Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-39854843-20190731084207

I’ve been thinking about things I want them to explore in Volume 7 recently, and one of the things that came to mind was Summer Rose. Specifically, her backstory and how she died. And while I was thinking about it, I sort of came up with a theory that makes a lot of sense to me, and I wanted to see what you guys think. Here goes.

So we know that Summer supposedly died on a mission of sorts. At the time, Ozpin was fully aware that Salem couldn’t be destroyed, and he was aware that she had been corrupted by the Grimm pools (assuming she had mentioned it to him when they were being friendly centuries ago). My theory is that Ozpin hatched a plan to use Summer and her silver eyes to purify Salem so that he could reason with her. Summer infiltrates Salem’s fortress and ends up confronting her. She manages to use her silver eyes on Salem, but while she’s in the process of purifying her, a much younger Cinder (let’s say she’s 12 at the time, since the best guess is that she’s in her late 20’s in the show) kills Summer while she’s distracted.

This would leave Salem only semi-purified, which could explain the vein-like scars she bears on her body in the present. It also provides some backstory for Cinder, and (assuming Ruby finds out what happened) puts Ruby and Cinder at additional odds, considering she would have murdered her mother. Ozpin would have been left to assume that Summer had failed, and that purifying Salem was impossible, leaving him to abandon that tactic.

It could also be that Ozpin merely mulled the idea over with Summer. And that, thinking it too dangerous and also unproven to work, he would have discouraged Summer from trying it; only for Summer to do it anyway of her own volition. After all, we don’t need to give Ruby and co. more of a reason to distrust Ozpin at this point, do we?

But the one thing my theory doesn’t explain (in fact, I can find no way to explain this under any circumstances) is why Salem wants Ruby alive. Knowing that she possesses power that could undo her, you would think that Salem would want Ruby dead at all costs. Hell, even if my theory is wrong, you’d think she’d want someone capable of destroying Grimm on a mass scale dead at all costs. So, yeah, I don’t know how to explain that. It boggles my mind.

Anyway, what do you guys think of this? Would you be happy with it if it were actually canon? And, if not, what’s your theory on how Summer died? 