#RWBY fan theory

[falleri-salvatore]

Hmmm.....

Guys, correct me if I’m wrong....but; the way they are developing, would it end up being like....?

Ruby Rose: Red Death -> Red-Black Death -> White-Black Death Jaune Arc: White Knight -> Rusted Knight -> Black Knight

[blumingtoadstool]

MAJOR RWBY VOL 9 SPOILERS

So can we talk about how Ruby was moments away from ascending in episode 4?

I’m sure others have realized this and I’m being slow, but the younger versions of team RWBY the girls meet wasn’t just them coming to terms with what they’d become and how they have or haven’t grown.

That was The Tree trying to convince them to ascend.

From what we’ve seen a person has to be willing in order for The Tree to take them in order to Ascend. Herb realized he lost his focus for his work and got swallowed up, the Paper Pleasers wanted to change for a long time, they just need to get away from Jaune long enough.

Yang becoming whole again, Weiss losing her family name and burdens, Blake becoming just a human or cat, that was the tree coercing them to give into ascension.

And Ruby was seconds away from falling for it. If the Cat hadn’t jumped in, there a good chance Ruby would’ve had the same fate as Herb. When they yelled ‘get away from her’, they weren’t yelling at Herb, he was just as out of it as the rest of them. They were yelling at the illusion The Tree was making.

And the Cat knew to jump in because he saw what happened with Alyx.

When Jaune was retelling what happened with Alyx and Lewis, we can see he wasn’t in the Herbalist’s hut. We only saw Herb, the Cat, Lewis, and Alyx. And Jaune said he didn’t know what happened in there, just that Alyx suddenly changed, got very defensive and untrusting.

Almost like she was a new person. A new person that would poison one of their guides, lie to their other guide about bringing them back to their world, and willingly give up their sibling in order to leave.

The Tree is very much a sentient thing in Ever After, and it targets peoples most insecure points to manipulate them in order to feed itself.

Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if The Tree is the big bad of the whole volume.

[bafflement]

RWBY and the protector god archetype

The one thing we really learned in season 9 was that the god of dark and the god of light have a history of leaving others to do the work they should have done themselves. Just look at the Cat as an example. They left the ever after to become gods to worlds they created, after all... but all they were looking for was the slightest excuse to leave.

The brothers are sort of... flaky. They come, create things, then disappear again as soon as their creations dare to disagree with them. They hold themselves to rules they themselves enforce, as though they see everything as a game. Which considering the tree created them, might not be entirely inaccurate. They, for gods, might be very young and very immature. After all, that was never their original purpose.

But they left Remnant to the Grimm and Salem and didn't do a thing to protect it. They killed off humanity entirely, knowing it would return but not really caring what would happen when they did.

So you have a single, cursed human wandering a very much empty world, learning to control the Grimm to have some sort of friends... and no longer caring what happens to humanity when they make that inevitable re-emergence. All Salem has wanted for countless centuries is to die, after all...

And then they grant her wish. Sort of. They bring Ozma back, charged with uniting - but not protecting - humanity. All they bother telling him is that he wll be bought back in such a way as that he's never alone, so when he finds that Salem is still around, he thinks 'I was meant to go back.' Which, of course, ends in tragedy, she can never be the woman he remembers after all.

But. But he wanders, after Salem kills Ozma 2.0. Sometimes he sinks into despair, sometimes he runs away, but that spark inside never truly dies out. Ozma was, and will always be a warrior, after all.

He gives the maidens their powers, maybe with a failsafe, maybe not. He passes out his own power because he no longer feels worthy of it.

Then he looks out, sees the Faunus and Humanity both struggling against... dying against... the Grimm. They can't protect themselves, they haven't got magic or powers or really any defence. So he grants them that power. Looks deep inside each of them, human and faunus alike and grants them the ability to create auras. 'You gave us magic!" They say, and he can only sigh and tell them they have a semblance of magic, not the real thing. But it's enough, it has to be enough.

Then he rests, hoping his magic will recover and it... does. Sort of, but not fully. It's in too many hands now, after all and no matter how much he wishes his power back, that everybody else is protected is far more important than whether he is. He'll come back, they won't.

Eventually, he wakes up in the body of a prince... and knows he can't hide who and what he is anymore. A prince running away and becoming a hermit isn't actually that plausible, after all. By then, he's asked the questions of the relics... knows he can never defeat Salem. But some evil never dies and as long as the world has hope, that has to be enough.

He tells a few of his advisors the truth of what he is. That he's the infinite man, that that rather embarrassing fairy tale has more than a grain of truth. To watch for the next one, because he never stays dead forever, whether that wait be months or decades. He tries to warn them that whoever he is next could be anyone at all, not even necessarily a warrior. They don't listen.

So he wins his war, knowing it's not truly the one that matters. Knowing it never will be, because if Salem had a hand in this one at all, it was unseen. As invisible as she ever is, like smoke in the wind.

But she is evil, will always be evil. So he founds the hunters academies and prays that those being trained to fight the darkness will realise that Salem is a monster, too.

Then he dies, a few decades after winning the war. Sinking down under the premature weight of the years he's lived and the lifetimes he has not. His advisors start to scan the four kingdoms for his successor. It's a long wait.

Finally a fragile child emerges. Maybe he's a native Vale resident, maybe he isn't. Maybe he's a runaway, a lost boy. Maybe he's a kidnap victim. But whoever and whatever he is, all they see is the fragility. The health issues, the limp, the sheer frailness of the child's shaking limbs. They're... not happy.

Because they expected a warrior and got a child who's probably never even picked up a weapon before. That doesn't know how to fight, to protect himself, much less anyone else. But his soul burns with a light too bright to look at directly. His determination to be more than just 'the next Ozma' pushes him to excel. If only he could remember what that 'more' was... if only he truly knew his own name.

But he persists. The gentle soul, who loves everybody and believes in everybody, whether human or faunus. Who sees the good in every soul and never the evil beneath. Who believes everybody can be saved. Except Salem [and maybe Jaques Schnee, even if he doesn't remember why]. Who is so easily taken and controlled and moulded and manipulated. That sound? Is the first crack in the child. The first sign of the shattering to come.

He grows up too fast, forced to become a Huntsman so young that it would be laughable anywhere else. Is laughable, a twelve year old should be studying at Signal, not out fighting monsters on the whims of the adults in his life. And yet, there he stands and there he fights and nobody ever asks if he wants to. Because of course he does, right? Nobody would give a child that young a licence if he hadn't proven himself?

Then there is one too many close calls. One too many accidents... one too many risks. Much though those in control hate this fragile child, they also know just how long it took to find him. They need another option.

Then they look to their own academy. To a head that's bowing under the weight, that's tired and think 'ah, opportunity.' So they install the small, fragile child as the headmaster, locking him up in the clocktower to remind him of the passage of time. Casual cruelties like that have become their bread and butter, after all.

The child is too beaten down, too weary to protest. Though he wrings a concession out of them, just the one. That Faunus be allowed to attend, too. No more bigotry, no more hatred. This little boy who should loathe them all still loves them far too much for that, even now.

So he stands, at fifteen, as headmaster. They fudge the numbers, add four years to his age and order him to dress older than he actually is. To a fifteen year old boy with millennia worth of experience in the back of his head, mature is a suit. Is changing out the glasses he needs for a medical condition for a set that make him look older. Is makeup to give the shadow of stubble to his jaw, concentrating on making all his words sound painfully polite, standing so straight they might have glued a sword to his back. At first, at least. He carries a mug everywhere, pretends it's coffee, not the cocoa that's comforting and familiar [and he doesn't know why, can't remember, it doesn't matter, right?], smiles and pretends. Most people buy it.

[That first faunus at Beacon, by the way, is a twenty one year old Leonardo Lionheart. He's admitted late because he couldn't have been admitted at all until then. He swears loyalty to the new headmaster, all five foot seven of him. Eventually, they'll all know just what that oath is worth.]

Team STRQ is suspicious. Well, Summer is suspicious and the Branwen twins, jumpy, wary of being discovered, follow her in that. Taiyang sees silver hair and those glasses and assumes he is older. But then, that's Taiyang all over.

Then he slips up. Gets a reference he shouldn't one too many times, moves like the teen he is instead of the adult he pretends to be. Hits a growth spurt and gains a foot in height in the course of eight months. Most people assume it's just a late growth, people have them, after all. Glynda looks at him and wonders. Summer, Raven and Qrow look at him and know. See him for who he is and start to befriend him. Sometimes violently so, they're not taking no for an answer, Tai, confused, is dragged along for the ride.

When he breaks, in the end, and tells them the truth of his age? Tai is the only one to be surprised. There are threats towards the Vale council, though he works hard to convince them not to go through with them. His loyalties may be misplaced, but he has them nonetheless.

Then team STRQ graduates. Team GILD, too, Glynda, Ironwood, Lionheart, Demarco. They go out to fight monsters and leave him all alone in that gilded cage the council placed him in. Glynda comes back, decides teaching is the better option, after her team loses a member and Ironwood decides that a career in the military is more important. Lionheart disappears, for now, but he truly believes he can trust them, his first teams. He is halfway right.

Summer vanishes, out on a mission that Tai and Raven seem to blame him for. He's never certain just what the mission was, knows he never gave her it, but how to you argue against the dead? It's his fault after all, it always is. The cracks grow longer, wider, glowing with a viridian light the same electric green as his aura. He doesn't notice.

He throws himself into running the school, protecting the students. Recommends LIonheart and Ironwood and a friend he's met since called Theodore as heads of the other academies. Hopes that, eventually, Tai and Raven will stop hating him. Tai does, Raven does not. But then, the Branwens know how to hold a grudge.

Then Salem, finally, makes her move. Beacon falls and he falls with it, his life for his students, always. He might return, but they never will.

And, of course, Cinder Fall breaks her word. That, too, is inevitable.

He wakes up in the back of Oscar's head and part of him weeps. Surely this one, at least, should be an adult? Should be mature and able to make their own choice? But no, of course not. He has to work with what he's given, but this one? This one he can try to save, at least?

Then the relics happen. The others ask the one question he never wanted them to and Jinn, as all of the relics do, gives a half answer. Sows division. She's been bound to the relic too long and, just like the others, all she really wants to do is rest.

Qrow, telling him that meeting him was the worst luck of his life. Flying into shards and hiding himself away in the hope that by doing so, he might be able to fade completely. To let Oscar be himself instead of just the next Ozma.

Then Oscar needs him. That protective instinct glues the shards of him back together enough to help. Even as he does so, he knows that the merge is becoming more complete, more real... that he can't stop it happening. He hates himself all over again. He takes most of the torture for Oscar, for all that he lets the boy believe that he hasn't done so. He deserves it, after all. Oscar doesn't.

They blow up the whale, knowing it won't kill Salem, but hoping it might get her annoyed enough not to follow for awhile.

The relics betray them again, team RWBY and Jaune fall into the Ever After. There are things there that they need to know, after all... that he needs to know, too. Hopefully they'll tell him.

Salem has two of the relics. Cinder used the charges for both, she wants to be the one true power on Remnant. Salem is reaping what she sowed.

The remaining group travel to Vacuo. It's hard there, proving they belong, that they deserve to survive. Headmaster Theodore blinks at Oscar, sees both him and the other soul... and wonders, will that be enough. After all, everybody knows about the witch now. But they don't know about the wizard.

The staff is recognised. There's a lot of confusion and the fear that Glynda might slap Oscar for a second or two, but they get over that. He stays quiet, watching those he called his friends. Scared to truly trust them.

Then those they lost return with a tale that he can't quite believe... if the gods were created by the tree, if the tree is the origin... then what does that make his curse? Salem's curse? Ruby and Yang go to find Raven, he's too busy trying to work out how to find the tree. He has so many questions.

The relics are united, the gods return. They want to condemn Remnant but Ruby gets the blacksmith involved. They take one look at Oscar, tut and spilt him back into two.

So now there are two, confused looking teenaged boys. One darker skinned, dark haired, hazel eyed. The other paler, all silver and gold. Neither of them are totally seperate, they'll always be linked, but they're both so very grateful to be themselves again. Then they make a mistake, call each other brother, and the blacksmith's eyes light up.

The tree knows everything Ozma has ever done for humanity and the faunus. And they know just how many mistakes the brothers have made. They elevate him to godhood without listening to his horrified protests, give him his magic back and the ability to deal with Salem and set him loose.

He teaches Salem what death is, slowly, patiently, and thus frees her in the end. He brings back Pyrrha, brings back Penny. Refuses to bring back Lionheart or Ironwood. They're rather confused, staring at the glowing teenager who seems so familiar, yet at the same time so much larger than the rest of the world.

He wanders, again. Doing good where he can, stays in contact with Ruby and Oscar, then their decendants. That's happiness. Of a sort. He never stops looking for Qrow, once old age takes him. Sometimes he finds him, sometimes he doesn't. But then, that's okay, too.

[matt0044]

Theory: The Summer Maiden will be Ruby's foil.

That is to say, the Summer Maiden will be young and terribly unsure of the duty she must fulfill. Additionally, she will find herself as a fan of Ruby Rose during the time she's presumed dead in seeing her as a more proper Maiden.

Seriously, I can see Salem's cronies hunting her down only for Ruby to ward them off. The Summer Maiden's first words to her idol?

"Can I have your autograph?"

Essentially, Ruby would find herself in this teenage girl who similarly has great power and too much responsiblity. Helping her would help her with her lingering issues from the Ever After.

It would also give Team RWBY full connections with the Maidens themselves. Obviously, RWBY's commited to not making the four main characters the chosen ones even with Ruby's Silver Eyes but the "chosen ones" are those they trust.

[bluearc009]

Jaune and crescent rose in the void

You know something in volume 9 just kept bugging me, how did Jaune see crescent rose in the void when it fell long before he did?

Then in dawns on me, he didn't it wasn't crescent rose he saw it was Ruby or at less her soul/spirit in the form of crescent rose.

This is just a theory, when Ruby ascended her body become part of The Tree but her soul/spirit went where the Blacksmith was and when Ruby choose to be herself she and crescent rose both fell back into the void.

crescent rose started to emitting petals as they both falling through the void and the way back to Ever After and who just happened to be falling in the void at that time...

You guest it Jaune.

Jaune: It was the first thing I saw when I was falling.

Since Ruby is only a spirit Jaune only saw her as crescent rose and the petals as flames, and he try to get it but he didn't have it with him when landed in the Ever After.

And that because Ruby soul/spirit return to her body.

Witch also means that Jaune arrived at the Ever After in chapter 10.

What do you guys think.

[rwby-confess]

Oscar's aunt is the cute innkeeper Qrow hit on, i said what i said.

Look at them side by side and tell me i'm wrong. Dark brown hair? Green eyes? Freckles? Lives in rural Mistral? I rest my case.

Confession #230

[lexiekeyy]

stolen from twt but what if the theory that Summer got captured and turned into a Hound by Salem when her final mission went wrong and Raven had to put her out of her misery.

and maybe the apology was directed towards summer as well

[sunderedroses]

tried to make a ruby-less version of the painting in the volume 9 intro

here you go!

i couldn’t get the best quality screenshots even from the youtube upload :( hopefully the official is out soon!

official art by Erin Winn

(@ ErinMWinn on twitter)

if i somehow make a higher quality version i’ll post it on my twitter @ rainyloona !

[destiny-in-the-universe]

I don’t know what it is, but I do not trust Ozpin. Like there is something fishy going on or he definitely knows more than he’s telling-

Like?? Or maybe it’s just me, but still

[autumnsorbet]

Epilogue and theory v9/10

So today a few hours ago for me the epilogue came out I'm very excited about it since this is the most Ruby content related to the main show we've gotten and about a year it's better than us waiting and confusion like we did wondering what was going on with volume 9 where it was a to what felt like to 4 year wait 😅

I also like to hear a rise then there's possibly been a time skip of longer than we think and vacuole even though the epilogue shows the characters and the same outfits they've been wearing since volumes 6 and 7 I do like to think that when we do see these parts of the epilogue and volume 10 like we've been told by Eddie and kerry

💖

We'll see new updated looks maybe some of the characters will look older or a bit taller I really hope this happens and I can't wait to see what their character designs look like especially Oscars and winter

So let's get started with what I liked from the epilogue and some theories all throwing you here and there

🧡💚Oscar

wondering if the others were alive and actually trying to do research into it even though remnant has limited resources and information even ozpin didn't know what happened to Ruby and the others

♥️

So I'm excited to see their reaction and volume 10 I'm guessing we'll get the reunion with everyone and episode 2 whenever we get volume 10 and these explanation of the ever after will come up an episode 3 because I believe in episode 2 if they do end up getting to vacuo and reuniting with the

💖

others then that's going to be the main focus and then maybe a fight will happen and after that and episode 3 they'll take a break for episode they'll explain everything that's been happening with them Ruby and the others will explain what happened to them and the ever after, team Rwby will see how Oscar's merge is affecting him I wonder if jaune using his Aura amplification would help Oscar I'm not sure it might make it worse we'll have to see

💖

but like I said in other post on here and Twitter I Believe by the end of volume 10 Oscar's merge will be complete and will be left on a cliffhanger as to who it is or will actually get to see who it is at the end and we'll have to go from there sadly cuz either way we're either losing ozpin or Oscar

💙Nora

I'm so happy that this epilogue started out with Nora cuz she was one of the characters even more than Oscar that I wanted to know what was going to happen with since from the beginning they'd always set her up it's kind of like a pair with Rin and now we're getting to see Nora Branch out and do

💖

her own thing away from rent even though he can tell that now after telling himself and Nora that he loves her, he still gives Nora her space I'm glad that Nora got to stand up to people who were being hostile towards orphans since Nora's been an orphan for longer than we've probably known

💖

We get to see Nora actually interact with other characters for once outside of her team it's just amazing and I wish they had done this sooner

I can't wait till when we actually give volume 10 because I hope we'll see so much more of Nora and maybe if we're lucky maybe she'll somehow become a maiden

❤️💚Ren

I like what they're doing with Ren Ren sees that John isn't there anymore so now he's trying to be supportive and uplift the team the same way his leader would and I'm happy they're doing this he learned a lot from him and Atlas he saw how

💖

confident John became after losing so much and struggling since the beginning of beacon and now he's not there to uplift or support them like he used to so wren's trying to support and uplift everyone

💖

even though they're separated I also look forward to seeing what happens with him and volume 10 especially with his relationship with Nora he's still trying to give her space even though you can see he does want to be with her at the moment so I wonder what they'll do with him from what it seems maybe they'll have some moments with him along with maybe other characters like male characters

💖

kind of like we seen in Ruby Chibi where he'll be with some of the male characters and they'll be looking into Tyrion and Mercury working with the group called The crown from the before the dawn and after the fall light novels which are Cannon to the main story of rwby

💙Winter

I actually got to see more of winter than I thought I would with the rest of the epilogue I'm happy that we see how much control she seems to have over the maiden power so far her flying her combat and skills she truly is a good candidate for the powers

I'm hoping at some point we'll get to see winter interact with the other maiden I'm hoping that this maiden is very young somewhere around winter's age but has a bit more control over her powers than winter and maybe she can learn from someone instead of trying to teach maybe form a friendship or a bond and that will help them in their upcoming battle with Salem and speaking of Salem

❤️🖤Salem in vale

For the longest time now I theorize that Salem probably went to Vail I think she used up her grim pools on the dark Continent and needs to go to a place where a larger amount of her grandma are still active and that would be veil she's there looking for the crown possibly with cinder since she has Tyrion and mercury and vacuo teaming up with the crown

Salem can sit back and make more grim using the staff I honestly do have some doubts here and there when it comes to the writing in the show but so far over the past several volumes is actually gotten so much better and I love it it was especially amazing and volume 9

I'm not sure what they'll have Salem do with the staff maybe if we're lucky Salem will somehow separate Oscar and Oz before they merge I doubt that will happen with that could maybe happen so she can actually confront the person she wants to instead of a 15-16 year old

[midnightechoes]

Before volume 9 starts, I wanted to reupload the beeunion project @shera-dnd​ and I did last winter. We came up with the story together, I drew the comic, and she wrote the accompanying fic, which can be read on AO3.

The remaining pages after the break!

[cdawgy2]

I’m about to start theorizing everyone.

So the only two relics we haven’t seen in action are the Sword of Destruction and the Crown of Creation (that’s what they are, right?). Now, it’s probably pretty straightforward what the sword does, but you know what I think the crown does?

Nothing.

At least, not whenever like the other relics. It’s kind of like Aerith’s White Materia. I think that the relic of choice can only be activated when it is united with the rest, and when they call the brothers back to Remnant, that is when the choice will come into play.

This could also tie into the “Tai has the crown” theory. Because the crown is effectively inactive, that means it doesn’t generate a passive magic field like the lamp did that attracts grimm. Therefore, Tai is able to hide it in his basement without worrying about an army of beowolves tearing his house apart.

[channel-eclair]

me: wow i really enjoy this thing, this thing is really nice and makes me happy-

hundreds of suspiciously robotically speaking tumblr accounts on their way to fill every tag related to this thing with as much negativity and hatred towards it as possible:

[bafflement]

Oh, actually... I wonder...

Nobody actually knows where Ozpin came from originally, or his semblance beyond that it probably has something to do with time.

The last Ozma was the last king of Vale, so there would have been people IN the Vale looking out for the next Ozcarnation, probably in all four [or five] kingdoms. We know Oz was headmaster of Beacon. But we don't know if he was meant to be, and sometimes coloring can tell its own story.

What if he's from Atlas? Worse... we know he was painfully young when he died, but what if the silver hair actually IS genetic? Because his height would tend to indicate Atlas, or at least Mantle as a possible origin point.

Which other family in Atlas is noted for having silver hair, I wonder? Go on, I'll wait...

And with Ice Queen focusing on Weiss and the Schnee's, I do wonder if that might be explored. There's no statute of limitations on a kidnapping after all, and a disappeared uncle would probably explain Winter's and Weiss' actions...

[ofdarkestdesires]

RWBY turns 10 this year. It’s come a long way since it was first released, and as the world has grown, we have learned more about the lore that it is made of. It might not be the most clearly-defined of lore, but even I can’t deny that eight—going on nine—Volumes of RWBY has definitely given us plenty of lore to gush over.

With the introduction of lore, though, comes the death of headcanons. And with almost a decade of existing, RWBY has seen more than its fair share of theories go up in smoke. With that in mind—

What is your favorite RWBY headcanon that canon disproved?

[chlothequeen]

Y’all, Summer is not a Grimm. And if she were, it would be a recent development, and frankly, an uninteresting one, as we’d be dealing with a hero tragically turned monster instead of a character with flaws. I feel like too many people take Ruby theorizing that Summer is a Grimm at face value, ignoring that she doesn’t know the hound was an experiment, long after Summer’s disappearance. Whatever happened to Summer isn’t going to be as simple as death, or being Grimm, it’s going to be something that causes further conflict, especially for Ruby and Yang.