#idk why i would’ve been cursed from birth though

[whimsyprinx]

i like to pretend that a curse was placed on me when I was born and that’s why I’m the way I am

[tsufangs]

about amane's injuries, this may seem farfetched but ive always thought that maybe they were self-inflicted bcos tsukasa wished for amane to be healthy, and amane must have noticed that he never got sick again. i thought of this since i remembered that in the spin-off, hanako mentioned that it was the first time in decades that he ever caught a cold, and as to why he's hurting himself, maybe he found out about what really happened to tsukasa? he prolly resented himself bcos the reason he's healthy is bcos of tsukasa's wish? he's prolly trying to find a way to bring him back or be with him again?

idk i just felt like sharing this to you...

Wow, good one fellow!

What you said would make sense though! Maybe Amane already knew about this whole situation from when he was still alive, he found out or someone must have told him... however, if he knew then it would make sense the followings: why he’s now Hanako-san, why he wants to atone his sins and why he feels uncomfortable/guilty whenever he sees “Tsukasa”.

Think about it, he wanted to atone his sins by being Hanako-san... but killing a “person” that CLEARLY wasn’t his real brother isn’t something to feel ashamed of, more or less like a liberation, like a right act he did towards something that was not human and wanted only to get in big mischievous situations, being controlled by a cursed spirit of a dark shady house.

He did the right thing if we think of it this way, right?

What if the mistake he did was not killing “Tsukasa” phisically that day, but actually the fact he knew he “killed” his real brother way before just unconsciously?

If we put it this way, Amane did “killed” real Tsukasa without even knowing it: by being sick and make Tsukasa wishing a good health for Amane, thus, making sacrifing himself comporting the appearance of a fake Tsukasa being the extension of that cursed power.

Someway, Amane unconsciously “killed” his real brother trapping him in that house. But, of course, THERE’S NO WAY we can blame it on him! Poor baby, he was just sick... he would’ve died within a month if it wasn’t for Tsukasa. There was no actual way he could have known about his brother’s wish and the sacrifice: he was just a sick baby trying to feel better at all costs, fighting against that illness which haunted him from birth!

Amane has no fault for this, but you know how he has that strong sense of justice... so it would absolutely make sense if he felt terribly guilty exactly for this! He felt responsible about his brother’s disappearance, he maybe thought that if he never was born with that illness then his family would have been just a normal one, there wouldn’t be any problems, they would still live happily being the healthy lovely family he always wished for...

That’s why he wants to atone his sin, he considers this an unforgettable and unforgivable mistake, he wants to repair it even when, we know, he has no fault for this. Also, that’s why he feels uncomfortable and guilty whenever he sees his fake brother: he thinks that it was merely his fault if now that fake copy existed, he can’t still accept it, he doesn’t want to accept it.

He feels an enormous guilt consuming him day by day knowing that he was responsible for his brother’s “death”, he was feeling terribly about him being alive when it was never his fate to begin with and his brother “dying” on his stead which he didn’t deserve at all, since his fate was never the one of disappearing.

You get that feeling when you know it’s not really your fault but you just feel bad because it’s technically your fault even if you didn’t do it on purpose, so the guilt and the negative emotions only start to get in.

Amane exactly felt that way.

So this theory which you just stated would make sense: him torturing himself just because he thinks he’s responsible for all the mess happening to this family.

Man, this painfully broke my heart as I was writing this post...

[winebleeds]

an adhd dump because good luck connecting the dots

- most of the older generation of spencers married quickly to avoid having a child out of wedlock. arthur & lizzie, the grandparents, married when lizzie was pregnant with their eldest son, raleigh... and then robert & miriam married quickly when miriam was pregnant with their eldest son... raleigh... then sharon married her first husband after a pregnancy with their eldest son, nick. while dani married right after high school, it wasn’t because of a pregnancy (she just wanted to escape ellesmere) & didn’t have hannah until a couple years into that marriage. then lori, while pregnant in high school, decided not to marry the father who left by the time brandon was born. and uncle raleigh... died before he either married or had kids, even if he was 24 at dod.

- so because of what’s mention up above, robert told elizabeth that the spencers have a curse, where those that fall in love die young or experience limerence that leaves them miserable. and he gave his evidence where his older brother died close to marrying his girlfriend (though, her in-laws were giving her a hard time, so if uncle raleigh lived, they probably would’ve divorced) while the rest of the spencers were betrayed by someone and left stranded in heartbreak (lori) or in loveless marriage/divorce (like... himself, sharon, & dani). so he would tell elizabeth it’s better to be alone & never stay long enough for limerence to begin. so this is (one of the reason) why elizabeth struggles with relationships.

- even though robert mainly tell elizabeth all of that just to keep her close to ellesmere / dc (after all, arthur & lizzie remained married for decades & did love each other to the point heartbreak was consider a major factor of arthur’s death after lizzie died, considering he did die from heart failure). she was suppose to be the pedestal for him to step into the limelight of politics. where elizabeth would think she have agency but just be a spokesperson for whatever he wanted. and, yeah, he could strive for that career. hell, he’s a provost of a college. but he just feels any roots that could be planted for politics of him were burned at marrying miriam and the birth of raleigh. so he just put in a LOT of energy for elizabeth to accomplish his true dreams for him. like, if things went a different way, robert could’ve been a cult leader & his handling of his children shows that.

- i don’t think elizabeth realizes how little agency she actually had growing up because of her father. like, she wouldn’t hate jamie like she did in her younger years. and, if she stayed in the dmv area after high school, she still wouldn’t have agency. it would be slightly different if she went to stanford and then returned to dc, because stanford was too far away from robert’s grasp. hell, he could still have her under his control somewhere like yale, where she probably would’ve stay in politics or law school. aka elizabeth picking stanford was her best decision for her to obtain her personal freedom & independence. 

- speaking of jamie, a lot of his attention seeking comes from trying to get his parents’ affection, particular his father. so even the negative attention, like robert telling jamie to be quiet, was eventually something jamie knew he could obtain. jamie also caught on kinda quickly that any kind words robert gave jamie was in front of elizabeth & serving as a punishment for her / add to the twins’ competitive nature. but jamie still ate it up & egged elizabeth in hopes to get her in trouble for those few moments robert gave positive attention to him. 

- while lori tried to a parental figure to the twins (the others? idk her), she was still complacent with robert’s manipulation. like she knew elizabeth preferred machinery over politics. she knew jamie just wanted robert to see him as a son. but a lot of the early years where devoted to ellesmere, raising her own son, and, mainly, being petty around miriam since lori & miriam did not get along, so lori would team up with robert. and, even then, i don’t think lori knew how much of elizabeth’s & jamie’s flaws are become of him.

- but lori did try to give equal attention to all four spencers. it was just easier to spend more time with the twins when they wanted to help with ellesmere & be around the horses. lori could’ve easily forced raleigh & maddie to do things at pasture, but she encouraged the other two to do their own things even as it distance them from her. like, she read how raleigh just wanted to hang out with brandon & let him follow around her son (though lori & brandon had their own issues but that’s for another day). however, she did get raleigh to work at the office managing phone calls with sharon in order to help him get rid of his fear of talking. and lori did cook for maddie, & try to keep her company whenever on ellesmere once jamie left, but she knew ellesmere was lonely for maddie. but, yeah, it was usually lori (or lori getting an assistant at ellesmere) that picked up the kids at their own activities while robert was either too busy with work or elizabeth.

- maddie’s probably the most emotionally aware & stable due to not being / remember the instability of miriam & robert being in a house together / the divorce process. but she did suffer some the attention seeking like jamie, to an intent, and did cling to people once her older siblings left for college. her siblings are a lifeline for her, but she’s also not afraid to include others in her life that her siblings are completely frightened about. she believes in love while the others only see chemicals (raleigh), limerence (jamie), or a curse (elizabeth). 

- but didn’t i just mention limerence with robert & elizabeth? yes. but why is jamie connected with limerence? well, irene. there’s also the girl jamie dated in high school that he eventually ‘fell out of love’ where others gleam in his eyes. but, at the beginning, jamie was absolutely smitten at irene, or the idea of irene. mainly because she was sweet to him, but coy enough to not feel “easy” like anyone else. so he got to the point of thinking only about her nonstop, especially once they did start dating. but, the high from extreme popularity (espn is saying his fucking name) & consumption distract him from irene to the point the thoughts of her faded. once everything got into his head, and upon his downfall, this mind thought of her again, but irene, deserving better, left him for good. 

- he also experience limerence with the married woman that completely destroy his trust & heart but, as a general psa, i don’t discuss much about that affair. all i will ever mention is that it happened & it did damage to him. i will never give her a name, because even jamie didn’t deserve what she did. 

- overall, while the four spencers have the chance to get along & be close, they should just stay away from their parents, especially robert, and maybe even the rest of the extended family.

[zorria]

Merlin used Meliodas and Elizabeth (but mostly Meliodas)

Alright so 337 is out and with it comes a lot of new information. We learned that the voice is actually the lady of the lake aka the saint of chaos

Basically she gave Excalibur to king carfren (idk who that is if someone does please remind me) anyway Meliodas interupts her because he’s never heard of her before even with being alive for so many years. The reason is because Merlin hide that fact from all of the sins. (shocker lol) and then The lady of the lake talks about merlins past.

Where it’s revealed Merlin comes from a belianlin (which we already knew) but it revealed that it was a capital in Britannia that neither sided with the demons or goddesses. As they were used as weapons against higher ranked demons and goddesses. The children in this city who shows an apitude of magic were experimented on and used as test subjects. One of them born with a strong and unique magic was Merlin. Even though she wanted her fathers love and approval he never gave it to her rather he gave her a mountain of reading materials and tests to do.

Until one day she got sick of it and ran away but her persuers found her and started to attack her. She was almost caught until Meliodas saved her

He killed her persuers and was kind to her. By reaching out his hand in a gentle way. This kind action by Meliodas made Merlin fall in love with him as she has never felt this much love from anyone. However no matter how much time passed Meliodas never developed feelings for her (obviously I mean she was a child after all) so Merlin decided to use her magic to make herself an adult body to try and win over Meliodas’s affection to do that she stopped the time that coursed through her body.

However even with this change Meliodas never fell for her as he already found someone else. That someone was Elizabeth (of course) after Merlin found this out she became essentially bitter.

However Merlin couldn’t bring herself to hate Elizabeth or Meliodas. So she devoted her time to learning magic to try and fill the hole in her heart. In doing so she found out about chaos.

Now you might be asking who is chaos. Chaos is a power born among the ancient stars. With chaos it brought its first off spring. The SD, The DK and the sacred tree for the fairies. After their births. The DK created the demons and the demon realm, the SD created the Goddesses and the goddesses realm, and the sacred tree made the fairy realm and the fairies. Chaos also created two other races. The first being the giants. After chaos saw how barbaric the giants were it created the human race.

Through human nature (even though incomplete) they became the closest to chaos. The SD and DK grew jealous and worried that they would lose their clans to chaos. So they worked together to seal chaos away. After finding that out Merlin dedicated the rest of her life to bring back chaos. Because she thought if it came back her heart would be filled. So she formed the SDS to use them

To destroy the demon king as this was one of the requirements.

Diane hearing this gets really upset and says chaos doesn’t know a thing about them. (Which is true) chaos knows this is true however what she does know is that dabuzu of the giant clan forged the coffin of eternal darkness to seal the demons and goddesses away. She also tells us

That Merlin internationally stopped time to resurrect the demon king and she also re activated Elizabeth’s curse so Meliodas wouldn’t be able to reach his goal. (I’ll talk about that in a bit) and she drove the combo into the lake on purpose. It is also states that sealing away the DK and SD wasn’t enough one of them had to die. Ban realizes that Merlin knew the DK would use Mel’s body as a vessel. (He was quite angry about this good job ban way to look out for mel 💙) Anyway and she needed explosion magic to bring back Arthur. So that’s why she launched the combo Into the lake. (Zel was right she is a shrewd woman) hearing this mel gets super pissed (understandably) as she almost killed him, zel and Elizabeth to try and achieve her goal. Merlin tells him if Meliodas did take the curse away form eli his goal would’ve been achieved and he wouldn’t abandoned his mission to defeat the demon king and Merlin didnt want that so she brought the curse back. But she also did save eli several times (still doesn’t make it any less horrible you did that Merlin)

apparently chaos says “it should be no mystery hating someone so much you want to kill them but still love them... (I assume she either wanted to kill mel or eli or both) and then chaos ends with saying that they are all from different races and wonders if they will truly be able to understand one another.

Alright that’s what happened now for thoughts. MERLIN IS A PIECE OF SHIT!!! I’m sorry but she is she literally used all of them just to get what she wanted to feel closure cause Meliodas broke her heart. ITS NOT MELIODAS’S FAULT HE FELL IN LOVE WITH ELIZABETH. Merlin is basically mael. Just this time with mel. (when you think about it hopefully it plays out better than mael) anyway Merlins basically being emo. What she wants to do now to mel or eli idk know but I do know is she just betrayed all of them. And just hurt Meliodas and Elizabeth very badly. Meliodas is obviously very upset right now and I knew she was going to hurt him. I just wish it wasn’t like this... I really started to like Merlin and now I’m starting to hate her. But also without her mel, zel and eli would be dead so would a lot of people Too so I’m very conflicted right now. All in all it was a chapter and I really enjoyed reading it (even though Merlin makes me very fucking mad right now).

[chattegeorgiana]

Gotta give it to you, watching/reading Boruto after the shit show Naruto was and analyzing the story... Holy shit, I'm still upset with how things went after many years of following and I'm unable to bring myself to read/watch the sequel or want to. I wonder how the shitty sequel makes you feel after everything that happened with the shitty original.

Welp, I must admit that being “freed” from Naruto and its canon, helped me a great deal in this matter. That’s why I am able to read Boruto with no problem.

I am no longer attached to it, therefore I can easily just get through the new phase. I was too attached like many others in the fandom to the old story. Maybe a little bit too much. Buuuuut that’s who I am, quite passionate when I am really taking a liking into something. And Naruto made it there. I don’t get attached to many things, I have about one story to each phase of my life. For example, for childhood Sailor Moon tops everything. 

Same with games. I am a gamer, but not that idk fanatic type. You can count the games I played on the fingers of your hand. It’s quite simple: all Need for Speed series up to Carbon (VIVA MOST WANTED!), Diablo 2 and 3, Starcraft Brood War and Starcraft 2, Sacrifice aaaaand I think that’s about it.

With Naruto I gave in because it seemed something else aaaaand due to its great symbolism. I have to admit I am a fool for love, ahem, symbolism. Even in school when we studied it, I was all over the subject. You wanna have my heart? Give me a story with mythology and symbolism and I’m all yours. That’s why I have great interest in astrology as well.

But anyway, getting back to the subject because I have derailed a bit once more (sorry for the bad habit!).

How does it make me feel? Curious. I have a curious mind and that curiosity of mine can be both a blessing and a curse, depends how someone wants to use it, haha. Guess it can be used for my own benefit or against it.

I’ve said in the past that I am done with Naruto - and I am, nevertheless. It’s not a story that I will recommend due to the illogical paths it took from a development pov and character development pov. After Pein arc it suuuuuuure went crazy. Imo, up to that point Naruto as a story was gold. From there on, the whole mess started if you ask me.But I still watched it and still gave it a chance because I thought Kishimoto would end it in a somewhat satisfying end for the story. Of course, he was never gonna satisfy everyone, that’s for sure. You can never do that because we’re 8 billion people on this goddamn earth and we each have our views and taste. However, I wished he would’ve stayed true to his intentions, to his authorial intent.

So what if Hinata grew popularity without doing nothing? Keep that damn Sakura development going on, damn it. Aside for everything else, this is something I will never be able to forgive Kishi for. Pairings aside, plot aside, everything else aside. I don’t care about them in the end, life moves on. But for this move, I’m like.. nah, bro. Ain’t doing it. This is the reason I’ll never ever ever support any  Kishimoto written story ever again, nor I will forgive him.

Of course, not that he needs my forgiveness anyway. I’m a mere human continents away, he’s a world renown writer who wrote his story. But that’s the thing here. Naruto was his story. He should’ve stayed true to it. Not change it at the last minute on the whims of a loud fanbase. It’s that resilience against external forces that makes you who you are, and the way you respond to it. Apparently, Kishimoto gave in.

And you know what’s funny about it, in the bittersweet sense, of course? And imma throw a little pairing shade here. People were quick to jump the bandwagon that “Naruto didn’t give up his love for Sakura”. But I am posing a question here… didn’t he really? I mean, think a bit logical here… if we’re to make an analogy, as we all know it Kishimoto always said that he identifies as Naruto. And in the interview with Kobayashi he said that no matter how much he tried to write about Sakura, he saw Hinata’s popularity grow inexplicably, so then, in the end he gave-up writing about Sakura.Therefore, in a parallel way (like he so much liked to build his story on), couldn’t one say that “Naruto gave up on Sakura”? 

Kishimoto always said how he’s fond of Sakura in her own way, because she was the normal one, she represented the human weakness.

But you know what the problem is? She was that mirror, Sakura was that mirror to our humanity, and thus to our weakness. In a world full of powerful ninja-gods, we didn’t like to see a human girl trying to attain her own worth through her own trials and errors, while showcasing human weakness at doing so. Why? Because she brought-us back to reality, out of our “genjutsu’d” way of living in that story. In that very story we all liked to live, where we had powerful Uchihas, Hyugas, Senjus and Uzumakis who were offered everything on a silver plate from birth, here came a girl who had nothing, no support, no special ability, nothing more but her brains.

And that girl was human, and humans are weak. And we are humans. And we don’t like that we’re weak. So of course, we had to take her out. By all and any means. And they did so. The loud fanbase whose name I won’t be naming right now did so.

And thus, Kishimoto, the Naruto of our story, saw himself forced into a corner to give up on his love for Sakura. Of his fondness of a character that was something else, than your usual god-like powered ninja. So in the end, yes… Naruto gave up on his love for Sakura. Take it shipping wise or authorial-character relationship-wise, however you wanna take it, but it’s the truth.

And that is my beef with Kishi. He could’ve made this open-ended, he could’ve made this like it is but with different development, a normal and in accordance with his story one. And I would’ve been just fine with it.

But he didn’t. He preferred to throw all that into nothing, throw Sakura away for the popularity of this wretched story. He took the short way out. And for someone who preached different in his story, boooy it so seems wrong.

However, I’ve made peace with it. I moved forward, accepted that this is the way he chose to deal with the situation. Now only my curiosity is peaked in seeing how will they deal forward with the story and how many retcons will they build over and over again in order to rewrite 15 years of development, for that “shock value” of the finale.

As someone who aspires to write her story one day, and who happens to work in marketing and thus knows the know-hows of how you advertise a product, for me at this point as I said, this story became a case-study from where I’ll be drawing my own conclusions on how to and how not to. Even if things didn’t fully went the way I predicted them (though funnily enough 80% did so and even do so in the current story with Boruto - which is odd - but alas), and one could argue that I am bitter because of the pairings and because I lost and whatnot, I am at peace. It was never about the pairings - though one could argue so because most of my writings were NaruSaku centered. It was about the characters themselves, the relationships and dynamics between them AND their development. A cornerstone in every well-built story. But alas…

In the end it’s as the old tale says: You win or you learn. You never lose.

[kennexara]

wait shit i think i connected some dots about my religion issues 

for the last few years now i’ve been steadily getting more and more bitter about my mom raising me catholic, right? and yeah sure we all got 99 problems with the catholic church and they won’t fix a single one because those are considered features and not bugs

but it’s not even any of those things! it’s that i’ve always had this fucking anxiety that perhaps wasn’t created by the church but was certainly fucking added to by the church. and like, other people raised catholic don’t seem to have that??? like yeah we all got catholic guilt. but like there’s a huge fucking difference between ‘i worry i’m not as good a person as i should be’ and ‘the only thing scarier than the nightmare where i’m pregnant is when i half-wake up during the night and think i’m dying and am terrified i am going to hell’. you know? 

and do NOT get me started on how many times we had to sing that ‘whatsoever you do to the least of my people’ song in catechism and i’d remember the reading about separating the sheep from the goats who didn’t do shit and so now every time i walk by a homeless person i feel this intense guilt even though i never have cash, bc then part of my brain’s like YOU COULD GO TO AN ATM WHAT IF THIS IS THE TIME IT’S JESUS?? while the other part of my brain is like WE GOT RENT TO PAY AND IF WE DON’T BUY A VIDEOGAME OR CRAFT PROJECT EVERY MONTH OUR MENTAL HEALTH GOES TO SHIT SO NO THOSE ARE NOT ‘LUXURIES’ YOU CAN CUT OUT IF YOU WANT TO SURVIVE UNDER CAPITALISM.

and so while i’ve been getting more bitter i’ve also been getting more confused about why my brain did this to me and other people’s didn’t. and i think...awhile back i asked my therapist if they thought my anxiety started as a coping mechanism for undiagnosed adhd, or was it from idk having an overactive imagination when dragged to church, or was it just a genetic predisposition brought out in spades by adhd and catholicism. 

and i remember they very sympathetically told me it was probably a combo of all three. so i didn’t really think about it further but tonight something clicked into place. 

like, i have adhd so i count as neurodivergent, right? so my brain was always different. even if i didn’t know it at the time. what i did know at the time was that I was different from other kids. i didn’t have words to describe it, i just felt (and was repeatedly told by children and adults alike) i was different. yeah yeah you could go on about being in a small town that like sports and being the kid that liked to read instead. or as i got older i wasn’t a girly-girl but neither was i a tomboy i was just...there. but that sense of being different was more than just activity or appearance preferences. and i think now that that sense of ‘more wrong with me’ was just adhd.

but as a kid i didn’t know that! nobody gave me psych books or took me to a specialist, they took me to church, where i listened and was like ‘aha, that’s why i feel different, we’re supposed to not feel great bc we are all cursed at birth with original sin. i just gotta believe in jesus more and it will go away.’

(annnd that would be why i hate thinking of how i was in early high school, i went to fucking church camp and these religious retreat things and in general was the kind of obnoxious christian i would want to punch today. not to mention i ended up going to a stuck-up catholic university that was a terrible fit, despite starting to not care about religion, bc that was the only college i’d really looked at back when i was younger and doing visits).

as you can imagine, believing harder and praying more did not improve things. and so i think that’s why i’m so fucking bitter. i thought religion would ‘fix’ what was wrong with me and instead of any adult doing something that would’ve gotten me an adhd diagnosis before i was fucking 24, they were just so supportive of a teenager being religious. which in turn made me try harder because that had to be the answer then, right? 

so that’s why i’m so fucking bitter. religion presented itself as the solution to my problems and by doing so masked the problems from others all without actually helping the problems. 

i didn’t need to be told i had to follow rules that matter except for when they don’t bc the important thing is to at all times be grateful to this dude who saved me from this terrible fate i was given at birth, but no seriously also follow the rules.

no, all i needed was a fucking prescription.

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Remarks: Did Summer kill Spring?

mrssolfjkimblee reblogged your post and added:

Ok. 1. I love this theory.

TL;DR: Vernal was the previous Spring’s daughter, Raven and Spring were friends, Spring died in a grimm attack, Raven was given power. Raven chose to give Yang back to Tai bc she couldn’t be a leader, maiden, and mother to 2 kids at once. (and then Yang will receive it upon Raven’s death, but I’m not really discussing that point)

2. I think I can one-up it. Also I developed my theory by reading this one, sooo… citation.

For some reason I was always under the impression that Raven left STRQ/Ozpin AFTER Yang was born. Going along with that theory, Spring would still have to pass off her powers to Raven, a relative stranger, upon her death. Now, despite this maiden being relatively untrained, I find it a bit hard to believe that the Branwen tribe, complete with Raven, a badass, and a maiden, not to mention the rest of the tribe, could be completely run over by grimm enough to actually kill a maiden. (perhaps with the exception of the nuckelavee, but i’d still argue the maiden wouldn’t die. Just too much power.

SO the question becomes, how could the previous Spring Maiden have died? Well, what is the one weakness we know they have? Silver Eyed Warriors.

Summer.

Now, I would hope that Summer at least mostly had a grasp on these powers, and Ozpin had sent her and a team out to bring the maiden back. If Summer didn’t have a decent handle on it, idk if Oz would have risked sending such a person in, who could obviously kill the maiden. (then again, maybe he would, maybe it was “join us or die”- kind of ruthless for the Oz we know, but he did say he made a shit ton of mistakes)

So if Summer had a handle on her powers, then in theory, only something super crazy would have made her release her powers and ultimately kill the maiden.  So far when Ruby does it, it’s been when a dear friend has been majorly injured/killed. Who else is in Oz’s faction, that has been super crazy injured?

James Ironwood. Half of his body is robot.

So, if we know that Summer and James were on a team, likely to contain other members of Oz’s faction, and team names refer to colors, who else could be on that team? Leo and Raven. Team SLJR (Soldier- referring to a soldier blue). (Qrow is not on this team bc he’s already become jaded from his bad luck)

This would put both Raven and Leo (both members of Oz’s faction who ended up leaving/betraying him) in the same location as this maiden vs. silver eyes fight (with debatable moral purpose).  

My theory is, Summer tries to convince Spring to come back, Spring starts spouting off some really good points, Raven is on the fence, especially with Oz’s moral ambiguity for this mission, and probably gets convinced by Spring, that Oz is not someone she should be following. Raven starts arguing Summer and Ironwood on Spring’s behalf. Maybe someone says something to spark physicality, but it occurs.  Spring, being untrained, starts losing her shit, Ironwood foolishly tries to take her on, and gets his ass blasted. Which freaks Summer out, and she releases her silver eyes, effectively killing Spring.

Now, the original post theorized that Vernal was Spring’s daughter. (It would make sense, right, how else would she have a name that literally means spring?) I’m all for this, super on board with the original theory that Spring wouldn’t want to curse her daughter with this, so why not this lady here, who is clearly a good fighter and has just taken her side.

We don’t know how maiden powers transfer when they aren’t being forced. I would think that it would be natural enough that Raven could cover up the fact that she just got a bunch of powers by the fact that she was so upset over the whole situation.  Raven would probably transform and fly for help, while Leo (and possibly Summer, possibly not- maybe silver eyes always knock you out) takes care of Ironwood. So she would have that time without people scrutinizing her to hide it.  

I’d think that maybe Spring had told the group that she had a daughter in a nearby village or something, so Raven would be able to slip away in all the confusion of getting James help, and go get Vernal.  Raven doesn’t return, effectively leaving her team and daughter, and eventually joins back up with her birth tribe.

Later, one of the group would probably tell Oz about the daughter, but they wouldn’t be able to get to her before Raven did, and thus, the only clue they might have had on the next Spring maiden would have slipped away.

This last thought is a bit of a stretch, and likely wouldn’t work if Vernal were Spring’s daughter, but I also desperately want Hazel’s sister to have been a maiden.  Which would emphasize Hazel’s anger with Oz. Keep in mind, Hazel never said anything about her, basically just said she was a child, and that she died, under Ozpin’s watch.  Oz is the only one who said anything about her dying on a training mission. Which could still be true, but a lie of omission.  Idk. Hazel’s sister doesn’t really work so well with the whole theory, but maybe she was a different maiden? …I want her to have been a maiden.

Squiggles Answers:

Alrighty then. Okay, firstly, thank you so much! I’m glad you loved my theory. Much appreciated m’dude!

Secondly, I love your theory. I really dig the idea of Summer Rose essentially being the one not only responsible for the death of a Maiden but also the cause of Raven’s unintentional ascent to maidenhood.

We’ve learnt thus far that a Maiden’s power is easily susceptible to that of a Silver-Eyed Warrior, not to mention the amount of harm once can inflict on them if their power is unleashed at full blast.

If Ruby unleashing, let’s say, only a portion of her power was enough to extremely incapacitate Cinder.

Then it is very much possible for a Maiden to die by the hands of a Silver Eyed Warrior.

It just has yet to be confirmed in the show.

But I do very much like this hunch of yours because not only will it make perfect sense if proven canon but it’ll also bring meaning to certain things already revealed in the show.

One of those things would be what Raven said to Ruby in Chapter 11 of Volume 5.

“...You sound just like your mother...”

 At first I figured that Raven making that kind of retort towards Ruby possibly hinted that she had a part to play in Summer’s eventual death. Maybe she still did. But now I’m also thinking the same as you now. That this retort was made because Raven remembered Summer Rose spouting the same schlick when she tried convincing either Spring to return to her training so many years ago...and/or Raven to hand over Spring.

If Spring and Raven did share a friendship like we assumed, then I can see Raven being unwilling to give up her friend that easily even if it was to another friend; especially if the girl didn’t want to go with said friend.

Check this out.

 What if...

Raven befriended the last Spring and was keeping her safe in her camp when Summer showed up. A fight breaks out which results in Summer accidentally using her power on the Spring Maiden. This forces Raven to take the wounded Spring and flee while Summer is left unconscious after using too much of her power. Raven tries to take Spring to where she might be able to receive medical attention (like back at the Branwen Tribe campsite). However by the time she returns to her camp, it was already too late. 

Spring succumbs to the Power of the Silver Eyes and dies tragically in Raven’s arms, leaving the power to be transferred to her as the last person she saw...the last fleeting thought in her mind (besides her beloved daughter she now left behind) before passing away.

With the now limp body of her former friend in her arms and a taste of anger and regret on her lips, Raven could do nothing but weep shamelessly; only stopping when she feels an unforeseen magical essence enter her body from the late Spring as she become the new Spring Maiden.

Reading through your theory, also got me pondering some other things.

What if...Raven and her tribe just picked up this random girl and decide to take under her wing and the two form a bond. Shortly after that, things turn Grimm when Ozpin sends Summer to Raven’s camp to retrieve said new girl who is revealed as the missing Spring Maiden upon intel that she was with them. I’d like to think that Oz would’ve probably sent Summer alone on this mission, seeing her more than capable to handle the job on her own especially since Raven was one of her teammates.

I’m not sure about Ironwood being present for that though. While I do like your explanation of an undisciplined Spring Maiden accidentally unleashing her powers and scarring Ironwood for life, that’s something I’ll need proof from the show with cause, it’s a terrific possibility but at the same time, Ironwood’s injuries could also be completely unrelated to the Maidens, not to mention the fact that he probably must’ve been handling his own affairs in Atlas at the time when Spring went missing...maybe?

 I don’t think Lionheart was present either. Of all of Ozpin’s lieutenants who could’ve accompanied Summer, Lionheart isn’t the one. I say this going on the evidence from Chapter 1 of Volume 5. Remember when Leo was giving RNJR the low-down on what became of the Spring Maiden; he was only able to provide details up to the point where she ran away. This gives me the impression that Leo only knew the details about Spring only up until the point of her disappearance, not to mention of how sincerely surprised he was to find out that she was picked up by the Branwen Tribe.

If Leo had gone with Summer to find Spring, he would’ve known already known this info.

 One other theory I wanted to play around with was the original Spring Maiden abandoning her training because she got pregnant at a very young age and left to have her baby. In nature, spring time is often a period where many animals have their young. So it would make perfect sense if a baby was Spring’s motive for disappearing because it would tie into her season.

 We both agree that Vernal is probably the daughter of the last Spring Maiden. Perhaps when Spring discovered her pregnancy, she panicked and figured giving up her training was what was best.

 At first, Lionheart and everyone figured she left because she was overwhelmed by her newfound responsibilities. But in actuality, she left for the sake of her child because she couldn’t be both a Maiden and a Mother.

Perhaps, in the beginning after the discovery of Spring being gone was first made, Ozpin and everyone had only been looking for her for almost a year when she was discovered again---enough time for her to have her baby.

Perhaps when Spring first ran away, she was later found lost somewhere and taken in by Raven. Usually a maiden’s identity is kept secret as a means of ensuring her safety, right?

So suppose Spring was first found by Raven but since Raven wasn’t informed of the true identity of Spring, she merely saw this girl as a normal person. What if...Raven found Spring when she was already pregnant and lost and took her into her care.

Cause let’s say, Spring was an orphan. Had no family nor anywhere to stay so taking pity on the young girl, Raven permits her to stay with her and her Tribe at least until she has her baby.

At first it was only meant to be a temporary thing but during her time she spent with Branwen, Raven befriended the girl and especially bonded with her following the birth of her child: a beautiful bouncing baby girl who she christened Vernal.

While I justified my reasons for Raven possibly having Yang before she left Oz’s circle in my last post, once more I find myself liking your idea of her leaving after she had Yang (which would make Yang one year older than Vernal but still at a young age where she’d be too young to comprehend her mother leaving her behind).

If Raven was already a mother herself by the time she found the pregnant Spring, she would probably be more emotionally inclined to help the poor girl given her delicate situation. After all, she knew what it was like to be a first time mother intimidated by the prospect of parenthood and childbirth. Raven probably saw a lot of herself in Spring which made it a lot easier for her to understand her situation and take her under her wing; so to speak, forming a bond.

Now this is mostly just me adding more hunches based on your theory. Most of it might not piece that well all together like my last musing or yours. Nevertheless I just wanted to share the new thoughts I had after reading your musing based on mind.

This was less about producing theories that piece things together and more so on simply just tossing out potential ideas, y’know what I mean? So forgive me if it any of it sounds like complete gibberish in the context of RWBY.

To close, I’ll answer your last point on Gretchen Rainart being a Maiden. Admittedly I could see that further justifying Hazel’s rage towards Ozpin; certainly making it a lot more convincible than just Hazel holding Ozpin accountable for something that was obviously his sister’s choice.

As Oscar so rightfully pointed out, Gretchen knew the risks of being a huntress and chose the path regardless. While her death was an unfortunate tragedy especially to those personally involved, no one was at fault because at the end of the day it was something Gretchen decided of her own free will.

I’d like to believe that there is more to Hazel’s story than what Ozpin revealed to Oscar. However, I don’t think any of it had to do with Maiden candidacy.

The only connection I can think of is if Oz once considered Gretchen as a successor to the Fall Maiden before Amber became the final choice.

Not sure what the timeline was when Gretchen attended Beacon but let’s just assume it was before Amber’s time since she was a young Maiden herself.

Perhaps Ozpin saw something special in Gretchen when they first met and had planned to pay very close attention to her development, similar to how it was for Team STQR, Team RWBY and essentially Pyrrha Nikos.

Maybe Ozpin did once consider Gretchen to Maiden-worthy but she died before she got the chance. However Ozpin’s explanation to Oscar made it sound as if Gretchen died on her very first training mission; y’know the one that he daringly sent Ruby and the entire huntsman in her year back in Volume 1.

I’d like to think that Gretchen lost her life after this on another future training mission. Otherwise, how much of an ass does Ozpin have to be to send kids on a mission that claimed the life of one of his students years ago. Sure, he can argue that it comes with the job training.

But still man...y’think he’d learn.

Then again...more mistakes than any man, woman and child comes into play.

If Gretchen attended Beacon then she would’ve been looked at as a contender to become the Fall Maiden and not Spring since Ozpin was in charge of guarding the Relic associated with the Fall Maiden. That’s my 2cents on that.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2018)