in just 3 minutes lmao)

I've always loved the idea of the relics being linked to the maidens! For a while I legit thought that was the case bc Raven knew things she couldn't possibly have known (Yang being in trouble on the train, all her ominous ramblings abt Ozpin) that I thought passive aquiring of knowledge was a side affect of being the spring maiden. (I am boo boo the fool.) But having to have some specific traits or gaining boosts to already existing stats would be a cool thing to explore!

Ngl I really love the idea of incredible powers getting dropped on some random guy and the Everything that would stem from that, but I don't think it should've been in rwby's lore. If Ozcarnations need to keep track of the maidens bc they're a) very powerful and therefore dangerous, and b) keys to his magic doors (that his cane isn't a skeleton key for wtf Oz), then why the fuck would he gift his magic so that the powers would be passed on in such a messy, chaotic way? It don't add up, bruv

The show heavily implied that SEWs are a God of Light creation, but... how? Did he come back specifically to create them? Were they a throwaway to Oz in an effort to give him allies? Was it a petty project to piss off Salem? We just don't know (and probably never will). There are wayyyyy too many questions surrounding their entire existence, and their current endangered status, and I doubt crwby will answer any of them satisfactorily

I don't think there's anything stating that a person can't be a combination of SEW, maiden, and Ozcarnation. There'd be some problematic aspects regarding the fact that a woman would be forced to lug around an old man's soul in her head, so maybe it's best to leave the men to themselves on that front. Not to mention being all three would be far too much going on for a single character

Yknow, I've never thought abt the eyelights being anything but big beams of deus ex, but considering eyes are the windows to the soul, there should be smth a little... more. In their first appearance they start out looking like angel wings (rad as FUCK), so maybe they could manifest as some Soul Symbolism before going nova on grimm ass

As for consequences, yes. Absolutely. Hands down there needs to be more than a happy thoughts montage to use the damn thing (fucking patronus knock off) and there needs to be a drawback for using such an incredibly OP ability

I saw someone suggest that using the Silver Eyes would slowly deteriorate your vision, which I think would be a way more interesting thing to explore for Maria's character. Maybe she thought exposure to grimm was the real cause behind her onset blindness and wanted some distance. Maybe she knew the truth and felt guilty abt choosing herself over her duty, thus her decision to go MIA. Maybe she lost someone so dear she couldn't feel strongly enough to activate the power. Anything over the "i got scared after losing my eyes so i hid" thing that... doesn't really go anywhere

I'm def a fan of redesigning the faunus. The one animal trait thing came as a fault bc that's all Poser would allow, but good writers could've found a way to explain that while adding more traits in Maya (like Sten's lack of horns in DA:O). It might still have to be limited to a humanoid frame a la Mass Effect, but it could still work. It'd be really cool to see more animal features (fucking YES to animal eyes) and maybe even behaviors from faunus. I mean, the entire concept could basically be the wolfman variant of werewolves but w a variety of animals (or omegaverse traits if you're into that lol)

Crwby may not have an answer for how faunus came around, but I noticed they arrived at the same time as Dust, so in my (maybe someday) rewrite they're linked

[tanglednlove]

Rapunzel's Pink Dress

I want to ramble about Rapunzel's dresses and why I love her final dress so much.

Rapunzel's pink dress was based off her wedding dress. Practically the exact same except for the color changes and different design on the bodice. At one point, Tangled was to end with the wedding of Rapunzel and Eugene. Luckily, the ending was changed, Rapunzel got this beautiful dress and the cute Tangled Ever After short was made.

Now to compare to her regular dress or tower dress.

The fitting of this dress seems a bit incommodious. The top and sleeves appear a bit tight and the overall length short. Rapunzel definitely has no trouble stretching, running, racing, dancing or chasing in it so my observation seems wrong. But, there are little hints that still make it plausible.

During Mother Knows Best, Mother Gothel maliciously sings 'sloppy, underdressed'....gettin' kinda chubby'. Gothel's way of keeping her 'precious flower' safe and sound while endlessly gaslighting poor Rapunzel.

When Gothel sings 'sloppy' the mirror reflects a full length view of Rapunzel. Then she pushes it down towards Rapunzel's exposed feet for the word 'underdressed.' Rapunzel reacts by bending down to cover her feet. Bare feet are definitely not appropriate for the outside world, according to Gothel.

Gothel's choice of words and mirror positioning, seem to indicate that Rapunzel is only allowed one dress until she completely outgrows it.

Honestly, it would not surprise me if Gothel had a one dress per next major growth spurt rule. Especially since she has never even changed her own dress. And, the dress Rapunzel makes for Pascal appears to be from the scraps leftover from making her current dress.

Gothel then goes on to insult Rapunzel's weight by singing 'getin' kinda chubby'. Rapunzel appears healthy with an appropriate weight. What actually seems to be happening is the dress is gettin' kinda too tight. Girls can stop growing in height around age 14. I do not think she has had it since age 14 but age 16 may be more likely. Also, breast development can end by age 18 but could continue until the early twenties. This dress appears a bit tight in that area. (Most likely not intended, but this is like a callback to Grimms' Rapunzel. In one version Rapunzel mentions her dress is tighter, but that was due to being pregnant.)

There are no patches on Rapunzel's dress. Which a few rips or tears may be expected if she has worn it for a while. In Mother Knows Best, Gothel sings Rapunzel is 'clumsy'. But, this is after she pulls the rug out from under her and makes her trip and fall down. I do not think Rapunzel is clumsy at all, hence no rips. Also, she can paint a lot without ever getting a speck of paint on her. In fact, to 'pull the rug out from under someone' means to abruptly withdraw support. There was never any support from Gothel to withdrawal but the saying still fits. Gothel would definitely take everything away from Rapuuzel for disobeying and she does just that in the end when she chains and gags her.

The whole point of Mother Knows Best was to destroy the slightest ray of sunshine in Rapunzel's confidence toward leaving the tower. A cruel yet effective way to do this is to pick out insecurities. Being sloppy, underdressed and kinda chubby would give Gothel great anxiety. Rapunzel is not shown to be vain at all. But, Gothel is trying desperately to keep Rapunzel in the tower and using any manipulating tactics necessary.

Gothel may have asked Rapunzel what colors and fabric she wanted to make this dress. And, Rapunzel most likely did all the sewing so I like to think it does represent some of her own preferences. Maybe the dress does not extend to the floor so she can easily perform her chores, hang from the ceiling, and see her feet so she does not trip on her hair. Maybe she wanted sleeves because the tower gets a little cool in the mornings. She definitely likes shades of purple, even her pink dress has lavender in the color scheme.

Quick side about the color of the tower dress. The dress and Rapunzel's golden hair represent the Corona flag- purple and yellow. But, the true color of the skirt is fandango which is a magenta-pink. Magenta falls in the purple shades as purplish-red. So, the overall color is in the purple category. While it does appear true plain purple in some light, it actually is the fandango color. The inner skirt part does appear to be true purple though.

Now I will gush about the pink dress! I do adore her tower dress, it is very beautiful. But, the pink dress completely wins me over. Best. Dress. Ever!

The one stark difference from the tower dress and her final pink dress is the corset placement. The bodice on her tower dress has the corset in the front. While the pink dress has the corset in the back. To me, this has always been an awesome metaphor. There are no sleeves on the pink dress either but the placement of the corset seems more meaningful.

As for the sleeves, I think it may just be a matter of aesthetic. Rapunzel's mother, the Queen, does wear sleeves. They look beautiful and seem to complete her look. Both of her beginning and ending dresses have sleeves. Her final dress also appears to be the same one in Tangled Ever After. Rapunzel is the princess and a sleeveless dress is a bit more youthful looking compared to her mother's. Also, the Queen has opaque sleeves while Rapunzel's were sheer. This could extend to the differences in their crowns. The Queen's crown is bigger and more grand. Rapunzel's crown has more jewels and is dainty. Although those three teardrop, or sundrop, diamonds are respectfully big and beautiful.

Back to corsets. Let me say, dresses with corsets are beautiful. They add a neat structure and design to a dress. Though Tangled is never given an exact time period, some of the concept art had 1800s written on them. So thereabouts, corset dresses were in vogue. And yes, the corset can be positioned front or back. Specifically for Rapunzel though, I find meaning on where it is placed.

Also, if she was only allowed one dress per major growth spurt, then a corset makes sense because of the adjustability.

When Rapunzel turns around at the end of Tangled and the audience can see the back of her dress, I had a moment. Rapunzel being 'tied up' and 'trapped' is now 'behind' her. She no longer has to live in fear and she can finally experience life outside the tower.

Just look at the wide and spaced ribbon on this corset. Looks comfortable and not pulled tight. In contrast, the strings on her tower dress were pulled tight to a bow at the top with big loops. Typically a tie with big loops means the strings were tied as comfortably tight as possible while there is extra string for some give. Which I still think is to accommodate her growing into a full adult body.

The back of her tower dress had a line of buttons. She was tied and buttoned into that dress. Just like the way Gothel had her locked and prisoned in the tower. No buttons on her pink dress. Just a comfortable corset and a beautiful pattern on the front. Also, appropriate structure all around.

That is it, that is why I love her pink dress so much! It represents her freedom💖 A full length shot of this dress is never shown in the movie. I like to think it either stopped at her ankles or just brushed the tops of her feet. Her wedding dress seemed to just barely brush the floor. Either way, she probably liked her feet showing or least nothing in their way.

End of rambling, yay...oh wait, then the Series happened.

When I first saw Rapunzel in her Series dress, I was disappointed. Being tied up is no longer 'in front' of her, she is free! Why put the bindings in the front again? Well, Tangled Before Ever After and the whole first season made it clear she still did not feel completely free. She was not ready to marry Eugene or become a full time princess. She needed adventure and she got it.

This dress also has sleeves which look like they were meant to be opaque. Several of the dresses she wears in the show have sleeves. I do think Rapunzel wearing sleeves as acting queen in the third season was appropriate. As mentioned, sleeves may be a queen aesthetic. Her coronation dress also had sleeves. I think her green island dress, with no sleeves and sitting just off shoulder was the best dress from the show. Especially since many concept art pieces for Tangled show her in a green dress.

Oh, the concept art of all the different green dresses. So beautiful yet neglected.

So, her standard Series dress gets a pass with one exception. In the very last scene of the entire show she still is wearing it! Maybe it was animation budget and they simply could not add in a new dress design but what a crime that was! She needed to be in her pink dress or either a similar design.

Anyway, I still love her pink dress the best because of what I think it represents. 💖💚

Bonus: This is her picture hanging in the Princess Fairytale Hall at Walt Disney World.

I would love to see her face character wearing this! It would even look lovely with the flower braid. This dress deserves so much more love, admiration and promotion. Honestly, her tower dress has been lumped in the princess rags or commoner look category before. So, why not put her in this beautiful, lovely pink princess dress? And look! She has her bare foot sticking out!💖

[astralbulldragon13]

Son of the Dragon Chapter 1: Tír na nÓg

It had been four years since that one fateful night by the pond, Houmi and Malleus grew closer, and since Crowley couldn’t find a way for her to go home, once she graduated from Night Raven College, she didn’t want to go back. Malleus brought her to his home, telling his grandmother of his intent to marry her. It made Houmi nervous, meeting the powerful Fae woman since she was just a human. Lillia insisted that she would love her. Still, it terrified Houmi because she heard that the great Witch of Thorns was not fond of humans. But to her surprise, the Great Fae smiled at Houmi, despite the little human’s trembling. On the other hand, the Royal Court did not like the idea of their powerful prince marrying a human, and a seemingly magicless one at that. And to hear the boy would sully himself with marrying a human wench, it was unspeakable. 

At the advisor’s insistence, she was roomed in a tower that overlooked the garden, and while it was away from Malleus, it was in much better state than the Ramshackle Dorm. Also, thankfully, her friends came to the kingdom to visit, and was able to connect to the internet with the help of Deuce Spade, so that she could talk with her friends from Night Raven College, as well as taking some classes online, Grim acting as her lap-cat and familiar, after all, the two of them were the Ramshackle student. And now, in the Valley of Thorns, she gained more of a family. Lillia supported her like a father, while Silver watched over her like an older brother, and Sebek, well, he was himself, a strict, brotherly figure that, while still loyal to Malleus, he still looked after Houmi when she was walking the gardens. Many of the members of the Fae court are courteous to her, though it was probably just because of Malleus and his intimidating aura. It seems even in his own kingdom Malleus makes people afraid to approach him. Malleus would speak with Lillia for hours at a time about a wedding. The two of them agree that it would be a small ceremony, with only their friends from Night Raven College. 

The ancient fae enjoyed these conversations, as he was more of a father to the young prince than anyone ever was. There were questions on who the officiant would be, obviously Headmaster Crowley, giving away the bride? They had decided that it would be Leona Kingscholar, who was very protective of the girl, like a younger sister. His groomsmen would be Silver and Sebeck, while Ace and Deuce decided to be Houmi’s Men of Honor, much to the laughter of the whole group. There was a small glen outside of the capital city. The forest clearing was decorated by small fairies, with direction from Lillia and a visiting Vil Schoenheit, little fairy-lights and flowers were draped over tree limbs. The model and actor was adamant about choosing the right flowers. The hangings were braided with edelweiss and borage.Tied around the trees with blue ribbons were cascading bundles of red chrysanthemums, aster and heliotrope. Lillia and his fellow members of the Light Music Club were enchanting instruments for the march. Even Idia Shroud came out of his cave to see one of his dearest friends be married. 

As these friends prepared for the wedding, Houmi tried to get to know Malleus’ family. His mother and Maleficent were very fond of her. Maleficent would call her ‘Little Beastie’, and showed her special ways to spin thread, and the two of them bonded over sewing, teaching Houmi how to make clothes and other textiles. With the help of Vil and Ruggie, Houmi made the outfits for the wedding. Lillia showed her images from old books involving Fae weddings. Malleus’ mother was very inquisitive, asking Houmi about her past that she couldn’t remember very well. The older Fae made certain that her future daughter-in-law was well fed, and that Maurin and the other members of the court did not give her too much grief. There were a few ladies who spoke cordially with Houmi, questioning her about her odd friendships with princes, celebrities, and some of the most prestigious noble families. They also gave Grimm a flood of attention, giggling when he purred and let them put him in stylish bows with a myriad of different fabrics. They would even refer to him as Ser Grimm, protector of the future Queen. The flaming feline loved the attention, and took his newly assigned duty very seriously, especially with the private wedding ceremony. 

On the first full moon of autumn, it was time. Vil and Rook were helping Houmi get prepared. The gown that she had finished was made of lace and tulle, with an off-shoulder neckline that was made from crème-colored tulle, accentuating the collar-bone. The bodice was covered in a fine, alencon lace over crepe fabric, the skirt was made of layers of tulle that fell to the ground. It was truly a wonderful piece, and the finishing touch was a crown of ivy braided with red salvia. A bouquet of red camellias and yellow tulips tied with emerald ribbon was clasped in her hands as she walked into the forest, a small gathering of small pixies were flitting around her face, adding the last bits of make-up and arranging her hair to be perfect to their standards.

Leona stood at the mouth of the glen, dressed in white clothes like what he wore to the Fairy Gala, only the sleeves were made of tulle. He offered his arm to Houmi, a gentle smile on his face. “You ready, Herbivore?” She chuckled, waving away the small sprites weaving her shoulder length, dark brown hair into her ivy crown. “Of course, Leona.” They made their way through the woods to the altar, the creatures of the forest bowed to their princess as she  took as Leona brought her to Malleus, standing under an arch of arbutus, white heather, and blue violets. Behind him was Crowley, his mask and cane missing as he held a small black book that looked like some kind of grimoire. 

Leona sighed as he offered her to Malleus, locking his emerald eyes with the horned prince’s acid green ones. “Keep her safe, Lizard. If you do anything to make her sad, or do her harm, I will personally turn your hide into a rug.”  Malleus smirked, and he held his soon-to-be wife in his arms. “I’ll take a sword through my heart before I let anything, or anyone hurt her.” That seemed to satisfy the lion prince, as he moved to join the others assembled, as Crowley opened his book to the marked page. 

The ceremony was short and sweet, an exchange of vows, and rings of black metal and green stones, placed on their fingers. The kiss was something that sent a spark throughout the glen, a strong wind and glowing lights filled the air, showing the love that Malleus and Houmi had for one another. What they felt, and how their hearts were joined by the strings of fate. They walked back down their makeshift aisle, Grim, Rook, and the Leech Twins threw rice in the air. 

As the moon rose over the treeline, wine was opened, food was served, and music was played. The happy couple danced over the glen, lights glinting over the leaves matching their fluttering heartbeats. Lilia sang in a forgein tongue, everyone clapping in rhythm as Malleus led her in a fast paced, almost-jig. The wedding party went long into the night, the wee hours of the morning chasing the revelers to caravans that they had set up, and the new, royal couple wandering away to the castle. Instead of going to Malleus’ chambers, Malleus walked them to Houmi’s solitary tower. ‘More private,” the young prince said, gripping her hand tightly. Once they were at the stairs at the bottom of the tower Malleus’ scooped up his bride and began carrying her up to her chambers. It was time for them to finish their marriage, and consummate their love. 

[im-the-king-of-the-ocean]

@misstrashchan

so while meandering thru my drafts (to try and get the number in there down from over 70), I found this post with you @ in it from back in July.  I’m fairly certain I was going somewhere with it, but I can’t remember what (I feel like it was probably around the V9 trailer).

original post:

also thoughts on the concept that silver-eyed warriors could be bridges between life and death and the question of ‘what are you?’ possibly referring to Ruby relatedly showing some unusual new power in the Ever After?

Given that so far the SEWs we’ve seen have reaper motifs (Ruby, Maria) or could survive something a normal human can’t (the guy in the Hound).  The reaper as an archetype escorts the dead to the afterlife.  There could be a similar purpose to them in Remnant besides being able to destroy Grimm.

It’s interesting bc the Reaper is also generally something that’s feared as a harbinger of death.  That could be a reason why the Huntress in the Woods’s people were killed.  People associated them with death and misfortune, like they would a Grimm Reaper come for the recently dead, and grew fearful.

That said, another thing is the silver-eyed powers coming from the God of Light, who is just as capable of bringing back the dead/killing them again (iirc the two brothers went back and forth killing/reviving Ozma, so Death isn’t the sole purvey of one and Life the Other).

[itsclydebitches]

Is it true that Silver-eyed Warriors are descended from Ozma? From nearly most of the RWBY fandom, I’ve heard that this statement was stated to be true/gospel to RWBY lore. They’ve used evidence that two of his kids had silver eyes, but I thought that they were from Ozma’s current host (the one with glasses) at the time?

Personally, I'd say it's more of a very likely theory than established fact. Like much of RWBY's lore, nothing has been stated explicitly in the canon, so we're left to decide for ourselves which things we consider "obvious" enough to discuss like they're facts, even if they're technically not. Much like the Blake/Yang relationship, some fans will treat hints and presumably foregone conclusions as enough evidence to create a "fact" whereas others prefer to wait until there's undisputed confirmation. Hence you get a fandom where what's "true" about the canon is kinda wonky.

In this case, the theory seems to stem from a couple of main points.

1. As you say, two of Ozpin's kids had silver eyes and he's certainly lived long enough to literally father this lineage. Silver eyes likewise seem to be confirmed as hereditary given Summer being Ruby's mother and Maria implying that her father had silver eyes too.

2. They were confirmed as "real" silver eyes as opposed to the "fake" gray eyes that characters like Ilia and Mercury have. I believe it was in a RWBY Rewind where they stated that silver eyes have those additional notches, a detail also seen in Maria's flashback.

3. It would be a pretty big coincidence if silver eyes somehow developed independently from Ozpin, given that they're an offshoot of the God of Light's power and, outside of Salem, Ozpin is the only one who has had dealings with him/was a part of Humanity 1.0.

4. I don't know how Remnant genetics work (or regular genetics for that matter lol, so someone correct me if I'm wrong), but it seems unlikely that you'd get silver eyes out of hazel and blue.

So the theory goes that Ozpin is the cause. As a member of Humanity 1.0 and as someone sent on this mission by Light himself, his magic (not fake semblance "magic") is pretty anti-grimm. For whatever reason (perhaps due to her own grimmification) Ozpin's kids with Salem don't inherit silver eyes, but they do get regular old magic like any other Humanity 1.0 kids would. However, when merging with a Humanity 2.0 host and having kids, Ozpin can pass down silver eyes rather than normal magic. He's not literally, physically fathering the kids, but his soul/magic is now interconnected with his host's, presumably influencing the next generation. These kids go off, have kids of their own, and more people with silver eyes turn up down the line, sometimes fully awakening their power (Ruby, Maria), sometimes going through life being unsure of what this means, or how to wield it (Maria's dad). This theory would also help to explain Ozpin's interest in Ruby. Obviously SEWs are notable in a war against grimm and Salem in and of themselves and Ozpin already knew Summer (so there's a lot of explanations already), but that interest takes on more weight if we consider that all SEWs are distant relatives of Ozpin's.

So imo it's a very likely theory that would fit into the canon decently, even if we take into account RWBY's inconsistent lore. But actual, established fact spoken about in-universe or (as far as I'm aware, anyway) confirmed by Word of God? I don't think that exists yet.