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#rosebird parents theory
anthurak · 27 days
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One thing that always feels so funny for me when it comes to the Rosebird Parents Theory isn’t when people simply disagree with the theory, but rather people apparently seeing the prospect of a ‘Raven is Ruby’s real father’ reveal to be this totally unthinkable thing and how could anyone ever think this could happen?!
Because once you get past the whole ‘two ladies making a baby’ hurtle, Raven being Ruby’s dad really fits into so many well-known fantasy/sci-fi tropes. Many of which RWBY notably has not done yet, or have already been tied to Raven herself.
I mean, the mysterious villainous and/or anti-heroic loner with ties to the family pulling an ‘I am your Father’ reveal on the protagonist? That’s a fucking CLASSIC. Hell, let’s consider a few things about Raven:
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Big, intimidating helmet.
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Clear Samurai inspiration.
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Wields a katana-like sword that technically has an energy blade (dust=energy) which is generally RED-colored.
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Possesses mysterious and terrible over-worldly powers.
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Has a mysterious past tied to our protagonist’(s) family.
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Was probably in love with our protagonist’s (apparently) dead mother.
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Yeah I’d say Raven makes for a pretty good Darth Vader-expy.*
Beyond that specific case, we’ve already seen the story connect Raven to a BUNCH of ‘mysterious and angsty deadbeat dad who left their kid for unclear reasons’ tropes when it comes to Yang. Why not have those apply to Ruby as well? People have been clamoring for years about wanting to see Summer’s narrative dynamic with Yang explored as much as the one she has with Ruby, so why not have the reverse be true with Raven and Ruby as well?
After all, it seems that the story has now given Ruby a reason to seek Raven for answers just as Yang once did.
And as I’ve noted in previous Rosebird Parents posts, No I don’t believe Raven also being Ruby’s deadbeat dad would be somehow ‘redundant’. Particularly because the context is completely different: Yang has known that Raven is her birth-mother for most of her life, whereas Ruby would only just now be finding out that Raven is her birth-father. Far from being redundant, this would allow the story to explore two very different responses of kids to an absent parent: One who has had to live with the knowledge of that absent parent for years, and one who hasn’t and has to deal with this NEW information suddenly getting dropped on her.
Plus, as I alluded to earlier, it’s rather notable that RWBY hasn’t done some big ‘dramatic parent reveal’, given how much of a staple it is to the genre. And given how reimagining, twisting and flipping classic and well-worn fairytale/folklore/fantasy tropes (often via playing with gender-roles) is basically RWBY’s bread and butter at this point, I’d say giving the series heroine an ‘I am your father’ reveal from a woman would fit PERFECTLY in this series.
And if you’re going to ask ‘but how do two ladies make baby?!?’,
Raven can be intersex. Boom. Done.
Alternatively, magic.
As an aside, yes Summer being trans is a perfectly viable alternative. I just think logistically speaking, Raven being intersex and being Ruby’s ‘father’ makes a dramatic reveal a bit more streamlined. Also, the idea of Raven managing to be BOTH a deadbeat mom AND a deadbeat dad is just too funny XD
*Of course, this comparison gets even more fun when we consider Summer having her own Vader-parallels, ie; Summer almost certainly being taken by Salem and given what we can probably assume to be a Vader-esque makeover via grimm-hybridization in setup for a big reveal. So when we combine this with Raven, I think we can view what happened on their last mission as ‘What if Padme/Obi-wan got turned into Vader INSTEAD of Anakin?’ Like Raven in the present is basically Anakin doing Obi-wan’s traumatized hermit shtick, except all angry and edgy because it’s still Anakin.
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short-wooloo · 1 year
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Ruby and Weiss: combat skirts
Summer and Raven: combat skirts
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
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citadelofmythoughts · 5 months
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Think part of the reason people are so defensive of Taiyang is that so many people try to write him as physically abusive in fanfics, to his kids AND his wives, despite him never being that. Also, the whole "qrow is ruby's father" theory being worshipped like a religion has led many disgusted with the theorists to try to defend the guy who the qrow theorists treat as an abomination. Sure, Tai is ranked above Jacques for sure, but he's still below Ghira in terms of good Dad. However, the defense for him came based on the irrationality of the hate groups. So, sadly, the whole debate gets complicated because of shippers. AGAIN. Funny thing is...Rosebird shippers seem to give him somewhat of a break, but really, RT could have done a much better job writing him. They wrote him like they wrote Nicholas Cage's fictional father in "National Treasure"
I'm going to take issue with one thing.
Why do you think Tai is badly written? Because to me the writing seems fine. Tai isn't a good father. That doesn't mean he isn't trying but trying and succeeding are two different things and you can hurt without meaning to.
I'll say this, Qrow was a lousy parental figure too. Seems to me that Ruby and Yang spent their childhoods not only trying to take care of each other but also the two parental figures they had left.
That's not bad writing, that's reality for a lot of people. Ruby and Yang became the wonderful, if flawed girls they are largely because they're innately good people with a bit of Summer's influence during their early years.
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deadbeatbirdmom · 3 months
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I came across an interesting headcanon/theory that Rosebird aka Summer Rose and Raven Branwen are Yang's biological parents, while Tai's her adoptive father.
That got me wondering where Yang's blonde hair comes from if that was the case. It's already a different blonde to Tai's, rather brighter. More golden. I don't know exactly how hair genetics works in reality, and the rules seem different in Remnant from what little I do know anyway.
Maybe her hair was once more like Raven's, or in the case of this headcanon, maybe more like Summer's or something in between. Maybe Yang secretly bleaches/dyes her hair. Maybe her Semblance permanently changed the colour the first time it set her hair aglow/ablaze.
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strqyr · 3 years
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I agree that All things must die sounds like a lulluby (so does Until the end-in my opinion) maybe its something that Summer would sing and Raven remembers it (I am admitidly biased, as a rosebird are Ruby's bio parents theory subscriber)
it's an interesting idea, but it doesn't really cover how the song is related to cinder as well, because, well... i think casey said it has to do with both raven and cinder, and the way i understood it, it was in a way the message of the song applies to both of them, so... idk.
i'm lost.
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tumblezwei · 3 years
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What would your reaction be if Raven actually was Ruby's parent and Rosebird was a thing
If it was a legitimate thing, I'd mostly consider it on the same level as the Qrow Dad theory, a useless addition that creates pointless drama and does nothing for the characters or their arcs.
Team STRQ already has enough strife between it's members, I don't see why people thinking adding more soap opera-esque melodrama is an actual good idea other than to satiate their desire for subpar plot twists and being able to write angsty/sappy fanfic.
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hadesisqueer · 4 years
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Okay so I just had the MOST INSANE crack theory just manifest itself into my brain right after I saw your post mentioning Rosebird as an explanation for Ruby looking like Raven. WHAT IF Raven and Taiyang are both Yang’s biological parents AND Ruby’s?? And Summer isn’t a biological parent at all, she’s actually adult!Ruby time-traveling to try to stop Salem sooner?? And Tai and Raven are the only ones who know the truth. Like OKAY I KNOW this isn’t plausible but JUST IMAGINE.
W-what?
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anthurak · 1 year
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So now that we at long last have Summer’s actual design, I can finally ask this question with absolute certainty and no ambiguous context:
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Why did CRWBY give Ruby, Summer AND Raven the SAME THREE COLORS?
And less relevant due to development lag and Summer’s outfit clearly having been designed/finalized much later, but still an interesting detail:
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In hindsight, Ruby’s Volume 1 look is basically the design of Summer’s outfit... with RAVEN’S predominantly red/black color scheme.
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anthurak · 1 year
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Something I find particularly interesting is the fact that only Ruby actually saw the memory, and thus is the only one to KNOW of Summer leaving with Raven.
Now that’s not to say I think Ruby won’t TELL Yang, and by extension Weiss and Blake, what she saw, particularly if she decides they need to go after Raven to get some answers.
But that won’t change the fact that Ruby is the only one to see this vision, while Yang, Blake, Weiss and anyone else didn’t. Ultimately, this knowledge of Raven being the one to know what happened to Summer is Ruby’s alone. And that could have some intriguing implications going forward.
I’ve spoken before in my Rosebird parents theory posts about how odd it feels that Ruby seemingly doesn’t have any connection to Raven, while Yang has links to all four members of her parents’ team. Well with this knowledge, I think we’ll be seeing the development of such a connection.
Because this time it won’t be Yang driving the impetus to track down Raven, but Ruby. This time it’s Ruby who has the questions that ONLY Raven can answer. Certainly Yang would also be interested in this information, but again she’s not the only who actually saw the vision. This would ultimately be HER journey for answers.
This vision creates a link specifically between Ruby, Raven and Summer, and gives Ruby a reason to seek out Raven for answers.
And going by how these tropes of ‘seeking out a mysterious figure closely connected to a character’s mother’ often play out, I think it’s all too possible that those ‘answers’ are going to include a surprise reveal that Ruby’s ‘father’ wasn’t who she thought... XD
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anthurak · 1 year
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Okay, so this episode showed us a flashback of two women who are close friends and share a red-black-white color-scheme having secret meetings in the woods and going off on secret missions together that they aren’t telling anyone else about. And seem to have been doing this for a while at this point.
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Before cutting to the girl who is daughter of at least one of them who ALSO shares that same red-black-white color-scheme.
Gee I WONDER if this could be hinting at anything?
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anthurak · 1 year
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An In-Depth Analysis of the Interpersonal Relationships of Team STRQ (and why Rosebird is DEFINITELY a thing)
So I’d like to do something of an analysis on the interpersonal relationships of Team STRQ. More specifically, analyzing Qrow’s, Taiyang’s, and Raven’s respective relationships with Summer, based on what the show has directly told, and shown us.
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Starting with Qrow, as I think this analysis is the most straightforward. Now to get one thing out of the way, I think we can definitively say at this point that Qrow is NOT RUBY’S SECRET DAD. Beyond CRWBY thoroughly debunking the theory at this point, nothing we’ve seen or heard really paints Qrow as having been in any kind of romantic relationship with Summer. Or at least any that would supersede any romantic relationship with Raven and/or Tai in some ‘Poly-STRQ’ scenario.
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To begin with what we’ve heard of Qrow’s relationship with Summer, we’ve actually heard quite a bit, relatively speaking. In terms of dialogue, we’ve heard more about Summer from Qrow than either Tai or Raven, which is helpful in getting a sense of what their relationship may have been like. From his conversations with Ruby in Volumes 3 and 7, we can say that Qrow views Summer with both admiration (“She was always the best of us…”) and fondness and affection (“Bit of a brat though. But hey, I like brats.”). But the detail I find most telling is the ease that Qrow has in talking about Summer, particularly in Volume 7. When Ruby asks him about Summer and her ‘last mission’, Qrow isn’t hesitant or all that uncomfortable with talking about his teammate. Which gives the impression that Qrow has actually coped with Summer’s (apparent) death fairly well.
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Which in turn is notable because THE go-to narrative method of hinting that a character was romantically involved or had feelings for another character long missing/dead is to show them being clearly uncomfortable TALKING about that other character (something we’ll be revisiting in a little bit…). Something we don’t see from Qrow when he talks about Summer.
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It’s also notable that while Qrow, along with almost all the other adults in the show, was something of an unreliable narrator in the early volumes, his talk with Ruby about Summer happened AFTER Volume 6 when Qrow opted to finally start being open with and trusting of his niece and protégé. Meaning that I think we can trust that Qrow is being genuine in his talk with Ruby in Volume 7.
And in terms of what the show has so far directly shown us about Qrow’s relationship with Summer, the answer is notably: Nothing. Because unlike Tai and Raven, Qrow was absent from the big important flashback giving us our first look at Summer. Which combined with what we’ve heard from Qrow, tells me that the narrative of RWBY considers Summer’s relationship with Qrow to be less dramatically important/significant than her relationships with Tai or Raven.
Moving on to Taiyang, what’s interesting is that Tai’s relationship with Summer is kind of in the inverse situation of what we see with Qrow’s. In that with Qrow we’ve heard some but seen nothing, with Tai we’ve seen some but heard almost nothing.
I mean, consider for a moment that prior to the tenth episode of the NINTH volume of the series, EVERYTHING we knew about Taiyang’s relationship with Summer Rose came to us second-hand from Yang in ONE conversation with Blake back in Volume Two! I’ve spoken before in other posts that if feels quite curious that while the overlying text of the story claims that Summer’s relationship with Tai should be very important, given that they are supposed to be Ruby’s PARENTS, yet we have heard effectively NOTHING about it. Other than a simple claim that ‘it existed’. I mean, forget how we’ve heard more about Summer from Qrow than we have from Tai; we’ve heard more about Summer from RAVEN than we have from Tai (more on THAT in a little bit XD)
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Now of course, unlike with Qrow, as of the finale of Volume 9, we have actually SEEN a look at Tai’s relationship with Summer. Albeit a brief look, but enough to get something of a sense of it. What I find interesting is that despite this being our first look at Summer’s relationship with Tai, this scene/vision doesn’t really tell us, or Ruby, anything she/we didn’t already know about these two. That Summer and Tai were really close… and that’s pretty much it.
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And what I find even more interesting is a curious amount of ambiguity towards the nature of Summer’s and Tai’s relationship in this scene. Despite the text of the show claiming that these two were lovers, this scene is notably lacking the kind of overt romantic gestures we might expect, such as a kiss or long held gaze. Yes, Summer and Tai have a very close hug, but let’s not forget that RWBY has used close, intimate hugs like this as a gesture of platonic or familial love/affection just as much if not MORE times than as a gesture of romantic love. Just look at Ren’s hugs with Jaune, or Jaune’s hug with Ruby, or even that time Ironwood hugged Qrow. Simply put, I don’t think that hug tells us nearly as much about Summer’s and Tai’s relationship as people might think.
Finally, we come to Raven. And funny enough, unlike Qrow and Tai, I would argue that we have both heard AND seen QUITE a bit about Summer’s relationship with Raven.
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When it comes to what we’ve heard, it’s not just what we have heard from Raven about Summer that’s important, but what we HAVEN’T heard as well. Across Volumes 4 and 5, we see Raven all too happy to mock, criticize and generally smack-talk just about everyone from her old life, from Ozpin, Qrow, Taiyang and even Yang.
But not Summer.
For some reason, Raven NEVER has anything bad to say about SUMMER.
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And the ONE time Raven does mention Summer, it is during a talk with Ruby, Summer’s daughter. Not only that, but rather than criticizing or mocking Summer’s memory, Raven’s line of “You sound like your mother,” is at worst neutral and might even have an undercurrent of respect.
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Finally, Raven’s tone and demeanor when she says this line come off as very guarded and restrained. Combined with how she never mentions her outside of this scene, one thing becomes quite clear:
Raven does not like to talk about Summer.
Remember what I said back in the Qrow section about characters having difficulty/resistance to talking about another long-missing/dead character as an easy way to hint at a prior romance or romantic feelings?
Yeah, this is EXACTLY what I was talking about.
And then we come to the flashback/vision in Volume 9’s finale. The scene which, while also brief, showed us a LOT about Summer’s relationship with Raven.
Whereas Summer’s scene with Tai merely showed us things we already knew from Yang, her scene with Raven is a MAJOR reveal that establishes a whole new dynamic that both Ruby, and much of the audience had NO idea about.
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That Summer and Raven were actually quite a bit closer than anyone ever realized. That Summer apparently trusted Raven more than ANYONE else to help on her secret mission while also having apparently taken Raven leaving Yang, Ruby and herself rather personally. And that Raven herself was actually quite a bit more upbeat and joking around Summer than we see her in the present, while also specifically showing a joking, awkward and even bashful side around Summer that has a lot of curious similarities to how Yang has acted around BLAKE.
And when we take this scene in conjunction with what we see of Raven in the present, a surprisingly consistent and complete picture emerges of Raven’s relationship with Summer.
In Volume 5, Yang notes that Raven is different from the woman she heard about from Tai and Qrow. Introducing the question that something changed Raven from the driven, determined and loyal woman Qrow and Tai knew to the bitter, angry and fearful woman we see at present. Well now we know almost for certain WHAT that something was:
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Raven lost SUMMER.
Taking these two elements together, we can see that Raven CARED about Summer. Cared about her so much that loosing Summer almost certainly BROKE Raven. Whatever happened during that mission turned Raven from this…
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…to this.
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We also know that Summer encountered Salem during her last mission, and whatever happened during that encounter seems to have inspired Salem to begin her grimm-hybridization experiments. And now that we know that Raven was with Summer on that mission, it becomes pretty easy to guess why Raven is so convinced Salem cannot be killed, and is so utterly TERRIFIED at the prospect of facing her again:
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Because Salem took Summer away from her.
Raven’s refusal to smack-talk Summer and the great difficulty she has in even mentioning her, Raven’s utter terror of the woman who did SOMETHING to Summer, that we now know Raven was almost certainly present to witness, and Raven being both quite friendly and awkward and willing to help Summer with her secret mission in the past.
All of it adds up to Raven having cared about Summer a GREAT deal. Likely cared about her the most out of her teammates. Given how she’s clearly taken Summer’s loss far harder than Qrow or Tai.
And when we add in Summer’s clear trust in Raven, that she trusted Raven above anyone else to help in her secret mission and even her clear resentment of Raven leaving Yang, Ruby and herself, we get a sense of just how close these were.
Summer and Raven were in all likelihood closer with each other than they were with anyone else. Sure, Summer certainly cared about Tai and Qrow, but it is Raven whom she TRUSTED above all others. And despite whatever caused Raven to leave her team, she still came back to help Summer with clearly no hesitation or reservation.
The funny thing is, with this scene we now know, or at least can reliably infer, more about Summer’s relationship with RAVEN, than we do about her relationships with either Qrow OR Tai.
And the thing is, this makes perfect sense when you consider the story arc going forward that this scene is almost certainly setting up:
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That Raven is now THE pivotal figure in the mystery of what happened to Summer Rose. Because it is now clear to both the audience and to Ruby that Raven must KNOW what happened to Summer. Going forward, it is Raven whom Ruby and her team and family must pursue for the answers of what happened to Summer.
With this scene, the relationship between Raven and Summer just became THE most consequential among those of Team STRQ for the story going forward.
It’s one of the big reasons why Rosebird as a pairing just feels so fitting for these two. It’s why it suddenly makes sense we don’t hear all that much about Summer from Tai or Qrow, and why neither of them know what happened to her; because the story of who Summer was and WHAT happened to her isn’t theirs to tell.
That story is RAVEN’s. And of course, Summer herself once we find out she’s not actually dead.
And the crazy thing is, even Raven turning out to be Ruby’s father feels like a natural extension of this: The relationship between Summer and Raven is now established as this very significant and consequential element, and now Ruby will almost certainly be driven to seek Raven out for answers as to what happened to her mother.
(Note that I say RUBY specifically. Because while Yang will certainly be involved and invested in this search as well, it is ultimately Ruby and only Ruby who saw the vision. Thusly, SHE is the one ultimately driving this arc.)
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So we now have Ruby on a quest to find Raven to find out what happened to Summer. The young girl seeking out the older woman whom she bares a curious resemblance to in order to find out what happened to her mother, whom this other woman was actually quite close with.
The writers might not have confirmed or directly hinted at Raven being Ruby’s secret dad, but they sure as hell put us on a narrative path the could absolutely lead to such a reveal.
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anthurak · 1 year
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So I’ve been thinking about the whole theory of ‘Poly-STR’ that a lot of the fandom seems to have started latching onto recently, particularly with the revelation/confirmation that Summer and Raven were a LOT closer than anyone (aside from Rosebird shippers) thought.
And the funny thing is, I don’t think anyone really appreciates the fact that the theory of Summer, Taiyang and Raven having been in a polycule is actually built on an incredibly shaky foundation.
See, let’s consider for a moment where the theory of Poly-STR comes from; that this ship wasn’t created all on its own, but is simply the latest interpretation of a Summer-Tai-Raven dynamic that we’ve known about since Volume 2 when Yang explained her family backstory to Blake. That Raven was Tai’s first love and the two of them had Yang together, only for Raven to vanish without a trace. And sometime afterward, Tai got together with Summer and they had Ruby together. And sometime after that, Summer left on a mission and never came home.
Now if you’ve been with the fandom since Volume 2, you should know that there have been a number of different interpretations and developments of the dynamic between these three over the years; That Summer is Tai’s second love who stepped in after his first love Raven ran away. That there was some kind of outright love-triangle with Summer and Raven rivaling over Taiyang. And most recently, that Summer, Tai and Raven were in a polycule.
But here’s the wrinkle that I don’t think anyone is really appreciating:
This whole idea of a Summer-Tai-Raven dynamic that the fandom has been drawing all these ideas/ships from is based almost entirely off of YANG’s story that she told to Blake back in Volume 2.
And it is becoming very clear, especially after this latest episode, that Yang’s knowledge of her parents and family is in fact EXTREMELY flawed/limited. Even as early in the show as Yang’s very conversation with Blake in V2, we’ve known that Yang seemingly didn’t even know that Raven was her birth mother until AFTER Summer vanished. Then in Volume 3 we and Yang learn that Qrow has actually been in on-and-off contact with Raven for all these years and even has a pretty good idea where she is. Then when we learn about her bird transformation and portaling semblance, it becomes clear that, far from being ‘gone without a trace, never to return’, Raven has been around quite a bit and keeping an eye on Yang, and likely Ruby as well. And it’s pretty easy to guess that Qrow and Tai almost certainly KNEW about this, and DIDN’T tell Yang or Ruby.
Then in Volume 7, we and Ruby learn from Qrow that neither he, nor Tai, nor even Ozpin has any real idea what Summer’s final mission was even about. As Qrow puts it, this wasn’t an ‘Oz secret’, but a Summer secret.
Now at the end of Volume 9, we get a glimpse at just how little Ruby and Yang REALLY know. It turns out that Summer deliberately lied to nearly ALL of her friends and family about the true nature of her mysterious mission. And it turns out that Summer and Raven were FAR CLOSER than Yang or Ruby ever had any inkling of. With Summer apparently trusting Raven above all others with helping her on this secret mission, with Raven herself acting much friendlier with Summer than she has with ANYONE else we’ve seen.
Basically, I think all that we’ve seen calls pretty much EVERYTHING Yang told Blake about her family past during Volume 2 into question. You know, that very same conversation that the fandom has based much of, if not almost their entire perception of the Summer-Tai-Raven dynamic on?
Remember that RWBY has at this point a long and consistent history of both unreliable narrators and mentors/leaders/parents concealing VERY important information from their kids/our heroines. So should it really be so surprising there is a LOT that Ruby and Yang are wrong about concerning their parents and family?
It’s why I find it so interesting to see how some people seem so convinced about something like Poly-STR being a thing.
Like when I hear people say things like ‘Tai and Raven were definitely a couple’ or ‘Summer was definitely Tai’s second love’ or ‘Tai is definitely Ruby’s father’, I can’t help but wonder; ‘Are you sure? Are you really sure?’
Simply put, I don’t think much of the fandom really appreciates just how IN THE DARK we really are concerning the details of Team STRQ and what was REALLY going on before Ruby and Yang were old enough to fully remember.
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anthurak · 1 year
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You know, to all the very fine people who joined the RWBY fandom this volume...
When the finale happened, were you prepared for all the crazy people freaking out about how Ruby’s Mom and Yang’s Mom DEFINITELY fucked and that Yang’s Mom is probably also secretly Ruby’s Dad?
(myself being one of those crazy people of course XD)
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anthurak · 1 year
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So currently, my favorite argument that I’ve heard against Rosebird/Rosebird-parents being a thing is ‘Summer and Raven can’t have been in a relationship because Summer was hostile/angry at Raven in the flashback.’
Because you know, Summer not being angry/bitter towards her partner, girlfriend, secret-lover/baby-daddy for leaving her, their girls and their other teammates/possible polycule-mates makes TOTAL sense, right?
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anthurak · 1 year
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Having seen some discussion and gotten a few direct asks on the topic recently, I thought I’d do a dedicated post on an aspect of the Rosebird Parents Theory that I’ve touched on in other posts but have yet to address directly.
If Raven is secretly Ruby’s birth-‘father’/other mother, why have Qrow and Tai keep that a secret from her and Yang all this time? More specifically, if they apparently told Yang that Raven is HER birth-mother after Summer vanished, why did they not do the same for Ruby?
Now to get the simplest explanation out of the way first, it’s possible that Tai and Qrow simply don’t know themselves that Raven is Ruby’s birth-father. Of course I will freely admit that this is a rather dubious proposition and has to assume Tai and Qrow being rather slow on the uptake, and becomes especially dubious if Summer and Tai were actually in a close but ultimately platonic relationship. Though rather amusingly, this possibility gets a bit more plausible with the Poly-STR or even Poly-STRQ relationship that some have proposed. Specifically, if Summer already had a history of sleeping with Qrow, Tai AND Raven, it could leave her the option of being more vague and ambiguous as to WHO actually got her pregnant. Though again, I kinda doubt go this route.
Now with that out of the way, let’s discuss what I feel is the more likely option: That Qrow and Tai (and probably Raven as well) KNOW that Raven is Ruby’s birth-father and have been keeping that information under wraps this whole time.
First off; if Tai and/or Qrow told Yang that Raven is her birth-mother after Summer disappeared, why would they not also tell Ruby that Raven is her birth-father too?
Well, what if Tai didn’t MEAN to tell Yang about Raven, but rather let that information slip in the midst of his grieving? Note that Yang doesn’t specify that Tai (or Qrow) told her about Raven, only that she ‘found out’. If Yang only found out about Raven being her birth-mother because Tai let that info slip by accident or Yang found it out herself through some other means, then Tai and Qrow would have no reason to let Ruby know about Raven being her birth-father as well.
As to why Qrow and Tai would continue to keep Raven being Ruby’s father a secret? Well, because it’s pretty clear, certainly in the early parts of the show, that Qrow and Tai do NOT trust Raven, and generally consider her to be potentially dangerous to Yang and Ruby. Remember how in Volume 3 we learn that despite Yang having been looking for any information she can on Raven for years at the point, it turns out that Qrow has been in occasional contact with his sister this whole time and even has a pretty good idea where she is. And NEVER told Yang until she pressed him on the issue by revealing that Raven had stepped in to save her during the train breach.
It’s clear that Qrow and Tai have deliberately worked to keep Yang (and by extension, Ruby) away from Raven, at least while the girl were growing up. In that context, I’d say it makes PERFECT sense that they would keep Raven being Ruby’s birth-father under wraps too.
As to why they haven’t revealed this to Ruby in the present of the show? Well probably because it’s not exactly an EASY thing to reveal. I mean, what are you expecting? Tai to just sit down with Ruby sometime during the weeks she was recovering after the Fall and go ‘Oh, by the way, Yang’s mom is also your dad. Me and Qrow have been lying to you and Yang this whole time. Sorry about that.’
As for Qrow post-Volume 6 even when Ruby sits down with him and directly asks if he knows anything about what happened to Summer, I have to imagine Qrow’s decision to keep Ruby’s true parentage a secret would have been something along the lines of ‘this girl has got enough on her plate right now as it is. She doesn’t need THIS hot mess dropped in her lap too.’
And if you’re reading all this and thinking; “Wow, this isn’t very good parenting choices from Tai and Qrow,” well yeah, NO SHIT it isn’t. Need I remind you that one of RWBY’s main recurring themes is that of parents/mentors/leaders not trusting their kids with important/pertinent information being shown to be a BAD THING.
In that context, Qrow and Tai having kept the fact of Raven being Ruby’s birth-father under wraps this whole time fits PERFECTLY into the show’s themes and messages.
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anthurak · 2 years
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Rosebird Parents Theory Masterpost
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aka; Raven Branwen is Ruby’s real Daddy, aka; Ruby is actually Summer’s and Raven’s magic lesbian lovechild.
So I thought it was about time I actually compiled a proper consolidated list of the numerous discussions, explorations, ruminations and half-crazed rants I’ve done on this theory. In case anyone wants to see the full... scope of it all.
(Assembled in chronological order of original posting)
The shitpost that got me started down this rabbit hole.
“Raven the Deadbeat Dad” (first proper theory-post I ever did on the subject)
“When a Crazy Theory just keeps seeming more crazily plausible...” (holy shit I found actual EVIDENCE to this?!)
“Back on this Hot bit of Crazy...” (analyzing the ONE time Ruby and Raven have spoken on screen. Plus some musings on Cinder.)
Reading Between the Lines of just how LITTLE Yang and Ruby actually KNOW about their family (Remember how Summer, Qrow and Tai didn’t even TELL Yang that Raven was her mother until AFTER Summer ‘died’?)
A Rant about realizing that Character Designs are NOT accidental. (Holy shit, CRWBY had to have CHOSEN to make Raven look like she does...)
Why Taiyang is still Ruby’s Father (hey remember how we all agree that Summer is ALSO Yang’s mom?)
Reading Between the Lines of The Warrior in the Woods (has anyone ever thought about how much we ACTUALLY KNOW about the relationship between Summer, Raven and Tai?)
Yes, I do in fact know this all sounds crazy. (It’s not my fault is KEEPS MAKING SO MUCH SENSE!)
A funny little detail about Ruby, Summer and Raven... (Hey remember how this show is so obsessed with color-theory that just about EVERY character is named for a color in some way?)
A theory on how Raven could have knocked up Summer (AKA how it would actually be pretty fitting for Ruby to be a Rosebird magical lesbian lovechild...)
A short rambling/reaction to Summer’s official design (REMEMBER WHAT I SAID ABOUT ‘SAME THREE COLORS’?!!!)
Another brief rambling/reaction to the show giving us Summer and Raven mysteriously running off together before cutting back to Ruby.
Why Taiyang is STILL Ruby’s Father (and why it’s kind of hilariously irrelevant as an argument/point against Raven being Ruby’s secret deadbeat dad)
Why Tai and Qrow would hide Raven being Ruby’s dad (AKA, You know how adults in RWBY have a BAD HABIT of hiding really important shit from their kids?)
An In-Depth Analysis of the Interpersonal Relationships of Team STRQ (and why Rosebird is DEFINITELY a thing)
Why Rosebird Parents actually plays in a LOT of classic fantasy tropes (and how Raven has a surprising amount in common with a certain Star Wars character...)
(Supplementary Material not directly about Rosebird but related nonetheless)
Summer and the Crown (a theory on just WHY Summer went after Salem alone, and how Raven knows so much.)
The Disappearance of Raven SadEdgyBirdMom (theorizing on the REAL reason Raven left and why the reasons she’s given are probably bullshit)
Not the Bird You’re Thinking of... (analyzing the parallels between Team STRQ and Team RWBY and why Raven ISN’T her teams equivalent to Blake)
NtBYTo supplemental (Team STRQ is the ‘Disaster Team RWBY’)
Why the Vacuo arc is going to be VERY important to Ruby and Yang (or why the STRQ family reunion is going to be MESSY...)
The Ravens’ Odin (aka; how Ruby possibly/probably being an allusion to the norse god Odin can tie into all this)
An observation on the fact that only RUBY got to see the vision of Summer leaving with Raven... (hey look, a plot hook for RUBY to track down RAVEN)
Analyzing the fandom’s perception of the Summer-Raven-Tai relationship (and why we should probably be questioning just about EVERYTHING we learned about them from Yang...)
(Additional material to be added.)
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