#rwby volume 5 theories

[anthurak]

Why do I get the feeling that when Raven does her whole redemption arc/reconciliation with Yang, Ruby and her team/generally trying to be a good mom in Volume 10, we’re going to see essentially the inverse of the whole ‘Ironwood apologia/bootlicking’ we saw during and after Volume 8?

As in, a vocal minority loudly bitching and moaning and generally throwing a hissy fit over Raven NOT actually being the ‘irredeemable bad-bad mom of badness’ they judged her to be all the way back in volume 2.

And then we’ll probably see the same thing again when Cinderdemption happens.

[shadowfiredemonwolf]

when jaune returns from the ever after he will deage

but he wont go back to how he was in v8 it will be in the middle to represent that while he has healed from trauma  he has still changed due to his time in the ever after and wont be going back  like say he will be in his 20′s or older than what he used to be

[epic-arc]

What does your favorite ship say about you? (RWBY)

WARNING: THIS POST IS FOR COMEDY AND NOTHING MORE DON'T TAKE IT SERIOUSLY.

--------------------------Bumbleby--------------------------------------

1- You probably screamed with joy when you saw them kissing in volume 9. Good for you.

2- You think the best rwby fight was blake and yang against adam in volume 6.

3- You are someone who respects people who ship Blake or Yang with another character and understands that everyone has their own taste. I like you

-----------------------------------Renora--------------------------------

1- You're the war veteran of the rwby fandom and you almost had a heart attack when you saw them kissing. please grandpa take your medicine.

2- Volumes 4 and 7 are your favorites for several reasons and I understand you.

3- You're slightly mad at what they did with the two of them in volume 8, but by the end of the volume you're happy.

-----------------------------Arkos----------------------------------------

1- Hey cool that you started watching RWBY and shipping these two hahah. Welcome to suffering…

2- You are the war soldier that continue to watch rwby and every time they make reference to pyrrha you need to call your therapist.

3- You're the crazy person who every time RWBY goes on hiatus starts some crazy theory saying that Pyrrha will come back and that Arkos will revive. Dude, put down the coffee and breathe.

4- You've already gone through the stages of grief and already migrated to a ship and are happy about it.

-----------------------------Lancaster-----------------------------------

1- You love the dynamic of best friends becoming a couple and look, I don't judge you.

2- Your favorite volume is 4 and I don't have to explain why.

3- You love comparing summer and tai to jaune and ruby ​​to use as proof of how lancaster can become canon.

4- Volume 9 almost sent you to the hospital with certain episodes.

---------------------------White Rose------------------------------------

1- You're the same thing as Lancaster when it comes to dynamics, but you like Yuri.

2- If someone asks you your favorite version of rwby you will definitely answer rwby ice queendom.

3- You are someone who understands that everyone has their own tastes for ships whether for Weiss or Ruby and you are not going to start a discussion on the internet because of a couple.

4- You are one of the most toxic people I have ever seen in the world, seriously you should carry a radiation warning because if you see someone talking about this ship in a bad way you will curse the 12th generation of that person's family.

-----------------------------White Knight--------------------------------

1- You are one of the most hard-working people I have ever seen. You went through 5 volumes hearing that white knight would never have a spark or that it would never work, until in the same volume there were signs and in 7, 8 and 9 it turned that spark into a huge flame.

2- You really love the ''me and the bad bitch pulled by being autistic'' dynamic and I understand you.

3- you very excited about what volume 10 might show with these two together.

4- you like to walk around with the medal ''THE SPEAKER OF THE CHARACTER LOVE MY FAVORITE SHIP''

[deadbeatbirdmom]

I've been thinking about how everyone in Vacuo knows Raven is the Spring Maiden. At least I presume everyone knows if Sun knows. Raven must have been using her powers to help for her to be included in that secret council, which might explain why it's not a secret that she's the Spring Maiden.

I've got to wonder if it came as a surprise to anyone. In theory Yang was keeping it a secret, in practice I agree with other posts pointing out it's not that hard to guess. It also wouldn't be the first time a revelation about Raven was shared off camera.

There's how Jaune, Ren and Nora knew Raven was Yang's mother in Volume 4, something I presume Ruby told them, because what Yang revealed to Blake in Burning the Candle wasn't exactly common knowledge, and I doubt Blake said a word to anyone about it.

Is Yang a hypocrite for lying to Qrow at the end of Volume 5? Personally I think there's a big difference between keeping it to herself that Raven is Spring Maiden, and between what Ozpin did after promising no more secrets.

Why do I think Yang did it? There's a few possible reasons:

(Under a read more cut because this post is getting longer)

Protecting Raven, who wanted to flee from Salem so much that she let Yang take the relic. Telling anyone that Raven was the Spring Maiden would increase the chance that someone would try to drag her into the fight against Salem. Also the more people who know, the more danger Raven's in from anyone who wants to be the next Spring Maiden.

Yang quite simply needed time to process things. That Raven killed the previous Spring Maiden when she was apparently under Raven's protection. That Raven let Yang put a target on her back instead of Raven aka taking the relic which Salem wanted. That Raven left her again. That Raven actually cared, leaving in tears and with an apology. That she didn't care enough to stay.

Seeing it as Raven's secret to reveal, and not Yang's place to tell anyone.

And perhaps Yang figured that it couldn't help if she did spill the beans, because Raven wanted to flee Salem, not fight. What could Yang say? "Oh, by the way, Raven's the Spring Maiden. She's gone because she's terrified of Salem. Help us fight her? Not on my life." It wouldn't be easy to say that your own mother valued her life more than yours. Much as I do like Raven and find her a fascinating character, that's precisely what she did when she let Yang take the relic. Raven is quite frankly a disaster, and that's part of what makes her interesting.

On the plus side it seems Raven decided to side against Salem after all, what with her presence in the secret council in RWBY Beyond. Perhaps what changed Raven's mind was losing Yang: I figure she felt it when Yang went where Raven's Semblance couldn't follow.

When was it revealed off camera? It certainly was at some point. Whenever Raven arrived in Vacuo, possibly zapping Grimm with Maiden powers so she didn't even need to say she's the Spring Maiden? Yang deciding to tell her friends somewhere between leaving Mistral and falling into the Ever After, and word spreading before Raven even showed up in Vacuo?

CRWBY I have questions. There's also only 3 episodes of RWBY Beyond left, I doubt I'll be getting answers.

It does amuse me to think of Yang bracing herself and opening up to her nearest and dearest about Raven being the Spring Maiden, after they arrive in Vacuo but before they know it's such common knowledge that Sun knows.

Yang: "Raven's the Spring Maiden."

Yang's friends and family: "We know. We guessed, and you're not much good at lying."

Cue shocked Yangichu. I made cursed art of a shocked Yangichu, although nothing to do with the Raven reveal (instead it came from this post).

I don't know how much sense I'm making here, I'm very tired. Oh, that reminds me, there's a Yang gif related to being very tired:

[egg-crusher]

So

I was scrolling through my page and I saw something which made me reconsider some things about the FNDM (RWBY’s fandom)

For starters, I want to say i completely understand if you dislike the character of Adam for one or two reasons

You don’t like how he’s written

You don’t like how much overshadowed Blake in her debut

You don’t like his design (I personally hate the volume 4-6 design)

You don’t like his personality and think he’s creepy

You dislike his fans since some can be very aggressive

Etc etc etc

But please, if you genuinely believe the following statements, block me, don’t leave your comment and never try to approach me ever again, thank you

“Adam branded himself” and “Adam deserves to be one of the Schnee’s summons”

The first implies a minority branded himself with the name of a company which officially causes the death of minorities (leaving many orphans) for their negligence, are colonizers, and in the comics kidnap members of said minority to work on their mines…

So he could shit on them, their evidence? He’s not mentally stable and knows how to manipulate people

Do I have to discuss why this headcanon/theory is so dumb? I’ll do it just in case

Why would he cover the scar if he scarred himself on purpose? Remember, Adam wasn’t always a bloody murderer who wanted to radicalize the entire fang to make a personality cult but he genuinely wanted to fight back against humanity

And saying a minority branded himself so he could hate on the rich white men is… something.

And now for the later… I’ll give some small context

When a Schnee (for example Weiss) kills a foe which gave her a very big challenge (for example that Nevermore from volume 1) is added to a galley of creatures she can summon, she later on learns to summon the Arma Gigas from the White Trailer, the Boarbatusk & Nevermore from volume 1, the Queen lancer from volume 5, and a manticore from volume 6 (it only appears una film)

This have a certain degree of autonomy since they can act out of the users view, and we are never told is ONLY Grimm which are turned into summons since they only say “enemies” so any being could perfectly become a summon, okey?

Now here’s the thing

they’re Adam, who’s a ex-slave of the SDC and has Weiss name branded on his face, deserves to be turned into a summon which is literally Slaving his soul to work for a Schnee for the rest of eternity

They think enslaving a ex-slave is worthy punishment because he wanted to slave humans for enslaving him… they’re proving someone (who’s super racist against humans) right, because is fitting (their words) and I think they meant is karma/ironic

This Is not karma, is just continuing the cycle of Abuse and proving him right

He was a monster but he was one because he was abused for being a Faunus and ended up thinking all humans deserved to suffer for what he went through, making him into a Slave after death only proves his point

Slaving Adam like he wanted to do with humans for slaving him only proves him right, “humans only enslave Faunus so Faunus should do the same”

Thats’s inhumane, but since is done to him for hating humans then is somehow right?! Slavery is never right, and people who think enslaving others is a fitting punishment then they aren’t better than the ones who slaved them, because I don’t think I should be saying this since this is something obvious every smart human being should know but… SLAVERY IS BAD and NO PERSON DESERVES IT specially since Adam already was a slave

Kill him and burn his body to ass, but making his soul into a puppet is not the way to go

And before you say “oh, him being a child slave is a headcanon” please go read the CANON descriptions of the character in amity arena

“Adam Taurus used to gaze up at the sky with bright blue eyes whenever he could, between shifts in the dust mines, dreaming of the day he would leave the tunnels behind to find his place in the world. But what he found instead was himself... on the ground, staring up at the three letters that damned him now and forever.

Scarred. Despised. Cold. Adam's heart grows black, his hatred red hot. The final traces of love, the beauty he let go, never returns, and as the last petal falls, Adam is cursed to forever remain a beast. Because, in this tale as old as time, there is no happy ending.

In this story... HE is the monster.

Adam Taurus had finally found his place, and he would watch humanity... burn.”

And before you say “oh that’s just form his point of view” you should check his other description which clearly states he’s in the wrong

“With a scar on his face and anger in heart, a wayward boy looked for a home. When he found it... oh, how glorious it was. Accepted and loved, here was his happily ever after.

But Adam was cursed with a gift few others had.

Adam had... talent.

And when Wilt tasted humanity's blood...

Adam realized he was... STRONG.

Now king without kingdom, he wonders where it went wrong.

Coming up with excuses, reflecting the blame,

Coming to a conclusion, all find insane.”

The descriptions are obviously from a narrator and not the characters themselves, so I think the narrator is reliable to some degree and isn’t Adam at all…

I understand not liking a character, but people have to think about what they say since they usually end up saying very racist things like this.

Adam was a villain and a evil one, but dear god, people treat him like he’s worse than Salem and cinder combined

[empresslesbiace]

If you look at the ribbon tied around the blacksmiths head, you’ll see the same bow (or at least one that looks incredibly similar) that’s on Alyx. Here’s some pictures to show what I mean:

(Sorry for poor quality!)

Look at the ribbon, it looks very similar right??

Just a theory, but I think it makes sense.

Yk that blacksmith lady that's been kept in shadows the whole time?? I think that's Alyx. I think she went back to Ever After, because she wasn't the same girl anymore.

[citadelofmythoughts]

From what I remember, the only significant CRWBY person who did cause bad things was Gray Haddock, the first voice of Torchwick and former Head of Animation. He siphoned off money and staff for Volume 5 and 6 in order to push for his pet project Gen:Lock, and the workload caused a lot of crunch and stress. On the voice actor end, Ryan Haywood (former voice of Professor Port; his current VA is Anthony Sardinha) was found out to be a sexual predator, but he was more heavily associated with Achievement Hunter if I recall correctly. The Shane Newvile situation and Kdin Jenzen were other things related to RWBY, but the former and the whole "Monty's vision" he started is basically a giant conspiracy theory based on the unreliable story of one man, and has never been corroborated by anyone else in the team as far as I know. There's also been some speculation that he was obsessed with Monty to the point that he basically got in the way of the necessary restructuring of RWBY to continue without the man because Shane was too blindly devoted to Monty's methods without considering whether it was a good idea for the series as a whole. Kdin was the transphobia one, but she's never said anything bad towards the CRWBY and the animators as far as I know; she just had a justified beef with the Rooster Teeth higher ups and the people who took part in the transphobia towards her, as well as underpaying her.

Yup. that lines up with what I thought/heard.

[rwbyconversations]

The Faunus/White Fang plotline was NEVER inspired by the Irish Troubles/IRA

A few years ago, someone posted a "theory" about how the White Fang plotline was based, not on the American Civil Rights movements of the 1960s such as the Black Panthers and Martin Luther King's protests, but on a similar conflict in Europe that ran for much of the 20th century in the British occupation of Northern Ireland, known in short as "The Troubles."

Recently, I saw it again as someone stole the post so they could feel smart, so I want to put this to bed definitively as an Irish person:

The Faunus and White Fang plotline were never based on the Irish Troubles or the Irish Republican Army. To be frank I don't think Miles and Kerry know anything about Ireland outside of making drunk Paddy jokes in their off-hours. (wouldn't be the first nationality they've made fun of)

Barring that they were both Civil Rights Movements that happened in the general post-World War 2 wave of the 1960s alongside other countries like India and South Africa, the Troubles and Americian Civil Rights movements have little in common. The big dividing point is religion. The Troubles were a conflict that at its core was as much a sectarian divide as it was fighting against British oppression. The Protestant/Catholic divide is still active in Northern Ireland to this day, with people getting assaulted for wearing the wrong clothes or having the wrong names. The city still has dozens of "Peace walls" scattered around as remnants of the conflict. The religious/sectarian divide is at the heart of the Troubles; you cannot do a depiction of it without at least acknowleding that divide. Even Captain Planet managed this, for Christ's sake.

RWBY does not do this. There is no religious element to the White Fang unless you blink and squint at Fennic and Corsac- and they don't matter to the story at large outside of being minibosses in Volume 5 and they are the only White Fang agents who are vaugely religious. There's no religious element to the Faunus at large unless you look up supplementary material and read about the Faunus creation myths in the Fairy Tales of Remnant series. Trying to be inspired by The Troubles without referencing the sectarian part of it, is like trying to write an two-question essay when you only read the first half of the first question- i.e., you're going to fail miserably. Yeah, there was a conflict, and a question can be raised of how appropriate the use of violence was. And that's it. There's not even an Irish character in the show or anyone who uses an accent, so safe to 100% say, no. The Troubles were never on Miles and Kerry's mind when designing the Faunus racism.

Additionally, there is a silver bullet debunking the entire theory. All the way back in Volume 1 on the commentary track, Barbara Dunklemann said this:

"If anybody needs a comparison for what the Faunus are in this world, it's kind of like if you're in the 1930s/1940s and it's the way African American people were treated and viewed."

After someone else asks for clarification, Dunklemann then confirms they meant the 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement by name. No attempt is made to correct Dunklemann or say the White Fang was inspired by other Civil Rights movements- it is firmly, 100%, solely about the American movement.

There you have it- a quote from the crew itself confirming without a doubt that the Faunus and White Fang were always based on the Americian Civil Rights movement, with no mention of the Troubles or the Irish sectarian divisions. Attempting to say otherwise goes directly against stated intent from the beginning of the show.

Now please, don't let this stupid, asinine theory come back a third time, the next time a white RWBY fan gets uncomfortable at the racism in the White Fang plot, and reaches to a different civil rights conflict as a deflection tactic.

tldr- keep my country's history out of your mouth if you only care about using it to deflect blame on the catgirl racism subplot.

[divinecomedyproductions]

Fandom and Literary Woes: The Arrogance of The Information Age and Literary Intellectuals

One thing I've noticed with the RWBY fandom and pretty much modern pop-culture and literary intellectuals is this nasty habit of locking concepts and tropes down into theories and formulas and try to completely rationalize what is "interesting" and what's "boring" and ruling everything else as corruptions or worthless little parasites upon what's the supposed "objective reality" and the end-all-be-all of a concept.

My first experience with this was with the "literary experts" coming out to rule out what's the end-all-be-all of concepts like Jaune and Pyrrha and Arkos in epic fantasy/sci-fi after the RWBY Volume 3 Finale

Baically

"Arkos ended tragically worked, ergo all couples and characters in epic stories like Jaune and Pyrrha(the dork knight and the warrior woman isolated by society) especially if they are directly inspired by them must also end that way to raise steaks and consequences, and they only way they can have a happy ending is in a sitcom/romcom. Doesn't matter what the epic story is about, what happens, their roles, or why, or why it makes audiences happy, if they don't end up dead in an epic, it means nothing."

Any anyone who actively disagreed either was exiled to RWBY Chibi, or been implied

"Okay, do your thing(AU/OG Work), but keep in mind, it ultimately means nothing, it contributes nothing, its nothing but a worthless little parasite upon the glorious meaningful tragedy that is Arkos and same can be said what you plan to do with the rest of RWBY.

You have no objectively good reason what makes you happy unlike us who have every objectively good reason in the cosmos for our satisfaction and contentment."

with and underlying gnostic attitude of

"Because we, the experts, know what things truly are, what they can ever be, and in what specific ways and genres and you don't."

and much like Andrew Ketterley, they are often arrogant and hypocritical and are not bound by the rules of logic like everyone else.

"Men like me, who possess hidden wisdom, are freed from common rules just as we are cut off from common pleasures.  Ours, my boy, is a high and lonely destiny.”-Andrew Ketterley, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew

When snobs consider your work or what you enjoy a bad because its only enjoyed by a smaller audience which then they pride themselves on they liking something thats enjoyed by the masses "it speaks to the human condition"

Then if you like something thats resonates by a larger audience, they flip it to "enjoyed by the unwashed masses" which then these prigs boast like something thats niche its because "we enlightened few understand something deeper and higher."

When it was the reverse logic 5 minutes ago

Cliche, niche, broad, what makes money, and tampering around with concepts in dissent and distaste is "bad" unless "the right people" like it and get what they want

Because they alone are the alchemists who can turn lead in to gold

Which is why they say its "interesting" to make evil superman out spite for superheroes like that in The Boys but a sexy magical girl Captain Marvel with her own set os sailor scouts like in Kamen America, especially made out of dissatisfaction and distaste how the inspiration was handled is "derivative" because the "experts" supposedly know what's the objective end-all-be-all reality of a concept and we don't.

They know, with a capital "G" and we don't.

And because they have "The Gnosis" and perfectly rooted in "objective reality" logic is fluid to whatever makes their way right.

They hav exclusive dominion over these concepts and tropes

Because again, they have "The Gnosis" and we don't.

Because it’s the Information Age and we have so much info, those who are oh-so objective and intelligent can use said information to find what’s the apex of a concept or a trope rule out everything else.

All as they judge, shame, and lecture us peons high up in their ivory towers hundreds of yards away on social media now to supposedly stay “objective” and not catch the disease of “subjective feelings” which they never elaborate

And like RetroBlasting said in his doing nothing video it’s no longer the analogue world and they know better than anyone else so they see our stuff on their feed and stop and jump in and lecture us

And and the critics often the resort to greedy reductionism(aka “Nothing Buttery”) to reduce our stuff to whatever makes it sound stupid/immoral which then they proceed to gloss over, ignore, and label the details

[soldierofidiots]

This is the one Prediction I pray you're correct about. Please don't lose your gift of foresight now!

Just over 36 hours left

And

I actually feel....

Good?

Everything is going to be okay

We're going to get a Neo defection, young Jaune, and healthier Ruby in this finale

I can feel it

[anthurak]

So by this point, I think many of us are likely familiar with the idea that the breakup of Team RWBY at the end of Volume 3 is meant to thematically parallel the breakup of Team STRQ in the wake of Summer’s death, ie; Ruby falls into a coma for a few days while Summer disappears and then both their teams fracture. Along with a popular sub-theory that Blake leaving Yang after the Fall is meant to parallel Raven leaving Tai.

But the thing is, if Ruby falling into a coma at the end of Volume 3 is meant to parallel Summer’s (supposed) death and the way this loss caused the fracturing and breakup of their respective teams, then Raven’s actions DON’T really parallel Blake nearly as well as a lot of people think.

And in fact, I feel like Qrow could potentially have paralleled Blake’s actions FAR better.

Like people talk about how Raven ‘abandoned’ Tai just like Blake ran away from Yang after the Fall of Beacon. Except if the point of parallel to the Fall of Beacon is Summer’s death, then the parallel doesn’t work because Raven was ALREADY GONE from Team STRQ by the time Summer disappeared. To the point where Tai, Qrow and Ozpin had (and still have) NO IDEA she was even involved in whatever happened to Summer. Raven can’t exactly have abandoned Tai just like Blake did to Yang if Raven wasn’t even around.

Instead, as I’ve discussed in the past, I think Raven’s actions following Summer’s ‘death’ potentially line up far better with WEISS. Like if it turns out that losing Summer was what actually drove Raven to return to her tribe, then that lines up very nicely with Weiss being taken back to her family/Atlas in the wake of the Fall of Beacon: Both return to the shitty, abusive family that raised them. And given how much of Weiss’s character is tied up in her family and their ‘legacy’, then the way Raven eventually took over her tribe makes her an ideal foil; effectively representing a Weiss who did eventually take over the Schnee family and company, but in the process internalized all the pain and trauma her family gave her.

And as for a cherry on top; if Ruby falling into a coma after the Fall of Beacon is meant to parallel Summer’s supposed ‘death’, then what was one of the last things Ruby did at the Fall?

Run off on a special mission with Weiss, just like we now know Summer did with Raven.

Now going back to my point about how Raven was not even around to abandon Tai just like Blake did to Yang, you know who WAS presumably around when Summer ‘died’?

Yeah; Qrow.

Let’s consider what exactly Blake actually did following the Fall of Beacon beyond just a surface-level reading: Yes, she did go back to her family, similar to what Raven may have done, but given that the Belladonnas are NOT actually shitty and abusive, I maintain that Weiss is still the better parallel to Raven. Instead, let’s consider Blake’s whole arc across Volumes 4 and 5 relating to the White Fang: At first being depressed over loss and perceived failure before being inspired to start working for a better cause, in this case pushing back against and stopping Adam’s takeover of the White Fang.

So I have to wonder; what if this reflects what Qrow did with Ozpin and the conspiracy following Summer’s ‘death’? Maybe Qrow and his teammates had helped Ozpin in the past and knew what he was doing, but what if THIS was the point where Qrow became fully committed to Ozpin’s cause and joined the Ozluminati full-time? Perhaps seeing it as a way of ‘honoring’ Summer’s memory.

Instead of staying with the one teammate he had left (and possible partner) who was now in a massive depressive spiral AND had two kids to take care of.

It starts to make Qrow and Tai feel a lot like Blake and Yang, doesn’t it?

This is one of the big reasons why I think Qrow and Tai are the REAL foil to Bumbleby on Team STRQ. They effectively give us a look at a version of Blake and Yang whose relationship failed. Or rather, were never able to ‘take the next step’ and actually form their relationship.

Qrow is a Blake who fully internalized her self-loathing and belief that she didn’t deserve Yang or that Yang was better off without her and has simply been pining for Yang from afar.

Meanwhile Tai is a Yang who likewise fully internalized her fears of abandonment and fully resents Blake for leaving her or may not have ever even fully recognized her feelings for Blake in the first place.

Essentially, Qrow and Tai are the version of Blake and Yang who weren’t able to work through all the problems, issues and baggage which allowed them to actually start their relationship. Like a Blake who didn’t get that vital pep-talk from Sun at the end of Volume 4, or a Yang who likewise didn’t get that vital talk from Weiss in Volume 5.

Which in turn leads us to what I brought up earlier with Qrow joining up with the Ozluminati full-time, essentially representing a Blake who threw herself into reforming the White Fang instead of returning to Team RWBY and reconnecting with Yang. Meanwhile Tai simply throws himself into a deep depression, grief and ‘moping’, ironically all the things he would later accuse Yang of doing (at some point I’m going to do a post on just how much PROJECTING Tai has likely been doing…)

So now Qrow and Tai have this low-key toxic relationship where Qrow is more-or-less aware of Tai’s extremely dysfunctional parenting but has also been enabling it and a lot of Tai’s unhealthy coping mechanisms over the years because he’s been pining for Tai ever since their Beacon days and still is pining in a very depressed, self-loathing ‘I don’t deserve him/to be happy’ way and also doesn’t want to risk conflict with his former partner and also the only teammate he has left.

Thus Qrow keeps his distance and just goes along with Tai’s dysfunctions and/or lets Tai push him away. Which in turn just reinforces Tai’s abandonment issues.

And Ruby and Yang are still stuck with utterly dysfunctional parental figures.

Oh, and if you need more proof about the deliberate parallels between Blake and Qrow…

Then how about the whole damn song where they sing about how they’ve always felt terrible about themselves but now things are looking up for them.

[ficretus]

Theory: Cinder will capture Jaune in Vacuo portion of the story

It's me, back again with another theory based on Joan of Arc story. This time, trying to figure out how her capture by Burgundians will be realized in RWBY story.... if we ever get to that part of the story. If it were to happen, it will most likely be in Volume 11 (I might make Volume 10 Joan of Arc theory one day).

I'd suggest reading my theory to get better understanding of who do I read as what character and how do events that already happened figure out in their respective story timelines. If not, I'll still make quick summary whenever something from that theory pops up.

First of all, let's start with why. Why would Jaune be captured at any point of the story? Jaune is one of the rare characters in the story who's primary allusion gets captured in their story (other being Ruby), and no, I don't think Jaune being captured by Ace Ops will suffice for this. Joan of Arc' time in captivity was comparable to her time serving as a soldier (both being roughly one year), so I'd find it pretty weird if Jaune never got captured as major plot point.

Timeline wise, it also matches. Volumes 4-5 match Loire campaign (pursuing the enemy, enemy fails to ambush them and suffers major defeat), Volume 6 is Rheims coronation (usage of Lantern/King is granted wisdom by Ampulla, both being oil containers), Volumes 7-8 are siege of Paris (both being greatest cities of their respective regions, Joan/Jaune suffered major defeat and retreated last over the bridge). I go over this in more detail in the timeline theory I linked above. Volume 9 is the only one I cannot connect to major event of Joan of Arc story, although that could be because Jaune became Rusted Knight during that portion of the story, temporarily ceasing to be Joan of Arc. This would make Vacuo portion of the story, theoretical Volumes 10-11, Joan of Arc' campaign against Perrinet Gressart, battle of Lagny and siege of Compiegne. Compiegne was the last battle Joan of Arc participated in, leading to her capture. So based on this, if Jaune ever gets captured, Vacuo portion of the story is the safest bet.

Cool, but why Cinder as his captor? Joan of Arc was captured by Burgundian army and Cinder matches Burgundian role in Joan of Arc story. Both side with enemy to achieve their goals (Burgundy sides with England, Cinder sides with Salem) ,both are power hungry with the goal of eventual freedom (Burgundy wanted to separate itself from France and become independent Kingdom), both have personal vendetta against enemy leader (Ruby reads as king Dauphin). On top of that, soldier that captured Joan of Arc was archer and Cinder is one of the rare characters in the series to use bow and arrow instead of firearms. Additionally, Joan of Arc was under shared jurisdiction of two enemy commanders, Lionel Bastard of Vendome and John of Luxembourg. Former had a lame hand, latter had a missing eye. If you overlay their injuries, you get Cinder again.

Why would Cinder capture him is different question who's answer will vary depending on interpretation of the events.

Now that I explained why do I think it's incredibly plausible thing to happen, let's get to the interpretations.

First let me start with interpretation I strongly reject.

Theory 1: Cinder won't capture Jaune, she will kill him on the spot. This is one of those obvious interpretations dating back all the way back to early Volumes, ever since Cinder was revealed to be the fire user. She is fire, he is Joan of Arc, bam, perfect match (I guess Cinder will give Jaune and Pyrrha matching sweaters). There are couple of reasons I reject this interpretation.

I am sceptical about Jaune having tragic ending to his story. While it does make sense on paper considering Joan of Arc is his allusion, it doesn't quite work with Jaune's story. Joan of Arc had series of triumphs before losing some battles at the end and getting captured. Jaune basically gets none of that, or at least scraps of successes Joan had. On top of that, he gets significantly more failures and suffering compared to Joan. Killing him like this would be like kicking the man while he is already down.

Story seems to reject Jaune's martyrdom, ironically in his battle with Cinder back in Volume 5. He goes in admitting he doesn't care about his own life as long as others succeed. Issue Jaune has is lack of self worth due to his perceived uselessness. For him, character development would be learning to value his own life and not throwing it away for what he thinks is greater good. Having him die in combat basically invalidates that. Him trying to throw away his life in Volume 5 wouldn't be an issue in that case, it's the fact he tried to throw it away at the wrong point of the story.

Having Cinder kill him would feel pretty weird. Common aspect of their encounters is that she can kill him at almost any point but for some reason chooses not to (be it arrogance, sadism or something else entirely), even when she logically really should (there is no reason to not go for a kill when Jaune denied her Maiden power). Having Cinder kill him would feel like she at some arbitrary point decided to flip metaphorical kill switch and finally do it.

Now to interpretations I find more likely

Theory 2: Jaune will be captured and then turned into Grimm. This is taking Joan of Arc story pretty straight forward with some twists. In this version of the events, Cinder will capture Jaune, but not kill him, most likely sadism or because of something Salem ordered her to do. Burgundians ransomed Joan of Arc to the English, which will be mirrored with Cinder giving Jaune to Salem. She will turn him into Grimm akin to the Hound and force him to fight his friends. This will represent Joan's death as heretic. Joan of Arc was re-trialed years later at the orders of Dauphin, who is Ruby in this version of the story. Duke of Alencon (who I read as Weiss) was one of the witnesses during rehabilitation trial, so I guess she'll help out as well. Ruby will purify Jaune with some assistance from Weiss and save his life, symbolizing Joan's rehabilitation.

Next thing is not Joan of Arc related, but what the hell, when will I ever get an opportunity to mention this. There is a another Grimm fairy tale about Snow White, in which she has sister Rose Red. This always bothered me, since it works so well with Ruby and Weiss but story seemingly has no relevance in RWBY plot. They met a talking bear they took care of. Then they met evil dwarf several times, always helping him, but he is always ungrateful. In the end, bear killed a dwarf, revealing himself to be cursed prince dwarf turned into a bear so he can steal his treasure. Snow White then married cursed prince and Rose Red married his brother, the end. So, what does this has to do with anything I said paragraph before? Well, if Jaune does become Grimm and he becomes let's say, Ursa like Grimm, then things get more interesting. He becomes cursed prince from the story that ends up marrying Snow White, making this effectively Whiteknight (Cinder can be then read as evil dwarf since she'd be one responsible for his curse and she stole his treasure, Pyrrha). This would also imply Rosegarden since Rose Red marries prince's brother (Oscar being another cursed prince).

This interpretation does rob Jaune of lot of agency post capture since he'd be esentially mind controlled, but it does hit enough Joan of Arc story beats for me to consider it plausible. This would also shift Cinder to being primarily Weiss' rival since Jaune would be out of commission.

Theory 3: This is step one in Cinder's redemption arc. Time to get back to that particular rabbit hole, this time with 100% more Stockholm syndrome. This one will have whole lot speculative canon, but I'll try to reinforce each point with Joan of Arc parallels.

Ok, how the hell does that work? Well first, we need to get back to that double timeline theory I linked at the beginning. To sum it up, timeline 1 goes from Joan's arrival at Chinon to her heresy trial, timeline 2 goes from Joan's childhood to her victory at Orleans. These two timelines overlap creating complete narrative (V5 is both Joan's Loire campaign and trip to Vaucouleurs, V8 is both siege of Paris and Joan's village being sacked, etc). I went into reasons why I use this method in that theory.

Anyways, last event I traced to 2nd timeline is Joan's village being sacked. She spent her time in city of Neufchateau before departing for Vaucoleurs to meet Robert de Baudricourt for the third time. Quick summary, Cinder is Baudricourt in this timeline since both dynamic and timeline placements of her meetings with Jaune match Baudricourt's meetings with Joan. Both times, Baudricourt dissmisses Joan (first time publically humiliating her), but third time he relents (motivated by his desperate circumstances and Joan's correct prediction of Dauphin losing key battle near Orleans) and sends her to Dauphin's castle in Chinon. Side note, Cinder also plays the role of Dauphin in timeline 2 (backstories match, both have a crown that they cannot reach, both were raised by powerful queen dowager after running away from their home) which I don't feel is contradictory for the reasons I go more in my timeline theory. Additionally, Joan gained a favor of two of Baudricourt's soldiers, Jean of Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy. This surprised Baudricourt considering both were notorious troublemakers. I translated those two as Emerald and Mercury in my timeline theory.

Cool, but what does this has to do with Joan's capture? Well, we overlay this portion of timeline 2 onto Compiegne portion of timeline 1 to get the full story.

First to get back to Compiegne: Burgundian duke Philip broke the peace treaty with Dauphin and attacked Compiegne. Joan went there with relatively small army and in some sources, against Dauphin's orders. She rallied out to fight Burgundians, held well, but ultimately getting captured. Burgundians were unable to take Compiegne.

So full translation to RWBY would be: Cinder manages to outsmart Ruby and gets into position where it's likely she'll take Maiden power and/or Relic. Jaune shows up as the last line of defense, likely fighting her together side by side with Emerald and Mercury (I believe Mercury will be redeemed in Volume 10, partially due to Joan of Arc story). This can be interesting callback to either Cinder, Emerald and Mercury taking on Amber or Jaune confronting Cinder with Emerald and Mercury by her side like in Volume 5 (their roles now being reversed). Similar to Volume 5, Jaune will likely hit several sour spots for Cinder (this is reference to Joan telling Baudricourt her unfavorable visions and them turning out to be true). They lose after putting up a good fight but buy enough time for others to reinforce and prevent Cinder from obtaining the Maiden power and/or Relic (or Cinder takes too much damage in the fight). Cinder makes spur of the moment decision and captures Jaune while running away (this matches Compiegne, Jaune gets captured but enemy doesn't achieve their objective). Capture kind of works with timeline 2: if Cinder is both Baudricourt and Dauphin, then she is effectively sending Jaune to herself, that to me reads like capture.

Several of her comrades tried to free Joan, but by the time they reached the place where she was held as prisoner, she is already moved to different castle. This could also happen in the show, breaking the trend of main cast successfully rescuing their captured friend from previous volumes. Jaune would then be taken to Salem with Cinder (who'll likely get punished for her failures) arguing she can exchange Jaune for location of Relic of Choice (maintaining the part of the story Joan is held for ransom). Similar to theory 2, I'd expect Jaune's capture to last at least one full volume.

Ok, that's cool and all, but what does this have to do with Cinder's redemption in any shape or form:

They will be forced together for extended period of time. Additionally, there will be nobody else for them to interact with. Eventually, they'll have to interact in some shape or form. I would expect lot of initial setbacks considering Joan of Arc attempted to escape twice. But still, it would be pretty weird if they just grumbled at each other whole time and then went back to fighting. Come on man, they are foils that don't know they are foils, do something with that.

Neither can hurt each other. Jaune cannot hurt her since he would be her prisoner, she cannot hurt him without risking the prospect of deal falling off (and as shown when threatened by Neo, Cinder considers her death plausible outcome if she screws up the Relic). This means Jaune could meaningfully verbally challenge Cinder without the risk of dying (hello Watts). This also wouldn't be reach to happen, considering he did similar thing in Volume 5. Basically, Cinder will be stuck with Jaune as voice of consciousness entire volume without being able to get rid off it.

This would transition relatively well into Indecisive King story. In that story, Widow (basically Jaune) spends time in King's castle before eventually confronting him over Relic of Choice. Joan of Arc similarly spent time in Dauphin's castle at Chinon. In both stories Jaune coded character spent time with Cinder coded character before eventually changing them for better.

As usual, I decided to make Cinder portion needlessly long and complicated. Anyways, what are your thoughts? Did I miss any plausible interpretations?

[fenneonsarah]

RWBY HEADCANONS!!!

Some RWBY headcanons I have all shared in one place cause the brainrot is real. Most are queer/shipping headcanons, but not all (Spoilers for Volume 9, also not all characters are included, just the ones I do have a headcanon about)

Ruby is a homoromantic asexual. She's always had romantic feelings for Penny since she loves goofballs, and has started falling for Weiss after spending more time with her. In between volume 5 and 6 is when she truly fell for her. In her ideal world, she'd be in a poly relationship with them both. For a non-queer/ship headcanon, she has ADHD

Next is Weiss, who I headcanon as pansexual. Her crushes on Neptune and adult Jaune were pretty shallow and nothing serious (not that she doesn't like them at all, just doesn't see a future with them). She also had a crush on Pyrrha, but was respectful and backed off when she started suspecting Jaune might've had feelings for her too, which was timed perfectly since that's when Neptune came in the picture. She didn't like Ruby at first, either as a person or romantically, but both of those feelings grew over the years and she now does like Ruby but doesn't want to admit it to anyone, even herself

I guess it's a trend of mine to headcanon my favourite characters as queer transfems, and that's the case with Penny. I can totally see Pietro building a "wrong body" for her at first, and since she didn't have a concept of bigotry at the time, she wasn't afraid to ask him to change her body, which he happily agreed to and apologized for not getting it right straight away, although she always forgives him. For sexuality, I see her as demisexual. She didn't have feelins for Ruby until they spent time together and got to know each other better. She wanted to ask Ruby out after the Vytal tournament and enrolling at Beacon, then again after escaping Atlus together, but I don't think I need to mention why neither of those worked. She also has no ill-will toward Pyrrha. If Pyrrha were still alive, Penny would hug her close and tell her it was okay

From my favourite character to my favourite male character, Qrow. First of all, I know the behind the scenes reason his voice changed, but I like the headcanon that it changed in the show cause he cut back on drinking. Maybe not altogether, but significantly less than he used to. Along with Ruby I also see him as a homoromantic asexual. His whole womanizing act is just that, an act to seem cool. In actuality, Clover was the only person in years he ever had feelings for.

Neo is short and simple, like her character (I love her). I see her as a aroace transfem. At first she used her semblance to look how she wanted, but now she naturally looks that way. Also not really a headcanon but pLEASE DON'T LET HER SPEAK, I HATE THAT FAN THEORY SO MUCH, KEEP HER MUTE

Winter I also see as aroace. Relationships confuse her more than anything, but the more her and Weiss get close, the more she teases Weiss guys to annoy her (she doesn't know Weiss is pan and assumes she's straight, but would be supportive if Weiss came out)

I think those are all my headcanons. Sorry for my ramblings, thank you for reading. I also have a theory for how I think the show will end, but that'll be a seperate post

[etinceelle]

I rewatched some stuff from RWBY Volume 8 and some specific moments in Volume 9 too, and like. With some distance all of the topic of life and death is truly even weirder. I know I talked about it already, but the contrast between the end of Volume 8 and the overall Volume 9 around death and Penny's death is so strange : they constantly jump from a tragic death to ascension/reincarnation + the Cat being shocked because "goodness no", people don't have to die someday, + "nothing, no one is ever truly lost" and it directly be ABOUT Penny's sword and by extension Penny herself, I mean. And there's this epilogue with Winter feeling guilty about "Penny gone forever" while right before that in the V8 finale Penny tell her she'll be a part of her.

I know things aren't supposed to be always taken literally or to be completely true but still, my senses are tingling it feels like they cook something big but we can't tell or confirm anything and this is soooo interesting and frustrating and so great but AAH --

Just to be clear, even if Penny doesn't come back I'm still enjoying so much theorizing and thinking about the narrative of her character and RWBY, but I mean. Overall I still can't help but think that there's more, truly I don't understand why people don't talk more about this scene in V9 Chapter 5 with the Blacksmith, is it because we saw it in the trailer ? Everytime I saw people react they were like "here we go, the scene from the trailer", but it's MORE than that don't you think ? Of course we saw Penny's reflection in her sword but what Ruby and the Blacksmith are saying is so important too, also why is Ruby able to see Penny's reflection (and Alyx, and Summer as well) in her weapon ? WHY EXACTLY I NEED TO KNOW-

I'm really curious about this scene specifically and I just feel like because a bit of it was in the trailer, not a lot of people are actually thinking about it and understanding what it is and what is said, and WHY. It wasn't even just about Ruby herself here, they started to talk because of Penny's sword. How did it get here ? Was it an illusion ? Or was it real but the Blacksmith changed it ? But in the end, the Blacksmith know what all of these weapons are and who it belonged to before. So she/they have to know more than we think but we can only speculate on everything rn. At this point I'm starting to doubt and analyse everything krkr-

Also, back from Volume 8 : what is really weird that many people talked about already is Penny's Aura during the transfer. WHY is is gold/yellow. It doesn't make sense, is that because of her own body ? Because I looked back at the "creation" sequence with Ambrosius and there's also a gold light when he separates her Aura from her robot body. So is that linked or is it different ? Is that because the place Winter and Penny were is magical/different as well ? Is it because it was easier to make a gold/yellow Aura than a green Aura for the transfer ? But even on Winter who has a blue Aura, it wouldn't be a big change of color or difficult to see at the moment, so I don't really get it.

I don't know if us Penny fans are all losing our brain or if there is TRULY something more to come, but man I'm so hyped for all of these revival theories oh my god xD

[tumblezwei]

People always speak like rwby fell off after vol.3 but honestly I feel like the show really found its footing when volume. 6 can around, (apart if me would say volume 5 because despite the execution being janky somewhat due crunch time because of a certain show *cough cough* "gen lock" *cough*, I feel like the ideas that were put into that volume were ones they were able to properly utilize starting in vol. 6

Oh definitely. Like it's actually insane for there to be people out there that think vol 1-3 we're peak RWBY.

My running theory is that those people haven't actually watched vol 1-3 since they aired, and the only content they've seen from it since were the handful of Monty-animated fight scenes.

And like, sorry, but Sun swinging around his nunchucks so quickly you can barely see what's happening doesn't suddenly make the vol 1 finale better in terms of writing or overall animation.

[itsclydebitches]

Since Ruby took like, ten second of self-doubt and some major (but overall shor) torture before just committing suicide, I can't help but think she must have had these feelings for years, buried deep down. It's eitehr that or the Ever After massively amplifies feelings. Or the writers are just hacks who cannot hack it. Thoughts?

I'm 95% "The writers don't know how to tackle a subject this sensitive and gave us such an extreme reaction for the drama" and 5% "There's a little evidence to suggest that this has been plaguing Ruby for at least a couple of days, but that still requires the audience to basically headcanon a conflict that never truly existed on screen." I say there's a little because Ruby was obviously stressed during Volume 8 too (which, again, only covered about 48 hours), however, I don't think that serves our Volume 9 arc well because:

Ruby is concerned with totally different stuff now. In Volume 8 she was upset over the confirmation that Salem knew Summer and the theory that she killed her as a result of her grimm experiments. Ruby is also frustrated that they rejected Ironwood's plan, but for two-ish days no one was able to come up with something better: "Then nothing has changed! We’re in the exact same spot we were yesterday. Arguing what to do while the Kingdom waits to die." While certainly connected to the overall repetition of Ruby throwing herself into situations that she then can't easily resolve, it's notable that she's not upset that she hasn't come up with a solution, but that the group hasn't. This is not presented as Ruby buckling under leadership because, frankly, no one is expecting her to lead. She chooses to make choices like starting the Ace Ops fight, but beyond that she's looking to others to problem solve, as Jaune, Oscar, and Ozpin do by Volume's end. So Volume 8 gives us "I'm crumbling under the knowledge that Salem killed my mom and I'm annoyed that we, as a group, haven't solved this horrific, time-sensitive problem." Then Volume 9 gives us, "I'm not thinking at all about Mom - look at me give up a keepsake of hers without a second thought! - and I'm crumbling under this sudden belief that everyone has always demanded that I solve all our problems." It's hard to say this has been building for a long time when what Ruby is stressed about keeps changing from Volume to Volume, even episode to episode. We start Volume 9 with her faltering due to Penny's death, but her breakdown comes about due to leadership. It's all too muddled to say this has been a years long problem in the making.

Much more simply, my second issue is that Ruby (like many other characters) doesn't keep consistent in her emotions either. Not just about what she's upset over, but her actually being upset. Volume 8 presented her mini-breakdown as something Ruby overcame - she gets upset on the staircase, but then they do come up with a plan and save "all" of the Kingdom, acting confident in their execution of this rescue - and though there's a major setback in regards to them falling/losing the Relics, Ruby only takes a second to cry about that then she becomes a part of Volume 9's early gags. Yes, her depression increases as the Volume goes on, getting more extreme the closer we get to her drinking that tea, but considering how much she's fluctuated and that her time in the Ever After has only been a day or so... that's too much too fast to justify her suddenly attempting suicide. All told, the content with ANY evidence from Ruby's depression covers about 4 days, maximum.

So yeah, I think RT massively dropped the ball on this one, though as always this is an easy situation for fans to project on. Anyone happy with RWBY's writing can easily headcanon that yeah, she's been feeling these emotions for an age - she must have because otherwise the suicide attempt doesn't make sense and RT wouldn't write something that doesn't make sense. See how that logic works? - and every moment that's even somewhat relavent can be re-read as a supposed buildup, regardless of what Ruby was upset about or whether she was presented as bouncing back almost immediately.

Plus, the nature of mental health means that ANY characterization technically fits. Ruby is bubbly all the time? Well, people with depression learn to hide it and overcompensate. Ruby appears to immediately bounce back? Again, she's playing a part. She was upset about thing A and then that changed to thing B and now we're on thing J? Don't you understand how all of this compounds and it's the sheer, overwhelming nature of everything she's been through that resulted in this? Because we understand that in real life depression is a complicated, often silent beast, people are tempted to map that onto the story, thereby justifying any version of the arc that we end up with. There's technically no wrong way to write it because there's no "right" way to be depressed. My problem is that this isn't real life. It's a story and we have expectations for how stories will differ from reality in order to serve their function as compelling entertainment. I don't want to go, "Oh, well Ruby was obviously grappling with depression this whole time and it was just hidden from us because that's one realistic means of depicting it. How many times has someone said, 'I had no idea' after learning about a suicide attempt?" But Ruby is our protagonist, the perspective through which we experience the entirety of the show, so keeping this hidden from the audience doesn't do anything except make it come across as a badly written, arguably insensitive arc. This is not real life. Ruby is not a real person with real feelings she may consciously or unconsciously be keeping from others. Ruby is a fiction whose purpose is to convey something to us, the audience, which means that outside of deliberate twists, a story that goes, "This was always occurring, you just never got to see it on screen" is rarely going to have that come across well.