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kitkatopinions · 1 month

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Just saw the extended animatic that was originally meant to end V9 and is now gonna get repurposed into the (possible) V10.

Let me just say, I still feel the same about the things I saw in the first animatic. I can now firmly say that Qrow has been replaced with a doppleganger same as Blake (I wonder if it's like a partial possession thing in this case where sometimes it's Qrow and sometimes it's the faker.) I hate the dumb Winter scenes about how disappointed she is that poor people aren't nice enough to her billionaire blue blooded mother in her silly little sunhat. I have no idea what the hell Raven is doing there. The 'Remember Her Message' thing is stupid because of how poorly done Ruby's message to the world actually was and what little impact Team RWBYJNOR has actually had on the world at large. And I still want to see Whitley without Willow for three point five seconds. And I'm still wondering why the presence of an army in Atlas was a sign of pure evil and was immediately seen as a horrifying threat but seeing an army in Vacuo is meant to be a sign of peace and hope.

But also, now I have more to say.

Like first of all, I'm even more confused on how Remnant managed to pull off any sort of army now that we know what remained in Vale after the Fall of Beacon got decimated. Where are they getting their army? From Mistral, where we know Leo had all the Hunters killed? Are we meant to assume that the people that showed up from Mistral are the cops Blake called on the White Fang? Or, maybe from Argus, even though we're meant to hate Cordovin and the Atlas military that was there? Second of all, this makes me even more annoyed at Winter for being like 'if my poor martyr sister could see how badly we're doing, she'd be disappointed,' Winter get realistic goals challenge 2024. Third of all, Team SSSN and CFVY made appearances and if I ever have to see Coco "based on a nazi" Adel ever again, it'll be too soon, but I still insist that it should've been just Sun, Neptune, and Velvet because none of their other teammates got enough focus in the actual show to be real characters. They could've been casually name dropped off-handedly and it would've been fine. Speaking of teams making reappearances, Neon is there, which means she didn't die in the Fall of Atlas and likely her teammates didn't either, but they had better have a full explanation in V10 for how soldiers on the field got back to the city and threw the portals, and it's weird that we saw Neon but not Flynt. Also can I just point out that "the people who were colonized by Atlas are being aggressive to innocent Atlas orphans and need to be told off" is a writing choice the writers didn't have to do, and considering all the whole history with RWBY and bigotry, I don't know why they did that. Neon and Nora had a moment though, and I was like... Ship material? Also, Tyrian and Mercury are working with the Crown, but... To be honest, if they don't scrap that in V10 (if V10 ever comes,) I'm gonna question their decision making even more, because they just did a new location with a new villain and it proved that this late in the game it's hard to set up or properly execute new threats, and if V10 ever comes out, it's a high probability that we're not ever getting a V11. So if you ask me, if they don't cut out the Crown, they're either gonna badly execute these new bads because they expect their fans to do homework to understand the main show, or they're gonna spend way too much focus on establishing them and the Mains will get sidelined again. Merc looks like a mess, though, and this would make me think a redemption arc is a-coming except that they're pressed for time like I said, so I'm not counting on it. The fact that I have to see Peter Port of all characters is also making me want to say a lot of bad words. Like I cannot emphasize enough how much I hated seeing him and his stupid face and how much I wish he'd never existed. What is this choice to not have the serious potential mentor character who had been part of Oz's inner circle come in and instead having the comic relief teacher who blathered about testosterone and flirted with an underage student be the one to break what should be devastating news that should by all rights get a lot of focus? And where the heck is Tai in all of this? Rip to Oobleck, but out of everyone from the Vale seasons, I would not have picked either of these men to bring back, I'd have brought in Tai and Glynda. It's just a bad choice. And still no sign of Maria and Pietro, so like... What the heck?

All in all, I thought before that I couldn't have less hope for the future of RWBY, but whoa buddy this extended animatic proved me wrong.

#rwde

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lovingdabeessss · 6 days

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based on your interpretation of the military Yang ask, i find it absolutely hilarious that Yang just casually knows government secrets, due to ironwood just telling her. Does Ozpin know he tells her?? Like, during the Mistral bandit can arc, Raven is just giving her the whole 'Grimm has a master' speech and Yang's like, 'duh. I already know. Next your gonna say you can turn into a bird and the sky outside is blue or something??'.

And I love the thought of Penny and Yang being friends, it'll give Penny more *human* interactions and mean she won't act as stilted as she does in canon.

My most favorite part of that au is that she knows stuff she shouldn't. I wonder if that's why I like the time loop and MitC verse's so much....?

(btw, do you have Wattpad?? That is where I am mostly likely to upload once I'm finished writing)

As a mesh of my interpretation and the actual original askers actual AU i think ironwood eventually kinda recruits Yang and sense her whole family was part of ozpins inner circle for a while he probably sees it as fine if he tells her certain things that are definitely secrets probably not everything but enough that he would think it gained her trust and loyalty because Yang is a VERY loyal person (one of the things that would make her a good soldier) but the way Yang is loyal isn’t the way that he’d want which is individually and relationship based so she’d be loyal to ironwood if he helped her and told her this stuff but as like a friend not as a general of the army or like her boss and she’d never keep those secrets if it posed a danger to the people she cared about

And if she knew the army was doing some messed up she’d offer that information whenever it came up cause she has a very solid sense of right and wrong

I don’t know if he’d tell ozpin he told Yang these things but if it ever came up that she knew ozpin would probably assume it was any of the people related to her that told her like maybe qrow when drunk so I doubt he’d get caught

I love the idea of Yang being like “Sky’s blue, moms are birds, government is evil, nothings new, one(1) portal please”

I do not have wattpad I just use the search bar and go “ao3 pls” and that’s how I find the things I read u could always send me the link 🥺 after it’s posted

Also I’m draw’n rn so if you want me to draw doodles for ur au or this one or draw with me that’s available for a lil while

#rwby #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #bumbleby #au #not my au

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notmaplemable · 10 months

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The Raven Zone

Summer and Raven: *In Raven's tent*

Raven: This is my bandit pad.

Summer: Cool.

Raven: Not many boys come in here because I get friendzoned so frequently.

Summer: I'd like to be in the friendzone. I like friends.

Raven: It's not as pleasant as you'd think. *Holds up picture of Tai with a badly drawn Raven kissing him on the cheek* They don't treat you like a friend, *crushes picture* they treat you like an item.

Raven: *Singe tear rolls down her cheek* Sometimes I wish I could be more than just an accessory to these men. But unfortunately as a bandit, I don't get respect.

Summer: Well I'm not a bandit, so maybe they'll respect me. *insert dreamy Qrow thought bubble here*

Raven: ...That just makes you a beta cuck.

Summer: *Doesn't know what that is*

Raven: That is the difference between you and I Summer. I'm an alpha bandit queen.

Summer: ...

Raven: Anyway, where we portaling to?

------

Don't ask me why I decided to do this with Summer and Raven. I don't fucking know.

#rwby #rwby shitpost #raven branwen #summer rose #hummingbird #tairaven

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rwby-encrusted-blog · 11 months

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MK Intros!

Parents (And Parental Figures) edition!

Tai: *Walks onstage with Zwei*Just like the old days, aye Qrow?

Qrow: *Flies in and transforms* Yeah, You're gonna lose again.

Tai: I seem to remember things going the other way!

~~~~~

Qrow: *Pulls Harbinger From behind his back* Alright Blondie, let's see if you burn just as bright as the old days!

Tai: *Catching Zwei from offscreen* looks like We're having Roast bird for dinner Buddy!

Qrow: Heh. That confidence can only carry you so far.

~~~~~

Tai: *Catching Zwei From off screen* Despite everything, It's good to see you Rae.

Raven: *Portaling in* Please, just fight me.

Tai: Okay. Just know I never stopped loving you, no matter how much I hated you.

~~~~~

Raven: *Removes Mask* Why have you come for me?

Tai: *Walks onstage with Zwei* First and foremost to get to my girls. Best case scenario to Bring you home.

Raven: I've made my choice ...

Tai: You can always make another.

~~~~~

Tai: *Walks onstage with Zwei* I never took you for a fighter.

Willow: *Rides in on summon* I was once. I'm trying to be again.

Tai: I get that. It's all we can do, Isn't it?

~~~~~

Willow: *Takes a shaky Fighting Stance* I heard what you did to my Dearest Weiss.

Raven: *Removes Mask* What do you plan to do about it?

Willow: Make you Pay.

~~~~~

Prismeya (Mama Arc): *Lands Like a super hero, Pulling out Pole-axe* Willow! Long time no see! How've you been?

Willow: *Rides in on summon* I've not been well until recently, but things are improving. How've you been?

Prismeya: Other than my son Running off to get himself klled, pretty good.

~~~~~

Prismeya: *Fixing prosthetic* You know, I forget you were a dad at one point.

Ozpin: *Clicks Cane against Ground* Often Times I wish I could forget that.

Prismeya: ... Warn a girl before you get depressing next time.

~~~~~

Ozpin: Tai ... It's good to see you well, old friend.

Tai: You- Please don't call me a friend. I've got some complaints.

Ozpin: Fair enough, fair enough.

~~~~~

Tai: So you're the infamous Prismeya, aren't you?

Prismeya: Maybe, maybe not, Mr. 'Entire Team'

Tai: En-TAI-re team, actually.

#rwby #rwby shitpost #professor ozpin #headmaster ozpin #ozpin #taiyang xiao long #raven branwen #qrow branwen #prismeya arc #mama arc #willow schnee

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howlingday · 2 months

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Dark AU - I was tempted to ask about Raven's place in it but after thinking about it, I feel like she A) wouldn't care, B) Angry at herself because she was too inebriated at the time to recognize her semblance warning her of Yang's near death, B.2) or maybe it was quick enough that she couldn't portal in in time), or C) that she's not as heartless as she made herself out to be and joins her family to mourn the girl (we've seen that Raven checks up on her from time to time).

Also I was hoping for a part two of the Coco beat down where she herself gets reamed for her actions.

Funny that you mention that. See, there was a post I made a little bit ago with One Piece characters saying RWBY quotes. As I was reading the transcript for the scene, I noticed that it called out that a raven was at Beacon, watching Qrow fight Winter. And that felt like such an interesting detail to point out, that Raven was possibly watching Yang the whole time at Beacon, maybe? Then there's the dream that Yang had about Raven at the end of Volume 2. But that's all just coincidences and whatnot.

So there's a couple things I'm gonna have to figure out with Raven.

Was Raven in the Emerald Forest? Part of me says no, and the other part of me says, "Birdie, no!" But overall, I don't think Raven was at the Emerald Forest while Yang was doing her initiation, and as much of an asshole as she is, I don't think she'd let her daughter die the way she did in the first post.

When does Raven find out? I don't think she was on the list of people to contact in the event of their child's death, so I'm thinking either Taiyang or Qrow will tell her, if not someone else she'd hear along the way during her banditry. But I do think she'd go to one of those two to confirm the information she'd heard.

And regarding Coco, I do intend to have her receive reprimand from Beacon once she's found out, if not by the faculty, then the rest of her team. Make no mistake, I have no intention of making Coco a straight up asshole bully who picks on Jaune for no reason except trauma. But I do believe Coco believed she was in the right for what she did.

@epic-arc Do you have anything to add?

#rwby #raven branwen #my thoughts #my answer #my answers #coco adel

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bridgyrose · 5 months

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Prompt idea: RWBY+J making getting back to Vacuo and Qrow seeing just a little bit too much of Raven in Ruby, after her whole experience in the Ever After

(Just to stick a bit with canon)

Qrow’s heart stopped as she watched Ruby, Yang, and their friends walk through the streets of Vacuo, no longer sure if he was seeing things or if this was real. It had been weeks since Atlas fell, weeks since the comms of his nieces went silent, and now, here they were, alive. Though, the more he watched them, the more Ruby seemed… off. Sure she seemed excited to explore Vacuo, but that excitement seemed more relaxed than how she normally was. Even the way she walked seemed less like Ruby and more like Raven.

Still, he made his way down to his nieces, embracing them both tightly as tears welled up in his eyes. “You’re back.”

“We’re back, Qrow,” Yang said as she hugged back. “And we have quite a story to tell.”

“We can tell him that later.” Ruby pulled away from Qrow and looked towards Shade Academy. “I have a few things I need to find out first.”

“Dont you think you should rest first?” Qrow asked. “You’ve just got back and I’m sure the others will want to know you’re alive.”

“And I’ll go see them, but there’s something I have to find out first.”

Qrow sighed as he watched Ruby walk off, his heart hurting when he started to see more of Raven in her. The Raven that he knew before she left the team, the same Raven that had started looking for answers and running off on her own in order to find out what she needed to know.

Yang put a hand on Qrow’s shoulder. “She’ll be fine. Things… were rough for us in the Ever After.”

“The Ever After?” Qrow asked. “From that story you liked as a kid?”

Yang nodded. “The same one.”

Qrow sighed, his eyes still watching Ruby as she walked through the crowded streets to the academy in the middle of the city. He took a small step forward to follow her but stopped when he saw rose petals start to flutter in the air. “Let’s find a place for you four to rest. And maybe you can tell me the story of what happened.”

“Dont worry about Ruby. She’ll come back once she’s ready. I’m still not sure what she saw, but whatever it is has had her on a mission since we’ve walked through the portal here.”

“That’s what I’m worried about. If she’s not careful, she’ll push everyone away. Whether she wants to or not.”

Yang looked at him curiously. “What do you mean?”

Qrow shook his head and motioned for Yang to follow him. “Tell me your story first, and then we can worry about your sister.”

“We almost lost her once, we’re not going to risk losing her again,” Weiss said as she folded her arms across her chest. “Tell us what you mean first, then we’ll tell you what we went through.”

Qrow paused for a moment as he looked at Weiss, almost seeing Summer standing in front of her with the way she looked at him. His heart nearly sank as he thought back to the night Raven left, almost in the same way that Ruby had rushed off to Shade. “*I have to know more about Salem,*” he’d hear Raven say just before she left. “*We still have no idea what we’re fighting and if he wont tell us, then I need to find out more. Even if I have to do it alone.*”

“Are you okay?” Blake asked.

Qrow let out a sigh and started to walk again, lowering his voice as he spoke. “While Ruby reminds me a lot of Summer, she also reminds me a lot of Raven too. Determined, quick to rush into a fight or to go after answers… the way she ran off was similar to how Raven left us.”

“You and dad never talk about why she left,” Yang said with a bit of anger to her voice. “Why bring that up now?”

“Because I dont want to see the same thing happen with her. Running off to seek answers, going alone if she has to… being dragged into Ozpin’s war isnt easy for anyone. Especially when you’re young and still learning how to lead.”

Yang looked away for a moment, holding her arm close. “That… might be a lot more accurate than you think.”

Qrow raised a brow. “What do you mean?”

“Its a long story,” Jaune said, almost guilty. “Once we get somewhere a bit more quiet, we’ll explain everything.”

#rwby #ruby rose #rwby ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #jaune arc #qrow branwen #drabbles

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elliesgaymachete · 8 months

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I’m back on a rwby kick and i’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much might be left which makes me sad because i just got into it but it does seem like it’s starting to near the end of the story 😭

realistically, i could see maybe it gets picked up for one final volume to wrap things up. 10 volumes is a pretty solid number and everyone is gathered in vacuo because of ruby’s message. BUT it feels like there’s still WAY too much to cover in just one volume. We’re still missing 1 maiden and 2 relics and maybe we’ll start to learn more about what happened to Summer. What does raven Know?? And does Qrow know anything too??? Did they go to qrow or someone else Raven can portal to? And right now the only one of team rwby who’s actually Met salem is Yang, and there definitely needs to still be some sort of confrontation with Salem and Ruby. Plus we have Winter with her new maiden powers which we only saw a little bit of in the epilogue, and the whole schnee family who are probably social pariahs because of Jacques. There’s still Cinder who’s playing her own game and I Need a confrontation between her and Emerald after emerald switched sides. Also she’s lying to Salem and what the fuck is up with her arm and so many questions there. And there’s still Tyrian and Mercury who went ahead to Vacuo. Plus theres the possibility of Neo returning changed after her time in the ever after and the tree. And loads more that i’m definitely forgetting. Just SO MANY plot threads still out there

COULD they wrap it up in one more volume? Probably if they have to, but with where they are now it might feel rushed and we may not get satisfying closure for everything. I honestly think they would need at least 2-3 volumes to wrap things up in a satisfying way but that’s my optimistic/hopeful outlook

Anyway i need more rwby asap pls greenlight volume 10 🥺👉🏼👈🏼

#rwby #greenlight volume 10

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strqyr · 1 year

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i'm just imagining summer one day deciding that now's the time to make a move against salem, and then proceeds to grab her axe that's also a hunting rifle and go outside to shoot at raven after spotting her in a tree, just like qrow did at haven.

like shooting at raven is just their way of saying 'hello'.

#rwby #rwby9 #rwby spoilers #if qrow's reaction to shielding himself after a portal opens near him is anything to go by #the opposite is also true to some extent #except raven doesn't have a gun #could be a fireball #maybe some ice #lightning perhaps #you'll know once it hits you i'm sure

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someidiotwithalaptop · 1 year

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Alright: What the FUCK happened to Summer???

Because something sure did, and every new thing we hear about her gets more disturbing, and it haunts me.

So, I'll start with stuff that's fairly certain and like, small leaps of logic before I go full tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist. We have very little actual info about Summer, nearly all of it from different characters talking about her.

From Yang we get the basic facts from her family's perspective: Summer was a Huntress who went out on a mission and never came back. We also get the characterization of, "Super-Mom: Baker of cookies and slayer of giant monsters."

From Qrow, we learn that 1. She was a brat, which like, honestly STRQ was probably just "oops! all brats" 2. He thinks she would have pressed on if she knew the truth, which, uh, she almost definitely did. "We don't have to kill you to stop you," is not the sort of thing you say to Salem if you don't know she's immortal, that's all I'm saying. 3. Whatever her final mission was, she didn't tell him or Tai or Ozpin. I'm inclined to believe Ozpin when he says he genuinely doesn't know what happened to Summer, since his biggest secret is already out—plus he's been genuinely repentent about the mess his lying caused in Volume 6 and is taking steps to do better in the future. It would feel really weird thematically if he knew and was keeping yet another giant bomb of a secret. So Summer went on her final mission alone, or at the very least, she didn't tell any of Ozpin's inner circle where she was going.

We'll get to speculating about why not later, but I think this point is probably going to be important in Ruby's character arc—whatever Summer's ultimate fate, she got there because she tried to save the world alone, and we've seen Ruby do something similar. Like she's not running off after Salem by herself, but she's definitely trying to shoulder the burden of leading and inspiring everyone to keep going all on her own, without asking for help as that responsibility has been slowly yet systematically destroying her mental health. I mean ffs she's been literally carrying her team on her shoulders for two episodes now.

HOWEVER: Oz, Tai, and Qrow don't know anything about what happened to Summer, but it's possible that Raven might. When Ruby tries to reach out to her and convince her to work together, because they'll have a better chance than if they try to do it alone, Raven says, "You sound just like your mother," in truly the most bitter, disdainful-ass tone I have ever heard. And then she opens a portal for Cinder to throw a fireball at her. Whether this is about a more generalized friction that maybe contributed to Raven leaving, or a specific moment when Summer tried to get her on board with whatever she was doing on that final mission, is kind of uncertain. Or it could be both!

(And it might also be she married my ex bitterness but, admitting my biases here, I hate that fucking trope with a fiery passion and I think it's more interesting if her anger at Summer is actually about Summer.)

Regardless, if Summer did ask her for help, then based on how Raven reacted to Ruby I don't think she got it lmao

And then. Oh, and then. We get Salem!

"Your mother said those words to me. She was wrong too."

"Her again?"

So like. Salem definitely met her. Had a whole-ass conversation with her, even.

And that fucking smile??? Salem did some shit to Summer. It's just a question of what, exactly?

Right. Okay. So after they kill the Hound and realize WHOOPS that was a person and he looks an awful lot like Ruby! and everyone reunites, Ruby says this:

"When I saw its eyes, I knew. Salem used to kill people with Silver Eyes, like Maria. But she’s always wanted me alive. Why would that change unless, when she met Mom, she learned she could do something new?"

Timeline-wise, this seems accurate! But I'd like to also insert TR into the equation. It's a little hard to tell given the uhh, body horror of it all, but he definitely looks younger than Qrow (which is maybe not saying a lot given that Raven looks at least ten years younger than Qrow and she's his twin lmao) and, more to the point, like he's probably younger than Summer.

Like, yeah, hard to tell, but I don't think this man is past forty. And even if he is, it doesn't seem like Salem's had him for very long, seeing as she never sent him after Ruby or the relics in previous volumes. So he's probably an example of what Salem's been doing to SEWs after Summer.

Also, Salem calls him an experiment, and says that so far she's pleased with the results. Meaning Summer isn't exactly a Hound, though I wouldn't say that puts grimmification off the table. Just that it's not in the exact same way he is. And it's worth pointing out that the way TR has been grimmified, it's left him completely without agency and unable to disobey Salem. Even after Ruby blasts the Grimm off his head, he's still left repeating "Take The Girl" over and over without any sign of whoever he used to be coming back to the surface. It's possible that is what Salem is referring to when she calls him a successful experiment.

So the way Salem has dealt with people with silver eyes has gone:

Maria (kill her) > Summer (?!?!) > TR (an... experiment) > Ruby (bring her to me alive)

Adding TR into the mix, it seems unlikely that the "something new" Salem learned she could do from Summer Rose would actually have been, y'know, a Hound. Plus from a narrative perspective, I don't think we're going to have Ruby literally saying exactly what happened to Summer into the camera only for her to turn up, Hound-ified just as expected, a couple volumes later. So, some possibilities:

Ruby is actually exactly correct about what happened to Summer, but she's not going to show up later so there's no reason not to just tell us. Personally I doubt it's this, given the way the mystery has been unfolding over eight volumes and counting. It'd be kind of weird to just tell us instead of showing us, or indeed having the Hound literally be Summer. Also, if Summer is a Hound too then why is TR an experiment?

Summer was Grimmified but didn't survive the process, so she gave Salem the idea but she's not actually a Hound. This also seems a bit odd to me given that would mean she's basically just dead like we assumed, but with extra steps. Like it's upsetting but it doesn't represent the kind of dramatic upheaval to the sisters' worldviews that it feels like this is building towards. It doesn't explain how fucking smug Salem is about the whole thing.

Summer was Grimmified, but didn't actually lose any agency. This would explain why Salem is still experimenting, and why she's so pleased with TR—he's even more singleminded in carrying out her goals than Tyrian is. It also fits with the way the Grimmification worked on Salem. Even after she jumped into the goop, she was still very much herself—it's possible it influenced her, but she was definitely capable of showing love and affection to both Ozma and her daughters. She just, uhh,,, was also willing to try and murder them. But it's unclear to me how much of that was Evil Goo and how much was just that there's no way a human being spends any significant length of time as the Last Woman Alive without some unpleasant side effects. We're social creatures and we do not generally do well when completely deprived of company.

Summer wasn't Grimmified at all, the whole Hound thing is a red herring.

In either 3 or 4, regardless of how much body horror happened, Ruby is wrong about what happened to Summer. And in order to not undercut that moment of utter despair at what probably happened to Summer... I feel like what actually did happen has to be. like. worse.

AND IT'S A TAD DIFFICULT TO GET WORSE THAN THE HOUND.

So. Time to put our tinfoil hats on: what if we add an element of horrible betrayal?

Yes this is a Summer-joined-Salem conspiracy post.

But hear me out okay! Circling back a bit, why wouldn't Summer tell any of the inner circle where she was going? If she talked to anyone, it was Raven, who had already noped the fuck out by the time Summer went on her final mission. Now, if it was just Tai and Qrow I'd say she might've kept it from them for the same reason everyone always keeps that secret—she didn't want them to lose hope. But... Ozpin already knows. There'd be no reason not to tell him what she was doing, unless she knew he'd try to stop her.

Now: my goal here is to make all this make sense, without altering the first foundational piece of characterization we get for Summer. Namely, "Super-Mom: Baker of cookies and slayer of giant monsters." I'm not saying Summer learned the truth and went, welp, if you can't beat 'em join 'em. Because both Summer and Raven tend to act as foils to Ruby and Yang, and "gave up immediately" doesn't feel like an interesting foil to Ruby's perserverence. But, if you find out that there's an existential threat to the entire world, and she can't be killed...

Isn't it worth trying to negotiate?

Especially if, say, you were absolutely desperate to end this war in your lifetime. Because Summer knows that if it's really impossible, if Salem can't be stopped, then Ruby will get dragged in whether she likes it or not. All because of a trait that Summer passed down to her.

Salem's been killing people with silver eyes, probably for millenia. It's easily possible that Summer had her own visit from someone like Tock, or noticed the same thing Maria's father did, that there's a suspicious lack of people with silver eyes considering how useful they are against the Grimm. As long as Salem is a threat, Ruby is going to be in that same danger. Forever.

So she has to do something, right? If there's even the tiniest chance she can end this now, before Ruby will ever have to suffer for it, before she gets pulled into an impossible war and Yang comes charging in after her, because of course she's going to try to help her sister... isn't that a chance worth taking?

This is why I think Raven knows some shit, by the by—when she's telling Yang about Salem, she actually kind of indirectly drops the same bomb that went off in Volume 6, it's just that she didn't do it in the same explicit terms that Jinn did. "She can't be stopped, she can't be reasoned with, and she will not rest until Humanity crumbles at her feet."

"Can't be stopped" is Raven's translation of can't be killed, since "We don't have to kill you to stop you" seems to be a flavor of terrifying exclusive to Ruby and apparently Summer. But "can't be reasoned with" implies that somebody tried. And like, let's be honest. Do we really think Raven was the one who decided to give diplomacy a go?

Not to mention this line, which I'm like 90% sure is referring to Summer:

"Or... you can go back to Qrow and join Ozpin's impossible war against Salem, and meet the same fate as so many others."

It really seems like Raven knows something she's not telling us. Like, if that is a reference to Summer's fate, does that mean Raven knows what it is, or is she just speculating like everyone else? Does she have a portal to Summer, and is that giving her information the others don't have? All that, combined with the fact that she's also way more bitter about Summer than everyone else, seems signficant.

Anyways. Let's say Summer decides to have a chat with Salem.

She can't tell Ozpin. He'd try to stop her, because he'd see it as a suicide mission. Qrow or Tai both might tell him, or agree with him and get in her way, so she keeps it from them too. Maybe she goes off completely by herself—or maybe she goes to Raven, because she's the only one who might be able to help who Summer knows won't breathe a word of it to Ozpin. Either way, Raven doesn't help her. She's not getting anywhere near Salem.

And then... well. Salem got here by manipulating people, by swaying them to her cause. Summer asks her what she actually wants out of all this. Isn't there some way they could resolve this without this endless war, all this endless death?

Important to note, I don't think we've heard Salem's motivation in her own words. At least, not since the Lost Fable, when she wanted to rule with Ozpin as the new gods of Remnant. I think it's safe to say at least a few things have changed since then. Closest I can think of is what she says to Cinder in Volume 8, "In pursuit of a new world, no cost is too great." Which is ominous, but also quite vague, and says nothing about what she plans to do with the relics.

Instead, we get a whole lot of people guessing. Ozpin thinks she wants to die. Tyrian thinks she wants to destroy the world. Hazel and Mercury think she wants to remake it, with no Huntsman Academies, with them as the new top dogs.

There's a pattern here—Salem never actually says what she wants, and other people have a habit of projecting their own motives onto her actions. Ozpin wants to die, Hazel wants to destroy the Huntsmen Academies, Mercury wants to be the one with the power so he's not getting hurt, and Tyrian's just in it for the chaos.

And it's not like Salem hasn't done stuff like that on purpose. By the time she started growing her army against the gods and telling people they would all steal immortality like she did, she'd already tried to kill herself. She didn't want immortality. She just let people think she did, because it was more convenient for her.

So if this agent of Ozpin's comes to her, absolutely desperate for a way to end the fight before it can come for her daughters, well... why not just tell her about the gods? About how Ozpin plans to one day reunite the relics, and submit Remnant to their judgment? About what might happen if he does?

(TBH I don't think Oz will ever do that, not because I think he's decided not to or anything like that, but because I doubt he'll ever see a humanity united enough for it to be worth trying. We're an argumentative bunch.)

But like. To Summer, all of a sudden there's this other, even bigger existential threat. And Salem isn't like Ozpin. She does have a plan! She wants to destroy the relics, so that the gods can never be resummoned, because of course she hates them and so she would never want them to come back!

(Again, not saying this is actually true, my best guess is that she's trying to bring them back so she can fight them again slkdfjlskdj)

And then, if they succeed, not only will the gods not be a threat anymore, Salem won't be a threat either. She'll have gotten what she wants!

"This can all... be... over..."

Summer has to finish this. There has to be a way for her to do this by herself, to save everyone, to put a stop to it all in time to protect her children! (Raven can't be right, it can't just be hopeless!)

From there, all Salem really needs to do is be a bit careful how much she tells her other followers about what she plans to do—which it seems like she has—and eventually find a way to either hide what relics she has or convince Summer that she's trying really hard to destroy them, definitely, pinky promise!

(And, as an aside: if true, it's very possible that the reason Salem's so insistent on keeping Ruby alive isn't that she wants to turn her into another Hound, but rather that was one of Summer's conditions.)

All this, of course, may or may not come with a sprinkle of Grimmification. Because why not add some body horror to the good old-fashioned betrayal horror! Though, if I'm right and not going completely off the wall here, I suspect it's probably more in the vein of Cinder than TR. Namely, like, consensual.

Regardless, it definitely feels like Summer has been idealized to a point that's just sort of... begging for trouble. She's the perfect Huntress. The best of us. The one who would have pressed on. And like, historically putting people on pedestals like that has not gone well in this show (see: Pyrrha). Not to mention the way trying to be the perfect Huntress that Summer was has been affecting Ruby over the years.

Also, definitely totally unrelated to all of the above: I think paragons that turn to evil despite or indeed because of all their wonderful paragon qualities FUCK SEVERELY and I would like to see it.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 9 #tbh only very briefly but I wanna be safe #summer rose #ruby rose #salem rwby #tinfoil hat time #cw suicide mention #(Salem's canonical failed attempts)#long post

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rontra · 1 year

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I just realized- we don't know if Raven has a bond/portal to Summer, but if she does and if Summer is maybe alive..how do you think that would work? Any ideas on that? I'm genuinely interested

i've been sitting on this ask for a bit because my fungus wasn't in full bloom but like, fuck it, one week till the finale, let's get all the mushrooms on the table before we see whatever 9.10 has to say about summer HDHBFG <- PREPARING TO GET OWNED

the first thing you need to know is i have immense rosebird disease so everything hereafter is colored by that. i just think they're neat and i also love having remnant's #1 and #2 absent mothers in the same room

^so this is less "predictive analysis" and more "what i think would be cute for women to do". we're in the realm of transformative analysis. i don't necessarily "believe it is true/will happen", i'm just taking you to my infected playground to play outside...<3

ALSO IT'S LONG AS HELL 🤷‍♂️

but, okay, so, Kindred Link and Summer Rose. this whole Q is basically a flowchart to me. Step One:

Is Kindred Link voluntary?

there's a lot about raven's semblance we don't know, including how exactly said links are formed. however, we know very well from her twin brother that semblances can be an independent engine that fires according to its own rules, whether you want it to or not; it isn't impossible that kindred link is completely involuntary.

yang says (citing tai's explanation) that raven "marks" people, which is a wording that implies some amount of agency. but is that true?

okay um. this is purely headcanon. i admit. but i like it. so. it seems to me that raven's life would be very different if she could choose her kindred link loadout at will. we know raven and qrow were treated very differently by the tribe, and i think their semblances play a huge part in that. obviously raven's is not neutral: her semblance would be invaluable to her bandit family if they could control it, and i can imagine a great deal of energy was spent trying to cajole raven into forging links there. (family—only coming around when they need something.) raven has a whole host of issues stemming from the way she was raised, and i can't help but feel like her suspicion towards kindness is stemming from a history of people only treating her well because they want something from her, and the inevitable tension when she isn't able to simply give it. and i think with all that, if a young raven could be forced to forge links her situation would be different? so it makes sense to me that you can't just make kindred link Go.

that was a whole tangent solely for a headcanon but i did tell you this whole post is like that. i think you can't intentionally form these links, and you can't intentionally sever them either; after all, raven still has her links to the people who hurt her most.

like okay..., isn't it compelling to imagine raven branwen learning to care about these people, getting soul-bonded by her semblance to her chosen family, and still not being able to sever them even after being injured so severely by these people because her heart and soul can't let go of their attachment. tell me that doesn't make you swoon,

if her semblance is voluntarily controlled, i think it lessens the impact of the links she does have, so i'm choosing to rule it as involuntary. when raven forms a genuine attachment it's strong enough for her soul to respond. in the beginning, this was a bond she only shared with qrow, who was hated by their family: so she could go to him in an instant if she had to. in present time, we know she also has a link to tai, and yang, and had one to vernal (F) but apparently no one else in the tribe (telling).

there's no comment on summer's status here, but we've ruled kindred link as involuntary, so the next question on our flowchart is:

Were Summer and Raven close?

this is maybe the most tantalizing bit of the STRQ Puzzle to me because it's a wholly unknown component. tai and qrow both talk about summer and raven, and raven talks about both of them—but raven seems to make a concerted effort to not take summer's name into her mouth if she can help it. even when she's indulging in her favorite pastime (sniping at people) she doesn't have any bullets with summer's name on them. the closest we get is the "you sound just like your mother", which is definitely said in (DEROGATORY) tone, but is also pretty...mild compared to how she talks about the rest of the inner circle.

obviously this doesn't make the answer an automatic "yes": just as it's possible raven has a reason that compels her not to badmouth summer, it's also possible that their relationship was not substantial enough for raven to care about summer or her opinions. which WOULD BE a funny twist but it's also not a lot of meat to sink our teeth into (lol) because it would make the answer firmly No, Raven does not have a kindred link to Summer: an end to our flowchart!

but this post is.......not over......i'm not letting it be over...!!

personally i think STRQ is more fun if you split the twins up (because they would absolutely TRY to ensure they were partnered at any cost so we can't have that) which would make summer's partner one of the twins. i think it makes more sense (and more of that inevitable STRQ-breaking tension lol) if her partner is raven; summer was appointed the leader of her team and raven is a genuinely competent leader, you know this song and dance, yada yada raven is the weiss of her team (but has the leadership skills to back it up) etc etc

so, okay, that's her Partner, they have their ups and downs and various team-building exercises until both twins are ready to go Full Golden Heroism. like we know it isn't just qrow and that both of them get pulled away from their original goal to become wholeheartedly ozpilled; raven is cited as being just as All In with The Good Fight(TM) as her chosen family. in that scenario she and her heroic little partner could be plenty close just fine; i think all of strq became raven's chosen family, including summer rose...and it's just her soul responding ❤🤍

so yeah fuck it let's say Yes, Raven has a kindred link to Summer, now we have to keep going;

How does Kindred Link work?

oh boy.

by this question, i mean the following: how does raven experience kindred link, and how does it interact with her other senses? kindred link allows raven to open a portal to the other person and go to them whenever, from wherever, but there is more to it than that.

ONE: Kindred Link must, through some means, convey to raven WHEN she's needed. in volume 2, yang is in mortal danger inside a moving, enclosed, underground train car: there is no possible means to see inside, so raven's usual trick (bird spycraft) can't apply. even so, raven knows yang is in danger, exactly when she needs to know it. necessarily Kindred Link has somehow alerted her that her soulbond is in danger, and she would receive this information for any of her links. we don't know how dire the situation needs to be for this to happen, but we know it kicks in at LEAST for "immediate mortal danger". (because we have no insight into this, it is possible that raven's 6th sense pipes up far earlier for far less threat and she simply chooses to hang back.)

TWO: Kindred Link must, through some means, impart real-time awareness of what is happening on the other end of the link. simply put, when using her semblance, raven receives information about the other end of her link before the portal opens. at bare minimum, she knows where her person is in relation to other things in the space, and what the area generally looks like; she needs this information in order to place portals the way she does. raven's portals are always placed with purpose and a clear awareness of what's going on. this is how she's able to pull off an array of failwoman tricks, like her "placing the portal as far away from tai as she can get away with while crying and screaming" from the end of v5 (contrasted with her very funny move of lining her portal up so that it points cinder directly at ruby or her precise maneuvers during aforementioned train scene<3) these are different purposeful moves that all imply a fairly detailed level of knowledge—of a place raven can't see!

we don't know how raven experiences her 6th sense and what it's like from her side; likewise, we don't know if (2) here is "always on", or if it's only when actively trying to place a portal that she gets a quick download of the information she needs.

HOWEVER, these two things both being true makes it very likely to me that a Third Thing is probably also true: she would feel it if one of her links was severed, and only one force we know of can sever a link raven isn't ready to let go of. Whether Summer Rose is alive or dead, Raven would know.

oh my god...could you imagine?.... 😩

Is Summer alive?

yes. next question.

Why does no one else know, if Raven knows?

3 things: raven's severance from the ozluminati, her injured feelings, and potentially summer rose herself.

raven may still be in touch with qrow, but it's clear that receiving information from her is a privilege. she hoards and guards knowledge like a magpie, but she's also a spy: raven sharing what she knows is a show of trust or even loyalty and does not come easy. it doesn't come at all if you aren't her direct collaborator or someone she has specific self-determined reasons to share information with. to be blunt, receiving raven's intel is not a privilege her family has anymore, except for when she has a specific reason to talk to qrow. in general, the privilege has been thoroughly revoked, because:

the last time raven attempted to share information with her team, they rejected her. when raven's world turned too scary and she learned A Few Too Many Things about the realities of remnant and the unwinnable war—when she turned to her family for support—her family either did not understand what she was saying or chose not to believe her. she did not receive support in this critical moment, from the people she most loved and most needed; their rejection was a betrayal so fundamentally damaging to their bond that raven severed from them for good.

if raven was sitting on something as unfathomably charged as "summer rose is alive (and/or with salem(?????))", why would she spill? summer's family have already shattered her trust and she has no incentive to share information with them, because they don't deserve that privilege (<- this is obviously raven's hurt feelings turning thorny to protect herself).

this is already sufficient for me, particularly if their bond was close enough for raven to have Her Own feelings about summer being alive to untangle; she has known about this and protected the secret for a decade and a half, so it's possible she has her own reasons specifically for "protecting" this secret.

maybe the reason she doesn't involve summer in her insult volleys isn't because she has nothing bad to say; rather, it may be a part of her spy strats to avoid addressing summer too directly in any way, because she knows the secret. why invite conversation about her?

of course, the third potential factor: summer rose herself. we don't know what happened after summer left. but it's POSSIBLE that raven has met with her, later than anyone else; it's even possible that the "we can face her together" speech reminded raven of something that happened after summer left home. we don't know the extent of raven's knowledge of what summer has been up to, but it's possible that they've talked, either before summer met salem or after.

(if after, the rosebird box is wide open, because a salempilled summer is simultaneously raven's worst nightmare and a balm to her numerous cuts and bruises: imagine what it would do to her to hear you were right, we should have believed you.)

i am really obsessed with the concept of this weird mix of disloyalty to oz/tai/qrow/etc (who have been excluded from the List Of People Who Deserve It) and loyalty to summer (even if it's only out of Old Respect For My Partner (The Only One Who's Had The Sense To Defect) and they had no further interactions).

it's possible raven knows far FAR more than she lets on, depending on how much information kindred link has fed her about summer's whereabouts / if theyve met. crwby has a golden opportunity to do something very funny in the next episode (dragging raven into her mess)

it's possible raven never investigated further, too. that she knows summer is alive but hasn't gone to check it out, either because she doesn't want to know what's happened to her or she's convinced herself she's better off not getting involved.

but... oh.... i do think women should kiss...

(checks the flowchart) so i think we're at "Raven is keeping her secret on purpose for bisexual reasons"?

#um.#yeah 🙏

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bestworstcase · 3 months

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hello ive been combing through some of your rwby meta and a thought struck me in regards to this line you wrote when talking about the Maidens:

"the last spring maiden died under circumstances that have left raven emotionally shattered more than a decade later"

ive been thinking a lot about your theory of summer defecting to salem's side, and assuming thats true my thought was: did summer defect during her secret mission with raven and kill the spring maiden, all in front of raven?

raven was presumably close to the maiden based off conversations in v4, and we know that she portaled to Someone in the flashback(?) ruby saw in v9. i thought maybe it could've been qrow but tbh knowing rwby thats seems too easy of an answer, and maybe it couldve been vernal but for some reason I had been thinking vernal came post spring maiden's death.

though if summer DID defect on her own terms, while we dont know the woman and v9's whole thing was that ruby (maybe by extension the audience) had her on this pedestal, outright murdering someone that she once considered "on her side" might seem quite coldhearted for what little we do know. but it may also explain raven's fear of salem and her desire to stay the fuck out of her way, beyond just summer defecting. because if raven was close with summer like it seems like she was in that flashback, either at that point or in past because i'd think the abandoning yang thing would put a damper on good vibes, seeing your friend and teammate turn tail against everything you know and murder a child (?) would be uh, bothersome.

im new to the spinning my own thoughts game but thought i'd take a stab at rambling. cheers!

mumbles in all things must die

yeah i’m as close to 100% certain as it’s possible to be that the person on the other end of that portal was gretchen rainart the last spring maiden; i think the possibility that it might have been qrow on the grounds that we know raven has a link to him is an intentional red herring. (and if it was qrow, it would have had to be a case of raven using him as a fast-travel point without his awareness, a la in V5, because otherwise that would imply he lied through his teeth to ruby when she asked him if he knew anything about summer’s last mission in V7.) (similarly, vernal seems to be around cinder’s age if not younger—she would have been like, ten or eleven at the time.)

based on what summer says in the glimpse (“if i get this right”) and what’s said of the last spring maiden (that she was young and scared), i think the plan was for summer to confront salem alone, with raven and spring at a safe distance on escape duty: kindred link gives raven some way of knowing when her bonds are in danger, so if summer gets into trouble or things go wrong, raven opens a portal with spring there to fireball salem in the face (as cinder did to ruby at haven), hopefully buying enough time for raven to jump through, grab summer, and immediately portal back to spring. neither of them would’ve wanted the spring maiden anywhere near salem, and sending summer in “solo” gives raven’s emergency save the advantage of surprise. yeah?

but what i think happened is summer found salem, and salem—who at the time was not participating in ozpin’s war—intuited that summer wasn’t here under ozpin’s auspices, ergo did not fully trust ozpin and might be open to hearing salem’s side of the story. so instead of fighting back, salem let summer see that she couldn’t be killed and then started talking. and whatever she told summer was convincing enough to make summer want… some sort of proof. something more than the he-said-she-said to tell her who she could trust.

like, oh, say… maybe the relic of knowledge.

conveniently, she’s got raven waiting for her with the spring maiden, who can open the vault to retrieve the lamp.

so she signals raven by whatever means for a portal out, and then either recounts what salem told her honestly or comes up with some lie justifying why they need to get the lamp. (“summer rose, telling lies!” <- hm.)

i don’t buy the common assumption that raven and/or summer used the first question, because a) ozpin never shared jinn’s name with anyone, and b) if summer had learned it somehow prior to joining salem, salem would have already known the “password.”

what seems the most likely to me is that the three of them did sneak into haven academy, opened the vault, and figured out that the lamp had some kind of passphrase. at this point, summer and raven split on what to do. if summer told the truth about what she wanted the lamp for, perhaps she wanted to bring it to salem in exchange for more information and raven thought that was too risky wanted to go confront ozpin instead. if summer lied, maybe implying she needed the lamp to find a counter to some defense salem had against silver eyes, this would have been the moment the truth came out and i’d imagine raven would react badly.

into the mix of this very high-stakes disagreement, add summer’s obvious resentment of raven for leaving and raven’s equally obvious inferiority complex toward summer, and you have the perfect recipe for an emotionally volatile argument to get out of control and come to blows.

and, points at the ozlem girls. points at vernal. i think the spring maiden got caught in the crossfire and was fatally wounded taking a hit meant for raven, and then summer fled and left raven holding the bag. raven either mercy-killed spring to spare her an inevitable but slow and agonizing death, or just couldn’t do anything to save her; the magic passed to her, she sealed the lamp back in the vault, and then ran. i think this was when raven returned to the tribe, because she’d already burned a lot of bridges by leaving her family whereas summer was the ideal, the paragon, the perfect huntress—the good mother—so who the fuck would believe raven if she told them that the spring maiden, her charge, was dead because summer rose betrayed them all for salem and murdered her?

they already blamed raven for tearing team strq apart. if she’d gone back to ozpin with the spring maiden’s blood on her hands, she would have taken the fall for spring’s death—and quite likely summer’s, too, because summer rose was the best of us, the silver-eyed warrior, and what’s easier to believe? that your paragon of virtue and hope joined the enemy, or that the prickly ex-bandit everyone is still mad at for blowing up her relationship with tai and abandoning her daughter is telling an obvious lie to save her own skin?

meanwhile summer also can’t go back home because she did kill the spring maiden and really, catastrophic failed detour to corroborate salem’s story or not, she was salem’s from the minute she chose to listen to what salem had to say.

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