There's so many Chairs to focus on, and unlike the previous season...they aren't all in the same place. With limited time, each Chair gets their own spotlight in a episode.
After this though, things might actually progress.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.So, interesting theory I saw people speculating about: maybe the Spring Maiden is in Raven's tribe. Qrow commented on her having some one super powerful and he seemed to think she had an idea of where Spring was.
On another note, people are treating this bandit reveal as if it changes everything. Not really sure why, it's not like being a leader of murderous raiders is particularly worse than being a high ranking member of a terrorist organization or apart of a conspiracy to wipe out all of human (and Faunus) kind.
Well, before Raven was a blank slate. People were free to speculate that she loves Yang but was forced to keep away for her protection, or that she was on a vital worldsaving mission. Now there's no ambiguity that she's a bad person, and one who Yang probably won't be forgiving and reconnecting with unless she gets a major redemption arc.
Does anyone actually read these?I don't think that was ever in the cards, Qrow and Yang's conversation about her, when Raven apparently called saving Yang "a kindness she shouldn't count on to happen again", kind of spelled it out.
Put I guess people's imaginations need to fill in the blank. Oddly, there's a lot of apologism for her and making things out to be worst than they are. Well, I guess we'll see how it goes.
I had interpreted that as Raven saying she couldn't always be there to bail Yang out, so don't count on her showing up to do a last minute save again.
This conversation with Qrow certainly did more to convince me that she doesn't prioritize Yang or the rest of the Xiao Long/Rose family at all than that comment from earlier.
I presume this is a rather dumb and presumably off-topic thought but... I wonder if Yang's robotic prothesis is still protected by her aura and affected by her semblance; It'd be unprotected by her aura since, despite nervous system connections, it isn't technically part of her (like Mercury's clothing in Cinder's confrontation with Amber, which we saw that was burned up) and it'd probably be damaged from the kinetic force from the Ember Celica, which goes hand-in-hand with her semblance, by which it'd be unaffected, since (I presume anyways, Atlesian Schizo Tech notwithstanding) the connection to her nervous system is one-way for motor functions only, and she technically can't feel pain and do her signature self-buff fistpump with it.
Actually, if Penny's entire being and Mercury's legs can use Aura, I'd think that Yang's prostethic arm can benefit from Aura too. If I recall correctly, Aura is like a sort of channelled force. You can channel it into things, not just specialized weapons, in order to make them incredibly durable and powerful.
edited 21st Nov '16 9:16:11 AM by UndyingPhoenix
Actually, if one pays attention in Mercury's fight with Yatsuhashi, during a Freeze-Frame Bonus you can see that despite Mercury blocking attacks with his legs, and doing that crazy "land on Yatsuhashi's sword and cause a Kung-Fu Sonic Boom" thing, his aura barely went down.
So if anything going by that, Yang's robotic arm would work with her Semblance and aura, it just wouldn't need as much defending as the rest of her body
Raven's hair weirds me out, it looks a like big, puffy, mass of feathers. The "Raven is a faunus" theory is probably dead now (or should be) but it occurs to me that we've never seen a non-mammalian faunus before.
If they were to do something like that, turning hair into feathers is probably an easy way to do it.
edited 21st Nov '16 11:48:03 AM by LSBK
Feathered hair can look pretty good...
But this is 3D models...
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.Raven's hair honestly doesn't remind me of feathers, but it does remind me of Raditz
New model. Her original one was a Palette Swap of Yang.
edited 21st Nov '16 11:48:25 AM by BlackSunNocturne
Hair isn't a measurement of power, just confidence...
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.Or both groups took inspiration from the same thing independently from one another, as Raven's tribe don't sound like the type to leave witnesses or watch the news. Just look at all.the groups that have skull motifs: they aren't copying other groups for the look they just like the look of the skull.
Yeah, I was caught a little off guard by Raven's new model. It looks like Raven seems bigger overall compared to Qrow. Then again, that might be due to the poofy hair and samurai armor.
I can imagine Yang meeting her mom again:
Some WMGs to toss out there:
Taiyang specializes in Aura Manipulation. Yang's Ember Cilica is just a crude facsimile of that power.
Jaune will end up developing Sword Beams or Razor Wind due to his training.
(I noticed air distortions when he was practicing in episode 2)
edited 21st Nov '16 12:41:14 PM by WillDeRegio
There's nothing to tell us there's balance either, or that the relationship changes from generation to generation according to who the four are at any current time. We don't know anything. As far as the original four are concerned, however, it looked like Fall was the dominant one - in terms of leadership of the four sisters, that is. That doesn't tell us anything about the current four, however.
There is a lot of ambiguity about Raven. Raven cares about family but apparently not about Yang? And Qrow points it out just to make sure the audience notice? Yeah, that's a contradiction that's going to be important in the long run - the reason why is something we should not assume.
She's keeping track of Yang even now? What's the point if she doesn't care? What would that other reason be? And why on earth get so angry about it when needled on the subject - if she didn't care, her response would be a lack of care. Instead she loses patience, gets physical, and all but changes the subject. We definitely do not know the truth about her situation with Yang.
She knows about the relic and the Maidens, she passed on warnings about the threat to Beacon and Ozpin's plans, yet leads a tribe of bandits she calls family while constantly wearing a White Fang (faunus) mask (allegedly, anyway) and is someone at least one villain instantly recognises and fears? She could be a third party to both Ozpin and Salem, working undercover with Salem on Ozpin's behalf, or really be a villain, but apparently she cares enough about her intel being ignored to get angry about it. Raven's motives, allegiance and true alignment are definitely ambiguous.
In many stories, there's a morally grey character who does the dirty work for the heroes so that the heroes can keep their hands clean and remain 'heroes'. These are the characters that get accused of betrayal, who appear to be villains or appear to have defected to villains. They're the ones who are hated by most and sometimes only get fully understood (and at least acknowledged for the thankless path they walked) at the end of the tale - or at least just before they die to leave the hero with new resolve. That doesn't mean they're a good person; it means they're the person the heroes needed to ultimately win the day, the person that gets dirty so the heroes can keep their shine. Raven comes across to me as being one of these characters.
As to not baling out Yang except that once? Remember, one of Salem's cronies directly witnessed her turn up to save Yang. If Raven is walking the dark path for Ozpin, Yang's life will potentially be in danger solely by virtue of being Raven's daughter, and doubly so if she can be used as bait to trap Raven. If this is the case, RWBY won't be the first - or last - story to have a character that believes they have to turn their back on a loved one just to keep them safe - she doesn't seem to want to meet Qrow openly either, which suggests to me that she has to keep these two lives as separated as possible.
If she is walking the dark path for Ozpin, I do not expect Qrow to know about it. Odin has two ravens who cover the world to keep him informed, mentioned in a poem that contains the very stanza that is written on the blackboard that Yang draws the symbol on while telling Blake about her mother abandoning her. The symbol was identical to Qrow's but reversed and she was talking about her mother at the time, so it's Raven's symbol she drew, not Qrow's. That means Qrow and Raven's symbols are mirrors of each other and that they both share a cog motif with Ozpin which flags up a relationship that goes beyond a standard teacher/student or even mentor/mentee one.
edited 21st Nov '16 2:49:04 PM by Wyldchyld
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.![]()
I think you're overlooking the fact that her tribe of bandits slaughtered a town. Sure, she seemed regretful that the Grimm came afterward, but the way the dying Huntsman described it made it sound like they only finished the job the bandits started. I don't think that massacring innocents is an action that can be justified as secretly for the greater good. If she is working for Ozpin, she's clearly past the point of Jumping Off Of The Slippery Slope.
edited 21st Nov '16 4:01:10 PM by IniuriaTalis
Does anyone actually read these?Nope. I'm not ignoring that at all. That's why I explicitly pointed out that these types of characters aren't guaranteed to be good people just because they're working for one of the good guys and why I talked about 'dirty work'. Hell, Ozpin's our big example of the 'good guy' (fans have assigned him the Big Good trope) and he's strongly implied to have some nasty skeletons in his closet.
Whatever the reason was for Raven hitting that town, the conversation with Qrow implied it wasn't ordinary bandit stuff. Doesn't change the fact that people in the village were killed, but there's more going on with that raid than surface appearances suggest.
Also, I would not describe her comment about the Grimm afterwards as 'regretful'. I haven't decided yet how to interpret it, but I won't be going for 'regret'.
edited 21st Nov '16 5:41:50 PM by Wyldchyld
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.So I've been looking through this thread and it's been pretty entertaining seeing speculation of things before stuff got revealed.
I do find it kind of weird how everyone just assumed that that the illusions were Neo without even considering Emerald.
And of course, the assumption that Summer and Winter were (are) the Summer and Winter Maidens, respectively. That's the kind of thing that would have driven me crazy if I was a part of the fandom because of how little sense it would actually make.

Things have been pretty slow paced but I don't see that as a bad thing. Don't forget as intense as the end of season 3 was it took three seasons to get to that point. So far the feeling I get is that this is the season that deals with the fallout of the fall of Beacon on the heroes and villains.