Headscratchers / RWBY Part 1

An archive page for RWBY headscratchers.

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Ruby and Yang Names?

• Why, if they are siblings, do Ruby and Yang have different surnames? (Rose & Long, respectively)
  • It's possible that one of them changed their last name, or they may even be step-sisters (they are lacking much family resemblance, though that doesn't prove anything definitive)
  • The current prevailing theory seems to be that Ruby is adopted. The jury is still out on Yang though.
  • Word of God has stated that they're not related by blood.
  • Word of God refutes that statement: they are blood-related.
  • Word of God has also Jossed the theory that one of them is adopted.
  • They could be half-sisters as well. Heck, maybe this world doesn't really have family names. Have we seen anyone with the same surname yet? ( they are half-sisters.)
  • Heck, I know someone who has a different surname than his sister even though they have the same mother and father. He was born before their parents were married so he has their mother's maiden name, while his sister was born after their parents were married and has their father's surname.
  • In the Yellow trailer, Yang says that she has "several names", so maybe Xiao Long isn't even her real last name.
  • Or is it possible Yang and Ruby's parents were separated somehow? Ruby stayed with (Summer Rose?) her mother and Yang with their father with the Xiao Long name?
  • And Monty has finally revealed the definite answer on the subject: they are half-sisters with a common father. So that's one mystery cleared up.
  • Well, sort of. It's still a bit weird that Yang got their father's surname, while Ruby got her mother's.
  • Not really. It's obvious that Raven did not stick around after Yang's birth, and she apparently didn't want to have anything to do with Yang, so Taiyang probably just gave Yang his last name since Raven had no interest in her daughter. His dialogue about Raven in Volume 4 indicates that there was some bad blood between them by the end. They may have even agreed that she was more Taiyang's child than Raven's and that she should get his name since he was the one raising her.
  • But, unless Remnant has very different naming conventions than the real-world cultures it most resembles, the weird part isn't Yang getting Taiyang's name, it's Ruby only getting Summer's.
  • Parents in the real world can designate at birth what they want their child's last name to be, and Remnant's not really any different. Taiyang and Summer decided that they'd prefer Ruby to have her mother's last name, so that's how they signed the papers. Taiyang and Raven, or just Taiyang, decided that Yang would have his last name, and that's how they signed those papers. It's unlikely that Taiyang was planning on having more children when Yang was born, and a couple of years separate Ruby and Yang, so Taiyang and Summer probably discussed it and decided to be different with Ruby than with Yang, since they almost certainly had a much more stable relationship.
  • Yes, parents can choose any name they wish, but it would be very unusual to not include the name of a known father who wants to be, and is allowed to be, involved with the child. The question is not why she got Summer's name. The question is why she didn't get Taiyang's as well.
  • Why would she get two last names? We haven't really seen compound names much in Remnant, and the only character known to have one is Taiyang himself, which might preclude Ruby from getting a compound name. Ruby Rose sounds better than Ruby Rose-Xiao-Long. Middle names don't seem to be a thing either. And since we know that Jacques Schnee took the name of his wife instead of the other way around, naming conventions seem to be a little more fluid on Remnant, possibly to keep up with the tradition of naming children after colors.
  • Perhaps Ruby uses her mother's surname as a way of honoring someone who, according to everyone, was a great person. While Yang uses her dad's as a way of claiming her heritage and family, since she's not Summer's daughter.

Short OP

• Why do they use a shortened version of the already shortened version of the Opening song? They showed what looked like a full opening (sequence not the actual song) at the end of episode 1. But from then they use a shortened version of that sequence.
  • While it is an entertaining opening sequence, it's over a minute long. Doesn't that seem a bit tedious?
  • The first episode was also double the length of episodes two and three, it's for pacing.
  • It's possible that they'll use the full opening for the midseason and season finales.
  • This has been proved false.
  • Because the first episode is opening for the entire season while the other episodes are opening for just that episode. It's the same reason why they stick it at the end of the episode rather than the start.

Yellow Trailer

• Does the Yellow trailer take place before the show or after some point in the show? (It is thought by some fans) she was looking for Blake when talking to Junior, but didn't react oddly to seeing her in episode 3, which suggests the second option. However, she also didn't seem to recognise Roman, who was talking to Junior when she arrived, which would suggest the former. (but she was looking for her mother. If you look on Monty Oums Deviant Art account you'll see art with the words Transient Princess on it. This is Yang's mother Raven from Team STRQ.)
  • Monty has confirmed that the person Yang was looking for wasn't Blake, so there's that. As for the other thing, the trailer probably takes place during an off screen moment during the show. Either that or, if it was before the show, she just wasn't paying Roman any attention since she was more focused on Junior. (It was Yang's Mother Raven in the picture).
  • Monty has also confirmed that the trailers are prologues, or at the very least, that's what he calls them.
  • They may, however, be partially or wholly non canon, as the red trailer was called "A weapon resumé" and the others seem quite scattered.
  • It's been implied that the Black trailer is canon, a similar event is mentioned by Weiss to have infuriated her father in the past and it is implied to be when Blake left the White Fang.
  • In "Welcome to Beacon" Weiss actually refers to blowing up a night club so it's most likely canon and she was looking for Blake in between "The Stray" and "Black and White".
  • "Painting the Town" confirms that the Yellow trailer is canon (at least mostly — certain elements don't fit with the show's sequence of events), but I had always wondered why and when she'd be looking for Blake. Thanks for clearing that up.
  • "Burning the Candle" reveals that Yang is a mild obsession with finding her birth mother, so it is very likely that that is who was in the picture Yang was looking for. From that, Weiss's comment, and the fact that Yang references having been there before (and the Mooks reaction to her), we can assume the Yellow Trailer is definitely canon. The fact that Junior references renting some of his Mooks to Roman Torchwick, which we saw in the first episode, suggests that it did take place prior to the series.
  • Before. In the show, Junior tells Yang that he hasn't seen Torchwick for months - not since the "last time" she walked into the club, when he was making a deal to hire his mooks. In the yellow trailer... Torchwick is talking to Junior when Yang walks in. It's only been a few months of school so far. More importantly, at the very beginning of the series, Torchwick already has junior's mooks working for him - the guys with bowler hats and red sunglasses.

Thank you! I'm Sorry!

• Why did Pyrrha shout "I'm sorry!" after she saved Jaune? Especially considering he yelled "Thank you!". Why did she have to be sorry about? She should've said something like "No problem!" or something.
  • She might have been trying to provide a platform for him to land on rather than pinning him to the tree, hence the "I'm sorry!"
  • A platform? It's a spear. If she had aimed lower, he would've landed on his balls. That would've been funny, but still.
  • Or she had to resort to throwing her spear because she didn't land close enough to save him in a more dignified way
  • It's possible the 'spear people to surfaces' thing is going to be a Running Gag, and Pyrrha apologizing every time she does it would be part of the joke, whether it makes sense to apologize or not.
  • The "thank you" may even be part of the running gag. The first time, when Pyrrha pins Jaune to a locker, you can see Weiss mouth something that might have been "thank you".
  • The simple answer is that she's just overly polite. Those types of people do exist.
  • So Pyrrha's a Canadian?
  • Given that Vol 2's intro shows her aura generating maple leaves...I think that yes, she is.
  • Running Gag? Catchphrase, more likely.
  • She threw a spear at him that impaled him to the tree, like a butterfly. Yes, it did saved his life, but it was still painful and humiliating. And Pyrrha is just a nice enough person to care.
  • Plus, he's dangling there until she can find him, his clothes have a hole in them, and that was a dangerous thing to do.
  • Maybe because that was the second time she speared him to a surface like that? Maybe as a Call-Back to the previous episode?
  • Possibly because she likes him and is nervous and does illogical things when it comes to him and thus said "I'm sorry".
  • Is this a serious question? Because she just pinned him to a tree, that's why.
  • And because this is the second time we've seen it. The first incident occurred in Vol. 1, Episode 4, when Weiss requested help from Pyrrha to get her, or more specifically, Jaune, out of that current situation.

Blake's Absence

• Was Blake really in the launch sequence in episode 4? Kerry tweeted that she was, but at least half of the people who've seen the tweet think it's a joke. Ruby believes Blake is in the initiation in episode 5, which does imply that Blake was there, but then why would they omit such an important character? They can't have just forgotten something so important. Simply put, what happened to Blake?
  • When Ozpin and Glynda explained the task, Ozpin said they'd have to select a relic, return to the cliff and guard it. Guard it from what? Perhaps Ozpin has split the students into two groups - one to collect the relics and one to give that group a reason to "guard" them? Perhaps Blake is the one they'll have to protect the relics from.
  • Actually, Ozpin just had a bit of mushy diction on that line: he doesn't mention guarding at all. The line is really "We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately." It's an understandable mistake to make, though: the words at the beginning were pretty rushed.
  • Perhaps it was an oversight or the scene had to be cut for some reason.
  • She was launched. She met Yang and teamed with her in episode 6.
  • I just assumed she was launched from a different area, or maybe even at a different time (like, Ruby and Co were just the first batch, and the second batch was behind them, who stepped up once they were launched)
  • Word of God says she was launched, but she just landed on her feet. They kept it offscreen because, you know, Blake is a cat faunus.

"Right foot forward."

• While coaching herself, Weiss thinks she should keep her right foot forward... but moves her left foot forward instead. This unless her legs are facing at odd angles. Two viable explanations for this: either it's an honest mistake by the actress playing Weiss (in which case, WTF? Why didn't they fix that with a re-shoot?) or it's a sign that Weiss may not know her left from her right. I know people like this. As ridiculous as I think it is (and I do mean I have openly ridiculed them to their face about it), it's a real thing.
  • It could have been that she was just nervous and not using the proper words in her mind.
  • She's left-handed. It's possible that the instructions she was taught were for right-handers, and she just flips all the positions.
  • Most likely of all is that she meant 'right' as in 'correct', not the side.
  • Or she is one of the many, many people out there who confuse left and right on a regular basis.
  • Possibly, she's not thinking entirely clearly, and simply reciting the way she was taught, not accounting for her being a lefty.

Left handed sword draw

• Anyone else find it weird that Weiss keeps her sword on the same side as her dominant hand? Just try drawing a (imaginary) sword the same way and unless you are planning a reverse grip you are either twisting your arm and hand in unnatural angles or losing time as you re-adjust. She draws it too quickly in the white trailer to really see how she does it.
  • Word of God tweets that it's because Myrtenaster doubles as a pistol. Though still somewhat illogical because of exactly how it stay on her belt, there's also old artwork◊ of Weiss with an early design of Myrtenaster (or at least, its shape). This Myrtenaster seems to have a second handle that would make the draw sensible.
  • Drawing a sword from the same side isn't difficult. It's faster and doesn't interfere with your other arm (which, for most cultures, would be carrying and using a shield). The only advantage to cross drawing is it is easier for someone without training because it's one long motion rather than two very short ones. The Roman Legion is the best example of this because they used both. Anyone that expected to draw their sword when someone was literally trying to stab them, wore it on the right (pretty much every Legionnaire). Anyone that would have more than ample time to draw their sword before an enemy got near them wore it on the left (most notably Centurions).
  • And if there's any doubt whatsoever on what that troper just stated, this guy shows you in this video that it's in fact, possible to draw a sword, even a long one, from the same side as whatever hand you use, and goes to state the obvious reasons you'd want to do that, such as not having to lower your shield and expose yourself to attack, and not having to risk cutting your reins or your horse's neck if riding one.
  • As a left handed person, I actually find the motions easier to preform a left-side draw, and would really only want a weapon on my right side if I was practicing Iajutsu, in which case the drawing motion would be included in a strike. Of course, it used to bother me, thinking it would take longer, but having messed around with rulers and bits of pipe, it's actually really only unintuitive, rather than hard or awkward.
  • As another left-handed person, I actually use my right hand for sword-fighting. Everything I picked up, I learned from right-handed people. This includes using guns, as well, even though I'm a better shot with my left hand, I use my right. Keeps shell casings from smacking me in the face, too. Some people are naturally ambidextrous, some people teach themselves to be ambidextrous, some people just imitate others, and learn to do things right-handed without actually thinking about it. It's a weird world, isn't it?
  • I'm personally going to use a cop-out, though still valid, reason. Monty Oum wanted it that way. He has admitted that a) he is left handed and b) Weiss' fighting style is based off of his own experience with fencing. He himself probably draws left handed on a left sided sword and just applied what he knew to Weiss.
  • As a left-handed fencer, I find that very odd. No fencing coach would teach a first position (the position that resembles drawing a sword) simulating a draw from the dominant hip. But then again, Weiss often stands with her non-dominant side forward, so I'm just going to call it rule of cool. Fencing very rarely involves shooting ice at people, after all.
  • It doesn't? Clearly you must be doing it wrong. Try thinking more coldly.

Nora's malfunctioning Hammer Space

• In Episode 4, at the lineup, various camera angles catch sight of Nora... and the apparent weapon she wears on her back (an oblong object that resembles a gun on closeup). When Nora says "See, I told you", its handle rises over her shoulder. The next couple of times you see Nora (including her closeup as she grins as Ren), it's mysteriously missing. Then weapon returns the last time you see her as she is getting launched. When she appears falling near Ren in Episode 5, it is visible again. She does not have it with her in Episode 6 when she "boops" Ren.
  • It's probably just an animation glitch. The episodes are sort of still in "beta" when they're first released.

The King Taijitu Grimm

• Is the King Taijitu-type Grim two separate snakes, or one snake with a head on each end? We never see either's whole body and its name is the Eastern word for Yin-Yang, with one head white and one black.
  • The diagram in Professor Port's class shows only one head, so it may just be some sort of symbiotic relationship or the snakes are merely intertwined. Hell, maybe Ren just found a pair mating.
  • In the cast and crew livestream (10/24) it's mentioned that they are in fact one creature. Miles or Kerry (can't remember off the top of my head) notes that it's barely visible, and expressed some regret over the vagueness in the final product.

Ruby joining Beacon two years early

• Ozpin, the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, invites Ruby to come to Beacon, despite knowing that Ruby said she still had two years of training left at Signal Academy. While her abilities are impressive, it still doesn't make sense to initiate someone at a lower "academy" level two years early.
  • Could be easily explained by "Ruby is special", just like every tale of a farmboy hero literally ever.
  • The strange comment about Silver Eyes and his unusual focus on her suggest that this wasn't just picking a prodigy and advancing her two years. More on WMG
  • Beacon is a combat school, presumably Ruby's performance was good enough for Ozpin to bump her up. Like the headmaster of an engineering college accepting a middle school student who built a working robot in their backyard.
  • Ozpin knows that something big is going to happen soon (even though everyone else thinks it's a time of peace), and Qrow is one of his closest allies. Simply put, he needs Qrow's protege in the field ASAP, and doesn't think she'll have time to complete her schooling at Signal.
  • Ozpin's conversation with Blake in "Welcome to Beacon" outright states that entry to Beacon is not dependent on passing training at another combat school. Its from proving yourself worthy to attend Beacon, either by passing Beacon's entrance exams or having transcripts proving you have the skills needed to join Beacon. Blake never went to any combat school, after all. So, if you prove you have the combat skills, Ozpin can just approve you right off to join. Ruby proved her skills in the robbery, and her motivation and willingness to become a Huntress in the interview. That's all Ozpin needs.
  • Now that we know more about what's going on, how important the silver eyes are, Qrow's relationship to Ozpin's conspiracy, and what happened to Amber, it makes more sense that Ozpin would want an obviously-skilled, powerful warrior like Ruby moved forward to receive more advanced training. With the silver eyes and Qrow's instruction, plus what he saw during the recordings from the theft, and the fact that he needs as many fully-trained, experienced Huntsemn/Huntresses as possible with someone attacking the Maidens, it makes sense that Ozpin would push her forward to let Ruby reach her full potential.
  • Also, given Qrow's close relationship with Ozpin, it's very likely they would have spoken about her already and that Ozpin intended to move Ruby forwards even before the events of the first episode. Since Ruby's extremely distinctive weapon and silver eyes make her unmistakable, he would have known who she was even before talking to her; everything in his conversation was just an attempt to ease her into it (we can see that she was freaked out enough by being advanced two years; if she'd caught the implication that it was partially because of her uncle and who she was descended from it would have hit her even harder and damaged her self-confidence. Hence why they didn't talk about the silver eyes thing, too.)

Weiss' uniform

• Where did it go between the first and second halves of The Badge and the Burden? Is it a stonking great error or did the whole class wait for her to go and get changed during the fadeout. It seems unlikely that Beacon has a uniform for classes but not for fighting in. Maybe it's a technical issue and the uniform models aren't yet optimized for the versatility required in fight scenes.
  • Perhaps it wasn't merely an inconsistency when the four girls suddenly appeared for one shot in their normal clothes. Maybe it was to express that they can change outfits at whim.
  • The four with their battle clothes on was an error as by the time the episode was uploaded on Rooster Teeth YouTube channel, they were in their school uniforms.
  • Beacon's school uniform code is pretty lax either way, and the "Normal" clothes everyone wears seems to be what they're used to fighting in. It makes sense that they wouldn't want their students to have to learn how to fight in a special uniform alongside learning more important things.
  • Weiss didn't have her sword on her in class, so she would have to have gone to her room/locker to get it. Perhaps she just felt like changing in that time as well?

Port's Weapon

• How is it supposed to work? If you try to shoulder it to fire or even fire from the hip, you risk cutting yourself because the axe blades just get in the way.
  • Maybe they fold in?
  • I'm more concerned with what happens if you fire it when you're trying to swing it. If you use it as an axe, the barrel is pointed towards you. I suppose it's possible that, if the blades do somehow fold, it's mechanically made impossible to fire while in axe mode.
  • Port seemed to be swinging it in such a way that the barrel wasn't pointed at him. Still though, it's not the only weapon that sometimes does that. My guess is that some mechanism stops the things firing actual bullets in melee mode, and then aura protects the users from the blast itself.
  • It's based off the Blunder Ax from the later 1600's. [1]◊

That box of Rapier Wasps...

• Cardin planned to use those Rapier Wasps Jaune caught for him on Pyrrha; but when Jaune decided to say no to Cardin's plan (and when that huge Ursa attacked), where did that box go? Did it remain in Forever Fall Forest?
  • Glynda found it with CRDL's things when they went back to Beacon, and it got them into trouble
  • Or maybe the Ursa stepped on it. We could pretty much guess or make up anything we wanted. Since it's past it's plot significance, we won't get a serious confirmation on the matter.

Roman's weapon

• Beyond the concept of a walking cane doubling as a rocket launcher-thingy that will quickly fly by all save for those who are incapable of Willing Suspension of Disbelief without trouble, the see-through sights of the weapon popping up from the bottom end is kinda funny since a walking cane would have to touch the ground repeatedly to be used at all and naturally probably render such sights less than see-through. In the first episode where Roman uses it, he interestingly does never seem to use it as an actual walking cane that touches the ground, but his first display of his weapon is right after he uses the cane's bottom end to crush his lit cigar he dropped onto the ground which brings the whole Fridge Logic up again.
  • Considering all the crazy weapons that should logically fall apart the moment they're used in this world, it's not too unlikely to assume that the scope is made out of some special material that resists scratches and dirt.
  • I was wondering about the existence of such materials as I wrote up this headscratcher!
  • Maybe the same material than the solar roadways scam.
  • It's not a scope or anything. He doesn't need it to be clean and scratch-free, he just needs to see the crosshairs. Also, it's possible that the sight is recessed slightly into the launcher, just enough that it never actually touches the ground.
  • If he didn't actually need to see anything with the sights (for example, because it's covered in mud), I don't think he'd really need the crosshairs at all then since that would be pretty much only slightly better than eyeballing it (which in its own way would justify why it doesn't really matter about its condition). But I doubt making it slightly go into the launcher when not in use would entirely avoid how he crushed a cigar with it.
  • It could just be piece of thin plastic or metal shaped like crosshairs with nothing in it.
  • I thought of that the possibility myself as well, but the crosshairs are not attached to anything by its sides which would imply that it's painted/drawn/etc. to a transparent material.
  • Maybe it's a hologram.
  • A crosshair that low to the barrel, that small, that far away would be useless the way Roman uses it anyway. It might be worthwhile if you squinted down the shaft like a rifle, but you can't fire it from that position because the trigger's where the stock would be. The crosshairs are more just a covering for the bore, as well as providing a point on the top of the barrel to help with very rough aiming. And besides, it's a firework launcher. It's not like you have to worry about aiming when you have that big a blast radius.
  • In a series with a sniper rifle/scythe that unfolds from a 1ft x 1ft box, is the viability of a set of crosshairs really that big a sticking point?
  • I believe, given the fact it seems he never USES the sight looking attachment, that its function is mostly to just keep dirt out of the barrel if and when he uses it as a cane. It popping up is also an easy-to-see sign that the gun part is armed, at least for the one holding it.
  • For the manner that Roman uses the crosshair on his cane, it's perfectly functional. Roman never really engages in a truly long-range shot that would require extreme precision; even Ruby on the rooftop was a very close target, as far as firearms go. At the ranges Roman uses the crosshair at, the reticule is less about precisely ensuring he hits a target a hundred meters off, and more about giving him a guide point to direct his fire. Melodic Cudgel's shots certainly aren't intended to be used at long range, simply going by their velocity.

Weiss and Velvet

• In Episode 15, Weiss reveals she has a distrust and overall hatred of White Fang and Faunus in general, not even willing to acknowledge a difference between ones who are with the extremist organization and ones that aren't. However, in Episode 11, Velvet, a Faunus, was being harassed by Cardin and Team CRDL right in her line of sight. She seemed to be preoccupied with her nails, but she couldn't have not seen it happening AND blocked out all of her friends condemning Cardin's bullying and sympathizing with the hardships of being a Faunus. It's possible that her silence may have been an indirect way of hiding her intolerance while at the same time not showing her being against the bullying, but she's been established before and since then as a very outspoken individual on whatever discussion she chooses, even going on a tirade about White Fang the MOMENT their name came up at the crime scene in Episode 15. Why hold her tongue when during Velvet's bullying, but go full on racist a short time later?
  • She's not but just racist seems to hate Faunus who work with the White Fang. She always said "White Fang" or "the Faunus of White Fang", never just Faunus. So, while she still mistrusts Faunus, she's not going to tongue-lash unless she thinks they're crooks like those connected with White Fang (After all if you recall White Fang a peaceful faunus which even to someone who lost family member to White Fang are hurting those guys so is willing to keep her hatred till otherwise.)
  • No, she very clearly hates all Faunus. She blames White Fang, but she pretty much considers all Faunus just as bad. She even knew Sun (the monkey guy) wasn't a member and he still called him a filthy degenerate, so clearly it's not just affiliation to White Fang that she hates, she just hates them, period.
  • He was a criminal. He rode illegally on that ship, there were police who wanted to arrest him so her dislike of him is justified.
  • And I quote: "Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat and steal." Plus her description of Sun to Penny is of a "filthy Faunus". And even if her hate is centered on White Fang, projecting that anger and mistrust onto ones that aren't in that group is also a form of racism.
  • First of all, again filthy faunus, what part of being a criminal, or me mentioning the crook aspect aren't you getting? (Not to mention knowing if they're looking for a human or not might be useful) secondly, that comment to Faunus white fang during Blake and Weiss argument aforementioned organization, that killed family members, employee and her father abusing her due to the actions of said organization. All her hatred is to white fang. I will concede her mistrust to faunus due to her past experiences with White Fang making her believe that any Faunus could be a member of White Fang or join up with White Fang if given the chance might have undertones of this. But I thinks its more of a distrust to all faunus (Especially criminal) joining that group...
  • And what part of "projecting that anger and mistrust onto ones that aren't in that group is also a form of racism" do YOU not understand?
  • Just to nitpick, I just watched that scene, and the line quoted here was taken from a conversation about the White Fang; when she says "those Faunus" it's entirely possible that she's referring to those specific Faunus who are part of White Fang rather than all Faunus. In fact, the entire argument between Weiss and Blake wasn't really about Faunus in general. Weiss was mad because Blake was defending White Fang, a group that's been harassing and attacking Weiss' family for years, and trying to pass them off as not that bad. In fact, as far as I can remember (and I admittedly might have missed something), Weiss never shows any blatant hatred to Faunus who aren't a part of White Fang. The only exception is the monkey guy, and it's pretty clear that he was actually breaking the law. It's totally true that Weiss has a skewed view of the Faunus, but it's not like she's actively campaigning for them to be banned from Vale or anything.
  • I agree that Weiss in her mind was likely arguing against the White Fang, but Blake was arguing in defense of Faunus as a whole. It's why neither one is willing to accept the other's viewpoint. Weiss thinks standing up for a terrorist group is absurd while Blake believes Weiss is insulting the entire Faunus race.
  • Let's not get too into that, since Weiss's feelings on the matter are a pretty touchy subject in the fanbase. In Episode 11, she simply had no reason to get involved whichever way you look at it. Nothing was said about Velvet herself, just how nasty Cardin was being. Whatever Weiss thinks about faunus, it wouldn't be worth the argument to try to justify Cardin. This is especially true since, as Jaune said, he's a jerk to everyone, human or faunus, and that includes a friend of most of her teammates (Jaune himself) who she has no reason to show outright hostility towards.
  • Another nitpick, she didn't say, "Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal", she said, "The Faunus of the White Fang". As previously stated, she almost always said "the Faunus of the White Fang" when saying bad things about them, the only exceptions being when she referred to Sun (and that was because he broke the law), and when she said, "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? Why I don't particularly trust the Faunus?" It seems she doesn't hate Faunus in general, she just doesn't trust them as much as she does humans. It's the White Fang she actually hates.
  • Someone is forgetting that Weiss's racism is an emotional knee-jerk response, not a set of belief. She's mad at a group of people she's only heard talking about and that, for all she's concerned, have ruined her childhood (after all, trying to find excuses for Abusive Parents IS a common behavior of abused children in real life). She doesn't know much about the Faunus in general, and all she has are some stereotypes and her bad childhood experience. At her current age, she IS mature enough to understand rationally that most Faunus have nothing to do with the White Fang, and she certainly understands that her father is a piece of shit and his workers are damn well justified in being mad at him, but she'll still lash out if talking about the White Fang, simply because she has spent so much time being mad at them. At the same time, it's shown that she is not a bad person underneath, and while she may hold negative views about the Faunus, when dealing with real people and not just the stereotypes in her head, she will show much more compassion, as she did with Blake.
  • On Blake's side, it has to be remembered that Blake was a member of the White Fang for a while. She's seen them do good things, she knows good people within the organization, and she understands what they're fighting for. She thinks they've lost their way, but she's still somewhat touchy over someone branding them 'pure evil'.

Blake's ears

• Does she have 4 of them? I'm pretty sure I can see human ears on her as well.
  • Yes. The other Faunus have also been shown to also have both a pair of human ears and a pair of animal ears.
  • Does anyone here know of a mammal with four ears or should we list Blake, Velvet and the rest under Artistic License – Biology?
  • Meet Yoda the cat with four ears. http://www.infinitecat.com/cat-tales/may-the-four-ears-b-with-u.html
  • Should we really be worrying too hard about the biology of half animal people in a world where ground up crystals can make things freeze solid.
  • How can you NOT worry?!
  • I suspect that while their "human" ears process sounds the same ours do (language, pitch, rhythm, etc.) their "animal" ears are probably more instinctual, providing a kind of sonar sense (to certain degrees depending on the animal type: cat, rabbit, mouse, bat, etc.)
  • Maybe the Faunus ears are non functional? When Blake takes off the bow, there's no ear canal for her kitty ears. Could just be an animation limitation, or it could be that her ears are just decorative.
  • More interesting to note that neither Adam nor Sun possess Faunus ears (Adam has horns while Sun... just has nothing).
  • Sun has a monkey tail. There's also a silhouetted faunus in Jaunedice who doesn't have any visible animal traits, yet raises his hand when Oobleck asks whether anyone has been discriminated against because of their faunus heritage. Presumably faunus traits can manifest elsewhere on the body than just the head.
  • The Double ears thing is do to the limitations of the Poser Program at the moment. You cant remove the human ears for now sadly.
  • Characters with cat ears in the MMO City Of Heroes couldn't get rid of their models' human ears either.
  • Aside that you can (many of the regular Poser humanoid figures have morphs to make the ears invisible), this wouldn't matter anyway because the characters in RWBY are built in other software and rigged and animated in Poser. If you don't want a character to have ears, you simply model them without ears.
  • Technical limitations aside, I'm pretty sure Blake and other Faunus with animal ears are supposed to also have human ears. If they didn't, that'd be a pretty big (and creepy) tip-off both to the audience and the other characters that they aren't human.

Hiding ears

• How is a bow able to hide her Neko ears, anyhow?
  • By being an opaque object which is the right shape to cover them without looking unusual enough to draw attention to it?
  • ...Huh? I thought it was saying she hid her ears IN her bow, which really isn't physically possible.
  • The loops on the bow are clearly large enough for her to tuck her ears into (given it appears to be a ribbon when she removes it, she presumably ties it specifically to wrap around them).
  • Hidden In Plain Sight. What better way to hide a certain anatomical feature than with an accessory that makes you appear to have said anatomical feature? Nobody in a normal frame of mind (i.e. not Penny) would ever suspect that the obvious giant ribbon that gives the impression of having cat ears is hiding real cat ears, because that would appear to defeat the purpose of hiding one's cat ears. It's like how Reacher Gilt's obvious pirate persona makes him seem like someone who can be trusted with your money.

Team selection strategies

• Ozpin talks about how important it is to be paired with people they can work together with well. Yet teams are chosen by entirely arbitrary means. First people get paired up according to who made eye contact first, then those pairs are paired into four-person teams according to who brought back matching chess pieces without anyone being told that that was a team selection criteria. Nobody gets to choose who to be teamed with, and it's all left up to random chance. No transfers allowed. Is this really an effective team assignment strategy? Also, how do they choose team names if they can't get the members' initials to spell anything?
  • Well, obviously the entire team would be expelled. Where do you think the teams that got the other pieces in the initiation went?
  • Use their last name initials. If that doesn't work either, then you're ''really' screwed.
  • Lol... and on topic, I wonder if Ozpin only used the relics as an excuse to team the candidates he had observed to work together best and CRDL simply got roped into it.
  • But then how did he know which pieces they'd pick?
  • Ozpid had already watch the opening in episode 1 so he knew what the teams would be regardless of criteria and decided to have fun with it.
  • Would Ozpin just go, "Nathan, Quentin, Laura, and Xavier, you shall be Team NQLX. Glynda, contact Webster's and get them to make 'naquilox' a word."
  • Eh, most schools select dorm mates entirely at random. Granted they allow for transfers, I'm sure if there was some unresolvable interpersonal issues within a team Ozpin or Glynda would allow a transfer. It may be their way of training you that sometimes in battle you don't get to choose your allies and need to learn work with what you have. The Ruby Juniper squad is lucky they work together so well.
  • It's possible fate is a very powerful force of nature that exists in this setting, and it's a big determinate of how teams come to be. Still, I'd like to see a Team BAMF show up at some point.
  • More likely, given how loose the pronunciation guidelines for the acronyms are (STRQ —-> Stark, CDNL —-> Cardinal), and the sheer volume of color related vocabulary, especially since the color related vocabulary can be rather loose at times (Juniper and cardinal berries is a rather loose association), with enough creativity you can fit almost any 4 letters into an acronym that is pronounced like a color related word.
  • I think the idea is that they need to be able to work well with anyone. In a full-scale conflict you won't necessarily get to choose who you work with either, so you need to be able to cooperate with whoever you end up with. He's simply preparing them for that. This may also be the rationale behind thrusting Ruby and Jaune into leadership positions — both to force them to grow into the role, and to prepare them and their teammates for the fact that in a real conflict, sometimes the person most qualified to be a leader isn't going to get that opportunity, and sometimes a person who isn't exactly leader material will be forced into being one.
  • It could just be a form of psychological testing plus training. The stated criteria on the first part was "the person you meet eyes with first." Seems like if you were being picky about your new partner, you'd size them up from hiding first without them knowing you were there. You know, like a Hunter. As for the pieces, it might be a bit more complex than it looks at first. If these weren't a bunch of Cloudcuckoolanders, they might have subconciously chosen the pieces that fit more towards their usual fighting styles. (And in fact, thinking about it, they DID.) RWBY picked the white knight. They've shown that they are in fact extremely good people who typically fight with a lot of movement and striking from angles people don't expect, such as from above and below. JNPR on the other hand, has two sword and shield people and a hammer wielder. They typically strike straight from the front and use overwhelming force to win. They chose the white rook.
  • Like the above poster pointed out it's an opportunity to scope out who you would like to partner with. Which is what Blake, Nora, and Pyrrha used it for. Nora and Pyrrha knowing exactly who they wanted their partners to be and Blake waiting in the shadows to see what Yang was capable of before stepping out and killing the final Grimm ^note It's not as if Yang needed the help. Blake was clearly trying to say hello in tough fighter speak

Ruby and Weiss's Landing strategies

• In Players and Pieces (Episode 8), both Ruby and Weiss fall from a Nevermore. Both have to be saved by Jaune. Come on, ladies, you both have landing strategies that you displayed 3 episodes ago when you were launched off a cliff in The First Step (Part 2, Epsiode 5)! Ruby in particular intended on jumping, so why didn't she use Crescent Rose to slow herself down? Weiss's glyphs should have been the first thing she did after falling. Did they just forget they could fly?
  • Probably a combination of Rule of Funny and not being prepared for the fall. Besides, it was a relatively short fall compared to being launched into the forest in the first place. Maybe they just figured they'd be fine, considering their Auras. After all, Jaune survived Weiss landing on him, so clearly they weren't in too much danger.
  • This is rather confirmed by the fact that Ruby was only falling because she willingly jumped. Her fall was entirely on her own terms until Jaune hit her.
  • Ruby's landing strategy is to fire her rifle in the direction she is traveling so that the recoil pushes her in the opposite direction slowing her speed, in this case her sister was in the way, Ruby's landing strategy would have involved shooting her sister in the head.
  • She doesn't have to fire precisely retrograde to slow down for landing, she can bleed horizontal velocity over a longer time than vertical velocity so it would be more advantageous to fire in an inverse normal angle. From that height, her sister and the rest of the ruby juniper squad is a small target, and slight differences in angle result in the reaction mass going significantly further away from your landing destination than the velocity would diverge from desired angle. In short, she could have easily missed her sister with the bullets she's firing to slow down, considering how easily she can hit targets she wants to, and still land near her sister.
  • Also, she appears to fire directly at her sister in order to charge at the Death Stalker just a few minutes later, soooo...

Volumes vs Seasons

• If each volume comes out at the same rate (and length) as an RvB season, why make the distinction between volumes and seasons when they're basically the same?
  • Stylistic choice. It's to make it seem more like a series of books than a television show.
  • But then why say that every two volumes makes up a season?
  • Could be a matter of content production rate versus the length of the story. A "season" is a larger narrative arc, while a volume is a production measurement.
  • A "volume" can be used to describe a single collection of videos on a DVD which is itself part of a larger group (grandfathered in from tapes and derived from the same terminology in print publication). That's probably the context it's being used in here (given the DVD is being sold as volume one).

Team CRDL's admittance

• How did those assholes get into Beacon? Beacon is supposed to be a top-tier Hunter training academy, possibly the best in the world, but they're depicted as a bunch of stupid, cowardly, incompetent thugs. Yeah, they'll do better than an average person, but the only average people that get into Beacon is through falsified records.
  • Bullies are present in every institution, no matter how prestigious. Also, CRDL aren't portrayed as stupid, they're portrayed as lazy. Which makes quite a bit of sense, really: a lot of people in top-tier institutions have high natural talent and are used to coasting through life with little effort. And finally, we really have no idea how competent they are in a fight (they did run from that Ursa, but to be completely fair that was a big Ursa and it caught them off-guard). They did, after all, make it through that initiation test in the forest with little apparent trouble.
  • Plus, if you admittance is refused due to who you are, Weiss wouldn't have made it in, Yang wouldn't have made it in, Blake wouldn't have made it in, Nora wouldn't have made it in. Come to think of it, a lot of people wouldn't have made it in. But they aren't judging character, they're judging skills. Like it was already said: They made it through initiation. If you survive, you become a hunter. If you die, well you're dead so we don't really care!
  • Ozpin's speech in Episode 3 directly references the above statement: they are there to help the students, but ultimately, the successes/failures/everything else were up to them, not the school. So therefore, they have no real reason to refuse anyone who passes the requirements, regardless of actual skill, personality, or other factors. Even those who who got in with falsified records, because either solution (death or proving their skills) solves the problem either way.
  • Volume two shows CRDL fight, and they are actually pretty skilled. Certainly enough to justify them getting into Beacon at any rate.

Pyrrha's attraction to Jaune

• Why would you think Pyrrha, a famous, smart and talented girl (and not to mention nice) be attached to Jaune, who's a bumbling nobody (even after Jaune reveals that he faked his transcriptions to Beacon)? I'm guessing either:
  • Weakness Turns Her On (maybe that's too much, though)
  • She knows that Jaune comes from a line of great Hunters and, even if he doesn't live up to his ancestors' name, she's nice enough to help, so as to unlock his true potential.
  • He's handsome.
  • Like some guy above posted, she's secretly hired to be his bodyguard (the one hired her may even be Jaune's parents).
  • I doubt it.
  • Undying Loyalty.
  • She likes natural blondes and just went off from there?
  • She's a famous athlete, and maybe most people she meets only see her as just that. As a result, she never really met anyone who would treat her as an equal. Then comes along Jaune, who has no idea who she is other than the fact that she appears on cereal boxes, and he talks and treats her like an equal.
  • While I like how this sounds, Jaune also notes that those who appear in the cereal box are either famous athletes or cartoon characters. So it is likely that Jaune knows, at least superficially, that Pyrrha is a famous athlete. Regardless, he still talks to her like an equal.
  • According to some of the other nerdlings, First, she's team mom and he needs the most help. Second she's a hardcore humble superstar and he has NO idea who she is so she can "relax" because he's a not a "fan" lastly do to her celebrity standing people either want her for the status, the money and/or she has a fear of actually talking to people. He is an awkward person who is easy to actually approach.
  • In addition to (possible) Weakness Turns Her On, she could really not care that Jaune is incompetent (least at first, the Ursa Major is starting to move him away from that), quite simply. Thus, his hesitant, nice, bumbling personality is seen as very likable - plus, there was once a Fridge on RWBY's page that humans give off very faint electromagnetic attractions... so literally, opposites attract (and it's no coincidence that Pyrrha's Semblance IS polarity).
  • I'm thinking it might have something to do with Jaune's Aura. She might have sensed something in it or about him that drew her to him, but that might be a bit too mystical.
  • In addition to all of that, what makes anyone attracted to anyone else? The heart wants what the heart wants, even if it doesn't have a reason why.
  • I've always thought that maybe Pyrrha found Jaune endearing, and might also have never had any real friends — just people who knew her as a celebrity — so him not immediately knowing who she is and trying to exploit her fame and skills may have endeared him to her further. In fact, he kind of brushes her off from the beginning. She might be so used to people fawning over her that she actually likes that. Another theory I have is that he reminds her of someone she lost, perhaps a brother or a close friend/boyfriend.
  • With the revelation of how Pyrrha uses her Semblance to win battles, it raises many interesting possibilities regarding her character and personality, including her attraction to Jaune. It's still not clear of using Semblance in tournament battles is allowed (though it would make sense that it isn't, since those are suppose to be tests of skill), but if Pyrrha did use her Semblance to win in such a way, it would make sense why she is so humble and down to earth despite being such a famous and accomplished athlete. She doesn't act proud because she knows she's cheating, and thus, doesn't deserve the praise. This might also explain her view of Jaune, since he also cheated to get into Beacon, and he doesn't quit or give up despite lacking anything resembling her skills or powers. He's both her mirror image and her polar opposite, and that's what she's attracted to.
  • There is no reason whatsoever to think that using your Semblance in a tournament is considered cheating. First of all, using your Semblance is a skill. Second of all, if contestants couldn't use their Semblance, that would leave many contestants unable to use their primary fighting method — for example, Weiss wouldn't be able to use her glyphs. It would unduly handicap certain fighters and fighting styles, making it less fair than allowing Semblances would. It makes more sense to think that everyone is allowed to use their Semblance and thus fight to the best of their respective ability. Third of all, if it were cheating, I imagine the people running the tournaments would thus have measures in place to detect when someone is using their Semblance.
  • Answered in S 2 E 7: He didn't know her before meeting her and treated her more like a person than a celebrity/hero.
  • He may not be the strongest, but Jaune is a nice guy, if a little awkward and silly. Plus, she might just have a thing for goofballs.

Do not. Touch. The hair.

• A relatively minor thing, but why didn't Yang flip out as usual when her hair got all messed up in the food fight?
  • The last two times were because she'd lost strands of hair, literally. There in the cafeteria fight, it was merely messed-up and splattered, which could easily be washed — perhaps the latter isn't a big deal to her, for that reason or another.
  • There is a fan theory that says Yang's Semblance stores part of the kinetic energy of every hit she takes in the strands of her hair. That would be the reason why her hair changes color when she goes into her Limit Break (she's switching from feeding energy into her hair to draw from it) and why a brawler like her has such a long hair in the first place when it should be impractical from a combat standpoint. As a result, losing hair by unnatural means equals to reducing the total energy storage capacity of her hair and, in turn, the amount of power Yang could wield in her Super Mode.
  • Alternatively, she could just be a really dedicated Super Saiyan 3 cosplayer, considering a certain line from I Burn. Not too big of a stretch, considering she effectively has the Saiyans' zenkai ability.

Political Jokes

• In the first episode of volume 2, Ruby makes references to Lincoln, Nixon, and MLKJ. Is there a particular reason for this? It just seems weird to be making allusions to real-world historical figures.
  • I think the joke was that her speech was a mishmash of other famous speeches. The Order of the Stick did something similar.
  • RT has said about RvB in the past that if it comes down to continuity or making a good joke, continuity is going out the window. While RWBY is a different show with different themes, this is not surprising. Plus, it somewhat resets the mood and imagine she's using similar well known quotes from their world instead but we wouldn't get those references so we get substituted references.
  • Considering their world has a "Spruce Willis", I like to think they have their own versions of Lincoln, Nixon, MLKJ, the associated quotes, and Watergate.

Cinder held back a few years

• Ok, isn't Cinder a little old to be a student? And on another note, Ruby already fought Cinder, shouldn't she (and Glynda for that matter) recognize her?
  • No one said she's actually a student; she's likely just pretending to be one, posing as visitors for the tournament, and plenty of people can be Older Than They Look + Younger Than They Look. Also, the three of them fought at range, at a distance of 20-or-more feet - if Cinder was far back enough, the lighting might not be enough to see her from down there (shadowed animation aside).
  • Plus the incident was literally before the first semester of Beacon began, and she's only reappeared now after months, during the start of the second. Despite that, the pause 'stare' between Ruby and Cinder suggests there was a 'have I seen her before?' process; it just didn't take yet.
  • Plus when Cinder use her power her eyes glow yellow instead of orange which probably helps a bit in Ruby not realizing who it is.
  • Glynda and Ruby likely couldn't see Cinder's face any better than we could during that initial fight.
  • The most recent (August 2014) Q&A livestream addresses this - apparently Cinder is older than the main cast, but not by a huge amount. They don't say how old she is, but early twenties seems to be the oldest she could be. The gang also note that some people can very easily pass for much younger than they are, with Lindsay citing 27-year-old-but-perpetually-baby-faced Michael as a prime example.
  • Cinder's Semblance is to disguise herself. You can see her use it right after the infiltration to get back to the dance. She could probably do it at any age.
  • We have no idea what Cinder's Semblance is. Based on V 3 E 7, her Semblance seems to be that thing she did with the dirt, turning it into crystalline projectiles and launching them. More likely her transformation is a result of stealing the Fall Maiden's "magic" power.
  • You're partially correct here on the appearance-changing, though now how you think. Cinder could change her dress because she wove it with threads of glass that she could melt and reshape using her Fall Maiden pyromancy. This is evident in how the dress looked before and after, with the glassy parts added on.
  • There's also what "year" she's posing as. She could easily pass for a third or fourth year student depending on how the system works. If Beacon is four year than Yang would graduate within the 20-22 window.

Penny's Strangeness

• A major reason most people already guessed Penny's secret before The Reveal was because it was hinted that she wasn't normal. But aside from her personality (which could have other explanations), the hints are given by a character who shouldn't find anything too unusual. Ruby's reaction to Penny's combat style suggests that it is strange and that she can't understand how she does it. Yet we've already seen two other characters demonstrate abilities that look very similar (Glynda and Pyrrha, though we didn't see the latter's used quite like this until Volume 2.) Why didn't she just assume Penny was manipulating her weapons with her Semblance?
  
  Then in Episode 3 of Volume 2, Ruby is as shocked as everybody else nearby when Penny stops the truck with her bare hands. We already know — and so should Ruby — that proper application of Aura could allow a person to do that, as demonstrated for us by Ren's fight with the King Taijitu. It was clear from these reactions that she would be revealed as non-human, but the reactions don't really make a lot of sense from somebody who exists within that world. They're not exactly impossible abilities for the people there.
  • In Ren's case, he used his Aura as a shield, and further as a force-wave; it didn't give him extra strength. So even using Aura, it's doubtful anyone could stopping a speeding truck with their bare hands (cold, at that). Thus even in this world, it's not something your average person could do, and thus is extraordinary.
  • Plus all the magic we've seen so far has involved some sort of focus and fancy mage-y gestures. If episode 16 was anything to go by, Penny has the ability to anchor herself or weighs a tonne (she could pull down an aircraft which was travelling under its own power and stopped the truck rather than being pushed; the energy had to go somewhere). Even if that's possibly, there's also the fact Ruby might have been shocked that Penny was able to do it, rather than that it was unusual (remember that team RWBY took out a Grimm which can threaten entire fleets of aircraft; even if you're extraordinary, it's going to be a shock to meet someone on the same level).
  • Perhaps Aura can be seen or sensed by other Aura users, in ways that don't necessarily show up on screen. What Ruby saw wasn't a person stopping a truck, but a person stopping a truck without exuding any Aura at all. No pretty lights. No chiming. Just the action itself...which should have required Aura, but did not. It would have looked uncanny.
  • Except that Penny explains that she is The World's First Synthetic Person Capable of Generating an Aura, so her powers are aura based. Besides she knows Penny is planning to enter the tournament and has already seen her fighting. It should be obvious that she's at least as powerful as any Beacon student. The likely explanation is that Monty needed her to scratch her hands to reveal the metal interior and that's the best they could come up with.
  • Given that Penny is at least partly made of metal, the implication is that her Super-Strength isn't entirely based off Aura.
  • We know now, as of Volume Three and Four, that impacts against a person's Aura do leave a clear visual indicator that there's been an impact against that shield. There wasn't such an impact against Penny's arms when she blocked the truck and, indeed, we know Penny didn't use her Aura to block the truck because she took damage to her hands. It's almost certain that Penny simply doesn't use her Aura as a shield and instead uses it to amplify the physical strength of her chassis, the same way normal fighters augment their weapons, especially considering what happens during... that scene in Volume 3.

Invincible Yang

• So, if Yang gets stronger the more she gets hit, why does she even bother blocking or dodging? Just let the attacks hit, pump herself up, and then slap down her opponent. Go Shaw on everybody!
  • It's probably like a Limit Break in Final Fantasy. She can't take a beating indefinitely and if a strong enough attack gets through, she'll be too dead to counterattack.
  • It's also probably the fact that Yang's a Blood Knight; 99% of those want (or even need) to extend the fights so that they last longer, and thus the person has more fun. Sometimes they even get a kick out of doing so while at not-full-power, even if it's not practical, or even if the fight has pressing needs to be ended as soon as possible.
  • Don't forget that Nora technically beat her during the food fight by hitting her so hard that she was actually removed from the battlefield.
  • There's Strength, there's Defense and there's Health. Her attacks get stronger and it looks like the same is true for her counter defense but her health continues to plummet - don't want to get too worn down early that you can't fight back later. Think MMO Tank with increasing DPS as it soaks damage - there will still be bosses that can kill it.
  • Hey, Huskar in Dota 2 isn't invincible. Rightclick as all get out, yes, but still beatable. It's the same concept.
  • There's also how Neo beat her; just don't let Yang hit you back and wear her out.
  • Problem with that. Yang herself has been shown to take impacts that would outright cripple if not maim an ordinary human being. Such acts involve being slammed into a road support by a mech before getting punched through it, falling from a massive height, and she's taken multiple kicks after taking on a group of mooks to the end. Her level of strength seems fairly consistent until that fight. You would think a few kicks and a train ceiling were hardly her achilles heel.
  • The thing is, Neo's few kicks were very light, thus they avoided activating Yang's Semblance... and to a lesser extent, probably her Aura as well (they appear to have a lower limit in reflexive drains). Plus, since Neo made sure of this, by the time Yang hit the ceiling and her Aura started to react, she'd hit the ceiling with all the force such an impact would imply, and by then it was too late to prevent unconsciousness (without which, they react to hits as we would). The hit isn't a sudden change in how Yang's Aura/Semblance works so much as Neo unwittingly exploiting the mechanics, or so it seems.
  • So from what you're saying, Yang's semblance is only resistant to major blunt force trauma as opposed to...smaller strikes? She's the only one on the team that can take more than one punch and one kick from somebody, can survive all of the above and we're not even talking about her semblance at that point, we're talking about her own physical constitution. If her aura is really the only thing keeping her alive through any of that then I'd love to see it explained via canon, because otherwise this is a very annoying inconsistency.
  • There's a "World of Remnant" short that discusses Aura. It can be used to shield the user from harm ("It's a force field!"), which is why people in universe have Super-Toughness. So, actually, yes, they all can take more than one punch and one kick from somebody. Yang just sacrifices health in favor of a wickedly overpowered counterattack. Also, she's training to fight Grimm, which are numerous but not usually overly durable (with a few armored exceptions). Her semblance is good for fighting single opponents with greater-than-average durability, but not for fighting Grimm, so dodging is still an essential skill to have.
  • Ruby's one hit wonder of a knockdown would prove you otherwise, of which she was taken down with both a punch, and a kick easily. Blake has also been proven to need only a few whacks with blunt force to take her out of the game. Weiss and Ren as well. Can't speak for Nora and the others but we've also seen CRDL altogether take the ultimate ass-whooping from Pyrrha, and that was close quarters as well. Multiple punches and kicks and more were dealt on that end. The examples simply do not add up, and neither does what we've seen in Yang's history.
  • Something I like to bring up that might be relevant that was brought up in an episode of Death Battle. During Yang's analysis the hosts' said that Yang's aura (what is mainly used to fuel anyone's semblence but Yang's especially) had limits because it can eventually be exhausted. Most of the afternoon in Mountain Glenn team RWBY spent fighting hordes of grimm in the city before setting up camp to rest for the night, and even then the team only got at best a few hours of sleep to recover before having to head out and fight Torchwick and the White Fang in the middle of the night/early morning. I imagine with all that they would not be at their best and their aura at least a little drained. Aura is used to protect and strengthen the wielder and is drained through injury and combat, even if team RWBY avoided injury they'd still be fatigued from earlier fighting.
  • The leap in logic is thusly: After what could be reasoned as a few hours rest, having spent their daylight on clearing Mountain Glenn of the grimm present there, Yang's aura is depleted to the point where she was able to lose? Okay. But getting up after the minute's rest and proceeding to survive a massive train explosion and then in the subsequent fight, survive what was most likely a fifty foot drop from a nevermore and THEN proceed to fight flawlessly... I do not see exactly what or how justifies this rather disproportionate turn of events. And then canonizing her ability through this inconsistency.
  • I propose the idea that Yang didn't even use her aura to defend herself during that fight and that her semblance was willingly suppressed. Since her letting loose means everything explodes around her, something that would be very bad on a moving train, perhaps Yang feared that her semblance would frankly kill everyone, teammates included, on board so she deactivated her protective aura and ended up taking those otherwise light blows directly.
  • With respect to the train explosion, they were shielded by extremely powerful Dust ice - plus considering that people can survive terminal velocity impacts and walk them off, surviving a train explosion under such a barrier would seem reasonable, as an impact from fifty feet would be a tap, by comparison. As far as Neo, another problem with Aura is that while it can be used to shield people from impacts, if an opponent gets in a blow fast or carefully enough, the Aura can't protect them (because the blow already struck before the 'force-field' went up). I'm thinking it was similar: Neo threw herself all around Yang, misdirecting her helplessly before suddenly slamming her against the ceiling - Yang was too disoriented to consciously use her Aura, and thus she was knocked out as we would've been... and because of her not using her Aura (via the person above me), she had enough to use in the Grimm Invasion.
  • To build on the "didn't use her semblance" remember this was a train with bombs in every car they'd seen so far, so it's entirely possible Yang didn't want to accidentally set one off and kill them all by derailing the train without warning.

Hereditary Semblances

• If Semblances are hereditary (per Word of God) why doesn't Jaune know what his is?
  • it's possible he doesn't know what his family's semblance is. It doesn't exactly seem like something people broadcast. Besides genetics can be tricky.
  • Another possibility is that he knows, but he doesn't want to say what it is (perhaps he wants to learn how to fight without one, which would make for an interesting contrast with Pyrrha; especially if he assumes she doesn't use hers). Then again, he didn't know what aura was until Pyrrha told him, so maybe his family's semblance was never explained to him (maybe the Arc family hasn't produced a warrior in a while?).
  • Semblance being hereditary was something Monty and the writers were kind of "ehhhhh" about, and that it was "a definite maybe" or something to that effect, so I wouldn't count on it being 100% certain at all times. They hadn't really thought to hard about it until the question was asked. If Jaune's is hereditary, he probably doesn't know what it is because, since he was never formally educated about Aura, he wouldn't know what his ancestors Semblance was if it bit him.
  • In season 3 it's confirmed that Semblances can be hereditary, but they usually aren't.
  • So far in universe only the Schnees are known to have hereditary semblances.

Crossovers with the other RoosterTeeth series

• Taking into account Executive Meddling from Microsoft so they can know their merchandise is being properly represented, are there any other reasons why we're not likely to see this?
  • Most likely the lack of setting appropriate characters from other RT series. The cops from RT Shorts were used in one episode.
  • Yeah, the setting differences between RWBY and other Rooster Teeth series makes it rather difficult to include charatcers between them. I can't exactly see a Red vs. Blue and RWBY crossover simply because the differences in setting are so huge; RWBY's fantasy, and Rv B is more science fiction. We do see some crossovers: like the troper above me said (on a related note, why aren't those cops used more, I love seeing them), but a crossover between their two biggest series is pretty much out.
  • In the series proper, I would expect that any team who put in enough effort to generate possibly 7 seasons worth of story before digging into one would not be willing to shove aside that story for the sake of doing a crossover. There's little reason to merge them from a story perspective. However, I would not be surprised if a PSA or two in the future had a bit of a crossover just like we had the animated recap.
  • Neptune and Sun eat at a noodle shop called "A Short Wok," which has a Tower of Sauron in the logo. This is a reference to Rooster Teeth's "A Short Walk Into Mordor."

Jaune's cross dressing as humiliation

• ...Why? If Beacon is LGBT-accepting as Monty claims, then Jaune's cross dressing shouldn't be funny: it should be considered as common and normal and accepted because Transgender and Transsexual people would do it all the time. So why is everyone laughing at a guy in a dress?
  • Because if a guy walks into a room full of 17-year olds^note Just because Beacon's accepting as an institution doesn't mean a bunch of teenagers who attend it are in a dress that doesn't fit him properly, it will incite laughter because he looks odd (crossdressing for laughs isn't the same thing as crossdressing because you're trans*; the dress was noticeably unflattering, the wrong shape for his body and probably deliberately so^note Granted, he might not have had that much choice in finding a dress at such short notice.). Much in the same way he'd probably get the same response if he was wearing Professor Port's usual outfit, what they think of people who wear it every day for other reasons doesn't come into it. Furthermore it wasn't humiliation; Jaune clearly found it as funny as everyone else.
  • Because it's still a reflection of the more evolved side of modern society which is still in transition period and still hasn't come to grips with all aspects of removing the lines on social stigmas. Also, transgender people make up less than 1% of the population so maybe two people in that entire room - not necessarily enough to make something like that seem common or normal
  • They aren't laughing at "a guy" in a dress, they are laughing at Jaune, a goofball and known flirt with women, in a dress. Any actually trans individual would dress like that on a day to day basis, and would not elicit the same reaction, not because everyone is wonderfully accepting, but because it's not something unusual for them to see.
  • Doylist answer: Monty wanted Beacon to not have any of those ugly real life prejudices, but didn't take into account story events that rely on said prejudices to make sense.
  • The fact that none of the other guys at the dance were wearing a dress is a pretty big indicator of why they were laughing. Jaune stood out. Even then, the laughter only happened at first, likely due to the surprise at the situation. It died out in less than a minute, and very quickly switched to cheering and applause at the JNPR dance number, and then acceptance afterward.
  • Most trans people at least make an attempt at appearing to be the gender they want to be identified as. It looks like Jaune literally stripped down to his boxer shorts and threw on a dress. Hell, he's still wearing his sneakers!
  • Seriously, the fucking sneakers. Jaune's outfit was mismatched and clearly intended as a joke (although I'd argue it still made him look hot as fuck... but then again that might just be the limitations of animation: it's easier to make a dress fit him properly than not). It was not a humiliation, it was a spectacle, and precisely what Jaune was going for. And yes, it's kind of iffy as a joke, but Jaune isn't exactly shown to have the best judgement in-universe re: gender stuff.

Velvet's Student Status?

• All right so at the end of Episode 8, Team RWBY has a conversation with Velvet where she refers to them as "you first years". This is extremely suggestive of Velvet putting herself in a different category, meaning that she is not a first year student. That being the case, it seems odd that she would be in Oobleck's history class with them. Furthermore, it makes Cardin's bullying of her ludicrously unlikely. Is the series implying that she is that much of a doormat that she would put up with nonsense like that from someone who is, in every way, her junior? Even if I accept that she is, presumably the rest of her team are not first years either, so what were they doing during Cardin's extremely public bout of racism?
  • It's not actually unusual for younger students to bully older ones (even teachers can be bullied in some cases); especially when you consider Cardin's a good head taller than her (her team might just not have been around, or they might not have been able to intervene before she ran off). As for Oobleck's class; since Beacon appears to be more like a university than a school, it's possible students of different years can attend the same classes/lectures. It's also possible she wanted to speak to Oobleck about Cardin.
  • Plus not to mention, racism over Faunus is still fairly common, as Ozpin sadly comments on - for bullies like Cardin, this would be just the sort of justification he'd need. In Velvet's case, obviously her team wasn't around during the incident - and perhaps she told them not to get CRDL back.
  • At a normal high school, yes, these things make sense. But Beacon is supposed to be a school for training badasses. I would imagine that part of the process of learning to be a badass is learning how not to be a doormat. If Cardin and Velvet were both first year students, that scene would have made a lot of sense. But now that we know Velvet has had badass training that Cardin has not had, it makes a lot less sense.
  • Velvet has been stated by Monty to be a "mage" type fighter, which probably means direct combat isn't her strength. Cardin, on the other hand, is a pure bruiser, close-range is his specialty. It's entirely possible that Velvet wouldn't be able to beat Cardin in a one-on-one fight. Plus, Cardin had his team with him then, and she didn't.
  • Coco held Velvet back from "wasting" her weapon on a bunch of Mook and Elite Mook level Grimm. While this can be looked at as an entirely meta thing—the "build up" being the suspense built up from waiting to see its use—one could also theorize that as the "mage" type member of an obviously powerful upper class team, anything other than her basic hand-to-hand moves might have been too dangerous to use on other students. She might not like the bullying, but that doesn't mean she couldn't have done something about it... something that could get her expelled or arrested.
  • Bullying happens at police academies, military boots camps, police stations, military bases, legal offices and all sorts of other places you'd expect most people to be "badasses"^note Sandhurst, a British military Academy, was a fairly notorious example.
  • In re Velvet being in the same class as first-years, it's not uncommon for real-world high schools to have electives that can be taken in different years, and it's even more so how colleges are set up. Perhaps the class was full in Velvet's first year, or she had other priorities at the time.
  • Freshmen picking on a sophomore I can maybe buy, but freshmen picking on a member of Team CFVY? The team whose leader can render a giant beowolf prone by kicking it in the shins and mow down an entire grimm invasion with her huge-ass turret-sized gatling gun? Even if Velvet isn't all that impressive (and she absolutely totally is as volume 3's ending stretch demonstrated), you'd think those guys would have second thoughts about pissing off Coco.
  • We don't know if Cardin even knows about Coco at this point. Being a first year, he may be too dumb to know what Coco and Yatsuhashi might do to him. Also, while Velvet's a badass, we don't know if she'd be able to fight back without cutting him in half.
  • Cardin is kind of an idiot. Even if he knew about what a danger Coco could I doubt it would have stopped him since he has no problem bullying Jaune, who he knew was on a team with Pyrrha- one of the most well known bad asses among the first year students.

Pyrrha's Semblance

• It's mentioned that Pyrrha creates the illusion of untouchability by using her semblance^note magnetism to ward away opponents' weapons. If this is the case, how was Mercury the first person to notice their weapon being moved against their will? For that matter, what if she fights someone whose weapon isn't made of metal?
  • To answer your second question: Pyrrha is not reliant on her semblance. Nobody who wasn't very experienced in regular combat would have be able to dodge or chain attacks together like she does. Her Semblance is not the core of her fighting ability, but it gives her an edge- and reputations like hers would intimidate even someone who wasn't susceptible to polarity. That's why morale is so important on the battlefield.
  • As for the first part, clearly Pyrrha has only used her Semblance in small bursts - in the midst of combat, the little movements of her diverting weapons/armor would be imperceptible to most. In Mercury's case though, because his entire fighting style is delivered via kicks, he must be intimately familiar with the motions and how they feel... So when Pyrrha manipulated his last kick, he could feel the difference, and deduced it as such.
  • Watch those fights again. The kick Mercury detects the semblence is the first time Pyrrha uses it between them. If you look at the CRDL curb stomp, she uses her semblence only a few times (and not even every time she gets hit) - 2:02 when she's in the air and she uses it to deflect Cardin's attack so she can shift momentum against him and his teammate and 2:25 (maybe) when she's getting charged and takes two blows on the shield. It's unlikely the latter could've been detected but the former could easily look like her skill rather than her semblence. Really, Pyrrha's just got that much martial skill.
  • Furthermore, he was trying to figure out her semblance the whole time. He may have even already guessed at it, the fight provided confirmation.
  • There's also something to be said for the fact that Mercury is doubtless very, very good at what he does. He chooses to fight Pyrrha because he thinks he's as good as she is in combat, and he's the only person we've ever seen actually gain the upper hand in a fight against Pyrrha, when he disarms her. Between that and the fact that his and Emerald's roles are foreshadowed when they ask Tukson for "The Thief and the Butcher," Mercury is obviously a very dangerous individual. It's probable that he's the most skilled opponent Pyrrha has ever faced, and so maybe no one else has the skill and level of precision to notice that the only attack she used her semblance on was two inches off of its intended target.
  • Now that we know Mercury has metal prosthetics in place of his original legs, it makes a lot more sense that he's the first one to piece it together. He is much more intimately connected to his weapons in the physical sense. Of course he noticed his own limbs being manipulated more than someone would notice their strike going off-course, he felt it much more than someone holding a weapon would. With him already being consciously trying to figure out Pyrrha's semblance, it probably didn't take him very much thought to put together. And, in all likelihood, someone Pyrrha has fought before did notice something odd going on, but was not able to figure it out beyond that.

Glynda's Name

• So far, aside from a noted exception in Ozpin, every character has had a name associated with a color... Except for Glynda. Looking into her name, I cannot find any etymological association between her name and a color.
  • So far, Glynda's name has two connections (taken from RWBY wiki). 1) A reference to Glinda the Good Witch of the South (obviously), and 2) 'Glynda' comes from the Welsh words 'glan' (holy, fair) and 'da' (good).
  • I looked up any possible connections in the original Oz books (in case it was like Oobleck where you'd have to know the source material to get the reason), and the only possibility I could gather from that is white, as all the witches wore white and Glynda is sporting a white blouse. It's not a strong reason, but it's more than nothing.
  • The term fair can also be taken to mean light colored or bright
  • The closest thing to "Glinda/Glynda" in Welsh, is the name "Glenda", which "Glinda" is conflated with. The derivation of the name"Glenda" is uncertain; the most popular theory is that it comes from "glân" (meaning 'clean', 'holy', 'pure', 'beautiful')^note "glân" and "glan" are two completely different words, so shouldn't be confused; "glan" means 'bank', 'shore', 'land' and "da" (meaning 'good', 'well'). In Welsh names, the concept of anything holy or blessed in a mystic or divine way is associated with the colour white. That's why it's common to see Welsh names meaning both "blessed" and "white", such as, for example Qrow's surname "Branwen" (Blessed/white crow). Glynda's name, if the Welsh derivation is accepted, is therefore strongly associated with the colour white.

Schnee Name

• Why is the Schnee family name pronounced English-style? "Weiss" is one thing, but "shnee" sounds really silly (as opposed to German "shnay"). To a German-speaker, this makes the name a downright Bilingual Minus. And in-story, you'd think a rich family, and Weiss in particular, would be hoity-toity about the proper foreign pronunciation of their name — modulo Translation Convention, of course.
  • This one's been answered under Gratuitous German on the main page. Put simply though, all normal pronunciation/naming/etc guidelines from our world don't have to apply in RWBY.
  • Fair enough. What I mean by "modulo Translation Convention" is that what we see/hear as a German name would normally correspond to some foreign country that does exist in-story, but if that's not the intention, okay. But that doesn't so much answer the question as move it. Why does Monty prefer this silly pronunciation?
  • I would assume that Monty is not very familiar with German pronunciation rules, and just chose the name because it sounded neat. He decided to go with how an English-speaker would instinctively pronounce it. As far as the average native English-speaker (the intended audience) is concerned, the pronunciation doesn't sound odd.
  • Who are you to question someone's preference?
  • Ignoring the preference aspect, Monty himself had Weiss use fencing because he himself had studied fencing - so really, I'm assuming he did his research into the name, and it's pronunciation. And he simply choose the way it sounds now
  • Monty's official explanation is "Germany doesn't exist in Remnant. The German language does not exist in Remnant. Weiss's name is therefore not German, so it is not pronounced in the German manner."
  • I can't remember where I heard it (I believe from this website), but I believe the exact quote Monty said about Weiss' name and why it isn't pronounced in the German method; "Because, it's an interpretive world, Germany doesn't exist, and fuck you." I'm fairly certain that's the exact quote (I'm definitely sure that the last 3 words were part of it), so I think he was getting pretty annoyed about being asked that constantly.
  • And besides, pronouncing words the way they are actually pronounced in the source language can be pretty hard depending on the word. The double e in Schnee can already be a challenge as well as the ne combination which has a pretty specific, somewhat nasally quality to it, if you're not used to how we pronounce the e so they actually sidestepped that problem quite nicely.

How Many Is Too Many?

• In "Field Trip", it's explained that team CFVY was delayed in their return to the school due to there being "...so many..." Grimm at their mission location. Come finale time, and CFVY cuts down a few dozen Grimm in 15 seconds or so. This, of course, begs the question of just how many Grimm there would have to be to represent a credible threat to the team. So: is it an absurd case of discrepancy between stated power and demonstrated power, or are there just hundreds of thousands of Grimm strolling around every populated area?
  • Considering the fact that, before they harnessed Dust, mankind struggled just to survive at all... and even after they harnessed it, there's still 'only' four big points of civilization on the entire planet, with many attempts at expansion being overrun easily... it's quite possible there's millions of Grimm swarming around, if not more. And even the weakest can cause serious damage to humans/faunus if they can land a hit
  • There is a big difference between a mission that lasts for days, especially one where there are far more targets than initially planned, and a single battle.
  • Don't forget they had Glynda there, who can use her Semblance to seal the breach quickly. Things would have gone very differently without her. Compare Attack on Titan, where it's repeatedly made clear that the reason they lost Wall Maria wasn't because one or two or ten or even a hundred titans were too many, but simply because there was no end to them. Due to Glynda, there was an end to the Grimm inside Vale.

Shadowy Council of Vagueness Reasoning

• So at the end of season 2, some council places Ironwood in charge of the Vytal festival's security instead of Ozpin, as a response to the events of the finale. Uh...what the hell? Did they not notice Beacon's forces saving the day? Team RWBY and Oobleck deflecting the brunt of a terrorist attack, Glynda sealing the breach, team CFVY mopping up the Grimm...The huntsmen performed admirably and did way more than the Atlasian military. In fact, I'd be concerned with how dozens of heavy military robots fell into the hands of the White Fang.
  • Ozpin failed. He overruled Ironwood's suggestions toward addressing the Torchwick/White Fang threat and insisted on doing things his way. And the end result was that Beacon's defenses were breached and Grimm were allowed into the city, causing an unknown (to us) amount of damage. That the Beacon hunters were able to do damage control on the situation is merely the silver lining on the cloud of Ozpin's actions allowing a threat to the city going unstopped until it was almost too late. In fact, if the council is aware of Ozpin's choice to send a group of underaged students to tackle a serious terrorist threat, resulting in catastrophe precisely because they were too weak to handle the enemy, it's more surprising they haven't fired him already.
  • Woah, hang on there, like the OP points out if Ozpin failed what exactly can be said about Ironwood? A major terrorist org was able to obtain dozens of mech suits from right under his nose. Mitigated somewhat for that tech being slated for eventual commercial use but it hadn't even been demo'd by the time Roman got his hands on it. The Atlasian military's lack of internal security directly lead the WF being much better armed then they were. And Ozpin's objections were mostly perfectly sensible. You should be worried when a neighboring power decides to park war ships and a battalion next to one of your major metropolis areas even if they're your allies. Maybe this is just an example of politicians trying to look like they're holding guilty parties responsible and that they're on top of the issue but their reasoning seems off here.
  • Ironwood is not personally responsible for every piece of hardware produced by/for the Altasian military. He's a general, armory security is well below his pay grade. While it is not a great sign of his competence that the mechs were stolen, that is far more likely to be caused by corruption/incompetence by one of his subordinates than any personal errors on his part. The solution is he just looks into who screwed up and replaces them. Or, more likely, he has someone else do the checking because generals delegate, that's what they do. And all this is assuming the Paladins were stolen from Ironwood's command and not the manufacturers or a part of the Atlasian military not under his command. As for Ozpin, his objections would have some merit if he had a viable alternative. But he doesn't. His "plan" was to send a single team of students who were outclassed by the mission they were expected to complete in addition to addressing the threat. And he sent them because he knew they would find a way to get involved anyhow. So, to sum up, the only thing he did to address a looming terrorist threat was to approve a group of students going on a mission outside their skill level. Add the implicit lack of control over his subordinates this situation indicates, and it becomes obvious that Ozpin doesn't really deserve his authority if this is how he uses it.
  • It doesn't matter if Ironwood is personally responsible for each project's security. Weapon development on this scale is not beneath his paygrade. He is ultimately (in this case one would assume to those shadowy council people) responsible for what happens in his military and losing the RWBY equivalent of a drone is something he should be reprimanded for. And while this troper agrees Ozpin sending a rookie team was a mistake, judging from Torchwick's response and decision to just start the operation early, Ironwood's plan would have been a massive failure. He intended to send every available hand after the White Fang base with no knowledge of where it was. It's likely his armada would have been spotted and Torchwick would have done the same thing he did against team RWBY. Except now instead of hundreds of mechanized soldiers there to protect the streets or a huntress team to hold off the tide until help arrived, Grimm would have had free access into the city.
  • I guess the council just wanted someone who would have actually done something to address a looming threat to the city instead of literally doing nothing.
  • Doing something doesn't mean doing something constructive. If an act would make the situation worse it's better to wait. That's what Oz was trying to explain to Ironwood when he decided to send team RWBY to investigate. There is a difference between battlefield decisions (where immediate action is paramount) and maneuvering around a terrorist group/criminal cell (where caution and forethought become the bigger virtues).
  • There's also a difference between taking cautious action and doing nothing at all. Ozpin did the latter; the only people he 'sent' were ones that were going to go anyway. And do you truly believe that out of all his resources and students and faculty Ozpin's best course of action was to send a single team of first year students? Students that didn't even qualify for the pretext of their assignment? If that was truly his response to the White Fang threat, he misuses his assets so monstrously he doesn't deserve to have access to them.
  • Honestly, they probably didn't notice Ozpin's forces saving the day. Did you see the whole fleet of Airships dropping Atlasian Knights into the city? There were probably hundreds of them, and there were, well...not hundreds of Beacon students in the battle. And frankly, there were a lot of Grimm loose in the city. Ozpin's students could have killed them all, but it would have taken time, and in that time, Grimm would be slaughtering innocent people. Ironwood looks like a hero because frankly, he was. And again, frankly, putting him in charge of the Vytal Festival's security is a smart move. Ozpin's forces may be very good at what they do, but Ironwood's forces are numerous and do not need to sleep, which makes them perfect for security. And when you consider that Ozpin didn't complain or object, it's likely that this is exactly the outcome Ozpin wanted.
  • Honestly, it cannot be over-emphasized that Ironwood's strategy, an all-in with his forces, beyond being easily spotted and in no position to really do anything about Roman's train plan, would've left Vale wide open to the Grimm breach. Frankly, Ozpin made little to no wrong calls. Instead of sending an army to crush an enemy they had absolutely no clear coordinates on, Ozpin sent a scouting party to ascertain said coordinates covertly (and sent the party that was going to do so no matter what), which you literally is not nothing. And even though RWBY failed, they came closer to foiling the plan than Ironwood's forces probably could've (they even forced Roman to accelerate it by necessity, so he clearly thought it was going to fail otherwise). Honestly, Ironwood threw Ozpin under the bus by apparently telling a version of the story where Ozpin did not advise Ironwood to keep on hold the entire fleet that was critical to the response to the Grimm attack.

Ruby and Yang birth timelines

• Ruby is two years younger than Yang. Yang's mom left Taiyang shortly after Yang was born. Unless there's a few extra months between the girls' births that we don't know about, that means that Taiyang moved on from his first wife leaving him, resettled with Summer Rose, and fathered Ruby in 15 months. That seems a little unrealistic, unless Taiyang and Summer had started seeing each other while Tai was still married.
  • At the moment, we don't know if they were married at all (any of them) - plus love can (and has) happened in such short amounts of time, even less in more extreme cases
  • More importantly, why do they have different last names if they share a father?
  • Monty answered that one; they're half-sisters, and their father kept their last names separate out of respect for both women.
  • That's not how it works.
  • Why not? Parents can choose to name their children whatever they want. Taiyang and Raven decided to name their daughter Yang Xiao Long. Taiyang and Summer decided to name theirs Ruby Rose. It's just personal preference, and Remnant places a great deal of emphasis on individuality.
  • You can't choose your child's last name. The idea that they weren't married when Ruby was born is more likely here. And that shows just how much Taiyang cared for Yang's mother.
  • It's not outside the realm of possibility that Remnant may not actually have a cultural tradition of one partner taking the surname of the other partner upon marriage.
  • In real life, you can choose a child's last name as well as their first name. There's nothing to suggest that it's different here.
  • Haven't you ever seen Joe Dirt? His parents' last name wasn't Dirt. They named him that in insult. Not every country has the same practices when it comes to naming their children. It's probably not legal to give them any old surname, but you can certainly choose any surname that is in your family history. For conf, click here: http://canigivemybaby.com/a-different-last-name/
  • Additionally, a person doesn't have to move on from a past relationship in order to start a new one; rebound flings are a very real thing, no matter how ill-advised they may or may not be. Taiyang was likely just emotionally devastated, and turned to Summer to help him pick up the pieces; her shoulder to cry on eventually resulted in Ruby, and the rest is history.
  • Also, it's worth remembering that Taiyang, Summer, Raven, and Qrow were all on the same team, so they all spent a lot of time together. Maybe Taiyang was already in love with both of them, and Raven just happened to edge Summer out on the first go-round. But when she left, he turned to Summer for comfort and she caught him on the rebound.

"Huntsmen and Huntresses"?

• Minor gripe, but it's really confusing. Why does everyone only use the terms "Huntsman" and "Huntress", and whenever being gender neutral say "Huntsman/men and/or huntress/es" when there's a blatantly obvious gender neutral word to use: Hunter?
  • It probably has something to do with the series being heavily influence by fairy tales. The Huntsman was a major character in the original Snow White, and the term is likely adopted as a formal title in deference to that. As that is certainly not a gender-neutral title, It only makes sense for Huntress to be the title used when referring to a female character.
  • It really isn't that unusual with titles like that for people to be very specific about using the exact title rather than trying to use general ones, even when referring to groups.
  • It's possible that the term "hunter" will later be used to describe... a hunter. Basically, Huntsmen and Huntresses hunt Grimm. A hunter would hunt animals for food and pelts (you can't eat Grimm and their bodies fade away when they are killed).
  • It's also possible that hunter is used as the term for non-binary hunters.
  • From a meta perspective? Because "hunter" is not gender neutral in use, only in theory. "Hunter" is a word that is treated as default-male neutral - while a woman could be a hunter, the immediate unconscious assumption you would make upon hearing the word "hunter" is "man". We're wired by society to view certain titles as "probably referring to a man", even if they're supposed to be neutral. By dividing it into Huntsmen and Huntresses, the writers have avoided this subtle bit of inequality - you can't make this assumption if the terminology is explicitly gendered rather than implicitly. The use of Huntsmen and Huntresses is probably a conscious rejection of the "traditionally associated with men" term of "hunter". As for why it's not "Hunters and Huntresses"? If it were, it would denote Huntress as the "other" that branches off from the core of "hunter", (again subtly) cementing men as the default and women as an aberration. The RWBY crew is putting a lot of effort into creating a world with genuine gender equality, and I'm fairly confident that this is the reasoning behind such specific terminology being used with such consistency.

Weiss's tragic "childhood"

• Weiss's speech towards the end of "The Stray" that reveals her status as a Tragic Bigot implies that the White Fang has been terrorizing her family since she was a child. And yet in the very next episode it's revealed that the White Fang has only been violent for the past five years. Which would mean the earliest this could have started happening was when she was twelve. But she says that this has been happening for as long as she can remember. Is this a plothole?
  • I don't know about 'implying' violent actions; just that the White Fang was causing a lot of trouble for the Schnee company ^note  likely due to the 'controversial labor practices and shady business partners' that Blake mentioned early on , especially to the head of the company, Weiss's father - and as a result, he almost always came home in foul moods, and is implied to have been abusive due to this. So as a result, while the 'difficult childhood' came directly from her father, she blamed the White Fang for it's cause, and the violent turn just gave her more fuel to use.
  • But she mentioned that in the same breath as family friends dying and board members being executed. The violence seemed to be the biggest part of what she was saying.
  • Well if this is NOT some writing misstep, maybe this is a foreshadowing of some plot thread that had the White Fang implicated for violence even before Adam took over, in fact it may turn out to be involved with the reason their previous leader stepped down... In any case, Cinder is most likely behind it...
  • She might just be conflating the White Fang with the Faunus Rights Revolutionaries or possibly other violent Faunus groups. It also wouldn't be that unrealistic for there to have been violent actions taken by some splinter faction White Fang members while the leadership was advocating peaceful solutions. At a minimum, there was probably more behind the shift in the White Fang than has been seen in the story, so far.
  • There don't need to be violent Faunus actions to get Mr. Schnee angry. An inconvenient nonviolent protest would probably grind his gears and make him come home angry too. Weiss could associate the White Fang with this from them being the biggest troublemakers and the ones connected to the the other points of her argument, them killing her family members.
  • Like others I never fond this particularly mysterious. The White Fang began its terrorist operations when Weiss would have been 11-12, the age when children start to become politically aware. Before then, assuming Papa Schnee was abusive, she would have been rationalizing his actions and already hearing about how lazy and useless Faunus were from her father. Personally, I doubt Weiss has worked out just why she really hates the White Fang. After all, it's not like a mining company with deep military connections ^note they helped develop the mech suits Ironwood was showcasing and a history of shady business practices is going to be short enemies. Even a completely ethical company would still have to fear kidnapping for ransom.
  • Also, the deaths may have started happening when she was twelve, but the abuse could have been going on long before when the White Fang were having peaceful protests and, most likely, workers unions.

Pyrrha hiding her semblance

• Pyrrha wants to make sure that no one can figure out that her semblance is magnetism, so she uses it in a way that no one can figure out she's using it(Debatable). But this has started to itch at this trooper: Why does Pyrrha want to make sure that nobody knows her semblance. The use of semblance isn't prohibited, seeing as how Hunters would need them to do better in combat. So, what is it? Does Pyrrha secretly think that she deserves all that praise?
  • Pyrrha might not actually be as tough as she seems without that kind of advantage because as useful as magnetism is, there are plenty of ways around it, such as building weapons from demagnetized steel. It's different from Ruby or Yang, whose powers are more versatile and still work regardless of enemy materials. If her secret were revealed, she'd likely get trounced more often simply because people would plan ahead.
  • Except there are NUMEROUS ways around Ruby and Yang's Semblances, which were shown (Still think that having Ruby get captured was total BS by the way).
  • As far as Ruby being captured, remember that she just fell down an extremely large distance - that alone drained her Aura to protect her. Then when the mooks came, she was fresh out as a result... thus she couldn't augment her punch's power beyond her own muscles, said mook likely used his Aura to block, and she couldn't lessen anything that hit in retaliation. It was fairly realistic that way, her being captured
  • It's not like she hasn't blatantly used her semblance, like in the food fight. People not knowing just what you can do is a tactical advantage, and she probably wants to keep it that. So it's one thing to move aside an enemy's blow, it's another to do so in a manner that they don't realize you're doing it.
  • Yes, but one needs to remember that the purpose of a Huntress is to fight Grimm. Pyrrha's semblance would be useless against them in the manner that she uses it. By keeping her semblance a secret, she makes it so that she can never gain any experience against an opponent with non-magnetic attributes. Against the bigger, older, and wiser Grimm, she'd be destined to fail.
  • She doesn't need to hide her semblance from Grimm. There, she can just bring along her own supply of metal and railgun them with that. As demonstrated in the Food Fight, she has no qualms against using her Semblance in huge, flashy ways. However, she probably has it such that she gives off the notion that she can only do big, flashy moves, and so her human opponents aren't paying attention to her doing the light, barely noticeable stuff.
  • The whole point of becoming a hunter is fighting Grimm day to day. What's the point in using her semblance in a discrete manner for years of practice if she's gonna need to ditch that style as soon as she graduates?
  • Because Grimm aren't the only threats out there. Or have you forgotten Torchwick and the White Fang? Remember, Glynda, a Huntress, moved in to deal with Torchwick in the first episode and ended up having to Wizard Duel Cinder. By the logic that's being applied, Glynda should have stayed the hell out because the threat wasn't some Animalistic Abomination.
  • Good point, but the Grimm are still recognized as the bigger threat (Once again, debatable), so Pyrhaa is still ignoring the tigers in favor of fighting the ants (Metaphorically speaking, the White Fang are regarded as ants compared to the Grimm. That's why there hasn't been word of Hunters outside of Team RWBY and Penny fighting them.)
  • Who said anything about the WF? Pyrrha's claim to fame is as a tournament fighter, not law enforcement or grimm hunting (think along the lines of the differences between an Olympic target shooter, a police sharpshooter and a military sniper; all three do the same thing but work under different conditions). With that in mind, it makes sense she would train to use her powers on the only two classes of metal objects she can be sure are around in such duels; her own gear, and her opponents'. Given she's the efficient sort, she probably prefers to use this approach with Grimm as well (being able to throw a tonne of metal at Grimm's all well and good, but how can she rely on that when she can't be sure there's a tonne of metal to throw?) and thus sticks to using her weapons, enhanced with her semblance.
  • A tournament fighter who goes to schools where you learn to become hunters that hunt Grimm. And the White Fang were mentioned literally two points above. This all loops back to the original question: Does Pyrhaa think she deserves the fame? What we've established is that she is using her powers in a discrete manner so that she can be widely known for her combat abilities against humans. Thing is, that's NOT how we should measure a Huntress or Huntsman, we should measure them by their combat ability against Grimm.
  • Of course she fights differently in a tournament than against Grimm. In one case she is fighting a thinking, human sized opponent, in the other she is fighting a much larger than her, animalistic monster. There's probably half a dozen or more different ways anyone would change up their fighting style. While fighting an intelligent enemy, there's a distinct advantage to them not knowing your abilities. It keeps them from planning to counter you, keeps them guessing what your power is. And she does deserve all the praise she gets for winning tournaments since she, you know, won them. Unless there's some rule against using your Semblance subtly, which seems unlikely.
  • I see your point, but as Grimm age they become smarter and more powerful. As Oobleck said, "Not all Grimm are mindless, or rather, not all Grimm are still mindless." So eventually, the Grimm could gain a thought process much like the Human opponents she fights, maybe even better. But yes, I can understand what you're saying, somewhat.
  • Why does Pyrrha hold back her Semblance against human opponents? There are several reasons why that could be; if it were known, she'd likely be accused of being unfair (despite, as stated, Semblances being fair), and at worst would have people shun her (hardly any better than the isolation praise she currently 'enjoys'). Also, she could want to be fair - with her power, she could easily win every battle by making sure they can't hit her at all... but why do so? What does she gain, except more fame and/or accusations (and thus more isolation that she hates). In addition, if she focused on using her Semblance that way, her skills wouldn't develop... and against the Grimm, who aren't nearly as metallic, this would come back to bite her hard. So I guess she's chooses not to rely on it exclusively, to prevent such from occurring.
  • Soda cans aren't magnetic, meaning her Semblance is pretty loose on what metals she can control.
  • Phyrra does overtly use her semblance against Grimm. During the Deathstalker fight you can hear her using it to aim her shield and spear when she throws them and to yank her spear out of the Deathstalker's eye. Magnetism just doesn't stand out unless you're doing something really obviously overt with it.
  • The only overt use of her semblance in a fight that we've seen was in the food fight. The only people who were there to witness its use are her seven closest friends (the members of teams JNPR and RWBY, whom she trusts with her life), Neptune and Sun (who are also proven trustworthy and vouched for by team RWBY), Ozpin (who's the next best thing to omniscient), and Glynda (who's in Ozpin's confidences). The only people who have seen her use her semblance overtly are people who she's prepared to entrust her life to.
  • There's also personality to consider. Phyrra is not a flashy or an overt person, she is subtle, restrained and precise. It would make sense for her combat style to be the same, she only ever uses as much force as she needs.
  • In PvP, she uses her semblance quite blatantly. However, when she does, there's an obvious black aura about it. Perhaps her tactics are slight of hand, so when she's duelling people, they're so busy watching out for the black aura that they don't notice the subtle stuff. And the whole "Hunters are only supposed to fight Grimm, so why should they learn to fight against people" is blown out of the water there too.
  • Something else to consider is power efficiency. It's possible that larger manifestations of Pyrra's Semblance either a) consume an unsustainable amount of Aura for any serious situation (goofing with friends is basically 100% safe for everyone), or b) require too much telegraphing or focus to be a good tactical move

Jaune's Leadership

• The story is that Jaune forged his documents in order to attend Beacon. Even Glynda is hip enough to notice that there is an obvious gap between Jaune's skill level and the skill level of everyone at the school. Ozpin is not an idiot so why is it that Jaune is still at the school for so long? I would imagine it would because Ozpin already knew Jaune forged his documents and is helping Jaune advance and prove himself by being a leader/tapping his potential, but there are multiple times Jaune should have been killed, one of which being a sparring match. It begs the question as to why he isn't kicked out yet
  • Given Remnant's a Death World anyway, perhaps the risk of being killed in a school environment (he wasn't really at risk of dying while sparing; it was explicitly ended because his aura was low enough to call it in Cardin's favour) is the same or better than what he'd get himself into trying to be a hero anyway?
  • Judging by Ozpin's talk with Blake, the important thing when it comes to getting into Beacon is passing the entrance exam. Jaune survived initiation and has yet to die, he has more or less earned his place already.
  • I imagine that kicking him out, while the 'proper' response, wouldn't be acceptable to Ozpin - after all, as stated, Remnant is a Death World. So to insure he gets the best training possible, Ozpin makes sure he remains at Beacon, knowing that there are other recruits who have the heart to help him survive/learn until he's fully ready.
  • Ozpin is one of those mysterious leader types, The Chessmaster, who Has His Reasons for everything he does. Remember, at the same time he let Jaune in, he promoted Ruby two years ahead to get in as well. It's doubtful Ozpin was fooled for one moment by the forged papers. The only answer is that he must have seen some hidden potential in Jaune that even Jaune didn't see himself, and gambled that the other students could help unlock it. As Peter Port said, Ozpin doesn't make mistakes in choosing team leaders.
  • Given Ozpin's unusual longevity, he might very well have known and fought alongside Jaune's illustrious ancestors in his past lives, and been personally acquainted with the potential that family line holds. That could have played into his decision to turn a blind eye to Jaune's fakery.
  • Also, Ruby and Jaune were chosen for tactical prowess, not outright physical strength. Jaune may not be the best fighter, but he proved himself. Also, you have to give him credit. Also, forging is no easy task. Jaune is awkward, and a bit weird, but he managed to get forge the most likely various and complex documents to get in, then survived and helped strategize the defeat of the Death Stalker. He is no idiot, and Ozpin is aware of this.
  • If Jaune is willing to go to Beacon in the first place, Ozpin's certainly willing to let him attempt to prove himself as a potential Huntsman. If he stands in the face of adversity, it proves that Jaune has the willingness and determination to continue. Indeed, if he's willing to stay and struggle for his place despite not having the extensive training that combat schools or experience would have given him, it proves he's got an even stronger will to succeed than other students.
  • Jaune didn't forge his transcripts. He "got his hands on some fake transcripts" (obviously from Jaune's perspective, he would have said "my" hands). Not that this detracts from the main point, which is that Ozpin obviously believes that if his students can prove themselves on the battlefield, other credentials don't much matter. And in the Emerald Forest, Ruby and Jaune are the two characters we see making tactical decisions.

Lack of Alternate Languages

• Okay, so Monty practically tried to hammer it into our heads how Weiss's name isn't pronounce the way it is in German because Remnant's only language is English. But if that's the case how come Weiss, Schnee, and Jaune are all words that are excepted into the color name tradition. Weiss is German for White, Jaune is French for yellow. How can these name's only connection to a color is another language's meaning if Remnant has only one?
  • He never said anything about English being Remnant's only language. Only that the setting was "interpretive".
  • That means that the setting serves to explain. Though they did fail to count to four, so that wouldn't surprise me. Let's try this instead: How can Weiss Schnee be German for White Snow if there is no German?
  • Why does it need to be German In-Universe?
  • Could be a Star Wars like thing. In Star Wars there is Basic, which is the official language of the Republic. Almost everyone speaks it, because in a Galaxy there are...let's just say a lot of different languages to go around and there is literally no way two people who speak the same language will somehow end up on the same world somewhere. So Basic was introduced as the common language so that everyone could understand each other. Maybe it's the same in Remnant. With the Grimm and the few pockets of humanity left it would only make sense that they all understand each other because finding a translator when a distress call comes in would be incredibly inefficient.

Kings or Queens?

• It's been mentioned plenty of times there are four kingdoms, but I have never heard anything about a monarch (king/queen). Is there one? We hear about corporations, schools, and the military, but nothing about a ruler. Maybe someone heard something...
  • It could be a constitutional monarchy like most modern kingdoms. There's a king and/or queen, but they're not really relevant to most day to day running of the country. On the other hand, it could just be that they haven't shown up yet. The council Ozpin reports to appears to be in charge of Vale, but they could just be an advisory council to the monarch, who saw no need to bother themselves with personally chastising him.
  • You've seen World of Remnant: Kingdoms, right?
  • They only mentioned council(s) in the short. I know what a constitutional monarchy is, but the point I'm saying is that there is no monarch. Kingdoms/monarchies usually have a person as the king/queen, even if he/she does not hold any political power. Having a government called a kingdom and having no king/queen is like saying there's democracy but no voting is allowed. You can't just have a kingdom to have a kingdom (without a king). There's a reason they're called 'kingdoms'. Even if the king is just voted into his office, which has been done in the real world before (it's just not common). It just bothers me that there's never been any mention of a king or queen. It seems like the creators just call it a 'kingdom' because kingdoms seem 'cool' as opposed to democracies.
  • A constitutional monarchy means that there's a hereditary monarchy, but it's heavily limited by the constitution, making it largely irrelevant most of the time. England is a constitutional monarchy, as are most other real world monarchies.
  • I already said I know what a constitutional monarchy is. I don't think you know what I'm asking. I'm asking if Vale is a kingdom, why has there been no mention of a king or queen? Any mention at all. Ever. I'm not asking about the kind of government. I'm just saying it seems like an oversight on the creators' part: that a kingdom doesn't have a king. I'm not saying he/she has power or anything. I'm saying the mere absence of a king is strange because it is called a 'kingdom'. We all know England (and Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) is a constitutional monarchy, And we see a monarch: the queen. Think of it this way: if you knew Great Britain and the United Kingdom was a monarchy, and you never saw the king or queen AND never heard any mention of him or her AT ALL, would you not find that weird in the slightest? Or if you knew America was a democracy and NO ONE voted, would you not find that weird?
  • Given the nature of Remnant, it's possible that early settlements were monarchies (small groups of warriors lead by a chieftain who managed to keep an area relatively safe), and Kingdom stuck as a name for any sufficiently large settlement regardless of who was in charge via semantic drift.
  • Most shows taking place in England don't mention the Queen or any of the other royals, even if the show directly involves the government. They're just not relevant in a constitutional monarchy. Admittedly those are real-life people so mentioning them causes some difficulties, but the point is that it's perfectly possible to have kings and queens without them being important enough to the ruling of a country to actually show up on screen.
  • World of Remnant: The Great War confirms that there were kings and emperors of the four main kingdoms, but after the devastation of the Great War they reorganized their governments and ceded control to the councils that now rule each kingdom.

One Military Force

• There is only one military in the entire world of Remnant. If the military ever decide to turn on the kingdoms and take over, it seems like they would have no worthy opposition since the military shown in the series look as if their technology is more advance than the police force's.
  • The second episode of the second volume made it quite clear that every Kingdom has its own military. Ironwood just decided to bring his own along with him.
  • More likely Atlas is just more powerful militarily (aside from Huntsmen/Huntresses on both sides). Also note that the Atlesian military was all non-human and thus a better choice to send at the end of the Vol 2.
  • Ironwood explicitly says that Atlas is the "most powerful" military in the world. That all but outright says that other militaries exist.
  • Atlas puts more resources into their military than any other country so they have more powerful ships and robots and the like. They also have their huntsman academy run by it and actively recruit people from it into the military as specialists, which is something people object to because hunters are supposed to have to kingdom alliegences and instead have their goal being fighting for humanity as a whole against the Grimm. And they have the biggest supplier of dust in their country and heavily connected to them. Other kingdoms have military but Atlas's is by far the strongest (and the only one with aura users in it) which makes everyone nervous because that's dangerously close to the level of conformity and military might they supposedly forsook after the great war. And if it came down to a war they'd crush everyone.
  • It's likely that the Grimm make wars between humans (especially ones intended to capture and hold territory) mostly non-viable. They might be able to attack and claim a few dust mines, but if they attack a populated area, the panic and terror that would result would cause a huge Grimm eruption that would damage their own army and cost them whatever they were trying to seize. Even the threat of an attack is dangerous (Ozpin points out that simply having the Atlas military present is a Grimm risk due to the worries it causes, even when it's just there to protect people), so you can't even rely on a belligerent stance or mutually-assured destruction to try and extract concessions. This doesn't mean that there's never anyone stupid enough to try something (presumably wars between the kingdoms have happened), but the Grimm make them so costly for everyone involved that they're generally avoided.
  • "If the military ever decide to turn on the kingdoms and take over, it seems like they would have no worthy opposition since the military shown in the series look as if their technology is more advance than the police force's." ....yes, and? This is pretty much the case with every single functional, working military in the world. militaries are generally under the control of and loyal to their government for one reason or another, because you need the military to be extremely well-armed to deal with both external enemies and internal insurrection. If the police are as well-armed as the military, then you don't have a police force, you have two militaries.
  • The answer to the question of where the other armies are is that: The Great War happened. All four kingdoms had powerful armies, but the destruction wrought by that war led to an aversion to them, at least in the form of armies that could invade other kingdoms. Atlas retains its army, but Vacuo, Mistral, and Vale maintain self-defense militias to fight the Grimm, but don't have the kind of professional militaries needed to project force like Atlas.

Mechs on the Train

• If they were planning on totalling the train on the way into the city, why'd they put mechs on it? Where they planning on losing all of them?
  • Remember, Roman was forced to kick off the plan early due to the team showing up. He was probably just planning on offloading them somewhere else.
  • They beat the Grimm that little trick released incredibly easily, no way Roman underestimated their defenses that badly. It's obvious we haven't been told the full plan yet, of which that seemed to be the distraction. Maybe the mechs were intended to attack the city as well, or accomplish some other plan?
  • They only beat the Grimm 'easily' because Team RWBY was on the scene during the initial wave: this focused their attacks on them, stalling until everyone else arrived, surrounding and overwhelming them (the downfall of many forces) - also, the attack was forced many days ahead of schedule, when the planned date seemed to be when many school teams + Hunstmen/Huntresses would be outside the city (by the time they got back, there'd be a lot more Grimm, and it wouldn't be easy either way). As a result of early, no doubt the mechs were just being stored, and were to be offloaded - it wasn't part of the plan to lose them so senselessly, but there was no choice.

So the Grimm hate humanity, what about Faunus?

• It's been established that Grimm actively target humans, but has the same been said about Faunus? Unless I'm mistaken, the only times they've gone on offense were against humans, with faunus like Blake or Velvet attacking them first or getting mixed in with them in a larger battle, like in the season 12 finale.
  • Nothing's really suggested that Faunus are anything but humans with animal parts (if even that). Given Blake had to learn to fight to survive outside the kingdom, it's fair to assume that Grimm don't make a distinction.
  • Which helps underline the pointlessness of the racism.

  • That implies most racism isn't pointless.
  • Sure it is in real life, but in fantasy, it might make a lot more sense. There's a big difference between a mundane human and an elf that lives ten times as long and can do magic.
  • World of Remnant: Faunus says that there's three sides to the conflict: humans, Grimm, and faunus, and that humans and faunus have fought each other over territory safe from the Grimm. Makes it pretty clear that the Grimm see no difference between the two.

Teams of 4 odd numbers

• What happens if Beacon's student body isn't divisible by four?
  • Ozpin probably pulls strings to make sure it is.
  • Does this mean he would exclude a promising candidate if the numbers didn't work out? What with, y'know, the Grimm, that seems irresponsible.
  • Not necessarily. Real life academies usually have strictly-imposed numbers of students they are willing to accept, and real-life militaries have strict numbers of personnel they can recruit and process for training at a time. Only so many positions are open for soldiers and officers, for example, and restricting the numbers of students ensures that the best-qualified join Beacon. Anyone else can join the regular military, try again next year, or not join a formal four-man team.

Changing teams

• After teams are assigned, what happens if a student dies or is otherwise removed from the picture? Does the team get a replacement? If so, does their team name change? If they do get a replacement, where does (s)he come from? Signal, perhaps?
  • If Beacon operates like any other military force, there would be procedures in place where new replacements are shuffled in to fill in losses. Those are a fundamental part of any personnel management system, no matter the organization.
  • Does Signal also form teams of four? If so, Beacon's harvesting would screw up their teams; if not, why don't they just keep the same teams when they graduate to Beacon?
  • There's no indication that Signal forms teams of four.
  • If they don't get a replacement, would they be allowed to participate in tournaments, considering they would be at a numerical disadvantage?
  • Probably not. But any losses would be replaced by the personnel and admissions department.

How did that gaming system ever sell?

• In Volume 3, episode 4, we see Qrow, Rwby and Yang playing on a game console that seems to use flat, smartphone-esque hologram-ish touch screens with no touch feedback for controllers while the players look at a big screen. How does that even work? How can you use a controller you can neither feel nor look at while using it? How could you possibly know you're pressing the right buttons properly?
  • Hand coordination: people who've gotten used to controls can keep their eyes on the screen, reacting to anything the game does without having to look at the buttons (in real life or in RWBY) - similar to how once you're familiar with typing, you can type paragraphs without once looking at your hands, mistakes or not. Perhaps it would take longer to adapt to a control pad without touch feedback, but it'd be a simple matter of muscle memory, once they did get used to it.
  • They could be Hard Light.
  • But you can feel the buttons on a keyboard, that's how it works. There's absolutely no benefit whatsoever to a controller like that other than it looking kinda cool in a short-sightedly gimmicky kind of way, using a normal controller makes infinitely more sense in every way other than aesthetic novelty. And it doesn't matter if it could eventually be adapted to, controllers aren't supposed to have a learning curve, they're supposed to be extremely simple so anybody can pick up and use them. Having an annoying controller is death to a console.
  • You presume it would be annoying, but Scrolls are commonplace in RWBY, mundane even, and people are already used to handling them for a lot of things (similar to cellphones) - that makes it easier by default. And in addition, even for touch feedback controllers like keyboards, there is still a learning curve... which there is for everything really. For the common civilians, some might mind, but not everyone - Huntsmen/Huntresses who want to play... how does that learning curve even compare to the ones regarding combat training, facing Grimm, and so on? If anything, it'd be a fun little distraction, learning how to use their hands that way.
  • That doesn't go anywhere towards explaining why the designers made that decision in the first place. A more mundane, real-life controller would be cheaper, more durable, more practical, less prone to failure, more accessible to children, and just generally superior to that controller in every conceivable way. There's absolutely no reason whatsoever not to use a normal controller over those gimmicky scrollish things. Unless... Wait... I think I just stumbled upon a WMG inadvertently while typing this. What if that thing below the hologram screen isn't a console, but the source of a regular old TV, and that game they were playing wasn't an video game console, but an app on regular scrolls that can (or perhaps must be) streamed onto a big screen? It still wouldn't be the most practical method of gaming by a longshot, but being a scroll app to begin with would explain why the controllers are so weird.
  • This is already possible in real life (via things like Apple's Airplay); there's not reason it should be more difficult in the high-tech world of Remnant.

What color is "Stark"?

• According to Monty Oum, all team names have to be a color or something that sounds like a color, or something that makes you think of a color. Now in V 3 E 4, Summer, Taiyang, Raven and Qrow's team was revealed to be team STRQ (stark), rather than team TRQS (turquoise). What color does "stark" represent? I looked it up and Stark isn't a color and doesn't seem to have any association with a color.
  • Stark can refer to something that stands outs or is bright. Colors can, though rarely, be referred to as stark. Alternatively, they stand out in "stark" contrast.
  • Another definition of Stark mentions 'grim', which tends to bring about images of dark colors. Or perhaps when it says Stark, it refers to 'stark white', reflecting the white hood Summer Rose wore.
  • And now we also have Team FNKI from Atlas - all that makes me think of is a rather catchy riff, not a colour.
  • Regarding Team FNKI, 'funky' may first remind people of music, but another definition of it means "earthly unsophisticated style-". 'Earthly' references green and brown, among other colors.
  • "Funky Colors" is also a thing, that might be what they're talking about.

Who is the war being fought between?

• The grown-ups are worrying over a coming war in Volume 2 but... between who? I thought it was just an upcoming clash against the Grimm but, more and more, it seems like this is going to be a scrap between two human sides. But I thought humanity had been pushed to the brink of extinction, so who would be stupid enough to fight a war that would result in the global population shrinking even more? And over what would they be fighting?
  • Likely over resources. I don't remember where but it's stated that known Dust reserves are expected to run out, worldwide, within the life expectancy of the main characters. Considering that the Kingdoms maintain a semblance of security from the Grimm thanks in no small part to Dust-based weaponry and related technology, sooner or later only a small number of the most powerful Huntsmen and Huntresses will be able to defend the population (after all, there is a reason why academies like Beacon are so well funded). The natural course of action in this scenario is to look for new deposits of Dust in Grimm-controlled territory, but now think a step further along the line and consider what would happen with the balance of power between the Kingdoms the moment the first of these new reservoirs is found. In such an inflammable political climate, the smallest affront, mistake or too-ambitious or short-sighted fool in charge of a key position could easily escalate into an all-out open conflict. Real life wars has been declared for lesser reasons than a nation's very survival at stake.
  • They were pushed to the brink of extinction before they harnessed Dust - after that, things were more prosperous, in many senses. Remnant may not be as packed as Earth, due to having only four major cities, yet their numbers are seemingly not threatened anymore, during times of peace anyway. As for why they'd do that? It's hard to say in-universe, given we don't know Cinder's ultimate end-game picture as of now.
  • They're almost certainly talking about a war with Cinder, the White Fang, and whatever else she's planning.
  • The World of Remnant videos released before Volume 4 premiered indicate that war would indeed be potentially fought over Dust supplies. Vacuo was invaded repeatedly over their abundant Dust supplies and Atlas is suspending their Dust exports over fears of a war erupting with other nations after Cinder engineered the fall of Beacon. Not to mention that each nation harbors its own problems. Mistral has a hard time controlling their outer cities, Vacuo has no governing authority that they respect outside Shade Academy, and Atlas and Mantle are not on good terms because the former has overshadowed and absorbed the latter.
  • As of Volume 4, it's looking like the war they're worried about is between Ozpin's factions and Salem over the control of the relics. Everyone outside of those two conspiracies are proxies and tools for those trying to protect/seize the relics.

Qrow and Raven in a same team

• It was explained that a Hunter/ress can choose his teammate after graduating, but Qrow implied that team STRQ is already formed when they are in Beacon. Assuming normal enrollment, does that mean Raven and Qrow are twins (or at least siblings that have near birth dates, however it may happen)?
  • It is possible (though not very common) to be in the same year as a non-twin sibling; for, example if they were 10 months apart. Aside from that, why does them being twins warrant a Headscratcher?
  • You don't need to be of the same age to join in the same year. Ruby was two years younger than Yang, after all, and the only person who remarked on it being strange at all was Weiss, who thought Ruby was a little young. Competence and skill seem to be much more important to determining at what point you enter beacon than simple age.
  • Oobleck calls them the "Branwen twins" in Vol 4.4 "Family."

Is Everything Based on Dust?

• So, after watching the latest "World of Remnant" episode, where it is revealed that the nations of Remnant have yet to achieve space flight or satellite technology ...... yet possess antigravity vehicles and floating coliseums the size of small towns. How.... how does that make sense? Did the people of Remnant never discover oil, nor coal? All those cars and trucks you see zooming around the city, are they powered via Dust? In the middle of a international Dust shortage? I dunno, the whole reveal just brings up a "FFVII moment".
  • Why would they develop coal or oil-based technology when they literally have magical fuel sources that they can activate with their minds? Limitations breed innovations, and having a fuel source that can be activated just by concentrating on it will remove a lot of energy limitations for a developing society. They've got no reason to go for any other power source.
  • They can activate the "totally not magical" fuel sources with their minds IF they have gone through empowering rituals that make them explicitly superhuman. Approximately 95% of the population ( essentially, all those aside from the Huntsmen and probably most of the military hasn't gone through the thingamajig to awaken their Aura.) Granted, Dust-based bullets can be used by anyone, but those without awakened Aura can't use Dust in the Raw form, nor use it for other things. Asides from that, "redundancy" is a thing many nations take seriously. The majority of US military vehicles can run off almost anything that burns, just for those times you might not have diesel. The actions of one gang leader has lead to a severe Dust shortage that is affected one of the 4 Kingdoms on the planet.
  • You mean the "magical ritual" that takes less than thirty seconds? Aura doesn't take long to unlock, and Jaune not knowing anything about Aura is strongly implied to be an unusual case. Not to mention that the fact that they now have machinery that can use Dust means that not everyone needs to have their Aura unlocked to use it.
  • "Jaune not knowing about Aura" was considered weird because he was SUPPOSED to be a graduate/transfer from another Huntsman Academy, where they learn about things like that, not because knowledge of Aura is commonplace.
  • I think the idea is that Remnant doesn't really have coal or gasoline, and dust is their rough equivalent. The parallels are certainly there. They use it to fuel everything, there's only a finite amount and they're running out of it, and dust is highly volatile, much like coal dust is. Granted, Rwby dust also seems to be explosive when they're in large pieces and the things they're used to fuel are different, so they're not exactly the same, obviously, but the resemblance is worth noting, I think.
  • This is backed up by the World of Remnant videos on Vacuo and Atlas. Dust is basically treated the same way as fossil fuels would be treated by modern humanity. Except in the case of Dust, you just need to mine it out and people can use it immediately without expensive refineries like with petroleum. Fire Dust is basically used the same way as natural gas to heat homes, and Vacuo's Dust was so abundant and easy to use that its people lived an easy life of decadence without much technological advancement (until outsiders showed up to exploit them).

Space Travel

• Apparently, Dust stops working outside of Remnants atmosphere. Soooo.... use chemical/solid-state rockets to put up satellites instead. Things in space can't get attacked by the Grim, which happens to the "backup CCT relay towers" with depressing frequency.
  • They would do that if they ever developed the technology. Dust is such an effective power source that they never developed an alternate source. Ozpin specifically says that technology hasn't developed enough to achieve spaceflight, which indicates that alternate options are being explored... but if you've never needed to develop alternate energy sources it will take time to come up with them. It's the same as today's problem with fossil fuels. We know they are bad in the long run. But we are so dependent on it and it's so abundant that we don't try to develop any alternatives. Sure we have wind, solar and nuclear power sources, but those are in limited use or are only in the proto-stage. Same principle applies here.
  • There is also the fact that technology is not linearly progressive. it's possible for one aspect of it to be super advance while another aspect is lagging behind. There is also the fact that a lot of scientific innovations are discovered by accident (e.g gunpowder and antibiotics).
  • It is not the fact that Dust is so awesome that is confusing, it is the fact that they apparently don't use anything BUT Dust. We never hear of anything else, not even as backup. No hydroelectric damns over rivers, no wind-farms in the mountains that surround the kingdoms, nor off the coast.. Those two things are basically "free power" that, despite the overwhelming use of petroleum in the "real world", still get used as supplementary sources an awful lot.
  • Again, why would they even be developing any redundancies? They don't need redundancies. Up until their equivalent of the Industrial Age they would be using an abundant energy source so far beyond anything we would have developed that they wouldn't ever be looking for an alternative. The World of Remnant implies that up until they started having trouble with spaceflight, Remnant's people never needed an alternate fuel source. Dust was just that much better than any alternatives they may have developed.
  • During the 2015 Extra Life livestream someone asked if all technology was powered by Dust. Kerry said that most, but not all, of it is (although he also said that this is a tentative answer and they might change their minds on it), so clearly they do have some other kinds of power, no idea what specifically, but Dust is so much more readily available and powerful that it is the main source, and probably the thing that allowed such advancement in the first place. Furthermore, it seems that Dust is significantly more powerful then any resource we have. If those power sources mentioned could only produce a fraction of the power Dust can, then investing time into them is much less efficient then trying to understand Dust so they can find a way to reproduce it or figure out how to make it work in space.
  • There's also considering the Grimm. Dust can be mined and refined as it is because of the system built around them. But setting up a hydraulic dam, oil rigs, or anything like that means construction in places where you're just a giant bullseye. They say that the remote outposts for communication never last long because of the Grimm, so any of these alternative fuel stations would likely suffer the same fate.
  • One of the most popular rocket fuels (it's not ideal for ASL launches, but it's usable) is liquid hydrogen/oxygen, which is literally produced from water via electrolysis. Cooling storing it isn't easy, but (and I'm simplifying here a bit), it's not all that complicated once you understand the basic principles of thermodynamics (which is a Required Secondary Power for refrigerators and a large number of modern appliances), just energy intensive. Now, they never specified the problem was related to fuel; it could easily be that Remnant's electronics are designed around and incorporate dust, and having to come up with an alternate circuit design and learn the ins and outs of programming in said medium is far more daunting than electrolyzing water.

CCT vulnerability

• Whoever thought "bringing down the entire CCT-system whenever one of the 4 main relays went offline" was a good idea needs to be taken out and shot. That thing is THE ONLY way the ONLY enclaves of civilization can communicate with any sense of efficiency. When one goes down, you don't take out the entire system because " LAWL if one person can't talk nobody should"( That quote made me facepalm). No, you use the backup relays to ENSURE that the primary relay is down for maintenance. You schedule said maintenance months, if not years, in advance, then when the maintenance occurs, you check in with the primary relay, just to be sure. If something goes wrong with your secondary relay stations, you build and operate a tertiary system, and a quaternary system, down to using AM radio waves bounced off clouds. The CCT isn't just Remanants version of the Internet, and doesn't exist so people can watch cat videos and play games on their phones. Military communications, government communiques, economic transfers/information, all extremely-vital bits of information that will stop being transmitted because "one" tower can be taken offline, and nobody thought about the possible implications.
  • No one deliberately engineered the CCT system to shut down if any tower was taken offline. That was obviously an engineering or technological limitation. Ozpin's statement was that he found it "poetic" that if one kingdom couldn't talk, none of them could, not that it was deliberately designed that way.
  • MY mistake, I must have misinterpreted the statement, then. However, my point still remains that relying on a single system of communication is a ..... poor choice, even in the best of times, much less when there are only a couple of enclaves of human civilization on the planet. The US has multiple methods of communication on standby "just in case" something were to happen to satellite communications, ranging from AM relays to civilian CB and HAM radio to couriers on BIKES.
  • As a reply to the first one, this is an entirely different world; who says the sames chemicals exist there? Is oil around, is coal? And if they are, are they in any quantities that make them worth mining? We can't assume that they would be - the facts are that Dust is abundant, it's pretty much the world's primary power source, and it stops working outside of the atmosphere, which limits them and will be an issue in the future when Dust starts running out. It's not that different from today's situation. The second one... first off, 'shot' is harsh, and also, every single system of any sort has limitations or setbacks - do you really think anyone would've chosen the system working that way, if others existed and/or were feasible? Doubtful
  • Oil and coal are a result of heat and pressure on fossilized decaying plants and animals. The only places where there wouldn't be oil and coal are planets where life never existed. Considering how Remnant has life, and is basically Earth-like, we can readily assume coal and oil are at least present. Looking at this map (http://40.media.tumblr.com/d909bbf96254d4acfd89b549f5b3f8de/tumblr_n9nvb14a721tttz73o2_1280.jpg), Remnant appears to be decently, if not heavily, mountainous and rugged. If the Kingdoms are taking advantage of available resources is a whole different story, and one much more applicable to the current Headscratcher.
  • As of Volume 4, it's not clear if Remnant's life is the result of natural evolution, let alone if it existed over the millions of years needed for fossilized fuel sources to form. There very well may not be any coal or oil simply because life hasn't existed on Remnant long enough for it to have formed fossil fuels.
  • Considering how the CCT was invented in Atlas, which is described as being basically a military junta, and how Gen. Ironwood makes a semi-serious remark about having insubordinates shot.....I don't think the remark was all that harsh. Asides from that, almost all militaries in the "real world" ascribe to almost fetishistic levels of redundancy. From satellite radio, to direct antenna radio, to semaphore and signal mirror. Not, "hey, good enough!".
  • In line with entries on the "Fridge Horror" page, one aspect of the villains plan appears to be either taking down or at least messing with the CCT Beacon in Vale ( Granted, I am only extrapolating on evidence from the show and Wo R). My major beef with all this is, from what we have seen (which again, granted, has been extremely limited), is that 1) The CCT is integral to communication between the Kingdoms 2) has only " a couple" of light infantrymen guarding the Beacon, when the region the Beacon is located in is under guerrilla insurrection and organized crime. 3) Goes offline with depressing and in-universe noted frequency and, "as far as we know", 4) has no system in place for backup communication or "checking in". I dunno.... the whole system just seems "off" to me.
  • As far as guarding it is concerned, the CCT tower is located in the middle of Beacon. The place whose entire purpose is to train Huntsmen. There's a virtual army of Hunstmen and Hunstmen-in-training on hand to defend it. There's a reason why Cinder timed her attack for the one point where the majority of the personnel in Beacon would have been in one place where Mercury and Emerald could keep an eye on them and there would only be a few Atlas troops guarding it. Even then, the CCT tower was close enough to the ballroom that all it took was one curious person walking by to notice what was happening and interfere. A force like the White Fang never would have been able to get close without getting a horde of Huntsmen falling upon them.
  • We know that as of Volume 4, there are CCT backups and local relay stations. RNJR are able to use their scrolls for local communications, backup communications systems between towns are mentioned, and Menagerie has its own comms system. Oscar is also expecting to use his lien card to be bale to buy a ticket, indicating networked banking is functional, and snail-mail is confirmed to work. We also know that the CCT was only built after the Great War, so the kingdoms engaged in regular communications prior to that, so there were likely some forms of hardlines or radio comunications between kingdoms and cities beforehand.
  • Something I wish to bring up on both counts of why both dust and the the CCT towers are their main if not sole methods of power and communication respectively: space and maintenance. For communications anything with a shorter range than the CCT but conventionally more reliable like landlines and signal relay towers would require being set up in areas that are more likely grimm infested wilderness, construction would be slow because the construction would need to be under constant guard and afterwards maintenance crews would need similar protection. For power alternatives like solar, turbine or hydraulic, those would require a large enough amount of safe space to be built upon for them to be effective and efficient, also not viable in the confines that grimm had forced humanity into.
  • I think the issue with that is... those large amounts of open space aren't so free to build upon. The Kingdoms are pretty much some of the only save havens on the planet, and thus any space must be considered for living quarters, training academies, all the usual expansion efforts, etc etc by the government (with anything else under constant threat of Grimm). This, plus the earlier point that people don't find alternative sources of fuel until they're forced to, means Remnant isn't yet at the point that they've developed alternate sources - no doubt someone's trying to, considering the space flight incident, but they simply aren't at the point yet that it's a priority.
  • As of Volume 6, we actually have a very good reason why Ozpin had the CCT built that way: he has to enforce cooperation between countries since that's part of his mandate from the God of Light. Making it so that the CCT will fail if any one part is disabled forces everyone to protect it and cooperate in its operation, which makes everyone work together in general.

Odds of RWBY

• The short way of putting this is to question exactly how likely it is for a team like RWBY to be formed. We have Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long the two nieces of Qrow, who's in the benevolent conspiracy that's protecting the entire world. We have Weiss Schnee, the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest weapons and Dust producing entity on the planet if not the largest. And we have Blake, the renegade partner of Adam Taurus, the leader of the White Fang.
  • As with most shows that have teams or groups that were put together by semi-random hapstance... impossible to actually predict or quantify really. The many little and big things that caused circumstances that made the situation that would bring RWBY together are not just things that could have been predicted without literally seeing the future and even then only lets it be known as a possibility. Even the circumstances that allowed Ruby to attend Beacon two years early was just a line of coincidences, She is at the dust store in Vale the same night Roman decides to rob it, attempts to stop at which point Glynda who was either responding to the incident or just happened to be in the area to help comes and provides assistance, after the incident is over Glynda detains Ruby to interrogate and reprimand her, but then Ozpin is here to talk to Ruby and after going over the incident report and a short conversation with her offers her an immediate spot in Beacon. Stuff like this from a story-point of view its just expected to happen, but in-universe its mostly just life and the only thing predictable about life is that it can't be predicted.
  • Alternatively, welcome to fiction. These things happen.
  • I've counted 16 people being thrown into Emerald Forest, making odds of this specific team being formed 1/1820. Which is... exacly the same chance as any other team being formed. Some team would've been formed for sure, and such things happen.
  • Your math fails to accomadate many things such as the statuettes and the fact that 2 people of 16 form one half and then team up with another random team of 2 or where people landed, their landing strategy, the Grimm in the area etc. the actual odds are a little less than 1/1000000000000 at random, though that's the key, Yang specifically wore goggles to avoid choosing a partner, Blake followed Yang, Ruby and Yang had similar interests so naturally they took the same statue, in fact the only truly random attribute to their team? Weiss. The other three were basically set in stone therefore that monumental odds is lowered substanially all the way to about 1/1000000 which is a lot more likely than the other teams, in other words the odds of RWBY are extremely higher than average.
  • To add to the above troper, team JNPR was hardly random either. Pyrrha chose Jaune, also Nora and Ren located one another (Well, Nora found Ren). Weiss had a slight opportunity of messing it up by choosing Jaune over Ruby, that's about it. It was more-or-less "choose your own partner" with a few obstacles in the way.

Quick To Judge?

• So judging by the trailer for episode 8 and the general response to Yang's frame-up, it seems like basically nobody's entertaining the notion that this was staged in some way, and even her closest friends and family seem to think it's extremely unlikely she's telling the truth, and all I have to ask is... how? Emerald and Neo cannot be the first people in RWBYverse history to be capable of manipulating perception in one way or another, and Emerald actually did it during the tournament before against team CFVY, so how can there be literally no suspicion on her? How can a tournament and the legal system not be prepared for and consider this outcome? It seems like the sort of thing that people of authority in a world where literally everyone has superpowers would have to have considered.
  • While I certainly agree (you would think there would be referees watching the match with their own eyes [ Emerald apparently has trouble "confuddling" TWO people, much less the 3-7 "officials" various sports use], as well as their being monitoring and, more importantly, RECORDS of what the official Semblances of the competitors are, but I digress), but look at it from the POV of 99.999% of the people that saw the fight, including the "regulatory/law-keeping body". They literally have video evidence of Yang attacking Mercury, with zero provocation. In "real world" justice systems, video/picture evidence is essentially the "holy grail" of physical evidence, as it tends to be 1) rather difficult to fake, especially on the fly, and 2) most tampering are rather obvious. There are some forms of physical evidence which are "better", but they literally have video of the event in real-time. Yang is .... well, it is her word ( the word of a physical combatant with known anger issues, for lack of a better term [ Her Semblance is that she gets stronger the more she gets hit/the angrier she gets]) against live video evidence and the first-hand accounts of EVERYONE in the stadium.
  • People may have considered it, but chances are that situations like this haven't happened before. It seems common knowledge that Grimm are drawn to negative emotions, meaning that people wouldn't never want to stir things up like Cinder's doing. Not to mention that semblances are essentially random, usually matching the personalities of the person. Notice how most of the fighters in the tournament so far have all shown powers with obvious applications for combat, like Super-Speed or Super-Strength? But when it comes to people like Emerald or even Blake, who've been less than entirely altruistic, more subtle powers suit them. Long story short, it may have been considered, but written off under "who would be that stupid" before any serious thought was given.
  • But that's ridiculous. "Who would be stupid enough to frame somebody for doing something horrible and causing negative emotions"? Who would be stupid enough to do that something horrible in the first place? The argument goes in the framed person's favor too. In a society like this, where the populace has a ridiculously diverse array of powers under its belt, the police and general populace by this point would have to be so thoroughly familiar with the wide variety of ways somebody can be framed for a crime and how easy it would be for somebody with the right superpower to fake what would by real life standards be damning ironclad evidence that they wouldn't consider such to be damning ironclad evidence anymore. And surely a society where massive levels of negative emotions is a horrible thing would encourage its populace not to rush to judgment on first appearances and start getting angry. The possibility that she was framed would in fact be an excellent thing to tell the populace to keep them from getting so furious right away and be less passionate about it when the truth eventually comes to light.
  • First off, the trailer (much like Episode 6's) is misleading in what actually happens, regarding the reaction to Yang's frame-up. Second, Remnant no doubt has had people with illusion abilities, perception-altering abilities, the whole varieties - but they're still uncommon for one simple reason: the tournament is hosted between academies, aka schools. People who are twisted enough to have Semblances like illusions... usually aren't the people you'd expect going to normal schools. Plus a good majority of people watching the tournament are normal civilians, who while they may know about these abilities, are still largely unfamiliar with them - the Huntsmen-in-training are more unsure, because illusions are hard to prove + that one was particularly clever, yet they're more open to the idea... but illusions being used for such nefarious purposes is still 'extremely' uncommon, shocking in this time of peace, and downright morally bad given how Grimm lurk outside the walls. No one would first consider someone is willing to do that; someone breaking a leg on purpose, while still terrible, would be easier to understand.
  • But it didn't have to be a student, it could have been a full grown adult spectator. And besides, "It's unbelievable that anybody would do something bad" doesn't work at all, because this world does have an established criminal element. A time of peace this may be, but there are still awful people roaming around, and if you discount a possibility out of disbelief that anybody would be so horrible, then people who are that horrible can act with impunity. People who are in positions of power and responsibility simply cannot afford to have, and would be almost psychologically incapable of having, such a horribly naïve mindset.
  • I do not believe that mindset is out of naivete, but rather a reality. Their world is a precarious one, where any major upset would bring the Grimm, and kill them all... under such a world, any average criminal would be careful about how far they go; even then they wouldn't dare change the status quo, with things like Yang's public leg-break, because it could kill them all via death-by-Grimm. Average robbery + such crimes, underground work in the shadows, etc etc do not upset this in the grand scheme, and it's where security is present, trying to prevent it. No one expects such terrible deliberate public-upset acts that actively bring about the Grimm, and the system actively discourages such attempts, by any normal standards due to this... obviously however, Cinder + gang aren't normal, and they take advantage of this because it fits their plans, whatever those are.
  • Setting aside the idea that a public leg-breaking during a sporting event attracts more Grimm than the bitter, violent racism going on behind the scenes every day does (which I think is ridiculous), the extreme danger behind causing such an upset only increases the plausibility that it was a calculated terrorist attack. We have people in real life who, whether due to mental issues or extreme religious beliefs, would burn the Earth to cinders if they only had the power. Imagine living in a world where such people did have the power. That's the situation that the RWBYverse is in, and applying real-life criminal justice and standards of evidence to it is absurd.
  • As far as the Grimm reaction, we must remember that the stronger the negative emotions, the better they respond. Reactions to racism, while sad and horrible, are fairly subdued in strength as people are usually on the sidelines, some wanting to help (positive emotions), but others afraid to... someone publicly breaking a leg in cold blood, 'directly' after they were cheering her on with emotions running high from excitement, turned an already-shocking turn into a full-out uproar (with no build-up, it wouldn't have had nearly the same intensity, while still being horrible). And that's also partly the reason why people didn't think it was a deliberate terrorist attack - in addition to not wanting to believe someone would do such a thing in the first place, it's simpler/easier to believe someone attacked another someone (out of revenge, for the fun of it, whatever), rather than for any broader implications.
  • You're thinking using real-life logic. This is a world where nearly everyone has superpowers. WE would consider it simpler and easier, but that's because we don't constantly live with this stuff and the knowledge of that possibility hasn't affected how we view the world. I find it impossible to believe that the citizens of this world would trust their own eyes and video evidence to anywhere near the same degree that we do. And regarding the actual episode 8, nobody even seems to entertain the notion that illusion semblances are even physically possible. I mean seriously, Velvet doesn't connect the dots that both "hallucinations" happened with the exact same two people with unconfirmed semblances present?
  • Maybe, but it did seem logical enough imo - the world of Remnant may operate differently than real-life, but it was written by people thinking in real-life terms, applied to a different world. Perhaps the actual reaction of Remnant is somewhere in-between the two, and we're just trying to make sense of things, as the students are. From what they may know, Emerald appears as a cheerful one, and thus doesn't seem the type to do such a thing - in friendly battle, possibly, but that could be considered a pragmatic move, rather than a morally-off manipulative one. Intentionally doing so to mislead Yang into actually breaking a leg... well, no matter which world, that's a hard thing to believe. Maybe Velvet suspects, yet doesn't want to believe she did it, or maybe she's unsure because there's many other students beside Emerald who could've done it (as we know, Emerald did so from her seat in the stands, regarding Yang-vs-Mercury); who knows?
  • My point still stands: Why isn't law enforcement (Which assuredly should be involved in the security of any live event that would be broadcast to the whole world and could thereby potentially endanger lives) equipped with methods to detect illusions or anything? And while your point may stand with Velvet, it doesn't stand with the police, whose job it is to suspect everyone, no matter how nice they look. If the police don't have countermeasures to illusions and stuff, or, god forbid, mind control, that's a big target for criminals to get away with stuff unscathed. If the police are equipped to deal with it, then why weren't they brought in to check Yang's story? If the police aren't equipped to deal with it, then how are they able to keep the peace that everyone's enjoying without criminals with law-undermining powers getting away with murder? Or, taking that "even criminals don't want to upset public order too much because of the Grimm" line of reasoning into account, which does have merit, surely that would mean that criminals with illusion and mind control powers, the kinds of powers that can be used to break the law without anybody knowing what really happened, would be by far the most common types of criminals in the world, and thereby the kind the police would have even more reason to be on the lookout for?
  • They're equipped and prepared to handle 'normal' situations that they're used to (which seem to be criminal attacks); however, even trained people can be unprepared when the unexpected happens, which can happen in real-life or otherwise. Also, it seems they don't have defense against such things: even with Aura, Amber/Coco/Yang were still affected by Emerald's perception illusions... if their usual defense shield can't protect them from that, how they can protect themselves period? And furthermore, prove that somebody did it in the first place, with only their (unreliable) word to give? Without proof, even security can't act on much but the available physical + real evidence (or what they think is)... and it probably doesn't help that such criminals with such powers would naturally be on the down low, as well as spread-out. If crimes with similar accounts popped up too frequently or brazenly, everyone would start to suspect the people who'd come in - which wouldn't be good for the criminals (or business in general).
  • Surely such a society would have a team of semblance-induced psychics or clairvoyants or something, people whose superhuman powers have amazing applications for determining the truth of things. Super detectives for super crimes.
  • ^They probably do. However, the world of Remnant has only four major Kingdoms on the entire planet, with uncertain total of humans period - at least a majority of those are civilians, aka those not trained in Aura, Dust, or Semblances. Add to that the Huntsmen system, and the various spread-out of loyalty, abilities, what they choose to do with their lives (free of the government), host of other factors for those that are Huntsmen/Huntresses... well, it doesn't seem those who have 'determine-truth' abilities could be everywhere.
  • But that only brings up another question: Who the hell wouldn't want to figure out what their innate superpower is? Surely even those with no interest in living a violent, combat-filled lifestyle would be interested in at least training just enough to figure out if it was something cool or not, especially if that can be done by the time you're a teenager. And then people who have cool, useful semblances but no interest in fighting could use them for other things. A lot of semblances would have practical applications in other fields besides combat, and that's excluding the possibility (which has no evidence against it) that some people have semblances that are entirely non-combat oriented. And then with this realistic interest in discovering your unique superpower, people with extremely valuable powers for police investigation would be sought out by them. This lack of available semblance-holders for this super police force only exists because humanity seems inexplicably uninterested in discovering their own superpower.
  • At the very least, this training would require some effort, I think - from what we've seen of Jaune and Pyrrha's training (and time-frame involved), discovering one's Semblance isn't easy, nor quick, as far as the standard seems to go. And since it's not easy to discover in the first place, even if someone wants to discover what their Semblance is just for the heck of it, they'd need to go through a lot of effort... with the reward uncertain though, there are many who might back down, and decide that they could live without it. Sure it'd be cool and all, but would it be worth it, or practical in the end? Combat training can't be easy to consider, especially for anyone not interested in fighting at all, or abhors it - thought admittedly, that point still has some merit, despite what I've said.
  • Just a small thing to add: Jaune is the only fighting character in the series confirmed to not know what his semblance is. Sure, we haven't seen everybody's, but so far Jaune's the only one we know for sure doesn't know, and he never had any formal training at all. We have no idea how hard it is to discover/unlock one's semblance, but signs lean slightly in favor of it being no more difficult than the rest of huntsman/huntress training, which, to be honest, we haven't seen any signs of being particularly brutal beyond the initiation test. It honestly seems rather tame with the characters having lots of free time on their hands.
  • I would argue it’s the other way around. The fact that the most normal person has so much trouble suggests that it is harder to unlock a Semblance. Most of the cast has been chosen to go to an elite school to become Huntsmen and Huntresses; they are supposed to be the best of the best. Furthermore, most of them have been training rigorously for years, so during that intense training they were able to unlock their Semblance. They likely went through the same struggle he is now, just at a younger age since Jaune is playing catch-up. If normal people don’t even have their Aura unlocked, then clearly getting their Semblance would take a lot more then that. Furthermore, even after unlocking them, all of the characters need to train in order to control their Semblances. As we just saw with Pyrrha, one of the most skilled characters in the show, she accidentally smashed Jaune into a wall with her Semblance when she was emotionally distraught. We’ve also seen Ruby lose control and nearly get hit by a truck when she tried to carry Penny, but didn’t properly account for the weight since she didn’t know Penny was a robot. It’s not as simple as seeing what power you have, you would also need to go through a lot of training to make sure you don’t accidentally kill yourself or someone else via Power Incontinence. No one who doesn’t intend to fight would have no reason to go through all of that and it seems like a REALLY bad idea to have open Semblance classes, where anyone can go in and get superpowers. There would be plenty of people who would abuse that and gain powers for evil purposes. In regards to the Emerald thing, there are two other things to consider. One, it is not clear how prevalent any specific ability is. It is entirely possible that very few people have mental Semblances so jumping straight to that if there weren’t precedence for it would be a major leap in logic. Two, psychic abilities are REALLY hard to prove, even in a world with superpowers. A good example is the Jessica Jones Netflix series. Despite super soldiers, futuristic powered armor, and even aliens being common knowledge, it is hard for many to believe the Kilgrave has mind control since there is no physical proof of it. Until there is irrefutable proof that psychic Semblances even exist, how could any reasonable law enforcement believe that the culprit isn’t either lying or in some way mentally disturbed? Furthermore, if everything is assumed to be an illusion or some kind of mental trick then everyone will try to use that as an excuse. Anyone could claim that they were tricked/forced to do something and it would become increasingly difficult to separate the real from the fake.
  • But that's the thing: we're not given any indication whatsoever that Jaune has even tried to discover his Semblance. Despite what he says about how badly he wants to be a Huntsman, until he finally accepted training from Pyrrha he made no effort whatsoever in class, often sleeping through it and not studying at all, and needing to be nudged by Pyrrha to stop reading comic books instead of studying. Saying that his not knowing it indicates how hard it is when he has made absolutely no effort to do so is meaningless data. Also, while Beacon is a prestigious academy, we don't know how the lower ranking academies measure up, so assuming that automatically makes it beyond the scope of the average Joe who wants not to be a huntsman or huntress but at least study their semblance is stretching quite a lot.
  • Ok let’s stop this whole Jaune sucks thing because that’s irrelevant. The fact that Jaune did nothing before Beacon is more proof that normal people don’t have access to it. Jaune did not make no effort, he was being overwhelmed. Falling asleep in class is more likely because of exhaustion from trying to catch up with everyone else because he is so far behind then no effort (when forced to he was able to do both his and Cardin’s work so he clearly can do it). The fact that he wanted to read a comic book in one instance does not mean he never studies, you are acting like never did anything and while yes, he was having an issue with the whole hero loner thing that was making him fail, it was him being stupid and not taking the help he needed, not him not trying. On the other hand every single other character is meaningless data. It doesn’t matter about the other schools, every single character we have seen has been training for years, while Jaune has not. Ruby could have unlocked her Semblance the week before episode one or the first day of Signal, it doesn’t matter because what we know for a fact is that during their intense training, these characters unlocked Semblance. Jaune is the outlier, the one without that factor and the only one without a Semblance suggesting him to be the norm. Heck Jaune’s entire purpose is to be the normal person in a world of uber badasses. He IS the average Joe. And finally why would people want to learn their Semblance if their not gonna fight? Even if we assume that someone could unlock a Semblance with a week of classes (which is utterly stupid because the whole super-rigorous Huntsman training suggests that all aspects of it, physical, mental, weapons, Aura and Semblance, are not easy) then why would people want to gain a superpower? It still is time and effort for someone to just go “I can shoot fire, neato.” Also, once they know, they have to deal with it their entire lives. A clear part of the training is not just unlocking a Semblance but also learning to control it. We’ve explicitly seen that even Pyrrha, one the most skilled characters in the show, loses control of her Semblance when she is emotionally distraught. People who aren’t taught control (which most certainly would take a lot more then unlocking it) would be a danger to everyone around them. People with Polarity would accidentally cause buildings to collapse, people with Speed would run into things or go flying off a cliff, if Neo’s teleportation is a Semblance then people could end up getting trapped in walls. Who would possibly want to risk something like that happening just because they get into an argument just for a piece of trivia they will never have any practical use for. If they’re not gonna become Huntsmen or use their powers for crime then there’s no point in going through that. It’s not a stretch to assume that the most normal character is intended to be our measuring stick for powers and skills of the show. It is a huge stretch to assume that there are people who want to do this on a whim, would put in the effort for something useless and that it is easy to do when there is ZERO proof that this is any easier then everything else that makes the Huntsman and Huntresses so badass.
  • There's also zero proof it's any harder than the rest, and to be honest, we mostly have the show's word that it's particularly grueling at all. The hunter training process is incredibly unexplained for 2 and a half seasons of a series that takes place within a school for it. We've seen like two classes so far, and neither of them indicated that the huntsman training process was particularly brutal or grueling at all. It gives off more of an impression that the world of Remnant doesn't have a really brutal training process for hunters that only the obscenely dedicated and focused make it into so much as a really high number of prodigies that are sought out and placed into these programs, and that Jaune isn't one of them.
  • Those two classes were about studying history and Grimm, things necessary for Huntsman/Huntresses but not necessarily the most difficult of subjects. Those parts wouldn’t have to be impossibly brutal, but the combat classes are meant to be like that. The sparring is fighting at the same level and intensity as in the Vytal Festival, they fight live Grimm in class, the field trips go to Grimm infested areas (and involves collecting samples that attract Grimm) and they go out on team missions of various kinds that can become very dangerous (look at CFVY’s mission and Mountain Glenn). It doesn’t matter how difficult the studying is, all of these characters have been doing this stuff for years and are at the level where they are just learning and improving their skills then discovering new ones. That doesn’t change the fact that they clearly went through a lot to get here and the only person who hasn’t gone through all of that, Jaune, is our best perspective on the training. I don’t get where you get the idea that this is not difficult when the exclusivity makes it clear that not everyone can do it. Jaune is getting there, remarkably fast thanks to Pyrhha, but he started Beacon at the level Ruby was before Qrow started training her. It would be one thing if this was the beginning of their training like what we saw in Harry Potter but this is characters who have gotten to a certain level already, so all the truly difficult stuff that separates the normals from the badasses is already over. Furthermore, just look at the insane physics-breaking stunts we see in the show. We’ve also seen Atlas’s military and none of them can move like that. They use basic guns, have no indication of Semblance use and get completely outmaneuvered by people like Cinder. Yang can dodge cars on a motorcycle; a soldier can’t avoid a braking car. The soldiers clearly do want to fight to protect people and train for that, but they don’t have Semblances, impossible techniques or ridiculous weapons so clearly they cannot make it as Huntsman. If even people who DO want to fight can’t all do this, then how on earth could any random schmuck pull it off?
  • This isn't exactly a rebuttal to what you were saying, more something that it made me think of, but that just makes me wonder how exactly the process to begin training for that stuff even happens. I think we can safely say that if pretty much every teenage student in Beacon vastly outclasses the faceless full grown adult Mooks that make up the military and police force, who are arguably even more dedicated and prepared to die to protect their homeland due to the fact that they're less powerful and more thrown at enemies en masse, it sounds like there is a huge amount of genetics and/or extreme raw prodigious talent involved here, which would explain why we haven't been introduced to a single family member of one of the main characters who is not also a badass huntsman or huntress. I mean other than narrative contrivance, what other reason would there be for multiple families to have large numbers of extremely exceptional and rare hunters in their ranks if not the fact that it's largely genetic? If it's purely brutal training, I'm pretty sure the military would have the resources to supply it to their soldiers. I mean if there's nothing special about Ruby apart from getting trained by Qrow, then the military, notorious for being very much not the sort of place to put on the kid gloves, would at least have soldiers that can do stuff mere mortal real life people can't do to some degree. And none of the characters have personalities to indicate they've gone through anything similar to even mundane military level discipline or training, so we must assume this comes naturally to them genetically and that Jaune, being from a massive family of heroes and already having the genetics, simply didn't get the head start the others did and is now catching up with some instruction from Pyrrha. Again, this isn't really a rebuttal so much as a thought process, not wholly sure where I'm going with this, but I think I might be vaguely onto something...
  • Back to the original question, the takeaway is: psychic powers are incredibly rare, with Emerald being the only known cast member with one, and those who have them would likely keep them hidden, making them even less known than their rarity naturally makes them. Moreover, even with known psychic powers, you can't react to any public wrongdoing with 'okay but what if illusions'. Like literally every single criminal would claim that. Cinder had taken great care to set up the situation so that Yang's actions would be plausible without the 'psychic' explanation, and to rile up the public about it. In the moment 'she was tricked with illusions by an unknown person for no clearly discernible reason' sounded WAY less likely than 'she mistook a wrong twitch of an arm for an incoming attack and overreacted'. NOT disqualifying Yang would be absolutely fucking preposterous at that point. And note that no other punishment is incoming, and the general is apologetic about even that. For all we know, after the tournament Yang's claims about the psychic influence would have been investigated and coordinated with Coco's story. But the reaction in the moment was to assume the obvious explanation. It's nothing if not reasonable.
  • This, saying it was someone semblance is likely the remnant equivilent of blaming your evil twin, not impossible but not very likely, and while they likely would have figured it out after an investigation, there goal wasent to get yang arrested, just to cause a panic in the crowd to attract the grimm, it only needs to look legitimate for a few minutes

Qrow not seeing Cinder

• So... what's the justification for Qrow not recognizing that Cinder and her team, the ones who critically injured Amber, are in the tournament? He was drunk at the time?
  • He probably didn't get a good look the first time. Their backs were to him, he was focusing on Amber, and they quickly attacked him and ran.
  • I don't buy that, he seems way too competent to interact with those three people for any period of time during such a crucial, serious and dangerous moment and not recognize those exact same three people showing up on the same team in the tournament.
  • Watch closely when Cinder prepares to escape; there's a blur effect on her face, literally. Assuming it was on all three, that plus the brief-ish looks, the time that's passed since that incident (at least 6-7 months, given events between Black trailer and 'Ruby Rose' episode, then from there to Vol's 3 tournament after a full school semester), 'maybe' his drunkenness blurring memory, AND the fact that he hasn't directly seen them up-close as far as we know, even with his vague tournament watching (before ditching that activity all-together after he fought with Winter)... well, would you be certain? When he saved Amber, he didn't even see their weapons in action because they quickly ran, and Cinder certainly was careful about public displays of power, given her weaving Dust into her clothing from Vol. 2. Plus Qrow is a professional Huntsmen; if he's gonna make accusations, he must be certain, especially on something this important.
  • But something still doesn't make sense: He would've seen the blur hiding her face, and also when he looks around after dodging the explosion, the three have disappeared. He takes that as the cue to cut and run. He should know that at the very least, these people can alter what a person sees, and thus should be a little more suspicious and a little more in Yang's favor when she gets set up. What's also important is that him not remembering Emerald and Mercury is just bull. He did see them, even if only briefly. It being 6 or 7 months prior doesn't matter—that's not long enough for the event to vanish from memory, especially given it's a highly serious one he remembers later as Amber's in critical condition. He should see Emerald and Mercury in the tournament and immediately suspect them. And even considering the dating, this is a world where people are inspired and traditionally pushed to dress themselves as uniquely and identifiably as possible. Emerald and Mercury's getup isn't just your everyday getup, especially Mercury's robotic legs. If Qrow really doesn't see them and think something's up, that's just sad on his part. And if drunkenness was affecting him when he saved Amber, that's even worse, because it would show that it does negatively affect his performance in highly dangerous situations and he's a worse Huntsman for it.
  • ^The effects of time are wildly different though, as is how brief a look can be - memory isn't a process that operates by one set of rules: what allows one person to remember can only make it worse for another. What proof is there that even in the heat of an important situation, that it always sears such details into the memory? And even if it does, which ones does the brain choose? And would they be the same for each person? Plus by all accounts, Qrow's only real looks at the tournament were brief, and we don't know how he saw Cinder's team during the tournament (if he looked at all when they were on), be it close-up, from a distance, or anything like that - especially since Mercury's robotic legs were hidden from everyone, and Cinder and Emerald had changed their hair length/styles/outfits in that time (those can affect perception of memory, especially on such brief/long-time-ago looks). Moreover, the altering people's perception not being immediately suspicious by many Huntsmen is another Headscratcher on this page, with all the necessary arguments showcased there.
  • According to Word of God: Emerald's semblance. In the Director Commentary for Volume 3, Miles dropped mention that the original plan for the scene was that Cinder and gang wore masks so that anyone who interfered with their business with Amber wouldn't be able to ID them later on. The idea was scrapped when they realized that Emerald was there and she could use her semblance secretly to fool anyone who interfered and conceal their identity by making themselves look different to that person.

Semblances interfering with the tournament

• When Velvet tells Ruby about what happened to Coco in her match with Emerald and Mercury and she starts putting two and two together, not only does it show Ruby realizing something is terribly wrong, it also shows that the Vytal Tournament has a horrible security system. Ironwood has all of his soldiers around, but is anyone taking account of SEMBLANCES?! The fact that most Semblances are only revealed in the heat of battle means that any and everyone is potentially packing guns around without making sure they aren't being used for cheating. It's a horrible use of the honor system that's been used and Emerald is blatantly slipping through the loopholes with a shit-eating grin on her face.
  • ^ You would think that the organizers of the tournament would .... you know, have info like that on file, at the very least, if only for proper ranking purposes. "Yeah, so there is this girl that can influence metal through magnetism? In a competition where most, if not all, personal weapons are made of/have parts of metal?.....Definitely getting a handicap". It is just .... mind blowing that they just let that slip through like that. ALL of the competitors are from the Academies, so they should, AT LEAST, have some indication about what each students Semblance is...
  • For all we know, this is the first time anyone's caused upsets in the tournament. It seems common enough knowledge that the Grimm are drawn to negative emotions that no one would want to stir things up, something that the governments of this world would make sure of, to the point that when Ironwood revealed the new robots in Volume 2, one of the selling points is that they don't look as scary. Think about that, when was "looks nicer than the old model" a selling point for something in real life? Which means that, after the populace has had "don't worry, be happy" drilled into their minds for so long, the people in charge have likely never considered that someone would want start to start something and thus never put safeguards and preventative measures into place.
  • First of all, there is no reason they would give Pyrrha a handicap. The whole point of the tournament is to see who would win, not to see who would win if everybody was at the exact same level. It's also possible that students are not required to disclose their Semblances.
  • What, seriously? "real world" competitions have handicaps PRECISELY for that reason, as well as "rank-ups", "weight classes", and "divisions". You don't place the champion heavyweight against the fresh-faced scrublet. Think of "testing actual skills" vs "let's see who has the most OP powers"
  • Even if competitors were required to log their semblances to the system, competitors could very easily lie about what their semblances are capable of, especially if, like Emerald, they can demonstrate something more benign to anyone who comes asking.
  • You can't assume Remnant uses the same practices for tournaments + competitions as we do; it's an entirely different world after all. And the tournament has a distinct randomization feature either way, so it encourages teams to do their best against whomever they're put up against - it's kind hard to find 'equal' teams when so many people have uncommon powers as well. As summed up by Oobleck during the tournament: "Age and school year are irrelevant; the only thing being tested, is skill."
  • Yes, real world competitions don't group everyone in the same class. But Remnant is not the real world. They don't care about fairness or handicaps, they care about end results. All they really care about is who wins in the end, whether due to skill, circumstance, or raw power. Considering the nature of the world they live on, that's a completely valid viewpoint.
  • Additionally, there's at least one competitor who doesn't know what his semblance is, Jaune.
  • In regards to fairness: it's important to note that power alone won't win battles. Skills, weapons, tactics, etc. are all important factors, meaning while one's Semblance can be an advantage over another, it doesn't guarantee victory. Look at Yang's battle with Neo for instance: Neo can create illusions, and Yang gets stronger for every blow she takes. Yang clearly has the stronger Semblance, and yet Neo nearly kills her. Same principle here: just because one's semblance is stronger than another, it doesn't mean they'll win against a skilled opponent.
  • I have to comment here that not only does this assertion seriously undersell Neo's (and Emerald's too, I suppose) abilities, but it also is a hugely subjective view of what exactly "power" means. Take Bleach as an example. The first villain Aizen had the power to completely control the five senses of his opponents. Basically he created illusions that were impossible to see through. Because of this power alone he was considered by the fanbase to be completely unbeatable, and rightly so. In table-top Dungeons and Dragons, the Illusion spell school is frequently considered to be one of the most powerful in the game because the spells are limited only by the player's imagination. You are completely correct in saying that power alone won't win, because do you know who else would have likely beaten Yang? May Zedong. What good is a Semblance like Yang's going to do her against an opponent who will comfortably engage her from hundreds of yards away?
  • Still though, the potential danger of what could happen to Penny when facing a semblance like Pyrrha's really suggests they should have everyone's semblances on file just as a SAFETY measure in case a certain combination could be potentially lethal (like, just as a weird example, somebody with the ability to summon plants versus somebody with a nut allergy), and that they should've disclosed what Penny is to the tournament if they didn't already know.
  • It's also worth pointing a couple things out here: 1)The strength of one's semblance comes from their soul and is very much a projection of who they are and what they're capable of. As such, "who has the most OP powers" is actually a pretty damn relevant thing to put to the test in the tournament; if someone wins because of their awesome semblance, then that person has won because they are awesome. 2)This is more speculation-y, but it seems like semblances are a pretty personal thing, given that they project from a person's very soul and are unique. Asking someone's semblance may be discourtious; demanding to know it or they'll be barred from an official tournament might even be ILLEGAL. What it brings to mind is a DNA sample, albeit even more personal due to how tangible and relatable it is to the everyman. This could very well explain why some people's semblances are secrets, and why you don't see any characters in the show going around asking "THO, WHAT'TH YOUR THEMBLANCE, DUUUURE?"
  • I doubt it’s something that personal since Port and Oobleck have no problem announcing people’s Semblance to the world in commentary. They explain Yang, Nora and Flynt’s Semblances in detail once they appear in battle so clearly they know some people’s Semblances. What seems more likely is that there is a rule that says that the commentators can only explain a Semblance one it has been clearly and explicitly shown, such as someone tanking an electric attack or splitting into four, whereas Pyrrha’s magnetism is for the most part not immediately visible so even if they know it, they’re not explaining. It seems to be a situation where they only explain it once a situation arrives where anyone who saw it could figure it out anyway and the power is out in the open, but before that they say nothing to not give opponents an unfair advantage. As for safety, no one knew Penny was a robot (apparently not even Ozpin) so they had no way of knowing such a deadly combination and the number of situations where a combination could be so catastrophic seems astronomically know. Even if they had Pyrrha’s Polarity on record, if Ironwood didn’t know about it then it wouldn’t matter since the only people who knew both sides were Ruby and the villains.
  • Actually, they still could be. It's possible that contestants simply have the choice to, if they wish, sign a form saying that their semblances can be brought up in the commentary for audience edification. Some, like Nora and Flynt, were okay with it, having nothing to hide, wheras Pyrrha and maybe some others would say no and keep it to themselves. Again, speculation of course.
  • Additionally, the Tournament is a test of combat prowess, and fights are very rarely "fair". Semblances and other traits are good training for a real fight where the enemy might have abilities that dramatically shift the fight, forcing Huntsmen and Huntresses to adapt. It's as much a mental challenge as a physical one. Suddenly being pitted against a ferrokinetic or illusionist opponent forces their opponent to think on their feet and work around that to win (taking out a ferrokinetic with martial arts or a ring out, or using wide-area attacks to mitigate illusions, for example)

Where is Vale's Army?

• Since we know that the Kingdoms other than Atlas have military forces , why do we never see them? After the Grimm get all riled up in V 3 E 6 by Yang's shenanigans, why do we not see any of Vale's soldiers? Even if Atlas was there is force, you would think Vale would have their own defenses ready to go, "just in case", not COMPLETELY rely on Atlesian military forces. yet, the only military we see in action is Atlas.
  • They don't show up because those forces would be present on the borders and most of the story's action is taking place either deep in Vale's city or out beyond the borders. World of Remnant: Kingdoms specifies that most of the Kingdoms use militia forces deployed as-needed - essentially a peacetime volunteer army, not too dissimilar from what you'd see in a small European country, for example. The Huntsmen generally fill in the role of professional soldiers and do most of the work in actually going out and fighting the Grimm. The fact is that at the current point in the setting's timeline, we're seeing the Kingdoms in a time of "unprecedented peace" and in peacetime, the armies are normally drawn down and you just don't see them deployed. We also see a a lot of Atlas' military because... let's be honest here, their leader is a major character, Atlas' military is a major part of the characterization of that particular Kingdom, and their presence in Vale is a big plot point, so of course we're going to see more of Atlas' forces because they're more relevant to the story.

"Let's distract the kid who actually has no way to stop our plan!"

• So... Why was Mercury distracting Ruby? I know it's to stop her from stopping the match, but what could she have possibly have done to stop it? Her team's on thin ice with the Yang incident, and anything she could say is very viable to be held against her. So why exactly was Mercury trying to stop Ruby, the person who literally can't do anything to stop it? More importantly, what could Ruby have done to stop the fight?
  • A lot of things. She could have run out onto the field (there must be a gap in the barrier somewhere, to allow the contenders themselves in, and the security, EMTs, etc.) and tackled one of them, or gone up to the control room and tell Oobleck and Port to stop the fight (they trust Ruby and would likely believe her, and even if they didn't, she could still superspeed up and maybe grab the mic and tell P&P to stop fighting.) Any of these things would get her in trouble, obviously, but they would stop the fight and give her a chance to explain. After all, Ruby would probably feel that being disciplined is MORE than worth in to save the life of one of her friends, and prevent another from doing something that will haunt her forever.
  • Was Penny never aware of what Pyrrha's semblance was? And if not, did Ruby never think to tell her, especially when the two of them were announced as finalists? At that point, their match up became a very real possibility, so this sort of concern must've crossed SOMEONE'S mind other than Cinder's.
  • Also recall Cinder's way of handling things: "Not one foot out of place", where she obviously doesn't like it when her subordinates don't follow orders. If needed, their plan could adjust to Ruby's interference, but she (and by extension, Mercury and Emerald) would rather not let it interfere at all; why take the risk at all, even if she had little chance of succeeding?
  • She could have been able to distract Emerald from doing her Semblance.
  • This one is the most likely explanation; Emerald had mentioned that manipulating one mind is hard enough and gets a migraine from inducing hallucinations in two. Given how integral outing Penny and disgracing Pyrrha as the final nail in Vale's coffin, Ruby doing anything to throw her off the game likely could have resulted in a completely different outcome to the fight. And given Cinder slapped her to the ground just for talking back/out of turn once, stands to reason she'd be a little more... intense for punishing such a large failure/setback.
  • In addition to this, if Ruby knows enough to go after Emerald, then she knows enough to raise suspicions about Cinder. If she disrupted Emerald and interrupted the immediate plan, the next step would be her going to Ozpin about her suspicions, which would lead to the whole thing falling apart - simply knowing that Emerald is up to something is enough to ruin everything if she talks to the wrong person. Mercury had to distract her from following up on all that until their plan was far enough along that it couldn't be stopped.

Neo's "illusion powers"

• Where does everyone get the idea that Neo is this uber master of illusions on the level of Aizen. The only illusion we’ve seen is when she saves Torchwick and said image was not completely new, just her kinda freezing an image from earlier and keeping it going while she moved behind it. The fact that it shatters means it looks more like she creates a mirror that has a “snapshot” of her (similar to Blake’s shadow) then a full blown illusion and it’s even possible this is Dust while her teleportation is the real Semblance. Regardless people seem to think that she has some insane illusions that mean we can’t trust anything, but if so why would they need Emerald? If Emerald can only reliably manipulate one person, then why not use Neo’s powers if they’re so much stronger (at the very least her illusion tricked all four members of Team RWBY)? Heck, outside of her eye color, even her disguises seem to be mundane outfit and hair changes as opposed to full blown illusions. She never even uses it in her fight against Yang so clearly it’s not so all-powerful.
  • They may not be 'that' strong, but Neo's illusions are physical while Emerald's are perception-only; Yang hitting/shattering a physical illusion wouldn't have nearly the same impact as Emerald's did, and it'd be far more visible/suspicious, which they don't need + wouldn't have fit in with the goal. Also, that wasn't the only illusion; Neo used it briefly in her fight with Yang when she threw the first punch - there was a initial burst of light, and Yang was thrown off the attack, but after that Neo was literally toying with her, seeing no need for it at all. Plus in addition to those points, Neo's full range of abilities with it are unclear, even now... until such time as they are stated, people will speculate that Neo is using that power to change her eye color, if not her appearance. It's still very likely that her disguises are actual disguises, yet still; it regularly happens with speculation, and is no surprise really.
  • It's also worth noting that we also see her turn invisible (or... teleport maybe?) to escape Raven Branwen. Her powers seem to work via light manipulation. In fact, the "glass" she left behind may have even been a hard-light hologram. It's not untrue that some people do tend to overinflate Neo's power well beyond what's been seen, mainly because she's really, really cool. She's the Dragon's Dragon, yet there are portions of the FNDM that act like she's the deadliest villain on the show (often overlapping with the fans who still insist that Roman is playing Cinder). We don't really know the full extent of her powers yet, but they seem to generally resemble Loki's illusions in the MCU, and with that comparison in mind, I feel like you're selling her short. Again, though, we just need to wait and see if the full details of her abilities are ever revealed.
  • Turns out in at least one (or more) instances, Neo was using her power to completely change her appearance - her Atlas uniform definitely melted away in "Heroes and Monsters", rather than being an actual disguise.

Why let Torchwick go down

• So we finally know why it was a part of Cinder's plan for Roman to take the fall and get locked up: so that Neo could infiltrate the ship at the correct time, let him out, and he could shoot down the other ships. Fair enough, that's very clever. But if Neo could get in and murder everyone's faces like that, why did they need Torchwick on the inside? Surely Neo could have just done it herself? And why waste a logistical genius and charismatic middleman like Roman as a trojan horse when you could still have him on the outside, troubleshooting plans and coordinating with the White Fang?
  • Does Neo have skillset needed to control an Atlesian warship? Torchwick's already demonstrated that he has the ability to fly an aircraft, so it's not a stretch that he would able to control a ship well enough to turn it and fire its main guns.
  • Remember that Cinder prefers Gambit Speed Chess, not Gambit Roulette. She sets up as many things in her favor as she can, but alters the plan on the fly when things go in unexpected directions. It's quite likely she had no plan regarding Roman after he got captured, but his current role (collecting Dust) was over, and they butted heads a lot, so she just gave him orders to lay low and that she'd free him during the Grimm attack. When she did get him out, he happened to be in a position to take over the ship, but if he had been imprisoned somewhere else, she would have found another way to take the ship.
  • Seconded. Remember what is likely her ORIGINAL plan. "Roman sends the Grimm up through the hole in the city, in the middle of the tournament, right as Cinder gives her speech. The White Fang attack at the same time." It's likely that Neo COULD have done it herself. But, with him on the ship ANYWAY...well, it works out.
  • Maybe as a decoy target, perhaps? At least Ironwood seems to believe that Torchwick was the only real threat out there, if what Qrow implies is true. Ironwood thought that by capturing Torchwick, he could afford to let some guard down. Considering that Cinder always work behind the scenes and let Torchwick takes all the heat until she decides to reveal herself, this maybe possible.
  • Considering that Torchwick being captured was a result of RWBY's interference, which i doubt Cinder planned ahead, since Ruby didn't plan it ahead(she came up with a plan on the spot when Blake insisted that they should try to do something about White Fangs, then they learned about the hideout and the rest is history) i seriosuly doubt that Cinder ever intended Torchwick to get caught. Cinder is Magnificent Bitch but the train went of several days earlier, which she didn't plan, i don't think that she could plan ahead anything that came out of this.
  • Simple, Neo isn't aligned with Cinder, she's aligned with Torchwick, she's his henchman not hers and follows his orders no hers.

Where are the other maidens?

• So there's this whole crisis about the danger of the full power of a seasonal maiden falling into the hands of an extremely dangerous woman. That seems... like a seriously high priority danger. So where are the other maidens? Why are none of them working with Ozpin to protect or help Amber? They can't possibly be too busy for this, it's a time of peace, so there can't be any other huge crises great enough to warrant higher priority over a terrorist trying to steal their powers. Was Amber the last good one left and all the others went to selfish, amoral women this generation? Where are they?
  • Presumably they're all in hiding. Gathering them all together in one place would just encourage Cinder to come after them again, better prepared.
  • But having them all grouped together makes it less likely that Cinder will be able to steal the powers of any of them because there'd be more ridiculous superpower to throw against her. It just seems like a weird detail not to mention at any rate.
  • Cinder was able to take down one Maiden with just two others, and steal at least half her power. Now she has an army and half of the Fall Maiden's powers. Give her some time, she can likely plan out how to take down the other three easily. It is likely safer for them to not be together right now.
  • All things considered when you look back on the first episode with the recently revealed info it's highly possible that Glynda is a Maiden. There's also a running theory that Summer Rose was a Maiden/target at some point but before Cinder could steal her powers she died and they were instead transferred to Ruby. That accounts for at least two Maidens. The third is most likely nearby as well but not making their presence known for obvious reasons.
  • There are four maidens. There are four kingdoms. All things considered, I wouldn't be surprised if the Maidens were scattered among the different kingdoms (possibly as guardians if Qrow and Ozpin's conversation had any merit to it). Assuming Amber was the Maiden of Vale, then the other three are in their respective kingdoms.
  • The Maidens are in hiding, to the point where not even Ozpin's conspiracy can completely keep track of them. Qrow says in Volume 4 that they don't know where the Spring Maiden is. It's possible that only Ozpin knew exactly where the Maidens are, and he kept that information to himself to keep them safe.
  • As of Volume Seven, we know that the Winter maiden is in Atlas, an old lady on her deathbed (literally). She's being kept secluded so that the last lady she'll think about is Winter, thus ensuring that her powers go to Winter (and at which point, the Winter maiden will be by Ironwood's side).

Are Faunus really discriminated against?

• After Volume 1, we don't really see any visual signs of political or government discrimination against Faunus. Sure we see Cardin and the rest of team CRDL bully Velvet in Volume 1 but I imagine they would do something like that even in a world where Faunus had perfectly equal rights. There was also mention of a Faunus protest in the first episode but even then the newswoman remained perfectly neutral. In a bigoted society wouldn't she have been more biased and demonizing of the protesters? So far of almost all the named Faunus we've seen (Blake, Velvet, Sun, Neon) are all allowed to attend non-segregated combat schools in every kingdom and are shown to be without exception accepted and respected by their peers. Compare that to a pre-Civil Rights Movement America in which African Americans were forced into a segregated society and were even barred from universities. Blake did mention that they did start getting treated like equals after the White Fang terrorism, but if that's the case then what objectives are they still fighting for and where is the Faunus version of the NAACP?
  • Racism doesn't have to be political or government-based to exist - and if it were either in the world of Remnant, it's doubtful our Faunus students would even be able to attend. As it is, it seems to be like today's society in that they have equal rights, and segregation isn't present... but the problem is that people (as a whole) still seem to be in the process of letting go of these views; some accept this right off the bat and treat them well (a newscaster is supposed to be neutral too), but others do not, and they're not gonna change so easily. Until such time as they do, these portions of the population still sink to harsh words and cruel treatment, which Adam and the White Fang are using to fuel their 'force of revolution' (before Cinder hijacked them by force), but Faunus in general have mixed views on this movement, if Sun's comments are anything to go by. Or that's my take anyway.
  • One of the reasons we don't see much first-hand discrimination against faunus is that the story is pretty much set in a liberal, progressive college environment that trains warriors. Those two things tend to weed out blatant racism. That being said, we do get some looks at faunus racism: Torchwick's constant slurs against faunus even when they're right next to him is apparently a commonly-held attitude. CRDL's bullying of Velvet. Hell, every single time we see Blake's bow on her head? That's a subtle reminder of anti-faunus discrimination because she wears it so she won't be judged by everyone around her for her race. And while the White Fang has won a degree of respect and equality, as Blake herself makes clear, it's out of fear. Furthermore, simply listening to the White Fang's rhetoric, it's clear that they're not just an equal-rights organization. Adam talks about "revolution" and Torchwick's speech mentions that the White Fang want humans "locked away, or even better, killed." The White Fang are obviously extremists whose end goals are faunus supremacy by any means.
  • Honestly, they aren't really, at least not in Vale. Sun and Neon weren't heckled by humans in the crowd because they had their features out and there were Faunus in the crown with very visible features. It would help if when Ozpin and Blake were talking in S2, Blake should have started talking about where she came from, people were more racist towards her kind and she's not used to a more tolerant society so she wears the bow as comfort. It would have given us a better look into her character. Instead she tells him that his "system" is flawed. Blake (bless her soul) gets pretty preachy about Faunus rights but when we see Faunus in the crowd treated normally, it confused me. Civil Rights Group exist for a reason, but there doesn't seem to be a reason that the writers have shown us. At the OP, in my opinion, the writers seemed to have glossed over why or how the Faunus are discriminated against so all I can assume is that because the Grimm threat is still at large, they are treated as scapegoats, before and now. But i guess we still have to wait.
  • Honestly, at least in Vale, anti-faunus discrimination is almost certainly like racism encountered in the US. It's there but it's not overt. Openly mocking or heckling faunus is an extreme faux pas. Government openly disparages it, leadership like Ozpin opposes it, etc. However, police might still harass them more, faunus children might get excluded a bit from social circles or not get the same educational opportunities. Employers might pay faunus less or pass them over for promotion. They might have reduced medical care or benefits, faunus neighborhoods have a longer response time from emergency services, etc. Discrimination doesn't need to be guys in white hoods burning crosses on the front yard, after all.
  • But we've never seen even subtle anti-Faunus discrimination. We see Sun being chased by police, but that's literally because he stowed away, which is illegal. We don't see Faunus children getting excluded, we don't hear any Faunus talk about limited rights to education or health care and we aren't shown anything that humans do to exclude or discriminate against them, save for CRDL. I'm sorry, but until now, Faunus just don't seem to be prejudiced to me. The examples the you give never appear in the show save for From Shadows.
  • Of course they don't show up directly. As mentioned further up, the majority of the show takes place on a liberal college campus with a progressive leader, or the wilderness. We're not going to see much in the way of obvious racism for the same reason you don't see ostriches in Siberia. The focus is on an area where it's not really happening. However, look at the White Fang rally. Not only are huge numbers of faunus lining up to join the White Fang, including people wearing business suits, but Torchwick was able to get the crowd cheering for him just by saying that the faunus are being mistreated and that humans control the schools, government, and military and that they can't get anywhere unless they join up with his operation in Mountain Glenn. You're not going to get that kind of boiling rage without some discrimination going on under the surface. Also, again: every time you see Blake, you're seeing anti-faunus discrimination right there in the form of someone who's too afraid to even take off her bow lest she be judged by others around her for what she is instead of who she is. That's a textbook example of subtle racism.
  • I guess I agree. I agree with the Blake-Bow thing, but I feel that it loses some power when we see Velvet, Sun, Neon, and the plentiful Faunus walking around with their animal features out and not being worried about it. Also, considering that Vale is apparently liberal and progressive, why are a bunch of Faunus ready to take up arms when Torchiwick points it out? We haven't been shown Vale even subtly mistreating their Faunus population, yet so many were ready to attack? Sure, we see Blake where her bow, but she's not from Vale. Sun is from Mistral and Neon is from Atlas, and the other Faunus in crowd are from all over and all are comfortable showing off their features, so where exactly are Faunus discriminated? I guess that's my problems with it.
  • Faunus are discriminated against in society, but not in the academies/military. Huntsmen/Huntresses are fighting to prevent Made of Evil monsters from destroying the world. They can't afford (institutionalized, at least) bigotry.
  • World of Remnant: Faunus goes into more detail about this. Long story short, the "tolerance" of faunus is a very recent thing, as humans have been racist toward the faunus since they first met, due to an in-universe version of the Uncanny Valley. Humans and faunus have been fighting over limited land for a very long time, and only recently started being tolerant of one another after battles against Grimm where they both needed to work together to survive, and the Great War devastated all four Kingdoms. After the war, the faunus were given the island of Menagerie to live on, but a lot of them thought that getting shuffled off to a small island in the corner of the world was a slap in the face for the equal rights they had fought for, and more importantly, moving a lot of faunus to one area meant that they could more easily organize into groups like the White Fang. So, while the faunus in Vale probably aren't officially discriminated against, there's still lots of multi-generational racial conflict going on under the surface, and that's getting fanned up by the White Fang, which operates out of Menagerie, which is effectively it's own country outside the bounds of the other Kingdoms.
  • Blake's Volume 5 short also shows different brand of racism. Ilia wasn't even allowed to reveal that she was a faunus while she was in a prep school in Mantle, and she mentions how Mantle's people treated all the faunus as liars and thieves and second-class citizens, and when a mining accident happened that killed a bunch of faunis workers, the people she thought were friends were laughing at it. So there is no question about there being discrimination. It's up front and in your face, but it's there and it's bad enough to push some extremists to act on it.

Why didn't Ruby just turn around?

• If Ruby wanted to stop the fight in PVP, then why didn't she just turn around to get out of there as fast as possible? If mercury stopped her I would have understood, but she didn't even attempt to.
  • Stop, turn around, get to door that's still within shooting range, stop, open door. Mercury could've easily emptied out his boots in her back before she got out.
  • True but she could have at least tried it before Mercury shot a bullet at her, missing her.
  • And for all her flaws, Ruby's not that short-sighted and stupid. Going for the door behind her literally would only result in her getting shot in the back. And Mercury didn't miss, he shot her scroll out of her hands.
  • Yeah, you're right.
  • Ruby really should have done better, but in Volume 3 her abilities seem to have been lessened for some reason. In Vol 2's food fight she could move fast enough to whip up a storm to lift everything in the room, capture and immobilize all of team JNPR and reverse all the stuff being tossed at her with magnets and super strength, yet she can't get past or knock down Mercury? And in the tournament they act like she's one of the weaker members of the team and Yang and Weiss are stronger than her (Yang might be, Weiss definitely isn't).
  • Her inability to get past Mercury comes from the fact that he is a far more experienced fighter than she is. Of the few times we've seen Mercury fight against Pyrrha in Volume 2 and in the tournament, he's been holding back. Besides, Ruby had a bit more of a running start during the food fight, something she lacks with Mercury. Add onto the fact that Mercury probably is much stronger than her, and it's really no surprise that things played out the way they did.
  • And yet, Roman fired a round, then moved his cane fast enough to catch that same round, hitting Ruby while she was speeding toward him. When (some of ) your enemies can react that fast, even super speed has it's limits to how effective it can be. Moreover, in the food fight, Ruby deliberately was trying to create a slipstream; Mercury and Roman, she was merely trying to slip past and attack, respectively. And how was Yang + Weiss being chosen proof that the team (or Ruby) consider her to be the weakest link? It was a choice of who they wanted to represent them, pure and simple - after all, Velvet seems the strongest as of now, yet they chose Coco and Yatsuhashi anyway.
  • Let's also remember that during her fight with Mercury, like her fight earlier with Roman, she was unarmed, and so her primary means to defend herself was gone. As her fighting style primarily made use of Crescent Rose, without it she wasn't going to stand much of a chance. Add in that she was completely confused by Mercury's presence and villainy, its easy to understand why she wasn't in position to fight him, especially when she mostly wanted to leave as fast as she could, and was in a very thin walkway with limited room to do any fancy speed tricks.
  • Recently, seen on the RT's Crew's reaction-to-a-reaction (seen on the Heartwarming + Funny pages), but when they watch the scene where Ruby + Mercury are fighting, they note that they really should've moved the door- but too late now.
  • One more point feels like it needs to be brought up. The whole reason Ruby was in that hallway was to reach Emerald. She saw Emerald across the arena and became suspicious about her Semblance. If she were to turn around and not get shot by Mercury in time to get back into the crowd, then it defeats her initial purpose of getting to Emerald especially now that there was a time limit with Penny and Pyrrha going at it.

Turncoat Paladins

• Why did Atlesian Paladins turn against Beacon? Cinder's virus took control over the airship and in turn of Knights, since the Knights are robots, so that makes sense, but Paladins are controlled from the inside, not remotely from the ship, that's why Torchwick could steal the prototypes and use it against RWBY, so why were they attacking Beacon?
  • The production model ones are entirely automated. When Weiss splits one in half, you can see the interior. It's entirely robotic.
  • Fair enough but didn't Ironwood specifically said that Paladins are designed for human crew since fully automated army sometimes is not enough? Making them fully automated kind of defeats the purpose.
  • He did say that, but that was before stolen manned Paladins almost tore up Vale. Twice.
  • Plus even if the new models could still be manned, they probably included remote overrides to prevent what happened in the previous volume from happening again. In normal circumstances, that would've worked well. Unfortunately, what happened at the end of Volume 3 was not normal circumstances.

Maiden Selection

• Not that Pyrrha wasn't a fine choice to take on Amber's powers, but why did Ozpin pick HER specifically? I'm not sure if they've mentioned how many years one is a student at Beacon, but we DO know of a couple sophomores: Coco and Velvet. Why were they passed over for Pyrrha when they have at least a year more experience as a huntress? Or Nora, who is on the same team as Pyrrha? Or any one of Team RWBY? I know that picking a candidate before the Maiden actually dies is a relatively new idea, but what exactly is the criteria for this sort of thing besides being a young woman (and even that part's a little vague. Does it mean minors? Early 20's?)? And how did Pyrrha fit into that?
  • Ozpin said it best, when discussing it with Qrow. Pyrrha was "strong, intelligent, caring, and most importantly, she was ready". Power corrupts, and If you're going to bestow unimaginable power upon someone, you first need to be sure they can actually be trusted with unimaginable power. Pyrrha, even before the whole "Fall Maiden" thing was brought up, was already extremely powerful and famous, and instead of letting it go to her head, she's one of the humblest, kindest, and most grounded characters in the show. You could honestly say that her only real character flaw, is being selfless to a fault.
  • And those traits also seem to be reason enough to axe her from the story WHOOPS DID I SAY THAT OUT LOUD
  • Well... Yeah. That's what being Too Cool to Live is all about. That's why, pretty much everyone watching expected her to die at some point.
  • It should be noted that from the moment we were introduced to Pyrrha, her strength has always been her most touted quality. She was a prodigy, a world-renowned fighter before she even came to Beacon, the best of the best. Thing is, Salem told us from the beginning, there will be no victory in strength. That was her warning to Ozpin.
  • Another thing about Pyrrha was that she's selfless, that she always puts others above herself, even if it would help her out to do otherwise. This quality ensured her for the process, and is also the reason she went up against Cinder, even if she knew it might not end well; there was no other choice in her mind.
  • That may be, but I have serious doubts she's the only person in the entirety of Remnant that has those traits. Again, we've seen far more experienced Huntresses in training at Beacon, and even a few in Pyrrha's own peer group that demonstrated them regularly. So, even if the selection was confined only to that one school, I'm unsure if she could really be called the best among them after only a few months of being enrolled there.
  • Pyrrha's been winning tournaments for years, meaning that she's really, really good at beating up other people. Multiple at once, even. Coco can mow down giant Grim with no issue, but she has obvious problems against smaller, faster targets. And considering that Amber was taken out by a human ambush, Pyrrha was the better choice, her incredible selflessness and humbleness aside.
  • But do we KNOW that Coco has trouble fighting other people? The only time we see her do it is when she's fighting Emerald, and it's clear she was tripped up mainly by her illusion abilities, which Pyrrha (and Amber) fell for just as easily.
  • Mercury was handling both her and Yatsu just fine. The problem with her gun is that she can't really move while she's shooting it and she's not that great close-quarters (how much range does one heavy purse have). If Pyrrha had been in Amber's situation, she could have easily disarmed her opponents (and dislegged one of them). And Amber did fine, she just assumed that Cinder was down when she wasn't.
  • And Mercury handled Pyrrha pretty well too, basically toying with her and only stopping because he was simply testing her abilities. So, yet another thing Coco managed just as well as her. But even putting Coco aside, what about Velvet? She's got a whole year on Pyrrha in terms of experience, and can copy basically weapon on the fly, from melee to projectiles and combinations thereof, as long as she's photographed them (and she is ALWAYS taking pictures, so that's not in short supply). She's also been the victim of discrimination and yet has kept her sweet nature, so she's clearly a good person (at least during the time Ozpin was looking for Amber's successor), and with the abilities that half of the maiden power would give her, she'd basically be unstoppable. So it's clear Pyrrha, while again a perfectly serviceable choice, was not the only one they could've gone with.
  • Had to pick someone fast in case of emergency, and only one to keep the circle small. Super famous and super humble ass-belonging-to-humans-kicker it is. And Velvet's weapon isn't meant to be used often and can only be used in emergencies. Heck, the fact that Velvet never busts out her abilities means that no one knows what's she's capable of, meaning that no one knows that she's actually all that. So yeah, she's gonna get passed over. Also, Pyrrha wasn't serious against Mercury either. Look what she did to Jaune. If you're wearing metal, you're doomed.
  • Wait, since when is fame a qualification? If I'm looking for someone to wield an ancient power necessary for combatting evil, I'm not gonna be prioritizing popularity over skill, and Velvet clearly has skill. And if you're looking for humble, the fact that she's never brought up how OP her weapon is till now fits that qualification rather well. Plus, I think it's safe to say being able to overpower Jaune of all people is not much of a feat of strength.
  • Fame may have been part of it, but Pyrrha's skill was well-known too. Velvet's skill is unclear at best, as while her Semblance may/may not grant her that skill, her summoned weapons explicitly don't last long (and she never busted them out publicly before that battle anyway; so who could've known beside her team, really?), whereas Pyrrha does not have that issue.
  • Well, Ozpin, for one, would have to have known. I highly doubt a school centered around fighting and weapons wouldn't have a mandatory periodic weapons check. And are we sure that Velvet's constructs don't last long? We know that she loses them after she uses them, but not how long they last or if it's based on time or how many pictures she's taken of it. We see her switch between them quickly, but that doesn't necessarily mean they fade just as quickly. If anything, it just shows, as far as we know, that she has a larger variety in weapon selection than ANY other student in (at the very least) Beacon. Just because she doesn't break it out often doesn't mean she CAN'T, just that Coco told her not to, and that could be for any number of reasons. And simply because we've SEEN Pyrrha break out her weapon more doesn't necessarily make her a better candidate for this power, it just means we've seen her fight more than other characters.
  • As mentioned Pyrrha had the right attitude and mindset for the power too. Remember this required you to be willing to change yourself forever for the sake of everyone else, and it's absolute power that easily corrupts. Velvet and Coco? Well we don't really see them much, but Coco's got a bit of an attitude and Velvet wouldn't even stand up for her self against bullying. Weiss Blake and Yang all fell apart after the stress of Vol.3. The life of a maiden is gonna be worse than that. The only other character that would work is Ruby, but Ozpin already knows she has a latent super power of her own.
  • But who's to say Coco and Velvet WOULDN'T have the right mindset if given the option? Coco has a bit of snark to her, but it'd be a real stretch to say that would make her a poor recipient for the power. And Velvet still does fine as a Huntress in her own right, so it's hard to say that just being sensitive to bullying in one scenario really paints a picture of how well she would be as a Maiden. Similarly, Pyrrha is just as much of a blank slate in those regards. We really don't know much about her beyond her ability, gentle demeanor, and that she believes in a unique concept of "Destiny". We don't know her backstory, motives, or what she hoped to accomplish personally with the power, had she gotten it (and we'll probably never know now). Point being there's just a much of a lacking case to say that Pyrrha is the absolute best candidate, as there is to say Coco, Velvet, or nearly any other girl at Beacon couldn't at least be possibly considered.
  • You say we don't know much about Pyrrha's motives, backstory, and what she'd hope to accomplish with the power. I'd argue that isn't the case. Just like with Jaune's reveal painting everything about him in a different light, Pyrrha's reveal in season 2 tells you everything you need to know about her. We know that before coming to Beacon, Pyrrha was an extremely accomplished fighter in Mystral, but that success only ended up making her lonely - do you really need the show to spell it out for you why she would choose to go to a school in a different kingdom then her own ? or why she would go out of her way to partner up with the least effective student (even Ruby dismisses him based on his fighting skills), simply because he's the first person she met in a while who isn't scared away by her fame ? how about the fact she supposedly keeps her semblance "secret" to give her an edge in combat, and yet reveals it to Ruby and Weiss even before Blake (their teammate) shares her own secrets with them. Pyrrha has attained power and fame on a worldwide level, concluded that this isn't what makes her happy, and instead chooses to focus almost entirely on her friends - That's a fairly large "Character Arc", and yet she already went through it before the story even began. She still believes she's destined to use her skill and power to protect humanity, but she also knows better then to make that the entire focus of her life. Hence, Pyrrha would have been completely incorruptable by the power they seek to bestow on her, and most likely to only ever use it to defend the things she truly cares about, making her the ideal candidate for the role.
  • Except that's not how "character arcs" work. The things we learned about Jaune was actually enough to give us a fair idea of who he is and what he wants, that being proving himself worthy of the lineage his family holds that they think he's fallen short of. Hence this points to what his intended arc is: prove to others and himself that he can become a hero. Pyrrha becoming disillusioned with her status, however, does not actually demonstrate an arc for her because we don't know nearly enough to gauge why that happened. It could be that she strove hard to be the best and got bored, OR it could be she was naturally gifted and forced into a position of idol worship that made her lonely. There simply isn't enough information to say either way. As for her loneliness, it's at least clear she WAS really lonely...except now she has plenty of friends between her own teammates and team RWBY (none of which have even shown the slightest sign of being "scared off by her fame", which is barely brought up at all) and who knows how many others at Beacon, so if that was ever a goal for her, it's been achieved quite some time ago. So what is she at Beacon to do besides just get better at things she's already a prodigy at? What does she want out of life besides having friends (which she already has)? You can hardly say she could be incorruptible simply because she's managed to come out of being a celebrity (to what extent we don't know) and not become a jerk, because that doesn't say anything about her ability to hold onto power like that of a Maiden. Frankly, with the whole concept of the Maidens needing to be a secret, it's arguably kind of a bad idea to pick a successor that is so well known in the public eye. And again, there are people like Velvet that have actually had to deal with being discriminated and put down for simply being different from the majority, and yet have managed to keep their positivity. That is a far greater test of character than anything we know Pyrrha has done, so it's again clear that she is not the only possible choice for this position.
  • You'll notice that both of your versions of "Pyrrha becoming disillusioned with her status", are still basically different takes on the same "Arc" - hell, you can come up with dozens of variations of that story, some more severe then others, but any realistic attempt at plotting out Pyrrha's past would still have to include the same basic story. person obtains power/fame, person realizes that it doesn't bring happiness, person shift their priorities to the things that really matter. Which, again, makes her the least likely to abuse the power for her own personal ambitions. It's not that she "came out of being a celebrity without being a jerk". It's that she's already came to the conclusions that many other fictional characters spend most of their story struggling with.
  • They're actually quite different. One is her striving towards a goal and then realizing it did not give her what she had hoped, the other is her being forced into the position regardless of what she actually felt and suffering because of that lack of choice. One is an arc, the other is a straight line. Neither, however, are anything more than hinted at in the series proper, and thus there is less character to work with. Whatever conclusions Pyrrha may have come to, if any, are barely ever stated or even implied in the time we are given with her, and so it is very unclear what her personal goals were with what little we are given. Ultimately, she ends up being a rather hollow character by the end, leading to my questioning of why she, above all others, was chosen for this role.
  • The problem with choosing the Maidens likely stems from psychological screening as well as combat prowess. As said at the very beginning of this folder, you'd want to give unlimited power to someone who isn't likely to go completely insane with it. If we look at everyone else, we can see some personality flaws that could disqualify them from Maiden selection: For instance, Velvet may have been able to overcome discrimination and retain a positive attitude, but for all we (and those in-universe) know, she could be harboring built up resentment towards the people that have mistreated her, and gaining the Maiden power could cause her to go after them. Now, if Velvet got that power, would she do that? In all likelihood, no probably not. But that's not really a risk you want to take. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, after all. Pyrrha has been shown to have a kind heart towards pretty much everyone, and any time she's shown negative feelings towards anyone else (ie Team CRDL), it's been in the defense of someone else. The fact that she's "a rather hollow character," so to speak, is precisely why she was selected to receive the Fall Maiden's power in the first place. And let's not forget why Ozpin and the others needed to choose a new Fall Maiden to begin with: Cinder stole half the power of the current Fall Maiden and sent her into a coma, an utterly unprecedented event that no one knew how to deal with. Ideally, there would've been more time to choose someone else as the new Maiden, but Cinder's actions forced them to rush the process, so they went with the best fit they could find on such short notice.
  • Here's another possible reason. Pyrrha's good at keeping secrets. She's managed to keep her magnetic ability underwraps for years, even though she uses it in plain sight. They want the Maiden's to be top secret, she's an ideal candidate AND she's the best chance at it not going public they have. Most of the other girls would have been able to keep it a secret nearly as well.
  • Or a somewhat darker reason. Ozpin didn't think Pyrrha was good enough on her own. While Pyrrha was the best duelist of the school, and has great fighting skill, in terms of raw power and Semblence ability she's lacking compared to her peers. Polarity works well against human opponents relying on weapons, but against Grimm or superpowered menaces like Cinder and Salem, she's limited to manipulating other metal (which won't always be around) or her own weapon. Compare to Ruby's silver eyes and super speed, Weiss's incredibly versatile Schnee semblence, Yang's strength burning mode, and Nora's strength due to the electricity (in the food fight and their first match in the tournament she did all the heavy lifting, she's the real powerhouse of JNPR, not Pyrrha) and even Blake's clones can be combined with dust, where as Pyrrha's magnetic ability is simple. So he wanted to give her a magical boost so she'd be able to handle the stuff he knew was coming. And when it failed, and she took on Cinder anyway, as we saw, all her skill and magnetic tricks were useless against the power of a maiden.
  • If we want to go into darker reasons, just go full cynic. Pyrrha was nothing more or less than a distraction to keep Salem's minions' eyes off of Ruby. Prodigy gets in two years early? Invite a world renowned fighter to attend your school and overshadow whatever the prodigy is capable of in the public's eyes. Prodigy has a special power you need to keep safe? Hold a meeting with the world renowned fighter in a room of a tower you know has been infiltrated by your enemy, and tell her about the maidens, and declare that she is to be the next fall maiden. That's a secret, yes, but it's one that Qrow told Ozpin had already gotten out - the infiltrator is the one responsible for Amber's condition, after all. If Pyrrha receives half the Fall Maiden's power, that's wonderful. She's a good girl with a sound head on her shoulders. But Pyrrha's expendable in the grand scheme of things, and the world has survived its share of evil maidens. But if she dies, and the enemy gets blindsided by Ruby, having focused all their energy monitoring the most obvious choice for a guardian, than it has been well worth it.
  • That's also a distinct possibility. Ruby is good for her age but never really seemed like she was THAT good to warrant being let in early as in class skill and power ranking she was mid tier at best. But she might have been let in specifically so that she'd fly under Salem's radar because guys like Pyrrha Yang and Weiss were higher profile than her. And so that her desire to not look special because of getting in early would cause her to keep her head down. Where as if Ruby had finished Signal and entered Beacon at 17, she'd undoubtably be the strongest in her grade and possibly even developed a hotshot attitude like Yang as a result, which would paint a massive target on her back.
  • Something else to consider is CONTROL. Pyrrha has a Semblance that is EXTREMELY powerful (as shown by being able to turn cans into a massive attack), but has refined her use of it to the extent that she normally uses it to simply nudge weapons and armor ever so subtly askew, skillfully enough that 99% of her opponents never even notice that she's doing anything. Thus, giving her a Maiden's power is safer, because she's got the skill and precision to make use of it without risking widespread damage.