#if raven was in the proper hands she could've been one of the coolest characters ever

[constantvariations]

Thinking about Raven's feelings towards Yang and am now chomping at the bit

You have this woman with a hardcore survival-of-the-fittest, us-or-them mentality due to her bandit upbringing who attends a huntsman academy for the sole purpose of learning to kill huntsmen (because people trained specifically for Grimm somehow find time to be a threat to human bandits. Worldbuilding👍). She falls pregnant by Tai, a huntsman student, and carries Yang to term only to abandon them both as well as her twin at some undetermined point so she can be the bandit queen

That's confusing enough - especially when you consider how maternal Remnant's surname system seems to be (Ruby is a Rose instead of a Xiao-Long, Jacques takes Willow's surname rather than the inverse) and deduce that Raven renounced all claims to Yang by not giving her the Branwen name - but then Raven not only seems to know when Yang is in danger, but jumps in to save her life when no one else can

What was the motivation behind this? Was it a mother protecting the child she left behind but still felt something for? Was it an obligation? Are blood bonds part of some bandit honor code?

Whatever it is, it's well known to Raven's people. When Yang reveals her daughter status to Shay D Mann, he's immediately shitting himself because he laid hands on his leader's kid. Yang isn't even punished for barging in and beating the shit out of everyone! She gets tea, a conversation, and a teleport uber. Even more, Weiss gets to go free simply because she's Yang's friend despite the frankly absurd price she would fetch for the bandits

Not once in any of their interactions does Raven seem to harbor any malice or violent intent towards Yang. I can't recall her having a hand on her sword hilt even when Yang is acting aggressively or when Raven's hurt and cornered in the vault room. Yang gets her way every time they talk (maybe Yang should have tried the "friendship is magic" tall instead of Ruby lol)

Raven clearly loves Yang in her own way, but what that means, why she left, why Yang was so desperate to find her, everything about this dynamic goes unexplored and it drives me NUTS