WMG / RWBY Characters Beacon And Villains

Here's where you can find the theories on RWBY characters (Beacon Academy and Villains). Make sure to put your theories in the folders they fit best.

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Beacon

Ozpin

Ozpin already knows Jaune cheated his way into beacon.

Come on now I think we can all agree that the with the vibes Ozpin gives off he has to be aware that Jaune's transcripts were fake. Ozpin even made Jaune leader of one of the teams and, as Port said, Ozpin's judgment is to be trusted. It's all really just a Secret Test of Character for Jaune.

• Considering he already knew Blake was a Faunus (a fact that only monkey king Sun and the now confirmed mechanical Penny were able to discern despite her obfuscating bow), wouldn't put it past him.

Ozpin knew that Cardin was blackmailing Jaune.

Why let it continue? Because this made Jaune start paying attention to class because he was terrified of Cardin; and had to do his homework right (and double-down on his own). No more falling asleep in class.

Ozpin will either not be shown to use a weapon; or his weapon can, but won't, be powered by Dust

As the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, Ozpin could easily fill the same role as Kenpachi by either being so skilled he can keep up with Dust-Augmented weapon users with a Dust-less weapon, or alternatively, we could see a scenario where any fights he participates in are off screen, and end relatively quickly and with minimal injuries on his side.

• The handle of the cane looks more like the hilt of a sword, and contains gears.
• If we're going by possible Bleach shout-outs, Ozpin's probably more like Kisuke Urahara. And not just because they both have canes.
• Ozpin's cane is an electrified stun-baton.
• Ozpin's cane is his weapon and he is seen using it to fight Cinder. Whether or not he's using Dust during the fight is unknown, though the cane itself does not appear to be Dust-equipped.

Ozpin's semblance is his reflection

Ozpin's semblance has something to do with reflections and/or mirrors. During Battle of Beacon, there is a quick shot of a window, and then it's shown that Ozpin's reflection simply appears in the window. He doesn't walk in, the reflection just fades in. Now, that could be just an animation thing, but there's more to this. In Volume 4, there is that one strange scene with Oscar the farm boy. As he's looking into a mirror, seeing something off, we suddenly hear Ozpin's voice from nowhere. Since noticing this, I've noticed a whole lot of subtle imagery surrounding Ozpin and reflections and mirrors.

Ozpin's remarks about Ruby's silver eyes will foreshadow a major revelation.

It's possible that Ruby inherited her silver eyes from one or both of her parents (and as we've seen in Red Vs. Blue having green eyes was how we saw that the Director and Carolina were related). Seeing who else has silver eyes might mean the discovery of an important family member. Another possibility is that gold and silver eyes are significant, which could mean there's an unrevealed link between Ruby and the golden-eyed Cinder.

• It's possible she shares the eyes of someone else in her family (possibly whoever lays in the grave she visits), someone Ozpin knew and cared for in the past, whether as a pupil, partner, or teacher.
• I suspect that he probably knows her family, (having known Qrow and currently being in contact with him) and recognized her eyes from them. I personally believe he was probably involved with her mother in some way, though I admit I have no proof for that one. I get the feeling he's training Ruby for something important due to knowing her family and possible potential, hence why he let her skip grades.
• I'm a fan of the theory that Qrow is Ruby's real father, and Taiyang is just protecting her by pretending to be her real father. I'd point out that we've seen Qrow's silhouette twice (once on Ozpin's computer, and once in Yang's flashback. Both times, the animators went to some trouble to avoid revealing facial features (by using only a silhouette, and by stylistically changing the animation style for the flashback). This is possibly to obscure some particularly telling facial feature...in this case, silver eyes.
• The main WMG here is confirmed as of volume 3's finale. Silver eyed warriors are said to have been leading the life of the warrior and fighting the Grimm since before Huntsman and Kingdoms. There's even the rumor of them holding special powers, which may be plausible as Qrow states based on the Dragon Grimm's current state.

Ozpin will turn out to be The Man Behind the Man and the Big Bad.

Let's see here: silver hair. In anime, that's like holding up a big sign saying, "Hi - My name is Doctor von Evilsatan". Plus, he's the leader of a large organisation teaching youngsters how to become Hunters. Who's to say he's not planning to send them out on missions to fulfill his evil agenda after they graduate? I'm also guessing he recognised Ruby's eyes because he's previously offed a member of her family; as will be revealed in a flashback.

• Essentially Jossed. Ozpin is not only seen fighting Cinder, but it seems he's opposing the true Big Bad, Salem.

Ozpin and Ren are related in some way.

Green and black clothes, similar voices and facial structure (though this could likely be because Monty was originally supposed to voice Ozpin).

Ozpin can't use dust

Ozpin being based on the Wizard of Oz is unable to use magic powers and gained his position through clever political maneuvering.

• In Baum's original Oz books, the Wizard of Oz received training in magic from Glinda the Good Witch and turned out to be very talented, going on to become a very powerful (genuine) wizard in his own right, which was on top of his inventor tendencies.
• Whether or not he can use Dust is unknown, but he definitely uses something in his fight against Cinder.

Ozpin is going to die, and it will affect Ruby greatly

Or Qrow, but he'd need a bit of characterization first. This comes out of several points coalescing together. "Red Like Roses" - the first version - contains a line for each of Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang. Weiss and Yang's have been very indicative of who they are while Blake's, while not conclusive, seems to have similar elements to her - especially considering Monty's use of the word "mysterious". But Ruby's is about loss. Red Like Roses II delves even deeper into it - someone who is left alone to fight. Plenty of possibilities but unless Monty's really willing to sacrifice Yang, Mentor Occupational Hazard seems like the most likely candidate. Toss in Ozpin's general negativity and his seemingly unusual interest in Ruby and her development, it seems like he knows that his time is coming - and that Ruby is the one who must bear the burden of the fight ahead.

• As of season four, SOMETHING happened to Ozpin... but Ruby isn't the person most effected.

Ozpin was the leader of one of the best anti-Grimm teams in history, but screwed up, and now chooses not to fight.

One, Ozpin would need some serious credentials in order to be the head of this academy. Two, this would explain why Professor Port (mustache man) trusts him so much: He was part of that team. The other two members of the team? Glinda and the Scarlet Witch. Basically, those four were one of the best teams, and then Ozpin at some point made a serious mistake. Scarlet got pissed, and defected, Glinda is probably more angry at Scarlet than Ozpin, and Port just supports Ozpin. This would also explain the dialogue between Scarlet and Ozpin at the beginning of episode 1 (the voice over that ends with "things that require a smaller, more honest soul." Probably talking about not just Scarlet, but himself with that. His mistake was probably due to pride, and he has been paying for it ever since.

• Alternate: Instead of the Scarlet Witch being the fourth member of the team, the fourth member was Qrow, explaining how they knew each other. Scarlet could have been Glinda's sibling or something, and maybe have once been romantically involved with Ozpin.
• The "Scarlet Witch" is Cinder. Qrow was not on Ozpin's team, but apparently James Ironwood was, going by his statement in Field Trip. Very likely Glynda was also on this team.

Ozpin is an immortal/some manner of incredibly-long-lived being

How else could he have made more mistakes than any man, woman, or child on this planet? Longer lifespan.

• Monty has said that he is 'very old'. May lapse into 'ageless' territory, possibly as a punishment or curse for the 'mistakes'.
• Monty also stated that Ozpin doesn't follow his naming rules. This may have hinted at his age since Ozpin mentions that the tradition of naming people for colors began after the War, making him at least 80 years old.
• Glynda admits to Ironwood that "Ozpin has experience that the rest of us lack."
• Ironwood mentions that he's served under Ozpin for years. It doesn't look like Ozpin's ever been in charge of Ironwood's military, which suggests that this took place earlier in Ironwood's life and considering that Ironwood's already starting to grey that was probably quite some time ago.
• When Ozpin brings up a fairy tale to Pyrrha, he specifically tells her that it was being told even when he was a boy. Considering that it's a traditional folk tale about distantly remembered events, it would probably be a pretty long time ago for that to be something worth mentioning.
• Confirmed. Ozpin has a form of Resurrective Immortality that forces his soul, abilities and memories to fuse with a young man whenever his host's body dies. Maiden magic passes on to new Maidens upon the death of the old ones because the magic originates from Ozpin's soul, and is copying his cycle with young women despite being separated from him.

Alternative to above, Ozpin's semblance is time travel.

Peter Port says that Ozpin has 'never once led [him] astray'. At the same time, Ozpin says to Ruby 'I've made more mistakes than any man, woman and child on this planet'. How could Ozpin have made so many mistakes from his point of view, and yet Port not be aware of them? Time travel. He makes a mistake, goes back in time, and fixes it, meaning the only one who knows he made a mistake is him.

• I bet one of those mistakes had to do with Cinder and Summer. Possibly, he found that no matter what he did, someone had to be sacrificed for the sake of the world. Maybe Cinder found out and grew to hate him for it.
  • (OP here) My personal theory is that he can only go back in time so far. One time he made a mistake and as a result got knocked unconscious by Grimm. Summer Rose died trying to protect him and when he awoke he tried to go back in time to save her, but wasn't able to go back in time far enough, no matter how hard he tried.
• His office in a clock tower supports this thematically at least.
  • He probably simply has an appreciation for time and history.
• The Volume 3 commentary gives the vague statement that Ozpin's cane can "store time", leading credence to Ozpin having some sort of time-travel power.

Alternative to both above theories, Ozpin's semblance is Illusion.

After Ozpin's speech in "The Shining Beacon," Ruby says "It's almost like he wasn't even there." The ability to project images of himself and put on a face for the rest of the world is also in keeping with his motif as the Wizard of Oz.

We will get to see Ozpin fight in a future episode

And he will proceed to either demolish a pack of mooks with contemptuous ease, putting even less effort into it than any of the main characters and still kicking ass, or go head-to-head with a "Boss"-type enemy like Torchwick, Adam, Cinder, or a boss-level Grimm, and either match them blow-for-blow or even have the upper hand. This may or may not be accompanied or triggered by him going Papa Wolf in defense of his school and/or his students.

• Given the fact that we know Ozpin's cane is his weapon, I'd say this is a given. However, it may be a flashback.
• Confirmed, but he doesn't win.

Ozpin's cane is...

A thermos-cane. To explain why he always has hot coffee on hand.

• No, that's Oobleck.

Ozpin's semblance:

Truth-detecting/seeing.

• Jaune used falsified documents to get in and was blatantly horrible at fighting, but the Headmaster didn't try to do anything to help him, seeing his true potential. With Ruby, she never tried to lie; granted this could just be her character, but being in an interrogation room is stressful. Most people wouldn't want to open up about themselves at that time.
• "Seeing" may actually be Qrow's semblance if his symbol (an eye) is any indication.

Simulacra/Clones/Projections

• After hearing Ozpin's speech on the first day in The Shining Beacon Pt. 2, this conversation occurs:
  Yang: He seemed kind of...off.
  Ruby: It's almost like he wasn't even there.
• Maybe he also has the ability to shapeshift. We'll get to see him turn into a giant floating head engulfed in smoke.

Ozpin and/or Glynda will be the Big Bad.

They're based off Glinda and The Wizard of Oz respectively, though there's been a lot of Alternate Character Interpretation (some widely famous) that say that Glinda and the Wizard are villainous people. Perhaps the show will play with that interpretation?

• To be clear, Wicked didn't portray Oz or Glynda as villainous. They were simply ignorant and judgmental, not stopping to listen to Elphaba's side of the story.
  • "Stupidity is no excuse."
• For what its worth, the opener for the second season had these lyrics in the full song version:
  "Were we born to fight and die
  sacrificed for one huge lie?
  Are we heroes keeping peace
  or are we weapons?
  Pointed at the enemy
  so someone else can claim a victory?
• It's possible those lyrics apply to Ironwood's desire to bring the war to their enemies and he may be willing to manipulate the Huntsmen-in-training to do so.
• With recent events and Season 3 finales credits song it's possible Ozpin was the one "pointing them at the enemy" meaning Salem.

Ozpin has a connection to Ruby that she isn't aware of.

Specifically, going on the Fairytale Motifs, he's the Woodsman, as evidenced by the emblem on his coffee mug being a pair of axes. His line about having 'made more mistakes than anyone' could be taken at face value, assuming he's Really 700 Years Old OR it could be taken as something he believes is true out of guilt, and that Ruby is a reminder of that guilt. He was a close friend of Summer Rose (Ruby's mother) and failed to save her life, and thus consider's himself responsible for Ruby's wellbeing, hence why he let her into Beacon so easily and why he's been very open and friendly with her in private, in contrast to his cold demeanor elsewhere.

• As of season four Ozpin’s aura and soul have merged with a Farm Boy named Oscar PINE. In some iterations of the fairytale the Huntsman is portrayed as a Woodcutter, along with Weiss playing the "Woodsman" in the Red Riding Hood play that happened on RWBY Chibi. So this may have been the intention all along.

"Ozpin" isn't the headmaster's real name.

Word of God (by way of the naming guidelines) confirms that there's a reason his name doesn't follow the normal colour-based theme naming. There's a fairly simple, universal explanation for an odd name; it's a pseudonym. This ties in nicely with its origin (being derived from the Wizard from the Wizard of Oz's given name's initials - if this WMG's correct, perhaps his real name will have something to do with Wizards, giant heads or people behind curtains).

• It's possible that Ozpin's name predates the tradition of color-theme naming as he states this trend began after the War. Monty has stated that Ozpin is much older.

Ozpin plays a lot of scrabble.

How else would he come up with acronyms so easily?

Ozpin was keeping tabs on Ruby since before Episode 1

This is the real reason Glynda had that recording of Ruby's fight with Roman. It is also why Ozpin so quickly allowed Ruby to join Beacon.

Ozpin uses a sword and shielth, like Jaune's

Most likely in Sword Cane form. He's implied to be old (and likely Older Than He Looks) and he's got a similar "strategist leader" vibe going (especially compared to Ironwood). Jaune's weapon is old (inherited, in fact) and even if he's not that old, Ozpin probably appreciates the classics.

• Doubtful.
• Jossed. His cane does not possess a shield.

Ozpin knows about Cinder and company

Given that he has proven to already know several student secrets he'll prove to know about their plan as well. What better place to watch someone than under the school you run?

• Possible. They know who the Queen is although they haven't mentioned her by name.
• confirmed when after Cinder broke into the data base, Ozpin, Ironwood, and Glynda in a meeting remark, "She was here" indicating they know who "she" is.
  • The queen could now possibly be Salem

Ozpin was in love with Summer Rose

They met at Beacon when they were younger and Ozpin developed feelings for her that stayed as they grew up. They were on different teams though and saw that she had feelings for someone else so he kept quiet so he could invoke I Want My Beloved to Be Happy. Ruby reminds him of Summer and that's why he is so open around her. The evidence to support this is as follows:

• Ozpin calling Ruby adorable wasn't just him commenting on her youth, it was because she resembles her mother, which the silver eye comment would also support.
• During his talk with Ruby about the mistakes he has made he has a mournful expression on his face that contrasts with all of his other appearances. This could include regret for not telling Summer about his feelings.
• At the dance Ozpin tells Ruby that time has a way of testing the bonds between friends. Seems like something that comes from personal experience.
  • Jossed on the part of "developed feelings as they grew up." Going by Taiyang's old school story in Volume 4 Ozpin was headmaster when Team STRQ started Beacon. As to what the overall relationship between Summer and Ozpin was that's still a pretty big mystery.

Ozpin is the father of Summer Rose (and ancestor to all Silver Eyes Warriors)

In Lost Fable we see Ozpin with 2 children with silver eyes

Also Salem is the ancestor of the Schnees

That's where they got their Semblance

Ozpin was involved in the mission where Summer died

She was fatally wounded and asked Ozpin to promise her that he would look after Ruby. Ozpin also suffered a Heroic BSoD as a result of her death. The expression he makes during the conversation about making mistakes would definitely support this.

Ozpin is old enough to remember the War.

Ozpin is the only character in the show whose name does not follow the Colorful Theme Naming, which we've learned is justified in universe as a minor act of rebellion during the War that has carried on ever since. Monty has said there is a reason for this. If Ozpin were born before the war, it would explain why he is not named for a color, and it would certainly make his line about "making more mistakes than any man, woman, or child alive" make a bit more sense.

• This could explain why Monty claims his name does not follow the naming rules. Ozpin states that trend began after the War.

The song "Sacrifice" is directed at Ozpin.

The spirit of defiance captured in this song just reminds me of Ozpin having "made more mistakes than any man, woman and child on the planet." I think having made people fight and die for a fruitless war might count as one of them, and this also conveniently justifies his seemingly passive stance in the present day, which Ironwood has so much trouble understanding.

When Ozpin learns about Penny's existence, he will be PISSED.

Ironwood has created a being with a soul, with emotions, and the appearance and mind of a teenage girl, whose entire existence is to be a weapon. That raises some serious ethical questions, and Ozpin will be furious about it. Either that, or Glinda will be the one to call him out.

• Seemingly confirmed, when Penny's nature is revealed, Ozpin sounds angry when he tells Ironwood to put his forces to work.

The reason Ozpin doesn't look as old as he should

Is due to him having a serious amount of Aura at his disposal. We see that Aura can heal wounds, so a person could theoretically heal indefinitely and thus the signs of aging wouldn't be physically apparent.

Ozpin is actually Summer's father

He personally trained Summer into one of the greatest Huntresses ever and one day he sent her on the mission that would ultimately result in her death. He stopped interacting with the Xiao Long's either out of shame for her death or because an angry Taiyang blamed him for Summer's death and demanded he stay out of their lives, meaning he couldn't even see his granddaughter anymore.

Ozpin was related to one of the Maidens

It was likely his mother or his sister. Ozpin used to be more like Ironwood in methodology but the death of the Maiden sobered him into acting more like he does now.

Ozpin: Would you believe me if I told you that one’s been around since I was a boy?

Ozpin is the old wizard that gave the original Four Maidens their powers.

Plenty of hints seem to be pointing towards this being the case. On the other hand.....

Ozpin is NOT the wizard.

It's too obvious. Sure there are plenty of hints that he's much older than anyone seems to think. However he's just that: an old man who has simply ran Beacon for many years who has hoped his students would never see the horrors of the war he witnessed.

• A lot of people thought the same thing about Blake being a Faunus, though - that it was too obvious to be true.
• Jossed.

Ozpin is the Old Wizard reincarnated and his power is linked to the cane he carries.

Like the Maidens, the Wizard reincarnates into a new host body. Unlike the Maidens, the selection criteria for the new host is far more flexible with the only set rule being they are male. In addition, memory and knowledge is carried over as well as power. Ozpin was the latest in a long line and after his fight with Cinder, the wizard's power has reincarnated into Qrow who now possesses Ozpin's cane.

• Alternatively, Ozpin is a captive of Salem and Qrow merely guarding the cane until he either finds Ozpin, or the next person the power is to reincarnate into.

Ozpin is not the wizard, because he was in fact still a boy when it happened.

He was telling Pyrrha the truth when he said "that one's been around since I was a boy".

Ozpin is a wizard.

He's just not the wizard from the story. He's a different wizard.

Ozpin is the same as Salem.

It's all a language thing. Think about it, the way Salem refers to humanity to Ozpin as if he wasn't a part of humanity, his "Faith" in these other creatures is misplaced. Etc etc.

Ozpin used to be a general in the Great War.

It just seems to make sense. His name doesn't follow the Color Naming Rule, he's incredibly powerful, and Ironwood makes it clear that he's been serving Ozpin for a long time. Ozpin likely predates the Great War, being as old as he is, and what better way to spend the rest of your life than to try and educate and prevent it? Furthermore, he may have fought against the side of individuality, perhaps aiding Salem, which is why he claims to "have made more mistakes than any man, woman, or child", learning the error of his ways and working to increase global prosperity.

Ozpin really has made more mistakes than anyone alive.

He makes this claim to Ruby when she discusses if her being a leader is a mistake and given how interconnected things seem to be he probably told her this to hint at just how responsible he is for her life being what it is;

• As Headmaster of Beacon, he gave missions to the "Greatest Hunter Team in Beacon history"(if Qrow isn't just boasting) STRQ.
  • This lead to Taiyang and Raven growing closer, eventually resulting in Yang.

• And yet at some point on some mission Raven has gone on her current path leaving her family behind and showing little concern for them.

• Even after Taiyang got together with Summer Rose, Ozpin deployed Summer on dangerous missions because of her silver eyed powers.
  • Which leads to the disappearance/presumed death of Summer.

• Qrow is his number one agent out in the world, keeping him away from home.

and these are just the ones that pertain to Ruby herself, there could be countless other characters yet to be introduce who have fallen in service to Ozpin. While he assuredly believes that it was necessary it doesn't stop it from being something he regrets.

In fact, one of these mistakes may be responsible for The existence of Salem, which is why she seems to have a personal grudge against him.

Salem is Ozpin's sister.

Going off a couple other theories ( the ones where both he and Salem are the same thing, that he is the wizard, and that Ozpin making more mistakes than anyone else is true.) I think I can safely say that Ozpin and Salem once viewed each other as family. The theory goes that the two are incredibly old beings about four or five times as powerful as a maiden. The two grew alongside humanity and held what at the time seemed a minor argument about humanities' vaulue. Salem liked humanity and wanted to see it prosper while Ozpin hated humanity to the point of either creating Grim or making an attack that led to the introduction of Dust. Either way after this humans began to see Ozpin and Salem as an evil pair of spellcasters. They attacked them with Dust. Maiming Salem and driving Ozpin into a depression. Then the four maidens happen and Salem and Ozpin's views on humanity switch leading to a long conflict.

• Jossed. She's his ex-wife. She's trying to destroy the world, he's trying to save it, and their Forever War is the world's worst divorce.

Ozpin is the farm boy.

Ozpin isn't actually dead. Cinder just THINKS that she killed him but in truth, Ozpin is very much alive in the form of the farmboy seen in Episode 1 of Volume 4. I mean... I know it's a stretch: But look at their eye colors. It could just be the lighting, but their eye colors are VERY similar. Not to mention, it could be that THIS is how Ozpin has managed to stay alive for so long...

• Or... This is Ozpin as a boy, and that whole scene was showing him many years ago before he came to be the badass headmaster we know and love. Rooster Teeth has shown multiple sides of a timeline at once before, it's not far-fetched to think they're doing it again.

• Or... Ozpin has managed to somehow transfer his consciousness to this farmboy ala Maiden powers or some other form of "sorcery" (or maybe even his real semblance). And the farm boy is gonna become the next "Ozpin".

• As of "Family" it is confirmed that the farm boy's name is Oscar; the name of the Wizard of Oz in the original books. Since Ozpin appears in the mirror in the barn, it may very well be confirmed that the two have a connection of some sort.

Ozpin is not a person, but a title that passes from one Ozpin to another

This one is a stretch, but it definitely mixes with the theory above. Ozpin might have been really killed by Cinder, but whatever chose Ozpin as the current one also chose Oscar as the next Ozpin, and is going to train him into becoming another one. The reason why Ozpin's name isn't color related is because it is not a name at all. Oscar is the name of the wizard before becoming the wizard, so there's the chance that this is hinting that Oscar will be trained into becoming a "wizard" as well.

The relic Salem mentioned...

• Ozpin's cane
  • It seems to have significance and is always at his side. In addition, Qrow went back into the remnants of Beacon and retrieved it, which wouldn't have happened if the cane wasn't important for something.
    • Apparently jossed as of True Colors, in which Ozpin tells Ruby (in anticipation of her wanting to ask about this very thing) that his cane is not a relic; it's simply precious to him in a personal way, and just happens to be capable of "a few tricks". Whether he was telling the truth when he told her so, however...
• Ozpin's brooch
  • It doesn't seem conspicuous in the least, perfect for hiding a relic. It has four points (the Arc Number of the series) and compared to his green-tinted color palette, the pure grey and black just seems off. Plus, Salem seemed certain that since he was dead, the relic would be there. Maybe it's not the cane, but instead a small trinket hidden in plain sight. Of course... this doesn't account for the the fact that she might not know about Qrow grabbing the cane.

Ozpin is an Unreliable Narrator and has an agenda he is trying to carry out

Ozpin has been lying to Qrow, Glynda, and pretty much everyone about the true nature of everything going on.

• For starters, Ozpin is based off of the Wizard of Oz. In the musical version of Wicked, it was the Wizard's goal to keep people happy by giving them what they want, and he believed that what they wanted was a Black-and-White Morality style of thinking. And with the tale of the Two Gods Ozpin told Qrow, he clearly seems to be pushing a Dark Is Evil and Light Is Good style of worldview. However, it is up to debate whether or not he told an accurate version of the events, or even knows one.
• He seems incredibly comfortable with outright lying to the public for their own good about things such as the Relics and the Maidens. Who is to say he wouldn't do the same for his subordinates?
• He clearly has an agenda as headmaster, much like Ironwood. As was revealed in the World of Remnant on Huntsman, Huntsman and Huntresses are pretty much free to do whatever they want with their titles. Including act as mercenaries. But yet Ozpin is very intent on shaping his students into guardians. Now this is a positive agenda, but who is to say that Oz's idea of a guardian is truly a good one? Granted, there's no evidence to the contrary there but it still conveys he has some sort of plan.
• He is shown to be actively biased towards certain individuals, such as Ruby.

All of this hints to a much darker side of Ozpin that he is hiding from the public.

Ozpin's semblance is the ability to pass on the knowledge and power of the previous users

Think similar to the Avatar from Avatar the last airbender/legend of Korra and the One for all from Hero academy.The first user has no semblance and when they die their soul would pass on to the next bestowing upon the second all the knowledge and experience of the first, while still having their own semblance. When the second dies they pass on their knowledge and experience along with the first, plus their semblance to the next in line and the passage continues with knowledge and semblance stacking upon each other till the inheritor becomes more than human.

Ozpin was the "man with two souls" Blake was reading about back in volume 1

As you may recall, late in episode three, when Yang asks what she's reading, Blake replies "It's about a man with two souls. Fighting for control of his body." As of season four we know Ozpin's soul passes from one host to another, moving on to a new one whenever his current body dies. Perhaps the book was inspired (or even written) by a previous host who was a lot less accomadating than Oscar is now. Obviously the significance of that story has been long forgotten. Bonus points if, when Oscar finally catches up with his students there's a Call-Back to the above scene.

Ozpin is a Time Lord

Yes, everyone is a Time Lord, I know. But, Ozpin is one based on him being incredibly mysterious, heading a combat school, and he's in another body (albeit with the original owner still inside with him) by Volume 4. His regenerations move his soul into someone else's body, instead of changing his own body and personality. Given that he's gone through a number of regenerations by now, it's more likely than you'd think. His companions would be Qrow and, by Volume 5's end, teams RWBY and JNR. His TARDIS would be his cane. It has been mentioned to "store time"...

Ozpin kept Qrow, a known trouble-maker and degenerate, around to use as a potential Body Backup Drive in case his current form died.

Ozpin said that the gods cursed him to continually reincarnate into a body with a 'like-minded soul' for failing to stop Salem. However, there was never a stated age limit or requirement for the reincarnation as we see with Oscar, who was into his teen years when Ozpin landed in him. Now, look at the similarities between Qrow and Ozpin. Both share a clockwork theme, both are noted to sound quite similar by Ruby. Ozpin claims to have made more mistakes than any man woman and child on the planet. Qrow has come to see the misfortunes of that befall those around him as his fault thanks to his semblance - aspects both men feel incredibly guilty for, but still strive forward for the sake of their duty towards humanity as a whole. Its possible that outside his exceptional skills as a spy and Huntsman, Ozpin kept Qrow around on the slim chance that he died, his spirit could reincarnate into Qrow so he could almost immediately pick up from where he left off.

• Adding to that... A current theory going around is that the Aura Transfer Machine at Beacon was originally meant for OZPIN TO PUT HIS SOUL INTO QROW so as not to damn another unwilling and innocent soul like Oscar. Qrow's "resemblance" to Ozpin might have been a deliberate attempt on his part to make the transition easier when the time for the transference came.
• A potentially darker twist, Qrow doesn't know. He's too busy loyally following orders to even realise this is the old man's plan for him. It's part of the reason why Raven is so pissed at him for following Ozpin because he can't see the writing on the wall. In a situation where Oz is dying, Qrow would immediately assume guilt because of his semblance and do anything to help, up to and including using the Aura Transfer Device. By the time he realises what's been happening, he's already part of the gestalt and can't do a thing about it.

Ozpin is a Well-Intentioned Extremist seeking to destroy the relics and bring about the New World Order.

Sounds like an extremely wild guess? Well maybe it is, but think about it this way: The four gifts to mankind are knowledge, creation, destruction and choice. If those are more than just names and embody existential concepts, then destroying them would leave humanity ignorant, without the ability to change the world through creation or destruction and unable to make their own choices. Something that would make every totalitarian ruler cry tears of joy. Since Ozpin seems to be something of an Arch-Enemy to Salem, most people assume their conflict to be about plain and simple Good versus Evil. But seeing how Salem seeks to divide the world of Remnant, what if Ozpin's goal is a pure opposite of hers - uniting it under the control of one person, that person being himself? As for why he doesn't seem to have destroyd any relic as of yet, maybe he is hoping to get them all at once, so nobody is aware of his agenda until it's too late. The only reason he cares about the maidens is so that he has always a way to enter any of the chambers, but he could never get all of them under his control. That would certainly explain why doesn't he show more trust to his allies and why the villains despise him so much despite committing multiple evil deeds themselves. It would also make sense from the storytelling perspective - Who could make for a better villain than a person who was present in the series since the first episode, manipulated the heroes from the very beggining, has an understandable but nonetheless sinister motivation and so happens to be an old entity with an immense power?

Ozpin threw the fight with Cinder

We know that Ozpin predates the Maidens and gave them their powers. We know that if he unleashes his full strength - which at this point in his reincarnation cycle, he should be able to - he can wipe armies off the map single-handedly, even with the knowledge he's imparted to the world's elite fighters. There's no way that Cinder should have been able to defeat him, even with the full power of the Fall Maiden. So how did she manage it? The obvious answer is that he allowed her to kill him, knowing that he'd be recycled. If he'd met force with force, it might have destroyed Cinder and the Grimm Dragon, but Beacon would still be nuked, and his victory would ultimately be meaningless because he'd have to re-establish the treaties through superior firepower again, which would just do Salem's work for her.

• Implicitly Jossed by Ozpin's own admission that his power has been significantly reduced after imparting part of it to the original Maidens.

Ozpin's cane is the King of Vale's royal scepter

Or at least it was. It was reforged into something less conspicuous. Ozpin notes that the cane has more secrets to it and is very precious to him personally. Since Ozpin was the King of Vale, this makes sense.

Ozpin has multiple Semblances

He retains the Semblance of each of his prior forms because of the soul merge aspect of his reincarnation.

Ozpin grows more powerful with each resurrection

His Aura grows in power each time he reincarnates because he retains each soul that merges with his own, meaning he has a far greater pool of energy to draw from than anyone else. His last resort plan may be to just outlast Salem long enough to reach the point that he can kill her because she's unaware of this aspect of his abilities.

Ozpin wrote "The Man With Two Souls"

One of his previous incarnations, prior to Ozpin, wrote a story emulating his experience as the latest chosen in the cycle of reincarnation.

Ozpin will have a few more reincartations aside from Oscar in the future.

And their names would be Zoroaster, Phadraig, Issac, Norman, Henkle, Emmanuel, Ambroise, and Diggs.

Ozpin played a major role in the White Fang as both an unknown benefactor and an unknown founder

Ozpin's mission requires him to bring harmony to the world unless he wants the gods to purge it. He realizes that he should have done more to step-in for the faunus. The eternal war between human and faunus does not help with his goal. So he meets a Faunus man named Ghira. They hit it off and Ozpin decides to aid him on his mission to make a better world for faunus. Ghira does his work with Ozpin in the shadows.

Unfortunately after enough time passed Ozpin comes to the view that his friend's methods won't work for what he needs from the faunus (militarize the faunus enough to get humans to treat with them and also have to counter Salem in case she tries to use them or otherwise mess with them). Ozpin knows from experience the ugliness in human nature and that to get a man's respect in many cases you need to bare your fangs. He'd see it's time to take drastic measures. He learns through his contacts in the WF of a radical in the White Fang who's calling for more violent methods. So, Ozpin backs Sienna since he sees her as the strongwoman the White Fang/faunus need, and that once the organization becomes stronger, more stable, she can be brought aboard into the Ozspiracy.

That's what WOULD have happened if it wasn't for Adam. Ozpin both underestimated how feral the White Fang would become and also how much trust Sienna would put in Adam before it was too late to remove him. Ozpin wrote wrote off the WF as a failure.

Also, this addresses how Blake (a terrorist) could be allowed to attend Beacon without any obvious supervision. Ozpin pulled strings to ensure his old friend's daughter could attend his school in peace.

Ozpin will begin acting as a Spirit Advisor instead of The Leader

Based on the events of Volume 6, specifically, Ozpin guiding Oscar through the plane crash, Ozpin will decide to step back from his role as leader of the Anti-Salem forces, having realized that his secret keeping and trust issues have caused so many problems. Instead, he'll decide to use all that wisdom and experience to give advice and guidance to his successor's, rather than taking the helm himself as he's done in the past, and letting those who choose to take up the fight against Salem and the Grimm choose their own way of doing so.

Beacon Staff

Glynda is a maiden

OK, this was jus a theory I had, but after rewatcing her fight with Cinder in the very first chapter I realised it has to be true. We know her semblance is telekinesis, but then you realise she does a lot in that fight that we saw Amber do in the flashback fight in Vol. 3, including weather manipulation, which given what we've learned about the power's in RWBY since that fight, she should not have been able to do. She even uses Glyphs that are a recolored version of the ones Cinder/Amber uses. My guess is she's the Spring Maiden.

• Neither Cinder nor Amber use glyphs only Glynda and the Schnees her semblance has not been confirmed and she does not manipulate weather at all... what?

Professor Peach will never be mentioned again

Hers was just a throwaway name.

• She was last seen fighting a giant Turtle-like Grimm, and the school plumber (a woman of Latina descent) has taken it upon himself to look for her.
  • It should be noted that plumber is also being assisted by her sister and fellow plumber, though most people tend to forget that she exist, even among the staff and students
  • Thank you Maria, but our professor is on another campus!

There will be two other teachers at Beacon

They will also be based upon stories of a "(name) and the (thing)" convention similarly to Port and Oobleck.

• Episode 13 mentioned a Professor Peach. This teacher will likely be named Jim Peach as in "James and the Giant Peach".
  • I predict the next teacher will be named John Stalk.
    • Jacques Darc is the real name of the real Jeanne Darc. He could be Jaune's father and an allusion to Jack.

Oobleck was sent with RWBY because he's the most qualified to take on the White Fang... as a diplomat

He's been established as knowing a great deal about history and being pro-Faunus rights and he's been sent in with a team which has both a Schnee and a former WF member he can cite. Maybe his mission is less "crush the terrorists" and more "talk some sense into those damn kids". Or at the very least, he's the school's resident White Fang expert. A more disturbing possibility is that he's been sent to keep an eye on Blake.

• But their mission is about Grimm, isn't it?

The Professor Port has an actual cow named Edgar

He got him when Edgar was a calf. He raised him and taught him to fight. Now Edgar protects Port's home village from Grimm attacks and has earned the title of The Minotaur.

Glynda's Semblance is Restoration

The way she's shown repairing the dining hall and the damage from the train detonation so perfectly strongly indicate an innate ability to restore things to their proper condition.

• Jossed. Her semblance was confirmed to be Telekinesis. She's just really good at cleaning up messes.

Dr. Oobleck owns a lot of hats.

Possibly exactly five hundred, thus cementing the reference.

Dr. Oobleck's coffee is incredibly strong.

Strong enough that it stops being a suspension and becomes a non-Newtonian fluid.

A variant of an above, Glynda is the Winter Maiden.

Befitting her colder, stiffer attitude. Her powers seem to be actual magic rather than a semblance because while she is able to use Telekinesis (her Semblance), she also uses a lot of other things, like summoning a stormcloud to rain ice down (though any Maiden can use any element, as seen with Cinder). She's also extremely powerful. Winter is also a season of protection- Winter's frosts and snows protect the seeds and trees like a blanket. This factors in to both her inner, indirect warmth and that she's rather defensively-based. She's introduced protecting Ruby, and she's one of the best people for protecting the students at Beacon. Even her using her telekinesis ties into the winter aspect- Ice often forces nature to bend and change because of its weight, like a tree drooping from the weight of snow on its branches. I would guess that if this is true, Glynda might become a target by Cinder or Salem (I can't imagine either of them being content with just one Maiden's power). Furthermore, Glynda is considered a witch of sorts. Her surname alludes to it, her namesake alludes to it, and her powers definitely qualify her for one. The Big Bad of the series is revealed to be named Salem. Fire melts away winter's snow and ice, and the Salem Witch Trails spent a lot of time burning so-called witches at the stake. So this is either a Red Herring, or an implication of Glynda's upcoming death. Her powers may possibly go to Weiss or Winter, the obvious choices to inherit this title and who may be present when Glynda is murdered.

• Jossed: Winter Maiden is an old woman in Atlas. Spring and Fall are also shown, Summer is still unaccounted, so maybe Summer.
• Also victims of Salem with trials were hanged.

Ozpins secret society

Ozpins group are all based on the characters from The Wizard of Oz.

Ozpin is Oz, Glynda Goodwitch is Glinda the Good Witch (Obviously). Ironwood is the Tin Man (Confirmed), Qrow is the Scarecrow (A man who on the front seems unintelligent but really is more wise then he let's on, plus a crow motif) and Taiyang is the Cowardly Lion (Being compassionate and scared for the well being of those he loves, plus he looks the part). Only ones missing are Dorothy and the Wicked Witch (My guess being Pyrrha and either Cinder or Salem.

• I propose that the girl with the Ruby Red Slippers is none other than Ruby Rose. Dorothy is the youngest of the group, not native to Oz and the hero of the story, Ruby is the youngest of the group (even among her own group, remember she is 15 and the average beacon freshman student is 17), She isn't apart of Ozpin's inner circle, she is the hero of the story and She even has her own Toto, Zwei.
• Only the Dorothy and Leo guesses are Jossed: Oz (Wizard), Glynda (Glinda), Ironwood (Tin Man, Qrow (Scarecrow), Leo (Lion) and Theodore (Dorothy) are the Wizard of Oz allusions. Oz is also based on Princess Ozma as well as the Wizard, thanks to both his original form (Ozma) and his current incarnation (Oscar).

Winter Schnee is the current Winter Maiden.

This perhaps falls into the Too Obvious category, but there are a number of small little clues that start to add up. Ironwood brings her along with him to Beacon, presumably so he can keep a protective eye on her and Autumn at the same time. When Weiss asks her what brought her to Beacon, her only answer is, "Classified." When Qrow shoots at her on the parapet, she creates a cloud of fog to obscure herself without any visible sign of using her family's Instant Runes semblance. When she and Qrow meet up with the others, Qrow openly asks why she was invited, and doesn't get an answer. In the next episode, the advice she offers her sister is thematically similar to the advice the Winter Maiden gave to the Wizard: to take time in solitude and self-reflection.

• Alternatively, Winter was Ironwood’s candidate to become the Fall Maiden, which explains her presense at the meeting and the classified mission. In the end, the Ozluminati decided on Pyrrha (perhaps because as a student it would be easier to protect her?) but the thematically sililar advice foreshadows Winter indeed going on to become the Winter Maiden. Though I have nothing about the fog.
  • The fog she conjures appears again during the Weiss character short. During training she is seen summoning Beowolves with her Semblance, but they seem to appear out of a swirling icy wind. She also doesn’t appear on screen until after the training is over, perhaps to hide her glowing Maiden eyes from both the audience and her sister.
• Of course, now chapter 13 of volume 5 also shows Weiss creating the same swirling fog bank as she summons her Lancer Queen, which may mean it’s just a summoner thing, but at least with her it could also be a combination of ice dust from her weapon. Either that or Winter has died off camera somewhere and Weiss has already unknowingly become the Winter Maiden (perhaps the distress call from chapter 2 of the same volume was an Atlesian ship? They did say their Huntress was down). If so, Weiss is gona be traumatized if she ever realises her sister was in danger and she didn’t go and help.
• Jossed and possibly confirmed: Current Winter Maiden is an old and sick woman on her deathbed, and Winter is arranged to be her successor, though that last one haven't happened yet.
• Doubly jossed: Winter fails to become the Winter Maiden due to the power going to Penny.
• And then confirmed as of Volume 8's finale: Penny eventually dies and passes on the Maiden's powers to Winter.

Ozpin's faction either has or used to have a necromancer

If a Maiden dies, her power goes to the person she thinks of in her last thoughts (if they're young and female). How exactly did they find this out? They had someone summon their spirits and did some cross referencing!

Professor Theodore, if and when he appears in the main series, will be voiced by Sunwong Cho.

Rooster Teeth has cast him in most of their other animated works, and he's got range. It only makes sense they'd cast him in RWBY as a seasoned huntsman.

Professor Theodore is the only one of them that remains truly loyal to Ozpin

Even Qrow's faith in him has wavered.

James Ironwood is actually a weakling

Ironwood has always presented himself as a strong warrior, but look at who he's fought over the series;

• A Beowolf, one of the lowest class of Grimm.
• Robot drones that academy students can easily steamroll.
• Watts, who is more of a technician than a fighter. And even he gave Ironwood trouble, ultimately forcing the general to lose his arm just to win.

While Ironwood clearly has something in the brute force department, a longstanding theme of the series is that "There will be no victory in strength". Ironwood is just a Miles Gloriosus who is more than happy to brag about his strength...up until the time comes to actually risk his life.

Ironwood and Watts were lovers

Or at least were heading there. And when Watts did whatever he did and had to fake his death, it was Ironwood who provided a Paladin for the cover story. And that's why Ironwood couldn't kill Watts after that arena fight: he still had some feelings lingering. Also ties up nicely in Ironwood's decision to deal with doctor personally and his overall anger at him.

Beacon Students

Team CRDL

The gem in Cardin's mace is a Dust crystal

Likely a fire gem so he can set his mace on fire.

• Confirmed. It was used a few times during his fight against Pyrrha in Extracurricular.

Something/someone will break Cardin's legs by sheer coincidence.

The line has come up enough times that it would make a fitting just desserts for the school bully.

Cardin will pull a Face–Heel Turn.

He'll get busted for his bullying and wind up either humiliated or expelled from Beacon. This will drive him to join forces with the likes of Rome and the Witch in order to get revenge, specifically on Jaune.

Alternatively, "Breaking Cardin's Legs" may be a huge Foreshadowing of his Character Development.

It may sound like it won't make sense to some, but this is the same thing that happened to Yuri Boyka "The most perfect fighter in the world" after losing to Chambers in the second film by literally breaking one of his legs.

Cardin will become the show's Butt-Monkey after Jaune escapes the role

After Jaune's revelations in Jaunedice Part II, it's not all that funny seeing him be inept and bumbling. It wouldn't be so funny if someone we liked became the Butt-Monkey in his place, for the same reason. But what if someone we don't like takes the role? Cardin could become an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist.

• Well he did get his ass handed to him in Extracurricular... by a girl! *self-five*

Cardin (possibly all of CRDL) may be expelled for trying to destroy Jaune

Assuming Ozpin knows the truth and doesn't care (which he likely does), and that the group is slated for a Face–Heel Turn or Red Shirt status. Eventually Jaune will grow a pair and sufficiently anger Cardin enough that blackmail is no longer amusing, or JNPR groups up to beat his head in after Jaune mans up and tells them about it. Cardin, desperate to have the last word in the feud, will approach Ozpin directly. At this point, one of two things could happen.1. Ozpin will flatly state Jaune earned his place by surviving at all and order Cardin to back off or face his own expulsion. If Cardin complains specifically about violation of the rules, Ozpin will bluntly reaffirm headmaster fiat and tell Cardin that Jaune is at Beacon "because I said so" and if Cardin doesn't like it, he can leave. Depending on what Monty wants to do with Team Cardinal, Cardin may force the issue and get his team expelled, setting them up to join Torchwick.2. Jaune and Cardin will both be summoned to Ozpin's office. For drama-milking on the writers' part, Ozpin will initially start by rightfully berating Jaune for forging his transcripts, which will have Jaune sullen and Cardin quite smug. Then Ozpin will suddenly start showering Jaune with praise on what he's done so far in the show (lead a team in killing a massive Grimm, survive his trial in the first place, stand up for Velvet, anything else he does between now and whenever this plot is resolved), and end by calling Cardin out on all of his negative traits, including his vicious racism and how he encourages it in his team, as well as his moral bankruptcy concerning the blackmail. It'll end with Jaune getting slapped on the wrist in some fashion but encouraged that he belongs at Beacon, and Cardin either warned to back off or expelled outright.

• It seems the whole blackmail thing will be coming to a head very soon and Jaune never did stand up for Velvet. Though he did refuse to partake in CRDL's bullying.
• By Volume 2, it's certainly looking as though CRDL got no comeuppance for their wrongdoing.
• So... totally jossed.

Cardin will pull a Heel–Face Turn

Brought on by the heroics in Episode 14. There's a reason why, in the opening, Jaune gets the camera focus for the line "your heart will open minds."

Cardin will eventually become Jaune's best male friend

...besides Ren anyway

It might take months or years, but Jaune saving Cardin was just the start of it. That act of saving him might have been humiliating, but not only did it prove to Cardin that he CAN defend himself if he wanted to, he also earned his respect, even if he didn't notice it, considering his own team bailed on him. With Cardin no longer too busy bullying him to notice, he could witness more of Jaune's more heroic points; extra bonus points if they end up having to team up together against a threat. I'd like to think Cardin can be more bro-like if he acted genuinely nice eventually.

To prove this plausibility: anyone remember Flash Thompson, known all too well for being Spiderman's personal bully? Well, for one thing, he did have genuine respect for heroes, and believe it or not, but years after high school ended, and they became adults, he matured to the point that he of all people became one of Peter Parker's best friends. Not every jerk stays a jerk forever.

Cardin is descended from General Legume

This just seems to make so much more sense of a lot of things; Cardin's hatred of Jaune stems from jealousy, because Jaune's family were remembered as heroes, while Cardin's ancestor is widely known for being General Failure. He blames the faunus for his family's shame, and therefore tries to dismiss them as animals. Also, he was annoyed more by Pyrha telling everyone about Fort castle than he was by Blake needling him, which is odd, since Pyrha was relatively passive, and not as insulting. Finally, Oobleck's comment about history repeating itself can't be referring to Jaune, because Jean D'arc isn't part of Remnant's history. maybe it could be referring to the Winchester family instead.

• While the General Lagune thing makes sense, Cardin seems to target Jaune mainly because he's an easy target, not out of any personal history.

Russel Thrush, of CRDL, has a secret of some sort.

His design is the odd one out in the team (he has a barbarian style ripped shirt and shoulder pad while the other three have symmetrical plate armour). In the Forever Fall episodes he was noticeably separate from the team as they looked at the other students (on the far left, blocked off from the rest of the team by Jaune - his leader's blackmailed Butt-Monkey) and towards the end of part 1, when they're advancing on Jaune, he's standing alone off to the left of the screen while Dove and Lark are standing together on the opposite side (although this could just be down to D&L being partners and Russell standing to the right of Cardin). If CRDL get more character development, it's a safe bet he's going to be the group's outsider with some sort of secret (maybe serving as a foil to how RWBY deals with what they learned about Blake in episodes 15 and 16) - perhaps having faunus heritage (come on, don't say the haircut didn't make you think it!) or secretly not sharing the others' views on them (given their bishop theme, being a "heretic" would sort of make sense).

• If speculation is true about him being based on Robin Hood, he likely has a criminal history.

Sky Lark and Dove Bronzewing are allusions to Thor and Pyrrha antagonists

Sky Lark is very likely Loki. Why? To lark means to cause mischief. Loki's forte. Sky very likely takes a lot of inspiration from the recent film version of Loki who wields a staff that resembles a glaive or halberd (like Sky's). Likewise, the fact that Loki was born a Frost Giant gave him natural blue skin (he was able to magically adopt Asgardian guise helped by the fact that he was born a runt rather than a true giant). This ties in to Sky Lark's blue color motif. If true, it would be a decent reason to refer to him as "Lark" instead of Sky.

Dove Bronzewing is Hector of Troy. Why? During his fight with Achilles, Troy's greatest warrior swordsman was described as a "cringing dove", such was his fear that he may actually die fighting Achilles. After all, the two lived by different philosophies. Hector was fighting to protect his kingdom but still hoped to live. Achilles fought because battle was his life and he wanted revenge for Patroclus. This would further explain why these characters ran away from the Ursa (Loki and Henry Beaufort aren't fighters and Hector only fought when he knew he must). The fact that Dove uses a sword/revolver is reflective of the skill Hector had with sword and bow. Also, judging by the sword's design, it may transform to more strongly resemble a bow.

Or...

Russel Thrush is Loki

Loki is known to where green (at least insomuch as the Marvel version implies) and he wields mostly a dagger in battle (unlike his comic book counterpart).

Sky Lark is Skathi

Another Norse god, or rather, goddess (there's been genderbend precedence) and a Jotunn like Loki. She wields a spear. She may not be a well-known figure in Norse mythology but one could argue that Cardinal Winchester wasn't all that well-known either.

Cardin was paired with Sky, Russel was paired with Dove.

This is based on how they fight in Extracuricular. Cardin pulled a pretty effective combo with Sky before he was taken out, both by surounding Pyrrha and when close in, but seemed less capable of doing so with Russel and Dove, who themselves were pretty well in-sync.

CRDL will give a You Shall Not Pass!

At some point down the line, when Cinder's plan get's to it's foinal stages Vale will windup in to chaos, and as members of RWBY and JNPR are rushing to a confrontation (probably in the vault containing Amber as Cinder goes to finish her off) some of Cinder's gang will stay to stall them. Now in comes CRDL saying You Shall Not Pass!, as a Moment of Awesome Granted this will be a Curbstomp Battle, but they might do at least some damage.

Cardin will sell out the heroes for his own safety

So, I was looking up Henry Beaufort, the man who Cardin is based on, and I found something interesting. According to legend, on his deathbed he tried to trade the treasury of England to Death, in exchange for a longer life. Well, as Pyrrha shows, some characters end up the same as their mythical/historical counterparts. That got me thinking, what if Cardin has a bigger role than we think going forward? My theory goes as such: Somewhere down the line, the bad guys are winning. Salem's plans are in full force, and it looks like the kingdoms are going to fall. Of course, Cardin is not exactly a heroic person, and he comes to a similar conclusion as Roman did: why fight an enemy you know is going to win? So, he goes to Salem, attempting to give her some valuable item or information in exchange for being spared. Of course, the trade does not work out for him, just like Beaufort ended up dying despite his efforts, Salem decides that once he gives her what he has to offer, he is no longer of use, and kills him, but his actions then have disastrous effects on the state of Remnant, and the plight of the heroes, potentially killing Jaune.

Save for Cardin, the other members of CRDL are either dead or MIA after the Volume 3 finale.

Cardin's Semblance is inducing fear.

This one was suggested by the writer of the RWBY fanfic Redemption, due to the scene in Forever Fall where Russel, Dove and Lark flee the Ursa. In-show it's dismissed as them just being cowards, but you have to admit - they got into Beacon fair and square. The author's logic is that since Aura can activate Aura, as Pyrrha did with Jaune, Jaune's uncontrolled Semblance might have provoked a similar uncontrolled reaction from Cardin's. Jaune's Semblance is said to be protective, explaining why he didn't run. This would also fit in with Cardin's personality, as he is a bully who likes to cause fear in others.

Team CFVY

Velvet Scarlatina's weapon of choice.

Velvet's weapon will likely be a gun (Pretty much like everyone else) but instead of having another form as a melee weapon, she can change it into different forms of guns. Rifle, Shotgun, Assault, even a pistol form.

• The rabbit in the moon is making rice cakes, which are made by pounding rice with a very long mallet called an usu. Nora already has a hammer, though
  • A Yawara that extends into a police baton, that brings to mind a mortar and pestle used to make rice cakes? And equipped with a weapon capable of shooting her into the air when fired, allowing her to jump higher?
• The Bunny is a rocket launcher in Borderlands Nora already has a rocket launcher though
  • Not rocket launcher, grenade launcher. There's a difference
• Velvet will use The Rabbit
• Monty has stated she'd use a wand.
  • Monty said she'd be a mage. But he refused to comment on her weapon. If it was just a wand, why hide in it a box?
• Perhaps she'll be The Minion Master commanding something akin to Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog certainly would explain why her team doesn't think a Grimm invasion is a threat enough to use it.
• It may be summoning or enchantment magic in the form of Power Copying via her photography. Look back at her photo of Sun in Destiny; the shot isn't focused on his profile, but his weapon. She also gets a shot of Ruby at the end of the scene, but without her scythe; this could imply copying a person's Semblance as well. Also, recall what Coco told her in Breach; Velvet shouldn't use her power because she's been "building it up all semester." That could mean that whatever powers she gains have limited uses, maybe once per photograph. When it's time to finally use the power, it'll be either a combination of the weapons or Semblances she's acquired, and she'll pull them out of her box...just like a rabbit out of a hat.
  • Confirmed as of Volume 3, Episode 11.

The rest of Velvet's team are Faunus.

You know, segregation. And it could be why they didn't defend her against CRDL- they were afraid they'd get bullied too.

• If Professor Oobleck's lecture is any indication, Beacon staff probably don't think highly of such things. There's always self-segregation, of course, but the random nature of the pairings seems designed to counter any sort of personal preference. This does beg the question of why Cardin's team gets away with bullying (Velvet in particular), but that could be covered by the "sink or swim" mentality seen throughout the series, i.e. she needs to learn to stand up for herself if she wants to pick fights with monsters for a living.
• Going by the Volume 2 Opening, her team doesn't seem to be Faunus.
• While Fox is in question, it is mostly accepted at this point that Velvet's teammates are human.

Velvet's storyline will somehow involve wishing she were human.

Maybe she's internalized the racism against Faunus and honestly doesn't think of herself as a human being. Her character arc could involve finding self-confidence and kicking that line of thought to the curb.

• The tale she is based on revolves around a toy rabbit wishing it was a real one, so as to be with it's owner. Replace toy with Faunus and real one with Human� Although the story does have it become real.

There will be other characters who wish they were human.

Such as the newly revealed automaton, Penny.

• One member of Velvet's team is named Fox. The kitsune is a mystical creature which has the ability to take human form. It's not the same but a similar motif nonetheless. It's possible the tall member is based on Elphege, a prince who was transformed into a Green Monkey. He was eventually changed back.
• The other members of Velvet's team are Coco and Yatsuhashi. Yatsuhashi is named for a blind musician who probably wished he could see. Coco is probably named for Coco Chanel (who likely wished for fame).

Velvet will be recruited into the White Fang because she wants a place to belong.

When we first see Velvet, she is sitting alone and being picked on by Team CRDL. Emphasis on the "alone" part. Where is her team? It might just be that her schedule with other members of her team meant that she was alone for that short time, but for argument's sake, we'll say that her teammates won't have anything to do with her due to her Faunus status. This isolation makes for prime conditions for recruiting into extremist organizations. Velvet will meet a representative of the White Fang, who will tell her about humans who will, at best, ignore them or at worst, bully/persecute/enslave them. She will enlist with the White Fang because they will offer her companionship, something that she seems to (so far) be sorely lacking.

From here, Velvet's story can take a number of directions. She seems like a sweet girl, so it is unlikely that it is in her nature to harm even those who discriminated against her. So eventually, White Fang will either gradually changer her personality so she becomes a loyal, maybe even fanatical, fighter. Or, more hopefully, Velvet will reach a point where her conscience will not allow her to perform acts of terrorism, and pull a Heel–Face Turn.

Velvet will have at least one reference to Reisen Udongein Inaba.

• Her weapon will be a combination handgun/magic staff, so as to comply to Monty's word that she is primarily a mage.
• Her Aura/Semblance is confusion-inducing EM waves.
• Her outfit will strongly recall Reisen's.* Or, at one point, she will say a variation of the statement "I'm just a useless little bunny, only good for my sex appeal".
  • First two seem jossed, third one... seems very unlikely given the tone of the show.

Velvet avoids her team at lunch for their safety.

Because they would beat the crap out of anyone messing with her and she's afraid they'd get in trouble.

• More likely prejudice is rare at Beacon and she figured she would be safe on her own.

Velvet failed first-year history.

This would explain why an upperclassman would be taking Professor Oobleck's classes together with other first-years.

The guy who got over-excited in Professor Port's class will be on Velvet's team

Because they already have the character model.

• Unless he had a growth-spurt, the new season opener which shows Velvet with her team◊. The overzealous kid had dark hair. The dark-haired guy pictured here is huge.
  • A more popular assumption is that Yatsuhashi is a the White Fang Lieutenant introduced in "Painting the Town..." either as an infiltrator or as a serious member.

Fox will be The Quiet One or The Voiceless

This will beg the question of "What does Fox say?"

• Or a situation will arise in which his team defers to him.
• Both he and Yatsuhashi have yet to say a word.

Team CFVY is Ozpin's super-secret task group

Considering we see him drink coffee all the time, and their team name is pronounced like his favorite drink, more than likely he favors them a lot.

Oobleck will be CFVY's mentor

Because he like Ozpin really likes coffee but also because seeing just how nervous Velvet was about even admitting to being discriminated against is trying to help her fit in with the team and build her self-confidence.

• Actually, Oobleck is working with RWBY.
• The group arrived with Port.

Coco will be a Summer Rose fangirl

Yang does mention the Summer kept doing missions and doesn't seem to have been military so she was probably seen like a Justice League member. Coco heard stories about her and developed an admiration for Summer. When she finds out that Ruby is her daughter she will Squee at the idea of learning more about Summer from Ruby, completely dropping her cool girl persona.

Coco will be a Spanner in the Works

As things look for Yang, she's screwed. But, if she shares her experience fighting Emerald and her observation of Cinder leaving the stands as the Yang/Mercury fight started with Qrow, he'll eventually notice that Emerald and Mercury resemble two of Amber's attackers and start to put things together.

• Well, she told Velvet, who told Ruby, who put the pieces together. Unfortunately, it hasn't done any good.

Team CFVY is in Vale, helping Glynda and the other teachers

Other

Every major character at Beacon has some kind of secret.

Hints have been dropped for every member of Team RWBY (even Yang's Super Mode seems somewhat suspect) and Ozpin's already admitted to making more mistakes than any one person on the face of the planet. Seems like a Dark Secret might be required on the transcript.

• Also, Ozpin already knows all the student's secrets, though they're unaware of that fact.
• Everybody in the world has some kind of secret.

Sparring partners in Glynda's combat class are decided by ability

The point of sparing is to learn how to fight and a placing two opponents who are wildly mismatched together would just lead to curb stomp battles where neither person would benefit. This is why in martial arts there are weight classes and belts.The only reason Cardin was fighting Juan was that team CRDL are amongst the weakest in in there year. It explains why when you have such strong characters as Lie Ren (took out the King Tiejitu alone) and Pyrrha (record regional champion wins, Cardin doesn't continuously get his ass handed to him but he is so arrogant he hasn't figured this out yet.As another guess the top tier includes Velvet (word of god says she's powerful), Yang, Blake, Lie and Pyrrha. Second has Nora, Ruby (not because they are unskilled but because neither is known for restraint) and Weiss (again not lack of skill but lack of real experience)

Raven and Taiyang were never married

Raven and Taiyang may have been romantically involved, but they were never actually married. Yang was the result of a night of passion, never something intended. Learning she was pregnant, Raven realized what might be in store for her, which is why after she gave birth she left Yang and Taiyang behind.

Taiyang's Semblance allows him to create pockets of Hammerspace

That's how he was able to fit Zwei, dozens of cans of dog food, and a can opener into one mail tube. As for why Zwei had to conform to the container's shape, either it doesn't work on living things, or it only applies to the number of objects, with each individual object having to fit into the real space. If we ever see him in action, we'll get to see more practical applications of such an ability, both out of combat and in it.

Teams

The other teams from the Initiation

RWBY took white "Ponies" which parallel their fairytale motif. JNPR took white "castles" which parallel their kingdom motif. CRDL took black bishops (aka Euplectes which, in turn, parallels the team's avian motif]).

Going by what we have seen so far, the remaining pieces Pawns will be notoriously disposable redshirts, and lastly, the Queens will be royals perhaps a mix of fairytale and real life royal legends. Of course there are two colors and thus likely two sides to the school. So far we know RWBY and JNPR share a dorm hall. That's likely the "White" side, while CRDL will be on the "Black" side with whoever else chose the black pieces.

If correct, then the black knight pieces will be taken by characters who represent darker fairytales; the black rook pieces will be taken by legendary villains (perhaps Publius Clodius Pulcher, Caligula, the Big Bad Wolf, definitely Loki if going the way of genderswaps as they did with JNPR); the white bishops will be an all-girl team based again on birds.

The total amount of teams.

There will be a bare minimum of six total teams in Beacon, alongside RWBY and JNPR.

• There's CRDL too.
• 16 students at the lineup, 15 launchers sounded, 14 students flew into the Forest. At least four teams could be created from the 16, the last picking up either the Pawns or the Queens/Kings. Each team only takes two pieces, this implies that there could be up to ten teams, each of which is comprised of four members.
• Obviously, there were not enough students launched into the forest, so some of the relics are excess, unless there were unseen launchers.
• So far, there is at least one more team (Velvet's team), bringing the total to 16/40 possible students at Beacon. Not counting Sun's team because they don't seem to be from Beacon.
  • Apparently, Velvet's team existed prior to the Initiation, so they do not contribute to the count.
  • Based on Field Trip, the total of first-year students ranges from 40-50 students for schools of each kingdom.

The Four Loves.

Ruby fights for the sake of her dead (grand)mother. Weiss is longing for friends to end her loneliness. Blake will be fighting to save her beloved from his curse. Yang will be just someone who loves life as a whole.

• Possibly true for Blake, as she seems to be vaguely unhappy with Adam's pragmatism throughout the Black trailer.
• Possibly also true for Yang, if that includes a love for battle.
• As for Ruby, she is referred as "Sis" by Yang, which probably showed that these two girls have shared a sisterly/family-like bond together.

Team RWBY will specialize in Dust use, while Team JNPR will specialize in Aura use.

• Already subverted by Nora's weapon, but hey, that seems to be the deal with Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren.
• It might not be. So far Blake hasn't used Dust yet, just bullets and her Aura. The conversation between Ozpin and Glynda mentions how Glynda had hoped for Ren to end up with someone else. Perhaps she intended Blake and Ren to team together, while Yang and Nora ended up actual partners? But Nora and Blake ended up closer to their current partners than the ideal ones.
  • More like Blake and Nora are the Black Sheep of their groups.
    • Except Ruby has never used dust herself and Pyrrha's only used her semblance once to our knowledge. In fact, it seems like Pyrrha can fight just fine without dust OR semblance.
    • Pyrrha is always using her Semblance. Also, RWBY are always using their Semblances. Ruby has superspeed, Weiss uses Glyphs to enhance her Dust spells, Blake creates split-second clones, and Yang converts kinetic energy.

Team CRDL will join Roman's gang.

It's pretty obvious given that they are all blatantly evil racist bullies, exactly the type to join the villains. Roman offers them money, they'll sell out turn on Beacon, giving both Team RWBY and Team JPNR a chance to team up against and slaughter CRDL and move on.

• They're racist bullies, but also Beacon students. It seems unlikely that they'll become anything more than a bunch of jerks.
• And now Roman's dead and gang is gone.

The teams of the Extranormal Institute are unwitting Villain Protagonists

Whoever their leader happens to be, I think s/he's using all those teens and young adults to antagonize various other factions around the world and disrupt the balance of power, under the guise of either challenging the establishment and/or combating the criminal underworld.

• It's possible that team JNPR is an allusion to "The Juniper Tree" — a Grimm Brother's tale about a wicked stepmother who encourages her innocent daughter to lie about the death of her stepbrother whom the stepmother killed. Eventually, magic resurrects the stepbrother and kills the stepmother.

Ozpin, Glynda and Port were all on the same team

Port mentions that he's followed Ozpin without question for years and Glynda seems to be something of a close acquaintance of Ozpin's. They might even be a mirror image of what Team RWBY is now, with Ozpin matching Ruby, Port matching Yang and Glynda matching either Weiss or Blake.

• How about the Female Narrator as the fourth? Blake's hinted troubled past may have an analogy in the Female Narrator. Eventually, what will separate the two are their decisions and trust in their teams, hence Port's comment about loyalty - Port and Glynda trusted Ozpin, the Female Narrator did not. Now the Female Narrator is one of those mistakes Ozpin mentioned in Episode 10, and also an example of his cautionary tale to Ruby about having to earn the right to be a leader of others.
• By the looks of it, the fourth member was Oobleck - in the volume 2 trailer when all of the teams are shown in their group shots, Oobleck is grouped with the rest of the instructors at Beacon.
• More likely, Ozpin was teamed with Glynda and Qrow. The newly revealed Ironwood is likely a reference to the Tin Woodsman and is more likely the former fourth member of this supposed team.
  • Actually, Monty has stated they are looking into introducing a Cowardly Lion and Dorothy character into the show. It's possible these two, along with Ironwood and Qrow were on a team together, while Ozpin and Glynda were on another team, possibly with the true Wicked Witch (in other words, not Cinder).
  • There is no way Qz, Glynda and Qrow were on the same team, Qrow was on team STRQ.
• Qrow was stated as being teamed with Yang and Ruby's parents (their father and Yang's mother and Summer Rose). Ironwood, meanwhile, has stated that he served Ozpin. It's possible that he was on a team with Oz as the leader.
  • Given the strong hints that Ozpin is much older than he looks, I'd call this theory unlikely.

There is a shortage of students wanting to apply to Beacon

That's why Ozpin accepted Jaune who faked his papers, and Ruby, even though she was only 15. He needs all the potential students he can get and thinks "Well, if they're willing, why shouldn't I accept them?"

• I'm more convinced that Ozpin is conscripting students for a future war, which may explain his relatively liberal acceptance policies, as well as the Spartan-like initiation process. Or I'm reading too much into "This Will Be the Day"...
  • In Volume 2, Ironwood asks "Do you really believe your children can win a war?" So this seems to be the case here.

Pyrrha used her semblance to smack Cardin's ally in the face.

Cardin, being a headstrong Jerkass, didn't notice or care.

• Nope. She didn't need to. Cardin is just a dumb ass.

Team SSSN will transfer to Beacon

• Probably not.
• Given the end of Volume 3, almost certainly not.

Everyone will transfer to other schools after Beacon is destroyed.

• The school thing isn't gonna last.

Team CFVY were supposed to be in an away mission, but instead and/or also, they attended the White Fang Meeting

They are rebels, they associate themselves with the White Fang. In fact, Yatsuhashi just happens to be one of the lieutenants. If not the whole of Team CFVY (as no rabbit ears were spotted), probably just him & maybe someone else (like a teammate).

• This has arguably been jossed by their timely appearance during Breach. Denouncers claim Yatsuhashi could not have been both on the train and on the arriving bullhead.
• On the other hand, here's a video in favor of the General Yatsuhashi theory.

Team SSSN is, in fact, Team SSNS or Team SEASONS.

• Sun, with his blonde hair, white shirt and, well, his name, represents the summer sun.
• Neptune, with his namesake's connection to water, represents the winter snow.
• Scarlet represents the colors of fall, and Sage represents the greenery of spring.
• Jossed. Team SSSN is Team SSSN. (pronounced Sun).

The team Ruby and Yang's parents were on was called team Quest.

• We know that the team consisted of the girls' father, their respective mothers and their uncle; of those characters we know the names of three: Qrow, Summer and Taiyang, that leaves one extra letter. assuming as another wmg states that the fourth member (yang's mother) was Cinder we are left with Q,C,T,S an acronym that really can't spell anthing; however it's possible that when she was part of the team she didn't go by Cinder Fall, perhaps her real name is (entirely because of the fairytale she's based on) Ella, leaving us with Q,E,S,T Quest.
• The team name is TRQS (turquoise): Taiyang, Raven, Qrow, Summer. Why do people keep coming up with team names that are in no way related to color? It's completely ridiculous.
  • Well, partly because the team names are also not necessarily colours - RWBY or 'Ruby' is a type of gemstone, JNPR, 'Juniper' a type of plant, CFVY or 'Coffee' a drink, CRDL or 'Cardinal' a type of bird/senior official of the church. QRTS or 'Quartz' would probably be a better guess (and as a gemstone fits in with the naming of RWBY, given that it's seemingly made up of Ruby and Yang's family)
  • Those are all the names of shades of various colours (named after those things). Ruby's a shade of red, juniper's a shade of green, coffee's a shade of brown and cardinal's another shade of red.
    • Juniper can also be a shade of blue (the berries) or a shade of yellow (seasonal change)
    • It was even a plot point in Volume 2 when discussing why so many people are named after colors— there was a war some time ago that involved an attempt to wipe out art and expression, leading to people naming their children to evoke a color as a cultural reminder against letting history repeat itself. It makes sense that Beacon's team names have followed the same convention if it's so culturally widespread that it's in effect all over the world, not just in Vale.
    • The name is very likely STRQ.
• Jossed as of Volume 3 Episode 4 - Qrow says they were "Team Stark", or STRQ.

Team FNKI will reappear in Season 4.

Specifically, they'll interact with Weiss, who was just dragged back into Atlas by her father. Considering she earned their respect in the Vytal Tournament, at least Flynt and Neon would be willing to lend her a helping hand should she ask for it.

• Alternatively, Team FNKI remained in Vale to help the people rebuild. Flynt might want to help dislocated people who lost their homes and businesses, given his background.

Qrow

Qrow is Cinder's male mysterious minion

In the offical Volume 2 poster, his eyes look silver.

• Seems unlikely. Unless Mercury is older than he looks (which would be more of an allusion to Dorian Gray). Also Mercury uses gun-greaves whereas Ozpin confirmed Qrow to be a scythe-wielder like Ruby.
  • Based on comments made on the RWBY wiki, Yatsuhashi is likely an infiltrator into the White Fang disguised as a Lieutenant. Perhaps he is Qrow's spy.
• Jossed. Mercury and Qrow are both on the show, neither wear masks, and they don't look alike. Different weapons too.

Qrow's weapon is a completely normal scythe.

• Ozpin states that Qrow is one of the best scythe wielders he's ever seen. Maybe Qrow's gotten to the point where over the top weapons are more of a limitation for him.
  • Jossed. Scythe/Sword

Qrow has the power to turn into his namesake.

Hence the crow in Blake, Yang and possibly Ruby's trailers, as well as knowing what Cinder is up to: he's actively spying on them.

• Confirmed by Volume 3 stinger.

Qrow will have something bird-like about him when he's introduced.

Could be his skills remind you that of a crow, clothing mainly black in color, and/or something he wears is feathery even to the point it could resemble wings...anyone else have Medivh on the brain now?

• Maybe he'll be a Faunus with avian traits?
• Maybe when he kills Grim, they disintegrate into black feathers.
• Not when he's introduced, but later confirmed. He appears to be able to turn into a crow.

Qrow would have Fairy Tale Motifs to The Grim Reaper

Well, as one of the best wielders of a Sinister Scythe, and having the name of a black bird often associated with death, it's probable that his first appearance in the series will be milking the Death motifs for all their worth, by having him rocking a black hood, skull-style paint (if he somehow isn't an animate skeleton himself), and possibly getting mixed up for an enemy until Ruby recognizes him as her uncle, and tells the others to stand down. And since he was one of the most legendary hunters of Creatures of the Grimm, this would make him a literal... GRIMM Reaper!

• Jossed. No hood. No paint. No "death."
• Alternatively, Qrow will be revealed to have been a brother to another Grimm hunter... perhaps Ruby's father?
  • More likely, Qrow, like Raven, has his allusion in the Mabinogion.

Qrow will have a "tengu" theme.

Following on from the "Qrow has a crow theme" WMG above; Tengu are mythical Japanese creatures who (in some versions) resemble humanoid crows (or humans with unnaturally long noses). Aside from the crow theme, Ruby made several allusions to kung fu movies (the Roosterteeth "He's my uncle" shout out, Funny Bruce Lee Noises she made, etc) when she was talking about him. Additionally, myths about Tengu have had them;

• Training martial artists in their own mysterious styles - Qrow taught Ruby how to use one of the "most dangerous weapons" available.
• Have altercations with woodcutters which involve knowing what they're thinking - either Ozpin or Ironwood could easily fit this.
• Punish people by turning them into wolves - Ruby has a wolf theme
• Hand out magic cloaks - Ruby must have gotten her cloak from somewhere; it being a gift from her mentor would explain why she wears it all the time (and since it's part of her combat gear, it would make sense that her mentor gave it to her).
  • Qrow does wear a red cloak... then again, Summer wore a white one...
• They are also noted to be protective of children in some stories - What did he do in a flashback? Rescue some kids.

The Shopkeeper from the first episode is Qrow.

He's dusty, old and he appears to know Ruby. Her "will you be OK looking after the shop" could have been more of a "Ooo! Can I go after him, Uncle Qrow?!"

• The shopkeeper made a second appearance as of the first episode of Volume 2. Hmm... but no...
  • Jossed.

Qrow is a reference to The Scarecrow from Oz.

There's Ironwood as the Tin Man who's working alongside Ozpin and Glynda, and since Qrow's working with them, it would fit their Wizard of Oz theme.

• It's looking less likely that Qrow is intended to mesh with the Oz theme. More likely, the Mabinogion... possibly Bran the Blessed, Branwen's brother.

Qrow's motif will be the Hunter from the Brother's Grimm version of Little Red Riding Hood.

Ruby's motif is Little Red Riding Hood and when she was a toddler, Qrow saved her and Yang from a pack of Beowolves who were hiding inside an abandoned house.

Qrow is Summer Rose's brother and not really related to Yang

Which had him wondering is it was partly his fault Yang wanted to find her mother so badly when she explained why she was in the middle of the woods. He thought he may have been favoring Ruby over Yang since she's a blood relative.

• Based on the last name given him by "Monty Oum" on the RWBY wiki which is shared by the newly revealed Raven Branwen, he is actually Yang's uncle and has no blood relation to Ruby.
• You're working with some skewed assumptions there. Names in the RWBY universe are likely passed Matrilineally - Ruby has the same last name as her mother, Summer Rose. So if Qrow shares a last name with Raven Branwen, that means either (a) they got married and Qrow took her name or (b) they are brother and sister and Qrow never got married and never took someone else's name. So he could be Taiyang's brother (and therefore a blood relative of Ruby)... but he could also be Summer's brother and married to Raven.
  • Names are NOT passed matrilinearily in Remnant. Yang's last name, Xiao Long, is her father's last name, which means that last names can be passed from either the mother or the father. Remnant does also appear to be a gender equalitarian society rather than a matriarchal or patriarchal society, which reinforces this notion. Raven could be Yang's mother (and thus Qrow's sister), or her sister (thus Qrow's niece), or even her cousin (and thus, Qrow's daughter). The first is most likely.
    • How can you be so sure they're not? We don't know who Yang's mother is - not beyond all doubt. Maybe her last name is "Xiao Long," and Taiyang took her name when they got married.
    • Jossed. Yang's mother is Raven Branwen. Yang's father is Taiyang Xiaolong. Ruby's mother is Summer Rose. Their uncle is Qrow Branwen.
    • Not necessarily. In 3x4, Qrow says he met Yang and Ruby's parents when he joined team STRQ. That means he didn't know Raven before that, so they can't be brother and sister - they have the same last name because they're married. Yang was born out of wedlock, which is why she has Taiyang's name but Ruby has Summer's - Raven disowned her and left her with Taiyang right after she was born.
    • Or, y'know, he was just talking about Taiyang and Summer, as Summer did raise Yang like she was her own and before Summer disappeared, Yang didn't even know Summer wasn't her mom. And honestly, Raven and Qrow not being related but having the same theme naming and similar phenotypic traits (black hair, red eyes) is stretching it. Not to mention, Raven is clearly a very painful subject for the entire family, to the point that Qrow covers up her part of the picture when he's showing it to the girls.
    • Jossed for real. Qrow called Raven his sister and she is confirmed that she's Yang's mother.

Qrow is a relative of Ozpin

His silhouette has a very similar hairstyle and both were (originally) going to be voiced by Monty himself. Another (additional) possibility is that Ozpin was Qrow's mentor (i.e. he gave the Scarecrow his brain/diploma).

Qrow is actually Taiyang's brother

The two of them were known back in their school days as "The Brothers Grimm", and their team as a whole was nicknamed "The Grimm Reapers"

• Jossed. But they could have been called this anyway, since Taiyang got with Qrow's sister.

due to his role as Mentor Archetype Qrow is going to end up getting killed

We know he's actively spying on the villains and that's a dangerous place for a character like him to be. he'll probably go down facing most of the villains at once.

• Bonus points if the episode it happens in is called "A Murder of Qrows".
  • Better still if the title fools us into thinking Qrow will die, but he's actually the victor in the fight.
    • If there is an episode titled "A murder of Qrows", perhaps the episode will feature Qrow murdering someone in cold blood instead of him being the one murdered.

Qrow will be an adult male version of Ruby.

It would be utterly hilarious if all of Ruby's manners, weird social skills and basic attitude were copied off of her awesome Uncle Qrow. There would most likely be loads of buildup to his appearance, followed by a cut to him and Ruby devouring cookies.

• Possibly Jossed; in his first appearance, he's a grouchy drunk who's itching for a fight with Weiss' sister, Winter. He might act differently when sober, though.
  • Not very different, though he finally quit drinking.

Qrow's team is a Generation Xerox to Ruby's.

• Summer Rose will be a more talkative Blake.
  • Based on the picture, she doesn't appear to be a talker.
• Qrow is essentially Ruby, but male.
  • He's introduced as a surly drunk, but maybe he's more personable when sober.
• Taiyang will be exactly like his daughter.
• Raven will be a rich Tsundere like Weiss.
  • Given Qrow's reaction to Winter, I don't think his family was "well-off", so Raven as a "rich" Tsundere is out.
• Nope on every count. Except possibly Summer/Ruby.

Qrow is Ruby's real father.

• It would explain why Qrow took such an interest in teaching her the scythe.
• He saved Yang when she brought Ruby along while she was looking for her mother and he has been secretly watching out for them for years.
• Taiyang could just be watching her while Qrow is out doing Ozpin's bidding and making lots of powerful enemies who want to find a way to hurt him.
• Yang said Summer wasn't the first love Taiyang had lost. The twist here is that he wasn't heartbroken over Summer's death because he was "in love with" her... he was heartbroken because she was his sister!
  • Just that Summer Rose, Qrow Branwen, and Taiyang Xiaolong are clearly not related. But maybe Taiyang did think of as "like" a sister. That would be an interesting twist.
• jossed- in the volume 4 ep 7 preview on the roosterteeth Twitter, Qrow addresses her as his niece as he states to tyrian "I don't know who you are but you need to leave my niece alone".
• Qrow is secretly Ruby's father. Originally, Taiyang married Raven and Qrow married Summer. Around the time Summer gets pregnant with Ruby, Raven leaves Taiyang and Yang due to something about becoming the leader of her people, and Qrow leaves Summer out of a pathological fear of hurting her and/or their child with his bad-luck aura. Taiyang and Summer, old friends who have now both been left by their spouses and who both have (or are about to have) young children to look after, end up falling in love and marring each other. Yang is of course too young (around 2 at the time) to know that Summer was already pregnant before getting together with Taiyang, and they never tell the girls enough detail about what exactly happen for them to work out the timing for themselves. Since Taiyang raised Ruby while Qrow abandoned her, as far as Qrow is concerned Taiyang is more deserving of being her father than Qrow is (this also fits with a pathological need to push away anyone who gets close to him). So he only ever refers to Ruby as his niece, even if his actions suggest he knows he's her father. And he's certainly not about to blurt something like that out to some random goon like Tyrian.
  • Jossed: Monty tweeted multiple times that Yang and Ruby are half sisters. Miles and Kerry also addressed it in one of the early volume 3 livestreams denying it and asking people to stop bringing up. So it means that if Qrow is Ruby's father than he would have be Yang's father, since it was officially confirmed that they are half sisters, and that he slept with his own sister. It would also deny the fact that Taiyang is Yang's father.

Qrow's tattered cape actually belonged to Summer Rose.

• Ever since his design was revealed at RWBY RTX 2015, the cape he wore looked tattered and out of place for his own outfit. It's a reasonable assumption that the cape is a keepsake if it were actually Summer's. Since we never saw the actual exterior of the cape, it's possible it was once hers.
  • We now know that Qrow had his cape before Summer died. Additionally, Summer's cape was white.

Qrow will have a relation with Winter

The two staring at each other in the opening seems to mirror that of the Ice Flower relation between Ruby and Weiss.

• Could be a proxy ship.
  • The Official Ship name is Snowbird
• Currently there's much more chemistry between him and Clover of the Ace Team.

Qrow was the Ruby of Team TRQS

The show is usually compared to Naruto, which is known for having foils in the form of older characters. Perhaps Qrow was like Ruby, an idealist, before Summer died.

• More likely, based on the lineup in the picture, it was Summer and the Team name was STRQ (stark/stork)

Qrow isn't Raven's brother, but Summer's

Branwen was Raven's family name that Qrow picked up when he married her.

• Except Yang knows Taiyang is her father and Raven is her mother. It would be extremely messed up if Qrow took Raven's last name in marriage only to have her backstab him with Taiyang. Why would he stick around to play uncle to a couple of runts that would be a continual reminder of that?
  • There is also the fact that "PvP" explicitly has him refer to her as his sister. Jossed.

Qrow has some kind of bad luck semblance, or effect

• There was a reason that they lingered on the bartender accidentally breaking the glass. Crows have, in folklore, been known as harbingers of bad fortune. Perhaps Qrow does too, and maybe being drunk and in a bad mood amplified it.
  • Confirmed as of Volume 4 Chapter 8.

The booze doesn't affect Qrow all that much.

• As seen in private with Ozpin, Glynda and Ironwood, Qrow isn't nearly as drunk as he lets on, despite having gotten completely hammered at the Crow Bar. If Qrow's semblance is speed, like Ruby's, then it's possible his body processes it so fast that he barely feels the effects of it. Alternatively, he needs it to slow down enough to function normally.
  • Jossed: his semblance is bad luck, and he's very much affected by booze if he can get enough of it. He just overplays his drunkenness when it suits him to maintain jerk facade.

Alternatively, Qrow's Semblance is a Booze-Based Buff.

• Essentially, when he's in a combat situation, his state of intoxication is converted to extra strength and agility. This would explain why he's "always drunk" as Glynda stated. He's not just your average heavy drinker - he's simply always prepared to fight at his peak capacity.
• Jossed: it's bad luck, and he is (was) drinking to deal with stress.

Qrow's Semblance is the same as Yang's.

• Him versus Winter is a high speed sword duel with dodges and feints and parries. Then Winter hits him in the face, he smiles, his eye glints, and he starts wrecking up the place. He could just have decided to escalate the duel but yeah... Also the Semblances being inheritable and him being Yang's Biological Maternal Uncle.
  • We don't know exactly how semblances are inherited, or even if they are in a biological sense (otherwise Blake wouldn't have feared that she was a coward because of her semblance, which carries the implication they're more a reflection of personality and experience than something one inherits). Also the glint in Qrow's eye isn't really much like Yang's semblance, as her eyes glow bright red when she powers up, and it seems to be the moment he just started getting into the fight. His capacity for destruction could just be a result of being a very strong and experienced Huntsman with at least two decades worth of combat experience.
• It's stated that Semblances are almost never hereditary (with the Schnees being the notable exception), so this seems unlikely.
• Jossed: it's bad luck.

Qrow is trying to drown his sorrows.

• It is the one real indication of just how deeply Summer's death affected him, and he puts on a tough guy act to try to convince everyone he's made peace with it.

The Crow we see in every scene with Qrow is his semblance.

• His semblance is a familiar-like avian creature resembling a red-eyed crow. Which he uses it to spy and gather information on his missions.
  • Possibly semi-confirmed. Volume 3's stinger reveals Qrow can turn into a corvid. The bird could have been Qrow himself but its unknown if this is his semblance or some unique magic ability.
  • Jossed: his semblance is bad luck. That crow is most likely Raven.

Qrow, and by extension Raven, are avian-type faunus.

• It follows his association with crows, and the theme naming of the siblings after corvids. The indicators of their faunus heritage are subtle enough that they could pass off as humans with an exceptional lanky frame in the former's case, and unique hairstyle in the latter's. However, they're different types of avian Faunus. Qrow is, well, a crow and Raven is a raven.
  • Qrow can transform into a corvid. But he hasn't been identified as a faunus.
  • Fully human, their shapeshifting is due to Ozpin's magic.

Qrow is The Ageless like Ozpin.

He looks...too smooth to be an alcoholic uncle. It's in his "alcohol." Just like whatever Ozpin drinks all the time. Possibly Oobleck's coffee, while Glynda drinks it elsewhere. Port has turned it down.

• Or maybe it's something to do with aura, which we know heals small wounds automatically - maybe it also prevents or slows the signs of aging via the passage of time/the ravages of alcohol.
• Taiyang looks equally young for the father of two teenage girls, so it's probably either aura or just the limits of the art style.

Qrow had a crush on Summer.

• It's bad enough that his sister is missing and his teammate is dead, but why not make Qrow suffer more by losing his sister and then losing the girl he likes to the same guy? Just another reason that our favorite druncle drinks.
• This is also the reason why Qrow seems so much closer to Ruby than Yang, because he sees so much of the woman he loves in her, and regrets never acting on his feelings towards Summer. Hence, why he teaches Ruby how to use a scythe: It's his way of coming to terms with the fact that he missed his chance, but can still affect Summer though her legacy with Ruby.

Conversely to the above

• Qrow's crush is actually Taiyang. But he just shut down when Summer disappeared and could never manage to meaningfully connect with him. Just imagine it - in their first day at Beacon, Summer, Qrow and Raven all immediately fall for him, and a lot of shenanigans ensue as they end up in the same team. Taiyang becomes known as 'that guy that inadvertently romanced his whole team', etc, etc.

Qrow's crushes part III

• He was in love with both Summer and Taiyang, and didn't end up with either of them. Qrow's romantic life utterly sucks, and is also a reason why he drinks.

Qrow is a Shapeshifter.

• Not as his semblance, but his species. Magic is slowly being introduced in the series as being quite real. Examples are already seen in the Maiden powers, the Wizard and the Silver Eyed Warriors. Qrow himself also points out that most (if not all) stories and legends have a basis in fact. So perhaps there's also mythological or legendary creatures in hiding from the human world as their lives became story then myths. Qrow is the just the first one we know of.
• Pointing out the Wizard has Silver eyes.
• Confirmed: Ozpin made him able to turn into crow. Otherwise, still human.

Qrow and Winter have a history.

From the way they glared at each other in the Volume 3 opening, there's definitely something going on between them. Maybe they went to the same hunters academy when they were young, or maybe Winter did something that made Qrow so mad that he held a grudge against her. Whatever it is, it might effect the relationship between the members of Team RWBY, since Winter is Weiss's big sister and Qrow is Ruby and Yang's uncle.

• Maybe he's misinterpreted some information (or been deliberately misled) and mistaken Winter for the "queen" he's watching out for, rather than Cinder?
• Or, alternatively, there is just a giant honking pile of UST between the two of them that they are too willful to address like reasonable adults.
• Easiest explanation: that was not the first meeting of Ozluminaty, and he was a drunken jerk each time.

Qrow's either going to die or be taken out of action for good.

He's a Cool Uncle mentor surrounded by death themes (black, scythes, crosses, he's named after a carrion eating bird) so it would be rather surprising if something terrible didn't happen to him. Whether he lives or dies, The Worf Effect will hit him hard, possibly driving Ruby into further despair.

Alternatively to the above, Qrow will survive the story but will lose everybody he loves in the process.

He's the Cool Uncle yes, but his conversation with the Ozluminati reveals he's deeply involved in a very seedy operation, even if it is for the protection of mankind. Perhaps something is utterly condemning is revealed about this organisation to Ruby and/or Yang to shatter their faith in Qrow, and Ozpin by extension.

• Part about dead loved one is confirmed: after a whole volume of Ship Tease with Qrow, Clover is killed in a fight.

Qrow will have an My God, What Have I Done? moment during his attempt to fulfill Ozpin's grand scheme, leading him to abandon it completely.

As a result, he'll lose his unwavering faith in Ozpin and many even lose faith in himself. At the same time, we'll discover more about the feud between him and Raven. In a twist of fate, Ozpin ultimately predicted this would happen and planned accordingly.

• Jossed: The pedestal is broken due to Awful Truth on Ozpin's account.

Qrow IS Ozpin

Feeding off the ideas that Ozpin is ageless and we know there is at least one time traveller.Both were originally to be voiced by Monty. The similar character designs (hair styles, both wear a cross in almost the same place, though if different ways. Ozpin seemly trusting Qrow above the rest of his subordinates. The gear imagery that both Qrow and Ozpin have in their weapons. In Vol 3 Ruby actually says "The more I get to know Ozpin the more he sounds like Uncle Qrow".Qrow is Ozpin at the start of his career and at some point in the future, he will gain his ageless status and then travel back to before the great war in order to live as Ozpin and set in motion the events that will stop Salem.

• Likely Jossed, Ozpin's successor would be Oscar, not Qrow.
• Jossed explicitly.

Qrow and James have a We Used to Be Friends Situation

Although they seem to be in relatively good terms outside of the work, Qrow distanced himself from James after what happened to the left side of his body. It's possible that happened at one point where they were working together, Qrow blames his own semblance for whatever made James lose half of his body.

• After reunion in Volume 7, even with all the strains over secrets, trust issues and disagreements, they are still friends, or at least look like it.
• Still possible after Ironwood's decisions in Volume 7.

Qrow’s semblance hasn’t got anything to do with bad luck. Its ‘Actualization of Outcomes’.

To put it simply;

He’s doesn't have a cynical outlook because bad things happen around him. Bad things happen around him because of his cynicism.

( To match, Raven’s power would be to ‘Prophesying outcomes’. )

Qrow has an obvious amount of angst about his semblance and his own name; and the audience is told that he received his name because of his power. He was also raised by a tribe of bandits and which isn't exactly the most nurturing of environments. Its entirely possible the Tribe purposely screwed up a little kid for the sole purpose of stunting his ability as a warrior, forcing him to remain with and rely on the Tribe.

What if someone in the clan realized his potential? And what if that same someone realized how useful it would be if his potential remained with the Tribe. So they do all they can to try and shatter his resolve or any ideas to leave - and through that, his ability to grow and learn to control his Semblance's true potential.

Granted, they would be shooting themselves in the foot (and it didn’t work because Qrow left anyway) but if it kept his potential with them, then the price was worth it. So they spend years tearing him down; claimed he’s bad luck, he’s a burden, claimed his semblance couldn’t be controlled when the first signs of actual control show up - and tell him he’s doomed to bring misfortune, up to and including giving him the name ‘Qrow’.

Starting from that young age and years of that constant harshness drummed into his head let Qrow internally reinforce these ideas and actualize them on himself. He believes that’s his power, therefore it must become his power.

Even when he finally gets out of that corrupting environment, all those years of negative reinforcement have stunted his ability to see his semblance as anything more than what it’s become now - the constant shadow of misfortune. And because of that negative reinforcement, he is too scared to attempt to rediscover his semblance's true potential out of fear of hurting his friends and family.

The real reason Qrow drinks...

We're told in volume 4 that Qrow's semblance is always on. We're also told throughout the series that a semblance is directly connected to one's aura. Since Qrow's semblance is always on, that means his aura is constantly being drained. The alcohol is what keeps his aura stable.

• Or he just drinks to deal with the pain.

Qrow wants children but can't have them

• Due to his bad luck semblance endangering any child he's close to, biological or adoptive, it's fairly safe to say Qrow can't have kids. His connection to Yang and Ruby is partially because they're the closest he can ever have to children, his feud with Raven has a bit of jealousy and resentment mixed in because Raven did have a kid and then abandoned her, and his bit in the "World of Remnant:Vale" segment where he mentions that Patch is a "nice place to raise a family.....if you're into that sort of thing." was Suspiciously Specific Denial.

Qrow blames himself for Summer's death

Sometime after Raven left, Summer and Qrow went on a mission together, with Tai staying home to look after Ruby and Yang. Whilst travelling, they were ambushed by Salems people. A fight ensues and, due to his bad luck Semblance, Summer is distracted at a critical moment, which leads to her death. Distraught over her death, he turns to drink to cope with the loss and Tai is unable to forgive him. This explains why he seems so much closer to Ruby than Yang, and why he trained her in scythe fighting, to make up for his mistake, whilst also trying to keep his distance and keep everyone safe from his Semblance.

Qrow's name was originally spelled Crow, but he changed it to deliberately mess with the Academy and its team naming system.

It sounds like something he'd find funny and would do for a joke, enjoying the thought of Academy officials wracking their brains to try and cram a 'Q' into a colour reference.

Qrow will receive a throat injury early in Volume 7

Qrow's original voice actor has been let go after allegations meaning they'll have to recast his voice.

• Jossed. Qrow's new voice actor is Jason Liebrecht, and just like with Mercury, no attention is drawn to the change in voice actors.

Qrow is bisexual

But probably doesn't understand it himself yet. He's visibly attracted to several male characters, and not everything of that can be chalked up as bromance and friendship, and also was not afraid to show up in skirt on a bet and tease other guys when he was student. He's too afraid of effects of his semblance and acts on standard gender relationship model out of social inertia, since there's no point in actually investing in romantic feelings. But now, with way to counter his bad luck (and apparently willing at that, not to mention handsome), he may start to consider possibilities...

• Well, the ship is sunk, but looks like Clover became his Lost Lenore.

Qrow will be the one to kill Tyrian.

They personally fought in volume 4 and Tyrian killed Clover while they were together, so there are some personal stakes for Qrow. He may try to use his semblance to turn the odds in his favor so that by some misfortune, Tyrian falls. Tyrian may pull a taking you with me in the process, but Qrow will be fine with it, feeling that the kids have some extraordinary luck to have made it as far as they did with him around, and with him gone, that their victory is even more assured.

Penny

Penny's aura is not her own.

Volume 3 chapter 6 introduces the concept of aura being taken from someone — in this case, the incapacitated Amber — and implanted in someone or something else. If Ozpin, Ironwood, Glynda, and Qrow are willing to even consider this as a possibility, either they're completely desperate... or there's a proof of concept. Penny is that proof of concept — something that isn't alive, but nonetheless is able to serve as an aura "container". Maybe Penny was intended to be the host for Amber's aura, or another android like her would have been. An empty vessel would have been better, because there's no personality for this new aura to override... but for some reason, it won't work. Maybe the actual powers they're trying to transfer can't work in something other than a human maiden — an actual flesh-and-blood body. Penny's aura is taken from someone else — her Blue Fairy, who gave her a life. But whether the person it was taken from was willing to offer their aura is another story entirely...

• In other words, Penny is basically a science-based Lich or, at the very least, purposely made Haunted Technology?
• Confirmed: Dr. Polendina donated part of his aura while constructing her. And again when rebuilding.

Penny's aura comes from her "father's" now dead daughter.

Similar to the theory above, what if the method that Ironwood's people use to put aura into something else is as crude as Qrow stated it, as in, literally cramming it into whatever. I don't think they understand how souls work nearly enough to be able to bind them to another body or to produce it independently like Penny does, so their method is much simpler than one might guess. So imagine, the soul is anchored to it's host body, and once the body dies, the soul leaves. When a piece of the host body is removed, the soul is no longer bound to that piece, for example, like an amputated limb. What if though, what if a organ of the body that remains in motion as long as the host is alive, say like the heart, which is considered for all intents and purposes alive as long as it pumps blood, gets separated from the body and is kept pumping while the host body dies. What if the soul, no longer anchored to the host body, bounds itself to the last remaining, last surviving piece; the heart. What if that heart keeps producing aura as long as it pumps then?So we come back around to the original point, Penny said she was created by Ironwood and her father. Her father. Ironwood probably had a huge hand in her creation, or at least his scientist, but she recognizes one of her creators specifically as her father. What if that's because, inside her, is a little girl's heart, still pumping, and that heart belongs to her father's now dead daughter. What if she was a terminally ill girl, and to save his girl, her father put her soul into his creation. That's why she is so naive and young seeming, besides the fact that she hasn't been long in this world. That's why, maybe without knowing why, she recognizes one of her creator's as her father, and that's because her soul is the biggest influence on her personality and not her AI.Maybe when Cinder decides to take control of Ironwood's robot army, Penny will remain unaffected because she isn't just a robot, but actually living and soulful.And maybe, on that same train of thought, Pyrrha will have Amber's heart put into her, and she will become the girl with two hearts, two souls.

• Uh, about the above Pyrrha... with Pyrrha dead this likely isn't happening.

• Jossed: Dr. Polendina used his own aura, and that's why he's sickly.

Roman will infect Penny with a virus to control her

He was able to get ahold of a Paladin, so clearly he's able to steal things of any size. Surely he can kidnap Penny, develop a virus, and use that to control her. Besides, he's based of of Lampwick from the Pinocchio story, and Penny is based off the title character. Lampwick corrupted Pinocchio, and Roman will corrupt Penny.

• Jossed. Roman is dead.

Roman will attempt to corrupt Penny as a False Friend.

However, in the face of Penny's kindness and eternal optimism, Roman will unexpectedly end up Becoming the Mask.

• Jossed. Roman is dead.

Penny was made to replace Hunters/Huntresses

If she is indeed a battle robot, Penny is a Super Prototype, built as part of an initiative to replace the need for Hunters and Huntresses, and has been entered into the combat tournament to prove that she is superior to the current Hunter/Huntress training regime.As such, her existence is a threat to Beacon, as if she is indeed better the school might be closed in favour of more battle robot manufacturing.

• So far she does not replace Hunters/esses, but complements them. And Beacon is destroyed anyway.

Penny will have an inferior Frankenstein styled brother.

Penny is clearly state of the art, so similar to humans everyone just thinks she's a little odd. It would make sense for her to have a brother styled after Frankenstein's monster, who's obviously a lot more robotic and nonhuman.

• We've already got an Adam. A sister named Lily (Lilith), maybe?

Penny has thermal vision.

Which is why she could see Blake's cat ears through her bow.

Penny is the REAL protagonist of RWBY and the rest of the show is just a drawn out Cold Open

• There seems to be more to her story and the whole show could've been setting up how she comes into play.
  • They wouldn't make the protagonist a side character that shows up halfway through the first volume.

Penny's Personality is because she's meant to develop an Aura.

This is literally just a straight rip of why Aigis and Labrys from Persona have personalities, but pretty much the same reasoning can be placed here, given how Aura works. Creating a machine with a "Soul" instead of a straight robot like the cheaper Elysium Knight, and the Elysium Paladin, which has a pilot that might be able to use his/her aura to Reinforce.

• Penny herself confirms this.

Penny is meant to be "disposable"

Ironwood mentioned what amounts to "better a destroyed android than a dead human". He also mentioned needing a "human touch". Why bother armouring a human when you can risk a replaceable, human-like android (who can do all the things a human can but doesn't count)?

There are multiple "Penny"s

This partly based on the disappearing cowlick between when Ruby runs into her with Weiss, and when they meet later (though, admittedly it might simply be an animation error), but there are more than one Penny, but they have either a hive mind, or at least are able to communicate and coordinate with each other. It also would explain things like how she was able to get around in front of them back in Volume 1.

Penny's father actually does care for her and is not abusive in the least.

In Volume 2 Episode 3, Penny states that her father loves her very much and told Ruby it was not him that instructed her not to talk to team RWBY.

• Confirmed: Dr. Polendina is indeed nice and loving "father".

Penny's semblance is gravity control

Or at least the ability to ground herself. It would explain how she was able to stop a lorry cold and pull down a ship when they were both many times heavier than her and already had a great deal of momentum (even if she's heavier than a human, she's still light enough for Ruby to carry). It could also be how she levitates her knives.

Penny is not what she seems...

At first glance Penny seems to be human if not slightly touched in the head. Later on it's revealed that she is an Artificial Human that is capable of using Aura. These two conflict because only entities with a soul have an Aura, as stated by Pyrrha. This leads to an idea that Penny was once human, but her life was tragically cut short before becoming what she is today. In other words, Penny is a female Astro Boy.

One might argue the idea that Penny's personality is... not quite human and thus cannot be human or that she should know her past then, but there's still the Aura she is capable of using and a possible idea that she may have been suppressed into believing she is not real or had a wall set up inside her head. If this is the case, it could lead to some interesting revelations down the line...

What will happen to Penny next?

After her seeming death by dismemberment, there could be various ways that her story could go:

• She's dead. Simple as that
• She gets rebuilt, but without memories of anything that happened
• She gets rebuilt and similarly loses her memories, but while her memory banks are empty, her soul still remembers.
• She gets rebuilt with her memories intact, but the trauma from the incident pretty much leaves her unable to function, leading to her 'father' to supress those memories and by extension, all memories of Vale and Ruby.
• She becomes the Lopez of the series and is forced to work for Cinder or someone else.
• Her brain gets put in one of the Paladin suits, by Ruby or Roman.
• She remains dead for the rest of the main story arc, reappearing in the next one as a mind wiped guard dog of the villains
• She intentionally did this as part of her plan to stay at Beacon forever
• Ruby will lose an arm in the ensuing battle, leading to her getting Penny's arm as a replacement. naturally, she starts to turn out like Ocelot in MGS2.
• Ruby salvages Penny's parts to upgrade Crescent Rose, turning it into an unholy abomination of both Crescent Rose and Penny's swords that ends up as her trump card in the next battle.
• Penny is rebuilt, but seemingly with her soul gone forever. However, Penny's soul has actually bonded with Ruby herself, leading to Ruby subtly becoming more Penny-like throughout volume 4, culminating in her using a Semblance that definitely isn't her own.
• Penny is rebuilt, and it is revealed her memory was automatically backed-up to the cloud after incurring fatal damage. Thus, when reactivated, she will have her memory, but will immediately act as if she's still battling Pyrrha, only to then learn it's been several years, Pyrrha is dead, and Beacon is infested with Grimm. And then Nuts n' Dolts becomes canon.
  • Her core was salvaged with whole memory and personality intact, and her body was rebuilt later. She's back in Volume 7.

Penny's father is the man with two souls.

Or rather, was. Penny is the other one given a life of its own.

• Jossed: Just a regular human, who donated parts of his aura.

Roman will salvage Penny, and corrupt her

Roman is based on Candlewick, who corrupted Pinocchio. Roman will rebuild her, and feed her lies, telling her that Pyrrha "killing" her was intentional, that Ruby never really cared about her, that they didn't even try to rebuild her, etc., all while treating her with acceptance and care. This will end up convincing Penny that Ruby was a false friend, and that Roman is her real friend. After this, she may be redeemed, perhaps by a confession of love from Ruby, or some other persuasion; or she might end up having to be destroyed for good.

• Jossed. Roman is dead.

Penny's Semblance is Space Compression

This comes from how there is absolutely no way she can fit all those swords in that small backpack of hers, so she probably has some sort of ability to compress them in such a small space. That, or she has a Tardis-pack.

If her Semblance is Space Compression, then she'll will eventually get an upgrade that will allow her to compress distances between her and far off locations, giving her the ability to Zero Shift.

• Weapons being able to compress or shrink is nothing new for RWBY. Just look at Ember Celica and Coco’s weapon.
• That's more in line with collapsing weapons like a collapsible stock. Penny's swords themselves came out of the backpack fully elongated.
• It's possible that the backpack is a bit of a Red Herring and the swords are actually inside of her body. Or it could just be art limitations.

With Penny dead (even if she does get rebuilt), Ruby will start developing some form of mental instability as a coping mechanism, involving seeing a Penny that isn't there.

Not wanting to accept that Penny is gone, she conjours up a hallucination of a rebuilt Penny without realising she's done it. It'd be like the first few episodes of Agents of Shield's second season. The first episode of the new volume would act as if Penny was actually alive and well at that point, with the audience basically seeing her more or less from Ruby's perspective, with everything else seeming like it's going fine, with maybe Ruby seeming to have suffered a little long term trauma from seeing Penny get torn apart, but nothing worse than that. However, hints in other characters' dialogue and an ending showing Ruby interracting with thin air would reveal that Penny is in fact gone, and that Ruby is nowhere near as okay as she was made out to be, suffering heavy emotional trauma following the Battle of Beacon.This could then go either of a few ways:

• Ruby eventually accepts that Penny is gone (for whatever reason) and moves on reluctantly, the hallucinations vanishing with that acceptance. This would then lead to either Penny just not coming back, or any number if other Penny-based WMGs listed here (my personal favorite is that Torchwick rebuilds her and convinces her that Pyrrha intended to kill her and that Ruby doesn't care about her, invoking a Face–Heel Turn as a result of misinformation (though she could easily switch back once she realises that's a lie), since that fits the Pinnochio fairy tale that both Penny and Torchwick are loosely based on characters from.
• It turns out that Ruby's hallucination of Penny is actually real, though only she can see it, and that because, being a robot, Penny's aura and 'soul' (which would also imply that she was more alive than anyone (even herself) realised), worked differently and her consciousness latched on to Ruby's mind when she shut down.
• Jossed: Ruby is able to get over this without much trouble, and Penny is rebuilt and back as of Volume 7.

Penny returns as a ghost, like Church

Everyone will assume that she's a similar case to Church, projecting herself from everyone's scrolls since they act up whenever she appears, but it will be eventually be revealed that unlike Church, she is an actual ghost, complete with possession abilities.

Penny will be revived by Ruby's Silver Eyed Warrior powers

But she will have become real.

If/when Penny returns, she will take Pyrrha's place on team JNPR.

Team RWBY will reform at some point, which will leave team JNPR with a vacancy that will be filled by a somehow returned Penny, both for the symmetry of taking the place of the woman that killed her, and because the team name wouldn't have to be changed.

• Bonus points if her new body is rebuilt to resemble Pyrrha, like dishwasher1910's idea.

Penny was created to kill Salem

Penny mentioned in Volume 2 that Ironwood said she would "save the world" one day, and is genuinely perplexed when Ruby says the world is at peace so there's no one to fight. Ironwood was probably waiting to make sure she "worked right" before telling her the full deal about Salem and the Grimm. It still begs the question of why he felt this was necessary though.

Penny was made with the Relic of Creation.

Apparently the Relic of Creation is assigned to the Winter Maiden, which means that it might have been in Atlas Academy at one point. The Winter Maiden took the relic out of the vault and gave it to Ironwood or Penny's father. This could explain why Penny has an aura and semblance.

Penny will return but will not be our Penny

Sure her body can be rebuilt, but her soul has passed on, Penny 2.0 might have similer quirks when shes first made but will develope differently, she might even have the same memories, but to her it's like watching a video not, as if she experienced it herself. She will give Ruby some closure (perhaps being able to tell her a final message from the original) but will develop to be her own person and be treated more like Penny's sister.

• Jossed. Penny's back, with an explanation that she can be revived as long as her core is intact.

Penny will die permanently

While it's nice that Penny's back, her return seemingly goes against the morals set up last volume, even with the Hand Wave of a core. As Penny's background is explored, it'll be revealed that Dr. Poledina had a terminally ill granddaughter that he saved with Ironwood's aura transfer tech, creating Penny. Reflecting on this, the heroes realize what the two brothers meant about the balance of life and death: it's not the act of resurrection itself that's bad, indeed the Dark God would've revived Ozma had his brother not stepped in, but the consequences it might bring. Ozma was reincarnated for a higher purpose, but chose to "resurrect" his life with Salem, to disasterous results. Likewise, Ironwood and Pietro resurrected the granddaughter as Penny, leading to the Fall of Beacon, and the deaths that followed. This will lead to some friction from the group, particularly Jaune- he got closure for Pyrrha's death by visiting her memorial, but now his resentment stems from Pyrrha and countless innocents dying ultimately because of Pietro's actions (a character arc, oddly enough, similar to Agent Carolina's in Season 10). Eventually, perhaps during the final battle of the Atlas arc, Penny will be critically damaged and use both the Creation Relic and her remaining life to resurrect Pyrrha as an apology.

• If so, then due to events in the Volume 7 finale, this means that Pyrrha would be resurrected as the next Winter Maiden.
• Jossed on a lot of aspects.
  • For one thing, Pietro, Penny's father, explained that he donated his own aura to give Penny life, and that her personality is derived from an AI he made. And because she could become the Winter Maiden, she is considered a "real" girl. So she wasn't someone living brought back as a machine.
  • The Relic of Creation is said to only be able to create one thing at a time, and that if it is used on something new, then the current thing it's used on, keeping Atlas in the sky, will cease being powered, meaning Atlas will crash, so it being used to revive anyone isn't happening unless Atlas already falls, and even then, it makes no sense for the god against bringing the dead back to give one of the relics the power to raise the dead.
  • There is no friction over Penny with the group, she's considered a full fledged friend, and none of them want her to die, which has them refuse to turn her over to either Ironwood or Salem.
  • She also has, according to RWBY: Amity Arena which was used as All There in the Manual, multiple cores, so as long as those cores survive, she can be revived, the only issue is that Pietro needs to still have aura to donate, and he's running out. Meaning even if she does die again, Pietro will likely give the last of his aura to revive her, since he said his one desire is for Penny to actually live her life.
• As of Volume 8 Episode 14, sadly confirmed as she became a human two episodes prior and was given a Mercy Kill by Jaune, unless Pietro builds a new Penny. The new one probably wouldn't have any memories of Ruby at all.

Penny will appear in Volume 9.

She will be found sitting at a table having tea, only for her to shatter like glass revealing Neo sitting in her place.

Penny's consciousness was transferred to Winter along with the Maiden powers and they're now Sharing a Body, not unlike Oz (just without the inevitable merging)

While yes, this doesn't seem to have been the case with any of the other Maidens, remember that Penny is unique as a synthetic person whose soul became a physical form, so it's entirely possible that could lead to a very different outcome

The Bad People

Roman

Torchwick was a soldier in the Atlas military. .

He was most likely a "specialist" as that's what their Hunters/Huntresses are called when they get drafted. The coat is from his Atlas uniform. He handles the Paladin like he knows how it works and he has huntsman skills. Something happened that turned him/broke him:

• Go Mad from the Revelation: he met Salem and went 'round the bend.
• Years of fighting Grimm made him see it was better to be a crook that be in uniform.
• Neo was his partner/subordinate and they had a mission go bad. He said "Screw This, I'm Outta Here" and fell in with Cinder.

Torchwick will get away with it.

At the end of the series (hopefully many, many years from now) after all is said and done, after all the battles have been fought, and after all the other villains have been killed or imprisoned... Roman will turn out to have escaped during the climactic battle with a suitcase full of money and left to retire somewhere tropical.

• Torchwick has been apprehended (again) as of Breach. Although based on his laughter, he's exactly where he wants to be.
• Jossed. As of Volume 3's finale, he's dead.

Roman isn't dead yet.

As of Volume 3 episode 11, Roman may have been eaten by that Griffon but that isn't going to kill him. Notice how he was swallowed whole with his weapon still with him? Well he probably will use that and his aura to not only survive the devouring but also the crash. Even though the Grimm disintegrate when they are killed, it's not confirmed if whatever is inside them is also killed off as well. Roman might just be in shock at having been eaten but somehow survived with the Grimm melted away following the explosion and crash.

• Jossed by Word of God.

Roman is planning an assault on Beacon.

At the end of Episode 8: Players & Pieces,Roman is seen examining a map of Vale, which is marked with movement arrows, position markers, and labels, primarily about the police. He's shown with a phone, at the tail end of a discussion with someone. During this scene, one of his employees wheels in a cart loaded with secured crates, filled with Dust crystals, remarking that he'll need a lot more. If he's not gearing up for a major offensive, then what is he doing?

• Whatever he's doing, it's for whatever purposes Cinder has in mind.
  • Going by Episode 4 of Volume 2, the "assault" seems to be destined for Vale as a whole.
  • Confirmed... Sorta. His plan was to lead Grimm into Vale via an old railway line. Still not sure about what happened with all of the White Fang who were accompanying him. This troper suspects that the White Fang were meant to sneak into the city in the confusion, but some didn't make it out.
    • Eh? Next to no one made it out because 1)they were mostly normals 2)the train was exploding 3)most were left unconscious in the underground ruins during Ruby's rescue and 4) the train traveled at full speed (and real trains will hit 100 mph without much issue) for a half hour meaning survivors would have had to trek across miles of Grimm infested territory AND GLYNDA SEALED THE BREACH in roughly the time it would take to commute to that part of town by helicopter. Those White Fang are dead.
• Jossed. Roman is dead.

Roman Torchwick has fought with Qrow in the past

When Torchwick first sees Ruby revealing her scythe, he narrows his eyes. This could be just annoyance at the interruption, but this could also be a sign of recognition. After she easily defeats his minions, Torchwick makes a tactical withdrawal. When pursued, he first attempts to kill Ruby via Dust explosion, and when Goodwitch shows up, he lets Cinder take care of her. At the conclusion of "Ruby Rose," the audience assumes that Torchwick is not very combat oriented. However, this is shown quite wrong in "Black and White," where Torchwick holds his own against both Sun and Blake. Yet when Ruby shows up again, he does not attack her immediately, but waits until she's distracted to fire at her.

• Maybe Torchwick, like Ozpin, had only seen one other scythe wielder of this skill before: Qrow. So when Torchwick saw Ruby's scythe, and how well she used it, he knew from prior experience that fighting her would end in a loss.
  • Or he simply recognized how unusual it was to see a little girl wielding a massive scythe/sniper rifle.

Roman will have a Karmic Transformation into a Faunus... somehow

His Fairytale Motif, Candlewick from Pinocchio (Lampwick in the Disney film), are redhead turned into donkeys. On top of that the constant dismissive comments toward his Faunus mooks are basically Tempting Fate.

• Or maybe...
• Jossed. Roman is dead.

Roman is a self-hating Faunus

This will come to light in the second season... maybe.

• He doesn't even need to be self hating. What we've seen of him so far makes him look like exactly the sort of person to feign hatred to just to hide the truth. Maybe he just needs everyone to think he's human for some reason.
• He does wear that hat a lot...
  • Yeah, but his mug shot episode 1 didn't show any animal ears. A tail perhaps?

Roman is Qrow

When Ozpin received the message "Queen Has Pawns" From Qrow the 'queen' is Cinder and the 'pawns' are the people that were behind her. Qrow would have to be The Mole in Cinders' organization to find this information. He is texting in such a vague manner in case his phone is checked.

• Ruby would know her own uncle when she sees him. I doubt they're in cahoots to keep his identity a secret. If anyone would be, Ozpin is likely the only person who should be aware of it.
• It has actually been stated since Burning the Candle that Qrow looks more similar to Adam (whom Ruby has never met).
  • Yang's mother shares her red eyes. Qrow shares the lady's last name. If Qrow's eyes are also red (and assuming Adam's eyes are red under that mask), they could be the same person.
  • Jossed.

Roman has some sort of relationship with the Schnee Dust Company

Considering how he got the Atlesian Paladin from his "employer". The way he worded it sounds like the machine was acquired more through a business deal than stolen.

Roman will betray Cinder.

Possibly he'll get tired of being disrespected or will decide he doesn't need her around anymore.Or, maybe he will figure out Cinders end game and decide there's no profit in it. He might try to bump her off, if he fails he will either be eliminated himself or be forced to switch sides.

• Jossed. He's killed by a Grimm at the end of Volume 3.

Roman is actually the King

He already told Ironwood that he was behind it all. What if he wasn't lying, and he actually is who Cinder is working for, unknown to her?

Roman is a hunter who has "fallen off of grace"

The show makes numerous reference that there are hunter and huntresses with low morals and would do some unscrupulous things for money. What if Roman is one? He seems way too strong for someone that started as a mob boss, able to take on Blake and Sun in the first volume.

Roman isn't dead yet.

Being Swallowed Whole by a Grimm might seem pretty cut-and-dry, but remember that Grimm completely evaporate shortly after death. The Griffon that ate Roman presumably died seconds later, so he probably wasn't digested much, if at all. The only thing that could seriously injure Roman at this point is the crashing ship, but he took so few hits in his fight with Ruby that his aura may be able to handle even that.

• Also, there is no way a simple kick from Ruby could blow a Griffon into itty-bitty chunks. Melodic Cudgel, on the other hand...

• Jossed by Word of God.

Everyone in the stream lied about Roman being "100% dead"

They might be tricking everybody into believing he is, and then, when you would least expect it, he'll be revealed to have escaped, changed his name and appearance, and started a life away from everything.

• It's possible that Miles, Kerry, and Gray are lying, at least.

Roman was actually about to pull a We Can Rule Together on Ruby, had she not killed(?) Neo.

Neo unnecessarily grinds her umbrella's blade on the airship, as if she is about to kill Ruby, and raises her sword. However, Neo would not have actually stabbed Ruby, had Ruby not sent her flying. Instead, Roman would have finished his sentence, and then would have offered Ruby a chance to join him. She would have denied it, of course, but it would have proven he's not really that evil, rather, he's just savvy.

Roman will return, as a Token Evil Teammate of Team RNJR.

Salem has kicked her plan into gear. Volume 4 will feature her plans coming to fruition, with bits of foreshadowing towards Roman's return (i.e. A mention of him on the news, his logo being found at one point. And at some point, one of the villains will be about to take down Team RWBY, but he arrives, and states that after it became clear Team RNJR had a chance to win and the villains no longer cared about him, he will join Team RNJR, which will cause him and Ruby to finally understand one another. And then, he'll finally understand, and receive a Heel–Face Door-Slam.

• Jossed. Roman is dead.
  • I'm the OP, and I think you should know I don't believe that for a second, Word of God or not.

Roman will return, but it'll be in a very strange way

One thing I found interesting was that a number of RWBY characters share the same fairy tale they're based on (Blake and Adam, Ozpin's group, etc.), but Penny (based on Pinocchio), doesn't have a connection to Roman (who is based on Lampwick). Another interesting thing is that Roman's symbol is a jack 'o lantern, which is commonly associated with ghosts. What if, when and if Penny gets rebuilt, Roman's ghost slips in and they end up Sharing a Body. They might struggle for awhile, but eventually come to an understanding of each other, culminating in Roman pulling a Heroic Sacrifice to save Penny which also ends up making her a real flesh and blood girl.

• Yet again, jossed, because Roman is dead.

Roman will remain dead, but we haven't seen the last of him.

He won't come back, but he will serve as a form of Spirit Advisor, who is possibly a hallucination. Alternatively, Ruby will visit Pyrrha in the afterlife, and his ghost will help, before becoming Deader than Dead due to Salem. Alternatively to the alternative, flashbacks for plot reasons.

• More or less confirmed in the first one: he appears in Volume 9 as an illusion (and Spirit Advisor of sorts) created by Neo

Cinder

Cinder's powers are related to carbon manipulation and teleportation.

Cinder's outfit in "Dance, Dance, Infiltration," alongside her weapons, are black, and this fact alongside her fire affiliation makes it's hard to not evoke carbon imagery. Perhaps her fire spells deal with superheating/burning carbon into various forms at improbable speeds. Her dress does appear to have small jewels that look like diamonds, and mask after the transformation is charred like weak carbon. She may also have short range teleportation as she can draw swords from some unknown location and vanishes when Ironwood enters. These two powers may even be related or connected. Regardless, she is a lot more powerful than what we first thought.

• Seemingly, her ability to create glass weapons is not her semblance and is recognized by the authorities as being connected to her fusing Dust to her body/clothing.
• However, we were shown in No Brakes that Dust can augment one's semblance, so this is not entirely jossed.

Cinder has Hypnotic Eyes

In the first episode of Volume 2 Roman starts pushing to know more about the master plan. When Cinder approaches him and tells him that he's on a need-to-know basis she locks eyes with him and her own eyes glow subtly. Once Roman gives in and looks away, they stop glowing and the conversation carries on without any more protests from Roman. Possibly just Cinder being intimidating again, but could be something more.

• This becomes more prominent in episode 2 when Ruby runs into Cinder posing as a student. Ruby starts to make the connection to the dust shop robbery, then we see the glowing eyes and she just forgets all about it. In both instances Cinder does appear to all-out mind control her victims but rather use subtly suggest their minds think about something else. The eyes may be hypnotic simply through their fiery glow, or Cinder may have figured out how to "burn" her victim's brains in a certain way. After all, memories are nothing more than links, and by destroying the links, Cinder can alter her victim's thoughts.
• In neither of those scenes did Cinder's eyes glow. They were just her eyes. Ruby just didn't recognize Cinder because the last time she saw her, she didn't see her (she was in the shadows). And no, she wouldn't recognize her by her eyes because, well, gee, would you look at this, Blake has the same color eyes. Did Ruby stop to accuse her of being a Dust thief?
• It's not a super flashy glow like they do in the openings. It's much more subtle. It's best seen in episode 1 in the shot that starts at around 13:09 in the youtube version. Her eyes very faintly glow brighter, accompanied by some musical cue/ambient sound. Don't mean to start an edit war, but the effect very clearly exists and is reason to speculate.
  • Be that as it may, the glow thing doesn't happen when she confronts Ruby. Most likely, she only did it to Roman to remind him that she can barbecue him anytime she wants.
• Prooooobably jossed for two reasons:
  • First, we know what the glowy effect on her eyes is now, and it has nothing to do with hypnotism, it's the Fall power.
  • Second, Emerald's power is hypnotism, and it would be both practically and narratively redundant for Cinder to recruit someone who does the same thing she does.

Cinder's "personal weapon" is actually her dress

As the pattern on the collar and sleeves of her dress precisely matches the "tattoo" pattern that glows when she uses Aura.

• It has been confirmed that Dust can be weaved into clothing or "fused" to one's body. So it's safe to say she had that done either to her dress or as a tattoo.
• While not outright Jossed, S2 E7 shows she has a weapon.
• Technically, her weapon is Dust.

Cinder is a renegade Huntress

The only people we've seen with powers on par with what she's demonstrated so far have all been hunters or hunters-in-training, and it seems quite reasonable that those powers are either dust magic or related to her Semblance.

• Likely the latter.

Cinder is the one who killed Ruby's mother.

Just a feeling... Plus, it'd make for great drama once the two inevitably meet.

• Guess that depends on what you mean by "meet." Because Ruby has technically met Cinder at Beacon now.

Cinder pulled a Face–Heel Turn.

Ozpin, Port, Glynda and Cinder were a team back in their school days working together as RWBY and co do now. They went on to be a famous Hunter team, unusual in the fact that they worked together rather than singly or in pairs. Either Cinder was always the Token Evil Teammate who revealed herself at an inopportune moment leading to her open break with Ozpin and the rest of the team. Or recent history events yet to be covered in show. Probably dealing with dust, and the truth behind the creatures of Grimm lead to Cinder taking the dark side path when she learned the truth herself.

• It's looking more likely that Ozpin encountered Cinder as an enemy in the past.
  • Or he's aware of her motives. It's still possible that Cinder was on a Beacon team, but she's not old enough to have been teamed with Port, much less Ozpin.

Cinder is neither human nor Faunus.

If anything, my money is on some bizarre variant of Grimm. We still don't know for sure exactly how she and Roman are tied to the Grimms (they seem to be separate forces so far), but we also don't know where Cinder's powers come from. She doesn't seem to use any sort of weapons, and the burning nature of her eyes is unlike anything we've seen in any characters so far, human, faunus or even Grimm. I don't think she got so skilled at using Dust without being related to the most supernatural beings we've encountered so far. Perhaps a Grimm born with an aura, and (a la Cinderella), her Semblance is the ability to turn into a beautiful woman, only instead of her original form being an innocent girl, her original form is a snarling wolf monster.

Cinder is the "queen" and Roman/the people behind her are the "pawns"

Seems fairly reasonable.

• Volume 2 Episode 1 makes this seem all the more likely.
  • No. Dance Dance Infiltration makes this seem all too likely. (she puts up the Queen chess piece on all of Beacon's computers.)
  • Jossed. Qrow refers to Cinder and her crew as "pawns", which implies that she is just being used by Salem.

Cinder plans to bring an Apocalypse or world-threatening disaster with Dust.

• According to sources, mankind has only scratched the surface about the true nature of Dust. Cinder, stating she has big plans, probably knows more about Dust than any other human in Remnant and is keeping it to herself for her own purposes.
  • Close, but she appears to be using Grimm.
• Now that we know Cinder isn't the Big Bad, seems jossed.

Cinder is a Well-Intentioned Extremist

Because the creatures of Grimm are obviously the Bigger Bad. Perhaps Cinder has some radical plan to kill the monsters that other disagree with.

• The fall of Beacon, the attempted destruction of Vale, and the murder of the Fall Maiden seems to say otherwise.

Cinder is Nyarlathotep

This just popped into my head. No idea why.

• That is a weird one.

Cinder is actually a good guy, and is playing the White Fang in order to ruin them.

One of her underlings is concerned that the White Fang might not listen to them anymore, after the Grimm failed to cause any significant damage in their attack, and many of the White Fang failed to make it out of the train tunnels alive. And she gets her two underlings to help stop the Grimm. AND she calls the day a success. Something tells me that she is planning something.

• Seems Jossed.

Cinder is good?

To support what I theorize, the intro song and a song dedicated to Cinder made by Casey & Jeff Williams who make all of RWBY's songs states:"Did the things you thought you should/ All the things they said were good/… Born an angel, heaven sent/ Falls from grace are never elegant/… I'm not your sacrifice/… Blind and keep the people on their knees/… Truth will rise/ Revealed by mirrored eyes/ What if all the plans you made/ were not the price they paid/ Even with the lives you stole/ Still no closer to your…goal."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpSunpfXoCg

"Were we born to fight and die/ Sacrificed for one huge lie/ Are we heroes keeping peace/ Or are we weapons/ Pointed at the enemy/ So someone else can claim a victory/"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdWCLT7kccY&spfreload=1

( if you haven't listened to any of the songs, well do b/c they give much more info than even the show itself :P)

Since not much is known, this is all in theory* She was a phenomenal huntress. "born an angel, heaven sent" From being such an extraordinaire, she talks with higher-ups and learns something, a dark dire secret. "Blind and keep the people on their knees". From this point she takes matters into her own hands, is betrayed by such higher-ups and her own friends. "Falls from grace are never elegant"

During her vanish, she makes a plan. A plan to take down the higher-ups, but needs a lot of manpower to do this. Thus requires the White Fang, Roman, the dust and the virus she implemented into the system to take power from her enemies from the paladins and knights (which I might add that Qrow said the Queen (Cinder) has pawns (the virus) and made it into a Queen by adding it into corrupt the soldiers). Doing all this to quite possible end whatever secret and its foundation. "Truth will rise/ Revealed by mirrored eyes"

I support this theory/compilation of theories made in this youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz8Lvss7fY0

To give a little more proof to this plan, Cinder states in Extracurricular " It's not about overpowering an enemy. It's about taking away what power they have. And we will, in time. "

• Given who she's working for, probably not.

Cinder was once just like Ruby

Building on the above Cinder, like Ruby, was idealistic and naive but full of potential when young. The line "born an angel, heaven sent" could apply to Ruby as easily as to Cinder after all. Ruby will only learn the truth about Cinder after going near a dark place herself, this will force her to realise the danger of the path she is heading towards as Cinder is a dark mirror of herself, "Revealed by mirrored eyes."

Elaborate theory on Cinder's backstory and plans

Based on her actions in the series thus far and the song "Sacrifice", this troper has a theory about cinder.Been thinking about this song. i have a theory themed around Cinder.Cinder was a student huntress at beacon, a celebrated and paramount student, then her team gets sent on a field assignment, something goes horribly wrong and she is the only survivor. in rage and sorrow she blames ozpin and the others, viewing the training at beacon as sacrificing children to keep adults safe from Grimm.

at some point after this she has found out/decided for herself that the act of the hunters actively fighting back against the Grimm is a major part of whats fueling them. she comes up with a plan for both revenge and putting a stop to the Grimm once and for all. Everyone knows the Grimm are drawn too and feed off of human emotion, negative ones to be specific. So she plans to wipe out most of humanity to deny the Grimm their food source and effectively kill them off via starvation.

her plan involves making a Massive reserve of dust that she can use with her semblance to essentially make a dust induced cataclysm to annihilate the majority of human kingdoms. removing/weakening Beacon is the best step. with her being savvy enough to see it as her biggest threat

• Seeing what is basically a military - with no other purpose than protecting the people from gigantic monsters with bullet proof skin by utilizing magical abilities and spectacular weapons - as the biggest threat isn't Genre Savvy, it's basic logic. If she were Genre Savvy, she would see Ruby as the biggest threat, and dedicate her time in Beacon specifically to take her out of the equation. Everything else sounds solid though.
• Now that we know Cinder is working for Salem, a lot of this is out.

Cinder is Autumn

Qrow mentions how the group is responsible for "Autumn's condition." What if that condition is something like Mind Manipulation or Demonic Possession, and it's turned her into Cinder?

• Jossed. Volume 3 Ep 6, "Fall", reveals Autumn/Fall to be a girl named Amber.

Cinder has a Dark and Troubled Past.

Her motif is centred around Cinderella, and everyone knows the girl covered in ashes went through a pretty soul-crushing ordeal.

• Also, if "Sacrifice" is her Image Song, the line, "Born an angel, heaven sent/ Falls from grace are never elegant" points to that as well.
• Considering Salem is the fairy godmother, it's possible that she's a version of Cinderella who killed her abusive family rather than escaped them. Also take in account her treatment of Emerald; many abusers are mimicking the the way they themselves were abused.
• Confirmed as of Volume 8 Ep 6.

Fall is not Cinder's real last name.

She started calling herself that after stealing the Fall Maiden's powers.

• Watts all but confirms it in "A Perfect Storm" when Raven says that Cinder's clearly an egomaniac who picked her own last name and Watts called it "spot on".

Cinder is one of the other Maidens.

• Most likely, she is the current Summer Maiden, given that fire is an element commonly associated with summer. Her ultimate goal is to steal, not only the Fall Maiden's power, but the powers of the other two Maidens as well and use their combined power for some purpose.

Cinder's Master Plan.

• Step 1. Take over the White Fang
• Step 2. Have hordes of Grim just outside of human cities
• Step 3. Bring together potential new maidens
• Step 4. Let the Grim loose on the people/ take over Ironwood's police robots by way of Penny making people lose faith in law enforcement necessitating new maidens
• Step 5. Once a new quartet of maidens are made kill them and take all the power for herself becoming a goddess
• Step 6. Wipe out the Grim and White Fang while looking like a hero
• Step 7. Take over the world as a goddess
• Jossed. Cinder is working for Salem.

Cinder's Glove didn't get destroyed

It's something she can summon at anytime like her swords/bow due to absorbing the Fall Maiden's powers.

• This seems likely, as the visual effect of it vanishing is the same as when it appears. She just keeps it in a pocket dimension or something.

Cinder blew up the moon

And she is mad that everyone forgot about it.

Cinder is an evil Bad Future Ruby

Her plan also involves breaking Ruby so thoroughly that she goes over to the Dark Side, so to speak. This is the reason that Mercury spares Ruby in the first place. It would have created a Time Paradox

Cinder is a Puppeteer Parasite

"She" is actually the little grimm that stole the Fall Maiden's powers. What we think is Cinder is actually some unfortunate lady who happened across Cinder in her less mobile state and paid the price.

• Jossed. We see Cinder's backstory.

Cinder was under Salem's More than Mind Control all along, and that Ruby's silver eyes break her free from it, temporarily.

Cinder was corrupted by Salem, possibly being mind-raped into accepting that Salem's views about the world is right. Despite this, she still tries to break free from her control, with little success. Her first real opportunity comes when she has Pyrrha at her mercy, and she says "Do you believe in destiny?", which somehow pauses her for a little while as her taunting smile faded from her face before replying only a simple "Yes." She then slowly, as if hesitantly, raises her bow up to execute Pyrrha, and there is no joy on her face when she does that. After that, when Ruby unleashes her hidden power, she goes uncharacteristically shocked. That's when she finally breaks free: Ruby's silver eyes power has driven Salem's influence over her out, and she becomes herself again, but after witnessing all the destruction that 'she' created, Cinder escapes to Haven in fear. In the next volume, when Ruby and the rest of JNPR go to Haven to track her down, they would be surprised when it's Cinder who approached them instead, trying to explain that what she had done wasn't of her own free will, but Ruby and co., too furious at her for being responsible for Pyrrha's death and everything else, refuse to believe her. To make matters worse, Cinder's emotionally weakened state allows Salem to control her mind once again and forces her to attack Ruby, rendering Cinder's efforts to join the good side moot.

Cinder is a humanoid Grimm created by Salem to steal the Maiden Powers.

What we find out in volume three is that the Maiden powers can only be held by a young female. Those powers are exactly what Salem, Cinder's master, wants. Besides that, there are also physical traits between Cinder and Grimm that have some similarity. Cinder's skin (which is just as white as Ruby's) fits in with the color of the mask that all Grimm wear while her hair (while not unusual) fits in with the color of the bodies of the Grimm. The final comparison are her eyes, which are amber. They compare to the eyes of Grimm that range from red to yellow.

• She wields Aura, which all Grimm lack. Perhaps she's mildly infected with it - she can use that glove and talk with Dragon, after all.
• Season 8 confirms that Cinder is a human.

Amber's Aura

Before the end of Volume 3, there were a lot of theories going around about what was going to happen to Pyrrah after the Aura Transfer from Amber, ranging from a Yami-Yugi type situation to death of personality. With Pyrrah's untimely demise, that plot thread apparently went absolutely nowhere...unless it was foreshadowing? What if whatever was going to happen to Pyrrah instead happens to Cinder? We know she didn't inherit the Fall Maiden powers naturally, so what if that bug was supposed to drain Aura and not just the magical abilities?

Cinder's treatment is being fused with a Grimm

The method Salem is using to heal Cinder after her exposure to the silver eyes power is infusing some sort of Grimm into her being, similar to the parasite that robbed the maiden power. Salem's instructions to "make it dread you" is to subjugate the creature so that it won't act on its instinct to kill Cinder from within, rather to repair and empower her. If successful, it might grant Cinder a Healing Factor by virtue of the Grimm repairing Cinder from within. Visually, Cinder might end up looking more like Salem once the bond is complete. (Tainted Veins, Black Eyes of Crazy, pale skin, dealer's choice).

• Confirmed in "Vault of the Spring Maiden". Cinder's left arm has been replaced with one that looks like a Grimm's limb, able to stretch like the Nuckelavee's arms.

Cinder is already dead.

She was actually killed by Ruby in the battle of Beacon. When she noticed that Ruby used Silver Eyes she thought about Neo to give her Maiden powers, knowing that she's screwed. The "Cinder" we saw in Volume 4 is actualy Neo in disguise. This is why she acts so differently between 3rd and 4th volume and why she never says anything.

• Seems jossed as of Volume 5 Episode 2, she speaks and sounds like she did in previous volumes. But we don't know if Neo can mimic voices as well as appearances, so there's still a chance.
• JOSSED! Neo returns in Volume 6 and blames Cinder for Roman's Death.

Cinder is a Seeker of Darkness

It's entirely possible that she isn't even aware of it, but the signs are there. She has the same color eyes as Xehanort, and come Volume Four She even has an X-shaped scar on her face like Saïx, another of Xehanort's seekers of darkness.

Cinder has a bit of Pyrrha's soul in her

Admittedly this is due to how little we know about how Aura, the transfer machine, and the maiden powers intersect, but it's possible that since Cinder killed Amber and claimed her powers while she was connected with Pyrrha she took a part of Pyrrha's Aura as well as the Fall magic. Pyrrha recklessly tried to kill Cinder and reclaim the Fall Maiden powers because she subconsciously knew she was incomplete and needed to reclaim her lost Aura. Cinder's composure notably breaks a bit after the transfer (her anger at Ozpin, looking visibly disturbed when Pyrrha asks her about destiny, and her shock at the silver eyes), and she's changed quite a bit in season 4, because the part of her that used to be Pyrrha has become more integrated into her personality and is horrified by Salem and her associates. There's also the possibility that Pyrrha's soul has not integrated with Cinder at all, but has been subverting her in others ways and possibly is waiting for a critical moment to attack her from the inside.

• Jossed, it seems Cinder's ability to absorb maiden powers dose not include stealing one's aura.

Cinder (and Tyrian possibly) is a Tyke Bomb raised by Salem

Bit iffy, but maybe Cinder's twisted nature and beliefs comes from having basically been raised that way by Salem. Until we learn more about her, her only real reason for fighting against Ozpin and the Kingdoms, and believing that she should be the Fall Maiden, seems to be "Because Salem told me it was true", like when she says to Ozpin "She was right about you" or tells Salem "I'll claim what's ours". It could also explain why she's such a good fighter, and already seems to know exactly how the Fall Maiden powers work before she gets them: she was put through Training from Hell her whole life. If Rooster Teeth really is planning to make her more sympathetic, this is definitely one way to go about it. It's also possible that Tyrian is the same story, explaining his insane devotion and bat-crap-craziness alike.

• Adding to this, to keep with the Cinderella theme, perhaps Cinders' biological family was abusive and Cinder herself had a similar relationship with Salem when she was younger to Emeralds' relationship with her.
  • So Salem's a kind of twisted Fairy Godmother, you might say?
    • Exactly. Now that just raises the question of who the prince is...

Cinder is not Cinder's real name.

Her birth name is Ella, which she changed to Cinder to symbolize the death of her old, weak self, later adding Fall for her ambition to become a Maiden. A bonus meaning is that Ella, as a form of Helen, is Greek for "torch."

Cinder's Power Up.

During Downfall Cinder absorbed something from Raven. All we're seen so far is the partial absorption of Maiden Power; so it is possible that she absorbed some of Ozpin's Gift from Raven and survived the Disney Death.

Cinder will pull a Heel–Face Turn.

Not out of any love for the heroes, but ironically because she's prideful and power-hungry, and wants to get out from under Salem's foot and bash her condescending face in. Emerald and Mercury will follow Cinder, and Yang will knock a few of Mercury's teeth out for that stunt they pulled at the Vytal Festival (the one in Yang's match specifically, not the rest of it).

• Alternatively, she will pull a Evil Versus Oblivion after learning of Salem's intent to use the Relics to wipe out all life on Remnant. While it's rather hard to imagine Cinder join the heroes to fight for the survival of mankind, she certainly will fight for the survival of Cinder.

Cinder is a relative of Summer Rose

Cinder is just a tool for Salem

The Haven arc showed Cinder being overwhelmed by her rage towards Ruby and her lust for power, only to regain her cunning from the Beacon arc when she teamed up with Neo. However, as of Volume 7, Cinder still shows the same flaws that cost her before- her sadism and rage. While fear of failing Salem again could be the explaination, it could also be because of the Grimm arm, which as of Volume 7 has worked it's way up to Cinder's shoulder. Since Grimm feed on negative emotions, influencing Cinder to stay in that state of mind provides it a constant fuel source. As for why, that's because Grimm can channel the Maiden powers. That arm is actually just a means to store the various Maiden powers, growing in size and capacity at the inevitable cost of the host body, which in this case is Cinder. Once the host dies, Salem can keep the Maiden powers under her control and even tranplant the Grimm, and the powers, to another young woman.

Cinder's Grimm Arm is eating her alive

During her battle with Vernal and Raven in Volume 5, Cinder's Grimm Arm is shown being partway up her arm, stopping just past the elbow. In her battle with Winter and Penny in Volume 7, it can be seen having attached itself to her shoulder, and after Winter cuts it off and forces it to regenerate, something no other Grimm is ever shown doing, it is seen again having almost completely covered her arm.

Cinder's feather pin is a Tragic Keepsake

The blue and purple represent the girls who were the stepsisters to her Cinderella, only they were a treasured Family of Choice instead of jealous tormentors. Their deaths traumatized young Cinder and set her on the evil path.

Pyrrha's Last Words will get a Meaningful Echo if/when Cinder dies.

It will be in the form of a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner before Cinder's final defeat at the hands of either Ruby (due to her status as Cinder's Arch-Enemy) or Jaune (due to his relationship with Pyrrha).

The girl shown at the beginning of Volume 8 is a young Cinder.

The Volume will cover her backstory and show how she came to be working for Salem.

• Confirmed.

Cinder is James Ironwood's illegitimate daughter

They look somewhat similar, they're about the right ages, and we know Atlas has a military presence in Mistral. So it's not hard to imagine that Ironwood might've fathered her. And their similarities extend to more than just their looks. They're both extremely stubborn, and when they focus on something, they put their all into it despite any detriment it may cause. Both of them seem to consider their more human emotions to be weaknesses, though they handle them in different ways, with James wishing to just purge his, wheras Cinder seems to try to drown hers in her anger and hatred. And both have replaced parts of themselves with something less human out of the idea that it would make them better.
The theory goes that Ironwood knocked up somebody when he was younger and asked the Madam to discreetley adopt and take care of her. She, of course, scammed him out of his money and treated Cinder like garbage without him knowing. Cinder may or may not know Ironwood's her father, but if she does, she resents him for not making sure she was well cared for.
This would make sense from a thematic standpoint, drawing a parallel between the two of them and Weiss and Jacques Schnee. And it also makes sense from a Cinderella perspective: some versions of the story had Cinderella's father be either ignorant of or complicit in his daughter's abuse.

Cinder may undergo a redemption arc.

We've learned more of Cinder's past, and things have been going poorly for her ever since Ruby blasted her with her Silver Eyes. Another theory suggests that she may even lose her Fall Maiden powers and be abandoned by Salem (possibly after a vicious battle with Ruby and her friends.) If that were to happen Cinder would be well and truly broken; everything she's done, all the cruelty, murder, betrayal......and she's right back where she started, weak and alone. No powers, nothing. Just like when she was a child. The heroes find out about her past (either during the battle or afterwards), and for the first time, Ruby feels.....pity for Cinder. And so, in her optimism and goodness she genuinely reaches out to help her, pointing out that none of her acts of cruelty have really helped her and making a sincere attempt to help. Cinder will probably react badly, same with Jaune, but Ruby insists and due to how crappy things are Cinder reluctantly agrees. Vol 9 and 10 would see her slowly healing and trying to be a better person.

Cinder will undergo a villainous breakdown in either volume 9 or 10.

Upon finding out that Team RWBY, Neo, and Jaune didn't die when they fell into the void, and they return to fight her, she will become far more incensed than she's ever been. Emerald's defection will make it worse, but if Penny is revived AGAIN, that may be one of the final straws. She will scream at them why they just won't perish already while unleashing high-intensity attacks at them and scream for them to die, having come to really hate how she's been doing little in annihilating her enemies since the fall of Beacon, and hides this by screaming how they are beneath her, how she has suffered and thus deserves her power.

• Alternately, when Ruby and the others are in the other world, they encounter Rhodes (who tells them Cinder's past, and asks them to tell her that he still cares for her and wishes he did more). When the time comes, Ruby says "we encountered a lot of people there. Including Rhodes." Cinder is shocked by this and Ruby continues with "He wanted us to tell you that he's sorry he didn't do more for you, and that he still cares for you despite what you've done." This causes Cinder to rant angrily about how she's claiming what's rightfully hers, which in turn causes Ruby to point out that she's just Salem's puppet, trading one abuser for another, and how now they just feel sorry for her. THIS is what triggers Cinder's Rage Breaking Point, leading to the final fight between Team RWBY and Cinder which ends in Cinder's final defeat.

Cinder's over reliance on her Maiden powers will come back to bite her

Ever since she stole the first half of Amber's Fall Maiden powers, Cinder's always used her Semblance and Maiden magic to conjure weapons as a way to show off. She even destroyed her original weapon "Midnight" just to flaunt for her magical abilities in battle. But she's as strong as she is because of these two abilities, and has mostly ignored traditional combat in favor of using the Maiden powers for years now. If anyone finds a way to cancel out her Maiden abilities/drain her Aura, she's an ordinary fighter who isn't much of a challenge. Case in point, Neo almost defeated Cinder in one-on-one combat before she was intimidated to withdraw because of the Maiden powers. The heroes will work to bring her down to this level so they can finally stop her for good, and would be an extremely cathartic moment to watch the monster who traded everything for power be rendered completely powerless by those weaker than her.

Cinder is the Unreliable Narrator of her backstory

The Stinger of Volume 2, declared Canon Discontinuity by Word of God, (and to a lesser extend, the Red Trailer) proves that just because the audience sees something in the show's normal 3D animation doesn't mean it's a reliable account of in-universe events or can't be retconned somehow. The cinematography surrounding Cinder's backstory given in Volume 8 implies she's actively remembering it, so its possible we're only seeing her account of events, altered by her Self-Serving Memory. This would explain why almost every logical hole in the story serves to make her more sympathetic;

• She was a slave in all but name and Rhodes was seemingly powerless to help her, despite slavery being illegal in Remnant. A more plausible story is that she was adopted and made to do chores (but never the work of a full hotel employee) alongside her foster sisters, who may have verbally abused her alongside Madam, but never anything bad enough that they could be convicted of child abuse.
• Cinder appears to be the only staff in a large hotel. More likely the hotel had several regular employees, but Cinder's egotism means she never bonded with or remembers any of them.
• She wore a shock collar that's given her scars, but Rhodes never even brought this up, and we've seen her bare, unscarred neck before. There likely never was a shock collar, though admitedly, inventing such a major part of the story out of whole cloth crosses the line from Self-Serving Memory to outright delusion.
• Rhodes turned on the girl he'd trained for years instantly. More likely, he tried to talk her down, but Cinder suffers from Black-and-White Insanity, and saw this as a betrayal, and so either didn't listen and forced him to subdue her, or attacked him first.

Neopolitan

There is a girl who was shown standing next to Roman in the Volume 2 Trailer who apparently has brown and pink hair. Monty has since been tweeting images of Neapolitan ice cream. Obviously, as with the pics of Yatsuhashi alluding to the name of the fourth member of team CFVY, this must mean that Neapolitan is the girl's name. She probably just goes by Nea though.

• Her name is confirmed as Neo as of Volume 2 Episode 4.
• Monty put up Neopolitan's turnaround on Facebook.

Neopolitan is related to Torchwick

In previous episodes, he has mentioned a divorce and a child to Emerald. Neo has suspiciously similar appearance and classiness to Torchwick. Mayhaps he decided to teach her to be more "useful" after getting used to being stuck with her?

• She is based on a Roman cosplay by Monty's female friend.
• I was thinking of her being his girlfriend or something, but I felt like their interaction with each other didn't seem like a couple. Then I thought that maybe she's his sister. That would fit, and it would certainly explain the similarities in-universe...
• Rome and Naples. Kind of works.
• At the end of season 3 Roman's visibly worried about her after she's sent flying, a major difference from how he's treated every other character he's ever interacted with.
• Jossed. According to the spin-off novels, they aren't related, but met early in their lives.

Neo is based on Mary Poppins

Umbrella...

• Well, she does end up flying with it... Straight up CMOF style
  • She seems to be Composite Character of Mary Poppins and the Porcelain Princess (a very minor character) from The Wizard of Oz.

Neo curbstomping Yang is NOT a case of Worfing...

But rather Neo's fighting style has a natural advantage over Yang's.

• Yang has a brawling combat style, with a lot of heavy punches. This leaves her open to attack, but Yang wants people to hit her because it activates her semblence, making her even stronger.
• Neo uses exhaustion fu of sorts. She dodges and deflects her opponents attacks, only really striking once they are too tired to respond. Because Neo barely attacks Yang, Yang can't get a boost. Once Yang is floored, Neo moves in for a kill shot.
• Yang simply was the worst person to challenge Neo of the group. Weiss could of used her abilities to immobilize Neo a la the Iron giant from the trailer or the Deathstalker and Nevermore from episode 8.
• Blake also could (potentially) have countered Neo's dodging with her ribbon-scythe, with its large, sweeping area of attack.
• Had either of them faced Neo, the outcome probably would have been incredibly different.

Neo is the real villain

She's much more competent than Roman.

• Jossed, Salem is the Big Bad

Neo's Semblance is shapeshifting

In Round One, we get a brief glimpse of Neo disguised as a black haired, green eyed girl who switches back to her normal eye color before KO'ing her opponent. My guess is that, instead of the glass illusion we see at the end of Painting the Town, Neo's semblance is some level of control over her appearance. This would explain her unique, and almost definitely unnatural hair and eye color, as well as her ability to change her eyes at will. Tying into this, Neo has a voice actress listed but no lines yet. Maybe she doesn't speak in order to keep people from recognizing her voice when she's disguised.

• Jossed, she can only change her hair color and eye color. Her semblance seems to be illusions, similar to Emerald's Hallucination Semblance.
• Jossed: it's mirage/hard-light hologram based illusions. While she can use them to change her appearance, she's not constrained by this.

Neo's Semblance is refraction

Neo's Semblance gives her the ability to bend light around her, which allows her to create illusions, such as she did in her first encounter with Team RWBY. Since light refraction also controls color, it explains how her eyes keep changing all the time and would also allow her to disguise herself. She may also use it subtly in battle as altering the refractive index of light can also control how close or how far away an object seems. She probably uses it to throw her opponents off by just a few centimeters to keep them from cluing in on it.

Neo is Summer Rose

• Ruby Rose has silver eyes. As seen in the photo of Team STRQ, Summer also has silver eyes. NEO HAS SILVER EYES, as seen at the end of her fight with Yang in No Brakes. In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, just before Neo teleports out, her eyes turn from brown/pink to silver.
• Neo seemed to recognize Raven. She didn't display any of her normal cockiness, and despite dodging both of her initial attacks, was terrified and escaped immediately. This indicates that she knows Raven and knows what she is capable of.
• Summer's body was never found. Her death is accepted by the characters, but her gravestone is a memorial. She could still be out there.
• The only one of the RWBY girls Neo hasn't been close to physically is Ruby. What might happen when they meet face to face...? (this guess is written before Volume 3, Episode 11)
  • Welp, never mind about that part. No obvious recognition beyond adversaries. :
    * I remember that I saw some theories that said Roman would brainwash Penny and make her join the Evil Team, based on his fairytale inspiration. Well, you know how that turned out. But what if he already did that? Neo can be a brainwashed Summer Rose or someone else completely.

Neo is going to try to attack Ruby in Volume 4

Neo doesn't actually see Roman die, since she was too far away, so she'll try to kidnap Ruby to find out where he is. When she realizes Roman is dead, she'll blame Ruby and try to kill her.

• Jossed: she never appears in Volume 4. Though she indeed wants revenge when she resurfaces in Volume 6.

Neo may be mute but she can still speak quite eloquently

The reason we haven't noticed her gift for speech is because she can only speak in Sign Language but can still hear perfectly fine.

Neo is an Artificial Human, presumably created by Atlas.

Her origins could possibly be linked to Atlas, and the reason for her mute status could just be a sense of being incomplete. Perhaps she's a prototype of Penny, and she joined up with Roman because he still saw something in her. Also, while this is merely coincidence, Neo's 9th through 11th color palettes in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle are Es (BlazBlue), Aigis (Persona 4 Arena), and Vatista (Under Night In-Birth), which are usually also shared with other Artificial Human characters like Nu-13 and Aigis. While this isn't strong evidence, it's a possibility.

• Nope, vanilla human.

Neo is a Silver-Eyed Warrior

When she's startled by Raven her eyes turn white. It's possible that's her actual color, and she 's too busy being afraid to keep unnecessary illusions, while pink/brown combo is just a fashion choice. Another consideration: SEW are said to be great fighters (Ruby is a grade-skipper, and one of the strongest fighters among her group), and her skills are clearly superior to almost everyone else of comparable age among the cast. Most likely she doesn't even know about her powers, and hides her eye-color as a fashion choice, not out of caution. If it's true, this has a potential to bite Cinder and Salem in the ass. For instance, they may provoke some flashback about Roman that involves relevant thoughts, and be blasted as a result.

Neo is the most talkative member of Salem's group.

When Salem's group communicate by text messages, Neo always talks the most to make up for not being able to talk normaly.

Neopolitan infiltrated the Vytal posing as a student at Haven Academy with Cinder's team under her own real name.

There doesn't seem to be a rule that one absolutely must be no older than 17 to enroll. It's entirely possible that "Trivia Vanille" has never been through the Kingdom of Vale justice system by that identity.

Neo is the arc villain of Volume 9.

The only scenes without team Rwby focus on Neo, she was seen attacking Ruby as they fell through the world so she still has a grudge.

Neo will sacrifice herself to the Tree so RWBY and Jaune can return to Remnant.

Neo's only drive is revenge for Roman's death, but you have to stop and ask, what will she have if she succeeds in killing Ruby and Cinder? Over time, Neo will realize this for herself. Faced with the misery of her current life, the promise of Reincarnation appeals to her; a chance to live a new, happy life. So if a sacrifice to the Tree is needed, Neo will give herself up so the others can go home and she can start fresh.

• Confirmed: There is no sacrifice needed, but Neo does choose to ascend in the Ever After rather than return to Remnant.

Emerald

Emerald is Aladdin

Her name may be an allusion to the phrase frequently use to describe Aladdin, "a diamond in the rough." She's also an amateur thief (master thief according to Mercury) whom Roman refers to as a "street rat." She obviously must come from less fortunate circumstances, scraping to survive.

Emerald's Semblance is using illusions to disguise herself.

It allows her to either disappear completely, or take on the appearance of another person. This is how she was able to vanish from Coco's sight behind a tree, and it also explains why Yatsuhashi was casually walking towards her, seemingly fine, yet the buzzer went off to signify his defeat while Coco was still looking at him. Disguising herself as one of Coco's teammates would definitely be a good way of getting Coco to drop her guard, and it seems like something Emerald would do. Also, Yastuhashi was coming up from behind her, and Emerald took her out from the back.

• Given the events of Fall, it seems like Emerald can use her illusion Semblance on more than just herself, and it’s not limited to disguise. She’s probably the one who created the illusion that led to Yang punching Mercury in the leg. This seems especially likely given that she was able to rush to Mercury’s side within seconds of this happening.
• Emerald's Semblance is confirmed to be the ability to induce hallucinations, though it seems she can only use it on up to two people at once.
  • Up to ten at least, but she'll black out from the strain.

Emerald will use Jinn’s last question

As mentioned above, it’s very possible that Emerald is inspired by Aladdin, and Jinn is a reference to the character of the genie from that story. The question will probably be if Cinder really cares about her, but might be something else.

• Maybe confirmed: She now knows how to activate the lantern.

Mercury

Mercury seemingly attacking Yang at the end of their fight in "Fall" was an illusion

We already know from Vol.3 Episode 4, and the fake Yatsuhashi, that either Mercury or Emerald are capable of generating illusions of some kind. It's implied that Cinder tampered with the fight's camera feed, but even if she had, everyone in the arena would still have seen Mercury attack Yang from behind and would have known that Yang was just defending herself. A more likely explanation? The "attack" was an illusion that only Yang saw, thus provoking her into breaking Mercury's leg. As for the missing camera footage, it could show some kind of tell that would reveal the use of a Semblance, but which wouldn't have been apparent to the audience as they were sitting too far away (but not so far away that they wouldn't have been Mercury's sneak attack).

• Heavily implied by the confirmation of Emerald's Semblance.

Mercury's the one doing the illusions

Mercury could refer to Mercury Poisoning.

• Jossed, it's Emerald.

Mercury's allusion

Formerly referred to as Gray and Marcus as placeholders, Mercury is a member of Cinder's team. Mercury being the reflective element used in the manufacture of mirrors, it's possible that Merc alludes to the Evil Queen's Magic Mirror in Snow White.Following a Greco-Roman-Egyptian theme, Mercury could simply be the Roman deity while Emerald is, naturally, Cleopatra. This leaves Cinder and Roman. There is a Greek version of Cinderella, so Cinder may be an allusion to Rhodopis. Roman is supposedly based on Candlewick whose real name is Romeo. Romeo and Juliet was based on Pyramus and Thisbe.

• With the reveal of a pic that shows his symbol as being a shoe with wings, it's obvious Mercury is based on the god of the same name.

If Mercury ever regains the use of his semblance, his eyes will turn orange.

This show uses a truckload of eye related imagery and symbolism, and the phrase 'The eyes are the window to the soul' is a thing that exists. Mercury’s eyes are currently grey/colorless, which might represent how his Semblance (a part of his soul) was taken from him. I think orange specifically because he has orange accents in many of his clothes, and an orangey color could reference the planet Mercury, which appears orange from Earth.

Mercury's Semblance is/was Intangibility

For four good reasons:

• The awakening of a Semblance is often tied to trauma. He was relentlessly abused by his father, Marcus, so it's easy to imagine young Mercury wished Marcus' punches could just pass right through him. His Semblance would fulfil said wish.
• The element mercury takes a liquid form, so it must be contained differently compared to solid metals.
• It is believed the Roman god Mercury was free to come and go wherever he pleased, even the Underworld. Phasing through walls would allow Mercury to enter and escape anyplace. Symbolic to his namesake, and damn useful for an assassin.
• He is Yang's foil, and her Semblance is gaining strength from getting hit. The direct opposite is perfect invulnerability.

Once the heroes find Mercury in Vacuo, they'll eventually convince him to leave Salem's faction.

• Now that Emerald has defected and stopped working for Salem, she likely wants to find Mercury so they can both get away from the whole situation. While it's unlikely he'd run off with Ruby's group because of his personality and fear of leaving the abuse behind, even he was disturbed when he realized Salem' end goal was world destruction. His reaction as Tyrian takes him to Vacuo implies he's no longer on board with being Salem's lieutenant, or at the very least he might choose being with Emerald over everything else.

Mercury is immune to Ren's Semblance...for the most part.

Ren can't see petals representing Mercury's emotions because the assassin kid has buried his broken, shrivelled up heart so deeply. It's not until Mercury is looking at or thinking about Emerald that a few loose petals appear.

Other Bad People

Cleopatra

One of Cinder's threesome introduced at the end of Black and White, was given the placeholder name "Cleo" by RWBY wiki. This was because she supposedly had an Egyptian feel to her look what with her skin color and jewelry. With the reveal of her real name and the symbol of a black jewel on her back, it seems Emerald may have more in common with Cleopatra after all.

• It's starting to look like...

Melanie and Miltia are Junior's daughters.

There's something of a resemblance and it seems strange that Junior would have them in the club if they weren't close. Alternatively, they're younger sisters of his.

• The Malachite twins are the original designs for Ruby and Weiss based on Snow-White and Rose-Red.
• They may be the only allusion to the other bears as they seem to carry the "too hot/too cold" and "too hard/too soft" themes in their personalities and dress-styles.
• I'm thinking maybe Romans because of his divorce comment.
  • So, what? Roman divorced Junior?
    • Not what I was thinking but that would be interesting.

Junior and the Twins do not want to be working with Cinder

They seem to set off from the other villains in the opening, and in front of them as well, meaning they'd probably be the first ones that get taken out by RWBY and the rest; meaning they are the least valuable, likely because they only work for Cinder out of fear, not for any of her goals.

• "Painting the Town..." showed Junior and the twins for the first time since the trailer. It certainly seems thus far that they have no idea what Cinder is up to and are not involved.

The twins are the two additional members of Emerald and Mercury's team

Because they are in the trailer.

• Episode 4 makes it seem as though they're strictly employees of the Club.
• Plus there's the fact that only Beacon (and maybe other schools) have teams of four in the first place.
• CMNE's fourth is Neo.

The mooks Torchwick had in the first episode will become important later on

Junior says he assumes Roman killed them for being useless, but we saw that he wouldn't have had a chance (and that Ruby probably didn't kill them). Assuming that Junior isn't lying, it seems odd that he didn't hear back from them (if they were arrested it seems odd they wouldn't have at least asked for bail). This leaves two possibilities; they decided to disappear or they've been taken into witness protection over Torchwick's dust thefts (or just been disappeared to the Vytal equivalent to Guantanamo). Either way, we've seen how the White Fang deals with traitors/defectors and we have no reason to believe that they'll be any nicer because they were subcontracted (especially given they're humans), so they'll have to turn to someone for help^note Maybe there'll even be a Call-Back; "Are you...mugging me?" "No! Not this time! Pleasedonthurtme!"....

White Fang Lieutenant is a double-agent

WFL claimed he finally had a chance to "kill a Schnee." So... why didn't he do it? One scene shows him apparently swinging his chainsaw at Weiss's unconscious body. That should have chopped her to pieces. Yang almost got ganked by that psychotic Neo. Obviously, Aura cannot protect someone who has been knocked out (although Jaune is probably an exception). But in the next scene, Weiss is merely tossed into the same train car with Blake and Roman. It doesn't even register much of a dramatic impact. It was a rather pointless gesture. Why didn't he kill Weiss?

• Two words, bad writing.
• Or maybe the fact the last strike sent her flying through a door, where Blake was to provide backup?

Team Villains' "cover" alias is Team CMEN, pronounced "Cinnamon"

Given the Season 3 reveal that Neo(politan) is the fourth member besides Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald and at least the latter two are going by their actual names, it's probable that all four are going by their proper names. Posing as a team of competing students, they inevitably have some kind of acronym alias for their team. "Cinnamon", perhaps?

• It could be (though a better acronym would be CNME, as CMEN has an unfortunate sound. That is, IF they're going by their real names. We know that Team RWBY possibly knows Neo's name.
  • We know Mercury and Emerald are using their real names. And maybe Cinder didn't mind the unfortunate name. She comes across as someone with a slightly unhealthy sexuality.
• It could also be CMSN (Crimson), if they use Emerald's last name like they did with Sky Lark and Lie Ren
  • Or even CMNE (Carmine).

Neo is responsible for Yang's frame-up

.It's too obvious. Neo just disappeared after her obligatory roll as the fourth member, but that's all part of the plan. She has been using her illusion based Semblance the entire time on orders, Yang's maiming of Mercury was just her grandest performance.

• This makes the most sense, she's a known illusionist, she's been absent all volume (even her appearance in episode 1 was just a flashback to an event) and the sound that played when she made the enormous wall illusion that Yang smashed in Painting the Town, and twice in No Brakes (once at the beginning of the fight, accompanied by a bright flash that makes Yang stumble back - probably an offensive application of her illusions, and the second time when Raven appears, it plays when Neo makes her getaway, seemingly vanishing, but likely just throwing up an image of the empty train car while she ran away) also played during the fight with Coco and Yatsuhashi (immediately before the false Yatsuhashi illusion appeared) and right before Mercury attacked Yang. Neo could very easily cast an illusion around the stage Yang and Mercury were fighting on to show the audience something different. It should be noted that if illusions are Neo's semblance, which seems to be the case, as Yang and the rest of team RWBY don't question whether what she just did was possible in Painting the Town, then it follows the same rules, and is a physical manifestation of aura (in the same vein as Blake's shadow clones, she generates a temporary object, in this case just a surface she can project lifelike images onto). Neo couldn't trick Yang into attacking a defenseless Mercury, as that would be in the vein of psychic powers or magic, and we don't know how magic works in RWBY yet. This physical element would also allow the cameras to capture the false images as well, showing the whole world what Neo wants them to see, because she wouldn't be limited by the number of people who have to see her illusion, just the area she has to cover and the amount of aura she has (but she covered a larger area in Painting the Town and only needed a few seconds, so what she did in Fall wouldn't even be hard for her to do).
  • Except that projecting an illusion around the arena would mean that the illusion can't be seen from all angles. The audience would be all around it. It's impossible, it had to be a hallucination.
    • An illusion around the stage the fighters are on would be seen from all angles, why would it not be? It's far more plausible than a semblance (that we don't know exists and also apparently uses the same sound effect as someone elses power) that gets inside someone's head and makes them see something (which is slipping away from the whole 'semblances have a physical element to them' thing) - it would be too variable for such a specific result and you couldn't guarantee that Yang would react in the way she needs to or that she'd even hit Mercury. Actually making her break his leg in a way she couldn't avoid it, but showing the audience her doing it out of nowhere, carries a higher chance of success and not just resulting in Yang swinging at nothing (besides, Yang's movements in the replay don't line up with how we see them initially go down - the first time she's taking a direct route away from Mercury to the edge of the stage, spinning around and striking when he lunges at her, a straight line, but the replay shows that she walked around Mercury after walking past him from a short distance away to hit him - a hallucination wouldn't make Yang think she moved any differently).
• Seems jossed now that we know concretely that Emerald's Semblance allows her to make people hallucinate. It's just way more likely to be Emerald's doing since we know she can do it.
• Emerald is the only character so far that can make people hallucinate.

Emerald will be the one to inherit the Fall Maiden's power

.The illusion she showed Amber looks a lot like Emerald as a little girl. It wouldn't be a stretch for Amber's last thoughts to be of a girl who may have been projecting her past self to lure her in. It would definitely cause some strife among the bad guys.

• Jossed. Cinder receives the powers.

Neo is still responsible for what Remnant saw Yang do

While 'Beginning of the End' demonstrated that Emerald's semblance being mental illusions she can cast on one person, two at a stretch, Cinder's dialogue at the end of the episode "You all performed marvelously, driver included", in reference to Neo, implies Neo had something to do with what was going on on stage. In addition to this, while Emerald can show someone an illusion, she wouldn't be able to control how they react - showing Yang an illusion of Mercury attacking her would not guarantee that Yang would hit him in his prosthetic legs and avoid injury/killing him. However, as discussed in a WMG above, Neo's illusions could be created around the stage to show Yang hitting Mercury out of nowhere (which would explain why her movements between the two scenarios don't precisely line up), while the reality is he did attack her. Emerald complains later that using her semblance on two minds is a stretch and gives her a headache, but she never specifies that either of those minds were Yang's, there's no actual indication that her power was ever used on Yang, and in fact it's more likely to be the two EMTs who escorted Mercury out of the stadium that she used her illusions on, and to whom had to be shown Merc's bloody and broken leg so they wouldn't suspect foulplay. In short, Neo put on the big show, Emerald dealt with damage control to divert suspicion away from their team.

• Jossed, it was Emerald.

Weiss' father is Cinder's boss, or is at least affiliated with her.

Weiss and Winter's dad has been mentioned several times throughout the show and it's hard to imagine he isn't important somehow. What little we do know about him is that he's not exactly the nicest parent. Blake mentions the Schnee Dust Company engaging in shady practices, and its pretty much implied that he's the reason Winter and pre-Character Development Weiss are the stuck-up frumious bandersnatches they are. Why would he want to collect the Maiden powers? Right now I can only assume power. But it would make a lot of sense for him to get the White Fang-his company's mortal enemy-to unknowingly aid him. First, they're now under his control, second, he can arrange robberies of his own stores to gather sympathy, and finally, if anything goes wrong they will take the blame-they ARE a terrorist organization after all.On a side note, in keeping with the "W" theme of the Schnee family's names, I'm guessing his name is Wulfric Schnee or something like that.

• Jossed, Cinder's boss is the supernatural and otherworldly Salem.
• Double-jossed on Papa Schnee, his name is now known to be Jacques.

The King that Cinder reports to is The Mad King

Why else would the Mad King have more detailed eyes with irises while everyone else lacks them? HE WAS FROM ANOTHER WORLD ALL ALONG!

• Although this is obviously a joke theory, it is still jossed. Fitting with Chess metaphor, Salem is the king (being the center of everything and not moving around much) while Cinder is the queen (being extremely maneuverable and deadly).

Emerald will change sides as a result of guilt over her part in the Grimm invasion.

While Cinder and Mercury were smirking triumphantly at the sight, Emerald looked guilty. Keep in mind that what cinched her joining Cinder was the promise that she would never go hungry again; unlike Mercury, she may not be too far gone and this might be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

• However, Ruby knows that Emerald is directly responsible for tricking Pyrrha into killing Penny, and should Emerald switch sides, she will have to do a lot to earn any forgiveness from the protagonists. Ruby may more easily forgive Emerald, but the events of volume 3 have almost destroyed her innocence, so she may be hard pressed. Jaune may be harder to convince, and would likely hold a grudge against anyone who worked for Cinder.

Mercury (and possibly Neo) are also Silver-Eyed Warriors

Assuming silver is Neo's true eye color, of course.

• Mercury's eyes were purple in Volume 1 and only later changed, so it seems unlikely for him unless it wasn't part of the initial plan for his character.

Emerald will turn out to have a vendetta against the Schnee company, and would become Weiss's archenemy

Based on Volume 2 and 3's openings, we've seen Weiss fighting Emerald, but no such fight happened in both series. Weiss and Emerald didn't even interact with each other that much, but Rooster Teeth wouldn't just put the two fighting in the both openings without purpose. Maybe it'll turn out that the reason Emerald turned to crime in the first place is because the Schnee family ruined her life in the past, and the first 'benevolent' person she happens to come across turns out to be Cinder, who's only helping her so she could use Emerald as a tool. Nevertheless, Emerald still holds the Schnee family responsible for everything she had gone through, and therefore would hold a grudge against Weiss. Basically, Emerald is Blake if she hadn't join Team RWBY. Maybe if the two can come to terms with their pasts, then Emerald might pull a Heel–Face Turn or even (but hopefully not) a Redemption Equals Death, but considering that she's still responsible for most of the mess that happened in the last quarter of Volume 3, it's unlikely that it will happen any time soon.

Mercury will be the one to pull a Heel–Face Turn

Word of God has implied that we still don't know much on Mercury, and Miles/Kerry have implied that Mercury's much more complex than he seems.

Yang will break Mercury's legs for real

Karma for how he and Emerald tricked her. He will try to fake being in pain but since Ruby will have told Yang his legs are prosthetic, she won't fall for it a second time.

Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald will end up a rough analogue to Vegeta

More to the point, their character arcs seem to share a few similarities to him and Zuko. Once-loyal villains end up in over their heads, and resentment toward their current masters incites them to go rogue. Em and Merc are obviously having more than second thoughts (and seem to only stick around out of personal loyalty to Cinder), and Cinder has been put through the wringer in Volume 4.

Given that Vegeta maintained his hatred of Goku well into the series (and, let's be honest, was responsible for far more atrocities than Cinder while still getting a full Heel–Face Turn), her hating Ruby wouldn't necessarily preclude working with the heroes out of necessity should she decide she's done being Salem's pawn and the object of Watts' and Tyrian's ridicule. Not to say that it will or even should be an easy, quick road. It took years of character development for Vegeta to complete his journey from villain to ally, and even then he still isn't exactly Goku's bestie even in GT or Super.

Neo will pull a Heel–Face Turn

While this may seem unlikely but bare with me. Initially Neo will attempt to kill Ruby because Neo will think that Ruby killed Roman. but she will eventually find out that it was a Grimm which killed Roman and that Ruby killed the Grimm which ate him, which will be what causes her to have a Heel–Face Turn.Jossed: She manages to kill Ruby only to be inverse-vored by the Curious Cat in turn.

Jacques Schnee will attempt a coup of Atlas by siding with Salem in Volume 6 (7 at latest), both to spite General Ironwood, but also to further satiate his Control Freak tendencies.

If his relationship with Ironwood in Volume 4 is any indicator, he's not exactly too happy with what's going on, and finding out that Weiss has escaped his clutches might cause him to do something drastic in an attempt to reassert control over his two daughters, or to spite Ironwood later on. Considering the fact that Salem has yet to find the Winter Maiden (quite a few people think it's Winter), she'll probably be searching for her somewhere in Atlas, which may put her in contact with Jacques Schnee. He ends up deciding to essentially side with her, under the delusion that he can somehow control the situation, or him not really understanding that Salem doesn't care about things like social standing or money, all the while Salem pulls his strings like a puppet while taking advantage of his Dust Company to arm her group or disarm her opponents of a vital weapon/resource, and possibly getting closer to finding the Winter Maiden.

This would end up resulting in several things:

• 1) Weiss and the team having to go back to Atlas to confront her father once and for all, since it's pretty clear that not only would this hypothetical Jacques be a threat to the world, but it's also a major conflict that would decide whether the Schnee family name will go down in infamy for treachery, or be reborn under Weiss.
• 2) It also acts as a parallel to the current arc with Leo Lionheart, in that while Leo is a good man being essentially blackmailed/forced to cooperate with Salem, and who is under no delusion that he's in a bad situation with little likelihood of emerging unscathed, Jacques' alliance with Salem would be that of a bad man who allies with a greater evil willingly, but is under the delusion that he's in control of the situation and that he can emerge smelling like roses.
• 3) It could potentially reveal Winter being the Winter Maiden (although considering how on the nose the naming conventions of the other Maidens shown so far, this is pretty obvious all things considered)
• 4) It could also potentially expand on Whitley's character, and validate the WMG as to whether he's just as bad as his dad, stuck on the fence, or potentially good but under severe pressure and abuse from his Dad.
• Jossed, he's screwed by the end of Volume 8.

Leonardo Lionheart wasn't killed by the Seer Grimm.

All we hear is cutting sounds, we don't see who's getting cut. It's possible that Lionheart survived the attack.

• Jossed. The Volume 6 opener has Qrow specifically make reference to Leo's death, meaning his body was found rather than them assuming he just ran off. Ozpin himself notes Leo's death rather than say it was a cover up, so Leo was indeed killed by the Seer.

Emerald will become a much more dangerous villain

Up until now, it's been clear Emerald has only gone along with Salem and co. for Cinder's sake. However, Cinder's apparent death now gives her a reason to get personally invested. Combine her how powers already make her a game-changer to whichever side she's on, and the display at the end of V5 (which suggests her powers are growing), she'll become increasingly dangerous to the heroes. It might involve some kind of training under Salem, who'd be all to happy to encourage her hatred, and Taking A Level In Badass.

• Jossed, she gets fed up with Salem's all-take-no-give and defects.

Salem will be usurped by Curious Cat

And their ultimate goal will be even worse.

CC has the unique, literally otherworldly Semblance to share their soul with anyone they come into contact with. When they're revealed to be a villain, this proves to be monstrously overpowered, as they can possess anyone and anything that has been sufficiently weakened.

CC possesses the Grimm, then infiltrates Salem's base, and finally possesses Salem of all people. Unlike her obsession with ending her suffering, CC has an obsession with ending their ignorance. Rather than merely kill off all of humanity, they'll capture as many living humans as possible and then perform monstrous human experiments over and over, constantly driven by the desire to learn through torture and vivisection, while advancing technology in perverse ways until they've built an army of grimm-human-cyborg monsters strong enough to take on the very gods themselves - all so they can interrogate the gods and finally learn some things literally only the gods know. And then repeat the process on other worlds to see what makes their innocent natures tick.

Adam

Adam is the new leader of the White Fang who turned them to extremes.

During the Black trailer, Blake was chosen by Adam to go on a mission because she was one of the White Fang's most effective operatives. But she already was preparing to leave because she no longer trusted Adam's leadership; his treatment of the humans on the train was all Blake needed, her cutting off the train with Adam on it represented her leaving the White Fang and what it had become. She still believed in their ideals, but not Adam's leadership.

• Was reading through Mammoth Rider's recaps and came to the same conclusion from a slightly different direction. In the forest, the recap notes how she puts particular focus on the black king and in the cafeteria in "Best Day Ever", she's focusing just as intently on her sketch of Adam. It also shifts a lot of her discussion points about White Fang - she's not talking about White Fang as the organization but as White Fang, the extension of her former boyfriend. It pushes her defensiveness against Weiss and her insistence that they're misguided. It is how she gets so deep into their organization as everything changes around her. Then we have her insistence that she's the only one who can stop them, who knows how they think - it's now how *they* think, it's how *he* thinks. There's her natural command nature when she sees the White Fang members working for Torchwick being so disrespectful. And then there's her desire to continue hiding her former association from Ozpin - which was really odd because how hard is it to say "I left them when they got too extreme"? It's because she was so much more involved. And Ozpin suspects that and he suspects that Blake can tell him so much more about their central leadership.
• Confirmed. Adam was the leader of the Vale branch at the time, and transformed them into something more extreme than the rest of the White Fang. He later kills the High Leader to cement his control and transformation of the rest of the White Fang in Volume 5.

Adam is Blake's abusive older brother.

And he makes no apologies for it. He certainly seems to control her to some extent in the trailer a la Beauty and the Beast. I wouldn't go so far as to say he's lover or anything but certainly someone of close relation. Similar color scheme and skin tone. Both are using weapons typically associated with Japan (Ninjato for Adam and Kama and Chain for Blake). As such, they are also influenced by japanese warriors (Samurai for Adam, Ninja for Blake).

• Jossed. Adam is her Psycho Ex-Boyfriend.

Adam's weapons "Wilt and Blush" are named for a loved one who died of sickness.

The loved one died of sickness which had high fever as a symptom, hence looking like a permanent "blush", before s/he passed away after being too weak in body - the person "wilted" away. Adding to this is that the name of the sword is "Wilt", and could represent how the person's life was "severed" (as if by the cut of a blade) by sickness; the gun's name is "Blush", where blushing covers a rather wide area of the face (to which Adam has been seen using Blush more like a shotgun instead of a rifle).

Adam is somehow related to the Grimm.

Adam's Cool Mask bears resemblance to that of the Grimm creatures seen in the new opening. Adam's mask◊ and the Grimm's masks◊ share a bone-marrow-white and bright red colour scheme. Adam's outfit also has a distinct majority of black. If you look at Adams hair, he also has a set of fin-like horns, implying hes a Faunus. But while the other Faunus' ears are that of "normal" animals, Adam has a black spikier head-feature that looks very Grimm-like. Maybe Adam actually is "descended from shadow".

• The Grimm mask is simply a theme used by the White Fang to scare people. Like the KKK's ghost hoods.

Adam is a member of whatever organization sent Roman those dust crystals

The mask looks uncannily similar.

• Plausible, but until the events of the Black trailer are confirmed to be orchestrated by the White Fang, this isn't yet confirmed.
  • confirmed and jossed, while it was a member of the white fang the supplier was a unknown organization that controls both parties.

Adam is the "man with two souls" from Blake's book in episode 3.

It makes sense considering her comments about how harsh the "real world" is and how when she talks about the book she really opens up to Ruby and Yang. Blake really does care about Adam, probably because of how the "real world" treated them, but she's repelled by his second soul, probably some form of demon, which drives his negative attributes like his neglect of the train passengers.

• My money's on Ozpin. Both the long pause after he comments about Ruby's silver eyes and the flat speech in episode three (which Yang even comments about) could easily point in that direction.
• Adam having two souls would work very nicely with the Beauty and the Beast theme for them - instead of his alternate aspect being his soul in a "more hideous" form, his alternate aspect is a more hideous soul in the same form ala Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Even if it isn't, the idea that Blake would so closely relate that concept to Adam is still fairly plausible - she sees two men within him, one which she loves and one which takes things too far, even if technically that's the same person and same soul.
• She's actually reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde according to a freeze-frame bonus of the text. This one might not be foreshadowing for a character.
• As of Breach, it is entirely plausible that Adam is the leader of the White Fang.

Adam was the first member of the White Fang to wear a Grimm mask.

Before we even knew what the Grimm were, or what the White Fang was, we had Adam in the Black trailer, wearing that mask. Also, Blake seemed very certain that the guy who came up with the idea was "pretty dark." Her tone of voice seemed like she was more familiar with the subject than most.

• Also, we saw Blake looking at sketches of Adam, before Ruby drops her Best Day Ever Activities binder on the table. Foreshadowing his later return, perhaps?
• It's possible Adam is the face behind the true leader. Raven Branwen, first appearing in No Brakes has a significantly more elaborate Grimm mask. This would seem to indicate she is the first.
  • When discussing the White Fang Grimm masks, Sun says "Grimm Masks? That's kind of dark." Blake replies, "So was the guy that started it." Obviously it was started by a male character. Adam seems the likely candidate.

Adam is Qrow's son.

When Qrow is shown in silhouette in episode 7 his hairstyle looks very similar to Adam's. Furthermore assuming Qrow is Summer Rose's brother it would give an explanation as to why Adam has the same dissolves into petals effect as ruby. Of course this would require that either Qrow is a faunus or Adam only had one parent who was a faunus (does it work like that?)

• Going from the earlier wmg about his weapons being named for a loved one who died of sickness, perhaps it was Adam's mother; when she died with neither of them being able to do anything about it, it ruined the relationship between Adam and his human father Qrow. Adam then joined the White Fang with Qrow keeping track of him in secret, when the white fang teamed up with cinder Qrow found out due to his tracking of Adam.
• Wow. Just wow. This is possible. It's been confirmed that Adam and Ruby are not related. But it's also been confirmed that Ruby and Qrow are technically not related (biologically) as he is Raven Branwen's brother and Yang's uncle. So Adam could actually be Yang's cousin.
  • The fact that Raven and Adam have similar fighting styles would suggest that she might have been the one to teach him how to fight.
  • It would certainly be poetically ironic for a high-ranking member of an Anti-Human Alliance to have a human parent.
    • It has been confirmed by Miles and Kerry that faunus and humans can interbreed. Children of such a couple have a 50/50 chance of either being a faunus or a human. Why mention it if it wasn't going to come up at some point?

In the Black trailer, Adam didn't block the Spider Tank's blast, he absorbed it

In the trailer, Adam uses his blade to block a large blast from the Spider Droid. If you look carefully, afterwards you will notice the red areas of Adam's costume become much more bright, while the Tron Lines on the Spider Droid become much more dull. It's possible that Adam absorbed the energy from the Spider Droid's blast into his sword, and then unleashed it against the droid in his next attack, which was the one that destroyed the Tank.

Adam's loyalty to the White Fang is weakening.

In the Volume 3 op., As the song hits "the pillars collapse in shame", We see Adam in front of a WF army. However, he isn't confident or happy. He turns his head to the side, and just based on the lower half of his face, he looks regretful. Potentially, working with Cinder has made him question just how much he believes in what he is doing and if he is right.

• Jossed. There's nothing regretful about him beyond his regret for letting Blake escape him in the first place.

Adam was Blake's Big Brother Mentor and the one who got her into the White Fang.

• Even though Blake abandoned him during their mission in her trailer, she looked genuinely sad about it and still thinks about Adam judging from the fact that she doodles him in her journal during volume 2. There's also Adam's Futile Hand Reach towards her. Considering any Faunus who tries going AWOL is killed, it's a wonder how Blake got away with no one out to kill her when her partner was (or at least seems to be) a high ranking member of the organization. Perhaps Adam took her under his wing when she was younger and taught her to fight and eventually got her to join the White Fang. And now that she's gone, Adam is either not telling anybody about her going AWOL for her safety or because he wants to be the one to take her out.

Adam's weapon and/or Semblance ignores a person's Aura.

Just look at what he did to Yang. While we hadn't seen what happened to her between appearances by all indications she was fresh and hadn't really fought. Upon seeing Blake injured it was enough to enrage her and activate her Semblance. Despite that he manages to turn the fight into a Single-Stroke Battle which leads to the loss of her arm. Let's repeat that: Yang who had taken multiple huge attacks over the course of the series loses an arm in a SINGLE strike!If this WMG turns out to be true then it potentially makes Adam the deadliest character in the series.

Something happened in between Adam's forced alliance with Cinder and Adam's confrontation with Blake

When we first saw the aftermath of Blake's defection, Adam seemed upset, but was primarily focused on returning to Mistral. A far cry from his declaration of destroying everything Blake loves. Perhaps Blake's defection did have an effect on him to the point where he began to question where the White Fang was going, but some of the other leaders decided to... make sure he stopped questioning it. Sun did compare the White Fang to a cult, after all.

Adam may die or be killed in Volume 4 (or a later volume)

• There's a (half-joking) theory that everyone who died in Volume 3 ( Penny, Roman, Pyrrha) had red hair. People are afraid that Nora's going to die next, but the fandom is already feeling a bit of apathy due to the very dark tone that set in rather quickly. The next volume could definitely use a spark of hope, and we all know that the Big Bad Cinder and her boss, The Man Behind the Man Salem are just using Adam and the White Fang as pawns...
  • Confirmed. He and the White Fang were pawns. He dies in Volume 6, but it has nothing to do with Salem.

Adam's Semblance is the same as Yang's

The main difference is that Adam has developed a much more refined method of utilizing it. We've seen his hair glow in a manner very similar to Yang's on two separate occasions so far (First when absorbing a blast from the spider tank in the Black trailer, second when blocking shots from the Gambol Shroud in episode 11 of Volume 3) after blocking attacks from his sword, instead of taking direct hits. This is likely because his weapon is made of a form of Dust-alloy which can channel his Semblance, with the purpose of allowing Adam to gather energy from the blade without incurring any injuries as a cost. The application of Dust also explains why a fully-powered strike was strong enough to completely obliterate the Spider tank in one blow when Adam was finished transferring the energy from the sword into his body, as Dust is known to enhance the power of any given users semblance.

The curse that make the man into a beast

Adam and Blake are based on the tale of Beauty and the Beast with Blake be the Beauty (that's a bit beastly) and Adam is the Beast. But what make Adam the beast besides his horns. In the fairy tale after refusing an offer from a enchantress she turn the man in to a beast. This can be interred as Adam refusing to accept Cinder's offer in exchange for help, but I doubt it and I believe that Adam once had an encounter with Salam and she cursed him to be come a beast. Not physically, but mentally. The Curse didn't make Adam a Faunus he already was one, but the curse caused a change in his view making them more monstrous and his actions a more violent. Instead of be calm and performing no violent peaceful action like a Intelligent Human(Faunus) he chose to attack and get revenge, acting more on emotions and instincts like animal or beast, rather than a rational mind.Adam may be a monster with actions beyond redemption, but what if his actions aren't his and he is a good man transformed to a beast.

Adam used to be a member of Raven's bandit clan

Both wear Grimm masks, and it's implied that Adam was the one who started that trend among the White Fang, and both wield swords with blood red blades, and are heavily associated with the colors black and red.

Adam is Gaston, Blake is Belle, Yang is the Beast

As many RWBY fans already know, each member of Team RWBY is inspired by a fairy tale (Ruby = Red Riding Hood, Weiss = Snow White, Blake = Beauty and the Beast and Yang = Goldilocks).

However, in looking at the storyline with Blake and Adam (who was also inspired by B&TB), it's been noted lately by some fans that Yang seems to also fit into this B&TB-based narrative. In fact, despite being the only non-Faunus character in this trio, Yang is the Beast of this story.

Think about it:

• Despite her warm and loving nature, Yang is also noted to be very hot-headed.

• Yang has been framed on a global scale, ruining her reputation and now has no means of really clearing her name in the near future due to the CCT going down. Now both humans and faunus alike have judged her to be a terrible individual (though we'll see in Vol. 4 how much of a deal this will continue to be for Yang).

• Moreover, Yang's been permanently injured. Her emphasized beauty is 'damaged' by her losing an arm, which is probably something that will influence her self-confidence negatively for awhile (frankly I think she's still gorgeous). Even when she does get her cybernetic arm, Yang's probably going to try and cover it up and hide the metal when she's out in public, considering how both of our other two amputees in the show have done the same.

Yang has to learn to overcome her anger issues and now she must also overcome her depression. She's the metaphorical 'beast' in Bumblebee- ironic as it may initially seem.

More importantly though, Yang's also been paralled/juxtaposed by Adam, Blake's ex. While Blake's skepticism of Yang in 3x8 is misguided, due to Yang being framed, it's also understandable on Blake's part. She was in an abusive relationship with Adam and saw him descend further and further into the monster that we see today- and had now seen Yang acting in a similar fashion.

Moreover Yang and Adam's semblances bare intentional similarities according to Lindsay and Miles (via the Vol. 3 pre-finale livestream). They both absorb damage from their foes and use it to devastating effect. Their hair also glows whenever either one uses their semblance.

Not to mention the blatantly visual similarities between Adam and Yang's mother, Raven- though whether or not that means they share a biological connection or a former mentor/apprentice relationship is yet to be determined.

Adam is Gaston, minus the comedic charms and is taken to the utmost extremes as a despicable individual. Granted, I do think that both he and Blake share elements of the Beast in their characters too, it seems more and more clear that Blake is meant to act as the Belle of this trio and that Yang is the ironic Beast of the group.

tldr;

Blake = Belle

Yang = the Beast

Adam = Gaston

Adam will officially join Salem’s Faction in Volume 6.

The ending of Volume 5 indicates that the White Fang will soon be disbanded, and since faunus and humans alike have turned against Adam, that leaves him with no other place to go but to Salem. Since Salem just lost one, possibly two of her cohorts, she’ll need someone to fill the vacant space. Also, Adam may be able to play off his failure to complete his part of the plan as something he couldn’t have foreseen, as long as Salem doesn’t know that he put a hit on the Belladonnas. As such, she’ll be more lenient with him than she was with Lionheart, or would’ve been with Cinder.

Adam is an illegitimate son of Jacques Schnee

In Volume 6, Chapter 11, we finally see Adam's face in its entirety. While one of his eyes is scarred and blinded by an SDC brand, the other eye is completely unharmed with an ocean-blue iris, much like the eyes of Jacques Schnee. Given what an awful husband and father we've seen and heard him to be, it's not improbable to think that he might be unfaithful to his wife, and even less improbable to think that he'd sleep with one of his Faunus employees given his implied treatment of Faunus that could possibly extend to viewing their women as objects for his pleasure. And given his status as a rather shrewd businessman, it's even more likely that he'd sweep such activities under the rug. Whether or not Adam knows this, such a possibility would add even more depth to his past.

Salem

Salem is the "Old Man" from the fairy tale about the Four Maidens

She is shown to be an entity of an unknown nature, neither human nor faunus, with a great deal of knowledge concerning the topics of Dust, Grimm, and Aura, as well as the history of Remnant, but is shown to have an overriding hatred of humanity and a wish to see them all burn. This stems from the fact that she once had an even greater power, a power that was subsequently stolen from her by the first Maidens. This is why Cinder says in Beginning of the End, "I will claim what is ours."

• Jossed. Ozpin is the reincarnation of the wizard.

Or on the flip side, Salem is one of the very first Grimm...

...created by the God of Destruction during his feud with his brother. After the brother Gods created humanity and left, the Grimm were still hanging around and were still based on the anger and disgust the God of Destruction had during the feud. As a result, they would have attacked humanity mercilessly, no doubt causing them to have to develop quickly. Then comes one particularly gifted human, who manages to demonstrate a great power enough to drive back the Grimm (if not completely destroy them)...

This human would become the Old Man, aka who Ozpin got his power/soul fusion from over the course of centuries.

However, as stated earlier, while the Old Man did drive back the Grimm, he didn't manage to kill all of them. A good number survived, with one in particular being heavily affected by the ordeal, perhaps enough that it developed not only greater sentience, but a burning obsessive hatred with the Old Man and anyone associated with him as a whole. This Grimm would bide it's time, building power and intellect from many skirmishes and battles with the Old Man, whether indirectly or otherwise, even adapting a human form both to learn from their versatility and resilience, but also as a sort of twisted mockery of humanity as a whole.

In other words, Salem.

Much of the history of Remnant would be shaped by this feud, much like their forebears the Brother Gods, but the Old Man knows that he cannot live forever, and that Salem will not rest until the world is drowned in darkness out of her obsessive hatred of him and humanity, and is likely immortal as well. Thus he would merge his soul with many who come after him, including the future King of Vale and the headmaster of Beacon Ozpin afterwards to continue the battle with Salem until a permanent means of defeating her can be found.

TL;DR: Salem is one of the first Grimm, and the entire series is one giant centuries/millennia long feud between her and the Old Man/King of Vale/Ozpin.

• Jossed: there were many Grimm before her, and she isn't pure Grimm anyway.

Salem's last name is Saberhagen

'Cause it'd be funny.

Salem is one of the four Maidens

Remember how they said that people grew selfish over the powers and sought to take them for themselves? It wouldn't be hard to see one of the Maidens be scarred from how one of her sisters got attacked/killed in order to gain that power (after all, how else would they have knowledge of how to pass powers on?) and have her views of humanity be sullied.

It would make sense as to why Cinder was gunning for Amber and how she knows about the Maiden Powers. She tipped her off about it.

• Jossed: Maidens are created from Ozpin's magic and independent from Salem.

Salem is Cinder's mother

• Appears to be Jossed: Salem's children were born with magic like her and Ozpin. Cinder wasn't born with magic.

Cinder, Raven and Salem are the 3 aspects of Hecate

Salem is clearly the senior of the 3 (possibly being the original winter maiden). She is presumably wise enough to challenge Ozpin ethically and thus is the Crone. Raven is her next disciple, being Yang's mother and more moderate, fulfilling the role of the Mother. Cinder is a wild passionate seductress, fulfilling the role of the Maiden (and is of course now the Autumn Maiden). Obvious comparisons can be drawn between Salem and the witches often associated with Hecate. In particular it's worth noticing the varying degrees they accept the Grim regalia. As the youngest and most naive member of the group, Cinder dresses in black and red like a human would. Raven wears black and red while masking herself as a Grim. Salem is black and red and seems to physically have some commonality with the Grim, suggesting the seniority and progression into their branch of witchcraft.

• Salem is also white as a corpse. The crone is typically the sister most associated with death, grave, and the supernatural.

• They may be specifically based on the Morrigan of Irish mythology. Raven’s surname is Branwen comes from the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, in which a British princess marries the king of Ireland but their marriage doesn’t bring peace. A famous war goddess of Irish mythology is name Morrrigan, and associated with doom, death, battle, and fate, and is the senior sister of her witch trinity. A member of this trinity is named Badb, who is sometimes called "Badb Catha," meaning battle crow. She is known for bringing fear and confusion into battle to move the tide of battle in her favor, she can predict the death of a notable person, and she has the power to change into a HOODED CROW.

Divide will have a heroic reprise

Either when the heroes confront her or when Ozpin does. Bonus points for Shut Up, Hannibal! lyrics

Salem is actually a Well-Intentioned Extremist.

Listen to Divide. It seems she's angry at Ozpin—Which she is—for something in the past. Perhaps they worked together once, leading Hunters and Huntresses into battle before something caused the rift between them, and sees what she's doing in anger-filled hate is actually what she believes to be retribution for Ozpin's wrongs?

• More like Jossed: Yes, there's sort of retribution at both gods and Ozpin, but nothing well-intentioned, she's just angry and bitter.
• Jossed: Her plan is basically a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum.

Salem is the Grimm Queen.

Where else would Cinder have gotten that weird Grimm glove?

Salem and Ozpin were lovers.

• Confirmed by volume 6, episode 3.

Salem is creating the grimm, and they get far worse than the dragons...

Reasoning is a short convos between Ozpin and Qrow where Qrow says that Ozpin hasn't seen the things She creates and that they're horrible.

• Qrow was addressing Ironwood when he said that. He was trying to point out why Ironwood's approach to handling the situation is considered wrong by him, Glynda and Ozpin.

Salem is Summer Rose.

• Possibly under some form of Demonic Possession. This would explain why Raven is acting on her own like she is (and why she's so cold and distant to everyone but her brother), and possibly why Qrow is as evasive as he is when talking about Summer Rose (and may explain why he seems so sure Ozpin isn't dead). Raven tipped him off, be it on accident or on purpose, that Summer is alive, but only in the sense that she's not physically dead. Raven is working to take her down on her own terms and gather intel on her, and if Team RNJR pursues her, they'll meet with Raven. Qrow certainly will.
  • OR it could be like this: The Demonic Possession Summer Rose is under is especially designed for winning: Only when you must be extremely, and I mean EXTREMELY powerful to defeat the host, and when you defeat it, the Demonic Spirit (I will just call it Lord Grimm, or LG for short) will find a new host. The host in this case is the very one who defeated Papa Snoke, which will be stronger than the previous, defeated host. So no matters what happens, LG WILL ALWAYS WIN! Either by defeating the challenger or takeover the challenger, rendering LG undefeatable. Which is what happened to Summer Rose, probably when she defeated the previous host.
  • BUT it very strength is its weakness! If it is a mutual kill, then when LG jump host, he will jump host, but the new host WAS ALREADY DEFEATED BY LG HIMSELF! Paradox ensues. BAMM! WIPED OUT OF EXISTENCE
  • BUT what if when LG jump, he gives the new, unwitting host a 1-up?
  • Well, then it will be even better! It could play out this way: Jaune semblance will be something Holy, like Heroic Shield, cause he is Joan d'Arc, right? Joan was declared a witch. What better way than to make Jaune defeat LG, with his semblance rendering himself Nosell, cause he know (?) Ruby if she ever defeat LG, will become him, so he made a choice: to save Ruby from A Fate Worse Than Dead, he made a gambit that maybe, just maybe, his semblance will block LG out after he defeated it, so they both attack LG, this time Jaune will land the final hit (probably WITHOUT letting Ruby know about the FWTD waiting for her/him), which means he defeated LG! Over, right? Wrong, Reality Ensues, and he did get ended up being possessed by LG, which literally means he became a Witch (or Wizard/ Heretic???), like Joan was declared a witch in real life. Yet again, his Holy Shield semblence of his DID do something: it blocked most of LG's power out, and function as a living prison for LG, so this time, he could NOT cheat his way out. Yet, for Drama, this will only last as long as his soul was not snuffed out by LG in a Battle in the Middle of the Mind. Bad chances, hah? An absolutely Curb-stormed battle by LG. But when all seems like was lost, Pyrrha, Ozpin and all who was dead before entered/appeared and helped him! With Pyrrha by his side, Jaune got massive morale boost, and now it is a even chance. All the while, Rubes was, with tears filled eyes, fighting her best friend shell with LG throwing around lots of taunts and insults, which she was not winning (exhausted vs GOD is not good odds), yet just before LG could kill Ruby, Jaune regained control, albeit momentarily, and ordered/coaxed/kissed/whatever it is his way so Ruby could fight him, just as reinforcements arrived. A really epic battle ensues, and at the climax, BOTH Ruby and Jaune landed a mortal wound on LG host/spirit, but sadly, just as LG stabbed Ruby through the heart. LG dies, in a flash of light, and we audience see a final, beautiful scene: the faces of everyone who was dear to her (and their other half/parts) slowly flashes before her eyes, when she closed them one final time, she will instead found herself at heaven's gate, with Jaune with Pyrrha in one of his arm (Pyrrha saying something along the line of 'having had a nice, long chat with Blake about the solution for this'), the other beckoning for her to come, the other members of team (R)WBY and (J)N(P)R nodding, as she practically jumped into his arm, and they locked lips tightly (with Pyrrha nodding and smilling with tears in her eyes), and then pulled all of them into a group hug, and after that they together, as comrades in arms, walked slowly together to the wide-opened heaven's gate...
    • Ignoring all the above, the LG possessing Summer Rose could be used as an allusion to Red Riding Hood. We often see Grimm in the form of wolves, and for their alpha to possess Ruby’s mother could be interpreted as a twisted reference to the original tale of the Big Bad wolf dressed in the grandmother’s clothes, only this time the enemy’s wears the body of a fallen maternal figure to hurt the heroine.
    • Of course, this one's been jossed by the writers.

Salem invented a way to infect Dust with Grimm.

Well, she is displayed in front of large eldritch quarry with sinister gleaming crystals, resembling Dust, but with dark-black-reddish-violet color, previously unshown to Dust to be. Seems like even intelligent Grimm couldn't utilize Dust before, and that was part of humanity's advantage in war. That could also be that terrible things "she's building", that scared Qrow.

• Alternatively, she can use it to contaminate Schnee's Dust production, due to dubious means Weiss' father is famous it won't be hard to do, so that use of that corrupted Dust could summon or propagate Grimm/cause tech to malfunction or even turn against humans/infect users, turning them into Grimm...
• So far no sign of this.

Salem is (partly) responsible in destroying the moon.

• Well, she's biggest villain shown and implied to be biggest evil in series at all, so why not?
  • Could also be related to her business with Ozpin in earlier days.
    • Maybe they fought on its surface long ago, spending most of their powers in process, and after almost annihilation of each other they preferred to hide and now act more subtly, due to weakened state of each?
  • Well, not directly: she angered god of Destruction, he left the planet in a very flashy fashion and accidentally broke the moon when it got in his way.

Salem is the result of what happens when someone/something loses their soul.

• Salem used to be human, but somewhere along the way she lost her soul, transforming her into a humanoid Grimm.
  • Jossed: her soul is still there, but she's infused with essence of god of destruction.

Salem is a Human Grimm

• Well, we've seen Grimm in the shapes of various animals and mythological creatures thus far. What's to stop them from having a Grimm in the shape of a human? And of course, the older and stronger Grimm are more powerful (ie, the elephants, the Grimm Dragon). So it makes sense that Salem would be a ruler of sorts.
• This also explains Cinder's affinity towards Grimm, as shown by her basically cooing at the Grimm dragon, as well as where she got the power-stealing glove from.
• Confirmed by Volume 6, Episode 3 which reveals that she jumped into the Grimm-spawning pool created by the God of Darkness in an attempt to get rid of her immortality because she figured that, since it was granted by the God of Light's pool, the God of Darkness's pool would take it away. Obviously, this failed, and instead she was given Grimm-like properties.

Once Upon a Time, Salem was Cinder's Fairy Godmother.

• Going on the twisted Cinderella angle, Cinder was once a naive girl in a harsh world with dreams of Happily Ever After. All she needed was benefactor, thus along comes Salem to grant her a wish. Unbeknownst to poor Cinder, it was a Deal with the Devil, and even now that her dreams are long dead, she will not (or cannot) break her end of the contract.

Salem's Appearance

• Since she appears to be a humanoid Grimm, she probably doesn't have an aura. Instead, like most Grimm, she is covered in a pale exoskeleton. Those veins aren't veins per se, but instead where the plating hasn't formed. Her clothes and the ornaments in her hair don't fit this hypothesis. But they appear to be made out of normal material, though. According to the "Between Worlds" WoR, she is somewhere in Remnant as opposed to some other dimension or dreamscape type of place. Plus, if you can construct a demonic castle overlooking Grimm breeding grounds, you could probably scrounge up a dress and some gawdy-ass hair beads.
  • Since she can have sex and give birth to humans, that must be skin after all. And she can use magic, which is tied to soul, hence, has aura too.

Salem possesses the Relic of Destruction

• A Much Needed Talk explains one of Salem's overall goals. She desires the four Relics of Knowledge, Creation, Destruction and Choice to reshape the world as she desires. It would explain why Salem is so connected to, and can control, the Grimm if she already has the Relic of Destruction. The Shadow God who represented Destruction created the Grimm in the first place.
  • Jossed: it's still locked.

The reason Salem wants Ruby alive

She wants to use her power for her own ends. She sees as a threat, but if all she wanted to do was kill her then she wouldn't have told Tyrion to take her alive.

Thoughts of turning Ruby to her side come to mind, but Salem isn't the Evil Cannot Comprehend Good type and Ruby pulling Face–Heel Turn is ludicrous short of mind control. She needs Ruby brought to her alive for her plan for her, but she doesn't need her cooperation.

Salem killed Ruby's mom

We never do get the specific details about Summer's death/disappearance. All we know is that she went on a mission and never came home. Considering silver-eyed warriors are a threat to Salem's plans, it's likely she went after her or had one of her minions go after her.

• Confirmed: she or some of her henchmen. They "dealt with silver-eyed before".

Salem wants humanity destroyed because like all Grimm she can sense negative emotions

But her variation is much more finely tuned to the point that she can sense it from anywhere on the planet. It also manifests for her in a way that she utterly hates like a severe nauseous sensation that she's always feeling or a loud booming voice that is never quiet. She wants to end humanity so she can finally be at peace.

• Jossed: she wants it because she's both infused with essence of destruction and hates gods.
• Jossed: she wants to destroy the world to end her immortality.

Salem just wants to die

Her existence is so miserable that she just wants it to end. Her war against humanity is an effort to get someone to find a way to kill her. Failing that she's seeking out the Relics in order to obtain something that can finally kill herself.

• Partially confirmed. Salem was a Death Seeker after she was Barred from the Afterlife. It's unknown if that is still her goal.
• Confirmed. She wants to destroy the world to be released from her immortality.

Salem was once exactly like Ruby

Right down to having silver eyes and being The Paragon. She was the greatest Huntress of her time but eventually a combination of factors such as the Grimm being near literally endless and constantly being called on to deal with other evils led her to do something incredibly desperate so she could find happiness of her own. That desperate action was gathering all the Relics in order to destroy the Grimm forever. But the power twisted her into what she is now and she grew bitter over what she saw as being punished for wanting to be happy.

• Alternatively the Relics plan still happened but Salem did it because the traits she shared with Ruby such as boundless optimism and a desire to help everyone led her to believe that using the Relics to destroy all Grimm eternally was the best way to save humanity. Her motivation became bitterness over what she as being punished for trying to help everyone.
• Jossed: she was a lonely and sheltered princess, she was saved by Oz, who died from some random illness, she couldn't accept it and demanded from the gods to bring him back, pissed them off to destroy humanity, got immortal and infused with essence of destruction. Later Oz and humanity were brought back, and Relics were added along with Oz.

Salem is an ancestor of the Rose family

She is at minimum thousands of years old so her having started a family isn't that out of the question. Said family being the Rose family would certainly explain Ozpin's apparent affinity for Ruby and her mother. When it's revealed to Ruby it will only harden her resolve to keep fighting.

• Jossed so far: the only children she had were four daughters with Oz, but all of them were killed in their fight.

Salem has Resurrective Immortality

Much like Ozpin she can also return from being killed but it functions differently from his. She is much harder to kill but as a trade off she can only resurrect through a specific family line. That family is the Rose family and Ozpin keeps that information very well hidden because if it got out then the family would be hunted down and killed to ensure Salem never returns, something Ozpin would never agree with as he certainly doesn't agree with something that drastic.

• Jossed: her immortality is complete, she reforms from pile of ashes in seconds.

Salem is in love with Ozpin

But he was Oblivious to Love and had feelings for someone else which had a role in her turning evil. She's become even more twisted and obsessive in gaining his love, wanting to break his spirit so he will be hers. Or failing that she wants to destroy everything and everyone so that he has no choice but to be hers.

• Half-jossed: she was in love with him, but there was... disagreement.

Salem wants to possess Ruby

Every so often she has to take over a new body in order to continue existing. She chooses Ruby for her next one because she's the simple soul that Ozpin believes in so that kills two birds with one stone. Or the possession happens at random like Ozpin's resurrection but it happens gradually with her aware of who she's overtaking.

• Tying in with the theory about Salem being in love with Ozpin at some point Salem will overtake Ruby and start flirting with Oscar. She'll use her and Ozpin's new forms as destiny saying they should be together.
• Seems jossed: first, her immortality is perfect and does not need Body Surf, second, her soul is locked in her body by this immortality.

Salems control over Grimm is due to her Semblance

She was once a normal human, until she unlocked her very unique Semblance, which allows her complete control over the Grimm, even to the point of being able to merge her body directly with them. Or perhaps her Semblance was Grimm merging, and after doing so for the first time, she found she could control other Grimm.

Either way, it’s this Semblance ability to manipulate and merge with Grimm that gives her immortality, by replacing much of her body with Grimm essence. Over time she has fine tuned her Semblance, allowing her to mutate and evolve the Grimm into new forms. She has it in for humanity because she thinks she can do a better job, and wants to wipe out mankind so she can make the Grimm the dominant species. Basically she sees herself as natural selection incarnate. This also explains why Grimm only kill humans, when originally they were created to destroy everything, before humans were even around.

Ozpin probably knew her before all of this, and tried to stop her before her plans went too far, but failed. The gods cursed him for failing, since both gods have a stake in humanity succeeding and see the Grimm as an unfortunate reminder of their feud, hence why they’re unhappy.

• Seems jossed: she was among the strongest wizards in the previous world and, unlike Ozpin's, her magic has never diminished. Seems like she figured out how to manipulate the essence of destruction to an extent. And it seems she has no Semblance at all.

Salem's fairytale is Rapunzel

The flashback of her past shows a girl with blonde hair in a tower, a Rapunzel classic. And the girl has the name Salem. Her long life can be linked to Rapunzel as well as the original story had her healing the blinded prince with her tears. Who can say that such an ability can't grant longevity?

Salem CAN be destroyed, but not by Ozpin.

Ozpin specifically asked to Jinn, "How do I destroy Salem?", which got him the specific reply, "You can't." Jinn never said that she couldn't be destroyed, but maybe Ozpin neither has the power or ability required to do so.

• Alternatively, maybe you shouldn't DESTROY her, but instead teach her a valuable lesson?
  • This theory makes a scary amount of sense if you think about it. The God of Light's mission for Ozma was to unite humanity, not specifically to destroy Salem; He came to that conclusion himself after his fight with her. She built a thriving kingdom with Ozma and had four daughters with him that she seemed to genuinely love, so it would be reasonable to say that she still has (or had) some part of her humanity that wasn't corrupted. Had Ozma tried to dissuade her and lead her down a better path rather than immediately running away, he may have succeeded in his mission thousands of years ago!
• Alternatively, maybe that's what the Silver-Eyed Warriors are for? Why else would Salem have been hunting down and eliminating them for who knows how long if they posed no unique threat to her? Silver eyes originate from the God of Light, and have been shown to be able to annihilate Grimm, creations of the God of Darkness. Salem, in her misguided attempt at killing herself, infused herself with the latter's essence when she jumped into the pools of Grimm. So, it would make sense for her to be vulnerable to the powers of silver eyes like the Grimm are; or at the very least, she could be purified by their light by having the God of Darkness/Grimm essence in her destroyed.
• Another possible reason Ozpin can't destroy her? He may still love her, even after everything that has transpired. If that's the case, how could he possibly do it?
• Another possibility involves the Relics. There are two rules regarding Salem's immortality: as long as Remnant turns, she will walk its surface, and she can't die until accepting the balance of life and death. Depending on how those rules are interpreted, the Relics of Knowledge and Choice could be the key. Salem calling Jinn would stop time; from her perspective, Remnant stopped turning. She can't die, but can age, possibly to senility in seconds. Her mind weakened, the Choice Relic can make her accept the balance.
• Yet another option is that her condition has no any automatic Curse Escape Clause: she was supposed to repent and learn her lesson, and then come back to the gods (with them being one walk away - not a hard task), somehow prove herself and petition to remove the curse personally. When instead she led an army against them, they were pissed enough not to bother with removing the curse, leaving her alone as additional punishment. So, now the only way to destroy her is to call down the gods and persuade them to finally rip this immortality from her. Which, in the current state of affairs and with gods pissed at her, seems impossible. As to why send anyone, and specifically Ozma back to the world: see Jerkass Gods, likely they made some sort of bet on her outcome, and now are watching the situation like TV, with whole humanity restoration and everything else being backdrop for the show.

Salem wants Ruby to remove her immortality and/or Grimminess

She knows better than everyone else that her eyes are tied to Creator's power, witnessing his anti-Grimm blast herself. She also learned how to manipulate Destructor's essence to control Grimm and make new species of them. Now, she wants a sample of Creator's essence to experiment with, and even if she's unable to dispel immortality, she can hope to expel Destructor's essence, at least ridding of that exhausting hatred for all living things. Previously all Silver-eyes she and her henchmen encountered were either trained warriors, who couldn't be forced to cooperate, or weren't able to use their power and so useless. While Ruby is still weak enough to subdue by force, young enough to try to manipulate, and knows how to use her eyes.

Salem can only be destroyed/defeated by a combination of the power of the God of Light and the God of Darkness

• A Silver Eyed Maiden.
  • It's implied the Silver Eyes are a gift from the God of Light
  • The God of Darkness mentions that he gave humanity magic.

Salem doesn't actually want to destroy humanity

While everyone takes it as a given that Salem's victory will mean humanity's doom and she did show a legitimate desire for it when she reunited with Ozma, there are some logical contradictions in the present. Jinn revealed that there were entire lifetimes where Oz gave up the fight against Salem, which should mean easy pickings. Not to mention she can create new Grimm that would easily take humanity by surprise with untold powers and control over all existing ones as well. So why hasn't she slaughtered humanity yet? Because it doesn't serve her purposes. After all she did want to be a god and destroying humanity during her life with Ozma was meant to be the start of an Adam and Eve Plot to replace humanity with their descendants that could wield magic. So if she can't recieve outright worship as a benevolent goddess why not become the most terrifying thing in dark that holds the lives of the innocent in her hands without them even knowing. Not all gods are kind and caring after all.

• Tying into this is her reason for wanting the Relics. She doesn't want them to summon the Gods to destroy a divided humanity but to keep them under her control and far apart so that even if Oz unites humanity he won't be able to remove the sword over their heads without much more work and she can go about dividing them again.
• Jossed: it's exactly her main goal.

Salem is actually a coward

She doesn't stay hidden because secrecy helps her goals but because she fears what humanity would do if they discovered her. After all she styles herself as a goddess and knows all too well that a common enemy can unite people against even the gods. And she also knows quite well that powerful as she is that she is merely a pale imitation of true gods so if humanity were to unite against her they may well triumph where she failed so long ago.

• Jossed: she's not afraid to finally show in public, personally leading an army of Grimm.

Salem's goal with the Relic of Knowledge

• She wants to learn how to destroy the gods as revenge for what they did to her. Of course if the gods can be killed, it certainly isn't by her.
  • It's unlikely GoL would allow Jinn to know how to do it, not to mention actually reveal.
• She wants to bring her children back to life.
  • "You can't". But seriously, that's the gods' purview, and they're pissed at her.
• She wants to use it to find the Vault of the Fall Maiden and/or the Crown of Choice.

Salem will at some point become human again

• One possibility, Ruby's Silver Eyes return her to normal.
• When she summons the gods to destroy the world, as punishment for meddling in their trial, they turn her human again so she has to suffer since when she is no longer a Grimm, she will feel the full weight of her past villainy.

Salem will succeed in summoning the Gods, but it will only make things worse for her.

Expanding on the theory above, it's highly unlikely the Gods are going to let her get away with screwing over humanity again just because she can't learn a single lesson. Whether or not they deem humanity worthy, they'll find a new kind of punishment that will keep Salem from dying. Bonus points if her reaction to this realizing that all of her planning has backfired is "that's not fair".

Salem will De-power Cinder.

• Either Cinder will no longer be useful to Salem, or she'll actively try to overthrow Salem when she has all of the Maiden Power. Either way, Salem will prove to outclass Cinder entirely. She will remove the Grimm essence clinging to Cinder and with it, the Maiden power bound to it. Salem will then leave Cinder there, as a powerless cripple. A Fate Worse than Death for Cinder.

Salem's Associates

Hazel was the one who killed (or at least defeated) Summer Rose.

Hazel mentions that Salem's group has apparently "dealt with her kind before", obviously referring to the silver-eyed warriors. Which implies they've killed some of them before, and assuming Salem's associates aren't immortal, presumably fairly recently - as in less than twenty years or so. Perhaps Summer had an encounter with one of them on a mission, and was defeated, before either being killed or brought to Salem. Out of the evil team we've seen so far, Cinder and her lackeys are too young, and Watts and Salem don't seem like they operate out in the open. Which leaves either Tyrian or Hazel, but the fact that it was Hazel specifically who talked about "dealing with her kind" makes him slightly more likely.

• Given how RWBY likes to play with fairytale tropes and Ruby is Red Riding Hood's story inverse (she's not the helpless damsel), he could be the Huntsman! So he'll come after Ruby. Ho boy...
  • He's based on Hansel and Gretel.

Watts developed the Black Queen virus.

Cinder's scroll has a fancy letter "W" inscribed on the corner. Considering we see Watts fiddling around with a Scroll while in a place that looks like it really should not be getting any reception whatsoever, and the fact that his name is Doctor Watts (being a measurement of electricity) he seems to be some sort of technological genius. Scroll hacking on a mass scale via electronically-transmitted virus seems right up his alley.

• All but confirmed: He was one of developers of these security system, and in unpatched Mantle he's a Walking Tech Bane - he's so deep in all systems, cars stop and security cameras power down immediately after noticing him.

Tyrian is Cinder's brother

His hair and eyes look similar to Cinder's. It would also explain why he was so eager to kill Ruby (aside from him being Ax-Crazy), he could be seriously pissed off to see his sister injured like that.

The two empty seats belong to individuals whose names start with "I" and "E". For WITCHES

• W is for Watts, I is not present (but could be the informant in Mistral), T is Tyrian, C is Cinder, H is Hazel, E is Emerald, and S is for Salem. Could possibly even be the order the characters are defeated in.
  • The order in which they're defeated has been jossed.

Watts is a teacher at Haven

• He did get his Morally Ambiguous Doctorate somewhere. And considering that in VFT Cinder's team was representing Haven it's not much of a stretch to think that Salem's insider in Mistral worked at Haven.
  • Jossed: he's a disgraced researcher from Atlas, with no ties with Haven.

Tyrian was once sane

But upon being recruited by Salem... he didn't take it well.

• Jossed: He was a serial killer before they met. In fact, that's the reason she chose him.

Tyrian is not a Faunus, he is the result of human-Grimm cross-species experiments

Salem does control the Grimm, so it wouldn't be implausible to assume that Dr. Watts^* or Dr. Merlot from Grimm Eclipse, assuming that he's working with Salem after the events of the game injected the DNA of a Deathstalker into Tyrian. The amount of negativity from the Grimm, drove Tyrian insane. As an extension, the reason he laughs so much is to mask the pain the Grimm's DNA is causing him. Or maybe even relishing it.

• The sliced part did not evaporate or give black smoke.

Hazel is based on The Giving Tree.

In that he'll be so devoted to Salem that he will do anything and everything she demands, no matter how much it would cost him personally. He'll end up dying by sacrificing himself for her in some way.

• In his most recent appearance, he helps Oscar get some Lien from a broken ATM and "gives" him advice about not letting small obstacles get in his way. What he doesn't realize is that farmer boy is his master's greatest enemy, and he just helped him out. This could do great detriment to Salem's plans, and may cost himself a lot.
• Jossed: He's not undyingly loyal to Salem, he's angry at Ozpin and wants revenge.
• Jossed: He works for her because he thinks resistance is futile (he personally killed her several times), and he can be swayed if presented with new arguments.

Hazel is Oscar’s father.

Bit of a stretch, but both Oscar and Hazel are listed as having tanned complexions and "hazel eyes." Hazel has an affinity for green which everyone is guessing Oscar will pick up he’s Ozpin successor. When Oscar is running away from the farm its odd how he doesn’t run into any Grimm despite the deserted countryside. Possibly, Hazel was trailing Oscar as Qrow was trailing his niece and slaying Grimm along the way. His advice at the train station could be his way of passing on paternal wisdom by telling him "let nothing stand in your way." Given the name "Rainart" means "strong judgement" he may have a Darwinist view about survival like Raven.

• Also, if the transference for the Wizard’s powers is anything like the Maidens’ (the power is inherited by a member of the same-sex they think of before they die). Ozpin’s dying and likely his thoughts were ones of regret and all the people he failed. Parts of the fandom think Oscar Pine is based off Ozma, the Ozian princess hidden by the Wizard. And if so than Ozpin might be directly responsible as to why he was on a farm with his "unnamed aunt" in the first place.

Dr. Watts is based on a combination of Dr. Literature/Frankenstein and Dr. Moreau

Watt is a derived measurement of power, named after James Watts inventor of the steam engine, that is most commonly referred to in households as units rating to the power of a lightbulb fueled by electricity. Everyone knows the story of Dr. Frankenstein and the Creature he created from an assimilation of body parts whose spark of light was ignited by a lightning bolt. But there is another Mad Scientist whose creations were far, far worse than Victor’s, and that’s Dr. Moreau. He treated horde of animal hybrid monsters resembling humans in his effort to discover what the spark that made humanity tick. When he deemed his creations failures they ran loose on his island trying to emulate human society but only achieved a gross parody of civilization. Dr. Watts, in contrast, does not experiment on animals but Grimm, and given his supplier is Salem, likely Mother Eve of Grimm, he gets an endless supply to experiment with. What’s more, in homage to his literary forefather he EXPERIMENTS ON FAUNUS TRYING TO DISCOVER THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM AND HUMANITY. The creeptastic Nuckevalee we saw? The top half was originally a horned faunus surgically merged with a Grimm!

Doctor Watts is a prominent politician somewhere.

He's a jerk. That can get a man quite far in the world. He probably even has people who worship the ground he spits on and have a burning hatred for "haters".

• Well, he had some sort of high rank in Atlas, before faking his own death.
• Josssed: he was a prominent Atlesian scientist.

Tyrian will defy orders and try to kill Ruby.

It's Personal for him now on two levels. First, she cut off his tail, and second and most important to him, he has disappointed Salem. This moment broke Tyrian and he intends to pay her back a hundred fold for what she's done.

Tyrian was recruited from some kind of Salem/Grimm-worshipping cult

Listen to how he talks to team RNJR in Punished. He actually called Salem "Goddess" at one point in that scene. None of her other servants, not even Cinder in the three seasons we saw her operating on her own, talk about her like that. It's made clear that he'd do anything for Salem, and the one thing he seems to fear in any way is disappointing her. Perhaps he grew up in, and was recruited from, a tribe living in the wasteland around Salem's base that worshipped her and/or the Grimm to appease them. If this is ever confirmed, the rest of the cult may be antagonists in a future volume, and it may be used to establish him as a counterpart to Raven, Qrow and/or Yang.

• He was a serial killer and a psychopath. When he was arrested, Salem personally busted him, killing all the guards, and he saw her as a revelation. Maybe there was a cult part before it, but this alone may be enough for a person like him.

Hazel's Semblance is Super-Toughness

In Volume 4, he slams his fist down onto a ticket machine hard enough to dent the metal without any kind of protection on his hands. In the Volume 5 opening, he's seen catching Nora's hammer while she's at full swing and blocks all of Ren's blows with his bare forearms. I believe Hazel's Semblance lets him harden his skin to metal or even diamond levels of hardness, amplifying his strength and durability exponentially. Getting a punch from a guy like that would likely feel like getting hit with a wrecking ball.

• Sort of; it's described as pain resistance.

Cinder is responsible for Watts being disgraced

Watts, despite his Jerkass tendencies, is usually quite civil to others even those he has no reason to, as evidenced by how he handled Raven. This Affably Evil personality goes out the window the second Cinder gets involved though which stands out. His vitriol towards Cinder may be rooted in her being involved in whatever it is that led to his being a disgraced scientist and he has a personal grudge over it. That she's become important to Salem's plans just adds fuel to that particular fire and he relishes any opportunity to mock her that he can get.

Hazel is based on Faust

Seeing as his motivation is a little sister named Gretchen. The Deal with the Devil aspect definitely works too, since he's allied himself with Salem in his quest for revenge.Alternatively, he could be based on Hansel. Also stemming from the fact that he has a sister named Gretchen.

• Jossed. The alternative theory has been confirmed: he and his sister are based on Hansel and Gretel.

Tyrians Semblance is Aura draining

During the fight with Team RNJR, we see Tyrian is easily able to damage Ruby’s Aura multiple times, though he never actually injures her, implying her Aura was still up, at least until the last blow he struck against her which finally shattered her defences. Since we never see the tell-tale Aura flicker in fights until the moment they fail, this implies that Tyrians blows were either just incredibly damaging, or he was using a Semblance that directly weakens his foes.An Aura draining ability would make sense for several reasons; it would fit with his scorpion faunus characteristics with his ability being akin to his venom sapping strength from an enemy, it would explain his close range fighting style (his ability only works through physical contact) and it would explain why he is interested in Jaune, since now we know more about Jaune’s Semblance and how much Aura he has, Tyrian might view him as basically a banquet to feed on.It would also explain why Qrow’s Aura failed so quickly once they entered a confined space, as it played into Tyrian’s fighting style, despite it looking like Qrow was largely on top of the fight only moments before and is probably the stronger fighter.

• Confirmed: it's localised Aura corrosion (and Anima vision), but he has to touch the target, and it results in a small breach, not complete failure.

There are two members of Salem's Inner Circle left unaccounted for

Salem's meeting room has six chairs, not four. It could be because only having four chairs would be awkward, but there are a few other things that support this. When looking at Ozpin's inner circle, there were 6 members in total, the generals: Glynda, Ironwood, Leo(formerly), and the Vacuo Headmaster, and the Scouts: Qrow and Raven(formerly). So it would make sense for Salem to have 6 main subordinates to counter them. Why were they not at the meeting? Well one is in Vale at the moment. Remember when Salem was speaking to the Seer Grimm in Volume 4 about the Relic? Well, it's revealed in Volume 5 that seers are used for communication, so she had to have been talking to someone else. As for the other subordinate, my best guess would be that he/she is in Vacuo searching for the Summer Maiden.

• It's likely that these two seats could have been filled by Bertilak Celadon and Carmine Esclados given that they were hired by an unknown employer to seek out powerful Semblances, which seems to line up with Salem's usual methods of dealing with potential allies or adversaries by recruiting them if they're useful to her or killing them if they post a threat.

Tyrian's sudden, unexplained interest in Jaune.

Perhaps either Salem or the Callows family have some history with the Arcs. After all, the Arcs are confirmed to have great warriors in their ancestry. Jaune's great-great-grandfather used Crocea Mors in the Great War, and the weapon is a family heirloom. It can't be too far-fetched that an Arc may have faced off against Salem herself or her followers.

• Or maybe he's simply a gay/bi and likes blond dudes.
• Another possibility is that, based on the fact that Salem sent him out to track both the Spring Maiden and Ruby, Tyrian's Semblance lets him sense a person's aura. Perhaps he picked up on something special when he saw Jaune.
  • His Semblance lets him breach other's Auras and see them, and Jaune has the strongest Aura in the cast (except, maybe, Ozpin and Maidens), so it sounds credible.
• Tyrian has demonstrated a few Psychopathic Manchild traits, particularly when it came to the possibility of disappointing Salem. This may have manifested in an interest in children's fairy tales that he maintains to this day, compounded with his flowery, melodramatic mannerisms like he was in a stage all the time, or acting out a 'role' in the story Salem and her accociates are creating. Given recent revelations in volume 9, Tryian might have been reminded of the figure of the Rusted Knight by Jaune's atypical armaments and Knight In Shining Armour getup which, compounded with his strong aura, made him interested in what kind of person Jaune would develop into. Fitting with his psychotic nature, Tryian's interest in such figures from the stories was possibly due to him wanting to tear down and destroy people of such impossibly good nature, which he was doing as part of his Serial Killer methodology before Salem recruited him, targeting those of good nature or who caught his eye for some reason or another. He visibly relished killing the heroic Clover, somebody who was basically the only unambiguously good member of the Ace Ops, despite his Blind Obedience, and revels in Qrow's despair upon doing so, suggesting he loves creating a Hope Spot for others by killing people who look like they'll save the day. His interest in Jaune might be tied to him wondering if Jaune will one day develop into such a figure that he could then kill and was far more correct that he realised.

Tyrian has been dealing with a serious case of constipation since his fight with RNJR and Qrow.

Considering what happens when real-world scorpions lose their tails, Tyran has probably had a few problems in the bathroom. Hopefully Watts has furnished him with a new tail that will allow him to...take care of business.

Tyrian will try to seduce Jaune later.

And it will be hilarious.

• Jossed: he's interested in his strong Aura, which makes him interesting prey.

Tyrian is a descendant of Tock.

Both are Faunus, both have yellow eyes, and Tock was likely working under Salem, just as Tyrian is, so it seems possible.

Watts is a Non-Action Guy.

Watts has no fighting style, weapon, or combat oriented Semblance. It's purely his skill with technology and intellect that Salem calls on. The reason Watts and Tyrian are being sent together to Atlas is for Tyrian to serve as the doctor's bodyguard. If it comes to blows, Watts would be quickly overpowered.

• Jossed: He uses Dust revolver and hard-light shield and can give troubles to Ironwood.

Watts helped Jacques get the SDC

He and Jacques know each other, so it seems likely that they've at least worked together before Watts faked his death. I wouldn't be surprised if Watts was the reason Jacques got so close to ol' Nicholas Schnee in the first place.

Tyrian was a Circus Brat

He was a "freak" in a sideshow, forced to do tricks and viciously abused by an anti-Faunus master, explaining his scars and his acrobatic fighting style.

Watts Counting Bullets out loud was on purpose.

Yes, his revolver is a complicated thing that needed him to be mindful of his ammo, but to voice how many shots he has left out loud within earshot of his enemy seems very dumb for someone as smart as him. But that was the point. Watts is nothing if not a planner. He intentionally set things up for Ironwood to call his "bluff" so he'd drop his guard in a false sense of security. "Oh, I know," as he said.

Gretchen Rainart was like Ruby

Hazel says his sister “was only a child,” and “She wasn’t ready,” which kind of strikes me as an odd thing to say in a world where sending people in their late teens at best to elite military academies is considered a normal thing. Ruby skipped two years to attend Beacon, and Weiss implied when they first met that Signal/the combat schools in general are “just sparring and practice.” So what if Gretchen went to Beacon early and turned out to be less qualified than Ruby is? Why Ozpin would have done this is another story, but it seems plausible.

Others

Qrow and Raven are based on Huginn and Muninn from Norse Mythology

• In Norse mythology Huginn and Muninn are a pair of ravens that fly over the world to report info to Odin. Qrow and Raven have the abilty to turn into ravens and they left a tribe of thieves and killers ala the vikings.
  • Though Huginn and Muninn are personifications of Thought and Memory, and Qrow's Semblance is bad luck. This troper doesn't know mythology very well, but he recalls something about crows of good and bad luck, and how you cannot really tell, who's who between them. Maybe this?
• They're a reference to Mabinogion.

One of the characters from the "other kingdoms" will be an Expy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

• There will also be one for Shaka Zulu.
• So apparently, one of the newest characters is Sun Wukong...

The drawn pictures of the girls are their future/older look

This troper noticed it in the characters page. The drawn pictures are their older self, and the rendered one are their younger self. The best evidence can be seen in Weiss and Blake. Weiss looks a bit more friendly in her drawn/older picture compared to her rendered/younger self. Since she started the series slowly defrosting, the older self is the logical conclusion. Aside, her eyes are drawn differently; her older self eyes are more softer, compared to her younger self. Aside, wasn't there an eye characteristic trope? How they were drawn to show the innocence of the characters?As for Blake, her rendered/younger self is constantly worried/anxious about something, but her drawn/older self, seems to be enjoying herself.

• I've also had this sort of feeling, but because of Ruby, not the aforementioned characters. Her expression just looks a bit far removed from the Genki Girl we see in the series.

There's going to be someone associated with a crow, who is part of Blake's captors.

In Blake's trailer, right as she and Adam are about to jump down the cliff, a crow appears,then promptly flies offscreen. It reappears in Yang's trailer, right as she is about to enter the nightclub, and again flies offscreen. It may appear when Ruby is walking towards the clearing, but that is more likely a Beowolf. The fact that it reappears leads me to believe that it has a bit more meaning, and acts as a scout for a character, always watching the girls. The character is associated with black, obviously, but it keeps tabs on slave girl Blake, and later Yang.

• While little is known about him other than his combat prowess, Ruby has an uncle named Qrow that taught her all she knew.
• This speculation seems to draw from the assumption that Yang is searching for Blake confirmed to be false by Word of God. For argument's sake assuming it true, Ruby crashes through a crow in Episode 5. It got too close.
  • It's watching all of them, not just Blake. Yang makes no acknowledgement to the crow outside the club.
• Not part of Blake's captors, but Qrow is definitely confirmed to be associated with crows. In fact, the crow in the trailer may be Qrow.

Other Fairytale Motifs...

Professor Ozpin: The Huntsman from the Red Riding Hood story, if the ax crest on the coffee mug he was drinking from in the first episode is his. He will act as Ruby's most prominent mentor in the series, possibly resulting in a Precocious Crush.

• He's more likely based on Oz, what with the green referencing the Emerald City and his connection to Glynda.
• Cinder: Cinderella. Listen to her footsteps, those shoes of hers are made of glass. Likely has a Dark and Troubled Past.
  • They could just as easily be Silver or Ruby slippers implying the Wicked Witch or Dorothy.
    • Seems like Salem is the Wicked Witch in this scenario, not Cinder.
    • People seem to forget there were TWO Wicked Witches, the most famous of the East and the other of the West. Cinder could easily be the Eastern one as she appeared before her sister the infamous the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 movie. We also meet her riding in a helicopter, possible cyclone reference?

Droids from Black trailer are law enforcement.

It is really strange that both protagonists suffered no damage from hits whatsoever. Rubber bullets, dull blades and stun beams? Sounds like law enforcement to me.

• Perhaps Schnee-employed private security?
• Unlikely since Aura acts as a shield and both Blake and Adam probably have lots of experience using it.
• More likely, mercenary forces.
• The Volume 2 Trailer seems to promote the idea they are a mass-produced security force (which has now been replaced by a new model). The progenitor seems to be in league with Ozpin.
  • His name is Ironwood.
    • And it would certainly seem their military function is confirmed.

At least one of the Hunters or Hunter Students is going to turn (or possibly always has been) evil.

Glynda (sheer irony, and then we can see the girls fighting her and her debris-shaping skills) or Jaune (who will undergo Break the Cutie, cross a Despair Event Horizon and, possibly after being pressured by the White Fang or whoever Torchwick works for, decide to go From Nobody to Nightmare).

• It would be an interesting plot� though I think the rest of Jaune's team would need to be killed off or Put on a Bus for it to happen to him. In the credits, Pyrrha is seen comforting him, as if to say You Are Not Alone.
  • No reason why Jaune's team would have to die. They could defect with him or have a civil war.
    • Maybe Jaune has an alter-ego.
• Perhaps the newly-formed Team CRDL. They do act like a bunch of Jerkasses.

Someone in the main cast will get Hero with Bad Publicity treatment

Whether it's Ruby's team or Jaune's team, something will happen that'll cause most of the Hunters to turn on someone in the main cast.

• Probably Weiss.
• Most likely Blake, Jaune, or Pyrra
• At this point, I think it's more likely that Yang might get that treatment. Either that or (less likely but still a possibility), team RWBY as a whole might get that treatment after what happened at the end of Yang and Mercury's fight...

The velociraptor is an actual character.

The raptor that appears in all of Monty's drawings and joke renders will be an actual character. Its roles could include.

• A teacher at Beacon.
• A Non-Human Sidekick for Ruby and CO.
• Qrow, as portrayed by Monty Oum himself. How he uses a scythe can be chalked up to Rule of Cool.
• An Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain or Failure Hero.
• A restaurant owner.
• Ozpin's or Qrow's equivalent to the Chicken.
• Semi-confirmed - the RWBYsaurus can be seen as a Freeze-Frame Bonus in episode 16 as one of the airships is cut in half.
  • It probably will not become a character as it was just Easter Egg'd into the show.

There will be a cherry blossom-themed character.

And he/she will either serve as a evil counterpart or rival to Ruby.

New Characters based on Book-form "Fairy tales"^note for the purposes of this WMG this includes old (folklore, not Lovecraftian) Public Domain books not written by the Grimm brothers.

Before anyone points out the "Other Fairytale Motifs" WMG above, this is for new characters the aforementioned WMG seems to find some connection to the established characters (also Ozpin and Glinda prove that Monty willing to go to other folklore sources for inspiration)

• Alice in Wonderland: a young girl named Alice and an expy of Luna Lovegood.
• The Little Mermaid: A student who seems attracted to another student and will give up something important to her in a Deal with the Devil to be with him. Alternately, a female character fond of swimming... who uses a trident.
• The Little Match Girl: A little sister character who is oppressed by her parents (possibly faunus). She will have fire powers and may be related to Cinder. Also she becomes a Mauve Shirt and will be frozen.
  • Alternately: An Ice Queen who Used to Be a Sweet Kid, she'll eventually Defrost over time.
• Peter Pan: an Adult Child and possible expert on Dust. (and may work for the Schnee Dust Corporation)
  • Scarlet is confirmed to be based on Peter Pan in Scarlet, but he isn't associated with Dust or the SDC.
• Ivan the Fool: A cheerful, kind lad who is oblivious to the dangers around him. He survives and even thrives in some cases. Probably a minor character.
  • Confirmed. That kid in Peter Port's class who yops.
• The Frog Prince: Lecherous dickhead who tries to get girls to kiss him. Has a leg-based fighting style. Falls in love with the first girl who gets sick of his shit and throws him against a wall.
  • We now have a leg-based fighter. His name is Mercury.
• Georgie Porgie: Another perv who doesn't even bother with asking. Only preys on his targets when no one's around to smack some sense into him.

The Mobster's Weapons transform between axe and machete forms

Would explain a lot about them. They might be meant as survival tools (The Axe and Machete are both very useful survival tools in their own right), which fits with them being criminals, as criminals often use Improvised Weapons due to the simplicity in obtaining them.

The white-cloaked person in front of Ruby in the intro is either her dead mother or someone close.

It makes sense. Ruby is seen walking away from a grave or a marker in her trailer and in the intro theme it looks like she is kneeling to (or trying not to be blown away from) the figure in a white cloak like hers. Plus there has been no mention of her parents, only of her uncle in the first episode. It would make sense to be someone deceased due to the ghostly body and ghostly white cloak in place of the marker/grave.

• Freeze-Frame Bonus. The gravestone says "Summer Rose - Thus Kindly I Scatter".
• Confirmed, barring a case of Identical Stranger.

White Cloak/Summer Rose died in a Heroic Sacrifice

I know you didn't plan this / You tried to do what's right / But in the middle of this madness / I'm the one you left to win this fight - Red Like Roses Part II

• Alternatively, Jaune's ancestor sacrificed himself, leaving Summer Rose to carry on the fight.
  • Notice, "I'm the one you left to win this fight" has a double-meaning, the second being "You left me in order to win the fight."
    • Composer Jeff seems to confirmed that Summer Rose was Ruby's mother. And so has Monty.
• In text confirmation that Summer Rose was Ruby's mother and Yang's step-mother and that she went on a mission and "never came back." Sacrifice is a real possibility, but that description leaves some wiggle room.

Ruby and Yang's mother, Summer Rose, is alive in the series' present, but will end up dying at some point in the future.

Given that Monty has confirmed that Ruby and Yang are in fact blood sisters, not stepsisters like everyone assumed from their different surnames, that raises the possibility that Ruby's mother isn't dead like everyone assumed from the name on the headstone in the Red trailer and the assumption that she was adopted by the Xiao Long family, and should she end up dying later in the series, that would go a long way to explain the dissonance between the rather distraught lyrics of Red Like Roses and Ruby's personality in the series itself.

• Seeing as the Summer Rose grave is first seen during the Red Trailer which has been confirmed as chronologically canon, I think it's safe to say that Summer won't be "dying in the future." She's either dead or faked her death, but there's a grave out there either way.
  • Explicitly, she went on a mission and "never came back" so while it's pretty well confirmed she's dead, there's enough wiggle room to not shut that door entirely.
• Summer's grave has been shown in-series. She's dead.
  • You can have a grave without a body to bury.

The other two with Ironwood in the opening are also...whatever Penny is.

But they're more to specs. Penny might be the prototype.

• The boy could be Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn as the stories eventually branched off to have them grow up to join the secret service. Military is not a far jump. The girl may be a genderbend of Tom.
• Another possibility is that the male is Johnny Tremain.
• The older girl is shown to work for Weiss's father as some sort of secretary.
• As of Field Trip, both "characters" are simply generic faces from Atlas.

General James Ironwood has an artificial arm.

He only has one glove. It's unlikely to be Fashionable Asymmetry, and it fits the Tin Woodsman imagery. (Or maybe he's the Tin Soldier?)

• Ironwood helped to create Penny, a robot that can generate Aura. It is possible he could have adapted the technology to conduct his own Aura through an artificial limb.
• Episode ten has him complain that his arm was acting up and it kept him from sleeping.
• Confirmed as of Volume 3, Episode 11. It's not just his arm, but the right half of his body.

Expanding on the above, the Evil Genius of the evil team will be a Robot Master based on Gepetto

He designed Penny as part of a prototype line of Ridiculously Human Robots out of either a desire to create true life or fill a hole left by some great personal tragedy. He obviously has a few bugs to work out (if Penny is his Dragon, it will turn out the reason she repeats lines from other characters is that her "human" voice is a recorder/modulator-her real one is a Machine Monotone, and she's fairly intelligent, if naive about organic social interactions. If not she's just a mindless bot with preprogrammed responses), which is why he's working for Torchwick or perhaps White Fang (or both, as Torchwick could be hiding Faunus ears in his bowler or a human sympathizer): He needs the funding to complete Penny and make her truly indistinguishable from human.

• Possible names: Aesop, Joseph, Josiah
  • Also, if he turns out to be a Reluctant Mad Scientist Anti-Villain who truly cares for Penny as a daughter, a White Fang member in the middle of a Villainous Breakdown will use a very hurtful slur against her robotic origins, angering her creator, and provoking a Heel–Face Turn and an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech where he chews out their hypocrisy.

Ironwood's weapon...

Will be some manner of golf club. Simply because of his name. (For those of you completely unfamiliar with golf, iron and wood are two types of golf club.)

• Jossed. Ironwood uses a (massive) revolver.

Sun Wukong will be a Love Interest for Blake.

They've already had a little Ship Tease.

Sun Wukong will join Beacon.

He'll probably hang around, but only for the tournament and any events that occur in that timeframe. Beacon Academy will probably quickly become irrelevant.

• Seems unlikely given current events regarding Beacon.

The "Mysterious Narrator" Is White Cloak.

Considering that Cinder is not voiced by Jen Taylor but instead by Jessica Nigri that means she is not the narrator. Considering most of the fandom thinks that White Cloak is a female this leaves her or some other character that hasn't been introduced yet.

• Monty confirmed that the Narrator was speaking to Ozpin at the beginning of the first episode.

Lisa Lavender is an AI

Like Eliza from Deus Ex: Human Revolution

• Further to this, Penny could be the first "mobile" model.

The character Gavin is intended to voice will be a Robin Hood or William Tell analogue.

Or a mix of the two. Both are famed archers in their stories, both are infamous for their somewhat rash decisions, and at the very least Robin is often characterized as being a loveable rogue, what better characters for Gav?

• Alliteratively, he could be a villain. Cause in most movies the villain is played by a Brit.
• Russel Thrush seems to be based on Robin Hood. He wears green, has a bird motif and is named Russel (coincidentally, he was originally going to be named Russel Crow). Russell Crowe recently played Robin Hood.
  • Ehh... Is Peter Pan close enough?
  • The European Robin used to be classified as a species of thrush before more recently being reclassified as an Old World flycatcher. The American Robin, however, has retained its classification as a species of thrush.
• Jossed. Gavin plays Scarlet, who's based off of Peter Pan.

Summer Rose/White Cloak/Ruby's Mother is still alive.

Going off of the lyrics to Red Like Roses Part II, Ruby never saw her mother die. It's entirely possible that she had to fake her own death and take on a new identity, likely as a double agent. This would make her lyrics in the song an apology to Ruby for keeping her in the dark about it.

• Maybe she's the narrator from ep1?
• As stated a few times above, she "never came back" from a mission when the sisters were both very young. Not a direct confirmation of death, but pretty close.
• The grave could just be empty and just have a headstone marker. Maybe everyone assumes she was killed in action but she's just missing.

Summer Rose is the Big Bad.

Evil Stepmother. I mean...come on. The whole universe runs on Fairy Tale Motifs. How has the lack of the Evil Stepmother not come up yet?

• Unless Salem is Summer, this seems jossed.
• And now jossed for good: Big Bad is Salem, and she has nothing to do with Summer, besides maybe being her killer.

Summer Rose is Cinder's mother.

• "Red Like Roses, Part 2" is about Cinder, not Ruby.
• "Sacrifice" is about Summer, not Cinder.

Sun Wukong is here to join the tournament is a part of a four-person team that each represents a character from one of the Four Chinese Classics.

• Journey to the West: Sun Wukong (duh)
• Legend of the Water Margin: Wu Song the Tiger Slayer (famous for beating a tiger to death, ironically Wukong's best pal and faunus sympathizer?), Li Kui the Black Whirlwind (for all your Boisterous Bruiser berserking goodness) or Song Jiang himself for the name recognition
• Dream of Red Chamber: Probably the snarky beauty Lin Daiyu, cured of her ailment and now an asskicking Lady of War.
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Possibly a gender-flipped Guan Yu who serves as the team captain. Probably introduced by knocking Wukong over the head with a halberd and dragging the flirting monkey off to rejoin their team mates.
  • Volume 2 Opening animation shows Sun's team as comprised of three males, one of whom possesses a large gun while another wears a longcoat.
  • Jossed. Neptune is based off of, well, Neptune, Sage is based off of an unspecified Aesop tale, and Scarlet is based off of Peter Pan.

Sun and Mercury have a past

It has been recently revealed on Monty's FB page that one of Sun's teammates is named Neptune. Instantly there has been speculation that the others are also named for planets making it 'Team Solar System'. But then there is Mercury. Now he might be named for the element or the mythological character, but what if he used to be part of Sun's circle? Sun and his people might be there less to be involved in the tourney, and more looking for their former friend. Or, of a lower possibility, Sun and the Planeteers might not even be hostile to Mercury, and by extension Cinder, and just haven't shown their villainy yet.

• Sun's other team mates are Sage and Scarlet.
• Emerald and Mercury are shown to be Haven students as are Neptune and Sun so it is still possible.

'Mr Scientist' will be a Well-Intentioned Extremist

I'm talking about the guy who is in the Penny moment of the Volume 2 opener, and is talking to Ozpin at the start of the trailer. He is building a robot army (or at least selling RoboCop type units) in order to protect the peace. But he will cause problems instead. Question will be, will he go full villain, or realize what went wrong and work with the good guys?

• Ironwood is the headmaster of an academy from Atlas in Mantle.

Blake knew Tukson quite well

• They both like books and were both affiliated with the White Fang and tried to leave. Plus the fact Mercury and Emerald killed him means that when she finds out, It's Personal.
• Tukson gave her The Third Crusade for safe keeping and she hid it in a Ninjas of Love dust cover.

Torchwick had no intention of killing Tukson and in fact was trying to help him escape

• Roman seemed awfully upset when he found out that Emerald and Mercury killed Tukson. Maybe Tukson was intended to be a go between for Roman with a criminal gang in another Kingdom. Or with a Fauna rights group other than the White Fang.
  • Going by Volume 3, it may not be that he was helping him to escape so much as it might be that he was watching to see if he could escape. Roman hints that he's not entirely on Cinder's side himself, so if Tukson had been able to get away, he might have had a chance to get out himself.

The Third Crusade is a Faunus genocide book.

The books that Emerald were asking about were hints about why she and Mercury were there.

• The Thief and the Butcher are Emerald (thief) and Mercury (Butcher)
• Violence Garden is their description of what's going to happen.
  • The book was called "Violet's Garden"... Why can nobody get this right?
  • Violets were used to commemorate the dead in a similar way to poppies now so Violet's Garden works.
• The Third Crusade... note, Tukson starts realizing that something is very, very wrong when Emerald asks about this. And he doesn't say he could get ahold of a copy. No faunus would want a copy.

Alternatively, the Third Crusade is the White Fang's manifesto.

Much like anyone in possession of Communist Manifesto or copy of Mein Kampf, a Faunus in possession of The Third Crusade is just asking for trouble. Conversely, a White Fang member not in possession of said book would appear disloyal, as could've been the case with Tukson.

• Third Reich anyone?

The Arc family's theme colour is blue.

Word of God states that Jaune's colour is different from that of his family's, and there haven't been many blue-themed characters.

Sun and Neptune hail from Vacuo

It was mentioned a few times in the first few episodes of Volume 2 and from what we hear (especially from the board game in ep. 2) it has a desert scavenger culture and a navy. A scavenger culture would explain Sun's hobby and where Neptune got his BFG from, and the navy (and thus ports and civilian ships) would fit in with the fact Sun arrived by boat and Neptune's namesake.

• Vacuo was the first place mentioned in The Stray when Weiss brought Team RWBY to scope out the arriving competition for the Vytal Festival Tournament. Who was the first face they saw that day?
  • Sun has confirmed he's originally from Vacuo, but moved to Mistral. Neptune is still unconfirmed either way.
• Neptune is more likely from Mistral going by his outfit. Scarlet too. It's possible given the casual shirtless theme, that Sage is actually from Vacuo. FYI, he's based on Aesop.

There's an unresolved issue between Glynda and Ironwood.

Her cold shoulder toward the general indicates a grudge over some insult or incident in the past. Not necessarily a romantic issue but something large enough that Glynda refuses to forgive. Ironwood, of course, either has forgotten it or to him what happened was no big deal. This will continue to affect their interactions until it's brought out into the open by a third party (most likely Ozpin).

• Glynda is obviously disdainful of Ironwood's use of military force to solve problems. Ironwood himself wouldn't care, since he thinks it's the right thing to do after all.
  • not to mention that he keeps hitting on her.
• If their heart to heart in Mountain Glenn is any indication, it seems Glynda likes Ironwood as a person and might have been close to him in the past but they had a falling out over philosophy. They were both likely on a team from Atlas and shared a common view of discipline and order. Then, as the WoR on Huntsman seems to indicate, that present day Atlas emerged as a benign military dictatorship under General Ironwood following the collapse of the kingdom of Mantle, instilling a militarist view of those virtues across the whole of Atlas in order to better protect it. This didn't jive well with Glynda who believed in a more traditional view of order, leading her to leave Atlas and eventually join Ozpin at Beacon.

Spring is coming.

We've got Summer Rose, Cinder Fall, and Winter Schnee. There will be someone with Spring in their name. How they're connected...who knows?

• A common WMG about Yang is that Cinder is her mother, which, if true, would put her on the same team as Summer Rose, evidence being episode 2.06, so there's a connection between Cinder and Summer.
• Cinder is not Yang's mother. Yang's mother is Raven. The question also remains who Winter Schnee is and whether she is at all connected to others in anyway.
• Winter is Weiss' older sister.

Ironwood is secretly supplying the White Fang with weapons and mechs.

I doubt that the White Fang would be capable of stealing the Atlasian Paladin without help, and I also wonder why Ironwood says that Penny is needed to save the world, when Remnant is in a time of peace. Maybe he wants war to break out because he's Only in It for the Money.

There will be a character who will have a cigar machine gun as a weapon.

Because Michael mentioned it in a Five Facts video over a year ago, and maybe Monty watched it and was insane enough to work it in somehow... never mind the safety hazards.

Winter Schnee is a mole in the SDC and is supplying Roman with weaponry.

Roman said he acquired the Atlesian Paladin from his "employer", and the last time we saw Paladin, Ironwood stated it was done with the cooperation of the SDC. The introduction of Weiss' sister "Winter' may play as this point later in the story.

• Very likely that at least one Schnee will betray Team RWBY.
  • My bet is on Whitley.

Sun Wukong's Staff can obtain a Three-Sectional Staff form

I mean look at it, put to parts of the Nunchucks together, and leave to parts hanging, then boom, instant three sectional.

• But two parts would be shorter than the middle.

Blake's been losing sleep because she's heard about Tukson's death in episode 2.1

A White Fang defector hearing about the murder of another in Vale is a pretty good reason to be on edge (especially if she's worried about RWY getting caught in the crossfire). Even more so if the above WMG about Blake knowing him personally is accurate.

Red Like Roses Pt. II is also or actually about Summer Rose and Yang's Mum

More specifically the lyrics talk about not repeating their mistake ("But, baby, please don't do what I did;I don't want you to waste your life in vain.") and leaving the other character behind to take on their responsibilities ("I never planned that I would leave you there alone", "I made a sacrifice, but forced a bigger sacrifice on you"). Chapter 6 of volume 2 reveals that Summer Rose more or less disappeared in the same way as Yang's mum after taking on the responsibility of looking after Yang (abandoning/dying on Ruby in the same way, no less). The same episode also implies that Ruby was too young to understand what happened (and confirms that Yang never knew her mother), and yet the lyrics imply the two characters spoke with each other ("And all the times I swore that it would be okay/Now I'm nothing but a liar, and you're thrown into the fray").

Zwei was not trying to chase Blake.

He was trying to greet her. He was probably confused, because she was the only girl who stayed away and never showed him some form of affection.

Zwei can use Aura.

When Pyrrha unlocks Jaune's Aura she explains to him that all creatures with a soul can unlock and use aura as well. Since Grimm are, so far, the only creatures confirmed to be soulless it's possible animals with the right training can also make use of Aura. Zwei's probably a combat corgi with a semblance of his own that teams up well with Ruby and Yang.

• This is further implied by the fact that Oobleck lit him on fire, shot him at a huge robot and shattered it to pieces, and Zwei walked away perfectly fine.

Guesses for the mysterious person who saved Yang.

• Adam
  • Given that closeups show that the person has cleavage, if it's Adam, he really changed since the Black Trailer.
• Yang's birthmother or Ruby's birthmother
  • In the Yellow trailer, Yang is squeezing Junior for information on a woman, and given what was revealed about her backstory, it was likely her birth mother. It's not Blake: there's no bow/cat ears, and she was walking with Weiss during the day when they went looking for her, not alone driving her bike at night. The picture she shows Junior is a woman with long, black hair. The argument for Ruby's mom is that, if one looks closely at the woman's hair, it's black with red tips like Ruby's.
    • Breach seems to strongly indicate that Raven Branwen (our mystery lady) is Yang's mother. Although she could also be Yang's twin sister, and she and Ruby take more after their dad while Yang takes after her mom.
    • An additional bit of evidence is her first name. Yang's mother being on the same team as her father, Qrow, and Summer Rose means she's the same age as the others. Qrow being an uncle means Yang's mother is his sister...a sister the same age as he is, so fraternal twins. One named Qrow (pronounced, of course, "crow"), and his twin sister, Raven.
• The red samurai seems to have a link to three characters; as said above her hair and general colour scheme match Ruby's; she protected Yang for some reason, plus, if you look closely her eyes are red under the mask; and not only did she have the same necklace as Neo, Neo also clearly knew who she was and ran the hell away. The character seems to be made intentionally to keep people guessing, at the moment though it seems the most likely candidates are a somehow not dead Summer Rose or the fourth member of Qrow's team. Though neither explains how Neo knew her.
  • The necklace is possibly meaningless. Coco has an almost identical one as well, so it's probable at this point to explain it as mesh recycling during character modelling.
• Ruby from the future — probably a Bad Future. Hence lingering look at Yang and exit by portal.
• I agree on her being from the future, but I think she's Team RWBY fused into one person. Doesn't explain having the same necklace as Neo or how Neo knows who she is, but here are the RWBY connections I noticed:
  • Ruby: She has a red-and-black colour scheme like Ruby, and she has black hair with red highlights like Ruby.
  • Weiss: She has a sword with rotating dust inserts, like Weiss.
  • Blake: Her weapon is a bit similar to Blake's (curved sword; wide, dark sheath, hinged, collapsible tip), her hair looks kind of like Blake's, and her mask suggests a connection to the White Fang, like Blake.
  • Yang: She has red eyes and a pleated skirt like Yang, and an attachment to her skirt on the right side, similar to how Yang's skirt is longer on the right side.
• It's Raven, Yang's mother.

Yang's mother's name begins with an R

We know she was on a team with Qrow, Taiyang, and Summer. Given how teams are named, it has to contain a Q, T, and S, and has to have a name that is a color or is related to a color. Because Q is such an uncommon letter, this really cuts down on the possibilities. One of which could be QRTS (read "quartz"), and the only unknown character name left is Yang's mother.

• Her name is Raven Branwen.

Raven is a Blood Knight and wants Yang to join her as such.

They both have red eyes, which we only see from Yang when she's at her most aggressive or violent. She saved Yang after the latter was beaten by Neo; if she's related to Yang, then the main reason why she did is obvious. However, she also knows that the loss would make Yang more open to coming with her to train with her, seeking battle and living for the rush (Yang admitted she's a thrill seeker and being a Blood Knight would scratch that itch). Going back to the Yellow trailer, Yang ultimately started that fight because Junior didn't treat her with respect. Also note that the song played when Yang decimated Roman's battle robot is called Die and is about getting revenge, suggesting Yang has a violent side she hasn't really tapped into yet.

Raven Branwen is based off of The Morrigan, or at least Celtic or Welsh Mythology

Because of The Morrigan's association with ravens and crows, and because Branwen was the name of a character in the second branch of the Mabinogi (a collection of Welsh folklore).

Raven is in constant Super-Mode.

We see Yang's red eyes when she's pissed off. When that happens, she gets a huge rush of power and just flattens whatever angered her. Right now, Yang can only tap into it when she's really, really mad. Raven OTOH, always has the red eyes, so it's possible that she learned to tap into and control her anger power to the point that she can use the Super Mode even when completely relaxed. If this is true, it would explain why Neo was terrified of her.

• This is also an indication of Yang's obviously mixed blood through her father. If the red eyes are indeed hereditary for the Branwens, then it stands to reason that Qrow may also possess them as well.
• Qrow does indeed have the red eyes, and he and Raven appear to have no other eye color. That said, given that we now know how Yang's Semblance actually works (it's not just about being angry) and that it is very rare for Semblances to be hereditary (the Schnees are a noted exception), it seems pretty unlikely that Raven shares a power-set with her daughter.

Raven is not Yang's mother.

She's a relative of theirs, yes that much is obvious seeing as how she has the same surname as their uncle Qrow. However, she is instead their aunt or cousin.

• For one, she looks entirely too young to be Yang's mother, despite being virtually identical. That and Yang's lack of reaction to her should be telling. Yang is a very exuberant person and finding her mother would be a big deal. Here, she reacted like she's seen this girl before and she's not particularly happy about meeting her again. Raven's sentence of, "Yang, we have to talk," also hints of having seen Yang before and leans to being familiar with her than an estranged mother who's been gone for years from her possibly only child.
• There's also the matter of her name. Unless girls can decided whether or not to take the name of their husbands, wouldn't Raven's name be Raven Xiao Long instead of her maiden name of Branwen?
  • Then again, Ruby is Ruby Rose instead of Ruby Xiao Long so naming conventions aside, this might not have as much bearing in the long run. Or Tai, Ruby's father, wanted to keep the 'Rose' name alive and registered Ruby as such.
• Raven's stated to be Yang's mother. She was on the same team as Summer, Taiyang, and Qrow which indicates no matter how young she appears, she is around the same age as them.

Raven is Yang's long-lost twin sister.

• Yeah it's a cliche, but Raven has about a strong a resemblance to Ruby as she does Yang. Similar hair color, preference for red and black clothing, and users of over-designed melee weapons. Additionally, because she was raised with little social interaction, Raven would have a more skewed morality.
  Yang: So wait, you tracked down Cardin Winchester and beat him unconscious??
  Raven: Yeah.
  Ruby: All because Yang told you he was a jerk and a bully to other people?
  Raven: That's right.
  Ruby: What if she made that up? Then you'd have attacked him for no reason.
  Raven (confused): So what, you're saying I shouldn't trust my family?
  Ruby: No, that's not what I mean. What if Yang told you Cardin was her cheating ex-boyfriend or something?
  (beat)
  Raven: (gives the idea thought, looks at Yang) ... How do you feel about decap-amemberment?
  • Raven is outright stated to be Yang's mother, so, jossed.

Raven (and possibly Qrow) will use a literal Hyperspace Arsenal.

We know Raven is capable of creating portals, one possible use for these portals besides teleportation is weapons storage. It is all but confirmed that Raven and Qrow are in some way related, add in the semi-hereditary nature of semblances and it's possible that Qrow also possesses the capability to use portals.

• Notably, this would actually fit what we know about Qrow. when he is first mentioned it's as the teacher at signal who taught Ruby how to fight using her scythe. it's possible that Qrow is the school's weapons master, as such the ability to haul ungodly amounts of various weaponry around would be appropriate.
• and of course the fact that it's simply too awesome a use for portals for monty to not take advantage of it.

Raven is the Queen.

This is based on three little facts:1) Her portal is a reddish-black orb thing. There is a reddish-black orb that appears above the girls in the first opening... which appears to blast them. And there's a second one in the season three opening which the cast seems to fall into. Coincidence? Perhaps...2) Yang's father and Ruby's mother became a thing. Considering how close the teams seem to be, I don't see either of them doing this if they thought there was a reasonable chance of being alive.3) Yang, who has been spending YEARS looking for her mother, says nothing about her little meeting with her afterwards. Honestly, her lack of anything resembling a reaction to that meeting seems very suspicious.None of these things add up to 'ally'. from where I'm sitting.

• Plausible, but this is ignoring how Qrow said that the infiltrators are not the Queen's pawns and their leader put the Autumn Maid in a coma. And if Raven really is high up in their organization, why didn't she just call off Neo from killing Yang instead of attacking her directly (which could be waved off with the Laser-Guided Amnesia mentioned earlier)?
• It seems that Salem is the Queen.

Taiyang Xiao Long will be a stereotype of fathers from 50s media.

Imagine Dad Egbert from Homestuck, but with Yang's hair. His weapon could totally be a smoking pipe that's always on him. Everyone but Yang and Ruby will agree he is both creepy and hilarious.

• Partially jossed in appearance but his personality hasn't been seen in action so he may well provoke that reaction.
• Seems doubly jossed as of Volume 4.

Whenever Taiyang is upset with his daughters, he'll perform Passive-Aggressive Kombat.

Most likely won't happen, but I just got the idea of him telling Ruby he's making cookies... Only for them to turn out to be raisin flavored.

• Don't like raisin cookies?

Taiyang is basically Sarge but more competent in a fight.

Matt Hullum is supposed to be voicing a character in volume 3.

• Jossed regarding the voice actor. Burnie Burns is Taiyang's voice actor.

People crushing on Taiyang after meeting him will be a running gag.

Ruby and Yang will mostly be annoyed by it happening again.

Qrow and Raven are siblings. Possibly they were on the same team with Taiyang and Summer.

They share the same Theme Naming and the last name.

• Confirmed on both accounts, they were members of Team STRQ (Stark)

Yang's mom is actually a dangerous criminal with ties to the Schnee.

Before settling down with Taiyang, she was a notorious mercenary, with a massive record ranging from assault to espionage, to murder. How did she fall so low? Because like Yang, she lives for action, but unlike Yang who was devoted to Ruby, she devoted herself to mastering her powers, and in turn became addicted to using them to the point that fighting Grimm bored her. She committed her crimes in Atlas, gaining the name "the Atlesean Butcher" in the process, where she was bankrolled by Weiss' dad to further the SDC's goals by sabotaging rival businesses. But a chance encounter with Ironwood, which ended with her tearing his arm off, forced her to go underground to keep her family safe. Atlas uses statutes to keep the legal system flowing, so she's just waiting things out. When she finally meets with Yang, things will start off fine, with Yang utterly in awe and adoration of her mom's power. But eventually Yang, and others as well, will realize the truth. However, it won't be until Weiss goes behind their back to report to Ironwood that things go south in two separate, simultaneous fights: Yang vs Weiss and Yang's mom vs Ironwood. Yang vs Weiss gets resolved first, and Yang convinces her mom to spare Ironwood, if he agrees to cut a deal to reduce her sentence in exchange for help with Torchwick's boss.

The 40

A list of approximately 40 character names not particularly related to the characters already known in-show appeared on Oum's twitter last year.

1. Apsara
2. Atlas Soldier (generic, not a name)
3. BaseFemale (generic, not a name)
4. BaseMale (generic, not a name)
5. BeaconFemale (generic, not a name)
6. BeaconMale (generic, not a name)
7. Bones
8. BoxMaster (speculative, text obscured)
9. Butterscotch (speculative, text obscured)
10. CC.Cookie (speculative, text obscured)
11. Ciel Soleil (student at Atlas, Penny's teammate)
12. Cobalt
13. Coco (leader of CFVY, last name revealed by Sheena to be Adel)
14. Draft
15. Emerald Sustrai (Cinder's cronie)
16. Flynt (leader of FNKI, defeated by Weiss and Yang in round 2)
17. Fox (a member of CFVY, surname confirmed by Sheena to be Alistair)
18. Gangster (generic, not a name)
19. Garnet (speculative, could be also General)
20. Grant
21. Mint (probably someone who knows Neo)
22. Penny Polendina
23. Polendina (assumed to be Penny's father/maker)
24. Stark White (speculative, text obscured. Later revealed as the pronunciation for team STRQ)
25. Taiyang Xiao Long (confirmed to be Ruby and Yang's father)
26. Tempest
27. Tenodera/Theodora (possibly from Cedrus deodara)
28. Venus Milano (a play on "Venus de Milo")
29. Willow Schnee (probably the mother)
30. Yatsuhashi (a member of team CFVY, surname confirmed by Sheena to be Daichi)
31. Yue (probably a Yang rival)

There are likely more names (including Miltiades Malachite among others) as several loading boxes obscured the text. Removed from the list are names of those already appearing in the show. Exceptions include Taiyang Xiao Long and members of Team CFVY as those were only recently confirmed. Also Penny Polendina as the pic marked the first use of her surname.

• "Mint" might be the disguised Neo from Volume 3 rather than a new character.

Summer Rose

Summer's actually alive. She faked her death years ago in order to start a diabolical plan. Her current alias is Cinder.

• Alternatively, Summer, not Cinder, is the "Queen" that's mentioned in the message Qrow sent to Ozpin at the end of Volume 1.

Sun's inability to keep important secrets... secret is going to cause conflict

So far Sun has dropped the "Blake is a faunus" secret on Neptune before Neptune and Blake even met, and is something Blake is trying to keep a tight lid on beyond her circle of friends (and her expression when Jaune almost spills it before Pyrrha steps in is a good indicator for how she feels about it being bandied about); in Volume 3, Blake knows about Neptune's fear of water, but when Sun brings it up, Neptune rather loudly proclaims that he isn't, despite all evidence to the contrary, and it's obviously something he's quite sensitive about. At some point, this tendency to just drop secrets and facts about his friends that they don't like others knowing about is going to land Sun in hot water, or worse, bring some negative attention to, and sour his relationship with, his friends, Blake in particular, if he drops to literally anybody that she used to be part of the White Fang.

That ain't Raven...

That's Summer! The Raven we see in the Season 2 stinger doesn't really look like the Raven we see in the picture in the Season 3 opening. Note that in that same picture, Summer's face is mostly obscured. Perhaps she is in hiding and using her dead teammate as an alias?

• Summer's face still mostly resembles Ruby's though from what we see of it - the Raven we saw at the end of volume 2 was practically identical to Yang.
• The only similarity is the hair color, which in the photo she shares with Raven.
• Jossed. Later photographs of Raven match her appearance in the stinger of Volume 2. The voice actors also match.

Autumn was working with Qrow and is currently comatose.

Qrow wasn't investigating matters alone. He was working with Autumn whom was also another deep-cover agent in on the Benevolent Conspiracy. At one point, they were separated and Autumn discovered the entirety of Cinder's plot. In revenge, Cinder took her out of the game by incapacitating her, but not before she could send a few nuggets of information to Qrow. This prompted him to drop off the map to consolidate data until he showed up at Beacon during the vytal Festival.

• Confirmed, but it's more complicated than that: Amber/Autumn is one of the Four Maidens, girls who possess power that is basically magic, and she is currently in stasis so she doesn't die of the wounds her attacker gave her when her power was stolen. No word on whether she was working with Qrow when it happened.

Ruby and Yang have an adopted brother named Yin

Taiyang or Qrow found the boy while on a mission and were impressed by his skills so they decided to bring him home with them to Patch. He will be Yang's age and have a crush on her but she will be Oblivious to Love where he's concerned. He will have a shadow or drain based Semblance. Yin will not be at Beacon because he has a low opinion of Huntsmen, feeling that they are over hyped guns for hire that can't actually change anything about the world.

• Given that we've seen Taiyang and the girls in their home with no one else around except for the visiting Qrow, this seems jossed. There's no indication that another family member exists outside of the missing Raven and presumed-dead Summer.

Summer Rose was a Living Legend

Ruby mentions that she went on missions while Taiyang stayed home and she was the leader of Team STRQ, which had a badass like Qrow on it. She was a legendary huntress that many huntresses in training look up to as a role model. Those inspired by her will include Pyrrha, Coco, Winter, and Team NDGO.

Summer was the only child of the ruling family of a kingdom.

The kingdom is still around and highly isolationist so the other four don't really know about it. The kingdom is highly advanced in both technology and Huntsman training. Summer's father was a Helicopter Parent who refused to let Summer indulge a love for adventure and eventually she ran away from the kingdom to live her own life and made her way to Beacon. She never contacted her parents after she left so they have no idea she had died. Eventually the kingdom will discover her death and that she had a daughter, making Ruby the next in line for the throne.

May Zedong is another disguised Faunus.

Much like Blake with her bow, May uses her beanie to hide her faunus features.

Summer Rose and Winter Schnee are both Season Maidens.

Or was, in Summer's case. Qrow has recently talked about the condition of a character named 'Autumn'. Assuming this refers to Amber, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that Summer and Winter are also Season Maidens, given their names. Just as well, if Cinder is the one who stole Amber's power, it would also fit with the theme naming, as Fall is just another name for Autumn. This also means that there IS a Spring out there; the current Spring Maiden. Of course, this either means that names are required to pass on the powers of a Season Maiden, which considering Pyrrha, is unlikely. Or...

Summer Rose, Cinder Fall and Winter Schnee Changed their names.

This is a tradition for those who take on the mantle of a Season Maiden. Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter become their given names. Cinder's name change is an added mockery, as she uses Fall instead, which has a much more negative connotation. It also has some symbolic meaning to it: by changing their first names to the corresponding season, they're putting their responsibilities above their individuality. By changing her surname, Cinder is saying that she puts herself above the responsibilities of a Season Maiden.

This also blends nicely with the lyrics from Red Like Roses II and Sacrifice respectively. In RLRII, Summer sings about leaving Ruby to make bigger sacrifices, referring to her given name and symbol of individuality. Sacrifice, which seems to talk about Cinder, mentions that she won't be a sacrifice, as in, she won't sacrifice her given name, instead changing her Surname.

Summer Rose and Winter Schnee are red herrings

It just seems so OBVIOUS. Also, I don't think Winter is powerful enough to be a Maiden. We saw her fight with Qrow, and she didn't seem to me to be holding anything back, whereas Qrow wasn't fighting with his weapon's true form. (He is, after all, a scythe master according to everyone and their mother. I think that's what his weapon was about to turn into before their spat was interrupted.) Furthermore, in Season 3 episode 4, it seemed pretty heavily implied that nearly every ability Winter used in that fight was a hereditary Schnee semblance ability, and was something that Weiss could aspire to with enough training. You could argue that Winter was holding back, but if she was that in control of herself, why did she attack Qrow in the first place? Ironwood was clearly not happy with her when he, Ozpin, and Glynda showed up to break up the fight. I think it's more likely that Winter and Summer were named after the maidens in the fairytale, rather then them actually being the Maidens themselves. Cinder, on the other hand, could easily be using an alias, and be taking the opportunity to tweak Ozpin's metaphorical nose in the process.

Raven is one of the Maidens

The reason Yang knows so little about her is because her father and uncle have been hiding the Benevolent Conspiracy from her, so either Yang wouldn't try to join up and get herself into more trouble than she could handle, or blab about how her mother is one of the Maidens and attract unwanted attention.

• Jossed. The only reason Yang wasn't told anything about her mother is because Taiyang didn't want it discussed. He changes his mind in Volume 4. However, the theory that Raven is a Maiden is confirmed: she is the Spring Maiden. It just happened years after she abandoned Yang, and Qrow doesn't know.

Raven and Cinder are somehow connected.

First off, there's the fact that Neo, an associate of Cinder's, immediately fled when Raven showed up, like she knew who Raven was. Also, that portal Raven makes to get off the train in No Brakes looks exactly like the mark that appeared on Cinder's glove and on the ground when she took the Fall Maiden's power in Beginning of the End.

• Confirmed. Raven and Cinder are set against each other in Volume 5 because Cinder is after the Spring Maiden, which Raven has been protecting within her tribe. Raven is the Spring Maiden, and their Maiden battle consists of them accusing each other of becoming monsters in pursuit of power.

Winter is NOT a Season Maiden, but was expected to become one.

Theories about Weiss and Winter's father have claimed him as an abusive parent and a corrupt CEO, so why can't he have a sense of entitlement as well? When Winter was born, Daddy Schnee prophesied that his eldest would someday gain the legendary power, preferably if he could reap some fringe benefits.

• Confirmed: current Winter Maiden is on a deathbed, and Winter is arranged to inherit her power.

Glynda is one of the Season Maidens, most likely the Maiden of Spring

She fought Cinder Fall to a standstill in the first episode. Cinder has all but been confirmed to hold half of the Fall Maiden's power, but Glynda not only matched her but likely would have won had Cinder not retreated. Glynda's powers also seem to have a great deal in common with actual magic, specifically the glyph she summoned in the first episode.

• Jossed as far as the Spring Maiden. In V4, Salem&Co are looking for the Spring Maiden as though don’t know where she is and Glynda, according to Port, has been "working around the clock to restore Beacon." If Glynda were Spring they’d know where she is. This doesn’t rule out the possibility Glynda is a Maiden. She could either be Winter or Summer, likeliest Summer. Her Aura is purple after all which was the Third Sister's color in the WoR video, much like how Amber's was yellow like Fall's colors. Plus, if Ruby's mother had been the Summer Maiden like many suspect and since their souls are "combine in a way" it means Summer in a way is still protecting even if she's dead as Glynda was the one to rush in and save Ruby from Cinder. Even more so when we discover that Raven, of all people, is the Spring Maiden.

• Jossed for Spring: Raven holds the power of the Spring. And for Winter too: Winter is in Atlas, being busy dying from the old age.

Taiyang when he makes a proper appearance will be a Bunny-Ears Lawyer

He'll hit the checklist of Doting Parent who utterly adores his youngest daughter, which Ruby responds to with thinking he's an Amazingly Embarrassing Parent, and Boyfriend-Blocking Dad who literally tries to crush Jaune and Ren's hands in a handshake when he meets them. He will also be an equal to Qrow in combat and become a Spanner in the Works to Cinder's plans because he has a much lower profile which means that Cinder won't know about him until it's too late.

• Seems jossed - Taiyang is pretty subdued, but that might just be the circumstances weighing on him.

Taiyang will be a Good Counterpart to Weiss' father

Father Schnee hates the White Fang so much because they killed his wife and took his anger out on his daughter's. Someone will hang a lampshade on how the two went through exactly the same thing but one of them became an angry abuser while the other became insanely devoted to his daughters because of their loss.

• Jossed. Volume 4 makes Ghira Belladonna the good counterpart to Weiss's father, with the direct comparison being how Ghira will always put work aside for his family while Jacques will always put his family aside for his work.

Taiyang and Qrow will perform a Back-to-Back Badasses

Practically doesn't need to be explained. It's implied they may not get along all that well these days, but Qrow and Taiyang were part of the same team for years, so we can assume Taiyang is just as Badass as Qrow, and that they know how to fight together. Quite possibly to double team Adam or Cinder, and it will be awesome.

Taiyang will become a Parental Substitute to Weiss and Blake

Given that Weiss all but states her father is an Abusive Parent and that Blake likely doesn't have parents Mr. Xiaolong will become a father figure to the two while demonstrating some Hidden Depths in the process. When he finds out what Weiss' father did to her he will punch Daddy Schnee in the face.

• The idea that Blake has no parents seems contradicted by Volume 4's opening, so that half of this is probably out.
  • Unless Papadonna dies to up the stakes for Blake. Given they're going to Haven to reclaim the White Fang there's a strong possibility he'll fall there. Wouldn't put it past Rooster Teeth after Pyrrha.

Due to the popularity of The Four Maidens fairytale, there are many girls named Spring, Summer, Fall/Autumn and Winter

The fact that Summer Rose and Winter Schnee are named such don't automatically link them to those Maidens, though it does not prevent it either.

A 'heat of the moment' incident caused Ironwood to be severely injured

Several have noted that when Ironwood is talking to Team RWBY in V3E8 Desitiny, when he brings up the idea of somebody making a mistake in the heat of the moment in war, he rolls his right shoulder, which is the arm that has a glove and many further speculate may be artificial. The speculation is that talking about that subject made him remember the pain of the incident. Now, if he was on the receiving end, or the one who lost control, is unknown.

The Narrator is Cinder's boss

She's named Ozma (after the other ruler of Oz), and she's the rogue Maiden of Spring (Spring evoking Green, and also Ozma invoking the usual Oz stuff).

• Partially confirmed. Her name is Salem and she is Cinder's boss, but there's no indication that she's the Spring Maiden.

Ironwood will return in an homage to the Terminator franchise.

The last we see of Ironwood is his ship exploding and falling out of the skies above Beacon. He most likely survived; after all, Yang reached similar heights off-screen during the food fight in Volume 2, and the initiation at Beacon involves launching students from cliffs. He'll be fine. Now, it's been heavily implied - but still not explicitly shown - that at least his right arm is bionic. What better way for that to finally be shown, than to have him rise out of the flaming wreckage a la the Terminator?

• He didn't exactly rise out of a burning wreckage, but he returns with a Unflinching Walk out of smoke (possibly from the wreckage), showing off his cybernetic right side and gunning down the Atlesian Robots with his pistol.

Winter will be revealed as a traitor.

Based on things that have been said Cinder is clearly working with someone who is female. Raven is too obvious and Torchwick at one point did manage to get his hands on some Atlesian tech that was literally just introduced to the public that very day. Plus even with her ability to disguise herself one would think Neo would need proper security clearances to move around Ironwood's ship until she was ready to strike. The person in question obviously knows Ozpin and apparently finds him to be arrogant. All things considered Winter could be involved with everything.

• While Winter being a traitor can still be an option, the person Cinder was talking to has more or less been revealed to be Salem.

Pyrrha’s mother will be a major character later on.

Pyrrha’s mother has been referenced before, and RWBY has a tradition of mentioning or alluding to a character, then having them show up in a later season. Jen Brown has confirmed that other roles were planned for her, and having her voice a relative of a character she’s already played seems like a natural fit. Between her daughter dying for Ozpin’s cause and having a fondness for the Four Maidens story, there’s reason for her to get involved. Plus, it would ensure that Pyrrha continues to have an impact on the series, even after her death.

Summer was a wolf faunus and created the White Fang

Unlike Ruby who actually wore her hood grand total of four times in first three volumes AND red trailer, Summer was always shown in her hood. RWBY being RWBY there is a reason for everythng even if not immediately obvious. Her hood probably served the same function as Blake's bow, to hide her ears. Why wolf? Ruby is based on Red Riding hood and has wolf animal motifs everywhere so it would fit. Now following this who is better fitted to be creator of peacefull organizations called White Fang than wolf faunus whose main color theme is white? Here being heavily implied to be nice and kind person also fits since White Fang was originally supposed to be peaceful organisation promoting unity.

• Jossed. Blake's father, Ghira Belladonna, founded the White Fang.

Weiss's father will be voiced by Matt Hullum.

We know Matt is already planned to voice a particular character on the show, and Mr. Schnee seems like he'll be pretty important from Volume 4 onward. Plus, they already have one of the original Rooster Teeth employees, Burnie Burns, voicing Ruby and Yang's dad. Just call it a hunch.

• Jossed. He's voiced by Jason Douglas.

Jacques Schnee and Doctor Watts are related.

World of Remnant: Schnee Dust Company reveals that Jacques married into the Schnee family, and in his youth had black hair. Both Jacques and Doctor Watts have similar head shapes and facial hair, and a ruthless streak. It's possible that Jacques has a younger brother who studied for a doctorate, either medical or in programming (see the theory about Watts creating the Black Queen Virus), and was eventually recruited by Salem.

• When they meet face to face they don't give any indication of being relatives, though they know each other.

Weiss's mother has suffered brain damage due to physical abuse from Jacques.

To hide her from the public he has Whitley lead her to the garden on most mornings and give her alcohol. They made her an alcoholic just to have a cover story as to why she's never around.

Jacques Schnee has an advisor who will screw him over.

Jacques appears to be take queues from Snow White's stepmother, and what's the Wicked Queen without her Magic Mirror? Like the Spirit of the Mirror, Jacques has an assistant who keeps him updated on the SDC's profits and progress, but also feeds him intel about competitors and spies on his children when need be. However, a not uncommon Alternative Character Interpretation of the Mirror is that they are actually preying upon the Queen's need to be Fairest of Them All to use her for their own scheme. Eventually, the advisor will use the power they've garnered to dump Mr. Schnee like a rock and either take over or destroy the SDC, culminating in one very well deserved Break the Haughty moment for Jacques.

• As of season four, the FNDM is taking bets on Whitley.
• As of volume 7, Watts has offered him a Deal with the Devil.

Ghira is not actually a Faunus

So far he hasn't shown any obvious animal traits while Blake clearly inherited her cat ears from her mother. He may have founded the White Fang for the sake of being with Kali by gaining equality for the Faunus. It would also be further motivation for a change in leadership if he was a human.

• Possibly Jossed. If you look closely at his concept art, he has cat feet.

Sienna Khan represents a midpoint between Ghira and Adam's beliefs

Once Ghira stepped down as leader of the White Fang, Sienna Khan took them in a more aggressive direction but nowhere near the utterly psychotic lengths Adam wanted to go to. Khan most likely directed the White Fang at outright Faunus abuse rather than at areas where equality was more or less a given, such as the academies.

• I think it's safe to say this is confirmed.

Whitley's ultimate goal is to get revenge on his father (for obvious reasons) in the most humiliating way possible

Considering what we know about him and the family so far, he could just be manipulating everyone into going after the SDC, which would at least cause enough damage to create a situation where he can backstab his father in front of everyone, revealing himself as the one behind it all as the ultimate payback for everything he's done to the family. At this time, it's pretty much still open on wether or not he's actually aware of what he's doing: If his desire is making him no better than Jacques, or if he's faking any of it to give him a taste of his own medicine, along with what he really plans to to with him or the SDC afterward. We'll just have to see what's already been planned.

• As of now, he'll never get the chance...

Whitley's behavior is a result of abuse at the hands of Jacque and he never planned to become the heir in the first place.

• (Please feel free to edit the below as it is a copy and paste of my theory from my Amino blog and doesn't fit the TVTropes format well. I wasn't sure how to edit it to fit the format here well, however I felt it was too good a theory to simply leave out.)

To understand anything about the Schnee children we must first examine the Schnee household and what we see is NOT a pretty picture. Jacque Schnee is an emotionally manipulative and controlling person. What's more it is heavily implied that he has driven his wife to become an alcoholic. As a result the children would have no support from her. What's more Jacque is determined to have an heir that lives up to HIS personal standards. In his quest to do so he has raised hell upon his family.

We have already seen evidence of this with Winter and Weiss. Now ask yourself honestly, do you really think Jacque would abuse Winter and Weiss, but leave Whitley alone? I don't think so? (What's more for what it's worth studies suggest both genders are abused in roughly equal amounts. I would provide links but I don't know how, instead google Safe Horizon.)

If Whitley has indeed also suffered abuse under Jacque everything makes sense. The reason he puts on the front of the good son is in an attempt to play along with Jacque and stop the abuse.

Why doesn't he like Winter and Weiss? Well it might interest you to know that one common tactic of abusers is to play their victims against each other. Combine that with the fact that the sisters rebellious attitudes might have led Jacque to focus more attention on Whitley, something he was (according to my theory anyway) trying to avoid, plus the long term psychological damage from the abuse and its no wonder he resents them.

In fact I would say that this is more likely then the prevailing theory that he was trying to get Weiss disinherited, and I can sight three pieces of evidence.

Evidence #1: He attempts to warn Weiss of Jacque's argument with Ironwood. While Weiss and many fans believe he was trying to encourage her to stand up to Jacque and therefore get herself disinherited I'm not entirely sure. First of all them having words in some form or another was bound to happen eventually with or without him interfering it was simply a matter of time. He didn't even need to do anything. You might say "Maybe he wanted to be sure though? In that case wouldn't Weiss blowing her top in public be required?" True, but you have to keep in mind even IF setting Weiss off against Jacque WAS his intent he had absolutely no way to control WHEN Weiss would go off. In short there was no way for him to have planned for the banquet. I suppose you can say his plan succeeded even beyond what he had hoped for, but I'll tell you what the warning far more likely was. An actual warning. As for why my guess is that as while he may resent Weiss, he hates Jacque more. So if he can warn her about potential harm WITHOUT risking harm to himself he has every reason to do so. For those of you who are still not convinced we now come to

Evidence #2: Whitley's shocked face. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about in episode 7, right when Jacque opens the door and leaves Weiss room Whitley has a look on his face that seems to be one of shock. Now by the time time Weiss goes and confronts him again the mask has come back on. But if Whitley really was expecting this like Weiss believes and consequently we are led to believe why would Whitley be shocked. Finally...

Evidence #3: Whitley's Anger

When Whitley tells Weiss "It's foolish not to do what father wants" he seems quite angry. Now ask yourself if the position as heir was really something he has coveted for a long time why is he so mad? The answer? Because he NEVER wanted it. As I stated before Whitley started acting like the good son in order to play along and stop the abuse, and it worked. For a time. But now Jacque has had enough of Weiss rebelling and has disinherited her as a result Whitley has found himself in the hot seat. And. He. Is. PISSED. While he did a good job of hiding it for the most part he let it slip through with that line. "It's foolish not to do what Father wants."

I also want to point out something that adds to the tragedy of his character while Winter and Weiss had each other to rely on for strength Whitley had no one. I am not asking anyone to like Whitley but I would say at least he is more worthy of pity than contempt.

• Is there a trope for "being abused turns you into abuser"? I mean, to sum it up: Whitley was abused just as much as his sisters, but his way of coping was to turn into a slimy bastard that can avoid his father's wrath, unwillingly becoming his copy. He's miserable and hates Jacques, and most likely plots his demise, but, unless something will break Vicious Cycle, he will be no better than his father.

• This is more or less confirmed by Willow in "Cordially Invited" after giving Weiss a video of Watts and Jacuqes' meeting, she mentions that the reason Whitley is so antagonistic to Weiss is because "You left him here. With us." basically admitting that both she and Jacques were terrible parents who were a bad influence on their son.

Vernal is the Spring Maiden.

This troper found the mention of the Spring Maiden joining Raven's tribe and the girl shown in the intro facing Cinder a bit too convenient, as right after a shot of Raven and Yang is shown; in addition, it's well-known that Cinder's role would be finding the Spring Maiden. Furthermore, "Unforeseen Complications" confirm the girl from the intro is a part of Raven's tribe, and holds a noteworthy position of power.

• JOSSED. Raven is the Spring Maiden.
  • Though she was posing as a Maiden for distraction.

Vernal will betray/usurp Raven.

Because it is long overdue for one of Raven's choices to bite her in the ass, and as her apprentice, Vernal has probably learned too well to do what's best for herself.

• Jossed. She's killed by Cinder for the Maiden's power that Raven actually has.

Raven had a personal grudge against Summer.

And still hasn't gotten over it. It will be based in the fact that in Raven's eyes everyone she cares about has in some way chose someone that she sees as a fool that got killed over her (Taiyang moved on after Raven with Summer, Qrow is still clearly loyal to his teammates over Raven as seen by how he treats Ruby, and Yang chose her half-sister and the daughter of the woman who actually raised her over her birth mother.) At some point she will get called out on her Never My Fault stance in this by having it pointed out that she gave no one a reason to want to stay with her.

Raven: Why does everyone keep chosing that blasted fool over me? Taiyang, you, even Yang would rather side with that woman's daughter than her own mother.

Qrow: Because you ran away and wouldn't accept anyone being in your life if it wasn't on your terms. Summer gave us a reason to want to stay with her.

Raven was in love with Summer.

But due to the demands of her tribe or Incompatible Orientation she had to take a husband. She left to return to the tribe because either she was rejected by Summer (because of not swinging that way or because she didn't want to commit adultery) or because Summer refused to stop working for Ozpin and Raven didn't want to see the one she loved get killed fighting a pointless war. Her bitterness towards Qrow and Taiyang is because they both loved Summer the same way but couldn't save her and what little affection she does show to Yang is because of how Summer loved her.

Raven is playing the Long Game and is doing so on Ozpin's orders.

Everything Raven has done has been because she is still following Ozpin's plans and no one, not even her brother, know that she's still loyal. She's been acting as an independent agent in Mistral, doing work that typical Huntsmen can't be seen doing openly. She's still an unpleasant Jerkass but one that is on the heroes side. When it comes out that this was all one of Ozpin's plans he will be subjected to a What the Hell, Hero? speech.

• Her conversation with Qrow in the bar is very telling in this regard. Raven makes it clear that she wants nothing to do with the war between Ozpin and Salem but she still makes contact with one of Ozpin's agents and had actually been meeting up with Qrow for some time, if infrequently. She also makes a pointed inquiry about the Relic at Beacon, showing she's more invested in this than she lets on. Her refusal to answer about the Spring Maiden also clues Qrow in about where she is, something that Raven would quite likely be aware of. Every action Raven is taking may well just be a way to get the Relic at Haven out of dangerous hands without immediately clueing anyone in about who should be targeted for reprisals.

Raven killed Summer to become the Spring Maiden.

How else do you think Raven obtained the Spring Maiden power? In order to do that, she'd need to be trusted and be close with Summer, or even be the one to personally kill her. Raven could've done it while Summer was vulnerable, like abandoning her newfound responsibilities and training as a Maiden and going to Raven for emotional and moral support. After all, who's closer and more trustworthy than the teammate with whom you've fought alongside for years?

• Think about it. You're suddenly given this unbelievable magic power and the knowledge of this secret war to save the world. Most people would be crushed by such a burden. You can't trust just anyone with this secret; your Maiden powers make you a target, after all. If that information were to get out...Why, not only would the forces of evil be hunting you down, but they'd go after your family too. Especially when there are two little girls at home that could easily be used as hostages. You can't tell your family. You can't tell Ozpin or anyone else in your secret group, lest they track you down and force you back into the war. So, how do you disappear? You'd need a friend, someone who already knows about the secret war, lives hidden in obscurity, and is strong enough to protect you. Someone like Raven. After all, she left Ozpin's group after becoming disillusioned, and willingly abandoned her family. Sounds pretty similar, even she did it for different reasons. And of course Raven would take Summer in with open arms. Not because they're old teammates, but because Summer could add so much to the tribe's power. From there, Raven would've had so many opportunities to seize that power for herself.
  • One major flaw with this theory. Raven wants to stay out of the war between Ozpin and Salem. Why would she steal a power that would paint a huge ass target on her back?
  • Power, control, and a cover story. Raven's goal is to ensure the survival of the tribe. When given the opportunity to gain immense power, why would she risk trusting that kind of power to Summer, who couldn't handle the burden of being a Maiden and had recently left everything behind? It'd be easier to command the powers herself, than having to console and shelter someone else. It could've also been a way for Raven to cover her tracks; Salem's forces could've been hunting for Summer, and Raven killed her before they could find her. That way, she could have the power for herself, have a shred of plausible deniability in regards to the Spring Maiden's whereabouts, buy time to develop her powers, and groom one of her followers - AKA Vernal - into being her decoy.
• A few other things that stand out. In Volume 4, Qrow and Raven talk about the Spring Maiden in the third person. Qrow is unaware that Raven is the Spring Maiden, only that he knows that Raven knows her location. In Volume 5, Leo gives a brief summary of the Spring Maiden's story, but doesn't mention her by name. Nor does he explicitly say that the Spring Maiden was a student at Haven. He states that the Spring Maiden abandoned her duties and has been missing for over a decade. That fits in with the timeline; Summer vanished when Ruby was only a toddler. She could've gone to Raven, who would had left a couple of years prior to that.
• Team STRQ was apparently an excellent team, to the point that Ozpin entrusted Qrow and Raven with the information about the secret war and magic shape-shifting powers. Who knows what he gave Summer, the leader of this amazing team?
• We have no confirmation that Summer actually died fighting Grimm on a Huntress mission. We just have what Tai and Qrow told the girls. In Burning The Candle, Yang said that Summer " left for a mission and never came back." That's it. No other information, no circumstances, no witnesses, nothing. It's a lot more convenient for Tai to say "Mommy died on a mission" instead of "Mommy abandoned you because she has magic super powers, and we don't know where she is." Summer's grave could've been erected for her presumed death after going missing. And we don't know if it's a grave, or merely a memorial stone. It would've been another way to solidify the cover story and obscure her identity as the Spring Maiden; the forces of evil aren't going to try hunting down a dead woman. She could've faked her death and escaped, but was killed by Raven later.
• In Red Like Roses Part II, the parts sung from Summer's perspective specifically express regret over abandoning Ruby. Why would Summer abandon Ruby? Because she couldn't handle the burden of being a Maiden and decided to leave it all behind.
• It's also worth noting that in RWBY V5 E13 "Downfall", Cinder brings this up during her fight with Raven, saying that it must've been someone who trusted her, and Raven gets really angry.
• Raven was forced by Summer to kill her in order to keep the maiden powers going to Salem. Instead Summer had Raven receive the spring maiden powers.

Raven will die, and Yang will become the next Spring Maiden

When a Maiden dies, if the last person she thinks about is eligible, that person will become the next Maiden. If Raven is killed, she might start wondering about her daughter instead of her opponent.

Tai will reluctantly re-join the fray with Raven and have to play peacemaker between the twins.

Raven stated in RWBY V5 E6 "Known by Its Song" that Oz brought all of Team STRQ in on the secret war. Qrow clearly fights and is still going strong, Raven ran away and Tai remained at home to be a father. As the stinger of Volume 5 implies, Raven went to Tai for aid. When Raven shows up and most likely explains the situation through tears and shame, Tai will resign his position at Beacon Academy and rejoin the fight. Following that, Raven and Tai transport to Atlas where Qrow, Oscar and RWBY are. Unfortunately, this leads to a situation where Qrow nearly attacks Raven with lethal intention, forcing Tai into intervene and protect his ex-lover from his brother-in-law. Upon hearing Qrow's side of events, backed up by Yang and Ruby, tensions mount and the remaining members of STRQ find it near impossible to even be in the same room as each other anymore.

Jinn answers questions literally when possible.

• When Ozpin asks how he can kill Salem Jinn informs him that he can't, however according to the gods words Salem can die under certain circumstances hence the question Ozpin asked was answered but not the intent behind it.

The blacksmith is Alyx's ascended form.

She help the tree fix people and Alyx wanted to help the people in the Ever After that she broke including Jaune.

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